December 17, 2012

hey mom!

wow that does sound like a busy week! i´m sorry lyce got sick! she seemed a little...surprised is maybe the word, when she found out she was having twins, so i´m sure getting nice and sick doesn´t help anything! but i am happy to hear about snow! i´m sure you know that before my mission i wanted to go somewhere foreign, speaking english and somewhere cold...i didn´t really get that haha, but i do miss the snow! i would love to just go shovel some snow right now :) instead it´s just hot hot hot. i hear that usually about the end of december the rain starts to go away, but the breeze stays. i was talking to someone yesterday, and we compared how i hope for a white christmas with snow everywhere, she hopes for a christmas with a good sun and a nice breeze, the sun of life she said haha. it was funny. i guess that´s what i´ve got to look forward to! :)

i actually had a few similar experiences this week with how the Lord knows us each personally. again it was a fairly quiet week, not really anything too exciting. we had a service project one day where someone wanted us to basically dig out this hill and move the dirt farther down. it was a lot of work, pushing wheelbarrows full of wet dirt down a hill, but it was cool. we had divisions and i got to go back to the area i was in my first change and that was cool to see a few old people and say hi to them and actually being able to speak spanish haha. but it was basically pretty quiet til sunday.

so we were running late for this one visit, and so my comp didn´t really want to go cause when we first taught him he wasn´t really that positive or anything and he just wanted to go to the next one. but i said let´s just go anyway just to see so we did. we were almost to his house when a lady yelled at us from the other side of the street. we went over to see what was up, and she asked if we were going to visit this one family. we had never been there and didn´t know who they were, but someone had mentioned in church that day that there was a less active family and their grandma had just passed away. so we weren´t even going there but we just happened to walk by someone and she told us it would be really awesome if we could pass by so we said of course. when we got there, everyone was really nice with us and even without asking just gave us some food and stuff and were just really cool. it seemed to me that everyone seemed fine and stuff, but we asked if we could just share something quick and they said yes. so we started, and we talked about the plan of salvation and temples and stuff, and it was good, but after talking they still kinda felt down and that they can have all the knowledge of the plan of salvation and it´s still gonna hurt. luckily no one has ever really died in my family so i don´t understand how they feel, but i decided to share a scripture in alma 7 where it talks about how Christ didn´t only come to suffer for our sins, he also came and suffered so he could understand us and give us comfort. how he knows each pain and tempation and test we go through, and even though there may not be any human that understands what we´re going through, there is always Someone that knows, and it was just super cool. everyone was crying and it was just super spiritual. they were good tears i think though, cause we kinda wrapped up and everyone was saying they were glad we could come by and that we´re always welcome and it was just awesome.

so we left, and tried to go to that first visit, but sure enough he was gone, as were the next 2, so we tried our luck at contacting a little but to no avail. so we were a little bummed after having such a good lesson to having nothing, but finally someone let us in and it turned out super good too. so this lady came out and said sure we could come in but she doesn´t live there, which is usually a bummer since that means we´ll never see them again, but we went in. so it was normal at first, but then she stood up and looked like she was gonna leave, but for whatever reason she just like opened up to us. she told us how everyday she has to travel to panamá by bus (a 2-3 hour ride each way) to go to work, and then she has to come and visit her mom cause she had an accident and is basically dependent on people now, and how she doesn´t feel her mom understands that she can´t be with her all the time and she just feels like she´s a bad daughter, and how she´s just always working and tired and can´t even go out with friends cause she always just wants to rest, and she just doesn´t know if she can take it. it´s super hard to see people suffer like this or with a grandma passing away and stuff but not really being able to help except through words. i actually shared the same scripture in alma 7 and it was still just as good. she was all crying and stuff, and as we were leaving she gave the prayer and was grateful that we came and listened and that she could feel better and it was just cool. we asked if we could help her with anything and she said she had a kitchen to paint and she´ll let us know if we can help, she doesn´t live in our area, but i still want to help her. so sunday was hard but good, seeing people really sad but being able to make them happy if only for a moment :)

but that about sums the week up. i think that is my problem with spanish, that i don´t know just the little spanish phrases that only make sense in spanish, my comp helps me a little, but it´s tough. i still haven´t seen the packages, but we have changes this week so they might be there. as far as skype goes, i´m a little worried that all the places are gonna be closed christmas day, so i´m not sure what to do. i´ll see if there´s a decent internet place open that day, but i don´t know. either we would have to like phone call, or use skype like the next day. i don´t know. i´ll see what i can find out by next monday, and i´ll at least call like next monday night to set it all up. hope it all works out!

anyway better run. i hope this week is good and you can get everything done. enjoy the snow extra since i can´t haha, and i´ll talk to you next week!

much love,

elder paskett

December 10, 2012

hey mom!

man sounds like it was quite the week! it beat mine for sure! my comp is doing fine. he says his nose still hurts a little, and it´s gonna leave a good scar, but he´s fine. we´ve been meaning to go look for a scar cream but haven´t gotten around to it. i´ve been letting him use my vaseline stuff so hopefully that will help for now. he´s super worried about it cause he doesn´t think he´ll be as "guapo" now, he´s not really a pretty boy, but let´s just say he likes the way he looks :) haha he´s super chill, but yeah doesn´t like the idea of a scar.

i´m glad to hear the house is looking better. it´ll probably be as good as moving to a new house by the time i get home! i´ve gotten used to getting attacked by bugs though, for some reason we´ve got mosquitos bad here, and i don´t know what to do. i keep my fan on my all night, but they still find a way to bite me. i finally put some of the bug spray i have on last night and that kept em away. i´ll have to try washing my sheets and everything too just so they stop bugging me :)

i´m also glad to hear that at least someone gets to see some snow for christmas! it doesn´t feel like christmas at all down here! it hasn´t even rained for a few days so it´s just extra hot! definitely not the christmas i´m used to! people don´t really get that excited for it either, like there´s not a ton of decorations and stuff, and i´ve only seen like 2 or 3 trees. it´s weird. basically the only thing people do, it sounds like, is just make lots of food. i just know i´m gonna end up eating a ton that day. as far as a call goes, i still plan on using skype. i´m sure what´ll happen again like we did for mother´s day is just call like the saturday or day before even and set up a time. it´s gonna be harder since there will be people wanting to give us food and crap, but i´m sure we can figure something out. i would like to call in the morning so i can see all the presents and stuff, but i´ll take whatever i can get :)

so karissa still is having boy drama huh? well, i may have to add to it...:) my comp has been bugging me for awhile to have her write him, or him her, i don´t know, but he wants to talk to her haha. i´m trying to discourage it, but he says i´m already his brother-in-law haha. i´ll see if i can send a picture, but he´s a good looking guy so i don´t think she´d disapprove :)

well, as far as my week went, it was really quiet. wednesday we had the mission christmas party, and it was nothing special. there were a few speakers, singing hymns and stuff, and we watched the cartoon version of the grinch. our presents were kinda cool though. they gave us mini preach my gospels, and you know the white envelopes you get in the temple? well they gave us one of those with mola on the front. so with that, and i´m getting a plain white mola tie for the temple too, and i´m set haha. we also celebrated mother´s day, cause they celebrate it on the 8th down here, so we went to a little ward party for that, and again it was pretty average. like always i just did my little juggling act for them with the lighted balls, and they all liked it. the family we eat with on sunday said that their like half blind grandma loved it cause it was like the only one she could see. she said she liked the lights and everything, so that was cool.

i got a little frustrated this week though cause i feel like i´m stuck with my spanish. i feel like i just can´t quite express myself how i want to, and it´s tough. i thought it would help to have a latin companion finally, and it does a little, but it hasn´t exploded like i wanted. like i´m not afraid to talk, and i can usually find a way to say stuff, especially in lessons, but it´s more just normal conversation that i´m lacking. i don´t know, it´s just tough.

as far as investigators go, it´s been slow. after all the work we put into that baptism we haven´t been able to find anyone else. it´s a little frustrating. we have a few people that are super cool, but we just can´t get them to come to church. and then we can´t find new people so it´s hard. so it´s been a fairly slow week without any real cool stories, sorry!

i did have one quick question though. what are the rules on throwing away garments? or more specifically, when should you? like if it has a hole or a stain or something, or can you just wear it basically as long as you want?

but i think that about wraps it up. sorry it´s not the most exciting week. hopefully we can have some success this week! i´ll be sure to remember everyone in my prayers, since i´m sure i get remembered a lot! thanks for everything, and have a great week!

much love,

elder paskett

December 3, 2012

hey mom!

no my pday is the same, but last monday was like a national holiday and so like no place was open, so we used internet on tuesday. that shouldn`t happen much, but every once in awhile it might. i`m not in the same place as i was when i started, i`m actually on the other end of the zone, so it`s a lot different. i can go back there for like divisions and stuff, but it`s all new people and everything so it`s different enough. my comp is fine. he got some stitches here, but it just so happened that the doctor for central america for the church was here, and he came by to give a presentation. so he also looked at my comp`s nose, and he was like appalled with how they did the stitches. we mentioned we only paid 3 dollars for them and he just said well you get what you pay for. he said it was just super bad and it was starting to get infected and all this puss was in there. he said if he would have left the stitches there it could have gotten worse and crept up more into his head and brain and be really bad, but he took the stitches out right there in the church, and things have been better since. for a few days my house wasn`t livable, but we cleaned it up and it`s fine now. it was pretty nasty, it was all covered in dirt and garbage and smelled bad and everything, but it`s fine now and back to normal. but we were talking to people and they said that it`s never been this bad before, cause the water got really deep. every time it rains now i`m afraid it`s gonna flood again, but i guess we`ll see how it goes :)

it really is crazy how missionary work is changing. it`s awesome to see all these people go out. i did hear how they were shortening the mtc stay for missionaries learning a language, so i guess it only makes sense they`d just ship the newbies out. everyone keeps talking about how this mission is gonna be growing a bunch too. we were promised today by our zone leader that most people in the zone are gonna be training soon cause there`s just so many missionaries coming. it`s crazy. it makes you wonder what`s gonna be coming in the near future, who knows?

well, this week was kinda interesting. it was basically unproductive and just hard, at least at the beginning. so yeah our house got flooded and my comp broke his nose all in the same day, so that was just great. we more or less spent tuesday and wednesday trying to clean the house and get it back to order, and then my comp just didn`t feel good cause of the poor stitching job so his face was all swollen and infected and it was just bad. two of our fechas fell on tuesday too, and they were super positive, the family i think i mentioned last week, so that was depressing. so basically just nothing good happened all week. it seemed like the whole world was against us.

it got really bad on friday, because we had 2 other fechas for that day, but the world just didn`t want it to happen. so we tried spending the afternoon just inviting people to the baptism, and it was a nice sunny day so it was perfect. i thought a ton of people would come and it would be awesome. but then really out of nowhere a huge rainstorm came and just changed everything. it was a super bad storm, and when it rains like that everything just shuts down. we were gonna pass by our baptism`s house to get them, but when we got there they had all of these excuses and it took forever to reassure them. finally we left, but it was just pouring. when we got to the highway, traffic was bad cause the road was covered in water and it was about the time everyone got off work so rush hour too. we were supposed to have a lady come pick us up in her van, but when we tried calling she said she couldn`t come because the streets were flooded. so we spent forever trying to get a taxi or a bus or something, but they were all full and no one would stop. me and comp were just stressed cause we didn`t know what to do. we finally decided we just couldn`t do it cause no one could take us to the church, and we were walking over to tell this family that when the assistants showed up. it was like a miracle. so we all piled in the truck, with me and my comp and another elder in the back just getting soaked in the rain, but finally we got to the church. it was the same story for most of the other baptisms, a lot didn`t come just cause of the rain. but it ended up being super awesome. there were 5 baptisms in total that night, and it was super cool. one of the coolest things though came from another girl that got baptized. she was actually from my old area, my first area, where i was like almost a year ago now. the cool thing was was that me and my trainer were actually the ones to contact her for the first time and started the lessons and everything. now who knows if she kinda got dropped between now and then, but she ended up getting baptized. i can`t help but think about the seed being planted when i was there almost a year ago, and how i just happened to come back to my first zone and have baptisms the same night she got baptized, maybe just so i could see her be baptized. it was super cool. i talked to her a little and she said she did remember me so that was cool. so even though the world was against that baptism, it happened and turned out to be really awesome!

but that`s pretty much my week. a lot of house cleaning and helping my comp and being really stressed but having a super cool baptism in the end. it`s cool to see how things play out in the long run. but i better run. as always i`m always appreciative for the letters, i love hearing about what`s going on! i`m glad everything is well, and i hope you all have an awesome week!

much love,

elder paskett

November 27, 2012

hey mom!

well, let´s just say i´ve got some really good news and some really not so good news :) we´ll start with the good though i think. it´s definitely not what i wanted, to come back to colón especially after blas, but things are a lot better this time. i´m sure it helps that it´s a better area and i actually speak spanish and am just accustomed to how things are in the mission. it was rough starting out here cause of all those things, especially with the spanish, cause people here in colón speak kind of an ugly spanish. i´ve heard it called the lost city cause the people are just different and think themselves apart from the country. when i first went to david it felt like my spanish just got super good, and i think it´s cause the people talk slower and softer and more clearly, so i could understand a lot more. even coming back out here to colón i see how fast and not very well they speak here. it was a little hard at first, since on blas no one spoke good spanish, me and my companion were the best speakers on the island, so to go from that to this was tough, but i think it´ll get really good again.

my new companion is chill. we actually get along real well. he´s a little quiet and just doesn´t talk much, but we joke around in the street and do fine during lessons and things. he´s only got about 6 months so he´s still a little new, but he´s solid. i think there´s a chance he could end up being a real good missionary. not to say that he isn´t, but just with time and experience i think he´ll be awesome.

we actually had a pretty good week this week. so they´ve had some investigators for awhile and they´re super cool. we went by for my first time on tuesday and it was awesome. it´s a family of three, the mom and dad and a daughter. the dad has a pretty cool story. he´s from brazil, and i guess he was baptized when he was younger, but he ended up moving at some point to a place where the church wasn´t. so he got permission from the area authority to start a church there and it just exploded. with not too much time he said there were about 300 members and it was solid. he actually moved again and did the same thing in another area. he never served a mission, but it´s basically like he did cause he just spent forever building up the church. super awesome. but for whatever reason he kind of fell away from the church and hasn´t gone for awhile. he hasn´t ever told us why, but he moved here to panamá about 5 months ago, and has gone to church a few times but i guess it´s just not the same. his wife and daughter aren´t members, but we had a super awesome lesson with them about the restoration. it went really well and the Spirit was way strong and i was just hoping they were all feeling it. we put a baptismal date with them and they accepted, and so i´m really hoping and praying it´ll work out. i think it would just be the best thing to find a family and see them get baptized and then see them go to the temple. you have to wait a year, so that would mean i would have to extend a little bit, but it´d be worth it to see them do that. we´re gonna see them tonight so we´ll see what they say :)

but yeah we had a good week of lessons and finding a few people, but then everything kinda turned really sour yesterday. so my comp got up a little early yesterday to start washing clothes (we actually are lucky enough to have a little washing mashine :) but he woke me up a little later to tell me that water was starting to come into the house. it´s basically been raining for the last week straight, and yesterday morning was especially bad. so we had to hurry and pick all our things off the floor so they didn´t get wet, but the water just kept coming and coming. for about 2 hours the water just rose and rose, and at it´s highest point it got to about my butt, so a good like 3 feet. a TON of water! the streets around us and all the houses too were covered the same, and it was bad. none of my stuff got wet, but it got high enough that i started putting things up in the ceiling cause i was afraid it would keep coming. finally it stopped, and started to go down a little, but we decided we couldn´t do anything so we left to go to the church for pday. i forgot to bring my cord to send pictures but i will next week!

as if that wasn´t enough though, so now it´s like 5 at night and we´re at the church playing soccer. seeing as it had been raining all day the court was super slippery. so we were playing careful, but my comp took the ball down, tried to kick it hard, and he ended up slipping and falling and breaking his nose! there was blood everywhere! he scraped his knee, his hand, a few places on his face, and a huge nasty gash on his nose. so we had to hurry him to the hospital where they stitched him up (like 5 stitches for 3 bucks) and then took x-rays where they said it was broken and he would have to see a specialist. by luck the doctor from the church that covers central america is here and he´s coming tomorrow to check it out, but it was weird stuff. so now his nose is all swollen and he says it hurts obviously. all i can think about is how i broke mine, and it does hurt! he´s good though, and it should all be fine, but it was probably one of the worst pdays ever! so of course last night we couldn´t sleep in our house. the water did go away, but it left a bunch of dirt and crap and smelled really bad, so we had to sleep in another house and it was just bad. the worst thing is is that we don´t have water so we can´t even clean it. hopefully it comes back though soon so i can actually sleep in my own bed :)

so yeah that´s about what happened this last week, pretty eventful :) i´m glad things are going well back at home. i do miss just having everyone at the house on a sunday night. usually sundays were good cause it was a day of rest and the family comes over and we eat good food and just chill, but now it´s just work and we don´t even get good food haha, oh well, only 1 year more! :) i hope everyone has a good week! talk to you later!

much love,

elder paskett

November 19, 2012

hey mom!

man it really has been awhile since i wrote an email! pushing 3 months about! i don´t even know where to start! it is kinda true, to see everyone might make the shock a little less, but i´ve still got a year so who knows what could happen! i guess i´ll just start with where i am now and then try to get into the san blas report :)

so i ended up coming back to the zone i started in, in colón. it´s not exactly where i wanted to go. my first 2 changes in colón were easily the worst in my mission. i guess partly because i didn´t speak spanish and hated the food and it was hot and just difficult. now i can actually speak and eat and don´t mind the heat and stuff so it should be better, but colón is notorious for being a hard zone and almost never has baptisms, so it´s anyone´s guess. it´s nice to be back in the real world, but it´s a little harder than i thought. i actually got used to sleeping in a hammock, and now it´´s hard to sleep in a bed! i haven´t slept very well these last few nights, it´s weird. i´m trying to find a place to put my hammock up but i´m still searching :) the food is pretty difficult to take in. i´m back to eating lots of rice and chicken, way more food than i´ve eaten in the last 3 months. i´m afraid of getting fat again since we eat so much, but the area is pretty big and we seem to walk a fair amount so i guess we´ll see. but i did lose a lot of weight out and blas and want to keep it off :) my spanish didn´t seem to suffer too badly. i don´t think it´s as good as it was when i was in david, but i think it´ll come back pretty fast. i finally got another latin companion after having gringos for 5 changes. his name is elder perez and he´s from mexico. he´s got 6 months in the mission but seems pretty solid. he´s chill enough and we get along well, so i think it´ll be a good change. we don´t really have any investigators cause the area is kinda dead, but i still think we can have some success. all in all i guess i´m happy being back, although there are a lot of things i´ll miss about blas.

but ok, i´ll see if i can sum up the last 3 months here :) so i spent this time on an island called ustupu in the islands of san blas. it´s a pretty quiet little island with a population of about 3000 people. out of the 3 sets of missionaries on blas, we were the only ones that only had 1 island to visit, meaning that it´s one of the biggest islands. still not very big, but big enough to keep us occupied. we kind of had one of the uglier islands though. there really weren´t any cool beaches, and there was lots of garbage everywhere. there was one cool beach but it was about a 40 minute walk to get there, and the rest was just like rocks. with the garbage, it seems the mentality of the island people are if i just throw the garbage in the ocean it´s not my problem anymore, so everyone just tosses it out, making it pretty nasty. also, i don´t think they believe in digging holes to use the bathroom, so they just build little stalls over the ocean and go right in the ocean. it´s pretty gross. i never actually used one of those, but i can only imagine. we lived in the church and so we were blessed to have a real toilet and running water.

the water we had came from a river up in the mountain. it was usually pretty clean, but i always used this filter the mtc gave us anyway. the thing is is that this river is also where the animals go to drink, and so the animals just do their thing right by the river, making the water all gross. sometimes we had some really really orange water, but we couldn´t really do anything about it. we still had to shower with it and everything. to shower we just had to fill up a 5 gallon bucket, take it to the bathroom, and there take bucket baths, just using something to scoop the water and pour it on us. i didn´t really mind it cause my first 2 changes in the mission i had to take bucket baths so i was used to it. actually i´ve taken more bucket baths than normal baths on my mission so it wasn´t too bad :)

the food on san blas was plenty different. so we really are just outside of civilization, which means there´s basically no stores out there. so we have 1 or 2 days before we leave to go to a supermarket and buy all the food we´ll need for 6 weeks. there´s a place down here that´s just like costco, so we went there to buy everything. more or less we just bought junk food, or things that you don´t have to prepare. we ate things like granola bars, apple sauce, pudding, poptarts, peanuts, things like that. we had pancakes and pasta and a few bigger things like that every once in awhile, but basically we just snacked all the time. it was a little hard cause you never felt full, but you just get used to it.

there were people that would give us food sometimes, but it was usually weird. like everyone down there eats this stuff called tulemasi, which is just like the milk stuff that´s inside of coconuts, platanos which are kinda like bananas, and then some type of meat, usually fish. it really depends on who makes it,cause sometimes it´s just nasty, but others it´s not so bad. you put some salt lemon juice and hot sauce and it can be ok. that´s usually what people gave us. one time i got to eat turtle, and that was actually really good. it was really fatty but the meat itself was good, i liked it. we had crab a few times and that was good too. we ate these things called "cucarachas del mar," which means cockroaches from the sea, and they taste how they sound. it was horrible. i did eat a whole lot of fish too, and had many different experiences with it. usually what people do is just kill the fish and then fry it, without doing anything, so scales and bones and insides and everything. it was usually kinda gross but not too bad. again it often just depended on the person. i´ve had some of the best fish out there, and also the very worst. i never ate anything that made me barf, but i did dry heave a few times haha. overall the food wasn´t too bad. it made me lose lots of weight so i´m happy :)

i did get pretty sick out there a few times, and that wasn´t very fun. i had some pretty bad diarrhea a a few times, and i think that´s what made me lose the most weight. i don´t know if it was because of the water or food or just being there, but it got bad. one night it was like 10 times in the same night, it was horrible, i thought i was gonna die, but i lived :) i did throw up one time pretty nicely when i was sick, so that was great. i don´t even remember the last time i threw up.

well short of telling you all the stories i think that´s all i´ve got time for. i wish i could tell you it all, but it really was one of the best experiences i´ve ever had. it made me appreciate a lot of things i´ve always taken for granted. honestly i wish i could have stayed for another change, but the Lord needs me in other places :) but even though it was one of the hardest things i´ve done, it´s something i´ll remember forever. but now it´s back to the real mission, and i´m excited for it. i hope i can have tons of success this change. i hope everyone is well, thanks for everything, you guys are the best!

con amor,

elder paskett

August 20, 2012

hey mom!

i`m glad to hear you guys got out again! you sure have gone out a lot though, pretty sure we did nothing right  before my mission...haha but oh well, at least someone gets a vacation. it`ll be fun to go to yellowstone now and just chill, since here i don`t really ever get time to just chill haha. and i`m sure the showers you have are better than the one i have. it`s pretty pitiful, and there`s no temperature guage thing. it`s weird cause the water is really cold, especially in the morning, so it`s cold while i`m in the shower, but 2 minutes after i`m hot again and i have to keep the fan on me haha. i think i`m a little more used to the heat now. i still sweat a lot, but i`m pretty sure it`s gotten a little better after 7 months. i didn`t even realize that i hit 9 months the other day. time sure is going by faster than i thought! as far as the curfew goes, i always had a curfew, and for a long time you and dad would come search for me if i was late. i think maybe after my senior year it went to midnight, and on the weekends of my senior year, but always during the week and stuff i had a curfew. and you always told me to be home earlier on saturday night, even though i may have been late one or two times...:) i think after awhile you kinda just let me do whatever, but part of it was probably cause i worked until 10 30 at night, and i was going on a mission and stuff, so i don`t know, that`s tough. that`s one thing i`m not looking forward to as a parent haha. there comes a point where they need to just make decisions, and they`ll see the consequences. something i learned on the mission is that you`ll never learn to love the rules until you actually obey them and see the blessings you receive from following them. now the mission rules are a little different than a curfew, but i think the principle still applies. yeah it kind of sucks to have to come home a little earlier than your friends, but it only sucks in the moment. now i look back and i don`t even care. i`m sure i didn`t miss anything, and if i was out later we usually just did stupid things or nothing. i think the rules kept me safe, and maybe something would have happened if i never chose to obey them. not to say i`m perfect, but the rules aren`t there so that we can`t have fun, but because someone with more experience understands and wants to keep us safe. that probably doesn`t answer your question or help at all, but there`s my 2 bits.

so yeah changes are this week, and as i said i already know i`m going. as to where i don`t know, and i won`t know til wednesday, but i`m both excited and sad to leave. it was a hard sunday yesterday. we have these little "missionary minutes" during sacrament meeting, and it was my turn to talk. so i just told them that if someone didn`t know that me and my comp were leaving and 2 new sisters are coming, so if you see them in the street or something if you could say hi just so they know who the members are and can learn the area a little bit, but it was hard. i told them thanks for helping me and having me here, and for all they`ve done. it`s actually a lot harder to leave than i thought, especially with recent converts. we`ve kind of spent the week just saying goodbye`s and stuff, and it`s hard. i`ve met a lot of people here that i`m gonna miss. we went to see one of the recent converts and she almost cried, and it was tough to say bye. who knows if i`ll ever get to come back out here and see these people again. i really hope i can come back before i end my mission, cause i`ve made some really good friends here. we`re also leaving behind some really cool investigators and that`s hard too. the only thing i can think of is that we found these people so late because the hermanas coming have something for them that me and my comp don`t have. i already miss them and i`m not even gone yet. my first area was a lot easier just cause i never really talked to anyone and i didn`t see any baptisms or anything, but i was here for 4 months and learned how to speak and listen and made a lot of friends. we`ll probably go see one or two people tonight and tomorrow, and that`s it, we`ll leave tomorrow night at like midnight to get to Panamà on time. it`s tough to leave, but that`s how the mission goes i guess.

really that`s all that`s happened this week though. just trying to get a few things ready for the hermanas and saying bye and doing all that good stuff. we were blessed with having a baptism on saturday and that was super cool. i think i told you about him a little, that his sister invited us over to teach her family and he was reading the BOM and had a really good experience with prayer and just wanted to get baptized. he  had to do some talking with the mom, and she said yes on the conditions that he goes to school, to church and all the church activities too. he agreed and so she said it`s ok. so we taught a few more things, watched this movie on the prophet one night, on the Lord`s errand i think? and it was really good. it was a super good baptism, his cousin came and something just hit him i guess cause he just started crying after the baptism and he felt something. he lives in another area, but it was still cool to see. so that was a good little farewell present, but me and him became good friends so it`s hard to leave him too.

this week was really just a sad week haha. we also met this other lady and she was sad. we just contacted her, and we were just casually talking for a bit, and i don`t remember how it got to this point, but we started talking about family and stuff and she shared how her nephew had just died a month ago, but he was like a son to her. she said he had a really good relationship with her 5 year old daughter, and when she found out he died she just changed. she doesn`t want to do homework anymore or even eat, and is just super sad. the lady was just crying the whole time and even i almost did (which is big since you know i never cry :) but it was sad. i wanted to help her, and i know what we have can, but it was still hard. i can`t bring back her nephew or make her daughter eat, but i want to help somehow. so it`s hard having to leave people like her behind, but i`m hoping the hermanas can help. i really am leaving a lot of trust in the hermanas that are coming, just with my investigators and converts and stuff, but that just made me realize that i also need to be good and take care of the converts in the area that i`m going to. i want people to be like "oh good elder paskett is coming, he`ll take care of my converts" so i need to make sure i`m doing what i can to make that happen.

that about wraps it up though. it was a fairly quiet week, mostly just of goodbyes and stuff. i`m excited for a change and i hope it`s good, but i`m really gonna miss this area. i hope everyone does well. and i hope you have an awesome week too. good luck with school,  i`m sure it`ll all work out well. thanks for everything, talk to you next week!

much love,

elder paskett

August 13, 2012

hey mom! 

well, here`s the thing with the covers. next monday will be my last day here, and so that will be the last time i see anyone in the branch here. i guess what will have to happen is if you can send some to me, and i can just give them to the office to send to the missionaries here to give to the members that wanted them. but yeah just let me know what you find, thanks!  and yeah usain bolt may be cocky, but he is the fastest man in the world haha. i heard about the men`s 400, and that the usa was actually winning? but usain came back and won it, so he is just insanely fast. i`m glad the basketball turned out well too. i`m bummed i never got to see a game, even if they just killed everyone. the nba will be starting somewhat soon too, so i`m gonna be missing a lot of basketball haha, but oh well, it`s all good.

but this week ended up being a little interesting. well so the zone`s been having a few problems between all the missionaries, just between them fighting and having emergency changes and all this stuff. it finally got really bad when the zl caught 4 other elders out at midnight planning on going to the sister`s house to have a sleepover thing. yeah things aren`t very good here haha. i always thought before the mission that missionaries were perfect and never did anything bad, but boy was i wrong. so last monday we just went to the church to play basketball and whatnot, but no one showed up. there were like 6 of us, so we just basically played cards all day. it was really boring, just a waste of a pday. but that night something really cool happened...

so we got home and did planning and got ready for bed and stuff, and someone called like a little before 10. it was a member, and only her and her sister are members, i don`t know if i mentioned them, but she invited us to go teach her family. so we had taught them like 2 times before, but she called us monday night and told us a really cool story. so her little brother, who is 12, was reading this picture book version of the BOM, and just had this really strong desire to pray (coincidentally enough he was reading the story of Enos) and so he got down and prayed about everything that we`ve taught and asked all the questions, and she said he just started to cry and cry. so he ended his prayer and got up, but just couldn`t stop crying. so he got down again and prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for giving him his answer. and so that experience was the saturday before the other sunday, like the 4th? and he said he just knew he had to go to church, so he got up all by himself to go to church the next day, and had a really good time and just knew it was all true. so she called us the day after, so last monday, and told us that and asked if we could come by the next day. of course we said yes, so we went by, and talked to him and stuff, and he told us the experience he had and how good he felt and how he really wanted to go to church and everything. midway through the lesson the sister was like "so my brother has some news to share," and he just said "i want to get baptized." it was way cool! so we set the fecha and everything, taught him some more that week, and he came to church yesterday and liked it again. but the sister told us that the mom doesn`t really want him to get baptized just cause he`s so young and doesn`t know everything, so that`s kind of a problem. we`re going by tonight to see if we can`t talk with her, so i`m hoping that it all goes well!

another cool thing happened yesterday too. i think i told you about the lady that we had the lesson with about the plan of salvation and how she really liked it. so we passed by this last friday to talk with her some more but she said she was really busy and couldn`t talk with us. so i was kinda bummed but we just invited her to church and said it would be awesome if she could go. she said she`d do everything possible to go, and we left. so now it`s sunday, and i like to just hang out by the doors until the first hymn, just to see if there are any late stragglers. and yesterday that turned out to be the right thing. she showed up about 5 minutes late, and i was way excited. so we said hi, and then went and sat down. the meeting turned out really well. they talked a little bit about the temple, having hope in the world even through hard times, it was just a good meeting. so afterward i was just chatting with her, and she said she really liked the meeting cause she felt she could relate to a lot of things and she really enjoyed it. and then she just started crying. i know she really felt the Spirit there. so we asked if she`d like to come to the next class, and she said of course. so we went, and we have a class for the investigators, and today it was on the temple and family history. it was perfect! we read some cool scriptures and talked a little bit, and it was just good. we could tell that she really loves her family and that they mean a lot to her, and then she shared after that her husband had died awhile back, and had had a dream about him and he was all dressed in white. she started crying again, and she gave a really good prayer to end, thanking Heavenly Father for this feeling that she has that she`s never felt before, and for all the things she`s learned and everything, it was just awesome! plus she met a ton of old friends that she hadn`t seen for a long time in the ward so that was cool too. we`re going by this week and so hopefully we can bring the same spirit then too!

we also learned an interesting thing this week. so saturday we went to paint this building, but before the zl asked me and my comp if we wanted to know if we had changes or not. i was worried cause i thought that meant we were staying, but surprise! we`re actually both going! and they`re gonna put 2 new sisters here instead! that really was such a surprise! i had no idea why. i was talking to the zl after and he said president said it`s just cause he doesn`t want to leave my comp here...but it`s kinda sad. the area is a little cold, but we do have a couple of cool people now and i have a ton of friends here. it`ll definitely be hard to leave. but oh well, i`m excited to get to know some other places. we still don`t know where we`re going, and we won`t know til next wednesday, but he said we need to clean the house and leave good notes and stuff so the sisters have a smooth transition.

that about wraps it up though. it was a pretty good week. me and my comp still aren`t doing great, mostly just with the language and stuff, but i`m ready to get a new comp. anyway i`m glad everything is going well, i`m always happy to hear it :) i hope this week is awesome as well, and we`ll talk next week!

much love,

elder paskett

August 6, 2012

hey mom!

well i`m always glad to hear the good stuff. it`s nice to have a little pick-me-up and see that everyone is doing well. that is really interesting with the jazz, it sounds like it`s gonna be a completely different team when i get back. oh well, i still have high hopes that they`ll be good. i wonder what happened with cj, he was never great but i liked him. they`ll just have to work for a few years and we`ll see where they end up. that`s an awesome story with the car though! it`s too bad karissa never got to really drive it, she`ll never quite understand having such a crappy car haha, but it was time for it to go. it was a good car and served its purpose, but it had to go sometime :) and i guess i can understand where karissa is coming from. i do sometimes look back and think how much more fun i could have had my senior year, but at the same time i realized that high school was kinda dumb and i could have taken a lot more opportunities to study harder and stuff, so it`s a tough situation. it makes sense, but i think there could probably be regrets either way. maybe it`s just a pick your poison thing, although both are good too haha, i don`t know. i guess as long as she`s happy that`s all you can do right? that`s really intersting with chic-fil-a too. that`s good for the owner though. down here we always have a problem with churches haha. like one church, out of the millions, always pushes and says that church doesn`t matter and the church is really just yourself, they say "la iglesia eres tu," and everyone agrees, so it`s really hard to get people to see the importance of the church. but oh well, ¿así es la misiòn no? :)

well this week was ok i guess. not really anything too interesting happened. so there`s this one girl in the ward, and her and her sister are the only members in their family, so she invited us over the other day to have a little lesson with them. we`ve taught them twice now, and the first lesson was just awesome. we talked about prophets and the importance of them, and when we got to joseph smith the Spirit just came big time. usually saying the first vision always brings the Spirit, and that time was no different. i really hoped the mom and son felt it, but after the lesson we were talking to one of the sisters and she said we did a really good job. so we passed by last saturday just to invite them to church and see how they were doing, and the son had been reading the BOM and liked it, the mom still hadn`t but she`s still cool. so yesterday the brother came to church and seemed to like it. so i want to have like a get together thing where all the youth meet together and we go leave with them and see a less active or another youth that didn`t come, and then go play soccer or something after, just cause i want him to feel like he has friends. the sister told us that he likes the church and wants to get baptized, he just doesn`t feel like going to church some days, so i think having some friends would help with that.

on monday we were just contacting and walking around at like 8 30 at night, when this drunk dude tried to stop us in the street. i don`t really like talking to drunk guys, cause just five minutes later they`re gonna forget they even talked to us and nothing will ever happen. but this guy was really determined. he stopped us, gave us the same routine, he really needs help and wants us to do something, so i was like alright we`ll just come by your house later cause we can`t talk when you`re drunk. so he was like ok come to my house, and we walked with him to his house, and he just seemed really happy we came with him. so we left him a pamphlet, set up another visit and said we`d come back. so we went back, and we ended up having a super good lesson with him. he really seemed genuine and wanted to change, so we left him some homework to read and whatnot and said we`d come back again. i feel bad though, cause someone called us to visit someone, and we said that`s fine but we`ll have to leave soon cause we had a visit with that guy. so we went, had a lesson, but after the lady gave us food. we couldn`t really tell her no, so we just had to eat it. so we ended up missing that visit with him cause we were so late. so i felt really bad, and we want by the next day and he seemed really concerned as to why we didn`t pass by the night before. we tried to explain but he still looked disappointed. i asked for his number, and he said he`d call us if we could come by the next day, saturday, and talk some more. he didn`t call, so i tried calling saturday night to invite him to church but he didn`t answer. so he didn`t come to church yesterday, and i feel bad. i hope we didn`t lose him.

we met another cool lady too. we were just contacting, and we stopped at this one house and this lady came out. she was nice enough, and so we chatted for a bit, but her whole demeanor changed when we started talking about families and the plan of salvation. she ended up telling us afterward that usually when missionaries come by she just says that she`s busy and just come by another day, but when she saw us something just told her to let us in and talk. we talked about the plan, and she just seemed super interested and just loved it. ya know it took me leaving my family for me to realize how much i love them and how grateful i am for the plan of salvation. i guess just sharing the plan all the time has made me appreciate it more, and so i want everyone else to have the same thing. there`s the one saying among missionaries, that "missionaries leave their families for 2 years, so others can be together forever," and i really like that :)

yesterday a couple was talking to me and asked if i could have you guys send me some temple recommend covers. they wanted the ones that like flip out and have pictures on front of like the temples or joseph smith or something, if you know what i mean, and they wanted like a lot. i said i think they were like 2 bucks, and so he said he wanted like 20 if they were that cheap. i don`t know why, but he wanted them. so i don`t know if you could investigate that a little and see how much they are. if it`s too much of a hassle, then don`t worry, but yeah that would be great :)

i should tell you really quick about my chat with my comp. so fridays are our planning days where we sit down and talk about everyone we have and what we need to do to help them and whatnot, and they`re usually pretty productive. it`s also a good chance to talk with your comp about whatever is happening in the companionship too. so i finally just talked to him. i asked him what he thinks we need to do better, how i can help him with spanish, what i can do better, just everything so that we can see some success this change. the thing is is his answers were just very vague and general. he just said like nothing or i need to study or you`re doing good, but wouldn`t really help me out. it`s hard cause he just has no desire to work or sacrifice or anything, and he`s content with just the very bare minimums. i told him i would just follow him one day, contacting and teaching and everything, and he just told me if i follow him we`d just walk around one day, and we really did for awhile. i don`t know how to instill a desire in him. it`s really hard.

but that`s about it. it was a fairly intersting week. we`ve met a few cool people so i`ve got some high hopes for this week, and so we`ll see how it goes. i`m glad everything is going well at home, as always, it makes me happy. i hope everyone has a great week, and i`ll talk to you later!

much love,

elder paskett

July 30, 2012

hey mom!

i`m doing ok i guess. i never even realized i wouldn`t have lime pie for two years haha, i`ll definitely miss it. the ice cream down here just isn`t ice cream. i`m not quite sure what it is, but it`s not the same. and a good old hamburger sounds really good. it gets pretty old just eating chicken and rice every day. you can always expect a piece of meat, usually chicken, a big heaping of rice, usually white but every once in awhile it`s different, usually beans, and a salad/tomato thing on the side, really no variety. it`s quite boring. i would cook more but we really have no time and most ingredients are expensive so it`s hard to cook things and be different, but oh well. i`m way pumped for michael, i`m sure he`ll be an awesome missionary. i can understand the leaving his family thing, or at least i can see him worrying about it like you said. but yeah i`m sure they`ll be good. i don`t know if it`s just cause you never tell me or what but it always seems like only good things happen, nothing bad. so who knows, but yeah i`m confident things will be good. ah and i`m bummed i missed out on lake powell. we go to the beach and things all the time and it`s hard having to avoid the water haha. i hope the boat still works when i get back, especially since we didn`t get to go to lake powell before i left. i actually did watch the opening ceremonies, or at least a part of it, just when all the countries walked in, but officially we`re not supposed to watch tv so i won`t get to see any of it. i`m a little bummed about that, i would love to watch a good basketball game. i don`t think panamà has too many athletes though. i want to say i saw a few swimmers, but really other than that i`m not sure. it`s still pretty hot around here too haha, really there hasn`t been any changes. it`s basically the same all year round. there is a/c in the church, and in most of the bigger buildings, and every once in awhile a house, but it`s not very common, so it`s hot all the time :)

i`m afraid this week wasn`t very exciting, actually it was quite uneventful. things have gotten hard again, but in a different way. my spanish is good. it`s not perfect by any means, but i can speak confidently and am not too afraid to talk on the phone and things, i understand most everything. still my vocabulary is very gospel based, so i understand more when we teach lessons, but it`s coming along in just conversational speach so that`s good. so my spanish isn`t really the problem right now, but it`s more my comp. he just has no desire to do anything for some reason. it`s hard for me cause i can`t really do everything myself. it`s a struggle to get him to work, and unless i tell him to contact this house or teach this part or something, he very often won`t do anything. it`s quite the interesting challenge i`ve been put with. i`m still lost as to helping him. i don`t want to just straight up say it cause i don`t want to make things worse, but at the same time something needs to change. i don`t know, things just aren`t great now. things have really slowed down, we don`t really have any good investigators, contacting is a pain, even just the branch isn`t as strong. i feel like there`s so much to do but with no help i can`t do it. this is all meant to happen with 2 people, but really it`s just one right now. i don`t know.

i did finally teach my first non-christian though. she was buddhist, only the second one i`ve met but the first i`ve actually taught. it was pretty hard though. i didn`t really know how to go about doing it. everyone here believes in Christ, but i don`t really know how to teach someone that doesn`t believe in him. in the BOM there are a few places where they teach people with non-christian backrounds, and it says they just taught the plan of salvation and who God really is, but it seemed a lot easier in the BOM than real life haha, it was tough. we said we`d pass by again though so we`ll see what happens.

we`re still trying to teach this one girl, and she`s really cool. she told us a few weeks ago that she doesn`t really want to go to church and there are a few things she doesn`t agree with, but she says she`s still reading the BOM cause she really wants to know if it`s true, and says she prays about it a lot, but doesn`t feel like anything has come. we try to say how church would help her know, and she said she would go yesterday but didn`t. it`s hard when people are so close but still haven`t quite gotten it. i wonder about what i can do, but sometimes i just don`t know. i guess if she`s reading and really does want to know then it will come, so i just need to trust in the promise of Moroni.

we had to go to panamà this week again for my comp`s migrations thing. that`s always a lot of fun. we have to leave the house at like 10 30 at night to take the midnight bus to get to panamà at like 6 30 to get to the building by 8 30. and those buses aren`t very comfortable so sleeping isn`t great. we tried to make a quick trip to the temple after but when we got there we found out it was closed, so that was a bummer. i still haven`t done a session here but i really want to. maybe once i`m closer to the city i`ll be able to.

but really that about wraps this week up. it wasn`t a great week. nothing is really happening now, mostly just struggling with my comp. i guess we`ll see if anything exciting comes up this week. but anyway thanks for everything, i always love reading about what`s going on, i`m happy things are going well! good luck to karissa and her school, and i hope everyone has an awesome week!

much love,

elder paskett

July 23, 2012

hey mom!

it makes me pretty excited to hear everyone else going out. i didn´t even realize that cameron was that old, but that´s way sweet! i´m pumped for jake, you´ll have to tell him hi for me and good luck if you see him. it´s a long way in the future but it´ll be fun after the mission with all of us cousins to talk about everything, how we went in like every part of the world, it´s cool. i would say i was a little surprised that 6 months went by so fast, but the last 2 months have been a little slow. i´m finally not quite the youngest one here so that´s fun. once i hit a year though i´ll feel good about the time. i know colón was hard, my first area, but i wouldn´t mind going back just with all the stuff i know now. i guess there are a few mixed feelings with 8 months, i´ve still got a long way to go, i have to do everything i just did 2 more times haha, but it´s good, it probably will sneak up on me my end date.  the lumina really could just go away though haha. well maybe karissa can drive it for a month or two just to get a good taste of a crappy car, but then it needs to die haha. i would imagine after sitting there for 8 months it can´t be looking too good :)

so yeah my comp is actually from the other fork, spanish fork. he´s a good enough guy, but i did want a latin comp. like really his spanish is just not good, i´m sorry, but that´s how it is. we must be together just so i can help him. it really kinda feels like i´m training even though he has more than a year. he doesn´t know how to teach or what to say, he just kinda says everything at random times. it´s just hard, i don´t know how to help. i´ve tried dropping casual hints at trying to correct a few things, but it doesn´t seem to help. really i´m not at all fluent, but i can express myself, and now i have to talk for him. more often than not people ask me to read the scripture or interpret his spanish, just cause no one understands. i feel bad, but i don´t want to tell him i´m better and try to correct him, cause i don´t want him mad saying he has more time and whatnot, cause that happened my first change with my dad, i tried giving him some advice and he would always whip out how much more time he has and how much more he knows. so it could be a touchy subject, and even just from the little hints i´ve given here i don´t think he likes to talk about it. but for his sake he needs to learn. i realize spanish isn´t easy, i seriously thought i would never learn it, but with a year you should talk pretty well.

it´s hard cause i basically have to teach everything, which is wrong i know. it makes me think of my second comp who wouldn´t let me talk and he taught the whole lesson, and how much i hated that, so i´ll try to just pause and stop talking and look at him which means "ok talk now," but he never says anything. he´ll just avoid me and look away or something, but he won´t talk. he´s not really big on the rules either, so that´s probably a contributing factor, but who knows. we actually did have presidente amado come on friday, i´ll talk about him in a bit, but that didn´t seem to spark any interest in my comp. if presidente amado can´t i don´t know who can. i´ll have to see what i can do this week to change a few things.

but yeah presidente amado came on friday, and it was just super awesome. president ward called us the next day and chatted with me and said he talked for over 4 hours, but really it only felt like 1. he is an inspired man for sure. he just said tons of stuff that i never thought about or realized before. probably the biggest thing i got out of it was obedience. he asked why we as missionaries have so many rules, while a bishop can have a cellphone and dance and go on dates with his wife and watch tv, but still be worthy to receive revelation for the members, or why even presidente himself doesn´t have all these rules but he´s not any less worthy than us. there were a million answers as to why, but i thought it was interesting how he said the bishop is only entitled to revelation for his members, but to us it´s given the ability to receive revelation for other people that aren´t members. i don´t know, he said it better, but it was just super cool. he talked about a ton of things, and i just loved it. it made me realize a few places where i need to improve, and i hope that it gave my comp something too.

but that was about all that happened this week. the area is slowing down, and it´s hard. the Lord won´t give us anyone to teach if he knows we won´t work, and i´m having a hard time dragging my companion around. i saw my last companion at the conference with presidente amado and i told him he needs to come back, cause we actually worked together and got stuff done, but my comp now just doesn´t want to work as hard. i did actually see elder smith, the other elder from american fork, the elder that grandpa had talked to in the mtc, so that was cool. i also saw elder cottrell and talked with him for a bit, but i don´t think he knew who i was really haha. but yeah it was a pretty quiet week. we had some random people come to church yesterday and we have visits set up with them and members so this week should be good. i hope everything is still going well at home. sounds like things are awesome! ¡cuídese mucho, y hasta luego!

much love,

elder paskett

July 16, 2012

hey mom!

well happy late birthday! it sounds like it was quite the relaxing birthday huh? i`m glad my little walking stick was put to good use! i actually just got done reading all of the capitan moroni chapters and he is just the man! i feel like he should have gotten a better shout-out than just one verse saying he died haha, but i`ve never really appreciated the war chapters until now, they`re just a little more interesting now. even though still i`m not quite sure what to learn,  but all the scriptures are just different on the mission i guess. but yeah there was a juggling dvd in the package, the old one that i had before, so i don`t know what happened there haha, but i`ve been practicing a bit here and there and have learned a couple things so that`s fun. i`ll have to see if i can`t teach my new comp how to juggle and then we`ll do some cool passes and whatnot :)


as far as custodial stuff goes, i don`t know if i can really offer much advice. to be honest it`s not the funnest job, if anything it`s just frustrating cause even if you clean a room super well one day, the next day it can still be a wreck. so she`ll definitely need music, even though i`m sure she already had that taken care of :)  if you remember we had found all those free books from that one website and i found that to be fairly effective at taking my mind of the work. cause if you just focus on how many more rooms you have it`ll take all day, but i would just listen to books and i never really thought about how much more i have to do and it seemed to pass ok. just stick with it, it`s super tedious, but they pay well and it`s super easy, so there really are worse jobs.


i`m happy to hear you`ve been getting some water. it`s actually been pretty dry around here lately, but i don`t know why. when people told me that it was rainy season for 8 months of the year i thought they meant it just rained straight for 8 months, but it`s been at least a week since we`ve had a really good storm. every once in awhile it`ll drizzle, but it hasn`t been nearly as bad as i thought it would be. it`s still nice and hot though, that`s for sure haha, but it`s fine. yesterday we told someone we would pick them up for church, and they live kinda far, but we had no money for a taxi (taxi`s are the basic mode of transportation here, we never take any cause they`re a little expensive, but we will if we`re in a hurry) so we had to walk. but my comp is a little slow getting ready, so we basically had to run. i wanted to take a taxi back to the church, but i left my little manual thing with all my stuff in it at a member`s house so i had nothing. so i asked my comp if he had any money and he said only a dollar, and it would be a buck 50 to get back so i was super worried, i didn`t know what to do. but i figured someway the Lord would provide if he knew our intent and what we were trying to do, so we just went anyway. about halfway through a member pulled up and asked if we needed a ride, and that never happens so that was cool, and so we got in and drove the rest of the way. he said he could drive us back but only if she was ready now, cause he had to go somewhere else, but we got there and she wasn`t ready so he had to go. i ended up having to ask the member for a dollar and he gave me one, so it wasn`t quite the help i was looking for, but at least we had enough to get to church. so we got there and she had a good time and everything, so we`ll have to talk with her more this week.


but, i`m sure you`re wondering what happened with changes :) so yes my comp did end up leaving, and my new comp showed up at about 12 30 thursday morning. and my new comp is.....elder pullman! he`s another utahn, and has like 14 months in the mission. he was in the zone of colòn with me when i started so we already knew each other a little bit so that was cool. but it hasn`t been quite what i expected. i thought we`d be good friends, and after having a year he would be fairly solid in spanish and teaching and stuff, but boy was i wrong. i`m sorry, but he speaks spanish like he just got out of the mtc. like i am in shock. i feel really bad, but he just can`t speak. he still has a super gringo accent, and hardly anyone understands him. he actually says more english words in lessons than spanish. he`ll always throw in filler words like "ya know" and "well" and "like," and it`s super frustrating. i don`t know what to do. he won`t even talk when we teach either. i`ll talk for awhile, and then just stop and look at him and wait for him to take over, but he never says anything. so then i have to keep talking, and i`ll try stopping again, but he just avoids my eyes and won`t ever say anything. it`s super hard. i don`t know how to help. he`s got a super good testimony, probably the best i`ve seen in my comps, but he can`t express it. i know it`s not our words that convert people, but that doesn`t mean we can just speak english and they`ll still feel the Spirit, we have to learn their language, but for some reason he just hasn`t or can`t. now maybe he just has a hard time learning or is just afraid or whatever, i don`t know, but i don`t know how to help. i`m not fluent by any means, but i have to admit i speak better. so we`ll have to have some chats this week, and maybe he`ll hate me for trying to correct him, but i can`t teach everything and say everything for 6 weeks, i need some help. so anyway this wasn`t quite the change i was looking for, it`s a very interesting challenge or test i`ve been given, so we`ll see how it goes.


the area hasn`t been going very well lately either. we`re having all kinds of what i thought were positive people tell us they don`t want to talk to us anymore. like one guy, he went to church and loved it and really wanted to learn about the book of mormon, but after like a week of not finding him, we finally did one night and he was like mad at us. he was saying how he doesn`t need another book and his beliefs aren`t ours and all this stuff and just didn`t want anymore. and then this other girl that was even more positive, she just loved to learn and also liked the church and would soak it all in, we went back on saturday and she said she had been searching on the internet and talking to her friends and she just didn`t like anything she saw and heard. her friends were telling her she`s opening the door to the devil, and so she doesn`t want to go to church or do anything anymore. it`s super hard. i was just bummed on saturday night, cause she was so positive. it`s hard to get rejected like that. maybe this`ll be another "trev and elder bednar" story with presidente amado this week, cause there`s just not a lot of positive right now. but oh well, i guess we`ll see how this week goes.


but that`s about it. not too many exciting things happened this week. hopefully this week goes better and we can find some more people. i hope everything is still going well at home, i appreciate the news and support and everything! have a great week! oh ps, happy 8 months today! :)


much love,
elder paskett

July 9, 2012

hey mom!

man sounds like things have been pretty crazy up there! an eventful week it seems! i haven´t done any tie trading, but in the mtc one elder gave me a tie, so if it was the red and pink one that should be new, but i think other than that they´re all the same ties. i´ve really gotten sick of them though haha, i mean wearing the same ties all the time is boring, but i´m too lazy to go buy new ones. i really only wear the same tie like once a week, but it seems like i cycle through them too fast. i´m way pumped for jake too. he´ll be a good missionary for sure. everyone looks good too, well everyone i saw, and at least trev made a good choice of a shirt and shorts to steal...haha

our 4th of july wasn´t much better. i want to say the 4th was on wednesday? so we eat with the zone leaders for lunch almost every day, and so tuesday they got a phone call about a meeting with president the next day. they knew about it cause it was supposed to be a meeting for the zone leaders, but the called with some interesting news. so one of the zone leaders is dying this change, or he´s going home this week now, and so they just told him not to go, but then they told him that my comp was supposed to go. and that only meant one thing...he´s gonna be a zl next change! we´re all a little surprised with that, just cause he´s only got like 10 months and has only been a dl for one change, so he´s going up super fast. but they learned that there are 3 types of leaders here, one is like pre-ordained, one is because of necessity, and one other i can´t remember, so we´re trying to figure out which one it is :) but he´s pumped, he´ll be good. he´s at least got the attitude to do it so he´ll learn.

so as you can assume this all means that he´s going and i´m staying, which is what we figured from the start anyway. but who will be coming in is anyone´s guess. i could just get another dl comp, i could just get a normal comp but still be junior comp, i could maybe go up and get another fresh guy like me, or maybe i´ll train, i have no idea. i don´t even know which one i want more. i feel like it would be fun to train and i could probably do it, but then at the same time to have just one more change with a latino to help me smooth off my spanish a bit would be helpful. they´ll tell us tonight late, so then tomorrow will mostly just be a say your last goodbye kinda day. i´m content with staying here. i enjoy the area, the ward is pretty good, i actually like the food (mostly just cause we eat in a restaurant every day haha) but the members cook well too, usually at least :) and we´ve got some good investigators. it´s still not easy by any means, but i´m happy. i´m afraid i don´t have really any cool stories this week. this week was just long and slow and nothing spectacular happened. it´s a really long time to be with someone for 3 months straight, it just turns 2 changes into one really long one. but i´m looking forward to this week to get a new comp and just have another fresh start, it should be good.

but ok, back to the 4th. so yeah, my comp had to leave to panamá tuesday night, and so i just had divisions with the other zone leader. like i said he´s dying this change so it was fun. we got up that morning and did exercises and whatnot, and he had bought some pancake mix and cream and cherries and we tried to make american flags but it didn´t work out too well haha. at lunch they had the news on and it talked about the 4th a little bit and showed some fireworks and then that was like all we heard. the rest of the day was just normal. that night we went to bed at 10 30, and finally my comp and the other zl showed up at 11 15, so then i had to get up and go to our own house. they actually brought the package you sent me though, but it wasn´t in great shape. it was in a plasic bag with stuff out of the box, and when i got home i opened it and there was a piece of paper in the bag from the government of panamá saying when it got there the box was just destroyed. they had a little piece of paper trying to say what happened but i couldn´t read it. they had listed that it came with 3 balls, a pencil (which unfortunately i actually bought the same thing in the mtc...it works really well though! :)), 1 map, 4 books, 3 cd´s, and a letter from karissa (which i´m trying to decide who forced her to write it haha) and one from grandma vehar. so not sure if anything is missing? but it seems like it was all there. but thanks a ton! me and my comp have been juggling a bit, and i tried the yoga one morning, and the books are already a help. so thanks!

i do have a little thing for dad though.so at capacitaciones president said that either this month or the next i´m not sure, presidente amado is coming down to talk to us! sweet huh! i was pumped when i heard his name. i´ll definitely have to ask him if he remembers dad, who knows if he will but it´d be cool! so if dad wants to tell him anything just let me know! :)

but i think that about wraps it up. a fairly quiet week. this week should be good though, i´m excited. i´m glad things are doing well back home. it makes me happy to know everyone´s good (even though you probably just don´t share the bad :)) so i hope everyone has another great week! ¡cuídense!

much love,

elder paskett

July 2, 2012

hey mom! (and dad! :))

man i`m pretty jealous of a free lagoon day! i was even just talking to my comp the other day about lagoon and just theme parks in general. sorry i can`t give you pity for the heat though haha. i hear david is one of the hottest places in panamà, and from what i`ve seen it`s pretty true. during the day i`m just dying, and it`s pretty hard to not be sweating all the time, but for some reason the nights are usually pretty cool so that`s good. we do have a fan going all night, and i could probably do without my little bedspread-blanket, but i have to keep it on anyway, just as a comfort thing i guess :)

i think it`s cool you guys are teaching primary too. i`ve always liked being with little kids, and so i think that would be fun. it`s always been in the very far back of my mind to be a teacher some day, but i have no idea at what age or where or anything, but it would be fun. you mentioned that being a tender mercy, and i`ve seen a few things like that. the Lord will make me work and work until i don`t think i can work anymore and feel like i just have no juice left, when He finally blesses me with something. i imagine that`s kinda similar with dad and the whole situation now. i imagine there were a lot of moments where he thought that he couldn`t do anymore, but you get just enough of a blessing to give you that extra push and you can do just a little more. and now after 5 years of solid work, it`s just a break. i could be wrong, but that`s kinda what i`ve seen here. i work and work and sometimes i feel like i don`t see anything, but then we meet just one cool person and it helps.

it sounds like things are a little tough with karissa too. saving up money isn`t very easy...:) i`ve always felt a little bad that i didn`t save up as much as i should have. but we were at lunch the other day and the family put on the errand of angels or something, i think you said you just watched it too, but one of the sisters says she`s not paying for any of her mission so she feels like she has to work extra hard to make it worth it for them paying, or something to that effect, and it`s kinda true. i guess i`ll just have to pay for someone else`s mission too huh?

i didn`t even realize that this week was 4th of july! it is kinda crazy that it`s already been a month into summer, even though there`s no seasons here and the concept of time is just different here on the mission haha, but a month into summer is still a lot. i`ll be hitting 8 months soon, and before you know it i`ll have a year! these last few weeks have been a little slow to be honest though. we had capacitaciones the other day with president and the assistants, and so they just came to teach us a few things. it was all about being a good teacher, and it was really good, i learned a ton. we had a competition at the end of the day and my group won, so i guess that means we`re good teachers? haha no, but they gave us little book mark things that say "un buen maestro" or something so that was kinda cool. but we did divisions after and one of the assistants came with us. i asked him about changes cause they`re coming up on the 11th? and he said president is thinking about leaving missionaries in their areas longer, which is good, but i feel like i need a change. me and my comp are doing good and are pretty good friends, but i need something different. 12 weeks with one person 24/7 is a long time, and i don`t know if i could take 6 more. we both think he`ll go, but now that the assistant said that we`re not so sure. i guess we`ll see though, we`ve just got this week so it`s coming up.

as far as a package goes, i don`t want you to spend too much on them haha. i can survive without it, plus i can`t really think of anything that i need. i`ve heard a couple of elders get food, i just asked the one next to me and he said he`s had no problem with like candy and stuff, but baked goods are no good. so maybe just a little tiny one with some misc. candy? and yeah you can just send me pictures and it opens them. someone sent me a couple after the wedding, i don`t remember who but they worked, so yeah that`s fine. i always just read the letters here too, it`d be a lot of money to print them all here. i do hope you`re saving my emails though. at least just the website, cause i don`t like writing in my journal so my emails are all i have haha.

ok i have one minute left, sorry nothing happend this week, it was just ultra slow. we`re hoping for a good week here though. i hope everyone is doing awesome, cuìdanse mucho!

much love,

elder paskett

June 25, 2012

hey mom!

well sounds like things are going pretty well! lots of stuff going on! as far as shoes go i think i`m ok. i haven`t seen any inserts, but i haven`t really looked either. i usually try to walk in the grass or the dirt just cause i figure it`ll be softer and easier on my feet, but i guess that may just wear my shoes down faster, who knows? for now though i`m surviving. i`m trying to be aware of how i`m walking now and i think it`s kinda working. i just need more people to let us in so we don`t have to walk so much! :) i`m not quite sure what to think of karissa staying home alone though...but oh well, i guess i`m down here so i can`t do anything...:) speaking of pasketts, i was gonna see if i could get all the cousin`s email addresses when they go in the mtc. i`m too lazy to handwrite, plus it takes forever, so if you could somehow get those as they slowly trickle in that would be great.  me and my comp were actually just talking about boating and it made me miss it a ton haha. i hope the boat is still alive by the time i get back, you better tell them to take good care of it!

i`m afraid this week wasn`t really too exciting. it really was just kinda long and slow and nothing really happened. for pday we just played basketball and soccer at the church. i`ve lost all of my basketball abilities but have picked up some soccer ones. not to brag or anything but i`ve had some pretty sick goals haha. we try playing basketball though and i can`t do a thing. it`s gonna take some time to get it all back!

we did meet someone kinda cool though. we were just contacting and walking down the street when some guy yelled at us to come back. so we went back and talked to him for a bit and he ended up telling us he was actually a member but hasn`t been active for like 15 years, and he just moved into that house like 4 months ago. so we asked if we could come in and talk and he said sure. it`s just him and his "señora" and a little 3 year old, and the mom isn`t a member, but they`ve met with missionaries a ton. we talked a little bit about getting married, and the mom was just like "we`ve had like 4 sets of missionaries try to get us married but it`s never happened" and me and my comp were like "well we`re different you`ll see :)" and so i`m not exactly sure how to get someone married, but we told them they had to do the first step and we`ll do the rest. and so we went over yesterday and the mom had done her part but the dad no, but the mom said she would just go do it that day. i think it takes like 8 days to wait for paperwork and stuff to get done, so it might take some time, but they`ve at least started so that`s cool. we`re also teaching the mom trying to get her baptized, so who knows right now but it could be cool.

we`ve been visiting sabrina and her family all week and she`s still doing awesome. she shares way cool stories with us everytime. so i gave her one of those "HLJ" rings and she just loved it. we went over tuesday and she made sure to show me that she had it on and that it had already helped a ton. she said having it there has helped her to remember to do the right thing a ton of times. she said it`s been hard, like someone was passing a little sample of wine around and she had to say no, even though after everyone was like freaking out at her and wondering why, but she did it and felt good. and there was like this mandatory school thing, and afterwards there was like a dance thing. and she went, and when everyone started jumping around and doing whatever she said she just didn`t feel good and just felt different. we talked about that and being in good places and she knew and said she didn`t like being there. and after a prayer one time she asked us why she feels like crying sometimes during prayers, and the mom just said "that`s the Holy Ghost!" and that`s what`s been so frustrating with the mom. she knows all the answers and knows what she needs to do, but for some reason we can`t get her to do it. she was telling us a little bit about her life and i guess she has some "sugar daddy" that gives them money. so she goes to panamà every once in awhile, and basically she just has chastity problems and doesn`t want to get baptized so then they lose the money source and she has to leave this guy behind. we`ve only got her to read the BOM once, so that`s hard, but she said she would talk to her boyfriend on saturday, so we`ll have to go this week to find out how it went.

we`ve been trying to talk to sabrina`s boyfriend too, and so tuesday he said he would be there thursday to tell us if he wants to get baptized or not. sure enough he didn`t show up thursday, so we called him and he said for sure he`d be there saturday. so we went saturday, but then sabrina told us he`s still like 2 hours away so he wouldn`t be there. so we`re having a hard time trying to get ahold of him. the sister has been hard too and we`ve never seen her either. i don`t know what happened. so the rest of the family isn`t doing so great but sabrina is still awesome.

we also went to visit a recent convert of a little less than a year cause he hasn`t come to church for a couple weeks, so we stopped by to see how he`s been doing. apparently he`s had a couple problems with drinking, a few members of the branch presidency have gone over and he`s been drunk a few times, so we`re a little worried. he`s old too, and told us he has diabetes and his one knee isn`t great, but he`d like to go to church next week, the only thing is his shirts had stains and so he doesn`t want to go with a dirty shirt. so i offered to try to stain-stick them and he said sure. the one shirt had like rust stains and so nothing came out, but the other shirt came out nice and white so that was good. so we went by on saturday to drop off the shirts, and we met him in the street with a couple of bags from the store. we offered to take them and he gave them too us. he gave me one, and  sure enough in that bag were a few beers. so we walked in and gave him the shirts and asked if we could chat for a bit. we started by kinda being gentle and trying to get him to say what was up, talked about the word of wisdom, but he would never say anything. so i was like "i think i saw something in that bag back there, what do you have?" and he just flipped. he was all telling us how much older he is and how we shouldn`t treat him like a kid and he knows so much more than us, and if we`re gonna come in and accuse him of drinking we have to leave. he said he had no problem with drinking and he just bought the beers for a friend that`s gonna come by and drink them. my comp believed him and said that was fine, but we`re worried about his friend and his influence. he said don`t worry he`ll be fine, so we left. we talked to president the next day and he just laughed and said for sure those were for him. i was thinking of a "the guilty take the truth to be hard" kinda thing, but oh well. he ended up going to church yesterday, and maybe we`ll stop by again and see what`s up.

that`s basically about it though. this week was just full of appointments dropping and lots of contacting. i did finally meet my first panamanian that actually speaks english, and she was cool and said we could come back so that was exciting. this week could be kinda big or nothing will happen, i guess we`ll see. i`m glad to hear the vacation went well and everyone`s doing well. you guys will have to have extra fun on the boat since i can`t have any haha. but anyway have a great week, and we`ll talk to you later!

much love,

elder paskett

June 18, 2012

hey mom!

well sounds like it hasn`t been the best trip ever, but at least you got a little bit of a vacation! i think just chilling in yellowstone for a few days would be great! we`re working way hard down here, and every night i come home and i`m just dead. it`s all i can do to get out of bed in the morning, but things could be worse so i`m not complaining :) and i did hear there was another af kid coming from elder clarke, he said a kid named i think tanner smith is coming, but he wouldn`t know me by jordy so i don`t know who it could be that grandpa met, but that would be sweet! there`s already 3 of us here, i guess there`s also a sister that i don`t know, but elder clarke said he met her, so it sounds like af is just gonna own the mission! and ya know i haven`t seen too many gardens. we went to a member`s house to eat the other day and i noticed the dad outside working on one, but i really don`t know if i`ve seen another. there`s lots of vegetable and fruit stands though, and i assume it`s cheap, and so probably most people just do that.

my shoes are doing ok. i think my first area took a good toll on them, cause almost all of the streets were just rocky. this area is better and most are paved, but they`re still doing good. i`ve noticed i walk really funny though. i walk on the outside of my left foot, but the inside of my right, weird i know, i don`t know how, but now i`ve been trying to be self conscious of walking on the outside of both. they`re both rockports, so i assume they`re supposed to be good, but the little cover thing on the inside of my shoes is coming up. i mean just like the little felt thing that covers the foam part, if that makes any sense. so i`ve started to wear through the foam cause there`s no protection, but other than that the bottoms are holding up fine and they should last me for awhile. the shoes that guy gave me definitely aren`t missionary shoes. they`re a lot dressier and so they`re not very comfortable. i`ve worn them a couple of times now but they`re not great. i think i`ll just push them to sunday use now. i guess that`ll probably give my other shoes at least a little bit more life huh?

but this week was a bit of an interesting week.  monday we went to the beach again, but it was pouring like all day so it wasn`t that fun. we played some ultimate frisbee and soccer though so it was ok. again there was no one on the beach, but these two guys showed up after awhile and wanted to play with us so that was cool. one of the guys busted out some clubs too and so we juggled for a bit. he wasn`t very good, but i wasn`t either since i haven`t done it forever haha, but it was fun. more on juggling in a moment...

so wednesday was pretty relaxed, not too much happened, and thursday as well, but thursday night we had a visit with sabrina and her family and boyfriend, and it was an interesting visit. so we asked a member to come along with us, hermano guerra, and he`s the teacher of the investigator class in church. he`s a way cool guy, and served a mission in costa rica? something like that, maybe 30 years ago, but he always teaches well and had seen sabrina and everyone a few times so we thought it would be good. and it did turn out to be a super good lesson. sabrina was telling us all of her doubts and stuff and how many different opinions she`s gotten about her baptism, and she just wasn`t sure anymore. hermano guerra did an awesome job telling somewhat similar stories from his mission, and we just had a super good talk and it was just awesome. so we just asked her how she was feeling right then, and she just said "yo quiero bautizarme," i want to get baptized, and so we were just pumped. afterwards we were talking me and my comp and that`s never happened to either of us so that was cool, to just have her flat out say it.

so now it`s friday, and that night we had an activity for father`s day. (happy late father`s day dad! :)) they asked us if we would do a little five minute act or something and so we said sure. i had nothing to do but juggling, and my comp borrowed a ukelele from someone and so he decided to play that. it ended up being way cool. we planned out this little routine, had some music, i used some of the glowsticks you sent me, we killed the lights and i juggled for a bit. i took a video of it but i assume it`s too big to send through email, so you may have to wait to see it, but everyone afterward said it was just awesome. they all loved the lights and stuff. after all of the little kids really wanted the glowsticks and balls, so they kinda robbed to glow sticks but i made sure to keep all the balls :) but yeah it was a lot of fun. after the activity though, sabrina called us at like 9 30, and was just starting to flip flop again and still wasn`t sure if she wanted to do it. so we were just like ok tomorrow we have the interview, so let`s talk tomorrow and we`ll figure it out.

so now it`s saturday, and we had divisions so one of the zone leaders could interview her. so we went over and started talking, we had her tell us all of her doubts again, we shared a couple scriptures, tried to reassure her, and then just said alright let`s do the interview and see how it goes. she said she was really nervous but said ok. so they went and had the interview, of course i don`t know what she said, but she came out and said that she`s finally ready and we can do it tomorrow! so we were both just like telling her this is the right thing and she`ll be super blessed and it`ll just be awesome. so i asked her who she wanted to baptize her, and she really didn`t want to choose. i was asking if she wanted maybe hermano guerra to do it, or a member that she`s met, but she just told us she wanted either my comp, me or the zone leader to do it. we tried telling her that one day we`re gonna have to leave and it`ll be good to have a member do it, but she was just like yeah but you have facebook! haha so we just said ok. so anyway, after a little more thinking, she asked me if i would do it! of course i said yes, but i was super nervous! i`ve never baptized anyone so i really didn`t know what to do! so that night i was memorizing the prayer and trying to get everything ready, it was kinda stressful but it was good.

and now it`s sunday morning. we had to do the baptism before church, so we went to the church at like 7 30. it was a good little service. we had our other baptism share her testimony and it was way good, there was one other speaker, and then we just did it. the water was super freezing, not what i was expecting haha, but yeah we just did it and it was awesome! right as she came up out of the water she said "oh i just felt something!" i couldn`t really talk to her, but it was awesome. i was super nervous, but it ended up being great and she shared an awesome testimony afterward and it was just perfect. we confirmed her right after in sacrament meeting and she was just great! we were really so blessed to be able to teach her and see her grow and progress and her hunger to learn everything. the mom was all telling us about the changes she`s seen in especially her, but the whole family as well, ever since we started coming over. i`m hoping that they all make the same decision and then the rest will be baptized on saturday, cause they`re just an awesome family!

so this week turned out really well! it`s fun to see some fruits of our labor, see people`s testimonies grow and just love of the gospel. i`ve got high hopes for this week too so we`ll see how it turns out! thanks for everything and everyone! i hope all is well, have a good rest of your vacation, and we`ll talk next week!

much love,

elder paskett