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