Photos come with more difficulty these days

One of our students was calling her puppy.  His name is Lobo!!! I couldn't resist a photo of Rod with Lobo after all the Lobo stories he's told. 

Octavio is waiting for a mission call and arranged to meet with us to make use of this time.  He brought along his sister.  When they left the house I decided I need a photo.  We chased them down in the opposite direction that we were headed, even though we had to turn around.  We got the photo, retraced our path---and passed them in our own route.  Who knows why they chose theirs.  Anyway, two people on a bicycle like this is very common.  Unfortunately we don't have another piano for her and they don't live in the same house.

Lemon-aide -- first home remedies -- see video, then real doctor stuff, if that doesn't work...
   I spent my first time sick last week.  It was no fun.  I tried the brat (no not her -- Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast -- really BRT as no applesauce available) diet for two days and drinking lots of liquid.  Finally I resorted to Pepto Bismal.  It worked like a charm.  My stomach still isn't totally content, but I can work fine.  If it doesn't improve, the mission nurse said she'll order a stool culture.  One of the sisters today told us she buys water during this month because so many people are sick she thinks it is the water.  How should one know?  I don't.


Today during one of our lessons a bat was flying around.  Nicole tried to bat it out of the air with her hand.  I offered her my hymnbook and she stunned it.  We got this video.  Fun memories.  I hope the bat is happily eating insects again.  I do appreciate them, just outside.

We had dinner at our house with President Ward and his wife last night.  Poor man.  He had  more than one baptism, our dinner date, and the district called him (same day) and asked him to speak at a fireside (5 couples attended) they were holding.  He has trouble saying no.  His mission makes ours look like a piece of cake.  I love how our mission takes us into the homes of the people.  We get to try new things and have new experiences more than they do.  We also get to spend much more time together which we enjoy a lot.

Darin was pointing out that many of the things we try aren't our favorites.  He's right, but I still enjoy trying them.  This week we tried bollos, fried corn meal hot dog things, after I got to grind the corn.  I forgot to take a picture.  Rod was teaching our student during this time.  I thought he'd enjoy the teaching more than the grinding.  She also gave us a drink made from sprouted corn.  When we told another student that we'd had it, they accused us of breaking the word of wisdom saying that it is usually alcoholic.  This sister assured us that it wasn't, and I'm trusting.  Not real great -- I vote for banning it and would use the Word of Wisdom if necessary to bypass it another time.

Jose Angel Moran, a student from Penonome, called to tell us he'd received his call to Costa Rica.  It has been a long time coming, but he's thrilled.  We are too.  Missions can make a big difference in the life of a youth.  (Or old people like us, as well).  We are glad to be here.  Thank you for all your support.

End of an era, start of a new

Here is a makeshift table and chair for our lesson.  The girl at whose house we would normally have been was gone.  So we went to the young man's house.  As a bonus, we picked up one of his friends who lives close by.  We took this picture because we needed to be more than normally creative.  Often we use the arms of an overstuffed chair for a table, 5 gallon buckets work well for chairs.  They often don't have low tables where you don't have to crane your hands to play.  We are very anxious that none of our students get carpal tunnel.

Here we are with the table in use by the new student.  We often teach outside to pick up any stray breeze and stay out of the way of the family.

Janell insists that we have a graduation concert -- and she is right.  This is for Conception and Solano branches.  The first two rows are students who are playing.  They got to pick the hymn(s) to play.  There was only modest overlap -- I think there was some competition to find something different.  We played 'name that tune' to start things off as more people trickled in.  It puts a nice closure to our teaching and seems to leave people feeling good about themselves, the church and looking to continue to learn.  One young man played 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' and another got the keyboard to play accompaniment to Silent Night (we only teach the basics, he had to read the manual).
Janell had plenty of pumpkin bread and then we went to the grandmother of several of our students so that Janell could feel good about herself again -- She felt overdue for a haircut -- scalped is what she got!!  She forgot that some of these people may be Lamanites!!
Luckily, she likes scalped.

Here is Michael who played along with the keyboard for silent night.

I think letting the students learn (maybe even encouraging them) alternate songs like 'Titanic' helps keep them motivated.  Janell isn't as sure.  At any rate, Ashley is a star student here and had Titanic memorized. Our rule is that if you're learning a hymn a week we'll help you learn something else that you like.

Janell had her first sick day today.  She slept in the car every chance she got, and I got to give a first student lesson while she slept in their hammock.  Tonight seems to be better.  I think it was a blessing from the Lord so that she could direct the concert. He does send blessings our way.

Clean Sweep

 David was here for his lesson and Rod took over with the washing.  He's studying the centrifuge of the washer.  Usually it takes lots of patience for me.  He figured out that you can just squash the clothes in and usually the machine accepts it.  After over a year I find out this.
I should be grateful and I guess I am.

 This man was passing our house one day.  He has these plants cut to make brooms that people use to clean up the leaves outside their homes.  He posed, but wasn't really pleased when my camera was on video and it took me a minute to change it.  He had work to do.

 This woman was sweeping her leaves every day when we walked by.  One day I helped her sack them up.  Every day!! Not just in the autumn.  See her broom?  I found a saying on Facebook that I enjoyed.
It says "Women are angels, and when someone breaks our wings, we simply continue to fly on a broomstick.  We're flexible like that."

 

 Years ago I enjoyed reading a comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, (I think).  He had "You might be a red neck" sayings.  At the time I laughed because he said you might be a redneck if the crack in your van window goes all the way across.  At the time, we had two in that condition.  Here is my addition.  You might be a redneck if you are a rooster in Panama.

 Rod thought you might enjoy seeing our schedule.  It has about 85 students on it.  We are assuming some will atrophy, but we are plenty busy.  We keep saying we're going to say no, but we don't quite know how.  Today, we both said no, for a miracle.  A mom wanted her child to have an appointment but she was too young, attending a class already, and the mom wouldn't accept the only opening we had.  End of story.  Wow!

This schedule is after a week of changes.  The pristine one is below.  We'll print again tomorrow.

People are appreciative for the most part, and I think we couldn't ask for more rewarding work.  The Savior lives, and His gospel is true.

Our "Third" Mission Begins

We have had a week of miracles as we've begun work in the city of David. People have helped us find our way around and have been very helpful as we were a bit late here and there. We received a lunch (from a home business family), ice cold watermelon which even Rod, a dedicated non-melon lover, had to admit tasted pretty good in the heat when he had the bite of the heart, as well as various drinks.

This appointment goes for 3 hours and has 6 students. (not counting the baby). There were others who came and went around their seminary schedule. Unfortunately, no one seems to have great desire here, but we like to give everyone an opportunity if they ask.
This appointment comes after our marathon one, and has 4 students, all a bit older and interested. We came away from it invigorated after being so tired we wondered how we could face one more
These girls' older brother taught us the ropes in his ward. This is called "typical" dress. Lots of work goes into the hair jewelry. The sisters do it for relief society meetings sometimes.
One night Rod called me into our "bedroom" to see a small lizard. I took photos of him and then let him be.


Later as we were sitting at the computer, Rod felt something on his neck and brushed it off. It was the lizard again. He ran away, seemingly unhurt. When I went to bed that night, Rod was reading and I looked down and there was the lizard crawling up my stomach. I put my arm down to make sure he didn't reach my neck, and he JUMPED onto it. Then he jumped onto the bed. At that point (which I've been regretting because I should have taken videos of the jumping) we decided he was just too friendly and Rod carried him outside.
Here he is on the tabs of my scriptures.

We have missed two days of work this week because there is a blockage of the PanAm highway. Indigenous people are blocking it to protest work the government is doing with hydroelectric plants. It has been blocked for 5 days now, and there is no gasoline to be had because everything comes by the highway. The farmers on this end can't get their produce to market. It will be interesting to see how it all ends. I'd feel better with a bit more food storage, but Rod says we have more than most people. He's right.

Tonight I played for the wedding of Carlos Quintero, our guide for Bocas del Toro when Audrey was here. It started one hour 45 minutes late again. (the other wedding we attended was for the same family) I had been playing more than half an hour after the appointed time to begin when we received a phone call. It was from the mother who'd asked me to play. She said "Sister, did you remember that today is the wedding"? Only much later I thought of a possible other reply, "Yes, I'm here in the church playing. Did YOU forget?" There was a dinner afterwards, but Rod's patience had run out before the food came. We came home for tuna casserole. We are really programmed not to want to have our time wasted.

It's good to remember that this is our mission and our time is the Lord's.

A young man we helped with his mission papers has received his call---to the Utah South Mission!! That is where we live in Utah, I think. What fun!

Thanks to everyone who takes time to read this. It is fun to share.

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.