Dia de Accion de Gracias 11-26-12

We bought a chocolate cream pie and took it to Hna Yorgina´s. She´s the best cook in Panama so, pretty much our dia de accion de gracias was great. Never had rice for Thanksgiving dinner before. a first for everything. If I have to be with a gringa comp, it´s not so bad to be with a gringa for a holiday that´s only celebrated in our country. We kept asking each other what we were grateful for all day.

I am excited to hear about your new comp.

So my comp is amazing! she knows how to be a mish. she really does. she is teaching me so much. this transfer (sorry, I always call it a change cause that´s what it is in Spanish, cambio) is going to fly by cause we´re working way hard. love it. She´s the 3rd of 6 girls in her family. She´s way cool. Of course there are quirks but what comp doesn´t have something. I´d prolly be my own worse comp! hahaha. Love her already, even if she is a gringa...

How are the people in your ward? who feeds you? how is your Bishop there? and do you teach lessons on Sunday?

We don´t have a bishop cause it´s a branch. Just a branch pres. he´s been the pres for about 2 and a half months. they switched right after I was here. he´s cool. the second counselor helps us a ton. the pres doesn´t have a car, so I think that´s why the 2nd counselor helps us with more stuff. it´s just easier. Pres is great. the ward members are nice. the church isn´t as strong in Panama as it is in the other Central American countries. Hna Yorgina (I´ve written about her before, her name is Georgina in English) feeds us when she can.  She´s the best cook in all of Panama. NO JOKE. when we have cena with her, that´s all I can think about between citas. we have our cocinera (Hna Vicky) for lunch every day during the week. we have dinner with a fam Saturday night, lunch with another fam on sunday and I think we´re going to start getting more dinners during the week. today Hna Yorgina invited us over for breakfast. SOOOO good. I love her, and her food, and her house, and I love her family the most. tomorrow we have dinner with her too! yum. last night she made tacos. shoot. so good. I don´t teach on Sunday. we just got a lider misional this last week, so he´s been teaching gospel principles. at least we have a lider misional now. and someone who wants to do a lot and work hard and has energy. our church building is just a big, like you know, the mobile home materiel. like that. with a wood pulpit in the chapel. it´s pretty different. our stake center is casi normal though. when I see like The District videos, I remember how church buildings look in the states... haha weird.

so yesterday there was MAJOR floods in Panama. you have to look it up online. it´s terrible. and I´m pretty sure it´s where the mish in that area live. at 6am to 8am it filled with water. you have to look for films of the dam that released all the water. they said it was from rain... but it hasn´t been raining that much

some of what I experience: the music on the streets... look up aventura and prince royce. the flood means roads are closed, an entire super market was covered with water. and we don´t have any water in the house for three days! we have a tank in the back yard though. fast showers and no way to clean our clothes! yikes!

my battle wound is almost gone from the accident. pains only lasted a week. it´s almost just a faint memory in the past! haha

Nitzia is a convert of about 10 months. guess what, she´s the relief society pres! it´s amazing! she´s amzing! seriously, church members in the states are crazy. we don´t need to be perfect. just full of love. we´re so freaking judgmental! arg.....