San Blas Elders

---from the Panama mission blog.

18 de abril

 

 

Today I had changes. This is my third area in a row with only one change (David barrio 2, Colon, and now Paraiso).
Anyway I am going to San Blas! We leave for Playon Chico on Friday. We will be running around like crazy today and tomorrow preparing for these next six weeks. I really do not know what to tell you because I do not know anything. They just handed me a bunch of money, and now I am going around with my new companion Elder Wade buying supplies. Elder Wade came in the same group as my "son" Elder Bentz. He is from Oklahoma. He is the big, white guy with the mola tie. Elder Monterrosa from my district in the MTC trained him.

I am still kind of shocked. I do not think this is sinking in yet. I am SO excited though.
Several elders I know were showing me some pictures and videos they have from the same island I am going to. It looks insane. They are always doing crazy things. I also noticed they are always wearing sandals.
My mission is now officially exactly like The Other Side of Heaven. This is so awesome. I will certainly be using the bug spray and sun lotion a lot more now, not to mention my crocs. I am going to be sleeping in a hammock every night, showering out of buckets again, trying to learn Kuna, and doing tons of service. I am sure I will have more to tell you in six weeks.
Now some bad news...I will not be able to email or read your emails/receive letters this whole change. To make up for that, we get unlimited Internet time until we leave on Friday and when we get back six weeks from now to catch up on everything. The only trouble is finding the time while we are running around. Still it is hours of use.

I am not sure about the Mothers Day call. I might be able to call from the island, but me might have to wait until we get back. I will also be on tomorrow although I am not sure what time. 
I love you guys. I am going to miss communicating every Monday, but that is how it goes.
Love,


19 abril

This is just a quick update for everyone. We are hanging out in the office right now because we got done buying all of our food in PriceSmart. It was so cool because I felt like I was in Costco or Sam's Club. I also bought a water bottle with a built in filtration system that the church distribution has. Apparently the water is bad...shocker...haha. Elder Wade told me we have a cook on the island that gives us one meal a day (lunch). He added that it was almost always boiled fish.

Our luggage will stay in the apartment of the office elders. Before they used to keep the luggage in the assistants house. I trust everyone in the office, but I bought some locks for my suitcases just to be safe. We slept in their apartment last night and will probably stay there tonight and tomorrow night. Oh, that is the other thing. Our flight is not until Saturday morning at 6am because they could not get us tickets for Friday. The other four elders going to San Blas will leave on Friday though.

I have to go. We are going to run some more errands, and then we have dinner with President Ward at 6pm. I love you.

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I just wanted to quickly answer a few questions before we head back to the apartment to finish packing for tomorrow morning.

I am assigned to three places. Playon chico is our main area and base. From there we can also visit ocupa and irgandi for up to several weeks. I think they are settlements on the mainland coast.

16 de abril

 

This week I had a wonderful experience in the temple. It had been some time since my last visit. The temple has to be the quietest place in all of Panama. Yesterday in church I noticed there seemed to be a temple theme. All of the talks and lessons were centered on temple blessings/attendance. One of the speakers cited the temple president when he spoke in this last stake conference.

He encouraged the members to attend the temple to the degree that it would represent a sacrifice for them. Interestingly, countries in Central America with temples seem to have a tougher time getting the members to go. I guess the tourism appealed to many people back when they had to plan temple trips to Costa Rica, Guatemala etc. Anyways, I had a great time.

 

Love,

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. Easter was pretty uneventful here. There is an observance however of Semana Santa (holy week). People pretty much just sit at home and watch movies like Passion of Christ. The Catholic church organized some processions and were seen marching around. We did not have a special program in church on Sunday just several talks on the Atonement and Resurrection. Thursday the streets were super empty. Everyone left to go to the interior to visit family.

On Wednesday we had consejos in the Presidents house. The theme was communication within the mission and with the leaders of the ward. It seems to be a big problem here. The lunch prepared by Sis. Ward and her helper was a delicious BBQ pork and potatoes. That food is so good.
E. Echevarria approached when we arrived to consejos and handed me a bunch of mail. I guess we accidentally opened up a box of Books of Mormon upside down when I was in Colon, so there was mail in the bottom. oops. I am glad it got to me though. 

This is the last week of the change. Today is not pday because we are going to the temple tomorrow, but we still need to use Internet today to write home and president.

We had a fantastic lesson with our college teacher yesterday. I always look forward to lessons with him. He accepted a baptismal date for the 25, so we will continue to prepare him for his baptism.

Love,

2 abril 2012

It was fun to end this week with conference. General Conference is such a great missionary tool. The college teacher who is investigating the gospel came to the two sessions on Sunday and really enjoyed them. We also enjoyed the special segment on the King James Bible between the sessions. He still wants to baptised and is progressing very nicely. I watched several sessions in Spanish to be with him.
Interestingly, I think Richard G. Scott does his own Spanish translation. My reasoning is that the voice sounded exactly the same, and the translation ended earlier. I enjoyed Elder Bednars talk in Priesthood session. His talks are always insightful. ´

The members were kind enough to bring us food between sessions. One hermana made us a super hot chili. I burned my mouth and tongue trying while burning my hands holding the plastic plate. I think it would have tasted good though if I had had feeling in my taste buds.
I also met Elder Pfister. He is from Logan, UT. Grandma and Grandpa Whiting had previously mentioned him in their letters. He is in Juan Diaz, so I gave him my advice on the area. He was fun to talk to.

The zone had 15 baptisms during March.

It is starting to rain a little bit here which is a nice change. Have a great week everyone. Thank you for your "personal letters" and other support.

Love,