Hmm...I never thought that in my mission I would put on a white dress, a white bra, stuff it to the breaking point, put on an old lady mask and jumb off a stage and run around leaping in the air and sitting on peoples' laps...
What a fun activity we had this past Saturday in the chapel. I think I mentioned it before but it was called "Bollo Empreña'o" in Panamanian dialect or empreñado in Spanish. It's a "chorrerana" especialidad here which is like a chorizo inside of this cornmeal type mixture, kinda like a tamale. They were pretty good. The activity was a missionary activity involving both of the wards that meet in our building and their respective missionaries. There were 7 of us missionaries in change of the whole thing, and it was almost completely Honduran based dramas, dances, songs, etc, because Elder Lainez is from Honduras and is heading back home this week, finishing his mission. We have been practicing songs for like 2 weeks, both "The Scientist" by Coldplay and "Upside Down" by Jack Johnson, so us gringos kept our nationality and individuality in the song choices, haha. We performed the Coldplay song as the opening act (yeah, we felt like rock stars, it was our first big "gig") and it went really well. Elder Johnson was jamming on the piano and the rest of us singing, and I was in charge of belting this super high note in the chorus, but it came out ok. Then a bit later we performed our more fun song in the Jack Johnson one. Johnson on the Kuna maraca, me on the box drum, Elders Livesay and Jones on guitar, and us all just jamming. It was really fun and people enjoyed our songs.
The BEST of all though was "la sucia" which was another act that Livesay, Lainez and I did, that's where the bra and dress come in. It's a weird song really, but I was like this witch lady that went around chasing the two of them for something that the character Lainez had done the night before. Everyone screamed as I ripped open the curtains at the perfect time and jumped off the stage and my "boobs" fell down to my waist and I hoisted them back up, hahaha. It was sooo hilarious and everyone was laughing hysterically. After all that was said and done, we came back walking in the 3 of us and took our bow and walked off :P We had a good amount of people there. They arrived at Panamanian standard time; about an hour late, but that's ok, ended up with over 100 people. I sent a few pictures of the whole thing so I hope you check those out.
We met a lot of really cool people this week as well, watching as we had more and more tender mercies like I mentioned before. This week we had a day where we had like 3 appointments fall in this residential area and we were just getting upset and walking and wandering around trying to come up with something to do or someone to visit. This car honks it's horn at us and a guy walks out and I immediately recognized him as a member but couldn't remember from where. His name was Carlos from Bella Vista in the city, must've seen him there some time, and he was driving this co-worker home who lives in our area and told us that he had actually just been talking to him about the Church. Coincidence? There are no such things as coincidences, only blessings. He's a Columbian guy named Junior who had just moved here like a week ago with his wife and 11 year old son. We went to visit them a couple days later and their house is almost completely empty. We sat on the tile floor and got to know them a bit more. They are amazing, super nice, ready to receive the Gospel now. They didn't even have furniture and they offered us fresh pineapple juice and bread and then gave us a ride to our next appointment. Wow. I think I've come to the conclusion here in the mission that like every other Latin culture (besides the prideful Panamanians) is nice to strangers. Those people magnified what it says at the end of Alma 31, "take no heed to what you will eat nor drink, nor the clothes you will wear" because it will be provided for you. Really cool experience. They were going to come to the activity on Saturday but had to cancel at the last second unfortunately. He told us that the job he JUST got with the member from Bella Vista, he's going to have to quit because of some visa type situation. How past tomorrow, he is no longer legal in the country :/. But that guy has such a positive attitude wow, he's like "big deal, I'll turn this car I have into a taxi to make a few bucks, we'll survive I know God will bless and provide for us". They need to be baptized now :)
I've decided that after being in the mission for 17 months (tomorrow actually), I'm a lot more straightforward and bold with people, Johnson and I both. We've decided that we need to talk about baptism all the time, contacts, first lessons, invite people everywhere to repent and be baptized. That's the reason why we're here, not to just teach people about Jesus. They need to know that in the end, all that we teach them, is going to point towards repentance and baptism, and we need to find out if they are willing to make that commitment or not. I'm tired of being just an average missionary, just teaching a lesson, scripture here and there, yeah yeah. These people need to understand the urgency and need to be baptized as the Lord is coming very quickly.
Elder Lainez taught his last lesson in district meeting and it really helped me. He stated 5 steps that we do in the Gospel to become fully converted and I'm going to write them for you here as well, but focus on the last one specifically. 1. Sincere repentance from the heart. 2. Make covenants with God. 3. Obtain a testimony of the Atonement. 4. Stay firm and immovable. 5. Don't look back. If you've made mistakes in your life like I have, don't look back. Don't think about what you've done, forget it, repent, the Lord forgives you and you need to forgive yourself too. No point in thinking about past sins, because they will only make you fall back into the same trap you fell into before. That's retroceding, not continuing forward. That's counterproductive rather that constructive. NO MIRES ATRÁS.
I hope you all know how much I love the mission. I don't want this to end. I may think about home and talk about fun stuff I'll do when I'm home, but when it comes down to it all, I don't want this whole ride to end.
I have some great scriptures for you, along with my testimony that I know that what we do in this life matters. God listens to us in our prayers and He needs for us to be firm and faithful in all things, not just some of them. Alma 32:17-18, which is awesome about faith, the whole chapter you all know already, and John 6:67-68. Christ has the words of eternal life, just as Peter says, where would we go Lord? Have a wonderful week everyone :)
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