From Jett 2-13-12 Pre-Carnival week

Well the rioting finished. It all started because the government wanted to mine on the land of one of the indigineous tribes here. The tribes here have their own lands here and it is usually pretty good, but the indians got mad and blocked off the pan american highway. They burned out some police stations and other stuff like that. THe police killed like 2, including a teenager and that made it even worse. But the government finally signed something so the indians chilled out. so the unblocked the highway, but it still isnt over. And while the tribes were protesting, lots of other groups joined the cause and it got crazy. But things are more or less back to normal. My Jr. Comp. is afraid of lot of things, and as we found out yesterday, a tied up iguana and a parrot. He would not even touch them. Everyone was amazed that me, the gringo was fearless with them, and he, the latin was scared. It was funny. I got a pic with the iguana that the family was going to eat, hope you enjoy it.
Things here are pretty good. We had a little tough time with finding new investigators. We have to push back our bap dates with Victor, Ligia, and her daughters because of various problems with the Word of Wisdom for both. We are still working with them. We want them to be baptized this month. I have faith that they will. Carnavales start this week on Friday. So the whole world here is going to turn into a crazy place where sin does not exist. It will really be a place that that scripture in 2nd Nephi describes perfectly: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry, for tomorrow we die. The people think that they will be beat with a ´´few stripes´´ like the scripture says, but then they will just go to confession after the week ends and all will be good. The other day we had a funny experience but a sobering one. We were in a lesson with this familly out on their porch. One of their neighbors arrived at his home and the family was telling him to come over to listen to us. He was busy collecting ´´provisions´´ for a party. He said, ´´I´ll wait until im 60, and then I will look for God.´´ We all laughed about it at the time and said that he doesnt know if he will make it to 60 years. It was funny, but now that I think about it, its sad that that is the mentality of most of the people here. Do what they want and then when they are old, go and change. But enough of that for you.
Things with Elder Aguare are good. He is a good missionary, just is a little timid. I am timid too but he is pretty timid at times. But when he breaks out of that, he teaches well and boldly. Thanks for everything and I love you! Have a great week!

Elder Jett Scrimsher

Jan. 16th 2012 - the Long Walk over the Bridge of the Americas

Things are good here. This week has been up and down. My comps toe is better we go on friday to have it checked on. I will look for shoes today i think. THe good news is that we had a baptism on Saturday. Her name is Carmen. SHe is the one that was going to be operated on and wanted to be baptized before the operation. So we were scrambling around trying to get everything ready. The service was good, it would have been better if a little more members showed up. Our ward mission leader was unable to get her under the first time so it was a double try. The sad part was she hadnt showed up to church at the appointed hour so we called her cell and her husband said that they were on their way to the hospital cuz she was in so much pain, due to her stomach. So she wasnt confirmed yesterday. We arent sure of which hospital she is in either. Idk if we will try to confirm her next sunday or in the hospital or what. It was really really weird. Our other investigators with dates didnt show up to church cuz they went to the beach. We went by yesterday and i was going to matchete them with various scriptures. But she told us that she hadnt drunk coffee all that day and she felt great so we were pretty happy about that cuz she is trying to break that addiction. So I didnt do anything. But we need to push the baptism to the 28th now. Haha yesterday we taught this guy and his wife gave us soup to eat and he offered us a beer to drink. We politely declined that offer, but it was funny. Also this week we did some awesome bus contacts, it was fun. The buses here are way loud so i was basically screaming so everyone could hear. That is something that our whole zone is doing now. We dont see a lot of the results but you never know. And Elder Russel M Nelson is coming to panama this week and we have a conference with him on Thursday. So i should probably shine my shoes good and all that haha. But its good that jenner is doing well and is happy. Haha i miss fiesta a lot. Yes occasionaly we get good meals here. I did divisions with the zls here in panama and we had dinner at the home of a senior couple missionary. She made us spaghetti and salad and gave us bread. And apples from washington and way good doughnuts. IT was delish. ANd i got a hot shower that the assitants house so that was good. Things are good here, im in good health, im not tired. Its been tough to find investigators that stick here, we mostly just teach someone once and then they dont go any further. But we have some people coming along. Changes are next week so we will see what happens there. Thanks for everything and i love you! Oh and last week we had a mishap on the bus and we went over the canal when we wanted to get off before it. So we had to walk across the bridge of the

A tough 2 weeks, Nov. 14. 2011

This week was wayyyyy tough. I do not know why. These last 2 weeks have been 2 of the hardest weeks ever on my mission. Training back to back is a challenge. My kid is a good one, but its still quite an adjustment. No one wants to listen, our appointments are falling through, members keep cancelling appointments to go out with them to teach their friends, investigators not coming to church, the attendance at church was really low, etc etc. I have never had 2 weeks of this kind of stuff in a row. Yeah a couple of day’s maybe, but 2 weeks is a lot. It’s been kind of tough on me. My companion Elder Hummel is having kind of a hard time with everything. The Spanish, the walking, etc is taking its toll on him. He kind of broke down on Thursday night and we went home early. But he is doing ok now. He is a good kid. And like I said, his mom is from Walla Walla. And she just told him that she has a child hood friend that lives in our ward in Burbank, so idk who that would be. Maybe you could look into that. She also says that she has another high school friend that supposedly dated you in high school, dad. We both started laughing when we heard that. Maybe you guys could try to make contact with her to make her happy. But I really hope that this week is a whole lot better than these last 2 weeks. I know that it is just a trail and test of our faith, and I know that the Lord puts these things in our lives to humble us. So we just need to humble ourselves and turn to the Lord to get out of it. Please continue praying for us, like I know you already do. I hope that next weeks email is somewhat more positive that this one. Ok I got to go. I love you and thanks for everything!

Oct 25 2011

This week was full of ups and downs. One day in particular, Friday was tough cuz all of our appointments fell through and no one was home etc. This whole week has been crazy cuz it was the celebration of Chitre's 163rd birthday. It started wednesday and ended yesterday. There was parades on wednesday and yesterday. We got some pics of both. And last night was a huge street party/drinking fest. We avoided that part of chitre during that time but we passed by and the street was packed of people and there was little tiny ponds and streams of beer everywhere. No one was home in any of the neighborhoods that we tried to contact either cuz everyone was at the parades or parties. It has been crazy this week. And its going to continue cuz Nov 2 is the start of one of three of Panamas independence days, with all three being in a row. So that week will be equally crazy and ineffective for the work. But church was really good. Our less active family we have been working with was there so now we will have a baptism this saturday as the father will baptize his daughter. And out of the blue, our other investigator, Jose, who has a date for the 29th as well came. We weren't sure if he could come cuz he was going to be called to help his uncle drive some car, but he told his uncle no because he was going to go to church. That was awesome because he hasnt been that consistent in attending cuz of little stuff like that that comes up. He also brought is cousin to church too. And another one of our investigators that had said she probably wouldnt be coming randomly showed up, by herself. She told us later that she had felt sad so she decided to come and that she felt a whole lot better after coming. That was awesome to see that she now recognizes that. So we are going to pray and hope that Jose is ready for the 29th to be baptized. He knows that it is true, but wants to come to church a little more to know for sure. All of it was a testimony to me about the power of fasting cuz we have fasted more this change than any of my last changes here in the mission. And our last fast was specifically for that desire, that he and that less active family come to church so they could make that sacred covenant with our Father in Heaven. It was a good week just because of that.
Elder Anderson has had some interesting experiences this last week. I wont go into detail, but its the kind of experience that happens when you gotta go, but you are far from any member to ask to use their facilities, if you get my drift. Im glad i havent had to do anything like that on my mission haha. We had a good Ward group night where we recieved about 12 references so we will be busy contacting those this week. Changes are this next week and we are thinking im getting hte boot but we will see.
Haha this last week I had a typical food dish of hte Kunas, one of the indian tribes here in panama. We had it with this other less active family. It was soup with yucca and this weird squash tasting vegetable, a whole cooked fish, lots of lemon, salt, and hot sauce. We had a little trouble getting it down but we managed.
Well this week was good and I hope this next week will be good as well. send my love to everyone. Nos vemos

April 4th 2011

This week was all right. Gen. conference was pretty legit, especially cuz us gringos watched it in english in the air conditioned high council room at the stake center so that was nice. The talks were way good. It seemed to go by way fast this year. I remember when I was younger the hours of conference seemed to drag by. Maybe cuz I'm actually paying attention now haha. Three more temples is legit, but my comp was mad cuz he wants one in Nicaragua. I told him maybe this was the conference that they would announce it but it didn't happen. O haha funny story. So when President Monson was speaking on Sunday, he starting talking about temples and we thought he was going to announce another one so we all listened and got way quiet. And then he said in a city over 2,500 years old. so we all started saying ´´jerusalem! its in jerusalem!´´ but then he just talked about the Rome temple. It was funny. But this change is basically over. it flew by. We placed a fecha with gustavo for the third saturday of April. he accepted it but he still has problems with the word of wisdom so we have to address those. But things are moving along with the marriage papers for him and his girlfried so that's good. The elders in samaria, who we share a building with, just married a couple and had their baptisms on sunday morning so it was pretty legit to see that. So some elders had a ward activity in their ward to find investigators and they decided to sing. One is from Idaho and he can play the guitar so he enlisted the zls and my comp and I to help. One of the zls plays the piano way good so he played that and I played a tambourine. We sang ´´marching ants´´ by the dave matthews band, it was pretty legit. I would send it to you but the gay bag checker at the grocery store stole my camera cord so I can't send pics from my camera. I'm looking here at the chinese electronic stores for one. Hopefully i find one soon. Well thats about it. Please keep sending letters, they are awesome. and nos vemos hasta la proxima semana!

Elder Jett Scrimsher

Feb. 22, 2011 - Transfer coming????

This week has been really different and a whole lot of stuff happened. We went to the temple on Tuesday. My companion Elder Guevara and I were late but the session hadn't started yet. We got ready but they didn’t have enough room for us and Elder Figueroa, another elder in our district. So we just did initiatory, which were cool. Afterwards we took a bunch of pics outside the temple. I’ve attached some photos of that to this email so they can be put onto the blog. On Wednesday we had interviews with Pres. Ward. Mine went well. Pres. Ward is pretty chill and relaxed. He asked me if I wanted to stay in Pedregal this change and I said I would like to stay, but if he needed me somewhere else, I would go without a fuss. Then he found out that Pedregal was my first area and told me that they like to change out new missionaries from their first area after two changes. He then wrote ´´changes´´ by my name so I’m thinking that I have changes this Wednesday. I’m nervous about that but I’m excited to go somewhere new. Our numbers were kind of down this week because all this stuff that happened the first three days. But we have this new investigator that we are pretty sure will be baptized. She has gone to church twice already. We were going to place a date with her yesterday but something happened so we pulled an audible in the lesson and didn’t do it. But she will probably be baptized in March. We have 2 or 3 people that we are pretty sure can be baptized for March. I’m kind of disappointed about that because I will miss them but that is just how it goes. I have been getting these random killer headaches lately. I’m thinking it is because of the heat and me not getting enough water so I need to drink more water during the day because the only water I get is when we have meals or if someone we teach is kind enough to give us some but that doesn’t happen much. Something kind of cool that happened yesterday. One of the families in our ward used to live in Tacoma, WA for like 6 years. The husband taught or something there and there is where they got baptized. They all know English so they always talk to me in English. It’s pretty cool. He said that it snowed a ton there, but I don’t remember it snowing a bunch in Tacoma. It just rains and when it does snow, it just melts. But oh well. Well, changes this week so I will probably be writing next weeks email from somewhere else. I’m going to miss the ward here, but that’s just what happens. Alrighty nos vemos!


Elder Scrimsher

Feb. 15 2011

Hola everyone,

Things are good here in Pedregal. I've been a little sick these last two days but im getting over it thankfully. Idk why i got sick, maybe from the water. Supposedly the water is safe to drink now that we have water after 2 monthes of no water or sporadic water but I'm doubting that. Investigators are doing well. It's frustrating at times cuz we teach 1 or two great lessons and make return citas and they aren't there or they just dont progress further than that. One of our families are moving to a different area too so that was a knife to the ribs. We have a guy named marcos levy and he knows that the church is true and said he will be baptized but he has to work every sunday for the next two months. So that was bad news, but he is such a good guy and smart too. So I'm probably not going to see him baptized cuz I'm thinking I'll be transferred this next change. My comp and I killed a mouse in our house this week. What an experience. We chased it down and my comp got it with his shoe. We have been un successful in previous attempts so it was awesome. Well I gotta wrap this up. Hopefully my dad puts this up on the blog. Thanks for your support and prayers. nos vemos!

Elder Jett Scrimsher