Rain, Cricket & New Friends

Hey fam-

It rained pretty hard this morning. We had to forgo lifting weights because of it. We have a one-month membership at a sweatshop about a mile from our house. We wake up, leave by six, pump weights for an hour, and then ride our bikes home in time to shower, eat, and be ready for studies by eight. I love getting out in the mornings. The mornings are cool and nice.

Did all the pix come through? I think I got them all to send. I figured out how to convert them to email size on the camera, so they shouldn't be too hard to send anymore. 

We have had a couple days of rain this week. It can be fun to go out and ride in the rain, but being wet all day isn't quite as nice. Our investigators are doing well. Gary (up in Canaan Heights) disappeared for a couple of days. We need to hunt him down again. He has word of wisdom problems, but he really does want to do the right thing. We have two kids (8 and 10 years old) that we are working towards baptism with. They all come from part member families who don't really see the importance of baptism at such a young age. They think that they should wait until they are old enough to make a bad decision and not really care about religion. It makes no sense to me. Jamaican culture really is foreign though. It has taken some pretty intense adjusting. 

Elder Barber and I got to play cricket with a 13 year old boy named Kenneth on Sunday. Cricket is actually a really fun game. It is easy to learn and would be really fun to play when I get back. We took turns bowling (pitching), catching, and batting. I'm actually not too bad at it. The goal is for the pitcher to knock the wicket over. The wicket sits right behind the batter. The batter wants to protect the wicket, and hit the ball far enough to get points, or run to the pitchers line and back to the wicket before the other team gets the ball and  knocks the wicket over. That explanation may seem confusing, but it is not as bad as it sounds. Our bat was an old 2x4 with some bent nails in it. Our wicket was a piece of sheet-metal leaned  up against a cinder block. We played for a while with Kenneth, another kid with a weird Jamaican name around his age, and a little girl around Lydia's age. She was pretty good at cricket. I think Lydia and her would be good friends. After Lydia learned to understand Patois that is. 

I am pretty good with the Patois now.  There are still some people I can't understand, but there are ones that Elder Barber (who has been out for eight months) can't understand either. 

We ran into a Rasta and his friend. The call themselves Lucky, and Eyeball. They gave us some good sugar cane to eat and showed us how to pit ackee so we can cook it. We are going to hike into Canaan Heights on Wednesday night and Lucky and Eyeball are going to show us how to make ackee and saltfish. It should be pretty fun. I am sure I will come back with a story to tell. You usually do in Canaan Heights. 

General conference and transfer calls are coming up on Saturday. I am really excited for conference. I hope that each of will pray and think of a question that they need answered this week. Then watch conference and it will be answered. It is one of many ways that we can recieve answers. I would encourage all of us to do it.

I guess I will know where I am going on Saturday too. I think I will be staying in May Pen, but Elder Barber will probably be leaving. I will let you guys know. 

Good luck! Keep me updated on everyone.

Thanks for the support and stay strong!

Blessed,

Elder Pullan

Canaan Heights - The most dangerous and ghetto area in our area