Good Morning from sunny Old Harbour!
I haven't recieved the card yet. It may be in the mission office right now though, I will ask Elder Worley to check for me. Thank you so much for going through the fiasco for me! I can't imagine trying to activate a card with Jamaican cell phone service. Would have been crazy!
Old Harbour is so awesome. I really enjoy it here. My flights back were a bit of a gong show. My flight leaving Nassau was delayed 40 minutes, so I reached Miami about an hour late. That airport is huge as it is, so I was booking it through the terminal, up the stairs, on the skytrain, down the escalator, all the way to the back of the luggage claim (because we were switching planes, so passengers had to take their bags for the switch) only to find out that my bag didn't make it to the Miami Airport - awesome. I ask the lady what I should do and she says t file a lost luggage claim when I reached Kingston. Then she looked at my ticket and says "You better hurry, your plane leaves in 20 minutes - double awesome. So fatty Elder Romney takes off hauling through the airport, whiz through security and out to terminal D37. I rush up to the gate thinking that everyone has already boarded and I ask "Flight to Kingston?". Five people standing there working the desk kinda look at me, then look at the huge amount of people sitting in the waiting area, then back to me and tell me the plane hasn't started boarding yet - duh, I should've thought of that as I ran past hoards of Jamaicans waiting to go home. There wasn't a seat so I just plopped down on the floor with my guitar and backpack, slightly out of breathe and a good sweat going. I had about 5 minutes there and then the plane started boarding passengers. I said a quick prayer that as pretty much word for word like this "Father, I need my bag. Let it be in Kingston. In the the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I instantly felt at peace with everything and I knew it would be there. Sure enough, it was sitting in the baggage area in Kingston. I don't know how Heavenly Father swung that one, but I'm very very grateful!
So anyways, Old Harbour. It's great. We are living in a different house than the ones the Elders were living in when I was being trained in Maypen- this one is much nicer. Clean, large, we have a washing machine :) No hot water (can't win then all), but I really like it. We bust open the windows and the breeze cools it down pretty well. It's on the edge of town, about a 10 minute ride from the church which is a rented upstairs space of a building which also has a hardware store and a cable station.
My companion's name is Elder Jones. He's a Jamaican from Ocho Rios. He's been a member for not even two years yet. He's a good guy, I enjoy serving with him. He's been on his mission for almost 5 months- this is the fist time I've served with a younger missionary (minus Elder Worley and Gayle who were only 6 weeks behind). I see a lot of my younger missionary self in Elder Jones. Missionary work here is going great. We had a stellar week, two investigators at church and four with a baptism date- awesome! We are back on bicycles. I've already got a wicked tan.
I've had some Nassau withdrawals but they are getting better- it was weird coming home for lunch after church sunday and eating top ramen and instant potatoes instead of lunch with the D's. Church was great, the branch here is sweet, I felt welcome. I've made friends with some of the youth here already, having homies makes an area that much better. Speaking of homies, there is a supermarket on wheels here- yeah, I didn't believe it either until he drove past. It's this guy who packs his car FULL of everything you need, candy, bread, ramen, snacks, juice, seriously anything and he drive around at about 9PM honking his horn and people come out at buy their groceries from him- it's awesome! Elder Jones needed a few things so we stopped him. Really nice guy, we call him Flex. I told him my name was Elder Romney and he says "Alright Ramen! Ya mon! A real ting dat! Lik de ramen noogle! Me na forget a name lik dat now mon." Elde Ramen it is I guess haha It was hilarious. I have a hard time understanding patios- it's coming back though. No more "Sak' Pase" or "Whatchu sayin' bui". Good mornings and hello how are you's only. Elder Hitchcock went to Kingston. Sounds like he loves it there. Elder Taylor goes home in 3 weeks- crazy!!
I loved the Christmas present! Thank you thank you thank you! Tuesday night Elder Worley, Elder Hefner and I stayed the night in the mission home and I opened it there. It really did feel like Christmas all over again! Between Elder Worley and I the pretzel M&M's lasted a matter of hours, and I've been living off the jerky because I've only got American cash and Jamaicans don't take it (a missionary wants to exchange Jamaican cash for it so that's being taken care of today). I forgot what it was like to wear a nice crisp new shirt haha and beautiful ties! I wore the blue and silver striped one to church yesterday. And I've had a cup of hot chocolate every morning since I go to Old Harbour, whether it's 90 degrees or not.
Thanks for the family update. It was funny, my last distrct meeting in Nassau, Elder Stuart (who is in Cayman) asked if I saw Amanda's baby. It's was fun to talk about our common family and shoot some Uncle Brett stories.
Sounds like things at home are cruising along. I can't believe Mac is a 10.5! Shucks, I've underestimated how much my sibs have grown up. Your Cub Scouts sound cute cute cute.
Well today is going to be awesome. P-day number one back in JA we are headed to Kingston to play ball! The Baha Men reunite haha I'm stoked, it's going to be a fun day. Elder Taylor just called and said he'd be here in 10 minutes. Whoo hoo!
I love you Mom! Keep your trunk packed also ;) Love you!!
Elder Romney
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