We are in the last few weeks! Coming home soon!

 I can't believe it has been since December that I have added to the Blog. Shame on me, but it has been busy, working with the members, getting a young man ready for a mission, and trying to tie up a lot of work before we leave. Can you believe we are just 6 weeks away from leaving this beautiful country and the adventure we have shared. Wow! I have attached some more pictures to share some more of what is going on here in Boquete, Panama.

Welcome to a beautiful summer Boquete, Panama morning. Several mornings a week we go out our front gate to walk the dogs and and have the Volcano Baru welcome us. We have to walk on the main highway into town, and as you can see, it is a very crowded highway! Lynda is ahead walking Monte, one of the dogs.

It is interesting how, in just a few hours, the sky can change and and form beautiful clouds and mists around the volcano and the area. Since it is pretty hot here, usually around 95 each day, the mist and clouds are a welcome change to cool us off.

We had a great branch Chrismas party, and we were able to continue one of our favorite traditions by singing O Holy Night . We were able to find the song in Spanish, so we sang it in both languages. It was a wonderful experience.

Hermana Presley and Hermana Sanjur, our primary presidency, led the primary children in the Christmas story. They all did so well, and were so very cute in their costumes that Lynda made.



 Here is another picture of the Primary. Hermana Sanjur is alongside Hermana Presley in the back of the group.

We had some babies born in the branch the last couple of months. The Nez family, an american family who are members here, had their second child at 11:30 pm New Year's Eve. This was the first baby born to a family that was sealed in the temple in this branch. We had to be on call to take care of Abby and get them to the hospital down the mountain in David, 40 minutes away.

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A month later, the Marcusi family had number 7 child, Levi. This is a picture of Dad, Mom on the right, and the oldest child Brinelda, and ONLY girl of the now 7 children. Brinelda was really hoping for a sister, but she is such a great sister to all those boys. This ngobe family lives in very humble circumstances, and we are always glad to help when we can. Here we just got home from the hospital down in David. Mom and baby were there just one day before coming home. It was a real challenge to get her to the hospital on time, since they live in a difficult area. But all is well, and mom and baby are healthy. Great experiences!

 
It can and will never be any different. Nana Presley is always there to comfort and love the little children. These two are Ruth and Randy Montezuma, who live in the house I helped build the first part of our mission. They are beautiful children, and so independent. Still, they find lots of joy sitting on Nana's lap. I think it helps Hermana Presley with the homesickness for her grandchildren as well...what do you think?

I think all know from previous posts that we have a special family, the Montezuma family, who live on our property in the house that was built. One of our greatest joys has been to help Isidoro prepare for his mission this past 12 months. He has received his call to serve in Nicaragu, Managua North mission, and will leave next week, Feb 18th. Here we are as he came out of the temple. We admit that is just like sending one of our own children on a mission. While this has been one of our final purposes of our mission here, we also realize that, unlike our own children leaving for a mission and returning to us, we may not see Isidoro again in this life time. What sweet sorrow....it is hard.

We have enjoyed missionary talks together. When Isidoro has had questions, we had a very comfortable place to chat, along with Monte the dog.

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During our trip to Panama City and going to the temple, we had an evening free and took Isidoro bowling for the first time in his life. By first time, I mean he had never seen bowling before, and only thought is was an electronic game. He did very well for his first ever time, and bowled a high of 74! It was a lot of fun, with a lot of laughs.


Isidoro is now ready to go. He wanted to wear the plaque, so I loaned him mine for a moment so we would have a picture of what he will look like next week. Boy, we will miss him, and wish him all the blessings of heaven as he leaves to serve his Heavenly Father and the people of Nicaragua.


Being in Boquete as senior missionaries is a blessing. We have been here our entire mission, and see many of the young and wonderful missionaries come and go with cambios (transfers). This is Sister Pula, from Washington state. She is also Samoan, which made it just a little more special for me, being that I had been the bishop of our young adult ward in Long Beach, and was primarily polynesian. Sister Pula served here for 7 months, a long time for a missionary. She went home last week, and before going, we had to have a picture with the island shakla. The only problem, as you can see, is that I cannot do a complete hand sign on my right hand, since I lost my little finger last year in that car accident. We got a good laugh on that. We will miss you, Hermana Pula.


Summer can't be the same without baseball, and I was able to go see a minor league game down in David. It was a good time, and I was able to take Isidoro, his brother Osbaldo, and Anna, Osbaldo's wife with me. They had never seen a game in person, so it was even better. For $3, we could sit wherever we wanted, on some hard concrete benches. We sat 4 rows up, right behind home plate. Unfortunately, our local team lost, but it was still a great place to spend a summer evening.

One of the more local customs during the summer is burning leaves that fall in the yards, or the high grasses along the roads and farms in the area. We participate as well, and just wanted to show all that we are really a part of the Boquete community, doing our share in the local ways. This is just a couple of days of leaves raked and piled up in our backyard that mainly come from the 3 mango trees in the back yard. You can see one of the trees in the very back of the yard over the house that we built for the Montezuma family. We are going to miss so much of the lifestyle we have become accustomed to here. But we will be so very happy to be with family and friends again.

See you soon!! We leave Panama on March 31st, then travel to all the homes of our children to visit and will be home in Long Beach on April 11th!

A thankful November 2014

November always brings lots of things to do here in Panama. The Holiday season begins, and seems to never end. It seems that almost every weekend from mid November through January is some sort of holiday. In fact, it is more surprising when it is not! We hope to share in this blog some of the things that were done as we served in our assignments in our 17th month here in Boquete.

Ever see a missionary closet? There are so many choices and decisions to make on how to dress each morning. What should I wear today?

End of the school year brings some interesting challenges and projects to the kids here. Isidoro Montezuma lives in the house that we built, and he and his brother and sister come to us many times to help with some "unusual" projects. One project was to celebrate Thanksgiving, why? we don't have a clue. But they had to make something representing the Pilgrims. Here is Isidoro with the hat the he and Hermana Presley designed and made. It was a hit at school!

Mariela, Isidoro's sister, learned to sew some designs on the sewing machine for a school project, under the watchful and masterful teaching of Hermana Presley

Speaking of arts and crafts, one the the Sister missionaries had her one year anniversary. Hermana Awai, from Hawaii, was surprised when Don hand made a flower lei from some beautiful flowers from our backyard. They smelled just like Hawaii, and it was a joy to do.

November also brought church seminary and  institute graduation. Here they do it up big, with a cap and gown and a wonderful ceremony. Elder Presley was able to represent the Branch Presidency and award the diplomas and certificates. This is Beatriz Bram graduating from Institute.

And this is Isidoro Montezuma receiving his first year certificate for Institute. He is also waiting for his mission call. We hope it comes soon!


We love to take the dogs on a morning walk around the "neighborhood". Bobby, the huskie, loves to visit his neighbors, the cows. Pretty crazy!

We have made it a tradition, or at least our "legacy" here in the Zone of David, to host a full Thanksgiving dinner for the missionaries. This year we had 18 missionaries and the Branch President and his wife, and another couple who also helped us prep some of the food. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy stuffing, green bean almondine, and pies and goodies. They were happy and full!

Here is a picture of all who ate at our house on Thanksgiving. What a blessing to serve these good young people who have come from all over the US and Latin America to serve a 2 year mission.

And then, yes, they even have Black Friday here after Thanksgiving. Mind you, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but they sure have started the shopping tradition!

One of the reasons for the mad rush to shop is not only Christmas, but it is also Mother's Day on the 8th of December every year. Always the 8th. And it is a big holiday and big deal here, so the money is flying all over the place! We also had a wonderful celebration on Sunday after church, and had refreshments, presentations by the youth, and some small handmade gifts. It was a great activity with lots of love shown

Don was even baking for the Mother's Day activity. For the first time, he made 40 cupcakes and they even came out successful (they disappeared fast!). Not bad, for my first time!!

Of course, there were birthdays as well. Albert, here enjoying his birthday cake, turned 7 years old. He is the youngest brother of Isidoro.


Lynda and Isidoro celebrated their birthdays together, since they are just a day apart. We had the whole family here. Below is one of the nephews, who really enjoyed the cake! His name is Randy. Cute kid




Now, all around us there are fruits and vegetables growing. We have coconuts growing, lemons, pineapples, plantains and bananas, and our neighbor started growing acorn squash. This one was growing and hanging from our fence and he told us we could cut it off and have it. Lynda made soup as well as roasted some, and we also gave some to the family behind us, and some other friends. This squash was huge!

Speaking of huge, this is a strange flying bug we found in our church building. It is about 5 inches long, has 4 long wings, and some nasty pinchers on its mouth. It was a good thing to wear some gloves handling it. No worry, we did not kill it. Just took it outside and let it fly away. Yeeech...but interesting.

It is now Christmas Season in the Panama summer. Somewhat confusing, but the holiday spirit is alive and well. Lynda is putting the finishing touches on our humble, yet wonderful tree.

As we begin December, we received an awesome assignment to prepare lunch for the Christmas missionary activity. 4 zones, 85 missionaries!! We fixed tacos with all the fixings, beans and rice, lemonade, fruit, and cookies. After the lunch, all the missionaries piled into special busses and went to an orphanage to sing and give gifts. Here you can see some of the costumed reindeer, as there was to be a Christmas play put on by them.


It was a huge task, and I almost jumped! (just kidding). We visited a beautiful waterfall with our friends, the Flakes, the other senior missionary couple. They work in Las Tablas, about 4 hours away, closer to the center of the country, where it is hot and dry.

Here are Elder and Hermana Flake, from Horseshoe Bend, Idaho. They are wonderful people and we love it when they come here for conferences. They were so important in helping prepare the lunch for the 85 missionaries. Here, they are enjoying the cool jungle area, and standing in the midst of the coffee plants that grow abundantly here in Boquete. Odd, huh?

Santa was even among the missionaries as they prepared to go to the Orphanage. Hermana Presley took advantage to give him her Christmas wish. (I wonder what that could have been?)
No sitting on this Santa's lap!

 Well, time to call it quits for now. We are having such an adventure here, and time is flying by. We truly enjoy being here, serving in Boquete, living among the people. We know that we are here for a special purpose, and are grateful to be able to do it together. Although we miss our family and friends terribly, we also rejoice in the service to the Lord as we live here during this time. We are humbled by all that we are given, and grateful for the challenges that help us grow. Soon, we will return home, and will be better people for this opportunity.
Don't forget to comment or email us. We would love to hear from you. dpresley90712@yahoo.com.

Parades and Rain here in Panama

We are in the middle of rainy season here in Panama. That is winter to the states, but it stays around 75-90 degrees, depending on the altitude. When Don comes home from some church duties, the gate has to be opened, and usually it is pouring down rain at about that time. So, dedicated to the work, Hermana Presley goes out in her rain gear to open the gate. But with an inch an hour rainfall, which is normal, not sure the raincoat does much good...but she sure is pretty!

I love the machetes on these little guys representing the farmers of the area.

While there is no military organizations in Panama, only a national police force, they still have their ROTC and march with precision.

And drums, oh yes, the drums. It is like a huge competition to see who can beat their drums the loudest. I think there is some sort of order to the beat, but not really sure.

Here is a small sampling of the drummers from one school. The little guy in the middle was really into it. He had the most enthusiasm I had scene. Lots of fun.

Hermana Presley, Isidoro and Mariella Montezuma came with us to enjoy the parade. They are like our second family. We really love them.

Besides the parades and fiestas, there is visiting and home teaching to do. Here is Hermana Presley with Angelina Carrera on their way to the Marcusi home. These trips are not quite like visits in the U.S. It takes a bit more fortitude to cross streams and climb mountains slick with rain to visit, but it is done with a smile.

At one of our visits to a family who live about as far away from church as possible, up in a farm, there are also these "apartments" where many of the ngobi indians live with their families. We get a chance to visit some of the children when they come out to see us. Notice that each have a stove chimney, but no windows. Clothes are washed by hand, and sanitation is lacking. But interestingly, these people always seem to have a smile for us.

Sometimes after visiting a farm, the members like to give us something to take back to our house. One of most interesting were these green eggs. Fresh from the chickens! Look out Dr. Seuss!

We went to the Costa Rica Border and found in this little town, sort of like Tijuana. It had a very modern Burger King, which of course, we had to stop and enjoy a very american fast food lunch!

There is a lottery here in Boquete, and all over Panama. The sales person sits facing the tickets, and people buy them for a small amount of money. The 15th and 30th are paydays and especially busy days. Some things never change, always looking for the easy way, and spending (wasting) hard earned money.

One night we had steak, and invited our "kids" over to help us eat it. Moises, in the picture closest, covered his steak in butter. Made us remember Diane Ward. She did the same.

Here we are enjoying a picnic with some of the members near the a river in Gualaca, a small town about 30 minutes in from us. These are the Bram and the Sanchez families

We love Boquete. It is beautiful here. This is the volcano Baru, highest point in Panama, and we look out at it every morning. Wow.