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