Week #10 in Panama!

Hola mis amores!! 

How are you all doing? Family, I thought we had an understanding about weekly emails. Wheres this weeks? =) (Family did email, but she did not receive.). Shoot this past week has been such a cool one. So many things have happened. This email is going to be a lot better than last weeks!

So first off, a bit of bad news, our one investigator who we thought was going to progress super quickly didnt come to church yesterday so his baptism cita fell. That was sad. But we are going to keep working with him and hope and pray that he will someday get there! Hes so awesome and is in a really perfect time in his life to accept the gospel.

So last Thursday night I think it was, we were leaving a cita in Nuevo Mejico 1 and we needed to get to Nuevo Mejico 2 for cena. So we started to walk and then my comp asked if I wanted to go by taxi since we were already late. So we stopped and not 5 seconds later a man called over to us from across the street and wanted to talk to us. Hes about 25 or so. So we started talking to him and he told us that hes been looking for us and he asked where the chapel is. Turns out his girlfriend lives in another part of panama and shes LDS and hes been learning about the gospel with her. Hes been going to church faithfully with her and hes been reading the book of mormon! And he lives SO close to us!!! We couldnt believe what he was telling us. It was such a miracle. So we are going to start teaching him and he said hes going to start coming to our church here. We are so excited about him. We feel like he is so prepared. 

So we have cambios this week because this was a short change of only 4 weeks. We are 99.9 percent sure that my comp will be leaving me because she only has two cambios after this one before she dies <goes home> and shes been in our area for 7 months, so shes due. Which makes me sad, but Im also super excited to experience another comp, possibly a latina who speaks little or no english. Ive learned SO much from J. and I am SO SO grateful to have had her as my comp. From what Ive heard from basically everyone is that you eventually come to really not like your trainer during your training just because its a difficult position to be in as a missionary, but that has not been the case AT ALL with her and I. Shes so great and Im going to miss her so much but Im so excited for this next phase of my mission!

Also, something you should know about latinos is that they are super blunt and a very popular talking point with them is the weight of others. Its not offensive to them. At all. They will tell you if youve gained weight or not. The other night we were at Hna S.'s house and she just looked me up and down and said Id gotten fat. I just said yo se hahaaa. And everyone always comments on the tummy pooch Im getting haha. Its not offensive though somehow because its just so normal here. I embrace it haha. I just hope I dont come home calling everyone fat, my comp is really worried that shes going to do that when she goes home because shes so used to it here haha. Its awesome. Latinos are awesome. 

We have a menos activa that we are working with who is sooo ready to come back, she just doesnt know it yet. We have been working with her for a couple of weeks and the other day when we went to visit her she was reading the bible so we asked her what she had been reading and she said she was studying it with a folleto that some <person of other faith> brought by to find out, get this, what the true church is. She asked the <people> that question and they told her no one knows what the one true church is. Silly silly. WE KNOW!! She was baptized without a testimony when she was really young, which is why she doesnt have a testimony of the true church yet but she really wants to know and she will realize it. We are going to work a lot with her.

I made patacones all by myself in my apartment!! I really wanted to cook something because itd been so long since I had so we bought the platanos and the oil and I made them. They were ugly but oh so good. I will send pictures.

Okay now for the best part. We went to the temple on Saturday to be there for the sealing of a family in our ward who were baptized a year ago. Oh my gosh you guys it was the most amazing thing ever. We all bawled. Id never seen a whole family be sealed together, it was so wonderful. It made everything so real listening to the words of the sealer. We really can be with our families forever. It was amazing to witness such a beautiful and spiritual moment for that family. Im so grateful to have been a part of it.

I love you all and miss you SO SO much!! Have a great week!

Hna Anderson

Week #9 in Panama!

Okay I had a ton of emails to read this week so this email is going to be a little shorter.

 

First of all, I FINALLY got to go to the temple this week! It was all in Spanish, but it was so so amazing. I couldnt believe the feeling I had there. It was unlike anything else. Does that make sense? My english is starting to suffer. But seriously, it actually hurt me to have to leave the temple. I was so sad! But we get to go again this saturday because its the stake temple day and we also have a family of recent converts in our ward who are getting sealed!! They are soo great  and we are so excited for them! They invited my comp and I to be there for the sealing so we are extra excited!

 

I did divisions again this week. I went with our new zeta ella. Shes so great but I have a super hard time understanding her spanish for whatever reason. haha. We had some super awesome lessons though. We taught almost all of our current investigators that day actually. That always seems to happen to me on division days. She really pushed me out of my comfort zone though because she basically made me run all of the lessons! It was super hard and I was super tired by the end of the day, but my spanish definitely got better after that day. I really want a latina comp next change who speaks no english because even though it will be SO hard, it will be so worth it in the long run because I know my spanish will improve so much.

 

Ummm. I cant remember what else happened this week. I know there was more haha but I didnt have time to look over my journal this morning, so this is all you get this week! Haha sorry! But I love and miss you guys so much and next weeks email will be better I promise!!

Hna Anderson

Week #8 in Panama!

Hello!!

So I received a TON of emails this week, thanks so much you guys!!! i love hearing from everyone. Okay so ... this computer is super slow so im not going to have as much time as usual. But Im going to try to respond to a few emails anyway after this one. 

so First of all, I finally have some things to share about the people we are working with because we finally have consistent people! Ever since I got here we were really just looking for new people and working a lot with menos activos. But now thanks to some really great references from other missionaries who have served in this area and from members, we have steady investigators! First of all, we have m. and m. and they are just SO sweet! We love them. They are brother and sister and theyre older and dont really have good memories so every time we go back and ask them what they remember from the lesson before, they have forgotten haha but we´re working on that haha. M. came to church on Sunday and he seemed to really enjoy it. He said he learned a lot which is really good. The only problem with M. is that she has a tienda in her house that she runs all day every day so we are really going to have to figure out a way for her to be able to come to church. Prayers would be appreciated!! then we have O., who I told you guys about least week and shes still super positive. She told us this week when we visited her that ever since we started coming by shes felt something different inside her. Yay! We told her about that being the Spirit and she was super happy.

So the other night was a rough one for my stomach. We did a service project in the morning of cleaning another house and we expected it to only last through the morning but we ended up not getting done until 2p so we didnt get to out lunch cita until 4p <or so>. I think maybe thats what freaked my stomach out because my body is super used to getting food at very specific times since we have the same meal schedule pretty much every day. But my stomach was feeling a little weird right after we ate but it wasnt until we were walking to dinner a couple hours later that it hit me. Super painful stomach pains! So what do you do when that happens as a missionary? You bathroom hop. The first time we were by a members house so we went there so I could use their bathroom and I thought I was good. But when this happens, it comes in two different rounds and I knew that but I was hoping it wouldnt come back for the second round. Well it sure did so we went to a random house and asked to use the bathroom. It was super interesting haha. My comp was able to contact the lady while I was in there though and we found out that her brother is LDS. Super cool and super funny that entire experience. And then I felt great and went and ate a whole other meal.

We had a stake service project cleaning up colon centro last saturday that went really well. We had a really good turn out. We cleaned and painted. However they forgot to tell us that the paint we were using was oil <based>paint not water <based> paint. Which means water and soap does not get it off. Only gasloine and other ridiculous things like that. So of course by the time we found this out, we were a mess in this paint and my comps leg was on fire because she spilled a ton of it on herself and its super bad to have that much of it on your skin. So we ran to the store to get paint thinner to get it off. She was in so much pain. Dont get oil paint on your skin! Just use water paint like normal people. 

We get to FINALLY go to the temple tomorrow! We are taking a couple from our ward who are married and have both only been through the temple the first time and thats it. They also havent been sealed so we´re taking them to do a session to help them make that decision. Im SO excited. Its been WAY too long! Itll be super interesting in Spanish though.

Okay thats probably good for this week. Im going to try and respond to some emails now. Love and miss you all!! Talk to you next week!

Hna. Anderson

Week #7 in Panama!

Hi!

Soooo great news! I got to keep my comp for one more change!!! I´m super happy about that and she is too. However, this change is a short change. Its only four weeks so it will end the last week in October. Sad. But that just means we have A LOT of work to do in the next 3 weeks! We have some big plans and ideas for the people we are working with. We wont have any baptisms together because people have to attend church 3 times before baptism and the only one of our investigators who can still do that this month isnt married to his girlfriend and they live together so marriage has to come first. Our goal this change is to get a lot of our investigators married actually. Such an interesting job we have as missionaries hahaa.

So last week we did a service project at a members house whos really sick and whos mom is also fighting cancer. Its a really sad situation. We had to just show up ready to work because they wouldnt accept our help otherwise. Good thing Im bossy and the member we went with is bossy too haha. So I was cleaning off the kitchen table that had all sorts of goodies on it and I lifted a bag of rice and cockroaches scattered everywhere from underneath it. The elders were determined to make us not afraid of them so they made us squish and kill them. We killed a lot that day. And those suckers are the size of my thumb. Ill send pictures. So that was fun.

Its felt really good to be in the second change. Way better than the first change. I think its because I know Im making progress now and time really is passing afterall haha. This past week has been really cool because Ive really started to understand the Spanish. Even Panamanian Spanish. It blows my mind how much more I understand than even just a week ago. Gift of tounges! Super real. I also know its real because my spanish goes in and out. One lesson I wont be able to speak for anything. And then the next lesson Ill be able to speak again just fine. I know thats the Lord humbling me. 

Conference was AWESOME wasnt it??? I LOVED it! We watched in in the church in English upstairs in a classroom and the rest of the stake watched it downstairs in the chapel in Spanish. It was so nice to listen to in English. I was remembering how I was THERE in the conference center last year. Its insane how much has happened and changed since then. I want to hear what you guys thought of it and which talks you liked best!

It was superrr cool because in the last session, we had an investigator come for the last hour of it and it was PERFECT because of Elder Bednars talk specifically for non-members. We couldnt believe how happy we were. It was so so perfect. We hope she was able to really hear it and that the spirit testified to her of the truth of what he was saying! We didnt get to talk to her much after because she had to get going quickly, but we are hopefully going to see her tomorrow so we will have to see what she thought.

Well I think thats about all I have for this week!! I love you all and miss you lots!!! I hope you all have a GREAT week!

Hna. Anderson

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

Week #5 in Panama!

Hi all!!

So I usually make a list before I come here of the things I want to talk about, but I forgot to this week, so if this email is crazy and confusing, I apologize.

Anyways, this past week was a good one. Very different. Tuesday was just a normal day and I don´t remember anything special happening. Just lots of work work work!! My poor body hates me. Nothing I do here is good for it. Ive gained weight already for sure. Its inevitable with the food we eat here! I just dont want you all to be shocked when I come home 50 lbs heavier haha. Mom, you´ll have to sign me up at your gym!

Wednesday we had our first Zone Conference. It was actually a multi zone conference so a lot of the missionaries in the mission were there. This computer has auto correct in Spanish, so if you see random spanish words its because I was trying to say something in english and the computer changed it. Sorry haha. Anyway, it was fun because we got to see a lot of the missionaries that we came here from the CCM with. It was good to catch up on how our missions have been going. It was also cool because the mission pres and his wife spoke to us and his wife cant speak spanish so her talk was in english which was a nice break. She told us that Pres Carmack went through the WTC 25 minutes before the first plane hit on his way to work because he worked a couple of blocks from there at the time. How crazy is that! Its insane to think that the Lord protected him because he still had so much work to do here on this earth, including being our mish president. Super cool. After the conference we went to Albrook, which is one of the bigger malls in Panama City and is actually where I am right now, and ate as a zone. It was fun but it felt strange because we kinda felt like a bunch of college kids out for the night haha. Oh the strange life of a missionary.

Ummm Thursday I dont remember much happening either that was anything different than the normal day to day stuff. Actually Friday or Saturday either. I really need my journal to remind me of these things because my days just all blend together! Oh wait! Friday, we taught the seminary class here. Actually my comp taught and I agreed with what she was saying haha. It was fun. The Jóvenes here, the teenagers, have such strong, awesome testimonies!! A lot of them are converts, too. Im so impressed by them, especially since they have so much working against them here. Three of the jóvenes in our Ward who are also recent converts did visits and contacting with us yesterday and it was really good and the spirit was so strong when they bore their testimonies. I loved it. Speaking of yesterday, I do have a Little bit to say about that. First of all, church was good. Probably because I took the Liahona in English and read it during Sacrament meeting because I just really wanted to learn something at church haha. But I did and so it was good! Im starting to build stronger relationships with the members here, even though the language barrier makes that a super tough thing to do. But Im trying!! Also, yesterday when we were contacting we contacted this lady who has apparently read the BOM and was telling us we are evil and of the devil. I didnt know she was saying this until my comp told me after. I could tell though that the things she was saying weren´t positive about the góspel though by her tone and the way my comp was responding. While I was listening I just felt that I needed to bear my testimony and so I did and it was probably super confusing and made no sense, but Im glad I did it. I hope she realizes the truth some day.

Today we had a multi zone p day here in Panama. We played sports and had a real good time. However, the sun was super strong and Im fried. Not too Smart, but I really didnt even think to put sunscreen on when we left this morning. Im going to be feeling it tomorrow though! Its okay, Im a missionary, its part of the job!

Okay well I think thats all for today. Ill talk to you all next week!

Love and miss you all!!

Love,

Hna. Anderson

Week #4 in Panama!

Hello ...

First of all, today was super cool. We got to go to Portabelo, not sure if thats how you spell it, but it was soooo pretty. its a touristy place. We went as a zone. Lots of fun, I will send pics!!

Okay now for this past week!! It was a really good week and I have some pretty great things that Im excited to share with you all! Okay soo in the beginning of the week I was trunky for the first time since I left home. So that was a bummer. But I prayed A LOT for help with that, and the Lord came through! Any time I felt trunky, I just prayed and it didnt last long. I could NEVER do this without Him. Never. 

Then on Tuesday we started an English class! We taught it with the other gringo elder companionship in our area and it was super fun. I didnt actually teach that much, because I dont even know enough spanish to teach an english class. Way sad haha. But it was still fun and it actually helped me with my spanish to see it taught in reverse. 

On Wednesday we went to menos activos house and her son taught us how to make platanos, also not sure if thats how you spell it, but they are my FAVORITE here in Panama and Im determined to find them in the states because theyre fried and delicious and Im going to need them when Im home haha. I just love the food here. Everything is better in Panama. Everything. I eat a lot. WAY more than I ever ate at home. Which I thought was just because I exercise here a lot more with all the walking, which it is, but other hermanas were telling me that its also a mental thing. Since eating is the only normal thing left in your life, you love it SO much more. Same with sleeping. Haha its the best. 

So we were contacting on Friday, I think it was, and we had just visited a lady who gave us this nasty drink that I totally dumped out when she wasnt looking, it was the worst, and we were kind of bummed because we just could not find investigators for anything. Super discouraging. But then we were walking in this different part of our area that I had never seen before so I asked my comp if we could stop and take a picture. And then after I took it my comp asked me if I wanted to contact the house we stopped in front of. I said yes and we did and she let us right in and we had the coolest lesson. It was a woman and her two daughters, 17 and 10, and theyre jehovas witnesses or something like that but theyre really religious so they had lots of fantastic questions. They were like those perfect questions the investigators ask in the District. It was really cool and we really needed it because we kept getting people who would listen but then just say that we all worship the same god 

<etc.>. But these three were REALLY listening. And in her prayer when we left she prayed for the Lord to let her know if this church is true. We were super excited. We teach them again tomorrow night so we will see what happens!

Okay so now for my super cool experience that I had this week. So we were at dinner and the elders who share our area were at dinner at the house right below us. When we were leaving we past the house they were eating in and I just had this super nagging feeling that we were forgetting to tell or ask them something. But when I asked my comp if we were she said we werent so we just kept walking. But then when my comp started walking up the stairs to the street I still had this super nagging feeling except this time it was that we should wait for them. So I told my comp and we went back to where the elders were and asked them how long they would be and they said a while because they still hadnt eaten. It was already 830p and we needed to be home by 9p so I just said that we could go. So when we got up to the street my comp said that we would pray before we started for home. So I said the prayer, in english so I could say what I wanted to say, and in my prayer I asked Heavenly Father to protect us and to let us know if we should change our plans to walk home. And keep in mind that we walk home alone like every night at this time and its really safe so the fact that I was feeling like we shouldnt wasnt normal. So anyway after we said the prayer, we took not five steps down the road and the entire city went black. No power anywhere. Right as we happened to walk by hno and hna s.'s house, who are our super awesome <friends> here in colon. So we immediately went in their house with them. The power came on like five minutes later but we definitely waited for the elders after that. It was insane you guys. I have never experienced anything like that before. Missionaries are SOOO protected. We will never know if the Lord was protecting us from the power going out because that wouldve been super scary to walk home without street lights or if that was His way of telling us to wait for the elders, but regardless we know He was watching over us!! It was so cool. We were in awe the whole rest of the night haha. The mission is so cool.

Hmm what else. Okay so I locked our keys in the house. That was a bummer haha. We called our landlord to bring us a spare and he was like okay Ill be there in like ten minutes so we waited like an hour and called him again and hes like oh I forgot! And he drove all the way to work with them an hour away and wouldnt be back until after midnight. And then he started talking to my comp about us staying in his wifes house or something ridiculous like that. that was never going to happen, so I went to the neighbor and asked for two wire hangers and started bending those to use as a hook to get our keys from under the door because we have this slot under the door and the keys were just in the door. I tried for SO long, but I could make it work. I kept telling my comp that Corson would be able to figure it out! haha. But it all ended up okay because our super nice landlord asked his friend to bring us a spare so we were able to get in. It was an adventure though.

I had some super nasty food experiences yesterday, also for the first time since Ive been here. A lot of firsts this week. We had fish for lunch, which was fine and doable but then we went to a menos activos house and he insisted on cooking for us. He made shrimp. Big shrimp. I had a real hard time getting that down. My lovely comp even took one of mine because she just drowns it in hot sauce and it able to get it down haha. And I think I ate a bug that was in the rice. I brushed my teeth so much when I got home. It was a rough day for my taste buds yesterday haha.

Well I think thats about the gist of my week!!! I love you all and hope youre all doing fantastic!!

Love,

Hna. Anderson