Week 7: Panama ☀️

Buenas! 

I made it to Panama and it's awesome and super hot

I didn't write an email last week because I decided to pack (take a nap) instead, but here it is!

My time at the ccm was sooooo fun, lots of pickleball and card games. We also said goodbye to our maestros and said goodbye to all our friends there which was sad. I really miss hanging out with my district all day, but almost my entire district is serving in panama so we still see each other!

Some things:

I turned 19! our teacher let us have a whole 5 minutes of extra break to celebrate and my district got the entire cafeteria to sing happy birthday to me at dinner lol

I also cut my hair the last night at the ccm! It's nice to have short hair in the panamanaian heat but it also poofs up a lot because of the humidity so I look like Lord Farquad half the time but I think its a fashion statement 

We dropped off the one girl from my district not serving in panama at the busses at 1 am which was sad to say goodbyethen we went back and slept for two hours until we had to get to the busses ourselves at like 4 am. We flew out at 9 and I had subway for breakfast We landed in Panama and literally walking through the tunnel out of the plane felt like I was in a microwave. Well crap

We all loaded onto this bus and drove into the city! I have yet to see the canal- apparently the other side of the airplane did rip. We drove to the mission home in the city and met the mission presidents! They seem super cool

We also got our trainers! We were taken into the church chapel and one by one they called up the trainer, who introduced themselves and the area they and their comp were going to go to, and then they called who their comp was. It was really fun to watch. But then I saw this really short  latina walk up to the front and I remembered my dad telling me how hard but how cool it would be if my trainer was a native speaking latina. Well dad you got your wish. Meet my comp Hermana Fernando! She is from Guatemala and speaks about as much English as I do spanish so Google translate and the gift of tounges is our best friend right now. She is so sweet and easy to work with and she loves hugs 

As of now I've been in panama for 5 days and here are a few things that have happened:

   -tried the famous "corn milk" which was actually really good

   -learned that there are Crocodiles in panama?!? We were walking to a friend's house and my comp pointed to this tiny pond and said "Cocodrilo." I still havent seen one for myself but now every time we see any water I ask it there's any

   -we went to the store, and my comp called it the chino. I asked why because I thought it was called a tienda in spanish?? She said everyone calls it a chino because all the stores are owned by Chinese people 

   -there are these white kidnapper vans that drive around blasting some audio i can't understand. They dont have any advertisments or anything but apparently they sell pastries and donuts. Like ice cream trucks and they're actually really yummy 

   -im tired all the time. I swear the schedule is designed to give us just barely enough sleep to survive the day. Everyone in church asked me if I was ok because I looked half dead

   -all the kids call us "mormónies"

   -our house has a lot of geckos.

   -i said the closing prayer for the entire Panama mission zoom call in spanish yesterday! 

We have talked to so many people its been amazing, but most of the time I just feel like a sales bro and nobody wants to talk to a sales bro. My family just sends a kids to the door to say no parents are home and that's what people do to us here lol lol. So I want to do better at feeling our message in my heart when we talk to people so they can feel it too

I really just follow my comp around and share my testimony and the end of the lessons. But it's been good for me because I have no choice but to try and speak spanish so im learning a lot. I am still not great, BUT it's been crazy to see how much I've been able to speak after 7 weeks as a missionary compared to the 2 years i took spanish in high-school

In the CCM all the missionaries take a EI test their last few days to see how much they've progress they've made. My district and I were all beginner level, but if you scored above a 4.2 on the EI you're considered intermediate, and i got a 4.4! my teachers jaw physically dropped when he saw my score lol 

Lessons have been good, yesterday our friend Yisel accepted the invitation to be babtised! Before the lesson my comp said she wanted to invite her to be babtised but decided to talk about comfort instead because Yisel has been struggling, however when we sat down and asked if she had any questions, she said she has been wondering if she could be babtised! So cool how the spirit prepared her heart for that. 

I actually had no idea what was happening so I didnt know she accepted the invitation until we left lol but yay!

My comp said something that has been really comforting to think about: we have a message, and while sometimes we can be scared to teach them or see how they will respond, its the spirit that manifests it to their hearts and confirm the truth of it. We are only the messengers

OK this is really long lo siento but it's been good here! Email me- love you!!!

Hma Wride

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TaFWjMoMBvfSBtTR7