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| Boquete |
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| Elder Moore |
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| Elder Irizarry |
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Coati's - they look like monkeys but are a part of the racoon family!
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Coati's
I finally got my package and the new
camera, Thanks, Thanks, Thanks! To say the least, we have been very busy
here. My companion, Elder Moore is a country guy from Arizona and he
feels right at home here. I absolutely love his sense of humor and we get
along great. I would say that he is just one of those types of guys that
wants to be hunting, fishing, and loving every day.
Chao Dinner
My companion and I ate at a member’s
home this week and unfortunately, the food didn’t settle too well for my
companion. We just ate fish soup and had
papaya juice. Papaya is apparently made to clean out your stomach if you drink
a lot of it... so Chao Dinner. I genuinely think that he must have just eaten some
bad fish and combined with the juice it was a disaster waiting to happen. He
ended up feeling pretty sick to say the least. We stayed home three days and
after visiting the doctor considered that it could have been parasites like the
implied, but we both were convinced that it was the fish and juice.
We were soaked
all week long as it rained and rained and rained. As we were proselyting one
day we stopped by a home of a women and tried to leave her with a prayer. She invited us in and that was where we discovered
that she was actually a Catholic pastor who was in the middle of teaching a
seminary class. Well, this was kind of awkward entering the house and realizing
what situation we just got ourselves into. It was however a cool experience to
pray with them and let them know we are praying to the same God and we all are
trying to follow Christ's example the best we can. Even though the visit could have had any number of wild outcomes, it actually ended on a good positive note. I
was thankful for that and maybe later down the road they will remember that
experience. Who knows!
One thing I
forgot to mention is that I am currently the district leader here. The responsibility
has not been to much, except that I teach a small class to the missionaries
during the week. This week was my first time and it ended up being really fun.
It helps that the missionaries in my district are just super chill and I just
felt comfortable with them. This week we
talked about some of the difficulties they have experienced. I had the
opportunity to share some personal experiences of what happened in the mission
and with working with the missionaries beforehand. I've noticed that they don't
use the scriptures a lot, so I was thinking about what we could do. I got this
idea and was able to tie it in with a quote from the movies Dodgeball. “If you
can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball.” I told them they can only teach using
the scriptures. You can't use any of your own words, just the scriptural text. I gave them a few minutes to prepare something and it was just fun. Then I told
them if you can teach an entire lesson using just the scriptures, you can find
a balance and use the scriptures while you teach. A few people personally
thanked me and told me it was spiritual and upbeat. So whooo! I feel like I can
do this and I'm getting the hang of it.
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| Elder Moore and me |
Human or Dancers
We got a question recently from a member that I loved and
thought it would be good to share it with you. Now to put the question in the
words of the music group,'The Killers', "Are we human or are we dancers?"
Before we lived on earth, we all lived with God as spirits. We learned, progressed,
and prepared for this earthly life, in which we were to be sent to the earth as
imperfect beings to receive a body. Now this was a part of Gods plan. We know
that he wouldn't leave us here helplessly in our sin, so he sent his only begotten,
Jesus Christ, so that through his sacrifice (called the Atonement) we can
repent and be saved. We read that Jesus was chosen to be the Christ even before
the world existed, sort of like a Hunger Games, "I volunteer as
tribute" deal (1 Peter 1:19-20). We also read that many other prophets
(Jerimiah 1:4-6), church leaders (D&C 138:55-56), members (Ephesians
1:11), and even the times of events (Acts 17:26) have been preset, and prechosen. This is
where the question comes into play; Does that mean since we were chosen we lose
our agency, our will to choose between good and evil? Are we just puppets being
used by God himself?
Not at all, God is a huge supporter of agency. He fought to make
sure all of us could obtain this freedom. God just knows us perfectly, He knows
who we were, who we are, and who we can become. For example take your best
friend, your child, your parents, or a loved one. If you were to set out a
pizza and $15 on a table and told them they could only take one, what would
they chose? You have been with them long enough to know what they like and how
they think or act. You would know what they would chose. Now, if we stretch our
limited knowledge of a loved one to the infinite knowledge of God, He knows us very well.
Continuing, In Alma 13:1-9 we read why God preordained people:
for their faith and good works. In other words he trusted them from before this
life. Now nobody is perfect. Neither were the people he called on. We look at
David, having relied heavily on the Lord in his youth, then falling into sin,
lost his potential of eternal blessings. God's plan involves that everyone of
us are given trials, in which they help us grow dependent on the Lord.
Now lets apply this to our life, 1st of all I'm choosing the
pizza. I'm a sucker for a good pizza. But also, every choice we have in front
of us is ours to make 100%. God will never force us to do his will, but he can
be rather convincing. We read about how God sent an angel to comfort Jesus in
the Garden of Gethsemane and help him choose to complete the Atonement. Now, I
can't think of anyone I know doing something more convincing than that, but one
of the rules God lives by is that he will never force us. Alma invites us to,
"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for
good..." (Alma 37:37). By doing so, God's will, will be revealed unto us.
Accepting his will, as it says in Alma 26:3, we can be used as his instruments
to bring about his work.
Sticking to the Killers' theme, God will never force us to
dance. But if we accept God's will into our lives, we'll start to notice we are
naturally dancing a little bit. We'll learn that dancing is enjoyable,
contagious, and we just don't want to stop. I invite all of you, learn the joy
in following the counsel of God. Share this joy with others and teach them how
to dance.
Cambios
Avena
Chuleta... We started off this week normal. I actually thought to myself nothing exciting has happened this week... Que Va. I'll just write something spiritual, then Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. BOOM BOOM BOOM. Out of nowhere locura estaba saliendo.
Wednesday- My companion got sick. He had a need to throw up but couldn’t so we bought bananas and sprite and I spun him around in a circle and that did the trick. Then because he felt nauseous he ended up sleeping all day. That gave me time to read the “Teachings of the Presidents: Joseph Fielding Smith.” Man was that guy a flechone. Super strict man, but I loved his style.
Friday- The assistants to the president accidentally broke our hot water shower and for about a week and a half, I have been taking literally the coldest showers of my life. And because we didn’t have a shower head it was just like taking a shower from a PVC pipe. Yay... It was the first time I heard my comp scream like Scooby-doo, the water was so cold. Finally, we went to the store early in the morning and installed a new shower and it’s even better than before. The reign of hot water returns!!
My companion and I went to visit Joaquin who is a progressing investigator... He has a girlfriend who he wants to marry and take to the temple, so he is really progressing. During the middle of the lesson, there was an EARTHQUAKE. It wasn't big, it just caught all of us by surprise. The couch, TV, and the ceiling fan all were rattling for a good 45 seconds. After that, we headed back to our apartment, which is a 45-minute bus ride away. He works during the day so we can only visit him later in the evening and there are not any buses after a certain time, so we started our long walk back. Normally after walking thirty minutes, we end up passing all the houses and someone with a kind heart will see us and say, “You're not going to walk all the way to the entrance are you? Hop in!" This time we walked about two-thirds of the way which was a good 2.5 hours in the dark with a bunch of cars passing by. Finally, someone heading to their house in the opposite direction saw us and made a U-turn to bring us to the entrance. We talked for like 15 minutes in the car, just thanking him!
When we arrived home we received a call from Elder and Sister Johnson. A couple missionary who works with houses and finances in the mission. They called us, to let us know that they would be at our house Sunday to inspect it. We then asked them if they had a Pricemart card, and they did. “Hey, do you think that you could pick us up some Quaker Oatmeal." Elder Johnson starts talking to his wife as my companion yells in the background "Get 2 boxes!!!" Elder Johnson replied, "Oh these boys are serious about their oatmeal. Well, we do have some downtime so sure let’s do it!" We may have walked for ages that day, but we were so excited that we started jumping up and dancing around the room singing the Hawaii 5-0 theme song, which just goes to show you, a lot of your energy is a mental game.
Saturday- We got a call around 8:00 in the morning. The power was out and we were needed for help to do a service activity. We ended up making Tamales and were needed to hand crank them.
Sunday- Hermana Wendt saw that we didn't have umbrellas with us most days so she put together some old fashion trash bag ponchos we could take with us. This Sunday was the first time I have ever conducted a sacrament meeting. I have been teaching in front of people every day. I've taught huge families of twenty people before. But as I got up to start conducting, I became so nervous even though there were only thirteen people. After speaking a sentence or two my mind calmed down and everything was okay, but you'd think after talking in front of people so long I would have gotten over that. Obviously not yet! I think it must be something to do with the podium. The next time I have to conduct, I'll just move the podium to the backroom and I'll be fine, HA. This calling will be good for me, and I'm glad to have this position, to push me out of my comfort zone a bit, in order to be a better missionary. I can see myself improving, so that deserves a good pat on the back. After that meeting Elder and Hermana Johnson came and inspected our house and dropped off the Avena (oats) and said it was a gift! THANKS, MOM and DAD! They are so cool! They always have so much energy it makes us happy. It was funny Elder Johnson said that he has only been to two wards with missionaries and both times it was with me. He then asked, “Where are you from? California. Oh, look, hun, after the mission we are going to have to fly all the way out to California just so we can go to church!” (Which if you are reading this, you are always welcome to come our way!!!) Then Hermana Johnson had homemade cookies waiting for us. As we got back to church, the Branch President’s son had a seizure, so we gave him a blessing and rushed him to the hospital.
Monday- Elder Cambell is a missionary that will finish his two years in a week. Now in the mission, the area you start out is where you are born. Your first companion is your parent, and the area in which you end is where you die and your last companion is the one to kill you. In my mission genealogy, he is my great-grandfather; he trained Elder Maya who trained Elder Garcia who trained me. To wish him a good farewell, I passed him a reference or referral of a Senorita Guadeloupe, who was 'really positive'. However, it was just a Funeral Home for Virgin Guadeloupe. Today was the first time I saw him since that reference and everyone busted up laughing.
Today was P-day de Elderes. Which means, at least in Latin America... Soccer. Genuinely I'm a little tired of soccer so I've been asking for other ideas of what we could do and so we had a water balloon fight today with the district and then went to a cereal bar. A restaurant that literally sells cereal. What a fun twist of events.
On the bus ride to get to David we ran into a man from the States by the name of Nick. He for whatever reason had a weird feeling that he should talk with us. He was one of the nicest tourists I've ever met and the chilliest dude. I felt as though I was back in college. He told us his story about how he married a member of the church, but he was never a member although he went to church for three years with this young woman and loved it. It ended up being they had different plans in life and so they separated. Later on in life he met his wife and she said she wanted him to become a member, he started looking for the missionaries to hear a lesson so that she could see what it was about. He looked for two days on church websites but didn't find anything. So he decided just to go over and talk to this girl and asked, "where can I find the missionaries". Just as he was leaving the door to look for them, they were walking to his door. He described that moment as an overwhelming feeling where he felt it was destiny or fate to see them right at that time. Later he asked this girl if she had sent them, and she said she had no idea of what he was talking about. Right after meeting those missionaries, he became close friends with them and still keeps in contact with them now. He's read the beginning of the Book of Mormon but never got to the end. This is where the strange part comes in. He wanted to leave early this morning at like 5:00, but he ended up taking the 8:00 bus. We wanted to take the 7:30 bus for P-day but it was full, so we were on the 8:00 bus as well. I was able to share a small testimony with him and invited him to read one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon Alma 37, where Alma is talking to his son Helaman and reflecting about the beginning of the story of Nephi. It was great because he even had the Gospel Library app on his phone. I don't know if what I did was much, but a strong spirit was with us today as he reflected on the beginning of his experience with the church.
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