Okay so we have pretty much finished our canvasing the City of David for English speakers after 3 years of searching. We still have not at homes but not very many. We are now going to be expanding our search area to other parts of David, and near by areas which is exciting! Yesterday we went to an area called Los Algarobos and in maybe 5-6 blocks we found 3 English and started studies with each of them. HOW exciting!!! and it was New Years Eve so hardly no one was home. We also got to meet a Missionary brother who lives in that neighborhood. Him and his wife have been here in Panama for 16 years serving as Missionaries! Due to their parents health they are leaving their assignment for a new one in the states. One of taking care of their family members. They haven't heard whether or not they will be assigned as Special Pioneers in the US or not since that has to be approved by a different branch than the one we are under here. Even though the sister is back in the states and taking care of her mom who is very ill... and despite the fact that it's winter...she still managed to get in her 130 hours last month! SO proud of her!! It's motivating to me to see ones like them who have a very busy life, have many responsibilities and challenging circumstances and still manage to keep their vow to Jehovah. Anything is possible with Jehovah's help!
We will be on our way to Costa Rica in about a week for our boarder run. Panama used to allow only tourists to be here for 3 months and then you would have to renew your visa.. well a few years ago that changed to 6 months which is really nice for the friends here.. why then do we have to do a boarder run after only 3 months of being here??? Because when the Panamanian government changed that law they forgot to change another one.. One that says you can only drive using your US passport for 3 months... and so what if you decide to stay 6 months and only drove a car the last 3 months of your stay? It doesn't work like that, they will see that your entry stamp was from more than 3 months ago and assume you have been driving the whole time. THUS the need for the boarder run. So the 6 month visa is really only beneficial for those who do not drive here in panama.
Last night was New Years Eve and OH MY GOODNESS!! Starting at 7pm and going until 5am this morning Panamanians all over the city were lighting off Fireworks and not little ones either this was like a full blown Disney fireworks show in the sky! HUGE fireworks! Every time one would go off... it would set off a car alarm. All night long was nothing but BOOMing fireworks and car alarms and then of course loud latin music. Holidays here are very interesting that is for sure! I wouldn't have minded except I had to wake up at 4am this morning and so I didn't get very much sleep between all that noise. That's okay though. No sleep last night was worth yesterdays day in the ministry starting all those studies! :)
We will post more soon! Love you all!
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