March 26, 2012

hey mom!

so this keyboard is really messed up, so i´m gonna apologize now for any mistakes that may come up haha. with the pictures, i couldn´t tell you why you don´t see them right away. maybe it does just take longer to actually get through, but it doesn´t take me too long to put them on. i actually haven´t seen anything from gentry down here, i actually just got my first letter from someone this last tuesday, from sam, i know that´s pathetic, i´m a loser, 2 months and only one letter haha, but just to check, has karissa by chance put my address on facebook?

the weather hasn´t really changed much. i think i heard that like october through february are dry months, and the rest are all wet. i also heard that march is supposed to be the hottest of the year, but at least where i´m at it hasn´t been horrible. it´s hot for sure, but not too much worst than it has been. we did actually get our first real rain storm the other day though. it´s really weird, sometimes it would rain so lightly that you could barely tell it was raining, and then just like that it can change into a downpour. so it rained basically the whole day, so it was just gloomy. everything´s gray and wet so it´s not too much fun, but oh well.

i´m actually really pumped for conference though. so we do get to watch all the sessions, but i think they´re all an hour behind. they translate everything to spanish, but there´ll be a little room upstairs for all 4 of us english elders. they actually encourage the latinos to learn english, cause the words will mean a lot more in their original language or whatever, but i think most latinos hate anything english. it´s actually really annoying. there´s a lot of elders, at least more than you´d think, that like to pick on the new guys, like me, that don´t quite speak spanish yet. i am starting to understand just a tiny bit more, so it´s really dumb. and they really hate it when anyone speaks english, probably just cause then they´re not in control anymore, so i just can´t wait for the day when i can speak it like them. me and my comp never talk, so last night i had a fairly smooth flowing conversation with someone, and it was pretty exciting. i really don´t care too much when i mess up. i know it´s not my words that will convert people, the Spirit does, so i just talk. of course my comp never lets me say anything, so i kinda have to fight him for a chance, but i do try. and i do feel like it´s improved a bit. not quite as slow as i used to be, so it´s good.

me and my comp still haven´t changed much. he still thinks all of my ideas are stupid, and that he knows everything, when in reality i know there are things i know that he doesn´t. like on saturday, we were just contacting, and i was getting super frustrated. he doesn´t let me talk, he always finishes the lessons without giving me a chance to bear my testimony or something like that, and that went on for like 3 or 4 lessons, so one lesson i just didn´t take it anymore. now i didn´t freak out or anything, but he was trying to wrap up, but i just didn´t let him. it was our last contact for the night, but for some reason i just wanted to invite him to be baptized right there. so my comp is wrapping up, and i just stopped him and asked more or less nicely if i could say something. so i just kept going on. i finished the lesson, i tried to make it quick, just hitting all the big points so that a baptismal invite would make logical sense. i asked a question, i don´t remember what, but then my companion started talking again and it sounded like he was gonna wrap up, but he must have seen where i was going or the Spirit told him too or something, and invited him to be baptized. the guy said yes, so we have the date for the 7th of April. i was super pumped, i really felt like i wanted to help this guy, and i wanted him to be baptized, so i really hope it goes through. he came to church with us yesterday, so that was a good sign, but yeah we´ll see how that turns out.

and then another little cool thing happened. so we´ve been teaching this lady for some time now, and it´s just really weird. she´s been reading the book of mormon, she reads everything we leave her, does everything we ask, but she still doesn´t feel like she´s received an answer. she told us the other day that she kinda feels like her heart belongs to the catholic church, where´s she´s been a member her whole life, so it´s a little hard. but yesterday we finally met her husband, and the cool thing is, is that he works for some company that the church must use a lot or something, cause he said he worked on building the temple and a chapel or two, so i thought that was perfect. he was super impressed how they wanted the temple to be absolutely perfect, and seemed like really genuine and invited us back. so i have some hopes for that one too. and then later that night an old investigator stopped us on the street and told us to come back, so that was cool too, so all of these little things are coming out of the woodworks, it´s exciting.

so yeah not too much happened the first half of the week, but the end of it was sweet. today we actually went to the beach for the morning and played soccer. it was a ton of fun. it was just pouring the whole time but was way sweet. i´m starting to pick up some pretty good soccer skills :) i think i must have ate something bad yesterday though cause i keep burping something nasty haha. we´re actually convinced that there´s something wrong with the water at my house, cause almost every missionary that comes there for divisions is a little sick the next day. who knows, but that could be why.

but i  think that about wraps it up. i´m hoping for a good week with my companion, as well as our investigators. it´s exciting to finally have a tiny bit of success! but i better run. i hope everyone has a good week! thanks for everything!

much love,

elder paskett

March 19, 2012

hey mom!

well this week wasn´t too much fun to be honest. so yeah i did end up getting a new companion, and things just aren´t really good. so yeah his name is elder aguilar, and he´s from mexico. he´s actually only 18, i´m almost a year older than him, and he has about a month more in the mission than me. so we´re both brand new, so things are really tough. to be completely honest, it already feels like i´m a better teacher. my spanish is really holding me back, but i feel like if i could speak like a native does, i could teach better. maybe that´s a little prideful, but he just does some things that i really don´t understand. maybe it´s cause he is so young, or he had a bad trainer, or something, i don´t know. but there are a lot of like little common sense or courtesy items that he doesn´t do, and it´s really irritating. most of it is just little things, but they all add up pretty quick. he doesn´t go to bed on time, or get up on time, barely studies in the morning. plus he listens to music that´s just super horrible, it´s bad even for non-missionaries. i´m trying not to get after him for everything and just get over it, but like just this morning i asked him to turn his music down, so he does just one click. he blasts it, and so the whole town can here, and i´m about ready to explode. i let it slide, but if it happens again i´m gonna say something. and then he never lets me talk when we teach either. we really have had lessons where i´ve said nothing. i should probably speak up, but i don´t feel like my spanish is strong enough to just interpose, i still need some help, but he won´t give it to me. when i do finally just say something, hoping it´s right, he just takes it right back as soon as he can. it´s like that one calvin and hobbes comic strip, where calvin is talking about how conversations are like a game, and whenever you can stop someone´s thought and put in your own you get a point, or i think that´s how it goes anyway. but yeah he steals it whenever he can, so i get super frustrated. and then he tells me how bad he thinks the week went, so i told him we need to share the lessons more, but that same day he just dominates. i don´t know, maybe this change i´m just supposed to learn patience, but it´s hard with an area that has no success, a super difficult companion, still a new language. oh well, i´ll endure it, but it should be the longest six weeks of my life.

but on a more happy note, so last week we went to portobelo for pday. it´s basically like this old coastal defense system, with like walls and cannons and towers and everything. it´s super sweet. so we walked around there for the day, and it was fun. and i guess there, they believe Jesus is black, so in one of these big churches there´s just a black Jesus statue, and it´s super weird. i took some pictures and i´ll try to send them. there was also this little monkey tied up and some lady´s house, and so we got to play with it. he was friendly enough, and so he let you touch him, and he would like swing on your arm and stuff, it was funny. i was taking some pictures of him, and he just decided he wanted my camera, so he grabbed the little wrist strap thing and almost took it from me, but i held on for dear life haha, it was kinda freaky, but funny too. so yeah that was pday last week, and i think today we´re going to the canal, so it should be fun!

we also had divisions a bunch this week too, i´m not sure why, but both the district and zone leaders wanted to, so i got to have two gringo companions this week. it was a ton of fun. for 8 weeks now i´ve wanted to just talk to someone, but haven´t been able to, so it was fun to just talk in english and have fun. it´s probably bad, since i really should be talking spanish all the time, but i just get frustrated, and so i had to take the opportunity haha. plus my companion now doesn´t ever talk, so we just walk down the street in silence and it´s super awkward. so yeah i´m not gonna be learning too much spanish this change cause he won´t talk to me.

i´m glad you guys got to have a little break. i actually miss yellowstone, and after the mission i´ll just drive and sit as much as dad wants haha. as far as the package goes, i´m not really expecting to get it for like 3 more weeks haha, just between travel time and when the zone leaders go to Panamá City to get mail, things are pretty slow, but i´ll be sure to let you know when i get it!

so not a very exciting email again, i´m sorry. i´m still struggling, and so it´s hard to find some good stuff to tell. but i´ll survive, i have learned a lot so it´s all good. but yeah i better run, i hope everyone has a good week!

much love,
elder paskett

March 12, 2012

hey mom!

well, this week wasn´t too exciting. so yeah i was a little sick, and really i don´t know why. it´s super weird. it´s never anything too bad, but i´m wondering if it´s still just my body getting used to the food or the water is weird or something, i´m not sure. but i´m good now, so no big deal :)

but yeah not too much happened this week. like i thought was gonna happen, my trainer, elder oliva, left, and i am staying here and i got a new companion. but for tuesday, the day before cambios, elder oliva just packed most of the day, and then we were supposed to be in the house before like 8 so we could get the phone call of who was leaving and whatnot, so we didn´t really do too much on tuesday. then wednesday came along, and it´s a little exciting waiting to see who´s going where and who gets who and stuff. so we all had to go to Panamá City, to the church there, where we have like a little talk from president and a couple little things like that, and then a movie with all the areas and all the missionaries and everything. so yeah anyway it gets to my area, and they take away elder oliva, and put in...elder aguilar! he´s from mexico, has about 5 months in the mission, and is actually almost a year younger than me.

so i was super pumped to get a new companion, i´ll be honest. i didn´t think elder oliva and i were doing too well, and i could tell he was frustrated with my spanish. so yeah it was time for a change. but to be honest again, i already want him back haha. i can already tell this is gonna be a super long 6 weeks. he does a lot of things that just irritate me. he has like 4 months more in the field, but already i feel like i can teach better. he just does things that i don´t understand. and then he jams out too all this pretty bad music, doesn´t get up until like 7 30, all this stuff that just isn´t what a missionary should do. i don´t get it. he´s a nice enough kid, so i don´t know how to bring it up or how to change it. maybe trev has some advice for how to get along with companions you don´t like haha.

so yeah really other than that not too much happened. with our tentative baptismal date, not sure what´s gonna happen there. it´s not until the 24th, so we´ll just keep working with her and we´ll see i guess. and ya know i´m not sure if we do daylight savings time. no one has told me to change my clock so i hope we don´t haha. and feel free to get a new mower, not sure why though, what´s wrong with the old one? but i was just looking at those pictures, and everyone looks different! karissa is going with the bangs now huh? well everyone looks good, and i guess my cardboard cutout is ok :)

well sorry this isn´t very exciting. it was a boring week. i hope everyone is doing well. i hope everyone has a great week!

much love,

elder paskett

oh hey, i thought i´d tell you about my area a bit though. well more tell you where you can look it up haha. so we´re right next to chagres national park. we´re in like the west southwest side, in a place called vigia. don´t know if that helps, but hey there ya go! have a good day!

March 5, 2012

hey mom!
well this week was a little bit up and down. the first half was pretty good, and i had some good experiences, but then the second half just kinda tanked. not sure why things like that happen, but i guess the Lord works in mysterious ways so who knows?
so i guess i´ll start with the beginning of the week. so trev sent me a scripture or two, and they were really good. the one that stuck out the most was mosiah 23:21-22. it just talks about how sometimes the Lord sees fit to chasten and try his people, but those that put their trust in Him will be lifted up. and that´s basically how i´ve been feeling. i feel like He´s just been testing me, for what reason i don´t know, but this has definitely been a super rough change. but anyway, so yeah trev sent me that, and it helped me a lot. so that was monday morning-ish. we then played soccer and did whatever else for pday. and pday is just the best day of the week obviously. but anyway, so that night, well ok, firstly, we just had a man move in to the house next to ours, and i think he´s been a member for like 20 some odd years, but has been inactive for 20 some odd years. i´m not sure why, maybe my companion asked and i just didn´t understand, but oh well. so yeah monday night we had a little appointment with him at like 8, and we were just planning on sharing a little spiritual pick-me-up/thought, and so that´s what we did. he had a couple of little questions that we answered, but then, and i´m not a hundred percent sure i understood everything, but he asked something to the effect of why we have trials, or why life is hard sometimes, something like that. so basically it was perfect. i had just read the perfect scripture that helped me with more or less the same thing. so we opened up, i did my best at explaining, and it was just a super spiritual moment. then my companion shared something, we asked if he had any other questions, and he just said he was happy. so it was a super awesome experience.
but wait, it gets better. so now it´s tuesday, and every tuesday we have district meeting, and i´m guessing that every month we get the liahona, cause that´s what we got for the first time. i had never read one before, so i didn´t really know exactly what it was, but i casually just flipped through and it looked harmless enough, so i decided i´d read it. i didn´t get a chance to until that night, but in it was a super cool talk by Elder Bednar. it was all about tender mercies from the Lord. and so i think because of this talk, i got two tender mercies right next to each other. by reading that talk, it made me realize that the face trev sent me that scripture on the day he did, and that we had the appointment with that guy at that time, and that i could share that with someone else, was a tender mercy. and so i think the article was a tender mercy so i could realize the scripture was a tender mercy. he said tender mercies are a lot of things, but they will like uplift, strengthen, and now i´m lacking all the adjectives, but it was perfect. so i am super grateful for that little experience, it was nice to have a little spirtual break, especially for the week i had coming.
so we had divisions on wednesday, and i really don´t like divisions. but that day i got elder gutierrez again, and i´m sorry, but he´s just not a good missionary. so we go to lunch, and we were already late to this appointment, it was at 3 and it was like 3:15, so i was like hey we gotta go, and he just said no, not til 3:30. so i was already ticked. finally he leaves though, and so we´re just walking, and i decide to look backward, and sure enough he´s not there. so i´m freaking out, i don´t know what to do. so i turn around and go searching for him, and i find him turned down a different road. his reasons for getting ¨lost¨ were that we had just eaten and so he could´t walk very fast, and he doesn´t know the area so he lost me, which is complete bull. i was so mad. but whatever, finally i get him to cooperate, and we get to our appointment well over an hour late. it went pretty well, we got a very tentative baptismal date. so that´s a little exciting. but yeah, i was just mad at him the whole day, which is kinda my fault, but it was rough. the next day, he had to go to panamá city for migration things, and so we get up at like 4 so we can get there on time. and after all that was taken care of, we went to albrook mall, which is just this huge mall, just like university and stuff. but i thought we were only gonna eat and leave, cause it´s like noon, but he decided to devolop pictures and all this other crap, so we didn´t get home til like 3:30. i promised myself that if he´s ever my companion i´m coming home. ok not really, but i can´t stand him. he´s just not good. and that´s super judgemental of me, but it was a bad day.
so thursday was normal, the second half anyway. but then friday we had divisions again, but just my luck i got sick. i´ve had a fever of about 101 all weekend, and an upset stomach. so it was just a slow and rough weekend. but now it´s monday, so it´s all good. i´m feeling better, and we have cambios this week, so that´s exciting. i´m pretty sure my companion will leave, and i´ll stay, but who knows? i think we´ll get a call tomorrow about who does what, so we´ll see how that goes.
as far as the package goes, i don´t think i have anything else. i´ll be happy to get anything! so thanks a ton! actually i was thinking the juggling balls would be way sweet, i always just use rocks now, so that´s a good idea! i think that´s about all i got, i didn´t get to hear from anyone this week so i hope everyone is doing great! until next week!
much love
elder paskett

February 27, 2012

hey mom!
well this week wasn´t too exciting. we don´t have any investigators, so no stories really to tell about people progressing. it´s kinda hard, all we do is contact, which just means walking for miles in the scorching sun and humidity, trying to find people to listen. but really no one wants to. people are generally nice and will let us in, so we share a quick message, but then no one wants us to come back. and contacting isn´t my favorite thing to do, cause i don´t know how to talk ¨normally,¨ in that i mean basically my vocabulary is church based, so it´s really a struggle to try and just talk with people. and it´s even harder cause i do want to talk, i do want to just chat with people, show people that i´m not just some gringo, but i can´t, and it´s really frustrating. i think this first area is a blessing though. the Lord knew that i could stand the walking, it´s not fun, but i can do it. even the heat, it´s not bad enough that i just quit. and the food, it´s weird, and not what i´m used to at all, but at least i haven´t been forced to eat anything too weird, like pigs feet or something gross like that. the Lord knew how much of a struggle the language would be, and my companion, so it seems like he let me ease myself in with the other things. and i´m super grateful for that. i don´t know what i would do if i had to eat weird things or had one more trial like that put on me. so yeah things are rough for sure, but i´m also sure they could be worse.
if one thing has come out of my first few weeks, is an appreciation for the little things. things like a clean house, and mom, i´m really sorry that i ever left dishes out or things on the counter, cause it drives me crazy here haha. my companion is a mess. so there are bugs everywhere, but then my companion spills food on the counter so all the bugs just eat it, and it´s gross. i cleaned it once awhile ago, but my companion wrecked it again so i gave up haha. things like running water, we hardly ever have that so it´s really annoying. even things just like nature. i never really liked just looking at nature, and this is probably gonna sound cheesy, but i enjoy just looking at the stars or all the flowers and stuff. i like taking pictures of things and all that. so yeah i don´t feel like the language is coming really, but at least i´ve learned to appreciate a few things :)
things are kinda getting hard with my companion. i just am getting frustrated with him. it´s hard cause he is my trainer, and has been out longer and knows a lot more than me, but just some of the things he does i don´t agree with. there´s a name for the latino elders that aren´t obedient, they call them ponchetas, and it´s sad, but a good majority of the latino elders just aren´t obedient. things like using headphones, sleeping in, little things like that. but my companion isn´t a complete ponch, he´s actually really good comparitively, but still a few things drive me up the wall. he lets me teach things, which is good, i need to learn, but he just kinda looks at me, expects me to teach something, so i do my best, but then he just goes back and teaches everything in his own way, and personally i don´t know why or see the point. maybe i just don´t understand something, but it´s weird. and we have pmg, and i know we´re supposed to teach people, not lessons, but we´ve never taught an entire lesson in pmg. and we don´t need to every time, but he just likes to use the pamphlets that we have and expects them to get a testimony out of a pamphlet, which doesn´t seem right to me. so i don´t know, maybe i´ll learn these things are right, but right now they irritate me. we have changes next week, and president has told me on more than one occasion that i´ll be getting a new companion, so i really hope that´s true. i don´t mean to bag on my companion, but i need a change.
a couple of interesting things did happen this week though. i´ll start with the good. so this was our second time teaching someone, which is rare, but we hadn´t been there for maybe a little more than a week, but she complimented me on my spanish and told me i´m learning fast, so that was good. it´s always nice to get some outside reassurance :) so that was good, and a kind of medium thing, probably more on the good side, we were teaching another lady, also the second time, and she said that it looked like i´ve lost weight, so i can´t really complain about that haha. but now for the bad things. so we were talking to a less-active family, and as we were leaving, they have this dog right? and he was just kinda sitting there, but as we were walking by he just flipped and attacked me. so i ended up getting bit by this dog, but then my companion chased it away. but before you start freaking out, it really wasn´t too bad. it only punctured in like 2 places, but didn´t really bleed. it hurt like the devil though. the rest of the night i was not happy haha. but oh well, i survived, and it´s a good story at least :) next dog though that tries to attack me i´m gonna kick it as hard as i can, that´s not gonna happen again haha. and then in another lesson, there was some bird in the rafters, and just my luck he decided to poop on me. only on my shirt, but i wasn´t too happy about that either haha. so i just changed my shirt, so no big deal, but still haha.
so that´s more or less my week. as far as my plaque, i´ve found a ton of good scriptures, but the one that´s stuck with me the longest is ether 3:26. that story is just my favorite. with the oil for the clippers, it´s not a huge deal, i´ll survive. really don´t feel like you have to make this a big deal or feel like you need to give me everything, i´m getting along just fine. with the music, president says anything that´s tranquil is fine, and with a flash drive i really think it´ll work, my old ipod doesn´t work right anyway i don´t think, i think the sound is funny, but maybe you can try it and find out for sure. but my companion just has a flash drive and speakers with a usb port, so i can just ask him where he got the speakers and should be fine. and i don´t think there´s itunes on any of these computers so i can´t use that. with the molas, they just stitch stuff on, so it´s not a big deal, just as plain as you can find work the best i think, and probably just one or two, i guess you can buy white ties at the temple here, but i don´t know when we´ll go to the temple, but yeah from distribution works well i think, and maybe just one or two would be good. and everyone says that putting pictures of Jesus or the Virgin Mary on the box really does work. i don´t know for sure, and maybe you can research that a bit, but yeah just saying.
so i think that about wraps it up. nothing too interesting to tell. still just trying to plug along the best i can. i really do appreciate all the prayers and support, i definitely couldn´t do this without ´em! i hope everyone and everything is going well! until next week!
much love,
elder paskett