Rain, Rain, Go Away

Dear Family,

 

It has been raining so much in Chorrera! I have been rotating both of my shoes and my boots during the week to try to prevent trench foot. In truth, I think I am far away from getting it, but you can never be too careful. I was inspecting a pair of shoes this morning to see if they were dry and discovered what I think is a light mold growing on the tongue. The shoes are anti fungal so the insides were good. I was surprised by how quickly it developed since they have been laying inside for only about a day and a half drying. The rain is so fun because we get the chance to be cold in Panama, and we can walk around like gentleman with our umbrellas. I cannot believe how hard it rains here. We have had some really fun "shouting" lessons to be heard over the deafening rain hitting the sheet metal roofs here.

 

The power went out last night in our house probably because of the rain. It really was not a big deal because it wasn't hot enough to need our fans and my flashlight throws enough light to shower and get ready for bed. We just worry about the fridge sometimes and are careful not to open it until the power comes back on which it did this morning. I am having interesting experiences here seeing what life would be like with the most basic things I have taken for granted. I don't think I could have most of these experiences anywhere else.

 

We have always had the support of a lot a members here, but a few had their reservations for helping us because there were some missionaries here before us that did some terrible things. I think we have done a lot to change those feelings because they talk to us now and give us references. For the most part this ward is really awesome. The bishop likes to go out with us and meet our investigators. He has encouraged others to do visits with us too. He has mostly stressed that we try harder to go out with the mission leader whereas we usually just meet with them once a week. This week we set baptismal dates for two families and another lady we have been working with. There is nothing that feels better or gets the heart pounding harder than inviting someone to be baptized.

 

Throughout most of my mission there has been a reluctance in my companionships to talk about the Book of Mormon on the first visit, but we are doing a lot to change that. The sooner we talk about it, the sooner we can start using it, the sooner the investigators can start reading it, the sooner they can gain a testimony of it and get baptised. It really is a powerful tool in the missionary arsenal. The Book of Mormon is a powerful testament of Jesus Christ and if people sincerely read it and pray about it they can receive an answer that it is true. I absolutely know that the Book of Mormon is true and love reading and using it in my teaching.

 

I hope everyone has a great week.

 

Love,

 

Elder Whiting

[There was a little more in a separate message - added below.]

Regarding Elder Polera: 
I was crushed to hear that news
I will miss seeing him here
we grew very close in the mtc sharing the same room and being in the same district.

Diet:
blueberries sound delicious right now
i was always happier gobbling them down than picking them
we get our fair share of rice
There has indeed been a big push to improve our diet
including hiring cooks
but the cooks give us rice every day so I don't know how effective that was.

i love the rice
it lasts us a really long time
good carbs to work throughout the day
yes we get meat all the time
usually a chicken breast
i have gotten really good at stripping every piece of meat from the bone

 

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

Ohana 16 May 2011

Dear Family,

I suppose I have already reported about Tuesday and my temple trip, so I will go on ahead in the week.

On Friday we have an activity called Ohana which means family in Tongan or something. A ton of people including investigators showed up, and everyone had a really fun time. We played a bunch of simple games like duck duck goose and musical chairs, and then the missionaries put on a talent show. Elders Dawson, Estrada and I danced Shakira's "Waka waka" and won the competition. We painted our faces and made ribbon skirts out of pom poms. The stake president spoke after the show and gave a really good message about missionary work. He had all of us stand up front and thanked us for putting on the activity and for everything we do here. We all felt pretty good. We were really nervous at first that the activity was going to be a disaster because no one showed up at 6 when it was supposed to start, but everyone started showing up at 7.

On Saturday we had a service project early in the morning to clean the stake center. Most of it involved cleaning up the mess from the activity we put on the night before. I really miss vacuums and the convenience in cleaning they provide. I was in charge of white boards and the stage.

We have changes coming up this Wednesday. I am almost positive that I am staying here. It is likely that my companion will leave, but he could also stay.

The "rescue" ended this week and was really successful. We have met a lot of the less active members in the ward and also nonmembers. Even though the activity is over, the members are still really animated about visiting their friends and others in the ward.

Love,

Elder Whiting

Happy Mother's Day

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat yesterday. I had so much fun seeing everyone and hearing the voices of everyone. I did not know skype had a conference video call feature. I saw everyone signed in and thought oh no who do I talk to first and how are we going to share this time, so I was really excited when I saw everyone pop up. I can hardly believe how much the little ones are talking now, and I had to swallow a bit when they told me they love me. The first thing a lot of people say to me here is "oh you must really miss your family", and I always think, yeah you are right. I really love my mission though, and I am trying to make the most of every day.

I had the pleasure of doing my first session inside the temple here in Panama. It is a smaller temple than most, but it is absolutely beautiful inside and outside. It has been a while since I have gone, so I was surprised that some minor things have changed. I felt recharged after going to the temple. I really miss the regular attendance we were allowed in the MTC after going today. Three zones were there at the temple, so we had to wait a little bit longer for them to get everything ready for us. The session was in Spanish, so that was an interesting experience. They use the vosotros form of Spanish that is typically reserved for the scriptures and in Spain, so I was straining a bit.

Anyways, we do not have a lot of time to write today. I hope everyone has a great week and had a great Mothers Day.

Love,

Elder Whiting

2 May 2011

Nice Tri-colored Heron in this beach picture.

This week has been really rainy. These next four months are supposed to pour. I have been really going through umbrellas here. They are not the best quality, so they break a lot. I also have a bad habit of leaving them places since I am not used to carrying one.

We had our zone conference on Thursday with Arrejan and Chitre. I had fun talking with my trainer Elder Voss and saw Elder Monterosa who was in the MTC with me. It is always interesting to see the statistical reports in the mission and in each zone. Our zone had one of the highest baptism date statistics. President Ward showed some of the pictures of the toes of the Elder that had a ping pong table fall on him inbetween sessions. They looked pretty messed up, and I was not surprised amputation was opted.

I have already said this, but I will say it again that the bishop here is amazing. He has planned a rescue program to visit the goal of 100 families that have left the church during the week of May 8 to 14. He has everything organized really well and has mobilized practically every able-bodied person in the ward. We are excited to participate in the plan and anticipate a lot of success in bringing people back to church. With families that have been away from church for longer periods of time, there are often children that have reached baptism, priesthood ordination, seminary, and institute age.

In the missionary preparation class we participate in, we received pupils that we are going to mentor. We are going to help prepare them in any way we can and some are even going to come study with us in the mornings.

We were teaching a lady that lives on the far outreaches of our area a couple days ago. My companion told me that she went to conference, so we were really eager to find her, but did not have any luck until recently. She is one of those awesome people that are completely prepared to hear and accept the gospel. After the lesson, she asked a blessing on "our current prophet". We were blown away. We have only taught her once. So, of course, we are really excited about working more with her. It is so fun to find people like her. Have a good week.

Zone Conference in Chorrera

25 April 2011

This week kicked off with a service project. We cleaned up one the of local schools here by cutting the surrounding grass by weed wacker, bagging the clippings and throwing them away. I thought we would rake all of the waste into a pile and burn it like everyone else does, but we disposed of it responsibly. There was a lot of trash, especially in the front of the school where the students come and go. The school is bilingual and many of the students know English, so they were practicing on me. I am wearing a neutral Milan jersey to avoid the Barcelona vs Real Madrid feud here.

We noticed a lot of traditions here during Holy Week like the burning of incense and restricting the consumption of meat to only fish. Everyone we visited was watching bible stories on t.v. Apparently every channel was running them. On Sunday, we went to the Stake Center to watch the Salt Lake transmission of the birth of Jesus and His resurrection. I do not normally appreciate theater type productions, but this one was interesting. Was there one in English? This one appeared to cast mostly Latin actors and it looked like they were actually speaking Spanish as opposed to a voice over.

I had a really funny experience on Tuesday. We were walking to our district meeting when this homeless guy dressed like disco Moses came walking down the street with a staff and everything. He told us that he was like Jobe and had lost everything. We started talking to him about church when he spotted my companions watch and demanded it. When my companion refused it, he started chasing us for a couple blocks only to stop and continue shouting after us. I have met some really interesting people here. Drunk, homeless guys stop all the time and talk to us. The surprising thing is that most of them speak pretty good English. It is too bad they forget it all when they are sober.

The church is working on starting an EFY program here in Panama starting January. As soon as they found out I participated in EFY in the states, I was recruited to be on the advisory board. I have been going around to all of the ward councils in the stake to talk about my experience in the program.

I have been serving as the ward pianist my ward. I am actually playing on a real piano here as opposed to a keyboard in Tocumen. I never did master the pedal though, so I guess it does not really matter.

I hope everyone has a good week.

18 April 2011

'Home'

Being married and baptized today.

Dear Family,

The highlight of my week was Wednesday when a family in our area was married and baptized in the same day. Their wedding was very simple and quiet, but they were both very happy. The family requested that Elder Hanslan baptize them, so Elder Hanslan came back to this area for the evening to baptize them with his companion Elder Del Angel (my old companion). They were confirmed this last Sunday. The husband is really funny. He loves the Book of Mormon and is already starting into the second half of Alma. They are a wonderful addition into our ward.

As far as I can tell, Easter will not be celebrated here. Instead, I was told it will be a holy week filled with superstitious practices. For example, you cannot leave the house or you will have bad luck forever and stuff like that. I continue to notice the superstition in general here. I have met many people that are absolutely convinced that witches exist. They also have a lot of interesting medical advice for us that we promptly discard. My favorites include not ironing after it rains because you will get chills and waiting an hour before dressing after showers.

Unfortunately, the heat has returned, but at least I do not have to worry about mountains of mud for now. The weather here is so weird. One minute it will be really hot and the sun will be shining, and the next moment it is raining. Then the rain will stop and we get a dose of hot vapor in our faces.

My companion Elder Estrada tells me he is from Guatemala City, the capital. This seems to be very common for the missionaries from Guatemala.

There does not seem to be a scouting program in place here. The most common youth activity here is soccer leagues.

Thank you for all of your letters and emails.

Love,

Elder Whiting

Changes

 Packed and ready to leave Tocumen

Dear Family,

 

You guessed right. I had changes this last Wednesday. I am in Chorrera now. The area is called La Seda, and we live in Tuliweka. My new companion is from Guatemala and was interested to learn I have traveled there. His name is Elder Estrada. We get along just fine, but he is not as big of a talker as my previous companions.

I really like the area I am in right now. There are tons of hills. Next week I am going to send a picture of the hill that makes all of the missionaries cry. Tocumen was a relatively flat area. That is probably why they built the airport there. We have been walking through a lot of mud because it has been raining practically non-stop since I got here. It looks like we have officially entered the rainy season. There is a lot of clay in the mud here so it sticks to our shoes and forms a second sole making our shoes significantly heavier. I never thought I would say this, but we have been freezing this week. The rain is uncharacteristically cold right now and there has not been any sun due to the cloud cover. Usually it is hotter when it rains because it promptly rises as vapor. This area looks and feels more like Costa Rica than Panama.

We share the stake center with two other wards. We meet at 945 in the morning which is an unusual time for me. The ward I am serving in has an attendance of about 110 members. I really like the bishop here. He is a young guy, about 30. He served a mission here in Panama¨when Panamanians were still serving in their own country. He is really organized and has good ideas for us. Our mission leader is only 19 years old and preparing to serve a mission. He taught a really good lesson in the investigator class this last Sunday. There are a lot of enthusiastic young men that are willing to go out with us here.

There is a stronger interest here shown by the people here to learn English. I had five different members walk up to me at church and ask me how to pronounce a certain word or how a certain phrase is formed. I think part of my assignment here in the future will be teaching English classes. Some Elders in the other areas already have classes. Also, no one knows how to play the piano here, so it has been sitting there collecting dust. It looks like I will start playing again.

I hope everyone has a good week.

Love,

 

Elder Whiting

Beginning of April

Dear Family,

 

Conference was a really cool experience. I have discovered what a great missionary tool conference is. At first our investigators would not want to go since I have fallen asleep in just about every conference of my life except in the MTC and this last one. Several of our investigators accepted however and came. They all really liked it and decided to stay for other sessions. I felt really bad for one of our investigators that came up to me afterwards and asked me if it was alright that she does not have a husband because she saw so many families sitting together and eternal marriage was a big theme of the conference. They stuck all of the English speakers in a separate room on Saturday and in a closet office on Sunday. I especially enjoyed the talk the surgeon gave on the necessity of pain for personal growth and the talk on the difference between to be and to do. The attendance was sparse on Saturday, but the stake center overflowed on Sunday. During the Priesthood session I got a little sentimental (likewise during the one in the MTC) since I was not attending it with my father.

 

I had a fun time buying a new camera. There is a little shopping center in our zone called los pueblos that is like a rundown Folsom Outlets. All of the little shops are competing so you can get much better deals than in other locations. It was fun haggling prices. I told one merchant how a guy across the walkway had given me a better deal. The guy exclaimed that he knew the guy and that he would "go to the devil" before he was bested by him. I had to do a lot of walking until I found what I thought was the best deal. They threw in a memory card, case, took off the tax and had the lowest price of everyone. I am really happy with it and think it takes good pictures.

 

We lost power Saturday night when we returned to the house. At first I was worried because I saw that some surrounding houses still had power, and I have seen too many scary movies where the killer cuts the power than runs in and kills everyone. I found my flashlight and went out to check the fuzebox like they do in the scary movies. I observed that none of them were blown and that other houses did not have power. I remembered the story of one of the Favero boys mowing the lawn at night after procrastinating it with a flashlight in each armpit. I employed a similar technique to get ready for bed. Showering was interesting too in the dim light of my flashlight. Everything was manageable though. I did not realize how bad our situation was until I went to turn on my fan for the night and realized that it is run by electricity too! So that was my little adventure. Power was restored the following night. I realized how many things I use require power like my shaver, toothbrush, camera, fan, and lights. I am thankful that I am constantly reminded of the things I take for granted.

 

I still do not know if I am leaving Tocumen. I will find out Tuesday night.

 

The pictures are of me teaching a member how to make brownies with my companion, conference, and zone pictures.

 

Love,

 

Elder Whiting

Elder Whiting and his companion, Elder Pena

March 28, 2011 A week of Challenges

I am not going to lie. This week was kind of terrible. I am with Elder Peña (pain yeah) now. Elder Del Angel was taken out of the area for emergency changes to replace an elder in another area. I went into the city to pick up Elder Peña and it has fallen on my shoulders again to teach another elder the area. President Ward told me that I would be teaching him the area for these two weeks and then I would be taken out, but I think I will have to stay here another change. It is very difficult to learn an area including the members, investigators, less active members, bus routes, etc in two weeks. We worked very hard this week and just barely scratched the surface.

Elder Peña is from El Salvador. He has an incredible story. He is the only member in his entire family and a convert of 1 year and 10 months. He has 10 months out on the mission, so that means he was only a member for a year when he left for his mission. Elder Peña always has the biggest grin and he is super positive and encouraging. I really enjoy being with him.

I was bitten by a dog the other day when we went by to visit one of my recent converts. The dog came at me like a bullet and got my leg. It tore my pant leg and broke the skin. The dog was detained and we finished teaching the lesson and left. I went back to the house, washed it off and put some Neosporin on it. I do not think the dog is sick, but I read somewhere that I am supposed to watch it for ten days to see if it gets sick. Days later now, the bite looks pretty good and I don't think I will lose my leg. There is a lady in this area that sews clothes for the missionaries for free, so I will be visiting her today or tomorrow. I am afraid the mission is turning me into a dog hater.

I will not be sending photos for a bit because my camera was stolen this week. Luckily, I have tons of my photos backed up, so I really only lost the most recent ones. I sent home some of the ones that were not backed up yet as well. I do not know what I am going to do yet about obtaining another one or I don't know.

The rest of the week was great though. I am really enjoying talking with Elder Peña and hearing stories from him. I set a baptismal date for one of our investigators for the 10th of April. According to the President, I will be gone by then, but I am still ecstatic that they are getting baptized.

I like that I am always getting more comfortable with the language. I can pretty much understand anyone that talks to me as opposed to people I am used to like members and my companion.

We heard some really loud thunder on Saturday and have had some rain here. The rain makes it hotter because it sends up a hot vapor from the earth and streets. My favorite weather here is overcast without rain and a breeze. Those days are amazing.

Anyways, I enjoy hearing from everyone and hope you all have a good week.

Capacitationes en Tocumen

These pictures were posted by Hermana Ward and then copied to post here. They have been manipulated a bit to put more fill light on the faces.


Practicing with a pretty Hermana.

                                                      I believe this is the district leader.

Relaxing by the pool, after dinner. That nearby pool probably looked very inviting.

21 March 2011 -Capacitationes

I was going to send home some pictures this week, but I am using a really dumpy computer that does not have an accessible USB port.

We had training in the house of the President on Thursday. He came out dressed in tennis shoes, slacks, white shirt, obnoxious tie, bracelets, and a giant belt buckle. It was a really funny visual to get us to think about the importance of our every day appearance. I never really noticed a problem with it before, but now that I am looking around I am noticing a belt buckle or bracelet here and there. President Ward also showed us a really powerful video about reaching your full potential. It was about a football coach that blindfolded a player and made him do a difficult drill called the death crawl. The coach told him to go to the 50 yard line with another player on his back. The coach shouted and encouraged him to the end zone where the player collapsed. He thought he didn't make it to his goal of the 50 yard line, but realizes he made it to the end zone. It is hard to describe. You just have to watch it. As usual, Sister Ward made us a delicious meal. She made these awesome sweet pork tacos. I felt like I was sitting in a Cafe Rio in Utah for a moment.

I had the most interesting conversation with what must be the only Atheist in all of Tocumen. I had almost forgotten the word for atheist in Spanish. He caught me really off guard because we are so accustomed to having at least the common ground of God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible without fail. We really couldn't do anything besides share our own testimonies that God exists. The odd thing was that his wife and one of his sons are members of our church. I could tell the guy reads a lot. He was recounting historical events and scientific experiments. He started telling us the faults of religion and of all these different churches. We finally pointed out that we can only be accountable for our church of its teachings. I have found that a lot in the mission: that people want us to explain why some things are the way they are in other churches. I left the whole experience feeling really sorry for him. We will still visit from time to time and hopefully one day a miracle will happen. I am relieved that we do not go around trying to prove a theory with historical stories or facts. We simply invite others to find out for themselves and teach those that are willing to learn.

Love,

Elder Whiting

March 14, 2011

I have finally decided on my missionary hairstyle. I had been trying different things each day with some gel another missionary left in the house. I will leave you holding your breath in anticipation for pictures. Although I will describe it as a calmed down Donald Trump.

 

I had so much fun reading the emails from Sister Webb and Elder Lindelof. I can relate to many of their experiences. First with Sister Webb, I certainly teach a lot more women than men. Alcohol is a major problem here as well with the men. It is cheaper than water and more abundantly available. We also have a lot of inactive members in our ward. Wow, Elder Lindelof was so funny! I am really glad we do not have inspections on our house. It would utterly fail in the States, but I don't know what they would have to say about the cockroaches in our house or the filth that welcomes their breeding. I love the "miracle finds" he referred to. One reference or someone contacting us like that is worth about 20 contacts we do. I laughed forever when I read his email. Our experiences share more in common than I would have guess. I also enjoy people trying to speak in English to me and have heard some pretty crazy stories from people as well.

 

We are still working with Marcos and Ruben to prepare them for their baptisms. They are both set for the end of this month. I really enjoy working with them since, as I mentioned before,more of our teaching opportunities are with women.

 

Elder Del Angel and I were sick earlier in the week, but we are all better now. I am starting to think the vitamins I am taking are just sugar pills.

 

Schools and Carnivals

Dear Family,

 

School started last Monday for everyone from kindergarten to college. Every school has their own uniform, but for the most part it includes a white dress shirt and dark pants. As you can imagine, they look a lot like missionaries. We keep getting stopped by the police and asked for identification because we get mistaken for students ditching school. Most stores will not let us enter until we explain that we are actually missionaries. It used to be really easy to spot other missionaries when we get together, but now we have to come up with a really specific meeting place. Their school buses are the same ones we ride around (diablo rojos), so they are even more packed. A few smaller yellow airport shuttle looking buses also make their rounds to pick up the younger children.

 

Carnivals also started and lasts until Thursday. I would describe it as a mixture between Lord of the Flies, Spring Break, and Sodom and Gomorrah. During these four days or so anyone can legally throw water on you. They also walk around with eggs and other projectiles to throw. Even with my extensive knowledge of back roads, alleys, and member safe houses, we still get pretty messed up. We do not mind though. The water was actually a welcome refreshment. My area is not too bad. Most of the action takes place in the interior in places like las tablas and Chitre. I think they even take missionaries out of Chitre for the week. Mom and I also took every precaution to get the most waterproof stuff available on the market. I thought it would come in handy for the rain. Who knew. I have not taken that many pictures and the craziness for obvious reasons. The picture I did snap is of a checkpoint set up by a group of kids in Sector Sur (Sector South) to get anyone who passes by. Everyone has this time off of work and school.

 

Dad, I did not know what I was passing by at least four times a week until you gave it a name. I am referring to the Tocumen marsh area. I think you would like it. During the day it is alive with all sorts of birds and at night the noise is deafening with frog croaking. There must be thousands of them. The birds here really do not look that much different from the ones back home and in Utah. Are there any spotted woodpeckers here? I saw a bird going at a telephone pole that sure looked and sounded like one.

 

The Mullens package got here. It was amazing and had exactly what I needed. I am working on a letter to send them, but I would appreciate it if you would let them know it got here safely and that I am thankful for it.

 

Three missionaries are leaving from the ward here this week. They are all very excited. The ward threw them a crazy going away party with music, food, and dancing. We dropped by since our dinner appointment at the same house.

 

Anyways, I hope you have fun with the girls at Disney World. Will you be stopping by the Kennedy Space Center at all? I certainly have good memories from both places. Disney is so fun with little kids.

 

Love,

 

Elder Whiting

End of February Photos

I believe Elder del Angel is walking on the right side of this photo. It has been raining and you will notice that the missionaries [right and left side] do not have umbrellas while the women do.

Catholic church building with interesting architecture. Again the missionaries are in the rain while women in the photo, visible especially when enlarged, are using umbrellas.

Damp Elder Whiting, probably included this for his mother and sisters. This is not in Tocumen, probably Panama City on a training day.

Best picture in the group. A nicely posed Tropical Kingbird, Lori asked if he could concentrate on posting more of these rather than the others.

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

21 February 2011

Dear Family,

 

We have had a busy week here in Tocumen. We set two baptismal dates for March. I do not know if I will be around to see them though. There is a good chance that I will be leaving Tocumen on Wednesday since I am completing my second change here. I would not mind staying. I like my companion, the area, and the members here. I will let you know what happens.

 

Our land lady was getting after us, so we completely cleaned our house. It looks really good. We were going to do it anyways since it flooded the day before. Nothing was damaged, but it was really tough evacuating all of the water. Needless to say the fans were going for a couple days.

 

Thank you for the Valentines Day package. I have already devoured the beef jerky. I had to laugh when I was reading a Christmas banner in late February. I still have not had the chance to listen to the CD.

 

I have collected quite a few things here since arriving. I am currently investigating a way to send some of them home. Packages do not seem to be too expensive sending them from this end.

 

We had interviews recently with the President and his wife. We weren't the only ones being interviewed. There has been talk in the mission about hiring a cook to prepare lunch Tuesday through Saturday. Several companionships already had their cooks. The cook would receive money for the food and their labor would be a service. They are concerned with the health of some of the missionaries. We do not have a problem in our area because we have our meals covered and they meet the required rice to other nutritious food ratio. Apparently other areas are not as fortunate as us. Anyways, interviews were fine. The president just asked me how things are going in my area and how I am adjusting to the mission life. Sister Ward just asked each of us if we had any contraband and how our search for a cook was going. They area good people and always spoil us with fantastic food when they come to visit.

 

One of my friends in the ward died the Wednesday before last at 6am. She had cancer and was ready to leave this world. I had a chance to talk with her before she died. She kept telling me how she felt at peace and knew where she was going. I also went to the viewing since we had a district meeting in the same building. It reminded me of when I saw Grandpa Russell years ago.

 

Love,

 

Elder Whiting

Interviews in Tocumen

A picture taken from the Panama Mission blog - it was posted by President and Hermana Ward

Baptisms

7 February 2011

Dear Family,

Everything turned out OK with the baptisms. You can probably tell from the photos that my face was pretty burned. We had some last minute complications to figure out like bad fits with baptismal clothing, figuring out the font controls, and creating programs that our mission leader flaked out on. We were all very happy to see the families of the converts there. They also came to church to see the confirmations. There are more receptive now and have agreed to take the lessons. The first baptism was performed without any problems, but I performed the second one twice because her toe popped up about the water. The water level was really low, so I had to bring my A game. The baptisms were a very special experience for me and for Melissa Michelle Rodriguez Rojas and Dinette Smith (ehsmeeth haha) Peña. I have been thinking a lot about my own baptism so many years ago.

The assistants came to our area and went on divisions with us. They came and saw the baptisms as well.

Have you guys tried Nutella? I think it was Courtney Hatch that originally told me about it, but I never had the chance to try it until recently. If you have not tried it, go out and get some. The stuff is amazing. I also love crocs. My companion and I have been playing chess at night, so I have rediscovered that love too. He is a worthy opponent, and I rarely win. All my discoveries of the new and rediscoveries of the old on my mission make me wonder if I have been living in a cave and why I forgot them in the first place.

The water is so good right now. We still cannot drink it, but we have pressure, heat, and reliability so I am ecstatic.

Mom, you asked about the food. For the most part, you already know that the diet is rice, beans, and chicken. It is true that they give us a lot of food, but I do not know it is because there is not enough for everyone. It very well could be true that they do not eat for the meal they give us food.

Our eating schedule changed for the month of February and as a result we surprised the family that was giving us food that day. They were just sitting down to dinner when we arrived. I observed the portions they were eating were very meager and did not include chicken. They were very embarrassed and quickly got up and offered us their plates. I cannot describe to you my shame that they offer us their very best and now I know what they really eat like we are too good to eat the same. The shame was compounded when they offered us what they were about to eat, probably going without that night. The situation could be considered a double edged sword. Refusing could mean offending them, but accepting makes it hard to sleep at night. I can also promise you mom that the missionaries serving you have their own challenges.  Give them your best.

I appreciate your emails and support. I love you guys so much.

Elder Whiting