Dreaming of a white Christmas (with baptisms)

Hey family!
Welp, I think I’m going to stage a protest because I’ve been on this computer for 20 minutes and still haven’t been able to read anything you all have written me. The only thing that has opened so far was the finance email telling me how much money I have on my card. Derp derp.
Last night we sang as a zone in a Christmas Devotional that the stake primary put on. It was so awesome to see it. They did the nativity story and they were so cute all dressed up their costumes. I kept thinking about the movie Millions :) The spirit was strong and it felt so good to be there. We sang Oh Holy Night at the request of the stake president (I think because there are tons of Americans in this zone so he wanted us to sing in English) and despite the short notice I think it turned out mas o menos good?
Umm, Brenda got baptized on Saturday! She’s way cute and was super excited, I love her! Her mom, Maria, is the best too. She’s been inactive for years but wants to come back now that her daughter has gotten baptized. Maria is super blunt and is always yelling but it doesn’t mean she’s mad, she’s just like that. Heh. And her other daughter is the cutest little girl ever! I’ll send pictures when I find an internet cafe that isn’t teeming with flesh-eating viruses.

We’re also teaching Yulissa, our next door neighbor. I think I already mentioned her, but she is the best. She’s 16 and wants to get baptized and she had a date for Christmas day but yesterday she told us that her mom said she wants her to wait more time/be more prepared.
Last night we talked to President Ward for a little bit and he told us that we should just teach her mom the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and then she’ll be excited for her daughter to get baptized. So that’s going to be our next move. Other than that we’re still looking for new people.
Hmm, cool story:) When we moved into the house we found a book of Mormon without a cover. When we saw it we figured we shouldn’t really give it away to anyone but that we could leave it in a park on a bench somewhere for someone to find...haha. But then last Tuesday when we were on the bus to go to district meeting we were sitting next to a young teenage boy. My compita started talking to him about how school was out, asking what he was going to do for summer vacation, etc. Then she asked him if she liked to read. He said yes and she pulled out the coverless Book of Mormon and gave it to him. His eyes looked all bright and shiny and he just said thanks and opened it up, almost caressing the pages. He started reading the introduction right then. Later when my companion and I talked about it we shared that we had both felt the Spirit super strongly and we think he did too. Who knows what’ll ever come out of it, but it was inspired. Warm fuzzies!
Hmmmm que mas? This week we have lots of Christmas activities planned. With the hermanas on the 24th we’re going to make cookies and go around singing to the lonely people in each of our areas. Thursday is the mission Christmas party, wahoo!
Love,
Hermana Dance
2 Nefi 1:23 Despertad hija mia!

Sometimes people think we're crazy...

Hey family!
Hmmm, I’m happy to know that you’re getting into the Christmas spirit and that your zone conferences are more fun...lettin loose eh? We’re also getting stoked for Christmas. On Friday they annouced that as a companionship we all have to contact 4 Diablos Rojos (the huge, crazy super full buses here) by singing Christmas carols. We’ve already done it twice, it’s actually kind of fun even though somewhat embarrassing. We still haven’t done it by ourselves though, we were always with other missionaries from our zone. The point is to get the name of the church out there and to show them that we believe in Christ and that we’re different from the evangelicos that get on and tell a sad story about orphans and than ask for money. :)
Hey but I like that cookie idea, maybe we’ll do that too. Except we don’t have an oven.....
We’re getting settled in and love the members here because they’re sweet and they give us tons of references. We’re excited to be here for Christmas.
Right now we’re prepping for a baptism and a huge branch Christmas party on Saturday. We’re also hoping to have another one on Christmas day; but we have to put the fecha still.
Ok love you all lots, sorry this email is so scatter brained, I keep getting interupted!!
Love love love
Hermana Dance

"Excuse me, do you know where we live?"

Hey family,
This computer has like a hundred viruses and is moving super slow so I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to write you all. I'm jealous of your Christmas plans. We're doing something similar with the training then Christmas celebration after. I'm not sure what all we're going to do but I know it includes a slide show and some talents and some games...
Everything is going well. I love my compy, she's so sweet and helps me not be such an awkward companion, haha. She's always happy and opimistic and I think she has a magic touch because Saturday when we went out contacing all day, every house we knocked on let us in. We have one baptismal date the elders left and we're planning on putting at least one more with week. The members here are awesome and seem really pumped to have hermanas again. I never really wanted to open an area but it's cool because we get to start fresh and there is no one to say "nah, we already contacted there"
Grr, I don't have the patience for this virus infected computer!! Sorry this is so short but I'm almost out of time already.
Love you all!!
Hermana Dance1 Nefi 10:17 by faith we receive the power to teach and to inspireothers to act
P.S. I love my life.

I have a puppy!! (Don't worry, he lives outside.)

Hey family!
So I got transfered to Chorrera and I'm opening an area called LosAltos...eek!! Well, white-washing it because there were elders herebefore but they sent us here instead. I haven't slept in like three days from all the traveling. The house was trashed (elders are gross) so we spent from 10-12:30 last night cleaning as well as all morning. We're almost done.....haha. The house is way nice (we have a dog!!) and the members have been so nice and considerate showing us around and letting us know about the different meals and investigators, etc. I feel sort of over-whelmed but also excited because this is the zone I wanted to go to....woot.
My compy is Hermana Serrano from El Salvador (my Spanish will improve again, yay!) She has two transfers and is way cute and I'm super excited to be with her. They sent her with her trainer to open an area when she first got here and they had 13 baptisms last month so she already has experience doing this and doing it well....I'm stoked. Oh and my district leader is one of my favorite mission friends, Elder Gomez from Boston. So pretty much life is awesome.

Oh, they white-washed our area in Bolivar and put in elders (one of the ones that used to be here so we just changed places) We definitely weren't expecting it and Hermana Graham was really really sad because she thought she was staying another transfer and we were sad to leave this super cute family we've been teaching for about a month. But so it goes. I think they will do well there...
Ok sorry for all the boring transfer updates but that's all I've been doing since Monday (packing, saying bye to people, traveling, taking 50 buses here and there, unpacking, cleaning, blah blah blah. Hermm, what else to tell you all. Oh, wanna know how I know God loves me? Ok lots of things but last night I was reminded again. Lots of my companions have laughed at me because I pray for silly insignificant things sometimes but I have always been like that and I like it because I always know He answers even though it's not a big deal.
So last night it was 12:30 a.m. and we'd been scrubbing and cleaning and I finally wanted to finish rinsing out the shower and then shower and go to bed, but the llave (in english, knob? I dunno, something like that) to turn on the water was broken and we couldn't figure out how to get the shower on. We tried for like 15 minutes, and then I went outside to look for buckets to use to take a bucket shower but there weren't any, and then I just felt all frustrated. I cleaned some other stuff and then came back and tried again and then I remembered duhhh, say a prayer. So I told Heavenly Father that I was really tired and icky and wanted to go to bed but I wanted to take a shower and could He please help me to fix it. And then 2 seconds later I had an idea, tried it, and it worked. :) God loves me. I sort of feel like a doofus for writing that all out but it gave me warm fuzzies. I told my compita that it was working and she asked how and I told her I said a prayer and she smiled and laughed a little. I like her.
Annnnnyways. Hopefully by Monday I'll have something interesting to tell you all, but for now that's it. Love you all, have a good weekend!
Love,
Hermana Dance

It's Thanksgiving?!?

Hey family,
It's week 6-eek! Soon our dream team is going to be broken up and I think I'll be in a new area...! That's what the president said in interviews but who knows what will actually happen...
Ahhh, Karen's fecha fell :( We've been trying so hard and doing all we can but she's just fallen backwards because her husband is negativeabout everything now that he found a job and doesn't need help anymore. She feels like it's too hard and has blown off so many appointments that we've set with them that we've decided we have toleave her for a while :( Gahhh! Me duele!
But on the bright side, part of one of our super cute families came tochurch on Sunday. They are familia Robles, and this Sunday Mariel (14)and her brother Mario (11) came by themselves even though their mom was sick and couldn't and their dad was out of town. We love them all so much! We love doing fun creative games and lessons with them andhave loved seeing them grow. We think that now that Mariel and Mario are getting into it, their mother and father are going to follow and come to church with them.
I will tellyou what I learned this week....if I have time. Sometimes Hermana Graham and I have felt discouraged and this "What is it all for?" feeling when we feel like we work so hard and then everything falls apart (like with Karen or with recent converts that don't stay active). I have been thinking about the analogy of working in the vineyard for a while and the other day I came across 1Corinthians 3:5-9 Some plant, some water, and God does the growing.
I imagine all of us out in this giant garden the size of the world in different stages of growth, decay, and wilderness. He sends us out to do what we can to help him. Except I imagine us all out there with little plastic spoons, planting, sowing, reaping, etc in this huuuuge garden. Sometimes we get tired, discouraged, lazy, and frustrated when it doesn't seem to grow or turn out how we want, and other times we are so happy and love what we're doing and want to take credit for it when it grows and flourished. But really when we go to bed at night, God sends his angels with the heavy-duty efficient machinery to do all the real work. And He's like the sun that makes it all grow. We can do all the actions, sow, water, prune, etc, but if the sun's not in it(aka God's not on our side for disobedience of X or Y reason) then it won't grow no matter what we do.
Yup yup, that's what I've been thinking. It came out a lot more eloquent in my journal but...I'm really tired right now after a day of exploring in Boquete and it's sort of a struggle to make it come out how I learned it. Lo sorry!
Welp, love you all and hope all is well. Mom and Dad, eat some turkey! And everyone else well, do the same I guess but eat lots more and play ulitmate frisbee!
Loves,
Hermana Dance

1 Corinth 1:25

Take that, and THAT! Mmmhmmm

Hey family,
Hola! Hmmm, what to tell you all. I will start with a story of how we stuck it to the man, Don Satanas. Yesterday we went to go pick up Karen and Alexander for Stake Conference and for the 4th time in a row she came out and told us they couldn't come for X or Y excuse. Wompwahhh. So we left feeling like failures and showed up with one of our recent converts feeling yucky the whole time because all the other missionaries came with their cute families and investigators and we didn't have anyone :(
We went home after to drop off some things and wallowed for a little bit asking ourselves what we're doing wrong, deciding if we should have pushed more to get them to come, etc etc. I said that we were in need of Super Strong (umm, check out the videothe Wards posted on the blog or Facebook or somewhere to know what I'm talking about) and Hermana Graham laughed and said we weren't going to find him moping around. So we got our stuff and as I was in the bathroom before we left (the place of all true revelation and inspiration) I had the thought that Satan was using Karen and Alex not coming to make us feel icky and not want to work. Because this is now the third time we've felt like this and every time we just feel bad the whole day and lose our motivation and all the appointments seem to fall and we're just waiting for the day to be over. He puts something in Karen and Alex's way because he knows he can kill two birds with one stone-keep them from progressing and deter us for one of the most productive days of the week.
So I came out and told Hermana Graham and she agreed and then we left feeling more defiant out on our way to conquer the world (or at least Bolivar, David). As we left the house I heard a voice in my head say "I've begun to answer your prayers...."
Remember what I told you about the wars in the Book of Mormon and how Alma asked the Lord to know the enemy strategy to be able to defend themselves? Yeah. Strategy revealed, Satan's design thwarted, done and done.
We went out and contacted and got rejected a lot but then ended upfinding a sweet new family. They're married, are looking for a church but want to decide as a family, and the mom went to primary as a little girl. They seem pretty prepared.
Herrmmmmm what else. I don't have lots of time because I just spent alot of it trying to figure out picture stuff-for Christmas. They're making a giant slide show and have asked us to send in 5 picture seach. My camera is wacko and I've been having some issues but I think it's finally figured out.
Jamison-find Sarah Jayne in the next two days and give her the biggest biggest hug for me ok!!? She leaves on Wednesday and we'll miss eachother by three months but it's the best best decision she can makeright now. Boy howdy, New Zealand!
Love you all and hope all the conferences, travels, work, and studies are going well!
Love,
Hermana Dance

a-sort-of-vacation

Hey family!!Como estan? We just go done having a zone cook-out. It wasn't exactly the vacation Hermana Graham and I had in mind but it was still fun. Things are going well in Bolivar but we've been having some challenges the last couple of weeks...everything we that was going so well has kind of faded off into the distance. Karen didn't get baptized because she hasn't come to church again-she's great and so prepared but lets little things get in the way and we haven't even been able to teach her in over a week because of all the holidays last week (in November Panama celebrates like 15 holidays all having to do with their Independence Day...). Blah.
But we're truckin on and not giving up on her because she's awesome. We've also been struggling to find new families. Or we find them but then they just want nice bible study classes and don't want to progress. We're going to reboot our looking for families at night plan again this week because last week a bunch of other appointments and activities got in the way so we're hoping to have more success now.
I love being with Hermana Graham! :) But I think the chances of us spending Christmas are pretty small...*sigh*
This week I have been studying conference talks from the last 2-3 years like mad and have been reminded again of how much I love conference and how lucky we are to have living prophets and apostles to guide us. Their talks are scripture, and every time we re-read them we understand something better or can apply something else in our lives.
This week I've also been thinking about Captain Moroni again. As I was reading in Alma a couple of weeks ago I read in Alma 40-something (right when the war first starts) about how Moroni went to the prophetAlma to ask him to pray to know the Lamanite strategy so they'd know how to defend and prepare themselves. I've been thinking about that alot lately and how we can apply it to us. Satan gets sneakier and sneakier every day with more and more experience. Every single one of us has different weak points, and sometimes he's so sneaky that we don't even realize he's working on us until we've fallen into his trap. So to help us identify his strategy so we can prepare ourselves, we can ask God and seek personal revelation. Then he can tell us so we can prepare for and not fall into his traps. Hmmm interesante verdad?
The answers come through scriptures, the words of the prophets, and thoughts and feelings. So then we can be prepared and strong and fortified.
Alexander, my awesome convert from San Miguelito, called last night. He is so great and I love him so much. He turns 16 next year and he's so smart and has the craziest, most awful family but he's reading his scriptures every day now and praying and working so hard to be a missionary in his family. I'm so proud of him :) He told me that when I go home I have to tell you all about how I "rescued a future missionary in San Miguelito." I told him not to worry, that my family already knows all about him and about how he's my favorite, haha.
I worry about him a lot but I'm so happy to hear that the hermanas there are still helping him and that he's progressing. :)
I heard the daughter of a mission president who served in Columbia bear her testimony a couple of months ago and she said her dad always asked the missionaries in the farewell dinner to share an experience that had made the whole 2 years or the whole 1 1/2 years worth it. I think Alexander is mine.
Yikes, so many things I want to tell you all. Did I tell you about my cool experience applying what Elder Scott taught a couple of conferences ago about receiving spiritual guidance and personal revelation? It was pretty sweet, but to be continued because I'm almost out of time. I have to leave you with cliff hanger! haha.
Thanks for everything!!
Love,
Hermana Dance

Today we're going to drink REAL TGIF milkshakes

Hey family,
Hermana Graham and I are going to eat real chocolate milkshakes at TGIFridays today because we sort of reached our goal of only speakingSpanish from lunch until 5:00 P.M. Haha, it's easier to speak in English and both of us have good Spanish but we decided we should probably keep trying to improve....so we're rewarding ourselves today.
Hermmm, this week as a zone we started a new secret mission to try to find more families called El Encontrón de Familiones." (It doesn'ttranslate well but it basically means "The Huge Finding of Millions of Famlies" in a more clever, Spanish way. Aren't you jealous that you can't make up words like that in English?) So anyways, it involves contacting every night for 1 1/2 plus hours, not going in the house if the father isn't home and instead setting up an appointment when he'll be there, and lots of other family-finding and teaching tactics. It's kind of difficult because most of the dads don't get home until late or are only there Sundays and even then they're drinking, but we have still found lots of new families. Hermana Graham and I like to play games and our tactic is basically share a short message, and do something fun and creative so they'll want us to come back. So far it's been working pretty well, and my Family Home Evening idea bank is growing steadily...
Yesterday was kind of a flop and a trial of faith sort of day. None of our investigators came to church even though we left at 7:30 to go pick up 3 of them. Francisco was drunk and was just getting home as we were walking away from finding his house empty. He is a such a good person when he's sober but when he's drunk he's very....disagreeable. Harumph. The other one was asleep and didn't come to the door, and Karen left with her sister to go to her mom's grave because Nov 2 is a holiday where they honor the dead here. All of our appointments with families in the afternoon fell and there aren't many people in town because this whole upcoming week is pretty much full of holidays. So....we were pretty tired after contacting pretty much two whole days in a row and sad that no one came to church, but everything is ok and we're going to drink milkshakes and go running and keep on keepin on.
Karen's baptism date got moved to the 20th now because she still needs to cometo church at least one more time and we want to make sure they're really committed and understand that this is a big change and a lifelong thing.
On the bright side, Indira Isabel got baptized on Friday!! Besides everyone coming an hour late everything went smoothly and it was the most spiritual baptism I've been in yet. Her whole family came (even the sort of crazy negative step dad) and the Spirit was really strong during the ordinance and while she changed as we watched Reflections of Christ (an awesome 5 minute photo slideshow of events in Christ's life that Hna Graham has). Her mom was super happy and in the closing prayer she thanked that we were able to witness and feel so many wonderful and beautiful things that night. :)
Saturday we went around with a bunch of members giving away old Liahonas and setting up appointments. It was crazy hot because summer is rolling in. The young women and primary girls had fun contacting with us and we got 5ish positive references out of it. It was cute to see how they got all excited when someone reacted positively or even just nicely, and they talked about how they had to get ready to be missionaries.
Okk welp I'm almost outta time but I love you all!! Thanks for all thelove and support.
Love,
Hermana Dance

Dream Team, Round 2

Hey family,
Yes Dad, we were tuned into the same revelation channel as thepresident because Hermana Graham and I have another transfer together!Wahoooooo!
This week we've been working to prepare Indira Isabel for her baptism on Friday. She's been coming to church and meeting with the missionaries for about 2 months now and she's so prepared, we just had to wait because we wanted to work with the whole family and her mom has just started coming back to church and had a miraculous change of heart (I think I mentioned her last week).
We're also working with Karen and Alexander, a super prepared couple. Alex is already a member since he was 12 but has been inactive and doesn't remember hardly anything. (Sorry if I repeat info...sometimesI can't remember if I've told you something or if that was in myjournal or to someone else I wrote a letter to, haha) Karen is getting ready to be baptized Nov 6 and is so accepting of everything and so prepared. When we talked about the word of wisdom and extended the compromiso she said "Of course we won't be drinking coffee and Alex won't either because I'm not going to buy it or make it!" Haha.
When we talked about tithing she asked us "So when would be the best time to pay, sundays after la quincena?" She has been so prepared! They don't have any major desafios so Satan is trying to throw all the little stuff at them-yesterday they didn't come to church because Alex and their 1 1/2 year old baby are both sick, and they canceled the FHE we had planned for tonight with a member family for the same reason. Grrr. But things will still work out.
This week has been a little blobbly just because of the hassle of transfers (since we're out in the boonies transfers are a 2-3 day adventure waiting for new companions to come in and we have to shift around and be in trios and stay in other people's beds and stuff. ewww.) There was a fiasco with the buses and a brand new sister getting sent on the wrong bus with all the elders from her zone when she should have gotten off where we were waiting with her new companion. It's a long story, but basically we ended up waiting at the terminal alone until 12:00 watching all the crazy drunk people walk by until we were finally able to get ahold of someone and they told she was on a different bus, had already arrived ahead of Hermana Vasquez and was going to stay in a member's house alone. In the morning Hermana Vasquez took a bus alone to go meet up with her and it was all a big mess but in the end everything worked out ok and they met up and are alive and well.
I hope to have more miracles to tell you about next week but for now that's all I got, sorry!
Last night we taught a bunch of families and it felt so good but the most positive ones aren't from our area.... :( Lately we've been getting more creative and trying to have more fun in our lessons and it's even better when there are kids because we have an excuse to play games, haha. Hermana Graham gave an example from her MTC teacher about teaching to the needs of the people. She said it's like going into a suit store where all the suits are the same, but then the owner comes up and sizes you, tailors it to fit you, sells it to you, makes you feel special in your sweet new suit. That's all we have to do with the gospel. It's always the same message, but we have to tailor fit it to everyone's individual needs. Cool huh?
Ok love you all, thanks for everything!!

Hermana Dance

Alma 29:1-4 (I think that's it...O that I were an angel, and had the wish of mine heart...)

Week 6=the best when you're with a companion you love:)

Hey family!
The miracles continue...
Remember Josefina, the can-collecting lady that came to church? Yeah so I made her that promise and then on Tuesday we went to a panadaria that one of the members owns to set up some folletos (uhh...pamphlets I think the word is) and some other stuff. (I felt like I was doing marketing or something but we ended up contacting a really nice ladyi n the process). While we were there Luzmila gave us a bunch of free bread and we sat down to eat and I noticed a recycling bin full of cans. It caught my eye just because recycling doesn't exist in Panama, and I had this weird I'm-in-America-but-not trip for a second but THEN I remembered that Josefina collects cans.... So I asked if she could take them and they said yes and when we passed by her house that same day we told her and she got ready right away and left to pick them up. Wam bam, promise fulfilled. It's cool how God always keeps his end of the bargain huh?

ANYWAYS, miracle 2= the amazing change we've seen in Indira, one of the investigator's moms. She got baptized when she was younger but then went inactive and got baptized in the evangelical church and has always been a little cold and negative towards the church the whole time we've been teaching her daughter. She hasn't been supportive and the first baptismal date the hermanas had with her daughter fell because of it; but since then she's separated from her sort of crazy husband and we've seen a night and day change. I think it would take me forever to try to describe it to you and I don't know if I even really can but it's been soooo amazing to see how much happier and hopeful she seems, how supportive she is, how she has a thirst to read and to know more and how she wants to always come to church with her kids, do family home evening and have family prayers. She really is an amazing woman and someday I will be able to tell you all about her and how much I love her and her family :)

Miracle 3: Karen (the one who came to church with her husband last week by herself the first time we invited her) asked us as soon as we got started in our appointment on Wednesday "So if I want to get baptized, what do I need to do?" She has definitely been prepared. She understand everything so well and it's amazing to teach her because since she's so open, our lessons are just guided by her questions. We set a date for November 6 (we'd been planning on extending the commitment anyways but she jumped the gun) and she accepted all excitedly.

Miracle 4: Remember Dionisia? She just paid her tithing yesterday without us even saying anything about it. We taught her about it a week or two ago and gave her a tithing slip but after that we hadn't mentioned it again and she just paid it on her own yesterday. The branch presidency was really impressed with her and everyone keeps asking when she's getting baptized but she can't because she's not married. Story of everyone's life here... :(
We also just found an awesome guy (we're trying to focus more on families and fathers) who had talked with the missionaries around 5 years ago. We found him Saturday and talked about the Book of Mormon, keeping the sabbath day holy, faith and works and invited him to church. He came even though people came to offer him money for an odd job earlier that morning and has already started reading in the Book of Mormon. He's 48 and super ripped and spear fishes in the river next to his tin shack house. He's pretty much like the Crocodile Dundee of Panama. We've taught his wife once too so now we just need to be able to teach them both at the same time but he had a good experience at church. I love this work! :)

Hermana Graham and I have been discussing why we've been able to see so many miracles this last week/these last two weeks and we've decided that lots of factors play into it but a big one is that we get along so well and love working together :) Plus since we both feel like we want to be together this next transfer (they will let us know the transfers tonight) and that we feel we aren't going to be transfered; so we've been working straight on through the normal Week 6 drag. The whole running straight on through the finish theory. Hermana Graham listed the example of Christ and EVERYTHING He did in the last week of His life and that helps us keep a vision of how we need to always endure to the end. (I'm guessing it's the same in your mission but everyone here usually sort of plods through Week 6 until transfers and then we're all charged up again) But this transfer it's been different and it's amazing the difference it has made. And of course the Lord has been merciful in blessing us with success.
Ok Ok I have to go but thanks for all the emails and love and support.Hope you all have a great week!!

Love,
Hermana Dance

sometimes we get to see miracles

Hey family!

Woop beep bop snerp derp....estoy bien! Yesterday was a most excellent day. A couple that we found on Friday came to church without us having to go get them-we didn't even get a chance to extend the compromiso, they just asked us when church was and decided between themselves to come before we could even ask them about it. Yayy!! THey're super cute and in the first lesson as we sang Famlies Can Be Together Forever we all felt the spirit and could just see them with their little 1 1/2 year old getting sealed in the temple. Hermana Graham and I just looked at each other and smiled widely because we knew we were both thinking the same thing. (as a side note, the cool thing about being such good friends with my companion is that it's soooo easy for us to have unity in our teachings. We almost always get the same impressions about what things we should teach or questions we should use....you'd think the same God is helping us or something...haha)

So yup, that was miracle number one. Miracle number two was that yesterday morning we passed by this indigina lady that we'd taught once and that other sisters had visited. She was out early looking for cans to collect and turn in for money to be able to eat and pay for the things she needed. We were pretty close to the church so we stopped and talked to her and I said something like "Hey, let's go to church! You already have a dress on!" (their traditional clothes that they always wear are these sweet bright colored dresses). She said she had to look for more cans to be able to eat, etc etc and I just felt like I should make her a promise. I told her that if she came to church, I knew she would be able to find enough stuff to take care of her expenses. She nodded and responded like she wasn't going to come but asked us to pray for her. So we left to go get other people and I felt sad because I knew the gospel would help her and that God would've pulled through on his end to help her.

Soooo flash forward to halfway through sacrament meeting when she walked in the door. YAY!!! We were so surprised and excited because she really didn't seem like she was going to come. But she did, and we were so happy and the whole sacrament meeting I was praying and asking God to fulfill the promise I'd made because I really did feel like I should say it. She left after the first hour and we haven't seen her since but I know that things worked out ok. We're going to stop by on Tuesday to see how she's doing. :)

So yup, yesterday was a good day. We had a baptism on Saturday of Adriana, who's been listening to missionaries on and off for years, but it was so great to see how happy she was and how her husband came to support her even though he's never come to church. The members we supportive also. I love this area, it's so...good. everything is functioning how things should in the church. Yayy!

Now Hermana Graham and I are going to go biking and play frisbee after lunch. We're excited and feel like we're in Provo again. Herm, what else to tell you all...Oh yeah, remember how I told you about Dionisia who always comes with her little boys to church? Yesterday we did divisions and Hermana Graham went with Luzmila,this awesome hermana from our ward, and I guess she accepted to be baptized. Now she just has to get married first.....*sigh* But she's great and it's been awesome to see how much she's changed. She just started reading the Book of Mormon a week or so ago and is already in 2 Nefi 31. Sweet.

Mmk welp I'm almost out of time but thanks for loving me and for always writing. Love you all!!

Hermana Dance

P.S: Hey Jamison, are you still going to be a doctor? Hermana Graham's dad is a doctor and after hearing all the stories she's told I've decided there are lots of benefits to having a doctor in the family...so keep on keepin' on brudder! haha.

Herm, turns out there's a reason we usually check email BEFORE going off to play...

It's around 5 and we just got back from hiking all day in the mountains with the zone. We hiked up to the top of this huge waterfall and took lots of pictures and some of us fell waist deep in water but we all made it out alive. (I just tried to send you some pictures but I'm not sure if they went through...) Then as we were leaving we met a guy driving down in his cow truck (those pickups that transport cows) so everyone piled in back and I got to sit in front with an hermana who has knee problems and he gave us a ride down.

It was kind of terrifying because the road was really rocky steep and kinda wet but we made it out ok once everyone in back started pulling bobsled moves and shifting sides depending on which way we were tilting or turning. It was an adventure :) Then we had another long bus ride standing up to get back to town and now we're all really dirty and tired. But it was fun and I'm happy we did something adventurous instead of just play soccer.

This week has been conference week to the max but I've learned sooo much. It's hard trying to remember it all and put it all in practice in the lessons but we're definitely improving. This is a little of what I wrote to my presidente:

"Hna Graham and I feel like we've been able to teach more by the Spirit, like our teaching is more unified and that we're better able to answer people's needs as we've been practicing after the conference. For example, Friday we planned to teach someone about the gospel of Jesus Christ but in the morning we spent time to think of a couple of "inspired questions" and we planned on using "What has been the happiest moment in your life?" and then using their answer to explain that eternal life is going to be like that x100.

We ended up using that question in another lesson also and it was amazing to see how the hermana opened up and let us know more about her life. While listening to her respond, we could discern that she had doubts about seeing her mother again and that she needed to strengthen her faith in Christ. Just using that question helped us get to know her, created an environment when we were able to have an open conversation, and let us discern and teach to her needs."

So yup, things are good. We're seeing lots of positive changes and improvements. I love my companion, I love conference, and I love my zone. This is the first time I've really been in a zone with other Americans and that actually talk and it's fun. We're making thanksgiving plans already to go to a member's house and all cook together as a zone. Hmm, goes right along with President Monson's talk. Man, I feel like conference goes by so fast now! I was looking forward to it for like 3 months and it passed in the blink of an eye.

One of our investigators, Dionisia, came with three of her little boys. She is so sweet and has now been coming to church a month straight and is really progressing. We just need to be able to find her man at home now so we can get him to agree to get married and start teaching him too....Because it's been so great to see how she has really lit up with the light of the gospel. She seems so much happier.

I haven't had time to meditate and set new goals after conference yet, but one of the biggest things I got out of it was just being reminded of how awesome the plan of salvation, and how important all of this is and how everyone really really needs to know it to get ready for the day when we'll each appear before God again. Thats an Alma 34 scripture but that's a weak translation from Spanish to english. Look it up! (Alma 34:32 I think)

Love you all and hope all is well!

Thanks!!

Love,
Hermana Dance

"I stiiiill love technology...noooot as much as you, you see..."

Family!!

You all are the best. And I'm impressed with your tech-savyness--a FHE over video conference, you're like the Jetsons! Mom and dad, sounds like you're in a whirlwind of conferences. We are too. This week is conference to the max because we have mission training conferences (something like what you all are doing I'm assuming) Tuesday-Thursday from 9-3, then on Saturday and Sunday it's General Conference. Woot. We're working with our converts and all the members and less actives inviting them to write at least three doubts, concerns, or questions, praying about them this week, and then coming to conference to be able to find the answer. So that goes for you all too! *gloik!* nerdy missionary moment....

Ok ok ok so this week.....herm. It went by way fast. My compita and I are continuing with our tender mercy/miracle identifying activity every night and love being able to see the hand of the Lord in our lives. Saturday's miracle was that the members had a reference for us of a guy that burst into the english class on Wednesday night holding a Book of Mormon and looking for missionaries.


Ok ok so basically what we learned from that is to look people in the eyes and listen to the Spirit to be able to tell what kind of people they are and to help us know how to be safe. And also to be warey (sp?) of "golden investigators" as wolves in sheep's clothing. Because that's the second time something like that has happened here.

ANYWAYS. Besides all that life is good, we're still seeing legit miracles every day. Yesterday as we walked by we heard someone playing The Star Spangled Banner on the sax so we contacted him and found a young awesome family. I love David, there are so many families and people are less obsessed with working.

We have also perfected the art of cooking any sort of baked good over the stove in a frying pan because we don't have ovens. So we've now successfully made cake mix cookies and banana bread and our next project is Never-On-Sundays (Sister Clark's recipe) as soon as we can smuggle in some brown sugar from the Costa Rican border. Mmmmm....

I hope you're all doing well and that you have a great conference weekend! Eat lots of waffles, french dipped sandwiches, and candy and play lots of ulitmate frisbee for me!

Love love loves

Hermana Dance
Mosiah 2:22 It's so simple....keep the commandments and you'll prosper

It's Cassie's Birthday!

Hey all!

I'm doin sooooo good! (Teen Girl Squad voice) Dad, I know that's grammatically incorrect but just go with it, I've been speaking straight up Spanish for a year now. Haha.

But yeah, I'm happy. I love love my compy and yes, she does know the assistant. Small mormon world, wooot! This week we decided in our nightly planning to identify a miracle that we saw during the day. It really helps us to see the hand of the Lord in our lives every day and it's good because then writing in my journal doesn't seem so overwhelming if I only have to record that every night. We've had some awesome experiences this week.

I'm so humbled by some of the people we get to teach and associate with here. They have nothing but what they do have they give away. There are poor people in the city, but they seem prouder, angrier, and more aggressive. The poor people here are so nice and generous and teachable. One of the women we're teaching has had such a hard life with economic situations, abusive fathers and husbands, and crazy kids and she deserves to so happy. She's come to church with us the last two weeks and yesterday she brought us a papaya and yogurt to church and told us we're like her daughters.

We've been praying that God will pour his Spirit out on Bolivar (my area) to prepare the people to receive the gospel and have been seeing the results. The other day we were walking by the river and as we passed a house we heard a little girl shout "Mom, the hermanas are coming!" So obviously we took advantage of that and went over to meet her mom and found out she'd met a couple hermanas a few months ago and her 4 year daughter who is normally really quiet and shy invited us in and started talking to us a ton. Her mom was impressed and let us teach her and now we have an appointment to teach her and her husband on Wednesday. Miracle! heh.

Life is good, the gospel is awesome, and I'm happy. Love you all!!

Hermana Dance
Alma 8:10 (I think)

I'm back I'm back!!

Hey family!!

So I got transferred to David! Yayyyy!! It's close to Volcan (my first area) and it's rural but civilized all at once-the perfect combo. I feel like I'm home again....! We have zone conferences with my first zone and we'd come here for Pdays when we reached our goals so I feel very happy here. Plus my area is teeny (no short buses, no diablos rojos, no traffic, no elevated bridges to cross the street, no traveling for an hour in between appointments) I feel like I can be so much more efficient because everything is so close.

Everybody says hi back, we can get into anyone's house, the members know we exist, the sisters actually come to relief society and everyone comes to the activities. It's amazing! I'm in a branch but this branch is stronger than the ward I'd been working in for 7 1/2 months. We already got invited to someone's house for dinner! Haha sorry if I'm getting too excited, I just forgot how awesome it is being out of the city. *sigh of relief*

Oh, and my companion is amazing. She's Hermana Graham from Birley (sp?) Idaho (the motherland! ok well, for mom and dad anyways....) and she's so sweet. The best part: she loves running, eating turkey sandwiches, and doing active things outside. Finally finally finally I have a companion who will work out with me!! So we've been going out in the mornings to run for 45 minutes and it's helping me learn our area a lot faster. We have lots of plans for this transfer and I'm excited.

Herm, what else to talk about...I'm a little sad because now that I'm 8 hours aways from the city I won't be able to come to the baptisms of Geraldine or Amin and Jennifer :( But I'm definitely going to keep tabs on them to see how they're doing. I was also sad to leave some of the coolest members I've ever met buttttt I definitely needed a change of scenery. Ahh your poor missionaries who only speak the language of the country and only have like 4 areas they can go to their whole mission....! I don't know how they do it.

Welp I don't really have any updates on people we're teaching yet because I just got here, but I'm excited because it's so easy to find people here. We just found 3 families in these last 4 days....jes. Next week I'll send sweet spiritual experiences :)

:) Oh and now that I'm thinking of it, be prepared for packages and letters to arrive after 3ish months (probably 4 from mom and dad) because our inter-mission mail system is NOT very efficient. Arg. So don't worry if I haven't gotten stuff, it's just that the mission mail system is very slow. I don't think I've actually had any lost packages yet. Or maybe I just don't know...eek!

Ok welp love you all, thanks for everything!!

Love,
Hermana Dance

I have fire in my eyes. . . cough, cough

Hey family,
Thanks for all the birthday wishes! So far we've been invited to like 3 different going-away/birthday parties. The members were nice yesterday and some of them said that they'd miss me but usually it's the investigators and less active people that love us the most and invite us to things.
Wednesday was officially the best day ever :) We called the President and his wife to go out with us to visit some of our most positive investigators. We got there kind of late but we taught Geraldine (an awesome 19-year-old girl) the plan of salvation and she told us about how she'd received her answer that these things are true. We set a baptismal date for this saturday and she accepted and the president told me that if I'm close by next transfer I can go :). Then we went to visit our big famly, la famlia Martinez. The Spirit was really strong and they got all quiet when he talked-they all loved him because he's so sweet and happy. Hermana Ward didn't speak any Spanish when she came out here but now she can bear her testimony. It's awesome. It was so great to have them with us and fun to get to know them better. After he also bought us Blizzards from DQ and I felt like I was hanging out with my own parents.... :)

This week I realize that I'm finally starting to be able to be more confident in my abilities to recognize and follow the Spirit. A couple of nights ago we ended up in another unplanned lesson with recent convert and her 21 year old son who'll come to church on and off sometimes. I had no idea what to teach because what we had planned wasn't right for the situation so as we sang the opening song I just said a quick prayer to know what to say and BAM the perfect idea came to my head. The Spirit is awesome.
This guy is obsessed with his body and working out because he does field events (as in long jump, discus, etc). So I started by asking him what he does to take care of himself and stay in shape and he got all excited telling me about it (I think he got the wrong idea for a second, haha) and then I asked him how much time he spends doing all that and he said "pretty much all day" After that I said ok and asked him "So since you're spending that much time taking care of your body, what're you doing to take care of your spirit?" shazam. He didn't know what to say and got kind of bashful because he knows it's stuff he should be doing. We proceeded to teach a lesson about prayer, reading the scriptures, and going to church to take care of your spirit. So in summary I'm just really happy that the Spirit tells us what to do and say and I'm finally confident that we can end up in whatever random lesson and if I trust in the Lord, take it easy and don't freak out about what I'm going to say, the words will come. Being a missionary is the coolest.
Welp, love you guys a ton! Thanks so much for all the support.

Love,
Hermana Dance
Alma 26:21-22

Vote for Pedro

Hey all!
It's campaign week! Next Sunday we're fasting as a ward for "those who know not God" (Alma 6:6 I think that's the translation in English anyways) so to help remind them and get them pumped we're campaigning. We're visiting all the members, teaching them, giving them flyers and door hangs, doing service projects, and getting references. Yayyyy!

It's working out well so far. More of the Relief Society sisters are going out with us and it's fun to be with them and learn from all their different perspectives and life stories. It's a huuuuge hassle because we have to figure out how to meet them and where and if they'll have a car (if not we have to set up appointments close by their houses because they don't want to walk far) and then we have to call them a hundred times to remind them during the week or to see where they're at if they're running late, and then we have to train them to not say anything wierd in the lessons or freak our investigators out etc etc. BUT once we get all that figured out they are a great asset for us and it's a big help for them and for the ward. It helps them remember that God and religion aren't just Sunday things and we can see that it's helping to raise the enthusiasm in the ward for missionary work bit by bit...! Yayyyyy!

Now when things are finally starting to work out I'm getting transfered, womp wahhhh. But that's ok, a new adventure. The people here are so loving once we're friends with them. We have like 5 different invitations for cook-outs and going away celebrations and birthday parties (my birthday is the day before the transfer) and I'm going to be sad to leave these people. So it goes. (name the book! mmm I haven't completely lost all my nerdiness...hehe).

Herrmmmm what else can I tell you. Amin and Jennifer are getting married but they have economic difficulties in getting enough money ($50) to pay for the medical tests. We're going to help them out but it's going a little slower than planned. But they're progressing and it's amazing to see how much Jenny has already changed. Yesterday she came to church and she dressed modestly (yayyy!) and was waaay more loving and patient with her 1 1/2 year old daughter. The gospel is the best.

We're also teaching a 19-year-old girl named Geraldine. She's very sweet and very positive. Last week when she couldn't come to church because he grandma had surgery she asked me which chapter we studied in the Principles of the Gospel class and she said she thought that was the one and that she'd read it at home along with a bunch of other things. She always knows when we're coming over and is excited, and she's already invited three different friends to come with here. We're going to put a baptismal date with her on Wednesday. Woot.

Ok welp those are my updates for now. Mission Panama is chuggin along. Oh and we reached our goal for August so I think we're going to Causeway again. Life is good. :) I feel like I'm finally getting a full grasp on all this missionary stuff. It only took a year....haha. I know there's lots more to learn all the time but I guess I feel like I'm finally....more confident in what I'm doing.
Love you all!!
Hermana Dance

my life be like:
Alma 21:16-17

oops i don't have any time. story of my life...!

Hey family,
Yayyyy I'm happy.
Brief updates:After a week of rejection (english spelling?) we've had a flood of success this week in finding new investigators, working with members, getting people to come to church, etc etc etc. God is the best. It almost makes we want to spend another whole week contacting under the sun without success to be able to get more blessings the week after. Hee. :)

We had interviews on Thursday and it was waaay different than interviews with Presidente Madrigal. Hermana Ward made us lunch (pita sandwiches and baby carrots, apples, and chips-the most American meal I've had in a year) and we all ate together after. They are super sweet and funny-it felt like a little family meal.
President Ward said "dude" in my interview and it made me so happy. They gave us a ride to our area afterwards and it was fun to get to know them more and hear about their experiences. I felt like I was hanging out with you two again when we first got to Latvia.
Oh random side note-yesterday at lunch a member told me that Russia lost all their wheat crops due to flooding and that everything is going to get more expensive and there will probably be a famine there. Is that true/going to affect you all over there? I feel so unplugged from the world, ahh!! But I guess it's better that way.
Also this week we got to go the temple with Hermano Miguel, the guy we baptized in March. Since the whole ward was there they needed more people in the session so we got to do a session and it was the best-I didn't even get sleepy! (sometimes the temple spirit has that effect on me...oops).
No but really, I love being in there. Plus Miguel was super happy when we left-he's progressed a ton and will take out his endowment next year.
Mmmbop beep I don't know what else to tell you all. I'm happy, that's the summary I guess. I'm getting transfered in Sept (the day after my birfday) but I'm going to do everything I can to leave the area up and running. Yayyy.
Ok gotsta go love you all bye!!!
Love,
Natalie

drop it like it's hot

Hey family,

Thanks for the emails....! Life is good but this week has been kind of lame because we just contact and knock doors all the time but no one wants to listen to us or won't accept a second appointment after we teach them. I think part of it is that we're both American so they kind of have their guard up...because it's never been this hard to find new investigators here. So yesterday we fasted to find new people who are actually positive and the last lesson we taught last night was to a super positive guy named Gorge. He had tons of really good questions and the spirit was so strong. We were teaching with a member who's getting pumped to go on her own mission and when we left she told us that she felt the authority that we had as missionaries. Cool huh? So yeah, I'm a fan of fasting because everytime I do it I get extra blessings :)

Hermmmmm what else to tell you all....Alexander came to church yesterday, yay!! He's awesome but is going through some famliy/economic issues. His mom kicked out the elders when they tried to come visit him in the area where he lives now and he got really sad. But he decided to come stay in our area saturday at his grandma's house so he could come to church because his mom won't let him there...he's a good kid. My compy told me that it looked like a mother and a son when we were talking on sunday, haha.

The big family (Famlia Vasquez/Familia Martinez) is progressing slowly because of marriage issues..some of them are waiting for divorces, others are struggling because one of the two doesn't want to get married, and others know they need to but are having difficulties with taking the step to do it. We're working more with members and are happy because one family came to have an FHE with them on Sunday and then came to help celebrate one of the daughter's birthdays on Saturday. They're good people.

I feel like I don't really have anything else interesting to say...some interesting encounters with drunk people, a few dog threats, a giant rain storm that made the drains in the street flood, a lady who told us that she baptized herself three times by dunking her head in a bucket when she was 16....not too much else. Oh yeah, and Tuesday we get to go to the temple!! The rules are changing soon but for now we get to go when one of our converts goes for the first time. Miguel (who we baptized in March) is going on Tuesday with the ward for the 2 year anniversary of the dedication of the temple so we get to go too. I'm stoked.

Ok well I'm out of time but I love you all, thanks for always writing and making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside..! Family is the best :)

Love,
Hermana Dance

P.S. I know i've been slacking on putting references on the end of my emails....next week!

"Tastes like burning!"

Hola!

Sounds like all the festivals were fun. I like hearing about the culture out there...haha I didn't know missionaries were allowed to dance. One of the sisters in the big family we're teaching danced bachata with me on Tuesday night, the last night with Hermana Chevez. Hehe. We're all going to miss her lots but I'm happy to be with my new compy too. Her name is Hermana williams and she's from West Jordan. My first American companion, woot.

I didn't ever really want to be with an American but now I'm enjoying the advantages....she understands when I say "uhhh, awkward...." or when I say random movie quotes in English. On the down side, they try to rip us off more in the taxis until I talk in a Panamania accent and tell them "Tres dolares! Estas loco!" and call them an aligator for trying to take advantage of us. Haha, I learned well from Hermana Chevez to be more direct...

We've already had quite a few interesting experinces together in the first few days...I haven't really been able to keep anything down since Thursday because of some food or parasite we ate...sometimes we have to take drastic measures when it's the end of the month and we don't have any money...haha. But I love being with Hermana Williams because she's super enthusiastic and supports my ideas as well as adding her own. We started working with the Primary yesterday and they're going to help us with their prayers and giving little talks in the gospel principles class, etc. We made them little name tags (Mom I sent you one in the mail :)

We're still working with the huge family and yesterday another sister with her kids came to church along with her sister-in-law who'd already come two weeks ago. It's awesome to see them progressing.

Eek I'm out of time. Love you all and thanks for writing!!

Love,
Hermana Dance

Hey family!

It's been a weird week. I sort of feel like the world is ending because my companion is going home in two days. Ahhh!! Oh yeah, I can't remember if I told you all transfers are on Wednesdays now instead of Monday's so I don't know who my new companion is yet. I'll keep you posted. Man when I get transfered out of here I know I'm going to feel like I'm going to a new mission all over again because I'll have over a year in the mission and only 2 areas....weird huh? Welp, el Padre Celestial sabe lo que hace...

Last Monday after we checked our emails we went with two elders from our zone to visit this huge famliy we're teaching the. They're both fun and love music-one of them sings and plays the guitar so they busted out a quitar and started singing a bunch of songs they're written about Panama, about their area, the people, the mission, etc. It made me think of Jamison and Connor and Bubbly Toes on Christmas Eve. Awww. It was a lot of fun and the family loved seeing elders. The daughter of one of Aleyka, one of the sisters who came to church last week, was super sick with asthma that day and asked them to give her daughter a blessing. The elders did it and also prayed for the family and for their jobs, etc. After the blessing Emily (the little girl) already looked a little better and had more energy. When we went to visit them on Wednesday Aleyka told us it was a miracle because that same night she got better and she went to school the next day. Whenever she gets sick with asthma she normally needs 3 or 4 days to recover and Aleyka gained a big testimony of the power of the priesthood. Her husband also felt it and everything went really really well for him at work the next day after the elders prayed for his job. This family is awesome and they're definitely prepared. At least two of the 8 grown brothers and sisters already have testimonies and everyone else is progressing bit by bit. It's like a snowball because every time we come more and more of the family is there to listen to. They're never ending! haha. But it's awesome.

Welp, besides them I've pretty much just been thinking about how I'm going to miss my companion and about how to help the members so the ward doesn't get shut down or merged with another one. There are a few really awesome families that are active but there are way more inactive for the crazy things that've happened with the leadership here, for rumors and gossiping, and for pride and materialism...sometimes I wish there would be an earthquake or a huge storm only in this part of Panama to wake them up. In the meantime, we'll see what we can do as representatives of Jesus Christ.

I gotsta go but I love you all. Thanks for everything!!

Love, Natalie

New wave revolution

Hey family!

Ok ok so Thursday we had zone conference with the new president and we got to know him a little bit. They're awesome. I was going to send pictures but the computer isn't reading my memory card... :( next week... But anyways, they're the Wards, they're from California and he likes to surf. He's super happy and reminds me of a perfect cross between Dad, my BYU stake president President Childs, and my mission prep teacher. Heh. It's fun to see them together and how they love each other because los Madrigal were really cold in their affections for each other in front of us. It's interesting to see the differences. Presidente Ward served in Argentina with Elder Scott as his mission president and then at the end of his mission they sent him to open the mission in Spain-crazy huh?

Herm, life is weird these days. My compita is cool and scary at the same time but she's pretty much run out of steam and doesn't want to do very much or always has some sort of illness. I'm trying to be understanding but it's hard to be motivated when I feel like I have to work alone sometimes...but I'm still learning a lot from her and we have lots of fun.

Pretty much you all are the best family ever. just had to get that out there. This week we're still teaching the huge family with tons of grown kids, in-laws, and grandkids and we feel so much love for them. It's hard with the ward though because this family lives in one of the only poor areas within our boundaries and almost all the members live in the rich housing developments...Yesterday this family didn't come to church because they felt like they didn't have nice enough clothes to come... :( Arg sometimes I feel frustrated with how cold and proud and materialistic the members are. Oh and our bishop is inactive again. But we're working on things bit by bit...

Eek I gotsa go, love you all!

Hermana Dance
Mosiah 3:9

Derp, derp

Hey family,

Thanks for this pictures! I expect more next week since Jamison and Liz will be there too. My family is perty :) Yesterday I forgot it was a holiday and I didn't even miss it because I haven't been in the U.S. for 4th of July in...3 years now. Eek!

Life is good. We've found lots of people that have definitely been prepared by the light of Christ. One of them is a family of 8 brothers and sisters and who knows how many grandkids...it' awesome to see them all together and we have high hopes for them... : )

Sorry if this is super short but the computer is freaking out and refreshing the page every 2 minutes so it makes it complicated to write you all. I'm happy and I'm learning lots...Mi converso Alexander is the best and is super strong-after he got expelled from school for fighting and stopped coming to seminary and church for a week he's back again and stronger than ever. He doesn't have any support in his family but Hermana Diaz his seminary teacher and his YM leader are helping so much. I love when the members help us!

Our new president is here and we have zone conerence on Thursday. It'll be interesting to see how things in the mission change under his direction. Sometimes I forget how to spell in english...oops. Arg sorry, I ran out of time again....Ok ok I promise I'm going to write a real, more detailed letter today and mail it to you because I never have enough time to email good letters... :P

Love you all, thanks for writing me!!

Love,
Natalie

Hey family,

I forget that other seasons exist outside of Panama because here it's only hot and rainy or hot and sunny so it's weird hearing about weather changes in Latvia and Utah...

Everything is going well here. My companion and I get along well and spend the whole day laughing and joking around. She's super forward and blunt and sometimes scary but I'm happy we're together haha. This week we've found a ton of new people but every single person or family we've visited has tons of problems and intense trials-divorce after 25 years together, an unfaithful boyfriend 5 days before the birth of their first child, the death of a father, a family member in the hospital waiting for a 4bypass surgery....lots of crazy stuff. We've felt like the Lord has led us to people who desperately need the gospel in their lives right now.

I've also seen how the Spirit has guided us to help the members. Friday night we finished an appointment and our investigator told us that the little bus stopped running by that hour and since my companion and I are both broke right now we were going to have to walk an hour and fifteen minutes just to get to the main road where the buses pass. Then we'd have to take the bus and walk more to get home and we probably would've gotten to the house around 10:00 P.M. We walked part of the way and then decided to stop to ask a member family for a ride to the main road. They weren't home so we went to another member's house as a last resort.

We got there and the hermana opened the door looking all tired and sad, and from the moment we entered the house I decided we weren't going to ask anything, just listen to her and share a scripture, pray with her and sing with her. She started to tell us about everything that was going on in her family and I felt like I didn't know what to say but when I said the opening prayer 2 Nefi 1:15 came to my mind and we talked about the love of God and the atonement. She cried and said that she was so grateful that we came, that she needed us that night and she didn't feel so alone and we felt like we were able to be an answer to her prayers. When we finished it was 9:30 P.M. and she answered our prayers because she called a taxi and payed for it to take us all the way home. The Spirit works in interesting ways... :)

Welp I'm out of time but I love you all and I'm happy to hear from you and that you all get a chance to spend some time together. You're in my prayers :)

Love,
Natalie

3 Nefi 9:13 Christ and his atonement can heal us

tender mercies...:)

Hey family!

Uhhh, story of my life-I don't have any time. Sorry! But I'm happy because por fin por fin God sent me a companion that I can be best friends with. *angels singing* Ahhh seriously, we have so much fun and we talk about everything. It's sort of hard to focus sometimes because she's going home soon but it's worth it because the time goes by sooo much faster. :)

This week we went to a poorish area that we've never contacted in a found a ton of people to teach. The field is white and ready to harvest. We found a family that almost didn't let us in but once we got in and started teaching the dad told us that a couple years ago he'd been praying to know which wahe true church and he dreamed of two LDS missionaries walking towards him and he heard a voice say "This is the my true church." He told us he felt better with us teaching than he felt when one of his good Jehova's Witnesses friends comes to teach him every week. Wow, definitely prepared. We found another woman who told us 2 years ago when the new chapel was finishd she'd felt curious and looked up things on the internet to find out about us. She came to church yesterday and we taught her for the first time on Saturday. I love my life.

Hermmm, what else to tell you. I also love my companion because she helps me discover my weaknesses. She has lots of talents and helps me realize where I need to improve. One of the things she's really good at is listening to and recognizing the spirit. I feel like I always recognize it when it's testifying in a lesson or in church or something but that I still don't have the skill that she does to be able to listen to it and recognize right away that we should go here or there, teach this or that, talk to this person, etc. Soooo that's one of my goals for this transfer. Eekk, no time!

Sorry, love you all and hope you're having a fantastic week!!!

Hermana Dance

Mormon 9 .....uh, verse 20? the part where he talks about how God is a God of miracles and if miracles cease it's for our own unbelief

I didn't proofread!! :P

Goooooooooooaaallllll!

Hey family!
Thanks for the pics and updates. I like how I can tell without reading the titles which picture is of the nuevos and which picture is of the group of returning missionaries...haha. The hermana on the right I recognize from when I've visited. And that's awesome you've been able to see some of you ex missionaries who've come back to visit. I hope to be able to do the same :)
I don't have cambios.
Mas bien they sent me an hermana who's finishing this transfer but she wanted to finish as the compañera menor (junior companion..) I guess she's been training for the last 5 transfers so she asked the president to be lowered her last transfer, haha. The only thing is that since she's finishing this transfer, I'm not going to leave this area until September because I'll have to teach the area to another hermana next transfer. I'll have 7 months here by the time I leave! Eek! But at the same time I'm happy because I love the people, my house rocks, and I'm not the best at adjusting to new areas, wards, etc. And since I'm going to be here for a long time I'm stoked to see what kind of activities and iniciatives I can start in the area/the ward to get things moving. Our mission leader is recently called and just got home from his mission a month or two ago so he's stoked and I know he'll help me. I'm excited to be creative, and to be with a new companion who will run with me (in a figurative sense-I'm still waiting for the compañera that will literally go running with me..jaja).
Hermmm what else to tell you all. I feel old. All my friends are going home! It makes me nervous thinking about how someday I'll go home too....Thinking about everything I've learned and how much I've grown and changed makes me so grateful that God was patient enough with me to keep sending me promptings to go on the mission even when I couldn't/didn't want to recognize them. I can say without a doubt that the mission is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm soooo lucky. and happy. Everything happens for a reason, every area, ward, companion, zone teaches us something and helps us develope atributos de Cristo. Someday I hope to be able to tell you all or show you all everything I've learned and document it for my future childrens tambien.
My brain feels mushy from lack of sleep and I don't feel like I have any inspiring stories to share-sorry. Since the world cup started this weekend our neighbors had all night parties with music blasting and lots of alcohol and crazyness so we haven't been able to sleep well. Since all the houses are made of concrete and have lots of open spaces and windows all the sounds bounce around and ehco and keep us awake. Next week I'll be more inspiring, I promise!

Miss yo faces!

Nat

D&C 45:62 (I think...it talks about how great things await us..)

Hey all,

Welp I only have 15 minutes but in summary: We made history this month in our zone and had 11 baptisms for the first time in years. Actually I don't know if it's ever happened but for sure the goal has never gone above 9 in over a year and a half. Wahooo! Ahh I don't even know how to begin talking about my life this past week. Basically we all feel very happy and united. This is definitely my favorite zone despite what everyone says about how hard it is, how it's a dead zone blah blah blah. El Señor nos ha bendecido mucho. I wanted to write about the law of sacrifice and the idea of personal offerings of sacrifice to obtain blessing of the Lord but I don't think there's time. To be continued in a snail-mail letter!

Other updates: We finally have a baptism this Thursday! I think I've already told you all about him-his name is Alexander and he's 15 and loves going to church. Now he goes to all the activities and seminary too. He was the miracle we were waiting for in May but he kept saying he was unsure and never accepted his date for May 29. Then Sunday, May 30 after the second class he came up to me in the hallway and said "Hermana, cuando me voy a bautizar?" (When am I going to get baptized?) Yayyyy! So it's all set for Thursday and we're stoked.

We have several other positive investigators, including a family with 3 children. When we gave the mom a Book of Mormon, she was so grateful and looked at it like it was the most precious gift in the world. :)

Uhhh, I feel like so much has happened this week that I don't know how to reduce it down to an email. Sorry. Basically I am really really happy. Despite the challenges I've been having (this week and last week have been quite the struggle with my companion) I feel happy to be here on the mission. I love the people, I feel like they're my people. And I get sad when sometimes they tell me they want to go to the U.S. to work for a while and I think about the way they'd get treated there. I think I'm starting to sound like a hippy-peace-harmony-onelove person but it's true! Like this one family in our ward, famlia Diaz, are the most amazing and supportive family in the ward. I think I've told you about them (they're the ones that come out with us as a famliy almost every Sunday to teach). Well Sunday the father got called as the ward secretary (his first calling after he started coming back to church about a year ago) and when he stood up to get sustained the word that came to my mind was noble. That night when they went out with us to teach he told me that he's always wanted to visit the U.S. to work construction. They're amazing and very humble, but when he told me that I got sad because I started thinking about how if he goes to the U.S., everyone is just going to say he's another ilegal Mexian there stealing jobs. They don't know the great person that he is and how amazing his family is. Ahhh :(

Oops I'm out of time, sorry to end on a sad note. Nope, life is good, I'm happy, I love the people and I love you all. Cuidense mucho!


Love,
Hermana Dance

I almost put an emo title but then thought better of it...Mission life=the biggest emotional roller coaster ever

Hey all,

Thanks again for the emails and updates. I feel like a lot has happened since I last wrote and I don't know where to start. Eek!

Friday was our last zone conference with Presidente y Hermana Madrigal. It was amazing as always but the end was the saddest I remember feeling in a looooong time. Wow. The three zones that go to this chapel for zone conference decided to practice a song and surpirse them with it at the end of the conference. We all met in our own zones the day before to practice it (it was a Jenny Philips song...whoever that is) so in the conference was the first time we all sang it together. Despite the lack of musical talent among the Latinos it was still beautiful because even if they don't sing in tune or know it they sing with their hearts. I know that sounds super cheesy but it's true. So we sang the first part of this song with the background track playing and then Elder Funk, an elder who was in my district in the MTC in Utah started playing on the piano to merge the first song with "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." It was so beautiful and hearing the first few notes of that hymn made everybody pretty teary eyed. We only sang the first verse but the Spirit was so strong and we were all crying (more when Presidente and Hermana Madrigal started crying too).

After we finished we listened to the prayer and then everyone went through a line to say goodbye to them. Ahhh! I wasn't expecting to feel so sad. Plus seeing my zone leaders and other elders all crying (one of them goes home this transfer and most of my other friends go home in July or September) made it even more sad because most of the Latinos if not all of them I'm never going to see again. Ahhh! I realized for the first time how sad I'm going to be when I go home. Later I was talking to our zone leaders about it and how we didn't expect it to be like that and how we felt so sad, honestly like someone had just died. I think mission life exagerates our emotions/ our capacity to feel because I don't remember feeling that way before. Yikes.

I also started thinking about how it will be when you two go home, and how your missionaries will feel the same way. But at least they're all American so you can have reunions :). Thanks for being awesome and for being my parents and the adoptive parents of so many missionaries.

Que mas que mas....Oh yeah so after the zone conference on Friday, Saturday morning I got to go through the temple with Charlyn. It was soooo good to be in the temple and to see her. Plus 3 of my recient converts from Volcn where there doing baptisms so I got to see them and all the members. I feel like I'm finally recognizing the fruits of all my prayers asking to love the people more. God is the best.

Yesterday we had 5 investigators in sacrament meeting which is pretty much a record for this area. My companion had pretty much lost all faith in contacting but then God blessed us with great, really positive family Tuesday night who came to an activity in a member's house the same night we met them and then the mom and her son came to church yesteday. Plus we finally have a new mission leader who is active in the church! And our bishop started coming back to church too. Things are changing things are changing. Yesterday we talked with the second counseler and he told us that he "didn't want to throw us too many flowers" but that we are unas de las mejores misionaries they've had in their ward. God definitely sent us a ton of tender merices this week.

Welp I'm almost out of time but love you all and I hope you're doing well. The missionary Disney music concert sounds pretty sweet-it's crazy how different our areas are but the awesome part is that God gives us each revelations on how we can change things in our respective areas. I feel like more and more God is helping me come up with new ideas and giving me the capacity to put them in practice. Life is good.

Love,

Hermana Dance

Acts 20:35-38 this is how it felt at the zone conference. Minus the kisses, haha.

Hey family,

Mom and Dad, your life is super busy. But you are awesome for going out to work with the missionaries. Mom I bet the hermanas were sort of nervous but happy to have you there. You's a stellar missionary and mission president's wife :)

We were supposed to have interviews today but some sort of emergency came up so....who knows when that will be happening. This last week was a bit difficult. I think Satanás nos estaba tirando las bombas. I don't know, but mi compañera y yo both felt a little down on energy levels and faith this week because of a series of unfortunate events and mysterious icky feelings. Boo! But we've overcome it and this is a new day and a new week and I read the notes Dad sent me a couple of weeks ago so we are saying "Here am I" regadless of what happened last week. Boom.

Alexander is going to get baptized. He still hasn't fully accepted the date of May 29th, but I know he'll get baptized. Even if it's not this month, he will because he's reading in the Book of Mormon, he's always excited to go to church and learn more, and whenever we come he loves hearing about the gospel. Yesterday when we got to his house he was sitting outside in a rocking chair doing nothing. After we started the lesson we talked about the Book of Mormon and he told us that when we came he'd been sitting there thinking about it. Ahhhh I love when people I love fulfill their commitments and take the steps that I know will lead them to recognize and accpet the truth. Definitely a tender mercy God sent me yesterday.

Oh yeah because yesteday before we went out my companion told me that she didn't know if Joseph Smith really was a prophet, that she had lots of doubts, etc, etc. and I was really worried. I talked to her about it for a while and shared a couple scriptures (Alma 32 about how faith isn't perfect knowledge) and then when to the bathroom and said a prayer asking God to help me help her. I came out and told her "You already know. I know you already know, because you've told me how you've felt when you've shared the first vision or when we watched the video of the restoration. You know. Don't let a tiny thing that some angry, unbelieving person says discredit all the spiritual experiences you've had." (She used to tell me how when she repeated the first vision she felt "like she was being teleported" or that it was as if she were on the airplane again for her first time. )

She thought for a little bit and said "Yeah, you're right. I've had lots of experiences and I wouldn't have come here if it weren't true." I think it helped her a little bit and after that we went out but I'm still a little worried and I'm praying for her. Things will work out ok. One of my favorite lines for the Joseph Smith movie (we just watched it again in an activity saturday night) is when Hyrum says to Joseph "Whatever happens, the Lord is in it" So true.

Love you all!!

Natalie

Romans 5:3, Romans 8: 18, 28

May is the best month ever

Hey!

It was so good to talk to you all this morning! And it's nice because the first time we talked I still felt like a lost puppy and I got a little sad thinking about everyone all together for Christmas in Latvia and me in Panama but this time I feel normal and it wasn't sad, just happy. Plus it's cool thinking about how I said "In five months I'll talk to them again" and now I'm here five months later and the next time we talk I'll almost be home. Wahoo! Mom I'm glad you got the letter I sent, I was going to ask you about that. And thanks for the pictures and updates about the extended family. I feel like the promises of the hearts of the children turning to the fathers and visa versa are being fulfilled more in my life personally because I feel a lot more love for our extended family and I feel like I want to find out about our ancestors and all that fun stuff. Well not like I didn't love our family before but it feels different now, I pray for them more and feel more connected to every in our family even though we're farther apart. Sort of ironic....

Today we're going to play volleyball with water balloons and ultimate frisbee if I can find one. Oh also, Saturday night our zone participated in a talent show and we acted out a parody of this talk show called Case Closed that everyone loves here. It's like a cross between Judge Judy, Maury, and one of those evangelical preacher shows, and I had to be the judge because on the show it's a woman. Eek! It was fun and everyone loved it because the elders played their parts really well (the case was that two companionships were fighting for custody of a family or the rights to teach a family because they were both from the same ward but one companionship crossed the boundaries to teach this family) Ok, I guess it's just one of those things where you had to be there but it was fun and we got it on video so when I come home you can see my debut in Latino television...woot.
Ok sorry this is short but a.) you know I always run out of time and b.) I feel like I don't have much to say because we just talked this morning.
Just know that I love you all and am so greatful for your love, letters, and support.
Have a great Monday!

Love,
Hermana Dance

Uh, phone call? I'm always the last one to find out anything...

Hey all!

Ok, before I forget-Is Mother's Day next week? Doh! I don't know anything about days, times etc that we get to call. I know it's sometime in May but they haven't announced anything.

Thanks for the pics and happy emails. Eeek so much I want to tell you all!

Observations:
1. Even though fasting has always been super hard for me and I used to do it grudgingly, it works miracles. My compnion and I have the goal to fast every week this transfer for our investigators and the members because we feel that they need it and we do too. We fasted two weeks ago for the ward, and yesterday tons of less active people came to church and our sacrament mtg attendance was 20 people higher than it normally is. It's like I stressed out and freaked out trying to save the ward and nothing worked (because I had the mindset that I had to do it all alone) and then we fasted and all these people came, our bishop returned after 2 months of being inactive, and the meeting was very spiritual. Yup, fasting rocks

2. I finally feel like I have been able to be an instrument in God's hands to bless the lives of other people. I hope I've been doing it my whole mission, but I guess what I mean is that yesterday God gave me the blessing of receiving a conformation or witness of that. Por ejemplo, Yomare, the woman I told you about who said we were an answer to her prayer a couple weeks ago bore her testimony and talked about how "two angels" came to answer her and when we started talking she felt as though Jesus were in front of her personally answering her prayer.

3. There is an oppostition in all things. This also works in our favor, because it means that when things are going rough and are super hard, we're guaranteed other experiences that will cause our joy to be as a sweet as was our pain (can't remember the scripture in english but it's in Alma 36:16ish?) Saturday we spent all day knocking doors on one of the hottest days of the summer while fasting, and the whole day we only taught one lesson. I felt super tired and discouraged by the end of the day, but then God gave me Sunday to help charge me up again. Every house we contacted on Sunday responded in a positive way, I felt like the Spirit was leading me by the hand, and we taught one of the most spiritual lessons I've ever been in. The woman let us in and we sang I am A child of God as the first hymn and in the second verse she started to cry. When we finished she told us that her mom had been mormon for 20 years and she died 3 months ago. We were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was so strong. God is so merciful and loves us all so much.

Yikes there's so much more I always want to say but never enough time....until the phone call!! :) Love you all so much!

love, Hermana Dance

P.S. No changes. I'm with the same companion (Hna Ruiz) that I've been training and we're still in San Miguelito 2.

Happy Spring

Hey all,
Thank for the emails mom and dad. Yeah, I think the ward has recovered a little because this week a lot more people came out with us to teach and helped bring investigators or recent converts to church. woot.
Blarg my thoughts are all muddled today and I don't know why. We just got back from eating lunch with the zone at Elder and Hermana Estribi's house because they live in our zone. They're an awesome senor couple and have been serving in the Misión Panamá for 4 years now. Transfers are next week, eek! Oh an awesome tidbit of news: If I don't get changed to an area far from the city, I get to go through the temple with Charlyn when she takes out her endowment before she leaves on her mission to Uruguay in June! Wahooo! She told me she wanted me to be her escort so I told her to call Presidente Madrial and ask him thinking he'd say no but he said I can go! yayyyyyyy! Now I'm just praying that I don't have transfers....!
I feel like things are finally starting to change in this area. The members are helping more, we're planning activities, and we have new progressing investigators. In two weeks we're planning on doing an activity/divisions with the YSAs for the whole afternoon which will help a lot. Also, one of the members who was on his mission in Nicaragua came home this week and is stoked to help us with the recent converts a less active people. We're also working on implimenting Alma 6:6 by writing out lists of the names of our investigators every week along with their needs, making copies, and passing them out on Sunday. It's sneaky too because I think if the members start praying and fasting for them ,they'll realize that's not enough and they'll start helping us more...hehe.
Love you all, sorry this is so short but I feel like I don't have that much to tell you. Se me fue de la mente. keep on keepin' on and bringing the sunshine to the Baltics!
Love,
Hermana Dance
Acts 2:46-47 blessings for going to the temple often and being united