So much has happened this week! I hope you guys are doin´
awesome. I am learning good things here in Penonomé every day. Sorry I didn´t
write yesterday... I wanted to apologize. Here in Panamá, yesterday was a
holiday and so all the internet cafes were closed....so ya. Nos toca
ahora.
So first of all, I hope you guys had a HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I can´t
believe it´s 2013. What´d you guys do? I´m happy to say we worked the best we
could that day, although there were quite a lot of people sleeping or recovering
from their night-long party. Fun new years day fact: a drunk guy came up and
kissed me on the arm, and asked me and my comp. to accompany him to Chitré....
he seemed a little homosexual as well. Hahah it was funny.
Allright a few quick things back from Christmas that I forgot to
mention to you guys: I was finally able to watch Dave´s mission call opening!
Yes!! It teared me up a little bit. I appreciated that gift maybe almost more
than any other. Thank you so much for sending it. And thank Amy for making it! I
really loved it. Also, Christmas day we were able to paint the house! Way to
stick to the panamanian tradition right? We painted it blue. I´ll send pictures.
Finally, I also recently recieved the Christmas letters from Grandma, Grandpa,
and our family Christmas letter! Man - grandma and grandpa´s letters were the
bomb. Tell them please that I loved them. Grandpa´s temple experiences
especially were great. I can´t wait to read his book.
Ok so we´ve been seeing lots of success in the ward recently.
Sunday, we had 91 people in church!! Usually it´s like 65. Attendance is going
up, and I think a large part has to do with what we´ve started here in the ward
amongst the members. First, Elderes Aguirre, Kniff, Carrillo and me have started
a fun program called ¨Miercoles con los Misioneros (Missionary Wednesday)¨. What
we´re doing is every Wednesday night, we go to a different member´s house and
hold a family night, where they invite friends, neighbors, and there is food and
games. Then, we post on the bulletin board every week a big picture we print out
of the family night, along with a little description of what we did, we the
lesson was about, etc. It´s looking to be really successful. Also, the other
thing we´re doing to help the branch is reviving ¨group night¨ every Thursday.
Last week, the attendance had tripled from the week before! 38 people! Us
missionaries are really looking to make it more exciting, and get the member´s
support behind it. We wanna turn this place into a ward - not just a
branch.
Allright well I thought I should probly mention the progression
of some investigators: I wanted to let you guys know that Edelsy, José, Karol,
and Michael are really progressing. I know they are gonna get baptized - now
it´s just a matter of when. We´re aiming for the end of this month - the 26th of
January. Also, we have a lesson with la familia Sotto tonight - Mom - thank you
SO much for fasting for them. I know all our sacrifice for them will not go in
vain. They are great, that family. Lastly, I don´t know if I´ve mentioned Luís
before, but he´s the husband of a less active mother. Anyway, he´s a BALLER at
basketball. Like, probly the best panamanian I´ve yet seen here. So anyway,
we´re trying to get them married and decided it would be fun to use bball to
have a lesson with them. So, a few days ago, us 4 missionaries, along with him,
played bball at the church, and then had a lesson about marriage afterward. It
was pretty successful, and I REALLY wanna baptize him. I asked President to
leave me here another change so I can see all these guys get baptized. I don´t
know if you guys remember ¨Carvinales¨ from a year ago, but it´s like the
panamanian Mardi Gra - everyone takes like half a week to drink and just do
whatever they want. It´s get pretty ugly - especially here in the interior. Last
year in Chorrera it wasn´t so bad - it doesn´t get too bad there. But here,
President takes us out of the area for like a week, and that´s gonna hurt our
investigators too I´m afraid. But just pray for em all :) They´ll be ok.
Lastly, I just wanted to mention a cool experience from Sunday.
We walked in a little late to church cuz we were waiting for and brought an
investigator. Anyway, when we walked in the first thing I hear is that the guy
at the podium said I was about to give a baby blessing. What? Hno. Castillo
wanted me to bless his baby. No sé. So with literally like 5 seconds notice and
without having ever done it before, I walk up and give the baby blessing! And
gave him a name and everything! Aaron Enrique Castillo Morán. I didn´t do it
perfect, but it was a really really cool experience and I felt The Spirit work
through me. I loved it.
Anyway, I´ve gotta go cuz my time is up, but I hope you all have
a grrrrrrreat week! Grandpa, Dad, and Mom especially!!! Happy birthdays!! I´ll
talk with you all next week!
-Elder Clarke
P.S... I was THRILLED to see that picture of Whitcomb with you guys on
Sunday. That made me so so happy. He´s a stud huh?
P.S.S.... guess who´s coming to visit the mission is a couple of weeks???
Elder D. Todd Christofferson! Yessir.
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