This Week was Seriously an EXCELLENT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 9/2/13

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

Things have been going GREAT here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This week was seriously an EXCELLENT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately Nicholi did not get baptized. He had a TON of work this weekend and didn`t have time this Saturday. But he`s getting baptized this Saturday for sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That guy is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! And he`s going to be a SUPER STRONG member of the church!!!!!!!!!!!! We also talked to Nicholi`s wife Angelica and she told us something that we didn`t expect at all!!!!!!!! She said, ¨Well, Nicholi tells me that he`s going to get baptized this Saturday. So he`ll get baptized this Saturday so that means that I`ll get baptized the next Saturday.¨ She also told us that she can`t wait until she can get baptized and be a member of the true church so she can be saved and have a perfect body in the next life (she has a lot of physical problems which cause her a lot of pain) But anyways it was one of the COOLEST things I`ve ever heard!!!!!!!!!! When she said it the spirit was SUPER strong and she`s SUPER ready for baptism!!!!! It was pretty dang cool!!!!!!!!!!!

Other than that it`s been a pretty normal week. All of our other investigators are doing GREAT and also Hermana Vielka and everyone are doing SUPER WELL!!!!!!!!!! Today for P-Day we went to this farm of a member and went on a hike and I saw a toucan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 It was SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I`m glad that you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! That`s SUPER CRAZY that Cole leaves next week!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m SO EXCITED for him!!!!!!! I can`t wait until he will have these same experiences that I have every day!!!!!!!!!!! 

Also that`s SUPER FUNNY that Max is playing football. Ha ha I have a feeling that he`s going to be another Delicate boy like Cole was when he played football ;) Ha ha just kidding. Also that`s good that Jake`s wrist isn`t too bad. but that`s too bad that he had to work on labor day. 

But anyways, like I said things are going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything that you guys do for me!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Faith is a Real Thing

Email received 8/26/13

Everything`s going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!! We`re working hard and having a TON of fun doing it!!!!!!!! I`ve learned that when you and your comp are working hard and having a lot of fun the work is WAY more effective!!!!!!!! Our investigators are doing good. Nicoli is doing SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!! We`ve taught him everything and he`s now been to church enough times so we`re hoping to be able to baptize him this weekend!!!!!!!!!! Jospeh is also doing well. He is SUPER ready and always comes to church and reads.  The only thing that he is missing is the permission from his parents. But once he gets that he`ll be baptized and will be a SUPER good member!!!!!! 

Seegmiller is doing good too. And the next changes are the 18th of September and I`m almost certain that I`m leaving Bocas. It`s not very often that a missionary stays in an area for 4 changes let alone 5!!!!!!!!!!! So I`m probably going to leave. It`s going to be sad but it`ll be good. I was talking to Hermana Vielka and her family yesterday and we were talking about how hard it is going to be for me to finally leave Bocas. But it was SUPER cool because Vielka reminded me that she can go through the temple next March so If I`m in an area that`s close to the temple I'll be able to go with her when she takes out her endowments!!!!!!!! I REALLY hope that I`ll get that chance!!!!!!!!!!! 

We got the washing machine this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I attached some pictures. Washing machines here are different. You wash your clothes in one side and then the other side has this little basket thing that you put your clothes in for like 5 minutes and they kind of dry them. But anyway it`s pretty dang cool that we have a washing machine in the house now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, it was pretty dang crazy!!!!!!! This week when we were visiting Nicoli, his wife came out and asked us if we wanted some purple bananas. At first we thought that we mis-understood her, but then a minute later she walked out of her house with a big branch of purple bananas. It was pretty much one of the craziest things of my life!!!!!!!! Also, it turns out that purple bananas are SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!! WAY better than regular bananas!!!!!!!!! 

That`s pretty nuts about Cole!!!!!!!! That`s all going to happen SUPER fast!!!!!!!!! It`s NUTS that he`s already leaving on his mission!!!!!!!! But that kid is going to be a pretty great missionary!!!!!! 

This week was also really good because I learned something REALLY important. Elder Clarke (one of my ZL`s that lives with me) gave me a talk by Gene R. Cook called Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I attached it to this email so you can read it because seriously this is one of the GREATEST talks I`ve ever read!!!!!!!!! It completely changed my perspective about faith and how we should go about asking the Lord for things. This talk is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! And if every member of the church reads it and then applies it into their lives the church would be so much stronger!!!!!!! I`ve been trying to apply it into my life and also into the work of the Lord and we have seen some GREAT blessings come from it. For example, everyone of our investigators that we talked to this week said that they probably wouldn`t have been able to come to church yesterday. So instead of giving up we exercised our faith in the Lord and when we woke up yesterday we felt like passing by Nicoli's house to pick him up for church and when we got there he was right about to leave to go to church. And then when we were sitting in Sacrament meeting and the familia Quinchoa (the golden family that we started teaching last week) walked in and sat next to us, and then about 5 minutes later Joseph walked in and sat down next to us too. Faith is a real thing and when we understand how to exercise our faith effectively, anything can happen!!!!!!! So I STRONGLY suggest you all to read it because it really is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, like I said things are going pretty good here!!!!!! I`m loving every minute of it and it`s all just SUPER AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Things are Going Pretty Good Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email sent 8/19/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing is some things are going a little slower than I originally expected so it`s kind of frustrating at times but it`s all good. Nicoli is doing good. Also we found out the other day that his name is really Nicolas which is good to know because we`re now calling him by his real name :) Ha ha but yeah everyone else is doing good. We also got a reference from the sisters this week which happened to be the BEST REFERENCE OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It`s a mom who`s the only member in the family, the dad, and 3 kids. the mom has been a member for like 25 years but has been inactive and is just now coming back to the church. She told us that now that here kids are old enough to get baptized she needs to start being the example. So they`re pretty dang positive!!!!!!!!!! Also, the dad wants to get baptized. He said he would`ve been baptized sooner but his parents are SUPER Catholic and so he`s been trying to get them to loosen up the the idea of him being a member of the church. But yeah they`re SUPER positive and we`re hoping to get them baptized here pretty soon!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortuately for some reason the money for the washing machine hasn`t gone through yet so we haven`t gotten it yet...But we`re hoping we`ll have it by Wednesday!!!!! 

It was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!! We had a talent show Saturday night and Seegmiller and I wrote a rap in English and the best part about it is that none of it made any sense it just rhymed. So Seegmiller beat-boxed and I rapped and it was awesome because nobody understood what we were saying so they all thought it was like a real rap. but in reality it was just a bunch of stuff that made no sense. Ha ha it was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!! I`ll try to email you the video of it next week.

But yeah other than that nothing too crazy has been happening around here lately. Right now we`re in the hottest time for Bocas. August and September apparently are the hottest times of the year for Bocas. So it`s been pretty dang hot. The other day I seriously thought I was going to die!!!!!!!!! I was sweating more than I`ve ever sweat in my entire life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty dang ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!! But it`s all good. 

Also Elder Olivas (an elder from El Salvador that is one of our zls) found this piece of paper in one of his old areas that has the ¨push-up challenge¨ on it. It`s basically this thing were everyday you do some push-ups and then from week to week you do more and more push-ups. For example this week was 13 push-ups then you rest for 45 seconds, 11 with a 45 second rest, 12 rest 45 seconds, 9 rest, and 9. So anyways we started doing it this week and we`re going to get so buff!!!!!!!!!! :D 

Ha ha anyway, thanks for everything!!!!!!!!! I`m SUPER GLAD that you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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