You could say I was feeling pues (lazy) and didn’t want to write a group email. But then I remembered Christmas is a time for sharing so here’s a few lines.
This week was !Christmas!
All us missionaries in the zone sang in a big mall on Christmas Eve and I got to sing a solo and then two duets with an Elder that I sometimes fight with but mostly we get along and are friends. President Garrett came and Elder Ruiz who’s an Area Seventy came and we contacted and it was special and cool.
Other than that, this week we ate rooster feet and also had Hermana P-day and also helped a lady we teach peel her guandú which is a thing they put in rice around Christmas time. See attached pictures below.
I know Christ lives and that he has perfect love!
Christmas Eve Breakfast of Guatemalan Tamales!
Nativity Mola made by a Kuna member in our ward
Christmas morning with my new sunglasses (a gift from Hna Gonzalez)
The Unicorns have dusters for horns, haha!
Patita de Pollo- Chicken feet
Elder Dittmar (we share a ward) who legitimately enjoyed the chicken feet like a sicko
The thing on my head is called a Tubi Tubi. ALL the Panamanian ladies wear them to keep their hair straightened after a trip to the salon.
I was proud of how well I peeled these unripe plantains
A Christmas lesson with Familia Ayarza (Hna Ayarza feeds us lunch on Wednesdays and always makes us delicious papaya milkshakes)
Guandu- a bean that Panamanians put in their rice around Christmas time
This funny dog we pass almost everyday. He's never not standing like this.
All my companions make fun of me cause this is how I naturally stand while we're waiting for people to come out of their houses when contacting
My desk
My family is at Disneyworld so they brought along a barbie version of me, fanny pack included. An hermana in my zone had a very similar skirt so I asked to borrow it so I could match my barbie for a picture!
This past week has been a bit of a bumpy one (see descriptive photos below, unless my mom thinks they´re too much like the ward mission leader´s 11 year old daughter did..), but here we are folks.
I read a verse this morning in Ether 6:8 that was good stuff. It says
8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were adriven forth before the wind.
Remember that as long as you´re doing what God asks of you (that is, repenting daily and trying to become more like Christ) all the annoying wind in your life will be pushing you in the direction you need to be going and helping you to become the person you need to be. God has left nothing undone for your eternal welfare and that's inclusive of things you can´t possibly imagine as being divinely inspired.
By the way, my companion Hermana Montero, is great and we get along very well! She is a convert, the only one in her family. She didn't tell anyone in her family that she was going on a mission until five days before!! More on her story next week... Anyways I love you all Merry Christmas
This past week has been SO long but SO fun. I think December is just a crazy busy month no matter where you are. Also my new comp, Hermana Montero, is such a wonderful Christlike person, I´m so happy.
We did lots of stuff this week but yesterday was my birthday and it really just blew me away by how amazing and good it was. My expectations weren’t that high cause everyone I've ever talked to just says it’s a normal day of work and you just need to get through it and try not to feel bad for yourself but yowza. In the morning Hermana Montero put up a bunch of cute decorations and a note and then all of the people we were hoping would come to church came and Dec 8th is Mothers day in Panama so they gave us a bunch of food and then the SocSoc (relief society) made me a giant cake with candles and sang to me and gave me this huge poster card with notes on it and then we had lunch with our favorite lunch cita and then we had Weekly Planning and I ate my expensive cheddar cheese and my even more expensive favorite chocolate and then we went and met up with the whole zone to practice because we`re gonna sing in a big mall on Christmas Eve (I thought my streak of having choir practices or performances on my birthday would end on my mission but lol apparently not) and then all the Hermanas remembered and made me cute little gifts and then we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional (in my house I was always a whiner when the devotional landed on my birthday but now as a missionary it's basically just the best luck I've ever had) and it got out late so my hija Hna Ruiz and her companion had a fun sleepover at our house cause they live far away and she caught me up on all the people we were teaching in Loma 9 when I left. And then if that wasn’t enough, a bunch of people remembered throughout the day and called me including my very own mission president.
Basically it was just the best day ever and it left me feeling very dumbstruck and grateful for how much the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to love and be loved by so many people and serve and be served by so many people.
This week was full of fun surprises but only surprises that I want to tell my family about over the phone.
We went and helped in an English class and it was soo fun and also there was this big Christmas devotional where I saw a bunch of members from my last area and also Wilberto.
In other news we accidentally melted my retainer and also when I´m in air conditioning for too long I have to put diaper rash cream in my nose cause all the skin splits open and bleeds from the dryness.
Also we had transfers and Hna Beckstrand left to Changinola which is 13 hours away and my new comp is Hermana Montero from Costa Rica!! It’s fun cause she´s already been comps with Hermana Rollins (my MTC comp) AND Hermana Hopkin. I´m training her to be an Hna Leader so buckle up kids, we´re probably going to accidentally melt retainers and then some.
Also a GOOD quote I read in a Gordon B. Hinkley book is:
“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.
Most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …
Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.
The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”
and its true. Because when it all comes down to it [if you stay on the train] you´re going to arrive somewhere you´ve never been, which is like, exaltation and eternal life, which is like, very much worth the struggle. We´ve just gotta be patient and rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Anyways love you all, merry christmas, amen.
RIP retainer
The house we eat lunch at on Thursdays has a billion cats that come out of nowhere to try and eat your food
The most dreaded hill to walk up
An Iconic Missionary "Death" Picture (when 1 + missionaries are finishing their missions)
It was raining and we went to scope out this waterfall in our area cause we're planning an Hermana Pday there (our lunch appointment was conveniently a block away from it) and little did we know how crazy it would look in the rain!
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