We´re Pretty Stoked About the Success We´re Having Here!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 3/3/14

Hey!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, this is now my 4th change as a DL. Being a DL has been pretty cool!!!!!! I´ve got to meet a lot of really cool people who were getting baptized and I´ve got to visit a lot of different areas during divisions so it´s been a pretty cool experience. We didn´t have any baptisms this last week but we are going to have 1 on the 15th for sure and we´re hoping for 2 more next month also. So we´re pretty stoked about the success that we´re having here!!!!!!!!!!!

That´s SUPER COOL that Caleb´s going on his mission!!!!!!!!! As far as tradition goes in our family every single person that has ever gone on a mission has gone out of the states so I´m guessing that Caleb is going to Guatemala. Also tell Jordan congratulations! I´m 86% sure I have a friend from SUU in that mission. Her name is Brooke Stringham. .

Anyway, Carnavales started this week and Carnavales here is WAY CRAZIER than everywhere else!!!!!!!!!!! Right in front of my house some people dug a really big hole and filled it with water and were grabbing random people and throwing them into it. And people have been throwing rotten eggs and water balloons filled with urine at everyone. It´s pretty ridiculous!!!!!!!!!! We had to stay in the house most of the day yesterday. Today´s not too bad but apparently tommorrow is the worst day so we´ll see what happens. 

This last week Elder Amado came for a mission conference. It was SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He talked a lot about being happy all the time. He also talked a lot about the scriptures and how we need to study them like crazy!!!!!!!! So yeah, the scriptures are pretty important in our lives!!!!!!!!

That´s SUPER COOL to see Max growing in the church and living up to his calling as a preisthood holder. That kid´s going to be a GREAT missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

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

P.S. Yeah the Opossum was pretty NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, it´s still in the house. He just lives there now, his name is phil. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We Can Be Happy All the Time.

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

Things here are going pretty good!!!!!!!!!!!! Arnulfo got baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! He showed up early and everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He`s a really cool guy!!!!!!!!!!! Arnulfo, for reals, is someone who truly wants to change and follow the example of Christ. He`s a really cool guy!!!!!!!!!!!

But yeah this week was a pretty good week. A little crazy but good. My comp and I went all over the place because I needed to do a lot of baptismal interviews for people. Yep that`s right, good old San Miguelito is baptizing like it`s nobody`s business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! San Mig usually only has 5 or 6 baptisms per month and as of right now we have 21 for the month and we should have at least 2 more this week in the zone!!!!!!!!!! So yeah it`s pretty SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week we didn`t run into too many crazy people. Just the usually ones. It`s kind of funny sometimes because people think that 2 gringos walking down the street in Don Bosco is weird and they always think we`re lost or something. And then when we tell them that we live here and we`re missionaries they think it`s SUPER COOL and buy us some watermelon.  But yeah it`s pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did find an opossum in our house which was pretty nuts!!!!!!

But yeah, like I said this week was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday in Priesthood, our Elder`s Quorum president gave a talk about forgetting the past and moving on in life. There`s also a guy here running for President and his slogan is ¨Vamos Pa´ lante no hay Pa´ tras¨ Which means "let's move forward because there`s no going back". So I`ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Jesus suffered for his sins so we could be clean again and move on with out life without the heaviness of sin weighing us down. That`s a SUPER COOL thing that we need to take advantage of!!!!!!!! Because if we just forget about the Atonement, we`ll have to live with that sin and live unhappily. That`s not what God wants. We learn in the Book of Mormon that Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy. So we need to be happy and how we can be happy is when we understand the Atonement and apply it in our lives. I know that when we apply the Atonment to our lives we can be happy all the time.

But yeah like I said things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m loving it!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures of Don Bosco

2nd Email received 2/17/14! :)

Hey!!!!!! So here`s some more pictures of what my area looks like and and also one of the mircle that happened to us this weekend. Like I said before San Miguelito is pretty bad when it comes to water so the water goes out A LOT!!!!!!!!!!! They usually tell us before hand but sometimes we don`t know. So the water went out this weekend and Saturday we weren`t able to shower at all and so we were sitting in our house planning and then we all of the sudden heard the water in the sink that we have outside and so we ran out to see what was going on and we had water!!!!!!!!!!! So we clogged up the drain and it was SUPER COOL because as soon as the water filled the sink it stopped and didn`t come back until this morning. So yeah the Lord was DEFINITELY watching out for us!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Outside sink that miraculously filled up.

Don Bosco

The Lord is DEFINITELY Blessing Good old Don Bosco!!!!!!!!!

Email received 2/17/14

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

So yeah, this week was a pretty dang good week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a pretty cool surprise spring upon us. We were eating lunch on Tuesday and the family we were eating with told us about their nephew that goes to church every week but isn`t baptized. So we taught him the lessons and baptized him. We baptized a kid named Dario on Friday and then Hermana Maura on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep 2 baptisms in 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty dang cool!

!!!!!!!!!!!! And then we`re going to baptize Hermano Arnulfo next Saturday. It was also SUPER COOL because yesterday we were waiting in the chapel and we were kind of worried if a few of our investigators were going to come because we didn`t get the chance to vist them too much this week so we were kind of worried and then right before church started Arnulfo, Hermana Columba and her grand-daughter, and another kid named...well I don`t remember his real name but we call him Jay Lo because he likes Jenifer Lopez. But anyway it was SUPER COOL because we were able to confirm Maura and Dario and we also had 4 investigators in church. So yeah the Lord is DEFINITELY blessing good old Don Bosco!!!!!!!!!

It was also really cool way to end the week!  SUPER good because this week was a pretty weird week. We had a big crazy lady try to rob us, we had some drunk guys yell at us and throw trash and beer cans at us, we had a lady tell us her WHOLE life story without leaving out ANY details (also, she`s pretty in love with my comp :D), we had a Jehova Witness lady yell at us because our church is apparently the wrong church (bless her heart :D) and we got SUPER bad food posioning from some rank speghetti. So it was SUPER GOOD to end the week in such good way!!!!!!!!!!

It was also SUPER COOL because in the baptism of Dario his Grandma bore her testimony and it was seriously one of the most powerful testimonies I`ve ever heard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She talked a lot about people who are in-active and fallen away from the church (Dario`s parents are in-active) It was SUPER COOL because she said something that really stuck out to me. She said that if we fall away the Lord is ALWAYS waiting for us to come back and no matter how long it takes or how many times it takes he`ll ALWAYS be there with open arms to accept you and welcome you back. It was a SUPER powerful testimony!!!!!!!!!! For reals, the people of San Miguelito are amazing!!!!! These are some of the strongest people I`ve ever met!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m SUPER GRATEFUL that the Lord sent me here so I can meet these amazing people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah like I said things here are going pretty GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for all your support and prayers!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Things are Going Pretty Good Here in Don Bosco!!!!!!!

Email received 2/10/14

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

Yeah things are going pretty good here in Don Bosco!!!!!!! Ha ha yeah Elder Nielson is a SUPER COOL dude!!!!!!!!!!! I was never in a zone with him but I always saw him on P-days and things like that. But yeah he`s a cool dude!!!!!  [Elder Nielson is Coni and Doug's next door neighbor from Taylorsville, Utah that recently returned home from serving in Panama.}  And no, I haven`t lost any weight here. To tell you the truth I weighed myself the other day and I weigh the same that I did when I entered the MTC so don`t worry I`m eating A LOT!!!!!!!!! Yesterday alone we ate 5 meals so don`t worry I`m not losing weight. And yeah Carl`s Jr. is pretty dang good!!!!!!!! It`s not as good as it is in  the states but it`s pretty good. DEFINITELY the best fast food resturant in Panama!!!!!!!!!!!! But it`s expensive so I don`t go there very often. And no you can`t get rice there but you can get rice and chicken at pretty much every other fast food resturant. Yeah rice...

But yeah, like I said, things are going good here!!!!!! We`re going to have a baptism this weekend. We`re going to baptize a lady named Heremana Maura. She's SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!! We found her contacting and she`s been SUPER positive the whole way so we`re pretty excited that she`ll be getting baptized this weekend!!!!!! Then next weekend we`re going to baptize a guy named Arnulfo who is also SUPER COOL and SUPER POSITIVE!!!!!!!!! They`re both going to be SUPER GOOD members of the church!!!!!!!!!

Nothing too crazy happened this week but when I was studying in the Book of Mormon I was reading in Moroni where it says the sacrament prayers. That`s always a SUPER GOOD thing to study!!!!!!!!!!! Sometimes we forget our convenant that we made to God when we were baptized but if we study the sacrament prayer we are reminded of our covenant and what we need to do to recieve our blessings. If we stand as a witness of Jesus Christ and obey the commandments, we will have the spirit with us ALWAYS. That`s quite the promise!!!!!!!!! The Spirit is our guide and the fact that we are able to have the spirit with us ALWAYS is a HUGE blessing for us!!!!!!!!!! Without the spirit in our lives we won`t be able to do anything we need to do and we`ll fall away from the church and the Gospel.

But yeah like I said things are going pretty good!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!! Say hi to everyone for me and have a GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good old Don Bosco!!!!!!!

Email received 2/3/14

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, the water goes out here kind of a lot. For example, the water went out this morning and so I had to take a bucket shower. But yeah, Good old Don Bosco!!!!!!! This week was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! First of all, the Bishop left with us this week to visit some people. Now this guy is kind of a beast. He`s a doctor and he works nights so he worked all night long and got home at 7 in the morning and then from 10 in morning until 5ish he was working with us. Then he had to go back into work at 9 that night. He`s a pretty dang cool dude!!!!!!!!! Also, don`t worry about things. Yeah it`s kind of dangerous but EVERYONE respects us here. We don`t have any problems. The area is going pretty good!!!!!!!!!! We had a pretty successful week!!!!!!!!!! We worked SUPER hard and had 3 more people in sacrement meeting and we`re going to baptize some people on the 15th. We are teaching a lady named Maura who`s SUPER positive and tells us everyday that she`s SUEPR excited for her baptism. We`re also teaching a guy named Arnulfo. I think that I told you about him last week. But he`s a cool dude that is SUPER ready to get baptized so I`m pretty stoked!!!!!!!!!!!! Arnulfo and Maura will be the first people to get baptized here in Don Bosco in a little more than a year!!!!!!!!! So the ward`s pretty excited about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah, like I said things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Rasmussen and Elder Houghton enjoying some Carl's Jr. :)

Ha ha to tell you the truth I completely forgot that the Super Bowl was even a thing!!!!!!! ha ha but I`m sure Brandon Wilson will be pretty happy that the Sea Hawks won.

But yeah, anyway, like I said thing are going pretty good here!!!!!!! I attached some pictures of my comp and I and of our house. This house is bigger than my other house in my last area but it`s DEFINITELY a lot more disgusting. But it`s all good because we have air conditioning in our room so that makes up for everything. Also it`s 2 stories and I`ve seriously fell down those stairs like 3 times already so yeah the house is pretty sweet :)

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

The Lord Answers Prayers

Email received 1/27/14

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

So yeah, I`m in a new area now. I`m in the Zone of San Miguelito in the area of Don Bosco. My new comp is named Elder Rasmussen. He`s from Oaklahoma so he has a southern accent and everything!!!!!!!! He`s a SUPER COOL DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he works like a BEAST!!!!!!!!! We had 35 lessons last week!!!!!!!!!! But yeah, he`s a cool dude!!!!!!!!!!! I can`t upload a picture of him this week because I don`t have my camera with me but I`ll try to bring it next week. The problem is I`m kind of in a dangerous area so I don`t carry my camera around with me everywhere like I used to so I forgot it this morning. But I`ll bring it next week. But yeah my area is a pretty sweet area!!!!!!!!!!!! It`s kind of ridiculous because it is all hills. And not just hills, hills that have millions of stairs going up the sides and stuff. It`s for reals SUPER CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`ll try to take a picture of it sometime this week to show you because seriously it`s RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!! But yeah, things are going GREAT!!!!!!!!!! Apparently the missionaries that have been in this area for the last year haven't experienced many baptisms. Just to put it into perspective, the last convert baptism in the ward was December of 2012. So the ward`s been SUPER dis-animated about missionary work and stuff. But it was SUPER COOL because my comp and I have been working SUPER HARD this week so we could get some investigators in church to animate the ward a little bit. So we worked SUPER hard and we had 3 investigators in church yesterday. It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the ward got pretty animated and everyone came up and set up appointments with us to go visit some of their friends and family members and stuff. It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah like I said the area is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have a TON of REALLY COOL investigators and we`re going to have a TON of success this change!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here`s a cool experience that happened the other day. So San Mig is famous for never having water. Like for reals, the water goes out here all the time and sometimes for like a week at a time. So the other day the water went out. But this time it was planned. Apparently some pipe broke or something like that so they told us before hand. But for some reason the water went out earlier than expected. So my comp and I got home and we were going to fill up everything we have with water but the water had already gone out. So the only water we had was a 5 gallon bucket half way full of water that we had in the shower. This was Friday and the water didn`t come back until today [Monday]. So, we measured it out and we had a half gallon of water per person per day until the water came back. So basically we weren`t going to be able to shower or drink or anything all weekend long. So we were trying to figure out what we were going to do. Then we just said a prayer and asked the Lord to help us with our problem. Then we went to bed. But when we woke up the next morning we went outside and we had TONS of buckets and stuff out there all filled with water. So we were sitting there trying to figure out where all the water came and then our neighbor told us that she came and filled up our buckets because she thought that we needed water. So we had a TON of water and we were able to shower and drink and everything. It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!! The Lord answers prayers. I don`t have a single doubt in the world that that`s true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But like I said things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m loving my area and we`re working SUPER HARD!!!!!!!!!! I was a little worried to come here but when I got here I realized that this area is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!

But anyway, thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!