On to the Bahamas!!!

July 24, 2017 - Transcribed Recording

On To The Bahamas

Hello Everyone!

It’s Elder Call, like usual, you already know this.  Going through the same old, same old. I don’t know what to say anymore to start out.  I say all of my stupid Patois catchphrases, so you’re probably sick of those but, yeah!  So this week has been really interesting.  We’ll just start with that.  Elder Pankratz and I are just loving life like usual.  I am doing good, I am doing good.  I’m a happy missionary, like I told you about with my interview with President.  So far, this week, last p-day, we went to Kingston last p-day.  Sorry, I remember now.  We did the usual.  Got a bunch of nice ties and stuff, which won’t matter.  I’ll tell you about that in a minute, why it doesn’t matter. 

Tuesday was one of the worst days ever.  It just sucked!  We had nobody answer the phone; all of our investigators fell through.  We were trying to work really hard and it just was not working out at all.  Other than that, we had a great district meeting.  We talked a lot about patience, and just really learning the will of the Lord for our investigators.  Understanding, ya know, not to force time on baptism.  Let them have their decision, but also, let them know the sooner they are baptized the stronger they are going to feel the Spirit.  So, we talked a lot about that in district meeting.  Elder Johansen prepared a little bit.  Elder Morris talked about the white handbook for a minute with us.  It was a great district meeting.  I think it was a great one to incorporate into our work.

Wednesday was the first appointment that we had.  We scheduled a lot of appointments for Wednesday.  They all fell through.  We put forth a lot of effort.  We did the best we could.  I know that we were accountable for our day.  We tried really hard.  We met a really cool kid named Jermaine.  He lives up in Angels.  Way cool kid.  We weren’t able to meet up with him yet.  We had a lesson with Brother Henry and his two sons: Kawhani and Taje.  Talked a lot about setting goals in our lives.  Understanding the importance that goals have and what we can do to motivate ourselves to be better followers of Jesus Christ every single day.  So that was way cool.  I really enjoyed the lesson.  Like I said, that was the first lesson we had this previous week so that was rough! 

Thursday morning we went up to check Ranell, one of our investigators, and he was not around.  So that really sucked really bad.  Oh, and we went to check Fya and Natasha I think.  That’s who we were checking.  But in the end we decided to check an investigator named Andre who we’d seen walking up on the way there.  So that was an awesome thing we’d seen.  So Andre was like, “Yeah just come check me.”  We get over there and we get in the lane and there was this guy with his friends and a bunch of (I’m going to use the not good term.  I don’t like to use this term, but hookers) prostitutes were all over the street where Andre lives.  We were like, “This is not good.”  Elder Pankratz and I just passed them and go and contact someone we previously contacted but they weren’t home.  So we come back up and this guy who is standing right next to this cook shop was like, “Com ere.”  So we were talking to him.  He’s like, “Who are you guys?”  Talking about us white boys and stuff.  The best part was, he was just like, “Oh. Ok, has anyone ever turned your white shirt red?”  He had a little ratchet knife.  It’s called a three-star here; they’re just a crappy knife.  But he was like, “Anyone ever turned your white shirt red?”  I was just like, “Wow, you’re a dork.” Basically I was like, “Nope, nobody’s ever done it, but you could do it.  Do it if you’re going to do it.”  Then he was like, “What?”  Then everyone around him and the prostitute girls were like, “Oh! He just called you out!”  Then he starts flipping his knife around and was like, “I’ll do it!”  I’m like, “Go for it man.  I’m waiting for ya!” Maybe it was a little too bold of me but he never did it.  He backed down and was kind of intimidated.  He expected me to be scared.  Which, there’s no reason to be scared.  Then, Andre and his friend “Pops” were sitting right on the car and we didn’t’ want to interrupt them but we came up and they were like, “Yeah you can teach us a lesson.”  It was an incredible Restoration lesson.  “Pops”, after was like, “I’ve never been, like, every time I see religious people I hide because a lot of people try to force everything on you.  But, this was interesting.  It made me want to learn.”  I was so stoked!  It was an awesome lesson.  Right after that we went on a trade-off.  I went on a trade-off with Elder Hansen.  We taught a few of their investigators.  We got to see Brother Williams from Ward 2, who is a boss!  I love Brother Williams.  We got to see a couple of their investigators.  Had a really awesome trade-off, super fun. 

The next morning we did service for Brother Dennis who is a really strong member in ward 2.  Awesome guy.  We helped him pull up some trees.  I didn’t get any pictures of that, sadly.  But, we got it all figured out.  That was Friday morning.  After that we went and visited Fya and Natasha after the trade-off.  Elder Pankratz and I went up there and had a pretty good lesson.  Natasha is awesome.  I really love her.  She just needs to continue to strive to want to follow God. I really love Natasha.  She is way cool.  Fya is taking steps.  He said he is willing to follow God and willing to find out for himself.  So we are working with that.  After, we did our weekly planning and it was the bomb!  After weekly planning, Friday night activity was going on.  Elder Morris and I were then doing a trade-off because I wasn’t able to do one with him yet.  So we did our trade-off and Elder Morris and I went to their area and we were able to teach a guy named Wayne.  I got a terrible migraine but I was all right. I slept for like thirty minutes and got back up. I was good to go so we did our thing and I got some really nice baked chicken at this cook shop called “Tastee T’s” in their area.  After that we went and checked everybody.  They’re all doing well in their area.  I think they need to work a little bit more with new investigators and not so many investigators they’ve held on to for so long. 

Saturday morning I found out my transfer call with Elder Morris.  Elder Sewen called me and said, “Elder Call, you’re waiting on a call.”  Elder Morris thought that was pretty funny, “Elder Call, you’re waiting on a call.”  Really dorky I know.  The assistants let me know a little bit later, right when I was getting out of the shower of course, that I was being transferred.  I’ll be leaving Spanish Town and I will be going to Nassau in The Bahamas to be the zone leader there.  Pretty awesome!  I’m already all packed.  I’m going to be leaving in the next couple of hours to go watch the driving video and get my paperwork done so I have driving privileges in The Bahamas.  Then I’ll stay the night at the assistants and I’ll hop on a plane to Miami tomorrow.  I’m not sure exactly what time I’ll be in Miami but I know it will be about 6:00 in evening that I get to Nassau.  Elder Christensen and Elder Christensen are the zone leaders right now.  I’ll be serving with both of them for about two weeks and then one Elder Christensen goes home and the other is the one I’ll be serving with.  So I’m really excited.  I would not expect to go to The Bahamas already so that is mad!  I’m just like, “Oh crap!”  Getting my bags under fifty pounds was a struggle!  But, we did everything we could Saturday.  We traded back in the evening because we traded at that time.  That’s when I got sick and everything.  We figured it all out, and then we went and saw Wayne, and got out some really solid contacts.

We showed up back in church.  It was a big time of saying goodbye and everything.  Elder Pankratz and I got to bear our testimonies.  Elder Pankratz is also leaving to go to May Pen; our area is being shut down.  There were supposed to be fourteen elders coming in and now there are only four.  So that is challenging.  Five areas are being closed. 

I’m really loving the missionary work here.  It’s going on great.  Elder Christensen called me from The Bahamas and said, “You’re going to love it.  It’s totally different missionary work than Jamaica.”  Something on my mind this week was just continual perseverance and positivity.  Major perseverance.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we could have just given up because all of our appointments had fallen through, but we pushed forward and Thursday and Friday were incredible days for us, and Saturday!  They were just awesome on-fire-days.  We got to do so much.  We prepared the area a lot Saturday and Sunday.  We got to visit bishop and his family.  I forgot to get a picture. I’m terrible I know.  We got to visit bishop and also the Millers of course, I got pictures of all that.  We ate dinner at the Millers, got to say goodbye to Bishop Laughton.  So there are a lot of investigators here that Elder Johansen and Elder Moyes will be taken over our area.  They are going to be covering three areas in Spanish Town, so it is going to be really challenging.  I have a lot of faith that they know the investigators that we have talked about.  They’ll be fine.  So “evry’ting” up!  I said goodbye to a lot of people.  I am sad.  I didn’t really want to leave the island of Jamaica yet but on to bigger and better things I guess right?  Nassau is going to be awesome.  The Bahamas!  Not a lot of missionaries can say they get to serve in The Bahamas. 

Mannaz and respect for everyone.  I’m really grateful for my opportunity and service here to serve the Lord on my mission.  I’m really, really grateful for the time.  I love you all.  Thank you again for listening to my recording.  I hope you all enjoy them.  Nassau is going to be ligit!  I’m going to enjoy it.  Next time you hear from me I’ll be on a vacation this time actually.  Jamaica wasn’t really a vacation, but The Bahamas, probably! 

I love you all.  “Lata!”