Week 37

This area is the jungle with all the convenience of the suburbs. I love it.

Sunset on the Interamericana

Week 36

Woah hey there everyone.

The news on Alexander is that he suddenly had to work in the Interior the day we were gonna have his interview and he's still there right now so he's still not baptized. But it's okay cause God's got a plan and a purpose in everything and also it'll be good cause we had transfers and Hna Ruiz is training (I'm gonna be a grandma ahh) and they'll have a baptism right off the bat. 

But HEY woah we had TRANSFERS and now I'm an Hermana Leader in Arraijan (the very same Zone I was born in, in the area that borders my old area which secretly makes me the most happy cause I'll get to go back there on Divisions) with Hermana BECKSTRAND who is a very intense lady who I LIKE. She's from St. George (actually she's from Enterprise), Utah. It's like mediodia (midday) and we're already losing our voices from talking so much, we're gonna work together just fine. 

Also I got here and she said "Buckle up Hna Tolman cause of all the Zones, Arraijan is the most intense one to be an Hermana Leader in cause we take care of FIVE companionships" (in most Zones there are only like 2 or maybe 3). 

Anyways I feel just uhh, good? happy? ready to work? but also I was sorely sad to leave Loma 9. We took LOTS of pictures this week cause that's just how it goes when you know the end is near. 

Enjoy!

Saying goodbye to Nemesio

Final Pictures with Josid and his family (one with his grandma in it and one with his mom)

Outside our house (ours is the wood door on the right)

Our street

Saying goodbye to Canela

Finally climbed up the hill to the little Christ statue in our area before leaving

Week 35

The most notable thing of this past week has been teaching our new miracle man, Alexander. If everything goes well he should be getting baptized this coming weekend but we have transfers next week and I feel like I’m always a little flustered and exhausted on the day of transfers so I decided to write about Alexander a week early.

We got to his house and yelled before we noticed the cardboard sign outside his house that says "CRISTO TE AMA ARREPIENTATE" and we said "oh no who’s this gonna be" but then this guy came out and then called his friend to come out and they were surprisingly normal.

The second guy, Alexander, was like "What does Elder mean? I’m going to be Elder. I want to be part of your church." And we thought he was joking so we laughed and he asked us for a folleto (I think the word for folleto in English is pamphlet?) and wanted to know when we were coming back and then when we came back he had read the whole folleto and told us that he loved the story of Joseph Smith because he feels like it makes sense that God would call the weak and simple to do his Work and that he would call not only a prophet and apostles but expect all of us to serve each other within the church. We invited him to General Conference and he said he was gonna come and then took out a Book of Mormon and he goes "Can I have one of those books?" And we said "pffft yeah we were just about to explain it and then give it to you¨ and then when we tried to mark a scripture to read with little pen marks he was like "no" and we were like "huh" and he was like "no don’t write in it just write what you want me to read on a separate piece of paper" and we said "oh okay" and he took it and handled it like the most precious and sacred gift he's ever received.

But THEN when we passed by his house on Sunday morning to remind him about Conference and his wife answered the door and told us he was asleep and she couldn’t wake him up (idk what it is but the Panamanians refuse to wake people up no matter what hour of the day it is cause you have to "respect el sueño") so anyways we were bummed and left for General Conference but then as we were sitting and listening to the Sunday morning session I had the distinct impression to go back to our area to get Alexander during the break and I said "that would be…wildly complicated and time consuming" because we were watching conference in a chapel that’s not in our area and that we'd only ever been to one other time and we always go in a bus with our ward but they didn’t have transportation during the break. But we said "what can we say, we will go and do and the Lord will provide a way."

 So we manage to get back to our area and we show up at Alexander’s house and say "HEY the next session of general conference starts at 3, go get ready and we’re gonna eat our lunch outside your house while we’re waiting." And he didn’t even say anything, he just turned around and went back into his house to get ready and then we all just traveled blindly back to the chapel and we introduced him to this member who is roughly the same age (25-30) and served his mission in Nicaragua (Alexander is from Nicaragua). And everything was just perfect and good. And so anyways yeah. We’ve been teaching him all this week and we found out that a week before the first time we showed up at his house he'd talked briefly with the Elders in Panama Viejo (one of which may or may not be our district leader but we don’t know) and that he’d been googling our church the whole week long to learn more and then when we came he thought we were Jehovah’s Witnesses so he didn’t come out but then his friend heard who we were and called him cause he knew we were from the church he’d been investigating and then told us that his whole family and his wife’s family had always gone to a church that believes that were all saved by grace but that that’s never seemed right to him and that he’s always thought salvation would be a two-way relationship and that God would expect action on our part.

Every time we leave a lesson with him we’re just dumbstruck cause he’s so prepared. He’s already read all of Joseph Smith History and always remembers the most obscure details from it when we teach about other stuff. OH and the other miracle with him was that he drinks a TON of coffee and we were like "oh no how is he going to have the willpower to drop coffee within a WEEK'S time" so we were praying for a miracle and we got to his house and he said "I went to the doctor and he told me I'll basically just die if I keep drinking coffee and that I need to stop right now" and we were amazed. So anyways yeah that’s my story for the week. I hit 8 months in the mission yesterday and also 4 times this week people thought I was from Venezuela. 

That’s all for now, 

Love you all bye!

(OH and by the way Alexander also explained that the CRISTO TE AMA ARREPIENTATE sign was put there by one of his friends to deter people from robbing them??)

Calle L, an iconic street for us. The church is at the top of this road.

If anyone was wondering, Canela STILL follows us everywhere we go. We love her but it's getting kind of annoying haha

If you insist on buying a cheap pop-up umbrella, you must accept the consequences

Week 34

This week was pure bliss. Unlike any other I daresay. We found a lot of COOL people which was a blessing cause we barely had anytime to proselyte with general conference, the multi-zone conference (which we normally have earlier on in the transfer but they postponed it so we could focus on reaching our goal of baptisms for the month and it's crazy cause the baptism of Enrique last week was the last baptism in the mission and we reached our goal EXACTLY). To be honest I was bummed at first that they postponed the conference but there's no way we could’ve reached the goal without it. 

ALSO with the announcement about the TESTIGOS (witnesses)! I was shocked because literally at the baptism of Malkiel last week we had a little fiasco because we didn’t have anyone to be witnesses and literally every close-by priesthood holder in Panama wasn’t answering their phone and the baptism started an hour later than it was supposed to for that reason. Anyways. Wow what a world to live in, God is hastening His work. 

And also we went on Divisions and I was with Hermana Jardine again (this is the third day I've worked with her plus Hermana P-days and stuff like that so we kept going "I heard that..." and then going "Oh wait you're the one that told me that!" and it was funny). I pulled a very sneaky trick and we arranged to do divisions with the Hermanas of Veracruz during conference so me and another gringa Hermana could go downstairs to the mission offices and watch conference in English on the secretary’s computer at least on Saturday and then afterwards they came back and had a sleepover at our house cause their area is far far away and the women's session got done very late.

Basically I'm just still in awe by general conference. I feel like when you're a missionary you can see so clearly how ridiculous it is to be too busy or too tired to make and keep covenants with God and that’s all I have to say about that.