week #11 - Montego Bay

This week has been really good.  We had Branch Conference yesterday.  It was great.  I was able to learn a lot from each of the talks.  They focused a lot on self reliance, and President Allen had some good thoughts on the grace of God. He said "God does not step in and save us by grace after all we can do. I have found that he is there every step of the way. We cannot do anything without the help of his grace." 

We also found two very prepared investigators this week.  The first is Jodian.  We had met her before, but she didn't really want to talk to us. Some things happened in her life that made her want to change, and she thought of us. We received a call from her on Tuesday and she said she wanted to meet with us.  When we got there, she had read through both of the pamphlets that we had given her, taken notes on them, and answered all of the questions in the back.  She accepts everything we say and it all seems to connect for her as we teach. 

The second investigator is Benny.  Benny has been sincerely seeking truth for a long time. He has a bible that has been well loved and full of notes.  Benny wants to be baptized, but realizes it is a serious thing, so he has taken his time and is looking for truth.  He was very excited when we showed him the Book of Mormon.  He is going to start reading.  We hope to get his family involved soon also. 

Jennifer has been continuing to progress.  She is always very excited to meet with us, and excited about the gospel.  She is a wonderful lady.  June is in New York for a while. We are hoping that she keeps up the reading and praying so that she will still be strong when she gets back. 

This week, we cut through the canterbury gully to get to a road on the other side. I have been a lot of sketchy places on my mission, but that has been the second one that I have actually felt unsafe. I got proposed to by a chubby middle aged woman on our way through (not the first time that has happened. I think I am on count three... or four with that), and on our way in, a thug pretty much gave us permission to pass through.  Sketch.  Welcome to my ghetto life. 

We also got to spend some time teaching with Romario this week. It is always fun to go with him. He is one of my favorite people here for sure.

Nathan- more Patois.

Giving directions:

Up so, down so, round so, ere so, der so, straight round.

Simply add "gwaan" to the beginning of each of these phrases and direct people to their destination. Make it confusing though! Jamaicans aren't the best with directions.

I'm glad everything is good back home. Mom, I enjoyed the thought you sent from Pres. Uchtdorf and the thought from your talk dad. We can find nothing but blessings as we lose ourselves in the service of others and the service of the Lord. 

I love you guys,

Love, Elder Pullan.

At a member family's house for dinner

Jamaican Sunset

Roasting breadfruit at the apartment

An excerpt from "A Tale of Bird", Romario's (Bird's) book

North Banks Wicked City graffiti from the bottom of canterbury gully. In the storm drain.

week #10 - Montego Bay

This week has been rainy in Montego Bay.  We had a few days of being soaked to the bone, and trying to dodge the rain between appointments.  We seemed to do pretty well with it.  It would rain while we taught and then clear up as we ran to the next appointment.  This happened on multiple occasions. It was pretty cool!

We taught Stokley earlier this week.  Stokley's brother got shot about a week ago, so we have been doing our best to be there for him. We taught him a little about baptisms for the dead recently, and he took it well. On one of the rainy days, we taught Stokley. He lives at the bottom of a deep gully. The rain didn't let up, so we ended up running along the bottom of the gully jumping back and forth over the rushing stream at the bottom, and climbing up the muddy hills in heavy Jamaican rain. It was a lot of fun. 

Jennifer has been doing well. She is plowing through the Book of Mormon and loving it. She is a very humble, loving person. I am very excited for her. She is always so happy to see us. 

Elder Hall and I wrote a book for Romario over the past few weeks. Romario was supposed to go out teaching with us on multiple occasions, but he never answers his phone. He is terrible with it. So we made the book as a guilt trip for him so that he will start answering his phone. It is too long to send the whole thing, but I will send you a preview. 

Hmmm... nothing too monumental happened this week. Just more teaching.  More good lessons. More missionary work.

It sounds like you are doing well back home. I am glad that piano festival went good.  I am sure that everyone did great in their plays and  piano festival. I am sorry I missed them.

Nathan- more patois:

Dats- that's

Bwai- boy

cho- an expression of disappointment

Dad- You covered exactly what I would have had you talk about for starts - the fact that a mission is hard. I got out here and seemed like no one had been straight with me about their mission.  No one directly told me that it would in fact be hard, although that should have been assumed.   Maybe you could speak on charity next.   You will be ineffective in your work until you gain the love of Christ for the people you serve.  You have to care about them.  And, as I have found, different cultures and people are not always easy to love. It may be a good topic to look into.

I love you all,
Love Elder Pullan

week #9 -Montego Bay

8 MONTHS TODAY!

DATS 1/3 BWAI
(patois according to Google: means "that's 1/3 boy!")

This week was great. Mango season is coming up! They still aren't ripe in most places, but we did have some delicious fresh mangoes on friday. Here in Jamaica, you peel them with your teeth and simply hold it and eat. It can be a little messy, but it is undoubtedly the best way to eat a mango. 

We had a great lesson with our land lady, Jennifer this week. Jennifer has been reading parts of the Book of Mormon that we have assigned to her for months now. She has probably read more than half of it at this point. We had a great lesson where we told her that when she prays, if she wants answers, she needs to wait and listen. This was real news to her. Waiting for a short time during or after a prayer for an answer had never occurred to her. The spirit has really touched her, and she is now starting the Book of Mormon from front to back. She is the caretaker for the old woman that owns the house, so she is not allowed to leave, even to come to church. We are going to have to wait until the old woman's daughter gets back. When she is back, Jennifer will be able to come to church, and soon after get baptized. Jennifer is a little like our mom here. She cooks for us on occasion and is always looking out for us. So don't worry, I am well taken care of. 

Those pictures were from the front of our apartment inside the gate. Our apartment is actually a house, with several rooms for rent. We have a completely seperate section around the side of the house, and up a flight of stairs. Our apartment has 3 doors - a veranda gate, a second gate over the door, and then the door. Inside, we have a kitchen, living room, bedroom with two bunk beds, two baths, and Elder Hall and I's study room. It is small, but comfortable. Our apartment is great. Elder Dawkins and Farb are the other companionship in our apartment. Our household is fairly quiet, other than the sound of Elder Hall's guitar and my ukulele. Elder Hall is a funny kid from Alberta Canada. He enjoyed acting in plays and was in a band back home. Elder Dawkins was born in Jamaica, and raised in New York. Elder Farb is old (26!) and from California. We all work hard and love mo bay.

All is well here in Jamaica. We are still waiting  for June to get her confirmation to be baptized, but soon come. I have also been working on a children's storybook for Romario. It is designed to guilt trip him for being so flakey and never answering his phone. Elder Hall and I have enjoyed putting it together.

I hope all of the plays went well. Lydia and Nathan- you look great in your costumes! I wish I could have been there for the play!

Thanks for the help and advice mom and dad. I love you guys!

I got grandma and grandpa pullan's package this week! Thank you for the book and the twenty dollars. I will enjoy reading it and I will have to get myself a treat. I love you too.

Thanks all,

Till next week,
Elder Pullan.

oh... the zinc fences in canterbury- they are simply the fences for yards. There are houses inside each little compound, and a rats nest of passages in between.

week #8 - Montego Bay

Hello everyone,

Just another week in beautiful Montego Bay! We finally made it over to the Wall of the Dead last monday. Only to find that each of the dons had been painted over with blue paint.  I guess it was an effort to draw the community's attention away from the thug life, but it was still disappointing. 

We went into Canterbury to seek out a less active member. Canterbury is a rat's nest. There is one way in, a bridge that spans a deep gully. When you cross the bridge, you enter a large empty concrete pad. From there, small foot paths wind up between canyons of zinc fences into the hills. It was easy to see why the cops have so much trouble with canterbury.

As far as teaching goes this week, we did have a few good lessons with June. June has been progressing towards baptism for a long time. She is waiting to receive a confirmation from the spirit that this is the way that our Heavenly Father would have her go. We have been praying hard for her. We had a lesson with her where a few members bore testimony of their baptism to her. It all went very well. We are excited for her. Baptism soon come. Hopefully.

This week has been pretty average. Nothing really sticks out that I feel that I need to say. I have enjoyed walking up and down Mount Salem in the blistering hot sun each day. I may be being slightly sarcastic, but Jamaica really is a unique and beautiful place.

Thanks fam. I love you guys. 

Keep up the good work. Good luck with the plays this week. 

Love, Elder Pullan

Me in Canterbury

The Bay

Week #7 - Montego Bay

Hey Fam,

This week was another good one in Montego Bay.  I recieved my birthday package!  Thanks for all of the stuff. I have enjoyed having a couple extra things to snack on, a new tie, some toy cars, new books, new ink pens (I was about due for some), and some letters to read. Thanks for the money and ramen grandma and grandpa! If there is anything I am forgetting, I apologize. I am grateful for all those that were thinking of me though. 

My birthday was a good relaxing day. Romario disappeared so we did not get to go see the wall of the dead. We are planning on it today though. Don't worry, we will get there eventually. I did not get floured on my birthday. I think Bird (Romario) was going to, but like I said, he disappeared. I am not too disappointed though. I got floured on Elder Fowkes birthday by accident back in October. It is not the best experience. Just a strange tradition. 

As far as what we teach- We teach the basic doctrines of the church. Mainly, the first three lessons in Preach my Gospel. These are; the restoration, the plan of salvation, and the gospel of Christ. The principles are put forth in a way that they connect well. If you want to know what I teach, just pick up Preach My Gospel. Teaching is a lot of fun. You really have to focus on relating what you teach to the investigator, inluding them in the discussion, keeping things on track, and making sure they understand. It takes a lot of work. We are focusing a lot on working with members to get referrals, and then teaching their friends with them. That is the most effective way to do missionary work.

The branch here is extremely unified. You can tell that everyone is great friends with each other. Church is a little different here. Rather than running home as fast as you can when church is over, people just hang around at the chuch and socialize for hours. Church activities will end up going past midnight, although we have to get home by 9:30. The unity of the branch is great. I think that we could use more of that back home. 

We work a lot with the potential missionaries. We take them out with us, give them good teaching experience, and try to motivate them to get their papers in soon. Elder Hall and I work mostly with Romario and Jerome. They are great guys. They are close on their papers and should be out soon. 

Mom- I bet you are keeping pretty busy with piano festival. I don't know how you do it each year. It is a lot of work.

Grandma and grandpa- Your trip to Panama looked amazing. I am sure you enjoyed the ocean and the warm carribean climate for a while.

Dad- Thanks for the email. You are always full of good advice. Thanks for being my dad.

Lydia-Thanks for the treats in the package!

Nathan- I love the cars you sent me. They are awesome!

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone.

Love,

Elder Pullan

The District

Massive Jamaican Moth (4" head to tail)

Sunset -from the church parking lot

Week #6 - Montego Bay

Hello Everyone,

I would write more, but we spent half our email time today breaking the jammed door knob off the clerk office door with a screwdriver and other odds and ends.  Good times.

To sum up my week, it has been good old missionary work to the max.  We have been working a lot with Romario and trying to get him out to teach with us as much as possible.

Our plans for today- We are going to go see the wall of the dead (finally).  And, I have not been floured. Yet.  Soon come I fear.   I have not received the birthday box yet. Things take a long time to make their way over to mo bay.  Soon come. 

Last Monday, Elder Hall and I bought pizza stuff and we went up to Allisons.  We had a fun night making pizza and had a good family night lesson with the fam.  It made for a fun P-Day. 

To answer mom's questions:  We email at the church in the clerk's office.  There is only one computer here, so we go early so that the other elders can use it later on.  We do not go door to door proselyting. Every house has locked gates and barbed fences.  At best we gate call.  But we do not do that often. Tracting in general is ineffective and we are specifically told not to do it (unless the spirit directs otherwise).

Last week added up to some frustrating people, and Bible bash with jdub, and a few too many ignorant racist jamaicans.  We get so much crap for being white.  You would not believe some of the stuff we hear.  It made for not the best week, but this last one was good.  We have some investigators that are actually progressing, and everything is going well.  Transfer calls were Saturday.  I will be with Elder Hall for another one. 

All is well here. I love you guys. I will send some pix if I have time.

I am really sad that I am missing the Olympics. It is about time that they put slopestyle in as an event.

Lydia- Great job with the spelling bee. That is really impressive!

Love,

Elder Pullan

 

Beautiful Mo Bay

Montego Bay - week #5

Hello everyone,

I have too many messages to read this week. Wow. 

Well, my week was uneventful. It was one of the rougher ones of the mission, but now I am on to bigger better things. 

Last Monday, Elder Hall, Jerome, Remario, and I walked to freeport. I was a long walk, but the view was beautiful. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the big tourist resorts have now blocked off the beach, so no, we were not actually able to see what we had gone their for. After that, we hitchhiked in the back of a flatbed truck back to the main road with a bunch of jamaicans. It is a common thing here, but us white guys did get some weird looks doing it. It was entertaining. 

Today, we are going to go to the wall of the dead. We didn't have time to get over there last week, so no pix yet.

I really wish I had more to tell you about. We did not have a whole lot of progress with any of our investigators this week. Just more Word of Wisdom problems coming out. Not uncommon here in Jamaica.

We went teaching with Allison a couple of times this week.
We also took Romario and Jerome out a couple of times.
We had an entertaining Law of Chastity lesson with an 18 year old kid last night. Allison, Jerome and Romario were all there too. Details don't seem necessary, but to sum things up, the kid we were teaching seemed more worried about getting AIDS than anything else. If the law of chastity keeps you from getting AIDS, I can't argue. Just another wonderful reason to follow it. 

Church this week was good. We had a great fast and testimony meeting. Montego Bay has a very, very strong branch. I love serving here. The city is a very unique place.

Elder Hall is a funny guy. He is a bit of a goofball, but is a good missionary. He is from Alberta Canada and is a great companion. He is teaching me how to serve others better. He is good at that. 

Matthew- The play looks like it was awesome. I am glad you were able to do it. I am sure you did a great job. And you are going to play rugby? That will be a lot of fun. You will be good at that.
Lydia- People speak the same language here as they did in May Pen. It is just little different in the city. It is not too much of a change though.
Nathan- Yes general. W'appen? una gwaan fi sen' me some valentines dee presents? Me gwaan weet fi dem. Tanks.
Dad and mom- Thanks for the help and support. I love you guys.

I love you guys!
Take care.
Love, Elder Pullan

Back of the flatbed truck

Jerome, Romario and our investigator Davain - on our way to Freeport

Oh, Jamaica!

Freeport