Letter on January 3, 2012

Hey Guys!

Things are going pretty great right now¡ I just got back from a way fun p-day!(that is why i did not write yesterday, we changed p-day so we could go to the temple today).   We woke up early and went to the temple which was awesome! The Panama temple is sweet cuz from the outside its really white in a really green jungle, and then inside the the temple is so quiet and the celestial room is bright and peaceful, while everywhere else in Panama is really noisy and loud- so it was great to be able to sit in peace and quiet. After that we went to a huge mall in Panama City and ate lunch and stuff there and shopped around; they have so many stores! It was fun fun fun in the sun. Anyway then we went to this causeway and rode bikes there and took pictures and just relaxed. It was sweet!  Then we went to a bridge off the Canal and took more photos and messed around. Overall it was a way sweet day!!

So other good news is that we might have 5 baptisms coming up soon, a family of 4 and Rodney who didn't show the last time we scheduled him for baptism . We have been working to get this family baptized for a while but they needed to get married, and to get married they had to pass a physical. The doctor who did it, who is a member, lost the results the first time, and the second time put the wrong name on the paperwork so there was tons of confusion with some other random person in Panama, so anyway the results took about 2 weeks to get which was a pain, but we finally have that step done so we are working on their marriage this week! 

To answer some questions:  we can play soccer on p-days if we want to, we usually do things as a zone or at least as a district so whatever everyone wants to do. We had another 'no water day' in town but it was when we were out working and the water was on by the time we returned. We do laundry at a laundry-mat a few blocks away from our house. But there are no dryers so we have to carry our wet laundry home to dry... no fun.   We have district meetings and zone meetings on Tuesday mornings (not on p-day). First we have zone meeting then we split into districts. We have 4 elders and 2 hermanas in our district and there are 3 districts in our zone with the same number, so we have 20 people in our zone; one district might have 4 companionships... not sure, but 20 in our zone and we are pretty big for Panama i have heard. We go on splits once a week. Our area is big, it takes about an hour or so to walk from one end to the other and i think that it coincides with our ward boundaries too, that is why it is tough to get some people to church because they live so far away.  My feet are sore and tired but fine, no problems. And i think we walk probably 10 miles a day, not really sure. Depends on how much tracting we do. And nope, no sick days from the food or anything yet :)

I am very grateful to everyone for everything and all the support you guys give me! I am glad you had a great Christmas and i hope a great New Years! I love you guys very much and miss and pray for you everyday!

Les Amo Mucho!!

Elder Pfister

Letter on Dec. 26th, 2011 after a Skype session on Christmas Day

Hola,
It was great to get to talk to you guys and get to see your faces during our Christmas Day Skype session! I really wish i could´ve been there with you but it´ll just make Christmas in two years that much better! So i´m not really sure what to say after that long skype session...

I¨m already doing alot better than my first email, Spanish is a little better but i can understand people a lot better which is nice. I´m starting to make more friends so i´m doing a lot better. I gotta attribute it to you guys cuz your love and support has really helped me! 

 

I´m glad you guys all had a good Christmas! The skype call was for sure the best part of mine but Christmas eve was really fun. We had 3 dinners on Christmas after our call so i was so stuffed!!

 

I love you guys and i loved talking to you guys! I can´t wait till Mother´s day now, but don´t worry too much about me, once the works starts it´s all good! Thanks for everything, i love and miss you guys so much!

Love,

Devin

Pictures of Elder Devin Pfister at La Chorrera area Christmas party Dec. 21, 2011

First email from Panama Dec. 19, 2011

Hello dear family,
So this has been a very different week compared to the MTC and even what the mtc said the mission would be like. I don´t even know where to start... My trainer, or papi as all the missionaries call them, is Elder Luis Barahona from Nicaragua. He speaks a little English and speaks Spanish really really fast, along with every other native here. He´s cool, I like him but it's kinda hard to connect with him like i did the people in the mtc because we can't communicate well- he´s been here 23 months and me a week so we can´t talk about all the things newbies want to talk about. (sorry about my spelling and stuff, this keyboard is hard to use cuz it has a bunch of extra keys for Spanish).  My zone is in La Chorrera and my area is called La Seda. It´s a lot different here then i expected, a lot more poor people. Our house is off the road about 100 yards and is about the size of our downstairs computer room at home, and our house is kinda big for our area. we have a little frig and a sink, with a table in the kitchen, and an entry way. not much to it, and no real way to cook or anything. Recently we taught a lady who´s house was smaller than my room at home, and she didn't have a bathroom or anything. very humble circumstances here for a lot of people. we were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday but that guy, Rodney, backed out at the very last second. we had already filled the font and people were ready when his mom called to say he didn't want to come, so that was sad.

The heat and humidity here are difficult. I´m constantly sweating and hot. Sometime i really like it but sometime i´m dying of heat. the showers here are all very cold and sometimes we don´t even have water for some reason. It is still in the rainy season, as it rains at least a couple times a day as an absolute downpour for around 30 min to 2 hours.

On the first night here, we got in late from Atlanta, and Pres. Ward picked us up with his APs, and we went to the AP´s house.  When we got there (it was really messy) they threw us a pillow and say it´s time for bed, find a place to sleep, so i slept on the floor the first two nights and really didn´t sleep at all. President Ward and his wife are really cool and nice. they have a nice house that we went to on Tuesday for some lectures and other meetings.

For food we make a make-shift breakfast and then everyday we go to this less active member´s restaurant to eat lunch which is really good.  For dinner we always have a dinner appointment with a member, but the weird thing is that they never eat with us, they make the food then we eat alone. I feel bad cuz usually it´s a tiny house and they make a ton of food for us. There are always big portions. Question: is white rice bad for you? In that does is make you tired and slow you down with little nutrients? that´s what Hermana Ward said, but the problem is that half our meals are white rice. The food here is usually rice, pasta of some sort, and meat, with a juice or pop.

Funny story, i was praying for this family after a short lesson, and my comp said their name so i could bless them but i didn´t hear him and so i asked again and he said apellido so in my prayer i said, por favor bendice la familia apellido, which in English translates to, please bless the last name family, but 'apellido' obviously wasn´t their last name. During my prayer i was wondering why everyone was laughing and now i know. apellido=last name. HA HA oh funny times already.

So i don´t have much time this week to email, cuz it took us like 20  minutes to figure out how to get onto the email. any questions for me? apparently normal mail takes a while cuz mail takes about 2 or 3 weeks to get to Panama, then for the mail to get to me, pouch mail and dear elder letters, mail goes to the AP´s i believe,  who eventually give it to the District leaders who eventually give it to us. Ha ha - Dad i got your dearelder letter you mistakenly sent to Panama (not the MTC) on Oct 19, but i also got lucky and i already got your other dearelder at the MTC.  Thanks for mistake, because your letter was a great boost in a hard day.  The mission has been really good and fun, but also really hard so far. Hard physically and emotionally, more than the MTC for some reason, maybe cuz all my friends from the mtc are gone and it´s hard to make friends when you don't speak their language. my Spanish is coming along ok but they all speak so fast its hard to understand anything, even if normally i would understand them. for example i went on splits with an elder from Washington (a gringo) and i could understand everything but a few words just cuz he didn't talk as fast or use as much slang and had less slurring of his words.


As for skype and the Christmas call home, i haven't heard anything so i don´t know what to do, but I'll figure it out.

I love you guys so much and i miss you more than ever now! I think about and pray for you guys everyday! I love you and appreciate everything you do for me!
Love,
Elder Pfister

Elder Devin Pfister with his newly arrived missionary group, and their companions in front of the Panama Temple, on Dec. 13, 2011

2nd and final letter on Dec. 10, 2011 from the MTC

Como estan?
So i'm sorry to hear you guys have been sick lately; i'm nervous my first few weeks or so are going to be rough for me with all the new food and culture shock.

Brit, i don't think i got your letter because i remember nothing about a pepto bismal octopus, please enlighten me!

Dad, thanks for the frisbee, it'll work great! And yes, i got my second hepatitis shot a few weeks ago so i'm covered.

So hosting new missionaries was way fun. We were to greet the families as they got out of the car and help them unload. We would ask if they had a few needed items and escort them to where they get their tag and we waited for them outside. We then would guide them to their residence rooms; two of the missionaries i hosted live right below us. After that we bring them to their classrooms where we depart to usually never see them again and we go back and do it all again. It doesn't sound that fun but i enjoyed talking to them & seeing how they were feeling. I liked comparing how they were compared to me on my first day. Most didn't know what was going on and had a blank stare on the whole time. One was watery eyed the whole time, and one wouldn't really talk, and he seemed kind of awkward and really nervous. But overall it was fun, especially just getting out of class to be outside for a while. Being in that small classroom all day long can make me go crazy alot of the time.

So that all was wednesday afternoon, then in the evening, Atuake and I had to be example missionaires for the new elders and show them how to begin teaching. What we did was- there would be a big room full of new missionaries and an investigator. We would knock and go in and start a lesson as if we had 45 minutes to teach it. After about 10-15 minutes the teacher would stop and dismiss us and we would leave while the new missionaries would try to take over and teach them based on the needs we discovered. It was ok, not super fun. I did a couple of dumb things like for example, we had a mic on and i knocked on the door and as a nervous habit  I always started talking in spanish right before so everyone heard me (we taught in english so maybe no one understood me); and then a funny one was Atuake. Right outside the second door after we knocked and turned on our mics he asked what her name was cuz he forgot it, and she opened the door laughing along with a ton of new missionaries. Overall it went fine, and i don't remember the missionaries who did that for me on my first day so probably they won't remember us!


So i might try calling you guys twice, once in Salt Lake,  and once again in Atlanta depending on how much time i have between flights. I did most of my packing today and didn't realize how much stuff i have. Our 2 checked bags can't be over 50 lbs. and our carry on can't be over 40 and my checked ones are 47 and 45, and my carry on is 36 lb. So it's a close one but i think i'm ok cuz i literally put everything in them when i weighed them.


I don't know if you don't know this already or even want to but the mission office address is
Calle 53 y Calle 50
Marbella, Panama City
Republica de PANAMA

(507) 213-3180, mission office telephone;
6612-6738, president Ward's cell phone.
just in case you need them.

I guess the best thing to do now is just email each other because i heard dearelder costs a dollar so email sounds best. hopefully i have more time there than i did here.

I heard that my p-days in the field are going to be on mondays but i won't be able to write this monday because i'm getting in so late. I'm going to miss getting your letters everyday but now it'll make it that much better having to wait for them.


I love you guys so much and can't tell you how much i appreciate everything you've done for me while i've been in the MTC.
Les amo mucho,
Elder Pfister