Feliz Navidad desde Panamá!

Feliz Navidad desde Panamá!

Elder Houghton was transferred last Thursday (December 21st) to the Chorrera area and has a new companion, Elder Daw.  It was bittersweet for him to have to leave the Tocumen area and the amazing people he's gotten to know there.  But he is excited to be serving in the Chorrera area.  He was able to go to church Sunday in his new ward.  It's a really small ward (maybe it's a branch, I'm not sure) with only about 75 people in attendance.  He said that the people are very welcoming and he actually said that it reminded him a lot of his home ward in Provo.  He is excited to be working with Elder Daw.  He said he's a really hard worker and a really nice guy.  They get along really well and he is really happy. 

 We had the opportunity to Skype him today for Christmas.  It was so great to actually see that he is well!  He looks great and he is so happy!  We were able to talk with him for a little over an hour.  He's changed a lot but in many ways he is the same fun-loving guy we know and love!  He told us all about life in Panama.  I guess it's kind of the "winter" season right now.  He said that starting in January, it's supposed to be warmer up more and it's summer.  He said that he couldn't imagine it getting hotter but it will.  The people are really friendly and willing to listen to their lessons but it's really hard to get them to church.  They just don't see the need to go to church.  The Chorrera area is much more jungly and hilly.  He said that he has to walk up hills to get to anything.  They eat at members houses every night and they have ladies that cook breakfast and lunch for them every day.  He really likes the food for the most part. He eats fish almost every day and a ton of rice.  He eats a lot of Plantains and he said that is his his favorite.  He said his new area is nice and he's really happy to be serving there.  We asked him what kind of service he works on and he said that he's helped cut back bushes, etc with machetes, helped repair houses, and paint houses.  I guess they have a tradition in Panama at Christmas time...they paint their houses.  He said that just about everyone paints their house around Christmas time.  He didn't know why but they just did.  Another tradition is fireworks.  They let off tons of fireworks.  He said he's never seen so many.  I guess you could see them light up the sky from over the mountains! He said other than that they don't really celebrate Christmas.  He said that, just like other holidays, a lot of people get drunk and hang out in the streets.  I guess on holidays, the missionaries spend time with the members and don't go out.  He assured us that he is healthy and happy.

It was awesome talking to him! 

But...

it was really hard to say goodbye.  

We sure love and miss him!!!!!  

We are so thankful for his example and are so proud of him!

He FINALLY got his Christmas package!  Here's the decorations we sent him.  The ornaments have Christmas messages from all of us on them. I'm so relieved he got it!

Elder Daw and Elder Houghton.  I love the Christmas tie!

"It Really Strengthened My Testimony..."

Email received on December 17, 2012.

He hasn't received his Christmas package.

I REALLY hope it gets there by Christmas! 

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

Everything's pretty good here!!!!!!!!!! I'm getting pretty excited about changes!!!!!!!!!!! I love this area a lot but it will be good to have a change.  It was kind of sad in church yesterday. First of all we had none of our investigators show up which was SUPER frustrating...We're probably not going to have any baptisms this change even though we had a TON of really good investigators at the beginning of the change. But it's alright. But anyways, at church they had all the missionaries go up and bare our testimonies and then Elder De Jesus (Elder Barrie's companion) gave a talk. But anyways it was kind of sad saying bye to everyone because I've been here for 4 months but it was pretty cool because everyone came up to me afterwards and told me how impressed they were with how much my spanish has improved since I first got there. So that was good to hear!!!!!!! But yeah there were 2 families that it was pretty hard to say goodbye to. The Torrentes and the Rios. But it was cool I'll come visit them before I leave Panama. 

It was SUPER cool last week for P-day!!!!! We went to the temple!!!!!!!!! It was SUPER good because like I've been telling you this change has been really stressful and frustrating and it was REALLY GOOD to be able to go to the temple and feel the spirit in the temple. And It was REALLY cool because Panama is RIDICULOUSLY noisy and spastic (sorry that's the only word I can think of to describe it) and it was SUPER cool to sit in the Celestial room and just feel completely at peace and recieve some personal revelation and just feel the spirit. I honestly didn't want to leave the peace and then go into the craziness of Panama. It really strengthened my testimony about how the temple really is the closest place to heaven you can get to while still being on this earth. And how I really took advantage of having a temple so close to me in Provo. And now that there's going to be 2 it's going to be even easier. For example we had to get up at 4 am to get to the 8 am session. And we were talking to hermana caballero (a lady in our ward) and she was saying that before the panama and guatamalen temple were built they used to have to take a bus to Arizona to go to the temple. Pretty nuts right?!?!?!?!?! But yeah it was SUPER good to go to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways another thing that's been kind of crazy is we've been living without power for about 2 weeks now. Ha ha it's a LONG story but something about how they're switching the owners of the house and the bill is all messed up but anyways we haven't had power for 2 weeks. But the owner of the house who lives next to us gave us a cord from his house that we plugged a power strip and a ton of extention cords into and he gave us one light. So we have at least one light and we have everything we need plugged in plugged in. But it's pretty funny!!!! I'll upload a picture of it. It's pretty ridiculous!!!!!! Ha ha also, we have a cat that pretty much lives in our house now. We always come home and he's just sitting there and I'm pretty sure he sleeps in our house too. Anyways, we named him paul.

Anyways, I still don't know what the deal is about christmas. I'm not sure if I'm going to call or if I'm going to skype yet. President ward said that if I'm with a comp that can't skype then he wants us to just call so we don't make our comps feel bad but I don't know who my  new comp is going to be yet so I'll let you know as soon as I know!!!!!  But anyways I'm getting SUPER excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I'll let you know as soon as I can!!!!!!!! I love and miss you guys SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Random Pictures from Panama...

Here's an example of Mola that he's been collecting.  These beautiful works of art are made by the native Kuna  women.  These are panels that are made into blouses, bags or hung as art.  He said, "This is the best one I have."  Beautiful!

This is a cute Nativity scene someone set up to decorate for Christmas.  

Rainbow over Panama City.

Christmas decorations in the mall in Panama City.

Pictures from Taboga Island

We finally got more pictures!!!!

There's quite a few but they're fun.

It's good to "see" that he's doing well. :)  

Here's the pictures he sent from his trip to Taboga Island on December 3, 2012...

I'm not sure if this was on the same day (because of the different shirt) but it's a good picture. 

I'm going to pretend I don't see him leaning/sitting on the railing of the boat!

Elder Houghton and Elder Harr 

Elder Houghton relaxing on the 45 minute boat ride to the island.  I'm wondering if the captain of the boat knew he was sitting there?

I have no idea what this is...proclaiming the gospel?  In awe of the beauty of the island?  :) 

There were big ships everywhere.  He took a lot of pictures of them.  I love how blue the water is!  It sure looks hot though!

Beautiful!  

This is the beach he played soccer on.

Classic.  He could make a book of the many pictures of his handstands.  This is the first in another country though! :)

Our handsome elder {{love}}

It was a SUPER Cool Experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received Dec. 10, 2012

(Pictures will be posted soon! Having technical difficulties on my end.)

I got to kinda "talk" to him again while he was online.  

He's doing really well but has mixed feelings about being transferred in a couple weeks.  I sure hope he gets his package soon!

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

Everything's going good here. Well this last week has been SUPER stressful but it's all good. It turns out that Carlos never got married so we couldn't baptize him...Also none of our investigators came to church even the one who we walked to her house to pick her up...But it's all good, I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about everything. It's just hard sometimes...But it's all good. 

The Christmas party was SUPER fun!!!!!!!!! Ha ha we had some gringo food, ham and turkey but we also had rice. But it was fun!!!!!!! My package still hasn't come but changes are in a week and a half so I might get it then. I talked to President Ward and he told me "Elder Houghton this is your 3rd change in Pedregal, you'll probably have changes." And Changes are on the 20th. So that being said, I can't really plan with you guys when exactly I'm going to call yet because I don't know where I'll be or who my comp is going to be. But I do need you to make me a skype account. President hasn't said anything about not using Skype. So unless he says anything I'll be Skyping you guys!!!!! But like I said I don't know exactly how or when it's going to go down because I'll be in a new area with a new comp. I emailed president and asked him how I can get it all worked out so hopefully by next monday I'll know what's going on. Also President gave us some pretty cool things. He gave us a mini preach my gospel and he had some ladies make us Mola temple bags which are also pretty dang SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!

But yeah I'm SUPER excited to talk to you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It doesn't even feel like Christmas here. It's CRAZY HOT and not very many people put up any decorations. But we're making the most of it!!!!! I put up some pictures and a few videos from the Christmas Party and also the past few P-days. But yeah I'm SUPER excited to talk to you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I only wish I knew what exactly was going on. But it's all good. I'll find out sooner or later.

So something cool happened the other day that I want to share. So we had to go work with the Hermanas in our district for a day because Elder Harr is the district leader and that's how you have to go on divisions with the Hermanas. Anyway, we were in their area and we were teaching this one recent convert who was freaking out about the temple recomend interview she has next week. But anyways we were teaching her and I felt the spirit SUPER strong to share the promise of the book of mormon in moroni and apply it what she was feeling. But anyways, I hadn't ever felt that strong to share something. So I shared it. I told her that even though it says to ask if the Book of Mormon is true that you can apply it to everything in our lives. And it was super cool because she stopped freaking out about it and said "alright I'll pray about it and God will help me to know if this is right." It was a SUPER cool experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways it looks like you guys are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! That picture of Cole made me laugh SO HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That kid is such a hypster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha and I didn't expect anything different from the score of the game. When it comes to other sports besides Golf, us Houghton's fall a little short ;) And that name of their team is SUPER FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but that picture where he's jumping in the air is HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways,  tomorrow we're going to the temple which I'm SUPER EXCITED about!!!!!!!!!!!!! The temple here IS SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, Daddy wanted me to tell you guys how the poeple here are. The people here are cool. They're very nice and almost everyone will invite you in to teach them the word. But that's all. Ha ha they ALWAYS say, "Well I'm Catholic and I'm always willing to listen to the word of God but I'm Catholic and my family is Catholic I can't change." or they say, "There's only one God so it doesn't matter which church I join as long as I follow God." or my favortie thing people say is this, "Si Dios quiere." Which means, "If God wants" it's just a saying that they say for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but I think it's so funny when they say it after we ask them if they will go to church. Because it's obvious that God wants them to go to church. Ha ha but it's funny. But yeah the people are really nice and really funny!!!!!!!! The only thing that is hard is getting them to keep commitments. But they're good people. Also the Kunas (the native indians here) are pretty cool!!!!! They make Mola and one of their stories from they're heritage is a person dressed in white coming from the Sky and blessing and teaching the people. So when we teach them 3rd nephi they are SUPER receptive to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which is pretty sweet!!!!!!!! 

Anyways, everything's going good here. Hopefully I'll be able to give you some more information about calling. But as for now just make me a skype account and I'll give you more details about it next week. Anyways, I love and miss you guys SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Everything is Going Good Here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received on Dec. 4, 2012

(pictures will be posted soon)

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

Everything's pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!! My investigators are frustrating but good. A lot of them just don't want to come to church for whatever reason but they're good. Something pretty cool that I don't think I told you about is we're teaching this lady Maricruz Padilla. She owns the lavamatico where we wash our clothes and one day she came up and asked us who mormon was. And then we visited her and she told us that gringo missionaries have been coming to her lavamatico (sorry for the life of me I can't remember the english word for that) to wash their clothes and she said that she's been starting to think that it's a sign or something. So yeah she's pretty golden well other than the fact that she doesn't come to church. But anyways, for a while we'd been noticing these big posters and signs painted on walls that say "Votar Maricuz Padilla" so like campaign posters and stuff. And so we were curious to see if that was the same Maricruz Padilla so one day we asked her about it and aparently she's running for some delegate or something like that. So yeah, no big deal, we're just teaching someone famous. Ha ha but yeah anyways, we're teaching her again today so hopefully she finally understands the importance of church attendance and comes to church this Sunday!!!!!!! Also, Carlos is getting baptized this Saturday which I'm SUPER excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he is too!!!!!!!!!!! 

Oh also the reason why I'm writing on Tuesday again this week is because we went to this Island called Taboga yesterday and we got back late so we had no time (well we could've got back on time but nobody listens to Elder Barrie and me and they get on the wrong buses and we go all over the place) but anyways, it was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously this Island is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should look it up!!!!!!! I forgot my camera today so I'll upload pictueres from it next week but seriously it was DANG COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was SUPER cool too because not very many missionaries get to go to it because you need to get special promission from President Ward becuase you have to take a 45 minute boat ride. But we got to go and it was SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't heard anything from president about Christmas yet. But tomorrow is our Christmas party so I'll ask him about it tomorrow and I'll let you know. But I've asked around and nobody has said anything about the no skype thing. Even all the old people who were here last christmas said that President let them skype last year so I'll ask him about it tomorrow but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to Skype. The only thing that's going to happen is that changes are on the 20th of this month and since I've been in Pedregal for 3 changes I'm 95% sure I'll get changed to a new area 5 days before christmas which is a bummer... So I it will be a little frustrating but it will be fine. My package hasn't come yet but like I said the Christmas party is tomorrow so my package might be sitting in the office and I might get it tomorrow. It's pretty sweet we're having our party in Cardinas which is pretty much the richest part of Panama (it's where all the rich gringos live) . It's right next to the Temple. So we'll probably get some pretty good gringo food (so not rice) and it should be pretty sweet!!!!!!!!! 

I got to watch the Christmas devotional on Sunday which was pretty sweet!!!!!!!! It was in Spanish but I can understand 90% of spanish now but it was just kind of different not hearing the propeht and apostles talk in english. But it was still REALLY good!!!!!!!!!! I really liked President Eyring's talk!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The church that was broken into wasn't my church it was the stake center and it was broken into 3 times. They never caught the person who broke in. They're installing a security system so that will be good. But yeah all the members are good. 

It sounds like you all are doing good!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha that story about Emma not cleaning her room is PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha SO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's cool that you got to go to Christmas around the world!!!!!!!! Yeah Kyla was telling me about it. Anyways, like I said everything is going good here!!!!!!!!!!!! Things are going good and my spanish is coming along really well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 12/4/12

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

Everything's pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!! My investigators are frustrating but good. A lot of them just don't want to come to church for whatever reason but they're good. Something pretty cool that I don't think I told you about is we're teaching this lady Maricruz. One day she came up and asked us who Mormon was. And then we visited her and she told us that gringo missionaries have been coming to her lavamatico (sorry for the life of me I can't remember the english word for that) to wash their clothes and she said that she's been starting to think that it's a sign or something. So yeah she's pretty golden, well other than the fact that she doesn't come to church. But anyways, for a while we'd been noticing this big posters and signs painted on walls that say "Votar Maricuz" so like campaign posters and stuff. And so we were curious to see if that was the same Maricruz so one day we asked her about it and aparently she's running for some delegate or something like that. So yeah, no big deal, we're just teaching someone famous. Ha ha but yeah anyway, we're teaching her again today so hopefully she finally understands the importance of church attendance and comes to church this Sunday!!!!!!! Also, Carlos is getting baptized this Saturday which I'm SUPER excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he is too!!!!!!!!!!! 

Oh also the reason why I'm writing on Tuesday again this week is because we went to this Island called Taboga yesterday and we got back late so we had no time (well we could've got back on time but nobody listens to Elder Barrie and me and they get on the wrong buses and we go all over the place) but anyways, it was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously this Island is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should look it up!!!!!!! I forgot my camera today so I'll upload pictueres from it next week but seriously it was DANG COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was SUPER cool too because not very many missionaries get to go to it because you need to get special promission from President Ward because you have to take a 45 minute boat ride. But we got to go and it was SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't heard anything from president about Christmas yet. But tomorrow is our Christmas party so I'll ask him about it tomorrow and I'll let you know. But I've asked around and nobody has said anything about the no skype thing. Even all the old people who were here last Christmas said that President let them skype last year so I'll ask him about it tomorrow but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to Skype. The only bad  thing that's going to happen is that changes are on the 20th of this month and since I've been in Pedregal for 3 changes I'm 95% sure I'll get changed to a new area 5 days before christmas... So it will be a little frustrating but it will be fine. My package hasn't come yet but like I said the Christmas party is tomorrow so my package might be sitting in the office and I might get it tomorrow. It's pretty sweet we're having our party in Cardinas which is pretty much the richest part of Panama (it's where all the rich gringos live) . It's right next to the Temple. So we'll probably get some pretty good gringo food (so not rice) and it should be pretty sweet!!!!!!!!! 

I got to watch the Christmas devotional on Sunday which was pretty sweet!!!!!!!! It was in Spanish but I can understand 90% of Spanish now but it was just kind of different not hearing the prophet and apostles talk in English. But it was still REALLY good!!!!!!!!!! I really liked President Eyring's talk!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The church that was broken into wasn't my church. It was the stake center and it was broken into 3 times. They never caught the person who broke in (but they probably didn't look very hard because it was a LDS chapel and the cops don't really care about it all that much) but they're installing a security system so that will be good. But yeah all the members are good. 

It sounds like you all are doing good!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha that story about Emma not cleaning her room is PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha SO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's cool that you got to go to Christmas around the world!!!!!!!! Yeah Kyla was telling me about it. Anyways, like I said everything is going good here!!!!!!!!!!!! My Spanish is coming along really well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!