Hey! How is it all? My flight got a little delayed because a tropical storm rolled through on Wednesday, so I had to kick it with the moving elders is San Juan for a couple of days, But I finally made it to Antigua Saturday night. The Branch is amazing! There is more priesthood here than in most of the wards in Puerto Rico. There are 6 return missionaries in the branch too, so they are are willing to help out with the work. Yes,there are a lot of black people here. The only other white people I have seen (not too many) Have been tourist. Pretty much they look like the guys off of cool runnings, Ben Wallace (Basketball player), or there are the occassional caramel, but mostly they are just SUPER DARK! They are really funny and nice though. There are a lot of Rastamen, havent noticed too many odd smelling ciggarettes in the street though if you know what i mean. But I hear it is a big problem on the island. Some of their dredlocks are ridiculously long, some drag on the ground when they walk, or they have these huge beenies, all rasta style, and they stick out 4 feet from their head, its like a huge pot for a plant is on top of their head. I have heard to not drink the tap water. It is pretty much a third world country. Most of the people dont have drinking water, so they have these systems set up to catch the rain water from their roofs and store it in a tank. I thought I saw some poor people in Puerto Rico, but it is really sad to see some of the shacks that the people live in. But for the most part they are really nice. I still can not really understand them. It is a whole different language. I cant even describe it. But when I first got here I thought they were speaking Spanish, So I started to speak Spanish in the airport immigration. When they speak to white people they make it more understandable.The Normans are the senior couple here, they have been here for a year, and they still cant understand the Antiguans when they speak to each other.
People laugh when they look at our name tags, Hardy and Harvey, what aw ya brodas man? Everyone thought that was funny in church. But Elder Harvey is cool, we were in the same district in the mtc. And yes I am district leader here, but it is just me, elder harvey, and the Normans, so not a very big district.
The members are sweet! A lot of them use to be Rasta, but they cut their dreds. We went over to one guys house they other day, and he was just jammin out on the guitar, playing a bunch of Bob Marley and a lot of his own songs. They really do say "Man" every other word, it is super funny.
And yes the island itself isnt that pretty, but I have seen some pictures of the beaches, and they are amazing! The Normans are going to take us on a tour soon, so I will get some pictures.
The food is really expensive here, it is a about 12 Us dollars for subway or KFC (the only fast food on the island). Oh, and they dont use us dollars, they use eastern carribean money. They all have queen elizabeth on them, but it is about 2.67 EC to every US dollar.
This is a completely different mission than what I started out on, everything moves a little slower here, but I love it all, I am super excited to help the work progress. Know that I am safe, and I love you.
Love Elder Hardy
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