Christmas in Panama

I was super worried that I wouldn't have anything to email home about because I talked to you on Thursday but we had some awesome Christmas week miracles.  First was that I got to talk to you!!  It was so so good to see everyone's face and hear your voices!   The rest of Christmas went pretty chill- We went to an old folks place with the young single adults and gave out presents and then we went and did some caroling visits for the rest of the day. 
On Friday we were supposed to go paint a members house but we weren't sure what time and we didn't have any minutes left on our phone so at 7:30 in the morning we go outside in our painting clothes to walk to the chino on the corner and we see some white people across the street so naturally we walked really closely behind them to see if they were speaking english and one of them starts pointing to the church so we yelled and ran to go talk to them and it was a member from Michigan who is here visiting his brother and sister-in-law.  We showed them around the church and started talking with the sister-in-law who is Columbian and very Catholic but she had a ton of questions for us and we exchanged numbers and we have an appointment to talk to her again!  It was the most random timing that we would be outside right as they got there but maybe not so random I guess.  

Then yesterday we had another miracle- we walked to go pick up one of our investigators for church and not only was she there, she was standing outside waiting for us!  She loved church and told us how great she thought it was that she got to participate and share her testimony in the classes!  I had a pretty awkward spanish moment with her- she asked me where the sanitorio was and she was saying something about urinar and I was like um I dont know what that is and I definitely dont know if we have one here or not and she just kept saying those words over and over again and so I told my comp to go find the elders who speak spanish and I was trying to figure out what she was talking about...a confession booth, an altar, anything that might have been in her old church (urinar in panamanian spanish sounds a lot like orar (to pray))...and then I realized she had to pee so I go ´oh you need a baño!´ and she just stares at me like I'm crazy.  But she is an awesome investigator- she has already read through 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon and she loves church and all the good stuff so we are really excited to keep watching her progress!

This week I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma and this one verse just really caught my attention.  I don't have my scriptures in english but it says ¨Y acontecio que los hijos de Alma salieron entre el pueblo para declararle la palabra.  Y el mismo Alma no pudo descansar, y tambien salio¨ ["And now it came to pass that the sons of Alma did go forth among the people, to declare the word unto them. And Alma, also, himself, could not rest, and he also went forth." Alma 43:1] and that kept me really motivated this week because I love thinking about all of my friends who are out doing the same thing I am doing and all of the people that I love who have served and now it's my turn!!  Sometimes it still takes me by surprise that I am out here doing this but I want to be like Alma and be so dedicated to this work that I cant rest!  Love you all and miss you tons! 

-Hermana Smith