WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT!!!!!?!?!??!!
I'm back everone!
What a thrilling adventure, let me tell you! As I announced before I left 6 weeks ago, I was headed of to the island of Ustupu in San Blas, with all my Kunas. Everyone always wants to go out there on their missions, literally everyone asks President to send them out there.
How have you all been????? I want to thank all of you that sent me letters and packages. I got a ton of mail coming back, lots of letters. Thank you Aunt Debbie and my dad for the packages with all the goodies, super nice, I'm gonna bring all that stuff out with me to the islands so I don't starve, haha. Speaking of starving, (don't worry I didn't actually starve), I lost 10 pounds being off on the islands, eating normally, I don't know why still, haha.
Being out there is like nothing you can just imagine, the humility in which the people live, survive, and thrive. Let me start my adventure, get ready everyone, this is going to be a long email, hope you have time to read it con calma. Ok, well as you can tell from the pictures, we live in the church building off on the island. It's not really what us Americans would call a "building" (as in, roof and 4 walls and a floor.) Huts. All huts on the islands. Most of the huts consist of dirt floor which is the dirt of the island, bamboo walls tied together, and giant palm leaves for the roofs tied together with branches to support them. Our church has a nice tile floor though, no dirt at least.
We got to the islands in a little plane, and when we got there, the dumb AirPanamá service didn't send off my bags with the plane, so I had to wait from Saturday to Tuesday when the next plane came to get ALL of my stuff and our food, haha. But it all turned out ok and the plane came and we got the food and stuff.
First impressions of the island, awesome, gorgeous, crazy that I would be living there for 6 weeks, go into the city, then come back for another 6 weeks. 3 months living on an island! It's hard for me to accurately describe all the fun, crazy, frustrating, spiritual experiences that I had in the past 6 weeks; but I want to write a few to explain to you what it's been like for me al recién. Well we on Ustupu are privileged enough to have working bathrooms and running water all the time that is relatively clean. I don't drink it straight almost ever if I can avoid it. I always throw in the Panamanian equivalent of like Kool Aid or Crystal Lite, caled Zuko, it's really good, like always drinking juice. But for other people, like all the others on the islands who don't have real bathrooms, the people just poop directly into the ocean. Yep. Freaking hilarious to see! Usually the people have these little-like outhouse-type things, but I've honestly seen so many people do their business right into the water. Mostly just little kids that get completely naked and poop in the river. It makes sense really, 'cuz the water washes you out instead of using toilet paper, hahaha!
Ok enough of that, because it's too funny! Kunas are an interesting people, I learned who they were off in Veracruz, got used to hearing their weird jib-jab language before a bit, but going off to the place where the language originates is nowhere similar. I've learned quite a few new words though, stuff that is essential to communicate a bit with them in their dialecto. Soge, Dage, Nai, ibua, stuff like that, all basically things to get people to do things like, talk, come here, go away, etc. "¿Bien nai?", "Where are you going?", that's an important one. It's a weird language, pretty similar to other island dialects though, you know why?? Becuase all these people are decendants of Lamanites and as they separated farther and farther, they changed their language a bit but they can all trace back to what was spoken in the Book of Mormon.
I've done a lot of personal study out there on the islands because there is lots of time to study, and I'm about half-way through "Jesus the Christ", and I started the Book of Mormon again in English, as of now I'm in the beginning of Alma. So amazing, I love reading it in both languages, but there's just something more special about it in English, and like Max says; it's 100 pages shorter in English, haha. I got to thinking about Lehi's family quite a bit as I read 1st Nephi again and I realized, his family is EXACTLY like your typical family today. Dead on. Mom, dad, children. Some children are well behaved and obey what their parents tell them and counsel them, and yet there are always the disobedient children that don't listen to their parents and rebel against them. That is what Lehi's family was and that is what the normal family is too. And just as Lehi is always saying to his children, like any good father does for his own children; I exhort you to heed my words. Everyone, your parents know more than you, regardless of what you think you know. Life doesn't change that much with the passing of times that your parents haven't experienced the same trials that us children pass through daily. Listen to what your parents say, my words echo the words of all prophets that have spoken, that's how important it is to listen to what your parents say, because they simply know what is right for their children. They have the gift of discernment for their children, children don't have the gift that their parents have for their own well-being, they have the influence of the Holy Ghost. And funny thing about the two gifts that we have as people, discernment and Holy Ghost will usually warn the person to avoid the same things. Why's that? Because they are God-sent gifts, and God is no respector of persons. So long story short is: listen to your parents everyone, and Heavenly Father blesses and guides us, that's why it's a commandment. Commandment brings companionship of the Holy Ghost, disobedience brings sadness and loneliness.
For the last 6 weeks Ive slept on a hammock, which to all of you back home sleeping on beds probably sounds cool; it is...for about 2 weeks! Then your back starts to hurt, haha. But I've enjoyed it. We sleep in the church, hanging from wood poles swinging back and forth in the night when the storms come and the wind blows. The storms out on Blas are like nothing I've ever experienced. They are so powerful and hit in the nighttime. Wind picks up crazy strong, rains, lightning, and really loud thunder, way cool and it makes it feel super cold.
These people live such humble lives, providing for themselves and their families. It's one of those situations that if the husband or provider of the family doesn't go off to the mountain in his canoe to go get stuff like pineapples or wood for fires for cooking; the family would go hungry. They work hard with their hands to benefit their families. It really is something cool to see that the men work like that to make sure that their families are good.
Off in Blas, it seems to me that the people are always celebrating some sort of holiday or something. The death of some Kuna hero or something, pretty funny. But it screws with mission work at times because no one is in their houses, or the fiestas fall on Sundays, and the warefaring members elect to go to the paries instead of church. Sometimes our branch gets up to like 50 or 60 people, other days we get like 14 people, haha. Even the "faithful" members sway and do what they like rather than what they should do.
So, San Blas is made up of like a bagillion islands, but as with any islands, there are like the big ones which are really populated and others that are small that don't really have anyone. Ustupu is a big one with quite a few people. They have a congress there with guys named "Silas". Anyway, they're like "government officials", so dumb, because technically they have their own laws and stuff, apart from Panamá, they make their own laws and regulations. All the men and women have to attend these congress meetings a few times a week, it's mandatory, or you get fined. But to call all the members to congreso, people walk around and just scream"CONGREEEEESSSSSSSOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" and blow a conch shell horn, haha. So I always scream along with them from the church, haha.
One thing that I've really taken to out there is learning how to do the different Kuna skills. Like you all know that I've made those bracelets, which is a Kuna art thing, and another is Mola. Guys...I've learned how to make Mola, wooooot! They think it's so hard to do and all, but really, it's just sewing. I didn't know how to sew, and then I learned how to do that, bought the cloth material and thread and stuff and went to work. I sent home pictures of how my first tie turned out, interesting...haha wasn't great but that's because I was still learning. The 2nd one I made was great, has a Chargers bolt on the bottom and I'm going to wear that at church back home on Sundays for when the Chargers are playing :) Arbon and I both made 2 ties out there and they were pretty fun. Tedious work because it's hand-sewn and takes a long time, but you can make whatever design you want, and not have to explain exactly what you want the Kuna lady to try and make. Anyway, we showed our designs to a few people and at first they thought it was cute, like "Oh little megri thinking he can make our authentic Kuna art style", and they all laughed at what we did and were horrified at how ugly they were! Then on our 2nd attempts, they realized that we were improving and it wasn't as "cute" as it was before that we could make Mola. My branch president and a few people were joking around saying that they would "throw us in jail for stealing their style" and that made Arbon and I just want to do it more! :) It's crazy, I honestly think that they believe they invented sewing :P. But it's all good. I'm not worried, I'm still going to buy Mola from the ladies, they do it better obviously, it's just fun to say that I know how to do it and look at their faces of worry! Fun hobby to do after the mission too.
Us on Ustupu have to wash our clothes in a 5 gallon bucket and just swish them around with our hands. They don't really get clean but they smell better for sure. I've gotten so used to the "roughin' it" kind of lifestyle in San Blas that it seems crazy to be in a place with a laundry machine or shower. The water we have out there is relatively clean. It looks clear coming out of the tap, but when you fill up the bucket for the shower, it's so yellow, pretty funny. But we are blessed to have the water so easily at hand.
OK, everyone, I'm going to give you my nickname out on Blas, it's Espipi. Pronounced just as it's spelled, Elder Espipi. No one calls me Kniff, too difficult, and Espipi is a Kuna word, so they use that. Reason being is that Kniff looks like knife, right? Well knife in Kuna is espipi, so all the little kids just call me from far off, "ESPIPI!!!!!" and I know that they're talking to me, and I just respond "OYE!" haha :) All the little kids love us missionaries on the islands, because we're the only 2 white guys around, and everyone runs up to us and wants us to throw them up in the air. I get a good workout throwing children in the air, that's my morning workout, haha.
What else...? Like I mentioned before, Blas has the craziest thunderstorms ever. I've woken up a few times with my hammock swaying like crazy with the wind, then the wind blows the rain in, and really loud thunder and bright flashes of lightning. Then all of the sudden, it all goes away and the skies are perfectly sunny and clear. So weird.
We have tons of rats that all have holes around the church and try to get in at our food, and we always try to attack them and kill them, but these things jump! And high! So one night we finally trapped two in the room, blocked off the door, and Arbon and I killed them with machetes, haha. After we had taken them outside and were ending the night, I went in to the room again to kneal and pray. Well, while I was saying my prayer, the window was open a bit, and I just felt a *thump* on my head, and it was dark so I stopped praying, turned my flashlight on, and it was another rat! That thing jumped through the window and landed on my head! I freaked out and killed it with a machete too, craziness! But that's just the day-to-day adventures we have at Blas! Lots of big crabs come into the church too, and I've gotten good at towel whipping them and killing them. The ants there on the island are vicious. They're just small little black ants, but they crawl on you and then stop, and bite, really hard. And I always know when they're there because the sharp bite comes and I look and see the dumb little bugger sitting on my feet. They're covered with little ant bits by now.
What we do is a lot of service if we can, always asking members if there is anything we can help them with, like going to el monte and gathering stuff to bring back. We went off a few times, rowing the canoe is tough work when it's loaded down with heavy branches and platanos. It's so pretty out there though, makes for some good pictures of the scenery. I've heard that there are toucans and monkeys and even crocodiles and tigers within the jungle out there in the mountains, but that's deeper in and haven't had the opportunity to see any tigers yet.
The average day-to-day things we did was: waking up from the hammock, studying for a while, make lunch of cup of noodles or sandwiches with the bread they make daily on the island, bucket shower, then go teach members and recent converts and menos activos and making sure they'll come to church. It's a struggle to get these people to come. First you have to find someone that speaks Spanish and Kuna because i dont know enough Kuna to speak, and even the people that DO speak Spanish, do it incorrectly and it screws you up. But I've really learned to love and respect the Indians. They are somehow happy as can be with the lack of things they have. I have no idea how MANY of them were probably born on the island there, grew up, and have never left to go to Panamá. How many people have never taken a real shower, haha.
We were eating nasty tulamasi at this lady's house a while ago, and it was rabbit tulamasi instead of whole fish with the scales and head and all. But this time as we're eating it, I was listening to what the lady was saying,, and Arbon was just trying to get it down. She was explaining that it was rabbit (still had fur pieces on it) and that the rabbit was actually pregnant when her husband killed it, and they stuck the embryo in the soup too and the placenta and all...wow! She's telling us all this AS we're eating it, so disturbing! So now I tell everyone back in the city that I ate pregnant rabbit soup... disturbing.
Every day is an adventure out there, just like every day that God grants us is an adventure too. I can honestly say that I've grown so much during my mission, I don't even feel similar. This time around, I'm going to pass up my birthday out there, the big 2-0, and when I come back, I'm almost going to have a year in the mission, the hump mark. How much has happened since then? Indescribable!
Everyone back home, I love you, the life we have is precious. I had the misfortune to find out that my grandpa had passed away while I was gone, and that hit me a bit. But everytime a family member or someone close to me dies, the Spirit just pulsates through my body like the current in the ocean. I know that the Plan of Salvation is a plan of happiness. It brings love and comfort to the wounded and sad. Everyone, life does NOT end at death, nor does it begin at birth. Never doubt that God is there for you, never. We all seem alone at times, have struggles, fall, and sometimes fall hard and far, but like the Savior said after His mortal ministry "I will NOT leave you comfortless...".
Family, friends, I love you all, more than words can describe. I always include 2 scriptures in my emails each week, and I missed 6 weeks, so I'm going to give you 12 scriptures! :) Ok here we go, these all were ones I really liked in my recent reading through of the Book of Mormon: Nephi 1:13-15, Mosiah 13:28, Mosiah 13:2-4, "touch me not", Mosiah 5:15, Mosiah 4:30 is a warning about us watching ourselves and what we do, great scripture. Mosiah 3:19, all of Jacob 5 the long alegory of the Lord's vineyard. I always thought it was boring and long, but what I'm doing with the BoM now in English is reading it all outloud. And I have the goal to someday record me reading it for my posterity. So read Jacob 5 outloud and really think about what it is saying, I have a strong testimony of that now. Jacob 1:19 about the responsibility of teaching sinful people is in the teacher's hands, 2 Nephi 33:13-15, amazing scrips about the everlasting farewell Nephi gives to those who reject the gospel, 2 Nephi 29, 2Nephi 27:15-21 which talks all about how exactly the BoM came about in our dispensation, and finally, 1 Nephi 17:48-55 where Nephi zaps his brothers for rebelling, awesome scripture.
Also I want to end with 2 quotes from "Jesus the Christ" that I really liked. "Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of supplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire. God without our prayers would be God; be we without prayer cannot be admitted to the kingdom of God." and lastly: 'Thy faith hath made thee whole' Faith is of itself a principle of power; and by its presence or absence, by its fulness or paucity, even the Lord was and is influenced, and in great measure controlled, in the bestowal or withholding of blessings. We read that at a certain time and place Jesus could do no mighty work because of the people's unbelief". I loved that last one because that's the way the Lord, and us secondly, His servants, are able to excercise our Priesthood authority, entirely dependant on the faith of the person who gives and the person who receives the blessing. Faith is essential, not just something important.
I love you all so much, it's going to be fun starting my next change out there in Ustupu, this time with my new comp, Elder Paskett from American Fork, Utah. He's cool, has one change less than me, his Spanish is good. I will continue to take tons of pictures for all you. Please keep sending the letters, it's wonderful to come back to the city with them waiting for me. Keep on keeping on :) Have a wonderful 6 weeks, if you all have any questions, feel free to ask, I would love to answer them. Hasta Octubre a todos :)
Love ya primo- Tomas
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