Questions And Answers

Last Monday at 4:00 in the morning Elder Reyna left for Chitre. Elder Cranney and I got to work here in El Empalme until our new companions came. Since we look rather similar, many people, when we were teaching side by side, gave us some of the funniest reactions. A lot of double takes... Wait your not…so…uh…Eghh…When?...How?... It was hilarious. 

My new companion Elder Lopez, barely made it here arriving at 9:00 at night.  In his last area, he lost his wallet, which included his identification and everything that proves he is a missionary.  On the way here, you have two points where they randomly check people for the ID and passports before you get to the town of David. I don’t know how he was able to continue on after being picked at the first stop.

By the second stop, he starting to be questioned as to who he was, why he was here and where his papers were. He was able to pull out a crumpled-up photocopy of his passport and at that point they pulled him aside and asked him why he didn’t have a passport. They questioned why his name didn’t match the name on his plaque (name tag). He was then able to explain that he had lost his wallet and that ‘Elder’ was only a title, but they would not accept that. They started to ask for anything else he had that could prove who he was and he at that point remembered that in his bag he had one document from the Church with his name on it, which happened to be his Patriarchal Blessing.

He ended up with a second very angry warning, but with a strong testimony that his Patriarchal Blessing will bless him throughout all his life. In ways, he probably never understood beforehand.

My new companion is from Guatemala. He lived by the border of Mexico and so he has a very strong Mexican accent. He is 5 feet tall and has been telling me that I am old because I will be coming up on my year mark. He isn’t a man of many words, but his words are very direct. I am learning how to talk a lot more. It has genuinely made an interesting balance with two different personalities working together. I think that this balance is exactly what will lead to success. We both have adapted and made small changes to be better.

This Sunday we had Gospel Principles class. It was the first time I ever had to teach solo. It was interesting how much I really knew, and how much involvement of the class guided the lesson. It was not where I had planned but ended up being led by the spirit and it led to what was needed to be heard and discussed.

Recently, I have received many rather strange questions from investigators. In the past, it was great to have Elder Reyna as my walking bible dictionary. I have now been spending a lot of my time studying to find answers to these questions.  It has been great to grow in knowledge as I have been focusing more on specific studies. I have been praying to find the answers to questions and I have been guided to these answers. I can see how I have been reminded of things through my studies through being led to footnotes or having a curious thought to read a passage.

This weeks letter from my Grandma had a great message that she shared with me. In her ward, during Relief Society, they shared a message given by President Monson:

When the Spirit speaks, write it down immediately. At the end of the day, make sure you do God's list first before you check off your own list of “To Do’s.” He explained that the Spirit never hounds or pounds at us, but rather, comes as a prompting, a brush or a feeling—that’s why we need to write these impressions down so as not to forget.

I absolutely loved this and I am going write my promptings down!! Thank you Gram for this thought. I am always thankful for the messages and letters from family and friends. 

We're All In This Together

"Angela, Pamela, Sandra, and Rita; and as I continue you know they are getting sweeter. A little bit of Monica in my life, a little bit of Erica by my side. A little bit of Rita is all I need, a little bit of Tina is what I see. A little bit of Sandra in the sun, a little bit of Mary all night long. A little bit of Jessica here I am", a little bit of you makes me have PARASITES. (*song)

I went to the clinic this week and I was in for about a 5-minute interview. I told him that I had this, this and that. Then he was like, dude look at your face... you obviously have parasites. He had me take a blood test, wait three hours and confirm that it was true, I have *Mambo #5 in my stomach. Rest assured, I was given medicine. To say the least, when I showed the medicine to the nurse in our ward, she went, oh man they gave you the heavy stuff. When I was headed out the door a last-minute question came to my mind. My companion has been eating exactly the same things, does he need to take the medicine too? And as a wise Troy Bolton once said, "We're all in this together."

It was a busy week for us, a few days we felt like we were zombies, but we worked hard. I got a lot of strange looks from people saying I looked dead, but it will never change the fact that I worked my butt off.

Well, we did not get to go to the conference with Quinten L.Cook. As much as I would have loved to have been there, wooo we didn't have to take that long 26 hour bus ride there and back. 

One day in a taxi, the radio started playing Country music and I was pumped. Literally, it was the first time I have heard Country in all of my mission. Anywho, Elder Reyna was like what is this? I said "Only some of the best music: Country," and he was like "nah no way, here in Bocus... Nahh". And I was like, "I know country, this is definitely country." Then on cue, we got to the lyrics, and I kid you not, I could hardly hold in my laugh. Elder Reyna sheepishly turned to me with a cheesy frown when the song started, "Awwww Yeaaa, I'm a Country Boy with my four-wheel drive..."

The one and only Elder Reyna has now left Changuinola. What a man. I have never seen a missionary who knows the Bible more than this guy. Honestly, he's been an amazing companion and genuinely a really good friend. I will not forget the countless jokes nor the times we tried to teach the YMCA to investigators. I'm genuinely torn quite a bit that's he's leaving, but I know we'll keep in contact. Love you man and best luck in the city.

I don't know who my new companion is yet, I have to leave early so that I can go pick him up. Love you all!.

My Brothers, Come In!

What a busy week, we are running as always.  I’d like to share some of my experiences.  We have been teaching a family of nine here, well more like eleven with the parents and of course twelve including the dog.  We still have no idea how they all cram into that house.  This week we went over there with Brother Montenegro and he explained the law of chastity, and the importance of marriage. He killed it and the testimony that he and his wife shared was just the topping on the cake. It was so inspired, the father said, “I need to get married.” (Which is the third time I have heard this on my mission.) This is incredible because Panamanians do not like getting married here.

The children have so much respect for their father. When we came, all the kids were sitting in a line from oldest to youngest (1 years old). I looked at them and for a brief moment, I thought, wow, the hills are alive! It was like a scene out of the Sound of Music but the biggest difference was we can’t sing.

We normally find about twenty-five contacts a week. My favorite this week was a man that once heard the missionaries and remembered all the Plan of Salvation. Another was a family in which they found out that the father was once a member but had become inactive at the age of sixteen.  We have another 81-year-old woman who has been a member of the church for the last fifty years, but always wanted to hear from the Mormons (who knows)…

Another man we’ve been teaching is just the best. He is around 70 years old and he told us when we met that he had been trying to learn English. Apparently, he had a great friend from Jamaica that had been trying to teach him English. When we were arriving, he yelled “My Brothers, My Brothers, come in!” in the best Jamaican accent. He has told us that he has lived a very interesting life and had never been interested in any religion until the last few years when he took up studying the Bible. He now is saying that he feels like a blank page compared to what we know. We have been answering many of his questions. He has told us about a dream and now is seeking an interpretation. Again, this is normal here, many people believe strongly in revelation through dreams and many have experiences like this. In his dream, he described how he was shown the Book of Mormon. After listening to his dream about what he described and before we could show him what he was speaking of, he read the title and the subtitle to us and begged to know how much this book cost. I have never seen someone more memorized over a book before in my life. He was so happy when we told him it was a gift especially after we had told him what it was and what it contained. 

Luis, the kid we baptized a while back, is now talking about going on a mission. He wants to be like us so much that he ended drawing a name tag on his shirt. If you look on the left side of his shirt you will see Elder Vera.

I live in walking distance to a stadium they are building for baseball. This sport is huge here and I live right next to what will soon become the home for the Bocas Turtles. Apparently, they are the best in Panama.

This week has finally become hot here.  I am getting a little burnt, but that only makes my tan lines that much funnier. I have been a little bit sick as well.  Because we are in a farming town surrounded by bananas the locals told me that I probably had parasites or dengue.  I am actually not feeling sick anymore, and at times I have a decent amount of energy.  I have seen my blessings take action as I am shouldering all the work that I need to get done.  I just feel a little tired is all and on P-Day when I finally have a chance to sleep, I just want to study.

We are all very happy to hear that Elder Quinten L.Cook an apostle will be visiting Panama. All the missionaries will gather together for this and it will be the first time that we will all be together. 

There are four missionaries serving in my area and one of them, Elder Hancock is finishing his mission here. Transfers happened to be in seven days which means that Wednesday night we drive down on a bus for 13 hours to Panama City and have the conference that Thursday. Later that afternoon we head back home, another 13 hours and will get back to work. This poor Elder will have to head back to Panama City to finish his mission on Monday, another 13 hours!