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