Waapm?

Mon, Aug 30, 2010

Things are going well here in Old Harbour. We had a fairly good week. Oh, just so you know, "waapm" means what's happening and is used as a greeting. I'm having a very hard time thinking or writing in proper english. It's a good thing I don't have any more college English to take.

This week was the week for parties. One of the older sisters in our branch invited us to her birthday party. We baked a cake and brought it. The party itself was very structured and formal. It was kind of weird but that's ok. We also had our branch's annual BBQ where they cooked up some good curried goat, baked chicken, and rice and peas. We even had Ice cream. Jamaican ice cream is made with shortening instead of cream though, so it tastes like your eating a bowl of fruit flavored crisco. I'm not a big fan. I also had my first taste of manish water (goat head soup). As weird as it sounds, it was good.

The other day I got my first marriage proposal. It was a pretty funny story. You'll have to remind me to tell the whole story some time. Elder Ronhaar and I got a good laugh. On Saturday we were riding back for lunch when this guy on a next bicycle comes down this hill and around a corner and hit Elder Ronhaar head on. Both of their front tires got mashed up bad. We spent the rest of the day walking his bicycle into town and getting it fixed. Fun stuff.

Well Dad, I think your idea for Buzzard is a good one. Bro Young can have as big a percentage as you and he thinks is fair. The horse is not going to get used otherwise till I get back which won't do him any good. It would be good to get him to someone who will use him so his brain doesn't rot.

In answer to your question Dad, we used to do a lot of street contacting when we first got here. Now that we know the members better, we are working with them which is much more effective. We have several members who have been very helpful in giving us multiple referrals and let us teach the lessons at their houses. Tracting is fairly pointless when you have to call at each gate and no one ever answers. Street contacting is a bit better because you actually get to talk to someone. A lot of people are a bit skeptical when two white boys stop them on the street and want to take down their info. We get called FBI, CIA, KKK, all the time along with a variety of other vulgar and racial slurs. It doesn't bug me anymore, but it really helps to have a member in the lesson who already knows the investigator to help gain that trust because people hear all kinds of rumors about us. We are starting a FHE group tonight at one of the members homes to help strengthen the members, reactivate less active members in the area, and hopefully create an environment that they can easily invite their non-member friends to. We'll see how it goes.

So what are Karina and Jeff majoring in?

Anyway, got to go. Thanks for the emails and support. Love you all
Elder Kartchner