Week 12

Dear Family,

We were so thankful to have the water come back this morning. We went two weeks without washing our clothes! Fortunately we have been able to bathe out of buckets of rain water. We have stored up a bunch of water in buckets so that if this happens again we can at least soak our clothes in soapy water. For other needs such as brushing teeth and drinking we bought big jugs of water from a Chino (chinese owned 7/11 type of store). It was really hard to go out and work all day in the sun knowing that when we get back we would not be able to bath and there was a chance we would wear the same clothes again. Still the Lord answered our prayers and returned water to us just in time for prep day when we have time to wash our clothes. We are very fortunate because we have one of the only missionary houses in all of Panama with hot water. All of the rest of the houses use cold water. The only problem has been that we do not have water. We are not quite sure what the problem is. I think there has been a lot of contamination with the record rain fall or something.

We had exchanges this week so I spent a day and a night with our zone leaders. They ride these little buses in their area. It is really uncomfortable if you do not get a seat because I cannot stand up all the way in them. I really like Elder Stoddard from California. He went to Del Oro. When he came to pick me up he shined all of my shoes and swept our house. He is really an example of service to me.

It is interesting that you mentioned skype. We were informed this morning that we are allowed to call home using skype or something like it. This is also the cheapest method for me to call home since internet is only a dollar an hour. We are also allowed to call a couple days before to figure everything out. What is the best day to call? It will be hard to find a computer with skype on it but I think gmail has a similiar feature of video calling. The computers here are equipped with headsets and webcams so that should not be a problem. I do not remember my skype account though. We are going to look around and see what we can do. At the very least I can buy some calling cards and call you from our house or somewhere.

We are expecting three baptisms for this month. We have some amazing investigators. Some people are really prepared to hear the gospel. It helps that the people here love to "hear the word" and are really humble. We get a lot of help from the members here too.

I enjoyed all of the letters I received today. Emery and Campbell drew some really cute pictures. The support I receive from home really helps.

I am going to get some molas for the men in the family. I have ordered some white ties from distribution center. The kuna indians then stitch really cool designs on them. They look very similiar to aztec designs. I do not have access to a post office at the moment so it may be awhile before they arrive. Speaking of the kuna indians, I have been learning a lot of words in kuna. Most of the indians speak spanish in addition to kuna but some do not. We taught a lesson to a family that was completely translated into kuna from our spanish. I really like their clothing too.

In church on Sunday we sang we wish you a merry christmas as a special number in English. My fellow choir members sounded more like we weesh you a merreeey chreeestmas. I was trying not to laugh. I wonder if that is what my spanish sounds like to them. I hope not. I am giving a talk next week. I will be speaking on an article in the Liahona. I will be practicing that a lot.

I am really trying to work on the language. I can speak just fine and people can understand me most of the time but when they answer back it goes way over my head. Here in Panama they leave off the last part of words sometimes. I guess this will just take time to adjust my ears to their frequency.

I am really starting to love the food here. At first it was "bastante" (too much) but when we work hard I gain an appetite to match it. I really love the bananas and all of the different ways they prepare them. I have had all sorts of preparations. They also made some really good salads. What I mean is several pieces of lettuce with pepper but I like it.

I have sent some picdtures from old Panama, travel plans, and the mtc at Christmas. Sorry if they are too big. I cannot shrink them.

I love you,

Elder Whiting