Journal Entry - 7 July 2016

Panama Temple

I have spent most of the week working on the applications for Temple Patrons Assistance for a small number of Jamaican Saints to be able to receive funding to attend the Temple in Panama.

We have decided that we will not attend this year because of costs.  We can make many trips to the Temple in Saint Louis for the cost of one trip to Panama and so sadly we will forgo the experience this round.

In other news we helped Natoya obtain additional supplies for her schooling such as a blood pressure cuff, stethoscope, thermometer and a few other things that she needs.  We visited her sister who was recently stabbed, and after discussing some of her needs, we brought her some feroglobin to help her to replenish her blood supply.  We also took her some curry fish and a few bottles of gatorade.

We met up with Paul who we met in Kingston well over a year ago now and he still is homeless and trying to promote a book that he wrote about the Jamaican culture called "seen".  Against our better judgement we loaned him enough money to develop one copy of his book and we paid for an ad in the paper to promote an event aimed at promoting the book as well.

I did one interview with Carlton Collins from Junction who is a prospective missionary.  He should receive his call in about 5 weeks.  We learned that his Dad who is blind and has diabetes will now begin dialysis twice a week.  We recently visited with him in the hospital due to effects from the illness.

We visited with two of the old timers, Brother McLean from Mandeville and Brother Dodd from Hopeton.  We also helped teach Clarence "Buster" Brown who has asked that I baptize as soon as he can qualify.  He is the man that lost 4 of his 10 children. Two of whom were murdered, one was hit by a car and a daughter had a brain hemorrhage. We also helped teach another lady that lives nearby.

Tomorrow we will help with a District Youth Activity and Sunday we will be attending the Branch Conference in Montego Bay.