This week we have run into a few troubles, one of the most pressing is that I have now acquired an addiction. I was recommended by a sister missionary to buy a type of milk, which is vanilla flavored and called Maria milk. It is like someone milked a golden cow and put it straight into the bottle. I can now say that milk is not the same and never will be. Nothing can replace this vanilla milk, and this past week we've been running around town looking in all the supermarkets and Chinos. Only one Chino in all of our area sells them. We now have on multiple occasions gone out of our way, or taken a long way home just to buy one of those 50 cent kid milk boxes. Why did you bring this to my attention, Megan?
The second and most important problem is that we found out through first-hand experience something dreadful: 'The Curse of the Chino on 13th Street'. Yes, the Chino is on 13th street, well territory. But its real!! Every time we have bought a Duro or ice cream on a boiling hot day, one of us has dropped our ice cream on the ground. I'm warning you people, it is not worth it!! They sell their ice cream for less than the other Chinos, but that is probably because they know about the curse!!!
I don't know how I haven't brought this up, but I feel like I'm in the Bible Belt of Panama. Since Panama is the Belt of North and South America, I guess that makes us the Bible Belt Buckle. Never have I seen so many people with a firm testimony of God. It's genuinely beautiful. Of course, there are many different pastors who have a desire to throw everyone else under a bus and explain why they're right and everyone else is wrong. Others who realize that we are all on the same team. Let's just say I have learned a lot about many different sects of religion and their beliefs. For the first time in my life, I have actually had to defend my faith. I felt very blessed to have this student of the scriptures as my companion, Elder Reyna. I am learning a lot and my testimony is deepening and building in many ways. It has been really interesting to see how much we all have in common, but see what little details people fight over. I have also learned how to hold my tongue.
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| Who is more scared? |
We had a conference at the stake center, in which we needed to take a ten-minute taxi to get there. We have a lot of investigators that want to go to church. However, for a family of eleven, that would cost twenty big ones just to go to church. However, this family is golden and have genuinely been a miracle. When we explained about Joseph Smiths first vision, the father exclaimed, "Wow, how blessed is this young man." Normally we get a lot of strange and skeptical faces. Then we explain that every single prophet that we read about in the Bible are known for their 'fruits' (Matthew 7: 15-20). Then we invite them to pray because God will not lie to us and he wants the best for us. Prayer is very powerful, and when we turn to him with questions he will always answer them. Getting back to this family, as we left this meeting the kids in the car were just so excited. Hey when is the next session? When is the next time we can come back?
To respond to your emails, apparently, the Winter Olympics don't exist here. It's ignored so much that I haven't heard one person talk about them, it has not even been in the news, which is probably because the news is still focused on Carnival. I don't know if its because they are just too busy thinking about the world cup, or that they don't have snow to practice anything....but I mean the Jamaicans have a bobsled team soo...I actually forgot that they were going on until it was mentioned in an email.
