Merry Christmas from Jamaica!

Hi Fam, 

Merry Christmas!

This week is pretty much christmas for us missionaries. We have parties, meal appointments and devotionals for pretty much the whole week. What little free time we have is already filled with service. (Chopping heavy bush with machetes. Yes. So cool!)  Christmas should be fun. Its not the same as american christmas. Its more an excuse to party and get drunk. We are going to have to go in early on Christmas Eve in order to avoid "grand market" in May Pen town. I have heard that grand market gets crazy. So that will be fun. Jamaican Christmas also includes a lot of rum cake and sorrel. Sorrel is a flower that you boil down, add sugar and ginger to the drink (and sometimes rum, we have to be careful) and then let it sit and chill for a couple days. It is really good. The ginger has a sharp taste that kind of burns your throat as it goes down. Good stuff. 

That is Christmas in JA for you. 

Make sure to enjoy your Christmas for me. Christmas day will consist of riding around and caroling to people with our ukes. Should be fun!

Cool story- On our way back from zone meeting in Mandeville, me and the 5 other missionaries in May Pen loaded up in our taxi bus with at least ten other jamaicans. We whipped out our hymn books and had a somewhat forced sing along of christmas songs for a good hour. Unfortunately, we did not get a whole lot of participation from the bus, but we enjoyed it.

This week has been fairly uneventful. Just more missionary work. Oh, I need your skype information for Christmas. We will either call or skype. We haven't figured out if we will be able to hunt down a web cam though, so I will let you know on next monday.

You should be getting an email with a link to our Jamaican christmas devotional, being broadcast straight from Spanish Town. The event will be this Saturday starting at 1:30. It will include singing and speakers. Elder Fowkes will be singing in it, and I will be watching it from the May Pen chapel with some investigators and the rest of the branch at the same time. (An important thing- When you get the link, do not go into it to see if it works, then close out. The email will come a little before the broadcast to try and prevent this. For some screwy reason, if you open the window, then close out, it will change the URL for everyone... I dont know what up with that. But the point is- open the link once. watch the concert. close out when it is over.) It should be a great devotional. It is the first time they are doing it here in Jamaica. It is a big event, and you are all welcome to tune in to it with me!

Enjoy christmas for me!

Take care everyone!

Love, Elder Pullan

Nathan- here is some Patois for you:

wagwaan- hello / whats up

wa't'gwaan- hello /whats up

a'ight- informal acknowledgement of another

w'appen (woppen)- whats happening / what happened?

m'day'ere- my day here / im here (response to wagwaan)

Bless / Bless up- bless ( in response to a greeting, or as a goodbye)

fi- to, for

me gwaan fi de- I am going there

wa una do?- what did you do

wa yadealwid?- what are you dealing with?/what are you doing/how are you?

una- you

whe'do / wa'ya'do- what did you do?

whitey- common racial slur. both derogative and not depending on how used.

tek cyare- take care!

One love.

Cute little JC- what a funny girl!

A Black Santa- there is a white one around the corner.