Hardy's in Jamaica: Rain and More Rain

December rain fall is making up for the dry summer. When we went to Port Antonio on Friday, there was a mudslide on the road and some fallen trees. The elder's roof is leaking. The good thing is our apartment is much cooler. We seldom have to turn on the fans in the living room.

Today was wonderful at church. We had two members that we haven't seen in a long time show up. Kimoya, who was baptized about 3 or 4 weeks ago, was able to come to church today for her confirmation. Her non-member sister and her three children came also. I could really feel the spirit for that confirmation. For Sunday School we showed the video "Pioneers of Faith." A lot of our members have not seen it so it was fun to see their reaction. They really enjoyed it. Rohan called me to be Young Women's president. I nearly croaked. I guess I can look at it as good study time. I do enjoy the girls so that is a plus. I was supposed to be sustained today but Brian had not been able to contact the outgoing YW's president so it didn't happen. After church, Rohan, Brian and myself went to see Sister Llewellan so that Rohan and Brian could bless and pass the Sacrament to her. I was able to find the "Pioneers of Faith" video on Youtube so that Marge could watch it. After we dropped Rohan off, we drove back home to pick up some rice and peas for a member of the branch.

Saturday we spent the day in Brown's Town. The sisters had never been up there so we took them with us. We first drove out to Rio Bueno so that Brian could interview Kimoya. We didn't know where she lived and she didn't have the phone with her. She wasn't excited about us coming up because her family is not excited about how far it is to church especially when there are so many churches in Rio Bueno that she could go to.
We were able to find her home by asking around. It is amazing who you can find when you are on the Lord's errand. I have seen it happen more than once. From Kimoya's we drove to Discovery Bay to see Sister Jones. This is the third time that we have visited with her. I hope she comes back to church one of these days. After our visit we drove to Brown's Town and visited with Cheryl and Sister Alexander. We did not make it back to get our car washed. We tried to call Wayne and left a message but he was not able to get back to us before it got dark.

Friday we drove to Port Antonio so that we could take the elder's Christmas boxes to them. When we were going through the town of Hope Bay, there was a guy on a bicycle that was pretty close to our car as we passed. He must have lost his balance or his handlebar hit the back of the truck but when we looked back, he was on the ground. It nearly gave us a heart attack. We backed up and he came up to the window. I asked him if he was okay and he said he was. His bike was fine so we went on our way. It did put a damper on the rest of the drive. The towns are so hard to drive through because you have people walking on the roads and you have bicyclists driving in the road plus taxies that just stop to let their passengers get out or in and then you have taxies passing taxies on the other side of the road so they come into your lane and you can barely squeak by and that is what happened with this bicyclist that we passed. A taxi was in our lane and we were trying to maneuver between the bicyclist and the taxi. We were not going very fast but we were a little too close to him. We drove on to Port Antonio and got a bite to eat at the cook shop and then headed to the elder's apartment so we could drop off the boxes and check their apartment. We also had some book bags to drop off so we drove to the branch so the elders did not have to carry them on their bikes. We were able to visit with Shaneeza for a few minutes. It was so good to see her again. Her baptism was the first one that we attended on this island. It was dark by the time we got home. With all the rain and overcast skies, it gets dark around 6:00 here. We stopped at the branch for the missionary correlation meeting and didn't get home until after 8:00.

Thursday was seminary and institute so we did a little studying and then Brian dropped me off at the branch because he needed to pick up Rohan and take him to Brother Barbagees for a branch presidency meeting. I needed to be at the branch at 4:00 and I didn't want to take a chance that they would not get back in time. As it was, my only student didn't show. We spent the afternoon at the branch so that Brian could teach his two classes.

Wednesday we went to Montego Bay for Zone Conference. Elder Martinez and his wife were there. He is a member of the 70 and both he and his wife gave great instructions. They were very inspiring. President Brown also did some training and he was excellent as usual. After the training meeting we had lunch and then had the Christmas program. I had to tell a Christmas story. I told the story of the stolen Christmas trees that Brother Jesperson shared in gospel doctrine last year. We had a good time.

Tuesday was spent visiting people.