Week 25

Finally, some pictures! 

This is from 2 weeks ago, when he fell in this 'gutter' while showing off popping wheelies. 

He titled this one, 'Adventures in the Caves'. lol.

Slack lining in the Jungle. I think this Elder is cheating though...

Investigators kids, they really like to climb he said. 

Rock cairns after a baptism

Eating cook shop in the middle of the road like bosses. 

The sisters new convert

His district. His comps are the one in the front left, and the one you can barely see.

Luke as a gangster. I don't think he's pulling it off...

Week 23-- When doing wheelies, watch for mud holes...

This week was fun, I have a few stories. The first one is that I've gotten really good at wheelies on my bike so whenever there's a bunch of kids they just yell, "Wheelie wheelie!!" So I was riding up the street to an investigators house and there's a 5 foot deep 4 feet wide gutter on the side off the road for floods, and I saw some kids so I did a wheelie and then I fell of my bike head first into the gutter!!!!  I was covered in mud and the the bike fell in on top of me! I handed my bike to Elder Simpson who was laughing hysterically, and then climbed out.  All the kids started laughing so hard! Then all the parents came out and laughed too. It was so funny, funniest thing that's happened on my mission so far:) and I wasn't even hurt! But I did smash my bottle so if you could send me an new 32 oz hydro flask that would be great:)

This morning we went to these caves-- really just a really deep depression in the ground. It was still way cool though.  I made a fort out of rocks:) 

Mom: What does E. Simpson think of your rock creations? 

L: He thinks they're cool:) but he also thinks I'm a hippie:)

It was surprise missionary Sunday in church this week, which means we all had to give a talk with 5 min. notice. I talked about keeping the commandments and having the spirit, then I bore my testimony and cried in front of every one. I told the branch that I had literally felt the arms of Christ around me. It was cool, and I have.  This funny old guy in the ward came up to me and was like, "Hey why are you crying?!" It was funny:) Oh, and the youth sunday school teacher didn't show up so me and Elder Simpson taught it:) It was way fun and we had a great lesson on following the revelation that God gives us.

Mom: What is the branch like? 

L: The youth is like 7 kids, and the branch is like 60 active members, 300 less active. 

Mom: Do you work with the inactive? 

L: We are working with 4 inactives, but the rest have been inactive for like 20-30 years and we just can't find them anymore.

Mom: Tell me about E. Simpson.

L: He's been out for a year, he has an older brother and 4 younger sisters. One died while he was out, I think about 5 months ago, it was really hard for him, but he's really helped me get through my trials, because he's already been through so much. I think it's interesting that God has put me with two companions who have had a family member die while they were out. I think he's trying to show me I'm not the only one going through hard stuff, and compared to them I'm not.

We helped a member chop her yard the other day and she called me a bulldozer. I've bought my own cutlass (machete) and I've gotten really good with it:) so when I come home I won't need the lawn mower any more. I'll just use a cutlass:)

M: They won't let you bring that home you know.

L: They actually will if you check it. :)

Dad: Dude, we are keeping the mower.

Oh and yesterday we had three different members feed us!! It was awesome, one lunch and two dinners:) {Getting fed by members is rare, bc everyone is so poor.}

Mom: Couldn't you spread out the meals over a few days? 

L: When someone offers you food in Jamaica, you just say YES. End of story.

Mom: What do the chicken feet taste like? Don't they have bones? 

L: They cook them so long the bones are soft and they just taste like whatever you cook them in, so curry.

M: Gross. gross. gross.

I have to go in like two minutes but I really love you guys and I miss you so much, tell the family I love them ok:)

Luke

I stole this photo from the sister missionaries blog. Luke said he didn't trust the internet cafe they were in today for viruses, so no pics. :( There are 4 Elders and 2 sisters in his district, he says having the sisters is fun, but they never see them except at church and meetings.

Week 22--Book of Mormon Balance

The new area I'm in is flat, windy as heck and very hot, with little rain, but I like it. People are a little better with mental comprehension here. My companion is Scottish and used to be in a gang and fight all the time, but he's way cool and way fun to be with and he's really nice and funny. I will enjoy serving with him.

Conference was really good, it answered a lot of the questions I had on my mind and was praying about. I felt like the general theme was enduring trials by way of faith, keeping the commandments and relying on Christ's atonement in all things. It really gave me a lot of hope. But seriously, every single talk went back to trials. I wonder if people are already going through trials or people are about to go through trials?

Luke's new district

We woke up at 4 in the morning to go to the caves in Linstead before I left to Old Harbor. It was way fun, I climbed this vine like a firemans pole. It was only like 2 inches thick and could hold my weight.

This is my district in Linstead before I got transferred.

This pic is a cow in the back of a truck with almost no securings:) hahaha.

The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion:) hahaha, this makes a great teaching visual:) it took me like 30 min to balance. The Jamaican kids who watched me build it thought I was magic:)

This picture is stew peas with rice, chicken foot and pigs tail, it was surprisingly good and I'm looking forward to the next time I'll be eating it:) They are actually quite delectable.

These are pictures of me and Elder Simpson, he's pretty short but really strong. We are the fastest missionaries on our bikes in our zone:) We race a lot --it's fun.

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. 

Blessings, Fruit and Worms

So far I’ve given a lot of blessings out here, including one to an investigator who is dying of a kidney disease. my patriarchal blessing says everyone I lay my hands on to be healed, will in fact be healed, and I have faith in God that He can really do that, so I’m really excited to see how that all happens.

God’s been showing me that there are a ton of spiritual gifts, like recently He’s given me the gift to mourn with those that mourn. It’s awesome, I feel like I can feel what people are going through, but instead of making me sad, it just makes me have hope for them and then I can help them because I know where they’re coming from. It’s cool.

Let me tell you Dad, I love families. Out here it is almost impossible to find a functioning family. No one gets married, everyone lives with everyone and no one knows whose kid is whose. It hurts me so bad because all I can feel is the pain that comes from it. The people we find out here with families are usually always the most prepared to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives. It just made me so grateful that I was raised in such a strong family, and I’ve learned that I have to do everything I can to raise a strong family too.

So the guy with kidney disease is still alive, he’s not doing so good though. We’ve been trying to help him understand the nature of Christ. He doesn’t even really understand the virgin birth. But in the blessing I gave him I told him he would, in fact, be healed, but the speed in which he would be healed would be dependent on his obedience and faith in God and His commandments. It definitely wasn’t me giving the blessing.

It’s not rude to take pictures of people(I asked why he hasn’t sent any photos home of Jamaicans). I just try not to pull out my camera when there’s a lot of people around (which is almost all the time), cause if people know you have nice things welllll they rob you. I’ll try to take some pics with a few of my investigators -there’s a few I can trust:)

I guess what I do with my time is this, I’m in the house with Elder Packer till 10:00 am, then we leave and walk or bike probably like a 5 mile radius around our house, sometimes farther. We just teach people we’ve made previous appointments with or we find new people to teach by talking to people on the street (everyone just walks up and down the street if they have nothing to do-- which is a lot). Right now me and Elder Packer have got the next 5 days full of appointments with investigators. The only thing is that almost everyone will make an appointment with you and then not be there or tell you they’re busy when you come at the time they set up, hahaha. It’s just kind of the chill mentality of Jamaica, so mostly we just teach whoever is home, right on the spot:) We get more lessons in that way anyway:)

We figured out that Thunder man actually is crazy, whether he’s high or not, he just makes up his own gospel every time:) He calls me Elder Thunder though, which is pretty sick! It’s kinda become my yard name (everyone here has a yard name) plus like 6 other names! It’s so hard to find people sometimes! We’ll ask people, "Hey do you know where Horace lives?" and they say, "Who?"
" You know the Rasta with the dreads?"
"OH Robot!" and then we’re like "... yeah Robot!" It’s funny everyone kinda has their own code language.

They have these crazy trees out here called bread fruit, and it’s basically a green potato tree and you roast them right on the stove top, and then fry them and they’re so good! Look up bread fruit trees online, they look like it’s where Dr.Seuss got his inspiration, in fact I think he got all his illustrations from here.

This is one of the Elders who lives with us in our house, his name his Elder Ostrowskei. In this picture he’s holding a jack fruit. They grow right out of the trunk of trees and get bigger than watermelons! He really likes it, so he’s pretty happy about it:)

This other picture is some guinep fruit, I climbed a guinep tree to get it! It’s so good!!!!! You crack off the shell and then you pop the yellow part in your mouth and kinda suck and chew all the meat off the cherry-like size pit, and WOW! They are soooooooo good --favorite fruit by far!!!!! BoM in the back ground just cause.

This is me and my companion at the church field, we are about to play soccer, and the missionaries actually beat the Jamaican members, but probably only cause of Elder Gordan who’s a Jamaican:) It was a fun night on the way home I got some jerk chicken from a street vendor who was selling it out of a 50 gallon drum/make shift barbecue. It was so good, but I asked for hot sauce and this guys homemade hot sauce was killer! It was so freaking hot, I thought I was going to die! They easily have peppers out here hotter than ghost peppers!

This is a pic of me making chocolate pancakes ( healthy right?;) made from pancake mix cocoa powder and chocolate lasco ( chocolate milk powder).

This is Elder Packer and I. There’s a lady in our ward who’s extremely crafty and he had her make matching planner covers for us- they are so cool! Mine has 51 stars on the American flag haha! She only charged him the equivalent of like $10. She also makes scripture cases! I’m going to get one that is an American flag with 1/4 of the corner a Japanese flag, it’s going to be sick!

A view over the orange fields of Linsted, Jamaica. White people own these orange fields and they live in this huge mansion.

Everyone here calls us white man or white boy. so when I see a white person here I want to say "Hah! white man!" in a Jamaican accent haha!  E. Packer goes home in two weeks! Then I’ll be done with training and I might end up being a trainer myself! That would be crazy though. I doubt they’ll do that:) It’s to bad I’m killing all my trainers- I’m back to only knowing like two missionaries again:) (killing means you’re with them for their last transfer)

My Patois sucks, I can still barely understand it even. Oh, I almost forgot, I got worms!!! I had to take a pill to get rid of them but I was eating so much for a couple of weeks!:) They’re gone now, no side effects from them or the medication, just have to wash the mangos better.

Don’t miss me Dad. Love you both, love the family, Luke

Rastafarians

Hi everyone,

Things here have been good, it’s really hot, but the rain has died down. Luckily, I’m getting used to just sweating a small ocean every time I step out into the sun:)

Teaching here is really quite difficult. I think it’s because of the doctrine thing. People here just believe the first doctrine they hear from their church-- so when we introduce new doctrine, they rarely listen, because they are so caught up in their way vs. your way-- kind of thing. I’ve found the only way to get through to them, is to talk about Christ, and love and help them realize that on the spiritual level, we’re on the same page, but even still there are just some people who won’t listen to anything you say no matter what. But I still love everyone I come across, and it pushes me forward every day.

Last week like I said, we went to the beach. The water is soooooo clear!!! We played soccer until they kicked us off the beach for not paying a huge amount of money for drinks. Dang it the pictures won’t download again. Sorry, I’ll try and make it work, but no promises, my card gets a virus like every two seconds so I have to keep getting it cleared.

This is the end of my first transfer (first six weeks). One of my companions, Elder Humphrys is leaving, so my other companion, Elder Packer, will finish my training and it will just be the two of us. I’m excited for it to only be two of us—I’m starting to feel like I don’t get to say much. I like Elder Packer, he’s a really cool guy, but after this next six weeks he goes home too, so both of my trainers are leaving and then I won’t know anyone again. Oh well.

It’s so much fun talking to all the people here, some of them really do have some crazy ideas, especially the Rastas! :) Rastafarians are totally different than I expected. Out here, they’re usually in the lower class, and are always crazy-stoned-out-of-their-mind, but are not exactly chill. In fact they’re often hostile and some carry machetes all over the place. You just walk away from those ones. :)

I love you mom and I love you family!









My District in front of the church



Cook shop meal, fried chicken, veggies, akki and salt fish, dumpling and rice and peas

More Thunder Man

Hey everyone,

I’ve been learning so much from my studies and teaching people! Basically, I just want to learn to follow the spirit better so I can follow it like it says in 2 Nephi 32,  because that is the only doctrine given, so it’s pretty dang important. 

My companions are good friends and I love them.  I learn a ton from them! (not when they try to teach me though:) One of my companions’ dad died while he’s been out, I haven’t really talked to him about it, but he’s so strong and a really cool kid. 

I was talking to Thunder man again the other day. I really tried listening with the spirit and I started to realize, this guy is some sort of visionary man!! Holy crap! It was awesome! He was telling me how he was hungry, so he prayed to God to catch a big fish. When he went fishing he caught a huuuuuge fish but it had a crown on its head, which he took and held, and the crown granted him power over the sea, even to covering all the land with water, but because he wanted to restore balance he threw the crown back into the water. When I first heard this I was like what the *^%$?! But when I looked at it from a symbolic standpoint, the spirit likened it unto this cool parable. He prayed for strength from God and God gave it to him because of his faith, but once he had the strength and power he then surrendered it back to God to restore balance. He said it was a great trial for him to throw the crown back. Anyway, kinda weird but I learned something. He also told me about the second coming and the iron rod and the Godhead and how we have to choose the right and grab the iron rod or we wouldn’t see the light come out of the sky during the second coming of God. He told me the only one who could pull us out of the hole with the rope was Jesus, and  the lightning that came down from the sky was God’s commandments and that’s why he grabbed on to them to choose the right!!!! Wow. I just want to hear more from this guy! Anyway, the whole time we were talking I really felt like he was my friend and that I loved him. I’m glad the spirit prompted me to talk to him so I didn’t just judge him as hopeless.

This week we’ve been teaching a lot of people, but most just like to hear us talk, not pray or read or do anything! So we have to drop a lot of people and let them know we’re here to invite them to Christ through faith, and then not teach them for like a month and see if that does anything-- and it works a lot! They realize the lack of spirit and it makes them want to act and have faith for themselves. I love the people who are so ready to put the gospel to the test and find their own witness. They’re so easy to teach! We have this one guy who has read the book of Mormon one and a half times already and knows it’s true and knows the gospel is true, but he won’t come to church because of his social life in his 7th day church, but he’s a really cool guy and we are inviting him to go cave exploring with us next  P-day.  That’ll be fun! 

The investigators named Suzette and Hores who are married came to church last week and they had a good experience. They appreciated the classroom setting of Sunday school and actually learning doctrine, but they missed the shouts and praises of their church. I tried to explain we don’t worship God just with our lips but with our heart and that that was the environment we try to culture at church-- one where you can find God inside of you, instead of around you. 

So far I’ve met a few prophets, or so they claimed to be-- but mostly it just sounds like they had some satanic experience, even though they describe the spirit and God perfectly. I think people out here are so open to the spiritual realm, and because of that they have a lot of good experiences, but they also lack discernment to tell when they’re straight-up possessed, and think it’s God. I haven’t had to cast out any devils yet though...

The fruit here is crazy! I’ve had star fruit and jack fruit and bread fruit and cashew fruit and mango and cane and coconut and everything! Everyone makes really good juice to go with their chicken and rice (which is still the only dish I’ve been feed) except for when they feed us fish, but I’m not complaining-- it’s all so good-- they have the best chicken in the whole world here! 

We did some more service for a member, pulling dirt up two stories onto a roof to make cement for her house construction. When we leave a spiritual thought with a member, my companions always say, "Well, we’d like to leave a spiritual thought with you, Elder Johnson has prepared one for you." Even though I hadn’t prepared anything. It’s mostly just funny and I always make it work, but after like the tenth time I started doing it to them:) They didn’t think it was funny:) I’ve been soooooooooooooooo tired lately, but today I’m feeling pretty good. I always fall asleep during nightly planning. I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon. 

Anyway, I think that’s about everything. Me and my companions buy ice cream like every other day for 100$ ($1 US), it’s become a tradition. Also the other day I had a jelly, which is a coconut that’s full of water. They hack the top off right there and you drink it and give it back,  then they hack it in half and you scrape the meat out and eat it and then pay them. It’s pretty cool. 

The computer is really bad and I can't send any photos. Sorry. 

Love you guys,

Luke

First Letter from Jamaica!

Hey Mom and family and Rachel! 

Wow, it is so humid here you sweat allllllll the time no matter what,  and it's pretty hot too,  but my companions tell me it's the cool season. Yep companions. I'm in a tripanionship, it's actually really nice to have 2 trainers. They're both really great and I like both of them and it's really fun the three of us together in a house with another companionship. So there's five in all living in our house. It's a super crappy house,  not as bad as Conners, but around here it's a pretty good house. At least it keeps the rain out. We cleaned today and I swept the floor three times and got the same amount of dirt each time-- it was crazy! We don't have a dryer,  we hang up our clothes to dry in our bedroom, which turns our bedroom into a huge swamp cooler with the fans running. 

I got a bike but Elder Humphrey's bike is broken right now so we walk everywhere, or taxi.  A taxi here is basically anyone with a car:) you just pay them 100$ (US $1) flat rate to go any where on their route (usually about 2 or 3 miles long) so to go 5 miles it costs 200$ one way. The taxi drivers are crazy and everyone drives like a maniac-- it's fun. Also everyone drives on the other side of the road which is weird. Wow, it's a third world country over here for sure. The shopping side of my area is way ghetto and there are people selling stuff everywhere. Everything is pretty cheap too, they give us plenty of money for food. The houses people build out here (everyone builds their own house) are all made from cement and cinder block and that's it. They build the first floor and live in it until they get the money to finish the second and third floors, which basically just means that 90% percent of the houses out here are only half built. Oh and the roads are terrible. 

So thats all the temporal stuff, but the people out here are amazing!!! For the most part they're kind, warm, and  friendly and want to talk. So many people want to learn the gospel. The members are super awesome and always feed us:) the food is amazing!!!! It's so good, mostly rice and chicken, but wow it's awesome!! Right now we have a few investigators. The ones that are progressing are named Suzette and Hores, they're married and have been trying to find the right church for a while, they never heard about our church but they're very open with the lessons and read the BoM every day and they're going to come to church. I can see they're starting to feel the truth of the restored gospel:)  I really hope they choose to be baptized. We extended the invitation and they said they'd prepare if they kept feeling the spirit:)  Our other awesome investigator is Anisha, she is really nice and smart, she has a boyfriend who she lives with and a daughter. She wants to be baptized but has to get married first, so she's working on that and hopefully we'll be able to help her from there:) 

We probably walk like fifty miles a day, but it's so beautiful out here it totally makes it worth it. Trees everywhere, green everywhere, no brown just green and every other tree is a fruit tree of some kind. But the only one we have in the US is mango, all the other fruit trees are totally new to me and so far they've all been really tasty. We just ordered a crate of 200 mangos for 15$US. Also they have cook shops over here for like 350$($3.50US) you can buy a huge plate of awesome food! And they give us enough money, I could literally buy cook shop every meal and never have to cook. The bugs really aren't that bad. I use bug spray at night since that's when they seeem to get me. Oh,  and get this, so my companions have never been in a Hurricane but this year they predict three!!! And one is supposed to be major! I'm so excited! Don't worry, my house is really solid and we have food and water storage. 

Oh my other companions name is Elder Packer and he's cool too. They've both been out almost two years one is leaving in 6 weeks the other  in 12 weeks, so they'll be around just long enough to train me. The way people talk out here is really hard to understand, even when the don't speak Patois (Slang English, like Pidgin in Hawaii). I can only understand half of it, if they do speak Patois, no chance I'll get any of it yet. I don't think I'll be coming back with an accent. We have done two service projects so far. One we built a tin roof, the other we hauled about a ton of rocks onto a roof for cement to build the third story of a house. We just put them in buckets and hauled them up on the roof. 

photo from the web

Everyone makes fun of us for being white it's pretty funny. Also eveyone calls me a China man, which I love! Little kids come up to me and say ''Ching chong ching chong"-- it's so funny. I think they can tell I'm Asian because in the humidity my hair sticks out a ton! So much for a nice hair cut:) Jerk chicken is awesome, stew chicken is awesome, curry chicken is awesome, brown sauce chicken is awesome, all the chicken is awesome!!! And they make really good pumpkin rice. We do a ton of planning, we plan our days for an hour every day after study and every week we have a super plan where we plan for three hours!! Not a fan. Oh well. I sleep super good-- my sheets (We got him bamboo sheets, because they are supposed to be cool) are also really awesome, thanks Mom. The other night the bar next door played music till 2am in the morning so loud it literally shook the house and I slept through it! They have these centipedes out here called 40 leggers, I  have yet to see them but look them up they're crazy! Super poisonous and apparently it hurts super bad to get stung. 

Also the other day I saw a snail that was like 3 pounds! It was twice as big as my name tag! And they have these huge bannana spiders out here-- they're really cool and they get like as big as my hand! Everyone hangs out outside here. It's a totally different culture, very effective for meeting people though. There are soooooo many dogs and goats and chickens just wandering around everywhere!!!! The goats and chickens all look pretty good and normal but the dogs out here are the saddest things you've ever seen. They all look like puppies even though they're older, they just are skinny and their growth is stunted, but they're friendly for the most part. 

photo from the web

I'm having an amazing time out here spiritually. God has blessed me to feel his love for everyone I've met and it's almost been more than I can handle because it's so awesome. Also, He's really helping me learn a lot, even though I'm not really sure what it is yet-- when I figure it out I'll tell you:) Love you Mom and Dad. I really miss talking to you. You guys are my best friends. Oh, just so you know, it takes a month for letters to come and leave Jamaica, so we should just email. Also packages can take 2-4 months, up to 6, so if you send a package, make sure it's ahead of time. Also, make sure it's nothing too valuable because they go through every package and take what they what they please. One missionary got an empty pack of Oreo's, because they decided to eat them. Tape pictures of Jesus on packages you send me, people over her are superstitious and apparently that works. 

I think that is about everything-- is that enough Mom?;) (When we found out Rachel got four page letters from the MTC, and we only got a paragraph, I told him that I wiped his butt for 3 years and he owed me MORE! lol)

I miss talking with you and I love you all a ton.

Love Luke

P.S. I'm really sorry, I have pics but I can't send them on this computer. I'll send them as soon as I can. My P day is on Monday, so that's when I will be emailing.