Eight Weeks in Panama

Alright I have thirty minutes to write so here it goes! 

This area, like I said a week ago, is really different from Chitre. I already said that everything is sooo green, but again I`ll say it is soooooo green. It`s really beautiful! I've learned that the reason it`s soooooooooooo green here is because of how much it rains! When it rains it RAINS! We always carry around umbrellas with us just in case it rains. When we leave the house I have to keep all of my books and anything that can`t get wet in plastic ziplock bags, which I bought here. 

So before I got here there were only two sisters and two elders in the church here in this area. Now there are four sisters and two elders. Since there are three companionships here instead of two, the area had to be divided differently. Last week the bishop gave us the new divisions of the area. The other day (I think it was two days ago) Hermana Alvarez and I were tracting in what we thought was our area. All of a sudden these really really dark clouds came flying towards us super fast. We kept giving each other looks and I told her I was reallllly nervous. She was really scared too so we decided to stop. There was this house that had an overhanging roof...not really sure what to call it...so we found shelter there. It got really windy and super dark but it didn't rain or anything. Hermana Alvarez said that we would wait for fifteen minutes and then start walking if it didn't rain. Ten minutes later it started pouringggg. The rain was coming down so hard that even though we had a roof over our heads we had to hold our umbrellas to the side to keep from getting wet. While we waited for the storm to calm down I read a chapter from the Book of Mormon..in Spanish of course... to Hermana Alvarez and she helped me with the pronunciation. Every once in a while we would look up from our umbrellas and see another burst of lightning. My companion would say, "Vamos a morir" [We're going to die] every once in a while. So the rain never really stopped coming down. Finally we decided to pray to know if it was safe for us to leave our temporary shelter. After that we started walking in the rain with our umbrellas. I got soakeeddddd. Literally head to toe everything was drenched. As we were walking back towards our home I noticed little red flakes on my feet. So it turns out that the soul of my shoe is red, and it was literally being torn apart because of the rain. So I`m hoping that my shoes will last for a year and a half. A lot of people here use Crocs because they`re plastic. They dry super fast...I have a pare of Crocs but they`re not the kind that other people have here. I hope that my shoes will be okay. 

So the other missionaries want to leave and I still have fifteen minutes left. I think I`m going to make them wait for me. 

Another difference between this area and Chitre is the people. The people are more direct here. When we try to talk to people, when we`re tracting, the people will say, "Speak to me." 

Alright so I`m getting kicked off the computer by my companion. 

Sorry folks. 

Love you all, 

Hermana Koehler