Hola Familia!
Highlight of the Week: Thomyly Lopez Acosta was baptized! His wonderful story is below.
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| Baptism of Thomyly Lopez Acosta from Ukupu Island |
Ukupa Island Branch Temple Trip
Our area covers Ukupa Island and also Irgandi (where we live). Getting to Ukupa Island is a solid one hour hike down the coast for us, and then across an amazing bridge that goes all the way out to the island. If we had our own cayuco (wooden carved out canoe) it would be a lot faster.
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| Ukupa Island with other islands in the background |
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| More ritual dances. They seem to really like these. I'm sure I'll learn what it means soon! |
Each time we go to Ukupa Island, we cross a river that is normally knee deep to waist deep at the highest. This is one of many reasons I just wear Jandals or Chacos (with cut off/rolled up pants, white shirt and tie) here…leather shoes would just be destroyed!
Well, several church members on Ukupa Island have been wanting to make the journey to go to the temple in Panama City for a long time. Nobody is ready to go to the temple from the Irgandi Branch. Working toward this, actually going to the temple is no small feat for the Ukupa Branch either. Here is a summary of what this entails ...
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| "Metro" Irgandi with our chapel on the far right in the palms |
Determining who is worthy and ready to go
We have no branch president in Irgandi afterall, so Elder Navas is the Branch President, and he does the temple recommend interviews. At the moment, for this trip, there are 25 Kunas going. 5 have been before. A few of those are endowed and will be able to do a full session. Others will be doing baptisms; a little bit of everything. Others will just be going to be there. So, with a mixed group like that, we’re sorting through all kinds of levels of preparation.
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| Traditional Local Kuna Woman Doing Ritual Dance |
SPECIAL NOTE ON A BAPTISM THIS WEEK!
In the process of reviewing the records of those who planned to go on this temple trip, we learned there was a 25 year old man named
Thomyly Lopez Acosta who had been attending the Ukupa branch for a long time, but there was no record of him being a member, and he said he had never been taught or baptized. He was just coming to the branch! So, right then and there, we set a baptismal date for the next day.
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| The great Elder Navas and I in Irgandi |
We went through all the discussions with him, and formally interviewed him for baptism. The next day, as we were walking to the river to baptize him, I realized I didn’t have any extra clothes to wear under the white jumper, or place to change, so I just put the huge white baptismal jumper suit over my normal missionary clothes and baptized him in the river.
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| Unforgettable Day with Thomyly Lopez Acosta |
We confirmed him right there on the beach. The Spirit was strong. Yesterday he received the Priesthood, and he is going on this temple trip. He is really happy and seems to have a growing testimony of Jesus Christ.
Figuring out the finances of this temple trip
Of course, there is no charge for the housing on the temple block, and meals at the temple cafeteria are very inexpensive.
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| The Goal...Panama City Temple |
The costs start mount up when they have to pay for a “panga” (a larger boat) that will take them from Ukupa Island to a port down the coast where they can then pay for a car ride to Panama City. All together, each adult going needs to save and pay the equivalent of $120 USD, and youth are covered by the branch.
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| Beautiful San Blas Islands |
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| Sample Modern "Panga" to Transport Members (this is the one I arrived on) |
The math behind this is interesting. When you figure the primary way these dear Kuna people earn money, it is humbling. You see, there is a steady stream of boats arriving on the islands from Colombia. The people on those Colombian boats pull in and buy up all the plantains, bamboo, coconuts, and fish that the Kunas can sell them. Bless, bless, bless those Colombians!
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| Locals working |
They sell each coconut for $.40 cents, so that is pretty good. Plantains and fish are a bit more. So it takes time. It takes saving and making a temple trip like this a priority. It’s humbling. We want to go do service with the men in the mountains (harvesting plantains and coconuts) to help them earn more, faster, but we are limited to only two hours of that per week—we’re not to be their permanent “employees.” 😊
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| An awesome DIY dock...and village. I would not change a thing. |
We deliberately do not spend tons of time teaching these Kunas about family history and temple work…we are trying to get them to be self-sufficient with that. It could take every waking moment we have. We can support their efforts, but they need to gain a testimony of that on their own, and to understand the need. After all, our calling is to teach and baptize those who are ready right now, not who weren’t ready in the past—that is their job.
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| Chillin' |
Kuna Cemetery Visit
Today Elder Navas and I, plus two youth from the Irgandi branch hiked up the hillside to a Kuna Cemetery. Very interesting. When someone in the Kuna village dies, they take them up to the cemetery and just find a spot to dig a hole.
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| View from the hill above Irgandi, at the cemetery |
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| Seems like a nice peaceful place to be buried |
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| A well done burial site |
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| A fairly recent burial |
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| View from the cemetery |
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| The boys that took us to the cemetery |
There is nobody telling them where they can bury or can’t, it’s just a matter of finding a good spot. After they have the hole dug, they lay some sort of woven blanket over them, then place some of their sacred carved wooden dolls on top of them, and then fill in the hole. That’s it. Pretty simple.
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| San Blas Islands |
Living Conditions
We go to the bathroom on the beach like everyone else. Sometimes it’s hard to find a good spot because there is either not enough water to wash off, or too much water, but it’s just how everyone lives, so that’s that.
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| Irgandi Map of Branch Members & Irgandi Area |
We discovered we have a spigot that is supplied by the river near our house. The water is actually pretty clean because it’s coming straight from the river. We put it in our filtration water bottles and we’re healthy so far, so that’s good. When it comes to bathing, we’re super fortunate here on Irgandi. We fill up 5 gallon buckets from the river water, or collected from rain water and splash it on ourselves.
On Ukupa Island (an hour walk away from here) they have no water source (a river coming down a hillside like we do), so they have to either collect the rainwater in 5 gallon buckets or dig down in this permanent “bucket well” thing until fresh water appears.
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| A shallow "well" on Ukupa Island. One of very few water sources there. |
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| Shallow well |
Island Technology
I finally learned how we are connecting to the outside world via our branch. Our branch building has solar panels, and six car batteries (when needed) to power the place.
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| Island Technology |
We have one of those huge stake center satellite dishes, and somehow over that we can connect to the Internet here in the branch. It is through that dish that we will invite everyone to come watch General Conference on a 30” monitor. I think we will be trying to invite anyone who speaks a little Spanish to come listen (which is not many) b/c I’m not sure it is translated into the Kuna language (Dule Gaya).
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| The Irgandi Branch ... it's a huge, huge blessing to have this building. Grateful for tithes that surely paid for it! |
Church Attendance
In the Irgandi Branch, we have about 30 kids in attendance, 10-15 youth, 5-6 moms, and no men. We also have no Branch President so Elder Navas is the Branch President and I’m his counselor.
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| It's beautiful here |
We are working hard to find someone who can be the Branch President, but we have not found anyone yet because all the men are working.
They are either working to gather coconuts to sell to the Colombians, or fishing. Sometimes people pay tithing, when they can come to church. This week there was about $1.40 in tithing (the value of about 4 coconuts) donated. We don’t accept tithing “in kind” (no fish, no coconuts, etc.).
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| Having cement like this, out here, is a huge luxury! |
One complicating factor with finding a Branch President is related to how Kunas govern themselves, which is actually pretty good. You see, on each island there are 2-3 “Silas” (Kuna Chief Leaders) who actually play a very important role in the community. Our day ends around 6 pm because there is no light, and also because of the community Kuna meeting.
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| Elder Navas ... an EXCELLENT Elder |
Almost every evening the Silas gather the community together, start with prayer, review things in the community, rules of the community, coconut and fishing economics, do some Kuna rituals and talk. It’s like their church meeting, but mixed with community affairs, every night. Missionaries are rarely invited and cannot be out working during this community conference. On Irgandi, one of the Silas is also a recent convert church member, so he is sort of already one of their leaders--except on Sundays in our branch.
On Ukupa Island, the attendance numbers are about the same, but there are more men that attend.
Daily Routine and Schools on the Islands
We're up at sunrise (5:30 am) to exercise, eat, study, bathe, plan. By 9 am we are out walking to visit church members, less actives, people who want to learn more about Jesus Christ. All the kids are in schools, and they are taught in Kuna, Spanish, and English. I’m not sure what they are taught, but that’s how things roll.
Other Missionaries in the San Blas Zone, on other Islands
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| Branch building on the water |
There are a total of 8 Elders and 4 Sisters in the San Blas Island Zone. Then, there are two Districts in our Zone. Not all missionaries that serve in Panama will ever serve out here.
The central area of the San Blas Zone is Carti Tupile…that is where all of our Zone Conferences are, that is where Pres. Garrett comes to do interviews, that is the “center” of our Zone. Nobody comes out to Irgandi where we are though, b/c we're so remote. There are two Sister missionaries in the Carti-Tupile Area, and two in the Corazon de Jesus Area of Nargana Island.
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| Headed out to Ukupseni Island with Elder Harding |
Elder Harding (from the Edgewood Ward in the Edgemont Stake) is my District Leader. He and his comp are in the Playon Chico Area of Ukupseni Island. Our Zone Leader and his comp serve on Ustupu Island, which is 3 hours away by boat. We are supposed to be able to communicate by Internet but often there is no signal.
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| Dule Gaya | Spanish | English discussion, with 1st Vision Mola Pictured |
Kuna Language Progress
Thanks for sending me all that Kuna vocabulary. It helps. One of the challenging things about learning Kuna is that there are different dialects of Kuna on each island. There is not a lot of cross-over island to island, so language wise it is all similar Dule Gaya, but it is also localized and different.
Gotta run. Love to all.
Elder Doxey
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