February 17, 2013

Today we went to the Hopeton Branch for church. This is a great branch, one of the best well rounded we have seen with 50 to 60 people in Sacrament Meeting. Unlike a lot of branches, there were families, lots of Priesthood, and lots of Primary kids. It seems strange that families would be unusual, but sadly they are here in Jamaica. Many fathers do not even know where all their children live. This Branch has done it right, that usually means they have a good Branch President, and they do. There was one older man (younger than me) who was just walking by the church and decided to come in. Of course he was a non-member, but he stayed for all three meetings. In Priesthood we talked about Gifts of the Spirit and some of the talk included Blessing the Sick. After meeting he asked if he could get a blessing. One of the young Missionaries gave a touching blessing and the man was so overcome it took several minutes before he could stand and shake every ones hands. There was also another young man that came in late and set by me he was dressed in street clothes. I thought he was a non-member so we talked a little then after Sacrament meeting all the members came up and hugged him and said how glad they were to see him again. I found him between meetings standing outside so I asked what his story was. He said he has been a member for a long time but he had fallen away and not been to church for a long time. He said he had quit coming because of disobedience, and this was his first Sunday back. The members welcomed him with so much love he said he would be back again. Keep this in mind next time you see a stranger or inactive member attending church, even if they smell like smoke, welcome them and love them, that’s really what they need and what they are looking for. One young sister introduced us to two of her friends we were just baptized in December. She has another friend that she is working on. This little branch knows how to share what they have in the gospel. They are not afraid to share what brings them the greatest joy in their lives. We were impressed to have padded folding chairs to sit on. Priesthood to conduct the meeting, pass the sacrament, and, teach the Gospel Doctrine class….plus toilet paper too!!! We are so easily impressed these days.

Most of our time was spent doing computer work on two unfinished projects. The Havendale project a computer lab for the Salvation Army that will be used by children 4 to 7 during the day, teenagers in the afternoon and then a senior group called the Golden Agers in the evening. This project is done and ready to submit as soon as we get a couple of details pinned down. LDS youth from the local branch will put on a fireside for the Golden Age seniors. The other project is the Dunrobin Primary school. They are adding a shipping container to the old reading library (also a shipping container) to expand the library. Our part of the project will be two computers for the library and 2 air conditioners. LDS Youth from the local branch will paint the container (new library) for a service project.

We have emergency supplies in a shipping container behind the Spanish Town Church. We have purchased generators to provide power to the church buildings during and emergency where the buildings will be used for emergency shelters. The container contains emergency medical supplies, enough to set up a small hospital type operation. There are hygiene kits, blankets, clothing, water bottle filters, tarps, chainsaws and other emergency supplies. We spent a few mornings collecting serial numbers and engraving equipment inside the trailer. By noon each day we were done; the temperature outside was in the mid to low 90’s the temperature inside the trailer was chicken roasting and above.

Life goes on here and we move forward. Each day we are blessed by the Lord. It is hard to describe how we feel about our mission…I guess you will just have to serve to find out for yourselves. We can truthfully say that, there is nothing like it on earth. We talk about the Temple being the Lords University…I think this is similar to that. There is nothing like dedicating yourself, your time, your talents, even learning what your talents are, till you actually do it. I understand more about my husbands and my son’s feelings about their missions now. This truly is a higher level of spiritual education.

The pictures are:

1 The Dancing girls…they were our competition at the Health Fair last week. We had some Sunday Music playing at the church for our Health Fair, while across the street, they had some Reggae and Dancing in the street going on at 4 times the volume we had.

2 This is the Spanish Town District President Medley and his sweet wife. They and their committee worked so hard to make the Health Fair a success.

3 Next is Sister Salmons Chicken Project. You see the Branch Presidents wife, Sister Richardson in the yellow tee shirt, Sister Murdock, Sister Cullimore, President Richardson, Elder Murdock, and Sister Salmon with the white hat on.

4 Us at the Terra Nova Hotel. This is where we have the visiting authorities stay here in Kingston. A pretty nice place.

5 Next is a group picture of us with President Hendricks and Sister Hendricks and Sister and Elder Cullimore. This was after a dinner at Goucho’s .

6. The last picture is of the stair well at the Tropics View Hotel. We spent 2 night here with the Cullimores. It reminded my of the stairs in the Harry Potter movies. It was great fun

.

February 11, 2013

The long long week.

Last Saturday we picked up the Cullimores. They are Welfare Project Supervisors for Wheelchair and Food Initiative projects throughout the whole world. We had a tight hard schedule for the whole week. The Cullimore’s arrived Saturday evening and later that night we had dinner with the other Senior couples.

Sunday we went to the Yallahs Branch for Church. We are starting some new food projects, gardens and chickens, with the Yallahs members.

Monday we meet with District President Medley, Salvation Army, where we starting computer lab and computer class project. We are also trying to start a new wheelchair major initiative with the Salvation Army. This is a project where Salvation Army will receive wheelchairs from our church and place them with mobility impaired people. You will learn more about this as it develops. Finally on Monday we met with our Mission President, President Hendricks.

Tuesday we met with Remounah Anderson our Wheelchair Specialist. Remounah monitors the wheelchair program in Jamaica, she coordinates with Food For the Poor who is a large Charity Organization who receives wheelchairs, clothing, kits and other supplies for our church. She also checks on people who receive wheelchairs and makes sure everything is ok. Then we met with Food For the Poor and toured their facility which is quite large and well organized. We also traveled to May Pen met with District President Piper and visited several Food Projects in the May Pen area.

Wednesday we drove to Mandeville and visited Projects there. Including one way up in the mountains so high our breaks got hot and stopped working. Not a good thing to happen in traffic. We pulled over and the breaks cooled and started to work again. We also drove to Hopeton where we visited more projects.

Thursday we were in Junction and Santa Cruz visiting more projects. Friday we drove home.

Saturday we attended the Spanish Town District Health Fair which was also a Humanitarian Project.

Well I am getting tired just writing about it. So let’s tell some stories and look at pictures.

First, since they have been asking we found a cute young Jamaican girl to bring home to Marcie or Megan. She even put on her biggest smile for the picture. See Picture: “Adopt me”.

The next picture is of a members home where we were visiting a project ( Chickens ). The bench out front was the shower, wash room, kitchen and laundry room. We see many like this but there are also some that have nicer homes.

The next picture is of Sister Murdock climbing back up the mountain after visiting a pig pen some ways below. We were in the mountains all morning. It was great, even if the mountains were covered with jungle. The lady who lived there was in her 60’s and she climbed those rock steps several time a day. It was probably 100 feet down from the road. She is an amazing lady. They will have to kill and butcher the pigs where they are and bring them up in quarters just to get them out! The jungle was so thick there you would never guess there was anything down there beyond the house. She also had a craft house where she made necklaces and did some sewing as well.

The four children in the next picture just wanted to have their picture taken. Then they would giggle when we showed them the picture of themselves and want us to take more pictures. They belonged to a member whose project we were visiting.

Roye is a young member who is an honor student and looking forward being a musician, artist, and engineer. He was studying for his GSAT tests. The school system is all based on testing. The better you do in the test the better school you can get into. This applies to all ages and grade levels from basic school age 3 to 5 to Universities. If you do not study and learn, you go to the worst schools where discipline and learning is not as good because the good teachers are recruited by the good schools. Roye knows because of his handicap he has to be extra smart in order to be able to get a job so he works hard, studies and reads. He is an amazing young man. He lives at least 4 or 5 miles from the chapel and pushes his wheelchair while his family walks the distance to church every week. Believe me the terrain he covers in that chair is unbelievable.

The last picture is of the Yallahs Branch chapel where Sister Murdock and Cullimore are waiting for the church to start. Eventually around 30 members showed up. Twelve of them were Priesthood members. Before, only 3 or 4 would come. We have been talking to them about starting some food projects in their Branch. They have been told the Priesthood had to supervise and be responsible for the projects and we did not think they had enough Priesthood members to get the job done. The sisters who are faithful and regularly attend church promised us they would make sure the Priesthood would be there and do their job. So far they are full filling their promise. Who says the world is run by men.

Well time to send this off…hope all is well at home and you are growing in the gospel.Stagnation is the death of testimony.Keep the Faith

 

February 3, 2013

Well this week has been slow work wise, but busy preparation wise. We have been actively getting ready for Bro and Sis Cullimore's visit. They are our supervisors from Salt Lake City Church Headquarters. They travel the world for The Church overseeing and helping with the Humanitarian Projects. They have been serving for 7 years now in this position and have been to 28 different countries. They are both 77 years old and the fastest moving people we have every met! They are simply wonderful and so much help to us. We went to the Yallahs Branch (a very small branch on the east end of the island), for church today, with about 30 people attending regularly. We had a very productive day with them today. We had them over for a traditional Jamaican dinner of Jerk Chicken with Rice and peas. They seemed to enjoy the afternoon with us. I have to admit my Jerk Chicken dinner went over well. Although I only used 3 of the Scotch Bonnet Peppers instead of the 6 it called for. But then we are only poor little white folk here, with tender tummies!!! Ha ha ha!

We did make several trips to Spanish Town and Old Harbour for supplies but they were a general bust...We were not able to get what we needed until the end of the week and then we still had most of our Tarps on back order. We were able to get the new locks for the Spanish Town Basement...same old scenario, too many keys floating out and about so we are getting new locks and starting over again.

We have been getting ready for the Health Fair Project here. I should say that we have been following the Priesthood around getting ready for the Health Fair. They have arranged for the Cancer Society of Jamaica to be there with their mobile van doing Mammograms and Pap Smears, Drs. are going to be there to administer free AIDS tests, and we will be doing Blood Pressure tests, Diabetes tests, Cholesterol testing, and handing out vitamins for children and adults to the first 1000 people to come. Pres. Medley, Sisters Langley and Mc Phearson have been working overtime to get things done. We have a media specialist, Sister Sinclair-Lym who has been doing some newspaper spots. We also have radio and News shows doing some reporting as well. The Health Fair committee has really done an excellent job. There will be lectures given on health issues and pharmaceutical companies handing out freebies as well. It is scheduled to be happening on Feb 9^th. We will have the Cullimore's with us all this week and then we take them to Montego Bay the 8^th to fly on to Tennessee to their next assignment. Then we will have to get home in a hurry to make it on time but it will be worth it.

My cousins Mark and Tamara Luthi will be in Montego Bay this week, but with the Cullimore's visit we will miss them as they are here at the same time. Oh well...maybe I can convince them to try again next year!! We met an Elder Burrell from Gunnison who is currently serving in the Yallahs Area. If anyone knows of his family, (Jan or Marie) please let them know he is doing well and loving his time here as a missionary. He is really doing a great job.

Sorry no pictures  :(

January 28, 2013

Hello again

The first part of the week was consumed in computer work and reports. Then we had a full day of meetings where we planned our next projects and discussed how to fix some old projects not quite working like we would like. We also prepared for our trip to the North West part of our likkle (Jamaican for Little when two tt come together in a word they replace the tt’s with KK’s) Island.

We also purchased some emergency supplies for the Island. Including generators and chain saws that we stored with our other emergency supplies located at the Spanish Town Branch.

Then we were off on a whirl wind trip to meet and help Branch Presidents. We told them about the Churches Humanitarian guidelines and asked if they wanted to participate in some of the food projects (Chickens, gardens, etc.) with their members. Our first stop was Mandeville where we met Elder and Sister Wright who are Institute and Perpetual Education Missionaries they were meeting the same Branch Presidents to help with PEF and train in-service classes to Seminary and Institute teachers. We followed the Wrights to Savanna La-Mar our first stop. The Branch Pres. a very down to earth man who got very excited about the animal and gardening projects. The next stop was Negril. The Branch Pres. there presided over a small branch with the Church on the upper floor of an apartment building. One door went into the Chapel the next door went to a private resident. When we explained the food projects he was very happy and excited to give the members of this very poor branch an opportunity to have jobs. His excitement was short lived when he learned the projects need to be on property owned by the participants. He explained the 95 percent of the members lived on Captured Land (this is land owned by the Government on which they lived without permission). This was one of the poorest Branch’s we had come across. We had brought a plan that raised his hopes but it was a plan that was not possible to do. Even though the Food projects are not possible in Negril we will keep trying until we find something, some other project that will help the members of Negril. I do not know what is to be done but we will keep trying until something is done. If we can‘t help the poorest of the poor then we have failed and failed badly.

We stayed in a motel in Negril that night. From the poorest of the poor to the tourist beaches of Negril the party capital of Jamaica. That’s quite a change in less than a mile. After the all day traveling and meetings we had about a half hour to spend walking along the beach. What a sight we were in Sunday clothes for mom and white shirt and tie for me just strolling along with the swim suites and bikinis. Everyone was starring and a couple of men tried to sell us gonga (marijuana) then laughed as we just walked by.

The next morning we drove to Montego Bay to meet with the Branch President and attend church. What a character the Branch President was. He got so excited about the Food project he could not stay in his chair. This man was all Jamaican and it took every bit of concentration we had to follow his excited and Fast Patois. He was very educated and owned his own business so he understood what it took to start and maintain a business. He was going to make sure the members who got projects would make them work. He so excited to give his members an opportunity to start their own business and lift themselves out of poverty that he proclaimed this was the greatest day of the last 42 years of his life. I fully expect he will start putting things together for the projects right away. President Lee also talked in Sacrament Meeting. It is common for the speaker in Jamaica to say Morning, Morning when beginning their talks and the audience replies Morning, Morning. But President Lee had the members shouting AMEN and laughing throughout his talk. There were two vacationing members one couple from Canada the other from Arizona, I know they could not understand most of the talk, because we were having a hard time following what he said. The other members understood and when they would laugh or yell amen the visitors would look around and wonder if they were in the right church.

We took some pictures along the way.Yamon Catamaran at Negril, Mom and sea Negril, Sunset Negril, Bamboo alley the trees along the road are all Bamboo, Donkey cart we often pass along the road in Kingston they use it to haul fruits and coconuts from the field to the street vendors

.

January 20, 2013

Morning, Morning “Jamaican Hello”

Busy Busy week. It started on Monday with Mom saying we needed to do something to get rid of the extra weight we have gained. Then we went for our hill walk and met a man riding his bike up the hill. We talked about good and bad people and taking care of our bodies. We even talked a little about church and family. His name was Damith and he was a trainer for a local bicycle club. So he invited us to go on are ride with the club on Saturday. Before I knew it mom had agreed to go on the ride with them, not that I minded. I miss riding my bike. More about the ride later.

It will be too hard to go into a lot of detail so I will list most of our activities and explain some in more detail. Things we did: Met with the two other welfare Senior couples (PC and CES), went to Senior Family Home Evening, got some clothing for Members in Yallahs, Picked up some key boards for music lessons, planned for a week long visit from the Cullimores (our Project leaders form SLC), went to a Mission Zone conference, participated in online financial training, and did lots and lots of computer reports.

We also went to a little community called Caledonia, they were requesting some help finishing a Citizens learning center for their community. We picked up Mr.Norman Douglas in Bog Walk then he took us to Caledonia about eight miles on a little one lane paved road then when the pavement ran out, we drove another 3 miles on a 4 wheel drive (I even had to put it in 4 wheel drive to get up the road) road to Caledonia. Mom said I was having way too much fun. We attached some pictures of the town hall (Citizen’s Center ) and the proposed Citizens Learning center. Note the dirt road, it is new all the homes were built by carrying all the building materials on their heads 3 miles up a trail (now a 4 wheel drive road). There are about 500 people living in Caledonia. The area grows lots of fruits, oranges, bananas, pineapple, and coconuts. We included a picture of some coconut trees. I’ll bet not even Tallon or any of the grandkids could climb these trees. We also bought some bananas and they were really good. We ate the whole bunch in a couple of days.

Now back to bicycle ride it started at 5:15am. I was scared to death. The club took really good care of us and put us in the middle of the group to protect us. But it was pitch black with more huge pot holes than sand in the sea. When they would pass a pot hole they would yell “ pot hole”. I don’t know how they keep from going hoarse. We were riding older bikes, mine with no rear break. Both bikes with skinny seats with only part of the padding left. They took us on the short ride, only 30 miles through downtown traffic. Some how we survived and made it back to our starting point at 8:30. Neither mom or I could walk or sit for a while after the ride. Not because we were out of shape but because the bikes and our bodies were not made to be together for that long. All in all we enjoyed the ride and the company. They made us feel very welcome and we made some new friends. 

One of the other pictures is of the Yallahs Branch Church. If you look close you can see a lady sitting behind the grate in front of the building. That’s the piano (key board) player, there is no room inside the chapel for her so she has to sit on the porch outside. Elder Evans, one of our friends and another Senior Missionary, is the Branch President. A young Elder Missionary is his councilor. There was only one other active priesthood member in the Branch until that day when an older member was made a Priest and a young soon to be Missionary was made and Elder.

The last picture is another jungle or as they call it, the bush picture taken in the Blue Mountains.

Well that is all for this week. Know that we love and pray for you all everyday. You are always in our hearts. There was a comment made by our Mission Presidents wife; she said about the time they have been here in Jamaica that, “there are some friends who come and go and there are some who leave footprints on your heart. “ We feel like we have many of your ‘footprints’ on our hearts. I have been thinking of our little ‘comfort zones’, how so many of us don’t ever want to leave our little zones. When in reality, the larger the zone, the more that can fit in it, the more love you can give and receive. I’ve decided it is the Lords Plan for us to be always increasing our zone. When that occurs we grow and expand our spirituality. And that is his goal…the immortality and eternal life of man..

Love to all

Dad and Mom

January 13, 2013

Happy New Year

We have spent most of the week in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic receiving Welfare and Humanitarian Training. One of the things we learned, which you probably already know, is the Church now has a Four Fold Purpose instead of Three. The fourth is Care for the Poor and Needy. It is a daunting task for two small town Utahans to have the responsibility of Caring for the Poor and Needy for the whole country of Jamaica. Of course we have lots of help from the Priesthood, Members and other Missionaries. We will be talking with Branch and District Presidents for their guidance and help. Nothing will be done without Priesthood direction. Brother Cornish 1^st Counselor in the Area Presidency spoke to us and told us we are in the eleventh hour of the eleventh hour of the latter days. On a brighter note we got to go the Santa Domingo Temple while we were there which was really fun. They did a special session in English just for us, they speak Spanish. When they told us the session would be in English we were happy but when we found out we were the minority we felt bad to make the Dominicans all have to wear headsets.

When we got back we spoke in Sacrament meeting at a small branch in Yallahs (see picture). The members there were very good to us. On small girl (about 3) keep running up to us and giving us hugs. She sat on my lap and would pull out my name tag and Pencil and then put them back in my pocket just like our grandkids.

We did take part of the day and go on a picnic up on Blue Mountain with the other Senior Missionaries. It was fun and we took some pictures of the mountains.

This email is short because we are buried in work so far above our heads we have to jump just to see out. So back to work.

Love Elder and Sister Murdock

 

Megan Here (again) Apprently computers hate me, it won't let me load the pictures again. I'll have to put them on the the next post! :)

January 6, 2013

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!