Charlie's recovery (week 80)

Hey friends and family!! 

 

Wow, it was an absolutely crazy week hahaha and it ended even crazier. My last week with my companion Elder Ferrufino was freaking awesome, super motivated and ended the week with three baptisms!! --Juan and Anais Bonilla, and Ashly Cordoba . I was very fortunate to help them make that sacred covenant and i wish them the best and hope they can endure to the end. Wow, come to find out i had changes. I thought i was going to stay in the area but my comp stayed and is training and I am in Changuinola, Bocas del toro!!! Wow i was sooooooooooooo shocked when i got the call, I never thought i would make it this far haha. It is the furthest area in the mission and it was a 13 hour drive.  The area borders with costa rica …haha the border is actually in my area. My area is absolutely huge and the biggest by far i have ever been in. The drive yesterday was insane…took 8 hours to get to the terminal in David , Panama . I got to know pretty much all of the part we call the "interior" of panama. The culture and people are sooooo different…different food, music, etc. More livestock and farming and sooo much empty space.  Really was an awesome drive and literally I was glued to the window the whole time…getting to know as much as i can of my beloved country before my time to leave comes.  After 8 hours I had to wait in the David terminal and then took a little van "chiva" 5 hours through literally nothingness... straight jungle. The road was terrible and I thought i was going to puke like ten times haha, but the views were gorgeous and it was one of the most beautiful drives by far that I have made in my life. Got to the area, thought there would be less here, but its actually a city and there are a lot of people here and it seems suuuper cool. Have time to write right now cus we couldn't do anything but drive yesterday. Well, the people and culture are soo different here and even more different than in the interior.  the majority of the people are part of an indigenous group similar to kunas called ngobe. I worked with them a lot in the city too...including some of my favorite baptisms have been ngobes.  However, honestly I have never been the biggest fan of them haha because they’re a very reserved and interesting people. But I’m sure i will learn to love them cus 90 percent of the people here pertain to the group. My companion is named Elder Amaya and he has 14 months in the mission. He was in Nicaragua and got taken out and placed in our mission due to the political problems there, and has been here for about 3 months. He's panamanian and is from Arraijan and literally lives 5 min from my last area…i have been to his church and home ward numerous times. He's great so far and I’m actually very excited to be with a Panamanian…another opportunity to learn more about their culture and their way of being.  Well, that's all i got for now, good times and I’m expecting a lot of success from this area.  Where I am is definitely crazy…crappy jungle house, no clean water, lots of bugs, bucket showers…you know the regular.  This area is sooooo poor and all of the houses are an interesting wood with stilts built over like swamps…super weird and probably the closest to san blas i will get again in my mission. Not guna lie, when i got the call i just sat in my wonderful hammock and cried…hahaha…tears of joy and sadness.  I’m coming into the last stretch of my amazing journey and I’m pretty positive this will be my last area.  I’m so fortunate for my experiences and the things i have learned and the way I have grown these past two years.  I’m so excited for this change and to do absolute work out here in this wonderful area and country of panama. Love u all tons…have an amazing week!

 

 Elder Call

Happy Birthday to me (week 79)

Hey friends and fam!  Wow, just want to give a shout out to my momma!  Happy bday momma hope u enjoy it love u!  This was a good week but we ran into a couple of problems with the baptisms we were going to have.  So we were baptizing a cool family, the mom and a couple kids, but at the end the mom confessed something so we couldn’t have the baptisms..  They were soo excited and prepared!  So the story is the mom is helping her sister in law’s son get a Panama visa because he is from the Dominican Republic .  So she told us they are going to get married so he can get a visa and they have to be together for three years.  Crazy thing is she already has a boyfriend and is just doing it to be nice…soo dumb!  So we obviously counseled her about the risks and possible effects of that decision and we are praying she changes her mind.  So if she does we are going to have the baptisms this weekend but if she doesn’t change her mind we are going to baptize the kids this weekend without her.  My comp is awesome and we have a ton of fun together and at the same time work really hard.  It’s my second comp from Honduras and he is a good kid; missionaries from Honduras usually seem to be pretty dope.  Man I don’t have that many great stories to tell.  A member invited us to a family home evening last night so we went and it was soo terrible.  He had prepared something but it was out of control haha we totally changed the theme and made it good but it was hilarious.  Wow, the downside is that I still don’t have a memory card for my camera so sorry for the lack of pics.  I need to buy a new memory card so I can start sending pics again.  Changes are next week so wow another change done... three more to go!  I'm sure i will stay here but will probably get a new comp as we were never supposed to be together in the first place.  Well that’s all I got love u all have another good week!  

Elder Call

One more Week of Summer (week 78)

hey friends and wonderful fam.

this week was a good week out here in the mission, lot of success and finding a lot of future members of the true church. Ended the week with two baptisms and i was pretty pleased but i have a great vision for this area and we have put a goal of 5 baptisms and judging by the amount of people we had in church this last week i know we can reach it. Comp is a great guy and the area is pretty dang big but we are balancing it fine just by working close to the church. Actually i think its big until i get reminded that their are areas in other missions were u have to be in a us for over an hour to cross them.. in min its a solid ten minutes haha. Panama is a tiny country. Man so the baptisms we had this week are a kid whose 12 named jocel and a girl that 16 named anyi. Both have connection with the church and helped reactivate some people in the process. the aunt of anyi wants to get baptized soo bad but as maybe yall know no one in panama is married. SO she has to get married first and her husband has to get divorced fist.. long story but he accidentally got married in san blas... typical kuna move. man i cant think of many stories except this week  i was having a kinda bad day and we were walking on a muddy pat in this jungle area and i fell in the mud and got super dirty. Then like a minute after i slipped in slippery grass and was soo mad haha but kinda kept it to myself while my comp was laughing. we then crossed a river like a minute after and there was a dog and we were like 6 feet from the river and i totally took my anger out o the dog and kicked the poor thing into the river as i was crossing. Haha a guy got soo ticked off at the side i crossed from he started cursing me out and threatening me and he was drunk so we had to high tail it haha that is about the only funny thing that stands out for this week. yup good times. Man but camera is having real technical problems so i got no pics im sad but will figure out the problem soo enough. have a good week and shout out to those that are starting school hahaha that stinks but make it happen! School is the best wish i woulda learned and applied myself more.. Bye take care love u all!! -Elder Call

Hebgen (week 77)

Hey friends and fam, 

    Wow so first off cant believe know one keeps me updated on life until the last moment. Gotta give my shout outs to Brady for the marriage, Mark and Annabelle for finally  going to get the four kids! Fams out here doing big stuff hahaha and im still out here in Burunga panama haha teaching about christ. Wow So much for me happened this week I cant even express how crazy it was. Wow so I was training and literally dragging the poor guy around, he really did not wanna be here. Had suuper bad culture shock and was talking about his fm all the time and was super depressed. Well i was helping him and helping his spanish and everything but he had a couple interviews with president and sure enough after one of em he came out and said he was going home. I honestly cried i felt terrible he doesn't know what hes missing out on and i tried to help him soo much. But long story short after a straight battle of dragging him around and helping him and trying to baptize he was sent home. We share a ward with two other missionaries who cover half the area and there was an elder named elder ferrufino from honduras who was training a guy from honduras. Well his comp ended up going home for worthiness issues and president put us together. Was meant to be cus hes freaking awesome but the area is huge and we are hoping to see a lot of success but it will be hard balancing it all out. But we have great goals and are going to see a ton of success this change. Super excited cus my comp is now the man but also eel bad for the both young missionaries who left. Well other quick story is while i was waiting for my new comp i got assigned to my area with a new missionary whose been "sick for a month" and was in the offices. Well poor kid i could tell right away that he was faking, apparently he says he has really bad stomach problems but the doctors cant find anything. So after dragging him around he begs me to use the bathroom and finally i give in and we go to n investigators house and hes in there for like an hour and im pretty mad knocking on the door telling him we gotta go. HE said he couldn't and that he was pooping blood and diarrhea and i said to save the poop for me cus i wanted to check it out. He said thats gross and no but i made him do it lol. Well like there is not much money round these parts so it was like a crap out house portapotty thing and i went in after and it was like a narrow tube and super shallow and at the bottom were just two diapers and not any diarrhea on top or toilet paper and i totally caught him in the lie. Lol so that was funny i felt terrible for the lengths that some missionaries take to go home. Sad stuff and out here u just gotta man up and bite the bullet. Good times and im so happy for the future and to do work this change love u all have a good week!

Ella's almost home (week 76)

Hey friends and fam, 

    Wow so as you all know from last week is that im training. Wow so I was pretty anxious to be receiving my companion, there were like 9 new missionaries coming from the mtc. I was excited to be training a latino haha apparently all of them already spoke spanish which was a relief. Buuut im the only elder of nine that is training someone from the states who doesnt speak spanish haha what luck. So it bummed me out but i was excited to teach my new comp elder jardine how we do it here in panama. So tuesday i was in my old area loma coba- that was sooo weird and it was such a happy day but so weird cus its been over a year since i was there. Well Wednesday i went to the office by myself and got my comp. Hes suuuper quite and reserved and an interesting character. Unfortunately it was a hard week, but i have lerned a lot. He has depression apparently and it had has been a struggle to keep him motivated slash comfort him. He broke down a bunch of times and definitely has some culture shock cus i mean we aint in the states no more haha. I definitely had empathy with him but it was weird cus im so used to working so hard and I am so used to and in love with it here in panama. So finally he told me some of the stuff that was going on and we went to the offices sunday so he could talk to pres. He was thinking about going home and i talked him out of it and pres helped him with some of his more private issues. Its been hard having to do everything and drag him around but its been an amazing growing experience for me and im honored to be able to help someone who needs my help so much. So these next upcoming weeks will be very challenging but i plan to always be a hard working missionary and we will still baptize weekly. Im super grateful to my father in heaven for giving me the chance to progress even more spiritually before going home. Im grateful for the mission and for all ive learned, and the way it has impacted my life is astonishing. I know the church is true and this is the lords work, and im excited for a week of much success here. Have a good week!

Charlie turned 12 (week 75)

Hey fam and friends!

     wow it was a quite a week last week but definitely an amazing one for many different reasons. We found some amazing people and 2 of our baptisms yhonathan and arianly got confirmed sunday but unfortunately we had our first wee without a baptisms. Yhonathan is thirteen and one of my favorite baptisms in all my mission. Hes sooo mature and smart for his age and comprehends everything about the church and is guaranteed to be active and begging for the priesthood. Super awesome, I love the kid and we were at his house talking about mission work and he gave us 978634537 references of friends, family, and so on. He promised us he was guna serve a mission to so i hope he does it. Arianly is also really special and is so dirt poor, probably the poorest baptism I have ever had in my whole mission, in terms of temporal things. She barely has a metal shack and literally has nothing to eat and is struggling with 5 small children, shes super special tho and I know that the gospel and the relief society will help her a ton. Was so awesome with my comp this change, he wil be a valued friend for forever. I plan on visiting colombia fast after the mission haha he has talked it up soo much. He taught me so much and has such a great attitude, was really special buuuut we had changes. He had been in the area for a couple changes already so he left :( i was super sad but im pumped cus ima train haha. The missionary either comes tomorrow or Wednesday so im in a trio waiting to see if hes latino or gringo. Love the mission and this change We ended with 9 baptisms and i was happy but not satisfied. This change i want at least 15 so im guna work with the new missionary like never before. Love u all have an amazing week!!