Tegitec, benuele, ¿Nuet gambi? ¡Ambea bege!
My thoughts are you have no clue what I just said to you, the spelling is probably way off also, I just wrote it how it sounds to me, even though it all really just sounds like gibberish to me anyway, haha. That, my friends and family and loved ones, is the Kuna language. Just goes to show you that the indegenious language is a BIT different than the more-dominant language of Spanish, haha. What I just said to you all in Kuna was, "Hello, good afternoon, how are you? I love you." Haha, that's pretty much all I got, I can say "goodbye" also and "youve got money" haha and "I'm hungry" and "we're going to eat"...all very useful missionary phrases about eating, haha.
So hello everyone! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY yesterday!!! I want to tell ALL of my fathers how much I love you and appreciate you. You may wonder "all your fathers?" Yes, you read correctly. I have many influential men in my life that I very much consider fathers to me, because a father is one who shows you love and teaches you life lessons. Primarily I want to say Happy Father's Day to my dad, David. I love you very much, Dad, thank you for all that you do for me. Immediately after that a man that is clearly my father as well, my step-dad, Roy. I love you Roy, I am very grateful for your strong influence in my life and the right track you've always encouraged me to follow. Also three other very important men that I've always looked up to: Bishop Warner, Bishop Romero, and Papa T. Tarver. I love you all very much, you are all great father figures to me and I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday with your families/my family.
This week has been a good week, lots going on right now. I made like 4 new bracelets this week, haha. All in the bit of free time I have in the mornings and nights of each day, a little time here and there. The one I'm wearing is great, it is the entire USA flag. I find it hilarious genturing now to the Panamanians with the US flag on my wrist! I ask the people ¿Donde cree que soy? haha. I will definitely be wearing it here for the 4th of July, gotta represent my country baby!
This week Saavedra and I started reading the Book of Mormon in English, and it's pretty fun. Like I said before, it's funny how all the Latins have the SAME accent when trying to speak English. He's actually way better at the pronunciation than I thought. That's really all the Latins want, help with how to pronounce the words because their teachers in school for the English classes are also Latins generally, so it's like a neverending circle of butchered pronunciation, haha. Speaking of speaking (no pun intended), the youth in our branch have decided that I am only allowed to speak to them in English for the rest of the change here, (my last change here in Veracruz I'm assuming, July 11th, haha.) It is so weird speaking English to Latins because they generally don't understand me, even if I talk slow. I certainly dont think I speak fast in English, but like all Americans, we mumble our words as well, just like the Latins do with Spanish. I've continued teaching Saavedrea important American English phrases that he will use to search for his wife in Utah, such as "Does this ring fit you?" "When can I meet your parents?" haha. Just a select few that he's been practicing this week.
This week we are preparing five people for baptisms this Friday. One of which is Hermano Gonzalez that works at the cell tower next to the church. I'm so glad to see that man change, he lets us speak now a lot more when we teach and doesn't constantly interrupt. He has a genuine desire to be baptized and talks about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon all the time, it's great. The other four are jovenes that are also excited to be baptized, and I am very excited as well. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes down, but I'm happy for that.
Now other news. I have a very strong belief that, and I dont mean to offend any of you out there when I say this, but the freaking Jehovah's Witnesses REALLY screw up our missionary effort here in Panama, and I would assume in many parts of the world. Everyone can "claim" or "say" that they are a missionary, but we know as members of the Church that in order to be one of God's chosen missionaries, you must be called to do so, by someone who has the authority, like the Prophet. I went contacting this week in Veracruz on divisions with my DL, Elder Pac from Guatemala. And yes, don't worry, I always call him "Pacman" or "6-Pac", haha. He's in Cardenas now with Peterson and his English is actually really good. Anyway, we come upon a house and a lady lets us in and talk to her. She was saying that "the testigos, jehovas witnesses (testigos de jehová) came over that very day and taught her that Jehovah was the "common name" given to God in the Bible". Ugh. I have a strong testimony in the invalidity of their work. I don't want to seem religiously intolerant because I'm certainly not that way. Like it says in the Articles of Faith, that we allow people to worhip diety in their own way. But when people go around making false claims about religion, it really emphasizes what the Savior said to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove that "Many people draw near to me with their voices, but with their hearts they are far from me". Ouch. He is basically saying that people go around all the time saying they are Christians and that Christ is their Savior, but they do not live their life in accordance to their vocal claims. But that's the reason the Lord has CALLED missionaries in His restored Church, that's the reason why there are 55,000 of us around the world, to spread His Gospel, with His authority. That's the only way we can do it, with His authority.
I love the mission, let me tell you all. I think everyday about how different my life is. Just simple day to day experiences that I would never have if I were back at home, wasting my time watching TV or playing video games. I promise to you all that when I come home from the mission, I will not waste the precious time that the Lord has given me. I want to always be "anxiously involved in a good cause". Like M Russel Ballard says in the book, "Our Search For Happiness", our life is like a rope, with a tiny piece of thread tied around the middle of the rope. The top half is all of the life we lived in the pre-existence, the bottom half is all the life we will live after this mortal life, dependant upon what we do in this life. That tiny piece of thread is the amount of time we have on this earth, from an eternal perspective. I have a firm testimony, like I shared yesterday in a Plan of Salvation lesson, that there is so much more to this life than just being born, having a crappy life, then dying and being buried in the ground. The eternal goal is to go back where it ALL started, in the presence of our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
I love you all, like I said in the beginning, "ambea bege". Two great scriptures for you, siguiendo en la lectura en el antiguo testamento, Exodus 14:13-14, 21, and 27. This is great, all about Moses and parting the Red Sea, it's a well known story obviously, but very important. Also a great scripture in 3rd Nephi 27:6-8 which is Jesus speaking to the Nephites giving us the reason WHY our church bears the name of Jesus Christ and why we do everything we do in the church by closing "in the name of Jesus Christ", or "en el nombre de Jesucristo". Take care everyone, study hard, pray hard, play hard, aprovechen este tiempo en la vida.
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