Moving on to the third group of students

Many thanks to our Pleasant Grove ward for the Christmas aprons.  They are filled with messages of encouragement and we enjoy them.  Getting them was another matter.  They came in two packages.  One package was delivered here locally, the other we were required to drive half an hour to David because they said it was too big for this post office to handle (it was identical to the other!).  The post office was closed for holidays for about 3 weeks on our regular day in David.  When we finally went, we received a parking ticket while we were waiting in four lines to get the package.  We found out (of course the hard way) that one must go to the city offices and buy cards for 20 cents apiece which must then be dated and left of the dash of the car. The ticket was only a dollar. Rod says it's amazing that anyone would bother to try to collect the dollar, but with a hyperactive wife he obediently went down and paid it.  We have a stack of cards in the car which we will likely never use, and might forget anyway.  Panama!!!

We had our last lessons in Puerto Armuellas this week.  These younger siblings of students took advantage of it.  Our students are teaching them to play.  (Not the hymns, but chopsticks of course)

Chopsticks.  Sometimes there are magic moments with beloved students.

Here is our farewell "concert"  It wasn't well attended, but those who were there enjoyed it.  Hermana Hermalinda helped us with the food, flowers and tablecloth, and then did the clean up leaving us free to visit and begin our drive home before it was too late.  I am so grateful for wonderful friends who support us in the work.

Raul has been learning music for a long time and has practiced English since he was a small boy and began to be friends with missionaries.  He is a returned missionary and continues to work at the music.  He likes to play the fast hymns with GUSTO!!  He approached us this night to tell us that he had encountered our nephew, Britton Watson, on facebook and they had made the connection.  Pretty fun!
Tairyn, who is directing, has beautiful hair that is admired by all the American elders. She earned her piano.  We hope it will be a blessing for a long time.

And here is the entire group of students in this tiny branch.  Jayniss, far left, is not a member.  She is very involved in school and went to the U.S. during the course of the lessons.  We thought she would just stop, but she had a goal and she worked hard.  She has played in church, and she won her piano.

Thursday night we had our concert in Volcan, another small branch.  These are our students.  We don't understand why, but we had far less success here in terms of gaining the pianos.  We did involve more people in the community.  Joanna, the shortest in front, found us through her adopted grandfather, an American who came here, found a youth who needed him, and has blessed their lives.  He bought the piano for her and is encouraging her in her music, to the extent that he is willing to drive her here for lessons (since we are discontinuing our visits to Volcan) even though it is a 45 minute drive. When we get our schedule fixed for David, we hope we can squeeze her in.

At his last lesson, Henry sneaked over and lived a bit of his dream, finding himself behind the wheel of a cute blue car.  He is such a friendly, outgoing boy.  I have loved teaching him.

When we first came, I made pumpkin bread for a baptism.  The mother of our student, Katherine, on the right, asked if I'd teach them to do it.  They never a fixed a date, so I offered to do it at our last lesson.  Katherine won her piano and plays with confidence.  I love to watch her.

Yesterday was our day of miracles.  We'd made an appointment to visit Henry and have him play his 10 hymns at 9:30.  When we were ready to leave we couldn't find the phone.  We knew we'd had it the night before, but it was nowhere.  We went back to Katherine's, and it wasn't there.  Home again with no luck.  We decided to go teach our last lesson in Solano.  Sister Garcia suggested calling it (are we not techies or what?).  We went home, charged our old phone, and the lost was found.  It was in the bathroom on the tank, hidden by the sink.  Our bathroom is tiny.  The funny part to me was that all morning I was very calm knowing that Rod had had the phone and I was guiltless.  I can be very patient with him but not with myself. When we found it, of course, I realized that I had had it last.

We went to David to fix a schedule yesterday.  We'd made an appointment with a student to show us where people live.  He was sleeping and didn't want to come.  Another youth was at the church and took us.  We found about half the homes we need. Then we went on to another ward where missionaries were to meet us.  One was new to the area with a hurt foot.  It was a miracle for both sides that he could learn his area in  the luxury of a car and we could learn our area.

Elder Nelson said we should be looking for the hand of the Lord every day.  We found it this week. 

Starbursts

 We've been taking photos of our students as we finish up in the district of La Concepcion and begin in David.  This is Sulia.  She gets up early to receive us on Wednesdays.  She directs and is helping organize the music in the branch of Puerto Armuelles.  I loved how her attitude shines from the photo.

Sulia's family has 3 or 4 grapefruit trees.  There is an ABUNDANCE of fruit. (and seeds -- looks a little like a star bursting -- or not).  Her grandmother gave us a large bag, and we've been enjoying them except for the seeds. 

One grapefruit, many seeds.

Teofilo and I were in the sun.  He decided to fix that.  The roof moves, you just put it where you need it to block the sun.

 This glorious yellow tree looks more golden in the photo, but it is YELLOW and wondrous.  I kept saying I wanted a photo.  One Sunday Rod suggested I stop and do it.  When I hesitated, he said he'd seen some beginning to drop their flowers, so don't blame him if I didn't get it.  Of course I stopped.  The next few days I noticed the blooms were all gone, suddenly.  He was right, right, right.

Here is a pineapple growing.  I never knew they had this much foliage or that they had the shoots from the bottom.

 These children have the sun and shade problem figured out.  They waved and smiled when we stopped for the photo.  They may have been playing house.

How would you like to live in Panama in a long fur coat?  This dog has figured out how to take full advantage of the cool cement floor.

We attended a satellite feed of a meeting for our mission with Elder Russel Nelson of the 12 apostles this week.  I went hoping that I would receive counsel to make a real difference in my life.  One of the elders asked him, during a question and answer time, "How can I deepen my relationship with the Savior?"  He turned to the guide to the scriptures (we have it in Spanish, we're not sure if it is in English) and took us through a few paragraphs of scriptures about the life of Christ (pg 106).  He then said, "If you  take the time to master these scriptures, you will achieve your goal."  Now I just have to pray about what "master" means, and study better.

His wife told the story of a missionary who was very successful.  In his exit interview the president (Elder Cooke) asked him how he did it.  He said he'd learned long ago that obedience brought success, and that EXACT obedience brought miracles.  I can hear Elder Packer saying "Obedience is a spiritual cure-all".

Sister Nelson talked about changing your eyes so that they contained the lenses of the Spirit.  I think that must have something to do with a quote I like that says "He saw everyone through the eyes of Christ and treated them accordingly".

Elder Nelson talked about the word Enthusiasm.  He broke it down (probably with Monte's program's help) and said it means en--within, and Tusiasmo --God within us.  He talked about having this attitude and how it would make our work better.  I was thinking about one night in Volcan.  It was our last appointment (7-8:30), and the girl wasn't working hard, so I was a bit discouraged, not to mention hungry.  We went to the appointment, and the girl was EXCITED to learn.  Two hours later Rod was dragging me away, and I was no longer tired or hungry.  There is magic in the Spirit of the Lord to help in our work.


We talked to many of our children this week.  We always love it when they have time at the same time we do -- we're not sorry to be missing the floods in Corvallis -- tough when you get 300 year floods every 15 years.

Trucks and Teddy Bears

 

This is our own 'hidden picture', like in the Friend magazine.  If you look carefully, there is a living creature in this nativity scene.  Look first, and then, if you need help, follow the pink ribbon down from the tree.  It is a live bird.  He had the ribbon tied around his leg and wasn't pleased about it.  The next week when I asked, they'd let him go free.

Dafne's brother made a house out of our cards. (He played memory for a time by himself first.)

Karyn, at the piano, refuses to have her picture taken.  The rest of the class is directing.  I thought we were learning well, but when Ana tried to direct for the baptism, it didn't work well.  There is lots to learn.  When the congregation sings the timing or tune wrong, it is pretty hard for the pianist and director to change it.


A little humor.  Daphne's brother and his teddy bear decided to join the class.



I thought Stormy as well as other children might enjoy this.  Baby animals really are attractive.  They told me this one is "orejon"  "Big Ears".  Jumbo is orejon too.



We saw this truck parked up in Volcan.  We finished the video and as we finished, the owner came out and got into it and started driving towards us.  We hopped in the car and moved as fast as we could on the ROCKY Volcan road.

It is time to be moving on in our teaching.  We're preparing to go to the city of David.  We talked to the president here.  He has LOTS on his plate.  His wife is having trouble with a pregnancy, they had to move and decided to build a house, and then there is much work in the branch.  Rod has been serving as a counselor.  Really he just gets people to speak for Sacrament meeting, but I can only imagine what a relief that is for President Rodriguez.  I wish sometimes we could be more than two people, but the truth is that we need to figure out how to train someone else to do the work so that it can continue when we are no longer here.

I am so grateful for parents who taught us habits of attendance and service to the Lord and to others.  It is a grand gift.  I'm grateful for the guide that it is in living a full life.

Sweet and Sour

 Abish Romero was baptized tonight.  Her sister, Ashley, is a student and she played prelude of several songs and four songs for the baptism.  Abish had written the message on the board. It says "Today, January 7, is my birthday and I am being baptized.  Her younger sister, Ashlani, is a poster child for Leukemia.  I often look at Abish as the forgotten child and think of Rod's mother.  She had a younger sister who was very sickly and died when she was about 10 or 12.  Mom said she was jealous of all the attention her sister received and sometimes behaved badly because of it. 

A student gave me 3 naranjillas.  They looked like kiwis growing on a bush.  The juice is milky and sour like a lemon.  We tried a drink with it, and also tried mixing it with frozen pineapple in a milkshake.  It isn't our favorite.

Here is the inside.  It is pretty.  Oh well.


Our triumph of last week has turned into our trial for this week.  Oriel is too old for a mission.  We thought we had checked before, but now he has to face this after high hopes.  I'm grateful for the atonement of Christ that covers all pain.  He just has to find his way through this.  Too bad we're so far away.  But...Thank Heaven for internet communication.  He has become dear to us.
He has gotten active again, but was thinking that after a mission and that growth and learning experience, he would be better prepared to decide if he should go to school and what curriculum -- now he needs to move on with his life and find a good path forward.

Holidays are not the same away from family

 Yinive's (Franseshi) family has just acquired a calf.  It reminded me of when we used to help calves learn to drink milk from a bucket.  I wanted to put my hand in it's mouth and let it suckle, but now my hand is too big and I am too aware of germs.

This couple Hermana Edilma Jimenez  and her husband, Ebanista,  (grandparents of our student Ruben) are posing at his baptism.  He had told me a month or so ago that he would be baptized when the Lord let him know he should.  His baptism was scheduled for 8 a.m. January 1.  I was prepared to sing and help with the music, but it started late (why do I never learn) and we had to leave to attend another branch to support our students.   At least, we got to stay for the actual baptism.

We went to visit them tonight.  We are getting to know people enough that it can be a little comfortable to visit.  It is fun to hear of their life and try to understand how they make choices.

Last night we were invited to two dinners.  The first to invite was a family of two of our students.  We prepared a tuna casserole and pumpkin bread with lemon sauce.  They enjoyed both.  Then we came home about 10:30.  I went next door where our neighbor, Dinah, had invited us for Cuban pork.  It was wonderful food, but we saved it until today.  I also visited with an American who's become a citizen here.   He is married to a woman from Cuba and has been for quite a while.  His Spanish is poor and her English broken.  Good luck with that.  He didn't act like it might be unusual to not speak better.

They partied until after 3 a.m.  Rod was convinced they invited us so we'd be more understanding of the noise.  I did wake up to the fireworks at midnight, but the music was mild compared to the discotheque in Aguadulce.  At a different hour, I would have enjoyed it.  We have learned to sleep through a lot -- without the side benefits that the patter of little feet and sound of happy voices brings.



Currently there is a "singing" frog, a female who is advertizing for a mate.  She sounds like a very loud, very fast woodpecker.  We sleep through that, too.



The people in the branch sang "Happy Birthday" to me today.  They prefaced it with a lovely thank you  for the gift of music to their youth.  It's nice to be appreciated.  Each time I feel that I vow to send out more appreciation.


We actually attended another branch today to support the youth there in playing the piano.  It was definitely worthwhile and points out the blessing of having a music person called in the ward so we can work with them so that the music continues when we are no longer here.  There's always more to do (Thank Heaven).  Work is such a blessing.


Our real triumph this week is that finally Oriel Jordan's mission papers are complete and he is waiting for his call.  Rod has spent hours working on it.  It shouldn't have been so difficult, so now we'll try to see if we can help to make it easier for others.  I guess we can have patience because we know the Lord has patience with us.  Happy New Year!!!