Easter in Jamaica was very interesting to say the least. It is bigger than Christmas here! Stores have pretty much been closed since Thursday because its Holy Thursday, Good Friday, then Saturday, Easter Sunday, AND Easter Monday. And Sunday night there was a huge rave party out in the parking lot of Shoppers Fair... nothing like remembering the resurrection by getting wasted. Ate lots of Spice bun and cheese- the Easter tradition here. I soon realized how much of a bummer it is being lactose intollorant... I love cheese too much and my body doesn't like that one bit.
This week we had a pretty crazy schedule. We were supposed to go into Spanish Town Wednesday morning and help deliver the new missionaries to their areas but true, they were stuck in the Dallas airport because of a tornado, so they ended up getting here Saturday. Wednesday night we went into Kingston though and stayed the night at the Zone Leaders house because Thursday morning we got our teeth checked out by the dentist. No cavities for me! Whoo hoo! It was really nice to see other missionaries. Since I got to Sav, I haven't hardly been around other missionaries besides my companions, good thing my comps and I all get along haha I love Kingston so much, driving in it was crazy! I thought traffic backed up down town after a concert was bad... no sir! Try Kingston! Driving stick southpaw is now natural.. which scares me a bit because going home and switching back will be quite the experience.
Some pretty cool things happened this week. We started teaching a member's family, mom, dad, and the 4 younger brothers and sisters, which is so sweet, I love teaching whole families. When we first started, momma wasn't to keen on us coming over. She has been studying with the JW's for quite a while and had an attitude of not genuinely wanting to learn but rather just being polite by not saying no. Well, that has defintly changed. We met with them 3 times this week, and you can see her desire to know more and really has grown. She even said that she feels like Joseph Smith did, being confused and not knowing which church was really teaching the truth. Last night we had family home evening with them which was the SWEETEST FHE ever. They don't have electricity so we brought a kerosene lamp and lit it underneath their HUGE mango tree where they built a couple little benches and had some chairs. As always, I brought the guitar for some song singing afterwards, but the lessons really hit them.
It was something the sisters actually showed us, so props to them. Here it is, and try it for yourself because when I did it, I was pretty close to tears, hit me pretty hard. Anyways, you're on an airplane flying somewhere, and you feels some gnarly turbulence. It hits again and all of a sudden, the engine stops and you are going down. The pilot gets on the loudspeaker and says "I'm sorry passengers but we will be crashing in two minutes due to engine failure". Now... you have two minutes to write your dying wish to someone you love. What would you say? What would you write? So I gave them all a piece of paper and they wrote a letter to someone for two minutes. BOOM, you crashed, you're now dead but your letter makes it to that person you wrote to. I took all their letters, and being in the place of the person they wrote their dying wishes to, I rip up all their papers and say "Nah, I don't wanna hear from her, she was nice but whatever". "I don't need to hear this". "I already know what he would say." ...
This is how Heavenly Father feels when we don't read our scriptures. Prophets from the Bible and the Book of Mormon have sealed their dying wishes about the gospel in these books, and how many times do we leave it sitting on the counter and say "I'll read it later." "I'd rather go listen to music". "I don't need this, this is old stuff". It hit me hard when I first did this because I wrote my letter to Mac and for him to tear it up, tore me up. Anyway, the family really got the understanding from it and momma warmed up to us a lot, from saying she would hide when we came to saying now that she would like us to come over any time we have available. Her daughter says she's been reading a lot and praying about the message, so we will see what happens. It is so cool to see the Spirit work. She even said "It's like you're saying what I need to hear, but you're just a messenger from God". Couldn't help but smile :)
Yep so life is pretty good here in ol' Junction. I swear, you'd think I was an emotional wreck with the soggy eye syndrome I've had this week. I spoke in church Sunday about sacrifice, and told the story about G-ma and Grandpa from start to finish, getting married, meeting the missionaries, having the family, and then the cancer battle, and focused on the sacrifices G-ma made and is making for grandpa with working so much but still always fulfilling her calling. I think it kinda woke the branch up a bit that we can all do a better job fulfilling our callings in the church and that no sacrifice is too great for us to make because Christ made the ultimate sacrifice. Anything he commands us to sacrifice is just a minor detail in the grand scheme of things. I learned a lot from giving that talk.
In other news... we played basketball in Mandeville yesterday for p-day my goodness... I can't remember the last time I've been this sore. I think I would be less sore if I got hit by a Mack truck! haha It was fun though, seeing brand new missionaries too, they are so white! It was completely overcast and a bit rainy and they still got sunburned.. I remember the days.
I love the pictures! Especially the one with Joshy in the front of it because I can see Uncle James knocked out on the couch in the background haha Cracks me up, I'm getting a tiny minuscule glimpse at the life of a church leader and true, sleep is a precious thing haha I love you!!
Elder Romney
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