Monday, March 23, 2015

Week #31 in Panama!


Hellooooo.

So Im still in a pretty good state of shock, to be honest with you
all. I thought starting the mission was a dramatic life change, but
thats NOTHING compared to the change of moving to Ustupu (its Ustopu
is the indian dialect they speak here but Ustupu in Spanish, just to
avoid confusion). So Im going to try really hard to get some pictures
to send, but Im not sure how well itll work.

Its BEAUTIFUL out here. I literally live in the middle of the ocean.
On friday we were on a little boat, on the ocean, for five hours. It
was awesome. I loved it. And the sea was super calm so it was sooo
relaxing. It felt like a five hour boat ride on the lake. I kept
telling my comp I felt like I was going on vacation haha it was soo
weird. So we got here and I immediately fell in love with this place.
The people are amazing. The women all wear their specific clothing.
Its called Mola, which is clothes in kuna, their language. The shirts
have the same kind of sewing that I sent you guys home. That
butterfly, thats mola. Im already having my own made! My comp wears
hers every sunday to church. Its awesome. The language is going to be
interesting, I feel a little like Im starting the mission all over
again with the whole not knowing what anyone is saying thing. But we
are going to work SOO hard to learn it! We are determined. It will
open up sooo many more opportunities for us out here in the work.

We live in a very tiny house. Ill try to send pics. But its cute and
perfect. And its all "Anderson-ified" with all my pics so the Anderson
fam has made its mark on San Blas. =) Im literally camping. All day
everyday. I thought I was camping in Panama, but I was wrong. Now Im
REALLY camping. I sleep in a hammock, bathe in bucket water from the
river, drink river water that we have to boil first, and go to the
bathroom in a hole over the ocean. hahaaa Im not kidding. Its awesome
though. Panama totally prepped me though because it doesnt even really
phase me. Im just enjoying the ride. Can you believe it mom? I cant.
haha I never wouldve imagined this. and Ill more than likely be living
this life for a good 6 months or so.

So there is A TON of work to be done. For example. There are about
7000 people on the island, like the town of litch. about 1000 are
baptized. and about 40 or 50 come to church. The church isnt very well
established here, so thats what we are working on. We basically run
the church here, under the direction of our branch president and the
other two or three priesthood holders of course. We teach sunday
school and YW or RS, we speak, and we teach investigators. Church is
in Kuna, but we still do all of our lessons in spanish because most of
them know spanish. There are a lot of changes that need to be made, a
lot of reactivating and strengthening of members and helping the
church to be more organized, along with the normal proselyting that we
still do. We will be VERY busy. But my comp is a rockstar. We are a
lot alike in our thinking and we are going to make a really good team,
I know it. I am sooo excited for the work we are going to do out here
and I know that everything up to this point has been preparing me for
what we need to do here. It will be SOO hard in every single way, but
it will be amazing and all soo worth it.

We did a little island tour a couple of days ago because my comp only
has one change here, so she doesnt know much of the island either. Its
so stinking beautiful. More than one time as we were exploring I felt
like I was in Emerald Isle (North Carolina). Its crazy. I reallyyyy hope I can send
pics. Well thats about the gist of my life now. Im soo happy to be
here and to be a part of the wonderful mission of San Blas, because it
really is like a totally different mission. Our goal is to work to
become a stake by the end of the year, and we KNOW we can do it!!

I love you all sooo much and I hope you are doing great! Have a great
week!! Miss you all!!

Hna. Anderson

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