Keep Trying Everyday to Help With Missionary Work

Email received 11/11/13

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

Things are going pretty good here. And the parades are STILL going on!!!!!! Ha ha today should be that last day well until the 18th then there`s about 3 more days of parades and stuff. Other than the fact that almost everyone is drunk all the time, it`s good :) 

I`m SUPER GLAD that you all are doing good!!!!!!!!! The temple looks SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it`s making a lot of progress!!!!!! It`s going to be such a cool temple once it`s finished!!!!!! [I sent a couple pictures of the Provo City Center Temple's construction.]

This week has been pretty good. On Saturday we went on splits with some of the young men from the ward and it went really well!!!!!!!! I went with a kid named Joseph to a part in our area called La Estancia. We visited an investigator and then he showed me where a few less-active families which was pretty cool!!!!!!!! Elder Aguero went with another kid named Kevin to a few old investigators that for some reason stopped listening to the missionaries. It turned out REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!! We are now teaching a family that were SUPER positive (they got married so they could go get baptized) and then the missionaries that were teaching them got switched out and the new missionaries didn`t know where they lived or anything about them so nobody visited them for a while. But we`re now working with them again and we`re hoping to get them baptized this month!!!!!! They`re a REALLY cool family and I know with faith and hard work they can get baptized and become really strong members of the church!!!!!!!!!!! 

I also had a really cool experience yesterday. There is a family in my ward that got really sick with a sickness called Dangay. it`s a sickness that comes from mosquitos and is SUPER dangerous!!!!!! A lot of people here in Panama die from it every year. So anyways this family got it and they got it BAD!!!!!!!!! One of the kids has the worst form of Dangay and very few people who get the type that he has live through it. So yeah, it`s pretty scary stuff!!!!!!!!!!!! So anyway, they called us and asked us if we could go to the hospital where they were at to give them blessings. The only problem was that they are in a hospital in the city [Panama City]  an hour and a half away. After getting permisison from the ZLs to go out there, we went with some other members to the hospital. Unfortuantely, after waiting there for about 2 hours we got the news that me and my comp weren`t going to be able to enter the room to give the blessings because we weren`t family members. So we were only able to give blessings to the mom of the family (who is sick but not as bad as the kids) and the dad (he`s not sick but he needed a blessing of comfort). It was kind of weird because we had to find an empty hallway and do it in the middle of the hallway but it worked out and we were at least able to give them two blessings which was good. But while waiting in the hospital, talking to the dad of the family, I learned something. While I was talking to him, he told me that yeah, it`s REALLY hard to go through this right now, not knowing whether his family were going to live or die. But he said that it`s all good because all this is is a trial and we need to stick with God and keep the faith and whatever happens it`s what God wants and needs. It was a SUPER strong testimony of faith and living through our trials!!!!!!!! This guy seriously has all the reason in the world to complain and to be mad, but instead he has decided to keep his faith in the Lord and accept whatever happens. It was really like the scripture in Ether, ¨...you will not recieve a witness until after the trial of your faith.¨ We have trials in our lives everyday and if we endure them with faith, we will receive the comfort from God that we need. 

I also had the opportunity to give a talk in Church yesterday. I talked about the importance of members in missionary work. I just want to remind you guys to keep trying everyday to help with missionary work. Jospeh Smith once said, ¨After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel.¨ As members of the church we all have recieved blessings and happiness from the knowledge of the Gospel. It`s now our turn and our duty to share this knowledge with others so they too can recieve the blessings and happiness that come from living the Gospel. Remember the challenge that Elder Nelson gave us in this last conference for EVERY member of the church to find at least 1 person for the missionaries to teach before Christmas. I challenge you all to take this change seriously and find at least 1 person for the missionaries to teach. I know sometimes it`s hard in Utah where almost everyone is a member, but I know if we try our hardest, we will be able to do it. Also take some time to look at the new website that the church put out hasteningthework.lds.org.  It`s SUPER COOL and is going to help the missionary work increase and be more effective!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I seriously love and miss you all SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the good work and always remember that you`re in my prayers!!!!!!!!! 

The Spirit was SUPER Strong

Email received 11/4/13

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

Things here are going pretty good!!!!!!!!! Jose´s baptism was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were a lot of people there to support him and the spirit was SUPER strong!!!!!!!!!! His mom, who´s not a member, also came and we gave her some time to share how she felt and stuff. She said that she felt really good and wants to learn how she can also come closer to God. So we´re now working with his mom and trying to get her baptized too. It was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah I´m SUPER excited that he was able to get baptized!!!!!!!!!!  Our other investigators are doing pretty good.  But yeah, things are going pretty dang good!!!!!!!

Elder Aguero, Jose's Grandpa, Jose, and Elder Houghton.  I love how happy every one is!

Yesterday at church was a little ridiculous. Ha ha so my comp and I showed up at the chapel at about 8:45 and nobody was there. Not even the bishop was there. There were 3 people waiting outside because they couldn´t get in because it was locked. Luckily we have the keys to the church also and so we were able to open the church. But anyway, we started setting things up and the bishop still didn´t even show up so we were thinking that we were going to have to run sacrament meeting but then at about 9:15 the bishop finally showed up. As we were finishing setting up the sacrament and stuff the bishop says into the microphone, "Alright everybody. We´re only going to have Sacrament Meeting today so you all can go to the parades." (Yesterday was Panama´s Independence Day from Columbia and there were parades ALL DAY LONG.) So we only had Sacrament Meeting so everyone could go to the parades...Yeah good old Panama, never ceases to amaze me :D

But yeah like I said, yesterday was a holiday. And basically all of November is full of holidays. Yesterday was the indepenance from Colombia, today is Flag day, tomorrow is something else, the 18th is the Independence Day from Spain, and there´s some little random ones that I don´t know. So yeah this month is kind of nuts!!!!!!!!! Today there´s a HUGE parade all over Chorrera so it´s pretty crazy right now. Ha ha but it´s fun!!!!!!!!!

I´m glad that everyone is doing good!!!!!!! Thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Fact That We Can Go to the Temple and Be in the Lord`s House is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 10/28/13

Elder Houghton with one of his ward members in La Chorrera. 

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

So things are going pretty good here in Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m basically loving it here!!!!!!!!!!! I don`t know why but this week especially I just felt really good!!!!!!!! But like I said things are going pretty good here!!!!!!! We`re getting stoked for Jose`s baptism on thursday!!!!!!!!! Oh man that kid is SO COOL!!!!!!!!!! When we visited him yesterday he was asking us about the mission and he said that he`s really stoked to go on the mission!!!!!!!!!! He`s only 15 so he still has 3 years to go but he`s SUPER excited about it!!!!!!! I`m REALLY excited for him!!!!!!! He`s going to be a GREAT member of the church!!!!!!!!! 

As far as our other investigators go, we are teaching a lady named Zuly and her son Daniel. They`re pretty cool!!!!!!!! They`ve known the missionaries for a long time and are really acceptive to the Gospel!!!!!!! The only problem with them is they have 3 HUGE pitbulls!!!!!!! So I almost pee my pants every time I walk into their house!!!!!!!!! Ha ha I don`t know what it is but I have developed a fear of dogs. I think it`s because here in Panama EVERYONE has HUGE dogs!!!!!!!!!! I don`t understand it!!!!!!!! Ha ha but other then their dogs they`re GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, yesterday a member brought an investigator to church (I LOVE when that happens!!!!!!!!!) So we`re going to go visit her tomorrow so we`ll se how that goes. We`re also working with a less-active family who owns a resturant here in Chorrera that we`re going to go eat at this week which I`m pretty excited about. But yeah they`re a really cool family!!!!!!!!!!! They live kind of far from the Chapel (which is their excuse for not going to church lately) but they`re a really nice family and we`re hoping to baptize the dad (he`s not a member) But yeah the work is going pretty good here!!!!!!! 

Anyways that`s cool that you were able to see Cole at the front runner station!!!!!!!! I read his e-mail it looks like he`s doing well!!!!!!!! That kid`s going to be a GREAT missionary!!!!!!!!! That`s NUTS that Max`s birthday is coming up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He`s going to be 14 right?!?!?!?! That`s NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, he`s playing for Provo High?!?!?!?!?! I thought he was still at Dixon? ANyways that picture of the back yard is NUTS!!!!!!!!!! We have real grass back there!!!!!!!!!!!!! That`s SO COOL!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but yeah I`m glad that everything`s going good for you guys!!!!!!!!!!!! 

But yeah I`m SUPER GLAD that you guys are all doing FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also one last thing I just remembered. So on Saturday Jose went to the temple with the other jovens (youth) in the ward and he said that even though he wasn`t able to enter (because he`s not a member yet) he said that he still could feel the AMAZING spirit that comes from being close to the temple. There`s a symbol in a lot of the temples that is a square with a circle on the inside (I know for a fact that it`s in the Timponogas temple) That symbol means the place where heaven and earth meet. I want to testify to you that the temple really is the closest to heaven that we can be while still being on earth. I`m serious. Just from being outside standing on temple grounds you can feel that the Lord is with you. I promise you that with temple attendance we can come closer to the Lord and recieve more revelation then from doing anything else. PLEASE take advantage of the fact that in Utah there are temples all over the place and you can pretty much go to the temple whenever you want. Because it is seriously one of the BIGGEST blessings from the Lord. The fact that we can go to the temple and be in the Lord`s house is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! The Lord has trusted us with this opportunity and we need to take advantage of it and go as often as we can and I KNOW that we will recieve blessings from it. I LOVE the temple and I KNOW that everything that we do in the temple brings us closer to our heavenly father. Please take the time to visit the temple whenever you can. 

Anyways thanks again for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's some fun pictures he sent from his visit to the Panama Canal...

He finally got to spend the day at the Canal.  He said it was really awesome!

He said, "Finally I get to cross 'Play pool in front of the Panama Canal' off my bucket list!"  Gosh I love that guy!  So funny!

He said, "Strangely, there's no routes from Utah that go through the canal..."

I Still Have 8 Months Worth of Time to Continue Learning from These Amazing People of Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 10/22/13

We didn't hear from him on his p-day. Thank Heavens his President gave him to ok to email us the next day!  

Hey sorry I`m writing late. What happened was yesterday we went to the Panama Canal and when we were coming back we got stuck in traffic because there was a big car accident and we were stuck in traffic for like 4 hours. So President gave us permission to use internet today.

But anyway, things are going pretty good!!!!!!!!!! Things are going alright with my comp and we`re still working hard and teaching some good people. Jose David is doing good. He showed up to church on Sunday and he was wearing his white shirt and tie with an Angel Moroni tie pin. Ha ha yeah everybody thought that he was a member!!!!!!!! He`s a SUPER cool kid!!!!!!!! We talked to his Grandpa today and he said that Jose`s dad was baptized on October 31st and married on October 31st so he wants Jose David to get baptized on October 31st also. So, it looks like we`ll be having a baptism on Halloween this year!!!!!!!!!  I`m pretty excited about it because this has been a rough change so it`s going to be good to end it on a good note. But yeah I`m pretty stoked about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I`m also pretty stoked becasue after 16 months of being here in Panama I FINALLY went to the canal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`ll send pictures next week. I completely forgot my camera cord today so I`ll send the pictures next week. But yeah pretty much every missionary here in Panama will tell you that the canal is boring. But don`t listen to them. It`s SWEET!!!!!!!!!!! 

I`m SUPER GLAD that you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That really makes me happy when I hear that!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because I think about you all everyday!!!!!!!!! I`m always happy to hear that you guys are doing good!!!!!!!!!!! 

So, I want to share a spiritual experience that happened today. Today I was on divisions with Elder Pasket (a missionary from American Fork that dies {goes home} next week) He`s a cool dude and it was cool because he was in my area early so he showed me where a ton of old investigators live. Anyway, we were walking to a cita and I had the impression to stop by Hermana Anderson. Hermana Anderson is a SUPER COOL lady!!!!!!!! She`s SUPER strong in the church and is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! So anyway we stopped by her house and it turns out that her daughter was really sick. Her daughter has really bad health problems and has been in and out of the hospital for about a year now. And she`s been really sick lately. But  we showed up to the house and Hermana Anderson was there and she was having a rough time so we shared a message with her and gave her daughter a blessing and then left. But the cool thing about it was that I think the Lord needed me to go to that house so I could learn a lesson from Hermana Anderson. I`ve been complaining this whole change. But I never once realized or thought that maybe all of these trials are for my benefit and I need to learn something from them. Today when we were talking to Hermana Anderson she said just that. She said, ¨Yes I`m sad, but I know the Lord is on my side and he`s helping me. I just need to keep my faith and follow and hopefully at the end I`ll learn something from it.¨ We are always going to have trials throughout our entire life some will be big like one of your kids being super sick and some will be small. But if we keep the faith and keep going the Lord will help us and we`ll learn something from the trial. But yeah it was a REALLY COOL experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But anyway,  like I said things are going pretty good!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I`m grateful because I still have 8 months worth of time to continue learning from these amazing people of Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I love them. 

Thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep having fun and stay happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We Got Pretty Much the Best Reference EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 10/14/13

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

Things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!! We got pretty much the best reference EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! He`s 16 and SUPER POSITIVE!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday in church when we were talking to him about baptism he asked us how and when he can get baptized. So needless to say, he`s getting baptized on the 26th of this month. He`s a SUPER COOL dude!!!!!!!!!!!!  He knows a lot about the gospel!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously when we were teaching him and we were sharing scriptures with him from the Bible and he would cut us off and then recite the scripture from memory. It was pretty dang impressive. But yeah he`s doing really good!!!!!!!!! As far as our other investigators, we have 2 more -- a mom and her son. They would`ve been baptized about 6ish months ago but something happened and they weren`t able to get baptized. So we`re currently visiting with them and they`re pretty positive too. The only thing is it`s REALLY hard to find them in their house sometimes. But it`s good. Yeah so our area is starting to pick up a bit. Which is nice!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

It`s been SUPER COOL to see people from my old areas!!!!!! I had this fear that when I leave an area people won`t remember me but I`ve been seeing tons of people that remember me and stuff which is cool!!!!!!!! One of the members that we ate with in Guadalupe. She`s SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! And I saw her at the stake center when we were eating dinner and I talked with her for about a half an hour. Her daughter is on a mission now. She`s going to California and she`s currently in the Provo MTC too!!!!!!! Ha ha so maybe Cole has run into her. That was good to see her. Also, we went to the temple with the stake on Saturday morning and I saw a lady from Predregal in the session room with us which REALLY made me happy because when I was in Pedregal she wasn`t endowed and she was kind of going inactive but now she`s endowed and SUPER active also which is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Members Really are Vital to the Work

Email received 10/7/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!! Things are going pretty good with Elder Aguero. I like being a District Leader. I didn`t like it at first but now it`s pretty fun. The people in my district are all really cool people and I get to go on divisions with them every once in a while which is fun!!!!!!!! Chorrera is going good. My area`s struggling a little bit right now but we`re trying. It was SUPER COOL yesterday I got to see a lot of the members from Guadalupe at conference!!!!!! And It was SUPER cool because I learned that an old investigator of mine got baptized!!!!!!! I don`t remember if I told you about her but she`s 12 years old and her family are all members but she didn`t want to get baptized until she was 18 because she wanted to feel what it was like to get drunk. But it`s all good it looks like she got over that and got baptized about a month ago!!!!!!! I was pretty excited to hear that!!!!!!!

Conference was REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!! I loved how there were a ton of talks about the importance of the members in missionary work. The members really are the key in missionary work. Without the members the people we baptize will never progress more in the church and will become inactive. So the members really are vital to the work. 

I also really liked Elder Holland`s talk. I liked it because he usually machetes everybody but then every once in a while he gives a talk like he did on Saturday that is super tranquilo but still SUPER powerful!!!!!!!! I love his talks!!!!!!!! But yeah this was an EXCELLENT conference!!!!!!!!!!! 

That`s SUPER cool that Daddy and Max got to go to the Priesthood session!!!!! The priesthood session was REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!!! I loved President Monson`s talk because he was talking about home teaching, it all also applies to missionary work which was good instruction for me.

That`s cool that you guys have Fall break right now!!!!!!!! That should be fun!!!!!!!! And that`s SUPER COOL that you`re doing a lot of family history work!!!!!!! There was a talk by someone in conference about the importance and the blessings from the temple this conference also I don`t remember who gave it but it was really good and it`s sweet that you are going to be able to take some of our ancestors names to the temple so they can recieve the same amazing blessings from the temple!!!!!!!!!

Anyways thanks for everything!!!!!!!!! Have a GREAT fall break and I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

Things are Going Pretty Good here in Chorrera

Email received 9/30/13

*photo from https://twitter.com/La_Chorrera

Yeah things are going pretty good here in Chorrera. It´s pretty dang sweet! There is a grocery store here called the Rey and they have Mountain Dew!!!!!!!!!!! Mountain Dew is pretty much one of the hardest things to find here in Panama!!!!!!!!!! The only thing is it´s kind of expensive so I have to limit myself to only 1 can per week or else I´ll waste all my money on Mountain Dew. Ha ha but yeah things are going pretty good here. {In case you're wondering...no, it's not against to rules to drink Mountain Dew. :) }

My comp is doing pretty good. He likes to teach so that's really good.  I see people I know from Guadalupe {Guadalupe was the other area of La Chorrera that he served in a few months back.} every once in a while but not too often. The ward seems pretty cool. We are working with them a lot and they are good to work with. There´s some really strong members and it´s going to be fun to work with them.

This area was kind of dead when I got here which kind of disanimated {I think he means "disappointed".  Every now and then he translates Spanish to English literally. :) } me a little bit but we've been working pretty hard this week and we have some pretty good investigators. We should see some pretty good success here if we keep working hard. But yeah, like I said, things are going good. It´s pretty cool to live with members who are SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!! They´re gringos from Washington DC so that´s pretty sweet to see them around and be able to talk to them and stuff.

Anyways like I said everything here is going GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!