It's simple, you make your guess, and I tell you if you're right or wrong. 0? Nope, 1 time? Wrong again... 2 times? DING DING DING! You got it! :P
Yes everyone, we had to move AGAIN, for the 2nd time. Interesting story really. So as you all know, we had to move a few weeks ago and we did that. Got ourselves that little house that you all saw in the pictures. Well, the "landlord" who didn't end up being the landlord, but rather works for another higher up, decided that we needed to leave as well, after only living there for a week. When we moved in I explained to him the whole situation, how he would receive his money on the 1st and 15th, directly to his credit card through the mission. He obviously assumed that he was to get his money the first day being in the house. His "señora" got angry and said that she wanted us out by the 4th of November, giving us a 4 days notice to leave, isn't that considerate of them?? So luckily there was another house lined up that a lady member off in an area halfway to La Pintada (bike adventure) called Los Uveros had made a house specifically for the missionaries if they wanted to live there. It wasn't completely finished. I like it, has great acoustics to sing, haha, wide open. The only problem is that it now costs a lot more for travel, 55 cents to get to the main part, then another 30 cents wherever else we want to go. We'll spend more on transportation and have to leave earlier to do things, but that's ok, better living with a member (somewhat less-active that we're reactivating in the process) who understands how the mission works a bit more. The problem was the last landlord who didn't understand and a lazy finances elder in the mission office who didn't do what he was supposed to do, just like me not getting money till the end of the month, but all's well that ends well right?
First off I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my big brother Grant, 24 years young baby that's awesome, first birthday in the mission field.
Here in Panamá, Halloween isn't really celebrated unfortunately. People talk about it and what not, movies on TV are about Halloween, but no kids go out Trick or Treating and get tons of candy like back home. So Segura and I decided to buy Spiderman masks and take some funny Halloween pictures that you'll be able to see. I enjoyed it, and I bought myself some nice expensive chocolate to celebrate as well... thought it was necessary.
This week as you all know, we were preparing this girl to be baptized for last Saturday. Unfortunately she wasn't at home so we could finish the lessons and she couldn't be baptized then. But she's still super excited and motivated. We went over to her house last week trying to teach her and finally met the rest of her family. That was our mistake, that we had planned this all without really talking to the family about it, and neither had she. We showed up and were talking to her mom and younger brothers, and the mom had no idea that she was going to be baptized that Saturday, so she was a bit upset and felt in the dark I'm sure, which is completely understandable. Imagine it, you want to know what your children are doing at all times, even when they're adults and can make their own decisions. The next oldest sibling, her brother, knew most of what was going on because she had talked to him about some stuff, but the mom felt clueless, and we felt bad for her. We moved the baptism for this Saturday, and hopefully it goes through. I really learned through that experience the importance of family communication. We need to be in contact with our families every single day if possible, that's how we learn and grow together and can have a constant trust with one another. There should never be secrets within the family, one person knowing while the others don't. I feel like each member of the family should be able to be open with one another, and not be like "well, I could talk to my mom about that, but I'd NEVER be able to tell my dad that, no way". Do all that you can to have open communication in your families. Don't let secrets divide your families, because when the secrets come out, then disputes happen and that only makes things worse. I love my family, and I feel like we are able to share anything with each other. Obviously there is always room for improvement, and I want to be more open and honest with my family from now on.
Speaking of good families, la familia Ayala, remember that lady I talked about last week, the lady who contacted us? Well that family is progressing really well, we've met all the members now and they're great. We went to go pick them up on Sunday to take the kids to church, because Hermana Kiria is her name, she works at a hotel and couldn't go, but we ended up taking her 16 year old son, even with all the desfiles (fiestas) going on. November 3rd is Panama's independence day from Spain I guess, día patrio or something like that, and there are parades and parties everywhere for like a week. It was Fast Sunday as well and he seemed to enjoy it. Less people came due to all the parties and almost no buses in service, nor taxis, but we had a decent amount of people. With that family we watched the full Restoration video to explain about Joseph Smith and prophets and everything, and they loved it. She said it was sad what happened to him. She's awesome everyone, really interested, and she said this week that she is going to ask her boss to let her have the day off so she can come with us to church. This is the kind of investigator I have been waiting for my whole mission, someone with genuine interest and reads what we tell them to read. We talked about the Book of Mormon and invited her to read 3 Nephi. She's so interested because to her it seems "new". That's how it should be to people, because we aren't just talking about some generic message like every other preacher. We're showing her that God loves us and has revealed new scriptures for us in these latter days. I get excited every time we go to teach her and her family, and they're all baptism age except for the youngest daughter who's 6, I believe.
We've had a few pday changes lately. Now we have to go to Chitré every Monday just for district meeting then go back to our areas afterwards to have companionship pdays. Everyone was upset but what can you do? President Ward said that the zone was wasting too much time together and it's better that we spend more time with our comps only.
I've heard recently that I might be training because both my DL and ZLs requested to President that I train, and may replace my DL as the new one. Not sure, but I want to train, I think it'd be fun, but a gringo who doesn't know any Spanish. That would be the best, because I would be able to relate with him so much more. Just see the confused, frustrated look on his face everytime we teach a lesson, it'd be great! :) But a Latin would be fine as well. I would want a Mexican, I love my Mexicans!
I decided this week that I'm going to stop using the Panamanian slang so much, like chevere and chuleta, because they've really stuck to me. I feel like I say chevere way too much, because it's like "cool". But back home I don't remember saying the word "cool" so often. Plus saying "chevere" to an older person has got to be disrespectful. Who would say "cool" to your grandma? I'll come up with other words like fantastico, excelente, increíble, etc.
It's been a great week, and I really like the scriptures for you all this time. First is in the Old Testament actually, stumbled upon it while reading Preach My Gospel, Proverbs 4:14-15, or just all of chapter 4, talks all about choosing friends wisely and the people you affiliate with, to avoid bad influences in your life that can lead you down wrong roads. The other is in D&C 101:38, which shows us the importance of patience in all things. If we have patience in our trials, the Lord promises that we will triumph over them and learn from them, and I'm not one to be very patient, but I've learned so much of patience on the mission. It's frustrating teaching people that aren't interested in changing their sinful, horrible lives, but we need to love them and be patient with them, and the Lord will provide the way, I know so.
Love you all, have a wonderful week!
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