Week #72 - It's My Birthday Gift to Me... I'm So Happy! ~Emperor's New Groove

Hey Family!

Reunion in Spanish Town with Elders Evans & Stever

So this week was cool. We had a lot of fun going to Spanish Town and seeing a ton of people!  Brother Cooper let me climb up his coconut tree to grab some for us which was super sketchy but so worth it!

So Collin is for sure confirmed getting baptized on Wednesday, June 29 and everything is great. Happy birthday to me, I guess!

On Saturday, Sister Ebanks gave us a pineapple-melon. It tastes similar to a regular melon but is just yellow on the inside so they call it pine-melon.

I love this work. It's really hard, but it is so worth it in the plethora of blessings that come to the lives of the people we interact with, not to mention our own tender mercies!

Love,

Elder Graham

It's a beautiful day in Junction!

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

Week #7 - Faith, Fish & Family

What up Fam!

Zone Conference - Elders Ostrowski, Palmer, Evans & Graham

This week has been slowly getting better. It started pretty good, but it ended awesome! On Tuesday we had zone conference in Kingston which was combined with Spanish Town so I got to see Elder Evans, Palmer, and Ostrowski and it was cool to see how great they were all doing. We heard from President Brown and the president of the Area Seventy for the Caribbean, Elder Martinez. We also got to see Meet the Mormons (again for me) which is basically the best documentary the church has ever made.

We need to clean our house before Wednesday. Pres Brown is coming to interview someone in the branch and he's gonna go proselyting with Stewart and Kuehn, also the AP's are doing a tradeoff with me and Fowkes tomorrow to "see how we are doing". I'm not worried. I know the area like the back of my hand now (even tho Mom probably knows it better than me because she googles Yallahs every day haha). Let it be noted that Mom takes exception to this. I have not Googled Yallahs… much.

I tried a lot of new food this week. Ackee and Saltfish tastes like scrambled eggs and fish together which was really good. Papaya is nasty haha I don't recommend that to anyone. The same guy that gave us the lobster gave us "doctor fish" this week. We haven't cooked it up quite yet but we plan on doing that soon. I think that's it for new food.

Ackee and Saltfish

Papaya

Doctor Fish

On Wednesday we finally got Elder Fowke's bike back and functional again so we can now get around like we used to be able to. Walking for a week and a half really made me appreciate having a bike, BUT we were on foot for a reason because one night when we were walking home, we met a girl named Sashana who seemed interested. When we met with her for a lesson, she was with her neighbor/boyfriend/friend/guy/ whatever/not sure and his name is Kemoy. He told us that he loved how we approached everything and how the Mormons were all about the basics and fundamentals and stuff. He also said that if everyone was Mormon, the world would be a better place haha so we will see how that plays out! So what I learned from walking was that a tender mercy is usually the result of a trial. HOWEVER, it is nice to be back on bikes.

On Saturday we were talking to some of our favorite people when we were at our friend Paul's shop, Patricia (Paul's girlfriend, not members or investigators) and their friend, Keisha who we are teaching.

We made a book for Cody to take and remind him
he was loved and to showcase every
embarassing photo of us...
surprised this girl wasn't terrified!

They saw my family picture which fell out of my scriptures the day before and told us to bring more pictures next time so I brought my book full ofpictures. Every picture she saw she would say how much fun my family has and how awesome we all look. She especially wants to meet Lindsay because, "She looks like a ball full of fun and she's gorgeous" (I wish I could type Patois but I can still barely understand it) So Lindsay, don't go getting all prideful, but there is someone in Yallahs who would like to meet you haha. Showing them pictures was really good for our lesson with Keisha. It's rare to see a family here with a mother and father who are married so we related the gospel to eternal families and Keisha really liked that.

I never realized how big my area was. It's actually pretty much the whole parish of St Thomas so it technically goes all the way to the southeast coast. No point in going over there because our church building is three hours away from that so no one would ever commit to go from that far away.

The way the sun was setting behind the clouds looked way sweet!

That's pretty much it for this week. I think I'm going to buy a set of Jamaican Domino and send it home so I can teach you all how to play when I get back. It is way fun! Anyway, love and miss you guys!

Until next week!

Love

Elder Graham 

A Note from President Brown

THE CHURCH OF

JESUS CHRIST

OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

Jamaica Kingston Mission
4 Garelli Avenue
Kingston 10
Jamaica
Phone: 1-876-618-1625

27 Feb 2015

Dear Brother & Sister Graham:

We are happy to let you know your son, Cody Reed Graham, arrived safely in Kingston, Jamaica. He is in good spirits and arrived anxious to become involved in the great work being done here. When he arrived we met him at the airport and brought him to the mission home where he spent his first night. We helped him with banking and immigration matters and then provided training and orientation.

He was interviewed and met his trainer, Elder Fowkes. They then went to their area where they began the work he came here to do. Your son will be serving in the Yallahs Branch. As parents we can appreciate your concern for him and his welfare and felt you would like to know he is safe and doing fine.

We want to thank you for raising such a fine son and for your support for him while he is here. Your support for the next few weeks while he may experience some homesickness will be very important. The work is really beginning to blossom here in Jamaica and the people are warm and friendly. We are confident he will have a special experience. We can assure you we will do everything we can to help him grow and develop and are confident his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ will increase. Through his mission experiences he will draw closer to our Savior. We are so grateful to have him here.

We will appreciate your continued support. Please feel free to contact us if we can be of assistance.

Gratefully,


       Kevin G. Brown               Sister Nadine Brown
           President
Jamaica Kingston Mission

First night in Kingston!  Elders Palmer, Ostrowski, Graham, Evans, Stever, and two nice sisters!

The Newbs! Five sisters, Sister Brown & President Brown, Elders Ostrowski, Evans, Stever, Palmer & Graham

Yallahs is on the southeast part of Jamaica - it is a rural community with around 10,000 people.

Yallahs Beach

Their church building!

A view down the road

Looking down at Yallahs from the Blue Mountains

Hopefully we get an email from Elder Graham with his take on the new digs on his P-Day, which is Monday!!  The journey begins...