FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

Well to say that christmas down here is different than back home is a huge understatment. It is WAY different. everyone stays up to midnight on christmas eve and lights off a ton of fireworks. it was pretty legit to see but people were blaring really obnoxious and loud music the whole day too. but we had dinner with the family that we live with. it was way good cuz we actually had turkey and ham and not chicken for once. our mission christmas party was fun too. it was by the temple so i got some good pics by it. i havent recieved my package from mom yet but im hoping for sometime this week. i got a package at hte party though but it was from the mission and it had like some candy, some socks, a yo yo, and some other random stuff. but at least i got something. on christmas we had dinner at a families home and we were waiting for a taxi to take us back home. we waited forever and after a while, it started to rain. after getting soaked for a couple of minutes, elder lopez said, ¨Feliz navidad compa¨. for some reason i thought that was hilarious and lost it. but yesterday we had a baptism!! they were two baptisms but one of the kids is only eight so he counts as a ward baptism and not a mission one. but its still good that he got baptized and his older brother too. i hope that their parents start comimg to church because of it. their mom really wanted them to get baptized so she obviously thinks its important for them. but ya nothing else to report. It was good to be able to skype my family on christmas. i also called jared too and talked to him for like 15 minutes so that was cool. well i gotta go. Thanks for all your support and love.
From a very warm Panama;

Elder Scrimsher

Merry christmas from Pedregal!!

Theres going to be un Navidad blanca here in panama for me! i dont mean snow but i mean two people getting baptized on christmas! they are angel and ancarlos. they are ages 16 and 9 and their family is member but not that active but the mom wants them to be baptized. we are totally stoked cuz its on the 2nd and 3rd baptisms for my comp and the first for me. we really didnt have that much influence in it but we were over at their house a lot just reading hte scriptures with them and teaching them about reading as a family so we are way excited for them. this week has been pretty good. my comp is Dl so he had to go on divisions with the other elders so i was with elder reyes from hnduras for 1 day. he is a nice guy but is kinda weird and awkward, expecially when he started teaching about the law of chastity to this family that let us in. but he is cool. we are all stoked for the christmas party for the mission on thursday. we will all get the packgages for christmas from family and friends there and its nice to see everyone. we had a way good lesson yesterday and got some new investigators for this week. i guess im pretty blessed cuz elders whiting and voss in our zone havent been able to wash their clothes for two weeks cuz they havent had any water. so they showed up to our meeting today in shorts and t shirts. it was hilarious. weve had our days without water but they have it worse. its starting to get less rainy here and more hot. im not liking it expecially since it should be snowing cuz its christmas but whatev. i keep forgetting that its almost christmas cuz it doesnt look or feel like it outside. peoples houses are decorated but its not the same. we are trying to stress getting referals right now but its hard cuz the members never give us any and never have time to go teaching with us. but we are trying to change that. if zach has any ideas, i would dearly appreciate them. I think im getting better at understanding people here. im picking up more and more of what people say. so im excited about that. i was going to email some pics today but i forgot my cord so it will have to wait. i might end up buying another sd card here cuz im going to eventually run outta room on mine. but everything here is good. thanks for all the suppport from all of you. Merry christmas from Pedregal!!

elder scrimsher

My first 48 hours in Panama

Hola from Panama!

Wow these last two days have been a blur. WE got to the airport at 1230 am early Wednesday morning. President Ward was there to pick us up. He is a pretty legit mission president I think. Dad I gave Sister Ward your email address cuz they took pics of us and she wanted to send them to our parents. I think she has a blog too so you can check that out if you want to know more. My comp is Elder Lopez from El Salvador . Everyone says that he is a great missionary and works very hard. He doesn’t know that much English or at least he doesn’t speak it unless I really don’t understand him. Everyone here talks way fast so I'm having a hard time understanding everyone. But I’m sure with time I'll be able to pick it up. I’m in the Tocumen Zone, Pedregal Area. I’m about 30 min east of Panama City . Elder Whiting from my MTC district is in the same zone so we were together and we had a zone meeting today so I saw him there too. I’ve almost been hit by a car or in a car crash too many times already. Dad I think I’m going to just lock my debit card in my suitcase cuz president and out financial clerk said that we won’t need it and it’s just another incentive for someone to rob me. We get like 240 dollars a month so I think that will be enough. The area I’m in is good according to my comp. He was here a change before. He said that they had five really good investigators but lost all of them in the last two weeks. Two of them admitted that they were gay and wanted to stay that way, one´s mom made her stop, another just stopped, and I can’t remember the last one. Elder Lopez is a way nice companion though. He has been here for 13 months. The mission has a goal to baptize 1000 people this year, which has never been done and we only need 57 more to reach it this month. It rains like crazy here. WE spent 20 mins waiting in the rain yesterday for someone to get the key to the stake center in our area. I was soaked within minutes. My tie, my bright orange one, looks different now cuz it got so wet. Our "house" is a room connected to a member’s home. It is one room with a bathroom that has no lights so I can’t see if there is a spider or snake or other critter in the shower with me. I have no closet either so my stuff is hanging off the ceiling tile things. It’s humid here but not as bad as I thought. The buses are an adventure though. Being slammed up against a bunch of sweaty people and almost getting hit is legit ha-ha. My pday is on Monday, but everyone is emailing today cuz they didn’t have it this last Monday cuz of the changes. Well that’s about it. Idk what my address is yet, but ill try to figure it out. I got to go. Bye bye

Elder Scrimsher