Happy Birthday Charlie! (week 26)

Hey friends and fam!

Well the first week in my new area was sooo awesome.  My new area is called Cabuya, Tocumen and my comp’s name is elder Lefler.  He’s the freaking man and we are killing the game out here.  We’re working like animals hahaha but I can tell y’all one thing and that is my Spanish is not improving with an American companion.  This area is still pretty ghetto, but has more money than loma coba, my last area, so we get food from members and they help us a lot more with the work which is a great thing.  I’m getting fat down here though, dear heavens lol, because we take the bus a lot now because its really convenient so we walk a lot less than we did in Loma Coba. Our area is literally right spanking next to the Panama international airport so there are millions of airplanes flying over head every day.  I thought the planes were pretty awesome at first, but when your trying to teach, sleep, or do anything lol it sucks, suuuper freaking loud.  I’m talking like right next to the airport so I get to see planes taking off like every 5 minutes so I guess that’s kind of cool.  I’m getting used to taking like 10 second pauses when airplanes are taking off and we are trying to teach hahaha.  We had a baptism this week which is always nice.  Young Kuna kid…he’s like thirteen and his family was mas o menos members before his mom got sick and died and before his dad dipped out of their lives and hooked up with another girl.  The dad has another family with this other girl…he’s a little bit of a loser haha.  So the kid  lives with his 4 other brothers and sisters and with some of his cousins and the dad only gives all 5 of them 20 bucks for food every fifteen days so they are sooo poor and its a struggle for them.  None of them are in school and none of them can read (story of panama) so we found him and he loves going to church so we got permission to baptize him to make a long story short. So yeah that was the week.  I don’t have any pics, because I forgot to take my camera to the baptism, but my comp took some pics and I’m going to get from him.  I’ve only taken one pic of the area hahaha and maybe I’ll send that pic next week. 

Peace fam and friends…love u all!

Happy Fourth of July (week 25)

Hey Fam and friends!

Thanks for all of the love and support through your emails!  Well this week was sooo awesome with so many miracles in the mission and in our area.  We Baptized 4 people this week and it was sooo awesome. My comp had the chance to baptize all of them lol but i confirmed 2 of them in sacrament meeting. It was huge pressure confirming them in front of everyone but the spirit was super strong and it was good.  

Well, the miracle of the week for the mission was in San Blas.  The zone leaders went to the house of one of the chiefs of an island to talk to him and convince him that he should allow missionaries on the island.  When they got to his house he was out fishing in the middle of the ocean and so they were just small talking with the fam. While the chief was out fishing a black butterfly landed on his hand and in the Kuna culture and beliefs that’s a direct sign that you are going to get pure wisdom from god soon.  So he flies back to shore in his boat right after the butterfly landed on him and went straight to his house and the missionaries were there unexpectedly.  It freaking turns out that this syla (chief) just got elected to be the head syla of all the islands in san blas (350).  So he talked with the missionaries and believed everything they said and now he’s convincing all of the other chiefs to allow missionaries on the islands that we couldn’t preach on before.  So that was dope and sooo many missionaries are now in San Blas and are baptizing like crazy….super dope.  

We also had changes this week and I’m now in Tocumen, Panama.  It’s an hour and a half outside of the city in some ghetto.  It’s actually an awesome area and I’m super excited for this fresh start but I’m going to miss my old comp a lot too…he was the man!  I’m a bit disappointed because I’m with an American comp now and I really wanted another Latino comp again for the Spanish but its alright.   My new companion leaves the mission this next change so in six weeks I will have a new comp.  My new comp seems like the man though and I’m super excited to work with him. 

So that was my week.  I’m having a great time working my tail off.  It’s suupppeerrr hard work all of the time but its so worth it and I love it.  Moving to a new area in the mission is hard but I hear the people here in this area are great too.  

Much love and peace to all!

Pics-

1. new crib…its a dump (expected nothing less)

2. new comp (sorry only pic i took)

3. saying bye to last comp

4. Last Sunday dinner in area…by far my favorite members in Loma Coba…going to miss them sooo much love them to death.  If I come back to visit panama they will be some of the first people I visit.  Their other daughter just left on a mission last month to Honduras.

5. Family we baptized. super awesome love them too sooo much

6. girl we baptized…we reactivated the whole fam and baptized her…super inactive before

7. just your classic pic of me in front of the church

 

Summer is the best (week 24)

Hey fam and friends! How yall living? well as for me it was a grind of a week but wow another week down and learning more and more every day. Next week is changes dear heavens so crazy, feels like i have more time here but i have 4 months in the days in panama and in loma coba specifically. Well as for the week it was aite, lot of ups and downs. the down was that the baptism we had planned got pushed back to this friday, but the good news is we are going to baptize a fam this friday and like 2 other people. Lot of miracles are happening in the mission and my testimony just grows and grows. Im guna be honest the mtc my testimony freakin shot up sooo much, panama is different because ur not surrounded all day by amazing other people and u dont get general authority's every week. But it just grows and grows and im so honored to be a missionary in this time. Well highlight of the week was playing monopoly with my comp today haahah downer of the week is i was CRAVING a diet coke (i know im wierd, And my dads son) but i never found one and i was soo sad. But life is good, inv. are all good and my spanish is hanging in there. Ready to dip from this area hahaha love it but scenery here is old now. Hey maybe i will head to san blas like pops and grandpa early on in the mission (prob not). Well yeah thats all i have love u all and i will let u know if i leave this are or not, Peace out---Elder Call

only pic is of comp and i gamin monopoly today lol