Colorado to Kingston : Lead, Kindly Light

Hey everyone!

This week was the fastest week ever! How is this transfer already half way over? It's flown by so fast!!

Monday we got to go to Cabbage Beach on Paradise Island. (aka the most beautiful beach in the world on the most fun island in the world.) It was a blast!! That night we went out teaching, since p-day ends at 6:00. It was Michelle's birthday, and she's Jamaican, so we floured her! (Basically Jamaicans pour flour over each other's heads to celebrate big events. It doesn't really make sense but it's fun so I've decided to roll with it.)

Tuesday we started to go out teaching, but about halfway through the day we all felt insanely sick. So the teaching had to slow down a little, but we got everything done thanks to the help of Heavenly Father!

Wednesday morning, we went to district meeting (which is mostly like our nightly house scripture study since our district consists of the four sisters that live in my house), and we all started to feel really sick again. Sister Rampersad was super sick, and we were worried about her, so we took her to the doctor. Turns out our filters on our faucets weren't working, and we'd all been drinking contaminated water for a few days. But after we took some medicine and rested, we were mostly okay. The Lord really does look after his missionaries... the doctor told us that we should have been in bed unable to move based on the amount of bacteria that was in our bodies! I'm so grateful to be blessed with such good health.

Thursday morning, Sister Rampersad was feeling sicker than the rest of us still, so we had to do a trade-off. Basically that meant I had to lead my area after being in the field for two and a half weeks. The good news is, we only got lost once. The bad news is, we were so lost we were about forty five minutes late to our appointment. I'm pretty sure I have no sense of direction unless I have some form of mountain range to help guide me. Oops. The best thing that happened on Thursday was that both Arthur Jr and Northell committed to baptismal dates within the next two weeks! I really hope and pray they continue to progress... their testimonies are astounding!!

Friday was my month mark! I've been a missionary for over a month now! How is that even possible... It feels like I've been here for like three days. Sister Rampersad got everyone cupcakes to celebrate because she's the best trainer in the world :) We had a mini party in the car before we separated for the day. Friday after superplanning, we had an actual scheduled trade-off, which meant I led my area AGAIN. Sister Wilkinson and I were going to Arthur Jr's house when we realized we were dying of hunger, and there was a friendly looking rasta man on the side of the road selling peanuts. So we pulled up beside him and asked if we could trade him a Book of Mormon for two bags of peanuts. He got super excited and took the book and started reading. Long story short... we have a new investigator, but I never got my peanuts haha. Friday night was fun night at the church. Bahamians sure know how to play basketball! All of the sisters played against the primary kids, and we got our tails whooped. We're going to start working on our skills in the mornings for exercise time so we don't get beaten by ten year olds again.

Saturday was a normal proselyting day... with a weird dinner consisting of waffles covered in fried chicken and syrup. It sounds disgusting, but it tasted delicious! I couldn't eat more than a few bites though because I thought my heart would stop haha.

Sunday, ALL OF OUR INVESTIGATORS CAME TO CHURCH!!! And we got three new investigators because our members rock and they share the gospel like none other! HALLELUJAH THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Haha we got so excited, Sister Rampersad and I ran outside and jumped up and down for a few minutes between Sacrament and Sunday school. Then after church, we went to go eat at a member's home for lunch, but we had a flat tire. Boo. We tried to change it by ourselves, but our spare was flat too. Five amazing branch members, a friendly tire shop owner, and a broken sabbath day later, we were finally able to change our tire! So after we finished repenting for breaking the sabbath (haha), we got to go eat lunch and teach a bunch of people! We're working on reactivating the Taylor family. They have a little girl named Arden (she's like four), and she's pretty much fallen in love with me. She follows me around and she even tried to sneak in the trunk of our car so I would take her home with me. Goodness gracious I love that little girl so much! She's the cutest thing you ever did see. Sunday was Ramp's eight month mark, so she and I drove to Paradise Island to watch the sunset. It was GORGEOUS and a perfect way to end the Sabbath!!

Other things that happened this week:

Since people here speak a combination of French, Creole, and English, I've been working on learning French and Creole. (Even though this is an English speaking mission haha.) I can bear my testimony like half way in Creole, and I'm figuring out how to teach lessons with a combination of French, Creole, English and sign language I make up on the spot :) I think it's working... maybe. Haha :)

We've been ducking the police all week because we have no brake lights and our windshield is cracked. The office won't pay for them to be fixed because we're getting new cars this week (woohoo!). But we still got pulled over twice. But they took pity on us because we're confused foreigners and we didn't even get a warning! It's a miracle I tell ya.

We got a branch mission leader! Brother Smith is amazing and his wife is like our grandma here! She's such a sweet lady, and he's such a cool guy! They take really good care of us :)

This week, I've really been paying attention to the tender mercies of the Lord. One that especially stuck out to me happened Tuesday night as we were driving home. It had been a long day of proselyting, especially since we were so sick and it was almost 100 degrees and insanely humid. I was just worn out and I said a little prayer in my head asking Heavenly Father for some comfort. After I finished my prayer, the song on the stereo changed to "Lead, Kindly Light." I heard, "Lead, kindly light amid the encircling gloom. The night is dark, and I am far from home. Lead thou me on." As I listened to the words, I was overcome with a feeling of peace and an awareness that Heavenly Father cares for me. I am doing His work, and He isn't going to leave me or anyone else alone. He knows each and every one of us better than we know ourselves, and all he wants is for us to be happy. He will guide us if we do our best to follow him. I know that as we all continue to learn and grow and do our very best to keep the commandments and come closer to Christ, we will be blessed in more ways than we can count.

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us all so much! I love this gospel, and sharing such a happy message with these people every day is helping me find more peace and joy than I could have ever hoped for!

The church is true. I love you all!

Sister Oman