April 14, 2009 (Stardate 2500.4 mark 2) :P

Family,
Well it is good to hear from you all again. Glad that Easter seems to have gone over well. So it sounds like Laura has had a fairly eventful week! I am very happy to hear that she is okay! Our Zone leaders had a truck that last week they completely obliterated when another guy ran a red light. The zone leaders were fine but their truck was in pieces and the other guy was in critical condition. Don't know what happened to him. They can't find him now. But either way I am happy to hear that you are safe and sound laura! I hope that any injuries aren't to lasting.
So dad we do get together with the other missionaries every Wednesday. We go to Montego Bay and meet with the whole zone. And then split up for district meetings. It is a lot of fun! It takes 4 hours of driving time but we always learn a ton and have a great time with the other missionaries. During zone conference and zone meeting the president and the AP's come out and join us which is always a lot of fun! Transfers come via phone the week before they happen. Then the zone leaders will drive you to your new area so the zone leaders get to do a ton of driving on transfer days.
Thanks for the information on the food mom and dad! It was helpful I will remember that! I have been eating moderately good. Unfortunately we have to have our week long food supply ready by the end of the month for hurricane season so their goes all my extra money but I am eating quite well! Thanks for the idea on tortillas and chili and eggs. I like it! I think I will try it one of these days!
A few other random things. Heather you may have them if you can find them. But if you ever get around to selling any of them and it turns out that they have any value than I call half of the profit! So I don't know what else is in the box with them but anything else in their that isn't related just put it somewhere for me. Laura will you also be kind enough to figure out any progress on Alex and his mission papers/call from Alyssa! Thanks
Well I think that is about it for randomness. I don't know if sister gingery told you or not but preparation day is Tuesday this week. Because Monday was a holiday. Easter is possibly the biggest holiday in Jamaica. They celebrate it from Friday to Monday. School, work, and anything else stops for the day. Everyone just sits around and does nothing. So Monday is the perfect time for the missionaries to come and teach since no one is doing anything! Easter was good. Just a regular day for the missionaries but everyone else seemed to like it! They have a weird tradition where on Friday no one cooks just eats bun and cheese. It was weird but we got free food so it was all good!
So this week we have had some good times! We found a man named Mc. Cloud. He had never heard of the church but had some how gotten a copy of the book of Mormon. He knew nothing about where the book of mormon came from or what it was but he had read the whole thing many times and knew the whole thing front to back. He could tell us every little detail about the book. It was the weirdest thing ever to meet someone who knew just as much if not more about the contents of the book of mormon than most the members in our branch. Unfortunately he has a 7th day concern. So don't know if we can overcome that one. There are 0/60 members of our branch that have ever had a 7th day concern. No missionary in Negril has managed to over come that concern yet. But we are still hopeful!
My bike was doing great until my companion and I accidently got in a crash when I stopped and he didn't see me stop so he smashed into me and flipped over his bike and my bike got its gears all smashed up. It was still ride worthy but the rear gears don't change anymore. Which is a problem in Negril since it is a giant hill! But oh well! I will hopefully fix it sometime today!
So this past week we keep meeting this lady named T. She keeps inviting us to her church and we keep inviting her to our church. Finally we said that we would come to hers if she would come to ours. So on Sunday, we felt obligated to go because we said we would and we didn't want to be like all of our investigators that never show up for church. So we went to the local Pentacostal church for about 20 minutes. It was really really really loud. I don't know how any one can learn a thing their. It was just super loud and everyone was singing and clapping and dancing - except for the missionaries who just sat their and stared in awe at this church. We couldn't believe that this is what people consider church to be. It has no purpose except to make as much noise as possible. Thankfully the power went out randomly so it got quiet again! It was an odd experience. I don't see how people can go their every Sunday, lose their hearing and learn absolutely nothing.
Well Last preparation day we ran out of cooking gas so we had to refill our gas. We live on the second floor of a house and the cooking gas is in a canister on a thin ledge out side the window. So we climbed out their and tried to get the canister disconnected. But the regulator was really crazy and we couldn't figure it out. We called every missionary who had previously been in Negril to ask them how they got it off. They all told us that they couldn't figure it out so they just cut the tube. But one of them told us not to cut the tube because the tube was getting short from every missionary cutting it off. Well we cut the tube In the end and carried it to the gas place about ¾ mile away. We got their and Collin the gas man laughed at us because he had seen the same thing with all the missionaries. They all show up at his place with a cut tube! Well after a while he managed to get it off. Turns out their was a strange piece of metal that had to be pushed in. but their was no indication that that was possible. So we got that all fixed and then once we got home I wrote up an instructional guide as to how to remove it for future missionaries!
Progress in Negril is going slowly but the work does move on! We have little success with people here for various reasons. The biggest being that there are over 20 different denominations in a very small area so everyone is always arguing about their religion with everyone they meet so when the missionaries show up they are so use to arguing with everyone that they just argue with us. We constantly have to battle the other missionaries. A few of the other faiths around here send out other missionaries that roam the streets also. So even though we never talk to them our investigators do. And unfortunately our message never sounds as good to people. Ours puts restrictions with the word of wisdom and law of chastity. But most of our investigators that decide to stop listening to us will just hide from us because they don't want to admit that they are rejecting the truth. The little kids tell us all the time that their parents are hiding from us. It would be nice if they would just tell us that they don't want to listen to us anymore. But they don't have an excuse for not listening to us except that they can't keep living their sinful life so they just hide from us and hope we don't find them!
Something interesting about the members that we do have. We stop by and see them from time to time and they are always reading! It is odd. But the members, when not working, are studying the scriptures or other gospel literatures. They spend all their time working and studying. It is interesting to see how dedicated they are to the gospel here. Those who are converted are normally really strong members.
Another interesting thing that has happened, a tragic story but oh well. My companion and I have witnessed the pride cycle take place in 6 weeks. So when I first got to Negril we were helping a man named Bro. Haynes find a job because he had no work for over 4 months and was really suffering. He was a member and had a good testimony and was a really cool guy who loved the gospel. Well we got him a job as a taxi man and he started working to get money. He began working tons and stopped coming to church in order to get more money. We could never find him and the few times we talked to him he was just concerned about money, he had stopped studying or praying or attending church and had become horribly prideful. It had only been 4 or 5 weeks but the change had been amazing. But then something or other happened, still not sure what, he lost his job, was humbled and is now back to square one. No job. It was interesting to see that happen so fast.
Mission is going wonderfully! Sometimes it would be nice to be back in the states with the comforts of home, like reliable power and water but oh well. It finally rained again yesterday! Which was good. It hadn't rained in a few weeks and was super hot. Everyone was thinking it was bit odd that there hadn't been any rain but it has returned again! So that is refreshing!
Well time is starting to run short! Hopefully all continues to go well at home and I hope that You don't get in any more car wrecks any time soon! Life goes well in Jamaica, I am enjoying myself and love to go out everyday and teach away! Got a letter from donette. Sounds like they are doing well! I hope that elko works out for them! I am surprised that april is already half over but its all good. I look forward to hearing from you all next week and hope that something in this email made some sense!
Love you all!
Elder Kent Talbert