The second Friday of each semester is always a Research Presentation Day - which means no classes. Yay! I was going to go hiking with 2 other people, but they both bailed so I went by myself. Haha. I followed the same trail as the last hike, but this time I went a bit farther. It dropped way down into this beautiful ravine. Here are some pictures:
Looking up the Ravine, the trail I used is just to the Right of this picture, it climbs pretty much straight up the mountain as it leaves the ravine to go back toward campus.
Looking down the ravine, following the trail further away from capmus.
Love the panorama function on my phone :-)
This one has the trail coming in on the Left from off the mountain and then heading further down the ravine. It starts going back up the other side of the ravine about 30 yards down:
These trees are HUGE!
If you look carefully you can see the log stairs of the trail dropping down off the mountain. It was SUPER steep, almost like climbing down a ladder.
Here's another view of the log stairs:
This is about as far away from the ocean as you can get.
And there are still crabs up here :-)
This was back up on top of the mountain.
This thing was about 1.5 times the size of my head! HUGE!
It had been drizzling so it looked really pretty!
This is the trail at the top of the mountain
Notice how the vegetation is different up here.
Still pretty though!
PS - all of these hike pictures were taken on my cell phone.
Not bad eh?
On the 19th one of the Students sons was baptized in the ocean.
That was pretty cool! There were a lot of people there, including some investigators and non-member friends from school.
I'd never been to a baptism on the beach before. That's the only way to do it out here though. No font in our little apartment-converted-into-chapel. Maybe someday, but I hope not for a while yet. Outdoor baptism are really neat!
The very next weekend, Jan 26th, we had 3 locals get baptized! The missionaries we have out here are AWESOME! Dominica just got their first pair of full time Elders at the beginning of September-ish. Now, because there has been such an increase in applicants to serve missions we'll be getting 2 more! Both the elders here currently will be training starting in the next few weeks. Anyway, over Christmas break we had several people get baptized, one of which is this cool dude:
Pinky Dread, yes that is the name he likes to be called.
(NO ONE out here goes by their legal name.)
Pinky is an incredible guy. Totally prepared for the church to find him! He works at Ross doing maintenance and stuff - and I swear he knows just about EVERYONE on this entire island. His family is super cool too. I think he and most of his siblings have built homes all on the same plot of land right next to each other. They are SUCH a strong/close family.
This is Duraan, one of Pinky's sons.
This is Conroy, Pinky's good friend:
Pinky is a Priest now so he got to baptize Conroy.
I think they were both a little nervous :-)
This is Kylie, Pinky's niece...I think?
And Hazel, Pinky's sister
So three people baptized all in one day!
And all because of one really great guy.
Pretty awesome!
I almost prefer baptisms out in nature.
It's so peaceful.
Kylie went first:
Then Pinky baptized Conroy:
And then Hazel:
Conroy is so black you can hardly see his features.
I think it is super cool!
Do you think Pinky is relieved he didn't mess up?
I think yes :-)
He did a great job - and the very next day he gave a talk on honoring the priesthood. What a guy!
I'm sure these 2 were close before they found the church.
I can't imagine the great things they will do as the church grows here.
I love watching people get baptized. It is such a simple and beautiful ordinance, and it always makes me feel God's love so strongly! I don't know if you can see it in these pictures, but all three of these people just looked like they were glowing when they came up out of the water. For a long time the church has been mainly students out here, and it has been hard on the local members because we students come and leave all in about 18-24 months. I have a feeling that will start to change though. Four elders on the island and Pinky and his family and friends are going to do some amazing things.
