I don´t have a super lot that I want to write about this week. Things have been hoppin but I´m scared to write about my investigators cause I´m scared they´ll break my heart this week and then I´ll be mad that I wrote about how well they were doing haha.
We have this mickey mouse notebook where we write down names of people we find during cosechas and it's funny cause sometimes we are grumpy and lost and looking in our notebook but we forget that the cover is mickey mouse. Other than that just uhhh enjoy these scenic shots and have a great week!
El "Fat" forever, also featuring Pio Pio (a nasty panamanian fast food restaurant) and my favorite chinese restaurant in the background
Well Hello Everyone 😃 We met lots of weird people this week--like, not in a bad way or anything--I just felt like I stepped into the Twilight Zone. But Hey, we saw 5 monkeys and 2 crocodiles!! It was funny--when we saw the monkeys we got super excited and this guy that was walking down the road laughed at how shocked we were. We also saw some maggots but we don't need to talk about that. There are lots of stories I could tell about this week but I think I'll just tell ONE so I don't fluster myself. It was the most crazy thing. So, we were in the last 3 minutes of Proselyting (we call it cosechas and there's a little more to it, but for the sake of simiplicity we were just proselyting) and we get to this house and yell "Buenas" like we always do and then after a few seconds we hear this voice from the house say "I'll be right there" or something but it was in ENGLISH so my companion and I just gave each other a LOOK because it's RARE that we hear English outside of other gringo missionaries or like Jamaican cab drivers. So anyways, he comes out of his house and we come to find out that he, Michael, was born in Costa Rica but his mom died in childbirth so then he was adopted by 2 Americans that were living in Panama and he's lived here ever since. But he was teaching English back in the 90's and was somehow involved in an explosion/accident/something that put him into a coma for 9 months! and right before he woke up from the coma he heard a clear voice that said "Be at Peace." So anyways because of that explosion he has brain damage that affects his speech (he has a stutter) and his memory and he says some days he'll wake up and only remember how to speak Spanish and other days he'll only be able to speak English (and on those days he just stays in his house because nobody can understand him in English). And we just happened to catch him on an English day! Even more crazy than that, he kept thinking that he'd met me before--just mentioning that my face and voice were familiar to him even though we've never been on that street or talked to him before. So anyways YEAH. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation (which we had "coincidentally" practiced that morning in English by the way) and he said it was absolutely beautiful and he wants to go to the Celestial Kingdom. Then we invited him to be baptized and he said "Yes!" without even hesitating! So yeah, that happened. We're going back to visit with him and I have fears that because of his bad memory he'll just forget that we visited somehow, I don't know. Anyways, I'll keep you all updated on how it ends up but it was super cool. At church on Sunday, I bore my testimony in Spanish, which is a big personal triumph for me. I thought I did pretty well, but then a kind sister came up to me and said she'd be happy to help me with my Spanish. I know she meant well, but I was deflated and embarrassed. Then in Relief Society (women's meeting), the teacher referred to my testimony as a great example of her lesson. I am so grateful for that tender mercy.
Other than that, I don't know. We went on half-day splits with the sister missionary version of the AP's (assistants to the president). It was good I guess. Everything felt like a sneaky test. Oh also I went to migrations (immigration office) again early, early this morning and now I have my 6-months visa! Yay! I only have to go back one more time and then I'll be good to go for the rest of my mission. OK I think I'll end my letter here because I'm on a very bumpy bus and it's very difficult to write. I hope you all had a great Easter! 😃 Stay safe out there and remember... God Loves You...and is mindful of you. 😊😊😊 Hermana Tolman
When I was in the MTC we´d occasionally meet people from Colombia or Ecuador or Honduras and always when we´d tell them that we were headed to Panama they´d get this grave look in their eyes and say ´Panama is hot´ and we´d laugh and they would just look at us and walk away. But now that I´m here I understand why they didn´t laugh with us. Now, if you asked me about Panama, I too would get a grave look in my eyes. Panama is hot. Also very humid. Also people burn their trash on the street so it always smells like fire? Yeah. Also we were in a taxi one day and we found out that we´re 5 minutes from the ocean?? Who knew! I don´t have a ton to say about this week. It went by SUPER quick but it was a little tougher than the other two cause EVERYONE is gone to the ínterior for Semana Santa or to the city for work. Lots of rejection. Lots of sun. Especially Saturday. What an oof of a day. But it´s ok. Also a funny thing is we got bagels and everyone is SUPER enamored by them. They´re like ´donut?´and we´re like ´no it's not sweet, it's like bread´ and then they just stare at them and touch them like they´re from outer space. Also this is super off topic but I always say cocodrilos when I mean cucarachas and always makes for a wild ride. OK I think I have nothing else to say. Except OHH today was the saddest P day ever cause the STLs called us last night and told us we had to go to Panama in the morning for my visa so we got up at 3 a.m. and went all the way to Panama just to find out they made a mistake and so we turned around and went home and we lost lots of P day time. Also I hit my 2 months mark on Saturday and Hermana Strong hit her 5 months on Sunday so we had a little party today and bought ice cream and FANNY PACKS to celebrate.
Have a great week I love you all :):)
Don´t be scandalized by the picture of my back !! It was just super funny cause I wore a shirt one day that had a key hole and I didn´t realize so I got a sunburn and it looks STUPID and its funny
Welcome to Vista Alegre
A message we sent into Pres and Hna Current because they're going home at the end of next transfer
Quick selfie at the Internet Cafe to send to the fam
HELLO EVERYONE! I'm writing my group email on paper as a tricksy way to scam the system because we only have 1 hour to be on the computer and I don't want to waste it typing up a group email. (Thanks Mom for typing my emails and posting them to my blog each week). This week went by SO FAST. Also all the days were unusual. Monday was P day and then Tuesday we had multi-zone conference in Panama (everyone here calls Panama City "Panama" so now that's what I do too cause I'm AGILE). So we had to get up at 3:30 a.m. It was good. Hermana Strong and I were talking ourselves up about how we both like to sing and President Current overheard us and made us go sing in front of everyone on the spot. It was really bad and I don't wanna talk about it but I'm glad I did it cause it was very out of my comfort zone and if I'd chickened and said no that would've been LAME. The whole conference in general was really intimidating and stressful cause they like to pick on the new people. But also it was encouraging to see all the gringo missionaries speaking so fast and so well in Spanish cause it gives me hope that that'll be be me if I work hard. On Wednesday we went on divisions with the STLs (sister training leaders) and I was with Hermana Lopez. She's from Peru and doesn't speak any English. Speaking only Spanish for 24 hours was more doable than I thought but still very tiring. Also their area was way prettier than ours but it had SO MANY HILLS. It made me appreciate the flatness of our area. Tuesday was rough. All our investigators fell through on their commitments and we were just super discouraged and tired. Hermana Strong had the idea to fast for dinner and breakfast and I didn't feel like it but I said "OK fine" cause it's not like I had any better ideas on how to help things. So anyways we started our fast and I'm not even kidding, from the second we said amen Satan was upon us. Just kidding. Friendly people are not Satan. But literally a guy walked out of his house to give us mangoes and then this guy with a pastry truck stopped and gave us free pastries in exchange for the word of God and then another guy gave us Gatorade and it was ridiculous. But somehow we managed to avoid having to eat it in front of them and just put it in our backpacks instead. And THEN we got a call saying we had to go to migrations (immigration office) in the morning which meant getting up at 3:30 again but this time we were fasting. We were sad cause there's this yummy potato thing you can only get when you go to migrations but we couldn't have it. But migrations was happy and good cause I got to see my MTC friends. Then we broke our fast and MY OH MY, fasting works!! Friday was the BEST DAY of my whole mission so far. It was just miracle after miracle after miracle. For example, there's this man we met on like the 2nd or 3rd day I was here and he was super cool and seemed interested in the gospel. But after that day we could NOT find our way back to his house, but then on Friday we were walking and I felt very pushed to the left side of the street and kept seeing the color orange in my head and then long story short, we FOUND him on Friday and now he literally has a baptismal date set. Also Friday was fun because the RAIN has ARRIVED! It's a little bit scary though because the street lights just...explode. Another amazing thing about Friday was we had dinner with some Kuna members and everyone was chattering so fast--I understood everything and talked a lot. OH! I just realized I haven't told you all about Tamerlin!! OK So. Wow. Where do I start? My very first day here at the very first house we went to, this woman tried to give us money and we said "Oh no, sorry, can't" but she kept pushing and we kept saying no but she was getting super mad and offended so we walked out of there with the money and were freaking out cause that's totally against the rules to accept money. So we called the STLs and they were like "I don't know, give it to someone who needs it??" and we were like "Uh, ahh, OK" and then continued on with our day. And THEN, the very LAST house of the night--we met this man named Tamerlin and left a blessing with his family and he was super excited when he saw us in the street and showed us a scripture about messengers of God. As we talked to him more we found that he didn't have any money to feed his kids and grandkids the next day and we left the money with him and came back and taught him every day (always he brings these two little stools for us and sits himself on the ground) and invited him to church. Then not only did he COME to church, but he heard about baptism and "fishers of men" in one of the talks and said, "You are my fishers and I am the fish! When is my baptism?" Anyways it's all just super crazy and he's been reading his Book of Mormon on his own without us telling him to and it's just amazing. Sat/Sun were General Conference and wowza what a delight. It was like a holiday. I have a bunch more to say but my hand is really cramped from writing this so ima just be done. I LOVE YOU ALL :) Hermana Tolman Oh I forgot to include a FUNNY thing: We have this investigator and he just says "OK" to everything and something about it makes me laugh till I cry. For example: We just finished reciting the first vision--there are tears in our eyes as we invite him to pray to God to know for himself if these things are true and if this is truly the restored church of Jesus Christ on the Earth--and then he just super indifferently goes "OK". Anyways yeah, it's really funny, OK bye.
Curly humidity hair
Me n Hna Strong got up the nerve to film ourselves singing together. I've been so TENSE from all this ADJUSTING that it doesn't sound great, but take it or leave it haha
That one metaphor about the two wolves that are fighting and the one that gets fed is the one who wins has been on my mindconstantlysince getting set apart as a missionary. One wolf is doubt and bitterness (doubt that I can actually do this and bitterness against circumstances or mean people) and the other one is Hope. I’m learning that we feed the Hope wolf by preparing the way for the Lord to pour out his miracles to you- by DOING what he’s asked you to do, by LOOKING for people and things to love and for needs to fill, and by not hesitating to resolve what we can resolve because burying and glossing over things is the opposite of hope.
Anyways.
HELLO everyone! I´m here in Panama!! We got up at like 4am last Tuesday (March 26th) and took the train to the airport. It was so weird to pass by South Jordan on the train and see the Oquirrh Mtn temple flash by... like that part in Willy Wonka where they're in the scary tunnel. Or maybe it wasn´t. I can't remember.
Anyways. Being in the airport was a wild ride cause all of us hadn't been in the real world for 6 weeks. Also it was an adjustment to have everyone staring at us and our name tags very indiscreetly and also an adjustment to take people staring at you as an opportunity to start a conversation. It was funny. We went to Chick-fil-A in the Atlanta airport and they asked for my first name and I forgot that was a thing so I panicked and said Anne and the worker raised his eyebrows and kept looking back and forth between my face and my nametag trying to understand. I think he thought my first name was Hermana.
We talked to this guy on the plane to Panama who was headed here for a Bachelor party and left him with a Book of Mormon. Also flying over Florida was super cool cause there was a thunderstorm and we had an aerial view of it. I remember seeing the lights from key west slowly disappear and just flying into the darkness and feeling like that was profound in a way.
Ok, ok what next.
We landed in Panama and the APs (assistants to the mission president) came and picked us up and took us to a hotel. They straight up looked like the Temple Run guys. The first things that hit me when I left the airport were how HOT it is here and how LOUD the birds are, even at 11pm.
Anyways. I´m getting impatient with writing about the first 24 hours so I'll just sum up by saying I was super happy and super sweaty. Also I woke up at like 3am and started getting ready for the day and then realized it was 3am and went back to bed and then did the same thing like 2 or 3 more times throughout the night.
My trainer is Hermana Strong. She just barely got done being trained so both of us are learning a lot together. Also we´re opening this area together. She was in Madrigals in High School and likes Youtube just like me. It´s funny cause we have a lot in common but it still took a while for us to connect. And by a while I mean like 4 days. But that felt like 20 years ago. Lots of things that were super new and weird to me 6 days ago are just the norm now. Like I could make a trash Buzzfeed video about all the types of catcallers. Everyone warns us about how unsafe everything is but my trainer always just says it's safer than her last area so I guess it's fine. It's relatively close to Panama City because they like to keep all the new missionaries close to the city for Visa purposes. Half of our area is super Urban and kind of reminds me of like a sketchy residential part of New York (there's a ton of taxis) but with palm trees and then the other half is super rural feeling and hilly and jungley. Like one time we were walking in the Rural part and stopped to ask for directions and there was this shirtless old man listening to Island Sounding Hymns while picking mangoes from all his mango trees and he gave us some.
Another funny thing is we don't knock on doors or clap at gates, we just yell ¨BUENAS¨ but a bunch of people have pet parrots and so a lot of times there's nobody home but we stand there forever cause we think someone's there but it's just a parrot yelling Buenas back at us.
The physical adjustment has been surprisingly no big deal. Maybe I'm just disgusting or maybe all your prayers are just blessing me to not be bugged. But yeah things are gross. Like our fridge was super black and moldy and had dead cockroaches in it and so did our shower but I just kind of shrug and move on. I understand a lot of what people are saying and can follow conversations but I feel like the listening part of my brain is so overworked that everything else is just mush. Sometimes throughout the day I´m just on the verge of tears for no reason but it's never about anything specific at all. Just stress I guess.
OH. also I am SO sunburnt even though I put on so much sunscreen every day.
I have a MIRACLE story (actually like 3) that I want to share but I have like 2 seconds left to write so maybe I´ll just save it for next week so that it will actually make sense and not be super scattered. I love you all and I´m sorry if I don't respond to any of your emails this week! I only have an hour to do everything on the computer and I'm still figuring out how to manage my time. But I´m gonna take pictures of all your emails so I can read them and respond next week.
Hermanas Strong & Tolman
New Arrivals from Provo MTC
President & Sister Current, Hermanas Tolman & Strong
President & Sister Current with Hna Tolman
Comparing our tans
Mango Trees in our area
There's these frogs in our area that live down in the drains on the road and they sound just like Pacman!
These same frogs also get run over by cars so there's flattened frogs all over the roads that I call "Frog Jerky"
I see these ants carrying leaves around all the time all over our area. It's funny cause I always call them "hormigas" which is the word I know for ants but apparently they're not "hormigas" they're "zompopos" which I always mix up with "pompis" which means booty
