Feliz Navidad y'all! I hope y'all are having a great christmas and that y'all have taken the time to remember Jesus Christ! Here people just get wasted and then sleep in on christmas. They mainly celebrate the 24th anyway. It's been a very fast and full week, so probably going to be another long email. You're proabably asking yourself, "doesn't he have anything better to do?" Well, to answer that question, no. The time spent waiting for laundry and catching a chiba allows me the blessed time to write another masterpiece of an email. Enjoy.
Christmas Conference
La conferencia navidaña! We had our zone conference and it was amazing. We all arrived in the city then we took a bus to the temple! We couldn't go inside, but it was still amazing to see it and be reminded of the importance of this work. That our friends can enter and be sealed together as a family for time and all eternity. It's beautiful and surrounded by palm trees. Our APs put together a great conference and we learned a lot about how we can improve as missionaries and help others come unto Christ. We sang a bunch of christmas songs and saw some amazing talents. For lunch we got some pasta, garlic bread, salad, etc. from Olive Garden and it was fantastic. They gave us santa hats and some other good stuff as well. To end the conference, we watched 17 miracles which is a crazy movie. What the pioneers sacrificed for the gospel is unbelievable. It makes me wonder if we would do the same thing if we were in their position. But I guess we could also apply it to our situation right now and ask ourselves if we're willing to give up all the world offers for the things of God. Am I willing to dedicate 2 years completely to God and not hold anything back for myself. Are we willing to leave all our "nets" behind as the apostles did. I believe those are important questions to know the answers to.
Intercambios
We had exchanges with the ZLs and it was awesome. I got to go with my Guatemalteco brotha, Elder Zepeda. He used to be the financial secretary and is a super cool guy. I learned a lot about how to teach better, how to be a better example, and a lot about the offices. He has some crazy stories and knows some crazy things. Our day started out pretty rough, because every lesson we had planned fell through. We just contacted and worked really hard. We went around and found 5 new people willing to hear our message, and a few were very interested. One was a guy from panama's special forces which was cool. He's stationed in the jungle of Darién but is here for his month off. Super cool guy.
Bautismo
We had a baptism! It was really special and our friend, Hilary, is really prepared. Her uncle from the islands was able to baptize her and rhe spirit was so strong. She was firm in her desire to be baptized and was super excited. She smiled a ton and was super happy. It's really cool to see her start on the path towards living with God. The whole family showed up and made it special. She was confirmed a member of the church and recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost on Christmas Eve so hopefully she'll always remember that special occasion.
Chibas
One non important thing that I'll try to make sound exciting are chibas. Though I don't know why they are called chibas (google translate failed me) I can explain why they are a favorite transportation system of the panamanian people. They are small buses that are suppossed to hold about 15 people but, we've experimented, and found out you can cram about 30 into one of these bad boys. They are also equiped with turbos and other mechanisms that allow it to go break neck speeds that you wouldn't think possible for such a small normal looking bus. The part that finishes off the whole shabang is the driver. We don't know what he's on but we do know he has to be on something, because no sane human would drive to the level of crazy that these drivers can accomplish. Not even you Palmer. Not even you. With that said, we get to take these chibas to vista alegre. It should take 45 min to an hour. It takes a good chiba 30 min.
Dulegaya
The church here has a ton of members here who are kuna, so also that means there are a lot of people who can't speak spanish. So now we're learning a little dulegaya to help them. This language is very vague and hard to get into details with, but very very fun to learn. An mergi dule ner dummad sipu. Those of you who are now trying to enter this sentance into google translate will be dissapointed because the only organization that knows this language is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The only people who are fluent are natives and our missionaries. If you need anything translated into english you'll have to find a missionary who served in the islands. It helps us a ton to be able to connect with the kunas we meet and build a relationship with them. We just throw out the frases we learn and they laugh a ton. Gotta love life.
These past few weeks have been great, but also kind of hard due to the lack of obedience in my district. It's hard to be the only one doing what you're suppossed to, but I know God will bless those who put their everything on the altar. I love the scriptures found in D&C 18:10-17 because it explains the importance of this work and the significance of the atonement of Jesus Christ. When we do the small things, we are showing our desire to serve the Lord and follow His example. Our obedience can be coorelated to our love and understanding of the importance of this work. Miracles are for those who have a firm faith and understanding of the value of this gospel and the priesthood. With that, we can do all things.
“Miracles, or these extraordinary manifestations of the power of God, are not for the unbeliever; they are to console the Saints, and to strengthen and confirm the faith of those who love, fear, and serve God, and not for outsiders.”
- President Dallin H. Oaks
Merry Christmas!
Elder Nelson
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