Hi Family,
This was a busy, busy week! Do you have any questions for me? Any questions in Dule Gaya?
Who brings the bread for sacrament? We (the Elders) bring the bread. The deacons do not bring it. We buy it on Saturdays for $.05 per roll. Sometimes we have to use tortillas because they are out of bread. One of the local Kunas makes the bread here by hand. I think it is made out of cornmeal or a flour of some kind. . .probably rice flour.
That reminds me, one day we were doing service and we were asked to help make the rice flour. It was super tedious and hard! Like, so hard! We took this hard brown/red rice that had a hard shell on it.
We put it into this huge bowl and had to smash it and grind it down to a powder. When we were done, there was rice flour there, but we had to pick out all the pulverized hard outer rice shells. It took forever.
Note from Nate’s family: Evidently Elder Doxey and Yapias do not have a real Olmec metate at the ready to help with this. We happen to have one in our flowerbed. It’s a bummer he can’t use ours!
One thing they sell here after they make the flour is “alhaldas” (which is Dule Gaya for Scones) and they sell them for $.05 each. We have some Nutella from Panama City, so we eat those with Nutella a lot. Love those scones!
Who conducts your branch meetings on Irgandi vs. Ukupa branches? Elder Yapias gets the meetings started, but we each speak a lot. Since I have been here church members have spoken three times, so that’s progress in the right direction.
Is there music in your branch? You don’t have a piano, but is there anything else? The Kunas LOVE to sing. Everything is a capella. We all sing terribly, (in Spanish) rather than Dule Gaya. They make up their own rhythm to the hymns. The better singing is when we visit people. Whether people are church members or not, they will normally let us in to talk if we sing and leave a blessing on their home.
How are you interacting with people normally? Well this week we started also teaching an English class to people. We had about 10-15 people there. There was one mom, one dad a bunch of jovens and kids.
We also went to Ukupa Island this week and found an awesome family who is related to a church member. The 4-5 of them have not been baptized yet, so we will be teaching them.
Does anyone read? Scriptures? Any kind of reading? There are about four people who I know read pretty well. The Book of Mormon is not fully translated into Dule Gaya (because it is not really a literary language—paper does not last out here), but they do read what they have. Most of the youth are super, super into the Book of Mormon videos. They literally can’t wait for the next one to come out. Each showing is like “a premiere.”
With everyone you teach seminary to, are there any who are regular students, and seem to really be “getting it?” Definitely. There is a 16 year old boy named Christian who is the church superstar of the island. He is the boy in one of my past letters who caught the octopus, boiled it and shared it with us. He actually caught an even bigger octopus this week and did the same thing. Tasty little guys.
That reminds me, this week we ate boiled iguana ribs. It was "less good" than the octopus, or the wild boar the Kunas caught, but certainly a new variety of eating.
The Kunas sure know to boil their food. Evidently, after they caught this iguana, they just threw him in the pot—no salt, no pepper, no nada. There are probably better parts to eat than the ribs, but that’s what they gave us. Boiled iguana ribs taste like rubbery chicken.
Note from Nate's family: Iguana soup is rather popular in many areas of the Carribbean, South Florida, Honduras and Mexico. They call Iguana meat the "chicken of the trees."
Stressful Baptismal Interview--Miracle Upon Miracle. We had a baptismal interview all arranged for a person we’ve been teaching. Out here on the islands, “a baptismal interview” is a bit different. They are interviews via satellite connection. You don’t just call your District or Zone Leader to paddle on over to your island to do the interview.
We normally have a special phone that can connect to the satellite connection so we can call Elders and Sisters on other islands. Normally I would use that to call the Zone Leader and set up a baptismal interview. But, as luck would have it I dropped it in the river when I was crossing it last week, and it sunk to the bottom. I found it after 10 minutes, but it was toast.
With our investigator coming to be interviewed, we had no way of reaching our Zone Leader, to tell him to get on the satellite. So, we took our chances and tried to just connect with APs via Google Hangouts on the satellite, and hope that they would happen to have their satellite connected, so they could do the interview. It was a long shot, but we tried. What are the chances of them being there? What are the chances of his connection and our connection being set up at the same time? Almost no chance.
You see, to get the satellite interview set up, we have to have our satellite link powered up and ready, have our investigator there and ready, and have our APs ready. . .all at the same time.
We dialed our APs on Google Hangouts, AND THEY PICKED UP!! What a miracle! With that, we had him all lined up and ready to go, and wonderfully, our investigator arrived at the church building for the satellite enabled baptismal interview.
Then, since there are a ton of kids at the church all the time, the door to the room where the interview was to happen got locked—WITH THE KEY TO THE ROOM INSIDE!! So, there we were with our investigator, locked out and could hear our Zone Leader asking if anyone was there. AGGGAHHHH!
We literally thought “We are going have to break down this door, and replace it with another door in the building.” Then, miracle of miracles, Christian the 16-year old walks in and with a pair of scissors and somehow knows how to open the locked door! All this time we thought it was so secure in there. Christian can get in whenever he wants. Christian is THE MAN! We had the baptismal interview. Whew! After the interview, the young man that was interviewed for baptism left and literally disappeared. Not good. All that and then he's gone. We literally can't find him. We'll look for him, and find him but something must not have gone right.
This coming Thursday, we are going to Panama City for a conference with Elder Brian Taylor. All the missionaries will be there. This will be the first time I’ve ever met with all the missionaries in one place, and in the past 3 months, the first time hearing a car, seeing a car or civilization. Should be great.
It has been super, super hot here. The thunderstorms (complete aguacero) come at 3 am and 5 pm. There is so, so much water, it is hard to even describe. It is weird to see pictures of people in Utah with coats on—maybe I should say “clothes” on. Most people just don’t wear a lot of clothes here…just the essentials to cover yourself, nothing else.
Well, “Animasi Babmachi Mai!” … that’s Dule Gaya for “Yo se que Jesucristo vive!” My Dule Gaya and Spanish are coming along.
Con cariño,
Elder Doxey
 |
| In 1991, sections of The Book of Mormon were translated into Dule Gaya. It is a bit different than Spanish. |
Who brings the bread for sacrament? We (the Elders) bring the bread. The deacons do not bring it. We buy it on Saturdays for $.05 per roll. Sometimes we have to use tortillas because they are out of bread. One of the local Kunas makes the bread here by hand. I think it is made out of cornmeal or a flour of some kind. . .probably rice flour.
That reminds me, one day we were doing service and we were asked to help make the rice flour. It was super tedious and hard! Like, so hard! We took this hard brown/red rice that had a hard shell on it.
 |
| Red Rice Flour |
Note from Nate’s family: Evidently Elder Doxey and Yapias do not have a real Olmec metate at the ready to help with this. We happen to have one in our flowerbed. It’s a bummer he can’t use ours!
 |
| Metate y mano that the Elders do not have (Google Images) |
One thing they sell here after they make the flour is “alhaldas” (which is Dule Gaya for Scones) and they sell them for $.05 each. We have some Nutella from Panama City, so we eat those with Nutella a lot. Love those scones!
 |
| Cooking |
Who conducts your branch meetings on Irgandi vs. Ukupa branches? Elder Yapias gets the meetings started, but we each speak a lot. Since I have been here church members have spoken three times, so that’s progress in the right direction.
Is there music in your branch? You don’t have a piano, but is there anything else? The Kunas LOVE to sing. Everything is a capella. We all sing terribly, (in Spanish) rather than Dule Gaya. They make up their own rhythm to the hymns. The better singing is when we visit people. Whether people are church members or not, they will normally let us in to talk if we sing and leave a blessing on their home.
How are you interacting with people normally? Well this week we started also teaching an English class to people. We had about 10-15 people there. There was one mom, one dad a bunch of jovens and kids.
We also went to Ukupa Island this week and found an awesome family who is related to a church member. The 4-5 of them have not been baptized yet, so we will be teaching them.
Does anyone read? Scriptures? Any kind of reading? There are about four people who I know read pretty well. The Book of Mormon is not fully translated into Dule Gaya (because it is not really a literary language—paper does not last out here), but they do read what they have. Most of the youth are super, super into the Book of Mormon videos. They literally can’t wait for the next one to come out. Each showing is like “a premiere.”
With everyone you teach seminary to, are there any who are regular students, and seem to really be “getting it?” Definitely. There is a 16 year old boy named Christian who is the church superstar of the island. He is the boy in one of my past letters who caught the octopus, boiled it and shared it with us. He actually caught an even bigger octopus this week and did the same thing. Tasty little guys.
 |
| Iguana |
The Kunas sure know to boil their food. Evidently, after they caught this iguana, they just threw him in the pot—no salt, no pepper, no nada. There are probably better parts to eat than the ribs, but that’s what they gave us. Boiled iguana ribs taste like rubbery chicken.
Note from Nate's family: Iguana soup is rather popular in many areas of the Carribbean, South Florida, Honduras and Mexico. They call Iguana meat the "chicken of the trees."
Stressful Baptismal Interview--Miracle Upon Miracle. We had a baptismal interview all arranged for a person we’ve been teaching. Out here on the islands, “a baptismal interview” is a bit different. They are interviews via satellite connection. You don’t just call your District or Zone Leader to paddle on over to your island to do the interview.
We normally have a special phone that can connect to the satellite connection so we can call Elders and Sisters on other islands. Normally I would use that to call the Zone Leader and set up a baptismal interview. But, as luck would have it I dropped it in the river when I was crossing it last week, and it sunk to the bottom. I found it after 10 minutes, but it was toast.
With our investigator coming to be interviewed, we had no way of reaching our Zone Leader, to tell him to get on the satellite. So, we took our chances and tried to just connect with APs via Google Hangouts on the satellite, and hope that they would happen to have their satellite connected, so they could do the interview. It was a long shot, but we tried. What are the chances of them being there? What are the chances of his connection and our connection being set up at the same time? Almost no chance.
You see, to get the satellite interview set up, we have to have our satellite link powered up and ready, have our investigator there and ready, and have our APs ready. . .all at the same time.
We dialed our APs on Google Hangouts, AND THEY PICKED UP!! What a miracle! With that, we had him all lined up and ready to go, and wonderfully, our investigator arrived at the church building for the satellite enabled baptismal interview.
Then, since there are a ton of kids at the church all the time, the door to the room where the interview was to happen got locked—WITH THE KEY TO THE ROOM INSIDE!! So, there we were with our investigator, locked out and could hear our Zone Leader asking if anyone was there. AGGGAHHHH!
We literally thought “We are going have to break down this door, and replace it with another door in the building.” Then, miracle of miracles, Christian the 16-year old walks in and with a pair of scissors and somehow knows how to open the locked door! All this time we thought it was so secure in there. Christian can get in whenever he wants. Christian is THE MAN! We had the baptismal interview. Whew! After the interview, the young man that was interviewed for baptism left and literally disappeared. Not good. All that and then he's gone. We literally can't find him. We'll look for him, and find him but something must not have gone right.
This coming Thursday, we are going to Panama City for a conference with Elder Brian Taylor. All the missionaries will be there. This will be the first time I’ve ever met with all the missionaries in one place, and in the past 3 months, the first time hearing a car, seeing a car or civilization. Should be great.
It has been super, super hot here. The thunderstorms (complete aguacero) come at 3 am and 5 pm. There is so, so much water, it is hard to even describe. It is weird to see pictures of people in Utah with coats on—maybe I should say “clothes” on. Most people just don’t wear a lot of clothes here…just the essentials to cover yourself, nothing else.
Well, “Animasi Babmachi Mai!” … that’s Dule Gaya for “Yo se que Jesucristo vive!” My Dule Gaya and Spanish are coming along.
Con cariño,
Elder Doxey
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