Adios Enero [31 January 2011]

Dear Family,
I am enjoying all of the exciting news from home. Congratulations to Joseph on his mission call. I wish I could have been there to see him open it. I am not even sure what Czech sounds like or how it is constructed.
We have two baptisms scheduled for the 6th of February. They both chose me to perform the ordinances. I have the words memorized for the baptism so now I am just repeating their extremely difficult names over and over in my head. It is not uncommon for some Latins to have four given names. My companion will confirm them on the 7th. This is the happiest I have ever been on the mission. We are both really excited and motivated to work that much harder now.
As a couple of you already know, I had my first zone conference on Wednesday. I had the opportunity to see Elder Voss again and talk with him for a bit. President Ward talked about proving ourselves every day by conforming with the small rules in the mission. He talked about the test God gave to Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son. We mostly practiced extending the baptismal invitation and using the Book of Mormon to answer questions and doubts. I always see how lacking my Spanish is when we all get together and I talk with the elders that have been out here longer. We had a really good hamburger, chip, and fruit dinner following by one of the most delicious pastries I have ever had.
Our water is back on. The pressure is lacking, but we are just happy it's back. We filled up every container in our house just in case it decides to leave again. The news said the water was safe to drink again. After drinking it all day there was a follow up report and officials finding grime, worms, and other contaminates in the water. I will let you know if I die.
My companion has been teaching me how to play dominoes. He plays a variation of chicken foot and taught me an interesting thinking slash math game with them. It is a fun way to relax when we get back at night.
I cannot believe we are entering February. Time is fleeting.
Love,
Elder Whiting

Zone Conference in Panama

January 24, 2011

Dear Family,

We set two baptismal dates this week. They will be my first ones. It is nice to see the fruits of our labor. They have strong testimonies of the gospel and specifically the Book of Mormon. The members are really helpful here. They always want to go out with us and introduce us to their friends. It really helps since contacting is super ineffective. Don't make the missionaries dance around for your references. Just give them to them. It is somewhat of a joke to me when I hear some members say we have to earn their trust before they will give us their references. We are set apart representatives of Jesus Christ that study the gospel every day in preparation to teach. For some that is not enough I guess. For now we have more than we can handle to teach thanks to the reasonable members. 

We were teaching a family the other day when all of a sudden the father grabbed a machete and ran outside. He came back in with a a fruit that looks like a green coconut. They call them pipas . You cut a hole into them and drink the juice out. It was pretty plain tasting but I am told they get sweeter. I have tried so many fruits since getting here. Most I did not know existed. My favorite so far is guyaba. Trying all of the juices here brings me back to vacations in Costa Rica and Guatemala.

All of the missionaries are running out of money this month. I am not sure why because I have almost $20 on my card and $30 in cash that will carry me to the end of the month. 

The mission is really stressing obedience right now. I got an email that said a lot of people will be going home this summer. My zone leader Elder Stoddard from Rocklin, CA, told me that we are the lowest baptising mission in Central America. It may be unfair however to owe it all to disobedience as we also have the most new investigators and investigators going to church. I imagine this is also the hardest mission to marry people from my little experience doing so. Still, they see a lot of room for improvement and there will be a lot of changes. It is frustrating for me to give an accounting for areas that involve the agency of people other than myself such as companionship study and eating dinner at 5 or 9.

I was sorry to hear about Ben. I am glad he was not hurt. Surprisingly, car accidents don't seem to be very common here. For how crazy everyone drives I have not seen one yet. I did see a dead guy in the middle of the road a couple of days ago. There were police everywhere and a huge crowd of people. There is a bar on the side of the street. Apparently the man had gotten drunk and stumbled into the street only to be struck a bus. There was a small blanket draped over him. I may have a future in the CHP. I was good at arriving on the scene, getting lots of information, figuring out what happened.

Anyways, sorry not a lot to write about this week. Just working hard, setting dates. I think I might be developing a water hoarding problem. I will have to look into it. It could just be survival instinct. When I get back home I will be filling up all of our containers with water and bathing with water bottles.

Chao,

Elder Whiting

Photos were included however they are not captioned.

This appears to be the church building with Elder del Angel standing outside. Notice the bars on the windows. Steeple is to the right.

This photo was not captioned. Perhaps a classroom, however the desk at the front suggests that it may be the chapel or multi-use chapel room.

Elder Whiting and an Aaronic priesthood holder.

Any guesses?  Perhaps a bat to the left of the steel pipe. The shadow in the middle of the tree trunk suggests a figure or Christ. The wire coil and rebar on the pipe are interesting.
After Morgan pointed out the central reddish area was a bird......duhhhh....it is probably an Orchard Oriole although the bill looks wrong.

New Companionship

Elder Whiting and his new companion, Elder Del Angel.

 Saying goodbye to Elder Voss

New Years

Elder Whiting is keeping up with the Panamanian tradition to burn a stuffed man on New Years.

Hola

Dear Family,

I am still here in Tocumen. This zone has been turned upside down. Almost every companionship has changes in it. Elder Voss left to Colon and Elder Del Angel came to replace him from Chitre. Elder Del Angel is from Tiajuana Mexico. He said he lives very close to Texas. We are getting along pretty well so far. My Spanish is really improving with him. All of the stories I have heard about Latin companions are being confirmed on a daily basis. Just ask my brothers-in-law. He looked in four different Chinos for a specific hot sauce he likes. He puts it on everything he eats. He told me that awhile back he ate some bad pork and now has problems when he eats it. A member gave us some pork and rice for lunch so I had to eat all of his. I feel really bad for him because he is the only member in his family and his dad does not support his decision to be out here. He says his mom writes him occasionally. I cannot imagine doing this without the full support of your family. I am really lucky.

The water has been back pretty consistently this week with decent pressure. We were told not to drink it though without filtering. We still do though when people give us water. There are lots of sediments in the water. I like to think I am just drinking vitamin water.

The attached pictures are of the stuffed man we burned for new years. It is a Panamanian tradition here. If Brother Howes or Kenney would have seen us they probably would have taken away my Eagle. It was not too bad. Nothing burns here. The guy went up in flames and nothing around him burned. We put fireworks in him so at times he would explode. Also a picture of Elder Voss leaving and Elder Del Angel on his first day.

A lot of responsibility has fallen on me this change. I am the senor companion in every way but title. For at least a couple weeks. The bishop now asks me for teaching forms. I will be directing the work in our area. It was really stressful at first because I would get lost sometimes but now I am getting the hang of it.

I saw something absolutely horrific and traumatic a couple days ago. A group of kids were gathered at the base of a tree and a man was in the top of it shaking it. I could not tell what they were doing until an iguana fell out. The kids swarmed it and started handling it roughly. They eat them here so they were all fighting over it. At least the thing died quickly if not painlessly.

I have noticed a difference in attitude of people here and in the states. Rather than saying three hours for church is really long, most people are surprised we meet for only three hours and only once a week. All of the investigators we bring to church stay all three hours without complaint.

I got my first haircut here at the end of the change. They still use those old fashioned razors that Uncle Gary learned to shave with on his mission to clean up the sideburns and edges. I could not tell what he was doing when he put a shaving cream like substance on my neck. I thought I might be bleeding from a slip up of his archaic razor. For a cut and shave it was only two dollars.

Thanks for all of your letters and emails. I have gotten some questions about email use. I am only allowed to email family but can receive emails from anyone (as long as you are not in my area and female).

Love,

Elder Whiting

End of Change 1

Dear Family,

 

Changes are this Wednesday and everyone is very excited. We have been visiting a lot of our investigators and ward members. There is a pretty good chance I will be getting a new companion since Elder Voss has been here for two changes, but he may stay since he is training. I am almost certain I will stay.

 

I got a package from the Chabras this week. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I saw thin mint girlscout cookies, cadbury chocolates, hand sanitizer, and other unbelievably valuable items. They also included their Christmas card. They have always been good friends and were very supportive of me while I was preparing to leave and continue to support me. Please give them my thanks the next time you see them.

 

I am excited because a lot of our investigators are coming to church now. One of our investigators was concerned about what she would wear to church and put on a fashion show for us. It was just like in the movies where the person comes out two or three times to thumbs down and then finally come out in a good outfit and the people waiting outside the changing room cheer. One of our other investigators was waiting outside his house in a white shirt and tie ready to go to church. He looked better than us. We have not had water for 60 hours and counting, so it has been interesting.

 

I was sad to hear about the Japanese maple being cut down. I will hardly recognize the yard when I get back.

 

A lot of people here ask us for money. We are instructed not to give them any. The situations are always very awkward. It usually begins with some drunk guy staggering up to us and asking us for a quarter. We tell them no and then they try to send us on a guilt trip by saying God bless you in a sarcastic voice. It is a no win situation because if we give them money it causes even bigger problems like them always asking for more or buying more alcohol.

 

I am getting more comfortable with the language now. I can go through the lessons pretty well and have a couple contact approaches worked out. I can also communicate my point pretty well even if I cannot say exactly what I want to. The people here are really good about helping me too.

 

We spend more time than I thought we would getting people married. It is really rare to find couples that are civilly married. They usually just consider themselves married if they have been living together for awhile and have children.

 

We deep cleaned our apartment in the beginning of the week because the land lady said she was going to come by and inspect the house. I do not think our house has been cleaned in more than 6 months. Apparently, the tiles in the shower are white. It looks a lot better now and we felt good afterwards. Cleanliness is close to Godliness right? It is a lot easier to work in the house now.

 

I am always amazed at the sacrifices the members are willing to make for us and how kind and generous they are. Everyone tells us to ask them for anything we may need. Everyone offers us food and something to drink. I really love these people.

 

And I love you guys too.

 

Love,

 

Elder Whiting

 Elder Whiting with his companion and friend from the MTC. They met up at their Christmas party.

 New Year's fireworks

Elder Whiting's apartment

Happy New Year!

Dear Family,

I have mixed feelings about this week. I have learned a lot of lessons the hard way, but New Years was really fun. I took lots of videos of the impressive firework displays we saw. Everyone was blasting their music and lighting off rockets. It felt like we were in a war zone. Everywhere we looked around our house there were fireworks. They have a tradition here in Panama of burning a stuffed scarecrow. I think it has something to do with starting over with new goals. The fireworks lasted for a good hour after midnight and then spaced explosions until the next morning. They have some really fun fireworks here. Mikey and Ben would have some fun here. We spent the evening with Lorna and her family. She is a cool member in our ward. She is going through a tough time right now but hides it well. He husband cheated on her and they are now going through a divorce. We passed by an Evangelical church on our way back to our house. They were burning prayers and blessings. 

Since we reached our baptism goal this year for the mission they allowed our zone to watch Toy Story 3. What a great movie. I really enjoyed it.

Dad, we share a chapel with Cabuya. That is the area of the Hermanas. Starting this year we will begin meeting at 12 rather than 9. I like this better because now we can eat breakfast and do our studies. 

We were really excited that our investigators have started coming to church now that the water crisis is somewhat over. I feel like we can finally move forward now with a lot of them.

I was wondering how much is in my debit account. My pinstripe pants with the cuffs do not fit. I cannot remember if I tried those ones on before leaving. Maybe the rice is to blame but I do not think so since my other pants fit. Anyways the short story is that I want to buy some pants and a USB drive to back up photos and I was not sure how much money is in there.

I am glad you did something for Colins birthday. I was thinking about it on the 1st.

We are starting to see the value of developing strong relationships with the members here. When the members trust us, they feel more comfortable giving us references to teach their friends. Our most positive references and the people that are progressing the most are all references.

We are coming up on changes pretty soon. I am nervous that Elder Voss is going to get switched out because I really like him. He has been here for one change already, so its not too unlikely. At the same time he is training me so maybe he will stay. I am 98 percent sure I will stay here. It is crazy how fast this change has gone by.

There is a sister that is really sick here. She has stomach ulcers and throws up a lot. They are talking about sending her home. She came out here with me.

I love you.

Elder Whiting