"Also hating shoes."

My Stripling Warrior face.

Hey!

So we had an awesome week in Carti. Finished the baptisms on Monday and it was another juicy Kuna Yala day. We still don't have very good baptism clothes so to baptize Mu, she had to wear the sacrament tablecloth as a skirt.

Getting ready for Mu's baptism.

On Tuesday, after visiting our investigators in Yandup, I was pretty stoked about them getting baptized, and way off in the distance, like miles away, there's a tiny little island with one house on it, and I was like dude are you down? So we asked people about it and they said it's called Isla Contadora. And nobody would let us go because it's too far away and dangerous. But we went. Took like an hour... and nobody even lives there! Kinda a bummer, but there was another tiny little pueblo like 20 minutes further called Nurdup, so we went there. We couldn't hear a sound, or see anybody on the island, so we thought nobody lived there either. But we paddled around it and to the first person we saw we yelled "anmar be visitarsoe!?", and they said yeah and pointed over to a little wooden dock. So we talked to like 5 women there, none of which spoke Spanish but luckily my Dule has been frosty. So we taught them all about the Libro de Mormon and they all agreed to read it if we brought them. We walked around the island a little more and saw maybe 4 more people. Literally nobody there, but maybe all the men were just in the monte or fishing. It is the only island in the entire Commarca that has a Jehovah's Witness church. But we planned to come back with a bunch of Mormon Kaiya Purba`s as soon as we get them.

Headed out to Isla Contadora

Nurdup Island

We found a tiny little river, on the way back, just a little wider than the cayuco, and we paddled like half a mile up it then ran around in the monte. So sick. Literally so much to explore here.

Don't have much other news except that I've been transferred to Arraijan...half training and a District Leader. I'm still a little upset. It's out of the city, though, and actually really cool here but leaving the island was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm excited though. My new comps name is Elder Duron and he's from Honduras and is like 26. I think he's actually training me, because I've forgotten how to speak Spanish properly and be a normal missionary. We just had normal, uninterrupted study time for the first time in 6 months. It was so boring. There are lots and lots of trees here. Not quite the jungle, but super green. Arraijan is known for having bucco baptisms and especially right now so this will probably be another good change. And I hear there are lots of Kunas here, but I have yet to see one.

Also hating shoes.

Love you!

Elder Green

Goodbye Elder Ricks!

"It was the most unreal juicy Kuna Yala day!"

Our district with the new mission president and his wife...President and Sister Current.

Computer works!

Lots has happened this change.

First of all, don't freak out about the Malaria. It probably wasn't even that...maybe just Zika. And do not email anyone or they'll take me out of here and probably never send me back. Haven't been sick lately, but I have lots of infected ant bites and my pussing arm thing is back but I'll get it taken care of.

So we had a baptism on Satuday for a girl from here in Tupile named Maria. It was the most unreal juicy Kuna Yala day! That's what we call days when it's just juicy as freak. Like super blue water and sunny. She's probably one of the most solid members in the ward now.

Today we had 2 of the 5 baptisms from Yandup. The family owns a tiny island, like an hour out in a boat, called Yaugtupu, that's super small but sick. There are only 4 houses on it. Two of the daughters wanted to get baptized out there so we got a giant 40 foot cayuco with a motor, and our Branch President's panga, and all the jovenes on the island came out with us. We were hoping for another juicy Kuna Yala day but the gnarliest storm came through so we were all soaking wet and the waves were huge and lightening was super close, but it was super fun. We were going to run out of gas on the way back so we had to go around to a couple of islands looking for some, so we got back late and are going to have the other baptisms tomorrow.

On our way to Yaugtupu.

Waiting for the storm to pass.

It was super awesome how we met this family in the first place. We went over to Yandup one day to visit someone and afterward we heard lots of music on the other side of the island so we went to check it out. They were having a 'Chicha Fuerte', which is a big party the pueblo has when a girl becomes a woman or something, so they all drink a ton of fermented sugar cane juice and get drunk. There were a couple of our friends from Tupile there, just for the party not the drinking, so we went a talked to them for a bit. We were gonna bounce but they wanted to use our cayuco to run home and get something then come back, so we let them, and while we were waiting a girl walked up to us and said her mom wanted us to visit her. So the next day we went and taught them in the best Dule (native language) I could, as only one of them speaks Spanish, and the five of them in the family agreed to be baptized. Even the Mu! That means grandma. She's super old.

So anyways it has been super awesome since we bought the cayuco. On Sundays we borrow a giant one and pick up people from Yandup then Coibita. We brought 17 yesterday and had 81 people in attendance which is like the most church attendance has ever been. We've like totally started working on all the islands in Carti, even Mulatupu which is like 30 minutes away in a cayuco.

To answer your questions, we have a lady that does our laundry here and she´ll usually wash it in the river, if there's no water here. But I mostly wash my own clothes just in a bucket.

Love y'all!! I think we´ll definately have internet next week. And I think I might be going back to the mainland this change, but I asked President Current to keep me here one more so I can make sure Ricks learns how to steer the cayuco and so our investigators on the other islands are solid.

Elder Green

Lunch!