Week 23

 Hey guys! So this last week has been pretty wet! It has rained almost all week and it's just been soooo humid! 

    Alright so Monday was a holiday here so the mission had P-Day on Tuesday! That is why I replied later on in the week than usual! We had district meeting too. Not much went on Monday sadly.

    Tuesday was a reverse P-Day so that's why I replied so late. Elder Call went to Kingston to sign papers for the Bahamas so Elder Harris and I had to go with Elder Elliott for the day while Elder call was gone. We went tracting from 8 to 11 then had P-Day the rest of the day. It was nice! Didn't have to worry about going out again afterwards. Oh and we killed a 40-legger at Elder Call and Elliott's house! They are poisonous too! I have a picture of it that I'll send.

    Wednesday I was with our district leader, Elder Harrah! We went up to see Allen and his family and they were shocked not to see Elder Harris with me! It was still an awesome lesson with them and the whole ride up to them, Elder Harrah was amazed at how big our area is! After having an awesome lesson with them we got a call from Elder and Sister Stewart asking us if we could help them load boxes of tooth paste into the railroad car next to the church. So Elder Harrah and I biked back to the church to help them do that. They bought us Dominos pizza! Ahh it was so good to have pizza again! Hawaiian pizza is the best! Anyways, after they dropped us off at our house we went to see a less active. Brother Brown used to be the Branch President when Spanish Town only had a branch and he is now less active... We had a short message with him and left him with a challenge to read the Book of Mormon every night. Later that night we contacted this kid named Tajae. We set up an appointment with him for the next morning! 

    Thursday morning we went to see Tajae and had an awesome Restoration lesson with him. We invited him to be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood and he said yes. Right after I invited him, I asked him to prepare himself for May 6th. That scared him so he said no to that date. He was afraid of the date and of him not being ready. So we set up an appointment to see him on Tuesday! So we will see how he does after this week! 

    Friday morning we played soccer again. Had weekly planning then went to see Nioka in Central Village. While we were having the lesson it started to rain. By the time we got home we were soaked, again, from head to toe after the long bike ride. Our shirts were so dirty! Oh well, life goes on! We were also planning on going to Friday Night Activities but it was still pouring rain. And did all night long as well. 

    Saturday morning when we woke up it was still raining... Our district had 4 baptisms that day though! But I spent the whole day with Elder Elliott because he was sick so Elders Call and Harris went to the baptisms with investigators. Elder Elliott and I played card games while the other two were gone. It rained off and on the whole day then picked back up around 7 that night. I love rain and all but it doesn't smell like it does back home and the water on the roads are staining my shirts... Bleach and cake soap work wonders for missionaries! We weren't able to see Allen and his family that day either because of the heavy rain they got in Sligoville!

    Sunday Allen and his family weren't able to make it to church because of the rain in Sligoville. After church we did meet with Nioka and she is starting to really read the Book of Mormon. She is liking so far. We are planning on going up to see her on Tuesday. Later that night we went to have dinner with Elder Call and Elliott at Brother Miller's house! He owns a small cook shop that is sooooo good!! They feed you a ton too! Elder Harris and I were very happy that we got invited over for dinner.

    Spiritual thought to ponder for this week is one that I have been thinking a lot about and that is how can I let the Lord change me into someone he wants me to be? Well I have heard answers from a bunch of different people, for example: Just be the best you you can be and the Lord will help do the rest. Forget yourself and the Lord will change things without you even noticing. And more but probably the best one that I have gotten was from my own studies. WILLINGLY submitting ourselves to the Father's Will is tough BUT, it is the BEST way to become the best we can be. NOTHING is easy all the time. God puts us into situations that makes us make decisions. So if we put our Father's Will first WILLINGLY, He will MORE THAN WILLINGLY help us. He truly does know and love each and every one of us! Jesus Christ our Savior knows everything that we are/will go through in our lives. He also know exactly how to help us in our own pains, sorrows, struggles, and all he asks us to do is to WILLINGLY give ourselves to Him. 

I know that our Savior lives and that He has died for my sins as well as the whole worlds'. Please be willing to give yourselves to Him who knows what is best for you. And watch what more He can do to help you grow.

    Big up oonuselves ma bredren and sistas! Love and Respect from beautiful Jamaica mon!

Elda Wilding

Week 21

   Well its another P-Day here in Spanish Town and it is, like always, filled with elders playing competitive UNO in between emailing times. There are 7 elders here and it gets way intense! Our Momma's didn't raise no losers! This is also Elder Lewis's last P-Day! Him soon go foreign as a Jamaican would say. He leaves on Thursday. Last P-Day we got invited to go to Mandeville to their Zone P-Day to play soccer. It was way fun and almost my whole MTC district was there, not counting the ones that are in different missions. Sisters Grajek and Jones, Elders Morris, Call, Harris and I. Elder Rasmussen is on the other end of the island so he wasn't there. But it was way fun! I'll have to get the pictures from Sister Grajek.

    Tuesday was district meeting like always and we had lunch as a district as well. Meet some cool potential investigators that we are going to try see this week.

    We had a blessing for walking deep into our area on Wednesday! We went to this area called Sligoville.  We had to taxi up to it because it would have been a good 2 hour bike ride up a mountain! Anyways, we get up to this area and we start tracting through the main square. After talking to some people we decided to go down this road. While walking, this lady called to us from their house which was about a football fields length away from the road. Elder Harris looks at me as I shrug my shoulders and started to walk to them. We get there and man was this family ready to meet us! This man, his wife, and their daughter, probably 16ish, we're very interested in what we thought about religion. So they asked us a few questions then we answer them with a Restoration Lesson. The Spirit was there, they understood the priesthood and why it's important to have it for baptism, they understood why the Book of Mormon is here and excepted to read and pray about it! Ah they were the best on the spot lesson I have ever had! We invited the three of them to be baptised and they all said yes! Now the real test begins. We have to see if they will keep commitments. We are going to try and see if we can get members up to their house with us. I'm so excited for this family!

    Thursday morning we started off the day with teaching a Minister who doesn't belong to a church but he gets called by other churches to minister to them. He knows his bible very well and I'm not going to lie, I was very nervous to share the Restoration with him! I was afraid he was just going to sit there and Bible Bash with us but he sat there and listened. Yeah he asked a few hard questions and voiced his opinion on some topics but he is a very cool guy! He said that he was going to read the Book of Mormon. I hope he reads it with an open mind and not to look for "flaws". Oh and towards the end of the lesson he looked at me and said, "You are very calm and collected." Turns to Elder Harris and says, "You are nervous." Then he spoke "in tongues" which is absolute foolishness. The Spirit does NOT make you speak an unknown language or make you lose control of your body! Jamaicans are very touchy on that subject but it is false doctrine. The Gift of Tongues is the help from God to learn a new language. For example, missionaries that have to learn a new language for their missions are given the Gift of Tongues. To learn the language faster than most people would. Alright I'll get off my soap box now haha! 

    Friday we had weekly planning, cleaned the house for inspections this week, tried getting a hold of all the Less Actives in our area but only one answered the phone out of 20 I called. Then that night we went to Friday Night Activities. 

    Saturday we started off the day with going to the church at 7 to play some soccer with the other Elders. Later that day we went up to see that family in Sligoville again and there were more family members there than last time! Allen the father, Allen's fiancé, Murdel his sister, Allen's (I'm assuming) four daughters and little pikni (kids). We get there and they all start filing out of their house and Murdel was so excited to see us! We sat there and talked for about 20 minutes while we waited for Allen to show up. When he got there they asked us what we had for them today and so we read the first two chapters of 1 Nephi with them. They all participated and read verses with us and asked questions and AAAHHHH it was awesome!! We left 3 more Book of Mormons with them so that makes 6! We also dropped off like 10 Restoration and Plan of Salvation pamphlets and little pass along cards with our phone number on them! Before we left they all started asking us when we were gonna come back and share more with them. We told them that when ever they want us to come by we would stop by and they told us Wednesday and Saturday just like this last week! They set up their own appointments! And that makes 7 new investigators this week! These guys are awesome! I wish you could meet them all!.

    Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and there were lots of people who bore their testimonies. I learn something from all their testimonies. There was a baptism for a child on record after church as well. And then, of course, we went to the Moodie's for dinner and they are amazing cooks. So good. 

    Hope you all have a great week and have a great week coming up! Keep reading and praying about the Book of Mormon ya hear?! Mi na wan fi come lick oonu down and call oonu unto repentance! Eva ting good in Jamaica man! 

One Love ma bredren an sistas!
Elda Wilding

Week 20

Well this week has been a weird week. Monday was our usual high competition of UNO between all the Elders in Spanish Town minus the Zone Leaders so there were 7 of us there with a member that showed up to make 8 people playing UNO! Tuesday we had an awesome Zone Conference! We had four special guests. The Father's names were Brothers Thompson and Borg. They brought their two sons with them too. The fathers were former JKM missionaries back in the 90s!  Thompson is now living in St. George,  Utah is a counselor for early return missionaries, ward members, etc.. He is from Boise I believe, I forgot... Brother Borg is from Northern Idaho. They shared with us their experiences that they had while serving here and how they took what they learned and applied into the current jobs. Brother Thompson found out on his mission that he likes talking to people so he took that and became a counselor. Brother Borg realised that he was a good leader so he started his own business. Their boys were so cool! They were trying to play baseball at lunch! One was pitching and the other was catching for the other! I about stepped in and said, "Watch this kids, I'll show you what heat looks like." Hahah Just kidding they were throwing around a crumpled up piece of paper not a ball. Anyways, they were both really cool guys to talk to and I enjoyed every minute they were here! Wednesday, not a lot happened. Just walking trying to find the elect that Heavenly Father has prepared for us to meet. Thursday, because we didn't get money on Monday,  Elder Harris and I went shopping and FINALLY got his bicycle part so we weren't walking around anymore! I have the biggest blisters of my life right now and we went a week with no bikes! I could barely walk! So we got those fixed then went and saw Gorgie, the member that is in the wheelchair. When we found him he was sitting in one of his friends yards just talking. We walk up and Gorgie introduces us and tells his friends that we help Gorgie lighten his soul with the Gospel that we share. Gorgie insists that we share the Plan of Salvation lesson with his friend because they had been talking about the next life and the resurrection. So Elder Harris and I sit down and start to go over the Plan of Salvation and he just soaks it all up. After sharing the lesson with him we all just sit there talking about the next life and it reminded me of a quote that Omar Jacobs from Junction told me. It goes like this, "You can miss your dentist appointments, you can miss your doctor appointments, but the one appointment that you can not miss is the one with our Heavenly Father. When he calls for you, you go." When Father sees that we have accomplished the things that he wanted us to accomplish he may call us home a little earlier than we would like. But it is not our choice to make. He knows what's best for us. Friday morning Elder Harris and I went and played basketball with Elders Lewis, Call, and Elliott. There were some pretty intense games of 21! Afterwards we went and had weekly planning to plan our the coming week. When we finished that we went out contacting and found this young man who excepted the baptismal challenge and said that he was looking for something that could better his life in the future and we told him that this is just the thing he was looking for. We set up an appointment with him on Tuesday so we are excited to see him! After contacting we went into Spanish Town for dinner. Patties are the best! I'll attach pictures of a patty for you guys so you can see what it looks like. They are like flower crusts folded over ground beef and seasoning and what ever else Jamaicans throw in there but there seriously so good! Anyways, after dinner we went and set up the church for Friday night activities with the first and second wards. We played chair soccer where you have a chair that you have to protect but you have to kick the ball at the other player's chairs to get them out. It's pretty intense haha! Saturday morning there was a baptism for a members daughter. Brother Harrison is the man! His daughter turned 8 on Friday. So Elder Harris and I had to go print off programs for them that morning at the church, set up the room for all the people, hauled the keyboard into the room and filled up the font for them. After the baptism all the Elders in Spanish Town, Lewis, Call, Elliott, Harrah,  Peterson, Stevens, and Suien, all went to get snacks before General Conference that was going to be showed at the church! General Conference is a big deal for missionaries! I have never paid this close attention to the talks back home! After the first session we went to get lunch and played UNO. Watched the second session then played UNO till the Priesthood session started. The Big Three all spoke!! That's awesome! I love hearing from them all! Sunday we went and watch Conference at the church with the members. And went and had dinner with the Moodies. Nioka and her mother showed up to watch Conference and I'm praying that she felt the Spirit of the Lord there. What a perfect time to feel the Spirit.  Conference is the best! #LDSconf

POCATELLO, IDAHO IS GETTING A TEMPLE!!!! I freaked out when I heard the Prophet announce that! Ahhh I'm so excited to see it! I hope every one got as much out of Conference as I did! I learned so much from our General Authorities and I know that if we all heed their words, we will all come closer to the Lord and come to understand the things that he has planned for us! I sustain ALL of our General Authorities and I love them ALL with my whole heart! They truly are Chosen Men of the Lord and they do receive inspiration for all of us!

You all better be reading the Book of Mormon! Love you all!

《208 to the World!》

Elda Wilding

Pictures coming when we get back from our cruise.  They won't load from my phone 

*jennie