11 July 2012 - last change

Dear Family,

I am entering my last change of my mission! It all feels so surreal. Today I received my new companion Elder Rose from Arizona. He has about 9 months on the mission. I have heard very good things about him, so I am excited to end my mission working hard with a great elder. We will be heading back to Playon Chico Friday morning at 6 in the morning. Now a little about my last change with Elder Wade.

First of all, we were blessed with five baptisms this last change. All of them were people we found on one of our islands, Ukupa. We had a lot of help from one of the few return missionaries in San Blas named Olo. He was essential because not many of the people in Ukupa speak Spanish, so he tirelessly worked translating for us. The branch president Lazaro was also a big help.

While we were there, several men came back from the jungle having just killed a monkey. After posing it several times, it was skinned cooked, and served to us. I found the meat to be quite tasty actually. We stayed for Sunday to make sure everyone was confirmed properly and both spoke in Sacrament meeting.

This change we had several really bad storms that did quite a bit of damage to the island and piping of the water system. We were without water for four days. It breaks my heart when I see all of the damage done to the homes of the people on the island. We are of course always willing to help with the clean up and repairs. Most of the damage involved roof damage, strong winds blowing parts of the leaf thatching off. The area floods pretty badly too and seeps up through their floors.

We do not have that problem in our tree house we live in, but it was swaying like crazy in the wind.

Thank you for all of your letters, emails, and packages. I really appreciate them, and they do a lot to encourage and motivate me.

Love,

Elder Whiting

San Blas/ukupa in June

The family at Playon Chico that Elder Whiting and companion live with.

On ukupa - they stay at the chapel when visiting this island. Green coconut

This is a trail along the sea coast from ukupa to another island.

Ukupa and families in San Blas

Elder Rose from Arizona, he will be Elder Whiting's companion for his last transfer on the San Blas islands

The family the missionaries live with on Playon Chico. Near the chapel [right side] and the bridge across to their island

Igwa [he is special]
It is apparent in these pictures that Elder Whiting has lost a lot of weight in this area.

A picture with President Ultiminio at his home.

Ukupa from the air when transferring to Playon Chico. It appears that the chapel is near the edge on the left side.
When the missionaries go there they go in a canoe powered by small motor. Lots of ocean salt spray and sun, with an unsteady platform. And no life vests, unlike the more luxurious tour boats that the missionaries saw go by them, leaving them bouncing in the wake.

Ukupa - notice the absence of any electrical connections to this chapel. So it has some solar and batteries for limited lights, etc. Elevated on stilts to prevent/limit termite damage

 

Village on Ukupa

 

Elder Whiting and Elder Wade with 8 year old boys for baptism in the ocean. The missionaries loaned some of their shirts for white clothing.

Chapel interior
The church building was prefab, then moved to the island and erected. It has been kept up and maintained well.

Elder Whiting's hammock, they bring their own when visiting here. This is in a classroom at the chapel where they stayed.

The family at Playon Chico

Ukupa where they eat coconut and lots of mangoes and plantains. Hats and sunglasses are only worn on p-day

 

Church at Playon Chico

Classrooms at the Church. Seminary and English instruction here is also done by the missionaries.

The main meeting area.

Landward and front of the Church

As you can see the building is over the waters of the Caribbean.

Home on the Caribbean

Lunch in the hotel [a rare treat] which is owned by a Kuna man. This is the main tourist lodging.

The Kuna Congress holds their governing meetings here.

The missionaries live here. No one lives on the ground floor and you can see the often noisy dog tied beneath their home.

Cooking.

Home

This is Elder Whiting's hammock. The shower is outside and downstairs. The talented land lady does a good job with all the laundry. The blue tarp inside is to catch some of the rainwater and direct it towards the sides.
Electricity is by solar panel and a car battery, so it is very limited.

Stairs viewed from the second floor room.

Companions having a meal in Panama City at the Hard Rock Cafe I believe.

Toilet and yes that is the Caribbean that is visible below.

Going to San Blas

Small plane for the flight to Playon Chico

Panama City

Playon Chico and the island where Elder Whiting is living. The airport can be seen to the far right. The chapel is just above the end of the bridge on the right side.

Airport - the TSA location is ???

This bridge goes from the mainland to this island and is walked daily by Elder Whiting. Foot traffic only.

Sunset

San Blas

I have been talking a bit with a few of you already, but I want to fill in everyone on how I am doing. My first change on Playon Chico, San Blas has been amazing. I am going to start off answering some questions.

 

How do you wash clothes?

All of the clothes on the island are washed by hand and in buckets. We are very fortunate because the hermana we rent from washes all of our clothes for 10 dollars the whole change. I always laugh because she makes us buy soap too which she uses to wash our clothes in addition to all of the clothes of her entire family. The arrangement is still really nice though. She is so talented. I do not know how she got the inside of my collars white again. They look brand new. Unfortunately, most of the inhabitants on the island cook with fire, so sometimes when our clothes are hanging out to dry the neighbors smoke all around us makes them smell like campfire.

Do tourists come to the Island?

Tourists come to our island all the time. There is a kuna owned hotel really close by (maybe 5 min in boat with a motor) that they all stay at. They come to our island in the evening around 4pm and stay for 1 1/2 to 2 hours touring the island and buying handcrafts. We help the ones that do not speak Spanish sometimes, but they usually have a translator that follows the group around. Most of the tourists come from Europe, the states, and Columbia. They are always curious about us, so it is nice to talk with them.

Are there any stores there to buy any food in?

I have found three main stores on the island so far. They do not really sell very much though. If you are willing to pay for it, they do offer cold juices and sodas. You can buy fresh baked bread pretty much anywhere on the island. Poeple are pretty much constantly making it after 2pm. It is so so good. Other than that they have spam, oatmeal, eggs, butter, and other random things. The longer I am there, the more I find I can buy on the island.

 

We are the only elders that live with a member family on our island. The elders on the other islands live in the church. Timoteo is the dad. Everyone calls him Timo. His wife is called Ibeth. They have three daughters. An older one I have not met but will this change, Ileen (16 years old), and Gebeth (Hey Beth). She is 9 years old. They have two ugly dogs named Mursia and Principe (Prince in English) that bark all the time. After writing this I realise how much I miss them right now. They are really special people. Timo is the second counselor in the branch presidency.

 

Ibeth cooks lunch for us every day. Most days she will make a traditional soup called tulimasi which consists of fish, yucca, and platanos. Other days she will make spam and rice or a spin off of tulimasi with a chicken wing instead of fish. She will also make fried platanos sometimes. They love hot chocolate too which they make with nesquick and powdered milk.

 

Anyways, email me some more questions since I am probably missing a lot. I will send pictures tomorrow. I love you guys.

 

Love,

Elder Whiting.

San Blas Elders

---from the Panama mission blog.

18 de abril

 

 

Today I had changes. This is my third area in a row with only one change (David barrio 2, Colon, and now Paraiso).
Anyway I am going to San Blas! We leave for Playon Chico on Friday. We will be running around like crazy today and tomorrow preparing for these next six weeks. I really do not know what to tell you because I do not know anything. They just handed me a bunch of money, and now I am going around with my new companion Elder Wade buying supplies. Elder Wade came in the same group as my "son" Elder Bentz. He is from Oklahoma. He is the big, white guy with the mola tie. Elder Monterrosa from my district in the MTC trained him.

I am still kind of shocked. I do not think this is sinking in yet. I am SO excited though.
Several elders I know were showing me some pictures and videos they have from the same island I am going to. It looks insane. They are always doing crazy things. I also noticed they are always wearing sandals.
My mission is now officially exactly like The Other Side of Heaven. This is so awesome. I will certainly be using the bug spray and sun lotion a lot more now, not to mention my crocs. I am going to be sleeping in a hammock every night, showering out of buckets again, trying to learn Kuna, and doing tons of service. I am sure I will have more to tell you in six weeks.
Now some bad news...I will not be able to email or read your emails/receive letters this whole change. To make up for that, we get unlimited Internet time until we leave on Friday and when we get back six weeks from now to catch up on everything. The only trouble is finding the time while we are running around. Still it is hours of use.

I am not sure about the Mothers Day call. I might be able to call from the island, but me might have to wait until we get back. I will also be on tomorrow although I am not sure what time. 
I love you guys. I am going to miss communicating every Monday, but that is how it goes.
Love,


19 abril

This is just a quick update for everyone. We are hanging out in the office right now because we got done buying all of our food in PriceSmart. It was so cool because I felt like I was in Costco or Sam's Club. I also bought a water bottle with a built in filtration system that the church distribution has. Apparently the water is bad...shocker...haha. Elder Wade told me we have a cook on the island that gives us one meal a day (lunch). He added that it was almost always boiled fish.

Our luggage will stay in the apartment of the office elders. Before they used to keep the luggage in the assistants house. I trust everyone in the office, but I bought some locks for my suitcases just to be safe. We slept in their apartment last night and will probably stay there tonight and tomorrow night. Oh, that is the other thing. Our flight is not until Saturday morning at 6am because they could not get us tickets for Friday. The other four elders going to San Blas will leave on Friday though.

I have to go. We are going to run some more errands, and then we have dinner with President Ward at 6pm. I love you.

---------

I just wanted to quickly answer a few questions before we head back to the apartment to finish packing for tomorrow morning.

I am assigned to three places. Playon chico is our main area and base. From there we can also visit ocupa and irgandi for up to several weeks. I think they are settlements on the mainland coast.

16 de abril

 

This week I had a wonderful experience in the temple. It had been some time since my last visit. The temple has to be the quietest place in all of Panama. Yesterday in church I noticed there seemed to be a temple theme. All of the talks and lessons were centered on temple blessings/attendance. One of the speakers cited the temple president when he spoke in this last stake conference.

He encouraged the members to attend the temple to the degree that it would represent a sacrifice for them. Interestingly, countries in Central America with temples seem to have a tougher time getting the members to go. I guess the tourism appealed to many people back when they had to plan temple trips to Costa Rica, Guatemala etc. Anyways, I had a great time.

 

Love,