Save Yourselves!

This one time on my mission….we had special permission to head to the beach on preparation day. All of the missionaries in our zone were excited to do something different for a change and we were looking forward to it all week. We were lucky enough to have beautiful beaches and massive waves in the area as well.  As our zone hung out on the beach watching the waves crash and playing soccer we noticed a large rock sitting out of the water about 10 feet away from shore.  The rock would normally be impossible to reach without swimming but with the tide receded out far enough, we could run and reach the rock safely if we moved quickly between each wave.  Of course, we all thought it would be a great picture sitting on the edge of the dangerous rock as waves crashed, so we grabbed our cameras and off we went.  My companion and I were taking a picture at the far end of the rock when I heard a loud commotion from the ramp onto the rock.  Apparently, someone had been stung by a bee.  It was funny at first seeing a few elders jump around complaining about a sting or two.  Then, as we watched, a giant black cloud of thousands of bees appeared as Elders scattered in all directions. It was exactly like the movie Tommy Boy but real bees. They were covered in bees from head to toe. The cloud hadn’t reached me yet so I was directing the other Elders to lower themselves into the water to get the bees off of there bodies and at the same time be careful because of the waves.  I realized the cloud of attack was nearing and I covered my face and ran straight toward the one exit ramp off of the rock.  I was engulfed and stung hundreds of times along with the rest of them.  It turned out the hidden bees were Africanized bees that can be very dangerous.  The more and more you swipe at them, the angrier they become.  We found ourselves rinsing bees out of our ears, hair and everywhere else as we swam under water away from the attack to safety.  We spent the rest of the afternoon picking stingers off of our bodies and prepare to go back to our areas to work that night.  The work must go on and we had to be on the streets by about 4 pm.  As bad as it hurt to be stung it was pretty funny looking at how beat up we looked. Every sting swelled and blotched red.  My eye was swollen shut and my companion looked like he had a mango on his forehead.  We knew it was going to be a long night when the first door we knocked on the woman said, “what’s wrong with your face?”

Elder Butler

Nicaragua Mission