Fires and Candlelight (week 53)

Hey Friends and fam!

   

Wow, another crazy week but year two of my mission was started off the right way….hahah!  Well, to start off year two, I went in front of my little house (hut) and burned one of my disgusting white mission shirts and like 20 kuna kids circled around and were amazed and in their language asked what the heck i was doing.  lol  I’m sure they have never seen anyone burn any type of clothing in all of their lifes! 

This week has been just work as usual hahah visiting and growing the kingdom of the Lord.  So we ended up hiring the big guns to travel to Tupile this week because the waves have gotten so big.  So we got a guy with a canoe that literally looks like he carved it out of a giant redwood tree…the thing is massive.  It ended up being a great ride and we got there safely even with the huge waves.  So there was a ton of pressure this last week because our president of the mission really wants to get missionaries on Tupile full time but the sylas (chiefs) are only letting us stay there 3 days a week.  So we went with some basketballs as gifts and we tried to bribe the sylas to let us stay there full time.  We had this big conference with them and explained why we wanted to stay there 7 days a week and they just shut us down…hahaha…I was actually super sad and for now we continue to only be able to stay on their island 3 days a week. 

So then we just worked normal and headed back here (Playon Chico) yesterday.  Today for pday we had moving day to a new house the branch pres made for us because his daughter is coming back from the city and moving into the house we’ve been living in.  So we helped him finish the house and moved in at the same time hahaha, we put in the last cane sugar walls and finished the leaf roof.  He actually put cement in for the floor but ran out of money so the floor is half cement and the other half is sand…lol super funny.  There are lots of sacrifices in the mission but its so crazy how you just learn to not be part of the world.  Like no movies, phone, you’re just like secluded with no knowledge of what’s happening in the world lol. 

Wow, I just remembered something crazy that happened this week.  Tourists come and visit our island all of the time but they only stay here for a tiny bit of time then have to leave to go to a little resort that they stay at.  But anyway, we were getting a shipment of books of Mormon from the little air strip pad (airport), and there were gringos there which is pretty rare.  The tourists are usually like from Europe and stuff.  So I said hi and they asked what we are doing and if we live on the island.  We started talking with them and they tell me they are from Walnut Creek lol…I almost died!!  It seriously is a small world.  Super funny but the week has been a pretty good one overall.

That’s pretty much my week but changes happen this coming Monday so we will see what happens to me then.  But I’m happy to be wherever the Lord wants me to be.  Love you all and have an amazing weekend!!!!

Love, Elder Call

MLK Day! (week 52)

Hey Friends and fam!

Wow another week down here on the islands and the time is literally
flying by down here in the Caribbean. Wow as for me first things first…
today is the 18th hahaha which means I have exactly one year in my
mission today! Wow exactly a year ago the fam dropped me off at the
mtc, I had nooo idea what I was in for by serving a mission hahaha.
Wow so that's pretty crazy and I will be sure to celebrate tonight by
burning one of my gross san blas white shirts hahaha.  Wow also
another surprise is the new prophet. Just saw that while on lds.org
and that is sooo crazy.  So crazy that Nielsen is the new prophet I
love it. This upcoming year is going to be awesome and I'm so excited
for the future of the mission of Panama.

Well as for me the week has been pretty good. I Haven't been as sick this

week which is always a plus, and we have been finding a bunch of progressing

investigators. We just got back a couple of hours ago from San Ignacio Tupile

and we got stuck in the ocean during quite a freaking storm. One of the motors

on the boat broke down and they got stuck trying to fix it and a 45 minute
boat ride turned into a 2 hour long ride hahah.  Well besides that nothing
else is new…just continuing to do the work of the lord one day at a
time.  Wellll uhhhh that's pretty much all I got hahaha.

I love u all and have an amazing week! -Elder Call

January Blues (week 51)

Hey fam, hey everyone,

Here I am reporting from Playon Chico hahaha.  Well wow since last Thursday its been a little rough out here not guna lie.  Idk what happened but these last couple of days it's been kind of rough.. Friday and Saturday were good days, just the normal teaching and preparing people for baptism, but then on Sunday I came down with something.  So I got to church and just kind of died with some sort of flu.  We had a baptism which was cool, really cool guy, but then after that I just went back to our house and got in my hammock and didn't leave except to puke and poop until yesterday.  Hahaha so its been a rough week so far but that doesn't take anything away from how grateful I am to be here on San Blas teaching such an amazing and humble people.

I love my calling as a missionary and there is no other place I would wanna be right now. Even when I was dying in the hammock and my attitude was down lol I was still just thinking in my head there is nowhere in the world I would rather be.  The mission is the freaking best and I know that there are always weeks like this that pass.  The good news is I'm recovering now and should be good as new in a couple of more days.  

Ok well that's all I’ve got hahaha…love you all have an amazing rest of your week!! ----Love, Elder Call

2018! (week 50)

Hey friends and family…wow…happy new year!  January 4, 2018

When I see all of the other missionaries write home they all have great titles and stuff and I’m truly sorry I’m not too creative and don’t do that lol.  I hope you all are doing well and have been enjoying your first week of the new year. Man it was a pretty crazy week on the islands as usual and lots happened. So here in playon last week we were having a hard time finding good progressing investigators because we would put return dates to teach them and would come back and they would just shut us down.  But luckily we have still had some pretty cool progressing investigators here.  Well Sunday we had a baptisms of someone named Kipiler and he’s really a great guy.  He’s had huge drinking problems in the past but we helped him get over it and had his baptism this weekend.  We couldn’t think of anywhere to baptise him though because of how big the waves are these days which meant we couldn’t go to another little island or something as usual. So we decided to do it off some dock on our island.  Lol…pretty sketchy but as my comp Elder Hansen was getting into the water off of the dock to baptise him, a little wave came and Elder Hansen’s foot slipped and got stubbed on some coral that scraped his foot pretty good.  He was bleeding sooo bad from his toe lol it was soo funny.  I also gave a good talk this week.  I was thinking really hard what to talk about and ended up speaking on the parable of the lost sheep and missionary work in our own lives.  It was a great talk and I honestly freaking love that parable probably the most and I think it is my favorite. There are so many lost sheep out in this world and so few missionaries and everyone needs to play a part in this amazing work of re-activating and helping spread the gospel.  Then after we left to san ignacio and wow it was suuuuch a sketchy ride!!!  We had been complaining to the guy we usually go with about the price of the ride and it turns out it had been more expensive because he usually rents the pueblo canoe to take us.  But this time he took his little one with the old 8 motor so it would be cheaper for us.  And wow... that bad boy leaks sooo bad hahaha every wave we hit it would literally fill up with like 10 gallons of water.  I was shoveling the water out like a freaking mad man convinced we were going to go down in the middle of the ocean hahaha.  It got so bad we hit a wave and the whole canoe filled with water up to my knees and we were litterally sinking and our bags were floating in the water.  So we stopped and had to all shovel out the water…hahah definitely the closest I’ve come yet to going down in the ooean.  So after that exciting ride we got there fine.  It was New Years which was fine, because it’s the same day as any day on the islands, except at midnight i was asleep and got woken up by some loud fireworks which was a nice and fun surprise.  But besides that just a normal day working my bum off hahah…that part never changes out here.  Wow, I just found out literally 2 min ago that Pres Monson died.  That is actually so sad he was the absolute best and I love that guy.

I love you all have a good rest of your week!!!  Love, Elder Call

Happy New Years (week 49)

Hey friends and fam!  December 28, 2017

It is probably pretty strange that I’m not writing on a Monday but I asked president if I could write home on Thursdays instead of Mondays and he said yes.  The reason Thursday makes most sense is because we are working on two big islands this change and there are some complications with getting to an internet on Mondays.  We can’t do Mondays now because the chief of one of the islands, san ignacio tupile, is only letting us stay on his island for 3 days a week because they are still getting used to missionaries being there.  So we have to take full advantage of working those three days and then we have our Sacrament meeting Sunday afternoon.  So now we are going to have to work the whole day on our pdays and we’ll take a few hours to write home on Thursdays.  Hopefully that sacrifice brings us more miracles this change too.  There’s not much to say about these last couple of days. We left for the first time to san ignacio last Tuesday and that was awesome. I had never gone there before and everyone welcomed us on their island with open arms.  We don’t have a house there so we have been staying in a hotel for 5 bucks a night hahaha…its just a little hut but its location is super cool because its on like a little private island made out of rocks.  So we have water most of the time and the hut is cool, has sand floors and everything, and we still sleep in hammocks.  But its way cleaner and way more private than the houses I am used to staying in.  So the work there was good and we found a ton of cool people and had some amazing spiritual lessons with them.  This morning was pretty interesting because we had to get back to our other island, playon chico.  So no one could take us back to our island because the waves in the ocean were too big for their little cayukos to navigate.  So I went up and asked the Colombian pirates, who were trading goods with the Indians on the island, if they could give us a ride because they had a big boat that could navigate the big waves.  They gave us a super hard time but I pretty much begged them haha and they let us get a ride back to our island with them on their boat. SO that was a super funny experience being in their pirate boat.  I literally felt like a modern day pirate of the Caribbean in that huge boat as we passed by all of these little islands on trip back to our island.  I’m not going lie though, I was a little nervous because these guys are pretty rough and really kind of scary, but we arrived safely and they ended up not charging us for the ride.  I ended up having a pretty cool talk with one of them about the book of Mormon and it all turned out ok.  So that’s what’s been happening out here these last couple of days. Well, got to go, but love u all and have a good rest of the week and write again next Thursday!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Call

Christmas Day (week 48?)

Hey friends and fam!! merry xmas!!! December 25, 2017

Wow, merry xmas everyone I still cant believe its xmas today…it blows
my mind lol it just feels like your average day on the islands.  First off a big
thanks for all the love and support you are all giving me…it means a
ton!. Ok as for me lol as always I‘m sorry but I don’t have a lot of
time. So this week was absolutely nuts because I ended up going back to
panama city for a little xmas confernece with our mission president and it was soo awesome.

President bought tacos for everyone and it was a total blast being with everyone.  I do admit that after 3 months on the islands eating canned foods and fish it was
sooo nice but also sooo crazy being back in Panama City.   Lol, the first thing i did when we got to the city was go back to the little corner stores and buy an ice cold malta and a piece of crap Panamanian bread hahhaa and it tasted sooo good!!!

So I’m back on the islands now and this has been a crazy week in my new area and has definitely been an adjustment from my last area on the coast.  Right now I’m in Playon Chico and it is a way bigger island than anywhere I’ve been before in San Blas.  The population of the island is about 2000 which just seems sooo big…lol.  I’m used to little pueblos with a population of 90 or lower hahaha. My comp, elder Hansen, is pretty cool too.  It’s always a little different when you’re not with a Latino comp but its been fine so far.  Hopefully I’ll have more time next week to share some stories but I’ve got to go now. 

Love u so much…have an amazing xmas and hope all is well!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Call

Merry Christmas...(who knows what week because it's been weeks since we heard from him so we will say week 47)

Hey friends and fam!! December 18, 2017

Wow, first off I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long and second  off Merry Christmas!!! So crazy how its xmas but it doesn’t feel literally any different out here on the islands.  Ok, so much has happened this last month but I couldn’t get to the internet the last couple of weeks and then the lds mail server went down so I couldn’t write either.  Ahahha but don’t you all worry I’m healthy and happy as can be out here. This past month, if y’all have forgotten, I have been on the coast of San Blas in the middle of freaking nowhere working in a trio in two pueblos specifically, Magebgandi and Aidirgandi.  It was a huuuge success working with these coastal villages this change but unfortunately it was changes today and I got changed.  So last Thursday in a pueblo called Ukupa there were two elders Elder Maea and Elder Diaz.  So Elder Diaz was ending his 2 years and was leaving back to the city Friday in the morning so I had to go travel there so that elder Maea wouldn’t be alone when elder Diaz left.  So Thursday I left my companions and took a cayuko to Ukupa and I’ve been working here ever since.  I’ts been an awesome couple of days and elder Maea has been great.  I really wanted to be with him this next change but we had changes yesterday and I’m leaving the coast and going back to an island called Playon Chico and another island called San Ignacio Tupile.  So I’m excited to go back to the islands because its a little better living conditions there than it is here but I’m going to miss being on the coast. It was a way different experience here because there isn’t a church building along the coast so in the little towns we’ve been doing the sacrament meetings for the people and stuff and have been using some of their little bamboo shacks for our meetings.  So it’s been a pretty impactful and crazy experience for sure but now I’m headed back to the island life.  I also have a new companion Elder Hanson that has like 20 months in the mission and he is from Utah.  So I’m pretty excited for this next change but also pretty sad I’m not going to have a Latino comp.. lol there goes my Spanish!  Also it’s pretty crazy because president is having all of the missionaries in san blas go to Panama City tomorrow for a Christmas conference.  Wow, when I heard that news I was sooo pumped…haha finally I’ll get to eat some fresh fruits and vegetables and drink some water that isn’t from a river or from collecting the rain water. So it should be awesome and I’m sooo excited because it feels like I have been in San Blas for years…I cant wait to get back to civilization for a day or two and I’m hoping I’ll maybe see some xmas lights or something hahaha…but who knows.  That’s my life right now and I’m sorry I don’t have a lot of time for more stories but I love u all so much and I’m sorry I haven’t written anyone in like a month.  Hopefully you’ll understand that I have just been off the grid.

Love U all have a merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!