me in Port Antonio
the coolest tree ever
the view from our house in highgate
picking bread fruit
view from the highgate house
sunrise in highgate (it is always cloudy)
port antonio
lighthouse at port antonio
another picture of the coolest tree ever
Monday, January 17, 2011
Hey Fam
Mon, Jan 17, 2011
Things are going good. Highgate is still cool. We're continuing to work hard. we've had some success with some of the less active members. We've been working on updating the branch list. we don't have a branch clerk and it is in desperate need of updating. we've been trying to find all the members. I think we've found about 20-25 names on the list of 130 members have either moved or died and we have yet to find some. It's been pretty fun to try to put the puzzle together. Anyway, this last week I did my first baptismal interview in port antonio which was cool. church yesterday was really good as well. hope you enjoy the pictures.
Love you lots,
Elder Kartchner
Things are going good. Highgate is still cool. We're continuing to work hard. we've had some success with some of the less active members. We've been working on updating the branch list. we don't have a branch clerk and it is in desperate need of updating. we've been trying to find all the members. I think we've found about 20-25 names on the list of 130 members have either moved or died and we have yet to find some. It's been pretty fun to try to put the puzzle together. Anyway, this last week I did my first baptismal interview in port antonio which was cool. church yesterday was really good as well. hope you enjoy the pictures.
Love you lots,
Elder Kartchner
Monday, January 10, 2011
Highgate
Mon, Jan 10, 2011
Well, things are going good here. I love Highgate. We've had a good week. On Wednesday we went to Port Antonio for district meeting. the drive there is so pretty. you drive right along the coast with the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. This part of the island is much more jungleish. Wednesday night I spent the night in Ocho Rios and drove to Kingston Thursday morning with the zone leaders for some leadership training with President Hendricks. It was really good. I got to spend the night in the mission home. It was so nice to see carpet and hot water again. The rest of the week went really well. Elder Conder and I have been teaching our behinds off. It paid off when we had one of our investigators came to church with her 3 kids as well as 2 others that came that were invited by a member. Chris Singh unfortunately missed church. we had a good talk with him yesterday about why church is so important. He is still doing ok. he has been reading a lot from the book of mormon. he could use some prayers though.
Elder Conder and I have been working very hard and teaching our behinds off. We are really trying to get the members more involved in our missionary work. Elder Conder and I simply don't have time to do everything that we want to do especially when we have to spend some time dealing with branch buisness. We got the OK from the branch president to start our Member Missionary Preparation Class on Tuesday night. This class is meant to help members understand the doctrine of missionary work, understand and explain our beliefs, give practical ideas for member missionary work, and coordinate our efforts with the members. Since we don't have any structure in the branch to work with, we are trying to work directly with as many members as we can. Hopefully we will have a good turn out and it will be effective. We are hoping to get the members motivated so that by next week we can start another class on Thursday night at the church to which we can invite investigators and encourage members to invite people to. We haven't finalized our plans for this class yet but our thought is that if we can get people to come it will be those who are prepared to hear our message. Those that come will have an immediate support system from the member that invited them, coming to the church for the class will make it easier to come back on Sunday, and those that come will be those who are interested in learning and are willing to act on an invitation. This is all part of our plan to think of different ways of how to find those who are prepared to act on our message. We'll keep working at it and see how it goes.
Thanks for all you do. Love you all, have a great week.
Elder Kartchner
Well, things are going good here. I love Highgate. We've had a good week. On Wednesday we went to Port Antonio for district meeting. the drive there is so pretty. you drive right along the coast with the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. This part of the island is much more jungleish. Wednesday night I spent the night in Ocho Rios and drove to Kingston Thursday morning with the zone leaders for some leadership training with President Hendricks. It was really good. I got to spend the night in the mission home. It was so nice to see carpet and hot water again. The rest of the week went really well. Elder Conder and I have been teaching our behinds off. It paid off when we had one of our investigators came to church with her 3 kids as well as 2 others that came that were invited by a member. Chris Singh unfortunately missed church. we had a good talk with him yesterday about why church is so important. He is still doing ok. he has been reading a lot from the book of mormon. he could use some prayers though.
Elder Conder and I have been working very hard and teaching our behinds off. We are really trying to get the members more involved in our missionary work. Elder Conder and I simply don't have time to do everything that we want to do especially when we have to spend some time dealing with branch buisness. We got the OK from the branch president to start our Member Missionary Preparation Class on Tuesday night. This class is meant to help members understand the doctrine of missionary work, understand and explain our beliefs, give practical ideas for member missionary work, and coordinate our efforts with the members. Since we don't have any structure in the branch to work with, we are trying to work directly with as many members as we can. Hopefully we will have a good turn out and it will be effective. We are hoping to get the members motivated so that by next week we can start another class on Thursday night at the church to which we can invite investigators and encourage members to invite people to. We haven't finalized our plans for this class yet but our thought is that if we can get people to come it will be those who are prepared to hear our message. Those that come will have an immediate support system from the member that invited them, coming to the church for the class will make it easier to come back on Sunday, and those that come will be those who are interested in learning and are willing to act on an invitation. This is all part of our plan to think of different ways of how to find those who are prepared to act on our message. We'll keep working at it and see how it goes.
Thanks for all you do. Love you all, have a great week.
Elder Kartchner
Monday, January 3, 2011
The Group Pic
Mon, Jan 3, 2011
This is our mission christmas party in Kingston with all the missionaries on the island. I'm in the bottom right.
This is our mission christmas party in Kingston with all the missionaries on the island. I'm in the bottom right.
Happy New Year in a New Place
Mon, Jan 3, 2011
Wow, sounds like an exciting christmas break. It sounds way too cold to me. I think I might just stay in Jamaica forever. So you got a new building? me too, Highgate's building is about the same as Old Harbour's - just a little rented space. The branch is good though. We have several really good member missionaries which helps out a lot. Elder Conder and I got to our new house Wednesday night and we decided to go visit one member. She had one of her friends at her house so we taught him. we saw him a few more times during the week. He came to church yesterday for the first time and loved it. To our surprise he walked up and bore his testimony! His name is Chris Singh and he is awesome. We're coming up with a program right now to help get members more involved in missionary work
So, high gate takes my small branch experience to another level. it is one of the smallest branches on the island. we had maybe 30 people there. There isn't much priesthood experience to speak of. we do have a few active priesthood but most of them are recent converts. a month or so ago they stopped having a missionary be the branch president and called bro. Barbagee to be the new branch president. he was baptized less than a year ago but is a great guy. elder conder and I act as his counselors in the branch presidency and have the responsibility to help train him. Yesterday I got my first crash-course lesson in running a branch. we got to write up the program for sacrament mtg, bless the sacrament, lead the music, bear my testimony, distribute the new sunday school manuals, teach a lesson, do tithing, try to organize the branch president office, and a whole lot else. At least church isn't boring (not that it ever is).
Elder conder is new but very good. he is very motivated and loves talking to EVERYONE, which is great. I'm looking forward to the rest of the transfer. high gate is very small and every one knows eachother. it is way up in the hills. I'm now walking instead of biking because the area is fairly small and nothing is anywhere close to flat. I don't think it ever stops raining up here. high gate is right on top of a big hill so the view is amazing.
Thanks for all the emails and such. love you lots.
Elder Kartchner
Wow, sounds like an exciting christmas break. It sounds way too cold to me. I think I might just stay in Jamaica forever. So you got a new building? me too, Highgate's building is about the same as Old Harbour's - just a little rented space. The branch is good though. We have several really good member missionaries which helps out a lot. Elder Conder and I got to our new house Wednesday night and we decided to go visit one member. She had one of her friends at her house so we taught him. we saw him a few more times during the week. He came to church yesterday for the first time and loved it. To our surprise he walked up and bore his testimony! His name is Chris Singh and he is awesome. We're coming up with a program right now to help get members more involved in missionary work
So, high gate takes my small branch experience to another level. it is one of the smallest branches on the island. we had maybe 30 people there. There isn't much priesthood experience to speak of. we do have a few active priesthood but most of them are recent converts. a month or so ago they stopped having a missionary be the branch president and called bro. Barbagee to be the new branch president. he was baptized less than a year ago but is a great guy. elder conder and I act as his counselors in the branch presidency and have the responsibility to help train him. Yesterday I got my first crash-course lesson in running a branch. we got to write up the program for sacrament mtg, bless the sacrament, lead the music, bear my testimony, distribute the new sunday school manuals, teach a lesson, do tithing, try to organize the branch president office, and a whole lot else. At least church isn't boring (not that it ever is).
Elder conder is new but very good. he is very motivated and loves talking to EVERYONE, which is great. I'm looking forward to the rest of the transfer. high gate is very small and every one knows eachother. it is way up in the hills. I'm now walking instead of biking because the area is fairly small and nothing is anywhere close to flat. I don't think it ever stops raining up here. high gate is right on top of a big hill so the view is amazing.
Thanks for all the emails and such. love you lots.
Elder Kartchner
Monday, December 20, 2010
Merry Christmas
Mon, Dec 20, 2010
We had a good week. We're still working hard and having fun. There's not a whole lot of stuff to report especially since I'll be talking to y'all on Saturday. This week should be pretty crazy. Elder Mackey and I hit our 6 month mark on Thursday, we go to Kingston on Friday for a mission christmas party and Saturday is Christmas. That's cool that you had the openhouse for the new chapel. It's too bad I can't be everywhere at once. Things are going good here, though. We are working with a great guy named Kortney Stuart. He has a small metal working shop so we relate pretty well. We committed him to be baptized so we're excited for him. Well, that's pretty much it. we'll talk to you on Saturday, so later. Merry Christmas!
Elder Kartchner
We had a good week. We're still working hard and having fun. There's not a whole lot of stuff to report especially since I'll be talking to y'all on Saturday. This week should be pretty crazy. Elder Mackey and I hit our 6 month mark on Thursday, we go to Kingston on Friday for a mission christmas party and Saturday is Christmas. That's cool that you had the openhouse for the new chapel. It's too bad I can't be everywhere at once. Things are going good here, though. We are working with a great guy named Kortney Stuart. He has a small metal working shop so we relate pretty well. We committed him to be baptized so we're excited for him. Well, that's pretty much it. we'll talk to you on Saturday, so later. Merry Christmas!
Elder Kartchner
Monday, December 6, 2010
Happy December
Dec 6, 2010
We had another good week. We have several good people we are working with. unfortunately we didn't get to meet with Sister Swearing. She is still doing very well. She downloaded the general conference talks and is reading gospel principles and has already read through several books in the book of mormon. We are lucky if we get to meet with her once a week but she is our most solid investigator because she takes the time to learn and study on her own. It's been a good example of how important personal study and prayer along with church attendance are to our spiritual growth. We are still working with Bro Richard. We've been able to teach him a couple times and help him out on his little farm.
I forgot to mention last week that we had our primary program for sacrament meeting. It was great. All 6 kids got to bear their testimonies or give short talks as well as sing. I love small branches. It makes church so much more exciting. Yesterday we had good church meetings as well. Last night we got to go to Spanish Town to watch the Christmas devotional. It only took a half hour ride standing up in a crowded bus and then a 20 min walk through the ghettos of Spanish town at night to get there but it was worth it. Luckily we got a ride home in the back of one of the member's cargo trucks. It was fun.
Anyway, things are going good. I'm looking forward to Christmas. It even feels like Christmas here. We have the nice cool "christmas breeze" that keeps things from getting too hot. I got cold last night. It got down to 74. I think I might have to start closing the windows at night or maybe invest in a blanket.
Well, thanks for all you do. Love you all.
Elder Kartchner
We had another good week. We have several good people we are working with. unfortunately we didn't get to meet with Sister Swearing. She is still doing very well. She downloaded the general conference talks and is reading gospel principles and has already read through several books in the book of mormon. We are lucky if we get to meet with her once a week but she is our most solid investigator because she takes the time to learn and study on her own. It's been a good example of how important personal study and prayer along with church attendance are to our spiritual growth. We are still working with Bro Richard. We've been able to teach him a couple times and help him out on his little farm.
I forgot to mention last week that we had our primary program for sacrament meeting. It was great. All 6 kids got to bear their testimonies or give short talks as well as sing. I love small branches. It makes church so much more exciting. Yesterday we had good church meetings as well. Last night we got to go to Spanish Town to watch the Christmas devotional. It only took a half hour ride standing up in a crowded bus and then a 20 min walk through the ghettos of Spanish town at night to get there but it was worth it. Luckily we got a ride home in the back of one of the member's cargo trucks. It was fun.
Anyway, things are going good. I'm looking forward to Christmas. It even feels like Christmas here. We have the nice cool "christmas breeze" that keeps things from getting too hot. I got cold last night. It got down to 74. I think I might have to start closing the windows at night or maybe invest in a blanket.
Well, thanks for all you do. Love you all.
Elder Kartchner
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