Dos Años: "Work super hard, because you can't get that lost time back..."

My first attempt at Mola...I thought it was super good, but Isai and Cesia couldn't stop laughing.

Hey! This week was fun. I got the package and everything was in it. Girl Scout cookies were a prime choice…the gringos in the house went bonkers seeing them. And the Pup n Suds photo book is ofiii. Laughed so hard with the Florida Georgia Line lyrics- hahaha.

The day of my birthday we went with the zone leaders to bless the Hermanas new house. Then we had a bunch of time so we got burgers at a dope little place by the house and then played “Pass the Pigs” for way too long. Got back to our area after lunch, and we did like three blessings and taught a bunch of lessons. At the end of the day we taught crazy guy! There are several crazy guys in the area, this is the one who whispers weird things at us. I saw him at a chino and asked if we could come by, so he brought us back to his house where he lives with his mom, who’s not crazy. We’ve taught them again and their progressing super-fast, I hope they’ll get baptized. She does however sell Lottery, lots of people do, I’m just not sure if it’s a problem for baptism, but we’ll see.

Saturday morning we had a service project painting rooms in a school in Concepcion. That was super fun. Two of the Hermanas who are out on San Blas have been in the city for the week for interviews and Elder Mann and Senden also had to come in because their area is now closed due to the much devil worship that is currently happening there. Mann´s been living with us. He’s from Santa Barbara and surfed Rincon and Carp all the time, too. Senden’s from Florida and also surfs. And Leite, our Brazilian zone leader, surfs as well. All four surfers in the mission right now are within 30 minutes of each other.

A little green paint in my hair...

That night, we went over to their house and I bought a bunch of pizzas for everyone, to celebrate my birthday. I wish I had just had them delivered because taking six pizzas on the subway was the most stressful thing ever. All of a sudden everyone’s your best friend and wants to tell you what their having for dinner and how they wish they had pizza. So weird. But that night was freaking fun. We ended up sleeping over because there weren’t any taxis to get home.

I like how you said Uncle Ben talked about the importance of making our wards fun, because Panama does not understand that, so it’s super hard to bring people to church. We’ve visited the Bishop every day this week to talk about what we can do but I don’t think he’s really into starting anything new. He’s been bishop for ten years. So I’m going to try to start something myself, just so we can get more kids there.

This week I was kind of hoping that I would get transferred…I even came home from church and half packed my bags. But then we did our weekly planning and I realized we’ve still got a lot of people we could teach and hopefully baptize, this change, and I really want to be there for that. Also, I’d miss this ward a heck of a lot, and I don’t have pictures with everyone yet…so, I decided I could deal with another 6 weeks in the city. Today, the changes were announced and I am staying, but my companion is leaving. Also my buddy, Elder Young, whose mom you were talking with before I went into the MTC, is the new secretary, so he’s moving in with us! Beyond stoked right now.

I think I might go out to Blas after this change. Just a feeling. Elder Senden is currently my favorite guy in the mission and he’s going back out to Tikantiki, where Elder Taylor 1 has been, but only has one more change there. So I’m going to beg President to send me out there with him. That would literally make my life.

One thing I’ve really noticed this week is that there will be days we don’t really try as hard to follow the schedule or to teach people, and I’ll come home like kind of depressed. But other days, I’ll work my trash off and talk with everyone and follow the schedule and get home twice as tired, but super happy. So my lesson this week is work super hard, because you can’t get that lost time back, and being tired is better than sad and regretful. In like one month you won’t even remember being hungry and bored and tired, but in like 50 years, you’ll probably remember a sick spiritual experience you had…or even a baptism.

Going to work super hard this change so I will be blessed with Island vibes to come.

Love y’all!

Elder Green