PANAMA!!!!

So I am out of the Lone Pine and back in South Bakersfield. Actually I am right next to Fairview ward and in the Panama ward. I see people I knew all the time, its pretty sweet! As I said last week I am training and its going pretty well actually. Oddly enough I am really enjoying training. Its pretty fun and it really isnt that hard. My greenie is Elder Linford, he is from Nampa Idaho. He is way sick, he wasnt the annoying Greenie that I was afraid of getting. He is very humble and teachable but is also very eager to learn. Elder Linford is waiting for his Visa to go to Brazil, and so he has to do an hour of language study every day. So in total with the 12 week program we do 4 hours of study every single day! Basically while he is doing language study I stare at the wall and wish the time would go by fast so we can go work. We are on bikes and its pretty fun, people recognize us better this way. Mostly this week we visited all the members in our area and introduced ourselves. We are working with them pretty closely actually. We have a big list of missionary work ideas that we commit them to do and then follow up the next time they see us. There are three sets of missionaries in our ward, us on bike, and then 2 sets of Sisters, one on car and one on bike. Its pretty fun, it means that the Elders quorum is all ours to use. I have been pretty annoying to them, being all like "Hey when can you come with us this week?" To every single Elder and High Priest. Its ok though cause Im used to getting what I want. We did have a lesson this week from the only investigator the other Elders left us with. Her name is Tessa, she professes to be an Athiest but I dont believe her. I told her that I didnt and she just changed the subject. So this week we are going to be meeting with her again and if she keeps at it than we are going to have to drop her. We cant waste time with people who arent prepared by the Lord when we could be finding the people who are. Its sad to say it but its true, we dont have enough hours in the day! This week we will be finding all the time, Elder Linford isnt a fan of knocking doors, so I said he better learn to like it cause thats what needs to be done. Of course I said it in a way that teased him but I dont remember what I said. So ya I am super happy to be here in Panama and I am really excited to be in a ward that supports missionary work and does missionary work. It will be grand! Here are some pictures of my last night in Lone Pine! First picture is of us and the Rodriguez family, its not a good picture but the others are super blurry. The second is a picture of us with Eddy Ivey who will someday join the church and serve a mission hopefully! Love you all, the church is true!!

Elder Carper