3 Octubre 2011

 

 

Today we are in Boquete for pday. The weather is really nice here. I sent a picture of a family we helped get married and the other two pictures are pictures I took on the way here. It is really relaxing to be here in the cooler climate. I feel weird not sweating.

Now I am going to try to attempt to answer the questions that I remember. Elder Villacres has about 20 months in the mission. I think he became zone leader when he arrived here 3 months ago, so he has the hang of it. My 8 hour bus ride thankfully was not in a diablo rojo. We came up in a tourist bus with air conditioning and everything. I am in Barrio 3A. I think lds.org has a ward search capability to see the boundaries. I am assigned an area about 5 min by taxi from the city center.

Conference was really fun. We were pleased to have five investigators show up. A couple of them have dates to be baptized this month, and we will soon be putting dates with the rest. I watched most of it in English. They stuck us in the kitchen with a dinky fan for all of us and a little tv. People kept coming in asking if we knew where the bathroom was or something else. I tried listening to one talk in Spanish and did just fine too.

I really liked the talk about just looking up. I was really confused by Elder Ballards talk about using the church name. I remember an earlier talk saying it was ok to use Mormon since others are more familiar with the name, and now we are supposed to use the official name? I came away with the impression that when talking about us as a people it is ok to use Mormon, but when talking about the actual church to use the official name, and whenever possible avoid confusion between the other "splinter sects" of the church like polygamists. I do not know. I thought it was strange. Again I missed dad during the Priesthood session. I think that is now three in a row without him, one in college and two on the mission.

There was some worry that there might be a demonstration in front of the chapel, but nothing happened.

This week we helped a couple get married and set the date for another couple to get married. It is fun to be teaching complete families since that does not happen often.

I love you guys. Have a great week.

Elder Whiting

He also mentioned that he and Elder Villacres are living alone in a house. He said it is great except for no water.

Boquette [from our Panama map]- Settled in 1911, the town of Boquete is renowned for its pleasant climate, oranges, and festival of flowers and coffee. The western highlands contain extensive cloud rain forest. A visit includes birdwatching, hiking to waterfalls. It is also at the end of the sorta good roadway. Also to the west of the roadway Volcan Baru and the streams coming down it.