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.