I LOVE this Area!!!!!!!!!!!!

He was transferred to a new area, Changuinola. Click here to read about it.

It's on the Northeast side of Panama close to the Caribbean Sea.

He's liking it so far!

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

So my prayers were answered and FINALLY after 8 months I have a Latin comp!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha his name is Elder Mollinedo. He`s from Guatemala.  He`s a pretty cool dude!!!!!!!! We get a long pretty well and we work well together. We have a baptism this Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We`re going to baptize this lady and her 2 grandkids. It`s going to be pretty SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I`m RIDICULOUSLY far away from the city now. I`m in an area called Changuinola in the province of Bocas Del Toro. My area actually touches Costa Rica!!!!!!! This area is DANG SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It`s SUPER flat (which is a HUGE improvement from Guadalupe) all of the people here are SUPER nice, and it`s not SUPER hot here. It`s really cool...hardly anyone here has cars. EVERYONE has beach cruzers that they ride around. It`s pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah I love it here!!!!!!!!!!! I live with 2 other latin elders also (it`s SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My spanish is going to improve like crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) One is from Argintina and one is from Nicaragua. They`re both pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven`t met anyone in our zone yet (we haven`t had district meeting yet) but there are 2 hermanas in our branch (it`s crazy we have a branch but there are 6 missionaries, 3 companionships, here. It`s the only branch here in Panama that is like that) But anyways one of the Hermanas is from Provo. But she went to Timpview so I don't know her.  But yeah so far I LOVE this area!!!!!!!!!!!! We`re going to have a ton of success. We have a TON of good investigators!!!!!!!!!!!  We`re working really hard with all of them!!!!!!!!! 

Yeah I heard about all the new missions. It`s pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!! There`s been some talk that they`re going to open a new mission here in Panama. But I don`t think it will happen for quite a while. 

Oh I totally forgot to tell you guys to get here I had to take a bus 12 hours. Seriously we left the City at 8:30pm and got here to Changiunola at 8:30am It was NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, I hope everything is going well for you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I´ll be Able to Get to Know a New Part of Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Parts of the email we received 2/25/13.

The missionaries in his zone got to rent out a big soccer field for P-day.  He was really excited because he ran into a lot of friends he's met while on his mission (and some older friends).  He looks really happy!

The big zone soccer game. 

Elder Seegmiller (he was Scott's roomate at SUU) and Elder Johnson (he was in Scott's MTC district)

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

First of all I ate dinner at McDonalds like 50 times!!!!!!!!! (a lot of our dinner appointments fell through this week) Also, this change is ending tomorrow and I found out last night that I have changes. So yep it looks like my stay here in Chorrera was a short one. Which is kind of annoying becasue when I first got to this area it was completely dead, and it´s just now starting to get back going again. Also, I love the ward here. But it´s all good, at least now I´ll be able to get to know a new part of Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So yeah the next time I email you guys   I´ll be in a new area!!!!

But yeah like I said this week has been good. We had stake conference yesterday and President Ward talked and also Elder Amado from the 70´s. it was SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Amado gave a talk about how we can apply Christ-like attributes to our everyday lives. It was pretty good!!!!!!!!!!! We also did some service at one of our investigator´s house. We raked leaves and besides breaking their rake (yeah that´s right just like when Nephi broke his bow :D ) but it went pretty good. {Of course he breaks their rake!} Other than that, nothing too crazy has happened. I uploaded some photos. It´s pretty sweet with my new camera I can take really good pictures. Ha ha it´s almost like I´m a photographer or something!!!!!!!!!!!  

Anyways, Like I said everything is going good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Next week I´ll be emailing you from a different part of Panama. 
I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are a few of the pictures he sent.  This is what the area where he tracks looks like.




























And, it looks like he's able to find his favorites!  

"This Area has Some REALLY Good People Living Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Parts of the email we received February 11, 2013.

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It sounds like you all doing pretty good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything here is pretty good. That lady we´re trying to get married, it turns out we have to completely start all over with the marrige process...And here in Panama that means another 2-6ish weeks...So we´re praying and hoping that everything goes smoothly and we´ll be able to get her married and baptized fairly quickly. Also we found a non-active family the other day that has a son who is 16 and isn´t baptized and they live right next to the church so we´re going to start working with him too. And we´re working with this one family who will be SUPER good members if we could get them baptized!!!!!!!!!!  So we´re working hard!!!!!!!!!!! This week we were able to get a lot more work done until friday. Friday until tomorrow is carnival here in Panama. And we´ve been trying to work as much as we can but it´s SUPER difficult!!!!!!!! We haven´t been able to do any contacting because everyone is drunk and the people that aren´t drunk are out of town. Also people are all over the streets spraying people with water (that´s a tradition) so as you can probably guess, 2 mormon missionaries who also happen to both be gringos, we´re pretty big targets :) so we´ve had to be creative when we´re walking down the street. And we´ve only really been able to visit menos-activos which has been good because this ward has a RIDICULOUS amount of menos-activos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously we just found out that our ward has 1000 members but only about 60 attend every week. So yeah it´s been pretty nuts!!!!!!!!!! But we´ve been working pretty good :)

Yeah that family home evening with the ward was REALLY COOL!!!!!!!!!! This area has some REALLY good people living here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yeah they were laughing SO HARD when I was sitting backwards on the horse!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha they now think that gringos don´t know how to ride horses :)

Anyways, it sounds like you all are doing AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks SO MUCH for all your love, support, and prayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!