December 17, 2012

hey mom!

wow that does sound like a busy week! i´m sorry lyce got sick! she seemed a little...surprised is maybe the word, when she found out she was having twins, so i´m sure getting nice and sick doesn´t help anything! but i am happy to hear about snow! i´m sure you know that before my mission i wanted to go somewhere foreign, speaking english and somewhere cold...i didn´t really get that haha, but i do miss the snow! i would love to just go shovel some snow right now :) instead it´s just hot hot hot. i hear that usually about the end of december the rain starts to go away, but the breeze stays. i was talking to someone yesterday, and we compared how i hope for a white christmas with snow everywhere, she hopes for a christmas with a good sun and a nice breeze, the sun of life she said haha. it was funny. i guess that´s what i´ve got to look forward to! :)

i actually had a few similar experiences this week with how the Lord knows us each personally. again it was a fairly quiet week, not really anything too exciting. we had a service project one day where someone wanted us to basically dig out this hill and move the dirt farther down. it was a lot of work, pushing wheelbarrows full of wet dirt down a hill, but it was cool. we had divisions and i got to go back to the area i was in my first change and that was cool to see a few old people and say hi to them and actually being able to speak spanish haha. but it was basically pretty quiet til sunday.

so we were running late for this one visit, and so my comp didn´t really want to go cause when we first taught him he wasn´t really that positive or anything and he just wanted to go to the next one. but i said let´s just go anyway just to see so we did. we were almost to his house when a lady yelled at us from the other side of the street. we went over to see what was up, and she asked if we were going to visit this one family. we had never been there and didn´t know who they were, but someone had mentioned in church that day that there was a less active family and their grandma had just passed away. so we weren´t even going there but we just happened to walk by someone and she told us it would be really awesome if we could pass by so we said of course. when we got there, everyone was really nice with us and even without asking just gave us some food and stuff and were just really cool. it seemed to me that everyone seemed fine and stuff, but we asked if we could just share something quick and they said yes. so we started, and we talked about the plan of salvation and temples and stuff, and it was good, but after talking they still kinda felt down and that they can have all the knowledge of the plan of salvation and it´s still gonna hurt. luckily no one has ever really died in my family so i don´t understand how they feel, but i decided to share a scripture in alma 7 where it talks about how Christ didn´t only come to suffer for our sins, he also came and suffered so he could understand us and give us comfort. how he knows each pain and tempation and test we go through, and even though there may not be any human that understands what we´re going through, there is always Someone that knows, and it was just super cool. everyone was crying and it was just super spiritual. they were good tears i think though, cause we kinda wrapped up and everyone was saying they were glad we could come by and that we´re always welcome and it was just awesome.

so we left, and tried to go to that first visit, but sure enough he was gone, as were the next 2, so we tried our luck at contacting a little but to no avail. so we were a little bummed after having such a good lesson to having nothing, but finally someone let us in and it turned out super good too. so this lady came out and said sure we could come in but she doesn´t live there, which is usually a bummer since that means we´ll never see them again, but we went in. so it was normal at first, but then she stood up and looked like she was gonna leave, but for whatever reason she just like opened up to us. she told us how everyday she has to travel to panamá by bus (a 2-3 hour ride each way) to go to work, and then she has to come and visit her mom cause she had an accident and is basically dependent on people now, and how she doesn´t feel her mom understands that she can´t be with her all the time and she just feels like she´s a bad daughter, and how she´s just always working and tired and can´t even go out with friends cause she always just wants to rest, and she just doesn´t know if she can take it. it´s super hard to see people suffer like this or with a grandma passing away and stuff but not really being able to help except through words. i actually shared the same scripture in alma 7 and it was still just as good. she was all crying and stuff, and as we were leaving she gave the prayer and was grateful that we came and listened and that she could feel better and it was just cool. we asked if we could help her with anything and she said she had a kitchen to paint and she´ll let us know if we can help, she doesn´t live in our area, but i still want to help her. so sunday was hard but good, seeing people really sad but being able to make them happy if only for a moment :)

but that about sums the week up. i think that is my problem with spanish, that i don´t know just the little spanish phrases that only make sense in spanish, my comp helps me a little, but it´s tough. i still haven´t seen the packages, but we have changes this week so they might be there. as far as skype goes, i´m a little worried that all the places are gonna be closed christmas day, so i´m not sure what to do. i´ll see if there´s a decent internet place open that day, but i don´t know. either we would have to like phone call, or use skype like the next day. i don´t know. i´ll see what i can find out by next monday, and i´ll at least call like next monday night to set it all up. hope it all works out!

anyway better run. i hope this week is good and you can get everything done. enjoy the snow extra since i can´t haha, and i´ll talk to you next week!

much love,

elder paskett

December 10, 2012

hey mom!

man sounds like it was quite the week! it beat mine for sure! my comp is doing fine. he says his nose still hurts a little, and it´s gonna leave a good scar, but he´s fine. we´ve been meaning to go look for a scar cream but haven´t gotten around to it. i´ve been letting him use my vaseline stuff so hopefully that will help for now. he´s super worried about it cause he doesn´t think he´ll be as "guapo" now, he´s not really a pretty boy, but let´s just say he likes the way he looks :) haha he´s super chill, but yeah doesn´t like the idea of a scar.

i´m glad to hear the house is looking better. it´ll probably be as good as moving to a new house by the time i get home! i´ve gotten used to getting attacked by bugs though, for some reason we´ve got mosquitos bad here, and i don´t know what to do. i keep my fan on my all night, but they still find a way to bite me. i finally put some of the bug spray i have on last night and that kept em away. i´ll have to try washing my sheets and everything too just so they stop bugging me :)

i´m also glad to hear that at least someone gets to see some snow for christmas! it doesn´t feel like christmas at all down here! it hasn´t even rained for a few days so it´s just extra hot! definitely not the christmas i´m used to! people don´t really get that excited for it either, like there´s not a ton of decorations and stuff, and i´ve only seen like 2 or 3 trees. it´s weird. basically the only thing people do, it sounds like, is just make lots of food. i just know i´m gonna end up eating a ton that day. as far as a call goes, i still plan on using skype. i´m sure what´ll happen again like we did for mother´s day is just call like the saturday or day before even and set up a time. it´s gonna be harder since there will be people wanting to give us food and crap, but i´m sure we can figure something out. i would like to call in the morning so i can see all the presents and stuff, but i´ll take whatever i can get :)

so karissa still is having boy drama huh? well, i may have to add to it...:) my comp has been bugging me for awhile to have her write him, or him her, i don´t know, but he wants to talk to her haha. i´m trying to discourage it, but he says i´m already his brother-in-law haha. i´ll see if i can send a picture, but he´s a good looking guy so i don´t think she´d disapprove :)

well, as far as my week went, it was really quiet. wednesday we had the mission christmas party, and it was nothing special. there were a few speakers, singing hymns and stuff, and we watched the cartoon version of the grinch. our presents were kinda cool though. they gave us mini preach my gospels, and you know the white envelopes you get in the temple? well they gave us one of those with mola on the front. so with that, and i´m getting a plain white mola tie for the temple too, and i´m set haha. we also celebrated mother´s day, cause they celebrate it on the 8th down here, so we went to a little ward party for that, and again it was pretty average. like always i just did my little juggling act for them with the lighted balls, and they all liked it. the family we eat with on sunday said that their like half blind grandma loved it cause it was like the only one she could see. she said she liked the lights and everything, so that was cool.

i got a little frustrated this week though cause i feel like i´m stuck with my spanish. i feel like i just can´t quite express myself how i want to, and it´s tough. i thought it would help to have a latin companion finally, and it does a little, but it hasn´t exploded like i wanted. like i´m not afraid to talk, and i can usually find a way to say stuff, especially in lessons, but it´s more just normal conversation that i´m lacking. i don´t know, it´s just tough.

as far as investigators go, it´s been slow. after all the work we put into that baptism we haven´t been able to find anyone else. it´s a little frustrating. we have a few people that are super cool, but we just can´t get them to come to church. and then we can´t find new people so it´s hard. so it´s been a fairly slow week without any real cool stories, sorry!

i did have one quick question though. what are the rules on throwing away garments? or more specifically, when should you? like if it has a hole or a stain or something, or can you just wear it basically as long as you want?

but i think that about wraps it up. sorry it´s not the most exciting week. hopefully we can have some success this week! i´ll be sure to remember everyone in my prayers, since i´m sure i get remembered a lot! thanks for everything, and have a great week!

much love,

elder paskett

December 3, 2012

hey mom!

no my pday is the same, but last monday was like a national holiday and so like no place was open, so we used internet on tuesday. that shouldn`t happen much, but every once in awhile it might. i`m not in the same place as i was when i started, i`m actually on the other end of the zone, so it`s a lot different. i can go back there for like divisions and stuff, but it`s all new people and everything so it`s different enough. my comp is fine. he got some stitches here, but it just so happened that the doctor for central america for the church was here, and he came by to give a presentation. so he also looked at my comp`s nose, and he was like appalled with how they did the stitches. we mentioned we only paid 3 dollars for them and he just said well you get what you pay for. he said it was just super bad and it was starting to get infected and all this puss was in there. he said if he would have left the stitches there it could have gotten worse and crept up more into his head and brain and be really bad, but he took the stitches out right there in the church, and things have been better since. for a few days my house wasn`t livable, but we cleaned it up and it`s fine now. it was pretty nasty, it was all covered in dirt and garbage and smelled bad and everything, but it`s fine now and back to normal. but we were talking to people and they said that it`s never been this bad before, cause the water got really deep. every time it rains now i`m afraid it`s gonna flood again, but i guess we`ll see how it goes :)

it really is crazy how missionary work is changing. it`s awesome to see all these people go out. i did hear how they were shortening the mtc stay for missionaries learning a language, so i guess it only makes sense they`d just ship the newbies out. everyone keeps talking about how this mission is gonna be growing a bunch too. we were promised today by our zone leader that most people in the zone are gonna be training soon cause there`s just so many missionaries coming. it`s crazy. it makes you wonder what`s gonna be coming in the near future, who knows?

well, this week was kinda interesting. it was basically unproductive and just hard, at least at the beginning. so yeah our house got flooded and my comp broke his nose all in the same day, so that was just great. we more or less spent tuesday and wednesday trying to clean the house and get it back to order, and then my comp just didn`t feel good cause of the poor stitching job so his face was all swollen and infected and it was just bad. two of our fechas fell on tuesday too, and they were super positive, the family i think i mentioned last week, so that was depressing. so basically just nothing good happened all week. it seemed like the whole world was against us.

it got really bad on friday, because we had 2 other fechas for that day, but the world just didn`t want it to happen. so we tried spending the afternoon just inviting people to the baptism, and it was a nice sunny day so it was perfect. i thought a ton of people would come and it would be awesome. but then really out of nowhere a huge rainstorm came and just changed everything. it was a super bad storm, and when it rains like that everything just shuts down. we were gonna pass by our baptism`s house to get them, but when we got there they had all of these excuses and it took forever to reassure them. finally we left, but it was just pouring. when we got to the highway, traffic was bad cause the road was covered in water and it was about the time everyone got off work so rush hour too. we were supposed to have a lady come pick us up in her van, but when we tried calling she said she couldn`t come because the streets were flooded. so we spent forever trying to get a taxi or a bus or something, but they were all full and no one would stop. me and comp were just stressed cause we didn`t know what to do. we finally decided we just couldn`t do it cause no one could take us to the church, and we were walking over to tell this family that when the assistants showed up. it was like a miracle. so we all piled in the truck, with me and my comp and another elder in the back just getting soaked in the rain, but finally we got to the church. it was the same story for most of the other baptisms, a lot didn`t come just cause of the rain. but it ended up being super awesome. there were 5 baptisms in total that night, and it was super cool. one of the coolest things though came from another girl that got baptized. she was actually from my old area, my first area, where i was like almost a year ago now. the cool thing was was that me and my trainer were actually the ones to contact her for the first time and started the lessons and everything. now who knows if she kinda got dropped between now and then, but she ended up getting baptized. i can`t help but think about the seed being planted when i was there almost a year ago, and how i just happened to come back to my first zone and have baptisms the same night she got baptized, maybe just so i could see her be baptized. it was super cool. i talked to her a little and she said she did remember me so that was cool. so even though the world was against that baptism, it happened and turned out to be really awesome!

but that`s pretty much my week. a lot of house cleaning and helping my comp and being really stressed but having a super cool baptism in the end. it`s cool to see how things play out in the long run. but i better run. as always i`m always appreciative for the letters, i love hearing about what`s going on! i`m glad everything is well, and i hope you all have an awesome week!

much love,

elder paskett