Church on the Islands

There are many Christian churches on all of the islands we visited. The taxi drivers pointed out the churches and were proud that everyone goes to church on Sunday. Most of our taxi drivers knew about the white shirted LDS missionaries and if there was an LDS church (Mormon church) on their island.

We had our LDS building address in Basseterre, St. Kitts with us and fortunately a phone no. as well. LDS.org had listed the worship service at 10:20 and church at 9:00. So Mike decided to call the phone no. listed to be sure it was Sacrament Meeting first. The phone is answered by a child. Mike asks. "Do you know what time church starts tomorrow? " Answer: "No." "Do you know if Sacrament Meeting is first?" Answer: "No." "Are you LDS, Mormon?" Answer: "Yes." "Is your mother or father there?" Answer: "Yes." Eventually Mike did find our answer - Sacrament Meeting started at 9AM.

Our dependable taxi driver picked us up at 8 AM and dropped us off at the building (it was the building I had spotted the day before!) and then took Carmela to the Catholic church in town.
We were quite early and so enjoyed walking through the neighborhood. The senior missionaries arrived at 8:55 and unlocked the gates and doors. First thing is to turn on the AC and the fans! Slowly people began to arrive (it's called "island time"). We sat in folding chairs in a room just larger than our RS rooms and enjoyed the testimony meeting.

We met a young couple with two small children who had arrived the same day we did. He was going to start at the medical school there. One of the missionaries might have been a son of Mike's former missionary companion. No time to check. We weren't able to visit much as our taxi driver had another committment and we had to leave by 10:15. We were afraid, since we were there on island time, that we would have to walk out before the meeting was over. The problem was, they locked the door we came in so everyone late (later than late) would come in through another back door. But all went well.

The church in the upper right corner is the LDS building in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were so thankful Mike knew Spanish to help ask directions from the taxi driver and people on the street as we drove along! We finally found the building and the taxi driver dropped us off and would come pick us up in 1 1/2 hours. We knew that the meeting would all be in Spanish (English is spoken in St. Kitts). We waited by the locked gate and no one ever showed up! It must have been stake conference day! We just waited over at the transit station across the way until our taxi driver returned!