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