Week #17 - The Lord Rains Down Blessings Even on Minions

What up Fam!

This week went by way fast. They're going faster and faster, it's crazy.

The zone leaders came to do district leader training for Elder Davidsen on Wednesday and then we went on splits for a few hours. Elder Rammell and I cruised around Yallahs in the truck which was pretty great. Trucks are kind of hard to maneuver around Yallahs because we usually take dirt trails on bikes, so I really have to think about how to get to certain places with a vehicle.

We spent Thursday morning at a members yard replacing rotted fence posts. Her yard has some sketchy cement structures that were there before she got there.
She says she has no idea what they are/were, but it basically looks like a bunch of sacrificial altars haha super creepy. The rest of Thursday was rough. We had one appointment after another text us and cancel on us throughout the whole day. So we spent most of the day trying to find new people to teach. Nada. Kind of tough but I definitely appreciated even the mediocre Friday that we had right after haha.

Saturday night, we couldn't sleep because there was a huge party going on at the cement factory nearby. Our beds were vibrating because of the bass of the speakers over there. It was like 1:30am and Elder Kuehn and I couldn't take it anymore so we called the cops on them. I don't think the police did anything about it but it was comforting at least. And then a few minutes later, it started to rain hard, then the music stopped hahaha it was great. We were just sitting in our hose laughing like evil little minions as if we had anything to do with them stopping the music. But it was pretty late and we were all way tired. We were just happy it was done so we could sleep.

School is out here so we are going to start taking the youth teaching with us a lot more often now. I'm super stoked for that because the youth here all have incredible testimonies and they are not afraid to share them with strangers. It makes me feel bad whenever the missionaries took me teaching back home, I didn't understand what my role was but I see now that having members at lessons makes it SO much better!

Anyway, I'm doing great still. I'm having a blast and a half and it's only getting better. As always, love and miss you guys!

Love,

Elder Graham

Cut up bananas and coconut - they are way good frozen!

Week #15 - New Companion Oat and Aboat, Eh

Hey Family!

A lot has happened in the last week!

First off, I'm no longer being trained so that's pretty cool. Elder Fowkes left on Wednesday and I picked up Elder Davidsen. He is from Canada and he is way cool! He is super good at playing the ukulele. He's teaching me how to play too which is way sweet! 

But yeah we are actually killing it together so far! We have jump started our teaching pool from like three people to six or seven now in just a week! 

On Thursday, we had an interesting lesson where a girl was starting to get a little flirty which is always super awkward and uncomfortable, so we may not see her anymore.

Tamara has started working at some shop and always asks us for pamphlets so she can give them to people who come to the store. She is the coolest!!

View from the hills above Yallahs

Yesterday was really fun. Since it was Labor Day here, we spent the morning cleaning up around the church. In the afternoon we headed out to a road to see if we could meet some new people. The road is a huge hill. For some reason we just kept walking up the hill. We walked our bikes uphill for probably 40-45 minutes through some deep bush until we found a house and an incredible view of the whole area.

We called inside and this old rasta guy came out and was super friendly. He invited us into his house and gave us a whole bunch of different home-made juice. We tried plum juice, cherry juice, soursop juice and even cucumber juice and it was all super good! 

Soursop Juice

Things are looking great here in Yallahs. We are working hard and staying busy which is all we can ask for. Until next week!

Love,

Elder Graham

Week #14 - The Mothman Prophecies and Buh Bye Elder Fowkes

What up Family!

This week has been pretty great as usual! Most of the week was pretty average missionary work.

On Thursday I found a huge duppy moth (duppy means "ghost" in Patois) in our study room, so we thought the best course of action would be to play with it. They are harmless and are way cool!  Mom-like ew ew ew ew ew inserted here...

Messing with a Duppy Moth

On Saturday we got transfer calls. Elder Fowkes is being transferred to Savanna-la-Mar to be with Elder Stever! We got to meet Elder Stever and his family before they left for the MTC through some great friends in Battleground, WA.  I'll be getting Elder Davidsen who just finished training Elder Ostrowski (one of Cody's MTC companions). Elder Evans (Cody's other MTC companion) is going to Port Antonio which is crazy! Lots of changes are happening here. It should be great! 

Elder Fowkes' last Sunday in Yallahs

Today we went into Kingston to play ball one last time before Elder Fowkes left. It was way fun! We had probably ten missionaries there.

Oh one last thing... We were riding through Yallahs Bay on Tuesday or Wednesday and some guy yells from the sidewalk, "The Chiney dem de take ova!" People always say I look Chinese because they are not used to seeing white people ever and there are a surprising number of oriental people who live here. But it is usually just little kids that say, "China men!" or "Bicycle men!" and stuff like that. It is way funny though.

Love and miss you!

Love,

Elder Graham

Basically the entire Yallahs branch - finding the elders is like Where's Waldo!

What I do when I have free time