29 - United States of Awesomeness

Hey mom! Well first off, if you looked at the pictures first you know about the baptism. If not, now you know.

The isla is going great! I wish I had perfect Utah weather here, the weather here is crazy. It gets super hot, then the next day it's cold. And it's to the point of where I need to use my sheet sometimes. So my body temperature is off. There's no way I can be getting cold out here! I'm kind of curious to see how long it takes for packages to get here. But I won't really know if it gets to Panama or not. That's one of the drawbacks of living here on the island.

That's awesome about the cows. I kinda miss farm work. It's weird to think about missing it, but I do. I liked doing it, especially with Austin. It's crazy to think that we are so far away from each other speaking different languages, but doing the same thing.

That's super funny that you guys had to speak in Sacrament Meeting. I honestly don't remember the last time you two had given talks in Sacrament! You punks! Trying to get out of it! haha just kidding. I would do the same.

Our lessons are going good. We are actually doing mission prep classes right now. We have an 18 year old guy and a 20 year old girl. The district president says they have to have all the mission prep classes before they can do their papers. So what we did is we talked about the first 4 chapters of the book, they are about being called of God and personal worthiness. Then 3 and 4 are about the spirit. Then all the other ones are parts of the lessons we teach as missionaries. So now we just teach them the lessons as if they were investigators and then they try and teach it back to us. We teach them like the full-length huge versions of the lesson, which takes like 45 minutes and then we tell them to teach like 10 minute to 15 minute versions of it. So it's actually kind of fun, and it helps to have a missionary teach it I think. We live this every day, so we kinda know what we are doing with it. But it's pretty fun, we have a good time with it. They both really wanna serve in the United States of Awesomness (new name I decided on). I told them like what kind of food we eat there, and that we have running hot and cold water coming from every faucet, just things like that. Then we made them some Gatorade, because in America, we drink greatness. So therefore we decided Gatorade was American enough to be an example. The hermanas on another island have some kids that want to serve missions too, but they are going to teach them. 

For my studies lately, I have been studying the life of Jesus, and his attributes. In Preach My Gospel there is a whole chapter about the attributes of Christ. So that’s pretty good! But my studies are kind of everywhere because I have to study so much! But I’ll start writing things down to share with you.

Travel is super common, especially for elders, because my comp is the district leader. So we have to go on divisions with the hermanas every change. But we almost always take water taxi kind of things. It’s actually kind of fun! We like look at motor size on the boats all the time. There’s a few boats called the Iguana, there are like 3 of them. They all have two 115 engines. It’s crazy! Those things are fast! But nothing compared to the boat back home. I kinda miss that thing. 

I remember doing all that stake youth committee stuff. I actually kind of liked it. It wasn’t even bad! But I guess I had a different view of it. Tell her to stop complaining. There are some places where kids can’t even get to church. So at least she can get to a church. Or do what I did, just go home in between meetings! haha no I never did that! Only right after sacrament to grab some food but that’s it! 

 

But I hope Marcus doesn’t get married before I get back. I wanna do some fun things with him before then! There are so many things to do! But dang I remember Sweet Tomatoes! It was freaking awesome! I remember going to the little bar with all the pizza and loadin my plate up with that! I loved that part! Maybe even as much at the ice cream. I’m so going there after the mission! That place rocks! But make sure to buy the new transformers movie and any other good movies that come out. I wanna see them when I get back! 

Our mission president sends out a letter every week to all the missionaries and we have to write to him every week. If you are lucky, he will write you back. Well it could be super lucky, or super unlucky if he does, depending on what it’s for. I actually did go to that conference too but I just wasn’t in any pictures. That was out in Playon Chico, and their bridge isn’t as cool as ours. Theirs is a little longer, but ours is taller, wider, and nicer. We gave up on our dreams of being expert fishermen. It was too much time invested. But we actually never really worry about food. We buy more food out here on the island than we get from the city. From the city is only like special things we couldn’t get out here and drink mixes. 

But this week was pretty crazy. We had a seminary graduation. It was with us, Carti Tupile and Tikantiki. So Thursday and Friday me and my comp were getting ready for that. Just so you know, pretty much the ward works through the missionaries. They always ask us to help with everything that ever happens. Without missionaries a lot would be undone. So we had to work on that for pretty much 2 days. Then Saturday morning at 8 am. we had a baptism. It was just me, my comp, the district president, and the Milmer. Small crowd for that one. but it was ok. He is the kind of kid that doesn’t really care about things like that so it worked out fine. I felt like those first missionaries how they would just kinda take the person to the nearest river and get it done! So that was pretty cool.  Then we had the other islands show up so there were kids everywhere. We had the seminary graduation and it was pretty fun. We got nachos after and I was in heaven. I missed liquid cheese! But it was a good time. We didn’t get much sleep though. Our hammocks take up almost the whole room where we sleep and we had to throw 4 more people in the open spaces we had. There wasn’t hardly any room in here! We were kinda crammed. On Sunday we were exhausted. We went to a member’s house for some lunch. It was super good! It was rice and chicken and carrots. Dang I miss those carrots! That was my week. Not much, but at the same time a lot of stuff went on. 

But other than that not much is happening, just some teaching. We have movie night with our youth. Me and my comp go to see the Columbians and buy Disney movies and then we all watch them on Fridays. Then Saturday mornings we are starting a thing where we play sports in the morning. So we do a lot of work with the jovenes.

I hope things are going good in the hood. Keep Brooke in line and Marcus away from thoughts of marriage! Love you!

26 - Chicha Fuerte

It stared out as a dance competition and turned into twerking

Well the funny thing, is we have needed a ton of rain, but we got none from that hurricane. We are like completely out of water so we are planning on going to the river today to get some more. 

It's been a crazy week. We had p-day on Wednesday, then Thursday we took a trip to Carti. We went to do divisions with them. And I found a new lady to do mola. I got one from her that was Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It was actually super good! I'm gonna go pick it up in a few weeks so I'll send a picture when I get it. But other than that I got to help prepare for a chicha fuerte. First off it was because the girl 'reached maturity', so somehow that translates to let's party. They put said girl in a little room made out of giant leaves, they keep her in the house for a few days, then they make a soup out of bananas and pumpkin. Then Saturday they feed the soup to every one on the island, then Sunday they eat rice all day and drink. And all because a girl 'matured'. Interesting.

We are teaching a few other people. We are looking at 2 baptisms at least for next change but we will see! We are planning on having a family baptism, and we have pretty high hopes. 

I got to watch the General Women's session too. I got to watch it in Spanish and then yesterday we watched it again in English. I loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk! I don't know if you remember the little video they had about temples, well just an FYI the last temple they show in the video is actually the Panama temple. And I also liked how he said got doesn't care how many followers you have on Instagram or if someone unfollows you on Twitter  *cough* S.B. *cough* but it was kind of funny. So many people get caught up in all that stuff, but it doesn't mean anything in the end. So there's no need to worry about it. 

But I really wanna bring you guys out here. It would be fun, it's so pretty out here! And the people are so nice! The funny thing, the thunder here is the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my entire life. It is so crazy! But I guess we will see. Transfers are this week, and both of us are staying. But to be honest, I would be fine with spending the rest of my mission here. Talking about it with my comp, I really don't want to go back into the city. I just kind of want to stay out here for the rest of the time. I get along with the people, I can handle no running water, and I just love being out here. But I will just do whatever is needed. I know I can't just stay here forever. 

Ok, so the thing with mail is the ZL's go in after every change, so they pick up all our stuff then. So I haven't gotten any letters or anything. If I'm lucky, if you did send one for my B-day, I'll get it in December instead of November. So in other words that's the downfall of being on the island, no mail. And I can't really send letters either. So I probably can't write Bro. Becksted back for a while. 

I like the quotes, even if they are self centered! haha just kidding! It's a good quote mommy! I hope you guys have a good week! I love you! See ya later! 

23 - The canoe that tipped....

Well, first off we will begin with the question and answer portion. For people who work here on the island, some do a little construction, some work in the energy building, some have their little piece of land in the mountains and they have fruit, and then they sell the fruit. Then there are some teachers, and some army people are out here, but for the most part people either leave the island to go work or just chill. But yes, we do kinda live on the end of the island. There are only 2 things after us, the school and the police station. But there are quite a few little stores here, most of the time it's just out of someone's house. And the funny thing is if you aren't Kuna Indian or aren't directly related to a Kuna, you aren't allowed to live here. They only make exceptions for teachers and missionaries. So that's a fun fact for you! But we eat a lot of rice, lots of rice. But on the boat to the island last week, it was all the elders because it's cheaper to go all together. So I didn't have to find it by myself or anything. 

Spanish hasn't been hard to pick back up. It's learning more that is becoming hard though. It helps to have an American comp to help, but it's still difficult. We made a goal to have comp study every day we study. So like when we aren't home or we are busy, we don't have it. But we try to as often as possible. We get along pretty well though! But these last few weeks have been tough. Either we are somewhere else, or most of our lessons fall through. But even with that we have decent numbers. And to do laundry, you put water and soap in a bucket, let it soak, kind of scrub em with your hands, and then rinse them off. And yeah we shower with a bucket. At the church, we have a little room where most of our stuff is, and we just kinda keep everything in there. And there's a big lock on it too. We just kind of roll up our hammocks and tie them up. There is a separate room that is our kitchen. 

My week was pretty hectic. So we went back to Carti to have divisions with the Hermanas there. The boat ride only took an hour, so that was nice. And I saw dolphins!! But then the hermanas made us pancakes for breakfast! So nice to have a woman cook for me again! ;) And then a kid came and told the hermanas that they needed help. Then a few minutes later they called us and said they needed us to come give a blessing. A kid cut his leg about an inch deep with a can. It was actually a pretty bad cut. So we gave him the blessing. Then a few minutes later one of the hermanas fainted. So then they went to a member's house so she could rest. Me and my comp went back to the church, and he started feeling pretty sick. So I went and bought him some water. Then after the hermana rested for a few hours, we decided to go get some work done on another island about a mile away. But the only way we could get there was by little wooden canoe. My companion and I were in one canoe and the hermanas had a member take them in another. It's a lot harder than it looks! Like 30 seconds into it me and my comp flipped the canoe. So we got soaked! We thought beforehand and decided not to take anything with us. My comp had a Book of Mormon and some folletas but I didn't have anything. So we were okay. But that was the only time we flipped it. And then we taught a few lessons and just searched for a few new people to teach on the other island, then headed back at about 6. On the way back, the ocean waves were like 3 feet tall! We were in this little foot and a half tall canoe! We were terrified! But there were some Australians there, not sure why but they were. And they watched us get into the canoe, and they were telling us 'You can do it!' So we headed out determined and we made it back perfectly fine. I was a little wet because I was in the front but we made it anyways!

Then the next day we tried to make homemade ohaldres, pretty much just elephant ears without cinnamon and sugar. But they didn't turn out so awesome. But then we made the super ohaldre. It was as big as the pan! It was actually pretty good! And then we came back to our island that day. 

Then we decided to go fishing and this is where it gets really funny. So we used crab meat to fish with. We only had 1 big one and like 4 small ones with us, and we were walking past the Baptist church to buy some hooks. And all of a sudden a pretty good sized crab runs across the road. So my first instinct is take it out, so I run after it with bucket in hand, and just smash it like 3 or 4 times. All the people at the Baptist church were just standing there like what the freak just happened. Then we just kinda walk off like nothing happened. So now they probably all think we are crazy! But sadly we didn't catch any fish. We are going to try again maybe tomorrow night, and we are going to try with sardines this time. Maybe it will work better. 

Then like 4 days ago I got super super sick. Like one of the worst in my life time. It was horrible. So I called the mission nurses, and they told me I need to go to a clinic as soon as possible. Luckily we have one on the island. So we get there, the roof is falling in, everything is all dirty. The nurse is wearing like a leopard print tank top. But I had a fever of 102 and they said I have a throat infection. They gave me some stuff to break up mucus build up, some antibiotics, and then 2 other types of pills. It was like 50 pills in total and the total was 9 dollars and 50 cents. For everything. Yeah super insanely cheap! But I'm starting to feel better so I guess it can't be that bad! 

But that was pretty much my week. We only had like 20 lessons last week, which wasn't very good. But we are still trying to get things to work out! 

I'm super excited for Tyler. I hope he does go on a mission. That would be really cool for him and it would be a huge learning experience. But everything is going good here. It's still hard to get used to but it's going good. I'm actually going through the lessons in Preach My Gospel and looking up all the scripture references it has, color coding them and putting the same color sticky note there so I know where it is. So surprisingly, I'm kind of figuring out how to organize things! 

I hope this week goes good. I love you! Keep it real.

9 - Splits and Elections!

Eating Fruit

A temple

Panama City

Panama City

The Panama Canal

A random horse.

I don't know why but we'll be Skyping with you on Saturday this week. That's what we are doing if that's okay with you. 2 o clock my time. But this week was weird. First I went on splits into the jungle. That was really cool but really tough. Then I got back to my area, where we have a breeze and no hills.

But after that we didn't really do much this week. Yesterday was elections so we didn't go out after church because no one was home and we were told not to. Then we taught some lessons. One of which we talked to a family about getting married. They had a lot of doubts but I told them to just pray. It's crazy that I'm like 10 years younger than them and I am telling them to pray to receive an answer about marriage. It was pretty cool.

And that was pretty much my week. Not much really happened. I know it's boring and I'm sorry. But I do have pictures to send so maybe that will make up for the short message! And just so you know, where I was eating that thing, I got to give their two little girls a blessing. One is named K., she is the cutest little girl ever! Almost as cute as little R.L. which is hard to do!

I love you and I'll see you Saturday.