Meet Hopetown

Sunday was my first meeting back in Hopetown. There were a few changes that had occurred since I'd been here last. The most noticeable was an entirely new body of elders. Last time, it was Shane Antony and Linel Brown. Now, it's these two:

This is Brother Denoo (pronounced Dean-o). He and his wife are from Trinidad. For once, I have no idea what the first name is.

Our other elder is the one on the left, Sean Smith. Last year he was in Paradise, our neighboring congregation, but after Brown and Antony were reassigned, he was the one asked to take their place.

The brother on the right is James Bruce, who several years ago moved here from Antigua. He's been serving as a ministerial servant in Hopetown for at least two years. Here's a better picture...

He has the best hat collection in the congregation.

Aside from Micaiah, we have three servants in our hall. James Bruce, another is William Lynton.

Our third is Claudius "Br. Mac" MacAlmont. He wasn't at the meeting Sunday, so I haven't seen him yet. If memory serves, I may have posted a picture of him on the blog a few months back.

I was reminded of one thing I had forgotten how much I enjoyed. Sunday afternoon service! Whenever I think about going in service after the meeting, I think to myself  "Ugh..." Or something along those lines. But yet, I find I love it every single time. You'd think I'd learn eventually.
One handy thing to have with you is a partner. I personally spend nearly every Sunday afternoon in service with Sean Sarjoo....

He's helpful because he refuses to slow down. Anytime I find myself thinking "That should be enough houses for the day" I look up and see him already marching to the next one.



Now for some standard updates. I finally got back home Friday, around 2 PM. Fortunately I didn't have much to unpack because I had left all my stuff here when I left. Two suitcases of clothes, meeting books, all he necessary shoes, ties, etc. As I was unpacking what little I brought, Micaiah was filling me in on some changes. For one thing, he had bought a washing machine (YAAAAAAAAYY!) One thing he mentioned was he had been having difficulty with rats. He had looked through the house several times trying to find the nest, but couldn't.

(note the foreshadowing going one here)

He also mentioned he maintained a decent schedule of house cleaning, including my room. Sweeping, dusting, etc. "The one thing I haven't cleaned," he said "Is your suitcases. I've left those alone."

(again, foreshadowing.)

So I finally go open up one of my suitcases. Inside, we find....

A nest of rats. They had chewed through the side and settled into the bottom under lots of old jeans.
The good news here though, is they had only gotten into one, and they were in the one I had filled with clothes that were on the verge of being completely ruined anyway. The other suitcase - the non-rat-infested one - is the one I had put service clothes in. And then the meeting clothes were all on hangers. So no real harm done.

To be honest, there's really a whole lot else of note. The few days should be fairly uneventful, so for the next blog, I'm relying on you. Tell me what you want me to write about.

Send questions and suggestions to nutso42@gmail.com, or if you prefer, joshuawestfall42@gmail.com
I check the first one much more. Just so you know.