Off to Boco de Tores 10/28/13 through 11/25/13

10/28/13

So I have changes.  It's great and exciting and surprising a little.  With one change left, I am excited to experience one more thing before I leave.  It was such a great experience here to train someone learning the Spanish language.  It is amazing how the Lord works with new missionaries.  He takes us useless people and makes use of us.  At least that's what it feels like at times and especially in the beginning of the mission when you can't speak the language. I think I loved this area faster than all my others.  We had two AMAZING baptisms this last weekend of the change.  It was just in time.  We worked so hard and we made a friend for life.  I love Veracruz and I am ready to love a new area.

(Sasha left three days later for Bocas del Toro)

11/4/13

Well, I´m 12 hours closer to home now.... I´m the farthest that you can go without leaving Panama.  It´s called Bocas del Toro.  (It is four miles out of SE Costa Rica) It was a 12 hours on the bus.  We left at 8:30 pm and got here at 8:40 am. crazy!  My companion is from Guatemala.  She is super short and so sweet.  I´m excited for this change with her.  We live in a little apt that´s super nice but about the size of the TV room at home including the bathroom. I´m completely surrounded by hundreds of fields of bananas.  It´s gorgeous and looks just like the Snohomish valley from up on the hill.  At the moment I´m in an Internet cafe in Changuinola. There are parades going on all day cause it´s their national holiday week.  I´m listening to tons of drums and stuff.  It´s fun.  There is a different kind of native people here and the area is super famous and there are tons of tourists in the main city.  I´m in an area called El Empalme.  It´s a small area and super tranquila.  I like it.  We´re opening a new area... yes... once again... I´m opening an area. I know a couple of Elders here and they´ve been reminding me everyday how many days I have left.... haha.  at least I know I´ll die having fun with them. So I´m happy and working and I only get trunky (homesick at the end of a mission) when I think of Christmas. I have been so blessed as a missionary.

11/11/13

 If you're cold in Washington... I can't bare to think how cold I'll be.  I'm still sweating up a storm everyday of my life here...

My area is great.  A ton of indigenous people.  They're not Kunas though; they're different and have a dif language which I'm not going to learn this time cause I only have a few weeks! haha The people are way different here.  It's way more chill here than close to the city.  I like it.  We have lots of baptism dates, so we have lots of work to do.

I work between the banana trees. It's gorgeous.  The water comes from the river... so once again I'm not drinking the water.  and we've been without water for a few days... so that sucked.  and there is little water pressure so I once again use a bucket to bathe and we have to fill the toilet with water every time cause it doesn't fill up on its own.  It's another adventure to live, but I kinda feel like it's normal now... I think of the culture shock when i get home and i have all these wonderful things like a dishwasher, water in the house, clean water, a huge fridge with food, , a bed that doesn't sink thru the cracks, , a washing machine... oh and a dryer... I've forgotten what that was.. haha and soooooo many other things... oh! and hot showers.. that will be weird... 

11/18/13

Today for pday we walked across this SUPER sketchy bridge in the rain to Costa Rica.  One elder put his foot completely through the bridge and fell... now I´ve been to CR.  I got some colons (their money) to save as a souvenir.

More about my area. The universities are part of our area.  the street with a big store called the Toro divides our area from the elders in el silencio.  we have the area all the way to finca 4.  it´s really pretty small.. but a good area.  we´re working with a lot with people who are not currently going to church.  I love my comp.  she is perfect.  mom, you would LOVE her if you could speak her language or she yours... haha  she´s so much fun and likes to work and has a story all her own.  I´m so grateful to be here with her.  She´s great for at the end of my mish. my elder missionaries always remind me how many days I have left... today I have 24 days left! in 12 days... I´ll only have 12 days! craziness!!!!! I´m so excited.  but so happy to be a missionary still.  it´s the best thing ever!!!! One day soon I won´t get to wear my name tag... so I´m making the best of it NOW.

11/25/13

I´m super happy right now.  maybe I don´t have the energy like before in my mish, but I am enjoying the work. It´s so hard to think that I´m making myself love these people more and more just to leave them soon.  I hate the thought.

I've pretty much invited everyone in Panama to live at our house... hope you don´t mind.  hahaha  I just want to save EVERYONE and it´d be easier if they just come live with us... haha

(We told Sasha she'll get some new tech stuff for school and she said..)

wow, I can´t believe I´ll get a new computer.  and what about a phone?  maybe I should just buy an ipad.. haha... whatev.  I´ve been gone for so long... there are prolly magic robots that I have no clue exist. 

shoot! sooooo much to talk about.  I´m sooooooo excited to come home! but extremely worried about leaving Panama, about leaving my family here.  It´s heart wrenching, but it´s all part of the mish.

WE HAD A BAPTISM.  his name is Gabriel. He´s here right now hanging with the Elders.  He´s 17 years old.  We hardly did anything to find him and get him to church and baptize him.  He was just waiting for us to find him.  It feels good to baptize my last change though.  Really good.

I love you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Well my companion is struggling and suffering with Spanish, but I have finally been able to be somewhat of a comfort by sharing some journal entries from the beginning of my mission. She said that I stole the words right from her  thoughts. I hope that she understands better now that it is normal to be frustrated and tired, but that she is not alone in feeling like that, nor will it last forever. She WILL learn Spanish, and it will be a whole lot faster and better than she thinks. Shoot... that is prolly what people were thinking and telling me when I was in her position and I thought I was either going to die before Spanish happened or I would give up before the end. Well, I'm passed that point. I survived. I will survive. I struggle at times with thinking of going home soon, but then I remember my purpose and why I am here. For a wonderful purpose, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ! then I feel a sense of urgency as I remember that I only have less then 2 months more to serve the Lord with all my efforts!

I love being a missionary.

Hermana Schumacher

Update 10/14/13

Well... I think I'm officially getting trunky and maybe it's just the fact that my release date is coming...

Today we went to the beach... so we just stayed in our area and our zone came to us. I love that we live on the beach. we made sandwiches and just hung out. It's been a pretty chill P-day. The beach is hermosa here.

We had zone training this week. I LOVE my zone and district this change. I think they are the best I've ever had and boy do I need it. I think Blas really threw me backwards. I'm just not as good of a mish that I could be.  Blas was like 5 months vacation that I served as a different kind of mish. but now that I'm back in the game, my DLs have really helped and the APs are awesome too. I love being in the Panama zone cause all the office Elders are here. they are amazing mish and leaders... but at the same time... they're so just little 18 to 25 year old boys. I love to see that good gentlemanly men exist in this world. gives me a bit of hope for this future that we're facing in this world.

Last night we had bear baked chicken and mac and cheese with corn. SO good and normal food. I just have to tell you to let you know how happy I was. I love eating with Hna A an D. They were living in the states but they have to wait some time here for papers. They're Jamacan slash US people. They speak English better than Spanish people. love them and their normal food every Sunday.

So my area is Kuna Landia. I love it. I don't know how it's possible to love strangers so quickly. I just love the people here.

Hermana Schumacher

Back to City Life Veracruz - Panama City Area 9/23/13

This change will be amazing. About my hija. (Sasha's new companion is a brand new missionary.) Hna L happens to be amazing. She´s from SLC. Her dad´s Tongan and her mom is Mexican. We will be working hard at her learning Spanish cause it´s the main thing that she is very nervous about. I´m loving the experience of remembering back to my first days in the mish and the crappy feeling of not understanding. We are both pretty chill and we will work well.

Opening an area was a little intimidating, but the members are amazing and want to help us sister mish a ton.  4 elders helped us get settled and are really quite amazing and so kind. The area doesn´t seem too dangerous from what I´ve seen in comparison to my previous areas. but we are getting home at 8pm and being careful. We have had wonderful references and had people come and contact us saying that they want lessons and to go to this church. It´s been a very hopeful start.

I am so excited to be here in Veracruz, a little town in on the beach. It´s gorgeous. It´s like I never left Blas! I thought I´d miss my Kunas but it turns out that all their families live here! I love it! Second night here I saw some Blas people, my people. I was so happy. I can´t describe it. I miss Blas so much. I think about it alllll the time. I feel right at home here though and speak Kuna every day and everything! I know that this was the Lord´s plan the whole time. If I have learned anything this change it´s that I can trust that the Lord knows me and exactly what I need. I love the mish. And I´m so excited to be able to say that my brother leaves for his mish in 2 days!!!! We´re now a double missionary family!

Love you all,
Hermana Schumacher

The San Blas Experience Story Sept 16, 2013

These are my final words of Blas:

I will never forget my people in Kuna Yala. I have had an experience that I never believed I would have. I am connected to the island with all my heart. Hna E and I are in love with this people. I wish they were a little taller and I might bring one home to marry. jajaja. joking! maybe... but seriously. It hurts us to see pictures and think of them there. They became our family as we saw every single person in our area every single day. We had the smallest mish area that you can image, a 3 minute walk. It would take less than 10 minutes to walk around and knock on every door in our area. We loved the people and had disputes with the people as if they were our family because it’s like living in a really big house. I cannot and I will not forget the last 4 months of my life. I will return. I will see each and every one of them one day again, whether in Kuna Yala or after we are reunited at that great day in heaven. I can understand a bit of Kuna and respond. I wish I could be here for a year to learn to speak fluently. Their language is very basic. For example there aren’t articles like the La El un una, etc. and unlike Spanish the accent doesn’t matter. The people have the most beautiful skin in the world. They are shorter and I always messed with the young men and asked them if they knew that men were to be taller than the women, one kid responded innocently and said, pero, soy indio... haha. Their culture is difficult to work with as many things are linked with drinking. The government saila have even gone to the edge of taxing people if they don’t have a big festival for the island and provide alcohol when their daughters start their period. They have all these superstitions that if they don’t drink something bad will happen to them. It’s pretty discouraging at times and hard work, even though everyone seems to think that we just hang on the beach all the time. Okay, first off, we have to travel to go to the beach cause houses cover our island until the edge of the water. There is no beach. Second, it’s just a different mish here. We are in charge of everything. We are activities director, the Institute teachers, the seminary teacher, the music coordinator and director, once they even tried to get us to help prepare the Sacrament... I’m sorry priesthood holders... but that’s your duty, privilege and responsibility. What more do we do? Family home evenings with members, a TON of service, and we take p-day like moments and go to the river to help with stuff or the beach or take a trip to the next island and meet people and buy veggies. We look for the kids and people who have been coming to church but are not baptized and we baptize them. We search for member families that are not baptized. That sort of stuff. Hna E and I baptized 5 children like that and one active family boy at 8. The attendance at church varies. Depending on if it’s raining, if there are vacations, etc. It’s usually around 40. Once when the previous Hermans were here it was 93, but that was because the health center told everyone that the church was going to hand out all these toys that they donated. It wasn’t true though. That was a mess, but that’s a culture thing.. so that’s the work.... here are a few weird things that I did....

What I ate: Octopus tentacles, chicken hearts, lobster, big shell sea snails, raw glowing squid, shark, eel, iguana, and a lot of fish, rice, beans, dule masi and wacho.

I am a pretty good canoe goer. This last week I took a stroll around the island with a group a kids and Hna E. But on the canoe... I totally ripped open my skirt completely! hahahaha When I got off all the kids were running around showing everyone, tugging and pulling on my skirt. soooo fun and sooooo good that I had a slip on... hahahaha

I now know how to sew. My aunt ya taught me machine, but now I can sew mola and other handy things. I ripped apart and put a new zipper on Hna E’s skirt. It’s been a great skill to develop and I can say that Indians taught me to sew... haha

I have a ton of mola. I have one that fits me cause a lady made it the night before I left! She was awesome and she gave it to me for FREE. That’s something that people in the city will pay like 50 bucks! sweet!

I went to a few beaches (islands perro, diablo, piscina de las estrellas, and aguja, they let us in for free cause we’re mish, pretty great) and hung out and taught tourists the gospel. wow.... talking to Italians, states people and Spaniards in English is sooooo strange. I have a hard time doing it in English and it’s kinda embarrassing. But I think some of our best lessons have been with tourists and they’re the only contacts we can make cause we know pretty much everyone on the island.

We went with one tourist that was collecting antique mola. That was a super interesting trip. He’s really into like political mola and stuff. There was stuff from like the 40s 50s that had satellites and space ships and aliens that looked like big bugs. He bought some cool stuff. and soooo cheap. He’s making an exhibit in NYC. He’s done some famous stuff in NY and he’s smitten with my companion. hahaha.... so funny. It was awkward, but awesome to share about the church cause he was so interested and he had abandoned going to church cause rough stuff that had happened to him. It felt good to have a normal kind of mish moment on Blas.

I had the opportunity to see the beginning and almost the entire project of constructing the new church. But like always with baptism.... (we always prepare people to be baptized and watch them progress and grow and we love them and are a part of them and then we get transferred the week before their baptism.) Well they are to finish the new building this next week! I worked hard on that church! Hauling wood and roofing, cleaning the job site, putting putty in the nail holes and painting varnish over them... it felt like old times when I worked with my Dad. And now I missed the end, but when I come back to visit, I can happily say that I was a part of helping construct the church building in Carti Tupile.

This change we were best friends with EVERYONE. Hna E is amazing and talks with everyone and we seriously had so much fun just hanging and serving everyone. I felt like I lived in their houses. They are my family. I have so many brothers and sisters now. But they’re all Kuna! haha

I have learned to love gutting fish, washing all laundry by hand (it gets clothes SO clean and they smell soooo good, but it wears them out faster), eating ketchup and hot sauce or lemon and salt on everything, talking in Kuna, swinging and sleeping in a hamaka (it doesn’t make me dizzy anymore), sewing by hand, walking barefoot or in sandals, living without Internet, eating green bananas cooked every day, and more. These are the things that really I love now. You think I’m joking, but I actually enjoy doing these things.

This last week I was in Cardenas. I went out working with the sisters there and it’s a different world. I was rejected door to door like never before in my mission. It’s the richest area in Panama and where all the gringos and embassy workers live. I imagine that it’s more like a States mish in that area. It’s hard work. I had a member here from the States tell me that he doesn’t think he could have served in such an area like Blas cause it’s too primitive. I told him he could have cause it’s where the Lord sends you that you can flourish. I’m so grateful that the Lord sent me to Carti Tupile. I didn’t have to handle the area, the culture, the strangeness or the people. I flourished and loved everything. Sure it was hard. In a not so regular mish-like way, but I shall never forget my people there.

So I finish my words of Blas. Well... at least till I get home and tell you all about it... and tell you all my secrets that I can’t write in an email! hahahaha. What happens in Blas stays in Blas (till we get home from the mish that is.... ha!) Really, it’s hard to explain how I feel about Blas. I feel that I can only really talk with those who have served there to feel understood. I feel that if I try to explain my love for this part of my mish, I’m exposing something so sacred in my heart. Maybe you previous missionaries me entiendan.

And now I head back into the real mish field again for less than 3 months. Only two changes left and please... no one is allowed to remind me of that in letters or emails please.... the time will come to go home and I’ll be home. I love my Panama for the time I am given and the time is now. So I’ll be JUMPING back in training a newbie in this half elders-half sisters mish de Panama! and opening an area who knows where! I’m stoked. You should be too. The Lord is bringing to pass a marvelous work and a glory and we’re all a part of it somehow.

I love you all and hope that all is well. My mom has been updating me on your lives once in a while. Sounds like you’ve all moved way passed me in the world while I’m stuck in this time warp of a mission. If anyone reading this is contemplating a mish, lo q sea, girl or boy, GO! at one time in my life I said I would never tell someone to just go... cause it was a personal choice... and it still is... but just choose to GO! haha. I guess I’ve changed my mind about a few things out here. That’s a good thing. It’s been 15 months... I hope I’ve changed and I hope you all have too.

Much love is sent from Panama and I’ll talk to you next week now that I have Internet in my area! haha

La Hna Schumacher

Sept 16, 2013 San Blas Pictures

 Beautiful Sunset!

 Solar power for light at night. It gets dark around 6:30 all year as it is near the Equator.

 Cooking Shark

 Eating Shark!

 Traditional Kuna Clothing for Culture Day on the island.

 Hna E

 Part of service, helping to make maracas to sell. Actually very gross to clean out.

 Dinner!!

 Kuna Family

 Looking kind tall here.

 Typical meal of yams and plantains in coconut broth. (Sounds good to me, the mom.)

 The sister's new bathroom, luxury.

Traditional Kuna leg wrappings.

 THE canoe!

Cooking.

Via Satellite from San Blas..... Mom's Belated B-day Message August 23

Mom! Happy Birthday! Im borrowing a phone compurer thing thatbis a little too techy fir me from a turist here. So... heres you birthday present. Some random tgings... I wont bei coming home till the 12 of december now. They changed the date. I ate shark and lobster r er this week. Ivwent to the beach today. I should be coming to the city on the 16 of September. Yesterday was culture day here in kuna yala. We wore mola all day long. So much fun. I have SO many pictures from here in Tupile. Anyway. I love you. (I left out the mushing stuff.) Sasha

Sept 12, 2013 I'm Back!

I´m here! I came back early for a conference with Elder Ochoa tomorrow. WOW it was so amazing. and then tonight we have a sleep over with pres´s daughter. we´re so stoked. so we have p-week until Wednesday. so I´ll be in the city with nothing to do until Wednesday. we both have changes. we´re white washing the area like we planned. I don´t know if we´re training yet.

I'm now coming home December 12th, but one more week won´t hurt. I thought it would... but it doesn´t.  We got a surprise opportunity to use internet with the tourist there. wow I have so many stories... but you prolly won´t get them till I get home.... this change was amazing with Hmna E. I loved it. I already miss kuna yala SOOOO much. I have some of the best pics and things from my mission from blas.

shoot.... Hrmna E and I looked at all the blog pics you put up... I´m seriously on the verge of crying cause I´m so sad about leaving. WE have to come back soon to visit my Tupile. I already miss them... we´ll come live there for a few days. please please please. thanks for putting the pics up!

SO..... I don´t know where I´m going but the good news is that you can now get back into your habit of writing me every Sunday cause I´ll have internet and clean wáter and pdays! haha. BUT I do know that I´m white washing an elders área or opening a new área at the same time as TRAINING again. so awesome! I was suppose to have been Zone Leader this last change but I wantéd to stay in Blas so I didn´t get the chance. but I woundn´t have missed this last change in Blas for ANYTHING in the world. it was a time to remember FOREVER. so it´s gonna be a rough one to end my mish with a bang... training my second hija and opening an área. pretty great. I´m sooooo stoked. especially after the AMAZING zone conf that we had this morning in Cardenas. I now have less then 3 months left.... and Jakob´s leaving in like 10 days or so right???? wow... you OLD people are empty nesters!!! haha (At my own expense, I left that comment in.)

9-12

Panama City for a break, then BACK to San Blas for 6 more weeks. August 8, 2013

I'm back in the big noisy stinky city. and guess what!?!?!?! you won't hear from me for another 6 weeks! I'm going back out there... haha. it's a new thing they are trying, 3 changes for the Blas mish on the island. we'll see if we survive. I'm gonna write back another day cause I have to go tonight. you know,,, people to visit with cause we're so popular ;) 8-7

I{m back and I have a million!!! of emails! which totally made my day! I'm so happy :)  haha it's like we get a week of vacation really.... it's strange in the mish. but that's what we get rewarded with as Blas sisters. we also get to eat dinner with the new pres and his fam in the mish home Wednesday :) 8-8

the pres is awesome. I haven't really talked to him. but he's an amazing speaker. he speaks Spanish super well. I talked to his wife and 3 of his kids a lot though. his son who just got back from the toykyo japan mish.... his kids are super smart.

Next change we will have 50% sister mish in the misión. they say that it's just gonna keep growing, the number of sisters. we'll be seeing sisers in the office soon as well. it's pretty interesting, but to me a little sad, cause we need the Elders. it's still pretty awesome! haha the times are changing and I'm living in church history! we're making it right now.

I'm sending tons of pictures!!  Enjoy!

Love to you all!
8-9

(Mom Note: I posted the pics already.)

June 27, 2013 Off to San Blas for 2nd Period

So, I don't have to tell you much about my new comp.... it's.... HNA (No Personal Info on Blogs)! she came with me and we were in the MTC and CCM together ALL the time. she's like one of my best friends! so... I'm going to the San Bas Islands with my best friend for 6 weeks.... paradise! I'm SO happy. The Lord is so amazing.

So Pres Ward leaves tomorrow forever... yesterday as San Blas mish we went to our last supper at an awesome mex restaurant with Pres and Hna Ward and it was amazing. Pres Ward even gave us hugs, normally not done. Changes were super powerful and beautiful and a bit sad. EVERY mish was there to say goodbye to Pres Ward and Hns Ward. I will miss them.... a lot. I have learned to love them so much. We were so lucky that we got to go out to dinner with them.

Love you! talk to you in 6 weeks! changes are like the week of the 7th of August! after that I only have 2 and a half changes left! WHAT!!!!!! that can NOT be right.... it's gonna fly by! eek!

Much love!

After First 4 Weeks in San Blas June 17, 2013 Catching Up Post

Thank you everyone for the emails.... I don't have a time limit cause we never have internet access. Can you believe I've been out 1 year this Thursday?!?! I'm coming home in 4 changes! super crazy. and this change went super fast. That's sooooo cool that Jakob and Dad blessed the Sacrament! and patriarchal blessings! wow! that"s soooo awesome!

Your questions:

1. how was it? well, to say the overall truth, it was like the boring-est vacation of all my life! 
2. I keep wondering how do you shower? well the island has a tank of water that distributes through piping on the island. sometime there isn't water. I was lucky so far. we only went a couple days without water and we had water stored up, so we were good. I love showering, the truth. I shower outside under the sky. with only a stick fence with shower curtains up to keep the peepers out. I figure if anyone's peeping, it's their condemnation, not mine.... there is a big tank of water in the shower that's like the blue tanks that we have at home in the arena. and I use like a tupperwear bowl to pour water on me. so I get wet, suds up and rinse. I've learned different tricks. haha. when there's no water you just don't bathe until you can't stand it and you go to the river on the main land and bathe with the crocs. we'll see if I'm blessed to have that experience next transfer.
3. wash your hands? with the water and soap. or just hand sanitizer. I never see anyone but us washing our hands, the truth....haha
4. avoid their food and water? There are only a couple families that feed us and it's all good. no one gives out water or things to drink. the  Kuna culture is way different. and we eat a lot of dule masi (dule means kuna and masi means banana) which is green banana boiled in water with coconut. sometimes they boil it with fish water, like they boil the whole fish in with it, but I haven't been blessed to try that YET haha. they eat very little rice and we ate lots of fish. I was dying for some chicken or meat. seriously.... but we eat everything. my comp and when hna cooper was out there drank the water... but I'm keeping my word with Bro. Doney and I'm using this super frustrating water bottle filter thing. but I don't feel like having some disease for the rest of my life... haha. when I'm super thirsty I buy a tiny bottle of nasty tasting water from the store for an entire dollar. or juice or soda. in the house we lived off of cereal (the milk we bought in cartons and only last about a day, two if we're lucky once it's opened) and canned chicken and apple sauce and Ritz crackers. I'm sooooo sick of this food. we never had green food out there. there's hardly ANY fresh fruit. some times they brought mangos from working out in the jungle.
5. sleep in a Hamaka every night? at first I felt like I was sleeping on a moving ship and I felt a little dizzy. but I've learned how to sleep well in my hamaka. I could do with a bigger one... but I live. I've learned that I can't sleep without my feet or my arms or my head hanging out of the hamaka... haha my comp had some good laughs.... and one night I kicked over the chair that was acting as our bedside table... haha I didn't wake up... but my comp sure did. we sleep on the 3rd level of a house. we have one of the nicest houses on the island for 30 bucks a month. haha. just us and 3 stories. we have one light that's powered by a solar panal. so when it rains a lot, we don't have light. we use a lot of head lamps.
6. At least I know it's safe. that's what you think.... the lightning storms killed a man this week and struck the post that the elders on the other island that they had their hamakas tied to.... they coundn't hear for a couple hours and are now scared to death of lightning. seriously, I've NEVER been in such loud thunderstorms. normally I love them, but these ones are seriously scary. this week a group of about 20 were in a boat when a storm hit. a bolt hit close and it took a moment for the people to realize that a man fell out. he had been sitting down until he stood up for a minute. when they finally found him under the water they saw that he was burnt on his head and his foot. dead as a doornail. he saved them all without knowing it. cause they say if he hadn't stood up, the lightning would have hit the boat and split it in half and everyone on the boat would have died. SO scary.
7. And your companion too, how was she? she's pretty great. chill. smart. it was relaxing to be with her. I wanted her to end her mish in peace so we just had a chill transfer. I have a list of children that want to be baptized, so this change well see work happening.
8. And learning Kuna? love it. I have notes and notes of dule gaca that I'll show you when I get home. I'm hoping to really put sentences together this change. bare my testimony and pray in Kuna.
9. And your new comp??? who knows???? only papa celestial

List of events:

• today I saw 2 monkeys on the way back to Panama in the jungle
• today I saw a dolphin on the way to the main land from the island
• my first day on the island I played with a baby sea turtle that pooped all over my skirt, the little punk! haha
• we poop over the beautiful coral and sea anemones and watch as all the fish rush in and it disappears. gotta love it.
• this weeks attendance in church was 18 cause Tupile won the basketball tournament! and they all went to the beach. and we had church at 4pm because the island claimed the churches basketball court. so it was crazy! all the islands came to hang out on our island for the weekend. I got a hamburger and pineapple shake out of it. I was happy.
• the normal attendance is about 40.
• The 6 grade school teacher brought us back iguana! it tastes way good. a bit like chicken but the first day it was soooo chewy. I had to chew it a million times to get it down good. I way liked it.
• my first monday I woke up with lips HUGE! no white girl should EVER have lips like that. don't know what it was but I have huge hives over my ENTIRE body. so I didn't leave the house for a day or two until my lips went back to normal. I only ate one thing new.... maybe it was just the first time experience cause now it's all good. dunno.
• the next week was vacations so EVERY single person on the island went to Panama. seriously... there wasn't anyone here... it was SOSOSOSOSO boring.
• the next week I didn't feel well and I didn't notice I hadn't eaten anything for 2 days until I passed out for the 1st time in front of a class of 2nd graders twice. haha. turns out I prolly had Dengue Fever, but I didn't want to leave my English classes hanging. so I tried to do everything till I couldn't do anything.
• next week it hit my comp. we were in the house for a week. I left only to teach seminary and every English class that I could.
• so that sums up the boringness of the island. I basically spent 5 weeks in my hamaka. sucked. but I'm looking forward to another chance out there.
• I have a couple people that mean a lot to me. A little girl and her mom and granddaughter, an another boy (a youth 14 yrs old).
• the island is beautiful. it's heaven. I've felt the Spirit in just looking at the sun set every night over the ocean.

Hna N is seriously harvesting the crop out there in Caceres. I"m happy to have been a part of the work out there and now I'm in Blas... this change was so different. I'm looking forward to the next change. I don't feel like we did much this change, but I've got a list of people to be baptized and I'm ready to see some action. Hrmna L is a great mish. I loved the change I had to get to know her. With being sick, the both of us, we didn't do much, but there is plenty to be done. We need more good priesthood examples and leaders out there! There are a pile of jovenes (youth) that need something stable and firm to grab onto and learn from! I hope they can learn a little at least from us mish out there. I love the people, but I need to get to know them better. My friend L is a huge help so I'm not worried in being able to take over the area and get some work done this change. The most spiritual experience has been getting to know my Father In Heaven better through his beautiful creations in Carti Tupile. I def think that he loves to paint. It's so evident in the sky and in the sea.

I gotta go. my comps bored to death. cause she's not writing as much as me cause she's going home home on Thursday. tomorrow I go to the temple in the morning and then we're staying with a family in Arraijan to say goodbuy to my comp and then Wednesday I enter the work field with Hrmna C and her hija in Marcasa in the city for a week.

OK, all is well in Blas!

Love you!

Lost in San Blas Still...... Back Sept 18th

 Laundry in a bucket. 

The washing machine.

 Temporary Church

 The laundry boat.

 Doing laundry. Fortunately no crocodiles today!

 The Taj Mahal of bathrooms for the Hermanas.

 School where Sasha teaches English.

 Getting new church ready.

 Tearing the old church down.

 The church building is closed for remodeling.

Sewing.

 Recess!

 Dinner!

Too cute to eat??? 

Paradise. 

Home sweet home! 

 Preparing school lunch.

 Matriarchs.

 Washing clothes in the river.

 Enjoying more river washing.

 Getting ready for a baptism.

 Time for an English test.

School time.

 Yep, that is what you think it is....

 The main drag in town.

 More laundry in the river. Sasha loved being in the cool water.

 Canoe ride!

 Sasha's mansion, literally the biggest house on the island.

 More Church remodeling.