Week #10 - Blessings Gained, Hair Lost and a Norman Bible?

What up Fam!

This week has been awesome!! We've been teaching a girl named Kavia for about a month and a half now and she is showing some great progress! She is coming to church, keeping commitments, and pretty much learning from Tamara's example. 

On Wednesday we visited Sister Nicely and her family. Her two kids had been in Montego Bay for the past week so it was cool to see them again. The first thing she told us was, "Ashanie has something he wants to tell you guys!" Her 10 year old son, Ashanie, told us he wanted to be baptized on April 25th! The only thought that came to my mind was a quote from The Blind Side, "Well alright then." So we have been working with him every day since then to make sure he knows what he's getting into and all that stuff. He's way sick. He asked for Elder Fowkes' name tag and wears it every time we meet now haha.

On Thursday, we thought we would branch out and try a different cook shop than the one we usually go to. We found a place called Ian's One Stop Shop and their food is amazing. All cook shops in Jamaica are super good. On our way to Sister Nicely's, we were walking up a big hill to get to her house, when some construction workers called us over and asked us why we "hike this hill every day." We told them who we were and one guy spoke up and started going off about how he knows all about us. So obviously we asked him what he knew and this was his response: "Ya I know all about how your David Smith thinks he's Jesus Christ and you worship David Smith and..and..OH and he wrote the Norman Bible too!" On and on and on haha Elder Fowkes and I tried our best to keep a straight face. I just told him he seems to have a lot of ideas about us but that none of that stuff was even remotely correct, then we all shook hands and went our separate ways. Super strange but that's how it is here I guess haha.

Elder Fowkes bought Monopoly when we were in town a week ago and that is pretty much what we do at night until we read and go to bed. It is way competitive between the four of us but super fun!

No hair I mean new hair

Friday night I shaved my head because it is either that or pay for a less-than-good hair cut by a Jamaican barber.  Elder Stewart used normal settings on the trimmer last time on me and it hardly cut anything (we must have been on a low power setting) so this time I wanted to do a little shorter and... well... hahaha whoops. Happy accident though, now I don't have to do anything with my hair so that's good.

Reallllly annoying pigeons inhabiting our roof

Also, we have been super annoyed by all the loud pigeons that hop around on our roof at night. So Elder Stewart climbed up on the roof and (since pigeons can't see anything at night) went all special ops and caught a pigeon. We gave it to a kid named David who sells pigeons and has a coup and everything.

On Saturday, I went on a trade off with Elder Kuehn into his side of Yallahs. He is great. He is kind of quiet but super funny. Plus he's my age and not 21 like the other two elders in the house. 

Our questions this week for Elder Graham:  

1.  How do you wash clothes?  We have a washer and then we just hang our clothes up on a line to dry.

2.  What do you have for breakfast?  Usually oatmeal or some cereal or something normal (I've been a good budgeter so I can buy my precious milk).

3.  What's your favorite gospel topic to teach?  Favorite gospel topic is probably the Book of Mormon. Because everyone already believes in the Bible, all we have to do is ask them how they know the Bible is true and just say BoM is the SAME WAY, ya dummies, so you gonna read it it or what?!

4.  What would you change about your mission if you could?  I would make Jamaica not such a low-key third world country haha. Everyone thinks of only the tourist locations of Jamaica but if they go beyond that, people literally live in board/cement block houses with zinc sheets as walls and roofing...I have no clue how people do it.

The home of a member in our branch.
Jamaica is a lot different than people expect it to be...

Never mind - honestly I wouldn't change the fact that Jamaica is basically a third world country because it makes me seem cool. teehee  Glad to see the humility continues with our elder... Also there is a 16% sales tax at the grocery store which BLOWS. Why is the most necessary part of life the most expensive?? And I hate the way Jamaican men treat women. It's gross but luckily the women here are pretty independent so that's good. Other than that absolutely nothing.

That's pretty much it for now.  I'm working as hard as I can - gotta make the best of it cuz the clock is ticking!! haha

Love and miss you guys!

Elder Graham