Transfer December 29, 2009

December 29, 2009

Hey!!
So I got changed in cambios (transfers) yesterday. I am now in David, it was an 8 hour bus ride from Panama City that wasn't so great. It was cool to see all of Panama out the window when it was light, but most of our ride was in the dark. I did however see the canal. I don't know much about this area except it is HUGe and my new companion is from Peru and is half my height. Literally, Olivia is probably bigger than her. But she is super sweet and I really like her already.

January 4, 2010

Hey!!!
Things here are great, I had a baptism on Saturday, we put the date of the baptism and baptized the kid all in the same week. His name is Ricardo, he is 14 and his mom and sister recently joined. When we asked him to be baptized in two weeks he said he wanted to be baptized this weekend, so we taught him everyday this week and dunked him on Saturday. It was awesome to see his whole family united in the church.

David is in the province Chiriqui and is close to Costa Rica. The sun here is INCREDIBLEY strong, my tan lines get worse and worse everyday. But most days there is a nice breeze that makes it almost bearable.

I really love it here, it has kind of a in a grandmas neighborhood feeling and the members are awesome. In the mold area that I just came from, none of the members were willing to help and the bishop was a joke. Here the bishop and his wife are awesome.

My companion is from Peru and definitely comes from a very different background, but she is a very hard worker which I am loving. We are hechando fuego aqui (making fire).

For the New Year many people here make a big scarecrow looking thing and burn it along with lots of fire works, so my companion and I made one as well and burnt it a midnight, it represents the leaving of the old year and entering the new.. Anyways we burned it at 12 and then hit the sack. I sent you guys a letter with pictures today.


This is Kara and her new companion Hermana Calderen from Peru and the scarecrow they made for New Years Eve to burn and send away all the old and welcome the new.


The Scarecrow


The Scarecrow burning.




This is a Hermano from the ward who helped them burn their Muneca (scarecrow). He is 83 years old and still Kicken (as Kara says). He told Kara he is looking for a wife. He works in the Temple but hasn't been sealed to anyone as his wife wasn't a member and passed away, so he will continue to search!!!

I am living on the side of some of the members here, so they invited us over for dinner for new years which was nice. I have to say I LOVE the tamales here, they are nothing like those nasty frozen things we used to eat...

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