Feliz Navidad

The letter you’ve been waiting for:

Wow, a lot has happened this past month, it seems as though every Monday when I come to write to you is the only time I feel like I am not running around all day.  Most P-days we just go and go and it gets to be around three in the afternoon when we head out to write a letter and I realize that I haven’t even had breakfast or lunch. As I sit down in an unairconditioned room in a nice comfy chair, I find that I am just enjoying the change to rest my legs. I may be writing the whole hour we are there but it comes out as two small paragraphs. I am making a new goal to come in a bit more prepared.

So, what do I really eat on my mission; a question I get all the time and need to answer. It can’t all be just rice and beans. You are completely correct because we only have that six out of seven days. Luckily, in Colon, we have active members who feed us meals that equate to about a meal a day, which usually consists of rice, beans, and meat. On a good day, its fried chicken, we do get fish and a lot of time pigtail.  Pigtail tastes like you just took a bite out of a raw chicken breast. Just awful, but better if it is soaked in broth. They eat every part of what they kill and so if you give me a fish every once and a while and I'm solid. Another meal that is very traditional here is patacones and soup. Patacone’s are deep fried bananas or plantains that look like mini pancakes and taste like French Fries.  It is usually a 50/50 chance that when you walk into someone’s home you will see a big pot of soup with rice on the side.  They have yucca which looks like jicama but tastes like a potato. Others have served us pig tale, chicken feet and just the leftovers they can find.  We have a family, the Chiru family that makes the greatest food. They call me their gringo, and they cook American food or at least a variation from rice and beans.

The rice is always different, rarely just white, most of the time it is fried, sometimes with wandu and an herb.  My favorite is the coconut rice, which is a bit of heaven.  If you want to get fancy you get coconut rice with guandu. The joke here is; would you like chicken & rice or rice & chicken. Surprisingly, there is a difference. One is cut up pieces of chicken in the rice and the other is when the chicken is served on the side. The one that trumps them all, in my book, is rice with grounded shrimp. Ohhh, it is divine. It’s like eating a bowl full of little shrimp. The king of all rice that rules over them all is coconut rice with shrimp bits. If you’ve ever seen the commercial where they pose the questions, what would you do for a Klondike bar? The same question comes to mind with this dish. Well, I would hold Santa Clause hostage, marry a monkey, and get in a fistfight with big foot all before 2:00 just to get this delicacy that puts all other rice to shame. 

I have been asked how many investigators (people we teach) do we find in a week? And how many are progressing? Are any of them getting baptized? Our goal is to have a minimum of 45 people a week we can realistically teach.  When we return to them, if they have not kept our commitments then we sift through other investigators pretty quickly.  Now, of course, there are people who are not keeping their commitments. We follow the spirit with where we direct our time each day. Panama is a very religious place and you can’t walk in any direction without running into a church. There are many people who see us as missionaries and want to hear our message. We always share something with them, but they don’t always want to listen and sometimes deny their own beliefs or anything contrary to what they have been taught. We don’t drop investigators, but they do drop us. All of them seem to respect the word of God, except for a few. For many reasons, it is important to rely on the guidance of the Spirit. Many times, we have been guided to directly say what God needs them to hear in that moment. Then for us to recognize if they will progress or if we need to visit other people for a while. Right now, we currently have four families that are ready for baptism. Of course, the two major problems here in Panama is first, actually getting them to go to church, which is costly. On Sundays, there isn’t a lot of transportation and so if they don’t live within walking distance, it is very difficult. There is a family in our ward who pays $25.00 to get her family to church each week which doesn’t include the fee for the way back. If they are lucky they can carpool or take a bus. It can be a full day's pay here in Panama to attend church.  

Secondly, marriage isn’t really a big thing here and it's not truly integrated into their culture. Because we believe that intimate relationships should be kept within the bounds of a lawful marriage between a husband and wife, we are not able to baptize a couple that has not been lawfully married but is living together. There seems to have an unnormal fear of marriage here. I have met families who have 6, 7, 8 kids and have been together 30 years and still are not married. They feel like if they get married then they are committing to something very serious. If they ever did need to get a divorce it would cost too much. As well, it takes a lot of paperwork and on average three months to get a marriage license, if done correctly. It is frustrating for us and our investigators. That being said, we have three families waiting to finalize this marriage process and are on hold before they can get baptized. One couple has been working on this for the past six months. There is another family whose kids are dear to my heart, but whose parents don’t have the money to get them to church each week.  Sadly, we just lost eight people, and some don’t want to make a commitment like this right now.  Others were afraid to leave their church that they’ve been attending over five years. Not to leave out those that couldn’t commit to anything during the busy holiday season.

How do people treat you as a missionary? Well, we are in Colon, notorious for being a little rough around the edges. They won’t even send Americans in the center of town for this reason. We live outside of the city and it is tame, but compared to everywhere else it is very exciting. Something is always happening. I love it and I would be happy if I didn’t leave for a while. I have learned quite a bit here about myself.  Most people treat us like youth, maybe because a lot of kids in school have to dress up in a uniform.  Private schools are the only schools that let you wear what you want. So, it’s funny when we pass people in the night. More than once I have gotten, “Man they are going to school at this hour!” As representatives of Jesus Christ, missionaries are treated with respect like pastors from the religious people, which there are many.

My favorite moments are from people who mock us. As we were waiting at the bus stop, I’ve gotten, “Hey, if you drink a Lata, a can of beer, we will give you a ride.” I have gotten, “Hey Mon, don’t you guys ever get tired of walking.” (in English too.) We had drunks ask us to teach them at 8:45 at night in the dark; we tell them that we can return tomorrow if they would like, but their response was, “Oh, you won’t preach to me, you’re not missionaries; just Pharisees.”  It makes me laugh to see them try to discourage us. It’s just funny that they think that these small events will distract us from the work.

Recently I have been given my second nickname. In past letters, I told you of how I was named Elder Igi Sugi (which means Elder Tell Me in Kuna). My new name is now Elder Urusari because it also sounds similar to Irizarry. Urusari means, leaving throwing punches. At times I feel like we do leave throwing punches in a good way.  We have to be direct and to the point, as we teach others about Christ, our church and committing others. We are brave and bold in our teachings and I feel like I can now say that I have earned that title. I have been laughing about this; it sounds a little bit like I am Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, but of course, I just am trying to keep Mr. Hyde under control. All kidding aside, we love them but do respectful challenge them.

This week we had a zone conference for Christmas, and it was such a greatly needed mental break. I can’t believe seven months have gone by so quickly since I got here. I was thrilled to get to visit with my cousin who I finally saw. I was waiting downstairs when someone mentioned that my cousin was just right upstairs. I dropped everything and ran right up. I cannot describe to you how happy I was to see her here. We are so similar it’s crazy. As a missionary, we are not allowed to greet any sisters with any more than a handshake, especially the sister missionaries. That was just weird but I am not complaining, it was just so great to see her. She is doing great, loving her mission, and loving life. We had so much fun talking that her Zone leader told us that we couldn’t talk anymore. We thought that was funny. Now we are in a head to head challenge to see who will know more Spanish by the end of our missions. We will be leaving at the same time which is cool, so this is a legitimate race. She had a few years of Spanish before she came here in November. Lately, the new Spanish I have learned is very slang and I have been warned of some hand gestures, which my companions have taught me. This does help because otherwise you can’t talk and won’t understand the people. So, it is pretty fair game as to who will win.

Now normally the conferences we attend at zone conferences are very formal, but this conference started off with a spiritual thought. We made paper snowflakes, ate tacos and had a white elephant exchange. The most fought over gift was cereal and socks. I scored a Mason Jar with a hot chocolate mix in it. Oh’ man that was a great gift that brought me back home with memories of making homemade jam. I couldn’t have asked for a better gift! Well, unless there was a gift with a golden ticket inside that would send me to San Blas. However, I am very happy! The conference ended with a bunch of people singing. The most memorable were the Men of Tocuman. I will never forget their lyrics that made me bust up laughing. The trio who sang, O’ Holy Night in a Michael Bublé style, and also the trio of three girls who sang (one girl was from Tonga and two from the US). They had learned a Tongan song for Christmas which they sang the first verse in Tongan and the second in English and the third verse they sang in Tongan, English, and Spanish. The spirit of this sweet performance filled the room and brought many to tears, well at least me. It was a wonderful conference and I hope that I remember it for years to come.

How are you holding up? I am doing well, and learning a lot about myself, about other religions, about faith, about diligence, and sacrifice. I feel like I have learned a lot of important life lessons. Yes, I am always tired but I am stretching. I’m constantly looking for the best in what I have and I do have some wicked tan lines that deserve bragging rights. 

What are your plans for Christmas? Well, I bought Cocoa Pebbles and so for breakfast, I plan on feasting like a ten-year-old. I will wash my clothes, clean the dishes, buy groceries and most importantly, Skype home. Christmas here is similar to the US with Nativity scenes, and lights on their houses. We see lights on about every 2 out of 20 houses. It is typical to have ham or chicken, mashed bananas (tastes like mashed potatoes but so much sweeter in flavor), and Arroz con wandu.  One tradition that I have heard that they have here is in the city they held a grand parade. As well, because it does not snow here they make snowmen out of white paper cups by taping them together.

On Christmas Eve we went over to Aldea and helped them make Tamales from scratch.  We used flour, water, salt and we ground them all up, and boy were my arms sore. Just cranking that grinder was sufficient enough of a workout to apparently make me feel it. I love Aldea, it was really nice to just go over and offer them helping hands. As we left, the little boat we cross on had a pig larger than me on it. I know it was for their Christmas dinner, but I don’t know how that dinky little boat stayed afloat. Let alone how they ever got it across without tipping over.

How is your companion? His name is Elder Arriaga, he is from Mexico and he actually just had his 20^th birthday this month. We get along and work well together. We are not the same person with the same interest, but we have common ground and look for the best in each other. It works well because contention would just drive away the spirit. As missionaries, you need the guidance to be able to teach. I have learned so many great things from him and he is so great at dropping everything to help people in need and great at speaking his mind. I am really appreciative of what I have learned from my companions.

Santa found me in Panama!