{ALriGHt LeT's Do ThiS}

Oooe!
A lot of times the panameños just make funny noises for greetings haha it´s way funny. My favorite greeting is ´buenas´ though. Kind of like buenas dias, tardes, etc.

Alright let´s do this. Landed in panamá and got to the mission presidents house at like 1130 at night and ate pizza. The next day we got up, went to the temple for pictures, had our interviews and got assigned comps. my interview went well...even though they forgot to teach me Spanish at the MTC. Presidente Madrigal is awesome. He told me about some of the problems here, like chasity, word of wisdom, and a few others.

My comp. wasn´t there when we were assigned because my area was so far away from Panama (once you´re in panama, panama=panama city), i´m completely accross the country. So we waited three hours to get bus tickets, took an eightish hour bus ride to David, and then got up the next day for a five or six hour ride through the jungle to Empalme. It´s the farthest area away from panama. Kinda nuts. Our house is sweet! Usually we have water and we have an awesome washing machine! But the water is so ridiculously cold! It´s good for waking up in the morning. And when we don´t have water we´ve got a bucket so it´s all good. Lots of lizards and even more mosquitos.

I had a great second day in Empalme...you should have seen me chop a coconut in half with a machete. It didn´t taste good but it was sweet! The food is good...but i´ve learned one thing here, never tell a panamanian that you can eat a lot. Because they will try to kill you with rice! Oh man, soooooooo much rice here! It´s nuts!

We had one of those ¨which way should we turn¨ moments the other day. And I was feelin left. So we went left and found Hermana Nohely. I´m hoping more than anything that she will be baptized she´s so amazing! Our first lesson with her was incredible. The spirit is so strong always during the first vision. And yesterday she said she would prepare to be baptized! But one of the problems here is that people are so casual about commitments. Everyone says they´ll come to church, be baptized, everything. But nobody wants to change. so we´re working really hard to help them.

Not gonna lie, it´s almost like everyone is speaking Spanish here, because i can´t understand it. They talk so fast! One moment someone will tell me I speak well, and then i´ll be proud of myself, and then the next person I talk to looks at me like I´m an idiot. Haha.

I love it here. The people have nothing, but they´re so happy. The kids are incredible! There´s this boy and girl here that I love so much...the boy´s name is Diego and the girl is María de los ángeles. Diego is seven and María is four (Libby she reminds me so much of you!) Their father is the branch president and they´re just an awesome fam!

I´m gonna try and attach a picture to this so hopefully it works. Nevermind it doesn´t work haha...but i can receive photos j dub sent me one. I´ll try to mail you some but i don´t know how well the mail works yet. We´ll see. I don´t know our address yet. In fact i´m not sure if we have one haha the dirrections around here are really tough.

Our church is sweet! We´ve got some really awesome members and we get fed a lot so we don´t have to buy that much food. They have gatoade here too which is sooooo good on the hot days. It hasn´t really rained during the day here but pretty much every night it does. I´ve really got nothing to complain about here i love it! It´s way hard and the language is frustrating, but i know it will come fast. I can already understand a lot thanks to the Gift of Tongues. But everything will work out here i´m not worried about it. Our goal is two baptisms this month...so we´re going to have to work really hard to get it. I hope Hermana Nohely will be! She has four amazing kids! Her family is amazing....i pray for her constantly

My tooth´s doin fine i think we´ll drive in to David or Panama to get the stitches out next week but we´ll see. Bueno, i think that´s all. Hasta luego fam!

Con amor,
Elder Tanner

ps the kids think my name is funny haha it´s awesome