Week #25 - Thou Shall Not Steal, Unless It's From Yourself

Yo family!

Spain town is irie (I-rie \I ' -ree\ adj Rasta/Jamaican patois 1: powerful and pleasing 2: excellent, highest n 3: the state of feeling great) as usual! I actually heard someone say y pree the other day (last week I started my email to Cody with "y pree", which my faulty research told me meant "what's up?". I threw out a few more patois lines to which Cody replied, "What up, pup? Never actually heard anyone say any of the phrases you use but...a suh it go haha) and I laughed pretty hard...my mother just taught me patois...I also figured out that it lierally means "why prey" and it basically means, why you looking at me like that? hahaha good stuff. And so ends Mom's patois aspirations.

This week was a pretty good learning week for me. The whole week we focused hard on finding potential investigators, more specifically, street contacting.

We had zone meeting on Wednesday which was focused on helping members understand their role in missionary work.

Thursday was pretty cool. We started receiving quite a few referrals. We don't usually get as many as we did this week. I think that as we put forth more effort to find people to teach, the Lord is going to bless us. It kind of goes along with the scripture in Doctrine & Covenants 130:20-21 All blessings are based on obedience to the commandment by which they are predicated or something like that. It is definitely true. I am finding out more and more as I continue.

Friday was something. We went to a cook shop to eat lunch and Elder Jackson locked our bikes up to a fence. When we came out to get going again, he couldn't find his key. He told me that his lock is pretty rusty anyway and he needs a new one. We proceeded to saw through the gel part with the most professional of tools: a butter knife and a machete file. As weird as that sounds, it worked like a charm and we broke through our own lock and stole our own bikes back from the fence. It's comforting to know how easy it is to break one of those locks.....

Thats pretty much it for this week. Love and miss you guys!

Love,

Elder Graham

Never been more sweaty than on a bike in Jamaica in the summertime, but we still have a good time!

Week #16 - Grateful for Miracles as Long as They Don't Pinch

Wagwan family!  Patois for “What’s going on”

This week has been great as always. 

We met a woman on Tuesday who has been a member for years but hasn't been to church in forever. She said that earlier in the day, she was going through some papers and found a picture of her at church with some people. "And then you guys show up and now I know that the whole day was a big sign from God that I need to start coming back." She obviously used some Patois but that's basically what she said haha super cool. Miracles happen way often out here! She said she wants to stop smoking and she wants to be at church every week from now on (she came on Sunday!).

We had zone meeting in Kingston on Wednesday which was pretty fun. The four Yallahs elders were the only ones who participated in role plays and stuff during the meeting so...We're awesome.

Thursday night, we got home and were starting to plan, and then Elder Stewart and Elder Kuehn came in with a camera, so I knew for sure they did something to me and they were waiting for a reaction. I spent like five minutes trying to discreetly figure it out but I didn't and nothing happened haha so finally Elder Stewart was like "This is stupid." and came and pulled a huge crab out of my crate full of books. That would have been hilarious but I'm glad I didn't stick my hand into the crate because, well, you know why.

On Friday, I went on a 3-hour trade-off with Elder Stewart so we could go see a certain less-active in my area.

I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time out here on Saturday! I'm going to read it once every 100 days from now on. That is what President Brown has asked us to do and I'm stoked!

That's basically it for this week. Not too much happened, but another great week in the books. Also I've almost been out for four months already. Is time flying or is time flying?!  As always, love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Graham

Elder Kuehn's manly house calendar

Elder Fowkes throwback

Members of the branch are trying to teach the elders the Usain Bolt pose.
Cody's not quite up to speed...

Instruction on hand placement

Elder Graham, how did you get the girls
back home with this kind of game??

SUCCESS!

Wellllllll... kind of.