April 30, 2012

hey mom!

that`s cool you`ve been able to find my building! the soccer/basketball court is cement, but there`s a decent size grass lawn thing too, and the church is fairly big, at least enough for like 100 people at church on sunday. but i`m afraid i don`t know the address. i can tell you i live by this restaurant called "el molino" and we live like 2 minutes away by walking. i still can never figure out which way is north haha, i don`t even know where david is in panamá, but yep that`s my area! and it`s a little crazy to think it`s already been a whole school year i`ve been gone! i guess i did leave like 2 months in, but still, time hasn`t been as slow as i thought it would have been!

but yeah things are still good down here! we`re working a lot harder than i have my first 2 changes, so things are a lot tougher and i`m just dead at night, but i`m learning faster and having fun. we`re finding all kinds of weird and cool people. sometimes i can`t believe some of the things people believe, and it`s really hard not to bible bash, but my spanish is so limited that i still can`t really do that haha. it`s actually coming along though, i finally don`t hate my spanish. there are times where i still really struggle with words, but i understand a ton more, and so i can actually talk to people and it`s a fairly  normal conversation. i`m not dreading lessons either cause i can actually follow their answers to questions or understand when they ask stuff, so i`m just generally more at ease. i`m still not a fan of contacting, just walking up to random houses and trying to teach from nothing, but that will probably just come with time. we`ve got a couple of baptismal dates, one is really shaky, and the other one isn`t quite solid, but she could be going somewhere. the really hard thing is getting people to church. yesterday we said we`d stop by 3 people`s houses, so we went to each house, and one didn`t answer, one said he had a previous engagement he had to go to, and the other didn`t get out of bed to come talk to us. so it`s really frustrating, but we`re still working hard.

as far as me and my comp go, we`re doing pretty well. i mean i don`t know if we would have been best friends in high school, but we talk between visits and joke and stuff so it`s a lot more fun. he kinda blew up at me the other day though, cause i like to read my english scriptures during personal study time, and he does not like that i guess. he went on for like an hour about how i need to read in spanish, and i do during my language study time, but i feel like personal study time is for me to just sit and read and feel the Spirit, not really for me to focus so much on translating. and i mean he does have a point, like it would be good to study in spanish, but personally i like to read for 45 minutes or so just in english. maybe i`m wrong, who knows? so that was a little too much, but after we were cool about it and things are fine. we actually switch off during lessons, and play off each other fairly well. president wrote me and said he gave me elder livesay because i`ve had some tough companions to start my mission with, and he wrote my comp last week and said he would be a fresh breath of air for me, and it`s true. it`s been a pretty rough start, but i think i`m being blessed for enduring.

well, as far as food goes, no, i still don`t really like anything haha. actually there`s one thing that i have come to really like, they`re called "patacones." so they have "platanos" down here, which is more or less just a big banana, and so what they do is cut it up to little discs, fry it, press it down flat with like the bottom of a cup, and then fry it again, so it`s really not very good for you, but it tastes good haha, and then with some "picante" or hot sauce on top with some ketchup, it`s even better haha. we eat at this "el molino" place i mentioned almost every day, cause the members don`t cook us food, well only like 4 meals a week. so i usually will get a quarter of a chicken with some patacones, with some "chicha," just like a juice basically, and that `s what i eat everyday. there`s really no variety here, but the chicken is good so i`m ok haha.

i actually did have a bit of a sore throat this last week, but i`m good now. i don`t know why i keep getting sick, i`m taking multivitamins and i`ll usually pop some fiber just to make sure i still use the bathroom haha, and i exercise and whatnot, but i guess i probably eat some bad things a lot so maybe that`s why. and i`ve been trying to practice some juggling so i can do more tricks for everyone. actually, i was thinking it would be cool if i had that juggling dvd, just so i could practice on like pday or at night or something, and learn some more stuff, cause right now i can do the basics, but no i`m ready for the big guns haha. and i`ve learned some more tricks with coins, and everyone loves the bite out quarter emily sent me, every time i see a little member kid they want to see the quarter again haha, so i do lots of coin tricks and they love it, so it`s cool!

the weather has been starting to change. we`ve already had more rain these last 2 weeks than i did my first 3 months. but it`s not very "cool" to carry umbrellas, so i just go without. actually the other day it was raining, but we still have to work, so we were trying to contact, and for a good hour no one would let us in. usually people are more nice when it`s raining, but not that night. so we just trudged in the rain for awhile until it was time to go home. i`m not a big fan of the rain, but oh well, i`ll survive :)

also, i was thinking it would be cool to have one of those biggest loser yoga dvd things, cause i can never decide what i want to do for exercise, so i thought that might work. not sure how to get it, but still haha. and actually i had a couple things for dad. i was talking to some guy, and he said he actually has a brother? that lives in af or at least has a house there, and he said his name is juan estrada. he said he lives close to papa johns, and he used to be or is a counselor in the bishopric? i thought that might be cool if he knew him. and also i wanted to know which mission dad served in, cause i keep meeting people that are from or served missions there, and i keep saying my dad served there, but i don`t know which mission.

but i think that`s about it. things are good. we`re working hard, doing a lot of stuff. i`m glad to finally have a good working companion, and to understand and converse and meet cool people. it`s still hard, i don`t think it`ll ever be easy, but it`s fulfilling. so i hope everyone has an awesome week, and i`ll talk to you later!

much love,

elder paskett