Christmas / Christmas Eve

Dear Family,

Mom at the end of your letter you said, "talk to you on Tuesday" but Christmas is Wednesday. I think that's funny because here in Panama everybody acts like Christmas is on Tuesday or Christmas Eve. The Christmas traditions are a lot different here, on Christmas Eve everybody stays up all night until midnight and at midnight everybody lights off fireworks. On Christmas day they don't do anything. So everybody is inviting us to eat on Christmas Eve but not so much on Christmas. I will try to call in the morning on Christmas day, I bet that would be the best for you guys.

This week we had two Christmas parties one for the missionaries and one with the branch. The Christmas party for the branch was a lot different then the Christmas parties in the states. Instead of one person dressing up like Santa Claus, people dressed up as a Fox (like a mascot), someone dressed up like a mouse, a few dressed up like princesses, and then there was a black Santa Claus. Then add weird dub-step music and that was the Christmas party. I was a little confused.

At the missionary party I got to see almost everybody I came with from the MTC and the President and His wife gave great talks. Afterwards we watched Elf and that was a lot of fun.

Yesterday we went caroling, it's not as difficult here because no one will ever freeze. 

Thanks for making the Skype account, I'm going to use it. We are trying to figure out where to use Skype, we might use it at a members house or Internet cafe. I will try to skype you guys in the morning.

I'm a little nervous for Christmas Eve because I fill every house we go to will give us food and I will probably not be able to eat it all. I think here a common Christmas food is ham, rice, and a kind of bean called ''gandul''. We have all of Tuesday planned already with lessons and stuff.

Have you guys already gone snowboarding yet? It sounds like there is a lot of snow, is it all melting or is it staying? Will you have a white Christmas?

This last week I had a little cold, and every time I coughed  the Panamanians have tried to prescribe me drugs that I should buy at the store. But I haven't taken any of them.

Merry Christmas, and remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Talk to you on Wednesday

Love,

Elder Weston

New Companion, Elder Valdez

Dear Family,

Thank you for all the letters, I got a new companion his name is Elder Valdez, he is from Texas. He can speak great Spanish and almost everybody we visit compliments him on his Spanish he has about 19 months on the mission. The hard thing is now everybody we talk to will compare me to him because we are both from the United States and I obviously can't speak as well as him. But it's really helping me study more because one day I want to speak as well as he does. I really haven't had Spanish dreams.

The changes were Wednesday and only the missionaries with changes go to the city. It was sad to see Elder Quimiz leave and like you said he is the only member in his family. He said that his little brother just turned 8 and wants to be baptized so that's really cool he set a really good example for his friends and family.
 
I did get the two packages, can I open them? I already took out the candy but I haven't unwrapped any of the gifts. The mail service here goes through all of the packages but they tape the packages back up.

Skype is allowed here so I will try to Skype on Christmas, I'll try to get more details next week.

This week we have a few Christmas party's for the missionaries and our branches which I'm really excited for.

That's funny you guys saw me in the ad for Seagull Book. Today for P-day we went to the Panama canal again, which was fun.

Thank you for the story about Elder Jarvies coming back to Church. This area has a lot of less active members and we have been visiting them and trying to re-activate them. It's really frustrating when they don't want to come to Church. But stories like that help me know that they can come back to Church. As a missionary we care about helping less actives come back to Church. Has members always try to be friendly to all. That talk by Elder Uchtdorf's was so great, we know some of the reasons people don't go to Church are serious, but we are always asking them to came back. It's like in his talk he said

''To those who have separated themselves from the Church, I say, my dear friends, there is yet a place for you here.'' I hope because of the Christmas season people will see the importance of the Savior in their lives and want to come to Church.

Thank you again for everything and have a wonderful Christmas Season.

Love,

Elder Weston

Elder Valdez

Baptism & Mr Rogers

Dear Family,

This week we had a baptism of Hermano F....... it was really cool. He gave his testimony at the end and said the missionaries didn't convince him the church was true but the Spirit did. I really liked that. I will send you photos of the baptism. This was a really fast baptism, we met him at the beginning of the change and baptized him before the end the change.

This next Wednesday we have changes, I'm really excited to see who my new companion will be but I will miss Elder Quimiz. We've been working hard and we basically have the next three days planned.

Yesterday we watched the Christmas devotional at a members house. I really loved everything the music and the talks were so great. When the kids were singing to Elder Nelson it reminded me of Mr. Rogers I'm pretty sure he was wearing a sweater. Yep, I checked and he was.  His talk was so good.

The Christmas party sounded like a lot of fun.  The only time I feel cold here is when we are on the buses and the air conditioning is on high. Have fun at the dance Michael, you can still move your hands so can still dance. 

Yes, yesterday was Mothers Day here in Panama, we had activity's in the Church which were fun. Happy Mothers Day!

I got the letter from Grandma Jane and the wedding invitation thank you.

Sometimes I don't realize how much I've been blessed to be born in the Gospel. We teach people everyday who need the Gospel in there lives and in there families. I'm so grateful for the Hope and the help the Gospel gives me.  I'm really grateful for this Christmas season, this Saturday we went to the temple and there I read the story of the birth of Christ. I'm excited to talk to you in just a few more weeks!

Love,

Elder Weston

Zone Alcande Diaz

Baptism

p-day

A Temptation or a Blessing

Dear Family,

My Thanksgiving was just like every day here. We ate rice and beans, no one really celebrates it here. Black Friday is celebrated in the malls here, so more people celebrate Black Friday then Thanksgiving. 

My comp and I are still working very hard, we should have a baptism this next week so I'll send you pictures of that hopefully. These last few days have been so hot, and yesterday was Fast Sunday and I almost ''died'' until some less actives gave us food and we could not refuse because that would be rude. When fasting my companion and I say, "If a member tries to give us food it's a temptation and we should not take it, if an investigator tries to give us food it's a blessing from God, because we can't refuse an investigator but members we can."

That's to bad Michael broke his foot, I guess he will dance with crutches. At least it is a good story on how he broke it. You better be able to go snowboarding, that's one thing I will miss a lot. 

This P-day we tried to go fishing, but there were no fish. We got to ride in the back of a truck, with a bunch of crates and it was super bumpy. We agreed it was better then Indiana Jones at DisneyLand. The lake was very pretty and I have quite a few photos that I'll be able to send you guys. We got to walk in the forest a bit and take photos there as well.  

I read a talk by Dallin H. Oaks called, "Love and Law".
God’s love is so perfect that He lovingly requires us to obey His commandments because He knows that only through obedience to His laws can we become perfect, as He is. For this reason, God’s anger and His wrath are not a contradiction of His love but an evidence of His love. 

I really liked this talk because it explains why we should teach with love, but still be direct with the commandments, and sometimes that's really hard to do. But I liked this part of the talk because it shows God gives us the commandments because he loves us. And we show our love to him by obeying them. 

John 14: 15, if ye love me, keep my commandments.

Thank you for the letters and have a great week.

Love You All,
Elder Weston

They went fishing at this lake