"This week was pretty good. I've now officially completely a full transfer here in San Blas. That's 6 weeks. I can't believe it. This week has been pretty interesting. Full of challenges and rewarding experiences. The best thing that happened this week was an another baptism this Saturday. Our investigator Joan finally got baptized. That was really awesome. Our zone leader came and did his baptism interview and said that he did great. That he had never interviewed someone that has answered every question without hesitation or doubt. I feel very confident that he has truly been converted to this gospel and that we just happened to be the missionaries to see the amazing outcome that so many other Elders had been hoping for. Hes been investigating the church for over a year and decided to stop drinking alcohol and coffee when we started teaching him. I was especially grateful for this experience because I now now that out of the countless number of people I've contacted or taught maybe some of them will get baptized and join the church one day. The day we baptized him was pretty crazy. The past few nights it had been storming really hard. We wanted to baptize him in the ocean since the river had a really strong current and wasnt clear as usual. However, they asked us if we could still do it in the river. We decided we would. The day of the baptism my comp got this large shell that you can blow in as a horn and we walked around the village with him blowing it. The people here use them pretty often for calling meetings and stuff. Even missionaries on some islands use them to call people to church. We gathered up a decent group of people and all walked up to the big river {big river is diwad dummad in Kuna}. The current in the river was so strong that entire trees were being pulled out into the ocean from the jungle. The river current was stronger than the ocean waves and it appeared the river pushed out about a mile into the ocean. It was weird seeing waves going opposite directions in the ocean. Anyways, my comp baptized Joan and it looked like it must have been pretty tough. However, they did it without problems or getting hit by any trees. So that's good. Haha! Oh..also. The day that my Zone leader came out just so happened to be the day we went hunting for crocodile with this guy from the village so they came along too. We walked around for about and hour and only saw one small one. You can see their yellow eyes with the flashlight. Sadly, since the one we did see was too small we didn't catch any. However, were going to go again tomorrow night. That same night while out we saw something really awesome that Ive never seen before. I was looking at the waves and saw these little glowing balls. I could only see them without the flashlight on. Imagine a trapped firefly in the wave and thats exactly what it looked like. There were thousands of them. It was beautiful. They also washed up on the sand and illuminated the sand. It was crazy. It kind of looked like the stars and the ground merged together from a distance. I managed to scoop up a little bit into my hand where it glowed. I put the flashlight on it and saw nothing. My guess is that its algea that glows in the dark. Earlier this week we walked out of our house when we heard someone playing reed pipes. Nearly the whole village was in a long line dancing with their faces painted red and the women in their traditional outfit as well. That was interesting. I was told they were celebrating that another girl had reached womanhood. I saw the girl two days later and she was painted black and had her hair all shaved. I still don't know why they do that. Its definitely different. Yesterday was probably the craziest thing Ive personally had to do in the mission. Our Zone leaders called us at like 10 pm Saturday night and asked me to go down to Irgandi and help the branch president with church. The other missionaries weren't there since one of them had to go to the city. They said that I had been given permission to leave my companion and walk there by myself. Since my comp is the branch president here in Ukupa he had to stay. Just walking to Irgandi is probably about 5 miles. I left the house at 8 AM Sunday morning and started walking over. Sure enough, less than half way there my flip flop breaks. Dang it. .Luckily, a good portion of the walk is on the sand however, I also had to walk through parts in the jungle, parts over dried and really sharp coral reefs, through a river and even walk over cliff sides that could land you in the ocean if you don't choose your footing well. I think going over the coral reefs, sharp rocks, and millions of shells was the worst part. I really got sliced up the bottom of my foot. On the coral there were millions of tiny little shells that break when you step on them and there is no avoiding them. I was pulling tiny pieces of them out my feet. Due to my feet I was nearly late and the last stretch of beach I sprinted to get there on time. That last stretch of beach isnt extremely far but not close. When I walked into the door of the church the people probably thought I had been chased by an animal or something. Panting and my feet bleeding. Haha! Anyways..the branch president was happy. He told me he had been praying nonstop for help so Its a good thing I never turned back. I blessed the sacrament, directed hymns, did the opening prayer, gave a 15 min talk, and after church I tried helping him out with the church system on his computer. Lots of work. I then started the long walk back. Going back was tough on my feet again but I eventually got back to Ukupa and cleaned myself up. I was extremely tired though. Probably walked about 10 miles. Most of that distance without a right shoe! ha..Anyways..we have this one investigator named Francisco that we've been teaching. Hes a youth {15} but actually listens and understand what we teach him. His baptism date is set for 2 weeks from now. I guess we will see what happens. I also want to give a quick shout out to my family back home and my aunt Linda. I got the packages you guys sent me and I love them. Thank you!! Well..that's it for this week. I hope all of you have a good week. Love you guys!!
Here are two pics. One is with Joan and his family and us. And the other is showing the sharp coral I had to walk on to get to Irgandi. If you look, you can see the tiny shells on the coral."
Here are some pictures showing the trail to Irgandi from Ukupa. One pic is of the cliffside you have to pass by and the other is showing the river you have to pass through. The deep part of the river goes up to your belly button sometimes and you have to wade through it.
Here is an armadillo that some guy in the village caught and came to show to us. Sadly I didnt get to eat it but I still thought it was cool. This other pic is of something new here that Ive never eaten. Those small fried things {not the large fried plantanes} are actually baby fish. Lately everyone has had them because this year happened to be the year they came out. Every few years these tiny fish can be found in the millions in the river. Eating them fried was actually pretty good. They reminded me of the homemade hash browns that mom cooks sometimes.
La obra misional esta progresando!"
~Elder Hawes
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