Out 6 Months this Week!

Happy Easter to Mi Amorosa Familia,

Quiero darles muchas gracias por todo que yo tengo, y por siempre proveerme con las cosas y necesidades que yo tengo. Hemos pasado nuestra reconocimiento de la Expiación de nuestro Salvador Jesucristo, y estoy eternamente agradecido por Él, quien sufrió para mi y por todas las personas en el mundo que viven en esta época y también todas que ya han pasado por la velo otra vez.

This week we really had the pleasure to have Easter, in which we acknowledge the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the reason why we have the eternal blessing to return to be with Him and our Heavenly Father again, just as He outlined in His Plan before the foundation of the world.

This week also let me say that I went off on divisions with the Cardenas elders because I wanted to enjoy American food more, like what we did on Saturday and Sunday for General Conference. So I stuck back there and had amazing food again; homemade corndogs and lasagna at another house haha. Really felt like I was serving in the States with the hospitality and speaking in English. That area is nice for all the gringos there, but the people there, trying to teach lessons and all is real rough because everyone is pretty loaded and they don't care to open the doors to a couple of missionaries like ourselves. Like I said last week though, the houses would even be nice by American standards. They were pretty massive with the fresh groomed lawns and all.

This is the second to last week in this change, and everyone assumes that Bradford is leaving because it's his 2nd change here and apparently they usually only keep the missionaries here for 2 changes.

I have certainy tried a lot of cool fruits and foods here on my mission, just never remember the names of any of them! One fruit we tried in the form of chicha, (which just means like drink basically), was a fruit that kinda tasted like peaches, called guanaba or something like that, super good. Funny how your taste buds change though on the mission, like the heat messes with you. I never liked Ginger Ale before, but now I'll walk into the chinos and buy a bottle of that all the time because it tastes amazing.

Bradford and I have started reading the Book of Mormon outloud in Spanish this last week. Even though the change is ending relatively soon, we want to see how much of it we can get done. I don't know if I've said it before but I really love reading in Spanish, in my head and outloud, really makes your brain shift and think completely in Spanish. Also, Bradford has asked me to help him with his Spanish, haha, so I've been teaching him a bit and helping him pronounce stuff better. I am far, far from perfect, but I do like to help out.

Our telephone-man investigator Hermano González is progressing nicely, reading el Libro de Mormón super fast. Already done with 1 Nefi, and we read it with him too when we're there. He says that it's great because he's studied the Bible so much and now this is really new scripture that he's never read before and so he's absorbing it like crazy. He even made a comment that he now kinda feels like the Book of Mormon is more sacred that the Bible, woah. The only problem is that it's 3 weeks we've been teaching him, and he really wants to be baptized, but he hasn't gone to church once. We always remind him on Saturday right before, and it's not like he can get lost since he works about 20 feet from the chapel! But he always has some kind of excuse or activity that he has to do instead, just a bit frustrating sometimes.

I spoke in church yesterday, hadn't prepared, haha, because another girl was supposed to speak but she didn't show up of course so I got chosen. I chose to speak on the Atonement and the Resurrection. I talked for about 10 minutes or so, not too bad, just used 2 scriptures and went with it, one of which I will include in this email later ;)

La Semana Santa has been crazy! These people have super weird traditions like not eating any meat for Friday through Sunday cuz it's like youre "eating Christ's flesh if you do"...okey doke haha, but we had rice and meat all 3 days I believe. People just do it all as hypocrites, like they go to their little ceremony for an hour then they go back to their houses and sit outside blasting music and drinking. Panamanian culture, haha it's pretty funny. They also have really funny excuses for not going to church, por ejemplo "Oh disculpe, no pude irme porque yo tuve que arreglar mi ropa, lo siento" wow, arranging clothes keeps you from going to church for a couple hours!

That's ok though, people also have their eternal and divine gift of agency, and they choose it in their forms. If I could label one thing that I've learned on my mission so far in my first 6 months (gonna complete 6 months this week), is that I have gotten a huge love and respect for the Book of Mormon, and the validity of it. It seriously is incredible that book, you can feel the Spirit just looking at the outside cover, holding it your hands, opening it up, then finally reading and studying and pondering. I like many other prophets have done recently, challenge you all to read the Book of Mormon and put Moroni's promise to the test, it will change your life more than it already has.

We also got an amazing referral from a guy from Cardenas yesterday of a coworker of his that had a dream with Joseph Smith and Angel Moroni in it.  He talked to him and said "Who do I need to talk to to figure out what this means and who Joseph Smith is?" WOW. So he told us and were going to go visit him tomorrow, definitely lots of hope there.

Alright everyone I shall end with 2 scriptures for you all that you should meditate and apply. Alma 7: 11-13, talks about the 7 sufferings of Jesus, really an incredible scripture. I know that the Savior suffered all the pains of the world so that we don't have to suffer as He did ever. Lastly, D&C 112:5. As missionaries we must work day and night preaching, never sparing a moment to open our mouths.

Love you all very much, for your letters and all, it's really great. Have a wonderful week.