Thursday 11 July 2013
It has been ages since I wrote and lots has happened. Last week Bob got his braces off and a
permanent retainer placed on the back of his teeth. They look really nice and they should be
pretty secure against breaking again.
The orthodontist took 2 hours and then we went to get his teeth cleaned and
that took another 2 hours.—I got lots of reading done. We thought we were going to go back to the
orthodontist but we didn’t because they put the retainer on before the
cleaning. Anyway all that is taken care
of now.
Monday we met with Pres Royce Britton, the new Institute
Director. We have met with him a few
times about PEF and we of course know him pretty well as he is one of the
Branch Presidents we have been most impressed with since we got here. He is a very young man and looks even younger
but he is very capable. Not as high
energy and as intense as Pres Brown, much more quiet and laid back but very
efficient. We enjoy working with
him.
President Royce Britton The new Institute Director
President Kevin Brown in his new Mission President office.
When we walked into the office Pres Brown was sitting at his
new desk. He immediately came and gave
us both big hugs. He told us a little of
his visit in Provo and SLC, especially his visit with Marie. He told me very intently “Tell her my heart
is set on her coming to Jamaica as our Office missionaries.” I told him I doubted it could happen because
of two things: heat and dogs. He was not dissuaded!
I was standing at Sister Evans desk a few minutes later and
he came out and spoke to her but put his arm around me. I don’t know exactly what I said but I called
him Darlin’. Then quickly corrected
myself and said I mean Pres Brown. He
looked at me intently and said don’t ever stop calling me Darlin’. I don’t ever remember doing it before but I
guess I won’t stop now. He sort of
thinks of me as a mother-type.
I sent out an email to all the senior couples suggesting we
might do something for the 4th.
Boy do I miss Sister Larsen! I
don’t know if she had to go through what we did but we ended up with about 14
emails before it all got sorted out and we ended up at a nice place for
dinner. Several people wanted to go
where the Patriarch Smiths had once suggested as one of the nicest places in
Jamaica. So Sister Pearson found it on
line and had some sort of directions and we headed out in 3 cars—up Stony
Hill. (This is the hill Bob and I have
been lost on twice before.) Well we all
got lost again! Those roads are steep,
windy, rough and narrow! But the mountain scenery is beautiful! So after turning around and asking several
people along the way we found it. It is
attached to a sort of botanical garden on a nice little river in the
jungle. It really was a lovely place to
eat and the food was good as well. It
was definitely a leisurely dining experience.
I brought a red, white, and blue cake I found at Pricesmart so the
dining staff cut and served it for us and that was nice.
Our 4th of July dinner out.
We did have to drive home in the dark down
off the mountain but it wasn’t really bad.
I have become the designated driver.
It seems like we take a carload almost every time we do anything
now. I don’t really mind. All the other sisters think I am super woman
because I can drive these roads and don’t mind.
Saturday we spent most of the day in Spanish Town again with
the Employment Specialists. We had 9
people there that day! Some were branch
employment specialists and some were assistants. I thought it was Bob’s idea but he said it
was Sister Banhan’s for each employment specialist to get her/himself an
assistant or two. So several of them
have done that already! Just asked their
friends or someone they thought would be a good helper to be their assistant
employment specialist. It really is
great to have so many people now working on employment here in Jamaica when
there were none at all 6 months after we arrived here. And they are really enthusiastic. Most of
them asked their branch president and were able to speak in Sacrament meeting a
couple of weeks ago. This week we were
learning how to help people with self employment—a very interesting
subject.
Sandra Moodie over on the far left teaching our self-employment workshop.
Sunday we did our second employment fireside. This one really went well. It was in Old Harbour which is a relatively
small branch. Since the
Priesthood/Relief Society time was to be taken up with the Mission President’s
Seminar we were given the Sunday School time to give our presentation so the
whole branch was there. It really went
well, there was a good spirit and we felt people really heard our
message—two messages really. The first part is dedicated to teaching 10
commandments for outstanding LDS employees, i.e. show up every day--be on time
every day, take supervision positively, be healthy so you don’t miss work, be
cooperative with employer and co-workers, honesty and integrity are a
requirement! Etc. Pretty basic
things. We have set these in a
PowerPoint featuring a lot of the nature pictures I have taken around the
island. The last few slides I talk about Mentoring. That is encouraging those who are employed to
act as a Mentor for someone who is seeking employment. We would love it if this would take place in
2-3 incidents in a branch. We will see. People seem to agree with the idea but they
are not very used to being intimate with each other as branch members. For example, they do not go into each other’s
homes. --Kind of hard to do home teaching and visiting teaching and not go into
the homes. Trust is a huge issue.
This Monday we had our first PEF meeting with Pres Brown as
the Chairman and Pres Britton as the Institute Director. It was a high energy meeting and we did
pretty well getting through the agenda.
The Wrights had to leave for about half an hour in the middle because
the doctor called and that was the only time he could see Sister Wright. She fell a couple of weeks ago and broke her
shoulder. So she is in a confinement
sling. It was good they went in to see
the doctor as she has been taking her arm out to rest it sometimes and he did
not want her to do that because of the stress it put on her shoulder. So anyway we kept going—interruptions are not
unusual for meetings around here.
While they were gone Pres Brown mentioned something he heard
from the mission department in regards to Jamaica being a very dangerous place
to serve so senior couples are afraid to come here. We were upset that that reputation should be
perpetuated in such an official way.
Pres Brown assigned us to do a survey of senior missionaries and see if
we could help dispel that image.
That evening we went to the Mission Home to have our first
Senior Couples/Brown Family FHE. It was
very nice. Pres Brown could not sit down
or even stand without his two littlest ones climbing all over him. He gave a very short lesson on the degrees of
glory and what we have to do to be with Heavenly Father again. The little 4 year old, Jared gave some really
cute answers and Dad handled them well.
The kids then went into the other room while Pres Brown laid out a very
specific project for his senior missionaries!
His goal and determination is that every eligible young person in
Jamaica will serve a mission. He is not
just thinking of missionary work but he is thinking of building the Church in
Jamaica and lifting the whole country in the process! He wants every young member between the ages
of 17-23 identified and tracked in his/her progress towards serving a mission. It really is amazing to think what could
happen if that many young people had that opportunity and were well prepared and
actually served. He wants 300 young
people prepared to serve. He really is
thinking big because he is already dealing with the issues and stresses of the
increased number of missionaries in Jamaica.
But he is prepared and excited for it!
You can feel the energy just emanating from him—and Sister Brown is
obviously his closest counselor on these issues at this time.
Getting ready for Family Home Evening.
Jared, Pres Brown, Leah, and Gabrielle.
Jared giving the opening prayer.
Gabbie and Sister Brown listening to the lesson.
Jonathan listening to the lesson.
Jared listening to the lesson.
Leah and Daddy after the lesson.
Jared prepared for the closing prayer.
So each senior couple was assigned from 1-3 branches to work
with. We did not get an assignment and I
asked him about it and he said he thought we might be too busy with our PEF and
Employment but I told him we had time during the week so he assigned us to Old
Harbour. That is really the best
assignment as the new Branch President is a young man we met the first week or
so we were here. He was just waiting for
his year anniversary as a member of the Church so he and his fiancé could go to
the temple to be sealed. That was about
7-8 months ago. He was called as a
counselor to the Branch President soon after they returned from their temple
trip. And a month ago he was called as
the Branch President. We have been in
that branch a couple of times and seen his outstanding potential so we are very
happy to be working with him. His wife
is the RS president. –two 20-Somethings leading the branch!
The other thing Pres Brown had to lay on senior couples on
Monday night was that we have to help with transfers—there are 15 new
missionaries coming in this month. Some
of the missionaries who came in 6 weeks ago have to be trainers starting this
transfer because there are not enough experienced missionaries to be trainers
for all the new missionaries. So there
will be a big training for trainers in Spanish Town next Wednesday. Some of the senior missionaries have to
travel to some of the distant towns to pick up missionaries and bring them to
the training and then take the new missionaries back to that location. For example the Murdocks have to drive 2
hours up over the mountains to Port Antonio to pick up and bring back and then
go again to take the new missionaries back up there. They will stay up there rather than try to
drive home again after dark.
We have a pretty easy assignment except that Derek arrives
that day. So we will pick Derek up at
the airport come back into town get the Kingston elders and their luggage,
drive to Portmore about 20-30 minutes away and pick up 2 more elders and
luggage and get them to Spanish Town by 1:00.
I think we will be a little late but I think Derek will enjoy being in
the missionaries meetings and maybe (hopefully) won’t mind being crammed into
the back seat of our car with 4 other young men and luggage. We do the best we can do.
I am very excited about having Derek here—we will spend a
little time up in Ocho Rios and take him to Montego Bay branch with us when we
do our next employment fireside.
Last evening we had a nice dinner at the Langley’s in honor
of the Browns. I thought there might
have been more local leaders there but it was the district President and his
wife (the Medleys), the Singhs (Constant Spring branch president) the
McPhersons, he is a counselor to the district president and she is district RS
President, (Sister Langely is the district YW president). A couple of women came a little later but we
senior missionaries made up the rest of the party. It was a lovely evening and the Langley’s
home is really lovely. We had a little
devotional at the beginning of the evening including a lesson on following
leaders by the Singh family, and a song by 4 of the ladies. Then Sister Brown bore her testimony and then
Pres Brown. He shared a little about
their experience in Utah. He said Elder
Perry set him apart and then Elder Zwick set Sister Brown apart as a missionary
and wife of the President. He and Elder
Perry participated in her setting apart and Pres Brown said when they took
their hands off her head Elder Perry turned to him and said, “You have a
powerful wife.” That really touched and
impressed Pres Brown. He has told me many
times how much he loves and admires his wife but this was the frosting on the
cake. He bore a beautiful testimony
about their call and their goals. He is
going to be a very strong and influential leader and mission president.
This is a cool picture I took of the Brown's reflection in the mirror.
Browns, Evans, Murdocks, and Sister Pearson at the beginning of the devotional before we had dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment