What’s happening in Jamaica
Another busy week. We plan on making all our weeks and days busy, it is a lot more fun that way. Here are some of the highlights.
Some of the wheelchairs came without all the parts so the manufacture sent the parts in a separate shipment. We had to make up bags with the needed parts then put them in the box with the wheelchairs.
Next we drove to Mandeville for a planning meeting with the District President the all the Branch Presidents. We had wait for some of the Branch Presidents to come. After all it is Jamaica the “soon come” capital of the world but who are we to complain this letter is a day late. While we were waiting Sister Mortensen and Sister Murdock, the real driving force of the Jamaica Mission, took a much needed break.
Then the meeting began; we plan on finishing the Food Initiative projects and start some new Humanitarian Projects. They are going to meet together later and make some final plans. We will let you know what they come up with. District President Piper has his back to you. From left to right is Branch President Richardson from Hopeton, Clark from Mandeville and Durrant from Santa Cruz. On this trip we filled the back of our pickup truck with two full sized electronic pianos and new member kits. The pianos went to the Mandeville and Hopeton chapels and the new member kits went to the Mandeville district branches. The missionaries will take them out to their newly baptized members to help them get a start in the gospel.
Yallahs Branch is building the last two chicken coops. They meet together every week and work all day building chicken coops then in the evening when the work is done they build a fire and have a fireside spiritual meeting. George a carpenter and member of only six months, has become the group leader. One day someone hit their thumb with the hammer George yelled stop, stop we forget to say prayer. Everyone stopped working and they had prayer. This was the only injury they had and from then on they always started with prayer. This amazing group of people has developed a close friendship and they were sad that they won’t be meeting and working together anymore. They almost begged us to find them another project so they could continue to work together. When we left they were brainstorming and thinking of their own service projects they could work on. If they never raise a single chicken in the project, this blessing has well been worth every penny spent. But I believe they will have very successful projects because they will help each other out and make sure everyone is doing ok.
Finally we drove to Negril to drop off some material for the Soup Kitchen project we started last November , “pencils and note books” for St. Anthony’s Soup Kitchen. The material will go to needy children to help out with their schooling.
Ignore the old man but isn’t the woman good looking?
Now it’s time to say good bye until next week.
We want to mention our daughter Lori had a birthday this past week and we were able to Skype with her and her sweet family. It is always good to see their faces and hear their voices. We love our mission and know that our family will be blessed for our efforts. It is hard to be away when fun events happen but this is where we are needed now. Our families are such a blessing in our lives. We can’t imagine heaven without them…so thankful for the gospel and the temple blessings and covenants that have been made to bind and seal us all together forever…
Love Dad and Mom
Elder and Sister Murdock
