"Super fun, I still love baptizing people."

Hey

Wild week.

Had divisions on like Thursday or something, so we could get all the baptism interviews. So Sharp went to Nargana and Sagers came here. Only it was sketch because there were massive thunderstorms happening so Sharp didn't get here until like 3 hours after when he was supposed to come back because they had to post up and wait it out. But we had no idea where he was haha.

On Saturday, we had the two baptisms planned for Gladys and Javier. He's the older brother of Chamille and Flaco, the two kuna kids we baptised in Panama Viejo. 

We had to get up early and row over to the clinic to get Sharp's stitches out, then go visit Alberto in Yandup, then get back and get everything ready for the baptism. I don't know if I've explained how we get rid of trash before but we just throw it in the ocean. Everyone does. I love it, it's so easy and fun. I felt bad at first but literally there's no other way to do it, so you just have to do it. Gotta live like the people no? And the sea just takes it away so it's fine. 

Except when people dump it they kinda just dump it on the shore so some spots on the island are just little piles of trash, including the best baptism spot we've found, so we went over and cleaned it all up and threw it somewhere else. 

When we were getting ready to start, Gladys wasnt there, so we ran to her house and her family said she went to Suidup. Like I said, she's crazy. So we were like ugh forget it, we´ll do hers later. 

Went back to the church, everyone showed up late, including the branch president. But we had two of the girls speak and one of them cried a lot and made Javier cry...haha. Then we walked over to the spot, definately the sandiest spot on the island because the rest of this place is reef, and dunked him. Super fun, I still love baptizing people.

Javier's Baptism

Sunday was especially stressful. We wanted to baptize Gladys before church so we could do her confirmation as well. So at 8, we went and got her and told the branch president to meet us over at the church. So we were over there and the baptism jumpsuit's zipper was rusted. And we literally have like no other baptism clothes so I ran home and got one of my white shirts and we found some pants. This took forever and the branch president never showed up. He said he didn't want to do it that early so he just didn't come I guess. We are very annoyed with him lately. So we put it off again until after church.

Longest two hours of church ever...we usually don't have three. But I was super frustrated and annoyed with people. I had to teach Sunday school and the kids acted probably how I used to act. But everything was difficult and we finally got to doing the baptism. We had a short introduction and I gave a little talk then Elder Sharp baptized her right next to the chapel. Urchin central right there. It's a miracle they didn't get pricked big time. 

Gladys' Baptism

I was looking back on it though and every baptism I've had so far has been like a super stressful day leading up to it. But once we actually do it, all my worries and like anger disappear. And I realised that baptisms dont need to be like a big deal, as long as you have who needs to be there. Which out here and in Panama is usually actually very difficult, but whatever.

And we did have snacks for this baptism. Everybody loves eating corn flakes out here. Only it's water mixed with evaporated milk and a ton of sugar and the corn flakes just floating in it. So somebody made that in like a bucket, with some dirty well water, and it was delicious.

Today for P-day we went to the Monte early in the morning to look for cañya blanca, the sticks they use for walls. We had to go way back in the jungle and chop down the rainforest looking for them. Such satisfying work, I love it. We brought back like 300 sticks for the branch councilors house we've been helping him build. Humongous spiders back there though, like legit the size of your hand and they build their webs right across the trail.

Spiritual thought! This is what my talk at Gladys´ baptism was about. I talked about how baptism isn't the end of your path, but it's the beginning. And when we get baptized we are basically promising that we are going to follow Christ and be like him. But that going to church and reading the scriptures and praying aren't all it takes to be like Him. We have to be nice people! Like help others, be sad with those who are sad, consolar those who need consuelo. I don't know the english words for that. But anyways, becoming like Christ requires an entire change of who we are, not just what we do.

Glad to hear someone got stung by a stingray, and yes Max is a shoobie. That is his entire life. 

And happy birthday to dad! We're eating hot dogs and a tuna I smoked a few days ago for dinner tonight to celebrate. I had no idea he was 49, I thought he was like 43. 

And what what Aaron is already home? I guess that means two years ago from recently we TP´d a few houses together. 

Oh and we still teach institute but less and less people have been showing up so it's getting lame.

We still haven't met the new mission president. He keeps cancelling his trips out here.

Love you all! Miss you.

Elder Green

"...we were totally underwater."

 Hey!

We had a pretty crazy week. Elder Sharp and I were carrying these big pieces of a tin roof on like Saturday and the corner of one hit his leg and cut it open pretty bad. And we thought he might need stitches so we went looking for a boat with a motor to take us over to the clinic but couldn't find one so we borrowed a cayuco and paddled over again. He just got 2 stitches and it's all good. We're starting to get to know the people on Suidup a little better because of these doctor visits...haha. On the way back, about halfway to Tupile we decided to go visit a guy named Alberto who got baptized a few months ago in Yandup, the island next to us. I hadn't met him yet and he hadn't been to church in a while because he doesn't have a boat right now, I think. So we went and found him and talked to him for a bit. And we asked him if he wanted to come to church the next day and he said he really wanted to so we told him we´d come pick him up in the cayuco the next morning.

So we got up early and went over to get him. We decided to go a shorter way around the backside of the island. Only the wind was blowing kinda hard and there were some pretty big waves coming in. They didn't look like they were gonna be a problem but the boat was tiny and one hit us and totally filled the boat like halfway. Then another and another and we were totally underwater. It's made of wood so it wouldn't sink but it was completely submerged. We were trying to empty the water and get the boat to shore as fast as we could. Kinda freaking out but mostly laughing we finally got it to one of the docks. We went to Alberto´s house, soaking wet, and asked if he had something to empty water from the boat. When he saw it he just started laughing. After we emptied it he suggested he steer on the way back, and we made it without sinking...haha. But it was really cool to see him in church after a few months of not going. We're going to see if we could get a member to go by and get him every Sunday so we don't have to risk sinking again.

Another night this week they had the crowning of the kindergarden island princess or something. It was kinda funny, all the niños were wearing like tradicional Kuna outfits and playing pan flutes. They invited us to sit in the front row next to the sailas, and they kept thanking us for being there. We were like yo we live here, we would have come anyway. But we figured they were trying to make this event as legit as possible and they lacked special guests so we went with it. 

Kuna Cultural Party

Yesterday we had zone conference in Playon Chico. Super hard getting a panga yesterday morning because of bucco rain but we got one and made it there. Got to take a quick stop in Tikantiki and ran around to see some friends right quick. I love how everyone remembers people here. Had fun during the day, lots of fishing and getting fried by the sun. At night we had the meeting and mostly talked about the new goals and rules President Current is setting. He´s changing a lot but it all sounds pretty good. Before, our investigators had to come to church 3 times before getting baptised but now it's only once. We go back to Playon next Thursday and we´ll get to meet him there. 

To answer some questions, the kid who got his leg sewed up is fine and they were able to pay for it.

I did eat the first eel I caught but Kunas don't eat brown eels because they're dirty unlike green ones I guess. Also they will make you slippery and unable to climb a coco tree. I ate it, was kinda gross, then climbed a tree to prove them wrong but they all just said that one day, when I really need to climb a tree, I'll see.  And I'm sure I won't go back in to mainland this change since he's going home because they'll need to keep one elder out here. So I have at least one more change here, maybe more. 

We're going to have two baptisms this weekend and probably a couple more the next.

Here's a spiritual thought:

At zone conference we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon in converting someone to the gospel. And I've noticed that most of the active members I know here read it often. That's because there's a big difference between getting baptised, and being converted. It takes more effort to be converted but the blessings are so much bigger. And the Book of Mormon is probably the best way to do that because it literally has like everything. If you get a testimony of it, then you can get a testimony of everything else. 

Love you!

Elder Green

"Diezmo Diezmo Diezmo!"

Hey! So internet and electricity has been wak for a few weeks but it's good now.

So, Broadhead is dead and gone and I got Elder Sharp from AZ. Fav comp yet, no doubt, this guy's awesome. Only it's also his last change in the mission as well. So he's my sixth comp in six changes. Hopefully the next one's for at least two so I can stay out here longer. But weve been working super hard. He already speaks Dule pretty well because he was in Irgandi for five changes a few months ago.

Anyways, we're gonna have a bunch of baptisms this change. We have activities at the church for the niños every Saturday and I found out a few of them hadn't been baptised, and they were totally active so I asked them if they wanted to and they got super stoked and ran around the pueblo with my agenda asking all their friends if they wanted to be baptised too. And I got a list of like 20 names of kids like age 9-12 that hadn't and wanted to. So we've been trying to teach them all individually with their families or in little groups but it's been way harder than we thought and we've kinda cut a few of them out due to annoyingness and not coming to church enough. But we still have quite a few that come often and really want to.

We have three other really good investigators that are gonna get baptised in the next few weeks too. Gladys, who's crazy, Josey, and Javier, who's Flaco and Camile's (the little Kuna kids we baptised in Panama Viejo) older brother.

I think its been a month since I last wrote so I'll just tell a few stories from that time.

So like three weeks ago, kinda in the evening, one of the members named Arnie called me over to go visit his little cousin who he said cut his leg. So we went and when they took off the wrapping it was the juiciest cut I've ever seen. Like 3 inches long and I hope not an inch wide, but it looked like it. And they asked me what they should do. I was like freak let's go to the clinic, he needs stitches. They said they didnt have any money but I just said whatever and we carried him to a cayuco then rowed him over to Suidup where the clinic is. Sketchy place, I did not like it there. But they sewed him up and it cost like nothing so everything was fine and we rowed him back over in the dark and barely dodged a storm. 

On 4th of July, we had plans to go to Nargana to write and fish and what not but that morning there was no cellphone service so we couldn't call a panga to take us. So instead we borrowed a cayuco and went over to Suidup again to fish. Caught bucco and talked to a few people there about the church. Had to talk to a few people in only Dulegaya which was difficult but we did good. And got rejected by a Catholic for the first time in months! Weird feeling. I said in super bad dule "Anmar be visitarsai bané?" And she said "Suli, an catolica". She had just stopped a dog from eating us so it was fine. We're also good friends with this half Panamanian guy we met fishing and we're gonna go back to visit him soon.

We still don't have the cayuco I asked for but hopefully we get it soon because I really want to start working on the other islands more often. 

Oh and the funniest thing happened the other day. Don't know if I should tell you, actually, so I'll write it in spanish. Yo estuvo chopeando leña para un fuego y corté my dedo hasta el hueso y había bucco sangre. Anyways after I cleaned it up and I was looking at it and I showed elder Sharp and said "its making me feel a little..." then I passed out haha. Hit the ground super hard and it kinda sucked but after I woke up and realized what happened we couldnt stop laughing about it. And my finger's like almost healed so don't worry. 

Heres my spiritual thought for the week. This is from working in the monte with the branch councilor Desi. He's been taking us often and holy freak its like an ocean voyage to get there. Nearly dead afterwards. But we've been macheteing the rainforest down. Making room for his crops. And after doing it one day, we went walking a little further back to look at his Guineo trees, which are basically bananas. He was so stoked because it usually takes nine months after planting them for the fruit to start growing, but his are just starting and it's barely been six. "Diezmo Diezmo Diezmo!" He kept saying how it was a direct affect of him paying his tithing. And he talked about it nearly the entire hour rowing back. So the lesson of this is two lessons. Tithing really is an amazing blessing and like not even a sacrifice if we count the blessings from it. And two, we should always look for the blessings we have because of the church and relate them directly to that, or to Heavenly Father.  Sometimes when I'm fishing and not catching anything I'll pray that I'll just catch one more fish so that I wont be sad, then I'll get one and think nevermind got one... I'll use that prayer on another fish. But that is terrible and wrong. 

Happy birthday to whoever's birthday it is.

Love you!

E Green

Desi and his tithing guineo

Monte this morning

A little too happy chicken chopping pics

4th of July fire ceremony attempt

Dope sink we installed.

4th of July Parade attempt...NOT