 |
| Soaked wet after falling off the boat into the river. |
My cousin left the MTC to Panama last week and meet up with some other missionaries heading to Panama. She mentioned that they all had time to bond and she met an Elder Hanks whose middle name was Irizarry. This is his mothers maiden name, whose family is from Puerto Rico which probably means that we are cousins.
What a week! Elder Arriaga is my new companion, he is from Mexico and we are working hard. When he saw our house he about died, so we went through a deep clean of everything this morning and what a relief that was.
We had a meeting with the Bishop this week and made a bigger effort to meet the members. It has been a good week. I took Elder Arriaga to Aldea. The water was crazy high and we had to take a panga or a canoe across and of course I got cocky so I rode it standing up. I thought to myself, hey, I've skateboarded, wake boarded, and practiced rowing for a little time and it should be no problem.
The guy paddling us across and I were having a conversation and I asked him where he lived. He pointed over there and for whatever reason, I turned my foot to look and lost my balance and I fell into the river. Yeah, it had a current and was no longer knee deep, so I actually was swimming to get to the other side. We thanked the man and made it safely. Luckily my scriptures are fine. It's only my hymn book that was totally soaked. We couldn't find anyone to cross to get home and so we walked across and it was about up to our plaques. Elder Arriaga is in love with the area and now wants to baptize everyone there. I feel good things are going to happen there.
We had a meeting with the Bishop this week and made a bigger effort to meet the members. It has been a good week. I took Elder Arriaga to Aldea. The water was crazy high and we had to take a panga or a canoe across and of course I got cocky so I rode it standing up. I thought to myself, hey, I've skateboarded, wake boarded, and practiced rowing for a little time and it should be no problem.
The guy paddling us across and I were having a conversation and I asked him where he lived. He pointed over there and for whatever reason, I turned my foot to look and lost my balance and I fell into the river. Yeah, it had a current and was no longer knee deep, so I actually was swimming to get to the other side. We thanked the man and made it safely. Luckily my scriptures are fine. It's only my hymn book that was totally soaked. We couldn't find anyone to cross to get home and so we walked across and it was about up to our plaques. Elder Arriaga is in love with the area and now wants to baptize everyone there. I feel good things are going to happen there.
Wednesday we dedicated a day just to find people. We literally were walking for ten hours and we found many. I now think I know just about every part of my area. Its kind of big, but that's a good thing!!! There is one part we have that I did not know what was at the end of the street. I always just thought its because we were on a hill and we never really wanted to walk up much more of that hill. Well, we were motivated to find the end. So we were hiking and hiking and about halfway through we remembered that we needed to call the bishop. Due to the canoe incident on Tuesday our phone has had some problems... and of course about 2 weeks ago is when they decided to replace our 2-year-old phone with a new one. Now we couldn't call bishop and due to the slight inconvenience, we were a little more frustrated than we should have been. We went back to work and went looking for people, but were not feeling anything. Normally it means one of two things. One, there isn't anyone here at this moment, or we don't have the spirit with us. After taking a pause and reconsider everything we took a deep breath. We then turned for guidance once again from the Lord. After the reminder of why we were here as missionaries and a little repentance, the spirit was back. We were directed to a family of eight that lived in the middle of nowhere. We would not have been able to find this little shack of a house without the guidance of the spirit. It was just such a great experience.
When the Spirit is guiding you sometimes you don't always recognize it. Even as a missionary we sometimes do not recognize the influence fully of the spirit in our life. You can always tell the difference between when you have it or when you don't. As you take a step back in this life and remember why you are here and what your purpose or goal is, all your decisions are easier. And as you turn to the Lord for guidance he always gives you what is sufficient for what you need to overcome your trials. Joseph Smith taught that its necessary for man to look forward to something bigger to come in order to persevere your trials. Whether that means just waiting to pick up a nice cold soda at the end of a long day, surviving finals to be rewarded with till Christmas break, or waiting for the blessing in the life to come, its what keeps us sane.
Please enjoy your time and look for happiness in all things. By all means, stop and smell the roses. But when it gets hard, just remember, "...that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.(D&C 122:7)" The Lord promises us that he will never give us anything we can't endure. Just keep working at it. It will get better with work and patience.
Oh and also concerning the hill, we made it up to the top. That took forever..., but it was well worth it. We found an abandoned resort called "The Crowsnest". And so without trespassing, we walked around the fence line until we hit the front of the motel. There was an elevated platform with a bunch of seats. What a view it had of the Canal. You could see both sides of the canal and about all of our area. I can only imagine the sunset. But wow!
Con Amor,
