Week 33 (Jan. 02, 2017)

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Okay so this week was just a huge struggle of finding people to teach. I don't think we have ever had a week as bad as this one yet. 

On Tuesday we started by going to the clinic for my infection. But we spent pretty much the whole day in the clinic and when we finally got out and went to our investigators who live close by, they weren't even home. 

Wednesday we went to a neighborhood in our area that usually has 5 investigators to teach. So we started knocking on their doors and not a single one of the 5 were home. So then we went to the less actives houses. None of those three were home either. So we ended up just teaching a lesson to a family that are all active members. Pretty crappy day just walking around without results. 

Thursday we finally got some lessons in. We taught one lesson to a lady who wants to be baptized but she isn't married and can't be baptized without that. But she goes to church and is pretty good that way. We also taught one of our other investigators named Manuel S.  He and his wife are investigating but the problem with them is they are also not married. The struggle for marriage is real in Panama. Then we taught a lesson to a recent convert, he is cool, always listens and is always home.

Friday we went out to Anton, where we just had those two baptisms and we went to talk to the other girl about her baptism that fell through and we wanted to put another date with her. So we asked her mom, who won't listen to us. She said that she wants her daughter baptized in the catholic church and that was the end of it. So I guess we won't be baptizing her, such a shame. So after that we went and taught a lesson to a girl who my comp says is super positive and a good listener, but we have always been on divisions when he taught her so I hadn't met her yet. So we went and visited her, she had a ton of questions and we had lots of answers, but I don't think she will be progressing any time soon. She says she likes to do what she wants and that she doesn't like having all of the rules that come with religion. I tried to explain to her that they aren't rules but are more like safety nets that help keep us happy and in place, but she wasn't going for it. Which is dumb because I made a good argument of it. 

Saturday we did service. We helped a member build a chicken coup for 100 chickens. We had to dig a huge hole, and then move all the dirt to the coup. The hole will be the chicken grave where they will put all of the feathers and guts when they kill and eat all of the chickens. It took us all day to dig that hole. It was maybe a foot deep, but like 7 foot by 7 foot. The ground was so dang hard and dry. We started at 9 in the morning and finished at 6:30 in the afternoon. I think the member thanked us like a million times for it tho so it was pretty cool. 

Then Sunday we were thinking we would confirm those 2 baptisms from last week but they didn't show up. And also none of the members showed up. We had like nobody at church on Sunday, it was bad. Panama goes pretty hard for new years, not like the states, but they have a ton of fireworks and parties and stuff. My comp stayed up to watch them all. I was asleep at 10:20. My comp has been like that a lot lately. Stays up really late, and somehow makes it through the day. He is a strange guy. He is 22, but acts 6. He wears more cologne than Hunter an he doesn't care about the rules at all. Which really sucks because I want to follow everything with exactness and he just wants to have fun and eat lots of food. Like he got mad at me the other day when I cancelled our lunch, and we only went to dinner because one of the rules of the mission is to only eat one meal a day with members. But he doesn't care, and wanted to eat both. He does this nearly every day that we have two meals. 

Also on Sunday, we had dinner with a recent convert and her family. We had a  competition of who could drink water the fastest. So when we went the first time the little kid got halfway through his water and then just started laughing and spitting it all up. So naturally the rest of us started laughing and spitting up our water. Luckily I had already finished my water and didn't have that problem, but the other three all had it coming out of their noses!! It was hilarious!! 

And well yeah. that was our week. And next week will be just as bad, because we have a ton of meetings next week. Tonight we are having divisions with our zone leaders until Wednesday, then Wednesday we are going to the city for our migrations, then Thursday we get to work in our area, then Friday back to the zone leaders for zone conference all day, then Saturday we can work, and that's the week. We get only 2 days next week to actually teach and they wonder why our numbers are so bad every week. But whatever, changes are in two weeks and maybe then I will get a companion who really wants to work hard. 

Anyways miss you all!! Have a great new year!! 

Elder Hamblin