"Didn't even realize this week is my one year mark."

Hey,

This week was pretty solid. We had two baptisms on Saturday. Yet again stressful having to find baptism clothes, but we got them in time. We baptised Jusmery and Anbar who are the wife and daughter of a member who just moved here from Venezuela.

I'm starting to like my area a little more. The picture with the tractor is in probably my favorite part that's just dirt roads and these little tin houses back in the forest. We don't do a lot of work there, but we walk through it most days and part of the road washed away from the bucco rain we had this week.

Also, one morning I woke up early and took the trash out, and there were chickens everywhere. And I remembered back in Carti I used to wake Elder Ricks up by lighting a fire in a pot and filling the house with smoke and yelling. It was hilarious. So I started catching the chickens and bringing them in the house I had like four in there and I was gonna throw one on Elder Duron but they starting pooping and freaking out so I let them out. Gonna try again this week.

And we found lots of Kunas this week! We started teaching a Mu and her daughter who are from Mulatupu. She doesn't speak spanish but the daughter does, but they love speaking dule with us so I try to speak mostly that. They said they want to come to church with us but I called them yesterday morning and they said they were too tired...haha. Our church does start at 8 so that makes it difficult. And we've got another family from Mammitupu and Atchudup weve taught a couple of times.

I'm kinda figuring out how to be District Leader now. We had a district meeting this week and I made pancakes then we talked about the scriptures and teaching people and what not. I'ts not as hard as I thought.

My spiritual thought for this week is about service. Last week we talked to a guy and set an appointment to visit him yesterday. But when we went he was busy working on his patio, and said he´d be busy cleaning up later. So we asked him if we could help and he said if we wanted to we could. So we came back later and helped him clean everything up then he let us teach him and his wife. She had so many questions we basically taught her all like 5 lessons. And they were both super stoked when we told them about General conference and they want to come next week. So basically I predict that they'll be baptised in the next three weeks, and we probably wouldn't have been able to visit them for a while if we hadn't offered to help. So just sweeping their patio opened the door for them to listen to us and it was solid.

Friends from Tikantiki. Teobaldo is in Panama to translate general conference into Kuna.

Also bad news, my best friend out here Elder Aycock had to go home this week for the second time for medical reasons. Probably some infection he got from the island. But I got to hang out with him the day before he left because both our comps had to go to migrations in the city. He´ll probably be back.

Didn't even realize this week is my one year mark. I've been counting down to when I could get back to Kuna Yala. I'm going for two years from now, starting today. But I guess I'm supposed to burn a shirt. So I shall do such.

Love you all!

Elder Green

Card from Kate

My sweat line

Area 4: Arraiján - "My feet were like covered in blisters up until yesterday."

Hey,

Arraiján is diece. I'll answer all your questions first.

Our house kinda sucks haha. It's super small. Mostly clean but just way too small. We're looking for another one nearby because we really like the neighborhood.

My companion, Elder Duron, is wick. He's already a way good teacher. Also very serious though but it's good because it balances me out.

And yeah we're eating differently than on the island. We have lunch with members some days and dinner almost every day. Mostly with Venezuelans because there's lots of them here. Been missing fish like heck but last night we had shark with a family. I do miss cooking for myself. We had a gas stove on the island that made it easier.

The ward is sweet. It's still pretty small but super solid. We still have to pass the sacrament and we taught the Gospel Principles class, but everyone is super active and helpful.

I still dont really know what my responsibilities as district leader are. I keep asking people what I'm supposed to do haha. I think I just report numbers and have district meeting every week. It's kinda easy for me though because I just have the zone leaders and the Hermanas who are in our ward in my district.

We saw a bunch of gators this week. There's a big ol river that runs through the middle of the area and it's full of them and the most beast sized fish I've ever seen. I dont know how to get down to it easily, because the banks are steep, but I'm gonna make it happen.

For P-day, literally don't know what we're doing. I want to go climb a mountain or something but my comp is not so down. I'm gonna make him do something fun sometime.

I'm feeling pretty good here, but I don't really like the area that much. Some parts are really cool and others are like housing developments where it's just rows and rows of houses that are exactly the same. And we mostly work in those places because there's lots of families to teach.

The wretch part of our area- Valle Hermosa

I freaking love my zone though. One of the zone leaders is Elder Varguez, my last comp in Panama Viejo, and my best bud Elder Senden is in the area next to me. Half the zone meets in our chapel so we see them every Sunday. There's like three wards that meet there and one of my best friends from Tikantiki goes to the hour after us.

Turns out I'm in the area right in between the two where all the Kunas are. Such a bummer. We don't see a lot of them but I've managed to find at least one Kuna family every day this week. They love speaking dule with mergis and all say we can come back and teach them. It's awesome. There's a couple of Kunas in our ward, but I'm gonna make sure it's full of them by the end of this change.

We have a couple of baptisms this Saturday and are most likely going to have more the next. Our area is seriously humongous though. We visit a different part of it every day and still spend all day walking. It's mostly suburbs and what not which I thought I'd like, but I hate it. Got me missing Panama Viejo where everything was close and I could throw my trash in the street.

I'm doing good though. My feet were like covered in blisters up until yesterday. It is kinda cool teaching people here because they're definately more receptive and you can see if they're progressing easier.

Heres a spiritual thought. There's a talk by D. Todd Christofferson that talks about a farmer that cuts down an overgrown current bush and he imagines it crying and saying he was doing so well growing tall and what not. But the farmer says he knows what he wants it to be, and the bush grows fruit and is happier that way. And I liked it because I was definately feeling cut down getting sent here but I can already see that I'm learning lots of things that will be important later on. So basically God knows what he´s doing and we shouldn't get mad or bummed out when things don't go the way we want them to.

I've already written too much so I'll stop here. Good luck with seminary and everything! Love y'all!

Also fun fact. Arraijan got its name because the Americans working on the canal would tell people, go across the bridge and take a right hand turn. And the Panamanians repeated it as A-righ-han...haha.

Hasta la proxima,

Elder Green

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