It´s Cool to See!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything´s going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

That new area [he talked about last week] is pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!! We didn´t have a lot of time to work there this week because we are working really hard with one of our investigators. She´s the soon to be wife of a member. She wants to get baptized and she´s pretty dang ready as far as spirituallity and knowledge goes, but the only thing that´s been holding her back is that they aren´t married...Another tradition here in Panama :) But anyways the ZL´s found this doctor that´s a member of the church that lives here in Chorrera that will do the  medical exams for $10 per person as opposed to $20 per person for people who need to get married for baptism. Also he´ll come to there house to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we´re getting that done this week and then next week they´ll get married and then we´ll be able to baptize her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I´m SUPER stoked about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Also this week we went to my cocinera's farm. Yeah apparently they have a farm. Anyways, it was pretty sweet we helped them with some farm work stuff and then we rode a horse and had some fun!!!!!!!! Ha ha it was pretty funny!!!!!! But yeah the farm was fun.

I love how he got them laughing!  

He did manage to get it right! :)

Also last P-day we got permission from president to go to the fair here in Chorrera. It was SUPER FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We walked around looked at all the little shops and then rode the roller coaster (did you know the Spanish word for Roller Coaster is montaña rusia? if you translate that directly it´s Russian Mountain. SUPER random right?!?!?!?!?!) and one of those rides with the swings that goes really high and then spins around. It was pretty dang fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also on Saturday we had this big family home evening with the ward. It was REALLY COOL!!!!!!!!!

We all met at this one member´s house (there was like 15ish people that showed up) and for the lesson we all took turns going around telling our personal conversion story. It was pretty sweet to hear how everyone here came to know the church. It also taught me how much Faith members of the church have. Especially here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It´s SUPER hard to be a member of the church here in Panama but these people have a crazy amount of faith and they are SUPER strong members!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it´s cool to see!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha also they thought it was SUPER funny and SUPER cool when I explained to them that seminary in Utah is part of school. Ha ha you should have seen their faces!!!!!!!!!!!! Afterwards we had some food and them played a game. It was SUPER fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyways, I hope everything is going absolutely FANTASTIC for all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BIEN PRITTY!!!!!

Parts of the email we received 1/28/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything`s going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

It`s SUPER hot but almost every house we go to they offer us water so don't worry, I`m drinking a lot of water. This week was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had some pretty good lessons and we had an investigator in church yesterday!!!!!!! She`s the wife of a member and she`s pretty positive so hopefully we can get her baptized soon!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday was pretty dang nuts too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We didn`t have any appointements planned or anything so we just contacted all day. We went to this part of our area that we`ve never been to called La Pesa 2 and started contacting. That area is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We met a lot of really cool people, got 6 new investigators, found 2 families, and came out with 75 contacts. It was pretty dang NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also my spanish is improving a lot!!!!!!!!!!!! Living with 2 latins has DEFINITELY been a blessing for me!!!!!!!!!!! And President told me that my next comp will be latin so that will be sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The cool experience I had the other day was when Elder Daw and I were waiting for a bus and this guy started talking to us. He was really funny and he was talking to us in English. He sells drinks and candy to people on the street and he came up to us and started talking about the church. It was pretty funny he said, ¨Hey I know about your church. You have Joseph Smith, Alma, and Joseph Smith`s brother Jeffery.¨ Ha ha it was pretty great!!!!!!!! But anyways he went on to explain to us how he sells things. It`s really cool!!!!!! He told us, Ï sell these candybars four for $1. But if someone wants 2 but they only have a quarter, it`s alright I give them 2 candy bars. I also sell water for $1. But if people need water but they don`t have $1, it`s alright I say to them, here have a drink and then give them some water. I try to help people.¨ It was a really cool because this guy obviously doesn`t have a lot of money but he is doing everything he can to follow in Christ`s footsteps and do what Christ would do. It`s like that scripture, ¨When you are in the service of your fellow being you are only in the service of your God.¨ This guy was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was a cool learning expericence for me. You can learn from EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!! Even a candy salesman at a bus stop. It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyways, everything is pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BIEN PRITTY as the Panamanians would say :) And it sounds like you all are doing pretty dang good too!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photos from La Chorrera

Tracking

Christmas with members

A favorite treat

Sign by the street he walks up for lunch everyday

The hill he has to walk up every day for lunch.

The city

Elder Bulloch and Elder Houghton

Elder Daw, Elder Bulloch's companion, and Elder Houghton

View of Panama City

Elder Daw and Elder Houghton

The streets in La Correra

Outside the city

Turtle :)

Lasagna

Christmas 2012

Christmas Dinner

Egg nog

The Spirit was SO STRONG!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Houghton is healthy and happily working hard to spread the Gospel.  

Here's a summary of the email we received today 1/21/13...

January is the beginning of the summer season in Panama.  When looking up the forecast for this week, the highs were in the high 90's and the lows were in the high 70's!   He said, "It's pretty dang hot here!!!!!  Summer is here and it's ridiculous!!!!!!! But, it's all good!!!!!" (I love how he always keeps a positive attitude!)

Elder Christofferson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to speak to the missionaries.  There were also four members of the Seventy there also (Elder Duncan, Elder Amado, and two others but he couldn't remember their names off the top of his head).  He said that Elder Christofferson said that when he left Salt Lake it was -10 degrees and that he doesn't want to go back because it's so warm there! He said that it was "SUPER cool" to meet him and that he gave a great talk about their callings as missionaries.  Elder Houghton said, "He said that the biggest difference between missionaries and the Apostles is that the Apostles travel all over the world and the missionaries go to one place and then stay there...He said that we have the same purpose--to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was pretty sweet!!!!!!!" He was also impressed that Elder Christofferson translated his own talk and spoke in Spanish! He said that at the end of his talk he said, "Elderes y hermanas, yo se que Jesuscristo vive. You se." (Translated: "Elders and Sisters, I know that Christ lives. I know.") He said, "When he said that, the Spirit was SO STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a SUPER cool experience!!!!!!"

He had an interview with President Ward last week.  

**Photo from http://panamamission2010-2013.blogspot.com/**
This is his district at the interviews he had with President Ward.
Good to see him eating his veggies!  He looks good -- even when he's smiling funny!

He is really excited because President Ward said that his next companion will be latin.  It might not be this change but probably the next.  Not that he's not enjoying working with Elder Daw, but he is excited to have a latin companion so his Spanish will improve. 

He is really excited to find out he's getting a new cousin!  He also met his Aunt Coni's neighbor who is also serving a mission in Panama.  He said that he was also really excited because next week he will be going to his cocinera's (the lady that cooks for him) farm to do some service so "that should be pretty sweet!!!!"  

He says, "I love and miss you all SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Thank you so much for all your love and support!  

He is doing well and tries not to get frustrated.  

He's working hard and teaching a lot but is having a hard time getting people to come to church.

Please keep him and those he is teaching in your prayers!

It´s Going to be SUPER SWEET!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 1/14/13

Things are going good here!!!!!! That girl (her name is Mariaceleste ha ha yeah that explains why it took me so long to remember it!!!!) Anyway, she didn´t come to church yesterday because she was visiting her dad at his house, but on Saturday we had this ward activity where we read the Book of Mormon and she came with her family so that was good!!!!!! So hopefully we can get her baptized!!!!!!!!!!!! Also Elder Daw told me about this one investigator who is SUPER positive and the only thing that´s keeping him from getting baptized is he works Sunday mornings but he´s been trying to switch his schedule so he can start coming to church and so he can get baptized. But yeah our investigators are doing good. 

It´s SUPER cool Elder Christopherson is coming this Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We get to go hear him speak and it´s going to be SUPER SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Also can you tell Grammy and Papa thank you for me? I got a package from them with this legit little snow globe of the new Provo Temple in it. It´s pretty dang LEGIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell them that their letters are on there way too!!!!!! How is the progress on the Provo temple? could you send me some pictures of it? Anyways besides the fact that you´re all sick and it´s SUPER COLD there (ha ha it´s weird because it´s hotter than ever here!!!!!!!!!!!! We just hit Summer so it´s RIDICULOUSLY hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) it sounds like you guys are doing REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I LOVE AND MISS YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Guess I Did Something Right!!!!!!!!!

Email received 1/7/13

Something that was SUPER cool this last week was the family that we eat with on Friday night we found out that one of the daughters (she`s 12) wasn´t a member and when we asked her why she told us that she wanted to wait until she was old enough to drink and then get SUPER drunk and then she said she`ll get baptized.  Ha ha but anyways I invited her to come to church and prayed really hard that she`d come. And then when we walked into the chapel she was sitting there with her sister!!!!!!! It was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!! And then all the members kept asking me how I got her to come to church and I told them that I just asked her. But I guess everyone`s been trying to get her to come to church for a long time now and she never wants to come. So I don`t know what I did differently than everyone else but I guess I did something right!!!!!!!!! Ha ha anyways it was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!

 

That`s NUTS that it`s below 0 there!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha yep it`s still INSANELY hot here!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha we just hit summer so that means that there`s no rain and just SUPER hot until about July. So it`s a good thing I`m in an area that`s ALL big giant hills!!!!!!!! ;) but seriously it`s good though. I still REALLY love my area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This place is seriously DANG SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My comps are both doing really well!!!!!!!!!!

 

It sounds like everyone is doing good and SUPER busy!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That`s cool that both Cole and Max are preparing in their own ways to serve missions!!!!!!!! Anyways, I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greetings from La Chorrea, Panama

Email we received 12/31/12.

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

Everything´s going good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was REALLY GOOD talking to you on Christmas too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Everything´s going good here. Yeah the ward is small but they have enough people to fill all the callings. They usually won´t open a ward if they´re aren´t enough people to fill callings. The only thing we have to help with is the sacrament. But the work is coming pretty good!!!!!!!! We found this family the other day that as soon as we came to the house the grandma called everyone out to come listen to the missionaries. They´re SUPER positive!!!!!!!!! They didn´t come to church yesterday because they were super sick but they we have another appointment with them on Friday so hopefully they can start coming to church. They live SUPER close to the church so I don´t think it will be terribly hard to get them to come. Elder Daw is good. And that guy that was sitting on the ground while I was Skyping... His name is Elder Teyes and he´s from Mexico. And guess what? He was training his companion but he ended up going home last Thursday for some reason. So, Elder Daw, Elder Teyes, and I are in a trio now and we´re working both Guadalupe areas. Ha ha yeah pretty crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! Our area is HUGE now!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it´s a little weird being in a trio but it´s all good. And it´s SUPER good because we´re speaking Spanish pretty much all day everyday now and this change for some reason is longer than usual (2 months) so my Spanish is going to improve A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I´m excited about that. The rest of Christmas was good. We pretty much just stayed at Hermana M´s (the house that I skyped from) until dinner then went to dinner at another members house. Today we´re going back to Hermana Mirrella´s house for New Years Eve. It´s nuts... we eat with her Saturdays and Sundays and Elder Teyes was telling me that whenever there´s a holiday or something out of the ordinary we eat at her house too.  So we end up eating at her house A LOT!!!!!!!!!! But it´s all good, she´s SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was a missionary here in Panama and then after her mission she came back to live here. Seriously she´s DANG COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah everything´s all good. Today and Tomorrow are supposedly SUPER CRAZY!!!!!!!!!! {because of the holidays} We can´t get too much work done but we´re going to try to do as much as we can. 

Anyways, I wanted to share with you guys the lesson that Hermana M gave in Sunday school yesterday (yeah this lady does EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Anyways, she gave a lesson about coming closer to Christ through reading the book of Mormon. As you know the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ so there are hundreds of stories about Christ and what he has done and what he will do for us. Something that I started to do while  I´m reading is everytime it mention´s Christ´s name (in any form) I box it and then put a little check mark on the side of the page. It´s REALLY cool because you can step back and look at the pages and see how many check marks are on the pages and it helps you realize how much this book talks about Christ. 

It´s SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also in Moroni it talks A LOT about reading the Book of Mormon with real intent and with a sincere heart. This is important because God does not like it when we just casually read it and don´t have a sincere heart. Anyways I want to challenge you all that when you´re reading the Book of Mormon everyday (4 pages per day just like President Monson said) to pay attention to the many stories and testimonies of Christ. And I promise you that you will get a lot more out of the Book of Mormon if you go about reading it this way. I know because I DEFINITELY have a deeper respect for the Book of Mormon and of Christ now that i´ve been paying more attention to HOW the Book of Mormon is another Testiment of Christ. 

Anyways, I´m glad that you all are doing FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!