Feliz Navidad desde Panamá!

Feliz Navidad desde Panamá!

Elder Houghton was transferred last Thursday (December 21st) to the Chorrera area and has a new companion, Elder Daw.  It was bittersweet for him to have to leave the Tocumen area and the amazing people he's gotten to know there.  But he is excited to be serving in the Chorrera area.  He was able to go to church Sunday in his new ward.  It's a really small ward (maybe it's a branch, I'm not sure) with only about 75 people in attendance.  He said that the people are very welcoming and he actually said that it reminded him a lot of his home ward in Provo.  He is excited to be working with Elder Daw.  He said he's a really hard worker and a really nice guy.  They get along really well and he is really happy. 

 We had the opportunity to Skype him today for Christmas.  It was so great to actually see that he is well!  He looks great and he is so happy!  We were able to talk with him for a little over an hour.  He's changed a lot but in many ways he is the same fun-loving guy we know and love!  He told us all about life in Panama.  I guess it's kind of the "winter" season right now.  He said that starting in January, it's supposed to be warmer up more and it's summer.  He said that he couldn't imagine it getting hotter but it will.  The people are really friendly and willing to listen to their lessons but it's really hard to get them to church.  They just don't see the need to go to church.  The Chorrera area is much more jungly and hilly.  He said that he has to walk up hills to get to anything.  They eat at members houses every night and they have ladies that cook breakfast and lunch for them every day.  He really likes the food for the most part. He eats fish almost every day and a ton of rice.  He eats a lot of Plantains and he said that is his his favorite.  He said his new area is nice and he's really happy to be serving there.  We asked him what kind of service he works on and he said that he's helped cut back bushes, etc with machetes, helped repair houses, and paint houses.  I guess they have a tradition in Panama at Christmas time...they paint their houses.  He said that just about everyone paints their house around Christmas time.  He didn't know why but they just did.  Another tradition is fireworks.  They let off tons of fireworks.  He said he's never seen so many.  I guess you could see them light up the sky from over the mountains! He said other than that they don't really celebrate Christmas.  He said that, just like other holidays, a lot of people get drunk and hang out in the streets.  I guess on holidays, the missionaries spend time with the members and don't go out.  He assured us that he is healthy and happy.

It was awesome talking to him! 

But...

it was really hard to say goodbye.  

We sure love and miss him!!!!!  

We are so thankful for his example and are so proud of him!

He FINALLY got his Christmas package!  Here's the decorations we sent him.  The ornaments have Christmas messages from all of us on them. I'm so relieved he got it!

Elder Daw and Elder Houghton.  I love the Christmas tie!

"It Really Strengthened My Testimony..."

Email received on December 17, 2012.

He hasn't received his Christmas package.

I REALLY hope it gets there by Christmas! 

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything's pretty good here!!!!!!!!!! I'm getting pretty excited about changes!!!!!!!!!!! I love this area a lot but it will be good to have a change.  It was kind of sad in church yesterday. First of all we had none of our investigators show up which was SUPER frustrating...We're probably not going to have any baptisms this change even though we had a TON of really good investigators at the beginning of the change. But it's alright. But anyways, at church they had all the missionaries go up and bare our testimonies and then Elder De Jesus (Elder Barrie's companion) gave a talk. But anyways it was kind of sad saying bye to everyone because I've been here for 4 months but it was pretty cool because everyone came up to me afterwards and told me how impressed they were with how much my spanish has improved since I first got there. So that was good to hear!!!!!!! But yeah there were 2 families that it was pretty hard to say goodbye to. The Torrentes and the Rios. But it was cool I'll come visit them before I leave Panama. 

It was SUPER cool last week for P-day!!!!! We went to the temple!!!!!!!!! It was SUPER good because like I've been telling you this change has been really stressful and frustrating and it was REALLY GOOD to be able to go to the temple and feel the spirit in the temple. And It was REALLY cool because Panama is RIDICULOUSLY noisy and spastic (sorry that's the only word I can think of to describe it) and it was SUPER cool to sit in the Celestial room and just feel completely at peace and recieve some personal revelation and just feel the spirit. I honestly didn't want to leave the peace and then go into the craziness of Panama. It really strengthened my testimony about how the temple really is the closest place to heaven you can get to while still being on this earth. And how I really took advantage of having a temple so close to me in Provo. And now that there's going to be 2 it's going to be even easier. For example we had to get up at 4 am to get to the 8 am session. And we were talking to hermana caballero (a lady in our ward) and she was saying that before the panama and guatamalen temple were built they used to have to take a bus to Arizona to go to the temple. Pretty nuts right?!?!?!?!?! But yeah it was SUPER good to go to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways another thing that's been kind of crazy is we've been living without power for about 2 weeks now. Ha ha it's a LONG story but something about how they're switching the owners of the house and the bill is all messed up but anyways we haven't had power for 2 weeks. But the owner of the house who lives next to us gave us a cord from his house that we plugged a power strip and a ton of extention cords into and he gave us one light. So we have at least one light and we have everything we need plugged in plugged in. But it's pretty funny!!!! I'll upload a picture of it. It's pretty ridiculous!!!!!! Ha ha also, we have a cat that pretty much lives in our house now. We always come home and he's just sitting there and I'm pretty sure he sleeps in our house too. Anyways, we named him paul.

Anyways, I still don't know what the deal is about christmas. I'm not sure if I'm going to call or if I'm going to skype yet. President ward said that if I'm with a comp that can't skype then he wants us to just call so we don't make our comps feel bad but I don't know who my  new comp is going to be yet so I'll let you know as soon as I know!!!!!  But anyways I'm getting SUPER excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I'll let you know as soon as I can!!!!!!!! I love and miss you guys SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Random Pictures from Panama...

Here's an example of Mola that he's been collecting.  These beautiful works of art are made by the native Kuna  women.  These are panels that are made into blouses, bags or hung as art.  He said, "This is the best one I have."  Beautiful!

This is a cute Nativity scene someone set up to decorate for Christmas.  

Rainbow over Panama City.

Christmas decorations in the mall in Panama City.

Pictures from Taboga Island

We finally got more pictures!!!!

There's quite a few but they're fun.

It's good to "see" that he's doing well. :)  

Here's the pictures he sent from his trip to Taboga Island on December 3, 2012...

I'm not sure if this was on the same day (because of the different shirt) but it's a good picture. 

I'm going to pretend I don't see him leaning/sitting on the railing of the boat!

Elder Houghton and Elder Harr 

Elder Houghton relaxing on the 45 minute boat ride to the island.  I'm wondering if the captain of the boat knew he was sitting there?

I have no idea what this is...proclaiming the gospel?  In awe of the beauty of the island?  :) 

There were big ships everywhere.  He took a lot of pictures of them.  I love how blue the water is!  It sure looks hot though!

Beautiful!  

This is the beach he played soccer on.

Classic.  He could make a book of the many pictures of his handstands.  This is the first in another country though! :)

Our handsome elder {{love}}

It was a SUPER Cool Experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received Dec. 10, 2012

(Pictures will be posted soon! Having technical difficulties on my end.)

I got to kinda "talk" to him again while he was online.  

He's doing really well but has mixed feelings about being transferred in a couple weeks.  I sure hope he gets his package soon!

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything's going good here. Well this last week has been SUPER stressful but it's all good. It turns out that Carlos never got married so we couldn't baptize him...Also none of our investigators came to church even the one who we walked to her house to pick her up...But it's all good, I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about everything. It's just hard sometimes...But it's all good. 

The Christmas party was SUPER fun!!!!!!!!! Ha ha we had some gringo food, ham and turkey but we also had rice. But it was fun!!!!!!! My package still hasn't come but changes are in a week and a half so I might get it then. I talked to President Ward and he told me "Elder Houghton this is your 3rd change in Pedregal, you'll probably have changes." And Changes are on the 20th. So that being said, I can't really plan with you guys when exactly I'm going to call yet because I don't know where I'll be or who my comp is going to be. But I do need you to make me a skype account. President hasn't said anything about not using Skype. So unless he says anything I'll be Skyping you guys!!!!! But like I said I don't know exactly how or when it's going to go down because I'll be in a new area with a new comp. I emailed president and asked him how I can get it all worked out so hopefully by next monday I'll know what's going on. Also President gave us some pretty cool things. He gave us a mini preach my gospel and he had some ladies make us Mola temple bags which are also pretty dang SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!

But yeah I'm SUPER excited to talk to you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It doesn't even feel like Christmas here. It's CRAZY HOT and not very many people put up any decorations. But we're making the most of it!!!!! I put up some pictures and a few videos from the Christmas Party and also the past few P-days. But yeah I'm SUPER excited to talk to you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I only wish I knew what exactly was going on. But it's all good. I'll find out sooner or later.

So something cool happened the other day that I want to share. So we had to go work with the Hermanas in our district for a day because Elder Harr is the district leader and that's how you have to go on divisions with the Hermanas. Anyway, we were in their area and we were teaching this one recent convert who was freaking out about the temple recomend interview she has next week. But anyways we were teaching her and I felt the spirit SUPER strong to share the promise of the book of mormon in moroni and apply it what she was feeling. But anyways, I hadn't ever felt that strong to share something. So I shared it. I told her that even though it says to ask if the Book of Mormon is true that you can apply it to everything in our lives. And it was super cool because she stopped freaking out about it and said "alright I'll pray about it and God will help me to know if this is right." It was a SUPER cool experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways it looks like you guys are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! That picture of Cole made me laugh SO HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That kid is such a hypster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha and I didn't expect anything different from the score of the game. When it comes to other sports besides Golf, us Houghton's fall a little short ;) And that name of their team is SUPER FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but that picture where he's jumping in the air is HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways,  tomorrow we're going to the temple which I'm SUPER EXCITED about!!!!!!!!!!!!! The temple here IS SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, Daddy wanted me to tell you guys how the poeple here are. The people here are cool. They're very nice and almost everyone will invite you in to teach them the word. But that's all. Ha ha they ALWAYS say, "Well I'm Catholic and I'm always willing to listen to the word of God but I'm Catholic and my family is Catholic I can't change." or they say, "There's only one God so it doesn't matter which church I join as long as I follow God." or my favortie thing people say is this, "Si Dios quiere." Which means, "If God wants" it's just a saying that they say for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but I think it's so funny when they say it after we ask them if they will go to church. Because it's obvious that God wants them to go to church. Ha ha but it's funny. But yeah the people are really nice and really funny!!!!!!!! The only thing that is hard is getting them to keep commitments. But they're good people. Also the Kunas (the native indians here) are pretty cool!!!!! They make Mola and one of their stories from they're heritage is a person dressed in white coming from the Sky and blessing and teaching the people. So when we teach them 3rd nephi they are SUPER receptive to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which is pretty sweet!!!!!!!! 

Anyways, everything's going good here. Hopefully I'll be able to give you some more information about calling. But as for now just make me a skype account and I'll give you more details about it next week. Anyways, I love and miss you guys SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Everything is Going Good Here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received on Dec. 4, 2012

(pictures will be posted soon)

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything's pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!! My investigators are frustrating but good. A lot of them just don't want to come to church for whatever reason but they're good. Something pretty cool that I don't think I told you about is we're teaching this lady Maricruz Padilla. She owns the lavamatico where we wash our clothes and one day she came up and asked us who mormon was. And then we visited her and she told us that gringo missionaries have been coming to her lavamatico (sorry for the life of me I can't remember the english word for that) to wash their clothes and she said that she's been starting to think that it's a sign or something. So yeah she's pretty golden well other than the fact that she doesn't come to church. But anyways, for a while we'd been noticing these big posters and signs painted on walls that say "Votar Maricuz Padilla" so like campaign posters and stuff. And so we were curious to see if that was the same Maricruz Padilla so one day we asked her about it and aparently she's running for some delegate or something like that. So yeah, no big deal, we're just teaching someone famous. Ha ha but yeah anyways, we're teaching her again today so hopefully she finally understands the importance of church attendance and comes to church this Sunday!!!!!!! Also, Carlos is getting baptized this Saturday which I'm SUPER excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he is too!!!!!!!!!!! 

Oh also the reason why I'm writing on Tuesday again this week is because we went to this Island called Taboga yesterday and we got back late so we had no time (well we could've got back on time but nobody listens to Elder Barrie and me and they get on the wrong buses and we go all over the place) but anyways, it was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously this Island is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should look it up!!!!!!! I forgot my camera today so I'll upload pictueres from it next week but seriously it was DANG COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was SUPER cool too because not very many missionaries get to go to it because you need to get special promission from President Ward becuase you have to take a 45 minute boat ride. But we got to go and it was SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't heard anything from president about Christmas yet. But tomorrow is our Christmas party so I'll ask him about it tomorrow and I'll let you know. But I've asked around and nobody has said anything about the no skype thing. Even all the old people who were here last christmas said that President let them skype last year so I'll ask him about it tomorrow but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to Skype. The only thing that's going to happen is that changes are on the 20th of this month and since I've been in Pedregal for 3 changes I'm 95% sure I'll get changed to a new area 5 days before christmas which is a bummer... So I it will be a little frustrating but it will be fine. My package hasn't come yet but like I said the Christmas party is tomorrow so my package might be sitting in the office and I might get it tomorrow. It's pretty sweet we're having our party in Cardinas which is pretty much the richest part of Panama (it's where all the rich gringos live) . It's right next to the Temple. So we'll probably get some pretty good gringo food (so not rice) and it should be pretty sweet!!!!!!!!! 

I got to watch the Christmas devotional on Sunday which was pretty sweet!!!!!!!! It was in Spanish but I can understand 90% of spanish now but it was just kind of different not hearing the propeht and apostles talk in english. But it was still REALLY good!!!!!!!!!! I really liked President Eyring's talk!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The church that was broken into wasn't my church it was the stake center and it was broken into 3 times. They never caught the person who broke in. They're installing a security system so that will be good. But yeah all the members are good. 

It sounds like you all are doing good!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha that story about Emma not cleaning her room is PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha SO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's cool that you got to go to Christmas around the world!!!!!!!! Yeah Kyla was telling me about it. Anyways, like I said everything is going good here!!!!!!!!!!!! Things are going good and my spanish is coming along really well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 12/4/12

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything's pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!! My investigators are frustrating but good. A lot of them just don't want to come to church for whatever reason but they're good. Something pretty cool that I don't think I told you about is we're teaching this lady Maricruz. One day she came up and asked us who Mormon was. And then we visited her and she told us that gringo missionaries have been coming to her lavamatico (sorry for the life of me I can't remember the english word for that) to wash their clothes and she said that she's been starting to think that it's a sign or something. So yeah she's pretty golden, well other than the fact that she doesn't come to church. But anyways, for a while we'd been noticing this big posters and signs painted on walls that say "Votar Maricuz" so like campaign posters and stuff. And so we were curious to see if that was the same Maricruz so one day we asked her about it and aparently she's running for some delegate or something like that. So yeah, no big deal, we're just teaching someone famous. Ha ha but yeah anyway, we're teaching her again today so hopefully she finally understands the importance of church attendance and comes to church this Sunday!!!!!!! Also, Carlos is getting baptized this Saturday which I'm SUPER excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he is too!!!!!!!!!!! 

Oh also the reason why I'm writing on Tuesday again this week is because we went to this Island called Taboga yesterday and we got back late so we had no time (well we could've got back on time but nobody listens to Elder Barrie and me and they get on the wrong buses and we go all over the place) but anyways, it was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously this Island is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should look it up!!!!!!! I forgot my camera today so I'll upload pictueres from it next week but seriously it was DANG COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was SUPER cool too because not very many missionaries get to go to it because you need to get special promission from President Ward because you have to take a 45 minute boat ride. But we got to go and it was SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't heard anything from president about Christmas yet. But tomorrow is our Christmas party so I'll ask him about it tomorrow and I'll let you know. But I've asked around and nobody has said anything about the no skype thing. Even all the old people who were here last Christmas said that President let them skype last year so I'll ask him about it tomorrow but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to Skype. The only bad  thing that's going to happen is that changes are on the 20th of this month and since I've been in Pedregal for 3 changes I'm 95% sure I'll get changed to a new area 5 days before christmas... So it will be a little frustrating but it will be fine. My package hasn't come yet but like I said the Christmas party is tomorrow so my package might be sitting in the office and I might get it tomorrow. It's pretty sweet we're having our party in Cardinas which is pretty much the richest part of Panama (it's where all the rich gringos live) . It's right next to the Temple. So we'll probably get some pretty good gringo food (so not rice) and it should be pretty sweet!!!!!!!!! 

I got to watch the Christmas devotional on Sunday which was pretty sweet!!!!!!!! It was in Spanish but I can understand 90% of Spanish now but it was just kind of different not hearing the prophet and apostles talk in English. But it was still REALLY good!!!!!!!!!! I really liked President Eyring's talk!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The church that was broken into wasn't my church. It was the stake center and it was broken into 3 times. They never caught the person who broke in (but they probably didn't look very hard because it was a LDS chapel and the cops don't really care about it all that much) but they're installing a security system so that will be good. But yeah all the members are good. 

It sounds like you all are doing good!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha that story about Emma not cleaning her room is PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha SO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's cool that you got to go to Christmas around the world!!!!!!!! Yeah Kyla was telling me about it. Anyways, like I said everything is going good here!!!!!!!!!!!! My Spanish is coming along really well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Never Thought I'd Ever Say That in My Entire Life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 11/28/12

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Things are going good here still!!!!!!!!!!!! We have some SUPER sweet investigators, all old ones. But Carlos is getting baptized on the 8th and Davis and Katia should also be getting baptized that day too!!!!!!! And we'll probably be baptizing 2 of one of our recent convert's grandkids too!!!!!!!!!! So the Lord's work is moving onward!!!!!!!!!!! Also Ruth (that girl we just baptized) got confirmed this week at church and it was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Also I ate pig tail on Sunday. Yep, I never thought I'd ever say that in my entire life!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but yeah it was SUPER gross!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also for thanksgiving I had mondongo (cow stomach) Ha ha yeah only the Panama zone got to have dinner at President's house. But it's all good :) 

Anyways, I'm SUPER GLAD everything's going GREAT for you guys!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell Max Happy Birthday for me!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll write him a email on Monday because I don't have time right now. But I love and miss you guys SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything's SUPER GOOD Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 11/19/12

They had transfers but he got to stay in his same area, Tocumen, but has a new companion.  He is so happy that he didn't have to leave the area because he's been working with a lot of investigators and has established some great relationships with them.  He looks and sounds really good!

Elder Houghton and Elder Meyer (his old companion) with the Torrentes family.  He said they were one of the many amazing families he's met.  I love it!

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything's good here!!!!!!!!!! I'm still in Tocumen but I did get a new comp. His name is Elder Harr, he's from Cedar Hills, and he works like an animal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha seriously he doesn't stop!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha so needless to say we're going to get a lot of work done this change!!!!!!!!! We should have a least 4 baptisms but we could have as many as 12 so I'm pretty excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah the riots died down a few weeks ago and they never made it to Pedregal which I was kind of dissapointed about. I wanted to be able to say that when I was on my mission I had to stay in my house for a few days because it was too dangerous to go outside. That would've of been a SWEET story!!!!!!!!!! But it's all good :) {Seriously!?!}

Anyways, my investigators are doing really well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have a lot of them and they're pretty much all progressing!!!!!! And then yesterday when we were walking home from church yesterday this girl just walked up to us and told us that she wants to get baptized so we should go visit her house and teach her. Yeah pretty NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!  So we're going back there Wednesday. Also we had a SUPER good lesson with this lady Maricruz. She owns the laundry mat that we wash our clothes at. Anyways, we sang a hymn at the end, "Mas Cerca Dios de Ti" (Nearer My God to Thee) and the spirit was SUPER STRONG and she started crying and said that this is what she was supposed to be doing. So yeah she has a fecha for the 1st. Also, Carlos, my investigator we were waiting on for his marrige is FINALLY getting married on the 28th!!!!!!!!!!!! So we're FINALLY going to baptize him!!!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah our investigators are doing good

So SUPER funny and SUPER embarrassing story. So Saturday night we were eating dinner and I totally threw up. It wasn't because the food was bad it was because I'd eaten too much that day. You know, I'm kind of a light weight when it comes to eating anyways, and when I have to eat pounds and pounds of rice everyday it's too much. Ha ha but Hermana Rios was cool about it. I came out of the bathroom and she told me "Ha ha Elder, I've told you this before, you don't have to eat all of the food. If you can't eat it all stop." And then I told her that it was so good that I just wanted to eat it again and she laughed really hard. Yeah it was SUPER embarrassing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it was cool because I actually made a joke in Spanish!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Ha ha anyways, everything's SUPER GOOD here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yeah that guy in The District I think his name is Hepworth, anyways, he's a funny dude and yeah that's exactly how it is. Elder Harr was telling me the other day that he's never going to correct me on my spanish during lessons because he said that he doesn't know if the Lord needed me to say it the way I did. And I thought that was cool because it's true, you never know. A lot of times it takes some random Gringo with broken Spanish to get them to get baptized. Anyways I thought it was cool!!!!!!

Also, Harr is a singer and during 2 lessons already, I've sang solos...Yeah for some reason he likes singing a solo and then for me to sing a solo. Yeah not going to lie, I never thought I would ever be singing hymns in spanish in a random Panamanian's house :)

Anyways, I love and miss you guys SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He took this picture to show the 3 ties he got for $2 but I'm excited to see that he's been keeping his journal!

We Had a Baptism Yesterday!!!!!!!!

The email we received November 12th...

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you all are doing well!!!!!!!!!! Everything´s been going good here!!!!!!! We had a baptism yesterday!!!!!!!! We baptized our Investigator Ruth!!!!  It was really cool!!!!!! And the baptism went really well!!!!!!!!!! 

Ruth is the beautiful young lady next to Scott.  She looks really happy!  

Elder Meyer, Ruth and her little son, and Scott.

It was good for her because she´s had a pretty hard life so I was happy to see at least something in her life go well!!!!!!!! Also this week has been pretty crazy!!!!!! On Saturday we went over to Ruth´s house to help her uncle do some yard work and I totally picked up a crab!!!!!!!!! It was just walking around outside and I picked it up and threw it into the trees. Yeah it was pretty much one of the coolest things I´ve ever done!!!!!!! Also, Friday I went on divisions with Elder Van Weezep.  When we were walking down the street this random guy stopped us and was telling us that he was scared to die and what he should do. He kept saying, ¨No qiuero morrir!¨  which means I don´t want to die. So, we gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he was really excited about it. Also, we went and visited Laundry Lady (the lady that owns the lavamatico where we wash our clothes) and we had a really good lesson with her and placed a fecha with her!!!!!!!! She´s really excited about the church and she said that she´s going to come to church. Shé couldn´t come yesterday because she was in Los Santos (2 hours from Pedregal) but she said she's going to come next week and if she likes it, she'll continue to come. And I'm pretty sure that she'll like it. She was telling us that she's been going to other churchs for a few years now trying to find the right chruch and she said that none of the churches were welcoming and the pastor people didn't even want to talk to her. So yeah, it's a good thing that Mormons are generally welcoming people!!!!!!!! 

Changes are this Thursday and I'm pretty sure I'll get a new companion.  I hope I get a latin companion so my spanish can improve!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, that's all that's going on here.  I hope you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love and miss you all SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Tukia (with the apple in his mouth) was Scott's companion in the MTC.  This is a picture I got off of his mission blog.  This was taken during a Tocumen district training.

Everything's Going Pretty Dang Good Here!!!!!!!!!!

{Here's the email we received Monday, November 5th.  He usually emails in the morning but we didn't get it until late afternoon.  I was starting to worry then realized how blessed we are to have email and we don't have to wait weeks at a time to get letters.  He seems to be doing well and is happy.  He finally sent some pictures with him in a couple!  He went on a hike for P-day. I wonder if he ever feels like "whoa! I'm in PANAMA!" It is a beautiful country but different from Utah for sure!}

Our handsome missionary... He looks good, huh?

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything's going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!! Today we went hiking to this "lake" (it wasn't a real lake. It was a waterfall with a little pond at the bottom) But it was still pretty dang cool!!!!!!!!!!! And just so you know, it took me all the self control I had but I didn't climb up any of the cool rock faces there. But yeah it was pretty dang cool!!!!!!!!!!! That's also why I'm here at internet in the afternoon instead of the morning. 

Anyways, our investigators are doing great!!!!!!!!!! We are having a baptism this Sunday. And we're either going to baptize 1 or 3 people depending on a few things. Our investigator Carlos is getting married this week so we're going to baptize him and then Davis and his girl friend Katia might get baptized. They are both SUPER ready, the only thing is Davis is a cop and Novemeber here is NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!! There are holidays all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For example the past 3 days have all been holidays and there are 2 or 3 more this month. And they get pretty crazy!!!!!!!! For example on Saturday we got stuck at our Cocinara's house until like 5 because there was a HUGE party right outside of the neighborhood where she lives. This party was NUTS!!!!!!!!!! There were thousands of people and they were all SUPER drunk, some of them were naked, it was just all bad. So we stayed in her house until the party was over. And then President told us to be in our houses by dark these past few days because everyone is SUPER CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!! And it gets dark here at about 6:30 so we just had to go straight from lunch to dinner and then go home so we couldn't get anything done. Anyways, I totally got side tracked...Now back to Davis. He's a cop and on Saturday he is working at a parade in a City called Los Lajas. And it's really far away from Pedregal. Like 3-4 hours. So if he can get back in time we'll baptize him and Katia (they want to get baptized together) on Sunday with Carlos but if they don't we'll have to baptize them next week. But we also have another investigator getting baptized next week too!!!!!!!! Her name is Ruth. She's the niece of a guy in our ward and she's talked to the missionaries before but they stopped coming about 3 months ago and so we're just picking up where they left off. So anyways she's getting baptized the 17th. She's really cool and she has a pretty strong testimony too. 

But yeah that's how our investigators are doing right now. So look forward to some SWEET baptisms!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Like I said the past few days have been crazy and it's been hard to get work done but we've made the most of it and have done as much as we can. Also, this is SUPER funny!!!!!!!!! So Elder Van Weezup and Elder Barrie got robbed last night. But all the guy took was chiceme (this weirdly good corn drink) And he was SUPER excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were saying that he was saying stuf like öh man I love Chicheme!!!!!!!!! Do you have to add sugar to it or is it already good to eat? and stuff like that. It was pretty funny!!!!!!! Other than that nothing too out of the ordinary happened this week. And the Sink, it's still broken. Elder Barrie bought some glue and we're going to try to glue it tonight but I don't know how well it's going to work. Oh another funny story!!!!!!!!! So the other day Elder Meyer and I went and visited that old lady Balbina because even though she's not progressing we go and visit her every once and a while because she''s SUPER old and nobody else visits her. But anyways, Elder Meyer totally fell asleep while we were there!!!!!! Ha ha Balbina thought it was SUPER FUNNY and she was laughing SUPER hard it was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

It sounds like you all are doing pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!!!! So the elections are this week right? That's pretty NUTS!!!!!!!!!! In a few days we'll find out if we are going to have a Mormon president!!!!!!!!!!!! All the members here are freaking out about it. It's kind of funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I'm glad you all are doing good!!!!!!!!!! I love and miss you all SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some things never change!  Boy, we love and miss him!

So This Week Has Been NUTS!!!!!!!!

He and his companion made chocolate covered bananas.  He sent this picture and a few of the broken bathroom sink.   Hopefully we'll get some of HIM next week. :) 

Email received today, October 29th.

After an interesting doctor's visit, he's healthy again and enjoying teaching his amazing investigators...

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this week has been NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha first of all it started with a big training in the City and the traffic was HORRIBILE!!!!!!!!!! It took us 2 1/2 hours to get to the city and my area is only like 10 miles from the city!!!!!!!!!!!! That was on Tuesday and then on Thursday I had to go to the city again. Ha ha this is kind of a funny story. So anyways, I wasn't feeling good so I called the Hermana who's the nurse for the mission and she made a doctors appointment for me and told me to drink a ton of cranberry juice. So I went to the doctor and it turned out to be a urologist and she asked me all these questions and perscribed me a ton of medication!!!!!!!!!!!! I took a picture of it to show you guys how ridiculous it is!!!!!!!!! Ha ha anyways, I called the nurse again afterwards and she asked me what medications she perscribed me and then she thought i the amount of medication was weird so she called another doctor and he told her to tell me (yeah I know, this was a very complicated process) to not take any of the medication because it was probably going to be harmful and to just drink cranberry juice and he perscribed me an antibiotic that I took for 5 days because all it was was a bladder infection and I guess the Panamanian doctors always try to rip off the gringos and cheat them out of money. So anyways, I don't have the infection anymore I'm totally fine. Ha ha but anyways, it was SUPER nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyways, about the good stuff from this week!!!!!!!!! We were meeting with Katia (Davis' girlfriend) this week and randomly Davis called and she told him that we were teaching her so he asked to talk to us and he said that Katia had told him that she wants to get baptized so we need to teach her fast because they want to get baptized next Sunday. So anyways we talked to her about it and when we placed the Fecha with her for next Sunday, she said something that suprised us. Usually people are really hesitant about accepting a baptismal date but she said, "Yeah that sounds great!!!!!!! It's really soon but that's good because then I'll be able to learn faster!!!!!!" It was pretty dang cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Also another thing that was cool and strengthened my testimony of the truthfulness of the church is Katia's mom thinks we're crazy and we're banned from their Chino now. Why that strengthened my testimony was because you can see how true the church is because Mormons have always been persecuted whether it was really bad like the pioneers or even just a little bit like having missionaries banned from a chino. Anyways, I thought it was cool.

So something else that was kind of annoying is Davis and Katia didn't come to church yesterday. The good thing was they both had REALLY good excuses. Katia's grandma had a heart attack and so she had to go to the Interior (the inner part of the country) to take care of her, and Davis got called into work. He's a cop and for the past like 2 1/2 weeks there has been these huge riots in Colon because of something really, really, really stupid. There's this mall thing called Zona Libre where they sell stuff for SUPER cheap (it's all the stuff that ships coming through the cannal have to get rid of because the ship is too heavy) but anyways, the government is selling it and they are going to get almost a billion dollars for it and they are going to use that money to fix up colon and make it really cool. And for some reason the people here don't like that. So anyways there's these HUGE riots going on and they're spreading all throughout Panama (don't worry they haven't reached me) but they're SUPER bad in Colon. They're blowing up cars and stuff like that so Davis is a cop and he got called in to help with the riot control. So we have to post-pone their baptism for the 10th. But Carlos, the guy we were waiting on to get married, is getting married this week so he'll also be baptized on the 10th, and we found another girl in the ward who has been going for about a year or so and really likes the church but isn't baptized yet. So we're also going to probably baptize her on the 10th. So we're going to have 4 baptisms that day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
 
So anyways, that's all that happened this week. Pretty crazy huh? But it sounds like you guys are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm glad the halloween carnival was a hit!!!!!!!!!! I love and miss you guys SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. 
Here's the thing for your students, mom...{He wrote this note to my after school students encouraging them to work hard and do their best.  They were so excited he actually wrote to them! I sure do love this guy!!!!!! }

Hey Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I don’t know you but my mom says you’re all pretty cool kids!!!!!  Anyways, I just wanted to tell you guys about the importance of school and working hard.  I didn’t really work as hard as I could have when I was in school.  And it really made it hard for me when I was trying to get scholarships and go to college.  My grades weren’t as good as I needed them to be to get any substantial scholarships and it stunk seeing all of my other friends who had tried really, really hard all through school get big scholarships and I wasn’t getting any.  So, work hard!!!!!!!  Even though it seems like college is SUPER far away, it’s really not.  Before you know it, you’ll be applying for college and you will either be regretting what you did or being happy for what you did.  Because seriously, college is SUPER EXPENSIVE and if you don’t have any scholarships it can be really hard!!!!! 

I once heard someone say, “Do the hard things, because if you only do the easy things you will have a cheap life.  Don’t have a cheap life.  Work hard and make something out of it!!!!!” And I know if you work as hard as you can ALL the time, you will have a FANTASTIC life!!!!!!!!!!!  If you look at all of the successful people in the world, they are all really hard workers and gained all the success they have because they never gave up.  So keep working hard and NEVER give up!!!!!! When you give up you lose.  So work your absolute hardest all the time.  Get help when you need it.  Don’t be afraid to get help and ask questions.  

Also, when you’re applying to college, be sure and apply to SUU (yeah, you guys should all go to SUU because it’s the BEST school!!!!!! WAY BETTER than BYU!!!! ;)  )  Seriously though, it doesn’t matter which school, but it’s important to get all the education you can!!!!!!!  

Make sure you have no regrets!!!!!!!!!!!  Work hard!!!!!!!!