Dear Family,
This picture makes me chuckle! It is on the street going to our church in Yallahs. Although it's condition is similar to many we drive on. When we saw the sign I had to take the picture. Further down the street the potholes go entirely across the street! We have yet to see the evidence of the "tax dollars at work" here.
Last Sunday after our meetings, we went to visit a faithful member of our branch who wasn’t feeling well. He had terrible pain starting Saturday night so went to the hospital (we wondered if it could be a kidney stone). They gave him a prescription for an x-ray and for pain medication but it may take up to two weeks to get the x-ray and the pharmacy wasn’t open. He was very grateful for the priesthood blessing the missionaries and Elder Daniels gave him. We were happy to see him back at church today. I hope our healthcare doesn’t become like it is here.
Monday we had visitors from the area offices—an auditor and his wife. They had met a member couple at their hotel who were here on business. The area visitors invited the wife to come with them to see the mission office while her husband was working. The Schaefermeyers (Humanitarian missionaries) took her with them to see one of their current projects and showed her more of Jamaica. We are hopeful that we can find out how some of our members can apply for work at their company. So many desperately need work.
We have had a man who knew the previous mission financial secretary come to the mission office to visit with Elder Daniels. Tuesday when he came we were eating lunch. He asked if he could join us for lunch. We asked if he had brought his. It is hard not to help everyone, but we have learned we need to eat, too, and can’t give away all our food. It makes you ponder when to give and when not to. In the mission we are trying to help people learn to help themselves and get out of the begging mentality.
Thursday was busy at the office with area people from physical facilities conducting a meeting with the meetinghouse custodians from all over the island. We learned later that the church is going to rely on members to clean the buildings starting in April so they will all lose their jobs. It will be good for people to take responsibility for the meetinghouse care, but we feel badly for those who have lost their jobs. There were also two CES people from the area office here to conduct interviews for a part-time CES secretary here. We were hopeful that a member of our branch would be selected, but she wasn’t among the call-backs the next day.
We paid our rent Friday and it took almost two hours at the bank. The ATM was out of printer paper so we went into the bank to see if we could get cash with our debit card or if they would add the printer paper. After waiting in line 45 minutes, we were told they didn’t have a machine to get us the cash and they would add the paper after the bank closed. So we went to another bank, waited in line to do the paperwork to get the cash, then waited in another line to give the paperwork to a cashier to get the cash. Next, we went back to the first bank to deposit the money in our landlady’s account to pay our rent. We don’t want to get the cash in advance because it is not wise to have that much cash on hand. When everything works right, we just get the money at the ATM and go directly into the bank and deposit the money. There are only two ATM’s in Kingston that we know of that dispense US dollars which is necessary since if we were withdrawing Jamaican we would be going over their limit. (I know it doesn’t make sense to me either that equivalent amounts would not be allowed). We tried to set up direct deposit but our bank won’t allow it since it would be out of the country. Once again, we are grateful for the efficiency of banking at home. The blessings of living in the US are many and varied.
The internet at the mission office wasn’t working for a couple of days this week. We were very grateful when it was back to normal.
We spent our P-day doing laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping. Our big outing was splitting an order from Little Tokyo for lunch!
Today we had good meetings in Yallahs. I helped in Primary and taught one music lesson after the block. There weren’t as many interviews and we only visited one member after our meetings, so we got home earlier than usual and I had a nice nap.
We love you and hope all is well with you.
Love,
Sister and Elder Daniels
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