I Still Have 8 Months Worth of Time to Continue Learning from These Amazing People of Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 10/22/13

We didn't hear from him on his p-day. Thank Heavens his President gave him to ok to email us the next day!  

Hey sorry I`m writing late. What happened was yesterday we went to the Panama Canal and when we were coming back we got stuck in traffic because there was a big car accident and we were stuck in traffic for like 4 hours. So President gave us permission to use internet today.

But anyway, things are going pretty good!!!!!!!!!! Things are going alright with my comp and we`re still working hard and teaching some good people. Jose David is doing good. He showed up to church on Sunday and he was wearing his white shirt and tie with an Angel Moroni tie pin. Ha ha yeah everybody thought that he was a member!!!!!!!! He`s a SUPER cool kid!!!!!!!! We talked to his Grandpa today and he said that Jose`s dad was baptized on October 31st and married on October 31st so he wants Jose David to get baptized on October 31st also. So, it looks like we`ll be having a baptism on Halloween this year!!!!!!!!!  I`m pretty excited about it because this has been a rough change so it`s going to be good to end it on a good note. But yeah I`m pretty stoked about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I`m also pretty stoked becasue after 16 months of being here in Panama I FINALLY went to the canal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`ll send pictures next week. I completely forgot my camera cord today so I`ll send the pictures next week. But yeah pretty much every missionary here in Panama will tell you that the canal is boring. But don`t listen to them. It`s SWEET!!!!!!!!!!! 

I`m SUPER GLAD that you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That really makes me happy when I hear that!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because I think about you all everyday!!!!!!!!! I`m always happy to hear that you guys are doing good!!!!!!!!!!! 

So, I want to share a spiritual experience that happened today. Today I was on divisions with Elder Pasket (a missionary from American Fork that dies {goes home} next week) He`s a cool dude and it was cool because he was in my area early so he showed me where a ton of old investigators live. Anyway, we were walking to a cita and I had the impression to stop by Hermana Anderson. Hermana Anderson is a SUPER COOL lady!!!!!!!! She`s SUPER strong in the church and is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! So anyway we stopped by her house and it turns out that her daughter was really sick. Her daughter has really bad health problems and has been in and out of the hospital for about a year now. And she`s been really sick lately. But  we showed up to the house and Hermana Anderson was there and she was having a rough time so we shared a message with her and gave her daughter a blessing and then left. But the cool thing about it was that I think the Lord needed me to go to that house so I could learn a lesson from Hermana Anderson. I`ve been complaining this whole change. But I never once realized or thought that maybe all of these trials are for my benefit and I need to learn something from them. Today when we were talking to Hermana Anderson she said just that. She said, ¨Yes I`m sad, but I know the Lord is on my side and he`s helping me. I just need to keep my faith and follow and hopefully at the end I`ll learn something from it.¨ We are always going to have trials throughout our entire life some will be big like one of your kids being super sick and some will be small. But if we keep the faith and keep going the Lord will help us and we`ll learn something from the trial. But yeah it was a REALLY COOL experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But anyway,  like I said things are going pretty good!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I`m grateful because I still have 8 months worth of time to continue learning from these amazing people of Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I love them. 

Thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep having fun and stay happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We Got Pretty Much the Best Reference EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 10/14/13

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

Things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!! We got pretty much the best reference EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! He`s 16 and SUPER POSITIVE!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday in church when we were talking to him about baptism he asked us how and when he can get baptized. So needless to say, he`s getting baptized on the 26th of this month. He`s a SUPER COOL dude!!!!!!!!!!!!  He knows a lot about the gospel!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously when we were teaching him and we were sharing scriptures with him from the Bible and he would cut us off and then recite the scripture from memory. It was pretty dang impressive. But yeah he`s doing really good!!!!!!!!! As far as our other investigators, we have 2 more -- a mom and her son. They would`ve been baptized about 6ish months ago but something happened and they weren`t able to get baptized. So we`re currently visiting with them and they`re pretty positive too. The only thing is it`s REALLY hard to find them in their house sometimes. But it`s good. Yeah so our area is starting to pick up a bit. Which is nice!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

It`s been SUPER COOL to see people from my old areas!!!!!! I had this fear that when I leave an area people won`t remember me but I`ve been seeing tons of people that remember me and stuff which is cool!!!!!!!! One of the members that we ate with in Guadalupe. She`s SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! And I saw her at the stake center when we were eating dinner and I talked with her for about a half an hour. Her daughter is on a mission now. She`s going to California and she`s currently in the Provo MTC too!!!!!!! Ha ha so maybe Cole has run into her. That was good to see her. Also, we went to the temple with the stake on Saturday morning and I saw a lady from Predregal in the session room with us which REALLY made me happy because when I was in Pedregal she wasn`t endowed and she was kind of going inactive but now she`s endowed and SUPER active also which is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Members Really are Vital to the Work

Email received 10/7/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!! Things are going pretty good with Elder Aguero. I like being a District Leader. I didn`t like it at first but now it`s pretty fun. The people in my district are all really cool people and I get to go on divisions with them every once in a while which is fun!!!!!!!! Chorrera is going good. My area`s struggling a little bit right now but we`re trying. It was SUPER COOL yesterday I got to see a lot of the members from Guadalupe at conference!!!!!! And It was SUPER cool because I learned that an old investigator of mine got baptized!!!!!!! I don`t remember if I told you about her but she`s 12 years old and her family are all members but she didn`t want to get baptized until she was 18 because she wanted to feel what it was like to get drunk. But it`s all good it looks like she got over that and got baptized about a month ago!!!!!!! I was pretty excited to hear that!!!!!!!

Conference was REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!! I loved how there were a ton of talks about the importance of the members in missionary work. The members really are the key in missionary work. Without the members the people we baptize will never progress more in the church and will become inactive. So the members really are vital to the work. 

I also really liked Elder Holland`s talk. I liked it because he usually machetes everybody but then every once in a while he gives a talk like he did on Saturday that is super tranquilo but still SUPER powerful!!!!!!!! I love his talks!!!!!!!! But yeah this was an EXCELLENT conference!!!!!!!!!!! 

That`s SUPER cool that Daddy and Max got to go to the Priesthood session!!!!! The priesthood session was REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!!! I loved President Monson`s talk because he was talking about home teaching, it all also applies to missionary work which was good instruction for me.

That`s cool that you guys have Fall break right now!!!!!!!! That should be fun!!!!!!!! And that`s SUPER COOL that you`re doing a lot of family history work!!!!!!! There was a talk by someone in conference about the importance and the blessings from the temple this conference also I don`t remember who gave it but it was really good and it`s sweet that you are going to be able to take some of our ancestors names to the temple so they can recieve the same amazing blessings from the temple!!!!!!!!!

Anyways thanks for everything!!!!!!!!! Have a GREAT fall break and I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

Things are Going Pretty Good here in Chorrera

Email received 9/30/13

*photo from https://twitter.com/La_Chorrera

Yeah things are going pretty good here in Chorrera. It´s pretty dang sweet! There is a grocery store here called the Rey and they have Mountain Dew!!!!!!!!!!! Mountain Dew is pretty much one of the hardest things to find here in Panama!!!!!!!!!! The only thing is it´s kind of expensive so I have to limit myself to only 1 can per week or else I´ll waste all my money on Mountain Dew. Ha ha but yeah things are going pretty good here. {In case you're wondering...no, it's not against to rules to drink Mountain Dew. :) }

My comp is doing pretty good. He likes to teach so that's really good.  I see people I know from Guadalupe {Guadalupe was the other area of La Chorrera that he served in a few months back.} every once in a while but not too often. The ward seems pretty cool. We are working with them a lot and they are good to work with. There´s some really strong members and it´s going to be fun to work with them.

This area was kind of dead when I got here which kind of disanimated {I think he means "disappointed".  Every now and then he translates Spanish to English literally. :) } me a little bit but we've been working pretty hard this week and we have some pretty good investigators. We should see some pretty good success here if we keep working hard. But yeah, like I said, things are going good. It´s pretty cool to live with members who are SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! They´re gringos from Washington DC so that´s pretty sweet to see them around and be able to talk to them and stuff.

Anyways like I said everything here is going GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!