Mowgli

Well another day and another can of chicken. We had the opportunity to go down to Nargana to do divisions with the other Elders. It was actually quite a different island, because the island was very civilized. (They are really one of the only islands that have separated completely from the native traditions). They actually had a bank, library and full on jail. As well, there was electricity lines running through the island with post lamps. The major part of the houses were made of cement and more than half of the people had cable. The funny part was they still do not have running water. Everyone who needs water has to take a kayak with huge barrels to the mountain where they fill them up in a river. (I can’t tell you how many times we helped move barrels of water from the docks to someone’s house just in a single day).  What’s interesting is that water is only used to shower. Their drinking water is bought in bulk from cargo ships. The Elders there are doing great and are finding a lot of success. It was a great surprise to them when we were able to finally drop them off a stove.

Highlights of the trip were of course:

1.    Making a new friend who was the most adorable monkey. You would sit by her and she would just run over and hug you and then sit on your lap. It was hilarious, I think she was climbing around all of us looking for food to snatch. She got Elder Dudley’s water bottle and a granola bar. But my favorite part was that she checked each of us to make sure we didn't have lice. I'm officially convinced that every doctor’s office needs a monkey to do free lice checkups.

2.     The boat trip we took was gnarly. The waters raised and the boat only had one half broken motor, and we sat in the front of the boat (i.e., the part where you get the least wet, but can feel the crashes the most). The waves were so high that as we were on our return trip we got just soaking wet and covered in salt. 

3.    As we dropped off people in Achutupu, there were so many boats that we had to stop by the 'gas station' dock. That’s when we saw a box just sitting on top of one of the gas barrels with the name Elder Dott’s written on it. We asked the driver what was in that box and so he went over and pulled out a Book of Mormon. We ask him if we could have the box and after the driver asked around a few people they said that it was okay to take. They had no problem so we planned to take it back to Ustupu. While on the boat, we inspected the box and found that it was around two years old and was air shipped in. While this was going on the driver came up and asks if he could have one of the Books and so we gave him a copy. (This was the same boat driver that invited us into his house to eat Dule Massi a few weeks back). If we get permission again to go to other islands, he will definitely be one of the first people to visit.

After the trip to Nargana, we came back and realized the house was kind of a mess. So that same night we pulled out trash bags and started cleaning and sorting through all the extra stuff that we didn't need. We ended up burning some of the old clothes that were stained, trashed, and had ripped holes in them. Surprisingly it is more common than you'd think to light a fire in the middle of just an entire civilization built upon dried out leaves and sugar canes. They do it all the time with very few problems. 

A lot of what we do here in San Blas consists of 'Attitude and Effort' in the words of the former missionary Elder Seaman. “When we just bring ourselves to a positive attitude and give our best effort, we feel better. Even when we fail, because we gave it our best” and it’s true. After having a week that had not had as much success, we started praying constantly and giving our best effort but still not getting what we wanted. Yet we still can feel satisfied with the effort to do good. But this week after putting in a great effort, God sent a few new people here to the island Sunday morning. Two of them who have never been to church before in their lives, wander into the church building after a long trip. I love being here on the mission, because even when my effort isn’t enough, a lot of the time I get to see the hand of God edifying my work.