April 7, 2013

Likkel (little) more from the Murdocks

Hope you had a great Easter.  We had lots of fun meeting Easter week when both Districts on the Island had a Family Fun day in Mandeville around 900 members attended.  All the Branches chartered bus’s to take the members to Mandeville (most members do not have enough money for this kind of a trip).

 

Just trying to be a kid.

We all sat down to have our picture taken and this gentleman and his granddaughter decided they wanted their picture taken too and jumped into the shot…they love to have you take their pictures.

Lots of time was spent writing reports for the wheelchair program.  Food For The Poor received a new shipment of wheelchairs from the Church. 

Jamaican’s love Dominoes. Anywhere we drive you can see men on the side of the road playing dominoes.  When they put down a new domino they slap it down as hard and as fast as they can.  This bounces the other dominoes all over and they have to re-arrange the them every time a new piece is slammed down.  The man on the left is President Durrant, if you remember he is the one we gave some toys to and he used them to start a nursery in his Branch.

Mom makes friends everywhere we go. This one’s name is Carrie.  She is about 25 years old but looks 15!  These Jamaican women look so young!! She said “Please take a picture of us together!”  Here it is…lol

 

We had a Missionary Zone Conference, General Conference, and Priesthood session of Conference.  The sisters stayed at the Mission Home and made Banana splits. They all enjoyed visiting together.

 

I think there were about 300 wheelchairs in this shipment.  It has been a while since we received any chairs so these are already spoken for and the recipients are anxious to get their chairs.  Our next shipment will be in about 6 months.  We are planning a training course for new Wheelchair Assessors and a refresher course for those who were trained in the last training.   

The rest of our time was spent writing an agenda for Bennie Lilly our Area Welfare Manager and his assistant Brother Acosta (soon to be our new Area Welfare Manager) visit to Jamaica.  They are coming to talk to Food For the Poor about the wheelchair program and to visit some of the Priesthood members we are working with to start some new Short-Term Food Projects (chicken projects).  We responsible for setting up all the meetings, Motels reservation, and travel arrangements for the visit.   Bro Lilly is bringing his wife this trip.  Bro. Lilly has been the Area Welfare Manager for 5 years and this will be his wife’s first visit to Jamaica.  They will be going home in June so this is likely the last trip for them. Bro. Lilly was here in November of last year and January of this year. We are fortunate to have been able to see him so often. Most Area Managers don’t make the trip to see their missionaries the way Bro. Lilly has.

Zone Conference was wonderful.  Pres. Hendricks spoke on the four kinds of missionaries.  #1 is Disobedient; he complains and disobeys the mission rules.  He will do things his way or not at all.  He usually ends up going home and struggles to complete anything in his life.  He is miserable most of the time and will struggle with activity in the gospel. He feels shame when he thinks of his mission.  #2 is Disobedient as well. He obeys but complains about everything and is seldom happy.  He will complete his mission, but quickly returns to his ‘normal’ life and feels relief that the last two years are over. He will feel some shame upon returning.  #3 is an Obedient Missionary.  He sacrifices to go on his mission.  His heart is on home, wondering how things are there. He will return home and wonder if he has done all he could to be a good missionary.   #4 is Obedient as well…he consecrates his time and talents to the Lord for these two years.  He is never the same after he completes his mission.  The rest of his life is changes because of his service to the Lord.  He wears his missionary badge in his heart for the rest of his days.  Most people think being  #3 is ok…and I guess that’s fine for some.  But what about ‘what could have been’ if you truly consecrated your heart to the Lord for these two years?  What blessings will you be giving up? What more could you have done with the rest of your life? …just something to think about…

Listening to Conference this weekend has been wonderful.  Such inspiring messages of hope, love, and obedience… The weekend went by so fast!

Know that the Lord lives and loves us as his children.  He gave us a plan of happiness…no sense in letting a good plan go to waste…

Love to all

Mom and Dad

E/S Murdock

Two White Girls On A Minibus

Watch here

This was shown to us by our friends Rondall and Tracy Anderson .  We have been all over the same roads...just not on the bus's...thank the Good Lord for that!!  Hope you enjoy...
Elder Rex and Sister Cathie Murdock

March 24, 2013

Dear Family and friends:

Sorry this letter is late but we have been traveling a lot!  We have been Junction, Lindstead, Ocho Rios, St Ann’s, Port Antonio and Port Maria.  We have been working on the Wheel  Chair Program and checking on how the Assessors and their Organizations are doing.  It has been a while since they have been contacted and we are trying to get things up to date.  There are 22 organizations and assessors to visit and see how they are.  It takes time but we are whittling away at them and will have them finished up this week.  Once that is done there is more paperwork to do.  It seems we are always doing reports on something!  It has been nice to travel the island but tiring for Rex…he does the driving. I just hang on as we go up winding, narrow mountain roads.

On Sunday the 17^th we planned to go to Old Harbour but in the morning Rex felt we should call President Piper in the Mandeville district and visit with him.  When we got a hold of him he was traveling to Junction.  He was so excited to hear from us, and would meet us after services in Junction.  He said he way pleading with the Lord for a solution to a problem and then we called. He hoped we could help him.  So we hurried and left our apartment and headed that direction. We knew we would be late and not be able to partake of the Sacrament so we stopped in Hopeton on the way.  There we ran into Elder and Sister Wright (from Junction), who were going to speak in Hopeton, so we said we would listen to their talks and continue on to Junction.  As we were visiting in the parking lot President and Sister Hendricks pulled up.  He needed to do some interviews in Hopeton.  Of course he spoke for a few minutes as well.  After sacrament meeting we were going to head out when Wrights invited us  and Pres. Piper  for dinner at their apartment just a few blocks from the Junction Chapel.  So off we went to Junction for Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society meetings. As we were meeting with Pres. Piper after the meetings in Junction, he was thrilled with the new “member short term projects” that are available for members to help them get the training and jobs they so desperately need.  It was what he had been pleading with the Lord for that very morning when we called.   It was more than one of those ‘lovely coincidences’, he prayed us there.  You can always feel the Lords love for his children in all we do.

The rest of the week was spent in traveling and catching up on the little necessities of life.  You know the things that never go away…dishes and laundry, oh and now I can add reports to the list!

 Our visits to the Wheel Chair Assessors and their organizations (hospitals, care facilities etc.), has been going well.  There are a couple organizations that are no longer doing it and a couple more that cannot fulfill the church’s requirements in doing the Assessments and Fittings.  If the fittings are not completed after the assessment, we could be causing more health problems for the very people we desire to help.  When a patient is not fitted properly to the chair they can develop bed and pressure sores.  The Church wants to do good, not cause harm, if we cannot do this right, we will be causing more harm, and that is just not acceptable.  Most of the problems for the organizations are because there are just not enough resources for the organizations to do what is necessary.  Most of the Assessors are traveling at their own expense and on their own time, as the places they work for cannot supply a vehicle or the gas money to travel.  Their budgets are so tight and the need so great, that the staff members  have multiple jobs to perform, and the time is just not there to do everything, so they have to pick and choose.  We hate to lose a single one but we understand their dilemma as well.    We are supposed to have a shipment of wheelchairs in port now and are waiting for them to clear customs.  Another order of chairs should be on its way sometime this summer.  Then we will have a “Refresher Course” for those Assessors who were trained two years ago and a new training for those are interested in doing this for new organizations or replacing someone who has left their positions at their organization.

Our oldest granddaughter Bodi Murdock was married on the 23^rd and we are so filled with joy for her, her new husband and of course for her family.  She begins the fourth generation of our family to be married in the Manti Temple.

Ok now for a few pictures! Yay!!!  This one is in Fern Gully on our way to Ohco Rios.  This is a Jack in the Bush.  I don’t know if that is the guys name or what but we stopped at his “vending shop” by the side of the road when we saw him flapping his wings.  Just couldn’t resist a picture.

This one is in Fern Gully on our way to Ohco Rios.  This is a Jack in the Bush.  I don’t know if that is the guys name or what but we stopped at his “vending shop” by the side of the road when we saw him flapping his wings.  Just couldn’t resist a picture.

We drove past the Columbus Park.  In 1494 Columbus sailed into Discovery Bay in Jamaica.  There was a Tally Machine here where the Indians would carry their bananas on the ships to sell and the tally machine would give them a slip of paper.  At the end of the day they would take their Tally Slips and collect their pay.  This is what happens when you aren’t paying attention to the guide.

This is the Chapel in Ocho Rios.  You went up a long stair way and into the rented building.  It is a great little branch. Branch Pres. Lester has only been a member for 2 years

This is one of our Wheel Chair recipients. He has been in the hospital for a little while to take care of some illness he has been suffering from.  He said his chair is waiting for him at home. He is excited to go home so he can get moving again.

We saw this sign on our way to one of the Wheel Chair Assessors we were meeting with.  It made us chuckle…

We spotted this guy from the road with another row of Vending shops.  He was there just for the tourists to take a picture….for a fee of course.

The work moves forward.  The Lord blesses us daily and we are so thankful for all of you.  Your love and support mean everything to us.  We need your prayers daily.  Stay true to the faith…hold to the rod…

Mom and Dad

Elder and Sister Murdock

March 17, 2013

Dear family and friends:

I hope this letter makes sense. I am writing this as we travel down the road on our way to Junction.   We have about a 30 kilometer stretch without potholes for which we are extremely grateful.  We have been busy with the Wheelchair Initiative this week, traveling to all our wheelchair assessors and their organizations.  It means a lot of time on the road eating fast foods.  We usually try to find American type foods when we travel to make sure our stomachs will handle it well with traversing the bumpy roads.  Most places we go even for local foods are pretty good as well.

We had family home evening with Pres. and Sister Hendricks and it was ‘movie night,’ we watched the story of Ruth, Hollywood style.  It was pretty good.  There were some places where they wandered close to the bible story, but all in all not a bad show.  We each brought a snack and filled a 5 foot table with junk food.  It was awesome!!! I got to go to the Relief Society Birthday party in the Constant Springs Chapel. That was great too. Each branch did a skit about the Relief Society and it was pretty fun.  After that we gathered up our husbands and went out to dinner which ended the day quite well. 

We got to go Castle exploring one day this week too.  We went to the John Colbeck Castle.  It was built in the mid 1600’s.  All that is left is the outside walls and the dungeon.  It was really interesting that he had them install round windows.  The windows went all the way through each room of the house, from east to west, and north to south. That way the air circulated quite well.  On our way home we went to Lindsted and bought bananas and pineapples.  We were with the Larsen’s on this trip, so Sister Larsen suggested we have a new taste treat, sugar cane.  It is actually pretty good.  At least it was till I broke out a filling!  I ended up going to the dentist to get it repaired.  I was lucky and was able to get it fixed the next morning.  No one wants to go around with a hole big enough to put a straw through in the front of their mouth!  Needless to say I looked like Hillbilly Hannah!  I was able to get into see the dentist that the missionaries see.  Her name is Dr. Lee and she does really good work.

Well our meetings went well today.  We stopped at Hopeton for Sacrament Meeting and ran into the Wrights and Pres. and Sister Hendricks.  The Wrights were speaking there and so was Pres. Hendricks.  After Sacrament we traveled on to Junction to attend Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society, and meet up with District Pres. Piper.  We explained a little about the new Member Short Term Projects.   One of the projects we can do in this category is Self-Employment.  There is a big problem here with people not being able to find, or be qualified for, jobs.  He was so excited for this.  He had been praying for a long time for an answer to this problem.  He said he was pleading with the Lord just this very morning for help for himself, and other members in his District, and then we called him and asked to have a meeting with him.  He said it was a direct answer from the Lord.   He is so excited and grateful to Heavenly Father.  We will be working on finding organizations to work with here in Jamaica that will help facilitate the training and certifying of these people so they can be better employed or just employed, to help their families be more self-sufficient.  We had planned to attend another branch but when we got up this morning Rex felt like we needed to see Pres. Piper.

Junction Chapel.  The Assembly of God church is the building to the left and very close to our building.  The Assembly of God Church uses a microphone for their singing we it was very interesting to try and hear what was going on in our meetings!

We hope all is well at home and you are all progressing in your testimonies of the living gospel.  May the Lord Bless and Keep you all

Love

Mom and Dad

March 10, 2013

Two Humanitarian Missionaries in Jamaica.

This week involved lots of work with the Church’s Wheelchair Initiative.This program involves the Church sending shipping containers full of wheelchairs to our Major Wheelchair Partner Food For the Poor (FFP).Then there are several wheelchair sub-partners who work with people that are mobility impaired. The sub-partners assess a person’s need for a wheelchair, get them a chair from FFP, then adjusts the chair to fit the person.The chair adjustment is critical, if not done right, the chair owner can get very serious pressure sores.We found that some wheelchair recipients have not been fitted to their chair.So we are visiting these partners and getting commitments from them to do proper fittings. It will take us several weeks to visit all sub-partners as they are scattered across the Island.

Tracy Anderson is the Church Wheelchair Monitor.She is the one who checks with the wheelchair recipients to see that they have been properly fitted and adjusted to their new chair. She is a marvelous young lady. We get to spend a lot of time with Tracy and have gotten to know her well. She is a returned missionary and newlywed too. Tracy is always happy and a positive person. She and her husband Rondell are exceptional members.Rondell is in the Spanish Town (includes the Kingston area) District Presidency. They live in a very small house that has a Living room/bedroom/Kitchen, and bathroom.Rondell is studying Engineering and has another year to graduate.If the church had a branch full of couples like these people, we would have a Temple here.We are having a local wood carver make us a small statue of a Jamaican woman holding a baby out of Iron wood, and we have used Tracy as a model.We took her picture (with permission of course), side view and profile, to Mitey Gully where Dillion Gabbidon will do the carving.He is an extremely talented artist.The church helped him get his carving tools. Mitey Gully is a place in Old Harbour where they take young men off the street and into their compound and give them some training and guidance.Dillion now has about 6-8 young men who are carving and earning a living instead of begging on the streets.He did a bust of Joseph Smith from a picture that is stunning to see.

 One of our wheelchair partners is Mustard Seeds Communities.They take in children with disabilities or aids who have been abandoned or who have no family.Mustard Seed provides a place where they can live.Mrs. Williams is loved by the children and many would run (those who could) across the compound to get a hug or just hold her hand.This young man peddled his hand powered chart over to get his hug

 Look at the young man on the right front what a haunting look.Now imagine living with no family, in a wheelchair, in a compound. We found our wheelchair sub-partner organizations have great dedicated people who truly want to help those who can’t help themselves.The service they provide is invaluable and we are proud the Church is able to help them help others.They do all they can but there is no replacement for a good family.

Typical childrens dorm room found in many chartiable organizations.It is better than where many families here live.

 

 

 This is Gungo Beans or “Peas”. They grow wild. One day we met an old lady out in the country taking the beans out of the pod preparing them for dinner. I made a comment about her cooking and that I bet it would be good. She pulled a funny toothless face and said no, no, you no like this is poor mans food. Rich man no like. Later I learned Gungo Beans are really called the poor mans dinner, they have a kind of bitter tast. HowerverTracy likes them and she is growing them in her garden. Tracy and Rondell are the typical “starving college students”. Meaning they make the best of what they have.

Today we attended Boulevard Branch here in Kingston. We had some information to share with the Branch President Hamilton about a project we are working on. His branch will do a service project to coinside with our Humanitarian Service (HS) Project. We do a service project with every HS Project that gets approved. It helps the church become known for one of the things we do best…serve our fellow man. Dad and I are still doing well. We took a P-Day and went with the Larsens to the beach to hunt for shells. Sister Larsen expressed an interest in going to look for Conch shells. She found many to choose from. We parked at the Fort Rocky Ruins on the south east shore of the island, by the airport . It is the ruins of an old English Fort that has not been restored. We enjoyed an hours worth of walking and headed back to the apartment and back to work. We are sending our love and prayers to you all back home and encourage you to ‘Hold to the Rod’. Stay true and faithful so you can have the blessings the Lord would give you. He desires us all to be happy and has provided for each of us, if we will only be true and faithful.

Love you all

March 3, 2013

Dear Family and Friends:

This week has found us working like crazy getting ready for some new Project Presentations. Dad has been developing a power point that we can use, that has been really helpful in explaining what will be expected when we start. The new Food Initiative will only include: Chickens, broiler and layer, and Gardens. They will be carried out by the Branch Presidency and a Welfare Specialist/Project Manager. They will be doing all the initial planning, building of the coops and the buying and delivery of the chickens. Hopefully this will cut down the amount of running around we do as missionaries. We are starting a new Food Initiative soon so we are taking our presentation to the Non District Branches as well as continuing with some new projects to be done in the District Branches. The District Branches have already been doing the projects in their areas so they just need to be informed of the changes for any projects going forward from now, but for the Non District Branches (6 in all), this is a new program. We had an Elder in the Portmore Branch, Rondell Anderson, draw up a new portable coop design and presented it to District President Medley and then to Mission President Hendricks. Both

approved it and then it was on to the Area Welfare Specialist who approved as well. We had the portable coop designed so that people who live on rented property could be able to take advantage of the new food initiative. It had been decided that only those who owned their property could continue to be a part of the projects, but with so many people not able to own their property, there had to be a way to help those who needed the help the most. We are hoping that the portable coops will be an answer to

prayer for them. Our first presentation was to the Spanish Town District Branch Presidents.

We spent today (Sunday March 3), in the Yallahs Branch. This was the 4th time we have gone to Yallahs. It is beginning to feel like home to us. Because we travel, we don't have an assigned branch to go to, so to get to be in one branch four times in 3 months is a treat for us. The Yallas branch struggles with Priesthood representation. Dad told them in January that he really wanted to do the projects with them but without Priesthood to administer the projects it probably was not possible. That was all he needed to say...Those good and faithful Relief Society sisters said not to worry, they would see that the priesthood would be there and would be able to administer the projects...and that they DID know how to use a hammer themselves! We have been hearing reports that they are living up to their word. They have been working with the priesthood in their branch ever since and now they have more priesthood members attending and returning to activity. It has been a miracle for them. When we went

there today they confirmed 2 new members, both will receive the priesthood soon. There has been a real missionary spirit here. The presentation in Yallahs went well. They have questions but the members are coming up with the solutions themselves, and so the work moves forward.

As many of you already know we will be getting a new Mission President in July. It will be Kevin Brown. He currently is heading the CES Program here in Jamaica. He is a most wonderfully gifted man and loved by all. We are so excited to be able to work with him. He is the First Jamaican to be called to such a high position. We see this as a giant step forward for the Island of Jamaica.

The pictures this week are of our meeting with the members of the Yallahs branch. The first picture is at the chapel during our presentation of the food initiative.

 

The next one is of the newly baptized members Brother’s Williams.They are father in the foreground and son in the background.They were confirmed today and will be ordained to the Priesthood next Sunday.They were baptized in the Mediterranean Sea. They were concerned about alligators…apparently there are some near to this area but they inhabit a swampy spot a few miles away.The swells were coming in hard and fast and just about took out Elder Barker who was the missionary was doing the baptizing!To hear him tell the story it got really exciting between the alligators and the ocean swells.All of them lived to tell the tale another day.Elder Barker is from England and speaks with a proper English accent and stands about 5 ft. 5in.His companion Elder Burrell is from Gunnison. Today is both of the Elders birthday.One of the members baked them a cake and brought it to church to give it to them…It being fast Sunday they dutifully waited to sample it till this evening.The last one is of the little Yallahs Chapel.Dad and I remain healthy and happy in our work. This month we have three family birthdays, a baptism, and a wedding that we will not be home for. Our hearts and love go to them on their special days and know that we will be there in spirit. We would love to be there with you but the Lord needs us here for now. When we do see you, you can expect a ton on hugs and kisses...so many that you will wish we were gone on another mission!!! We were excited to hear of Jeff and Beverly Nielsen, Doug and Marsha, and Jean and Johnny Johnson's mission calls. It is so exciting to know our ward is sending out Senior Missionaries as well as the younger ones. Congratulations!! You're going to love working for the Lord!!They tell us the pay is not great but the benefits are out of thisworld!!

 

February 24, 2013

Hello Everyone

Wow lots of new changes are coming. Several of the Senior Missionaries here in Jamaica will be leaving soon. All of them will leave before we return home.

We have a New Mission President. President Brown is a Jamaican he has been over the Seminary and Institute Program here in Jamaica and he is a very Spiritual man. We love to hear him speak, he will be a good Mission President. He is the first Jamaican to be called as a Mission President. He will do this Island so much good. It seems the more a local culture takes the responsibility for the gospel, the more the gospel grows in that country. We are excited to see some of the changes.

With our humanitarian work, the church has given us some new direction that lets us help Members. This is very exciting. We can now address problems that have been screaming for attention. The new direction includes” Relieve suffering” and, “eliminate poverty”. Also “There should be no Poor among us”. It will be an extremely difficult task, impossible without the guidance from the Holy Ghost. We will be getting help from local Priesthood and a new committee to help us with the task. More about this later.

We got a whole day off!! No worries, no driving, just relax and have fun. The Senior Missionaries have decided to do a once a month “P Day” activity together. We are making a bucket list of things we want to do before we go home. So 14 of us pile into the mission van, and off we go. Usually there are 16 of us but we had one couple who could not attend this time. Saturday we went to Port Antonio and floated the Rio Grand River on Bamboo rafts. So here is the story.

Each raft made of bamboo (see picture bamboo raft), had a Captain (see picture Captain), with two people. We started at the Mediterranean Sea drove 45 min. up the mountain then floated for 2 ½ hours back down to the Sea. It was great fun. Along the way we passed through Beautiful Jungle land with Bamboo and all kinds of exotic plants and trees.

One of the first people me met along the way was a man with a Floating Bar (picture floating bar). He sold soda, water and cold beer from a Bamboo Raft. Another man waded out to sell us Coconuts. We saw two men washing a whole pile of dead chickens in the river. We also saw a women washing her cloths and drying them on the rocks while her daughter danced and sang on top of a nearby boulder.

There was a man (yes the person wearing a scarf on top of his head is a man, they wear a scarf or a towel to keep the sun off, it’s very hot here) leading his cow across the river. (See Picture cow crossing). We also saw a few men hunting fish with spear guns. One man had speared several.

We ran several small rapids and actually ran aground on one. We lost our Captain too! He fell overboard. Not to worry though it was shallow water. I have the video but don’t know how to send it. We have lots of videos that are fun to see so if anyone knows how we can send them let us know. The scenery was great (See picture Rio Grand) but no animals I really miss seeing deer, elk, coyotes and other critters the only two here are rats and mongoose.

We stopped at a shack along the river for lunch (see picture lunch time) there were so many of us they ran out of food so we shared one vegetarian lunch of rice and peas and vegetable called callalloo. It is like spinach.It was pretty good but not too filling!It was really a great day.We joked with the other couples that this was the ride down the river was smoothest ride they would get here sense the road are so bad.