WATERFALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's what we did today for my last, uhmm yep, last pday here in la zona de Chitré. I got the call yesterday night, I have changes, and this time the changes are on Tuesday, so I'm going to already be in a new area tomorrow, donde estaré? I don't know what to think right now. I'm excited to go to a new area, but I'm actually really going to miss it here in Penonomé. The members have really found a place in my heart, and they seem to like me which is cool. I like to know that every area I serve in, I hope that I can leave the branch/ward better than how it was when I started there, by having baptisms and adding new members to the ward, improving or implementing new ideas for group nights, etc. I'll be honest with you all, here in this area I didn't have any baptisms unfortunately. I feel like I worked pretty hard, we fasted every Sunday for like 7 weeks, we prayed fervently, trying to make things happen, and they just didn't happen as we had hoped they would. To this day, I still cannot understand why this area was so difficult, because on paper it seems like a good, positive area. I know that even when we put in a lot of effort, it still may not be enough. The Lord knows if we're truly losing ourselves in the work. It's like a maze, the mission, and we need to lose ourselves in it. I need to exert every ounce of my energy into helping other come unto Christ by receiving the sacred and restored ordinance of baptism, and if I don't do that, then what am I doing here? I promise you all back home, that this next area where God sends me, I am going to work my feet off, good thing because I just bought new shoes, ready to go to work.
Back to the waterfall that I screamed at the beginning of the email. It's a waterfall that we've been looking into for a while that was supposedly near our area here in Peno. Well, we got a lady here in our branch who has a father in law who drives a little bus near the waterfall that said he could take us. After calling around a bunch we figured it out, it just required a bit of travel for the rest of the zone that was coming from farther away areas like Las Tablas. My comp and I got there good on time at around 10am, and ended up waiting for our zone for almost 2 hours as they gathered up the rest of the companionships and got all together. We got the guy to make this special trip for us directly to the waterfall, that's why it was so great and convenient, we just made him wait like 2 hours, haha, woops. But all turned out well, we got there and walked down the steps there. The whole trip was really beautiful and I would love to go back there after the mission is over to go swimming in those pools that are formed by the waterfall. One part even had little step ladders going into the water and let me tell ya, it was tempting, haha, just kidding. We took tons of pictures out there, and before climbing up to a higher part, decided that we would get a cool zone picture all spread out on the rocks in different spots making different poses. Anyway, Carrillo is climbing up the rocks, where they were insanely slippery, and Elder Clarke had handed him his camera so it didn't get wet. My comp goes and slips, slides down the rocks like 10 feet and goes almost completely under the water, haha, que ponchera nadando en su primer cambio, que bien le entreno no? The best part about it all is that he had the camera in his hand and kept his arm straight up in the air the whole time, and even when he hit the water, arm was still up, so the camera was saved and didn't get wet. My comp saved Elder Clarke's camera!
These 9 weeks with my hijo have been really great. I love him very much and he's taught me a lot in this short time. I feel like I have a Guatemalan accent more than I do gringo or Panamanian. I use all the slang words that he always uses, talk in vos, etc, it's pretty funny. I'll come home talking in that and people will think I served in Guatemala when Panama is completely different. We'll see if I keep the slang for the next 8 months, because like slang anywhere, it changes very quickly over time. I hope I've been a good trainer for him, and I've left him some good prospects for investigators that will one day get baptized with lots of work and prayer. He's made me really enjoy working and having fun while doing it. Being a missionary is simply fun. It's something that needs to be enjoyed, and you need to have fun, or it'll just be like a job, and who wants to go to work? Not many people. It's more rewarding than anything that I've ever done in my life.
Reading in the Book of Mormon this week I came across more absolutely amazing missionary examples from Alma, Ammon, Amulek, and the other sons of Mosiah, and it is completely absurd just HOW incredible of missionaries they were. People hate them, beat them, kick them out of cities, they don't give up, go back, absolutely destroy them with the messages they share of Christ and the need to be baptized, they get humbled down to the very earth from which they were created, have huge conversions, then hundreds or thousands are baptized. Every time. There is so much to learn from them and apply to this mission that the Lord has called me to. I realized how much the word "light" or "luz" is used in the Book of Mormon and the scriptures in general, saying that we must be "lights unto the world". That made me think a lot about science actually. What is light? What does it do? It simply is energy that illuminates an area where it is placed, and where the light is, darkness cannot exist. It is literally impossible to have darkness with light there. Think about that, you try to cover up a light bulb with your hands and you get burned, you cover it with a sheet, and the sheet glows, that's how powerful light is. We must be those lights, and glow. People all around us are walking in spiritual and literal darkness, sometimes both, and we come and shine our lights to cast out the darkness. Think about how much life you can see around you in the day time, in the light. When the sun sets at 6:00 or so and everything gets dark, you almost automatically get a bit more depressed, just by the mere fact that it isn't bright anymore. The Savior has commanded us to go and teach all nations, sharing the light of the gospel, illuminating the minds of others by the power of the Holy Ghost, as It has iluminated in us. Remember always, where light is, darkness cannot be.
I have 2 scriptures for you all, Alma 19:6 which talks all about light, like I was just rambling about and the different types of light that exist. Also in Alma 19:22-23, which is the proof, Mom, that God will protect his missionaries. I know Grant, and Max, and Zack King, and Nik Skinner, Colin Torsak, etc, all of us serving, will be protected, because the Lord makes covenants with us and with our parents to protect His servants until His work is done.
I love you all, excited to continue this adventure in another area, where do you all think I'll go. We'll find out tomorrow :) Have an amazing week all, you know I love you, working on some letters, and you know who you are that have them coming.
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