"Visiting" Experiences

Had many “visiting” experiences this week.  More wild driving and many people invited back to church.  We saw several in Portmore and in Spanish Town.  When we get home we are so grateful that we arrived home safe.  More driving scares than people problems.  After an afternoon of visiting,  both of us feel great and are exhausted.  There is often tears of joy and/or regret.   We invite them all to come to church.  One of the biggest problems to church activity is transportation.  Many do not have money for a bus or a taxi.   I take good notes about our visits, otherwise they all melt together and I forget details.  

 We visited one lady yesterday that says she can’t come because she has a 17 year old, handicapped son and can not take him anywhere.  Their home is dark and dreary and it made me so sad.  In the US there would be a bus to pick him up and take him to school, giving her a break and helping him to learn.  She was such a sweet lady.  Even other RS sisters can not travel to her home to take some of the burden.  She is one of the many that have heavy loads.

We love you and are thankful for your influence in our lives.

Love,  Elder and Sister Herbert

Sister Price showing me her banana tree

 Oshane and Sister Osborn helping us find our way

A grandma babysitting.  (What I will be doing in a few months, I might add!)

Spanish Town Elders and Oshane 

Great Day!!

Went to Portmore meetings.  Before the opening prayer there were 19 people in the chapel.  Before the sacrament there were 30.  Before the closing prayer there were over 60 people in attendance.  (There is a lot of work to do!)   I taught the “Law of Chastity” to the Gospel Essentials class.  After all the meetings we went with the elders visiting.  We had 16 names to try and find.  We learned 2 had moved many years before.......   So their names have been sitting in the branch records for a very long time.  No one had gone to find them.  Out of the 16, we only found 4 home.  (We contacted  5 others but could not see them today.)  Each of the 4 that we visited were very warm and open to us.  One said that ours was only the third visit by a church member he has had in the 10 years he has lived in his home.  We talked to three of them about going to the temple.  Seeing those four people (and contacting the others) took us 6 hours.  We came home exhausted and thrilled with our experiences.  What a grand time.... to invite people to come back to church.  I know not everyone jumps with excitement when they see us, but it is still a wonderful opportunity to request that our brothers and sisters come home.  One of the inactive men we saw during the week was there today at the Sunday meetings.  Mike requested he visit with the mission president, which he is excited to do.  It was clear he was happy to be there and so thrilled to begin his way back to activity.

I wish I could paint you an accurate picture of the people and places here.  The poverty abounds....( however nothing is as bad as our dear friends in Providenciales).  Of course some live better than others, but many houses are joined together, woven in a maze of tin.  The streets that run by their homes are really just dirt allies.  It amazes me how the elders ride bikes all over.  They go into areas that would scare their mothers to death.  There is awful crime.  We are very careful and know the Lord protects us.  Even in the poorest areas, most homes have high metal fences and gates with big padlocks for security.  One funny thing is that here, as well as in the Turks, they see the white shirts and name tags and think we are the FBI, or CIA or “Men in Black”.  Everyone we have talked to has been very polite and helpful to us.  

There are so many potholes that most senior couples have had several flat tires.  Many of the extreme potholes are due to the unseasonably heavy rains.  We are amazed that there are not more accidents than there are.  As far as we can tell, there are no rules to drive by.  Tonight we learned that we are going to get a brand new Mitsubishi, Lancer to drive for a few months.  It is really Sister Hendrick’s (mission president’s wife) car.  She does not want to drive here and they are short some cars so we will drive hers for a while.  It is a very fancy car, and to be totally honest, we are not very excited.  There are so many opportunities to ruin a nice car.  I was just getting so I could drive the other one around, with it’s many scrapes and scratches.  I do NOT want to be the one to put the first marks.

We laughed so hard at a member’s story to us last week.  He told us he had gone somewhere in the states.  He did not want to hurt our feelings but he said, “I just can’t tell all you white people apart.”  If I made a statement like that in the states, it might not be politically correct and some might be offended.  We thought it was great fun!

New Lanser on the “road”.  We bottomed out several times.  (Mike was not happy!)

Elder and Sister Herbert in Spanish Town

 A Spanish Town road

New Experience

Went visiting tonight in Spanish Town.  Went to one house, a Sister Chang. First of all we felt lucky to be there alive.  The streets are no wider than our alleys and it is like playing dodge ball with the oncoming cars and the potholes.   It is scary enough in the daylight but in the night it is treacherous.  After we got to the house we were ushered through the house to her bedroom where she and her two adult member daughters were enjoying a few words together.  After a few minutes of visiting, we heard yelling in the kitchen and the mother and daughters ran in where her two grown brothers were arguing over a girlfriend.  I would have thought nothing of it but the ladies were very upset so it made us know it was serious.  One of the sisters literally pulled and pushed her brother into the room where we were and locked the door from the outside.  He stood on her bed to a high cupboard and pulled down a miniature machete (they called it a “cutless” and it was about 15 inches long).  He came and pounded on the door yelling that he was going to kill him and several other things, much of which we did not understand.  He finally found some keys and went out a back door and around to the front.  I guess a neighbor had pulled the other brother into his house and locked him in.  They use these huge padlocks to secured the metal fences that surround and protect their houses.  After a few minutes the ladies came back in to where we were.  They were so upset and embarrassed.  The mother is just starting to come back to church.  I hope this will not hinder her progress.  She said the one son will be calm in the morning, but she is not sure what will happen with the other brother.  Poor woman....can’t imagine.  Elder Herbert asked if at any point I felt threatened and the truth was neither of us did.  I only felt sadness that they were so angry with each other and that a mother must endure that pain from her sons.  

Temple

Tonight we challenged three people to make any effort needed to go to the temple.  At least one wanted to go so very badly.  It would be wonderful to have several people ready to go to the temple before we left.  One lady has been a member for 24 years.  She was baptized in 1986 and has never been to the temple.  The church has a fund to help first-time temple goers pay their way to the temple.  I am not sure if it is available in the states, but for those in the Caribbean, it is a great blessing.  Most that we talk to have never heard of it though.  The people here usually go to the Panama temple.  The Dominican Republic is much closer.  The problem is that there are no direct flights from here to the DR and all flights go through Miami.  You must have a Visa to enter the states....even if just getting on another plane for DR.  Most here do not have Visas so it is easier to go to Panama.  Wish we could take the opportunity to go to both before we left the Caribbean.

Rats and other wild animals

The other night there was this huge rat running across our counter top in the kitchen.  (OK.  So it was a baby teeny, tiny mouse, but when a wild, ferocious, man eating, rodent comes through your kitchen, let’s see how you describe it!)  Mike got the fly swatter (thank goodness for my protector) and shooed him away.  We have since put down rat poison, but I think he was too afraid to come back.

Lunch with the senior couples at Port Royal

First Walk

I drove all by myself to the Flakes this AM.  First time.  Today was a holiday so there was little traffic on the road which made it easier.  We walked for a full hour and enjoyed the cool  morning air.   It was the first good walk since we came to Jamaica. 

Beautiful, green countyside

 Lover’s Leap drop off with ocean

 Lover’s Leap

Singles

Went to church in Spanish Town 1.  PEC meeting at 8:30 AM and church at 9:30.  As we left the PEC meeting the Branch President  told us we were speaking.  The elders had informed us that he wanted us to bear our testimonies, but he had actually wanted us to speak.  Anyway, I think it went well.  Sunday School and Relief Society went very well and then we went visiting with Sister Whitehorn.  Later that evening we went over to Flake’s and planned the Single Adults.

Troy.....Single adult dance instruction

 Holky Polky

Out of Order

Went to District meeting this AM with President Hendricks.  He introduced us to President Deans (who is the district president) and there were a few of the district councilmen there.  We were introduced and President H gave them a short version of his vision of a Stake that would take the place of the district.  He wants us to work with the potential Temple members...those who have not taken their endowments...those who do not pay a full tithe.  One big problem is that people move all over this island, and the records are soooo out of order.  In one branch they have over 600 members on their roll but only 50 come to church.  They had listed 135 high priessts.  What we found out was that they did not know how to put them in the "Prospective Elders"....so they used the “High Priest” category to put the names there.  Funny

Trip to Junction

The Shaffermeyers called us and asked us if we wanted to take a trip with them.  They had to go to pay for a plumbing order.  So we left at about 11 AM and drove to Mandaville and on to Junction, paid the bill, and on the Lover’s Leap.  We ate at Burger King in Mandaville on the way down and had ice cream form Devon’s on the way home.  We got home about 7 PM.  It was a wonderful day and so fun.  We were in the mountains making it much cooler.  We had such fun with the Shaffermeyers.  They are a riot!