The Island

Well the island is pretty crazy. Last p-day a member asked me if I wanted to go see the prettiest part of the island. I said sure and my companion had never gone either, so we were like lets do it. Our journey started at 10am. I'm thinking we would have plenty of time to get back before 6pm. We start walking and and he says we are going to catch what we can on the hike and then eat it when we get to the beach. So we are walking through the mangrove swamp in mud and looking for iguanas. We find two iguanas that run and hide inside a tree, so he cuts the tree open with his machete and I pull the iguana out and he cuts its head off. Then we keep moving and he sees a big one up on a branch like 30 feet away, so he pulls a sling shot out of his back pocket and a rock out of his front pocket and shoots the iguana perfectly in the head killing it instantly. It falls to the ground dead. I was just like wow he just killed an iguana with a sling shot. So by the time we got out of the swamp we had killed three Iguanas and we were in the swamp for like 1 hour.

We are covered in mud but we come out on to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. He then cut down some coconuts and we drank those and ate the coconut meat on the inside. We started walking again but this time along the shore. As we walked we caught different types of crabs for like an hour. When we get to the bay inlet type thing, it is just so beautiful, but we have to cross it, and it is like 300 yards. We didn't swim, don't worry. It was like knee deep the whole way. So as we are walking in the water we found 4 really big conchs. So now we have a bunch of crabs, 3 iguanas, and 4 conchs to eat. We drink some more coconuts then start moving again. An hour later we get to where he wanted. Now we are about to go fishing but we have to catch hermit crabs for bait. So we go into the woods and catch the hermit crabs they sell in the pet store, but really big and blue, red, and purple. In like 10 mins we catch like 30. Then we crushed their shells with a big rock and pulled them out and put them on hooks and catch 11 yellow snapper. 11 fish. So now we have 3 iguana, a lot of crabs, 4 conchs, 11 fish, and some fruit. We made a fire right there on the beach and cooked everything up. It was so good because he brought all the stuff to cook it with. We ate our food on palm leaves and had coconuts to drink. That was my p-day last week. I left a lot of stuff out but it was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done. I told him that my brothers would think this is so cool and he told me if they come out after my mission we will do it again with them. It was so much food I wanted to throw up. I really love the conch meat the best.

This is the mangrove swamp that we were hiking through for like 2 hours looking for iguanas to kill with our sling shots.

In the end we killed three iguanas. This guys name is Juancito or if you translated his name into English it would be little John. He killed that iguana from like 30 feet away and one shot with that sling shot that's around his neck.

This is my companion Elder Davis. We found 4 conchs like this and then ate them later. I love conch, It tastes so good.

Just a cool picture of the conchs before we broke them open.

Elder Davis and me on the Beach

Some of the crabs and hermit crabs we caught to eat and to use for bait when we went fishing.

Juancito cleaning the fish we just caught.

Me trying to help Juancito clean the fish we just caught.

This is our dinner table and fire. That is a pallet that we just found on the beach.

This is me eating some of my fish. Between the three of us we ended up eating 11 fish, 3 conch, some crab, fruit, and coca nuts that we cut out of the trees for drinks. We ate the three iguanas for lunch the next day.

I am on an Island!

So 4 hours in a bus and 1 1/2 in a boat and I was in my area. My companion and I are everything. We are the branch president, we talk every Sunday, we bless the sacrament, we each teach a different class the second hour, we do all money, we are it. It's a little overwhelming, I not going to lie, to run a branch. I conduct the meeting, lead the hymns, Bless the sacrament, give my talk, and then teach a class. All this is hard enough but then when you change the language its awesome. I can really feel the Lord helping me. We have like 25 active members in the branch. The chapel is a little house on stilts. My house is a 30 sec walk to the beach.  My house is also on stilts. There are big rats in my house. It is pretty cool.
I have another dog. His name is black diamond.

The name of the island is Utila (aerial photo, visitor info). It is really really famous for its scuba diving. Its the best place in the world to dive with whale sharks. Everyone is a scuba diver here. The island lives off of its scuba diving. The native language is English. I don't now how to explain the natives because there is no one to compare them to, they are just Utilans. The natives talk like nothing I have ever heard. Its English but the closest thing I can compare it to is Pirates of the Caribbean. I am not joking, lots of them talk like pirates. There's lots of stories of people who have found pirate treasure for real here on the island. I am not joking, like they are legit. We eat fish all the time but like crazy fish. It’s what ever the natives catch that day. And Iguana, we eat iguana. My companion's name is Elder Davis. He is from Utah and we get along really well, and so you're not surprised, he has the reddest hair I have ever seen.  We get along really well. So today we are going to go hiking around the Island.  This native guy that is like 35 and has been exploring and fishing on the island his whole life is going to take us to some of the cool places today. He says, “We's goin  u come bac wit someting bra." Maybe an iguana or snake or something to eat tonight. This guy's job is just to fish. He free dives and catches fish all the time.  I am scared of him because he is all muscle. He's a member too so that makes him even cooler. He cooked us a barracuda (the fish). It was the best fish I have ever had. I have so many thing I want to tell you I just can't explain. But yes my companion and I are the branch pres. on an island. We only go on division one time every 6 weeks and we don't have district meetings or anything. We are just on the island all the time.