Is anybody theeerrrre? Does anybody caaaaaaarrre?

Hi Family!
Couldn´t resist using a line from 1776 as my subject for this email seeing as it´s the season and all. Also, I hope it serves as a hint to those of you who may be slightly behind in your correspondence...not gonna mention names..you know who you are ,).
Speaking of correspondence, this week I got a flood of mail from fam and friends that dates back to MARCH. WHOA. That explains why I haven´t heard from a few people, I guess. I loved getting the ward newsletter especially. Good to hear what´s going on with everyone back in good ol´ NC 6th. Mom and Dad, please thank Lene for that one! Just to be clear, here´s the address that people should use when they send me letters:

Hermana Allison Brewster
Mision Panama
Carrasquilla, Entrega General A.P. 0834
Panama, Republica de Panama

That should clear up some of the confusion and ensure that I still have friends when I get home :).
So this was a pretty significant week. I had my last interview with President Madrigal before he returns home to Mexico with his wife this week. Even though he was only my president for 3 months, I learned so much from him and he said some really nice things during our interview. He´s a really good man. President and Sister Ward will arrive this week and I´ll meet them for the first time next week at our Zone Conference. It´s going to be weird having
an American President! I´m sure he´ll be great, though, and I´m looking forward to meeting him and his wife.
Last Tuesday was my comp´s birthday and we celebrated by having both lunch and dinner with a few ward members. My contribution was a cake, a birthday card and a Snickers bar (because she´s obsessed with them). It was lots of fun! I´m actually hoping I get to be here for a few more transfers so I´ll get to spend my bday here with these ward members. They really are special. But if this pattern of transfers continues, I´ll have been in 3 different places by that time. Ahhh! I wish I could just get used to one thing.
We´ve officially hit ¨winter time¨¨ in Panama, which means that it´s scorching hot in the morning and from noon onward we´re hit with a veritable flood. Right now it´s coming down pretty hard. I´m thinking the tiny umbrella I purchased won´t be sufficient because last night I was literally wringing out water from my skirt. Crazy weather!
I had a pretty interesting experience this week. there´s a family we´re teaching named la Familia Jimenez-Garcia. The wife is from Mexico and the husband is from Australia and they have a litle 4 year old who´s fluent in both Spanish and English. The parents speak Spanish and English too, but John, the Dad, mostly speaks English. I met them for the first time a few nights ago and I absolutely loved John´s Aussie Spanish :). Unfortunately I can´t imitate it here, but I will one day. Anywho, we dropped by their house to talk to them and possibly see about setting a baptismal date because theyve been investigating the church for a while. John´s read the Book of Mormon several times and I was really impressed with his knowledge of historical facts that back up what happened in the Book of Mormon. He and his wife insisted on taking us to dinner and we spent much of the time talking about his experiences with missionaries, the Book of Mormon and the church--mostly in English. The funny thing was it was now my turn to play the role of interpreter because I had to relay what was being said to my companion who looked a little perplexed by our conversation. We weren´t able to set a date yet but we´ve got an FHE planned with them tonight and I´m hoping that goes well. So far they are our most positive investigators. I´m praying for good things.
On a different note, I´ve run into a few backpackers this week from the U.S. They told me they were traveling around staying in hostels...sounds so familiar to me...hard to believe that was my life a year ago! Funny how things change, eh? Maybe I´ll do thatnext summer again ;)
All right, fam. Have fun at the cabin this week! Love you all and Happy 4th.
love,
Hna. Brewster
P.S. CONGRATS to Lara!

My first week in DAH-BEED

Hey Fam!

Greetings from the very beautiful area that is David, Panama (pronounced ¨Dah-BEED¨). Seriously, I can´t believe how gorgeous it is here! Right now I´m in a touristy place called Boquete and it´s the craziest thing but I feel like I´m back in Germany...everything is green, it´s COLD (very very rare here...feeling weird...) and there are mountains with Europeanish houses. It´s crazy! I´ll snap some photos for you. (My area´s called Lassonde, but we´re here in Boquete for P-day.)
Anyway, I´m loving my new area and my companion´s awesome. She´s trying to learn English from me and I´m trying to work on my accent with her. We have lots of fun going back and forth with different things to say. It feels good to be laughing so much again. I sort of missed that in my last change. Our zone is great--there are tons of gringos including my friend from the MTC, Hna. Ochs! I´m feeling very at home here.

In the way of events back home, let me just wish a happy late father´s day to Dad (I hear you wore the tie to church--did the bishop get mad? ,)), happy birthday to Ethan last week and happy birthday to Logan this week! I´m thinking of you all, don´t worry.

As far as the work goes here, the hardest thing we have to deal with is time management because our area is HUGE and Panamanians really love to talk, so we don´t get as many lessons in as I´d like, but I´m ealing with it. I´m just glad that the people are kind and receptive for the most part. We´ve got one investigator, 20 year old Edilka, who really wants to get baptized but she´s having problems with her family about that because they are pure 7th day adventists. It´s rough. We´re praying for her, though. Keep a good thought.

I said the hardest thing we had to deal with was time management but I should also mention that the world cup has proved to be a bit of an inconvenience as well. The whole world is watching soccer! (Except for me...which is REALLY difficult, by the way...but 1 Cor. 10:13 helps me with that one :) ). I think by the end of July things will have calmed down a bit.

I love my new ward and I´m hoping that I get a chance to be here longer than just 6 weeks because so far I´ve just been moved all over the place. The Hermanas I came with have only had 1 or 2 areas and companions at the most and I´ve had FOUR. I feel like a shoe that doesn´t fit...hopefully I fit here! I wouldn´t mind staying here for a while. We´re far away from the rest of the missionaries, so it´s likely they won´t move me for a while. But then I´ve learned I can never predict anything here, so who knows?

Hope you´re all doing well. Love you!

Hna. Brewster