Hey Fam

Mon, Jul 19, 2010

Wow, Talk about a culture shock! Jamaica is great, well sort of. It has been very humid, cloudy, rainy, and quite warm. I haven't seen the sun since I got here. I also haven't seen another white man, besides my companion. I am serving in Old Harbour, on the south side of the island. Elder Ronhaar and I got put here on Wednesday to whitewash the area. It has been a bit crazy because we are the only missionaries here and the last set left very poor records and no maps. It makes for a bit of an adventure though.

Old Harbour is not a very big place and everything is spread out and very hilly with trees everywhere. Everyone lives in their own house/shack. The houses are either made of cheap cement or scrap tin and boards. Sometimes I think the chicken pen would be an improvement. There are dogs and goats EVERYWHERE! I haven't quite figured it out yet because everyone has their yards and houses fenced with locked gates, but there's no fences for the animals. I've even seen cows and pigs on the street, but mostly its dogs and goats. Since we are whitewashing the area we've done a lot of finding and meeting members. My companion, Elder Ronhaar, is from Mt. Vernon, WA and he is a great guy. We get along fine and work well together.

There are no wards or stakes in Jamaica. I guess they have enough members to make a stake, but they don't have the priesthood leadership. We went to the branch here in Old Harbour yesterday. There were prabably 30 people there, with an elders quorum of about 4. It's hard, culturally, to get men to go to church. Complete families (both parents and their kids) living in the same house together are also very hard to come by. I can't say I've seen one yet. We also have a problem with people getting baptized and then not coming back to church, so we're working on that. People will usually listen to you, but it is very hard to get them to do anything. They are usually pretty laid back people and don't want to be bothered much.

The accent is crazy. The first couple days here I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying. I'm starting to pick up on it though, so now I can understand most things. It is really frustrating because they can understand me but I can't understand them. But, It's coming.

Dad, Tell your deacons that if they want to serve a mission in Jamaica, they better learn how to wash their clothes by hand for mission prep.

Happy Birthday Karina!

I'm loving it here in Jamaica. There's nothing better I could be doing, and I love a good challenge.
Love you all,
Elder Kartchner

Oh, a few other things I forgot to mention.
The money is crazy. I think we get $20,000 per month. It's nothing to spend 2 or 3 hundred bucks on a meal. My first day in Old Harbour, I think I spent 7 grand on bicycle parts, groceries, and other odds and ends.