Week 8

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