Ayala Vido un ano ya

Hi family,
What a week! We had zone conference, interviews, district conference in my area and a whole lot of traveling back and forth to do. I feel like I was just sitting here writing to you all and I here I am again. The weeks pass quickly here and they are not dull.

One notable thing in particular, on Thursday I completed ONE YEAR in the mission! It was neat because since I live with Hna. Kennedy, she and I were able to celebrate together. She used the Robisons oven next door to make brownies and we celebrated with Hna. Ponce and Hna. Brenes, sharing with them our nuggets of grand wisdom we have acquired in a year...not really, but we did eat brownies.

It's so weird to think about everything that's happened in just 12 months. I remember everything so well that it seems like a joke when I look at my calendar and it tells me I'm 2/3 done here. On Friday we had our large zone conference and we had to travel 3 hours to get to Chorrera, my second zone. That was one of the weirdest deja'vousie experiences ever, and seeing as my second transfer wasn't the happiest event to ever occur in my life, there was a part of me that felt a little haunted as we walked down the same streets, past the old ¨Chichemito¨ stand and the chapel. It made me laugh, though, to think of how things have changed. My Spanish is so much better, I know my way around, I have many more friends in the mission and I just feel altogether more confident with everything. But that being said, I still oftentimes feel like I'm new at this just because I'm ALWAYS learning. There's always something I didn't know before, some new flaw to fix or another lesson to learn. Just when I think I've mastered one thing, I get served a slice of humble pie and realize I'm very far from that "perfect missionary" I always wanted to be and it makes me grateful for the time I've got left to learn and do all that I can to make other people's lives better here in Panama--including my own.

But I want you all to know that my testimony has grown tremendously in this last year and I absolutely love what I get to do every day. It is, as one of my companions described it, a dream job. What a comfort it is to know that we have the truth--that thanks to Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel, we don't have to worry about what we're doing or why we're here. Prophets are still alive to help us and guide us along today and we just need to listen and do what they say to be a happier, better people. Pretty simple, huh?

I love you all so very much. Thank you for your letters, your prayers and above all your love that you've shown me in this last year. I do miss you but I know we'll see each other pretty darn soon.

les quiero mucho,
Hna. Brewster

A little less explication...a little more action

(Yeah...hope you all got a good laugh at my grammatical error in the package I sent home. My English is no so good...)

¡Buuuuuuuuueeenos Dias, familia!

Today I am writing to you all from a beautiful place called Santiago, my new area, which rests peacefully in the middle of Panama where the deer and the antelope play. Okay, I've never seen a deer or antelope, but we are in farm town here and I am absolutely LOVING it! Santiago is like a dream--in some ways it actually reminds me of the cabin. I'm surrounded by beautiful trees, rolling hills, happy farm folk and slightly--ever so slightly--cooler weather. My new companion is Hna. Brenes from Costa Rica and she's fantastic. She loves to talk (like the Latina version of Natalie--and I mean that in a good way) and she's still fairly new in the mission so she's so enthusiastic and optimistic about everthying we do and already I've seen some amazing things happen in my short time here. I think I've done more service in 5 days here than in my whole mission before! We're always finding people to help because they're much poorer here. Did I mention that I love it? Also, another thing to add to the "pro" list, we are living in a gorgeous rat-free apartment with a pair of other sisters, one of which happens to be Hna. Kennedy, one of my best buddies from the MTC! And living right next door to us is a senior couple, the Robisons, whom I have also fallen in love with. Yesterday Sister Robison made FUNERAL POTATOES. You can't possibly understand the immensity of my joy upon eating that little plateful of food. Needless to say, life is good. We're already working with a family that wants to be baptized by the end of this month and there are several other positive investigators who are expressing some true interest. I keep waiting for the catch...

I do miss parts of my last area, of course. Sister Bloomfield ran into our Colombian family at the Super Market the other day and they say they want her to come by and visit. I think it's only out of friendship, though. The girl we had been teaching, Jenny, now has a date set for baptism, which of course is excellent news.

By now you've all heard that I decided to extend until August, so I'm hoping everyone is getting work off and such so that we can all hit up the cabin together that next week (I get home on the 11th and the week after we leave, Dad says.) If I sound trunky, I blame the music that was playing on the 2 hour ride into Chitre this morning: Abba's "Chiquitita"--but all in Spanish. Hna. Brenes told me her parents aboslutely loved ABBA and I said, "What a coincidence..."

Glad to hear that things are going well for all of you. Still don't know what Hilary's having, right? Boy or Girl? ("Gosh, I hope so.") My congrats to Jessica on the news of her twins and to Amy on their baby girl who's on her way. The fam's flourishing.

I feel so lucky to be here teaching the gospel right now in Panama and I thank you all for your constant prayers, letters, encouragement and support. I wouldn't waste my time preaching something I didn't know with certainty to be true if I had to be away from all of you for this long (p.s. one year on Thursday). I love the gospel.

les quiero mucho,
Hna. Brewster

Happy New Year!

¡Feliz año nuevo a todos! Espero que hayan fijado metas buenas :)

This was a busy, good week here in what I'm sure was one of my final weeks in Marcasa. Changes are next week and President tells me I'm out of here. Kind of sad...but ready at the same time. Especially after what happened on Wednesday night. I was in the back room putting away clothes when I heard scuttling in my suitcase. Hna. Bloomfield and I both grabbed brooms and took a good whack at it and out jumped the biggest, fattest ROUS I've ever seen. It ran over HB's foot and I can tell you that much screaming/wild broom whacking ensued. I didn't think I was the type of woman that screamed at rats but there's just something about having it jump out at you that takes you off guard. HB told methat to check and make sure there weren't any more in my suitcase, so I reluctantly whackedit a couple of more times. Out jumped slightly smaller those equally fat MRS. Rat, who scurried about the room for a minute before our piercing screams forced her to flee. (Really, I'm quite surprised the neighbors didn't stop' by to see if someone had been trying to kill us--they might have been consoled by the hysterical laughter that followed the piercing screams, I guess). We decided we couldn't sleep until we'd poked and prodded every little nook and cranny with our brooms that night. We didn't find anymore, thank goodness. However last night I found an oldpiece of ham on my suitcase and HB assures me she was NOT eating in the back room...perhaps it was a peace offering. Anyway, I'm looking forward to a new apartment!

We spent New Years at home ofcourse but not before one of our members loaded us up with delicious ham, pineapple, apples, grapes, bread and sparkling cider. We couldn´thave slept at midnight even if we wanted to because the fireworks outdid the ones from Christmas. Panamanians just love noise.

So it's now 2011 and I'll be seeing you all pretty soon---maybe too soon. (Don't get mewrong--I love you.)

Happy New Year!
love,
HnaBrewster

Another Merry Christmas to you!

Hi family!

I know about half of you just saw me like 40 hours ago, but for those who didn´t, Merry late Christmas! I wish I could've talked to all of you but I was only allowed to use Skype to call home. But I can't really complain about that, can I?
To Ben and Hilary--Thank you so much for the package!!! Hilary, you know me too well. Everything you put in there was exactly what I had on my wish list. And I absolutely adore Ella's works of art that you included :). If you do end up having twins, I'm totally down for being a live-in nanny. That would be awesome. Hope you guys enjoyed Christmas with the Knightons!

To Natalie and Ryan--Thanks again for the Christmas wreath and lights! Made me feel at home on Christmas Eve. How did the first Christmas at home go?
To Angie and Caden--I'm sorry I only got to talk to you via Skype through a cell phone..kind of lame. But I love you and miss you both very much. Hopefully you'll be around on Mother`s Day!

To Dave and Katie--SEND ME SOME OF THAT BACKER'S CAKE! No...kidding...but seriously. Also, I loved the Cate Blanchett impression, Katie. That made my Christmas.
So Merry Christmas to one and all and a Happy New Year! Can't believe we're starting 2011...yikes.

You haven't missed much in the last day. Sister Bloomfield and I spoke in our ward yesterday and President and Sister Ward came to listen. Not intimidating or anything...but it went well. I used Ebeneezer Scrooge to talk about loving one another. Not sure if everyone got it, but to me it was brilliant.

The weather here is still uncharacteristically cold, so Sis. Bloomfield and I may be heading back to the apartment and making cocoa. I love that she loves doing these things with me. I'm really going to miss her in 2 weeks when we have transfers. It's not looking like we'll be baptizing a family before I go, but it doesn`t matter'--we're working hard anyway.

All right, well, that's all I've got for you right now.
love you all and Happy 2011!

See ya next year!
Hna. Brewster

Through the years...

¡¡Feliz Navidad, mi querida familia!!

Today I don't have much time to write but it doesn't matter because I'll be TALKING to you all this weekend--or at least to those of you who will be home for Christmas. The exciting news is that I will most likely be using SKYPE, so you'll all get to see me and make comments about my Latin appearance and lack of femininity due to the hot, humid climate in which I live. It will be exciting :).

I'll try to call those of you who aren't present if I can, but in case I don't get the chance to tell you this myself, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I am so grateful for my amazing family and for everything you all do for me.

I love you all!

love,
Al

Catching up - again!

Hello my family!

Today I'm writing from "La Oficina de la Misión Panamá." We (sister bloomfield, the assistants and the office elders) have been busy sorting through packages for our Christmas party we're having next week with ALL of the missionaries. We're trying to make sure that everyone gets at least one package for Christmas time, so there's been a little "Robin-Hooding" going on (i.e. the gringos are sharing the goodies with the Latinos, whether they like it or not). I did notice a nice package from home for me in the pile, but I resisted the urge to open it (thank you :)). (p.s. Thanks, Mom, for the thanksgiving/christmas decorations that I just got in the mail. Sister Bloomfield loves you for including an advent calendar for her :))

We have had some pretty crazy weather here lately, actually. You won't believe this but we actually had to wear SWEATERS outside last week. i think that's the first time in Panama history that we've been cold. Sis. Bloomfield and I bought cocoa and decorated our lovely little hovel with extra Christmas lights from the mission home and the decorations that you sent, Mom. Of course we{ll be taking them home soon because we are very soon moving in with Elder Altamirano, a member of our ward who happens to be an area seventy. That's right--I'm spending Christmas with a general authority :). Cool, huh? This comes after about 3 months of living in a literal hole in the wall. Last week we woke up to a river in our study room (leak in the roof) and yesterday I found that a giant rat had taken a giant bite out of my newly purchased loaf of bread (unless Sister Bloomfield was feeling particularly hungry and just went to town). plus we have quite the crowd of...let{s call them "fans" outisde of our apartment building. So a relocation is very necessary! It does rob me of my Dickens Christmas I envisioned...but oh well. This Christmas will be a memorable one!

We're still doing our best to work with the Familia Aguirre and get them to accept a baptismal date...we had stopped going to them for a couple of days because they weren't coming to church and Monica got soooooo mad at us. Well, that's fine. Come to church, be baptized and we'll see you for eternity. Seems a simple solution to me!

Well, I have to run, but only one more email before I talk to you all next week!

Love you!
Hna. Brewster

"Fra-gee-lay"

Hello my dear beautiful family,

First, let me apologize for not sending out a mass email on Monday. We had transfers last week and the assistants decided not to let us use the Internet until Thursday, which was kind of a bummer. But don't feel too bad for me because right now I'm writing to you all from the mission home where Hermana Bloomfield (we didn't have transfers--begged president to let us stay together and he buckled :)) and I spent the night so that we could be here for p-day to help Sister Ward decorate for Christmas. Yes, it does pay to be the closest sisters to the mission home. However, I almost didn't sleep last night because I was so excited about having AC, a comforter and a hot shower to look forward to in the morning. Sister Ward also had us do a P90X workout with her this morning and it was intense. I'll be feeling that one in the legs tomorrow! Right now I can hear Sister Ward listening to some MoTab Christmas music while she's sorting out various boxes of decorations she discovered. We helped set up the fake Christmas tree and I can tell you all that I felt a slight pang in my little corazon when I thought about the REAL pinion pine that would be spending Christmas without me this year at home. Ah well...it's just one Christmas!

Last night I got to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, which I'm assuming that many of you didn't see because of the Taylor family Christmas party (though I'm guessing only Mom and Dad were around for that one...). I quite enjoyed that and it's the closest I'll come to a MoTab Christmas concert this year, so I lived it up. I still can't get over the fact that you're all wading around in snow while we're just getting into "springtime" here. Odd.

Teaching-wise, I don't have too much to report. The Aguirre family whom we love so much didn't come to church yesterday which just about broke our hearts, but we're still trying to see what we can do with them. Hermana Bloomfield and I, being former soccer players, played against Camilo and his boys with Monica last week and I was surprised at how much I missed soccer! And it was pretty cool beating a professional soccer player :) (that's right--we won!)
We love them so much. They're just having a hard time letting go of the Catholic traditions...keep praying for them.

We did have an amazing testimony meeting yesterday with our ward. I think about 90% of the congregation was in tears. I try not to miss you all too much here (thankfully the work keeps me plenty busy and I don't have to ever worry about that) but every once in a while you all come flooding to the mind like some giant tidal wave I've been repressing and the tears start to trickle a little. I think that's what happened yesterday when one of our cute families in the ward all got up and bore their testimonies together (that's what people do here). The oldest boy who is about 13 starting talking about how grateful he was for his family to up there all together and he started choking up. That's when the tears hit everyone, I think. Hermana Bloomfield and I were no exception. So anyway...I guess I love you all :). I'm not pining for home or anything, don't worry, but I do miss ya. Thanks for the prayers. Do some fun Christmas stuff and send me some pictures.

Les quiero mucho,

Hna. Brewster