choclate chip cookies

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters and say Happy Birthday to Grandma Marie for me. I'm glad to hear that your talks went well. I like the story by Elder Anderson and the joke Michael made.  [Michael started his talk saying, “There are two ways to prepare a talk, write your own or steal your dad’s while he’s not looking, thanks dad”].  It sounds like you all did great, It's weird I haven't given a talk in Church in all my mission, I've given little thoughts and I've taught lessons but I have never given a talk.

We never need to boil water here, the water out of the tap is clean. I imagine in Guatemala it's not, you can ask Alex if it was. I believe because the United States built the water system, back when they owned the canal, that's why the water is clean.

When the elections were happening we stayed in the house just in case if there was fighting. There wasn't any, but it was just a precaution.

In the mornings, I've been mixing a little flour and water to make bread and I put cream cheese and cinnamon sugar on top, it's so good. Last p-day I made chocolate chip cookies at a members house, no one here bakes, so I really miss home made cookies. The cookies were really good. I learned that people here don't have things to measure the food like cups, teaspoons, tablespoons...

We continue to work hard, our investigators didn't come to church so that was a little disappointing but I think they will come next week. We will continue working and hoping they will come.

That's cool Michael is going to the Priesthood encampment.  I remember when I went to that, I hope he has a good time. I hope you guys have a great summer.

I'm always grateful for your letters and your prayers. The mission asked us to teach the Plan of Salvation focused on family history. I translated in Spanish one of the stories I have about Axel Myrberg and I'm waiting for an opportunity to share it. The story is about when Axel was a kid in Sweden and the teacher would spank him because he went to the Mormon church and not the Lutheran church. I really like it, and when we talk about our own families, people really open up.

I loves you guys so much,

Eric Weston (the elder)

P.S. Sorry I haven't been sending photos, the battery died in my camera and I left my charger in Ciudad Bolivar,  so I will try to get it back as soon as possible. 

Baptism

Dear Family,

Happy Birthday Dad!!!, I forgot to write that in my last letter. Next week is Mothers Day,  I don't know what time you guys have church, but if your in Church I'll try to call a little later. I will use that same account you gave me on Christmas to Skype.

Last week after we wrote letters my companion and I went to a lake. A member told us it would only be a 20 minute trip, but it took an hour, I got some pretty pictures of the lake. To get back we walked
for about 30 minutes before the next bus came to take us home. I saw a huge pineapple field.

On Friday we had divisions with the Zone leaders. I learned a lot, and we also taught with a returned missionary from their ward, they were both great teachers.

Saturday we had a baptism of M..... I didn't have to do much for the baptism.  I only had to teach him a few commandments and he was really ready. He's a really cool kid.

Yesterday were the elections for the President in Panama. The mission President told us we had to stay in our homes after 2pm just in case something happened. So we went to Church, ate lunch and after for about 5 hours we cleaned our house. We also fixed our shower, we took off the pipe and replaced it with a plastic soda bottle.

Good luck Michael on your AP test. Michael and Sarah only have one month of school left, that's so cool. 5 de Mayo is a Mexican holiday, so they don't celebrate it.

I really liked that video you sent me about the Atonement.  I'll print out the talk. I hope everything is going well at home, this week we had a family home evening with some members and we watched a talk by the President Monson called Be of Good Cheer. I really enjoyed it, though the Atonement we can all have hope and be of good cheer.

Talk to you Sunday.

Love 
Elder Weston

Lake Eric and companion went to on P-day

pineapple field

Baptism

Bees

Dear Family,

Thank you for the letters, I'm doing great. We had water this entire week, but our shower is very weak so we need to shower mostly with a bucket, it's a good experience. My entire house it made out of concrete, carpet does not exist in Panama, except in the temple. It's either concrete or it's tile.

I go to a different chapel in this area a bit further from my other chapel in Chorrera, but it's a very nice chapel. I haven't seen to many members from my old ward, but I'm sure I will. I don't know when the next stake conference is, but I hope it's soon.

The only problem with the area is it's huge! It's so big there is no way I'll be able to touch the end of the area, I really don't know the end of the area exactly. If you look at a map there is the ''Carretera Panamericana'' my area starts at Guadalupe La Chorrera, Panama and every thing to the south of this road until you reach Antón Panama is my area. So it's about a 2 hour long bus ride, in a car it would be shorter.

This next week we are going to baptize a 14 year old son of a less active member. We are reactivating his family, and I hope in a few weeks we can baptize his Dad.

My companion is a convert, I believe he said he was baptized when he was 14 years old. His parent were baptized while he was on his mission. I thought the was really cool. I need to ask him what part of Lima he is from. He told me that they drink Inca Cola, I remember Mom saying she drank that when she was in Perú.

What a cool testimony Elder Uchdorf has about Joseph Smith. It doesn'tmatter where we are from because God loves us the same. The same story of Joseph Smith can touch the heart of anybody in the world.  The true Church of Jesus Christ will not just touch one country or only a few people it will be taught  to everybody in the world. I'm grateful for Joseph Smith and his testimony and I know he was a Prophet.

This last week I listened to the talk by President Eying ''A Priceless Heritage of Hope''. I really liked how he talked about the examples of his ancestors and what heritage they left him. I was thinking about Dad's bees and how the worker bees only live for a short time,and then die. So what motivates them to work so hard? It's the future bees that will need the honey, so the bees work so hard, not for themselves,  but for their children. We need to be like the bees and ask ourselves, what are we leaving for our descendants and what heritage are we leaving. I know I have been blessed so much by what my family has done for me. Also I understand more and more the importance of the temples.

Love,
Elder Weston