Kissing Lizards

Hello Mom,
That's awesome that you found Elder Fietkau's blog! He's so cool-- he was a convert for a year when he came out on his mission and he's one of the wisest and most spiritual kids I know, I really enjoyed serving around him:)

That's awesome Kate and Ella are doing Peter Pan! Film it so I can watch later. I can't believe Kate broke her arm again! Tell her I'm sending her all my loving healing energy.

The hurricane storm thing didn't even rain over here! In fact there's a drought in Jamacia right now. Since they don't irrigate, all the crops are starting to die. Don't worry, the mission has a great system for huricanes and TONS of precautions against them.

Thanks for sending the stuff mom, that means a lot and I've really missed my mints:)

Sorry I don't have as many pictures this week, not to much happened. But we did have 22 lessons which is the most I've ever had, but this is the 5th week in a row not having any one at church. People just don't like to come to church unless it's the one next door:) And literally every house has a church next door, half the time I think people choose their denomination based on which church is closest:)
I love you so much mom 

Love Luke

This picture is kinda random but seriously what are they doing!?!?!

Me and Elder Ashworth had some extra time the other day so we decided to branch out in to our area... we got lost in the middle of some million acre orange orchard, but it was really pretty:)

Burning some Gs in the front yard... perks to living in Jamaica. Got some trash?... burn it. Where? Anywhere.

Mad Machete Skillz Paying Off!!

Service project Jamaican style!!!! Chopping the grass in the yard with a machete, and mixing cement by hand with a shovel! Hardest work I've ever done! We helped a lady in the community fix up her school house:) It was a blast! 

Some mormons from Salt Lake who work for KSL came and filmed it all too and they said we would all be on in between sessions of the Oct. General Conference.

I could mix cement so good by the end of the day that all the Jamaicans in our ward were yelling that I could mix cement like a Jamaican:) but they said I chopped the yard like a white man and that I should just stick to mixing cement:)

In addition to laying a drive way and chopping the bush we also patched her roof with the stickers made of tar:) So I got on the roof:)

Elder Ashworth, Bro. Blake and Bro. Walker taking a rest in the shade. Me on the roof.

Mixing, and Bishop giving orders:) He ran the show like an Army drill! He's a cop.

Finished Product

 

Part of our area is up on a super tall mountain called Gibraltar.  Wow,  it was a tuff bike ride but going down was a blast!

They're also cutting a huge freeway in the side of the mountain! The Chinese are paying for it and Jamaica is going to pay them back over fifty years!

Doesn't look that steep right?:) Well think again!!! It's like the stairs in the Lord of the Rings!!!
This is how they do it on Jamaican construction sites:)

Service at a members, this is Elder Ashworth chopping a tree with a machete. We chopped this thing to pieces! It was awesome, bet you never thought my chopping skills would come in handy right mom? ;)

I thought this was funny, one of our investigators has a weed plant:)

Fastidious new companion, crashes, candy eating donkeys and slack lining stoners.... Oh my!

So this week I got my new companion Elder Ashworth, he's a total Mormon kid from Idaho. He's 20, I  think and he's cool, a total clean freak though!!! The first night he got to the house he cleaned everything!!! He mopped, he cleaned the stove, he cleaned under the stove! He cleaned under the washer and the fridge!!! But hey, I'm not complaining:) I feel like we make a good team for teaching others.

This is me and Elder Packer right before he went home. I already miss serving with him :)but the day before he left I crashed my bike hard! I was peddling up a really steep hill super fast and my gears broke, so I fell down, luckily I was wearing my helmet-- which saved me, literally. But my arm got pretty scraped up, and my front rim got folded up pretty good:) Don't worry though, my arm is almost all better and I fixed my bike. The guy at the bike shop gave me a rim with red, white and blue spokes. I can't tell if he did it on purpose or not:) but it's really cool looking.

So far since I've been in Jamiaca, I've been asked or begged for practically everything.
My money, my tie, my shirt, my shoes, my socks! I know right?! A lady asked me for my socks! My bike, my helmet, my bag, even my daily planner someone asked me for! Also, I've been asked to get married twice:) and someone asked me for my face once and my hair. It's so funny people will just ask you for stuff even if they don't need it:) They do it kinda as a joke, but if you offer, they'll actually take it:) I've also been asked for my guinep fruit,  which I actually share:)

We also did a service project for one of our investigators named Vavine. We helped her move a ton of dirt to lay for her foundation of her house. We also carried some crazy heavy railroad ties for her fence posts. It was really hard work and I'm pretty sure she started taking lessons so we would help her with her house... but I'm happy to help anyway:)

I also caught this crazy 40 legger while we were working. It's like 8 inches long and they are extremely poisonous. One bite will render you useless for a week, so I smashed it up:)

Ok first crazy story! So today for P day we went to a members house who has a field and we played cricket and football (soccer) and frisbee, but we also set up my slackline and everyone tried it! It was awesome! This picture is a high rasta man who just walked over and hoped on! It was sick-- he was flailing around all over the place and everyone was laughing and all the littile kids were so excited to see the white man game:) Wow, I never thought my slack line would make such a good picture but all these little kids are awesome!

White man up to bat

White man up a tree

Trade offs in the rain! It poured for like 5 hours, everything was a river! Everyone thinks we are crazy :)

Rasta man on a donkey asking you to buy it some candy to eat. Classic Jamaica :)

The district before Elder Packer left. Now we are back up to six elders in Linstead Jamaica. Elder Hall is training a new missionary who looks like he's 15:) He's really cool though, poor kid crashed his bike the first day in Jamaica and then again later that week. But he's doing good:)

Yes, this is a three gallon box of ice cream:) It was wonderful:)

Bad Haircuts, Racism, and Creative Cooking

 Transfers are not this week but next, and then Elder Packer will be leaving. I will most likely stay in this area for one or two more transfers but I will be leading it, since I will get a new companion or possibly a trainee. That would be crazy if I trained. Since I killed two different trainers I'm kind of a legend, since that's never happened before. It will be weird when Elder Packer leaves because I kinda feel like he was my real trainer the whole time. He's really awesome, I will miss him when he leaves.
If I did leave this area this transfer, I think that would actually be pretty cool. I'm already ready for a change of scenery, but the people here I love-- so either way is good.

This is my new hair cut! It's really short, I just had Elder Gordan (the Jamaican) cut it really short because it's so hot. He cut it pretty well actually, it's only a little uneven, or as the say in Jamaica-- 'lickle'. 

The other day in church the police came before sacrament and told us all about the murder statistics and how we as a church need to do more. It was strange, but we sang a song after which brought back the spirit haha:) 

Also, I said a prayer (kneeling) in the middle of the road the other day! This guy chased us down on our bikes yelling like a madman for us to pray for him. So we said yes and he just prostrated himself on the ground in the middle of the road! So I knelt and said a prayer for him that he wouldn't be crazy basically:) and then he got up and just walked away...  Regular day in Jamaica for the white guys:)
Why can everyone out here call us 'white man' but if we call them black man they freak out??!?! The Jamaican missionary I live with explained it to me like this, "You see Elder Johnson,  this is our country so we can call you white man, but you can't call us black man in our country, that's racist. If we were in your country you could call us black man and that would be fine." I just said,  "Oh,  is that what you think? hahaha,  take it from the guy who's been in both countries, that wouldn't fly in America!" :) Elder Gordan is so funny, he does the funniest things sometimes:) 

This week I was pretty broke because I had to pay for a hospital visit for when I got worms and it took them a while to reimburse me:) So I tried some pretty interesting combinations:) I'm just grateful I can buy something other than rice today:)

 peanut butter and jelly rice

 rice and syrup (just don't even try it)

I also made some dumplings (boiled flour) with some canned mackerel on it (mackerel is the whole fish head bones everything all in tomato sauce) but that was actually pretty good on the dumplings:)
Some things I haven't eaten yet and am not looking forward to are:
Chicken foot soup (it looks like baby hands)
Ox tail stew (literally a cows tail)

Big foot stew (it's all bones and skin-- what the freak!?!?!)
There's a few interesting dishes out here but my companion tells me all of the above are his favorite and he'd rather eat them than fried chicken (the usual dish). At first I didn't believe him, but now I think he's serious.