{ThiS WeeK RocKED. ThAt'S aLL TheRe iS tO iT.}

Dearest mother,

This week rocked. That´s all there is to it. I´m still loving Empalme a lot! We had 73 people at church yesterday!!!! Yes! And Emiliano showed up looking like a stud. It was incredible.

Ok two experiences to share. Me and Elder Poli were contacting this guy in the street towards the end of the night and I saw a family across the street. Elder Poli was talking to him and I felt like I needed to go talk to this family...ya know...that feeling. So I when up and contacted them and we set up an appointment (this was last change). And a couple nights ago we taught them...the familia Jimenez...about the plan of salvation. The man, Luis, had lots of questions about the spirit world and people that haven´t had the chance to hear the gospel. A little while later in the lesson he started crying. His brother had passed away less than three months ago. Luis told us how his brother was going to come up for christmas but he never made it. I then realized why I was supposed to stay in El Empalme. I remembered where we were all at three months after James´ death and I told him about James. I could really feel the pain that he was in and we all cried together. We´re really hoping that we can get them to church as a family and get them progressing. It was a very special experince.

Ok, so we were walking to Finca 4 in our area when we saw a little neighborhood on the right side of the street and we were feeling it. We found a young joven in his house. This family literally had nothing. The kid´s name is Germán, 24 years old. He was baptized when he was 16 but hasn´t come to church for years. He cried as he told us what he´s been going through and how hard his life is right now. He´s been bed ridden for two months and they hardly have any food. That day they were waiting for two other pastors from a different church but we showed up instead...what a coincidence. Anyway, we gave fim a blessing and he came to church yesterday. It´s awesome to see what the gospel does for people. He´s still got a lot of things he needs help with in his life but i´ll be praying hard for him.

So it was a good week! Oh and ps we can´t go to Costa Rica anymore hahaha. I called up Presidente after i emailed y´all and apparently that´s bad. So...ya no. But no worries he wasn´t mad with me :)

Maui? What? haha well i´m in Panama so take that.

And what a cool story about those missionaries!

Love you all!

Mucho amor,m

Elder Tan

My awesome siblings!

Libster thanks for the sweet email! I want to see a picture of your long hair! Did you get the birthday package yet? I hope so :) just wanted to wish you a VERY happy birthday from down here in panama! Are you really 5 years old? jeez that´s huge. Don´t grow up too much before i get home lib. I love you a lot and i miss ya! I hope your birthday is as good as mine was. I´ll be praying for you.

Love ya lib!

-elder Tan

Hey dad i´ve only got a couple minutes left...i just wanted to thank you for the letter. Every week i get so pumped after hearing from the family! It really does get me ready for the week. Ps we´re going to David this week to hear the profeta and the apostoles give us the word! I´m soooooooo excited! How lucky are we to have a living prophet.

I love you dad!

Elder Tan