I Get to Stay Another Change Here

Email received 5/13/13

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

Yeah that was SUPER COOL to talk to you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, things are still pretty good. I just found out that I don`t have changes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I get to stay another change here in Changuinola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m SUPER STOKED about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not too much has happened since Saturday. It`s been raining pretty crazy today. Seriously it`s been raining harder than I`ve ever seen it rain all day long. Ha ha seriously there`s a lake behind our house now. Ha ha but yeah it`s all still pretty good here!!!!!!

Anyways, things are still going pretty good here!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Work Here is Going Pretty Dang Good!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 5/6/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!!!! The baptism when pretty good. We baptized a guy named Alchamedez. It was pretty sweet. He´s a SUPER quiet person but even though he didn´t say much about it afterwards you can tell that he felt the spirit strongly and that he was happy. So that was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha guess what? So we were sitting at Hermana Claribell (a recent Convert) and her niece who´s been to church TONS of times but has never wanted to get baptized came up to us and told us that she wants to get baptized this weekend. Ha ha so we´re going to have another baptism this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also we have another investigator named Angelith that is SUPER prepared for baptism. Seriously she was telling us that she reads a chapter in the book of mormon, the bible, and doctrina y convenios every night. And she also told us that the other night she woke up in the middle of the night and she felt like she was missing something. Then she remembered that she didn´t say here prayers. So she got out of her bed and knelt down and prayed. This girl is RIDICULOUSLY prepared for baptism. The only problem is she says that she´s still missing something. So we´re going to try to help her realize how ready she is and she also might be baptized this weekend too. So yeah the work here is going pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!! 

So about calling home. It turns out that they changed the rule and we can only call home on Christmas now...Ha ha just kidding. Ha ha but anyways here´s the dealio. We can still skype and everything but the thing is there´s not very many places that we can skype here. And since there´s 6 missionaries in my branch we have to spread it out. So Montero and I need to call Saturday afternoon. If that works for all of you. I´ll be calling at 3pm here so it will be 2pm there in Utah. So let me know if that time works. But yeah I´m SUPER STOKED to hear all of your voices!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ha ha that´s pretty nuts that we´re going to have ANOTHER missionary from our ward go to California. Ha ha that´s like the 67th person from our ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;) And that´s nuts that we´re going to have tons of missionaries out from our ward at the same time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyways, I´m SUPER GLAD you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!