Wow! 15 months in Panama

With just 7 months to go, it seems like we have been here forever, and at the same time, just a short time. We are experiencing so many opportunities to visit, teach, and see the country, it is hard to keep up on the blog with the pictures. But, here are some of the many things we have been involved with in these past couple of months. Thanks for sharing our mission with us!

Let{s start out with the obvious. Seems like a missionary can't get a "break today at McDonald's" without some commentary from the management...

On Collin's second anniversary of his death, the family requested that we all do a service project in Collin's name, so we went to the Panama Temple, along with PooBear, a Collin and Regan favorite, and cooked dinner for the Boquete branch when they arrived after a 8 hour rugged bus ride.

Here are a few of the members enjoying the food made for them by Sister Presley. Unfortunately, I was pretty sick with the flu, and was just glad to get in the picture!

We have to say goodbye to our U.S. members occasionally, and it is very sad. Frank Sciaca has been a good friend. He got very ill with diabetes and also recurring Hepatitis C. We have been doing our best to care for him and check on him, but his family finally insisted that he come home to get the proper medical attention. It is a good decision, but we will miss this big boy! Saludos, nuestro amigo.

Being here in Boquete our entire mission, we get to experience the blessings of many missionaries coming and going in assignments here for anywhere to 4-6 months. We truly enjoy their spirit. This transfer took Hermana Delgado (on the right) from us. We also received Hermana Pula, a Samoan from the state of Washington. This was a very exciting pair of Missionaries, with incredible joy for the work. Hermana Pula brings to us great memories of my term as Bishop of the Young Adult ward which was 80% Samoan and Tongan. It just makes me a little homesick....

History has been made here in Boquete! We now have 6 missionaries, two Elders and two Hermanas, and us! The Elders stayed with us a couple of days as we worked on getting them a place to live, and in the meantime, took advantage of them walking the dogs. Welcome Elders Duron and Taylor!

We had a busy August, not only with new missionaries coming to Boquete, but also had the senior missionaries who serve in the Panama Temple come to visit our little town. We had the Bjorneson couple in our house, and the Mattheson couple stayed with the another family. We took them around the town, and to our favorite spot, the rickety bridge that leads to some members house in the tropical forest. What fun to have them here for a couple of days.

This is our Branch Presidency and EQ presidency at our home. President Sanjur is standing in the middle with his 2nd Counselor, Brother Miranda to the right. Seated is the Elder's quorum president, Augustin Toribio, and his 1st counselor, Isidoro Montezuma. Great group of men to work with.

One of the blessings we have is to teach mission preparation class. Here is Romel Espinosa, who we taught and we are with him as he boards the bus to leave for his mission in Mexico. We miss him, but we write often and hear that he is doing very well. 

Other work we are enjoying is that which we do in our work with the Boquete Branch. We are responsible to do alot of the training of the leadership, as well as fill in on various callings in the branch. Here are some of the primary class that Sister Presley teaches. She is the music leader, as well as in charge of the music selected for our meetings.

This is 3 year old Ruth, who lives in the house that we built behind us, along with 10 other members of the family. She is very curious and has a smile that will melt anyone's heart. Ruth is mystified at many of the things we take for granted, like Ipads.

Being the good teacher she is, Hermana Presley takes time to show Ruth how the Ipad works. Lynda looks like she is in Heaven, and I am sure she is imagining that she is holding one of her grandchildren.

This is the Osbaldo Montezuma family, at least 4 of the 6 of them. Wife Anna, Ruth, and Randy. They are members, but need to be more active. We are working with them.

We are also the homework center for the older kids that live in the house behind us. This is Moises, 17 years old, finding information on my laptop for his class later in the day.

some class assignments are just very odd. Isidoro had a class assignment on how to make "wine", but it was actually just grape juice, no fermenting. We had to go buy grapes, then crush them by hand, then filter the juice out into a bottle and mix with some sugar to make it drinkable. What happened to reading, writing, and arithmetic? ;-)

Of course, Bobbie, the Huskie, had to take my chair and do his own teaching to Monte. These two dogs are wonderful, and will be hard to leave behind. We "inherited" them with the house, and I guess the owner assumed we would take care of them. He was right! We love these guys, and they are very good watch dogs that protect us.

Occasionally we have a movie afternoon on a Saturday. Popcorn and water, and a Disney movie in Spanish is a real treat for the kids. These are 5 or "our" kids from the back house.

The little pool at our house is a fun place for the boys to play in the hot, humid afternoons. Don is always sure to be there when they swim. No accidents, please!

Repairmen and general city work is done a bit differently here, and sometimes I think even more efficient. At least creative. The electric company guys had some branches in the way, so what else would one do but climb up and cut away the branches with your trusty machete? Makes sense to me.

Broken water pipe (yes, these pvc tubes are our water source). Our neighbor fixed his with a piece of cloth and a shoe lace! If you wait for the city to come fix the pipe, you may not have any water for days. Don helped later and got a little joint and glue and made a permanent fix for about a dollar. He now has a second career!

Let's not leave Lynda out of helping whenever it is needed.
We are in the rainy season now, and when Don needs
to bring the car in from a meeting, Lynda treks out in the pouring
rain to open the gate. As she says as the car enters the yard,
"It must be love"...

We have a good friend, Dave, who turns local woods and makes bowls,
plates, and lots of other beautiful things. We gave him some branches
from our mango trees, and he made this beautiful bowl, which he then
gave to us as a gift. Can't wait to show it off at home!

We are keeping healthy by eating interesting fruits, like the
mamochino fruit

Working out at the local gym. What a stud, Hermana Presley!

Hiking and swimming in the local rivers. Wow, this was beautiful!

Seeking out hidden waterfalls in Boquete's tropical rain forest

Don, as usual, getting some sort of injury in our daily activities...
Here is his jammed toe. Ouch!

But most of all, loving being together,serving the Lord,
in beautiful, amazing, and busy, Boquete, Panama!

More show and tell from Boquete

Welcome, again, to our blog. We thought we would share some of the normal goings on as we live our lives here in Boquete on our mission of mystery and adventure.

Occasionally we have water problems, and this may explain a little better why. First, the water comes from the mountain by gravity, and the PVC pipes sit above the ground most of the time. They break for a number of reasons: cars run over them, machetes cut them while cutting the grass, the sun bakes and breaks them. The city is very slow to respond and fix these, and normally we have to fix them ourselves. These are small, 1/2 inch pipes, so water comes slowly, and leaks cause a problem. Our neighbor fixed his leak, just above us in this unique manner. A cloth wrapped around it with a shoestring tied around to hold it together. We helped him fix it properly with a new joint and some pvc glue. 

While walking down one of the two main roads (yes, this is a main road in bustling downtown Boquete,), and this man selling wood chairs and small love seats while balancing them on his head! No, we didn't buy one. I couldn't fit it on my head!

Since we have a family living in the house that we built, you can see it back there, there are a lot of young children living there and love to play soccer. They like to see the old man get in there with them, even though they can beat the pants off me.

One of the doges that we have "inherited" with the house is Monte. Here, he is enjoying a group massage by some of the Montezuma family children. He is a big bear of a dog, and is as gentle as can be. Oh, to be so relaxed!

Lately, we noticed a family of armadillos along side our yard. Yep, 4 of them, rooting around, not causing any problem. We had never seen these creatures close up before, and they acted like we weren't even there. This is such an interesting area we live in.

Lynda has been busy all about Boquete. Here she is talking to the owner of a new mail service while at the Tuesday market. We are always looking for the best way to get mail and packages sent and received. It is practically impossible to get anything from the states without paying a fortune.

Lynda was able to get her Driver's license renewed for another year. To do this, you have to bring your updated visa and passport, then go to a booth for an eye test and questions, then another booth for a hearing test, and then go to this little window where they make the license and then go to another window and pay $40 dollars. Usually this can take a couple of hours, but we went early, when it first opened, and were done in 25 minutes. World record!

Lynda also keeps the cookies coming, as well as teaching Mariela Montezuma how to make them to keep the tradition going even after we leave. Mariela is 16 and lives in the house behind us with the other 10 people there!

And Don keeps the tradition going of "testing" the cookie dough to make sure it is up to standard! This is a specialist of chocolate chip cookies!

These two are the youngest of the Montezuma family, children of the oldest brother, Osvaldo. They are Ruth and Randy. Yep, not sure how they got the American names, but cute as buttons. Ruth is 3 and Randy is about 15 months. They like to stop by for apples and like to visit.

Not sure there are words for this picture. But they sure are grateful for their apples. 

We celebrated birthdays just last night, the 20th of July, for Mariela and Juan Carlos. Mariela is 16 and Juan Carlos turns 9 in a couple of days. We had Lynda's enchiladas, homemade frijoles, rice, and for dessert, chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream.We had 14 people, including the two families living in the house behind us and the two sister missionaries. What a fun evening!

After dinner and dessert, the two sister missionaries, Hermana Delgado and Hermana Pula shared a message and scripture with the family. A wonderful way to end the evening.

Here is the Osvaldo Montezuma family, who share the house with the rest of the Montezuma clan, along with us, of course. Our house doesn't have much privacy, as there are more comings and goings with all the children visiting us. The other part of the Montezuma family also has 4 kids, for a total of 11 people living in the house that we built for 5!

5 months since the accident, and we truly believe the Lord has blessed us to recover quickly and with very little marks or scars. We are happy to be here, doing what we can to help the members and people of Boquete, Panama. But, honestly, we so miss our family and friends back home. Time is flying by, and we will end this adventure soon.

Don't forget to write us at dpresley90712@yahoo.com!

Zipping along in May 2014 with Kathy Jones

Well, May has gone by, and almost all of June. At the end of this month will be our 1 YEAR anniversary as missionaries called to serve in Panama! They say time flys when having fun. Let's jump right into some of the fun things we did these past 6 weeks:

A few weeks ago a large infected lump raised up upon my already messed up right hand. Boy, did it hurt. I finally decided to go to the doctor here in our little town, Dr. Boyo. I won't show you the picture of the infection, but it was nasty. She cut open the infection, and found a small bead of glass from the windshield of the car embedded deep. When she pulled it out, it looked like a small diamond. I thought maybe I was producing some kind of new gem! Anyway, here is the stitch up picture, and below the bandage.  It has healed up quite nicely and no more swelling or pain. And yes, that is correct, it is my 3 fingered hand...

Do you like the Michael Jackson glove look? I don't think I will be a hand model in the future. I am just glad and blessed to have a hand that still functions!

We have certain times when we have no water coming into the area. We have reserve tanks, but they can get really low when there is no new water coming in for 5-7 days. So, showers are short and the water that flows from the shower is saved and used to fill the toliet tank. We have become very resourceful here, and realize how blessed we are in the states. Here, a bucket and pail come in very handy!

The first week of June we had a great time with one of Hermana Presley Best of the Best friends, Kathy Jones. She was here for her very special birthday, and we were lucky enough to share it with her. We didn't let the grass grow, or the jungle, grow under her feet and kept her busy. She gave us a real boost while here, and we really enjoyed showing her our little city of Boquete and where we live and work as missionaries.

We visited many members, many who are "expats" who are Americans who have retired here. These are the Gentrys.

Here we are with Frank Sciaca. He has been pretty ill for several weeks and may be going back to California to be with his children and get some additional medical attention. He is a great man and so fun to talk to.

We certainly had to take Kathy to some of our favorite little spots, like this Italian Gelato spot. Mmmmmmm, good!

Exercise was not put on hold while Kathy was here. We went to the gym, (she got pretty sore from that), and we took our mile and 1/2 walk with the dogs. Here comes Lynda and Kathy in the gate with Monte, our gentle giant of a dog.

Add to finish it off, for Kathy's special birthday, we took her ziplining for her FIRST time ever through the jungles of Boquete, Panama. We all had a great time, and she was an expert in no time. This is one of mine and Lynda's favorite things to do wherever we go. 

Lynda zipping through the canopy of the Jungles of Panama

Antother successful zip line adventure!

Now, back to work at home. At times we help our "kids", the family who lives in the house that we built for them, with their homework. Isidoro had a school project to make grape juice from grapes to get the experience of how it is done. Don helped him mash these grapes into a juice (it wasn't very good tasting...)

At times, we also entertain the rest of the family who live in the house behind us. Here they are enjoying a movie on dvd while eating some popcorn that Lynda prepared for them. These are special times and treats,since they have no electricity, and popcorn is not ever prepared for them at home. We really enjoy spoiling them every once in a while.

Did I mention we are missionaries? I was able to baptize this young lady. She is nine years old, and had not yet been baptized in the family, although she comes with her grandmother every Sunday. We had the whole family here, including one that was not a member, and several that had not been to a church service in a while. It was wonderful to enter those baptismal waters again. This is Caroline Montezuma.

Seminary is taught in our home at 7:45 pm until 8:30 pm due to school schedules that conflict and don't end until late in the evening. Lynda likes helping out, and Don is more than willing to share in the joys of teaching the youth.

At times, there is still work to do on this "farm" we like to call it. We live on about an acre, with 5 large mango trees, as well as several other plants and trees. Don and Isidoro decided to do some tree trimming of the Mango tree that hangs directly over the driveway. Of course, it is always best to yield to the youth to climb up and start sawing large branches by hand. Don does a great job holding the ladder and giving encouragement.

Between the two, we were able to cut thmango branches into pieces with that little hand saw. Not too much to use as far as tools go around here. so we do our best with what we have. Don bought the saw so they didn't have to use a machete, which would have been a tough job. 

We also had to go to Panama City to get our visas renewed at immigration. While there, we ran into several missionaries doing the same. Two of our favorites, who had served with us here in Boquete were there, and we had not seen them for some time after their transfers. This is Hermana Valdez on the outside, and Hermana Herrarte next to Lynda. Terrific young ladies!

With all this work, we had to have a little time off, so during this one year mark of our mission, we went to a favorite spot in Santa Clara, about an hour outside of Panama City, before we met up with Kathy Jones. It was wonderful to relax for a few days and recharge the batteries.

Now, back to work!! We love miss you all and are doing well and staying healthy. Thank you for all your facebook comments and emails. Please stay in touch. It gives us lots of strength while so far away from all our family and friends.