August 20, 2024-August 26, 2024-Week 68-Loma Nueve

This week was EXCELLENT! We were able to find and teach and also BAPTIZE this week. At the start of the week, I was a little like "shoot what are we even gonna do" because the area was taking a reset, but by the end of the week I was like "shoot what are we even gonna do, there's no time to de it all!!!". The Lord ALWAYS provides.  

Something we have really been focusing on is references from everyone. Literally. That taxi driver doesn't want to listen? We still ask if he knows anyone else who is. Everyone in their family are members? We ask about extended family. There is always someone that they know. We got probably like 12 references (a lot for other areas), but this was an invitation from a talk we have been studying as a missionary to ALWAYS ask for references. So heres my little plug -- you ALL know someone. Pray to God and He will help you be guided to who needs the gospel right now. Just imagine them in temple white, and open your mouth and SHARE! I love this ward, it is basically a states ward. There's like 150 who attend, and so many are ex missionaries. It makes such a difference! 

Also! My comp is awesome!! We get along so well and we just work hard and play hard. We always are running everywhere and on the same page to do EVERYTHING we can to meet our goal of 8 baptisms this transfer. We were able to have a baptism this weekend, so we are 3/8, and we have lots of good friends who are up next in these upcoming weekends. "Doubt not, but be believing!". The baptism was of our friend Luis. It is kind of a crazy story. All of Hermana Shirley's plans had fallen through with her previous companion, Hermana Zapana, one night, so they decided to go knock doors in this neighborhood close to the church. It is a nice neighborhood,  and people are hardly home in the daytime because they all work. Arraijan is just the suburbs of the city, so basically people have money here. And stable jobs. And like normal lives. Kinda the opposite of what I've ever seen here in Panama since I've just been in the ghetto and the interior. So they knock a door, and the guy is super nice, and turns out, his sister and his daughter are members in other parts of Panama. Luis was so chosen! He dropped coffee and is just so good. The easiest baptism I've had my whole mission. So YAY! Another child of God has covenants.

Something that I have been noticing in my zone is just desanimo,  idk the English translation, sorry. Just lack of faith. Just going through the motions. Counting down the days until they can go home. I am trying to think of how to get the zone BELIEVING. Faith is the first principle of the gospel for a heck of a good reason. I love Moroni 7:20-40, 2 Nephi 26:13, 27:23. MIRACLES HAVE NOT CEASED. And sometimes I just want to shake some missionaries and tell them to think celestial and see that God has something perfectly prepared, and we must "doubt not". So we have been trying to think of how we can get everyone to have joy, faith, believe. Because if we ourselves don't feel joy or happiness or faith, then what is this all about? We are missing the whole point. Jesus Christ is OUR Savior. That statement alone changes everything! If we don't feel these emotions when we think about the gospel, we need to ask Him what we need to change to feel this way. It's a gospel of JOY!

This coming week will be STELLAR! We have leadership conference and zone conference. But not any normal zone conference but with the whole entire mission!!! That's unheard of. And it's all because Elder Godoy is coming this week. This is my second time a general authority has come, so it should be pretty exciting!! I am trying to brainstorm good questions so I can receive new revelation for my life and for my area. 

Basically I love being a missionary! Dreams do come true! It's the best work in the whole wide universe, and such a privilege!!! 

PS the biggest tragedy or the week was my hair in the baptismal photos AND I went running for the first time in 15 months and it was so good. Gave me hope that I really am not that out or shape! 

We went running today and I realized I am not that out of shape, so I will easily get back in the game after the mission

Visits with Kilmer and Nic

FatiMOM. Literally she is famous in the mission as taking the best care of missionaries, and she lives up to the HYPE. She makes the best food, shares the best testimonies, and always has some new gossip haha

Cosechandooo

Baptism of Luis Romero

Bishop Daniel Diaz, Hermana Shirley, me, Luis, Matthew his grandson, Wilmer Vasquez, Kilmer Boyd

FATIMom (she is also the bishop's wife)

Eating salchipapas #salchipapasnobs

Going and getting all our friends for church

Mmmmm gelarti for pday

We got our nails done today, it was nice to be pampered a little bit.

Me, Hermana Shirley, Hermana Bennett, and Hermana Goekeritz

With Fatimom going to visits

August 13, 2024-August 19, 2024-Week 67-Loma Nueve

I don't really know who reads these things, but I had a bad week journaling so I am going to write a little longer email so that I can remember everything!

On Tuesday, I woke up to go to transfers, and I was still pretty sick. I tried to throw up, but couldn't, ate an apple, and we went to the grand central station in Albrook and I was off. I met up with Hermana Shirley, and was dead tried, and we worked the whole day! It was my first day working in like a week, so I was so tired, and we walked fast, and had so many  visits, but it felt really good to go out and work and serve and be a normal missionary all over again. 

The house is really nice, and the area too. My house has AC in the room, and two floors and two bathrooms, definitely the nicest house I have had in my whole mission. Our area is pretty big, and it makes me feel like I am back in the states because the ward attendance is upwards of 150, and I feel like I will never get to know everybody. The area is affluent, and people have normal day jobs, so I am going to have to really get accustomed to finding new people to teach in a different way.

Hermana Shirley and I have set some big goals -- 30 contacts everyday, 8 baptisms, working on ministering to the recent converts because there are 29 and only a few are active, and to find joy in every moment. Personally, I am working on humility, including praying in every moment, daily repentance, and seeing my angels. I would love to hear anyones angel experiences so that I can write them down and learn from them.

On Saturday, there were two baptisms of a a son and a mom, whose dad is already a member. It is always special to see more people make covenants with God, and how it is just the beginning of a lifetime of joy. On Sunday, it was really good to take the sacrament and to remember that this is God's work. I think I am prone to get overstressed and to doubt and to worry, but really, I can have covenant confidence that I am doing all in my power. I just need to keep my strengths strengths, and not let Satan get in my head and make me weak. 

We sang my favorite sacrament hymn on Sunday, 

1.As now we take the sacrament,

Our thoughts are turned to thee,

Thou Son of God, who lived for us,

Then died on Calvary.

We contemplate thy lasting grace,

Thy boundless charity;

To us the gift of life was giv’n

For all eternity.

2.As now our minds review the past,

We know we must repent;

The way to thee is righteousness—

The way thy life was spent.

Forgiveness is a gift from thee

We seek with pure intent.

With hands now pledged to do thy work,

We take the sacrament.

3.As now we praise thy name with song,

The blessings of this day

Will linger in our thankful hearts,

And silently we pray

For courage to accept thy will,

To listen and obey.

We love thee, Lord; our hearts are full.

We’ll walk thy chosen way.

I will walk His chosen way! I do not need to doubt, but be believing in the Lord and in all His promises. This is the work of the Lord, and He leads it. I know Christ is my personal Savior, and I know that He will help me in every step of the way.

My comp!!! Hermana Shirley

Zone council, elder Cook, Campbell, Vasquez, and Christensen

The baptisms of Yauzanis and Brayan Pérez

Hermana maroto, Hermana zapana, Yazaunis, Dillan, Brayan, Jefferson, Josue, Karen, Hermana Shirley, me

Hermanas Maroto, Hermana Zapana, Fatima, Hermana Shirley, and me at the baptisms on Saturday

Eating dinner and having mission corelatio on the phone

Visits with Kilmer, our ward mission leader. When I asked what I could pray for for him, he told me to pray to have a gringo girl friend from Utah

August 6, 2024-August 12, 2024-Week 66-Loma Nueve

Well the end of the transfer has come, and that means I am heading out to my last area in Arraijan in Vista Alegre with Hermana Shirley!!! I am really excited since we served together in the same zone in David and we have probably done 7+ days of exchanges, so we are already super great friends and I know we are going to be able to work really hard and enjoy this upcoming transfer! It was funny because in our emails to President, we had been writing to be companions ("light hints") and in both our interviews this last week he was like "well it seems like you two might want to be companions". It seems like him and God definitely got the clue. 

And really other than that, nothing much else happened because I got pretty sick on Tuesday with a high fever and lots of muscle pain. I talked with Hermana Forsberg (the mission presidents wife and the mission nurse) and she just told me to rest the next day. So I slept all day Wednesday, but couldn't really eat anything. Thursday I had a normal day, but still hardly ate. Friday was a little better, but in the nighttime I was really sick again and I slept all day Saturday. I got a blessing Saturday night and the next day at church everyone was telling me to go to the doctor because they thought I had dengue. I hadn't gone earlier because Hermana Forsberg was sure that I just had a fever and needed to rest. We decided to go Sunday after church, and turns out I do have dengue. It's been a pretty crummy week, but I think I am nearing the end of being sick, if my platelets and white blood cell count can go up and if I can manage to eat something. I think all in all I was just able to feel a lot of love from the ward and my companion. Friday night when I got sick again, members took me to the pharmacy and paid for my medications. On Saturday a member came to the house to give me a blessing. Sunday members took us to the clinic and made sure we had food. These are some pretty amazing sacrifices for Panamañians because they don't have money or time, but they all made the efforts to make sure that a missionary they hardly know gets better. And the whole time my companion has been helping me in every way that she can. So I am really glad to have had people to take care of me when I have been so sick.

July 30, 2024-August 5, 2024-Week 65-Loma Nueve

Well, this weekend the most magical and special of all special things happened -- a whole family got baptized! I remember way back when in my first transfer my trainer telling me she had never had a family baptized, and that was her goal. I also remember at the start of this transfer saying how it would be a dream to see a whole family baptized. This doesn't happen very often. I feel very blessed to see the family Rayths baptized this weekend, all five of them, with lots of smiles! 

 The story of them is one day we were waiting on someones patio during a huge rainstorm. When it rains here, it is almost impossible to talk because of the tin roofs. So we were just sitting in silence, listening to the rain, and responding to some messages. But, on the side of the house there is a gated alleyway, with a few houses behind it. San Miguelito has a lot of houses that are practically inaccessible and all stacked on top of one another. While we waited, Hermana Bran saw a girl walk past that she recognized, and said we had to go back behind the house and meet her and whoever was in that house. We go back behind and we meet the Rayths family -- Delvia, Jahn, Jaimy, Janitza, and Jhafeth. (Turns out, Hermana Bran had dreamed about them before she had even gotten here, and they were blessed in all white, and together we were teaching them the gospel. CRAZY.). They are so sweet and came to church the first week, and then the second. On the second Sunday (the 28th), the mom, Delvia, said she had made everyone pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and she told us that she had a dream where Joseph Smith came to her, and told her this was all true and that the Book of Mormon was true and she must read it to know for herself. WOW! So, this week was packed with going to their house and helping them understand even more about the gospel. Then, the day of their baptism came, they were so excited, all smiles, and there was so many people and members there. It was so special! It made me realize that the whole purpose of the gospel is to be together eternally with our families. 

I sure love my family. I miss them so much, but something that Sister Kannapien taught me was that missionary service is being separated from your family for a time so that others can have their family for the eternity!

A recent convert from Veracruz wanted to go out with us for the day because she wants to serve a mission!!

This one's for grammy -- look what I found

Exchange with Hermana Virgin

Mcflurrys from McDonalds

Eating lunch with all of the hermanas of Tocumen for a day of exchanges and divisions

Baptismal clothes thanks to Elder Gongora

Rayths family -- me, Jaimy, Janitza, Delvia, Jhafeth, Jahn, Hermana Bran

At church the day of their confirmation

A service missionary, Elder Zambrano and his cultural arts recreations. He won

We went to the Panama Canal for p-day.  We actually got to see a boat go through the canal this time.