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