Linstead

k... well last week, i don't remember a whole lot, but i served for 3 days in linstead on a trade off with a really cool guy named elder montgomery. he has only been out for like a week. and i was way impressed with him for taking charge of his area after only a week. it was quite the adventure. we did find our way around an started to get to know the area pretty well by the end. but there are some way cool people in linstead. haha... i had fish for the first time in jamaica there, and it was rough.... lol.. they don't skin the fish or take the head off or anything here.. they just fry it up and give it to you.. so ya, that was an interesting dinner, oh, and then she gave us these mangos that were huge!! it was awesome!! they were so big!!! bigger than both my hands together... it was amazing!! best fruit i've had since i've been here. we met this guy named sheldon too.. he was really cool... he invited us over to teach him a lesson and he made me a sweet dancehall cd, but i won't be listening to that for two years. haha but he is a dj... so he made me one..i was pretty happy. oh and i got a machete to help people chop yard. i'll try to send pictures next week.

this week was awesome too... crap my time is up, but i'll email this week next week lol...

Beach Volleyball P-Day

Hey! It was great to hear from you all! :) I don't really have a lot of time today, cuz we are having a zone p-day in ochi (basically all the missionaries in the zone are meeting up here to play volley ball and stuff on the beach :)... it should be fun. We are emailing real fast before we go play, so this weeks email will come with next weeks. I'll explain then.

Sorry. :) Keep writing me.

Elder Kraus

Tommy!

Hey everyone!

THis week has been good. We are still meeting with TOmmy, and he doesn't cease to amaze me. :) He has been shot 9 times, and is now an ex drug dealer in Kingston! We tend to teach quite a few people who have at some point in their lives been shot or sold drugs. But Tommy is really awesome. He gets everything that we are teaching, and is super commited to do all of it. He is serioulsy the coolest guy. His house is between, ours and the church, and on Sunday, we walked to meet him at like 9. When we got there, he asked us to go get a bike for him, since his foot is still "all mash up" (he went in for x-rays today), so we were like ok, cool. BUt then when we got back he hopped on the bar between the seat and the handlebar sidesaddle, and was like lets go. haha so i biked him to church Jamaican style. (knees out with a passenger in the middle haha) ELder Ashton said it was quite the sight. BUt it was awesome.

Also, on Sunday, the whole mission presidency came to our branch and went to church here. Elder Ashton was super nervous cuz he was teaching combined relief society and priesthood. But he did well. It was a good Sunday. OH except for I crashed hard on my bike riding to an investigator after church. haha. We were riding to see this girl and I saw a member so i turned around to say hi, and right when i wasn't looking, i hit a pothole and went right over the handlebars... it was solid crash! haha i'll bet it was pretty funny to watch. but, i'm ok, not too banged up, my right hand is purple, but i think it is just bruised bad, i'll keep an eye on it, and just some scratches on my legs, but other than that i'm good. :)

Oh, and this week, we were 5 min late to seeing a car drive through a house!! We were coming back for dinner, and one of the houses close to ours had a car sized hole all the way through it. THe story is that someone got stuck in the ditch and was half in half out of the car pushing on the gas to try and get it out, and it finally got traction and just took off, right through the house and over a cliff.. The guy lived through the night, but sadly died this morning. :( But, my time is short. Everything in Jamaica is going good.. We are working super hard and even then at times it is like watching grass grow, but the work is moving foreward slowly, but surely. til next week..

Elder Kraus

My first Jamaican hair cut, in the power stance!

The path down Job's hill

Yum, Bite size fish!

Hey everyone!

This week has been kinda all over the place. We did a lot of trade offs, so the earlier part of this week was spent a lot in taxi's, but the later part of this week was sweet except for Saturday night. I wasn't feeling too good after lunch, but we went out and taught til dinner, and then i was feeling bad enough, that i couldn't go out any more, so i was up all night by the toilet. I'll spare you the details, but it was a rough night. Sunday we didn't want to miss church because of our investigators, and i'm the organist, so we got up and went and i started to feel better. By the time church was over I was basically all better :) So we went and saw a family up in a place called Fruitful vale. Its so sweet!! Its seriously a paradise on earth haha. The family up there is so cool. I love them so much! We had a really good lesson with them, and Caeser (the dad) got a little emotional at the end. The spirit was really strong. And Caesar seriously has some of the coolest ways at looking at things. I feel like we learned as much as he did. They are really awesome people. I'll send some pictures of them all next week (i don't have my cable now). But today was P-day and we went up there to chill with them for a while. They took us up this mountain called Job's peak (Caesar said it got its name because it takes the faith of Job to get to the top haha), and it was just gorgeous! It's the coolest place ever. There are springs all over to drink out of and really just everything about it is awesome! On the way up, i used his machete to chop myself a moses staff cuz me and Elder Ashton kept slipping haha.. it was pretty sweet, but it wouldn't fit in the taxi back, so i had to abandon it. Oh, while we were up there, Caesar caught these little mini fish. and brought them back down with us. I wasn't really sure what he was going to do with them, because they were tiny!! like smaller than my finger. and when we got back to his place, he fried them up.. didn't scale them, debone them or anything... and gave us a bowl of them haha... so i apprehensively just popped a whole fish (head and all) in my mouth and crunched it up. lol.. i wasn't too happy about it.. and they all were just dying at my face as i tried to choke it down. It was an adventure.. but the kids just ate them like popcorn!! lol... but it was a really good day, we had a great time with them.

Oh, and this week we also met this awesome guy named Tommy... When we were passing by him, he asked me for money (it happens a lot since we are white and look rich cuz of our church clothes), and i responded that i was gonna ask him the same question.. haha and then proceeded to explain we don't get paid to do this and basically bore my testimony. then we got into a realy good conversation with him about the church, and basically he was like.. i've been trying to stop smoking ganja (weed, marajuana.. ya), and want to change my life and get baptized.. we found out he lives really close to us, and he suggested that we just walk by and walk to church with him on Sunday haha.. He is awesome!!! I'm really excited to start teaching him.

But ya, it has been a great week :) Everyone keep writing me!! I'll do my best to keep writing also, but i have kinda limited time on P-days, and writing letters takes a long time, so don't get your hopes up too high. But i love to get mail. So write me lots!! :) But, its that time... I"ve got to get going Likklemore yeer? (i'll catch ya later in patwa haha)

I love you all

Elder Kraus

Natural Spring Water