28 February 2011 'End of February'

Dear Family,

Changes have come and gone. I am still here in Tocumen with Elder Del Angel. President Ward said he wanted me to stay and see the fruits of my labor. I assume he is referring to the two maybe three baptisms we have lined up for March. I am having a different experience recently because they are both young men about our age as opposed to preparing two young women for baptism. It is fun because I can relate to what they are going through more, and I am excited that they have both expressed desires to serve missions. They are really cool guys. The third and fourth baptisms depend on a marriage certificate as usual. They are neat people. I have enjoyed seeing their transformation from investigating the church to feeling like they are one of us and even defending the church on occasion.

This zone has been flipped upside down. All of my American friends have left including Elder Scrimsher who came with me. I like my new zone leader, Elder Gomez. He trained Elder Polera and is from Boston. He is very personable and has some really good ideas for the zone.

I bought some oatmeal to eat for breakfast. I have been trying all of the different flavors. My favorite so far is apple cinnamon. I have been switching off between cornflakes, toast with (nutella, peanut butter, or jelly) and cornflakes. We don't actually have a toaster, so I actually heat up the bread in a pan. This area is awesome because we have all the rest of our meals filled like I have said before. Other areas have to find other arrangements usually for lunch.

I had a really embarrassing incident yesterday at a baptismal service after church. The aunt of the boy that was being baptized started talking to me after the service. She was mostly talking about her kids. I was only half paying attention because I was tracking the movement of someone else in the room. I responded with the typical "que bien hermana" after she had already moved on to talking about how her husband had died! My companion looked at me like I had just killed someone, so I knew something was wrong. He told me what happened, so I just apologized and chalked it up to me being new here and not understanding her. I learned my lesson though. Other than that, everything else went smoothly. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.

We were drafted into the choir again. Practices are on Sundays before church. Most Sundays we are passing by investigators homes and bringing them to church, so I do not think we will be able to make the practices. I think the practices are just to get the choir somewhere near the tone anyways. My meager talents with the piano are still being called upon as well. All in all I have had a really good week. It kind of makes me nervous that something terrible is coming. It has been a while since the last trial of my faith.

Love,

Elder Whiting