Vista Alegre #8 “Apostles are always pretty cool…”

familia Perez, my fav Cunas!

I finally found Hna Campbell after 3 months!!

We got to listen to Dallin H. Oaks at the church in Cardenas, which is where the temple is... So beautiful! And my first time seeing the temple!

Just proselyting in Panama

We found this cool tree that is actually just completely covered in spikes giant spiders and webs. Like Giant spiders. Terrifying, but too cool to not take a picture with it.

My fav Mama Cuna! She's teaching me to speak Cuna. Na is the only word I really got down (hola haha)

Hola Familia!

Happy Halloween! I am thinking of dressing up as a missionary this year. And I'll even do some proselyting to make it really realistic lol. Panama also has halloween, and I think it is the same thing! We'll find out tonight!

The really amazing part of this week was having the opportunity to listen to Elder Oaks! I absolutely looooved him and his wife! I loved how he started off his talk by telling us his authority. And then later told us, he was actually also describing our authority as missionaries, hermanas included. I felt the Spirit confirm that authority in my heart, and testified of the importance of missionary work. Just the thing to get me really motivated. He also talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation. He said talked about repentance and related it to our investigators and how literally our whole lives are focused on Christ. He also asked us to pray to know if the things he testified are true. With that challenge, I realized I had never prayed to know if the Plan of Salvation really is a plan of God, a plan for me, and what I chose before this life. I did do as he asked and prayed to have that confirmation in my heart. To be honest I was expecting some kind of spiritual burning or awed realization and was slightly disappointed when I didn't feel that. Later I was reading my Patriarchal Blessing and read how I was a very valiant daughter and had a strong desire to come to this Earth and gain a body. I realized that I didn't need some magical awakening of the soul... I already knew it was true!  I offered up a prayer of gratitude that I know the Plan of Salvation is for me and that I knew it in the life before. I can hardly believe how blessed I am to have had the companionship of the Spirit since I was 8 yrs old and that I can feel his peace everytime I pray.

We also had a baptism!!! Hna Carlos Rodriguez, who you haven't heard about because I only taught him Chastity last week, which was also my first time meeting him. Everytime we tried to meet with him together, he wasn't home. Vanini only ever met with him whenver we were on divisions. For three weeks and I only met him a week before his baptism! Welp, he's actually awesome, so that's cool!

Annd I think that is about all! I love you all!

Love,

Hna Hallsted!

Vista Alegre #7 “Dia de los Muertos”

Trip to the city selfie

Papaya selfie

Happy Halloween!!

Hola Familia!

First off, I love you! I wish I said that more when I was home. So just in case you have a doubt about it, I really love you sooo much!!!

It was the day of the dead this week in Panama. Haha, everyone celebrated by getting really drunk and playing really loud fiesta music all night long. Well, at least our next door neighbors partied hard all night. It was great! Muchos dreams with traditional music in it haha

This week... Cambios cambios cambios and.... Nothing. I am still with Vanini. But I'm not in training anymore! Woohoo!

Vanini has had a lot of problems with her knees. We have gone to the doctor a lot and got injections into her knees this week that is suppose to heal them. And they are hurting worse. Alla la vida, pobrecita! She is just in so much pain all the time and crying and everything! I think I might actually be her last comp. Not only is it hard to have a sick comp, it is hard to not be able to work. We had 5 lessons total this week, which pretty much stinks. President told us only 2 weeks ago that we had the most lessons in the mission, and we are down to the least haha. But hey I did get in a ton of study time!! And that was great!

Something I learned this week is that patience is tough stuff. I don't think we realize how tough. Because when we are in that moment of frustration it is almost impossible to stop and listen to the Spirit. Something I have been trying out is when I feel any sort of frustration, to just stop and say a prayer. And wow is prayer amazing. I feel so much peace and love when I pray there is no room for those bad feelings to stay! Also read in the Bible Dictionary about patience! It is really beautiful!

Love you all soo muchuchuch!

Hermana Hallsted

Vista Alegre #6 "Hola Fula"

Christine and us at church. Two seconds after this photo, she fell asleep haha. So stinking cute!!

Baptism of Eduardo! The Elder who baptized him is Elder Senden (he's the District leader)

Us and Eduardo

You wouldn't believe it, but we are eating beet duros. They are actually delicious. Still don't like beets, mom. Just in duro form haha!

Hola Familia!!

This week was, well interesting. We had a lot of the good and the not so good, which I guess is good because that means we're trying!

We had a baptism of 12 yr old E who is actually really intelligent. He asked all the right questions and would even answer hs brother's questions (we taught them both, but his bro isn't ready yet). He was really ready to be baptized. And then he didn't show up to church to be confirmed. We have no clue what happened. But we went to visit him and I think his brother (who is a little bit on the crazy side haha) is a bit of a stumbling block and convinced him not to go to church. Luckily we have really awesome members who are going to have Noche de Hogar (FHE) with them and with us and I think that will really help all of his family!

We also have been teaching KSHna. We taught her the first three lessons, invited her to be baptized and she seemed to be really progressing. A really cool experience with her is that we were on our way to teach her Chastity and to find out her situation (if she really is married and all that). But when we sat down, Vanini pulled out La Palabra de Sabiduria (Work of Wisdom) and looked over at me. We both felt the Spirit tell us that this is what we should teach her. We found out that she is a smoker, but wants to quit, and also that she lost her job and is having a pretty rough time at home. We shared our testimonies and she couldn't come to church this week, but I have a lot of hope for her. I am really excited to work with her and pray she will find the comfort of Jesus Christ (especially at the Iglesia haha!).

At church we had 3 investigators come! Before we were calling everybody (especially E) and NOBODY answered. But then 3 people who we were not expecting came! One of them is Hna S, who we had decided to drop because every lesson with her, she seemed totally uninterested. Well apparently she is interested haha. I love to be surprised out here in the mission! The other two we absolutely love! Fam R who we only contacted once and nobody actually comes to church from a contact. But we proved that wrong! We'll see what happens with them!

Well, love you all!

Hna Hallsted

Vista Alegre #5 “Panama does as Panama is and that is rain”

We are cleaning out and painting our house right now and so I'll send you what it looks like after!

We live with Menos Activos and their little girl Christine is basically our third comp! She is always in our house haha!

We shared the house with four hermanas the past month and lived out of our suitcases. It was so cramped! Especially with our fans haha!

We all showed up with investigators for a baptism and so we took a pic!

Fam!

Last Sunday a member we visit a lot with (Keyra, you know her mom) walked up to us and introduced us to Jose y Edwardo, two jovens who really want to get baptized! It is amazing that the Lord can prepare His people like that. It also is a testimony of how blessings really come from working through members. We visited their home and they are some of the poorest people I have seen. They literally live in a swamp. Like in the swamp. We have to put on these boots to get to their house. It also means about a million more mosquito bites every visit. But it is DEFINITELY worth the struggle! They have a date for this next week, but I think they might be baptized the next week because they have bastante questions.

We also had Hna Reyna come to church for the first time. She was so shocked when we told her it was three hours long haha! ANd then even more when they Bishop's wife invited her to a Stake week celebration thing we are doing that is every day this week. haha, I love how the church really becomes a lifestyle! We are hoping to baptize her the next week too. She always reads the BOM and is really really ready. So exciting!

We also are teaching this old couple that just are in love with us. They are pretty lonely and are only slightly crazy! (most old people are just nutz). We want to get them to church, but they live pretty far, so it's hard. But i know once they are there, they will never leave because they need to family that the church provides. Their names are Diaz y Ibarra. I love them!

Something really great about my comp is that she really likes to focus on the Menos Activos. And there are a ton. We have a Loma called Loma Bonita and basically the entire loma is menos activo. Oh, less active I guess would be English haha. Oh and loma would be hill, whoops, sorry! So anyways, we are trying really hard to reactivate and in doing so, we have found a ton of new investigators! Most menos activos have a lot of family members who weren't baptized, but were investigating. So we are gonna work really hard to get them where they should be (which is in the waters of baptism, the chapel doors, and eventually the Celestial Kingdom).

Funny Spanish story: I keep accidently saying "miembra" trying to say Miembro, but in a feminine form cuz there are so many times when you change the word to be masculine or feminine, but its like a 75% chance when I guess. The problem with this word is that "embra" means female animal. And so saying "mi embra" is like my female animal. And men sometimes call their wives that sometimes haha (ew) so I really need to stop using that word.

Okay love you all with all my heart!!!

Hermana Hallsted

Vista Alegre #4 General Conference!!

Pictures with some of the hermanas in my zone

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CHichema is a Peruvian drink made from corn that I love. But we found out it makes you really fat really fast, so we won't be drinking that anymore haha. All the rice does enough. 

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selfies from zone conference

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pic with pres and his wife!

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the one day I straightened my hair!

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Hola !

This week was aaaawesome!!!

We had a zone meeting this week and pres told us to invite to be baptized every lesson. So we tried it and we have 4 dates set up that are for 2 weeks and they are actually pretty positive! I love new inspirations!

I watched conference in the stake center in the stake council's room... and in English! I was really glad to watch it in English because I really want to understand every word. And I saw Shelby in the choir! Also conference is way better when you are a missionary. I can't even believed I ever underappreciated it like I did. I absolutely loved from Deiter F. Uchtdorf "We will not be satisfied on the day of Judgement. We will be astonished at His great Mercy and Grace." and also from D Todd Christofferson, "It's not what we've done, it's who we've become." and finally, "If we must compare, compare how you were in the past with who you are today or who you want to be in the future." From J. Devn Cornish. I had been kinda putting myself down and worrying about how I was before the mission and repenting over and over . But I do believe that in the day of Judgement that we will be astonished, so long as we are who we want to be in the end. I know that I am growing to become a better person. I have experienced much conversion on the mission. And I know I will always stay looking forward at who I want to be, rather than be held back by who I was. And in the end, God will show me His great mercy and grace and I can come home.

Love you more than you love me! (I bet)

Hermana Hallsted