Things Are Going GREAT!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 8/12/13

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

Things are going FANTASTIC here in good old Changuinola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We`re working hard and having a lot of success!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately Nicoli couldn`t get baptized this week. But he has a new fecha and he should get baptized before the end of the month!!!!!!!!!! All my recent converts here are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!  Cladier just got ordained a teacher a few weeks ago and is 1st counselor in the Teachers Quorum, Saurin is Laurals president, Angelith is 1st counselors in the Laurals, Vielka is working in the Primary, Leilanis is doing GREAT in the young womens, and Dadiana is loving Primary. It`s SUPER COOL to see all of my converts so active in the church!!!!!!!!!!! Also it was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! The other day while we were visiting Vielka she was telling us how the Gospel has changed her life. It was SO COOL listening to her story. She`s a GREAT person!!!!!!!!! 

Anyways we have a new zone now. Every companionship except for Seegmiller and I had changes. So we have a lot of new people here in Bocas. It`s kind of cool my old comp Elder Harr is in the zone so that`s kind of cool. 

But yeah like I said things are going GREAT!!!!!!!!!! We also just got word from President Carmack that we`re getting a washing machine for our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ever since I`ve been here we`ve been washing our clothes at Claribell`s house but about 3 weeks ago her washing machine broke and since there`s no laundry mats here we`ve been washing our clothes by hand. But President told us that we`ll be getting a washing machine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never in my life would I have thought that I would be so excited about a washing machine but I`m SUPER EXCITED about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It`s not going to be a washer like we have in the states. It`s a lot different. I`ll take a picture and send it to you guys next week. But anyways I`m SUPER STOKED about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m glad you all are doing GREAT and having tons of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I Will Definitely Not Have an Experience Like that Again in My Life!!!!!!"

Email received 8/5/13

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

So I have some pretty crazy news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we just had changes and it looks like that this is going to be the last e-mail that I`m going to be able to send for the next 6 weeks...I`m going to be on a island. That`s right I`m going to San Blas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember those pictures that we saw online before I left about the islands? Yeah, it looks like that`s going to be my life for the next 3 months!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha just kidding. I`m not going to San Blas :D (What a turkey! He had me convinced.)

But for reals I`m staying here in Changuinola with Elder Seegmiller for a fifth change!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m SUPER EXCITED about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m going to have 8 months here in Changuinola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It`s going to be super cool!!!!!!!!! Because like I was saying last week, we have a TON of SUPER cool investigators that are probably going to get baptized next change and I`m going to be here for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It`s going to be SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I`m hoping for San Blas next change :) 

Anyways this week has been pretty dang crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!! It started out with pretty much the hardest service I`ve ever done!!!!! We went to Almirante to help a member on his rice farm. We first had to walk in water up to our knees and then in mud up to our knees for about an hour before we made it to the farm. And then when we got to the farm we split into 2 groups. Elder Seegmiller, Elder Bulloch and I went with the member to this swamp thing where the rice was planted and we filled these giant bags with rice. Then we put them on our backs (they weighed about 8 MILLION pounds) and hiked through this swamp with water up to our knees and then up a big giant hill that was SUPER muddy and we were sliding all over the place. I fell like 20 times and by the time I was up the hill, I was completely covered in mud. I wish I would`ve brought my camera to take a picture of it because it was pretty dang ridiculous!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but yeah it was a pretty sweet service. It was the hardest thing I`ve ever done but I will definitely not have an experience like that again in my life!!!!!! (He hopes anyway!)

Joseph unfortunately didn`t get permission...But we`re still working hard and praying hard and eventually he will. WE had a SUPER cool lesson with our investigator Nicoli this week. We taught him the plan of salvation. That guy is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Lord has prepared that guy like CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He excepted everything we told him and then gave his own testimony about the Atonement and seriously, it was one of the strongest testimonies of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty dang SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had to push his fecha back to the 17th because he wasn`t able to go to church yesterday but he`s DEFINITELY going to get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our other investigators are doing pretty good they`re all progressing and we`re going to have a lot of success this change!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I`m glad to hear that everything`s going GREAT over there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just got an email from President Carmack and he said that Sister Carmack is going to be starting a new blog. Here`s the address for it so she`ll start putting pictures up there here pretty soon. 

http://sunshineinmysoulpanamamission.blogspot.com/

Anyways I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. Elder Seegmiller says hi 

and also, Panimanian sunsets are the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Lord is DEFINITELY Blessing the People Here in Bocas!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 7/29/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Things are going GREAT here in Changuinola!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We`re working hard and having a lot of success!!!!!!!!!! The only frustrating thing is that it`s been raining pretty much non-stop ALL WEEK LONG!!!!!!!!! Which wouldn`t be too bad except for we don`t like using umbrellas very often because the Jehovah`s Witness missionaries always use umbrellas and people don`t like them too much and when we use them people mistake us for them so we try to stay away from that :) Ha ha but it`s still going SUPER AWESOME here!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty sweet!!!! The other day our neighbors who are also our investigators were having trouble with all the water and there house was flooding because their house is the lowest one on the street so the water always enters into their house so we went over there and helped them dig a trench to guide the water away from their house. It was pretty fun and also it was SUPER HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!! So we were having trouble digging in the street because it`s SUPER rocky so it was giving us trouble and then all of the sudden we heard this rustling noise and we looked up and out runs this really fat shirtless guy from the house in front of ours and he thows a pick axe to us and then runs back in his house. It was pretty much the funniest thing of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness we were all laughing SUPER hard!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but yeah it was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!

But yeah like I said our investigators are doing pretty good. Our neighbors are SUPER positive!!!!!!!!! They`ve known the church for a long time but just now are starting to listen to the missionaries and seriously they`re one of the most positive families I`ve ever seen here in Panama!!!!!!!! They`re SUPER nice always inviting us over to eat food and stuff and they REALLY like the church. They went for the first time 2 weeks ago and unfortunately they couldn`t go yesterday because they had something else planned but they REALLY like the church and their kids are always asking them when they can go back to the mormon church. We also have a talent show planned for next month and when we invited them to it they told us that they wanted to participate in it and everything!!!!!!!!!!!!! They`re a SUPER COOL family and we`re hoping to get them baptized next month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We also have Joseph who is SUPER COOL also!!!!!!!! He had a fecha for this last Saturday but he didn`t get permisison from his parents...But something REALLY cool that happened with him is that he was telling us that he finally realized that he had his answer that this church was true all along. He said that he`s been struggling with that because he said that he never recieved an answer but he told us that he prayed again this week and he said that God told him that his answer is that we keep coming to visit him in his house and that we haven`t stopped. So he`s SUPER READY now and all we`re waiting for is el permiso from his parenets. So we fasted with him yesterday and we`re hoping that he can get baptized this Saturday.

We are also Nicoli and his wife. They`re SUPER COOL also!!!!!!!!!! Nicoli loves the church and the gospel. The only thing that is hard is that he talks FOREVER!!!!!!!!! Ha ha he talks about really cool interesting things that apply to the lessons that we`re teaching him but he just talks and talks and talks and talks. But he`s a SUPER COOL GUY!!!!!!!!!!!! And when we were talking with his wife she told us that if Nicoli gets baptized she`ll get baptized with him. But she said that she wants him to take the first step. She said that she can`t think of anything more beautiful than the head of the house hold taking the first step to help his family be saved. So she`s also pretty dang cool!!!!!! And we`re hoping to get them baptized next month also.

But yeah our investigators are doing SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the entire zone is having TONS of success!!!!!!!!! The zone of Bocas del Toro is the smallest zone in the entire mission. Only 5 companionships. And they have never had more than 7 baptisms in one month for like 10 years and this month we had 13!!!!!!!!!! And we already have 25 fechas for next month. So yeah the Lord is DEFINITELY blessing the people here in Bocas!!!!!!!!!!!! It`s SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, I`m glad you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the good work and I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I've Got Some SUPER GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email we recieved 7/22/13 with some pictures!!!! 

Angelith's baptism!

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, I've got some SUPER GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANGELITH GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty much one of the best baptisms EVER!!!!!!!!!!!! I`ve been waiting to see her get baptized since I got here to Bocas almost 6 months ago!!!!!!!!! The spirit was SO STRONG during the baptism and she gave her testimony afterwards and seriously it was one of the strongest testimonies I`ve EVER heard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So yeah, she finally did it and she`s now a member of the church and she`s going to be SUPER STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!

District banana eating contest

This week has been pretty crazy!!!!!!!!! It started off with district meeting. So, since we`re in Bocas which is pretty much the world leading banana exporter, we decided to have a banana eating contest and to just be SUPER ridiculous about it we bought 200 bananas.Yep that`s right, 200 bananas!!!!!!! Ha ha it was 20 bananas per person. It was pretty dang fun!!!!!!!!!!! I was only able to eat 7 of them but Elder Perez from Guatemala ate 13 which was pretty ridiculous. Ha ha it was SUPER FUNNY!  The district president walked in right when we were in the middle of doing it and he saw all of the 200 bananas and he started cracking up. Ha ha it was pretty GREAT!!!!!!!!!! 

Mondongo 

Also this week we found a new investigator. This guy is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! I guess he`s listened to the missionaries before and he`s pretty dang positive. And then we were talking to his wife too and she told us that if he gets baptized she`ll get baptized. So we`re working hard with them to get them baptized before I leave Bocas. He also really likes Mondongo which is weird because Mondongo is basically the worst thing EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But anyways when we passed by his house yesterday he was cleaning some Mondongo so they could eat it that night. Yep it was pretty dang gross!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mondongo is cow stomach or intestine or something like that and it was pretty much one of the grossest things I`ve ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

But yeah things are going GREAT here!!!!!!!!!!!! We`re working hard and we`re trying to convice president to keep us together another change but we`ll see. Oh also, our neighbor that works for the Smithsonian (I think I told you about him) well if I didn`t, we have a neighbor that works for the Smithsonian and we`re teaching him and his family. But anyway, he came to church yesterday and he REALLY liked it. Also, he reminds me a lot of Mr. Eady my marketing teacher from high school. It`s actually kind of weird. He`s basically a latin Mr. Eady. :)

Ha ha anyway like I said, things have been going SUPER WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This Week has Been Pretty Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email we received on 7/15/13.

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

The first picture I get in a while and of course it's a goofy one!  Some things never change!  Here he is with Elder Seegmiller on P-day.  I wonder where he got that shirt! :)

This week has been pretty good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing too crazy other than the fact that we had to go to David for a conference so that was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!! 2, 4 hour bus rides in 1 day. But it was cool!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to meet President Carmack. He`s a SUPER cool dude!!!!!!!!!!!! And yeah I met the Presleys. They're SUPER COOL also. They`re not working in Bocas but they`re working in an area called Boquete which is in Chiriqui. But they are really cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently they`re SUPER good friends with President Ward too so that was kind of cool!!!!!! But other than that nothing too crazy has happened.

We had this training yesterday with the branch leaders where we taught about inviting your friends and family to church and sharing the gospel with them. It was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SUPER successful! We`re going to be working with the members A TON now and it`s going to be SUPER SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah this week was good. 

Angelith is doing good. She`s going to get baptized this weekend and Joseph is probably going to get baptized next weekend so that should be SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah everything`s going GREAT here!!!!!!!!!!

 I attached some pictures -- one of Elder Seegmiller and I on P-day and the other is a picture of our pet turtle that we have in the house. He`s a pretty sweet turtle. I decided that when I have kids and stuff, if they ever want to have a pet I`ll get them a turtle because you don`t have to do anything for turtles. They`re pretty easy pets. 

Ha ha anyways sorry this email isn`t too exciting but hopefully things are going GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SUPER Tiring but SUPER Good!!!!!!

Email we received 7/8/13.  

He's doing great and sounds pretty darn happy!  I had to laugh that he said his shoes are 

getting pretty "holy"!  :) 

 And apparently pictures are on their way!!!!  Hopefully they get here soon!

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Things are going pretty good here!!!!!! Yeah my first week with Seegmiller was SUPER tiring but SUPER good!!!!!! It was pretty nuts we taught 32 lessons this week and we recieved TONS of references from people so we have TONS of work to do!!!!!!   And it`s kind of interesting. President Ward put us both as senior comp. I thought it was going to be weird but it`s acutally not that weird. We work great together and it`s funny because our DL is a missionary that came to Panama the same time we did and so we always mess with him when we report numbers. Ha ha we both report half of the numbers and pass the phone back and forth to each other. Ha ha it`s pretty funny!!!!!!!! I haven`t met President Carmack yet but we have a conference this Friday and I`ll meet him then.

But yeah Angelith is still going strong!!!!!!!! We found out that her aunt might not even be her legal gardian so we`re going to figure out if that is true. If her mom is still the legal gardian we`ll be able to baptize a lot easier. But she`s still doing great and progressing like crazy!!!!!!! We had a fast for her yesterday so we`re hoping and having faith that she`ll get baptized this month!!!! We also have another investigator named Joseph. He`s 12 years old and we`ve been teaching him for a while but he`s just now progressing. It was SUPER cool we went to pick him up before church yuesterday and when we came to the door it looked like he had forgotten that we were going to come. But he told us that he still wanted to go and that he just needed to get ready and finish breakfast then he`d head over to the church by himself. To be honest we didn`t think that he was going to show up to church. But right after the sacrament he walked in. It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!! And then he stayed the whole time and it looked like he was already a member. He was already SUPER comfortable with everyone. It was REALLY cool!!!!!!!!! He has a fecha for the 20th and he`s going to be a GREAT member!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We also found a family who are SUPER positive!!!!!!!!! The dad of the family is one of the smartest people I ever met!!!!!!!!! He works for the Smithsonion. Also, apparently the Smithsonion does work here in Panama too. But yeah he`s a SUPER smart guy. When we were talking with him, he told us that he wants to talk about the Bible and the Book of Mormon and also the history behind them, and then how they tie into each other and how they can help us. It was pretty sweet! I`ve never had an investigator that straight up told us how he wants the lessons to be. It was pretty sweet!!!!! The whole zone is having TONS of success!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Here`s a response to your class`s email

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

So things in Panama are going pretty good!!!!!!! We`re in the rainy season so it reains a LOT right now!!!!!!!!!! But it`s cool!!!!!!! We`´re working hard and teaching a lot of people. We going to baptize at least 2 people this month and hopefully more!!!!!!!!!! I haven`t seen any tigers, I don`t think that tigers exist here, but I have seen a lot of snakes!!!!!! Just the other day we were walking down the street and we saw a snake. It`s called a Coral snake. It`s one of the most deadly snakes in the world!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty scary but it was also very small. But yeah Panama is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!! Also being a missionary is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! I encourage all of you to study the scriptures and learn a LOT from church so when you are old enough you can serve a mission too!!!!!!!! Bueno, algo que también es chevere es que cuando te vas por la misión, puedes aprender una diferente idioma como español!!!!! De verdad es algo BIEN PRITY y una GRAN bendición. Anyways, keep working hard and learn a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyways, It sounds like you guys are doing SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!! That`s sad that you weren`t able to camp out for the parade. It was pretty sweet... we actually had a pretty sweet 4th of July party here!!!!!!! Out of the 6 missionaries here in Changuinola 4 of us are gringos. So we went to a member`s house and he made some pie and some cup cakes and we made hot dogs and celebrated the 4th of July. It was pretty much the best 4th of July party out side of the states!!!!!!! 

Anyways, I also sent you guys a flash drive with all my pictures from Bocas so hopefully you guys get it soon!!!!!!! Anyways thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh one more thing. I kind of need some money to buy shoes. My shoes are getting pretty holy so if you could send me some that would be GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways thanks for everything and have a GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Working Hard with Elder Seegmiller

Email we received today (7/1/13)  

He is doing really well and is really excited!!!!!

He is now companions with one of his roommates from SUU and is so happy to be able to stay in Changuinola, Bocas area working with Elder Seegmiller.

Elder Seegmiller and Elder Houghton at the MTC August 2012.

"HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah we had changes this last week and I have a new comp. He`s a SUPER WIERD dude who`s REALLY hard to get along with. He`s from Vegas and he`s a ginger...His name is Elder Seegmiller...Ha ha just kidding!!!!!!  Yep that`s right!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Seegmiller and I are comps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It`s basically the best thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SUPER AWESOME!!!!!!! We were sitting in the changes meeting and my name got put up and then Seegmiller`s right after that. Ha ha we both FREAKED out!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha it was pretty dang sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha all of our friends from SUU always said that we would never be comps but it turns out that we are now comps!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha it`s seriously SUPER SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways it sounds like you all are doing SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Moab looked SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That picture in front of the temple is SUPER COOL looking!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also I`m not going to lie, Emma`s talk made me cry a little bit...Man I miss that girl...Tell her that I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was short because of changes and between the 12 hour bus rides to Panama City and then back to Bocas we didn`t have many working days but we still worked SUPER hard and got a lot done!!!! We`re starting to work a lot with the less-active people in the ward and we`re going to have a lot of success with it. 

A`s aunt still hasn`t softened her heart but we had a lesson with her and Hermana V the other day and she`s still going strong and this fast Sunday we`re all going to fast so she can get baptized on the 20th of this month. So I`m excited and I know that she`ll get baptized 

But yeah everything`s going pretty good here!!!!!! I`m just having a blast and working hard here with Seegmiller as my comp!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also I`m going to try to up-load some pictures but I don`t know if it will work or not. I think I`m going to try to up-load them to a flash drive or something and then mail the flash drive to you guys. Ha ha anyways I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"