Week 2 In Panama

This week was all about the buses!  On Tuesday we woke up at 2 in the morning and caught a bus to Panama City because I had to go to immigrations and be legal or something.  Everyone kept telling us "I promise this isn't normal" but we waited in the basement of the immigrations building with about 40 other missionaries from 7 in the morning until about 10 o'clock that night.  At that point it was too late to come back to Santiago so we had a sleepover at the apartment of the sisters that live in that area. Then on Friday we woke up again to catch the 3 o'clock bus to Panama because it was my companion's turn to go to immigrations, but this time we were only there for a few hours and we actually got to come home and do work in our area!  It is kind of a blessing that this is an 8 week transfer because our first 2 weeks were a lot of planning and establishing goals and now we have a full 6 weeks to really get to work and have success in Santiago!  

My favorite part so far about missionary work here in Panama is contacting people (it was probably the scariest part for me in California), everyone is really kind and willing to talk to us, even if we can't speak very well!  I think most people just talk to us because we are American but hey they are talking to us!!

Funnest part of the week- the ward Christmas party which was supposed to start at 8 in the morning but didn't actually start until 3 in the afternoon.  The ward made a whole bunch of food and took it to a pretty poor part of town and threw a big Christmas party for all the people who lived in that neighborhood and they had a piñata!  I thought I knew how piñatas worked but you have no idea until youve seen 30 Panamanian kids going at it....best part is there weren't even any tears, they all just took the cuts and bruises like champs.

Merry Christmas!!  The gospel is true and Christ is La Davida, what more can I say?  Love you all and I will talk to you soon!!

Hermana Smith

FIrst Few Days In Panama

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

Last Week In Fontana/America

This week went by so insanely fast....can't really remember it but here's the quick version according to my planner-

Monday- We went to dinner at a members house and after dinner Sam let me braid her crazy hair while we did a FHE with her family so that was fun!

Tuesday-It rained.....the whole day....really hard.  We drove a lot and its a good thing we forgot to get our car washed Monday.

Wednesday- We went to the temple!!  A member drove us and went with us to the temple and it was the best feeling ever to be back inside!  It stopped raining just long enough to take our picture.

Thursday- Zone Meeting in San Bernardino!  We learned about the #heisthegift video and got all of our pass along cards to give out!  The church bought out youtube until Christmas!  Crazy, right?   We got a whole pack of cards and we have been asked to give out 10 cards a day...we are averaging like 25 a day. It has been such an awesome way to start conversations with people and we have already gotten several return appointments with people because of the video!

Friday- Weekly planning.  A whole lot of walking and knocking but not a whole lot of people home.  We helped one of our less actives get ready for her baby's first birthday party...its a small one this year, only 60 people.  

Saturday-.....We practiced our musical number with Evelyn (one of our favorite young women) who is playing the cello with us, she is awesome!

Sunday- Fast Sunday!  We did our musical number as the closing hymn and it wasn't too shabby!  Some kid in the back of the chapel filmed the whole thing with his flash on haha oops...thought about having him send it to you but I couldnt find him after church.  Then we got to go to the Christmas devotional and it was sooo good!  I loved Elder Eyring's talk and pretty much bawled my eyes out when they talked about the little boy with cancer...I'm a total crier these days, it's a little bit pathetic.

Spiritual moment of the week-  not really a moment, just a realization that planning with the Spirit is so important and sticking to our plans is important. We had a few times this week where we thought about changing our plans to make things easier but we went where we told the Lord we were going to be and that person needed the message we had prepared or there was someone who we needed to talk to in that neighborhood.

Funnest moment of the week- so my comp can burp just as good as I can and last night it got a little crazy

I have LOVED being here in Fontana and I am so grateful for all of the people I have met and experiences I have had....now on to a new adventure!

Love you love you love you!  Can't wait to talk to you all tomorrow!!!

-Hermana Katie Smith

At the Redlands Temple with her companion and an hermana from their ward

Hermana Smith's first day in Panama with the other arriving missionaries and her mission president and his wife.

Week 9 In Fontana

This week was full of random but incredible miracles!  

First miracle- We only ate one Thanksgiving dinner!  Pretty much every other missionary had like 8 dinners and got sick from eating so much food but we only had one and it was super good so yay!  

Miracle #2- We were walking to an investigators house and we found one of our  members in the park playing his guitar and he played some songs for us and they have been stuck in our heads all week but we love him. 

Miracle #3- One of our investigators is on date!!  

Miracle #4- We got to go to a baptism last night for one of the elders' investigators and it was this whole stressful thing where the copy machine didn't work in the stake center so we went to the other building but then the font started overflowing and we had the keys and we couldn't find a primary songbook but I was playing the piano for  their musical number but everything worked out and it was such an amazing  baptism!  

Miracle #5- We contacted a potential last night and we talked with her and shared a simple testimony about the Restoration and it was so great!  We are excited to go back and teach her again later this week!

Miracle #6- My incredible family and amazing friends!  Seriously every day I am just completely overwhelmed by the amount of love and support I have and I have no idea what I did to deserve any of it but THANK YOU!  I love you all so incredibly much!

Miracle #7- This one is an upcoming miracle but we get to go to the temple on Wednesday!! It was so nice to get to go every week in the MTC and I have missed it so so much!  

This week I felt a little bit discouraged because this gospel is TRUE and it just makes so much sense to me!!  And sometimes it is so frustrating when I am trying so hard but I just can't find a way to make people understand exactly what they are missing out on here!!  But I realized that that is not my job. My purpose is not to make them it is to invite and to help them.  We had 2 contacts this week where we said pretty much the same things but they went completely different.  One of them wasn't interested at all and couldn't feel the Spirit but the other one was miracle #5!  I feel less frustrated now because I know that I am trying my hardest to invite and to help everyone here in Fontana and I pray so hard that they will be able to see just how truly incredible the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel are. Do you even understand what it means and how many blessings come with being a member?!  I love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  gosh dangit.  

I love you all!!  

-Hermana Smith

Remember last week when she told us about the hat she crocheted that was too small for the baby?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Hey I'm 20.  For my birthday this year I got a lot of birthday cake, a couple new sweaters, and my visa to Panama. (So for Christmas this year my family is going to get a couple lightly used sweaters)  

So this morning my mission president called us while we were eating birthday cake and doing companion study to let me know that my visa arrived this morning (its a birthday miracle!!) and that I will be flying to Panama on December 9!  I cant really think of anything at all right now (on account of my brain thinking about a million different things but mostly just Panama) but I will try my best to give you a recap of this week-  

So this week we talked to a million people and walked a whole lot.  Remember the miracle contact last week?  Ya she is the best investigator ever and she has a stinking cute family.  We also picked up another investigator who lives in our same apartment complex and we went to go contact her and she showed us a Book of Mormon that someone had given her 5 years ago when her daughter died and bore us her testimony about how much peace and comfort it gave her.  Are you kidding me?  God is preparing so many people to hear the gospel and I get to be the one that brings it to them!  Also this week we started working on a musical number that we are doing as missionaries in our ward and it is sounding so good.  We are like the perfect combination of Vocal Point and MoTab except we do it in Spanish which is even better.  Mom asked me in her letter if I sing in the choir but with a smiley face cause she knows how much I dont sing but guess what...my companion is a voice major so not only do I sing in the ward choir, I also sing in pretty much every one of our lessons.  On Friday night we went to dinner at a member's house but it turns out she was having a quinceañera and I have never felt so out of place in my whole life-we were the ONLY white people there and everyone just stared at us.  We also awkwardly walked right on to the dance floor right as the girl was getting presented or whatever.  OLÉ!  I tried to crochet a hat for the baby of a recent convert but I accidentally made it way too small so my very favorite person in Fontana gave it to her cat instead.  Cute huh?  On Saturday we met these people who were looking for their dogs and so we offered to help them post their lost dog signs around the neighborhood and it was the best finding activity ever.  People are way more willing to talk to you if you tell them you are looking for a dog and then once you have them worried about the dog you leave them with a lost dog flyer and a restoration pamphlet and bam return appointment.  Seriously they should put that in the next edition of PMG.    Super pumped for these next 2 weeks in Fontana, they are going to be great I can already tell!  Happy Thanksgiving!!  Love,

Hermana Smith

2nd Transfer in Fontana!

     What a week, am I right?  On Wednesday we drove all the way to the mission office for transfers which is a crazy time.  There are a whole bunch of cars and even more missionaries walking around this church parking lot trying to get luggage and companions and bikes all figured out.  We dont really see the mission president there because he is busy trying to get all the new missionaries settled with their trainers.  I said goodbye to my companion and found my new trainer (who also went to Lone Peak, crazy right?), and we headed back to Fontana to start working!  I was already a little stressed about having to plan and know who/where/what to teach and then we realized that neither of us have a GPS so this week has been a real good adventure of learning how to use a real map haha.  

    On Thursday we had a zone conference almost all day so we got to go listen and talk with our mission president about true conversion.  We were asked to study and prepare a 5 minute presentation about a conversion story in the scriptures.  I didnt actually get to share mine but I learned a lot from all of the studying and preparing.  I chose Amulek and as I studied how he was converted and I think it all came down to his choice to act.  I know that this gospel is 100% real but I will never be truly converted unless I act on that knowledge.  So this week my goal has been to act with faith on every prompting I get and I have already been able to see the miracles happening!   

     A few weeks ago we went to borrow a mixer from a less active but hers was broken so she borrowed one from her neighbor and she told us about her and she seemed like an awesome potential so we were going to talk to her when we gave back the mixer but her scary husband answered the door but we have been trying to find a good way to talk to her again.  Then on Friday night one of our appointments and our back-up fell through and we felt like we needed to go visit this less active and we walked up to the door and the neighbor answers the door!!  We talked to her for a while and she is so great!!  We are going back to teach her this week!

   Yesterday my comp had a baptism in her old area so she was gone for about 5 hours and I went on splits with a returned missionary in the ward.  I had been really nervous about going out by myself because I still rely so much on my companion but it actually turned out really great and it was so awesome to get to see how she worked and taught as a missionary.  Everyone does it so differently and I am grateful for every opportunity I get to work with and learn from all of the awesome missionaries here!  I was only with her for the first half and then for the second half of the night I tagged along with the English sisters.  We made candy empanadas at a less active's house (unreal) and I got to use my Spanish to talk with her mother who isnt a member and doesnt speak any English which was pretty cool and she said we could come back and teach her!  Basically this week was a lot of being nervous and anxious about things and then every thing worked out incredibly.  We talked to everyone this week and got so many referrals and worked really really hard.  I have seen and felt the Lord guiding me and giving me everything I need to do my best and help the work move forward here in Fontana and I am so so grateful for the enabling power of the atonement .    I am SOOO excited for this coming transfer and can already tell its gonna be a great one!  Love you all so so much!

-Hermana Smith

 Companion #1

Companion #2

Week 6 In Redlands- Transfers!!

Nothing too exciting happened this week but here are some of the highlights-

-The elder who plays the piano has slowly been giving me all the assignments so I now play the piano for choir and yesterday I played all 4 sacrament hymns which was terrifying but I survived.

-The kids in our apartment complex are always playing outside and they love the missionaries!  One of them got a ripstick this week so I taught them how to ride it.

-We got a TON of awesome referrals this week who will hopefully all turn in to awesome investigators!

-We got lost on the California freeways on our way home from zone meeting and used up pretty much all of our miles for this month.

-Our dinner cancelled and we were so hungry so we had the most disgusting and random assortment of food for dinner

-One of our members taught us how to make hand-made flour tortillas and flan!

-We found out about transfers!! I will be staying in Fontana and my trainer is leaving!  We are both kind of freaking out cause we thought there was no way that we would get moved but now she is going to San B and I am staying here and taking over the area with my new comp! 

That's all for this week, love you all so so much!! 

-Katie