Fall is almost Here (Week 36)

Hey friends and fam! (the usual title every week lol) 

Well, this week was dope and this next week is the freakin last of changes which i can't even believe.  Life has been good this week and the mission is amazing hahaha. I'm learning so much every day and my testimony just gets stronger and stronger.  I also have 8 months in the mission today...hahaha...so crazy how time flies.  This week was another good one and we continue having so many miracles.  We had two baptisms this week which were dope.  We baptized a girl that's like 26 and we also baptized Ofelia's son.  Ofelia is the lady we baptized last week.  Super awesome stuff and we just continue to see blessing and miracles.  Well today was one of the dopest days that i have had here in Panama not guna lie.  So the 1st counselor of the stake presidency knows my comp cus my comp was in this same zone before.  So my comp talked to him and he said he'd take us in his car up to his house where there are amazing views.  So we talked to our mission leaders and asked if we could drive in his car up to his house.  It's a miracle that we got permission to go, and that it all worked out, and he took us in his car all the way up to his house which is in a place called Cerro Azul.  This guy, Pres Gahona, is the freekin man!  He took us exploring all over this huge mountain where he lives all of today.  It was soo dope...we got to see the view of both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans together.  We also got to see a view of the whole city and all of the surrounding cities that border Panama City.  We also had a great view of the canal.  Soo awesome and we just chatted, laughed, and drove around up there.  One of the highlights is Pres Gahona was telling me that there are a bunch of sloths up there but we had't seen any.  So at the end of the trip we got out of his car and started looking in the trees for sloths when these gardeners pass by us and ask what we're doing.  We told them we were looking for sloths and they just drove off and left without saying anything.  About 15 min later the gardeners came back with a huge sloth in the back of their truck that they caught and brought back for us...hhahaha...it was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life.  That's why i love this place...some dirt broke Panamanians went wayyy out of their way to find a sloth, catch it, and then bring it back to us.  It totally made our day. The people are so humble and nice and are freekin hilarious...hahaha...these guys just had a freekin rope around this sloth in their crappy little truck and were just messing around with the sloth with us hahaha.  Well, love this freekin little country and love you all too.  The sad thing is I didn't have my camera with me during that part of the day but luckily my comp did and he's going to send me the pics later.  I'll try and send some pics of the sloth out to you next week.  Love, Elder Call  

Birthday month (week 35)

Hey friends and fam! 

Well this week was a little slower of a week but it's still awesome just being out here.  The mission is the freaking best and I'm still hanging in there hahaha.  My Comp is a really good guy and I can't believe it's almost the end of the change...only two weeks more to go.  Time is flying and I can't even believe I almost have 8 months here in the mission...so crazy.  Well, we had some baptisms this week.  We baptized a lady from Nicaragua who's been living here in Panama for like 10 years, she's in her mid 40's, and we also baptized one of her sons who is 9.   Her other son is going to get baptized next week, which should be exciting, and he's 12 years old.  We found her and her family in a tinnnnyyyy little shack in our area and I'm talking literally a shack.  My room is about as big as her house where she lives with her five small kids.  She's struggling toooooons and doesn't have work right now so she relies a lot on the neighbors for food.  So she only eats like beans and a little rice and her kids are always complaining about being hungry.  She literally doesn't have very much money at all.  So we found them and started teaching them the gospel and she was sooo humble and open to the church.  She has a lot of faith and is honestly just sooo awesome.  I love her and her family so much. So that's the big news that happened this week and not much else.  We're just working out here trying to serve and survive day by day hahaha.  I can't send photos right now but I will make sure to send a bunch out next week.  Love you all and thanks for the continual support!!!! 

Love, Elder Call

Carmel (week 34)

Hey Friends and Family!!

Well, this week was another huge success and the mission is going great right now!  All is well and my comp continues to make me laugh.  This guy’s a character and I hope we have another change together but we’ll just have to wait to see what happens.  We work really great together and are having a ton of success.  We had some baptisms last Saturday which was awesome because we had been working with these two girls for quite a while.  There was an old lady who would always take the girls to her church and would give them food and stuff.  That old lady is the worst and it was quite a trick getting them to leave her church.  The old lady got so mad that we were teaching them and started saying to these poor girls that we worship Joseph Smith and a bunch of other stuff.  Then this old lady told the owner of their house not to let us in so we couldn’t go past the fence of the house to teach them.  So we had to teach them outside of the house in the freaking jungle and it was all crazy.  So we postponed their baptisms until this past Saturday because they were doubting.  So we told them pray about their doubts and we helped them work through their concerns.  Satan was working extra hard against us on these baptisms.  Originally we were going to have three baptisms this week but one fell through so we just had the two girls baptized.  Awesome though and the girls are real happy.  The only problems in the mission right now is that our ward is mad that we are baptizing too much…lol…I never thought I would hear anything so crazy as the missionaries are baptizing too many people.  They’re mad because it’s more work for them with visiting teaching and home teaching.  But we are trying to teach the ward that fellowshipping and integrating new members is the ward’s job lol.  The only bad thing that happened this week is the computer I was on last week gave my camera some type of virus and I lost all of my pics.  I’m in the process of trying to recover them all so hopefully that works out.  That’s all I’ve got for you this week. 

Love you all and miss you all tons!!! 

First pic – lol, we went to a wedding reception of some members in the ward and it was sooo fun.  They are from Nicaragua and they gave us huuuuge plates of a tradional Nicaraguan food.  It was chicharones, which is fried pig skin, with cabbage and yucca.  They gave us    soooo much pig skin that I almost threw up afterwards but it was super delicious…hahahaha. 

Second pic -  baptism of the two girls