Journal Entry - 2 July 2017

Members of the Hopeton Branch

This morning I awoke very early thinking about all the needed changes that need to be made, first in my own life, than with respect to my family relationships and lastly with respect to our callings here in Jamaica.  I was on my knees early and earnestly.

We had intended to attend Sacrament Meeting in Mandeville but as we were almost in the building we decided that we should go to Hopeton.

President and Sister Hayles

There are a lot of older folks there in the Branch and the testimony from the older Jamaican ladies are always very moving.  Sister Hayles, wife of the Branch President, was the first to speak.  She spoke much about her love for the Lord and the Church.  She testified of the living Prophet, of the restoration of the Gospel and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

The most interesting of the testimonies given was from Clarence "Buster" Brown. He is not a member of the Church.  This was his second time coming to the Hopeton Branch.  Because of the Patwa it is sometimes hard for us to understand everything that he told us but he stood up and shared this story.  He still works at age 79 and he was preparing to go to work on this particular day when he was told by his father (meaning Heavenly Father) that it was not needful for him to go to work because his two sons would be visiting him.  Later he was contacted by Elder Anderton and Elder Wirthlin.

He told me that he had 10 children and that 4 of them were no longer alive.  One boy was hit by a car at age 11. One daughter had a brain hemorrhage at age 27. One son was 32 when he was robbed and stabbed 14 times in Kingston.  The last was in a bar and was shot.  These are the stories the kind of stories that we hear all of the time.  He teared up and got very emotional and I told him about our daughter Jessica and knew somewhat of what he was experiencing.  I use to think I had problems until we came to Jamaica.  We have no problems...not really.