30 de enero

This week I was transferred to Colon to be a zone leader with Elder Echevarria. We are getting along super well so far which makes all the difference. He is from Guatemala and has about 13 months in the mission. The picture is of me and him in our apartment.

My area is called Cativa, and we live in a neighborhood called San Judas. The apartment we are staying in is horrid. I think if I had to choose between getting punched in the face or living there I would have a black eye right now. It is so dirty, ghetto, and smelly. It is ok though because Colon is so cool that I do not even care where I live. Every part of the area is so amazing.
This is probably the "richest" area I have been in. There are a lot of really nice houses here. I imagine the good jobs at the ports/canal here have something to do with that.
We do not have a chapel here. The church is renting a really beautiful house until they can build one. The ward is functioning really well here. The attendance has been fluctuating around 120. I am really excited to be here. There are tons of black people here. They are definitely the majority. I like the phrases they use here like "todo cool" and "ofi" which is short for official.
I have been assigned to a lot of the zones everyone wants to go to. This zone is smaller than David. There are 12 missionaries here including the zone leaders and 2 hermanas. We also have a cook in this area rather than eating in a little restaurant like in barrio 2. She is really funny and likes to divulge family secrets to us. She has a foreign exchange student living in her house from Belgium. I talked to her in English since her Spanish still needs work. I turned the conversation towards religion, and she told me she does not believe in God. I was like whaaaat!?! That makes atheist number 3 I have met in all of my time in Panama.
Sorry this email is so scrambled. I cannot seem to organize my thoughts right now from lack of sleep. Other good news...there are tons of Kuna indians here, so I will be adding on to my collection of molas. Barriada Kuna is a famous area in Colon there are only Kunas there. They make really neat Molas there, so all of the missionaries are always asking the missionaries there to order some for them. Anyway, I will try to find a post office here to send everything home. This area is so awesome. It is pretty hot like David, but not as much. There is always a really strong breeze too which helps. I should have knocked on wood after saying my areas have been flat for the most part (David, Juan Dias, Tocumen) because this area has a lot of hills. I hope everyone is doing well. I am having an awesome time so far in Colon. I love it. Have a good week.

23 de enero 2012

Sorry about the late email today. We decided as a zone to do pday first and then email. We climbed the tallest hill in the area. It only took about 20 minutes to climb, similar to cerro ancon in Panama City. The view from the top was really neat because you can see everything in all directions of David. I never fully appreciated how flat David is.

The picture of my companion and I was taken at the top. The pictures of the landscapes are from the fair in Boquete last pday. I bought some really elaborate Molas to send home and a wiry thing to scratch/massage my head.

The baptism photo was taken Saturday. Her name is Jennifer SaraVia Guette. She has a really strong testimony and will be a strong addition to the ward. The other elders serving in our ward also had a baptism this last Saturday, so we joined the services into one.

It is very likely I will have changes this week. The email with all of the changes is not in my email box for some reason. The assistants probably faxed the changes to us, so I will find out tonight.

On Thursday, Elder Nelson came to Panama. As my luck would have it the elders in the interior of the country were not invited to the conference. We had to watch it in the David stake center via transmission with Bocas and Concepcion. I was really bummed since everyone in the city got to shake his hand. First Pres. and Hna. Ward spoke followed by Elder Martino (seventy) and his wife, and then Elder Nelson and his wife. They were really inspiring talks. The conference lasted about two hours. Near the end of his remarks, Elder Nelson asked if anyone had questions to ask him. Someone asked him how we can control our thoughts. I thought that was an interesting question and relevant to everyone.

Love,

Elder Whiting

Looking toward David and the Pacific

Jennifer SaraVia Guette

fair in Boquete

16 de enero 2012

This week I learned a lot about being patient. Last Monday I got sunburned really badly when we went to the beach everywhere I did not put sunscreen like my legs and feet. It was probably the worst sunburn I have ever had. I woke up one morning with my legs and feet on fire. It felt like I had a million mosquito bites on my legs. Everything I tried seemed to only make it worse. I finally ran to a pharmacy in one of those tongan skirts (lava lava) to buy some aloe vera. The man behind the counter recommended cream used to treat burns instead, so I bought it. It helped a ton and at least the itching went away. It was pretty miserable to walk around all day with my shoes and pants rubbing against my burns. I thought about one of my favorite conference talks that mentioned that pain teaches us to be patient, so I decided to learn from the situation. After several days I was fine. Last night I was peeling a bunch of skin off.

I have often thought "if I would have known" or "if I had known what I know now" after a dumb mistake or hard experience. I would rather be warned about something, but all too often we either do not trust the warning or want to make sure anyway and have to learn "the hard way" as they say by experience. I often wonder how God feels when He gives us a commandment to protect us, and we break it anyway because we think it is restrictive. The prophet and the Holy Ghost are always warning us about spiritual and physical dangers, but those warnings go unheeded all too often. I have begun to change my way of thinking to questions like "what can I do tomorrow, the next time, or improve/better?" I have found this attitude less frustrating and more productive. It is important to remember these experiences and learn from them, but there is no use in dwelling on them. Rather, it is better to move on.

I am thankful for this opportunity I have right now to serve the Lord. It is such a privilege to wear His name every day and preach the gospel in Panama. I am extremely grateful for everyone at home and love all of you. The picture is of me and my companion Elder Calderón here in the Internet just before writing you.

9 de enero 2012

This has been yet another busy week. Monday we went paintballing again for pday. I forgot how much I enjoy the adrenaline of it all. I will have to dust off my gun when I get back. Tuesday we mostly traveled to Panama to go to consejos. There was an unruly passenger on the bus that was thrown off for not cooperating. He wanted to put his feet on the cooler in front of him where all the staff keep their drinks. They warned him several times, but he kept doing it. They pulled the bus over and threw him screaming off. It was quite entertaining for everyone. I was kind of worried about the guy because we were in the middle of the interior of the country. If someone did not pick him up, he probably died.

Wednesday was consejos in the chapel in Bella Vista rather than in the mission home. They ordered Subway for the lunch. We set the baptismal goal of 1300 this year in the mission and 150 families. I know we can do it! Thursday President came to do interviews with us and bought all of us Dominos pizza. I have had some good food this week. I had a really cool interview with President Ward. He is always very encouraging and has excellent council. I have an awesome mission president.

I also had a very interesting conversation with Hna. Ward while waiting for my companion to finish his interview with the president about school and possible career choices. Throughout my mission the FBI has popped into my head over and over again. I think I want to go into the FBI, but I want to talk to some people first and see what they want in my studies and to see what I would do in the FBI since there are so many options.
On a side note, IT IS SO HOT HERE. I have worn sunscreen every day this week because a member told us the news said this sun was going to be unusually strong this week. We wanted to walk around with umbrellas, but people confuse us with Jehovah's Witnesses and will not talk to us. So in the name of more success, we are toughing it out. It did not believe it at first, but we have done several experiments only to find it is true. It has not rained in a while.
This Sunday we had six investigators in sacrament meeting. We were really busy accomodating all of them making sure they all had hymn books, someone to sit by, etc. We were not able to work much this week with consejos and interviews, but the Lord always makes up the difference after we have done as much as we possibly can. Sunday, I taught a part of the missionary preparation class in the evening. There are a lot of awesome youth here preparing to serve missions. It was fun to give them some insight and share some experiences that have helped me learn.
I love you guys. Thanks for everything.

Happy New Years

New Years here was so awesome. There are always a crazy amount of fireworks and people wanting to give us food. We waited up with the elders that live near us. The fireworks one can get his hands on here are amazing and relatively cheap. The other elders ordered pizza, and their landlady also brought us over some really good food. Like last year, the sky lit up for about an hour straight at the stroke of midnight and then random rockets for about another three hours. Unfortunately I did not get to burn a mannequin this year although I did see many ready to burn mannequins in the likeness of Noriega.

 

Walking over to use Internet we saw a guy catching cockroaches in his front yard. He invited us in to eat some of them with him. Not wanting to be rude, we accompanied him onto his porch. He fried them in oil and then gave us each one to eat. They kind of tasted like freshwater shrimp. He assured us they were not "bathroom" cockroaches.

 

Love,

Elder Whiting

 

Cockroaches roasting over a wood fire.

I hope there are enough for Lana, Katie and Morgan to share