Mid-Week Update: Elder Berg Breaks His Arm

So this was an interesting few days.  We got a call from Lloyd Tuesday morning that he was in the hospital with a broken arm.  He was running and fell the night before and he broke his arm in two places.  He went to a hospital and they took X-Rays and then sent him to a hospital by the mission home that has US trained doctors.  They decided that they needed to do surgery to insert a plate and screws.

So Tuesday afternoon Elder Berg went under the knife.  The surgery was successful and they were able to insert the plate and screws and get everything patched up.  He will have a sling for 4-6 weeks and have some physical therapy to do, but he'll be good.  He is being discharged from the hospital today (Thursday) and will go back to his area with his companion.  So he's in good shape.  But he will definitely have a story to tell.

The plate will stay in for 18 months and he can choose whether or not to leave it in or to have another surgery to remove it. 

We talked to him after the surgery and he was in good spirits and feeling good.  The mission has a nurse couple that is there to make sure the missionaries are well taken care of and get good care and I talked to him a couple of times.  Everything went well and he's on his way to recovering.

Week 28

Well, the weeks are absolutely flying by.

This week, we had divisions that were really additions, as our Zone Leader (ZL) came with us for a few hours for a trio, which was ok, but I don't really get along with him too much, but i guess I just don't know him well, as he is the dad of my comp. I talked to my comp after the divisions and he said that he had the same feeling when they were first comps, but that it will get better, 

On the investigator front, that is improving. One of our investigators that went to Nicaragua for the Christmas vacation is here, and we have an appointment with her for Thursday, and on the phone she sounded a lot more positive, so I hope we can make a final push to get her baptized. Also, when we were doing a less active lesson, we found out that her niece is not a member, and that she wants to get the lessons, so that was pretty awesome, as they live with her, and they can help her with the stuff and learning how to pray and read the Book of Mormon. 

Also, we worked with a ton of less actives this week, so that was good. and the ward is starting to help too, as they are visiting some of their home and visiting teaching people. And they are also visiting in particular one family that has some hard times, and I really hope that they can come to church, so that would be great. but, we have to continue working with them. 

And every Friday we have training, which is basically just an hour of  "You all suck at planning/teaching/contacting, here is how to improve it." That is going well, I guess. It just gets kinda boring.

 

Have an awesome week!

Week 27

Well, this week’s update shall be quite short, because we did a lot of contacting. Like, a lot. So we did a lot, but really nothing to report on. However, something funny did happen yesterday. We were in a stake meeting, and it was about family history. So this one guy then starts talking, and says that he likes to do the easiest lots in the system, and he said that some people can do even harder. He says that he knows that they go to hard, difficult, advanced, ridiculous, professional, and then he just yells AND SUPER SAYAIN. And all the missionaries just about died we were laughing so hard and then our concentration went out the window. It was awesome and we went to about 3 birthday parties and got a lot of cake. So a good week!!

Con Amor, 

Elder Berg

Week 26

Welp. It’s another year. And almost six months on the mission. It’s been incredibly fast. This is the fastest that time has gone by, since ever. It’s kinda incredible. And this week, well, we had a lot of parties. People in Panama love to party. Like, a lot. They have parties for just about anything. And as soon as it hit midnight here, the entire city just exploded into fireworks. It was awesome. We were up until 4am. We had a huge multi zone activity which was awesome too. We played a bunch of basketball, which felt incredibly weird using my hands in a sport. But it was a great time. And the day before New Year’s, we were hanging out with a bunch of elders and we were just watching the city´s fireworks. It was pretty great. This week we had a lot of food and celebrations. 

And also we got into contact with an old investigator, and she is really positive. Had a big family home evening this week too. So we did do some work during the holiday time, ha-ha. The hard part is that basically the entire country goes to the interior. Basically as if all the people that live in NYC went to Palmyra for two weeks. Basically everyone, it’s really creepy when there is no one outside in the streets. But something here that EVERYONE does for New Year is paint. Literally everyone. In about a week, about ninety percent of the people in our ward changed their paint jobs. It was crazy. 

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Elder Berg

Week 25

Welp. First Christmas without being with my family, so that means I had to party a lot to make up for that. And we went to a ton of parties. Basically all of the 24th we were with a lot of people, who just  invited us when they saw us on the street, which was awesome. On Christmas night, we stayed up till about 1:30, and lit off a ton of fireworks, and basically ate and ate, it was awesome. And we also managed to hit up some investigators and less actives. But PARTYYYYSSSSSSSSSSSSS. They were a ton of fun. And then on Christmas we got together with a bunch of missionaries and played soccer on a synthetic field, which was awesome. 

We have decided to hit up all of the less actives we can until February, because we have like a bajillion. So that was fun. And also, got to talk to my mom and dad, which was awesome, although every missionary is now super de duper trunky and missing home. But hey, Mother´s day isn’t that far away, is it? 

Here, they worship ham. I am not kinda kidding. Like, for Christmas, its ham. And rice. Can’t forget the rice. But it’s a tonnnn of ham. There are people literally selling ham at every corner. They slaughter a lot of pigs here, apparently. But to everyone, be nice to the missionaries this week, they are kind of trunky. Have a wonderful new year!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Berg