Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Homeless in Panama...

Hola family,
     Well, I now have a year in the mission and holy cow that went by super super fast! I never really believed people who said that the mission flies by, but now i´m saying it too. To celebrate, Elder Kniff and I  (we both have the same amount of time), we first went to this really good Burger place and bought these big ol burgers with bacon and everything, mmm they were sooo good! Then we went home and wrote on one of our white shirts, and then burned them (mission tradition) and i got a video of it, it was sweet! Those shirts really do burn fast, i hope i´m not wearing it if one ever catches on fire.
    This week has been all about looking for references that we have received from our 'rescue' activity. We´ve had quite a bit of success so far, but it´s tough finding houses here with just a little description and no address. We had two ward members bring friends into church this Sunday too and one of them had been a couple times before, and he said he always likes it. I gave him a Book of Mormon during the class and explained a little to him, and he started reading and just kept reading the whole time we were in class, and after said that it was really interesting. The cool thing is that he works everyday except for Sundays, and he has every Sunday off so that´s perfect! Also this lady brought her cousin in to Church with her two babies, and she seemed to have a good time; my comp sat next to her during the meetings so i´m not as sure how positive she is but i´m sure we´ll go visit her this week so i´ll let ya know.
    One funny that´s happening to us is that we are being kicked out of our house! The landlady is kicking us out because i guess since the missionaries started living here, they were supposed to share the expenses and work of taking care of the back yard area, but they have never done it and they didn´t tell the next missionaries they had to do it, so when we got here we didn´t even know. Well, yesterday she found us and told us that we have until the 30th to get out of the house, haha. Yesterday we started our house search, hopefully we can find one and not be too distracted from missionary work while dealing with all this. 
   With the new announcement that people can leave earlier for the missions (age 18 for women; age 19 for men) there were alot of girls in the district that have decided right away that they are going on a mission as soon as they can. Alot that are 19 or close to that age talked to the Branch President on Sunday to start their papers. I think the existing missions are going to be overwhelmed with new missionaries and that they are going to open up some new missions maybe. I know that here in this mission Pres. Ward already has the problem of giving new missionaries a trainer that is obedient and that has some time and experience in the mission. It should be interesting but i like the change. I always thought that if they lowered the date they would get alot more sisters out in the field and the sisters are super spiritual and keep the elders in check sometimes, haha.
    Man, it is so rainy here, we are entering the real rainy season and for the next few months it will rain everyday and a ton! The roads here literally look like rivers with a foot or so of water in them. Makes missionary work difficult because if you get soaked some people don´t want to let you in but then some are more willing to let you in, but i think i prefer the sun to rain. It´s funny, Panamanians are so afraid of the rain, like they really don´t want it to touch them at all, they will do silly things to avoid getting wet, like for example we always see people here with a piece of something over their head - like a box from a fast food joint trying to stay dry, but it doesn´t really work.
    Yeah Elder 'Atuake is with Elder Moreno from Mexico right? I know Moreno he is really cool i like him alot and he´s a good missionary so it should be sweet for Atuake. And i met Elder John Stegelmeier in the changes meeting, his trainer is Elder Clarke and he´s a great missionary and he´s in Juan Diaz where i was. Clarke wasn´t too excited about training there because it´s kinda tough, but i´m sure their going to do good work.
   Sounds like Grandpa´s 85th birthday party was a fun time. I want to see some of these war story videos sometime. You guys seem to be doing alot of traveling lately to random spots, i´m jealous, haha.
    My skin infections are pretty much gone, I still have some scars from where it was but it´s pretty much good now. I still have really itchy legs for some reason, it randomly gets really really itchy, i´m not sure what it is, but i´m alot better at just overpowering the will to scratch it and it goes away eventually.  
    I have some random questions that i´ve wondered being here in the mission field. How many people are in our ward at home? Are there alot of inactives? You said Mason is your only 11 yr old scout and it made me think, here in this branch, we have 2 active deacons and nothing else.
    I´m excited for this week because i hope we can find and teach all these references that we received from our rescue activity, and that we can get some good baptisms. We had two baptisms this Saturday, but they were two 10 year olds from different families, but we did make the families complete. I felt bad, one family didn´t even have 60 cents to pay for the bus fare to the church for the little kid and the mom, the branch pres had to go pick them up. I can´t imagine living a life where i don´t have 30 cents to take a bus. We all need to look at our lives and realize how great we have it. But i know that part of what we have are blessings that come from the gospel because when we dedicate ourselves to the gospel, the Lord provides for us. I know that if we put our trust in the Lord He will help us out in all things. Thanks for everything you guys do and i hope you guys have a great week! I love and miss you!
Love,
Elder Pfister

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