Ben Pronk has been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is currently serving in the Panama, Panama City mission (Central America) and is speaking spanish. He reported to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah on September 3, 2008 and left for Panama on November 4, 2008. See below for various email messages from the MTC and from the mission field.
His current contact information-
Regular Mail:
Mision Panama'
Elder Ben Pronk
Carrasquilla
Entrega General 0834
Panama, Rep. de PANAMA'
Pouch Mail:
Elder Ben Pronk
Panama Panama City Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0150
Current email in Panama:
ben.g.pronk.PPCM@myldsmail.net
Dearelder.com:
select Panama, Panama City (free); write letter
Elder Ben Pronk
Mission code: Pan-PC
Go to website below to see recent pictures of Elder Pronk at Thanksgiving and Christmas with an american couple who moved to Panama and love to entertain the Church missionaries.
www.flickr.com/photos/young-in-panama
NOVEMBER 25, 2009:
hello everyone
happy thanksgiving tomorrow!
sorry i havent written until today, i forgot to tell you that we didnt have a meeting until wednesday this week.
this week went well. we put two baptisma dates for next saturday with the two ladies we have been teaching. they are really cool. we had to tell them that they were ready because they didnt think so yet. she thought she had to be perfect to be baptized. today is the interview. hope all goes well.
sounds like they have about the same number of baptisms at home as they do here. more there i think. we have the goal of 1000
glad to hear everyone is doing well. i am looking forward to talking to you soon. i got a card out for annas birthday yesterday. hope it gets there in time. i am also trying to get one out for christmas for everyone this week... if it doesnt get there in time, sorry. hope you enjoy it.
well i dont have much time left, but i will talk to you all soon. think of questions for christmas.
have a great week and great thanksgiving.
love you all!
Ben
NOVEMBER 17, 2009:
hey everyone
glad to hear from you this week. it is yet another week that has gone by.
a pretty eventful yet uneventful few days. last week until transfers i was with the zone leaders. we had a few cool experiences. we put a baptismal date with a family they are teaching. i learned a few things from the two of them.
on sunday, we had district conference. a few leaders including our mission president and the area authority spoke. it was a good stake/district conference. About 280 people there from the district... which btw is a group of branches because they are not big enough to be wards.
Yesterday we had transfers finally. My new comps name is Elder Sanchez and he, like my last comp, is from Honduras. It seems like we get along. We´ll be here for Christmas at least.
glad to get your letter this week. You mentioned sending a package. That should be nice, hope it arrives. You can try sending food if you want, some people get food in their packages. I just never know any more. I rarely get mail. I didn´t get any letters through pouch yet. I don´t think that system really work any more. Mail is the best way, but it is pretty horrible as well. 8.5 more months and I won´t need to worry about it any more.
Cool about Sarah getting her permit. It feels like time is passing quickly. Anna´s birthday is coming up soon. She´ll be 12 right? I´ve almost lost track of ages now. Weird.
Keep letting me know about your lives and tell people to write if they can. I keep pushing forward, doing the best I can. Thanks for all of your prayers. Pray that I will be able to speak english when I get back... it is difficult sometimes haha
Anyways, have a fantastic week... talk to you later
Love you all
Ben
October 13, 2009:
hi,
youre probably wondering why it took me so long to write this week, sorry. the zone leaders had a meeting yesterday so they changed our meeting to today. sorry if you thought i didnt write.
we put a baptismal date with an investigator we have named maite, she is 17. we hadnt even taught her the first lesson yet and she called us to tell us she wanted to be baptized. i guess her cousin had taught her some, he was a return missionary. her baptism is planned for next saturday, the 24th. hope all goes well.
other than that, we have found a few new people... 3 siblings that we are teaching now. they are really religious for their ages, 16, 18, and 20. we have only taught them the first lesson though.
i told you last week that i would share more about what i learned at conference. i really liked how many talks were about love, especially president uchtdorfs talk. Also the talk by dallin h. oaks that talked about the need for laws in order to really have love.
Boyd K. Packer had a quote that I liked: Prayer is your personal key to heaven, and the lock is on your side of the veil. It makes me have a stronger conviction to pray and have more meaningful prayers. I really liked conference though, it always helps me to just keep pushing forward, despite the challenges.
I have learned during the mission that the spirit does a lot in helping one to teach, everything. It is really clear for me because of the language, when i have the spirit, the words come out well, when i dont, its really choppy and i struggle.
Glad to hear things are going well at home. It sounds nice. I really would like some cold weather. It is so much easier at times. You just have to put on coats.
Thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts. Hope you all have a great week.
Ben
I need to write a letter home again soon. I still have yet to receive mail in the past number of months.
September 26, 2009:
Hi,
Another week has passed. it feels like it has gone pretty quickly.
Things are going okay here. i think it is my last week in this area.. who knows though. i´ll know on saturday night. i´ll let you know... and probably be writing you from somewhere else next week.
Our investigators are ... ok. last week was a better week with more lessons, but there aren´t a lot of people really progressing.
We returned to teach old investigators this last week... they still have to get married and get work off on sunday, but they´re pretty positive. near their house we found another family that was interesting to talk to. the whole street is just their family, a practice fairly common here in panama. they all live near their families.
As for receiving letters, the drought continues for the most part. the mail system continues to fail me. i´ll let you know though.
Hope you all have a good week. i love you all a lot.thanks for all the love and support. i´ll keep doing my best.
Ben
AUGUST 17, 2009:
Hello everyone,
well lets just say it has been quite the past week. It has gone better than the previous weeks so the comparison makes it good.
our numbers have been much better than they have been all transfer. we were able to find a few new investigators on tuesday and then on wednesday we went and taugt that new family with seven kids that i mentioned last week. this week they officialy count as new investigators though. maybe i just mentioned them in my written letter... i dont know. but yeah, then yesterday we walked an hour with the six kids to church. the mom had to "watch the house" or something like that, and the dad was working... so we took them all, 6 kids under the age of 13.
when we got to church, we found there was a group of americans visiting... i guess a few of them lived in the city a while ago and came back on vacation to hike and see things. i recognized one of the guys and talking to him, found out it was because he lived in helaman halls last year at byu too. i think i had met him a couple times. it was pretty cool. i guess he had left on his mission twice, but come home both times because of anxiety or something. he went to pennsylvania and kentucky... cant be that bad, but i cant judge. he's getting engaged next week he says.
church was the end of the good numbers week. we had 88 people at church. its been improving every week. before i got here they were averaging 50 or so and now it is up to 70s for the most part with the new branch president.
we have found a few decent investigators recently. we contacted an old member and have somewhat starting teaching her and her son. its a case of getting baptized a long time ago when she didnt understand anything about the church. she soon left the church and has been attending another church for the past 13 years. shes harder to teach than most non members. she never learned anything about joseph smith or the book of mormon. i dont know how she was ever baptized, but i guess thats the way it used to be. im not sure if shell progress, but her son possibly.
overall mission wise, it is going alright. this is the last week of the transfer and i might be getting a new comp next monday, not sure yet. it feels like the area is progressing so it will be nice.
sounds like things are going well at home. cool to hear about dads talk through a translator. i dont translate every sunday because the branch presidents family is back, but i do have to translate from time to time. we have a growing english only membership with the family from idaho that just moved in. they are from boise, but im not really sure what they are doing here... long term vacation or something.
I hope to get any kind of mail this week, well see though. thanks for everything. talk to you all later. any questions you have that i havent answered.. just ask them again and ill try to answer them hahabye for now
ben...elder pronk
AUGUST 10, 2009:
Hi,
I got a letter out today with a bunch of pictures and a long letter so I won´t write a whole lot in my email, hope that´s okay.
thanks for writing so much this week. seeing that i never get real mail, emails are nice.
a question though... should i have taken out a credit card before the mission to get good credit. somebody mentioned that they did that. i don´t know if that would be worthwhile to do right now...? mom would know maybe?besides not getting mail, things are going okay here. we had two people at church yesterday, friends of the first counselor. we also had a new family, americans from idaho. i don´t know why they are living here, but they´re here for a year. pretty cool family with three younger kids... 14 and below.
things are going okay though. we haven´t moved yet... not until the end of august i think. i´m starting to get the hang of the area though and hopefully things will speed up in terms of missionary work soon. supposedly i´ll be here for more time so there´s plenty to do. we finally confirmed that lady we baptized yesterday. she didn´t come for two sundays after her baptism. weird situation. she was the first baptism in the area in a year.
sounds like things there are going well, ending summer. sounds fun. i wrote a little bit more about that in my letter.anyways gotta keep going, not much time... but i´ll talk to you soonlove you all
ben
AUGUST 3, 2009:
Hi,
i´ll get a letter out to you this week though... i printed out pictures this last week and am just writing a letter and then i´ll get it out. i´ll keep the letter fairly short.
First of all, we had big new at church yesterday as they called a new branch president. His name is President Von Tonder. He and his family are from all over the world.. but he´s basically canadian. They all speak English, spanish and french perfectly, it´s crazy. So I think it will work out well and hopefully it will help us out.
In terms of the missionary work right now, it´s outrageously slow. We are working hard and contacting a lot, but there´s not much teaching. Last week we taught 3 lessons! That´s horrible. Even the missionaries that don´t do anything get more lessons than that. We are working hard and people simply don´t want to listen, or even answer the door to tell us no. We see them inside watching tv or talking and they just don´t answer the door. It´s very frusterating, but we keep going.
We did have an interview with the president this last week and he said the same thing, he knows the area has been dead for a while. He actually ended up taking us back to Boquete after the interview so that he and his wife could come eat mexican food here. They aren´t half bad.
Other than that, it sounds like things are hot at home.
I feel like I have more to write, but my head hurts a bit. I´ll let you know more in my letter about my area and what´s hapening... not much, but a few random things.
Hope you all have a good week.
I´ll talk to you soon.
Ben
JUNE 29, 2009:
hello,
About the package... it was "too nice" as you said. red is not a good choice haha , but don´t worry i got the card and the letter from christina at least. thanks for everything. other than that i´m doing okay.
I had the flu for the past few days which hasn´t been too fun, but i´m okay. eating wise as well, they feed us fairly well in this area. if i need snacks or food from time to time there is always a store close for the most part. they don´t have the healthiest stuff or anything near it usually, but there´s something to eat. i usually have been fairly smart with my money and had some at the end of the month so it´s been okay.
You asked about the missionary work... things are looking more positive. we have a really cool investigator we just met on saturday night, even though i was sick. we taught him the first lesson at the house of another investigator and he was pretty interested. we invited him to church thinking he probably wouldn´t come (because that is usually what happens). The next day we show up to church really early and he ends up coming into church 15 minutes before the meeting... nobody is there that early fyi (there were 2 people in the chapel, the bishops wife and daughter). Despite a pretty crazy day at church he says he enjoyed it. During the classes he participated and liked to ask questions. he´s a smart guy so it´s a nice change compared to most investigators. We´ll see what happens but I could see him being a quick baptism and progressing a lot. He´s a columbian who just moved here not too long ago, we´re still not sure why he left though. I guess he was an orthodontist there and then is having to basically restart life here in Panama. Who knows. The ward is starting to improve as well. While the recent converts are up and down from week to week, it´s better than a lot of wards. On saturday Sister Gil was baptized... the lady I taught all the way through. It was a really good baptism despite feeling sick the whole time. She was really prepared for it and hopefully will progress a lot. Her husband wasn´t baptized yet because of some problems he has but she is hoping she can help him to be baptized soon.
In terms of leadership, it´s pretty good in this stake. My ward not as much, but it´s alright. The stake presidency is really strong and keeps introducing new programs and activity ideas to get people excited and improve the stake. It´s one of the strongest stakes in panama.
Yes I did get your letter you sent on june 16. Thank you. I got it the next email time though. Oh well. Glad to hear youth conference was such a big success. It seems like you were working on that forever!
I just read the part about Elizabeth´s mission call. crazy! spanish speaking will be cool. I´ll have to get her address and write her letters to see how it is coming with the spanish.
Sorry I don´t have much more time other than to respond to questions, but remember I love you all and hope everything is going well. I´ll try to get a letter out soon.. handwritten.
Talk to you soon Ben
PS I hear the mariners aren´t doing too bad this year... in reach of first placein the division. The red sox are amazing as well... a lot better than the mariners though. Keep me up to date. I read every once in a while in the paper but they are really brief about baseball.
JUNE 22, 2009:
hello,
happy father´s day to dad! fathers day here is just another opportunity for people to have parties. my comp continues to try to convince me that the holidays are basically the same, but they aren´t. i hope you had a good one though!
here, we´re doing okay, not too much success. yesterday we only had one investigator at church... which actually has been progress over previous weeks. people just have a hard time with getting to church (despite it not being very difficult). we had an old investigator i taught before come in a bit after sacrament and then after we talked to him and he said he wanted to be baptized soon. we´re going to try to help him feel comfortable in church again. hopefully his baptism will be soon. other than him, we´ve just been looking for people that can actually progress. way too much contacting.
we did get a lot of references from members yesterday though through a survey we had them fill out. we´ll see how that goes. besides that, i´m doing okay. i possibly will be sent out to the island next week, monday or tuesday. i´m not really sure, but i´ll let you know what happens. what else? details? i am not reallly sure. i guess pictures would be better huh? it´s hard to describe how it is here. my journal is a little bit better i suppose. lots of rain recently. we have frequent lightning, rain, thunder storms... almost every day. it´s starting to have those big downpours daily. well... i am not sure what else to say, but again thanks for the package. thanks for the emails always. hope all continues to go well. good luck with youth conference. i
love you all
talk to you soon, Ben
JUNE 8, 2009:
hello,
well seeing that it´s my birthday week i wish i could write a good letter. i only have a few minutes to write though so it will be quick.
as for my new comp... it actually has gone really well. he´s an american from texas, went to byu, lived in helaman halls, and basically is exactly like me in a lot of ways. his birthday is june 10th if you could believe that. he´s a little different in terms of how he is as a missionary, but we´re a lot alike and working hard.
our investigators are progressing for the most part. we have a family that we are working with, who are trying to get divorced (from an old spouse) and then married so they can be baptized. i hope it works out. it´ll take a while, but it will be 4 or 5 baptisms if it does. what else? i thought david farmer was in arizona?? oh well. i also just found out one of my byu friends just got sent home for some reason. pretty sad. it would be rough.
i hope my birthday goes well this week. this week (saturday until thursday at least) there are 5 baptisms in my zone... it´s crazy. it´d be nice to be the only one, but i´ll have people to share it with so it will be fine.
well i have to wrap this up, but remember i love each one of you and pray for you always.
i haven´t gotten the package yet, but hopefully the end of this week or next week.
talk to you soon
Ben
JUNE 1. 2009:
hello everyone,
well to start out, i´ll break the news of what has happened within... 24 hours or so. i´m still in the same area. i had packed my bags and was ready to go yesterday, but then when the call came last night... they said my comp was leaving and i was staying. haven´t gotten my comp yet though. i´ll be in the other half of the ward (as opposed to where i was for the first 3 months)... there will be 2 sister missionaries in the other half. it should be interesting. 6 months in one area!
i´m kind of glad though... i`ll be here for my birthday! i was afraid if i went somewhere far i wouldn´t get my packages. not like that´s all i care about. but it would just be nice to receive them.
as for what has happened this week.. we had an interesting ward missionary activity, still teaching, and painted a house. the activity was supposed to be big and they were supposed to invite their friends. we did a ward movie night. it ended up starting to rain exactly when it was supposed to start and nobody came. only 7 people showed up. we had 50 bags of popcorn ready. we were going to watch the testaments, but endedup watching johnny lingo since they were all members. it´s a good movie, but turned out to be a not so great activity. teaching wise, we´ve been teaching the guy in the wheelchair and it´s been working out pretty well. it´s nice to have an investigator that enjoys listening. the bad part is he lives in the sister missionaries area now. along with the gil family, who are set to be baptized june 27. my area... there is basically nothing. oh well, i´ll at least still be able to teach those families a few times while i show the sister missionaries the area and introduce them to investigators.
house painting... we painted a whole house, outside at least. it´s a lot easier than it would be at home. 1 hour and we did it all. it´s one of those metal roof houses... the sides are built of the metal roof stuff along with the roof. it´s a different world, let me tell you. it would be terrible to have dirt floors, especially when it rains.well i hope everything is going well there. i´m glad to hear from you.i continue to persevere, pray, and try not to get sick. the food is interesting. people seem to never be able to cook things correctly. a lot of missionaries get sick.
thanks for all the support
i love you a lot
ben
ps don´t forget my birthday is in a week and a half. just fyi haha
MAY 25, 2009:
Hello everyone,
It´s been another week. things pass by so quickly. glad to hear you´re all doing well. i read that it was jessica pronk´s 17th birthday... wow! 17 seems so old... and I still feel like she is 14 or 15. everyone´s growing up. In terms of Anna growing up... don´t! haha She´ll be going into junior high when I get back. weird. Well, let her know she still has to go to mcdonalds and blockbuster with me.
There´s a week left of this transfer... next monday. we´ll see what happens. I really have no idea what to expect. So... for the moment, I´ll try to be open minded about it. This last week has been alright. We had a cool lesson the other day. We taught a guy (22 or so years old) in a wheel chair. We´re getting him a new wheelchair through the church program. We taught him and his mom and it was a really spiritual lesson. We´ll see what happens.
Yesterday at church the bishop came to us 2 minutes before the meeting and told us the speakers had bailed on them and we had to speak. 10 minutes each! I had no idea what I would say. I kind of just grabbed a few scriptures and thoughts and went up there. I ended up talking about sacrifice and how it is a principle that has been around forever. The blood sacrifices of Adam and Abraham, and the sacrifices of money, time and other things today. It worked out well. And somehow, I talked for 17 MINUTES! In spanish! I know, impressive right? I thought so. My spanish is definitely not perfect, but it´s really improving. I couldn´t have given a 17 minute talk before my mission in english, let alone spanish.
Living wise, we went a couple days without water this week. It was rough. Not a drop of water. You really just can´t take for granted having constant running water in the US. Here, it´s about as sporatic as anything. Some mornings we have water, some no. Almost never during the day and recently, nights have been waterless as well. Oh well, I´m still alive. Dad mentioned water or liquid. Yeah, there are quite a few stores, little stores within houses every few blocks it seems.
In terms of the Hil family, they aren´t getting baptized for a little while. It is their jobs that seem to take over. She works as a maid or something for a gringo family in the city and he fixes weedeaters, but they still need to attend another sacrament meeting before they can be baptized. They just aren´t there enough for us to teach them. So yeah, we´ll see.
I have yet to receive a card or package from you. I´ll get mail tomorrow so if something has come, tomorrow I´ll get it. If not, it won´t be until my birthday (no mail the week of transfers).
You mentioned learning through teaching... that is definitely true. The more you teach, the more experienced and knowledgable (??i have no idea how to spell any more) you are. a guy we were teaching yesterday mentioned how well we knew the scriptures... i never really realized it. I still feel like I know almost nothing.
Things are going well overall though. Thanks for all your love and prayers. I miss you all. I´ll let you know what happens with transfers next week... monday or tuesday I´m thinking depending on what happens.
Love you all, Ben
MAY 18, 2009:
Hello everyone,
Thanks for the email this week.
Things are going fairly well this week. I´ve been working really hard to have a good attitude about things. it´s still rough obviously, but i figure if i look at things better, it will improve.
In terms of teaching, we are still teaching the Hil family. As I think I said last week, they went to church and have already paid tithing too. They didn´t go yesterday because the mother had to work, but we´re hoping to baptize them by the end of this transfer (the 30th).
Speaking of the end of the transfer, I have know idea what is going to happen. I think there are new missionaries coming in to the other part of our area and probably one of us will leave... i´m thinking me. Possibly going out to San Blas, but i have no idea. That's the island for those who don´t know.
This week has been pretty good. We´ve been working quite a bit with various members to help us teach. It really helps a lesson a lot, especially if they are fairly recently return missionaries.
I had a weird experience this week. We had divisions... or exchanges in english i think it is... this last week. In the other area we stopped by a members house for water. A little child... probably 7 or 8 brought us what appeared to be water. I started drinking and realized it was not water... or did not include water whatsoever. It was really thick. Beinga missionary who has to drink or eat everything given to him... i drank it all. I swear it was soap or some kind of thing bad for me. I felt dizzy for the rest of the day. My comp didn´t drink it! I thought he did, but he didn´t. It was really the worst thing i´ve ever had to drink in my life!
Everyone is starting to freak out about the swine flu finally and it´s pretty crazy. One of our investigators thought he had it. Pray that i don´t get it. Thanks for sending a package. It´ll be much appreciated.
I am praying for each one of you always. I love you and miss you.
Elder pronk...Ben
APRIL 13, 2009:
Well it was nice to hear from you all this week.
I´m trying to get out a letter within the next couple days. Hopefully it will get there fairly quickly. I´ll try to include a few pictures I have taken recently that I´m going to try and print out soon.
The Hil family that we have been teaching is a couple that are about 60 or so. They have yet to attend church, but it is because the woman works every other sunday and hasn´t had much time. Hopefully we´ll figure something out.
With another investigator, a 70 year old grandma and her grandaughter, we are doing fairly well. They are evangelical and have been for quite some time, but they are pretty open to at least trying the things we say. We watched a video of For This Cause I was born... or something like that, not sure in english... por esto he nacido...
This last week was Semana Santa... Holy week... because of easter. It´s a big deal here. Easter sunday was just like a normal day, less people in the church than normal... It´s not commercialized at all here... nobody has any money to make anything commercialized... except the elections, which for some reason are a big deal. The two presidential candidates are not good. One worked with Noriega (the dictator who declared war against the US and is at the moment being shipped to france after being in prison in miami for 15 years or so) and the other parties all the time.
What else? Changes are this next monday. I´ll probably get a new comp seeing as my comp has been here 6 months already.
Well I´m excited to talk to you in less than a month. I´ll try to plan a time as it gets closer.
Love and miss you all
Talk to you soon
Ben
APRIL 6, 2009:
Hello,
It´s Monday again. I feel like not much has happened since the last Monday. The highlight has probably been general conference. It was pretty good this time… especially since I got to watch it in English.
The 4 english missionaries in my zone got to go to a different room to watch the English version of conference on a tv. I can understand all the Spanish, but it´s just not the same… the prophet is speaking in English.
It seems like conference had some usual topics that they always talk about. The top two that I seemed to see were trials and temples. It feels like there are more trials coming soon for a lot of people. Scary. But as we hold close to our beliefs and attend the temple, it should be easier to strengthen ourselves. I liked Elder Bednar´s talk as well as the talk of the member of the 70 after him about the temples. I wish I could go more often.
What else? I thought dad would like the reference to Home Improvement in the last session by Elder Stevenson. “Home Improvement, not Extreme Home Makeover.” I don´t think I would have picked up on that watching it in spanish. Conference was good. Besides conference, we have been teaching a few people. The Hil family is really positive and says they want to be baptized if they feel that peace and joy as an answer to their sincere prayer. It seems unlike most people, they are willing to actually try it… without the doubts that many people hold tight in their hearts.
We also started teaching an old guy that lives close to us. He´s almost 77 years old and pretty cool. We have only taught one lesson though so who knows. The lesson went kind of crazy though because we brought a member of the ward who is a bit strange. He started talking about other churches… comparing our church to other specific churches. I hope things work out.
I attached a few pictures from the last couple weeks. Several pictures from our trip last pday to a lake called Lago Gatun. It was a huge lake and I got a few good pictures. I also attached a picture of the temple from the time we went there about two weeks ago.
Last week you mentioned my shoes being cheap… they weren´t that cheap. I only took out a little bit because I already had a bit of money from the last time I took money out. They were about 75 dollars in total. The prices here really aren´t much different at all… people just make a lot less money. Someone the other day said 800 dollars a month was a ton… to raise a family and everything. I thought to myself and realized I was making more than twice that at the golf course at 18. Crazy.
I´m pretty used to this place, more or less. I´m looking forward to calling home on Mother´s day… only about a month left.
Dad also mentioned sending a package for my birthday sometime. I can´t think of anything I really need yet, but I´ll let you know by next week, so don´t send it yet. Thanks for all your love and prayers… I feel them. Things are getting better… slowly but surely.
Talk to you soon
Ben.. Elder Pronk
MARCH 30, 2009:
Hey family & friends,
Well it´s been another week… it feels like everything flies by so quickly. I read in last week´s letter that spring break (at least for anna) starts today. How about a short trip down to Panama to enjoy the sun and beaches? (it´s more of an end of summer break here though).
We have one positive family at the moment who we just started teaching. They are evangelical, but seem pretty open to the gospel. They are friends with a family in our ward who joined the church two years ago after being strong evangelicals. We´re hoping they are able to attend at least a session of general conference this coming weekend… along with teach them lesson 1 this week.
Besides that… we went to the temple this past week! I know, it´s amazing. It was a miracle that we got to go. The ward was counting on us to go and help with the baptisms. We were only able to be witnesses during a youth baptismal session… we were in the temple. It´s a small, but really pretty temple. Good stuff!
A couple random funny things this week too. The other day my comp answered his watch, instead of the phone. We got a call at 6:30am and he picked up his watch thinking it was the phone… said buenas dias.. and then realized when nobody replied it was his watch. He then picked up the phone to talk to the person, who ended up having called the wrong number.
We´ve also eaten a lot this past week. People love to give us food for some reason, despite not having too much for themselves. They like to talk about the differences in the types of food... our countries vs. Panama. Everybody here thinks Americans only eat McDonalds. It´s always… Big Mac and fries right?
Mom and dad… it´s good that you´re happy like you said, and keep going forward no matter what is happening around you. There have been a lot of articles in the Liahona that I´ve seen about financial security, I´m guessing it´s worse than I realize. It has yet to really hit here.
Well.. I´ll keep this letter kind of short this week, but hope to hear from you soon. Love and miss you all. It´s already April! … the birthday month.
Ben… elder pronk
PS to answer a few questions that were in this weeks letter. Yes we should be able to see general conference at the stake center next week. almost nobody has cable (only 6 or 7 channels everyone gets... if they have a tv) so almost never would they be able to watch it in their house. We live in a small house... I'll have to take a picture to show you. it´s really two houses (duplex) but it´s tiny. half of the house is lime green, half a peachish color... the doors are both bright blue... the gate on one door is red. The bishop is doing okay... you can tell he has a lot to learn. he´s only been a member 2 years! La Correra where I am at is about 15 to 20 miles out i think... about an hour by bus from Panama City. Yes, it´s summer here... the end of summer.
MARCH 23, 2009:
Dear everyone,
I´ve been waiting all week to write so finally I have the chance. I got your package on Monday. I think the thing I enjoyed the most was the pack of pictures. So yeah, thanks for that. Speaking of mail, I also got Kelly´s wedding invitation a couple days ago… a little late so sorry I couldn´t make it. It took a month and a half to get here I guess… they sent it to the “slow address.” I´m glad to hear all went as planned and was fun… wish I could have been there.But this whole mission thing has got me a bit occupied for the moment.
Overall, it´s a tough part of the mission at the moment (as if it could be tougher than it´s been). At the moment we lack positive investigators and those that we had have gone downhill. However, we keep working, trying to find happy moments from time to time. I´ve had a chance to read the BOM quite a bit, which has been nice. I looked up all the scriptures that dad sent last week. There is something amazing about the comfort the book can bring as it testifies of Christ. I´ve been able to find a lot of things I never knew as I´ve just sat down to study it.
I hope you have all been doing well. Mom and dad.. how´s work? Seems like I hear every once in a while, but have not for some time. Boeing still alive? Oh… and has Jeff found a job yet? Christina Sarah, and Anna look well from all the pictures. I´m starting to realize they´ll be old by the time I return… weird! The school year is almost over there too… close at least. Here they just start on April 15th and don´t get out until December. There was some teacher strike so they start a month late (4 month summer!)
What else? Oh… I bought new shoes this week. I have definitely needed them for way too long. Also, a small memory drive so I can save pictures you send me. So if you see a bit of money from my account, that´s why. I also used some money I had taken out a while ago for the shoes too... I hope they are good. They are made by some brazilian company and supposedly pretty good (and for the price they should be). Hopefully they´ll last through the mission.
Keep writing when you can, I love getting letters more than you can imagine. Sorry my replies aren´t the greatest… not much time and my mind is a bit lost here.Love and miss you a lot
Ben
MARCH 16, 2009:
First of all since I forgot to say it last week… happy birthday sarah! For latinos 15 is a big birthday I guess. It´s called the quinceanos. It´s basically like turning 16, they have big parties and it´s a pretty big deal for girls. So yeah, happy birthday!
Besides that… I hope everything is going well at home. It sounds like it from your letters. Economy is still crazy along with everything else but oh well. Here… things are okay I guess. Not too much action in terms of missionary work though. A few random people, but people are hesitant to make commitments. We contacted a guy with a huge dog the other day though, biggest dog I´ve seen in my life. A 250 plus pound pit bull. He says it´s one of the biggest dogs in Panama! But the guy was cool too. He is catholic but is really receptive to any messages that can help him. We only have taught him once but hopefully this week he´ll be around for another appointment. We always make appointments but they end up not being there or being busy.
What else? We got a new bishop yesterday. The other bishop had been in for 4.5 years. The new bishop has only been a member 2 years! He´s a cool guy though so I hope it works out. His wife is the Relief Society president and his daughter leaves on her mission to chile in 2 weeks… a pretty intense schedule for them I´m guessing.
Speaking of new things… the new elder that my district leader is training arrived on Wednesday. He´s from Honduras, they almost never send gringos to panama any more… I think only 2 have arrived since I got here. I don´t know… he´s just a bit different. Almost all the mission is from Honduras or Nicaragua.
The other day I saw something really crazy. We were on the side of the road waiting for a bus and this huge semi with a dump truck trailer (a bit shorter than a huge huge semi trailer, but still big) comes flying down the hill. The road is about the size of Albertson´s hill, small road and really winding. A car was coming up the road too and the semi slams on his brakes, I swear he was going to destroy the car, but somehow he didn´t. The drivers are just so unaware here… they take no thought in what they are doing or the consequences of their driving.
Other than that… not much is happening. I´m going to try to attach a couple pictures from the baptism last week,so hopefully you enjoy those.
Thanks again for the prayers and the letters.
I´ll talk to you soon
Ben
MARCH 9, 2009:
Hey...Dad, it was nice to get your letter. I just remembered that you were in Utah for Kelly´s Wedding... was it Saturday or when? I hope everything went well with that... if it already happened.
Oh... and speaking of Sugarhouse, I met a sister a few weeks ago serving here that is from Sugarhouse. She is a senior sister and just got here about 6 weeks ago. The hard part is she doesn´t know any spanish whatsoever and they don´t train them in the MTC. Weird.
But yeah, I feel slightly closer to you.. and not only because you´re in Utah right now. Because of the time change, Seattle is only 2 hours behind us now. So when I call on Mother´s Day, keep that in mind.
What else? We had a baptism this last Saturday. It went pretty well, a little chaotic and a lot of little kids, but that is Panama. I ended up baptizing two people. I baptized Angelica, the twenty year old girl we have been teaching, and also an eight year old girl that just ended up showing up at the church (in our ward, but I had never seen her before). It was a pretty cool experience... it was the first investigator that I had taught all the way through and baptized.
Other than that, the big news today is changes/transfers. None. At least for me and my comp. Every other companionship in my zone has changes except for us. It was surprising because we all thought he was leaving, but it looks like he´ll end up being in this area for 6 months (I´ll probably end up here for a while too). Not exactly happy about it. I really need a english speaking companion... spanish is driving me crazy. Not just the spanish, but the culture differences. I´m still trying to get over those things. And while I´m on that note, church. One of the greatest parts of the church is the order and guidelines on how things are done. If not for that, things kind of fall apart and into the hands of the culture of the area. Things are kind of falling apart here in Panama, or were never built. It´s sad. I try to do what I can though, hopefully I can make a difference. The pride of the leaders is tough to break through though.
In terms of your letter and what I can quickly reply to... I received a dearelder from Mackenzie a week or so ago, don´t know if that is the one you are talking about... but it was really good and helped. My current teaching pool... pretty dead in terms of being able to progress. We´re teaching quite a few people (evangelicals, poor families, etc.) but nobody comes to church or really seems to be progressing. I don´t know, we´ll see how things turn out. I was hoping a new comp would help things, but now that I won´t have one... who knows.
Well.. I hope your flight went well back home. All of you are always in my prayers. Thanks for everything. Miss and love you all
Ben... Elder Pronk
PS… I´ll try to get pictures out of the baptism and a few other things next week. I didn´t bring my camera with me today
MARCH 2, 2009:
Hey everyone... Like Andy, this week my email was lost. I just wrote the whole email and thennnnn... the power went out and I lost it all! I seriously was about to send it. Well... i´ll try to wrap it up really quickly.
We have a baptism this week. The girl that we have been teaching for a couple weeks. It should be pretty good. We have been teaching a lot of evangelicals recently... really hard to teach to them. They ask a ton of questions and don´t want to believe anything we say... always challenging things. Today we went on a hike. I´m going to attach a photo of the front. It means... I´m not here... more or less. It was an interesting hike... really muddy.
Dad asked about the temple a little bit. Yes they are trying to get everyone to go to the temple, they are practically yelling at them telling them to go. As missionaries we aren´t allowed to go unless a recent convert goes with us or something. I´m trying to get one kid to go with us this next ward temple night so we can at least do baptisms. It would be really cool.Well that´s about it for the most part. I had a lot more before, but I don´t have time to write it all over again. I love and miss you all... and hope all is going well.
Christina... don´t worry about school, you´ll get used to the cold, more or less. Just go and have fun... but you have to do something to have fun, can´t just wait for it to come, because at those schools... it just doesn´t work that way. but study too... you have to organize your time... something I wasn´t good at. Send me some pictures sometime soon.... Kelly´s wedding, mackenzie´s baby... whatever.
Talk to you soon... a better letter next week I promise
Ben
FEBRUARY 23, 2009:
Hello,
It´s funny that the first thing you mentioned was the fact that dad was sick. I hope he feels better soon. I have actually been sick the last 4 or 5 days... it´s not been very fun. I´m feeling a bit better now, recovering. I had a bad headache, stomachache, bodyache... and no, I don´t think eating enough helps. But oh well, that´s life.
This week has been okay besides that though. We put a baptismal date with the investigator that I mentioned last week, the 20 year old girl who is a sister of a member and is living here for a while. She´s attended 2 baptisms and church twice, including stake conference yesterday. The date is for March 7th so I hope that all works out. It´s been a very easy teaching process with her, well prepared.
In terms of other work, we´ve found quite a few new investigators. I don´t know if the desire is there with them, but there are a couple families we are working with on and off, hoping things progress. What else? I got a letter from Mackenzie today, thanks. I don´t know how long the dearelders really take to get to me, but I don´t think this one took as long as they usually do. I remember in my last area I was receiving letters through that more than a month after they sent it. Keep sending letters though; real letters, packages, dearelders, whatever... they´re really nice to receive and keep me going.
I hope everything is well with everyone. I have been reading a few of andy´s letters and it sounds like Uncle Jeff still hasn´t found a job... I hope that he is able to find one soon. The economy seems to be a real mess though, even here they talk about it being a crisis all the time... mostly because of church news telling us to conserve energy and water in the chapels. Everything that happens back home really affects the whole world.
How´s Christina? How was Utah? Let me know. And BYU... heard from them yet? Don´t worry if you don´t get in, but it would be cool to be in the same year at the same school when you get back. Sarah... braces off now? How´s braceless life? haha ... it must be good. And of course.. Anna, I don´t even know. Write me a letter and tell me what you have been up to. I hear you have a lot of kids your age at church. It makes church that much better when you have friends. There are some kids here who don´t have too many people their age at church and it is a lot harder for them to go and feel comfortable.
It seems like mom and dad write every week about some thing in the ward they´re doing in terms of missionary work, it´s really good. No, it´s not easy, but at least take care of the recent converts. I´ve seen the results when the members do and don´t take care of them... it´s really different. My last ward there were about 8 converts within the last year... maybe 1 was attending when I was there. In this ward now, there have been 19 recent converts, 16 are attending, 2 have moved and the other one is inactive... but still, big difference.
This letter is kind of short this week, but I don´t have a ton of time.
Talk to you soon
Ben
FEBRUARY 16, 2009:
Hey everyone...
Well my letter for the week will be kind of short, but sweet. I have had a few cool experiences and a few hard days... ups and downs of the mission for sure.
First of all, we have a really promising new investigator. I don´t know if I wrote about her last week, but we met her at a FHE at a member´s house last sunday. She is the sister of the member and has been living there a little while. The family has been inactive for a while though for some reason... the dad is an RM and from the FHE lesson you can tell he has a strong testimony. But anyways... she was really interested and wanted to learn more. We came back during the week and taught lesson 1... easiest lesson. So much easier when they show a lot of interest and are willing to do anything they need to do to find the truth. We came back another time later in the week and she had been reading and talking to the RM, asking a ton of questions and finding out more. We ended up teaching two lessons there and talking about everything from how they call prophets to the quorum of the twelve and a million other questions. She came to the baptism of the other missionaries in our ward on saturday and also to church on sunday. We have yet to set a baptismal date but it shouldn´t be too far off. They have to attend church at least 3 times before they can be baptized so I´m thinking soon after that.
Another cool experience was after the baptism on Saturday. A girl who leaves on her mission to chile in april invited a friend, a 24 year old guy from the city to the baptism and I ended up talking to him for an hour afterwards. He speaks english too! He works at a hotel in the city, one of those hotels where all the rich gringos go, so he has picked up english in the four years he has worked there and can speak really well. He also plays the guitar and is in a band... I guess he plays stuff like radiohead and muse if anybody has heard of that. He has lived here all his life but he appears to have family from spain or something.. not sure. I talked to him about music a lot and then about the word of wisdom and a quickish intro to the church. He doesn´t live in my area so I took down his number and am going to give it to the missionaries there to go visit him. Ít was seriously a really cool experience... not only because I was able to speak english, but he was just a cool guy.
Besides that... we had three baptismal dates fell through... so at the moment there are none. They decided they wanted to wait to be baptized as a family or something, but I think it is just an excuse. I was pretty sad all day yesterday because of that and the lack of reverence at church. Ups and downs.
I sent off a postcard home today so I hope you get it, let me know how long it takes to get there.
Anyways... that´s all for now, I´ll have a longer letter next week... might write a real letter if I have some time. Love you all and miss you
Ben
PS I got the package from grandma and grandpa... finally. I don´t know why it took so long, they sent it in November I think. THANK YOU
FEBRUARY 9, 2009:
Hello again.
Yet another week. It feels like there is not much time in between each time I write a letter. Glad to hear from everyone last week... grandma too. Oh yeah, btw I have been getting the dearelders and the letter for valentines day from grandma came last week. Thanks! I really enjoy every email or letter.
Here.. things are going okay, a lot of walking... it´s really hiking though. I´d say a" MT. Si hike" every day usually.
We have been teaching quite a bit... not too many progressing though. There is a family who is basically members though, the dad just has to divorce his past wife first. We set dates yesterday though for 3 of their 5 kids to be baptized at the end of this month (other two are younger)... pretty cool.
I am going to try to write a letter home soon on real paper so I can write people specifically. I went to the post office the other day and it costs about a dollar or two to write a couple page letter. But yeah, Anna asked about papusa... it really isn´t here but my comp knows what it is. I had papapya the other day though... gross. There are some food that I know I will not eat again in my life... chicken and rice especially.
Christina mentioned Kevin Crawford... that´s cool he showed a bit of interest. Let me know if he comes to church.
Other than that, hope all is going well. Sorry if I have yet to answer some questions, I´m writing this before I get to internet so maybe I´ll have time somehow.
Love and miss you all
Ben
FEBRUARY 2, 2009:
Hey everyone…
I hope you got my quickly written email from last week. I think the Lord thinks I need more challenges for some reason… he certainly keeps giving them to me. Each area has been hard so far… really hard. By the way, my first two areas were closed after I left. In my first area, they were robbed of everything in their house (clothes, books, electronics, EVERYTHING!!) two weeks after I left. Thank goodness I left. My new companion knows almost no English… just hello and goodbye and that´s about it. He has about 11 months in the mission… much less than my last two comps. I keep praying and hoping it will change, but it just gets harder. Ideas? I know it´s all in the attitude, but seriously.
In terms of the house I live in now, that got worse too. Instead of having dirty water, we just don´t have water all together. Our neighbour and land lord puts water in a tank thing every few days for us and we have to go outside to get water in buckets for everything from flushing the toilet, washing dishes to taking bucket showers! The water pressure is just bad in the area, it´s only strong for a couple hours a day at most.
And the area… I will definitely get some exercise here. The area is all hills, mountains actually. It is literally a hike up a mountain every day (we literally go over mountains to get to people´s houses… 6,000 steps up and down hill each way by my step counter).
On a good note, the ward is better on the missionary work more or less. The ward has an attendance of about 115 or so every week and there are quite of a few people who are willing to help with the missionary work. The members are really the only way to get baptisms and it shows. My zone does better than most of the zones in the mission in terms of that… it´s still not mexico by any means… but a bit better.
Well… teaching stories this week. We have taught quite a bit… me and my comp. I´d like to write about all of them, but I´ll just mention a couple. We tracted into an ex police officer with Noriega, he didn´t have a leg either. He is pretty anti-religion because of bad things he sees in other churches and seems a bit resentful for not having a leg for 30 years after a bad accident, but I hope we can get somewhere with him. Who knows.... Another interesting one was just a random contact who was listening to missionaries a while back before they just didn´t come back for some reason. He´s trying to drop a coffee addiction because he knows it would be good and also is really interested in Joseph Smith. It seems like a person who is waiting to hear more. Oh by the way, the reason we don´t have many long term investigators is because we are opening the area after it has been closed for a few months.
I hope everyone is doing well. I hope you haven´t sent that package yet… I also need a new sonicare head sometime.. they don´t sell them here. Stamps would be nice too… so then I can send letters through the pouch, I guess we need US stamps which also aren´t found very often here. Hmm… besides that, pictures or whatever.Well I really love and miss you all... I´ve been pretty homesick the last week or so with this new change, it´s really rough... I was just getting used to my last area and now it´s ALL different.
Thanks for all the prayers and support, I´ll somehow make it through. I´ll try to reply to this weeks letters next week... no time right now. I think I´ll figure out how to send letters home because 30 minutes of email is not enough.
Talk to you soon
Elder Pronk--Ben
JANUARY 26, 2009:
Hey everyone.
A lot has happened. First before everything i´ll answer a few questions. Package wise.. apparently they don´t accept food into the country any more so don´t send food. whatever else is fine... whatever from home. pictures. & music.
I´ll try to write more some weeks than others, but like this week there will be short letters where I didn´t have time to write it out beforehand.
Anyways... onto the big news. I´m in a completely different area! Yeah, i had changes again. They took both of the elders out of puerto armuelles and are bringing a senior couple into our house, and then leaving the two hermanas and having another one come too (three hermanas). We took the long bus ride back to the city to find out where we´re going and I´m in the Chorrera zone. I just got here today so I still am lost. I have yet to meet my comp. I met elder corbett today while everyone was gathered and being split up for changes. That was pretty cool to talk about home for a few minutes and grandma and grandpa and stuff. He just got transferred. Pretty cool kid. He said he went to BYUI for a semester before his mission and graduated the same year as me from skyline.
I have pictures that I´ll send home soon from my last area. I´ll try to let you know more soon.
Sounds like things are going well at home, the church and everything. Love you and miss you all.
Talk to you soon. Keep praying for me.
Love,
Ben
JANUARY 19, 2009:
Hi family and friends, Here things are still rough, but a little success here and there. We have an investigator. We taught the dad the first lesson last week and he seemed pretty interested. We went back and met his wife, twin boys (both 9) and his other son (16). The boys weren´t too interested but his wife seemed nice about it. He works all the time including sundays so that will be a hard one, but we´ll see...
We did have a fhe with a family last week (nobody knows what that is so it´s a new thing we´re trying to introduce) that went pretty well. I did a little lesson with oreo cookies that i said were dirt (i remember something like that from primary). The idea is that they need to try it to know if it is sweet... and then if they find that it is sweet, they want more (so i gave them pack of oreos). It seemed pretty good, still didn´t come to church yesterday, but it was good.
Well.. we have changes next week so i´ll probably have a new comp. I think i´ll be staying in this area.
I have yet to read most of the letters yet. I got the letter from grandma and grandpa too that i´ll print out. Mail wise, we dont´get it very often so sorry if i haven´t replied to that. we get it maybe once a month if we see our zone leaders (other areas are different but mine is far away).
Thanks for all the love and support and prayers, i give the same.
Love and miss you all.
Talk to you soon
Ben
JANUARY 6, 2009:
We had zone conference yesterday and have pday today on tuesday instead for this week. i don´t have much time because i received a ton of emails today but i´ll fill you in quickly. Yeah, zone conference yesterday was alright. It was better than the last one because i could understand most everything. Learned a bit about unity and a few other topics.
Christina wrote a dearelder a while ago that i just got and said something about an elder here from grandma and grandpas ward. I asked someone about him and they said he is in san blas, the island area right now. I havent met him obviously then. There are 6 missionaries on the island, all white... they are always gringos there because it is safe and the people like them. Apparently missionaries really like it there... it is gorgeous and relaxed.
Last week wasn´t too busy, I had divisions while my comp went to the city for a meeting. We met with a recent convert and went and played volleyball in another area at night.
Hmm... oh, found out a missionary that came with me just left not too long ago. He didn´t like it here and the language was coming slow. Weird to hear and makes me feel like leaving too, but i have to hang in here. Crazy though. Oh.. last week i said something about a new couple, they won´t come until february at the soonest. Don´t know too much about that.Well.. i´m almost out of time, so yeah. Oh.. read alma 36. I read it the other day and it is really good. It is alma talking to his son helaman about his conversion. Good stuff.
Hope all is going well... going to print off your letters from last week.
Love you all, Ben --- elder pronk
DECEMBER 11, 2008:
Hi,
Dad I had a chance to read most of the letter you wrote. I was trying to send pictures but I am not sure if it is going to work. I might send the card home and buy a new one because I don´t know if it is going to work. I will let you try to get the pictures off or have somebody smart in the ward or something try to do it.. I can´t figure it out and nobody knows computers here. My older card that is small works just fine in connecting and nobody´s computers (I have tried a few) can recognize my other card... sad, I had some good pictures on there. I'll probably use my other card for now and go buy a new one.
Speaking of buying stuff, I bought myself a christmas present kinda at the border the other day. I have a bit of leftover money in the monthly account here and I bought a swiss army knife for only 20 or so at the border. It is really nice to have for a knife, can opener and stuff... I always seem to need one and now I finally have one.
What else? I went on exchanges-divisions with my zone leader tuesday and wednesday. He is from Kansas and leaves on monday or tuesday for home... 2 years already up. It was cool to talk to him about the mission and see if he had any advice. He says it passes pretty quickly. My favorite part is the ocean.. get the chance to see that every day. It is pretty dirty, but still looks good especially when you look far out. There ar e a lot of little fishing boats out trying to get fish. It is really hot here now... someone said it is the hottest place in Panama and now I can start to see why. Always have a rag with me because I sweat so much... I guess everyone in Panama has something, it is a must have everywhere kind of thing... like a cell phone or keys in the States. Some people have phones here but not much. Nobody has computers or internet, there are a few of these little internet places... pretty cheap only about a dollar an hour of use or so.
Well... I´ll write more on Monday but thought I would let you know really quick.
Oh... I finally got the Liahona, the only magazine we get ( I guess friend and new era are english only) for the conference issue. I got a version in english so it is nice to have and to read the conference talks. They were really good this last conference and I have been able to learn a lot every time I read them, especially from the first presidency during Priesthood session and from President Monson sunday morning.Hope everything is well at home. Be SURE to tell Anna happy birthday today!! Her party sounds like it was good, a bit long, but good. I wish I had something I could send her but it´s pretty hard to send stuff.
Last thing.. speaking of sending stuff... I hope I don´t have to pay for the package you sent me. Supposedly at the moment the church has a friend in the mail company so they won´t open the packages, but I am not completely sure. I guess if there are things in there that you can buy here, I would have to pay the tax on it, which is a lot. Who knows... hopefully it is fine.
Well.. I´ll talk to you later
Ben
DECEMBER 8, 2008:
Hey everyone..
FIRST of all.. since this might be the last time I can write before it... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA! I hope you have a great one and have fun being 11, right? haha I am trying to send a postcard or anything but I can't figure out how to buy stamps or send stuff yet. I will try though.
Anyways... thanks for the last letter. I have read a part of dads most recent letter but I need to print it out and reply next week probably because I dont have much time. Since it is mothers day I am actually at the border... Costa Rica actually... because all the internet places close to us were closed.
But yeah..lots has happened here in the past week. I will try to get through it fast because there is a lot and not much time. It is mother's day here today. Kind of funny since it is December, but yeah. It is a huge holiday here. There was an activity for the branch on Saturday. Second, we had a zone conference and Christmas lunch this week, the lunch at a nice hotel in David. We got a couple gifts too... white shirt, Panama mission shirt, and a CD for me. Not a bad day.
Baptism and teaching wise here.. I baptized my first person yesterday, actually baptizing. A 9 year old girl named Yanibel. Most of her family are members but it was still cool to baptize someone. We have another girl who is 16 that set a baptismal date for the 20th of December and I am hoping that works out. She seems pretty excited for it. It is pretty impresive that we have a few baptism dates set up despite not having a baptism at all for 6 months.
Area wise, it is getting hot... Some families live a couple miles away and we pick them up and walk them back sometimes.
For anna again to reply to her letter quick. How did the violin in the primary program go forever ago? Sounds like her birthday part will be a good time. Send me a hat, gloves and candy cane haha. I actually have a small christmas tree and lights in my tiny house.. pretty cool huh?But yeah... out of time for today. Thanks for the letter and hopefully I get the package eventually.
Thanks for all the support too. I miss and love you all. Ben
DECEMBER 1, 2008 #2:
I figured I would answer a few quick questions from the email I saw. No, I haven´t met the other San Diego missionary. The food is roughly the same.. always chicken, rice and beans... sometimes they have meat instead of chicken. All is really cheap food though.. cheaply made and cheaply priced.
The ocean is gorgeous. I have some pictures but I can´t figure out how to get them onto the computer yet, I´ll figure it out somehow. For now, look up on google.. Puerto Armuelles beach or something like that. I have some cool beach pictures from the other day when we were down there. Most of the city is still run down though. People are outrageously poor in almost all of Panama. Nice houses cost at the most 30 or 40 thousand dollars.,... but most people live in houses that could easily cost... 50 or 60 dollars I think... probably a tiny bit more but not much... it is pretty bad.
The countryside to get out here is interesting... but not much to see. A bunch of trees, but basically run down houses and little stores.Hmm.. can´t see any more immediate questions off the bat, but I´ll write more next week. Hope you like the two letters though.
Thanks for all the support... keep praying for me, I will pray too.. hope things get better in terms of the economy in the states. It can´t be as bad as here obviously haha.. but it sounds to be a bit of a mess. I have faith it will be okay.
Talk to you later, love Ben
DECEMBER 1, 2008 #1:
Hey Family,
Hope everything is going well. I just got the emails from mom and I think dad but I haven´t had a chance to read them yet, I´ll try and print them out. It is really hard to get everything straight since we don´t have much time to write letters or emails each week, it really bugs me, but whatever.. I guess.Things here are going okay. The first few days in my new area with my new comp were a bit rough, but it has improved. The problem is that he shows no emotion or excitement and always seems to think he is right. I guess part of the problem were his last two comps who did not care, which made it so he did all the work. Somehow we discussed it and now it is working much better, still missing any emotion or enthusiasm, but it is better.
Area-wise... it is much different than Cerro Batea. The city is called Puerto Armuelles and it is right on the Pacific Ocean in the corner of Panama, you can usually see it on a map of Panama. Our area actually stretches up to the Costa Rica border. Anyways... people wise, most people know about the church, but don´t care too much to listen about it. I figured people would be nicer out here in the ¨country,¨ but that is not the case. Within our area and the area of the sister missionaries, there are 900 members I guess, but out of those, there are only 50 or so that attend the single branch... on a good sunday. A lot of our work here is finding and trying to reactivate less active members. I guess the mission president really thinks this area needs some work, seeing there hasn´t been a baptism in 6 months and at that, only maybe 2 or 3 within at least a year, and the church has really begun to fall apart through members and non members´ pride, fighting and the fact that people really don´t care much about what we do. I can see the huge amount of work ahead of us.
Living wise is about the same as the last area except for the food and water. Food wise, there are less stores and less of a selection in them. By the way, the stores here are mostly run by chinese and are tiny little shops or simply their houses.. they are called ¨chinos.¨ I get by I guess though, it is just hard because the members only provide three meals a week for us so we are scavenging for random stuff to eat. Water is going okay, we don´t have any water today at all though, clean or not clean. I guess when it rains a lot we don´t get water. Well.. we do have the five gallon jugs of fresh water, but that is all. The water from the tap is always gross and discolored, but apparently fine for most things besides drinking.Besides that, can´t think of too much. Not very many investigators or anybody wanting to listen. We have taught a few people full lessons, but not much. The area is pretty dead.
Oh... before I forget.. thanksgiving! I actually ended up having a real thanksgiving this year somehow. A family that lives about 3 hours away in our zone offered to feed our zone thanksgiving dinner. They are retirees from the states that found a cheap retirement here, and yes, are white and speak english. It was cool to eat regular food and speak in english for a little bit. They put up pictures on their website I guess that you should go look at... www.flickr.com/photos/young-in-panama. I hope that is right. They said they have other pictures of panama and past missionaries on there too. Hmm... other questions wise, I´ll try to answer them. Grandma asked if I kept a journal, yes. I try to write most every day... and I usually do, especially if it is a harder than normal day and I hate being here more than usual... all days are hard. I don´t have much time so yeah, I´ll print out this weeks letters and try to write out a reply this week sometime.
Hope all is well. Let me know how Christina´s application is coming. How´s sarah? Anna? Dad? Mom? I really do care, it is hard to have enough time to write back too much about specific people though. I heard about crazy gas prices in the states... really low somehow. Someone said 1.43 or so in Kansas haha
Well... hope to hear from you soon... I´ll read what you said this week of course though.
Love you all and miss you.
Ben
NOVEMBER 25, 2008:
Hey... thanks for the other email. I haven´t completely read it but I´ll try to address some things. I had to write another letter hand written first so I would have enough time to write you. It is hard because they give us almost no time.
I have obviously changed areas and am now in the other side of the country completely, next to Costa Rica. My small town is also right next to the Pacific Ocean. I think it is called Puerto Armuelles... yeah my comp says that is right. It is a million times less busy, crowded and scary. I have walked around a little bit today and it is basically a small country-beach town but not so much the beach. The weather I guess is supposed to be kind of hot but also it rains a ton, which is bad because the roads aren´t great. I finally got here last night at about 9 after about 10 hours of riding on buses from the city and another hour in a taxi from my last area... overall fun day... haha. My new comp is completely different from my last one. I hope it will work out okay, but he seems really hard core into the mission and really organized... he is pretty quiet too I guess. He knows little bits of english but not much at all... which is going to be tough for the first little bit but my spanish is coming along. My zone is huge, at least a 4 hour bus ride to get to the other farthest area. Only about 12 people in the whole zone though. There are 4 missionaries, 2 elders (us) and two sisters in my district, basically the city. They live pretty close to us. It will take some getting used to in terms of being here, but I´ll take this any day over the dangerous area I was last at.
I just got the dearelder messages from you and grandma and grandpa yesterday so it shows how long it takes for me to get that... they were sent on November 12 and I got them November 24. I only have half hour of email each week though so if it isn´t anything that really matters I read soon, dearelder is fine. Oh... by the way, there is no clean water here. I guess we buy 5 gallon jugs every now and again. Plus I have my filtered water bottle that will help a lot I think. I really hope I don´t get sick though.
In terms of sending pictures, I will try to remember my card and my adapter when I do email next week, hopefully that will work. I have a few pictures from my first baptism and that first day in Panama.
The people here in this new area are much calmer and easy to get along with. I haven´t met many yet, but I guess it is okay. There has not been a baptism in 6 months.
Wish me luck here, I´ll need it.
I am glad I am in a different place for sure, but it is still change.Hope all is well at home... I will try to read or print out the other email.
Love you all,
Ben
NOVEMBER 22, 2008:
Hey,
I know it is a second email in two days, but I won´t be able to write I think on Monday (not sure exactly) because I am being transferred to a different area in the morning sometime. I am not sure where I am being transferred to at the moment but the president is supposed to call sometime today or we will see him tomorrow at stake conference. The reason I am being emergency transferred is because of how dangerous my area is and has become moreso over the last week or so. Every single day in the last week we have heard gun fire near our house and even at investigators houses in the neighborhood, and it is always really close, within a block or two. One investigator that lives two blocks from our house had her next door neighbor killed a few days ago and had bullets flying through her house too, right over her head. Apparently they have to move because the person is coming back sometime. Anyways... enough of that. Basically it is just way too dangerous around here, especially for a tall white missionary. Around Christmas time it gets much worse too so yeah... the zone leaders told the president that and now he is moving me... and probably within a few weeks close the area completely (whites, latinos and polynesians). Exciting enough? It makes me feel really secure on my mission so far seeing that I am being emergency transferred three weeks into it.
Besides that, we have only taught a few lessons in the last week since we are usually back to our house by 5 or 6 when it gets dark. We have one man who is ready for baptism and is getting baptized next week. I have helped teach quite a few lessons to him and he is really prepared to live the gospel and really excited to do so. Hopefully that will all work out well. I tried to send pictures from my first day in Panama and my first baptism, but for some reason the card reader I bought wasn´t working on this computer.
I will try it in my new area and hopefully it will work. Otherwise I will have to figure out another way to send pictures. I think you can for the most part just attach them to email though and that is the easiest. I wish I could take pictures of the mess it is here. It is crazy. Right now outside there was a bus that hit a car so there is a backup for miles. It normally wouldn´t be that bad but there is no order (period and especially on the roads) in panama so any little thing screws up everything.
Um... I miss home. Things are getting better missionary work wise and my spanish is improving though. I like teaching, it is just hard when I am so nervous and uncomfortable walking anywhere. I don´t think that is how things should be. Food wise... I got sick for the first time last week when I ate sow, some kind of pig thing. It was horrible and I threw up right after. Never going to eat that again. The other problem here is how much food they give you. For the most part the food is alright, chicken usually with rice and beans. ButI am going to get fat the way they feed us and the fact you eat what they give you. I guess they don´t take offense if you tell them you want less so maybe I will try that. I have never eaten so much in my life.
What else? I want to know what is happening at home. How is Anna? Sarah? Christina? Mom? Dad? Feels like I haven´t talked to any of you for a long time. Either send a dearelder or an email sometime. Dearelders are kind of nice because I get a hard copy without having to pay to print it out, which isn´t that expensive, but annoying. How is the ward? I read an email from Bishop Farmer the other day that was good to read. Other than that I haven´t heard much from people.
Well.. wish me luck going to my new area. It is probably going to be a calmer one much farther away. People say David (about 7 hours away) is much more tranquil, I don´t know if that is a word in english, well it is, but not the spelling. I hope it is and that I will be able to concentrate more on learning to be a better missionary.
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon
Ben
NOVEMBER 17, 2008:
Hi
Well.. first of all thanks for the letters. Good to hear from you. I don´t know if it would be a great idea to send a package... apparently it takes at least 2 or 3 months to come and you have to make sure it is less than 50$ worth of stuff or else I would have to pay fees when it arrives. People say for the most part it is easier to send money and hope I can find stuff here and just send letters. The pouch is a lot easier, it still takes a couple weeks though and you can only send one sheet at a time (folded in thirds, taped at top, and the name of missionary on the outside part).
The address for that is Elder Ben Gerrit PronkPanama Panama City MissionPOB 30150Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150USASo I guess that is the easiest way for hand written letters. Otherwise use dearelder or email.
Well.. so yeah, still rough as ever here. I don´t know if you fully understand how it is, but it is as different as could be. Our ward has about maybe 30 people that come each week and most of them don´t know much about the church.
We did have a baptism yesterday though that went pretty well. I am trying to buy a card reader so I can send pictures home but it might not be until next week. Basically the work we are doing now is mostly with inactive members that we are trying to get back to church. But it seems like we always end up spending hours in the active members homes, which is wrong again. We do have a few new investigators, which is good. A drunk guy stopped us while we were walking home one night and told us he had a problem with alcohol (obviously) and wanted help. He took us back to his house where we met his family who were all pretty nice I guess and they wanted to here more. I think we are going back to teach them sometime, not sure when though. Besides that... things are moving along I guess. Hard to figure this place out though. The whole system of life here is completely different.
Sounds like things are well at home. Cool to hear you are both ward missionaries now. Try to get people during christmas and thanksgiving, it actually works.
Anna´s birthday party sounded fun, not too long until it is her birthday either. One more month or so I think, a little less. I really kind of lose track of days here.
Glad to here Christina is putting her application in. Good luck! It is weird to think she´ll be the same year in school as me when I get back.Sarah... don´t give up on spanish.. it´s hard. It is even harder when you have to understand people that talk really fast.Well... I am still not sure what I am doing here. Trying to keep faith. Miss you all and hope to hear more from you soon. I´ll try to write on paper first and then write it here because I don´t have much time.
Love you, Ben
NOVEMBER 6, 2008:
Dear Pronk Family,
Elder Pronk arrived in Panama on Tuesday, and spent the day yesterday in orientation, and in looking around Panama a little. We went to the Canal, and to the top of Ancon Hill, the highest point near the canal, with a lookout over the city. It was a holiday, so the migrations offices weren’t open; he is going there today.
He has his trainer now, and we will mail a letter with a picture of him with President and Sister Madrigal, along with a map showing you where he will be serving, and some mail instructions. What a fine young man he is! His Spanish is already fairly good, and will improve even more as he is now immersed in the new culture. I’m just emailing you because he will be unable to email himself, until Monday.
With gratitude for your sending your son,
Sister Cox
Misión Panamá
OCTOBER 29, 2008:
Dear family and friends,
Got the package today, glad to have some more ties. Anyways.... at the moment I am really tired. This week is our big lesson teaching week. We only have 2 hours of class a day, instead of 5 or 6 normally and we are supposed to simply teach people lessons in spanish. The goal is at least 25 lessons this week. Pretty busy and tiring. I'll have to figure out how to have more energy while teaching so much though because it is pretty rough. But it is pretty rewarding as well. Lessons are going really well and we are getting much better at teaching and talking in spanish. I am still nervous because natives speak a lot faster than any of us or our teachers, but it will be okay.
Only a few more days until Panama. I leave Tuesday the 4th at 3 am from here. My flight is at 6:10 (5:10am pacific) and I first go to Dallas. I leave Dallas at 11:25 (9:25 PAcific) and go to Miami, getting there at 3 eastern, which is probably when I'll try calling if that works. Let me know which time would be better and who/where to call.. either in Dallas or Miami. I think I can only talk for a few minutes, but oh well... it would be nice to hear from you quickly. I leave Miami at 4:15 eastern and get to Panama City at 7:05 eastern. So yeah, pretty simple, but it should be a lot of fun and cool to be outside this place finally.
As for the devotional this week, L. Tom Perry and his wife came and spoke. That was really cool. They spoke about missionary work (of course) and talked about teaching with the spirit and the power of companionships mostly. It was my last devotional here so it was great to have a member of the 12.
Well.. sounds like things are going well at home. Youth Conference seems to be getting planned... "Be thou an example" sounds like a good theme. You'll have to let me know more about how that goes. Anna's soccer season is over... pretty good record. Good job! I miss you all and being able to play soccer or anything with you.
I wish I could have seen the ward talent show with the rap thing that dad mentioned. Sure that was interesting and funny.Well... it seems like it'll mostly be e-mail from here on out b/c it is expensive to send letters from panama and takes forever. But it's okay, it's pretty easy to send and receive e-mails... I think Dear Elder's still work too, but it'll be a different place of course. So whichever of those.Can't really think of too much more to say besides the fact that I am really ready to leave. I have been in here too long and feel a bit stuck... ready to go out and move around.
Thanks for all the support and love... hope to hear back soon... love and miss you all
Ben
OCTOBER 22, 2008:
Dear Family and everyone...
It's the end of another week. Don't really have a ton to say this week, basically another week that has been the same as every other week. Spanish has been getting better and better every day. We're teaching the second lesson with the word of wisdom in spanish right now and just learning the last bits of stuff we need to know.
You wanted to know how my weekends are different than weekdays. Saturdays are exactly the same, you don't even notice that it is saturday unless you look at the calendar. Sundays are a bit different b/c we have priesthood meeting, then sacrament, then a district meeting, which is basically like priesthood. Most of the rest of the day is "free time" or study time until a fireside at 7 and a church movie at 8:15, which are usually things like they would show in salt lake at temple square or a general conference talk. That's basically it. Overall, I'm just really looking forward to leaving, about a week and a half now. Panama is getting more and more enticing as people continue to mention it. I am ready to go out and teach real people and talk to real people again. Some people in my district are struggling a lot with spanish and I could see them having a hard time, but for some reason I am not too nervous. I can somewhat understand people when they are talking and can somewhat carry on a conversation depending on the topic. Still a lot of words to learn though. The devotional this week was by Elder Mask of the 70. He talked about having a desire to serve and with that desire it makes it a much better experience.
I don't know really what else to say. I hear there is a bit of an economy crisis going on right now. Mom said Boeing was on strike.. how's that going? Oh.. and the Red Sox lost. That's sad. It kind of made it a down day. But oh well... they'll win next year.
Good luck to christina getting ready for applying to schools. Keep working hard. Don't worry, I am too. Hope everyone is doing well and I hear more sometime soon.
Love and miss you all. Ben
OCTOBER 15, 2008:
Hey everyone…I feel like I just wrote an e-mail, but apparently that was a week ago now. 6 weeks down, less than 3 to go. Not a ton to talk about this week for the most part, but yesterday was pretty cool so I’ll start with that.
Well… every Tuesday we have a devotional where a general authority (70, apostle, or someone from the 1st presidency) comes and speaks. On Sunday they told our district, just the 8 people that I have class with and go everywhere with every day, that we would be ushers for the devotional. We all thought that was pretty cool. We got there early last night and they sat us down in the lobby to tell us what to do when the MTC president, President Boone, walked past with someone we assumed was the speaker. It was Richard G. Scott! He was a few feet away from us and we did not realize it was him until he was walking away. Guess we missed the opportunity to talk to him or shake his hand. But yeah, then we went into the gym and did our job and sat down in our reserved seats, second row from the pulpit… which is much closer than we have ever been for anything, let alone a devotional. Elder Scott gave an incredible talk where he used interaction with the audience through microphones spread out around the gym and talked about the need to write down what we hear, see, and feel (through the spirit) while someone is speaking. Being so close it was cool to see his facial expressions and really realize that he is a regular man, not any extraordinary being like apostles sometime seem to be. I haven’t really had the opportunity to be that close before so it was a cool experience. He talked for a full hour and at the end bore his testimony of his knowledge of the gospel and the amazing revelation we can feel from the spirit. The whole talk seemed more like a one-on-one conversation with an apostle rather than listening to a general conference talk or even a talk in sacrament meeting. At the end of his talk, he also said that after the devotional anybody who wanted to shake the hand of an apostle could do so. It was really cool to hear that he was willing to stand around for probably an extra couple hours to give us the opportunity to shake his hand, a simple thing for him that meant a lot more to those in the audience. Since we were in the front, it was not long before we had the opportunity. He looked every person straight in the eyes as he did it. A good experience.
After the devotional, we began to talk as a district like we always do after a devotional to discuss the words of the speaker. Somehow, the spirit filled the room really quick and we started talking about the real meaning of what had happened that day. Earlier in the day we had had a talk as a district because we had been chastised by our teacher because he thought we needed to be more obedient and live, look, and act more like what a missionary should. We really took that to heart and had a really change-promoting conversation. I do not really remember a lot of the conversation, but at the end we set some goals that really hit everyone and said a prayer that we would know how to move forward and be the missionaries we should be. That night we got that answer through Elder Scott and were able to talk about it with each other after. Again, I can not really remember details of that conversation either and it probably does not matter a lot, but it was amazing. Well… I guess that is a lot of writing. Besides that crazy day, everything has been going about the same here. As the time to leave grows closer and closer, I am more and more anxious. Spanish is improving still and I am feeling more comfortable with it. It is really cold here now and snowed a bit last week. We now have to wear suits every day, which is a huge pain since we all only have one suit. It is annoying having to wear the same pants every day. To get the suit cleaned the dry-cleaning takes a day and is $5, however, there are only a couple time a week we can do it because on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday there are activities where suit coats are mandatory, even if you only have one suit or it is in the dry-cleaners. Oh well.
Um… can’t really think of too much else to say right now. Things are going pretty well and are improving I think. I am trying not to worry so much about the sacrifices I am making and just worrying about having a good attitude and having fun as well. It seems like those people who take it all too seriously and lose themselves completely are miserable and stressed all the time.
Hopefully everyone is doing well… let me know what is happening at home. I’ve been trying to write more specific letters to people to find that out. Thanks for all the help and love. Ben
OCTOBER 8, 2008:
Dear family... /everyoneIt's been another week. Plenty of things happened, but I guess first of all there was General Conference. So I'll get that out of the way. I was able/ had to watch all the sessions. They were much different as a missionary though. Being awake a lot more and the fact that I was looking for things about missionary work helped. President Monson mentioned the Panama City temple right away saturday morning and I guess there was a video clip in between sessions sometime about the temple as well... pretty cool. As for talks.. I had quite a few I liked but heres a couple.
First of all, Neil L Anderson's from the Sat Morning session. He talked about going on his mission and he didn't feel prepared but somebody told him (or something like that) that "you don't know everything but you know enough." Also in that talk that I wrote down was that we should store up those moments of great revelation and strength so that when times get hard, we have strength to turn to.Second, President Uchtdorf's talk during the same session. I've heard him talk quite a bit since being here, he came my first week for a devotional and then I've seen a couple videos of his talks too. He is a great speaker, strong and bold. He talked about hope, and how it goes along with faith and charity. Hope is a gift of the spirit and as our hope increases, our faith and charity do as well. The hope of salvation is like a protective helmet for us. He also compared it to a beam of sunlight, inspiring us to turn to Heavenly Father and follow him. I think he defined hope as: "Abiding trust that the lord will fulfill his promise to us. Believing and expecting our prayers will be answered."Another great talk, Elder Holland's in the afternoon about angels. It was cool to hear a great testimony of how there are angels around us always, helping us. Not only angels as in heavenly angels, but also people who are angels. We are never alone. Elder Eyring also talked in priesthood session about how angels will bare us up and help us when we feel overwhelmed. It was cool to hear a second testimony of the same thing.
David Bednar in that session also talked about prayer, D&C 59:21 was a great scripture reference. Make sure to pray always, which is possible through morning and night prayers, linking together, along with prayers throughout the day. Pray for others as well. Like dad, "I also liked Elder Uchtdorf's priesthood session talk about lifting where you stand. He can tell you about that if you don't know. But basically it was doing one's duty.. specifically in the priesthood. Lastly, b/c I have too many, William D. Oswald talked about teaching. Said that Moroni was a great teacher and that he said to 1) Show love to those you teach and call them by name, 2) teach from scriptures and 3) Encourage pondering of gospel truths. Think that could help anyone that has to teach something.
Overall, a lot of good messages in conference. Seems like it focused on struggles or being overwhelmed and finding a way to have faith and keep going and the lord will help through.Anyways... besides conference things are going alright. Food is same as normal, pretty bad. I feel like I need good food to stay healthy and have the energy I need for the insane schedule here, but I do what I can. Some people in my district have gained 15-20 pounds so far. It's insane. Me, I've stayed about the same.
Class is going alright. Still think my teachers don't like me much. I guess it annoys them because I get bored easily, especially in the spanish, still. I try to help others but you can't really do that during their teaching a lot. Oh well. We've started to teach the first lesson in spanish. It's pretty hard. Not because i don't know spanish, but because i can't think of what to say. They keep changing up their needs which we are supposed to direct the lesson towards and a lot of stuff I don't know the gospel words in spanish to clearly speak. It's a little rough but it'll work out okay. Other than that, everything is pretty much the same. Never enough sleep. Nobody at home should be complaining about sleep because our schedule is so rigid and so draining here I'm always falling asleep. No naps.
Sarah asked who my companion was... he's the short one from Northern Utah. Oh ... opposite of short... saw a 7 foot guy last night, a branch president who had to have been the biggest guy I've ever seen in my life. Anyways... but yeah, he's not district leader any more. We changed it last week and now the Tongan elder also going to panama with me is the district leader. It's a lot easier since he is more laid back and social. Still trying to get along with my companion. It's rough but I'm trying. He's just really sheltered, grew up where his mom did everything for him. His mom is even sending him a sleeping bag because he doesn't like making his bed here!! I don't understand. Uncle Jeff said in his letter that he also had a companion that was pretty opposite from Idaho and had an accent. Sounds like a similar situation. It really tests me right away I guess.
Well... only 3 or 4 more week... 4 I think. We leave November 3rd. Oh.. to answer Uncle Jeff's and Eric's questions while I'm writing this e-mail. I'm together in a district with missionaries going to Nicaragua and Panama. In my zone there are also missionaries going to Mexico, Bolivia, Columbia and a few other places. All spanish speaking though. Exercise-wise here, we have gym 5 times a week where we can play basketball, volleyball, work out, go outside for soccer or beach volleyball if later in the day or run. Pretty nice I guess. Everyone gets hurt it seems though. And when you go into the doctor they give you crutches for almost anything. I sprained my ankle a week or so ago, but I didn't go in and it heals just fine on its own. To Eric, I think i already answered a couple of your questions. Food isn't the best, but you'd love it for the first week. The schedule is intense, long days with very little personal time... no nap time.
Well i guess I'm running out of time. Half an hour isn't enough. Can't think of anything incredibly important right now but I'll write a letter if I do. Hope everyone is doing well. Miss and love you all.
Ben
PS i'll try to send more pictures soon. There just isn't a ton to take pictures of here. There will be much more in Panama I'm sure. I keep finding out cool things about it. I guess the national flower is the Holy Ghost Lilly. And it looks like there is a dove in the middle of it. Look it up. Also, I might have to bathe in the ocean at times. One of the teachers in our zone who just got back from there said he did. It'll be interesting. I'm just getting more excited to go. It'll be nice to teach real people and get real reactions. Much more rewarding than role playing.Anyways.. bye for now
OCTOBER 1, 2008:
Dear everybody...Well it's another Wednesday here at the MTC. The only way we can tell is that we can do laundry today and go to the temple. Thanks dad for the info on everything at home and the ward and stuff. Glad to hear Anna's soccer games are going well. Back to the temple though... read that mom and dad did initiatories. I'm going to go do those for the second time today. It's cool being able to go to the temple so much. I tend to get really drowsy and fall asleep sometimes while there... but it's still nice to be there. Sad to hear about Brother Monaco. Hopefullyy his surgery goes well in a few weeks. I'll keep praying for him. Oh.. and great to hear about the Taxes! I'm sure that will be a great experience this week. I did sealings last week so it kinda made me appreciate that kind of thing and understand more what happens when people say they are going to the temple to have their family sealed together.
Anyways... to fill you in on what has been happening around here. Overall, things are getting better. Trying to have a better attitude than just thinking about all the things I'm missing out on and all the strange ways and rules there are here. I'm getting more and more excited to leave for Panama as time goes on. My spanish is getting a lot better, but it still is hard to talk to people fluently. I tried talking with a native the other day and because of the way she slurred everything it was really hard to understand. Got some work ahead of me. I keep meeting people that either went to Panama (teachers) or senior missionaries who have family that came back from a mission in Panama. They all say it is one of the coolest missions ever. There are 2 areas which are in the islands that we can go to I guess. I think a lot of the mission is in Panama city, but there are plenty of other cool places to go. I believe most of the mission is walking since there isn't much land area so probably no bikes or cars. But oh well. I'm half way done with the MTC now and am getting closer and closer to leaving. We keep hearing cool stories from our teachers about their missions and it just sounds exciting and fun... real fun. Here there just isn't very much fun... too many people watching over the back. Talks and devotional -wise... we've had a few interesting speakers. Yesterday Elder Garn and his wife came and talked to us. Simple but good talks. Elder Garn talked a lot about his associations with other general authorities and things that Prophets said. I don't know if you've heard about the time when Pres. Hinckley was asked about why we don't have the cross as the symbol of our religion, but he re-counted that story. I guess he answer that we don't think of a dying Christ, but that the symbol of our religion and the thing people think of when they think of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints is the lives of our people. I thought that was a really cool thought. And just a quick scripture too... in 3 Nephi 13:15 I think it was... maybe not right verse or chapter but I dunno (maybe hte other way around)... it's a really good one about being called as disciples of Christ to help others gain eternal life. I really liked it.
Um... besides those... I have learned a lot about teaching. We are doing the second lesson this week in english for the last time, with a big spanish part about teaching someone how to pray and talking to them about some commitments. Next week will be the first week we teach the full 35 minute first lesson in spanish. Crazy.
Speaking is getting easier and easier, but teaching lessons can be tough in spanish. El espanol es un lengua nuevo para mi y cuando estoy hablando en espanol, no puedo descubrir las palabras que necesito. Got it? Anyways.. don't have too much time left I guess.
I think it is getting easier and easier for people to be sent home here. I have heard of at least 3 or 4 people being sent home that I know within the past few days. One of them punched his district leader for some reason... and the other two I'm not sure, but it just seems crazy that their mission is over.
Well... if anyone wants to sent me food/candy/anything... do it. It is nice to get stuff. Letters are fine too :) ... anything.4 more weeks and then the letters will finally get interesting... sorry they are all the same right now.Love and miss you all.I'll try and get some pictures sometime soon. It takes a while to get them developed.Talk to you later Benoh... p.s.Good luck at soccer, Anna... go score a goal for me... even if you're playing defense.Well... I'll probably write again in not too long if you send something back. So yeah, I'll write.Bye
SEPTEMBER 24, 2008:
Hi family...I was just writing to tell you that I just sent a letter in the mail to you so I won't be writing a long e-mail. It seemed easier today to do that rather than write another long e-mail. Hope things are going well. Say hi to everyone for me. I'm just about to go to the temple to go do sealings for the first time, should be cool I hope. I did initiatories last week too.But yeah, love and miss you allTalk to you later and hope you get my letter (if you don't get it by Friday or saturday at the latest... let me know and i'll write another or something)Ben
SEPTEMBER 17, 2008:
Dear mom, dad, christina, sarah, anna, other family, friends... and whoever you forward this to...It's been another week at the MTC I guess... even though it only feels like it's been a couple days. Time is pretty much non-existent here, but it seems like we have done a ton of things. I guess my e-mail last week was basically venting about all of the annoyances and weird things about this place, but I'll try not to do that. Well... this last week has been pretty busy. On saturday I did my first TRC appointment where we practice doing a certain task for volunteers who act as investigators (we'd practiced doing the things a lot before but it is kind of an evaluation/test thing). We had to introduce ourselves and get to know them in spanish and then we taught them the first lesson in english. We taught an old lady that talks a lot and a girl from BYU who apparently knew me but I didn't really remember her. The lesson went really well. We had found a perfect scripture for the lesson... I think it was in 1 John 3:12-16, but I'm not sure. Basically we based the lesson around the fact that heavenly father loves us and cares for us and lead that into the restoration and the importance families have in the gospel and in the book of mormon. It ended up that the lady decided to tell a 20 minute story about a car accident she had and we couldn't get back on topic without being rude and completely interrupting her so we took about 20 minutes over our time, but it was fine. Fun thing to teach and felt like I was actually doing something rather than just learning how to do it and sitting in a classroom all day. Last night we had a devotional. Elder Richard G. Hinckley (president hinckley's son) came and spoke to us. It was a really good talk. He based it on 9 B's (like Pres. Hinckley's B's) but they were for missionaries. I can't remember most of them, but they were things like Be Careful, Be a Leader, Be Faithful, Be Obedient, Be Happy, and some others. It made it really easy to understand when he organized it that way. Spanish-wise, it is coming along really well. I am able to pray, bear my testimony, sing (haha... don't get excited mom, it's not SINGING, i just sing), memorized the first vision, the missionary purpose, a few scriptures and know how to say most anything in spanish. Things are still frusterating seeing how far ahead of the rest of my class I am, but I'm trying to take it for what it is. I think I probably should have been in the intermediate class, but oh well. Tell Sarah that we have already surpassed 2 years worth of spanish in about a week and a half. So might as well just give up now and go on a spanish speaking mission, don't waste your time (haha just kidding...kind of). Well... other than that, things are going pretty well. Rules and over-the-top leaders are still annoying, but I hear it gets better once you're out of the MTC. Apparently they don't want us to laugh, or gather and talk, visit other people's rooms or basically do anything 'fun.' It's weird and doesn't make sense because all the people saying it just contradict each other. Oh well.My companion and I work pretty well together despite being opposites. I'm sure the foot of height differential is quite a sight.Well... hope people still write. The dearelder.com thing is really easy so take advantage and give me lots of letters. Maybe some food too?Hmm... or anything else you think I might want/need.Well hope everything is going well at home. I think I'll write a short written letter too, just for kicks. Hmm... and I think andy gets his mission call this week sometime maybe??Well... gotta go finish my laundry and stuff.talk to you laterBen
SEPTEMBER 10, 2008:
Dear mom, dad, and family...Well... obviously this is my mission e-mail... ben.g.pronkPPCM@myldsmail.comso yeah... send as much as you want, but letters are better. you can go to dearelder.com and figure out how to send me letters from there too... it's much easier and i get to check those every day rather than e-mail, which i can check once a week. so send as much as you want/can.i think you got my address here too already but it's Elder Ben Gerrit Pronk / MTC Mailbox #311 / Pan-PC 1103 / 2005 N. 900 E / Provo, Utah 84604-1793.I guess mail is a big deal here and it's annoying we can't talk to anyone from outside world, so send mail. still haven't gotten a letter from you back. anyways... i guess i only have 18 minutes on this. Things are going pretty well.. quite the culture shock and complete difference in lifestyle. It is much more strict than I imagined. A lot of rules... quite a few which really don't make sense at all and push my limits, buuuut I still try to follow them and do my best. We have had a lot of classes and been able to learn a lot about the gospel. It really has been a good experience so far. The spanish is going well... learning a lot of the gospel words and how to so prayers, etc. I am getting much better at speaking. Learning the basic spanish is annoying however, there is too many things I already know and I am probably several weeks ahead of where we are. Hopefully it will get better. There is plenty of food here, not very good for you though and it doesn't make you feel well. Plus everybody is getting sick. Guess i'm starting to complain now : ) WEll... my companion is pretty nice, a lot different than me though. He's from a small farming town in northern utah and has an accent and is pretty straight and narrow. But we have worked pretty well together getting together the lessons we need to prepare and planning the time here. There have been a lot of good spiritual things here though. Last night for the first devotional we got lucky and President Uchtdorf (however you spell that) came and spoke to us. It was really good. He spoke about missionary work and the importance of being humble and working hard. Also, we have a missionary in our district, he lives in my room too... going to panama as well... that is a new convert of the church. He joined two years ago when he was 21. He is definitely one of the most knowledgable and humble new converts I have met. He is Tongan, but lives in San Francisco area. He says a big reason for wanting to go on a mission is not only to serve the people in panama, but also to help his family to be more receptive to the gospel. None of them are members. We actually are fasting right now that his family might be more receptive and hear and listen to the gospel. Anyways.. it's a nice thing to be doing and to talk to him. It also gives a good perspective for learning how to teach.Well... let's see... what else? We don't have much time to do anything. They keep throwing more rules on us that we have to always be doing something and it has to be away from our residence hall. I try to just go along with it. My companion is district leader too... so that doesn't help a lot in terms of being more laid back and working hard while not over-stressing. I feel like I am just disconnected from everything. Which can be good and bad. It is really nice to be able to just concentrate on one thing. I have seen a lot of friends from school here, ryan comes in today too, and that has been cool. Makes me feel a little bit more at home, not too much though. Well... I am not sure what else to say. I'll probably write a letter or something too. But I need letters... I think i've only gotten one. I didn't bring anybody's addresses either so I can't write anyone. I didn't think about it being like this when I left... should've, would've, could've kinda thing. I'll hopefully get more used to here. 7 more weeks : / Well... thanks for the easy sendoff and hope you made it home safely. Hopefully hear from you soon. Love and miss you all. elder ben pronk
