We had some interesting experiences this week. A Marine at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been attending church for about the last five months. President Hendricks has taught him when he visits there, but we can’t send missionaries. The last time President Hendricks was there visiting that branch, he gave the Marine a Preach My Gospel book and asked him to study it in addition to reading his scriptures. This week he was ready to be baptized so President Hendricks asked me to check with AirSunshine, the airline that flies from Kingston to Guantanamo Bay, to arrange to ship a package containing two baptism suits. After many phone calls (the phone number we have and that is on their website wouldn’t work) I finally found a number in St. Lucia for that airline. They gave me a couple of other numbers that I couldn’t get to work either. So I called back to St. Lucia and they kept me on hold while they called to get the information I needed. I was told to drop off the package exactly 1 ½ hour before the flight on Friday morning, give it to Jimmy saying that Mo approved it! When the mission president dropped it off, the staff recognized him and said they would air freight it without charge! President Hendricks said it is a very small company. He usually sees the same pilot, the same flight attendant, etc. Another interesting part of the story is that the Marine told his girlfriend in the States about the Church and encouraged her to be taught. She looked up the missionaries, called and asked if they would have time to teach her. She is also going to be baptized.
I discovered after changing our operating system to Windows 7, the Office Elders had not reinstalled the program I need to scan documents. When they remedied that situation, a bonus was that I can now print envelopes again!
Wednesday evening after meeting with Mr. Hay, the landlord of one of the missionary apartments, he gave us a Bombay mango. He instructed us to score it halfway through and then twist. It took the seed out of one side so it looked like a cantaloupe. Mr. Hay suggested putting ice cream or jello inside. The mango was delicious! It had a very smooth texture. Unfortunately we were out of ice cream. Note: we remedied that the next day!
This week I got an airline ticket and contacted the temple for another sister to attend the temple in Panama. She wasn’t able to go with the group and didn’t want to wait until another group went.
We got the Jamaican police clearance we needed for immigration paperwork for one of missionaries going to be transferred off-island. The problem is, only one of the two copies was signed, so we will have to go back again. Another example of inefficient bureaucracy!
Friday I got my DHL packages out and received two separate deliveries! So I had lots of missionary orders to get ready to get to them. I also got miniature IDs made for the recent arrivals.
Yesterday after cleaning and doing laundry, we went to the mission office so the Humanitarian missionaries could use the fax machine. We did a little work there before going to the National Gallery of Art in downtown Kingston. There were some beautiful pieces there. Most impressive was a work made of three ovals of tapestry each over six feet tall. It looked like several types of tapestry all woven together to make the picture. A notable painting depicted Christ’s life and ministry. It was done in very bright colors. I was also impressed with the sculptures done in mahogany. I can’t imagine how hard that would be to work with. It was also an adventure just driving to the National Gallery. The closest we can describe it is night markets in Taiwan but in the daylight. There are lots of street vendors and pedestrians in an older section of town. We got a late lunch at the deli near the US Embassy. Then we did more laundry and I worked on the Primary lesson, music, and sharing time.
We were happy to be able to wish Jim Happy Birthday thanks to both of us having Magic Jack phones. It is amazing that we are both in the same time zone. We hope he gets a clean bill of health after all his tests.
Today we had a small attendance at our meetings. We had one sister come for the first time since we have been here. Two of the three speakers came, so Elder Daniels got to be the concluding speaker. Gratefully he assigns the topics so he could quickly pull some thoughts together!
We hope Amy and Bryce’s Patriotic concert with East Valley Mormon Choral Organization went well yesterday. We are looking forward to being able to hear the concert they perform in the Tabernacle in two weeks since it will be taped. We hope some of you get to hear it live.
A couple of weeks ago we gave some seeds to a family in our branch who are trying to expand their garden. When we asked if they had come up, Sr. Lofters replied, “No, they haven’t hatched yet.” That tickled our funny bone, especially since the Humanitarian missionaries are working so much with the Food Initiative with projects involving bees, gardens, chickens, goats, and pigs.
I’m feeling a little better. We hope you are all well. We love you very much.
Love,
Mom and Dad, Sister and Elder Daniels
No comments:
Post a Comment