Week 7

Well, I have my first P-Day in Panama!

My companion is from Guatemala, his name is Elder B, and he is super awesome. He only speaks Spanish, but he is able to understand almost everything in English, so when I don’t know a word in Spanish, and it’s not in the diccionario, I can ask him. The people here talk. So. Freaking. Fast. It’s ridiculous! But its ok, I am getting there, and I get to practice talking Spanish all the time and I get to tell my companion about all my friends from BYU and all the adventures we went on. It’s really cool.

The missionary that got transferred from this area to make way for me was named Elder L, and apparently everyone loved him, because he was from Brazil. So everyone is always asking where he is, and I am just like, “Hi, I am cool too!”  

The people here are really awesome, and there were, literally, when I got to my area, zero investigators. So we found one, and hopefully we can keep him, and then we have two more, but they have two kids, and not married, and it’s difficult. But we have like two, so that’s good.  A lot of the work here is with less active members, and trying to get them to come back to church, and we got two to come this week, so that is really good.  Hopefully next week we can get more. But the work is progressing.

The people here are superdy duper poor, and it’s insane. I am pretty sure I won’t feel carpet for about the next two years, kinda crazy. Most of the houses are made of cinderblocks with a metal roof which is super loud when it rains, which it does every day.

The work here is hard, as there a lot of lomas, or hills, and it is super hard to walk every day. And seriously, every single meal is rice and chicken, which I am fine with, because I don’t have to cook, and it’s funny because my companion is super sick of it, as he has had rice and chicken for 23 straight months, and is done with it. But the work here is a lot with fewer actives, as there are 50,000 members, and 20,000 active, so we try to get them to come back. It’s hard, but worth it. 

Just please pray for us to find people! Its super hard, I hope you are all having a great time.

Address

This is Lloyd's address for the next couple of years:

Elder Berg

Misión Panamá

AP 0834-02987

Panamá

República de Panamá

lloyd.berg@myldsmail.net

In the Field!

Hey all! I am now in the field, and it’s awesome. My companion is super awesome, and super popular, so that is cool. His name is Elder B, and he is from Guatemala. I love him. So cool. He is also hilarious, and speaks zero English. But he is awesome. I taught a member family yesterday, so that means I just shared my favorite scripture and talked about it. We are doing well. We get to go tracting later, and I have a feeling he is going to make me do a lot, so that will definitely be interesting. But I am having a lot of fun here. 

The service is interesting here. There is absolutely zero customer service. Like, taxis decide if they want to go where you need to go. You need to tell them where you want to go before you get in, and then they decide if you are worth it. Kinda weird. And I learned a new word yesterday. Pretti. It means cool. Everything can be pretti. We waited for a taxi for about 30 minutes yesterday, just at this weird mall terminal thingy, and then we were hailed by a member and we got a ride in the back of a truck. A really cool day, and just for one day it was a lot.  Later we are going to try and contact a guy my companion has been trying to find for a while, and we went this morning, and could not get him, as his wife said he was sleeping, for some reason ice cream had something to do with it, I think that he had it and he was not able to sleep until 1am, and he only had half of it. It was weird, because it was like a medium ice cream cup thing at a store.

So I’m learning how things run here in Panama!  It is great and I’m so happy to be here.

Week 5

not really much this week, just that a pandemic went around and my companion was super sick and all that fun stuff. but i get to leave for Panama on Monday, and that will be super awesome!!

Week 4

Well, this week was pretty awesome. I would like to ask you to think about something. When did Christ visit the Nephites? During the 40 days when he was with the apostles? Think about it. 

This week was eventful. We got to go to the temple today, and it was pretty awesome. We were not allowed to do a session, as the temple is closed for a year and a half for renovations. But we got to go into the visitor center and look at all the stuff, and it was really cool. The Spirit was really strong there. 

We had a bit of a crisis this week, as there was a huuuuuge moth that was right outside our classroom. It was jet black, had a wingspan of about 8 inches, and was scary. We didn’t want to go outside. Our teacher slid along the wall to get into our classroom, and when he got in, he said "ES EL DIABLO!!!” so we all kinda freaked out. The moth didn’t move for a good solid five or six hours, and it was freeeakkkyyyy. Eventually a janitor got it out. But still weird. 

And I have been thinking a lot of how we are using the Book of Mormon, and how special it is. I love the painting of Moroni when he is praying over the plates and is about to put them in. it just kills me how alone he must have felt. He was it. There was no one else, he was the only one of his people left. And he was being hunted. Every time he moved his hiding place was to get a few more lines and few more words in to the book. His book is so powerful, because he is trying to help us. There is no audience for his words. His people are dead. We are his audience. He saw us, and wrote for us, for what he was divinely inspired to write. Just blows my mind, and makes me love the gospel that much more, that Moroni felt that we were that important. He could have just given up, but he knew he had to do it for us. 

And on that note, I want to say that I am doing really well! Having a really good week, but it is all kind of blending in, can’t wait to go to the field. Only 14 more days, but who is counting, right?

And I am doing pretty awesome in soccer. We play on an outdoor basketball court, and it has a fence around it so we don’t kick it out every ten seconds. It’s about 50 feet long. And my goalie threw the ball in the air to the three point line of the other side, right near me. And as it was coming down, I swung my foot, kicked it with the top of the foot, and put it right past the goalie´s head. It was pretty sweet. 

And the answer to my question is... 

Several months!! Read 3 Nephi 8:5 for when it all started. And then its 3 Nephi 10:18 for when it happened. Kinda crazy how long of a time was between the two events, considering how I always thought that it was only three days later. 

Anyway, I hope you all have an amazing week and I want to thank you for all your emails! They are awesome. 

With love, 

Elder Berg

Week 3

Well, this week was a little monotonous.  We’ve mostly been doing the same things over and over again.  We have been teaching our investigators, which is a lot of fun, but it has turned into the kind of slog I knew it would become. We are teaching Daniel about the restoration, and will teach him about the Plan of salvation next. He is easy, although he asks a ton of questions, such as tithing, because he does not like how in the Catholic Church the priests get paid. but me and my companion do a pretty good job of answering his questions. 

The other one is Guadalupe, and he is hard because he works all the time and we have to keep it interesting or else he falls "asleep". But we taught him about how much God loves him and how much he cares for him. It’s hard, because you must keep him interested all the time. 

Not much new, although one of our teachers who just got off his mission a few months ago has 70 ties, yes, 70. And we are going to probably do some trading with him. 

Last night, everyone in our district talked about Napoleon Dynamite and SpongeBob and Nacho Libre for a few hours.  It was hilarious. We were all almost in tears by the end. I played some soccer today, and some fun times were had, but it was difficult. 

I also learned how to give a blessing in Spanish! It’s difficult, but I know that I will be eventually get it. 

Only three more weeks till Panama!  ugh........

Here's some pictures of life at the MTC.