Natives and Nonsense, But The Work Continues...

I am going to go ahead and share the experience that Elder Vasquez, Elder Woolf, Elder Apaza, and I had yesterday. As you already know the little city of Tarapoto is on strike right now but mainly it is being shut down by force by all of the Indians that live in the surrounding jungle villages. The Peruvian Government is trying to sell their lands to foreign oil companies and the oil companies are being to contaminate the villages water source. As of last Thursday the natives have blocked all of the highways and roads and so no one can leave and no one can come in. Elder Woolf and Elder Apaza are the zone leaders from Moyobamba (about 3 hrs outside of Tarapoto) but with the strike weren´t able to leave ever since we had gotten back from Lima Thursday night. They had tried everything to get out; everything from a three passenger airplane to traveling in the middle of the night but everything fell through. Until yesterday in church we heard some members talking and they told us that the natives were going to allow people to pass for only two hours but they would have to pass on foot. The natives had a really big stretch of highway closed off and we would have to walk quite a way in order to get to the taxis on the other side which would carry Elder Woolf and Elder Apaza to Moyobamba.
We decided to take the opportunity and so with all of Elder Woolf´s and Elder Apaza´s luggage we took a little moto-taxi just as far as we could and from there we set out on foot. The highway was lined with little natives with their spears, bows, arrows, and face-paint. It was a little nerve racking because Elder Woolf and I kind of stick out like a sore thumb. We ended up walking for two hours and arrived at the river, which on the other side we would be able to find a taxi. We figured that we could cross the bridge but the natives had also blocked it off so the only option was to carry all of the luggage on our backs and ford the river. We had to make several trips back and forth and we got covered in mud and soaked but we were able to get a taxi and send Elder Apaza and Elder Woolf off to Moyobamba. After they left Elder Vasquez and I had to once again cross the river and walk another two hours back. On the walk back I asked my comp what time it was and he said “five o´clock, time for you to call your family” (That was when we were about an hour from the nearest moto-taxi) I laughed and said that my mom was probably going to freak out a little bit, but from the sound of it I think you took it pretty well. The zone is safe and we are all doing really well. The missionaries are still in high spirits and so I guess it was just another one of those speed bumps that try to interrupt the Lords work but like always nothing will stop this work from progressing.