Week #17 in Panama!

Hello!

So I may have used all my time talking back and forth with my missionary brother. Oops. So this email wont be too terribly long. Sorry about that. But not all that sorry because I love talking to my missionary brother  hahaaa. Anyway! Im getting a new comp today. Thats a story and a half. But I am very happy about this surprise change. My new comp is Hna N.? Something like that. Shes ginga latina, which means her parents are latino I think but shes from the states. Which means shes speaks english haha. Which is easier but not so good for my spanish haha. But we are going to set serious goals to keep working at my spanish and speak it as much as we can with each other! I havent met her yet but Ive talked on the phone with her and she seems really great. We are going to meet up in a little while and sleep in Panama tonight and then head back to Colon tomorrow. Im really excited about this change. Also, this is my new comps last change in the mission. She goes home after this change which means I will be in this area for at least one more change following the one we are in right now. Which ends March 18th. Almost half of my mission in one area. Super crazy but I feel good about it. I think its going to be really good. Shoot I have to go because I have to leave like right now, but know that I love you all SOO much and Im sorry that this email is so short and that Im not sending pictures this week! Talk (vie email) to you all on Monday!

Hna Anderson

Week #16 in Panama!

oloooooo¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ 

One of the crazy elders put that thing above because hes waiting for me to get done so he can write. Silly Mexican. I dont know what it means. Anyway. I had a pretty cool week this week. First of all, Im sorry that I dont send many updates about the work. There isnt a whole lot to tell because right now we are working with a lot of investigators, but none of them are coming to church, so we dont have any progessing. But we have faith that eventually they will!

So this week was pretty normal, just the same old stuff of contacting and teaching lessons. This email probably wont be very long, but I will try and share what I can remember. Ive been super bad about remembering to check my journal before I come here. PS!!! After this I get to see HNA P.!!!! Her comp is dying (going home) this week and Colon was her favorite area so Theyre here today visiting and we are going to see them after this!! Im SOO EXCITED!

Anywho. The week was normal as far as the work goes. Worked hard, No one came to church. Sad day, but going to keep praying and working hard! BUT on Saturday, we had our Chirstmas conference for the mission which was super cool. We all went to Panama and went to an orphanage to play with the kids there. It was sad but it was cool that we were able to help them feel the Christmas spirit. We also watched Ephraims rescue. It was AWESOME! Ive never seen it. You all should watch it. I got to see J. again and almost all of my CCM friends which is always fun. So that was Saturday.

Yesterday we got to watch the Christmas Devo in English! That was pretty awesome. However, I could feel myself holding back from thinking about it too much to keep from getting trunky haha. I do that a lot right now with Christmas coming. Also, we were at the stake center with the whole stake watching it, everyone else in Spanish obviously, and we had an investigator show up totally unexpected! It was awesome, and really showed us that Heavenly Father gives us tender mercies.

So those were the highlights of my week. We find out changes tomorrow and Ill let you know next week what happens!! Im nervous because I really have no idea what is going to happen. Please pray today that the president will be inspired to make the decisions that the Lord would have him make!! Love and miss you all soo much!!! Have an Awesome birthday mama and Brenny! I love you lots!!!

Hermana Anderson

Week #15 in Panama!

I dont have much time left, but Ill write a quick gen email.

So Tuesday was fun because we have consejos in Panama at 5 so we got to go and see everyone and I saw Hna J.!! Shes the best. I actually just saw her again a few minutes ago because we are in Panama again today. And we will be back again on Saturday for the mission christmas party, which Im really excited about! So that was Tuesday. It was also an extra awesome day because I got my GIGANTIC package. Everyone was freaking out about how big it was and telling me that my family LOVES me. I just said I know hahaa. It was awesome. We got home super late that night, but the next day I had my comp open it to get the decorations out and I decorated!!! Ill send pics! Thanks so much for the package and the decorations!!! I LOVE my tree and the cards and the santas and the balloons. I love it all. Tell gunnar I understood ALL of his little card to me, which made me feel good about my spanish haha. Thank you all for the other cards, too! Im so excited for Christmas eve to be able to see what else is in the big ol box. Everyone thinks Im crazy for waiting, but I know itll be soo worth it and itll make that night a little easier I think. 

Sooo skip to thursday. I wasnt really sad because I prayed A LOT not to be. And like corson said, its a lot easier when you just work work work and not think to much. And thats what we did. And then we went to The chirus for dinner and the made us a thanksgiving dinner!! It was sooo good and I was so happy! I didnt get to make my pumpkin pie, but we had apple pie which was good too. Ill send pics. They are the BEST. It definitely made the holiday a lot better. And I told them how I knew you guys were in the stores at that time and they thought that was so funny.

Thats about the jist of my week. Ill send pics now. I hope you all had an awesome thanksgiving!! Love and miss you all!!!

Hermana Anderson

Week #14 in Panama!

Hello mis amores.

What a week this had been!! So last monday night my comp was feeling sick again, but she didnt have a fever so we went to bed hoping she would sleep it off. When we woke up the next morning the first thing she said was for me to call the nurses. She was feeling rough and burning up. So we headed for the hospital again. We got there at 830 and were there until about noon. She had to have an IV and all that jazz. Shoot, am I grateful for the nice clean hospitals we have in the states. you guys, we are SO blessed to have all that we have. Anyway, it ended up being something with her bladder. Another infection I think because she doesnt drink enough water. So we went home and stayed home again that day. The next day she was still feeling rough and I was really stressed about not having been working in our area since sunday and having SO much that we needed to do, so we called the Pilon hermanas, which is the area next to ours, because we knew that one of them was sick too and couldnt leave the house, so we went to there house and the two sicklies stayed home while the other two of us went out and worked. We worked in Pilon, so I was still worried about my area, but I was grateful to be able to get out of the house and teach. The healthy pilon hermana came home with me that night and I left my comp with her comp (super confusing, sorry) so we could work in my area the next day, thursday. We had a cita on Thursday that was really important because it was with A., who is our investigator who came to church and is super positive. We had a really good lesson with her that day and then taught her again on Saturday. Shes really great and always asks a lot of questions which is awesome because it means she wants to learn. 

M., our investigator with the fecha to be baptized on december 6th, left town for two weeks for work, so we arent sure if he will be able to make his fecha. Theres only one more sunday left before the fecha and he still needs one attendance. When we talked to him, he wasnt sure if he would be gone for the full two weeks, but we are going to hope and pray that he will get home this week so he can go to church! He said hes been reading the BOM though, and hes also been drinking less coffee which is good! Hes so great. The reason we want him to meet his dec 6th fecha is because this change ends on the 10th and we dont know if we will both still be here next change. Prayers would be greatly appreciated! 

A member made us MAC AND CHEESE on Thursday!!! I was so excited. I just wanted to share that haha. I have pictures to share too. American food, oh how I miss it. 

We have a LOT of new investigators. We have been contacting a lot to find new ones and we did find some really positive people to start teaching. Families, even, which is best. We are really excited. The biggest struggle we have, though, is that we can only visit people once a week if at all because casi everyone here works all day every day expect one day out of the week. Some people get a day off every two weeks. Its tricky to help people progess when we only teach them once a week, but its not impossible! We are hopeful!

Thats about it for this week. ENJOY THANKSGIVING AND BLACK FRIDAY!!! Family, I dont know if you knew this, but one month from TOMORROW we get to SKYPE!!!! Im super excited about that! I love you all sooo much!! 

Hna Anderson

Week #13 in Panama!

Hello!! 

Okay so I have quite a bit to write about today. First of all, some members here are going to cook us Thanksgiving dinner for next week!! Im really excited about that because Im a little nervous for how Ill feel on the holidays. Itll really help to do something special for them. Im going to make a libbys pumpkin pie and bring it because they dont eat pumpkin anything here haha I bet theyll hate it, but thats okay more for me! Also funny thing, they have black friday here too. They actually call it black friday, in english and everything. I know our ZLs wanted to ask president if we could move our P day next week to friday so we could go to Panama and shop but I have a feeling theres not a very good chance thatll happen haha. Mom I hope you and Whit are planning on going and shopping!! Black friday is the greatest. 

So let me tell you a little about whats been happening in the work this week. We have been leaving a lot with Hna G., the recent convert who just got sealed to her family a few weeks ago and she has introduced us to sooo many of her friends and theyre so positive!! We have had some really awesome lessons this week. One of them was with A., who visited with the missionaries before but nothing ever came from it. We visited her twice this past week and yesterday she came to church with Hna G.!! So that was awesome. M. also came yesterday so his fecha is still good for December 6th! We just have to get him off coffee haha but we taught him the Word of Wisdom this past week, too, and he seemed really receptive to it. Hes receptive to everything, really, hes just so prepared. We are really excited about him and A. both. We are anxious to see what happens the next three weeks of this change! 

So Thursday and Friday we were having lots of trouble with the water and power in the city. Both kept going out. For a while, most of Friday, we were without power AND water. We were out working so we didnt know it until we went to a members house late in the afternoon and they told us. I knew something was different because EVERYONE was outside hanging out. I loved it. I told my comp how the power going out is the greatest because everyone is forced to spend time together because theres no tv or internet hahaa. Its so true. I told her the story, as best I could in Spanish, about the ice storm that took the power out for so long and how we hung out talking in the living room by candle light for most of the night. I have some awesome memories with the family when the power was out! So we had a noche de hogar that night and when we got there the power was still out, but I had ran home and got my flashlight so we were able to see with that. My comp had been asking me before what we were going to teach if there was no power and I remembered that I just read a story in a liahona about a little boy asking his parents if they could have FHE (family home evening) in the dark and they did and used a flashlight to teach a lesson on the light that the gospel brings into our lives. So we taught that same lesson and I think it went pretty well. It was fun. I dont mind when the power is out, but Im not a big fan of showering with bottled water when the water is out!

Ive learned a little about cutting and cooking with raw vegetables this past week. I always used canned at home, so I had to learn. I thought I knew how to cook a little until I came hear and tried to help them cook latino food and looked like I had never cooked a single thing in my life haha. But Im learning!

I made banana bread for a baptism the elders had on Saturday!! It turned out weird, I thought, but everyone loved it. I think only because its something different haha. It was fun to bake something again though. I miss that!!

Okay well thats about it for this week. Its been a full one! Im excited to see what this next week brings. I love and miss you all lots!!! Enjoy Nana and Papa for these next couple of weeks!!

Love, 

Hna Anderson

Week #12 in Panama!

Hola mis amores!!

Soooo the first thing Im going to share is something that I realized last monday but forgot to tell you all. So Last monday was my first p-day with my comp and when we were doing laundry she told me my soap isnt good for cleaning, it only makes my clothes smell good. So I got a little frustrated and was like nooo Ive been using this for ten weeks and my clothes have been clean. Come to find out, she was right. Id been using fabric softener to clean my clothes the entire time Id been in Panama. How embarrassing and how gross right? My clothes never smelled bad, so I think it still cleaned them but obviously not as well as actual laundry detergent haha. I couldnt read the label, it was in spanish. Ahhh my little confusing spanish life. =)

Ohhh I wanted to tell Corson that I downloaded that talk and put it on my mp3 and have listened to it many times this past week. Its SUPER good. I love it. Hes funny. Im learning a lot every time I listen to it.

So this week I squeezed lemons, a lot of lemons, to make real lemonade. It was lots of fun. Ill send pictures. I did it with the grandkids of our mama sanchez. People here always serve us real lemonade but this was the first time I helped make it. So many things Im learning to make for you guys when I get home!

So we are still working a lot with M. and M. They're so awesome and love learning about the gospel. They had to go to Bocas for a funeral this past weekend and we taught them a couple of hours before they had to leave and we left them the word of wisdom folleto to read before our next lesson and manuel was like Okay Im going to go put this in my bag right now so I can read it on the bus to bocas! Hes the greatest. We have really high hopes for them. Just gotta help them understand the sabbath and the importance of attending church, but theyll get there!

So my comp woke up super sick on Wednesday and we had to go to Colon to the emergency doctor place. She had an infection in her throat. Super rough. We stayed home wednesday thursday and friday, doctors orders. It was good because she got better, but needless to say I was a little antsy by day three. I was a much happier camper on Saturday when we got to go out and teach! Haha I learned that teaching is what brings me the most happiness and peace here.

I had my first interview with the president yesterday since my first day in Panama. Hes so great!! And I really enjoyed getting to know him a little better. We are so blessed to have such a fantastic president!

Okayy well thats about it for this week! Looking forward to the coming week! Love and miss you all lots!!

Hna Anderson

Week #11 in Panama!

Hello!!

I have a lot to tell this week! First of all, I have a new comp! Her name is Hna C., Shes from Ecuador and she speaks absolutely NO english. My mission just got a whole lot trickier haha. Shes super great though because shes so patient with me and my Spanish. I have to ask her to repeat herself a lot if she talks to quickly for me to catch what she said and shes so good about doing it. Shes super sweet, but shes also super direct. Shes more direct than me even haha. I like it though because shes all business so I think we are going to have a lot of success together. Its a little tougher now, but its soooo good for me because not only am I going to improve so much with my spanish, but I know shes going to teach me so much about patience and the work. Shes really smart. Its going to be a challenge, But I can already tell that its going to be well worth it. 

We can actually communicate pretty well. Better than I thought we would be able to. Im seeing the gift of tounges in action SO much with her. Especially in the lessons. Since Ive already been here for 10 weeks and shes new to the area, Ive had to take the lead quite a bit in the lessons and when we are talking to members because she doesnt know anyone very well yet and doesnt really know their situations yet. Its super interesting listening to myself try and explain things and situations with my very small spanish vocabulary. I sound a bit like I child Im sure, but Im learning. And the important thing is that I CAN do it! Spanish is super cool and Im so blessed to be learning it. I cant wait to learn more and to really master it, no matter how hard it is. Because I know that some day, I WILL know spanish. 

I was a tad trunky on Friday night because of Halloween because you guys know how much I love that holiday! Our dinner got cancelled that night so my comp and I decided to go to McDonalds to celebrate halloween! I hadnt eaten chocolate for over a month because its bad for my skin, but that night I needed a TREAT, so I got myself a hersheys kisses mcflurry =) it was delicious and so worth it! It was a pretty good halloween for the mission haha. I enjoyed it.

We cant seem to get our investigators to understand that they have to come to church to get baptized haha. We had four people accept fechas this week, but two of them already fell because they didnt come to church. So we are going to try and explain that again haha. Panamanians are so great. I love them and their quirky ways. One of the members in our ward who we went to the temple with last change to help her understand sealing and feel more comfortable in the temple told us this week and she wants to get sealed in January!! Im so happy about that and am really hope it happens. Thats such a big step for her. Her husband is ready, but she just wants to be sure so we are helping with that.

This work is so cool and the results are like nothing else. The mission isnt easy, but no one ever said it would be. Its teaching me so much and I wouldnt trade it for anything. I love you all and miss you all so much!!!!

Hna Anderson