Week #38 - No Tricks, Just Treats

Hey Family!

My week was awesome, but I will keep this pretty short. 

His response when asked if he went Trick or Treating:  Halloween isn't celebrated at all here. It was just a normal day besides the 2 pounds of caramel and gummy worms we bought. So I’m guessing a visit to the dentist is looming…

We had zone meeting on Wednesday. Elder Christensen and I had to teach a section of it which was pretty great. Wednesday night, Elder Havili got to come teaching with us which is always a good thing - I learned a lot from it.

Shout out to the twins for turning 21 on Thursday! I truly can't believe they made it this far. Just kidding.

The whole week, we focused on talking with EVERYONE, which has become so normal that it has pretty much become second nature to just stick your hand out to shake the hand of whoever is passing by... That's our sneaky attempt to get them to stop walking and chat so we don't have to chase them down and walk with them. It's great, don't worry.

Overall this week, Elder Christensen and I got a ton of work done this week and it is starting to show.

This one lady named Annie is trying to get rid of the bar that is inside her house because she knows it’s no bueno. She came to church yesterday and loved it! I'm excited for her. She is on date for baptism on December 20th so we will see how it goes! Of course she still has a lot to do between now and then but it can definitely happen.

Unfortunately that's all I got for ya this week.

LOVE YOU!

Elder Graham

I forgot to take any pictures this week so here's the crew at the email shop.
Elders Christensen, Graham, Biddulph & Gardner

Week #29 - I'll Take Mine to Go With a Side of Humility

Hey family!

This week was alright.  Almost everything all week long just fell through... Not sure if this is just a big test of patience and faith or what but it has been pretty hard not to think that I'm not doing something right or whatever. Cody’s Dad gave him a bit of a pep talk here:  What does the verse say... Not until after the trial of our faith will we be blessed, or something to that effect. All you can do is keep at it, things will turn around. Now you know what a lot of Elders have felt like serving in our ward!  Ether 12:6 haha yep definitely been reading through that one. And Mosiah 2:41 has been inspirational for some of our investigators. Basically just says consider the happy state of those who keep the commandments. Book of Mormon is awesome.

We have just been having very little success with people, and when we do, something just comes up and halts their progression again... Missionary work is hard haha but I'm hanging in there. I'm just gonna keep working my butt off and hope that something good gets going soon. I hope this coming week we have a little more success but we'll see! I'm learning a lot though.

We are doing a LOT of street contacting which is always fun because of all the different kinds of people we get to talk to. It's always interesting and slightly awkward but missionaries thrive on awkward situations so it's no biggy.

I'm doing really good though. I still love it out here more and more every day and time is just ticking away. Pretty soon it'll be Christmas already haha.  Sorry it's so short but I gotta head out!

Love,

Elder Graham

The kids of one of our investigators. Meet Brooklyn and "Lebron James." Not sure what his real name is.  Everyone calls him Lebron James though so we will go with that.

Playing hoops with the boys
From left – Elders Lambert, Palmer, Jackson, Dean, 
Kemp, Senior, Havili, Graham and Biddulph.  
Makes me miss the days of the Dirty Birds!

Week #21 - No Bulls Running in This Spanish Town

Wagwan Fam,

This week has been absolutely crazy. Tons of stuff happened.

Tuesday was my birthday, and the first part of the day was kind of boring because we were stuck in the house while the countertop guys came back. The evening was a lot more eventful. I had given Tamara soooooo much crap for making me pose for pictures with her, but she got me back the night before I left...HARD.  I'll explain:

So in Jamaica there is this tradition when it’s your birthday that you get "floured" which literally means someone sneaks up on you and throws a bucket of flour on you.  Well, Tamara secretly brought some flour and Elder Stewart destroyed me haha (please let there be video of this!!!) but I was a pretty good sport about it. I had flour in my eye for like three days after that haha.  It was a way fun birthday though and a great ending to Yallahs!

This week I tried guinep and it is way good! It tastes like jello and bubble gum if those two things were ever mixed together. That's the best way I can describe it.

Wednesday was transfer day. Kinda crazy, but Spanish Town is great. We are teaching ALOT of people here so I'm happy about that. My companion, Elder Jackson and I live with our zone leaders, Elders Biddulph and Havili - they’re all great!  And Elder Palmer (MTC bud) is in my district so I’m stoked about that.  Our house is in a place called Willowdene - my area is actually called Spain-Willowdene.  It’s quite a bit smaller than St Thomas (the parish Yallahs is in), but there are also way more people packed into it. There's just a ton of housing schemes here so it will be better for finding people to teach.

Saturday was obviously the 4th of July. Although we didn't do anything to celebrate, I definitely had little fireworks going off in my heart. Jah Bless America.

Sunday was great. The Spanish Town chapel has A/C so that is super awesome. Members in the Spanish Town 2nd Ward are great too. After Sacrament Meeting, a lady just walked up to us and told us about her aunt that she has brought to church a couple times and referred us to her. The members here want to work so I'm excited to work alongside them.

I'm putting an extra effort to just work my tail off in this area. Now that I have a little more knowledge about what I'm doing (I'll probably never know what I'm doing but I'm working on it) I want to just hit the ground running here.

Crazy that it has already been basically five months?! I love every minute out here! Love and miss everyone as always! Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Graham

PS: Soon I’ll get some pictures for you of Spain!