Always Remember the Church is True!!!!

 We received our first email from Panama!!!

He's safe and sound and working hard...

Hey!!!!!!!!!!! So so i made it to Panama alright and let me tell you, it´s so hot here!!!!!!!!!! I´m constantly sweating and the first few days it was hard to breath because of the humidity. But I can breath now and it´s all good, just SUPER hot!!!!!!!! So anyways, yeah I´m in Tocumen and yeah it´s pretty green. Panama is SUPER different than I thought it was going to be!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought it was going to mostly be like the rich area you know, pretty nice houses and stuff like that. But that´s only one area. Most of it is pretty dang run-down. And it´s funny they don´t really have much of a trash service so there´s just big trash piles all around the city. Oh man, it´s so  different here you have no idea!!!!!!!!!! Also, I´m pretty sure there are no traffic laws. People drive so crazy here!!!!!!!!!! Oh man I hope I´m never an AP because I don´t ever want to drive here!!!!!! Also, there´s these buses here called diablo rojos that we ride all the time becasue they´re only a quarter and they are nuts!!!!!!!! They pack like 50 people into these buses and they drive SUPER crazy down the streets. It´s nuts!!!!!!!!!! 

Alright so now I´ll tell you about my first week here. It was pretty dang nuts to tell you the truth. The first night we stayed at the AP´s house and there were like 20 people there becasue people who come from far areas during changes stay there so there was people sleeping EVERYWHERE!!!!! And then on Wednesday I met my companion and then went to my area. My companion is named Elder Meyer and he´s pretty cool. He´s really good at spanish and he´s from Texas. I´ve already helped teach like 5 or 6 lessons. I didn´t really understand what was going on (which is SUPER annoying!!!!!!!! I hate not being able to understand anything that´s going on or to talk to people in Spanish!!!!!!!! Ha ha on Wednesday we were at the food court in this mall and I ordered Iced tea on accident because I can´t understand anybody!!!!!!!! Oh man it´s SUPER FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!!!) anyways but during lessons I´ve been bearing my testimony and stuff. And we were teaching this one older lady named Rosa and I put a got her to commit to a baptism date so that´s pretty sweet!!!! Also, this last Saturday we had a baptism. We baptized this kid named Jordan I didn´t really have anything to do with it, he was taught all the lessons before I got here but it was still cool to see. And we had 8 investigators come to the baptism and they all really liked it and if everything goes as planned, we´ll have all of them baptized plus 2 more (Rosa and this guy from New York that we met that said he was taking the disscussions and almost got baptized but he got deployed to Iraq before he could) baptized by the end of September. So we´ll have 10 baptisms in one month.
 It´s a big goal, but I really think we can do it. Our investigators seem really interested and they want to get baptized. So hopefully that all works out.

I´ve eaten a ridiculous amount of rice since I´ve been here!!!!!!! We eat it every single meal!!!!!!! We have a cocinar who cooks us lunch everyday and then the members feed us dinner every night so we never have to cook. Anyways, I have rice for every meal. And not just a little bit of rice, A TON OF RICE!!!!!!!!! I´m not even exaggerating when I say this, but I´ve eaten about 3-4 pounds of rice since i´ve been here. Each meal is about 3/4 of the rice that can fit in my rice cooker I had last semester. It´s down right ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!! And they also feed us a ton of spaghetti!!!!!!! And often times both in the same meal!!!!!!! Oh man, it tastes good, but it´s just SO MUCH RICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
Also something else crazy that happened. I got bit by a dog last night. We were visiting a recent convert who hasn´t been to church in a while and her dog out of no where jumped up and bit me in the butt right as we were leaving. It didn´t break skin or anthing though so it´s all good. 

Oh and that Earthquake, I had no idea that even happened. Nothing happened here.

Yeah so sweat up the yin-yang, ridiculous amounts of rice, a baptism, and a dog bite. A pretty crazy first week if you ask me!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I love you guys so much and I miss you guys a ton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And always remember the church is true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!