Ya estamos en OCTUBRE

Well hello my dear ¨family¨!

Let me explain the quotations: I had a funny little experience this past week when we were teaching one of our investigators named Jessica. She´s a really inquisitive, somewhat skeptical person with a whole bunch of questions about the church. That´s actually what I prefer--someone with genuine interest. Anyway, we were teaching her the plan of salvation and I pulled out the picture of the family that we took the day I went to the temple and I told her all about how happy and grateful I was that I was sealed to you all for eternity. I thought she´d be touched by that but instead her response was to stare incredulously at the picture, narrow her eyes and say, ¨Why do none of them look like you? You´re so much darker than the rest.¨ I guess when she saw all the blond, blue-eyed people, she didn´t believe they were my relatives. I assured her that YES, that was ME in the picture and YES, that was MY family. She didn´t believe me. In fact, she looked at me as if to say, Everything you have just taught me has been invalidated because of this fabricated story you´ve weaved about this so-called family of yours. If it weren´t for the presence of Ben in the picture, I don´t think I would´ve been able to convince her. Guess I won´t be showing the fam picture in any more lessons! That sure backfired.

I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed Conference. I remember when I was a kid, Conference seemed like it lasted FOREVER. Now it flies by. I don´t even feel like we had conference this weekend. It definitely pays to be in the city, though, because I had the privilege of sitting next to Sister Ward during the all of the sessions. It´s broadcast by satellite in all of the chapels and there are three languages in our chapel: Spanish, English and Kuna (the Indian language here). We were in the English room, except for the Sunday morning session when the satellite went out and we had to watch it in Spanish via Internet. I understand it just fine but it feels weird hearing a voiceover in Spanish of all the apostles. I´m pretty sure there were some jokes that were lost in translation. Pres. Monson would suddenly bust up laughing and I had no idea why. The translator had a difficult time.

Anywho, I loved Conference. I love that Pres. Monson right off the bat talked about the importance of missionary work. I think my two favorite talks were President Monson´s talk about gratitude and Pres. Uchtdorf´s talk on simplicity, though truthfully I enjoyed them all. I´m so grateful for the counsel and advice of the Lord´s chosen servants in these days. These men are truly inspired. I hope you all review the talks with your families.

Things in the city are going well. Little Hna. Calderon is awesome and she just cracks me up with some of the things she does. All of my companions have been so different from each other but she is truly special. I´ve got plenty of stories to tell you all someday :).

As Dad pointed out to me, I am already halfway through the mission and so begins the downward climb...doesn´t feel like it, though. Even though it´s the hardest thing I´ve ever done, I really am grateful to be here and I love the people--however crazy, drunk, or weird they may be at times. Panama´s a special place.
Next week you won´t be hearing from me on Monday because we´re going to the TEMPLE on Tuesday! Woo hoo! So expect a letter then (don´t have a heart attack, Mom).

Love you all and happy October!
Hna. Brewster

Chasing Dogs and Going to Costco

Hey Family!

Let me just say right now that you are all awesome. I got several birthday packages this week that reaffirmed your love for me, so I thank you for that :). Really, packages make a missionary´s day, so thank you all for your kindness and generosity. I´ll remember that come Christmas time :).

This week was AWESOME. We had a 3-day leadership conference in Panama with all of the ZL´s, DL´s and hermanas (because president always includes us) where we got to receive some specific training on how to improve our lessons and just be better missionaries over all. (This came straight from the First Presidency, so we know it was inspired.) It was great--we really focused on teaching PEOPLE, not lessons and I know that our lessons this week have been a lot better and more meaningful because of that. I always find that the lessons go better when I´m just myself and I talk normally and openly with people instead of going into missionary/presentation mode. The Spanish comes easier, too.

All right...the subject of the day refers to some fun things that happened this week. I discovered a new way to get lessons with people: offer to chase their dog for them when they run out in the street. The thing about being in the city is that people are a lot harder to talk to and rejection is more frequent. We have to look for any opportunity we can to have people let us into their homes. Well, while we were tracting in an area right here in the city and a lady´s dog ran out of the gate when we walked up to greet her. I told my companion that I was sure we could get a lesson with her if I got her dog. So I took off running down the street after this pup yelling ¨Come here, puppy! C´mon!¨ Then it occured to me that the dog probably didn´t understand. So I started to yell ¨¡Venga aca, perro!¨ Funnily enough, that worked. When her dog was safely secured in the gate, the lady said she´d listen to us. That was fun.

The other thing was that we got to go shopping with President and Hna. Ward last week. They were going to accompany us on one of our lessons but because of scheduling conflicts, somehow we ended up just going grocery shopping with them in a place called Pricesmart (I guess it´s like another Costco...). Don´t ask me how that happened, but I´m not complaining! It was fun. Kind of felt like I was shopping with Mom and Dad in Costco...
Shoot. I´m out of time.

Enjoy Conference! Take good notes. It´s revelation.

love you all,
Hna. Brewster

Tengo 22 anos

Hey family!

Thank you all so much for the kind birthday wishes and letters that you sent my way! I actually haven´t received anything through the mail yet, but I did get several kind letters via email, so thank you all so much for remembering my day of birth :).

The birthday was definitely a memorable one. It fell on a Sunday, so there wasn´t much I could do. But I did wake up early to make chocolate chip pancakes and several friends from the mission called to wish me a Feliz Cumpleaños. A sweet old sister from David named Hna. Flory called me at 6:30 on the dot to be the first to sing Happy Birthday to me. She´s such a sweetheart. I also heard from a lot of other mission buddies and my two companions both gave me a hug and said Happy Birthday, so that was...special :).

I bought myself my favorite brand of ice cream on Saturday to have on Sunday night, so don´t worry. I lived it up well :).
I´m going to have to give you all better details next week--not because I´m short on time or anything, but because I´m old now and the screen hurts my eyes. You understand.

Love you all and thank you so much!!

love,
Hna. Brewster