Hola, buenas tardes, buenos días, buenas noches, cualquier momento en que está leyendo este mensaje, haha!
How's it all going family?
This week has been a good one, keeping busy. Keeping so busy and walking so much in fact I finally found a scale and had the urge to weigh myself just for fun, 'cuz I thought that for sure I've gained at least 5 pounds since I started the mission with all the rice I eat everyday. Got on, and what do you know, exactly the same as when I left! How is that even possible? I eat more rice in a day that the average American eats in about a month, haha. I am pretty sure that I walk about 5 miles a day at least, and it's mostly uphill, or lomas, which is why I've sweated off all the rice, haha!
We had the pleasure of going to the temple today, it was open for all the people who wanted to take refuge from the Carnaval and go somewhere safe, haha, Carnaval is so weird. It's like a 4-day holiday where everyone just gets squirt guns and hoses and sprays the people that walk by in the street, or throws eggs and them or whatever. Also there are a ton of desfiles and parties and what not, with people scandalously dressed so we've been advised to not be outside in all of it very often until Tuesday when it ends. So it will still be crazy till tomorrow.
I had a scary experience with a dog this week, as any missionary should have to be initiated into the mission lifestyle! This member lady has a big rottweiler and it's normally pretty calm but it's a big dog, so I decided I wanted to try and pet it. I whistle a bit, reach my hand out to touch it, and "ROOF ROOF ROOF", chomps it's teeth at me, goes to bite all of my fingers off, but luckily I had faster reflexes than that dumb dog, scared the crap out of me, haha!
We did that before teaching a referencia from the same lady of a friend of hers who does have very religious background. So we don't have any weird habits to correct, haha. Taught him how to pray and he did it pretty perfectly. He's cool, Javier Camargo, reminds me a lot of Uncle Joe, Mom, Roy's friend, CES buddy. He's a sociology professor at the universidad so he certainly knows his stuff. He got a Libro de Mormon from the friend awhile back and has already read 1st and 2nd Nefi, which is awesome, seems to enjoy it. I like him, but with his work schedule it's hard to teach him 'cuz he's always working. That's the case with lots of people, having to work around their work schedules to teach them 'cuz they're always gone.
We got to do my first Noche de Hogar with Hermano Santiago who I described a few weeks back. Eternal investigator who isn't married, but he's awesome and the Noche de Hogar was sweet. We played a cool game with paper slips on the people's foreheads with the name of famous people and they had to give hints to one another trying to guess ¿Quien soy? I took some pictures and a video this time which was fun.
Ok let me talk about the guys I call the "Ocho huevos un dólar" guys, haha. Quite the introduction for them, I know! There are guys that drive around the comunidades in vans with megaphones on the top and sell stuff like onions, vegetables, huevos, (obviously), and what not. And they talk into the megaphone as they do it, and seriously the megaphone or their voices make them sound like aliens, literally aliens. It's so creepy, haha! But I always make fun of them at district meeting and talk in their alien voices.
This week the talks in church were on la obra misional, so naturally they chose the elders to do the discursos, and what do you know... Elder Kniff got to do it! Last time I gave a talk in front of people in Spanish was the last week in the MTC. But this was in front of people that weren't all missionaries, haha. It went really well actually. I made a few jokes and it wasn't just chuckles I received, I got real LAUGHS from like everyone, in Spanish! Woot! And I used language what they call here "macheteing" people, like with a machete, haha. Which basically means that you slice them with doctrine or ways they can improve, like how they should help out the misioneros more. Verb made up in the mission, machetear haha, and Yo macheteyé (not a real word) todas de las personas que estuvieron allá.
And lastly let me talk about wanting desperately to baptize a Chinese person here in Panamá, because there are tons. How cool would it be to baptize a Chino (what everyone calls them) in Panamá, a country of Spanish?! We even found a Chinese Book of Mormon, and a few other church materials in Chinese in the closet. So I definitely want to teach someone and just tell them to pray and read our único libro de mormón en chino.
Good week this week, 2 left of this cambio, and I'm thinking I'm still gonna stay here. I thought only 2 changes, but apparently president wants people to stay in the area for 3 cambios now, ugh. I like the area, just ready for a change, someplace else, which you all can understand. Either way, I'll work hard in whatever area I'm in.
2 Scriptures for you this week, both in the Doctrine and Covenants because I started that, and am blazing through that, so awesome. Seción like 53 by now! Scriptures are D&C 45:58, and D&C 1:21-22. The first one is awesome, living in a world for children to grow up in without sin. And the 2nd, replace the name Joseph for your own name, really sweet.
Love you all, have a great week.
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