Another week (week 15)

Hey fam and friends!  Well as for this week it was kinda typical…not much super exciting happened.  Its mango season and that’s honestly really exciting…no joke.  Soo many mangos literally every tree has mangos and I’ve been eating like 10 mangos a day.  As for my investigators they are progressing little by little.  Getting them to go to church is the biggest hassle i swear.  Still love my comp though he’s the freaking man…super funny and hardworking guy. It’s getting more and more fun with him as i start picking up more spanish.  So this week we’ve had the first big couple days of rain.  Holy freekin cow,  never in my life have i experienced rain like this. Literally it rains so hard and the drops are as big as one of your fingers i swear.  Literal rivers form in the streets and that’s not a joke either.  It’s so crazy, and the temp doesn’t go down at all.  Well that’s all I’ve got for you this week.  Sorry that I don’t have many stories and i don’t have any really good pics either. 

Love all y´all miss u guys!

First pic is a sunset after the rain, really dope but you can’t see it too well in that pic.

Second pic is a cockroach i killed that flew in through a slot in the window while i was taking the shower. I aint a fan of those things…i swear this one was as big as my hand

Happy Easter (week 14)

Hey fam and friends! Wow, what a week of super good stuff.  so this week we honestly didn’t have much luck with our investigators which is a shame, but we got blessed with a baptism!  It was sooo awesome and such an experience.  So I only have time for a few stories.  So Saturday we had the baptism and we were supposed to baptize the mom and the son but it ended up just being the mom nikki.  So the story is that on their baptism day they were both sooo excited and were ready to go all dressed in white clothes with the font full of water.  so we had a member give a talk and i was going to baptize nikki, the mom, first.  So I’m about ready to baptize her when all of a sudden the zone leaders had an emergency and couldn’t make it and she doesn’t know much Spanish.  I was going to do the baptism in English for her, and the zone leaders were going to be the witnesses because they both speak English and all was going to be well.  So the Zone Leaders didn’t show up and i didn’t know the Spanish version to baptize her.  So I had to hurry up and memorize it in 5 minutes and it was chaotic but i did and the baptism was such an amazing experience.  my first convert…what a blessing from god.  So then it was my comps turn to baptize nikki’s son.  he was soo pumped so they start getting in the font and trent, the kid, put his feet in the water and got sooo scared. It turns out that the kid is deathly afraid of water (which no one told us about) and he refused to get more than his knees wet.  Well, he is only 8 but it was still ridiculous.  he was screaming and kept on asking us to drain the water in the font a little lower.  it was soo bad hahaha he was in the water for like 30 minutes with members around trying to cheer him up.  he wanted to get baptized but was just so scared of the water.  I even tried bribing him with McDonald’s delivery (I know im a bad missionary) and tons of other stuff.  it was sooo funny and so ridiculous and is a story for the ages.  In the end he never got baptized which is sad, but he wants to sometime this month but idk if it’s going to happen with that situation.  But the spirit was so strong while i was baptizing nikky, super crazy experience, i remember what i had to say in Spanish and everything.  So another story for you is today me and my comp went on a wild goose chase for these popusas we heard some people talking about.  The popusas were out of our area so we got permission to leave our area but we didn’t  know exactly where they were.  So it turns out that we got lost and ended up in dad’s old stomping grounds la chorerra which was super funny.  But we did end up getting the popusas after hours of searching lol they were soo good. so yeah thats some stuff this week.  love u all and have a good next week!

PICS

1. the pupusas today. soo good, kinda like an inside out tortilla fried with cheese and meat and beans. super good, its originally from el salvador .

2. all of the kids have bikes like this i dont even get it. they all light up at night and have huuuge speakers on the front and are always blasting music. but the bikes are always rusty and crappy and i dont understand how they even steer with the speaker hahahaha.

3. A desert i had yesterday.  sooo weird kinda gross but kinda good. an old lady that’s sort of an investigator made it.  she’s from the Dominican Republic and this dessert is traditional there i guess.  Its dulce, like a gross choco honey sugar thick sauce with canela, and beans, i think they’re kidney.  the dessert is called avichuela con dulce.  soo wack, almost good though.

4.  the baptism ayyyy sooo awesome.

5.  a tie the kuna made me, shes soo talented its so dope all hand stiched with fabrics. super cool.

Remembering... Grandma (week 13)

Hey momma, thanks for the email…crazy stuff.   So did gma just died of old age or what?  but yeah, I’m taking it well.  I was super super sad at first but luckily i was at the apartment and not out and about when pres called me.  I was a little worried at first about why pres would be calling me, out of 200 missionaries, but it was a super sad time when he broke the news.  It was just shocking, idk, i just never expected it.  So it was super shocking and I was sad the first day but I’ve been a lot better after that.  I just told my comp i wanted to stay in for an extra hour and think about my memories with my grandma.  She was so grandma to me you know…loved grandma so much.  But its all good… she’s better now that’s for sure.  She’s in paradise with all of her other family watching over us so that’s super comforting.  Hope you’re doing good momma.  part of me being so sad was thinking about you and what you’re going through so that part was hard.  Hang in there and find comfort that gma is soo happy now.  Hoping and praying grandpa is doing ok.  Kk love you mother thanks for the update glad the funeral was good and I miss you tons.   I heard your talk was amazing…that’s typical, no surprise there.  I’m going to miss grandma.  idk why, but I always felt like she loved me more than the other grandkids…hahaha…kind of joking but not really haha.  Love you mom hang in there love you sooo much!!!

 Wow, my first transfer in Panama is done…can you believe it!  This week was good, besides the sad news about grandma, and i made it through my first change…12 weeks in the mission…haha, feels like nothing when i say it in weeks.  Only one more transfer and I’ll be done with my training…crazy stuff.   Ok, as for me this week it was busy.  We have a baptism coming up with the two people from the Bahamas and I’m really pumped for that.  They are really excited to be baptized and they love our message.  We meet with them like every day almost haha.  She’s struggling because she’s getting kicked out of her house and doesn’t have a job because she doesn’t have her panama green card yet (it’s called a carnet).  So we are trying to help her but there’s not a whole lot we can do.  Lets see what else, i don’t know its still the same old panama. We had our first “all out day” which is a new thing in the mission.  Every last Wednesday of the change is an “all out day” which is a day where we don’t stop to eat and we work our bums off for 12 straight hours.  There’s more to explain but that’s the jest of it.  But that day was nuts and super tiring.  I still love it here and the people are still totally amazing.  The Kuna Indians are the best and are such good people.  Not the smartest or educated bunch but soo fun, funny, and are so humble.  My favorite Kuna lady is a member and she’s making me a tie right now with a bunch of hand sewn fabrics.  They are super good at art and make beautiful clothes.  The Kuna women wear all of these traditional beads, nose rings, and colorful clothes they make out of a bunch of different fabrics.  it’s hard to explain; only dad would understand haha.  The rainy season is coming up and I’m not too excited for that haha…apparently it rains non stop for like 6 months…ouch!  We already had a little rain and it just makes it more humid and muddy and but doesn’t change the temp one bit.

Love you all, Elder Call

First Pic - a kuna lady brought some crabs back from San Blas so she gave them to us and they were soo bomb…it came with yuka, like everything does, and cooked green bananas hahaha good stuff.  

Second Pic - some of my favorite American elders at General Conf.  sorry for my eyes but every time i smile they close so my bad…sorry.

Third Pic - me with a bird at some inactive members house lol.

Fourth Pic - a baby who’s like 3 months old downing a malta.  i thought this was sooo funny…literally a newborn drinking a malta…so typical here in panama.

Last Pic -  my comp…he’s hilarious…snacking on spicy chips with ceviche like usual.

You are the Best! (Week 11)

Hey fam n friends! Another week gone, cant believe it. next week wwill be the end of my first change in Panama cant believe it. This was another good week especially because general conference. I didnt think i would ever utter these words but i freekin love general conferenece. Its soo spiritually uplifting and it was such a treat this week. Poor monsons havin a rough time pray for him. my fave talk was Either the asian in the first session sunday or eyring in the second. Loved what the asain said bout looking to the light, lol im calling him the asian cus i dont have my notebook with all the names and my writings. But He was amazing, every session and talk was. Well this was another week without baptisms. I dont know if i told u guys but part of the reason its hard right now is we are oppeneing this area. So we dont know anyone and its especially hard with me and not much spanish. but i was blessed this week and i street contacted a lady and her son from the bahammas. She speaks english and i have been working hard with her. She came to church last week and to general conferense. she is reading the BOM also and things are going great. SHe loves the church so pray for her so shegets baptised. Shes had a super rough life and this would really help her. She has a son whos 8 too. i will let u know how things go with her. Lol what hapned this week other than that, now that im typing this i have no idea. Lol funny things lemme think, well there is a croc obsession here everyone wears crocs its hilarious like everyone. also i found out my neighbor sells duros and i have been working him for free ones and its going alrite. Also went to the city with another new elder oh crap thats a really funny story but no time. basically we had a craaazy time getting to the city cus we both dont speak that good of spanish, we got lost and tons of things went wrong ahhaa. but we made it to immigrations. Lemme tell ya, immigrations makes the dmc look chill. After 8 hours of sitting in a furnace sweating my bum off im finally a legal citizen of panama ayyyyyyy. so thats good stuff. well its still hot here. havnt stopped sweating since i got here im dead serious 24-7. 

No pics of me sorry alwasy forget. first is of my carnet, which pretty much means im a citizen of panama if cops stop me ore something. secons is of my mtc comp, idk i just think that kid is hilarious. cus its totally who the kid is, miss him so much love that kid. we had such great times. saw him at the city for immigration and that was dope. last is of a mountain by my house im guna hike with my comp next pday i will let u know how it goes im pumped. kk im out peace yall. much love -elder call