"See the Good"

 Hey!

Freak, I didn't even know it was Thanksgiving this week. I don't even know what month it is. I've been writing October in my journal for the last two weeks but I guess it's like November now. So yeah, we didn't do anything for it. I think I ate an entire pineapple for dinner that night.

This week a hurricane passed through Panama. We had no idea about that either. But it rained super hard for 22 hours straight and most of the next day. Not much wind or anything but the rivers were almost as high as the bridges. We still don't have a phone and somebody told us everyone in the ward was calling us to make sure we were inside...haha. We worked all that day and had 7 lessons. Didn't think it was that serious but turns out quite a few people died nearby because of trees and mountains falling on them, but it passed and it's back to the bloody heat.

'Baby Coco Party', aka district meeting.

And yeah our new house is wick. I eat a coco every morning for breakfast. That's where I got them for our baby coco party. It was just a district meeting and I've been slacking on the treats as of late, so I bajared a couple of those in the morning and everything was listo listo. A member lady, Hermana Granado, lives across the street and she's basically our mom. She invites us over to eat all the time and we wash our clothes there.

Our own Coco Tree in the back yard.  

And the little kitties are at the house of this old guy Luis who got baptised like a year ago but can hardly walk so he can't go to church, and he lives alone. So we visit him a lot and help him with things. Last night we went kinda late to go see him and one of the little cats had fallen inside of the chair they sleep on so we rescued it. Perfect timing.

Pile of cats

This week, like most weeks, I had a moment of extreme sadness missing my island life and my island people. And I was like, back in Carti I just walked around with a hymn book and a Libro de Mormon and it was prime. So I started doing that again this week and felt so free. We've been going around a new part of our area a lot, which is called San Jose, and is a proper Panamanian jungle ghetto. And due to the freedom of no bag, we were talking to hecka people and exploring a heckuva lot more. Lots of narrow little dirt paths that lead to houses way back in the trees. Down one we found a guy named Oscar who's 18 and lives with his wife and her little brother. Wicked little cinderblock house with dirt floors. These guys basically knew nothing about religion and what not so we taught them how to pray and everything and they may be solid.

Also had an unreal stressful day on Saturday trying to make a baptism happen. We told the Bishop and our ward mission leader that we were going to have one on Saturday but I guess they forgot and we couldn't get a hold of them all day Saturday. We were going to baptise the others from the Morris family that we baptised last week and we couldn't find the papers for the baptism of the dad Carlos who got baptised like 50 years ago in Carti. So we planned on baptising him too, but nothing worked out and we had to cancel it. They were all kinda bummed and we were hecka bummed. but I guess it's good because turns out we had to ask Salt Lake if they had his papers for baptism before we could re-baptise him. On Sunday, though, we were talking to a guy in another ward from Carti Tupile who said he was there when Carlos got baptised and he was like one of the first on the island to do it. And Carti was legit like the first area outside of the Canal Zone where they had baptisms in Panama. So gonna be legit if we get to redoit next week.

Spiritual thought this week is from a picture Joleen sent me in the MTC that I printed off and left on the wall on the island. It says "See the good." I had some times this week where all I could see was the frustrating, annoying stuff but I learned from some of our investigators who live in houses made of tin scraps that if you don't focus on the water coming in through the roof you realize how lucky you are to have a house at all.

Aurora Borealis? 

Love you all! And happy birthday to Fitz!

Still don't need anything from the states, but see if you could find a place for me to buy yucca and platano when I get back.

Elder Green

"...the Spirit speaks louder than we do..."

Hey,

This week was kind of hard, but super solid.

Our scheduled baptisms still haven't happened, but hopefully this next week everyone will be back from the island and then we'll get them done.

Monday was Day of the Dead, Tuesday was Independance Day, and Wednesday was something like Flag Day...Panamanians like to celebrate. That's just three of like 50 holidays they have. But anyways this week there was a lot of partying and it started raining bucco, so half our area was flooded most of the time.

We were also supposed to have a lot of investigators in church this Sunday but they all said they slept in... hahah. We're still visiting the Ngobe family and they're super solid. The other night the wife asked if we could go teach her cousin, who lives nearby. And along with her we have two other Ngobe families we teach. I always ask them how to say things in Ngobe but never know how to write them. We're also planning on baptising the 18 year old son of the Colombian family in the next two weeks.

We had two service projects this week. One was with some recent converts of the Hermanas. We did a lot of macheteing and harvesting yucca. It's this beast root that you pull out of the ground. Nearabout lost my fingernails trying to dig them out...before I figured out how to do it.
And the other was for a Kuna family in the ward. The grandpa is the branch president of Ustupu and they're building on to their house, so we carried like 150 bags of sand for cement and a bunch of cinderblocks.

Last night I had the most spiritually guided house find ever, I think. I was super frustrated last change because my comp didn't want to go anywhere that had trees or dirt or anything like that, so basically we didn't work in most of our area. So far, this change, we've been working in all parts and exploring areas where we haven't been yet. So last night we were going down a street that I didnt know, and there was lots of music as usual, but I see a little bridge over a river and up the side of a hill into the forest, and I'm like 'boom it.' So we went back there and found a little house and the family came out and welcomed us in. They said they were Catholic but listened to everything we said and then we invited them to get baptised at the end. And there was like a minute of silence and it was 'awk' and I was going to say something but I didn't and then they agreed to be baptised and seemed super sure about it. So from that I learned that the Spirit speaks louder than we do, and if I had said something I probably would have cut the Spirit off from saying what they needed to hear or feel.

So this week we're going to keep looking for houses in the forest.

The pictures I sent this week were of flooded rivers and other parts of my area that have no name.
And we have a house...we're moving in on the 15th!

Love you!

Elder Green

"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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