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.

¡Yo Mate El Gallo!

Some members wanted to have chicken soup with us. They jokingly said, “Yeah Elder Russ can kill the chicken.” I was like, “I will Kill the Chicken.” They laughed and I said, “Where is it at. I will kill it right now.” So we all went out back. I caught the chicken, killed it, cleaned it, and we had chicken soup.

This is how they come to stake conference in Honduras.

Octubre

Baptism of Migual. Migual is deaf so it was really interesting teaching him the lessons. He is going to start passing the sacrament this week.


Elder Elizondo colored his teeth black so he could look more like me.




I got hit by the fan in the middle of the night while looking for the light. The fan doesn't have a cage thing around it.


Some of the people in my ward after an activity.



Baptism of Hermana Carla Castellano. She is a accountant for the newspaper company in Honduras.



I really love papaya so I climbed up this wall to get some.





Jesus love me.


Baptism of Carlota. She is the mom of Carla.

Preaching With Power

We were teaching this old Catholic lady but she wouldn't listen to anything I was saying so I lost it. My companion was like no no but I couldn't take it anymore. I picked up my chair and broke it over her head.


Then she still wanted more so I kicked her in the face.

Then she still wanted more after that so she stood up and wanted to fight me.


Iguanas

Cumpleaños

Baptism of Olga Membreno


This was my zone before we had changes.


Way up in the mountains on P-day exploring in the jungle. It is so pretty up there.



I was really sick this week again. I had 103 fever. It was like 2 in the morning and I was in my little bathroom sitting on the toilet. It is was so hot. I was sitting there letting the sweat drip from my forehead on to the same place on the floor between my legs over and over again, when this spider thing came running between my legs dodging a droplet of sweat. I caught it and moved it to a safer location where I could take pictures. It is big, like 4 inches across, and very fast.

New Companion, Same Work

Here is my new companion and some of the people we have been working with.




This is me way up in the mountains. It's p-day we decided to go exploring.


This is some of my investigators before church. We pass by everyone's house to make sure they come. If you look in his hand he is holding up his Book of Mormon.

These are some of my converts and they are wearing the CTR rings that mom sent me.

The two kids with ties on are Cristian and Jaffet. Both have their birthday on the same day. They have come to church everyday since there baptisms and all the activities. They are really pilas about the church. This is how they sing happy birthday in Honduras. Oh and Cristian baptized his mom and sister last weekend.

It's A Jesus Christ Lizard

Blake didn't get a chance to send any photos this week. However, Bryan did discover what kind of lizard Blake found. It is a basilisk lizard, also known as a Jesus Christ lizard, for its ability to walk on water. It is clear that Blake's obedience and faith have given him lightning fast reflexes to catch one of these things. It is also clear the Blake is being lead to the faithful, even in the animal kingdom.