Week #6 in Panama!

Hello my wonderful family!!

I am going to keep this email very organized because I received lots of emails this week and I want to respond to them! So first of all, I had divisions again this week except this week I stayed in my area and my comp left. My new temp. comp was one of our zeta ellas, Hna. A. She speaks zero english!! It was such a good experience for me though because she doesnt know my area so it was really a test for me on my knowledge of my area and my spanish. I know a lot more than I thought I did! We went to a members house for dinner and I was obviously speaking spanish because I had no choice and they got mad at me, jokingly, because they said I speak way more than they thought and I need to be speaking more! Theyre definitely right. I will learn so much quicker if I just SPEAK. And listen. The gift of tongues is so real though. I really shouldnt know or understand as much as I do after just three months.

The day after that we had a service project with the whole zone bright and early in the morning. We went to the Wako Mormon, this big <area> where all the mormons live, and carried heavy buckets of mud back and forth. It was lots of fun actually and it felt good to work out. My body felt like it got hit by a bus the day after though. Totally worth it. Anyway we got SUPER dirty and muddy and sweaty during this project and as we were leaving and saying goodbye to the members, one of them told me la agua se fue. I knew what that meant, that the water left, but I didnt put it together that it also meant there is no water in the city and we would not have water in our house when we got home. So yes, after the messiest day of my mission, I did not get to shower. Luckily, we had a water reserve for an occasion such as this and were able to rinse off with 2 liter soda bottles filled with water. It was quite an experience haha but I rolled with it. Until we got home that night and still had no water. Thats when I started getting a little concerned. Right after my comp said the prayer before we started planning, I started complaining about having to go to bed disgusting. And sure enough right as I was whining we heard the water come on. Sweetest sound ever! Definitely taught me a lesson on faith!!

As far as the work goes, we are still moving along trying to find investigators who are going to progress. We found about 5 new investigators this past week, though, so hopefully some or all of them will progress this coming week! The focus of Colon is Menos Activos, so we work a lot with them, but its always wonderful to teach investigators. We actually found these two sisters yesterday from a reference and they seemed super positive. We teach them again this week so Im really excited for that. The problem, though, is that one of them just had a baby a few weeks ago and she believes in this myth that her mom told her that says that she cant take her baby out of the house in the morning or night time for three months. So we are going to have to really rely on the Lord to help us figure out a way to get her to church at 9 in the morning!

We watched the Womens General Broadcast on Saturday in ENGLISH!! The gringas in our zone all watched it together. It was amazing and somethings I will never forget. We had so much fun listening to it together and being uplifted. I cannot tell you how excited I am for conference this weekend. We will get to watch it in English too, which is such a blessing. My heart is sooo happy. I cant wait to learn from the prophet and apostles. GET EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!!!

Soo we had shrimp. Again yesterday. But I got creative. So heres what I did. I peeled all of them. They were smaller this time which meant he gave us more. So I peeled them all and took all their little legs off and put them in a pile. I took my time doing this. I was trying to buy time figuring out how to get away with not eating them without offended him. Once I peeled them, I looked at the pile and got the GREATEST idea. I put all the peeled ones under the pile of shells and legs and nastiness. It was genius. It all blended in and I didnt eat a single one. Haha my comp said Im evil but I think Im just creative. hahahaa

My comp might leave me this wednesday! Its cambio week and shes been in this area for almost 7 months so theres a good chance she might go and I might get another comp. The president knows we want to stay together on more change, though, so we know that if she does go itll be because the president received revelation that she needed to go. So even though we both do want one more change, we will be content with whatever happens!! I will let you all know next week! I love you all lots and Im going to try and respond to some of the other emails now!!

Hna. Anderson