last letter

Dear Family,

Thank you for the letters, we had a good week. I hope you have fun in Texas mom. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had normal days, on Saturday and Sunday there was district conference and President Carmack came it was really cool. 

On Thursday we had our district meeting and at the end of the meeting we sang ''God be with you till we meet again'', while I was singing I could not help but think of all the missionaries I have seen leave and the many great examples I've seen in my mission. I'm sad I will have to say goodbye to many great missionaries in the zone. Today I talked with Elder Rasmusson and Elder Rivera and I had a really good talk with them, there both doing great. 

Today for P-day I finally got to watch meet the Mormons, I felt strange watching the missionary leave his home at the end.

My plans for this week are 

Monday at night I'm leaving to the city and I will get there tomorrow morning.

Tuesday go with Elder Kipp to visit my second area and have dinner with a family.

Wednesday eat with the President and have my final interview and go to the temple.

Thursday ?

Well I don't know if you have read this scripture but I think it's a funny way to end the mission.

2 John 12 

Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.

Thank you so much

I love you

Elder Weston

back to Puerto Armuelles

Thats awesome that it snowed in April, I hope you have fun in Texas Mom. I don't know if you got my flight plans, I will send them to you right now but I'm leaving a week from Thursday and I'll get to Salt Lake at about 7:25 PM. 

So this week has been really interesting, on Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Puerto Armuelles, but on Friday two Elders had to leave the zone. And to help there companions I went to Puerto Armuelles again and my companion stayed with another Elder who was in our same branch. Basically I will be working here until the end of the change. I'm with Elder Cintigo from El Salvador he's a really great missionary.

 

The power went out on Saturday but I have a funny story, we got to the house and the power was out and there was hardly any light, as we were planning the power came back on, so we were happy. Then we ended with a prayer and I thanked God for the light and right after I said that, the lights went out again. Not even one second after I said it they went out, because we were still praying I prayed that the power would come back on.

The branch is really small here, and on Sunday the 4 missionaries in the branch gave talks. We basically all gave talks about missionary work and I used the example of Abinadi and how one person can really make a difference. Abinadi went to teach the people of King Noah, Alma listened and Alma baptized 204 people, Alma also taught Almulek and they established the Church in many cities with the Nephites and the Lemanites, everybody was blessed because Abinadi when out to teach, maybe we won't see all of our work, but we can make a difference. 

These last few days we have been able to talk to a lot of people and it has been really cool.

I love you

Elder Weston 

coldest part of Panama

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters, it sounds like you guys had a good fast Sunday, I going to download all the talks from General Conference to listen to them again. 

Having President Obama here was a pretty big deal, everybody was telling me that your President is here in Panama, and on the news it was explaining all the security features his car and plane have.

This week we went on divisions and I went to Volcan (Volcano) it's the coldest part of Panama. It was really cool going up there because it felt like fall for a minute, which was weird because I haven't felt a season change for about 2 years. In this area there are 2 great missionaries they were both assistants and they help the missionaries out in this part of panama. At night I used a jacket it was really strange it's not like being in Panama.

In the Book of Mormon I read in Alma 24 about the Anti Nephi Lehies it's amazing to read about how much faith they had in verse 21 it says, instead of fighting they just got on there knees and started to pray, and many died but when the Laminates saw what they did they were so moved that they joined the church. Before doing anything they prayed to God, they were not scared. I think this is one of my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon. 

Also today, I was a little frustrated so I started to listen to the old General Conferences and after a little bit I really felt the Spirit and I felt a lot better. I'm really grateful for living Prophets and Apostles. After listening I felt more patience and more at peace.

I love you all a lot,

Elder Weston

General Conf

Dear Family,

Thank you for the letters, it was a great week. I loved general conference. I thought it was interesting the many talks were about religious freedom because here in Panama thats not a big issue, but it sounds like it's a big issue in the states. I really enjoyed a lot of the talks, I liked the talk about the indian who said I can teach how to dance, but you need to hear the music. I liked that talk a lot because we can go to church and do everything, but we to ''hear the music'' or enjoy the gospel and love it. I  also liked the talk by Uchtdorf about grace. When the Spanish people spoke we changed rooms and watched it in Spanish. The jokes are a lot easier to understand in the native language. That joke by Elder Uchtdorf was pretty great when he stated to speak in German.

The conference also spoke a lot about the family, and having an eternal persecutive. I'm  really excited to listen and read the talks again.

On Wednesday we had the leadership meeting and I got to talk with Elder Rasmusson again which was really cool.  My companion and I are doing well, he's from San Miguelito and he has 11 months in the mission. 

We had a few investigators come to the conference on Sunday, and a few less actives also.
That was cool to hear 3 more temples to be announced, and the Payson Temple will soon have it's open house. 

It's fun watching General Conference with other missionaries because everybody is so into it. 

Well I hope you all are doing well. 

I love you all
Elder Weston

Interview with the President

Dear Family,

Thank you for the letters this week, this week was great. 

I had an interview with President and during the interview he asked me '' so what do you have planned when you get back home'', and I was like ''I plan on going to school but I don't know where, I was going to talk with my parents about it'', and he told me '' would you like to call them right now?''..... Sorry I didn't call you ha ha but I thought writing you guys would help me stay focused. But I would like to go to Utah State in the fall.  I looked on the web page and it says that the deadline to apply is the 1st of April, so if you can could you apply for me? I still have quite a bit a money in my bank, and I think I could get a scholarship there, so if you could apply that would great. 

So on Tuesday, and Wednesday I was on Divisions with a really fun Elder, He and I had two great days. On Thursday we had the interview with President. The zone started being interviewed at about 4:00pm and it ended at 10:00 pm, I was the last person to get interviewed, I started at about 9:30pm.  While the others were getting interviewed I went with one of the assistants to see how clean the houses were. Our house was pretty dirty so I ended up cleaning it the next morning. 

The President in his interview talked about small goals, goals every hour to help me stay focused and motivated. I talked about the zone, how I was really impressed with the missionaries we have right now, and how many things I've changed. I got my temple recommend renewed (only lasts 3 months he said).

I'm super excited for General Conference this week, I was also on divisions on Saturday and the Elder I was with was also really excited so at about 8:00pm we snuck into the chapel, general young women's conference, to see the last talk by Elder Eyring just to get a little taste of how great the conference will be.   I just want to say,  I'm doing good and I'm staying focused. 

I love you guys,

Elder Weston

It's official, April 30th

Dear Family,

Thank you for the letters, this week I talked with the secretaries about when I was leaving, it was really tough to decide I tried praying a lot, but I saw my entire group was leaving on April 30th and I felt like it was ok to leave on that date. 

I stayed in the same area, but my companion had changes he went to Bocas del Toro. My new companion is named Elder Rodriguez he is from Panama, it's really weird because he's the only Elder in the mission from Panama serving in Panama. We are doing good. 

So when there are changes sometimes they need to send the new missionaries from Panama to Chiriqui and they need to take the bus alone to the area... Well the assistants put brand new missionaries on the bus at about 7:00 pm Tuesday and the ride takes about 8 hours. We got to the bus stop at about 3:00 am to wait for the new missionaries  so they would know were to get off. So we waited for about an hour and they didn't get here, so another Elder and I took a bus to the border (Costa Rica) the last bus stop, to see if they didn't get off there (a 45 minute ride) and they were not there, so we took another bus to the city of David (an hour and a half ride) and we found them there at about 6:30. They had been waiting there for about 3 hours and were really tired. We learned the missionaries who helped them did not put them on the right bus. We then finally got back to the area about about 7:30, a lot of traveling for one day. It was a crazy morning and the rest of the day we worked. 

This week we had a lot of investigators in the Church, so that was really great to see them all there.

This week we are going to have interviews with the President, I'm really excited because I haven't had an interview with him since August, or September. 

That's great that Michael got his patriarchal blessing, I continue to read mine, it helps me realize what kind of person God wants me to become.

I'm really grateful for the Book of Mormon, I am more and more impressed by the examples in that book. Just reading has really helped me feel peace. I always try to read a least one chapter every night even if I have studied in the morning, it's always a great way to end the day.

I love you all so much,

Elder Weston

cerro punta

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters and the pictures you sent me. I saw the little video of Jenny's baby, he looks cute, and Karen and James had another baby! Tell grandpa, happy birthday for me and happy anniversary Mom and Dad. It's strange seeing seeing Sarah going on dates. Tell Sarah she looked pretty, and Michael to, ha ha ha. Also I got the package last week we ate all the Swedish Fish in like 2 days thanks for sending that to me. I asked president in my letter today when I'm leaving if it's in the end of April or the 10th of Jun, I will see if he answers me. Changes are on Wednesday we will find out if I'm staying or going tomorrow, I bet I will stay.

Today we went to a very beautiful place called cerro punta I will sent you pictures.

This week was good on Wednesday I went on Divisions with an Elder from Colombia is said his family used to live in Tulua and now lives in Medillin It was really great. and the next day the sister missionaries had a baptism and I got to baptize there convert..

On Saturday we were in a very far part of our area and we were walking to a less active when we found some members from Panama city visiting there family who lived in this tiny town, it was lucky they found us because we only have walked around there 1 other time in my 4 months and they asked us if we had oil because their mom was sick the the Hospital, we ended up going to the hospital with them and gave a blessing. The funny thing was we had plans of going to the hospital latter that day to visit a member who had did something to her foot. So we left the hospital and returned latter that Day with the son of the member who was there,and gave her a blessing. Then we found out that there was another Elderly member who was in another room and we gave him a blessing also. So we ended up giving 3 blessings in the hospital that day.

Something I learned this week was a little about what it says in Ether 12:6 the testimony comes after the Trial of our faith. I know as missionaries we want everything to move faster, but all things require trials. I that about Nephi who left is home, was walking in the wilderness and also had family problems. I thought about Alma who had to teach in secret and didn't have a home and for a time was a prisoner. I learned that no Prophet had it easy but it says in Matthew I believe in chapter 11 that we can take the yoke of Christ and everything will be easier. Christ calls the workers and he tells them they will find rest. This rest is not physical rest but spiritual rest, that we may fill good and little my little God will bless us. I fill sometimes my life has been really east, I haven't had to suffer a lot like those prophets but I know many people have made sacrifices for me, my family and ancestors. I really grateful for the many blessings I've received in my live.

I love you guys

Thank you
Elder Weston

"Animo"

Dear Family,
It sounds like everything is going well at home, I'm glad you finally got some snow and it's already March. Thats good Michael doesn't need a surgery. It's weird that Sarah can now date, I think I knew a kid named Brian Seager at school but I'm not 100% sure I have forgotten many things, I now speak more like a panameño. I always say that answer to every sickness is, drinking lemon and honey even though I know it's not true, I just say it because that's what everyone tells us.

This week was good we keep on visiting people but many of them aren't getting to Church which is a little disappointing so we will try to plan a little better more on how we can work a little bit more effectively. My companion and I have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot, which is helping with our ''animo''. Yesterday at night we read for about two hours, it was pretty sweet, we read in Mosiah from Chapter 17-27 about Abinadi, Alma, and Limhi it felt really good to read a lot. I really enjoy reading about those prophets that set good examples for us even during there trials. I really like Mosiah 23:21-22 because I know we will all have trials but if we endure we will be blessed.

On Saturday we went to an area that's pretty deep into our area, it takes about 30 minutes to get there by bus and we looked for a less active family. We found them they are an old senor couple that haven't been able to go to church, but it was really cool to see them and see that they haven't lost there faith. I don't think many people visit from the branch but I really felt happy we could go and visit them. But it reminded me about that importance of visiting the people that are less active.

Thank you for everything
I love you guys
Elder Weston

Zone

pony malta

2 thumbs up

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters.  That's cool you guys got to go to the temple. That's awesome that the temple was so full, here in Panama it sometimes gets full on Saturdays but when we were their it wasn't to full. The recent convert that we went with could only see the temple, but it was a really good experience for him because we could go in to the waiting room and he said he felt the spirit very strong and he didn't want to leave, the next trip is in June and we are hoping he can go and do baptisms for the dead. 

On my birthday was a normal day, we didn't do anything exciting but someone gave me a pair of shoes which was pretty cool (it wasn't a gift) they just saw my old shoes and wanted to give me new ones. 

We had Zone conference and we had another Conference, Elder Duncan of the 70 came and spoke to us. He gave us many ideas and ways we can work harder and work more effectively it was really great.  I really enjoyed what he said, and at the end he said that he was happy for what he saw, for what we are doing, and it really meant a lot to me because when I got here there was a lot of disobedience and it was a little hard to have pride in the mission, but I've have seen a lot of changes and I see the missionaries are working harder and the spirit is stronger in the mission. I know we are improving little by little.

There is an Elder in the Zone that is from Colombia and he once lived in Cali, Dad what areas did you serve in? Did you know a Family named Franco?.

That's to bad Michael's wrist is messed up, tell me when he has a surgery.

I love you, 

Elder Weston

A mola Eric bought

The bus they took to the temple

2 thumbs up

primary chair in the bus

Dear Family,

Thank you for the birthday wishes and it sounds like everything is going well at home. That missionary fireside sounds really cool. I hope more young men decide to serve missions.

Mom asked what do the missionaries buy here in Panama to bring home: usually mola ties and also hammocks, and sometimes hats. But usually they buy mola.

I don't know what you would like to do for the Panama trip, you might want to go to Bocas del Toroinstead of San Blas it would probably be better because it's cleaner, but really I have no idea.

Dad asked about object lessons we teach. We need to teach better with object lessons but something on Sunday for the Gospel Principle class, we have two people act out how a boss talks to his employees and have two people act out how a loving father speaks to his children. And we explain that God is not our boss, but is a loving father who wants to helps us and not boss us around.

This week was really cool, the branch had a temple trip and my companion and I went with a recent convert. We took a coster bus that holds about 30 people, but there was not enough seats, so we put some of the primary chairs in the center aisle and I sat in the primary chair. It wasn't comfortable but it was worth it. The drive took about 8 hours there and 10 hours back because there was a lot of traffic.  We stayed the entire day and a half in the temple. We helped with baptisms 2 times, we were the witnesses. We went to 3 sessions and someone in the branch got sealed and my companion and I were the witnesses for the sealing, it was sweet. Even though it took awhile, it was totally worth it.

While in the celestial room I was thinking a lot about how peaceful the temple is, but I also tried to think about the Atonement, I thought at first ''there are not pictures of Jesus or him in Gethemine in the celestial room, so I wondered how does this room help us think of Christ?  Then I thought of a scripture in Isaiah in 53:5 ''the chastisement of our peace was upon him''.   I understand know that when we have peace or when we feel peace in the temple it is because the Savior died for us.  The peace we feel in the temple is also I sign of the Atonement and the peace that it can bring into our lives.

I have pictures of us in the bus I'll send them next week.

I love you guys,
Elder Weston

Book of Mormon Questions

Dear Family,

Thank you for the letters, I am staying in the same area with my same companion and we had a lot of new missionaries came to the zone. Out of the 12 missionaries that are in this zone 9 have less than 6 months in the mission. It's really great being around these young missionaries because they never talk about going home and they are really teachable.  I really enjoy that.

Our area is doing Ok we get investigators to came to Church one week and the next week they don't come, but we continue to work really hard. We will continue to focus on finding new investigators this week. But we have a few positive investigators that are reading the Book of Mormon. Recently it's been raining a lot, which is weird because we are in the dry season, that's weird that Utah is so hot for this time of year.

Today for P-day the zone went to the chapel and we played a few games with the Book of Mormon. Here are a few questions we asked (there not the easiest questions) but they were able use the Book of Mormon to find the answers:

Who is the dad of King Benjamin?
Who is the first Anti Christ in the Book of Mormon?
Who was the last Jaredite?
Who was the Grandpa of Enos?
The people of Zarahemla (before the Nephites came) were decedents of who?

It was a lot of fun.  That's super cool that Michael can get his papers started right now. What if he goes to Africa?

I love you guys
Elder Weston



The answers are
1. Mosiah
2. Sherem
3. Coriantumr.
4. Lehi
5. Mulek

yogurt or Coke

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters, you asked if yogurt helps your stomach feel better, it doesn't but I learned that Coke does. I usually don't drink to much Coke but it does help a little but. We've been eating pancakes almost everyday with peanut butter and jam and syrup.

The trip your planning sounds pretty cool, I don't really like the city so its good to be a little outside of it, I looked at a map and Santa Clara was part of my area in Chorrera but I never went, the furthest I got to Santa Clara was ''Anton'' and Cordonado. We could probably get there in bus or we could rent a car, but you can't take to many taxies.

We had two investigators in church today, I was really happy and a lot of people came to church. This Wednesday there are changes and I'm happy, I believe I'm staying here, but there are a lot of missionaries that are returning home. We are excited to have new missionaries. But there are a few missionaries that are leaving that are really good and I will be sad to see them go.

I continue to learn a lot, I feel like we need to be more obiedente, but it's getting better.  I know if we keep on trying it will get better. We had a conference with the President via Skype with a bunch of missionaries. The goals in the mission is to read Preach my Gospel more and read the Book of Mormon. The only bad thing is the internet drops every 10 minutes so we watched about half of the conference.

We are having a good time, and staying positive.
I love you guys so much

Elder Weston

continually progressing spiritually

Dear Family,

Thank you for the stories and it sounds like you guys had a good week.  I haven't received the second package but I'm sure it's coming soon. That's cool that Michael taught the HT lesson with the Strong's and I liked the story about Benjamin F. Johnson. What did you give the missionaries to eat? They get really blessed with food, all of it is so good in states.

This week was really busy.  Last week we traveled quite a bit, not as much as the previous week but we were in other areas for many days, but we learned a lot. On Sunday my companion and I gave talks in the Sacrament meeting. I talked about continually progressing spiritually, and how we need to:

1. Pray with sincerity

2. Read the Scriptures everyday

3. Go to Church every Sunday

4. And Share your Testimony

I'm not the best speaker but it went well. I felt like the members listened.  After I gave the lesson in Sunday School for the investigators and new converts. We had a couple of new people in church today so we talked about the Restoration.

This week was a little stressful at times and I'm really glad today is P-day but I've learned many things this week from my companion and from other missionaries. I've learned we need to have courage to do what is right and we need to have gratitude for what are leaders do for us.

I hope you guys have a great week,

I love you,

Elder Weston

Elder Weston and Elder Rasmusson

bugs/animals

My Missionary Commission

Dear Family,

I finally got the the package from you and from Grandma and Grandpa, thank you a lot for the pictures and tell Grandma and Grandpa thank you for the shirts and socks that they sent me. I also got Christmas cards from the Rich's, Prestwich's, Colby's, and Grandma and Grandpa, Brother and Sister Strong, Brother and Sister Rasmussen and from Grandma Jane, tell them all thanks for me.

I really liked Jake´s haircut it looks better than it did before :). Thanks for sending me all of those pictures of the wedding, Luke's baby is really cute with his little glasses.

This was a busy week, we were traveling a lot on Tuesday. We went up to Volcan because the sister missionaries had a training meeting on how the members could work with the missionaries. Wednesday we went to Puerto Armuelles to start missionary splits. I stayed in Puerto and my companion and the other Elder went to the Panama City for migrations.

Friday we had a really cool meeting with Elder Ochoa of the 70, he's the first counselor of the Central America area. He gave some good ideas ,basically all of them focused on how to be more obedient. It's a problem we all have and we are going to be trying hard everyday to be even more obedient.

On Saturday we had time to work in our area all day. Sunday we helped some sister missionaries teach and investigator of theirs who will be getting baptized soon.

I really liked this quote...    

My Missionary Commission
by Elder Bruce R. McConkie

I am called of God.
My authority is above that of kings of the earth.
By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him--to stand in His place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me.
My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts; my doctrine is His doctrine.
My Commission is to do what He wants done; To say what He wants said; to be a living modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous Latter-day work.
How great is my calling!

I really enjoy this quote by him, my companion had it on a bookmark. It always helps me remember how important our callings are.

Thank you.  I love you,
Elder Weston

he's like a light bulb that never stops giving light

Dear Family,

Happy New Years! On New Years we got to bed about 11:30 but I stayed awake to listen to the fireworks, from about 11:50 to about 12:30 the people where shooting fireworks, and not small ones they were big ones. I know some people stayed up all night long and had parties. Right next to us, we could hear the music but we could still sleep good although the next day was pretty slow.

Thats so cool Jenny and Kent had their baby, lil'Max, that's so cute. 

Thats exciting the Mikelle is getting married also, send me pictures of the baby and the wedding when you get them.

We had the leadership meeting, if you look at the mission presidents blog I was in the picture of skype attendees. It's not as cool as being in the city because the internet always drops but it was good. 

The investigator I talked about last week had been reading the Book of Mormon and seems really positive, but couldn't make it to church.

Something I've learned this week is that if we continue to draw closer to our Heavenly Father we receive more blessings that he is already trying to give us. God is always trying to give us blessing, he's like a light bulb that never stops giving light. But if we are far from the light many blessings that he's trying to give us will pass by us, but as we get closer we will be able to receive more. We can always draw a little closer and be a bit better.

I was thinking, why doesn't God just help us find the people prepared more easily? He loves them more than us? He wants to help them more then us? Then why don't they come easier? Then I thought about it more and learned that he is trying and we just need to be more obedient. It never will be easy but I know God will bless us more when we are obedient, and are closer to him. Heavenly Father as a lot of confidence in us that we will find the people he's preparing. 

Thank you for everything,

I love you all a lot

Elder Weston