We arrived in Panama City last Saturday night.  We were met by our mission President, Curtis Carmack.  He dropped us off at the hotel and told us he would pick us up in the morning for church.  It was weird staying in a nice hotel.  We felt like we were on vacation or something.  We stayed at the Wyndham Trype.  It is connected to the largest mall in Central America.

We went to the Cardenas ward with the Carmacks.  It was fun to meet the members.  There are a number of American people in the ward so they have translators for both languages.  They have some speak in English and some in Spanish.  We were excited to meet a young man who is going to the Roseville, CA Mission, which according to Megan is the Best mission in the world!!  He is completely bilingual but is called to English.  We'll see if President Marston decides to use his Spanish.

I met a sister who is from Venezuela and she knew the Madarriaga family that we knew when we were in Venezuela.  I love Latins, especially members.  You feel like you've known them forever.

After church, the Carmacks took us up to a hill overlooking the city and the canal.

Took care of business in Panama City and headed to our assignment in Santiago de Veraguas.  Our house is completely empty so we are staying in a hotel until we get everything taken care of.  Still feels a bit like a vacation when you're staying in a nice hotel.  We had to wait for the elders to show us the house so we didn't really get in until late and then we went to look at furniture.  A member lives around the corner and we went by in the evening to meet them.  Just the wife was there with their little son.

On Wednesday we bought furniture- will be delivered Thursday.  We had a meeting with the 83 year old mission leader in the branch.  He was one of the early members of the church here.  He is amazing with a funny sense of humor.  We gave him a ride home to see where he lives and meet his wife.  He walked to the church which is probably about 2-3 miles away from his house.  You can see his dedication.

Thursday we waited around the house while all the furniture was delivered and we met the landlady.  We spent lots of time today, shopping (for other things like dishes, etc. that we needed), cleaning, and putting things away.

So far we haven't really done much missionary work.  We have met wonderful people as we've been at the mall, have eaten out, getting phones set up, ordering internet, etc.  We have gotten a few referrals and look forward to visiting some of these people later.

Overall we love the people here.  They are friendly, helpful, interested in why we're here, they feel they need to watch out for us and are very beautiful.