Guy on a Mission: Thou shalt not kill... Unless it's a Snake

February 10, 2025

Hey everyone! Please forgive me while I lose my time management on Pdays, but I got an email for ya this week!

SNAKES... SNAKES EVERYWHERE

Okay, this is not an exaggeration; we see at least one dead snake every single day out here on this island. Someone pulled a Florida and brought invasive snakes out here, and now we have a bunch of Boas that just take over the island. Usually, they hide in the tall grass, and you won't encounter a live one. But this week, on an exchange, while teaching a lesson, the grandkids of the family we are teaching started yelling. Naturally, we all look over, and they run at us and start telling us about the Boa in their fencing. Now it's a social law that if you find a Boa, you have to kill it. But these kids are not fond of the idea of killing this snake, and to be fair, it's a 3-foot-long snake. So I offered to take care of it. Elder Long, bless his heart, was not a fan of the idea, but this snake has to die, and who better to kill a serpent than a soldier of the Lord?

Armed with a stick and the dullest butcher knife you've ever seen, I wrecked this snake with a rock. Yep, the stick and the knife didn't work, so I went caveman and dropped a boulder on it. And then threw it into a sewage ditch. Woo

Zone Conference

Zone conference, as always, was an absolute blast. In Aruba, the missionaries stay put, and all of the Bonaire and Curaçao missionaries fly to us. Everyone comes in, sleeps for a night, spiritually FEASTS, annnnd then gets on a plane and flies back to their respective islands. Always pretty lit. Zone Conference also comes with about 10 Elders, all sleeping in one apartment that generally holds two. Every square inch was covered in mattresses, and old man Missionary wisdom got dropped. It's a good week to be a Missionary!

Can't Forget the SNAKES

Yup. That's right. More snakes, sorry Mom. Okay, so like I said, there's a LOT of snakes on Aruba. So, probably once a day, you see one that got smacked by a car or killed with a rock. Last pday, a few of the Elders and Sisters "collected" the bodies of 2 dead snakes, gutted them, skinned them, and stretched them out to dry. And now the sisters have scripture cases or bookmarks or something made out of snake skin. Good luck getting that through TSA

I'm sure that more happened this week, but I can't think of it right now. Don't worry, in about 5 minutes I'll think of 4 more things to add, shrug my shoulders, and move on cause y'all have listened to enough of my rambling. I love you all. The work out here is incredible. I have seen daily miracles as I look for them. I often remember the song "Count Your Blessings," where it says, "count your many blessings, see what God has done." When we count blessings, two things happen. One, we forget what had us upset, and two, we really realize just how much the Lord loves us. God loves each and every child, and yes, that means you. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. There are no exceptions to God's love.

His greatest creation is you.

-Elder Aldrich