Escape from Carnivales

Thursday, a week ago, we attended the marriage of Yentze and Antonio.  They had to get married to get baptized. It was a long process.  We went to the wedding in the morning at the Justice of the Peace.  The wedding was much more personal and encouraging than I had expected.  We left from there to go to Panama City to escape carnivales.  We were told that we could expect to be somewhat of a target and that the roads would require at least 3 times as long for travel, so we just took a vacation.

Rod and I went shopping with Lonna, wife of the mission president.  We bought soursop, which I mistakenly thought was custard apple that mom always talks about.  The internet makes it sound a lot better than ours was.  We just threw it away after we tried it.  The mango wasn't all that wonderful either.

This is guaba, not guava.   Lonna called it cockroach in a cocoon.  It is a large black hard seed encased in a fuzzy, sweetish cocoon.  It wasn't anyone's favorite, either.  I saw ones about twice as wide and about 2 feet long at the fruit stand, but I passed.

Another photo of the soursop.

We went to Portobelo for a "training".  Actually, we've just added Perpetual Education Fund missionaries, the Harrops, to  our group here, and we did do a lot of sharing.

These are the guns which protected the harbor.  This was the site of Pirates of the Caribbean, the real ones. 

This man let me get a photo of his monkey.  It looks almost like they're dancing.

The president said 1/3 to 1/2 of the gold in the world passed through this building during the times of great fairs.  It doesn't look very impressive now.

This is at the baptism of the Ortega family.  President Quezada, branch president is with them as well.

Leydi has been playing only about 5 weeks.  She played Jesus Once of Humble Birth today.  Juan led the music.  He has a great ear, but has a hard time disciplining himself to learn the notes.

Abdiel is our fastest learner in Aguadulce.  He played three hymns his first Sunday.  He has some memorized as well.  We'd never seen anyone in the family until we visited and began teaching him.  Of course we hope to be part of a mission miracle.