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