6 Mo. out, Now serving with Elder Lee

Hey everyone! K, so this is gonna be an update from like Christmas eve on... So, i'm gonna try and get it all down... we'll see how it goes haha.. So, Christmas eve, we got up early to go to Kingston for the Christmas party with all the missionaries (I made pancakes and eggs in the morning :) )... The party was sweet!!.. One of the things that I thought was gonna be a little lame was that they had all the missionaries do skits... But it actually turned out hilarious!!! We did the nativity for ours.. the story of "what really happened".. and it turned out pretty funny... Elder Lee (my new comp).. was Mary and I was Joseph haha... Elder Lee had a wig, dress and everything..... Basically we brought a whole new light on the nativity scene... :) Following the skits, President Hendricks gave an amazing talk on the birth of Christ, and brought the spirit back. It was way good.. Then we all ate dinner, transfers were announced and They handed out packages.. I got more mail than any other missionary that I saw haha So thanks to everyone who sent stuff.. :).. ... Oh and thanks to the ward for the Merry christmas banner.. It was way nice.. :).. But ya, after the party was over is when the adventure started... President Hendricks was nice enough to drive us to the bus park (a 30 min walk) so that we didn't have to walk carrying our packages... So ya, we caught a bus from Kingston to Spanish Town pretty easy, and thats where things started going downhill haha. Spanish Town was so crowded!! The whole town was a party!! Christmas is a little different here... but it was awesome.. until we started to try and catch a bus to May Pen. We found the May Pen area in the bus park, and waited for a bus to come, but nothing came for about an hour. Finally we saw one coming around the corner, so we picked up all our packages and went to gt on, but apparently everyone else was going to May Pen too, because there were instantly hundreds of people pushing shoving, and fighting to get on the bus.. We were so blown away by how many people showed up out of nowhere that we didn't stand a chance!! The bus was come and gone before we knew what happened, and we were left there in a daze.. This happened 3 or 4 times in the next few hours and each time we were out fought (Jamaicans can be vicious!!) and didn't make it on. Jamacan bus parks have no order at all.. Finaly after 4 hours fo this, Eolder Knowlton and Lee made it on a bus cuz neither of them had any packages, so they were able to use their hands to cut people off, but me and Elder Poulsen didn't stand a chance cuz we had no free hands... So both our companions left, and we were stuck there trying to get back.. We finally got a callf rom the zone leaders though who told us that like no one was able to catch a bus home and said that if we could make it to this place 2 or 3 miles away they could give us a ride home... so we walked the 2 or 3 miles carrying our packages (it was exhausting!) and when we finally got there, we saw that the truck was already full, so we hopped in the back and got a ride to May Pen from there.. It was like 60-65 degrees out and we were freezing!!!! haha.. sorry for you guys in the cold weather in the states!! But ya, Christmas eve was insane!!! Such a blast!! haha.. Christmas day was nice!! I made pancakes and eggs again in the morning, and opened my packages.. :) It was way nice!! Thanks again everyone!! After that, we went to the Sterlings and did a gift exchange with them.. and called our families.. It was so nice to talk to my family!! We got to use skype.. and it was definately the best part of Christmas. After that, the Sterlings fed us Christmas dinner, and then we went and Mama-P (our land lord) fed us dinner, and then we went and the Thompsons fed us dinner too... Three christmas dinners within the course of like 3-4 hours doesn't make for a happy stomach haha, but the food was great!! By the end i felt like i had to keep my mouth closed or the food would jump right back out.. I musta been filled up clear to my throat :).. basically Christmas was nice.... Oh, and I reached my 6 month mark on the 23rd, but forgot until christmas, so i buned my tie then.. It was nice :) K, now for this week.. Now the missionaries in the house are me, Elder Lee, Elder Talbert, and Elder Ostrin (he's brand new to the island).. Its a way fun house... Elder Talber is a master on a rubix cube, and taught me on Wednesday night.. I can solve it in 3 min now :).. but its nothing compared to his 30 seconds lol.. We have a lot of fun.. We still sing the America songs in the hymn book before companionship study every Monday, and we played pool last monday too... and I am still the house pool champion :) College is paying off. haha.. New Years eve was ok... it was a normal teaching day.. and my goal was to stay awake in bed until midnight (cuz we still had to be in bed by 10:30.. .. but i failed miserably and was asleep by like 10:35.. I'm always so tired.. definately didn't stand a chance... Since I started serving with Elder Lee, the area has been doing great!! Novia and Michael are getting married this coming Wednesday and she's supposed to be getting baptised on Thursday! :) She passed her baptism interview with flying colors.. She is already almost done with Alma in her Book of Mormon reading... such a star! :) I'm way excited for her.. The other Novia (the one who took all her piercings out) is doing amazing too!! She was really putting off getting married, and wanted to make sure he was the right guy and everything, and in personal study, I was studying and searching for anything in the scriptures that I could share with her, to help her progress towards baptism, so I decided to pray about it, and the first thing that came to my head was The Family: A Proclamation to the world...http://lds.org/library/display/0,4945,161-1-11-1,FF.html, we read through it with her, and she is getting married and baptised now as soon as they get the money... It should be really soon... prolly within a month, cuz with marriage here there are a lot of loops to jump through to make it happen.. but ya.. it was a really cool experience for me :) We are also working with a couple named Greg and Tamara. Greg is a recent convert and has already read the Book of Mormon...and Tamara is still trying to get the courage to move foreward with baptism.. She has prayed lots of times and knows that its true, but her family keeps giving her problems... she is super solid though.. and is in Helaman now in her book of mormon reading... I know that she's gonna get the courage to do it... Right now we are working for the 31st of this month... So, we'll see how it goes. :) Basically things are looking really good right now... We've been finding a lot of really cool people too.. I'm starting to notice that the best way of finding people is just looking for people who need help doing things, and helping them out...and then sharing a message with them. Some other cool ways we've been using is playing sports with people and then talking to them or racing them on our bicycles and then talking to them.. Basically.. This transfer is gonna be a lot of fun. :) I really like serving with Elder Lee a lot. Its his last transfer, so we're gonna have him go out with a bang for sure. :) Sunday was Shanae Sterlings birthday, and the Jamaican tradition on birthdays is that you just get a ton of flour and when they aren't expecting it... poof!!! you rock them with it haha.. So we floured Shanae on Sunday after lunch.. and it was hilarious!!! Well, I'm almost out of time, but everyone have a great week.. and if you want to know that this church is true.. read the Book of Mormon.. it never fails. :) Nuff love Elder Kraus