This Week In Santiago

K Xopa familia?!

This week was long and HOT!  Probably the hottest week I've had so far here in Panama. During the week I was honestly just thinking how ready I was for the week to be over but last night as we looked at our numbers and what we were able to do this week it was really awesome to see all of the miracles, tender mercies, and prepared panamanians!

First- It was hot hot hot...so unbelievably hot but then IT RAINED!  We are finally coming into rainy season and it is a beautiful thing!  When it rains it rains!  And it cools us down for a little bit.  Along with the rainy season comes new fruits.  Last night I broke my fast with 3 huge mangos and a giant avacado.  In the past week I have eaten approximately 25 mangos and 23 of them came directly off of a tree.  Did you know how many different kind of mangos there are?  So many.  I hope I am making you all very jealous right now but I am going to bring you all back at this time of year so you can get it for yourselves!

All week people would stop me and as me if I was excited that my president was coming and I just kept thinking ¨Why is Pres. Carmack coming, he was just here a couple weeks ago?¨ but it turns out that President Obama was here in Panama this week and people were going nuts!  We were in a house trying to have a family home evening on Thursday and we couldnt get the dad to turn off the tv because he wanted so badly to see Obama get out of the helicopter.  But luckily we had prepared a pretty good lesson so we started with the tv on mute but by the end he turned it completely off.

This week we actually went to immigrations so now I am officially legal here in Panama and don't have to have mini heart attacks everytime I see the police.  The police here in Panama are straight out of the hunger games.  I want to take a picture but I'm too afraid so just google panama motorcycle police.  They drive around with 2 cops on a bike and the one on the back has a massive gun.  Also at immigrations I got to see some friends and meet some new cool missionaries.  The immigrations building is always packed with usually pretty grumpy people (who likes to wait 3 hours so someone can yell at you in Spanish?) and I was sitting next to this really nice guy from Venezuela.  I started talking to him and he told me that he had seen mormon missionaries before and he wanted to know why we were always so happy.  It was pretty cool to look around and realize that the 30 or so missionaries that were in this hot, crowded building were all laughing, hugging, or contacting, and they all really just looked happy.  Thats what the gospel is.  Its being happy and joyful even in immigrations which makes the dmv look like disneyland.

This Friday we did divisions and I got to be with my favorite sister leader one more time before she goes home in a couple weeks!  We got to wake up way too early on Saturday morning and go to a service project in Chitre.  We went to a little barriada near the beach and picked up trash for two hours and I got soooo tan.  I thought I had reached my peak tan but I was wrong.  And next time you feel like complaining about a church activity/service project/ calling, I want you to picture the little old panamena in her skirt or the single mom with her 5 year old following along who picked up trash for 2 hours under the Panama sun, smiling and laughing the whole time.  Your lives and church service are so easy you have no idea.

Yesterday at church we knew for sure we were going to have 2 investigators who are progressing really nicely.  We got to the chapel and saw 3 teenagers talking to the elders.  I asked one of the elders if they were his investigators and he says no they're yours.  What?  So at the beginning of the week we contacted these two boys on our way home and invited them to church but they didn't seem super interested.  But one of them showed up and brought his two cousins with him!  They stayed for the sunday school class we taught and really liked it!  Talk about prepared people.  We have a goal as a mission of 70 contacts every week and it has been a hard one for us to reach but this week we worked super hard and were able to get our 70 contacts and we are already seeing the miracles!  So even though it was a really hot, exhausting week, we were able to reach almost all of our goals and find some really incredible people! 

This week I was reading in the Liahona for April and I loved the article ¨It Isn't a Sin to be Weak¨ .  It has a little chart that explains how we can look at sin and weakness with humility and helped me understand how I can better react to challenges and weaknesses to make me better and help me grow closer to Christ. 

I think that is all for this week....I love you all and I hope that this week you will all just BE HAPPY!  Even in what feels like a crappy situation, remember that you have the gospel so what could possibly getcha down?

´dale pues,

Hermana Smith