The People Here are SUPER Nice...

Email we received on March 25,2013

Elder Houghton and Elder Mollinedo with the family they baptized when he first got to Bocas.

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So everything`s going pretty good here. Yeah I`m eating a lot better now. The ward has really helped us out. We have lunch everyday and dinner almost everyday now. They also gave us some pots and pans and stuff to cook when we need too. And yeah they give us extra money to buy food. So I`m doing a lot better now. And don`t worry I get enough food. I`ve gained almost 15 pounds here in Panama already :) {I find that hard to believe from the pictures I've seen!}

Anyways, no I don`t get mail any faster. {I asked him if he was getting mail faster since he lives with both his Zone Leader and District Leader} They still have to send it from Panama City then here to Bocas which takes forever but with changes next week I`ll probably get some mail. 

Our investigators are doing pretty good!!!!!!! Yesterday we had one of them bring her brother to church too and he`s also SUPER interested in the church now too!!!!!!!! That was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also Hermana V (the lady that we baptized at the beginning of the change) told a story about how she came to know the power of the priesthood was real. It was a SUPER COOL story!!!!!!!!!!! Hermana V was one of those Eternal investigators that elders talk about. She first met with the missionaries in 1995. She has a SUPER STRONG testimony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She told us how back in 1995 she recieved a blessing from an Elder that was serving here at that time. She was SUPER sick and the doctors were worried that she was going to die. But after she recieved the blessing she was completely healed. The doctors were even confused about it. It was really cool to hear because her testimony is SUPER STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was cool because she`s already after just 4 weeks a SUPER STRONG member and she`s only going to continue to get stronger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Vwith her granddaughters that were baptized with her.

We don`t do a whole lot of contacting because the part of our area that we do most of our work in is pretty small. President told us not go too far from the church to work. Yeah our area goes all the way to Costa Rica but president told us to try to work close to the church. 

The people here are SUPER nice just like all my other areas.

It`s pretty crazy...I learned the other day that there is this language here in Bocas called Wadi Wadi. Alright, before I tell you more, this is going to sound like I`m making this up but it seriously is a language here. It`s basically English but it has some random Spanish words, other words that are only in Wadi Wadi, and the majority of the words are shortened a lot. For example, "Give me some water" in Wadi Wadi is, "Gib me so wa tàh". And if you want to say, "I have a goal to learn Wadi Wadi" it`s, "I hab a meta learn Wadi Wadi". I know it sounds fake. Ha ha I was a little skeptical myself but I`m serious when I tell you this is actually a language here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha Hermana V speaks it and she`s been teaching me some things. 

That`s SUPER cool that you guys get to go to California!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That`s going to be SUPER FUN for you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And as soon as I heard the new missionary change I knew that Sidney was going to serve a mission :) That`s AWESOME that she`s going to Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell her congratulations for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that story about Max.  That kid`s going to be a GREAT missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, it sounds like you all are doing FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I`m Still Loving it Here in Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Part of his email sent March 18, 2013.

Apparently the computers they use are really slow so he isn't able to send any pictures right now.  He's trying to find another Internet Cafe that has faster computers but he's far from the big city so there's not as much there.  Hopefully he'll be able to soon. But, he sounds like he's a little tired but good. :)

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

Everything`s going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It sounds like you guys are all doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Things are going pretty good with my companions. Yep companions, I`m in another trio. The Elder from Nicaragua went home and President told us to just be in a trio until the end of the change. So I`m in a trio now with the ZL and the DL.  We`ve always been able to comunicate alright. But my spanish is DEFINITELY improved A LOT this change!!!!!!!!!! Last night it was pretty sweet. The lady that we eat dinner with on Sundays told me that besides how I pronounce my r´s (I still can`t roll my r´s but I`m getting there.) She said other than that I sound like a latin when I talk. So that was pretty good to hear!!!!!!!! My investigators are doing pretty good. Some are progressing faster than others but they`re all doing pretty good. The branch is doing really good. We had 80 people come yesterday!!!!!!!! We usually get like 50 maybe 60 so that was pretty cool!!!!!!!!!!!! 

About the email thing...I`ve gotten a lot of emails from my friends on missions saying that they heard that they could. But I still haven`t heard anything from President Ward. So as of right now I am still only able to email my family and other missionaries. 

But yeah sorry this email is kind of boring. Nothing too crazy has happened this week. But everything`s going good here. I`m still loving it here in Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for all your prayers and support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Part of the email we received March 11, 2013

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

 

How´s it going?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Everything´s going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!! My companion is doing good. Living with all latin Elders is definitely different but the one from Argintina worked in a Call Center before the mission and learned a little bit of English. So when I don´t understand something he helps me out. My Spanish has DEFINITELY improved A LOT this change!!!!!!!!! It´s still got some room for improvement but I think 1 or 2 more changes with a Latin comp I´ll pretty much be fluent!!!!!!!

 

Our Investigators are doing good. We have 2 right now that are REALLY close to baptism.  It was cool becasue they come to church pretty much every week but only to sacrament meeting. But they actually stayed the entire time yesterday and REALLY enjoyed themselves!!!!!!!!! Also, they are A LOT more resposive when we talk about baptism and they get pretty excited about it!!!!!!!!! So we´re going to try to put a fecha with them for the end of the month. So hopefully it all works out!!!!!!!!!!! We have some other investigators too that are all doing pretty good. They´re not progressing as fast as them but they´re still progressing and hopefully we can get them baptized here pretty soon too!!!!!!!!

 

Church here is pretty good. They have all of the callings. Every once in a while we have to teach Sunday School but usually everyone with callings are here. It´s interesting being in a branch though. Yeah it´s kind of big for a branch (we have like 50ish people that come every week) but it´s different because it´s still pretty small. But it's really good. :)

 

No, we don´t have daylight savings here in Panama. But it´s weird. The sun goes down at like 6:30pm and rises at like 5. So daylight savings would actually be pretty sweet here!!!!! And that´s SUPER cool that the scouts are going back to Moab!!!!!!!!!!! The other day we were eating lunch and my branch president´s house and he was asking me why Utah is so great and so I told him to bring up pictures of Moab on his computer and I showed him all of the SWEET AWESOME things that are in Moab. And then I topped it off with a picture of Delicate arch. Ha ha after that he said, "alright, that was pretty coold. I guess Utah is a pretty awesome place." Ha ha it was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!! 

President Bell´s talk sounds like it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It kind of sounds like the talk that Elder Christopherson gave in the last Priesthood session. A nice matchette talk is always good ;) And Secion 88 in the Doctrine and Coveants is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is FILLED with TONS of great counsel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It´s AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another thing that I noticed the other day while I was studying was the Pearl of Great Price. A lot of times we take the Pearl of Great Price for granted and never really study it or anything like that. We just kind of put it on the back burnner and forget about it. But in reality it´s one of the BEST books of scripture that we have!!!!!!!!!! It is FILLED with all kinds of stuff about the Plan of Salvation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It´s SUPER GOOD and I encourage you all to read it.    It´s really short so it won´t take long, but I promise you all that you´ll learn a TON from reading it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 It was pretty funny because my ZLs were freaking out because I had a letter from Africa (Ethan), Japan (Jose), and 2 from Utah (Daddy and my friend Alyssa) Ha ha it was pretty funny!!!!!!!! It´s cool to know that I have friends all over the world right now!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Anyways, I´m glad you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep working hard and have a SUPER FUN SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It´s One of the BEST Books of Scripture We Have!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 3/11/13

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

How´s it going?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Everything´s going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!! My Spanish is DEFINITELY improved A LOT this change!!!!!!!!! It´s still got some room for improvement but I think 1 or 2 more changes with a Latin comp I´ll pretty much be fluent!!!!!!!

Our Investigators are doing good. We have 2 right now that are REALLY close to baptism. There names are Savrin and Clader. It was cool because they come to church pretty much every week but only to Sacrament meeting. But they actually stayed the entire time yesterday and REALLY enjoyed themselves!!!!!!!!! Also, they are A LOT more responsive when we talk about baptism and they get pretty excited about it!!!!!!!!! So we´re going to try to put a fecha with them for the end of the month. So hopefully it all works out!!!!!!!!!!! We have some other investigators too that are all doing pretty good. They´re not progressing as fast as Savrin and Clader are but they´re still progressing and hopefully we can get them baptized here pretty soon too!!!!!!!!

Church here is pretty good. They have all of the callings. Every once in a while we have to teach Sunday School but usually everyone with callings are here. It´s interesting being in a branch though. Yeah it´s kind of big for a branch (we have like 50ish people that come every week) but it´s different because it´s still pretty small. But it´s all good :)

Yeah Cole told me about that. THAT´S AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can´t wait until he gets his call!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When can he turrn in his papers? Pretty soon right? But yeah that´s DANG SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those pictures of Max are pretty dang cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It looks like he´s having a blast!!!!!!!!!!! That´s cool Spring Break is coming up. That´ll be fun to have a little break from everything. And no we don´t have daylight savings here in Panama. But it´s weird. The sun goes down at like 6:30pm and rises at like 5. So daylight savings would actually be pretty sweet here!!!!! And that´s SUPER cool that the scouts are going back to Moab!!!!!!!!!!! The other day we were eating lunch and my branch president´s house and he was asking me why Utah is so great and so I told him to bring up pictures of Moab on his computer and I showed him all of the SWEET AWESOME things that are in Moab. And then I topped it off with a picture of Delicate arch. Ha ha after that he said, "Alright, that was pretty cool. I guess Utah is a pretty awesome place." Ha ha it was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!! 

President Bell´s talk sounds like it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It kind of sounds like the talk that Elder Christopherson gave in the last Priesthood session. A nice matchette talk is always good ;) And Secion 88 in the Doctrine and Covenants is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is FILLED with TONS of great counsel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It´s AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another thing that I noticed the other day while I was studying was the Pearl of Great Price. A lot of times we take the Pearl of Great Price for granted and never really study it or anything like that. We just kind of put it on the back burnner and forget about it. But in reality it´s one of the BEST books of scripture that we have!!!!!!!!!! It is FILLED with all kinds of stuff about the Plan of Salvation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It´s SUPER GOOD and I encourage you all to read it. It´s really short so it won´t take long, but I promise you all that you´ll learn a TON from reading it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I´m glad you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep working hard and have a SUPER FUN SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Spirit was WAY STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received March 4, 2013

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was pretty good. We had 3 baptisms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hermana B and her 2 grandkids D and L. It was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I actually had the opportunity to baptize one of them!!!!! I baptized D. It was SUPER nerve-raking because it was my first time I´ve baptized someone in Spanish. But it went really well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After the baptism they all bore their testimonies and Hermana B´s testimony was SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! She told us how she´s known the missionaries since 1995 and for all these years she always found something that kept her from being baptized. But after almost 18 years she said that she finally felt ready and she was SO GLAD that she got baptized!!!!!!!! It was SUPER GOOD and the spirit was WAY STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah the baptism went REALLY WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We also have 2 other investigators that are pretty close to getting baptized. So we´ll probably baptize them by the end of this month!!!!! So we´re praying, fasting, and working hard to get them ready for baptism.

The House is actually pretty dang nice!!!!!!! It´s WAY nicer than my last house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha it actually has tile floor instead of just straight up cement!!!!!!!!!!! I haven´t had the chance to take too many pictures here yet. It´s been raining non stop for about a week and a half now. So as soon as it stops raining I´ll start taking some pictures. But yeah the house is nice!!!!!!!! There are people here that cook for us but we´re just a branch and we have 6 missionaries so we don´t have all of our meals cooked for us anymore. But most of them. Also President Ward got rid of the concineras for some reason and now instead of cocineras we just get money to use to buy food and cook for ourselves. It´s pretty nice but I wish we had cocineras still. It was nice. But it´s all good. 

No I don´t have a bike...I wish I did!!!!!!! But it´s still good. And no I didn´t think I´d ever be living in Panama let alone by the Caribbean Ocean!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha it´s kind of a weird feeling :) 

So we have this investigatorl and she really likes it when people cook for her. So she asked me if I could cook something for her. She said typical food from Utah. So can you send me the recipe for funeral potatos? I´m going to try to cook those. Ha ha hopefully it goes well!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha I´m not that great of a cook.

Well I´m glad that you guys are doing FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It sounds like you all are doing cool things and having fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!