Waterfalls and Elections

Yesterday was, once again, our "day off" and we took a trip to do some jungle hiking and playing in some of the gorgeous waterfalls. It was peaceful and fun. Here's some fun pictures taken by myself and others depicting our escapades:

 Pretty landscape

 Pretty small waterfall 

 Pretty isolated pools of water near little waterfall

 Pretty sandy streams flowing to larger river 

Pretty Katie contemplating something on a rock

 Pretty natural garden formations

 Can you find the pretty little brown bird?

 Weird face carved into one of the rocks. Pretty sure this is NOT an ancient Mayan leftover, especially given the dreadlocks depicted.

 The foliage and these unusual purple spiked berries make for a nice nature shot

 Hiking to big rock falls

 Along the way we saw some horses

 Big Rock Falls

Big rock falls and me, wearing lucky hat, lucky shirt, lucky boots, and... jeans. (Sorry, the orange adventure pants were in the wash!)

Look at how intense we are. Yeah, we're totally tough like that.

Yay Team!

 This is my pull-you-in cute face for girls. 

 A lot of the faces in this picture are classic and just downright zany.

 Yay! Waterfall!

I give this waterfall two thumbs up!

So do Siskel and Ebert!

Okay, last shot of me, I promise!

Anyway, I figure the pictures tell the story much better than any words, so that's just about it for my report of yesterday! 

As for today, it was my last Sunday in the Santa Elena branch (very sad). Next week will be my last Sunday in Belize, but there will not be regular church due to the broadcast of the San Salvador El Salvador temple dedication. This will be the temple to service the saints in Belize now. The Guatemala City temple is actually closer, as is the soon to be dedicated Quetzeltenango, Guatemala temple, but Belize and Guatemala have never been on very good terms, and it is easier for Belizeans to make extended stay visits in El Salvador and Honduras (where yet another temple will soon be dedicated in Tegucigalpa). By the end of next year there will be 6 temples in Central America! The Church is very strong across this part of the world, though it is a little behind in Belize where the work started much later (1980) than the rest of Central America. The Belizean saints are still very excited for the temples being built and are confident that one day there will be a stake in Belize and eventually a temple as well. After the 3-hour block today I had my quick interview with Pres. Pinelo to recieve my...

...temple dedication ticket!

It wasn't too much of an interview. He mainly just asked to see my temple recommend and then asked if I was still worthy to have it or if there was anything I needed to clear up. When I showed him my recommend it blew my mind to realize that it is only good through the end of next month!!! Do I have a new item on the top of my priority list for when I get back to the states? Yes. Yes I do.

Church itself was great; a fantastic final week in Santa Elena Branch. The sister missionaries serving here spoke in sacrament and I got to teach the Gospel Principles class for non-members and recent converts. It was the lesson on the Holy Ghost and we had a fantastic discussion; everyone participated really well. One of the recent converts brought her non-member boyfriend Jamir for the first time, and he read along in the scriptures and seemed really interested, so the sisters will hopefully start teaching him this week. It made me miss my mission a lot (as this whole experience in Belize has). I'm just glad the Lord always has work for us to do! :)

On the way to Church we saw an unusual amount of commotion. Nobody usually is doing much of anything on Sunday mornings, but today is the local elections and so all the candidates were setting up booths around the voting stands on the main street in Santa Elena where we walk to get to Church. 

Getting ready for elections

The political system here in Belize is... interesting. I've had ups and downs dealing with some of the political struggles here, but it really isn't too different than the United States. On a positive note, Sis. Medina, one of the members from the Santa Elena Branch with whom we often have FHE is running to be on the Cayo Town Council. She is an amazing lady with strong goals for positive development of Belize. She also has had an amazing campaign. We've seen her posters and banners just about everywhere and we also have heard that she has gone door to door to talk with nearly everyone in her council region to talk about her ideas and goals and hear their point of view! I personally hope she's elected. If so, she'll also stand out as the first female Mormon to hold public office in Belize (to our knowledge)! 

One last cultural picture before I finish this post:

Click to zoom in and look at the sign on the store. The sentence at the bottom is in the Belizean Kriol language. This is a VERY common sign on the stores around here! "Dis da fu we chikin" means, roughly, "This is where we get our chicken", i.e., "Chicken sold here!" Kriol signs are the best, because the spelling has no consistency (some of these signs spell it "Dis du fi wi chiken") and you have to say it out loud to understand what it is saying, even in Kriol.