Almirante

A lot has happened this week, it has been jampacked. Elder Cotonón has a real desire to work hard and so that is what we've been doing and I love it. Truly, it is really nice when you're both dispuestos (ready) to actually put in the effort. He is a convert and has such a strong testimony. I genuinely love when my companions are converts. Our different testimonies complement each other very well. He is so funny and we are literally just cracking jokes all day. On Friday we set a record of three hours of non-stop pineapple puns. Oh yes, at night we were just talking in the dark pulling just everything we could think of.  We have had a few times where we were just walking down the street busting up laughing but he is a spot-on missionary, and he knows how to teach people. This last Tuesday we worked one of the most intense days in a long time in my mission. It was refreshing!

Today, being P-day was the only day we actually got to sit down. However, we went and did some service which as a missionary you learn very quickly in Panama what service people need.  A lot of elderly people live here and they can't quite climb trees like they used too. Many have palm trees in which they need help with cutting down coconuts. We found someone who needed help with guava and coconut trees this morning.  In the middle of a storm, we were out in the mud with long bamboo reeds knocking down coconuts and guavas. Afterward, we were invited to help eat them with the family that lived there. We came back soaked, but it was worth it. 

During the week in a meeting, someone pointed out that as we teach sometimes we say small differences that normally they don't say. That is the Spirit working through us to reach our investigators. I tried putting more attention to that. This week as I was teaching, there was this woman in her mid-50s who doesn't want to pray, because she was embarrassed that God wouldn't like her prayers. We explain to her and encouraged her a little.  I explained how while I live here in Panamá away from my family that I do not get to talk to them much, but I know that if I just even send them one sentence that makes all the difference. With that I then told her that God is the same way, if your prayer is just one sentence, he's just going to be happy to hear from you." She then gained the courage to pray, and in her prayer, she prayed for her son that lives in the city thirteen hours away.

If you look closely at the wooden planks, one of them wasn't nailed in and I almost fell in the BLACKWATER.  We had a small photoshoot. Yeah, it looks like a plague here and some ponds look more like a picture of the night sky than water.

This week someone in the ward who has been sick was hospitalized. We were asked to go visit him with a group of members. It was such an experience. He was obviously in a lot of pain with doubts about his life. He then asked for a priesthood blessing and asked specifically for us to give one. Wow, I love these opportunities. They always make me feel so much more connected to God, to bless someone and tell them exactly what they need to hear. It was a very special experience. In the end, I strongly felt that he would recover fine, that he just needed to trust the nurse. We have heard he's done significantly better now.

This week we had to send my companions carnet(license) to Panama because he is going to have to get a new one for the next two years which is normal.  We actually had to send it in a package to the mission office, because we are so far away.  We looked for the smallest box we had in the house and we filled it with confetti that we had in the house and decorated it with banana stickers. Elder Zelada, I hope you enjoy this package that’s heading your way, besitos.

Here in Almirante, we found a restaurant that we've heard rumors that sells turtle. It's apparently low key. As I walked in, I said, "Hey you got turtle!" The man quickly said, "Shhh... Callate La Boca. It’s not something that we always have." He then went on and explained that it is actually illegal to sell turtle. Luckily nobody was in there and he recognized us as missionaries. He said "I know some of your companions came in a few times to eat it, but right now we don't have anything, but I'll let you know if I get anything later" Long story short. I'm now on the waiting list. That or I'm on his blacklist... either way.

Actually, I don't know.. It was just a joke from what I have heard. I suppose it is all rumors.  It is just illegal to sell them here, but apparently, you can sell them on the islands off the shore.