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

Hey everyone! Elder Nugent here again. I hope everything is going well back home. Things are starting to pick up a little bit more here. This past week has been pretty good. We recently taught an entire family this past week. Yes that is right, a father, mother, and children. All of whom are investigators. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Jamaica, this is extremely rare. It is very difficult to find and teach an entire family. The man who we are teaching is a very high ranking military person here. He is a very nice man, and his family is quite delightful. I met them the first time I came to kingston. At that time though, he was preoccupied with work. Now, he is on a pre-retirement leave for a whole year; during which time all he does is stay home and spend time with the family and read. For those of you who know missionary work, it doesn't get any better than that haha. We had a pretty good lesson with him, and we will be teaching him again this week. Other than that, this week has been pretty normal. We had to go to court in Linstead to make a statement for a lost passport... that was tedious. But this last week has been good. This week, I have been thinking a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I was reading the scriptures one day, and the thought dawned on me, "If we don't use the Atonement, our Savior will be devastated." I then thought of someone going through the most intense suffering to save someones life, and then the person chooses not to be saved. I imagined the absolute disappointment and sorrow of the person who went through all that he did to save the others life, and then to be rejected. It brought me to tears. The amount of disappointment and grief that we feel as missionaries and members when those we love and serve reject the gospel, is incredibly small compared to the amount of grief and disappointment that our Savior feels, when others reject the priceless gift that is His to offer. Our Savior will do all within His power to invite others to come unto Him. May we be more diligent in inviting others to come unto Christ every day of our lives. 

Love you all,

Elder Nugent

Hey everyone! Elder Nugent the first here again haha. Hope everyone is doing well back home. This past week has been pretty good. It has been a little slow, but good. We currently are focusing a lot on finding people to teach right now. It still amazes me to see how much trust these total strangers place in us missionaries when we first meet them. It is pretty cool, and definitely a testimony builder to me that people do recognize us as servants of the Lord. This past Saturday, my companion and I drove all around the island again. A missionary decided to go home 3 weeks early due to some illness, and so we were driving missionaries all over the island to fill in the missing spots. After we were driving for a while, the missionary going home asked for a blessing, and told us that he decided he didn't want to go home, and that he would regret going home for his entire life. We pulled over the car, and gave him a blessing. After that, we called the mission President and he received permission to finish out his mission. When we arrived back to the missionary apartment, he told us that he was feeling completely better. He was so excited to finish out these last few weeks strong. It was a pretty special moment. I really do love serving out here. I have finally learned what it means to have an eye single to the glory of God. It means to have our eye single to helping our Heavenly Father in His work and His glory which is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. love you all,

Elder Nugent

Hello everyone! happy Mothers Day to all of the mothers out there haha. This past week has been pretty good in Kingston Jamaica. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened this past week. I have just enjoyed teaching, and finding people to teach. I feel like the branch is getting pretty excited about missionary work. Members are talking about it more. We have found and have been teaching a couple of really cool investigators. Yesterday, a really cool lady and her son came to church for the first time. The way this lady and her son were introduced to the church was quite remarkable. A while back, the investigator's son's friend accidentally texted a member in Spanish town on the son's phone, and 3 weeks after the member received the text, she felt prompted to call the number. As it turns out, the son who owns the phone that sent the text has been searching for the truth, and for a church for some time. Both he and his mother came to church together to our branch yesterday, and both of them LOVED church. We will be teaching them on Tuesday, so I am very excited for that. It is amazing to see how the Lord places people into our paths to teach. I feel very blessed.I am loving the mission. I have learned a ton,especially from my Mission President. I know this work is true, and that it is the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Love you all,

Elder Nugent

Hey everyone! hope everyone is doing excellent! I am doing well here in Kingston. This past week has been another busy week, but it has been a good week. On Tuesday, we picked up some new missionaries, and on Wednesday we had a little orientation meeting for them. Picking up the new missionareis caused me to take a trip down memory lane. I began to remember when I was a new missionary and when I was picked up from the airport by the aps and everything was just crazy. It was kind of funny to hear the new missionaries ask my companion and I the same kinds of questions that I asked the missionaries who picked me up from the airport about a year and a half ago. It seems like yesterday I was a new missionary. Time certainly is moving very fast. Currently we are teaching a pretty cool investigator who is a cousin and a grand daughter to some members in the branch. She is very teachable and we are excited to be teaching her. This past week, I have been pondering a lot about scripture study. On Thursday, we had a mlc (formerly known as zlc), and President Hendricks said something that stood out to me. He told us that scriputre study wont do us any good if we dont get the word of God off of the paper, and into our heart. What a true statement! since then, I have read in 1 Ne 8, the vision of the tree of life. In the vision, there are several examples of how we as members of the church treat the word of God. In the vision there are some who cling to the word of God, and after they partake of the fruit, they are ashamed because of the scorn and mocking of the world. Elder Bednar in one of his talks says, "It is significant that the second group pressed forward with faith and commitment. They also had the added blessing of the rod of iron, and they were clinging to it! However, as they were confronted with persecution and adversity, they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost. Even with faith, commitment, and the word of God, this group eventually was lost—perhaps because they onlyperiodically read or studied or searched the scriptures. Clinging to the rod of iron suggests to me only occasional “bursts” of study or irregular dipping rather than consistent, ongoing immersion in the word of God." (Lehis dream: Holding Fast to the Rod). In order to have the word of God enter our hearts we must hold fast to the iron rod. We must allow the word of God enter into our hearts and become a part of us. We do this by applying what is taught in Alma 32. We must experiment upon the word. We must try it out. we must study consistently and prayerfully. we must read and study and ponder and search the scriputres. we must hold fast to them. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I have felt the Holy Ghost testify to me that it is the word of God. It has helped me to draw closer to Christ than any other book. May we all strive to allow the scriptures to enter our hearts so we can press forward and partake of the fruit of the atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ more fully. love you all

 

Elder Nugent