Woah. I don't really even know where to start, these past few days have been incredibly overwhelming but here I am, ready to start my first real week as a missionary in Panama! We walked off the plane and it took a little bit to get our travelling group through all of the Spanish questions at customs and immigration but we made it through and walked around the corner and it wasn't too hard to spot the 2 gringos in white shirts smiling and waving us down. We crammed all 6 suitcases and 5 missionaries in a tiny little car and then the assistants took us out to eat and dropped us off at the hotel. We slept so so good and the next morning they took us to the mission president's house where we got a little bit of training, had interviews, and met our new companions. I was given Hermana Patrick from Texas who has only been out one more transfer than I have. Immediately from there we walked to the bus station in Panama City and somehow we all got on the right buses and out to our areas. I am serving in Santiago which is a little city in the middle of Panama and so far I really like it. Our apartment is right next to the chapel, has air conditioning, a hot water heater, and it was fumigated last week so I´m not complaining. The rest of the week has felt like one really long bus ride with some really good moments in between. 4 and a half hours from Panama City to Santiago on Wednesday, an hour and a half each way to zone meeting on Friday, another 9 hours to and from the city on Saturday, and tomorrow I get to take the bus ride back to Panama one more time to get my immigration card, it's a good thing I can sleep anywhere! Saturday was awesome because we got to go to the temple!! As pretty as it looks in pictures, its 1000x prettier in person and totally worth waking up at 2 in the morning and the 9 hours in the bus. The second best part of this week was when we went with one of our investigators to a couple shelters and sang Christmas carols and gave out candy to all of the families and the kids loved it and they were so stinking cute! Panama is so much like Costa Rica (I dont know why that surprised me but it kind of did) so I think that has helped a lot with any culture shock.
This mission is a completely different kind of hard than California and I have never been more physically exhausted in my whole life, I am a little bit in shock and don't think I could have really prepared myself for this but I know why I am here and I am trying to work as hard as I can and not let any of the fear or doubt get to me because with the Lord I can do it, I know I can, I just need to keep being obedient so I can recieve all of the blessings and help that our companionship needs. The gift of tongues has been so real for me this week as we have been teaching and contacting people on the streets. The accent is hard to understand but somehow we have been able to communicate everything that we need to and I can understand much more than I thought I would be able to! I am praying so hard every minute and I know that the Lord is answering my prayers and that He will enable us to do everything we need to do to be successful in this area. It was so amazing to get to talk to you and I can't wait to see you over skype on Christmas!! Love you love you love you!
Hermana Smith
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