Dear Family and Friends
Well another week has come and gone...how was that for you? Have you made any New Years Resolutions yet? Ours was to work harder, faster, and more efficiently. There is just so much to do and just 2 of us to do it for the whole country! Anybody want to apply and come and help? Just talk to Bishop Epling in our ward and your own Bishop in your ward. “The Lord has need of willing men (and women) who wear the workers seal (a small black badge). Come help the good work move along. Put your Shoulder To The Wheel”!
Well we started out the week with finishing up all of the follow ups for the Food Initiative. It is all in the computer and emailed to our Area Manager Benny Lilly! That seemed like a major feat to get all the information gathered and put on a spreadsheet but it is done. We are exploring different ways to help the priesthood take a larger role in these projects. These are their members and it is important that they do more to help each other, serve each other, love each other. We love those whom we serve. We are trying to find a way to get them to take charge of the pick up and delivery of the animals and feed. It is no small feat since many here do not drive or own a vehicle. We met with Bro. Banhan who owns 2 hardware stores here to see if we could set up a network of group pick up of supplies and deliveries. It will be the next step for these members.
We got a new set of Senior Missionaries that arrived yesterday. The Pearsons. They will be Member Leadership Support Missionaries. We haven’t met them as yet. It might be next weekend before we get the opportunity to do so.
We spent yesterday going to May Pen, Mandeville, Hopeton, Santa Cruz, Junction, and Treasure Beach. We need to find a motel for when our Humanitarian Projects Supervisors the Cullimores, and our Assistant Area Manager Julio Cesar Acosta, come for a visit next month. They want to go around and look at the projects and see for themselves how the members are doing with them. When all the statistics were added up we have a 68% success rate. Much higher than was expected at the beginning of the Initiative. When they were here last year they went to the project in the Spanish Town District. Now they want to go to the Mandeville District and check out those sites. It will be a busy week and we will have a lot of planning to do to get ready for them. Just another week in Jamaica....
After we got the Food Initiative emailed to Benny we went for a ride to de-stress a little. We headed for Yallahs thinking we would stop along the shoreline and walk along the beach for a while. The beach there is pretty rocky...we were letting the waves go over our ankles...a big wave came....and Dad went down... It was a little comical to see but then we discovered he sprained his right wrist. He hasn’t been able to do anything with it for 3 days now. We keep it wrapped, have put ice packs on it. and given him some ibuprofen. It was pretty hard for him to drive yesterday so I “put my big girl panties on” and did a little driving. Scared Spitless to say the least!!! I only drove on the 2000. It is Jamaica’s version of a freeway. Only about 40 kilometers going out and again coming back home. It allowed Rex to rest his left arm. That is the one he had to do all the driving with. His right arm had to be elevated to keep it from throbbing. While we were in Junction we had lunch with Elder and Sister Wright who are our CES Missionaries. They are another great couple here. We will be teaming up with them and visiting some of the Non District Branches later this month. More on that later. It is late and time for all good missionaries to be in bed.
The first picture is of the palms trees at Christmas time here in Jamaica. The next two pictures are of the jungle area of Santa Cruz. The 4th picture is of the type of roads on the way to Treasure Beach. The last section is pretty much pot holes. And the last picture is of the White Horse area.
One more final thought...a Big 1st Happy Birthday to Little Rex Aaron Murdock and Happy Anniversary to his Daddy and Mommy Aaron and Marci!!!
Love to all
Elder and Sister Murdock
Mom and Dad
Aunt and Uncle
Brother and Sister
you get my drift.....hahaha
Megan here,
for some reason my computer won't let me upload the pictures this week. I'll try to get them up here next week!