Greetings from Tucomen!!

What up family?
Good news, myldsmail has gone Google. It´s like a little comfort fairy sent from home because I feel like I'm using my normal email again, wahoo! Plus I can send cool smiley faces again . The only part we're missing is Google chat....sigh. Haha.
Being in a trio again was a little weird to get used to but I love my companions and since there´s three of us, there´s always something to talk about. At night it feels like a slumber party. I thought our area was pretty small but it's actually pretty huge and ripe for the harvest. Ha but seriously, more than ever these days I'm realizing how much the Lord really prepares people to hear and accept the gospel.
This week we found Caridad and her sister Karol. Hermana Herrera followed a prompting to turn around to contact Caridad and she let us in and we taught her and her sister. When we asked them to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet Karol told us she didn't need to because what more of an answer could she have than that we showed up outside her house? She said she's been having a lot of problems lately and has been praying and feels like we were an answer to her prayers. When we asked if she'd come to church she said yes so emphatically and said she'd go because she needs to and wants to be closer to God. Yesterday we passed by to bring her and her kids were waiting outside ready to go. She told us they'd been ready since 10 a.m. (we have church 12-3 here). She was excited about everything and in the investigator's class she basically bore her testimony about how we were sent from God to help her, how she feels something inside her (she called it a flame) and how she never accepted other missionaries or even went to church when her other sister or mom invited her to the adventist church. She's awesome.
Other news: Carnaval started on Saturday and goes until Tuesday but we stay away from the crazy areas so we haven't really noticed. The only good part about Carnaval is that you can spray random strangers with hoses or squirtguns and dump buckets of water on them for 4 days straight just because it's Carnaval. If I weren't a missionary I think I'd be sitting at the corner throwing buckets of water at the buses with all the kids, haha. So far we haven't really been hit just because most of them know we're from a church and they're more respectful, but in other areas of Panama they crack eggs over the hair of all the women-sick.
My area is like a giant suburb of Panama and there are neighborhoods called Barriadas with thousands of the exact same house crammed together without yards. Sometimes it makes me think of Mordor because someone is always burning garbage or weeds wherever we go. It's definitely dirtier than Volcan and I feel like I'm in a different mission. Since we've never lived in a super hot area I'm discovering all the problems my body has with heat. I think I'm allergic to sweat because I have a crazy rash, and my extremities are usually swollen all day. Gross.
Plus the mosquitos are eating me alive because there's no wind to keep them off here.
BUT, I still know God loves me :) Haha. And I'm hoping my body will adjust quickly to all the climate changes.
Welp I'm out of time but I will leave you with what I learned from the scriptures the other day. I started the Book of Mormom over and this time I was wondering why the Lord didn't just tell Nephi before they left Jerusalem the first time that they had to get the plates and that they should bring Ishmael's family? Yeah, part of it was probably to test their faith but I thought there must be another reason. Then I read in 1 Nephi 5:8 where Sariah talks about how now that her sons have returned safely, she knows God will deliver them and she knows God commanded Lehi to leave Jerusalem. This means that before all that happened, she didn't really have a testimony, or didn't really trust that Lehi was really commanded of God. Maybe she was even a little bit like Lot's wife, wanting to go back to Jerusalem. But after this experience, her testimony was firm. She needed that experience to gain her testimony. Interesante, no?
Ok well I love you all, sorry there are no pictures but I left my cord in Volcan I think so I have to wait until they send it to me here.
Keep on keepin' on!
Love,
Hermana Dance