The Lord is ALWAYS There to Help You

Email received 4/30/13

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

Hey SO SORRY that this is late!!!!!!!!!!!! So Bocas is WAY far  from the city and every once in a while we lose power here. So yesterday we lost power and it didn´t come back on until like 30 minutes ago. Anyways, it´s still going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last week was a little crazy but it´s still good. Last Friday, we went to David (a 5 hour bus ride) for a training. It was pretty cool. I learned a ton of cool stuff and I think I finally convinced President Ward to let me stay here longer than 2 changes ;) Ha ha but we´ll see what happens. But yeah it was a pretty good training. President was really happy with our zone because we had a total of 7 baptisms last month and 6 the month before that (Bocas usually only gets 1 or 2  per month) The only bad thing about the training was we had to leave at 3 in the morning to get there on time and then we left that same day and got back at 10 pm. So It was pretty tiring!!!!!!!! Yeah I got the birthday cards and I was SUPER HAPPY to hear all of your voices!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much for that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, my investigators are doing pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!!!! We´re going to have another baptism this Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We´re baptizing a guy named Alchamedez. He´s SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!! He´s been coming to church pretty much every week for like 2 years but just now made the decision to get baptized. It´s going to be pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hermana Claribell and her family are doing GREAT too!!!!!!!!!! They´re reading the Book of Mormon and praying and doing everything they´re supposed to do. It´s pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!! Our other investigators are doing pretty well too. They´re all progressing pretty fast.

Spiritual experience of the week... It was pretty sweet, a lot of our investigators keep telling us that they need more time to prepare to get baptized but pretty much all of them are ready. So it got me thinking about how a lot of times we don´t give ourselves enough credit. EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this world is capable of doing ANYTHING they put there minds to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is something that you and daddy have taught us all throughout our lives and I REALLY STRONGLY believe in this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing that´s stopping us from reaching our potential is ourselves. We think that we´re not good enough, smart enough, or whatever other stupid reason. We just need to rely in the Lord and when we do that, we can accomplish ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Elder Montero´s doing pretty good. Ha ha yesterday for P-day we got permission to go to Costa Rica so he was SUPER EXCITED about that!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but yeah it was pretty dang fun!!!!!!!!!!!! We went to a beach and played soccer and I got some Costa Rican money. And now I can say that I´ve officially been in 3 countries!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha yeah it was a pretty sweet p-day.

Yeah I get A TON more chances to teach now. Montero is SUPER GOOD at that!!!!!!!!!! So my Spanish is progressing pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m also proud to say that I gained the respect from the Latins. Ha ha yep, so I´m basically a Latin now ;)

The members here are pretty sweet. They help out whenever they can. And It´s cool because I´m pretty good friends with a lot of them now so yeah this branch I´m in has definately been my favorite!!!!!!!!!!

It sounds like you guys are all doing pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That´s SWEET that Max is the Publicity chair!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell him that, that´s the BEST job!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because you know marketing is pretty much they best part of business and Publicity is part of marketing :) And no, I haven´t heard anything about Mother´s day. But I´m pretty sure that we can skype here in Bocas. But I might be in another area during Mother´s day so we´ll have to see.

Anyways, I´m glad you guys are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep having fun and ALWAYS remember that the Lord is ALWAYS there to help you WHENEVER you need him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m SUPER PROUD of all of you and I love and miss you all SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It Was a Pretty Sweet Experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 4/22/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything´s going pretty good here!!!!!!!!! Ha ha that´s pretty sweet that that hermana is here in Panama!!!!!!!!! What part in Tocumen is she in? There are 2 areas in Tocumen with Hermanas. If she´s in Pedregal 3 I know people in her area but if she´s in the other area I don´t know anyone there. Anyway, the baptism went SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! We baptized Hermana Claribell and her 2 kids Sauvrin and Claider. It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are like my family here in Changuinola so I was SUPER HAPPY I was able to see them get baptized!!!!!!!! I honestly didn´t think that Hermana Claribell was going to be able to get baptized this change but she progressed CRAZY FAST and now she´s a member of the church!!!!!!! I had the oportunity to baptize Claider which was pretty sweet!!!!!! I also confirmed Hermana Claribell yesterday in Sacrament meeting. It was a pretty sweet experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was also pretty sweet, Claribell has a cousin in the ward and he baptized Sauvrin and it was SUPER COOL too see because he was INCREDIBLY EXCITED that they were baptized. He bore his testimony after the baptism and he said how excited he was that now him and his family won´t be alone in church. He now has family members there with him. It was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We´re also looking at 2 maybe 3 more this change. So we´re working hard to try to get them baptized. 

Anyways I´m glad that you all are doing good!!!!!! That´s SUPER funny that Cole ran into Jimmer!!!!! Ha ha how random is that?!?!?! Ha ha anyway, like I said things are going pretty good here!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a GREAT WEEK!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It`s All Good

Email received 4/16/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My week was pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I didn`t write yesterday. We got permission to go to the islands here in Bocas and we got stuck on the Island for longer than we expected so when we got back we had to go straight to a FHE that we had at Hermana Claribell`s house. So anyways, president told us that we can use internet today. 

So anyways like I said we went to the islands here in Bocas. It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We went on this tour to like 6 different islands, we saw dolphins, sloths, CRAZY weird fish, and TONS of other cool things!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`ll send pictures when I can. But yeah it was SUPER FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, like I said, this week was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it looks like we`re not going to be baptizing the Kuna family...We went to their house this week and they told us that they prayed and asked God which church was true and they got an answer that some evangelical chruch was true and not the LDS church. And so they don`t want us visting them anymore...But it`s all good, they`ll come around some day :) Meanwhile, we`re baptizing Hermana Claribell and her 2 kids Cladier and Sauvrin this Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It`s been SUPER COOL with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As soon as they realized that they recieved their answers that the church is true, they began progressing like CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And now they`re FINALLY getting baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m SUPER excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So yeah the work`s going good.  My birthday was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Laylanis (one of our recent converts) and I share the same birthday. So we went over to their house and had cake. It was pretty fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My clothes and shoes are doing good. And I haven't had any boils in a while which has been nice. Yeah it`s pretty dang hot here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha I`m pretty much sweating ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but it`s all good. 

Anyways, I`m glad you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven`t revieved your cards yet but we have a training at the end of the month and I`ll probably get them then. 

Anyways, like I said everything is going GREAT here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for everything!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!