"...but a little old lady taught me a lesson of much worth."

Hey y’all!

So, this week I hated my area. Gonzalez and I had like three days of absolutely nothing. Appointments falling through, nobody wanting to talk, and drunk people and loud music as usual. Plus it being tiny kind of sucks because it feels like we’ve tried every house already. Then we did divisions like halfway through the week, so I went with Nellis to his area for two days, which is literally 8 times the size of ours, and it was awesome. The houses are more spread apart and we taught a lesson at almost every house we stopped at. It was super fun because it felt like we were actually doing something, and there were lots of people that were interested.

Elder Nellis and I, out on divisions.

Dinner tonight

Then the next day we went across the Canal, as a zone, to Veracruz, which is like real forest and mountains. I think it’s where I would be right now if I had only been in the MTC for two weeks. So we went to a little chapel there to do a service project where we passed out gifts to a bunch of kids, and sat around eating food for like 4 hours. There was a freaking mountain there and I wasn’t gonna just sit there and look at it, so I got Nellis to go contacting with me. We went up it to go look for people to teach…so sick. We only got like halfway up, but we got three referrals for the Hermanas there.

After this, I was especially bummed about my area, but a little old lady taught me a lesson of much worth. We went to her house for dinner, when I was on divisions, and then she came with us to visit a less active family. Afterwards, she asked us for some pass-along cards and started talking to everyone on the street and setting up appointments for us. So, I realized that we really could be talking to more people in Panama Viejo, even the people we’ve already talked to, and we should be trying harder to teach them. So I’m stoked about my area again and we have two more baptismal dates for people we’ve been teaching for a long time, but who hadn’t committed. 

Also skated a heck of a lot this week. Felt so good. I think this three-month hiatus has actually made me better because I’m landing tricks I couldn’t do before. First, was at the Bishop’s house. We went there for dinner and his son had a janky little board, so I was teaching him how to ollie and all the kids on the street came by. Then, Saturday night we were at Cinta Costera, it’s like a boardwalk downtown where we go contacting as a zone a lot. There were a ton of skaters there so I’d go up to them and ask them for a board, throw a kick-flip or ollie over something, then teach them a little something and get all their numbers. None of them are ever really interested, but at least they don’t think missionaries are as lame anymore.

There are chickens all over the place, just like in Hawaii...but these are Monster chickens!

Also, on the way there, I started talking to a guy and his son at a bus stop. Miguel and Miguel. They’re from Venezuela but they both speak perfect English, and like prefer it. They live right by us and are super interested, so I’m going to set up a lesson and will probably get to teach them in English, which I’m stoked for.

Today was P-day and it was the best one yet. Elder Taylor 1 and 2 and I got up at 4:00 and went to the store for meat and potatoes and what not. Then we went to the church to start a roast in a crockpot we bought. Then we went back, slept a while and waited for Nellis and Mendoza to come by. Then we all piled in the mission truck (perks of living with the secretaries) and drove to the Canal. It was sick. I saw a Norwegian boat go through the locks. Less exciting than I thought it would be, but still cool. Then we just hung out there in the museum for a while. We met a few members from London there. Then we went back to the church for our roast and to watch The Polar Express. Felt like America for a second, except the movie was in Spanish. Also I thought of this statement: Food tastes good. Literally it’s just so enjoyable to eat. 

We have a couple houses we could go to for Christmas so I’ll try to let you know when we’re going to be skyping. Probably around noon our time…I don’t know what that is for you. I still have no idea where Panama is!

Love y’all!

Happy Christmas Ron

Happy Christmas Harry

Elder Green