Here comes the sun...(week 59)

 Wow, it’s been quite the week hahaha its still so weird being back in the city.  I’m getting healthier here and my body is getting adjusted to being back in the actaul world haha.  So my comp Elder Overall is quite the interesting guy. He’s a little awkward and it’s been a little hard with him in the teaching aspect and working part but its ok I’m still loving it. We don’t have that much in common so we don’t talk much but we are working suuuper hard and getting a lot done. So we have been opening this area up and its been a pretty hard experience.  Lots of contacting and references because we don’t have that much to go off of because the last missionaries here was quite a while ago.  We got an amazing reference to someone called Hma Rivas, she’s like 50 and has been awesome and we only met her a couple days ago.  She came to church and has a baptism date for next Sunday.  So I’m praying that it goes through.  City life is soo different haha and the work is way different too and all in all i just miss my kunas hahaha.  I was scrolling through my old pics last night from the beginning of my mission in Loma Coba and i got to a picture of the first lady i ever visited on my first day in Panama.  She is a native kuna and we re-activaed her and now shes a die hard member and walks like 30 min to get to church every week.  Lol thats when i first fell in love with the kuna people…she’s the absolute best!  She is so funny, happy, and kind even though she literally lives in a shack for a house. So yea I saw the pic and just cried again.  I know I’m a wussy but i just can’t help it haha. But life is good and i love the mission as usual but wow, I’m not going to lie it’s been hard.  We are also teaching a pastor from an evangelist church.  He’s sooo good but we talk too much and we couldn’t visit him during the week anymore because the lessons would waste so much time.  But he has soo much potential and has been flying through the Book of Mormon.  Lol…I set an appt with him for today during our free time to not waste time during the week and I’m sure my comp was not happy about that hahahaha. But yep all is well…love you all and have a good week!  Elder Call

1 and 2. comp and I at church yesterday

3. Hermana Erutina from the beginning of my mission

Blue sky for days.. (week 58)

Hey fam and friends,

This past week I worked with the zone leaders in their area.  It was sooo dope and i loved the experience. They are working full time in an area called kuna nega that’s like a thirty minute bus ride from their area.  They just have a group in kuna nega because there isn’t a branch there yet.  The area is more in the mountains and is soooo poor.  But the people are so open to the gospel there and the successes have been huge.  It was awesome teaching the people and especially the kuna people up there hahaha.  Yesterday we took everyone to the nearest church in a huge bus which was like a 30 minute ride.  We took 45 people on the bus with us.... half of which were investigators.  So ya they are going to have a branch up there in no time.  It was awesome and we straight filled the church.  It’s still a little weird to be in the city but I’m adjusting pretty good mentally but my body is still having trouble though.  I have terrible diarrhea siempre hahaha and its killing me.  Just got back to my area about 5 hours ago with my new comp elder overall.  He’s pretty new in the mission and is from Arizona and it should all be good.  Always a bit disappointed not getting a latino but its chill.  I also thought I would be training this change but its ok that I’m not.  well yup so this is going to be quite the week getting to know the new area with a new companion that doesn’t know the area either.  I will send some pics too hahaha its been a long time since I’ve had good enough internet to send pics.

Love you all and have an amazing week!

Pics

1. conference with the Eders…I provided sea turtle

2.  kuna nega where we’ve been teaching this week

3.  glory days in San Blas

4.  glory days in San Blas

5.  glory days in San Blas

6.  glory days in San Blas

How Can it Be March? (week 57)

Wow hey fam and friends,

This has been by far the craziest week of my mission hahaha…as far as changes go at least. Well last tuesday night we got a call randomly that i was going back to the city.  Changes aren't till next monday but pres did changes early for san blas cus its earlier.  I’m going to be honest i was soooo surprised and shocked i never thought i was guna leave. Shocked me to my core haha…well at first i started freaking out then i was just sad. hahaha. i was in san ignacio so bright and early i got to playon the next day and packed and waited for a boat to leave and they never ended up coming because they were too full because it was the end of vacations.  so I had to wait a day in playon.  I was saying bye to everyone and teaching my last lessons. It was a hard day for me honestly and that night i requested, from basically my mom on the islands, ibeth to make me the classic kuna dish that’s called dule masi.  As i ate the plantain and coconut soup all of the other times i had eaten it flashed by in my mind….man soo many good times, challenging times, sickness, amazing times and crazy experiences.  So in the morning i left by boat and as i passed by every island and pueblo i would just look at it and remember my times there…man im going to be honest i was balling.  I love the kunas so much, they are the best, nicest, humblest, funny people in the world and the quote that just kept flashing in my head is “don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got until its gone” haha.  

So i got to the city and was there for a day then got my changes. So pres put me with a missionary who is realllllyyyy struggling. He's from el salvador and is super special.  pres told me i had a special role with him and that this was his last chance to shape up or he was going home. So we were opening up a huuuggeee area on the outskirts of panama called san migalito. Its super ghetto and a pretty hard area and it was super stressful honestly. So i was there for 3 days and i'm going to be be 100% honest...wow, they were the hardest three days of the mission.  Elder serrano my comp is super off and has the worst attitude and flips out for no reason and i have had to be sooo patient. Well long story short i have learned soo much in these three days and have tried to help this kid soo much but he would just refuse to work.  So on sunday he was begging to go back to the house to poop and i wanted him to try and hold it but he couldn't so we went all the way back to the house and he was in the bathroom for like 30 min.  Then finally he comes out and sits on his bed and refuses to get up and he just says he's ready now and he cant do it anymore. So i tried talking him out of it for like 2 hours but i couldn't so i called pres and we left this morning to the mission offices in the city and that’s where i'm writing from. 

So i'm going to be with the zone leaders for i don't know how long, maybe until changes.  So ya that's pretty much it. Btw, the city is crazy and sooo different and i have been sick as a dog from the change of food haha.  Its been so weird not sleeping in a hammock after like 6 months and its been so weird not seeing kunas.  I saw my first kuna 2 days ago and i was soo happy i ran and caught up to her and just started speaking to her in dialect.  She was old and soo funny and i just loved it.  After i stopped talking with her i left, and im going be honest, i cried again super hard.  I'm a mess. I will never forget these amazing kuna people.  So there’s lots of weird stuff in my area but it might just be because im so used to the island life and im pretty shell shocked here…haha.  I’m out of practice with speaking good Spanish…dear heavens I hope it all comes back.  i forgot how fast they speak here in the city especially in the ghetto of san mig.   

Ok, gotta go…love you all…bye!!!! 

Grandpa left (week 56)

Hey fam and friends, 

   

Wow it was a pretty interesting week around these parts honestly. So after working last thursday night my comp elder hansen came down with a pretty bad fever. We thought it was just a common fever till we got up in the morning and he was literally dying hahaha. So we went to the lil medical center that we have on the island and he got a blood test annnnnddd turns out he had Dengue Fever.  He was soooo sick all week hahaha and so it was probably the slowest week I have had in my mission by far. He wanted to go teach lessons and stuff so we would go and he was just sit there and i would end up teaching everything. I was fine with it but he was just dying so it was hard to get out. Man it was weird having a lil down time cus there is nothing we could do and no one with priesthood whose worthy for divisions. So finally he got better yesterday. If he was still as sick as he was for much longer we were guna have to get him to the city. Honestly I feel bad saying this, but i wish he woulda gotten sicker hahaha.  I have always wanted to take the flight from here to the city. Well he got better which is always good. So during the down time this week I started reading Jesus the Christ and ended up reading like half of it. Wow that book is freakin good and i recommend anyone who hasn't read it to read it. It gives us a way better understanding of Jesus and our purpose for this earthly life. Well that's pretty much it this week.  I know pretty this is a weak letter but this week was slow and i just read a lot.  Well hopefully this next week we for sure will have more success and even with my comp’s dengue.  We have some baptisms lined up for this Sunday.  So be praying for me that they go through with it.

Ok well love u all have a good rest of your week fam!

-Elder Call

So there is a story with these pics..... We haven't received pictures forever because of the internet on the islands. But there was an American family that texted Tom after visiting San Blas and meeting Ben and his companion. They happened to be from Pinole.  When Tom and I saw these pictures and received the texts we just sat there and stared at Benjamin'f face and cried grateful tears.

Another week on the islands...(week 55)

hey fam and friends! 

   Wow so a pretty uneventful week out here on the islands. Had a baptism this last week which was exciting. Was from a "five family", a program we use in the mission to find in actives, reactivate them, and baptize the fam that are not members yet. So that is exactly what we did, still working on totally reactivating the family ortega, but we baptized their daughter who is 15. So other than that nothing really happened standoutish on the work side of things. We just continue to find people and teach them, idk how its even possible to keep finding new people on these little islands but we somehow managed. I can now officially say i have one in every house on our both islands haha i know everyone, which is actually kinda nice. Definitely guna miss a lot of people from here when i eventually leave. Ok two coolest things that happened this week happened in tupile. We were there two days ago making a call on the huge cement dock in front of the island(only part there is reception) and some guy was fighting with a fish for a while and finally pulls out this huuuuge puffer fish. It was like a foot long and super wide and was soo ugly haha. Lol there were like 20 people at the dock and we all gathered around and one of em started messing with it and this thing blew up bigger than a basketball on the sizzling hot cement. HAha i was dying it was sooo funny, making a bunch of noises, it was soo helpless, they finally cut off the hook and released it. Ok so another is that a couple friends of mine went hunting and came back with two huuuge wild jungle bores. So we watched them gut it from a canoe on shore and it was fascinating, turns out BOTH of them were pregnant- this is kinda gross lol but they cut the fetuses out of the uterus from one pig they were pretty much ready to be born it seemed like-hair and everything, but from the other they were small and ink (nasty). so they ended up saving em in a special bowl and i asked what they are guna do with them and all they were saying is for medicine... prob gunna eat them or something. Just a classic kuna indian thing. Well ya that is all i got haha overall good week tho and looking forward to some good future success. So yup love u all fam have a good week! -Elder Call