Week 19

Dandydoo what a week. 

I don´t have anything specific to say I don´t think except that Hermana Castro had her special post-first-transfer-temple-trip which means I sleezed my way into a second one. Always a special treat, the temple.

Other than that, wow. I don´t know how to describe this area. Its very different than my last area. There's lots of really steep stairs and hills but when you get to the tops of the hills there's really beautiful views of skyscrapers and the ocean and the wilderness between here and Colombia. I was trying to think of a way to describe the feel of my area and I landed on the alligator tongues in a bag from the animated James and the Giant Peach??? It's very jumbley bumbley and high strung. Lots of noise. No sé. But it's good. I like it. I decided if Panama is Utah then Vista Allegre (my first area) is like West Jordan and this area is kind of like South Salt Lake...?

Hermana Castro and I have lots of good laughs because she wants to learn English and I´m learning Spanish and we make funny mistakes. She mixes up watermelon and marshmallow and I mix up "they moved" with "they died" ("se mudaron" vs "se murieron").

anywaysyeahthatsallbyebyetilnextweek
Hermana Tolman

This area is FULL of stairs like these

I don't know if you've noticed, but this is now the second strange giant random statue I've run into in a random neighborhood (see Week 16 entry for the other one)

Week 18

Cambios (transfers) happened. Here's the stitch-

I'm training! Well really I'm "training" because my new comp is Latina and this is her second transfer so she`s already gucci and I don't even need to do that much. I like to think I'm the cool young stepmom that comes in and then we just powpow, work hard, yannow? But yes! Her name is Hermana Castro and she's from Honduras. I LOVE her already.


Also hohohohoho. I was SURE that I was gonna stay in Vista Allegre so when we got the call last night I was just chillin, readin the Liahona, tranquilito and then BOOM. I'M the one that left. I was shocked, But my new area is Loma Nueve in San Miguelito. Its like the inner city. I'm a City Sister now. Its been my secret dream to be a City Sister just cause it seems magical and different. Anyways. That's the fresh news that's on my mind and I can't remember what else I was gonna say.

The last time I saw Wilberto, he was so happy, just glowing. Before his baptism, he was always weighed down and sad. Now he is downright cheery. He asked us to read the Book of Mormon out loud to him, to write down some verses for him to study. He is excited about paying tithing and receiving the blessings that come from that. His confirmation blessing promised that he would help bring his family to the gospel. We have since discovered that he has grown children and siblings who check in on him. I am so happy for him! But sad that I didn't get to say good-bye. I know Hermana Head and her new comp will take good care of him.

OH! Last week Hermana Current (the mission President's wife) called me and asked me to sing in a conference for all the Hermanas in the whole mission!! (which sounds like a lot but its not actually that many people). Anyways she told me I could find other people to sing with me if I wanted and I didn't even plan it but it ended up being a lil' jamboree of me and all my comps so far. It was so tender. After we finished President Current made a joke that was something along the lines of "Hermana Tolman's mom and Hermana Garrett (who is the wife of our new mission president who's coming in July) sing in the Tabernacle Choir but they can only wish they could sing as good as Hermana Tolman" but he said it in English so all the Latina sisters misunderstood and they all thought that he said that I was in the Tabernacle Choir and so I had all these sisters coming up to me after telling me that it was so cool that I was in the Tabernacle Choir before I came on my mission and I was so confused. Anyways.

I restarted the Book of Mormon and this time I'm going through and looking for the doctrine of Christ and it's VERY COOL. When you're looking for things, you start to think about what you read in a different way and then you learn stuff you wouldn't have learned otherwise. For example, I was reading Lehi's dream and I wanted the Fruit to be something directly from the doctrine of Christ so, being the missionary that I am, I said "Aha, the Fruit is baptism and other covenants with God" but then I was reading the chapters after where the angel literally tells him what all the things represent and the Fruit is the Love of God and then I was like "Aha. The opportunity to make covenants with God is the Love of God made manifest." And that's all I have to say about that. Amen. 

Have a great week. Next week I'll send pictures of my fun new area and fun new comp.

The last picture Hna Head and I took together. RIP

Downward Dog?

A pic with a FUNNY FUNNY recent convert in our ward named Lucio

I look SO BAD in this picture but this is the only picture I have with the family whose apartment we lived in! Mariela and Julio!

Hna Head and I secretly wish that Wiberto and this less active woman we visit sometimes, Tita, will one day get together and get married in the temple so we´ve had this on our wall throughout the transfer haha. We got the cheesy picture out of the law of chastity pamphlet that we use when we teach.

Week 17

Hello hello

First things first- Wilberto got baptized this week!!! You all don’t know Wilberto, but I know Wilberto and I LOVE Wilberto. He reminds us of some animated character but we can’t quite put our finger on it. The BFG? Maybe. I’ve decided that he kind of moves like a puppet, especially when he laughs cause he flails his arms and legs. Also he is mostly blind but we always forget cause he can still function super well so when we were teaching the law of Chastity we were like "Don’t look at pornography" and he was like "Bueno.. no veo." And we were like "Woo yeah awesome" and he was like "No, like literally no veo, no puedo ver pornography" and we were like "Oh.. oh!!" Cause we forget sometimes that he can’t see and it was funny. 

Anyways the Ward Mission Leader was supposed to pick him up for his baptism and so when we arrived at the church and didn’t see him we had a mini heart attack and we were like "Ahh where's Wilberto??" and the ward mission leader gets this little smile on his face and without even looking up from the notebook he was writing in he goes "Oh he’s in the chapel". So we go into the chapel expecting to see him sitting in the pews and pondering or something but instead we walk in and see him sitting in the middle of ward choir practice with this dead-inside look on his face (to give you a picture of ward choir, it consists of three ladies that sing kind of off-key and they were sitting around Wilberto singing to him). 

Anyways yes. The Baptism happened and the spirit was mm-mm so strong and it was a happy time even though Wilberto is very tall and blind and they had this short guy who just got his mission call baptize him. But considering how it was Wilberto’s first time being baptized and that kid's first time baptizing it went pretty smoothly. And then Wilberto got confirmed in Sacrament meeting and the blessing was so beautiful and good. Ahh. The things you get to be involved in as a missionary and the changes you get to see people make in their lives are very cool. Amen. 

One of our investigators said one day "Can I tell you something? You are very beautiful." Then he looks at Hna. Head and says "Your daughter is beautiful too." 

In other news, I accidentally ate cow lung this week. There’s this little stand we like to go to to get Chichime and one of the guys that works there was very excited that we were Americans and so he wanted to give us a free sample of this meat they had and he gave us 4 pieces (3 little ones and one HUGE one) and I was too slow and Hna. Head SCAMMED me into eating the huge one. Anyways it wasn’t til later that we looked up the word he kept telling us and realized it was cow lung...although it was easy to tell while we were eating it that it wasn’t any normal meat. 

Another little thing I wanted to mention is that we get called Elders on the street so much and it’s funny. Also the ward was planning a "woo yeah every member a missionary" activity but then they cancelled it cause of the rain. We got a good kick out of that. Anyways I forgot everything else that happened this week but I'll probs remember when I call my famfam and they'll get to hear all the extra deets.

until next week

gudbye

One thing I love about Hna Head is that she thinks to look at what's inside of all the random fruits we see on
the side of the road cause it never even occurs to me to break them open but there’s always fun surprises.
I call this one the Immunity Berry from Barbie Mermaidia.

Wilberto gave us this huge mango from his yard the day before his baptism and all throughout his baptism it became the conversation topic so we took lots of pictures when we finally ate it on Sunday morning.  

Hna Head made 3 flavor duros for our district meeting!

Hna Head also designed these cool Arraiján shirts for the whole zone!

Week 16

I daresay this has been the best week yet of my mission.

I’m starting to develop a sense of humor in Spanish and it is TOO fun. I feel like I’m kind of like a self-aware toddler who realizes that people think they’re funny so they keep doing the funny things to get attention. Aside from that, the work here is ROLLING. 

Yesterday I was sitting in church and I wanted to explode cause I was so happy even though I’m quite sick with a cold. We had 4 of our investigators come to church, and one of them was some random guy that I sat by on the bus forever ago and invited to church (turns out the guy that we met on the street from last week lives ONE street outside of our area but it’s okay cause we handed him over to the missionaries over there and they’re gonna baptize him so it's fine whatever). 

Another thing is we have this recent convert that was SO HARD to find cause he was always working or on a trip to the Interior and I was so frustrated but God answers prayers because he randomly broke both his feet so he’s bedridden and now we can teach him and his mother-in-law who’s not a member and he can’t escape. 

Also there’s a ton of Chinese people in Panama and my companion and I keep feeling prompted to teach this Chinese woman who we know so we tried this week and it was a MESS because she doesn’t know a ton of Spanish and neither do we and so she tries to have her husband translate from Chinese to English but we can’t understand his English very well and then the other problem is she doesn’t know who God or Jesus are so it’s really just a big oof. 

Also we met these kids on the street and they asked us at what age we have to start learning English in the US and it was funny. Also our phone broke from the rain and it’s made everything really interesting. 

I do this fun thing where on P day I buy an American candy bar that you can’t find anywhere except at the big grocery store and then I save it and don’t eat it until the worst day of the week, but it’s a sneaky mental trick to myself because then when I have a hard day I get to the end and I go "hmm was today REALLY the worst day??" and then I don't eat the candy bar cause I remember all the good things that happened during the day that make it unworthy of having the title of The Worst Day.   

Other that that, wow. Just lots of good lessons where the spirit was very strong. God really is at the head of his work and blesses those who ask in faith and are worthy to receive. Also I have BASTANTES pictures from this week and these are only some of them.

Love you all byeeee!

Sorry this is nasty but turns out when my shoes get wet they dye my feet blue!

Kind of a bad pic, but this is Archiviales, one of our funnest recent converts. He was almost totally blind but recently got a procedure that helps him see better.

This picture was taken moments before our phone got soaked by the rain and permanently died. We were happy to not have to talk to our District Leader for a weekend though haha

Cute polaroids with Genesis, a member in our ward

I like this picture because it shows the stark contrast between the mall and the houses people live in/dirt roads

There's this ??random ??snake man statue ?? in front of one of the houses in our area. I saw it once on divisions with my hermana leader and I told Hna Head about it and she didn't believe me so we went back to it.