Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing excellent. This past week has been a memorable one to say the least. Full of miracles and the Spirit of the Lord. As all of you know this past week was transfer week, in which we had 15 new missionaries come to the island. My companion and I spent much time driving and transporting missionaries and participating in training meetings. Let's just say things were very busy. We weren't even able to get to bed until after 1 am on Tuesday and Wednesday night, and on both of those days we had to wake up at 5 am or earlier. In one day I also drove the mission bus more than 500 kilometers. which was about 9 hours of driving. That is just a small taste of the business of this past week. Miraculously though, everything with transfers went pretty smoothly it was great when everything was finally finished. 

Transfers wasn't the only thing exciting that happened here this past week though. Several other miracles occurred. On Wednesday, we had a very special meeting with all of the 15 new missionaries and their 15 trainers. The Spirit was so strong in the meeting. President Brown spoke, and he shared with us a Spiritual revelation that he received as he interviewed all 15 new missionaries. He turned to 3 Nephi 22:1-2. He told us what those scriptures mean, and he prophesied that the Lord had sent those 15 new missionaries to help establish a stake in Jamaica. He prophesied that within the 2 years of those 15 missionaries service a stake would be established in Jamaica. The Spirit filled the whole room. He said that in the past Jamaica has been barren, but not anymore. A stake will be established. I started to weep uncontrollably. I know that what President Brown said is true because the Holy Ghost bore witness of that to my soul. The work of the Lord is hastening in Jamaica. It will take many miracles, but I know Jamaica will have a stake within 2 years because this is not the work of man, but this is the work of Almighty God. On Sunday, we had district conference in Spanish Town. Over 720 members of the church who live within the Spanish town district assembled. The chapel was not big enough to fit everyone. In the conference, President Brown again prophesied that Jamaica would receive a stake within 2 years. He called all of us missionaries up to stand in front of everyone and we sang called to serve. By the end of the song, everyone in the chapel was standing singing. I could barely choke out the words. It was a very powerful meeting. I feel so blessed and privileged to be serving a mission in Jamaica at this time. I don't want my mission to end. I don't want to leave Jamaica. I know this is the Lord's work. love you all,

ELder Nugent

Hello everyone! greetings from JA. Wow. Is it just me? or does time seem to go by faster and faster every day. This past week has been excellent. We have met several very promising investigators over this past week. We are teaching a family that are good friends with the Browns. We met the grandfather of a girl that we baptized on Saturday who is friends with my great uncle Mipsy. (Grandma's brother). We will be teaching him on Sunday. And we have been receiving quite a few referrals from people who we visit. No complaints there. A little while ago we met a pizza delivery man and he agreed for us to come teach him at his house. He warned us that he lived pretty deep in the wilderness, but we didn't realize just how deep until we went to teach him yesterday. Yesterday we called the pizza guy and received directions to where he lives over the phone. We drove deep into the tropical rain foresty mountains for quite some time looking for this guys house. there was no real signs of civilization and we were driving for some time, when we decided that we were lost and were about to turn back. Just as we were about to abandon our search for the pizza guy, we saw him pop out around a bend in the road on his motorcycle. We then followed him for about another 20 minutes deep into the jungle when we finally reached a little dirt trail that our vehicle couldn't drive on. We parked the vehicle and then hiked the little trail to the pizza guy's house. all in all, it probably took about 40 minutes of driving through the jungle before we finally reached where he lives. It was a pretty cool drive and we had a pretty cool lesson with the man and his family.

Also, on Saturday, we had a baptism! We baptized the daughter of the part member family that I told you about last week. The ones who knew grandpa and grandma. It was a really good baptismal service, and we received a lot of support from members and nonmembers. The girl that we baptized is such a sweetheart. She is one of the purest and smartest little girls i have ever met. The baptism of the girl has done a lot to really help her family as well. We are going to hopefully begin teaching the father of the family who is a nonmember, and the mother of the girl has become active after a long while of inactivity. It has been such a blessing to be able to know and teach this family. I am grateful for this blessing from the Lord.

This next week will be pretty hectic. Tomorrow my companion and I are going to be driving around the entire island picking up missionaries in the mission bus for transfers on Wednesday so wish me luck. I love you all. I hope you have a great week,

Elder Nugent

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing fantastic, and happy Independance day a few days ago. I hope it was a good one. The work is going well out here on this end. This past week has been pretty good and busy. Right now, we are gearing up for transfers which is next week. This will be the biggest transfer that I have ever experienced on my mission. Almost every missionary will be affected because we are gaining 15 new missionaries and only losing 6 and there are a couple of other factors requiring some big changes. Lets just say transfers is going to be crazy. This past week, we had our first missionary leadership council meeting with our new mission president, President Brown. It was awesome. President Brown is a great mission president. We learned a lot about finding people to teach and about how the work is hastening. It was excellent to say the least. Jamaica is definitely blessed to have him. This week has also been busy with transfer meetings, and of course teaching the gospel. Next week will be even crazier though. Because it was recently Independance day, I would like to share a cool quote I found in a talk by Elder Neil A. Maxwell: 

"Brothers and sisters, by divine appointment, “these are [our] days” (Hel. 7:9), since “all things must come to pass in their time” (D&C 64:32). Moreover, though we live in a failing world, we have not been sent here to fail.

Recall the new star that announced the birth at Bethlehem? It was in its precise orbit long before it so shone. We are likewise placed in human orbits to illuminate. Divine correlation functions not only in the cosmos but on this planet, too. After all, the Book of Mormon plates were not buried in Belgium, only to have Joseph Smith born centuries later in distant Bombay.

The raising up of that constellation of “wise” Founding Fathers to produce America’s remarkable Constitution, whose rights and protection belong to “every man,” was not a random thing either (see D&C 101:77–78, 80). One historian called our Founding Fathers “the most remarkable generation of public men in the history of the United States or perhaps of any other nation” (Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Birth of the Nation [1968], 245). Another historian added, “It would be invaluable if we could know what produced this burst of talent from a base of only two and a half million inhabitants” (Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam [1984], 18)." 

I love that quote. I know that we, like the Founding Fathers, have been placed on this earth in a specific place, at a specific time, around specific people for a reason. I know that we have been placed in other people's "human orbits" to be a light to them. Especially in sharing the gospel. I know that me being sent specifically to Jamaica, to be a missionary at this particular time was not a coincidence. I know that as we submit our will to the Lord's will we will be in our intended orbit to light and help those who we are suppose to help. I love you all and I pray for you.

Elder Nugent

Hey everyone! hope everybody is doing well! Things are going awesome here. Things are really starting to pick up for Jamaica. The Lord is hastening His work. This has been a pretty eventful week. On Saturday, President and Sister Hendricks flew home after finishing and magnifying their callings as our Mission President and his wife. It was sad to see them go. President Hendricks is one of the best men I know. I have learned so much from him, and he has changed my life. On Friday night we went to the airport with President Hendricks to pick up our new Mission President, President Brown. President Brown is the first Mission President called from Jamaica. I knew him a little before he received his call because he was previously a counselor in the Mission Presidency. President Brown is awesome! He has so much energy and passion and excitement for this work. I am so blessed to be able to work closely with him at this time. On Sunday, he came to our branch, and he gave a powerful talk about the hastening of the Lord's work. He said that when he was in the MTC, Elder L. Tom Perry said that these announcements for missionary work (the age lowering, the changes talked about in the meeting last week, etc) will have at least an equal impact on the world as the First Vision, and the revelation on the Priesthood in 1978! What a great time to be a missionary! Just to give you a small clue about the hastening of the work here in Jamaica, in 9 weeks, we will be losing 8 old missionaries and gaining 29 new missionaries. There is a lot of excitement here. I know we are going to see some huge miracles soon. The work is going well. Currently, my companion and I are teaching a really special family. The mom of the family was actually an inactive member who had served a mission years ago here in Jamaica when Grandpa was still living in Mandeville. She says she knew Grandpa pretty well, and the missionaries even stayed at their house before. A couple weeks ago we started teaching her and her daughter who is 9 years old. We have had some really good lessons with them, and the Spirit of the Lord has been working in their hearts. The mom is now active in the church, and we will be baptizing her daughter on the 13th. It is so awesome to see the hand of the Lord in this work. He works in many mysterious ways, and I am glad to be able to serve Him. I love being a missionary. I love all of you back home. Have a happy 4th of July! And always remember that Jesus Christ is the source of true freedom. 

Love,

ELder Nugent

Hey everyone! Wow, it has been a while. Long time no talk, haha. Sorry about missing email last week. It was due to some unforeseen circumstances. Let me begin starting off with Thursday.... On Thursday (not last week but the week before), my companion and I flew to Cayman to spend a few days doing splits with the missionaries there before we had their zone conference on Saturday. Cayman was awesome! It is like a tropical version of America. It was very modern and nice and clean. And to be quite honest, I was very culture shocked. I can only imagine the culture shock that will come after I finish my mission, haha. On Saturday, we had a zone conference which went well, and then we flew over to Nassau Bahamas. Nassau was very neat as well. It was very different from Cayman, and very different from Jamaica. In fact, If you took Jamaica and Cayman and mixed them together, you would get Nassau. My companion, Elder Worley and I conducted splits with the Nassau Elders until we had their zone conference on Tuesday. On Monday, Elder Worley started feeling pretty sick. We thought it was nothing more than the stomach flu, but it continued to get worse and worse. The next day, we gave Elder Worley a blessing, and then after zone conference we started flying to Miami to head back  to Jamaica, when Elder Worley's condition got pretty bad. When we landed in Miami, the paramedics took my companion to the hospital with Sister Hendricks, and President Hendricks and myself flew back to Jamaica. It turned out that Elder Worley had appendicitis, and he had to have his appendix removed at the hospital. It was really a blessing that Elder Worley was able to be in Miami when he needed to go to the hospital, rather then being in Jamaica, or on an airplane, or in Nassau. The timing couldn't have been more perfect in that unfortunate event. So, I landed in Jamaica Tuesday night and I was placed with the zone leaders here in Kingston until Elder Worley arrived back to Jamaica today. He was in Miami for a total of 6 days. On Thursday and Friday, because Elder Worley was gone, I had to teach the Assistants portion of Zone conference alone. It turned out alright. The Lord blessed me and I was able to get through everything that I needed to. Elder Worley was definitely missed though. I learned a lot from President Hendricks in the zone conference. This was his last one before he finishes his mission on Friday. He taught us about consecration, and the temple, and about our life's mission. It was a special meeting I will never forget. I love President Hendricks. I have learned so much from him, and I am heartbroken to see him have to go. He is one of the best men I know. I am glad that I will be able to serve with President Brown though. It will be great being able to serve with the first Jamaican Mission president. The work is hastening here. We will be having a baptism on July 13. We have started teaching a formerly less-active/part-member family, and we are baptizing the daughter on July 13. I love this work. This is the work of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. This is the work of salvation for the children of men. I know it is true.

Love,

Elder Nugent

Hello everyone! Hope you are all enjoying your nice summer break. The kids here in Jamaica are still in school right now, so count your many blessings. This past week has been quite busy with a lot of missionary things. Wednesday was transfer day, so it kept us pretty occupied. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we were dropping off and picking up missionaries from the airport. On Wednesday night, we had a departing devotional for the missionaries who have finished their mission. Then, on Thursday, we had our mission leadership conference. Needless to say we had a very busy week.

On Tuesday, we had a funny experience picking up the new missionaries from the airport. My companion and I arrived at the airport Tuesday night at about 9pm, and learned that the flight that the new missionaries were on got delayed for about an hour. At about 10pm the new missionaries arrived (three Elders and one Sister). My companion and I took one of the Elders, 2 Sister missionaries who followed us to the airport drove the new sister, and President Hendricks took the other two Elders. That night, Jamaica was playing a much anticipated soccer game against mexico at the national stadium, which is on the route that we usually take to go from the airport to the mission home. To avoid traffic, my companion and I decided to try to go an alternate way through downtown Kingston near the Cornation Market to the mission home, and the sisters decided to follow us in their car. Little did my companion and I know however, that many of the people on the streets in downtown kingston near Cornation Market at 10pm are either crazy, homeless, or looking for no good. The streets were lined with piles upon piles of garbage, there were many crazy people,  there was a naked man trying to break a brick on the sidewalk, there were packs of wild dogs roaming the streets, the roads were dimly lit, and the new missionaries were on a once in a lifetime ride. I can only imagine how shocked they must have been. But, we arrived safe and sound at the mission home, and explained that that is not how Jamaica is most places, and apologized to them.

This past week had been crazy, and sadly we were unable to do a lot of proselyting because we were moving people around. This week will be pretty crazy as well. On Thursday we will be flying to Cayman to do some training and have a zone conference. We will leave Cayman on Saturday and fly to Nassau Bahamas where we will do some more training and have another zone conference out there. We will then return on Tuesday to Jamaica. We will then be having a zone conference in Sav-la-mar on thursday, and we will be doing our last zone conference in Kingston on Friday.

This past week, I have been thinking more about how much of a gift repentance really is. Repentance and forgiveness is a divine gift purchased for us by the shedding of the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. Without repentance, we would be doomed to despair, we would not be able to change for the better, we would be without hope in this world, and we would only reap misery and despair in the world to come. We would be lost to the heavens forever. Too many times, people view repentance as something bad, or as something undesirable. Sin is bad and undesirable and creates lasting misery. Repentance is the escape route. Faith in Jesus Christ, repentance and the ordinances of salvation is the key to gain hold upon the atonement of Christ the Lord and allow his sacrifice to save and change us. Christ did not sacrifice himself to save us in our sins. He sacrificed himself to save us from our sins and provide us with an escape from our sins. He sacrificed himself to provide us with the divine gift of repentance. May we all use that gift.

Love you all,

Elder Nugent

Hello everyone! I hope everyone has been having an excellent summer so far. It is getting a little hotter here in Jamaica for summer time. It is funny because at the beginning of my mission I couldn't feel the temperature changing for the winter and summer seasons. I could only feel one temperature here in Jamaica, and that was HOT. But now I can feel the seasons changing. I am developing into a true Jamaican haha. 

This past week has been very nice. On Friday, Elder Cornish and Elder Gamiette from the Quorum of the Seventy came and spoke to us. They taught us some very excellent principles that I know will move the work here forward even faster. Both Elder Cornish and Elder Gamiette taught us about the importance of working with less active members and their friends and families and helping them become active members of the Lord's Kingdom as a way to build up the Kingdom and also find new investigators. They said that working with the less actives is the way to do missionary work now. We also learned about the importance of councils in the meeting as well. It was just an awesome meeting. The Spirit was there very strongly, I learned a lot, and we have begun to implement the principles we have learned immediately. 

 Already, we have seen some really great success. We are teaching some more families, and are finding people interested in learning about the gospel and changing their life.  Up until this point, working with less active members was one of my lowest priorities on my mission. Now it is one of the highest. The meeting will change the face of the mission.

 Also, this morning, we had a meeting with President Hendricks, and Elder Gamiette. Both shared a spiritual thought, which taught me a lot. President Hendricks taught about how we need to follow the Lord wherever he may take us even if we do not understand why. We may not understand why He tells us to do certain things, and we won't know until we do them. But we need to trust in the Lord. It is better to walk with God in the dark (understanding)  than ourselves in the light. how true that is! Often times we are prompted by the Spirit to do things, and we don't really know the reason why. But, as we obey, we will later understand. Following the promptings of the Spirit is the only way we can follow God's plan for us. It is the only way that we can be led by Him. may we all listen and obey.

 Elder Gamiette then shared a thought on the Sermon on the Mount. He explained and clarified it in a way that I had never before thought about it. He taught us how the Beatitudes (3 Nephi 12:3-10 and corresponding verses in Matthew 5) are actually talking about repentance. When we are poor in spirit, we are humble. We are brought low because we recognize our carnal natures and our sins. When we come unto Christ, we will be admitted to the Kingdom of Heaven. When we mourn it is talking about mourning because of our sins, and we will be comforted as we come unto Christ through repentance and baptism and partaking of the Sacrament etc. When we partake of the Sacrament, we are comforted. When we mourn and repent and are comforted, we will be meek, we will be completely submissive to the will of the Father. We will know that His way is the way to happiness. Our way only brings misery. We will want more and more commandments. We will want to be obedient and do the will of the father. That leads us to hunger and thirst after righteousness. We hunger and thirst after the Bread of Life, and the Fountain of all Righteousness. We hunger and thirst after the Sacrament. And we are filled with the Holy Ghost when we do so. As we continue this pattern of righteous living, we may be tempted to look down on others who are not living the way they should. But, we need to be merciful to them and show mercy. Next, when we are pure in heart, we shall see God. Those who are pure in heart are those who are filled with charity, the pure love of Christ. As we do these things, we also need to endure to the end despite persecution and opposition. I know that these things are true. And I am grateful for these truths that I have learned these past few days. The mission is awesome. I love it out here. 

Elder Nugent