Una Gringa en Panamá: Conference in Panamá

Happy Thursday everyone,

If you are seeing this for the first time I added a bunch of friends and family to the email group. If you don’t want these emails you can tell me and I will take you off.

Here is Alyssa’s email from Monday and the link to the blog which always has tons more pictures than the email. If anyone has any questions they would like to ask her let me know. I will send her a list of things to tell us!

Okay first and foremost: my notes I took throughout the week.

There is a store here called Dorians. It’s kind of like TJ Maxx or Ross but better. I bought a skirt that was originally 50 dollars for 8 and a pink brand pj sweat shirt (our house is cold at night) that in the states would cost like 30 or 40 dollars. Yeah I paid 3 and they have aeropostale stuff for like 7 dollars. Kinda cool.

They have American things here but they are super expensive. I made gooey bars for conference and it cost me 20 dollars but they were so good I didn’t care. It was worth it, and now everyone thinks I can cook.

Will you send me a little English hymn book? Latinos can’t sing that well... kind of depressing, so since I am like the only one who can everyone wants to listen but they all want to hear it in English and I can’t remember all the words.

I may or may not be in South America... not entirely sure... All I know is that I am on the east side of the point between America’s bridge. (According to Google she is on the East side of the Panamá canal. So is Panama on 2 continents being divided by the Panamá canal or is it in North America or South America? It would appear most sources consider it part of North America and the line being drawn between Panamá and Columbia. However we know that Panamá separated from Columbia which is clearly in South America. So I think we are safe to say she is on the South American side of the Panamá canal but that is still in North America)

(The Green Dot is the America's Bridge and the Red Dot is Alcalde Diaz)

Please tell Denis and Arne happy late birthday for me. And tell Eli and Marion happy birthday on the 18th for me.

Will you Google if there are more Spanish speakers or Chinese speakers in the world..? (according to Wikipedia: Standard Chinese – 1151 million people and Spanish 500 million people)

I got the package, and I loved it! And my zone says thank you for the treats... I didn’t even get a chance to look at it before the Elders had all swept in and taken something. Haha but that’s alright, I didn’t care. I don’t need to eat that much candy anyways.

I LOVE MY ZONE!! The Elders kill me!! They are all hilarious!! I feel like the little sister and they're all my brothers.

Elders Quimiz, Tzep and Ulloa

Hermana Gonzalez, Elder Fajardo and Kipp

Alyssa, Elder Willis and Jensen

Conference was awesome. FUNNIEST THING HAPPENED!! OH I WAS DYING!! So we were watching the last session and Willis was sitting on one side of me and Ulloa on the other (The gringos got to watch it in English!!) then I look over and Willis is sleeping. Ulloa thought he was praying because he had his arms folded, his head down, and his eyes closed. Anyways about 3 minutes later I hear this creaking noise coming from his chair and I see that he is slowly tilting to one side. So I poke Ulloa and then literally 2 seconds later BAM!! He falls and jerks awake and I died laughing!! And then every time I thought of it again I just started laughing again!! Oh how I wish I could have filmed that!!

Elder Willis, Anell and Elder Ulloa

Okay next, I have started sleeping in jeans... why you ask?? BECAUSE THERE WAS A SPIDER THE SIZE OF A TENNIS BALL IN HNA. GONZALEZ'S BED!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah I’m freaked out... (ummm me too, what kind of spider besides a tarantula could possibly be that big, I don’t think I really want to know)

Okay now I will respond to your email.

I will have a different comp at Christmas. Send Teriyaki beef jerky please. I don’t know what else. Maybe those shoes.

Chinos are exactly like those stores. (I told her I picture Chino’s to be like those little tiny stores in Mexico or Chinatown that stink and sell really weird things) We have super markets and we can buy stuff there, the problem is we only can go like once a week. So no worries its fine.

This is her 8th month mark (Hermana Gonzalez, her companion). She kind of gave up on the English thing L. It's not an easy thing learning a different language.

Hermana Gonzalez, Alyssa, Elder Willis and Elder Astudillo

The problem with our house is that the landlord won’t do anything. We have told her time and time again and she doesn’t do a thing. We have ants building tunnels on our walls, huge spiders, rats, etc. so we just learn to live with it.

Ulloa and Tzep are Zone leaders and Quimiz and Willis are district leaders.

Yes that was from crepes and waffles. (the yummy dessert thing – picture on last week’s blog)

Speaking of not having fun. So I am the only English speaking sister in my zone. So for conference I was in a room by myself with 4 Elders, and we almost got in trouble L but it’s like well I don’t know what to tell you. (Ummmm not sure either other than if it was set up for Gringo’s were in one room and Latino’s in another, it is what it is, not a big deal, moving on..)

Elder's Willis, Jensen, Kipp and Ulloa

The monkey was jumping around by someone’s house. No trees or cages. But there are wild monkeys here so I’m not surprised.

I like all the cards. The only things I can’t do much with is the recipes.

We watched it at the church (conference). The church is about a 10 minute walk. I’m glad to hear that you watched conference. We had to feed ourselves. We pretty much just have a fridge (I asked what her house had besides beds, and table)

Hermana Gonzales, Elder's Fajardo, Quimiz, Astudillo and Tzep

We get $110 on the 1 and 15 of every month.

Favorite thing is my zone haha and the mountains. (Asked what her favorite thing about Panamá thus far is) I tried to take a picture of the mountains and the view. (see attached) And the kid sitting next to Ulloa his name is Anell and he speaks English. He is going on a mission soon but doesn’t know where yet. I told him he should go to Salt Lake!