Two Weeks in Panama

Hermana Hannah with her Guatemala MTC companion and her district.

[By way of explanation: Hannah's aunt and uncle live in Aberdeen, Maryland. A family in their ward has a son serving in Panama. They told their son to say hi to Hermana Hannah from her aunt and uncle if he happened to see her. It turns out he's her district leader.]

Haha yeah so Elder Slater told me that he knew my uncle and I kind of looked at him all confused and then he explained. It really is a small world! So here they call your first district leader your "Dad." It`s super funny. We took an awkward family photo. I left my backpack at the church because I didn't want to carry it but I don`t think there`s any way that I could upload the photo anyways but you`ll be able to see it eventually. Maybe when I work in a big city there will be a place where I can use a computer that can upload things. So yeah, small world. 

That`s awesome about Owen winning a bike!! I really wish that we had bikes here. It`s not hilly at all and it takes so long to walk anywhere. We`re actually taking a lot of buses because its impossible to get to our area otherwise. Right now we live in our area but we`re changing that next week. The place that we`re staying is wonderful but it`s not a good missionary house. My experience with moving and being involved in the decision making process really helped because my companion and I had to decide where we would be living. We`re not moving for another week. It was a hard decision to make but it really feels like the right thing. I think everything will work out. The new house will be closer to the bus stations, the church, and the other missionaries. I think it will make missionary work easier. It`s been strange here because we haven`t really been teaching, we've more been preparing the area so that other missionaries can teach. I guess that`s what opening an area is all about. 

I know that everything will work out with Dad's work. We've always been able to get through hard things in the past so I think everything will be okay.
[Explanation time again: They are having layoffs at Hermana Hannah's dad's work this week. We are hoping he will keep his job. Was that a bad thing to e-mail her? Probably. :( But I did tell her we know Heavenly Father helped him get that job and if he loses it, Heavenly Father will help him get another one.]

So after I told my companion about Grandpa last week she was really concerned and said that my family can`t tell me things like that through email. Apparently if anything bad happens like a family member dies or is in the hospital you guys need to contact the mission president. That way I don`t find out through email and I can stay updated. I guess there`s been bad experiences in the past where missionaries found things out through email and had a really hard time. I`m glad that he`s doing better. It seems like the worst is over.

Thank you thank you thank you for deciding to include what you said about discouragement. I wrote down what you said. I really have felt like I haven`t been progressing with Spanish and with this area. What I've come to realize is that I really am in this area to prepare it for other missionaries. I don´t think that my numbers will be a measure of the success here. What you said also applies to my Spanish. It seems like I`m not progressing. When I think about it though there are some important words that I hear so much that I remember them...like "Parada" which is stop. We have to say that in order for the bus to stop. We say that word sooo many times a day. We've been trying to not only get to know the area but see how long it takes to get from one place to another. 

A mission is a lot of work and it`s hard but not in the way that I expected. My companion and I have a lot of fun and she`s like my best friend here. The hard part is when I get frustrated. I get frustrated when I feel like I`m not progressing, when I feel like we`re not really teaching, and when I can`t communicate because of my Spanish. It`s also been hard because Hermana Molina and I keep getting sick. We joke that Thursday is sick day because the past two Thursdays we've been so sick. It`s been stomach problems, I haven`t thrown up but we had a lot of pain. Last Thursday was really sad. We were in so much pain just feeling like we were going to throw up and the President of the Branch had invited us over for dinner. They had talked to us before about what food we liked and we know that they´d gone through a lot of effort to make something that we would like. Sooo we went over to their house to eat even though we were sick. They gave us soo much food and we had to eat all of it because we didn't want them to feel like we didn't like their food. There was potatoes, and cheese, and chicken, and rice, and platinos (fried bananas that they put sugar on...I think...they`re really sweet not really sure how they make them). So afterwards I felt so sick but I was trying really hard to look like everything was okay. I saw the Hermana go to the freezer and I got scared so I asked if I could use there bathroom. I just sat in there in pain for a while waiting to feel better and hoping that I could avoid whatever it was they took out of the freezer. Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky. When I got back a full bowl of ice cream was in my place. So I had to eat all of that too. After dinner the President took us to see the potentially new apartment. Hermana Molina and I kept giving each other faces when he wasn't looking at us. We didn't get to see the apartment because the road was blocked off. Later we went to the church because it was Noche de Groupo which they have every week. We asked the Elders to give us as blessing. We were laughing and feeling sick and it was great...I hope that Thursday really isn't sick day. I´m not sure how well written that story is cause I was trying to write it fast. 

But yeah so things here have been crazy and funny and confusing and frustrating and I haven`t really been able to write in my Journal every night because I`m so tired by the end of the day. I guess that`s what being a missionary is all about! 

Really it`s been a cool experience and it`s only been two weeks!

Lots of love,

Hermana Koehler