Big Changes (week 19)

Wow…another great week in Panama friends and Fam!  This week was hectic.  We had changes and a lot has happened.  So I’m with a guy from El Salvador right now and his name is Elder Gonzalez.  He seems pretty cool and I’m fortunate to be with another Latino comp so I can continue improving my Spanish.  So this week I have a ton of things to say, but as always, my time is short.  We did some service last week and helped build a house for some of our investigators.  It was the first time I have built a house Panamanian style and wow…it’s no joke.   It just involves a whole lot of crappy cement and a lot of blisters.  Building the house was pretty fun work and the investigators fed us some good stuff too.  It was really funny to learn how they build their houses down here. 

So today was changes and it turns out I’m opening up another area.  So before the change today the zone leaders were in the area right next to ours, but now they are moving to a different part of Arrigan.  So I now have their area along with the area I’ve been in so my new area is huge with a lot of land.  But it’s going to be really fun…going to be a crazy adventure for sure.  So last week the zone leaders assumed this was going to happen so they showed me their area and where their investigators live and all that stuff.  So pray that I remember where they all live because I’ve got a lot in the old brain right now hahaha.  Send your prayers.  Well now at least I’ll get dinner with members almost every night where before we only got one meal every week which was weeaaak hahaha.  I’m excited for this next change and I’m expecting a lot out of myself and my new companion. 

It was really sad saying goodbye to elder Martinez my old comp.  Love the kid and I’m really going to miss him.  He taught me sooo much about the mission, about speaking spanish, and just about life.  I’m going to miss the kid…clicked really well with him.  That’s all I have for you this week.  Please continue sending your prayers my way.  I always pray for all of you.

With much love, Elder Call.

Photos----

1.  My new comp…seems like a good guy so far

2.  The last night with elder Martinez celebrating together with one final malta hahaha.

3.  My fave little member of our church haha, they were one of the only fams that ever offered to give us dinner. Love them soo much.

4.  Huge weird fly thing in our house hahaha nasty.

Best Mother's Day (week 18)

Hey friends and fam!  

Wow what a week…the highlight definitely has to be the call to the fam yesterday.  Sooo fun talking and i miss you all so much but I especially miss mom….cant believe how amazing you are mom!  Well this week was good and was the second to last week in the change.  I can’t believe I’ve been in Panama for three months now and have been in the mission four and a half months…time really flies when all you do is walk around all day and teach about Jesus.  Well we got some promising new investigators this week and we have some good baptisms to look forward to for next month. Sooo awesome doing the work of the Lord, there isn’t anything more satisfying or that brings more happiness than the mission provides. There is nothing more amazing than the promises Jesus Christ and God provide for their children via the gospel and that I promise you.  The mission is by far the best decision I have ever made.  I don’t know what I would be doing right now without the mission, but I can tell you one thing- it probably wouldn’t be too good lol.  

So we were teaching this Kuna family last week when all of the sudden we hear someone screaming.  So we went outside of the little hut we were teaching in to see what the screaming was about.  There was this Kuna lady screaming and frantically pointing down so we look down and there’s a little snake probably the size of two index fingers put together and the width of your average worm.  She was dead serious and was just screaming lol.  So this old Kuna man comes out of his hut with a sword and slices off the head of the snake.  He then throws the head into a fire and the body he carefully puts into a bag and takes it into his house. I asked him why he did that and he replied, "so the snake can never see another persons face again."  I’m not sure why exactly he did this but its just part of their beliefs and everything.  I’m telling you the Kunas are sketch hahaha…they have such funny traditions…legit Lamanites from the BOM.  Maybe the funniest thing about this story is that just yesterday I was freaking out over this huge bug that was in our house.  It looked along the lines of your average fly but it was as big as 5 quarters but together haha.  Wow, 5 quarters is a terrible comparison but there are just so many bugs and critters down here and I have never seen anything like them in my life!  So yeah, we’ve got really big bugs around here. Well, that’s all I have for you and no pics this week because I forgot to bring my memory stick that I send you pics from.  

Goodbye for this week family and friends.  Love you all, Elder Call

Josh gets Married (week 17)

Wow, another good week in the mission and time continues to go by faster and faster; I swear mission time is different than normal time back home.  It’s been a good week with some funny and some really spiritual stuff as usual.  So we had the kid who’s scared of the water get in the water again to try and get him kind of used to it, because he really wants to be baptized, but he just gets scared being in water.  So we tried baptizing him again on Saturday…we were soo close…lol…we baptized him but his head was just a little bit out of the water so it wasn’t good.  The other problem is he didn’t plug his nose so he got water in it and he let out the most blood curling scream ever…I mean he’s only 8 but come on!  So yeah, that was that and we’ll try baptizing him again in the future.  I also found out one of our investigators was in a movie with Harrison Ford…it was a tiny role but i died laughing because it’s so random.  She’s from the southern most part of panama and is like Kuna, or some other type of traditional Indian, and they have there own language and everything.  I guess Harrison Ford went to the jungle of Southern Panama wanting to put them in the movie which is super funny cuz she doesn’t know one word in English.  The movie is called Mosquito Coast, idk if any of you guys have seen it or not.  Well, we’re making some good progress with our investigators and the mission is still treating me really well.  It’s hard work but it is so awesome!  Not only do we teach people about the gospel, but we also teach them about making goals like going to church, and to school, and how important religion is for our lives.  I mean so many of the people just get lost down here, having babies at 14 or 15 and never moving out of there parents little house and never going to school.  It is super sad but it is also really cool seeing Christ make a difference in their lives.   Out of time…love u all!!   Elder Call.

First pic is of me because you haven’t seen my little face in awhile

Second pic is of me and my comp…the kid is the freaking man haha.

Third pic is for you mom because we had the chance to go to a real store again and I’m such a mommas boy hahaha.  I made the same sandwich mom made me all of my life… some things don’t change even in Panama!

You are the man! (week 16)

Hey friends and fam!

So I had another really good week!  But I still don’t have many really crazy stories to share.  We went to get popusas again today and that was a lot of fun.  We also went out of our area today to go to a super market for the first time since I’ve been here.  That was soo awesome and i got some good stuff.  Never forget to take advantage of safeway…you have no idea how good you have it!  The super market we went to was pretty big but still soo crappy…haha gotta love panama!  My comp got bit by a dog again this week which was sooo funny.  We’re just lucky it bit his shoe and not his ankle or leg or we would have had to go to a hospital…the dog bite left a gigantic hole in my companions shoe.  The best news is that we are having some awesome success and hope to have a bunch of baptisms coming up.  Super awesome times…I love my area here and the people are sooo good and sooo funny.  My Spanish is getting better and I’m picking it up little by little.  The rain is still continuing, which has been a hassle to deal with, but life is good.  We have tons of work we’re doing but its really satisfying work.  I’m sorry this letter is so boring but nothing much really stood out this week or was funny other than the dog attacking my comps shoe haha.  My whole area is just funny but these people are so awesome I just love them so much.   I didn’t take any new pics, besides one, but its way too boof to send out.  We climbed to the very top part of our area, because the views are awesome from there, but you can’t really see much in the pic I took.  It was at night so other than city lights there’s not much to see in the pic.  Kk that’s all I’ve got for you this week.  Please keep the prayers coming! 

Love you all!! -Elder Call