Joy in the Journey

As many of you know already, I am stationed in Colon, Panama which is known for having its problems. In fact, they finally took the sister missionaries out of here. I am in, however, a good part of Colon which is about 30 minutes out of the inner city. Those that live in the city have their own language which is not quite Spanish and it's definitely not English. It sounds like a mixture of whatever English they have heard combined with Spanish which makes up a lot of slang. Luckily, I get to hear it often enough where I’m able to understand it and it cracks me up. I absolutely love it! We, missionaries, like to call it “Wopping.” Why? Because that’s how the people greet you here. I have had experiences when I had been walking down the street and when they see that I am American, no matter where they are or what they are doing they’ll turn to us and yell, “Wa – ahping Mo,” or to translate into English, “What’s Happening Man.” Oh yes, they love whatever little English you can teach them. I can’t tell you how difficult it is sometimes not to burst out laughing. Panamanian Spanish already has a huge American influence, which makes it easier for me, but "wopping" I swear is just Google translate. I like to share some of my other favorite phrases: “Voy a parkear a su casa esta noche.” (Parkaer as in parking) “Donde esta su Oman.” (The heavy Panamanian accent for Woman) “Ya a town manana?” (Town is what they call the city) It gives me the biggest smile and I just hope that the day you will get to hear my Spanish that it will actually sound like Spanish and not "wopping".

As for my weekly update on Aldea, and the beautiful tribe of Embera-Quera. As of the recent storm, a few of their trees fell over and some others they were just chopping down. With all this extra wood, they are working on making more canoes. Apparently, it only takes about eight days with a regular old hatchet ax to carve a tree trunk into a full-sized canoe. I have been pushing them to name one after me, but with no success. Mario is firm in his decision to name the canoe, “Melvin el Barco.” I will keep trying, but he thinks it’s the funniest thing to call his canoe a cruise ship. All the local leaders of the different Embera-Quera tribes in Colon gathered together to have a meeting as of Saturday and Sunday so we were not able to talk to Juan. We asked a local family a little bit more about this tribe and they told us that they broke off from a bigger tribe a little more than 40 years ago and have been living here ever since. They honor free agency, freedom of religion, unity, and family. With the exception of their spouse, they are all family and blood relatives. It is really cool, many chose to live here due to the freedom and the family as well as their love for the peace and tranquility there. They live a simple and modest life and are very happy. Many times that we go there it is just so silent. You can hear the river running, the kids playing, and the crickets singing. They definitely are a reminder to me to look at all the blessings God has given us. There are a lot of small blessing that we don’t recognize. As Thomas S. Monson once directed us to find “Joy in our Journey.” I have found and will always be grateful for the many lessons I have learned from this simple quote.

Recently we have had many less actives coming back to church. Our ward is finally growing and it is great! Thank you, everyone, for your prayers, thank you, home teachers, for actually visiting members and thank you, Bishop Groves, for your above the bar effort!