MEETING PRESIDENT, HIKING A VOLCANO & ENJOYING ST. VINCENT

La Soufriere, an active volcano having
last erupted in 1979.

Yesterday I hiked a volcano with my district, and it took all day, so by the time I got back all the little email shops were closed... but alas, I am here with this weeks email! La Soufriere was the volcano we hiked! It was actually a little tough, aha. But it's an amaaaazing hike. You end up in the clouds. Plus some of the other elders and I actually climbed down into the crater at the peak. It's like rappelling without a harness, on loose dirt, without vision of much due to the clouds, aha.

When I flew to the Caribbean, I went to Barbados first and met with my mission President and his wife. He was only called a few months ago, so I'll have him my whole mission, which I think is a good thing because he's pretty great. Not a huge "rules" guy or constantly on you about little things but focuses more on what really matters, ya know? I mean, he obviously enforces rules, but mostly in the "do you think that would be acceptable?" kind of way. Like sock ties aren't a problem or any of the other stuff we were worried about. But he is quite a spiritual man. Kind of reminds me of dad in some ways. However, he's over like 9 different countries, so I have very little interaction with him personally.

As for customs... customs sucks. Because we are going from one country to another every time we fly, we have to fill out a bunch of stuff but it's whatevs. They don't weight your personal items, so I just put all the small but heavy stuff in there, and I've been alright.

My companion, Elder Merrell, is pretty cool. This will probably be one of my best transfers, so I'm trying to enjoy it, aha. My companion and I get along, we have a car, AC in the house, a washer and dryer, it's just Elder Merrell and I in the guest home, it's beautiful here, the people are humble and all that jazz. So, it could really only go downhill for the next two years, aha.

There are three branches in St. Vincent. No wards or Bishops or anything, just Branch Presidents and Branches. There's not a whole lot of people here, most don't have cars in my area and are generally pretty poor. Not everyone... just like 70 percent of them. The members are great, aha, pretty funny. Church is different here, but the Sacrament remains the same, and that's what really matters. Some of these members walk for 30-40 minutes up and down hills in the humid heat to get to church, and it reminds me of the times when I was just too lazy to get out of bed because showering was so much work, aha! I've had a few dinner appointments. Most people will just feed you fruit when you come over. Their diet is mostly rice, chicken and fruit, so I'm doing just fine (: There are 14 missionaries on the island right now, but the mission is getting 25 new missionaries next transfer, so I'll probably be training next month... which is funny because I just got here! My MTC companion, Elder Nixon, is on St. Martin (that's where I want to go next).

Elder Mysell (That's what the natives call me, aha)

St. Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean, and is the largest island of the country Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It's located in the Caribbean Sea between Saint Lucia and Grenada.