23 de Mayo

Dear Family,

 

I was surprised that I was kept with my companion Elder Estrada another change since he has been here a while. I was reminded of the scripture in Isaiah where God says My thoughts are not your thoughts, and that His ways are higher than our ways.

 

The father of the bishops wife died this week. It was so strange because earlier in the week my companion and the bishop gave him a blessing, and then I blessed the home. He looked like he was suffering a great deal and had advanced stages of cancer. I had a similar experience in Tocumen. Death seems a whole lot more common here. It is amazing to see the comfort the knowledge of the gospel brings to those that lose loved ones. Everyone in the family has the assurance that he is now in a better place free from his pains. Yesterday, a sister in our ward gave a talk about how hard it was to lose her father because she was not a member at that time.

 

I have had a lot of joy this week helping people. The dangerous moments in the mission are when you have time to think about yourself. There is no better way to distract your thoughts than service. The people here are so grateful for even the littlest things we try to help them with. I feel like service is a very important part of the mission anyways. We cannot claim to be representatives of Jesus Christ if we are not always looking for opportunities to serve others.

 

This week I will begin teaching English classes. 35 people have already signed up and only about 5 of those are members. We have been brainstorming a lot of good ideas for putting a gospel twist into the classes. Of course, we will also invite everyone to church. I hope this will be a good missionary activity. It has worked in other areas.

 

That is all for this week. Thanks for all of your letters and emails.

 

Love,

 

Elder Whiting