* Hey, I edited this post to include a picture Collin sent us recently - this is Elder Wilcox and Elder Winget right after their jungle adventure.Hello world! I'm writing you now from NEW CALEDONIA! If that's not a surprise, that's probably because I've already been here for more than a year! This week, the 11th I believe, marked 1 year in NC. Much adventure has come to pass. So this week I will tell you about some of it.
So this Monday, we went on a hike to Mount Kogi. A very mild mountain hike in Dumbea. There was a cool waterfall up top and we took lots of cool pictures. It was great to see all the other missionaries (almost every missionary on the island was there) and hike through the wilderness. So me and Elder Wilcox were hanging out together- and he's loosened way up. He's actually really rad and I miss him. So we were talking and walking and we stopped to take some pictures of the lovely landscape.. By then we had already finished the hike and were making our descent. We were holding up the back and just chillin. It's only like a 20 minute hike so we weren't in a huge hurry.
So after we had stopped to take pictures, we noticed a fork in the path. I wasn't quite sure which one to take, because on the way up I didn't pay one lick of attention where we were going - I was talking to others the whole time and just following.. So we took the one appearing to go down the mountain... And followed it.
It seemed that this fork had taken us even deeper into the forest than from whence we came, but we were like well.. It's the path. We might as well follow it. So.. We did. And what a mistake that was. It turned out that this wasn't the path, but a sinister disception. This path didn't lead... Anywhere but to destruction. We quickly found out, as we were fighting through shoulder high grass, that we weren't really in a path. But we had passed a point that it would have been impossible for us to go back.. So we trekked onwards. We were laughing the whole way and making fun of our plight, but it was becoming slightly concerning how lost we were really getting. At one point while we were literally scaling a cliff 20 feet down, going it tarzan style hanging onto VINes we decided.... We're lost!
So we kept our cool.. Said a prayer-- and started to follow the river. We climbed up and down and all around following the river, climbing down huge waterfalls and sliding down huge hills and pretty much almost dying a few times. But it was fun. It got kind of old after a while though, and we were pretty tired and dirty. We had to ford a huge pool up to my shoulders, and so we were also getting pretty cold. But we kept going.
After about 2 hours of being lost in the woods, we found a Rod of Iron! .. which was actually a huge metal pipe. It did however, form a straight and narrow path, which we followed. We just walked upon it and kept going. It eventually was like 10ish feet off the ground and we were hanging onto the dense trees on either side for support. So we followed it for a while. And kept following it.. And kept following it.. Until suddenly Elder Wilcox just ditched the rod and started climbing. So I'm like.. Okay? Cool.. And followed. Then we popped out in the backyard of a house!! We're like... w00t! Civilization!! And so we walked up to the house, and there was some dude sitting inside. We signal to him and he came out quickly. He immediately said What are you guys doing here! You're bothering me. I'll open the gate for you! Get out! And I'm like.. We've been lost in the forest for like 5 hours.. Can we-- And he cut me off and said go! And I'm like.. Wow, french people sure do... suck. So we left his house and started walking down the street. Eventually we came upon a dude in a Landrover who was like hey... What's up? My son called me and said he wasn't very hospitable to you- can we help? So we used his phone to signal the others and then he drove us back down to camp. They were all very happy to see us. We were wet and covered in dirt from head to toe and everyone's all like.. WHOA! And i'm like like, cool. We're back. I like to be non-chalant. So, yeah. It was fun. We were pretty dirty but it was quite the adventure and we ended up fine. Thankfully we found each other when we did- it was like 45 minutes before dark.. And I wasn't so thrilled about staying out the night. So it was fun and we got some cool pictures and videos. I learned the importance of staying on the path, following the iron rod, and sticking with an awesome buddy when you're lost in the forest.
Other than that, nothing super exciting happened. Well, I lied. Soane and his copine came to church! We were super excited. The kids all came too and it was quite the party. They liked it a lot, and had good questions and comments. We were excited to have them there. His girlfriend actually ends up understanding lots more than he is - and we found out that she has a crappy example of a brother too. Her brother was married in the temple, and she didn't understand why, so she asked his wife and she said it's sacred and stuff. Which she said made her think her brother would stop all his smoking pot and stuff- and she was surprised to find out he was exactly the same. I was sad about that. Apparently her brother doesn't talk to her anymore because of something his wife said and is not willing to forgive her for. Remember always how much our example can have on non-members. But thankfully, she really likes and believes our teachings, likes the BOM and is reading regularly and came to church.
Also yesterday I was talking to this lady en ville who said she saw the missionaries before, blah blah blah and we started talking. She asked me if the Melanesians (kanaks- the native people. They drink from morning to night all week.) cause us any problems. And I'm like nah, they're harmless. And she's like well, do they ever agress you? And I'm like nah, they're all talk. I've never been hit. They threaten and say lots of stuff, but never do anything. And she's like all, well you know, turn the other cheek and stuff. And i'm like yep yep. So then AS we're talking about this, some SUPER SUPER drunk kanak guy comes up, who just smells like death and looks like he had been drinking since the moment he woke up in the morning (which was probably true) and without saying anything, gives me a not-so-toothy smile, winds up, and punches me! LOL! It didn't hurt or anything; it was a very light punch to the shoulder.. then he turns to punch my companion, who, with a look of disgust, just slaps his fist away. So everyone in the area just scatters. I shook his hand, said have a nice day, and walked off. Silly punk.
Well that's about all that happened this week.. :D I love you beaucoup.
Love,
Elder Winget
I love Collin!! :) Thanks for posting his letters!
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