Here's the scoop...

Today I realised in my 24 years of being I have never once attended a church other than my own.  So it was an interesting experience to attend my employer's non denominational church this morning.  I was definitely feeling a little out of my comfort zone with the singing hosanna's and raising of the hands, but everyone we met was very friendly and welcoming.  We had been invited to attend just for this first Sunday, but we had made plans to go straight to our church after and it was such a nice feeling strolling into our church and having it feel so familiar despite being so far away from home!

The hymns were the same, the format was the same, people could join in with the discussion going on in the lessons, and as it was testimony meeting everyone was invited to share their beliefs at the front so we weren't just hearing from one Pastor.  It made me so happy to be there, and so happy that we have a branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on the Island because I couldn't imagine not being able to meet with fellow saints each Sunday.  Everyone was incredibly friendly and just so happy to have us.  If they said once they were so happy for us to be there, they said it a million times - I've never felt more appreciated! In fact one of the missionaries from the missionary couple that oversee the branch said that they cried the day they found out we were coming!

It is alot smaller than the church we attended back in Reading, but we knew it would be.  There were maybe 50-60 people there altogether today, and over half of them were Creole speaking so there is a translator who translates every sentence of English or so into Creole! Most of the members are also all quite new since the branch was only established at the beginning of 2009 and so it came as no surprise to me today that after church the Branch President gave us both speaking assignments for next week! I nearly went 3 years in Reading ward without a speaking assignment and here we are in Turks and Caicos on our first Sunday we get one! I'm thinking it certainly won't be the last either!

I was excited to hear that every Friday night they have branch volleyball night down at the beach, anyone who knows me from my St.Albans ward days will know volleyball was my favourite youth night activity! So that should be fun to go to this week! Next week I will have pictures of the Chapel...I didn't take my camera with today!

We were also out and about exploring Grace Bay yesterday which is one of the main tourist areas and we found a little Diner that has mexican night every Tuesday, and the special deal is buy one get one free on Quesadilla's so I'm thinking we may have to work that into the schedule too! Whilst there we also went to Island Scoop which I was excited to try out, they even have an ice cream truck that roams the Island but we've yet to see it out on it's rounds so I got a cookies n cream cup and By got a banana and chocolate waffle cone ice cream...just what was needed on these crazy hot days we are experiencing! Whoever posted on one of the websites I read before I came that TCI never gets too humid because of trade winds passing by was severely misinformed! I'm pretty sure I've never experienced humidity like this before! We've been told if we can last out 'til November then once hurricane season passes the humidity drops and it becomes more pleasant...so for now we're just drinking as many root beer floats as we can and taking full advantage of the beach and the pool and canal to help cool us down! In fact yesterday evening we experienced swimming in 10 foot plus waves! It was insane...and too bad we had forgotten our camera!