"Hey everyone!! This week has been a pretty crazy one. This past Tuesday especially. We had to wake up at 3am in the morning to accompany this couple were trying to help get married. Someone in the church is helping us with the process but we had to help them get to this health clinic in the city where they got health exams. One of the required steps for getting married here in Panama. Its no small process. This causes the majority of people to just live together without getting married in this country. However, we managed to get them there and they did the exams. Were hoping they will either get married this month or next month. After that we can baptize them. After finishing with all that craziness, we went straight to a service project we had planned to help a member. She lives high up in the mountains and asked us to come cut down all the jungle growth near her home. That was a super fun service project. However my comp and I felt dead tired after. We did our best to visit some people that day but most appointments fell. We also had another service project with a member that moved here from Venezuela. He bought a large home with a lot of unkept weeds and grass. We happily took another opportunity to go work with a machete in service clothing rather than white shirt and tie. haha!
They had these ducks on their property. Of course, I had to catch one. haha!
Were starting to get in the swing a little more in our area. Were planning at least 6 to 7 lessons daily. We usually have at least 5 daily. We spend a good portion of the days walking as usual. Were finding a lot of new people that seem really positive. We've also been visiting less actives and we were happy to see that a less active person we've been teaching came to church this past Sunday. This upcoming Saturday we have the baptism of our investigator Robelia planned. We luckily have a good translator named Edwin that just sent his mission papers in and has been helping us a lot with lessons. We had 15 lessons with members this week. That's pretty tough to do. We also had a pretty good number of lessons with other investigators and less actives.. Something pretty funny happened this week. Two nights ago I woke my companion up at about 2 am. He said I was talking in my sleep and sharing one of the lessons while I was sleeping. About how families can be eternal. haha! That's a good sign. I'm preaching the gospel in my dreams in Spanish. haha! I'm not surprised I was teaching the lesson about families. Its usually the second lesson we share with investigators called the Plan of Salvation. I always put special emphasis on eternal families. I love my family! Anyways.. I just thought that was funny. He said I talked with him a little about the lesson and then I stopped talking. Today we had a zone pday. Not everyone showed up but most people did. We just played soccer and hung out a little bit. It was pretty fun. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to share the gospel. I feel the spirit so strong. I've also learned that over this past year I've gotten a little bolder. One of our investigators is named Jorge. Hes this huge muscular guy with tats all over his body. Hes over a foot taller than me and honestly a little intimidating. Hes recently gotten out of jail. One day while we were out walking we saw him and without hesitation I walked straight up to him, told him who we are, and asked him if we could share a message (I felt prompted to do it). It turns out, hes a super nice guy and is happy every time we meet with him. He has problems and I've had to call him to repentance for many of the things hes currently involved in. Not in a rude disrespectful way, but with the desire to help him get his life on track. We continue to visit him weekly and I feel he has a lot of ability to grow. This past Sunday we taught him the word of Wisdom lesson and we gave him a blessing after he asked us to. He is but one of the people that we visit and are currently teaching. I've learned, I will never look at a person as the way they are now, but as they could be. Those who struggle, need this gospel and we cant be afraid to do what the spirit tells us to. We are all not perfect. perfection is not gained in this life, but in the life to come. I love this gospel and know its true. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to be here and give everything I can to help this gospel reach the 4 corners of the earth. I think I've talked about the biggest events of this past week. I hope all of you have a good week!!!"
Elder Hawes
"A pic of me in our area."
"Our neighbor owns a monkey. HA!"
"Pics from today near where we played soccer."
"That's the only kiss I get for about the next year"
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