A visit to Port Antonio

I am going to do a little catch up with this post.

Friday we decided that we would travel to Port Antonio and spend the night because we had a 7:00 baptism to attend on Saturday morning.  We had originally thought to leave at 5:00 am Saturday morning but because we were unfamiliar with the roads, we decided to travel  in the day for which we were grateful.

We arranged for a hotel room ($86) on line not knowing what to expect when we got there.  The drive was beautiful as we drove along the coast for part of the time.  When we pulled into Port Antonio and couldn't find the street on the GPS, I thought, "This should be interesting."  There is only one Main Street through town and on the way we saw our church building.  I called the Elders to let them know we were here and they said they would meet us at the church.  The street to the hotel was a few blocks up the road so we turned right and there is was - Hotel Tim Bamboo.  (The Elders had told us that we might want to consider that hotel.)  We checked in and found the room to be clean.  I would stay there again.  They offered us a complimentary breakfast and gave us a menu to choose from.  We chose an vegetable omelet with hashbrowns, toast, and orange juice.  We also chose the time that we would be eating it.  After checking in, we drove to the church to meet with the Elders.

The church building is old and they had three men there painting and repairing it.  The workers were members and the church had hired them to do the work.  We left with the Elders so they could show us where on the ocean the baptism would take place.  They also said that we would meet at the church at 6:00 am for the talks.  We accompanied the Elders to visit with two less active men.  They have such great potential.  One of the men we visited has been a member all his life and wants his 9 year old son baptized but he is not active.  We met his parents and they are very active and have been members for a long time.

Every Friday night the branch president, who is one of the Elders,  opens the church so that the members can visit with him about their concerns.  The members look at this also as a social so they gather to play games.  The most popular game is dominoes but they play it differently than we do.  It was fun to watch them.  We met some very nice people.  I shook hands with one guy who I thought was a member but he was just pedling items off the street.  He had come into the church yard and he started  showing me his stuff.  I could not understand him.  Patwah is very hard to understand, especially if they say it fast.  Most of them do unless they are talking to us.

Today we went to the church at 6:00 am and two of the Elders took us to brother James home so that we could give him a ride to the church.  He is older and has diabetes.  They had to take 4 toes off on one of his feet.  He is a wonderful man.  When we arrived back at the church, some of the members had started to congregate.  They are happy and funny and very casual in their dress.  Dad played the keyboard and the talks were given and they everyone was going to walk to the beach.  The poor sister getting baptized was very hesitant to walk to the beach in the jumpsuit.  It was too big for her.  I told her we would give her a ride for which she was very grateful.

She was of the Muslim faith and is very well schooled.  We will meet with her again as she has a lot of questions.

After the baptism, we decided to go back to Ocho.  We will attend church in Port Antonio next week. The branch president (Jamaican Elder) has only been there three weeks so he is trying to navigate the ward so that he can help us find the members.

I will send pictures when I figure out how to do it.