Concepcion- February 22

Well... Welcome to Vista Hermosa. AKA.. the city of Bugaba, Concecpcion. I dont actually have photos yet.. I thought my memory card broke but I figured out the problem this morning :) so ill start taking more photos of the area and stuff. It really isnt much. But anyways... its been a great week, and the time has gone by way fast. and my internet time is also going by way too fast... so im going to write fast, and spend more time uploading photos. 

Tuesday- well... tuesday, early, we got to the city :) we flew in at like... 9 am :) Almost immediately, I had to seperate from Elder Hoeft to start packing and getting ready to leave.. so he was on his own for the city trip. but luckily there were 7 other elders from blas to be with him to help him.. as far as i know things went well for them :) I also saw Mcnamara there in the but terminal :) hes with elder halls, a really good missionary, who came to panama with my group.

at 830 at night I got on the bus with 3 others headed for my zone :) we got there aroung 5am the next day 

Wednesday. well... I got to the area, and we slept till 630, and I unpacked all my stuff :) and we had a generally normal day. I forgot my agenda, and that day was a little crazy i dont remember a ton to say about it. 

me and my companion get along really well. hes a cool guy, convert to the church. hes 23, and completed his 4th baptism birthday this past week. 

Thursday- Well... I really should bring my journal because I really cant remember much of anything right now.. ill do better next week i promise :) 

Friday- Im going to be honest, its really nice to have a ton of time to be able to stufy now :) i love it :)

Saturday- the only thing that I remember is that we played soccer :) instead of teaching an english class or something, we play soccer with all of our investigators and whoever wants to come, and then teach a mini lesson after. I actually really really like that... I dont know why nobody has ever done that before... 

Sunday- Well. yesterday.. I hope i remember this day better :) I met a TON of members at church... and im just going to stay.. this branch seems like going back to the states compared to where I just came from xD its great. The majority of callings are filled, and the members SEEM stronger than the other branch. 

Later, we went to contact Virginia 4 (a neighborhood in our area) which actualy went pretty well. after, my companion had to pack, because monday morningwe had to go to costa rica because he is now illegal in panama :) 

Monday- well.. today we went to pricemart to buy food :) I used my reserve fund ( i had $100 of mission money saved up from before) to buy some bigs soaps and detergent and  stuff so that I could save some money on that stuff in the long run :) 

later tonight we have a family home evening :) so we will see how that goes :) 

Its refreshing to be in a real area, with an iron, shoes, and actually being able to contact people, and I feel like a real missioanry again :) its refreshing, and im doing great :) a few things to fix, pero bueeeeeno. asi es la vida. anyways... im going to spend some time sending photos now

love yall!

February 15 - Leaving San Blas islands

Well.... Bagels. and Concepcion. and Changes.

well... first thing first. Bagels. my new cuss-replacement xD Its
quite util. next thing........ Im leaving Blas :( Goodbye playon..
good bye kunas... hello... Concepcion! I know nothing about it. but...
ill be there wednesday at 5 am after taking an 8 hour bus ride... Its
literally the other side of the country. Im bordered with columbia
right now, and there i will border with costa rica xD super sweet. I
have to take an hour long plane ride to get to panama, and then that
night the 8 hour bus ride... luckily we have a plane.. or it would be
a 3 hour boat ride, 3 hour car ride, and then the 8 hour bus... Itll
be exciting.

well.... i will summarize the last couple of weeks as best i can...

the only highlight of the week 2 weeks ago, is that I went on
divisions to nargana, and got to spend 3 days with my best friend
Elder Wrigley :) dude is awesome. although the ocean is bad, so we got
stuck an extra day in Nargana, and my comp got left alone.. poor guy.

Also.. last last sunday, ukupa started to smoke the Peace Pipe, and
for the ceremony decided to kick out the missionaries for 4 days.
sooo... the Lord decided not to send the missionaries back :) its
honestly what that village needs... they feel to comfortable here
kicking out the servants of the Lord...


Monday- snce the missionaries left ukupa, they came over to Playon,
and we hiked together to the waterfall here :) it was super sweet

Tuesday- We were supposed to start divisions with Irgandi, but because
of bad ocean problems, they got stuck in ustupu... but they found a
columbian ship that was willing to take them :) so they got on a
columbian boat.. it took 8 hours to get here because they stopped at
every island to sell things on the way xD

Wednesday- Me and Lau headed over to Irgandi together :) It was
congress night so we couldnt do any work after 5... and we didnt get
there till 3.. so i literally did a baptismal interview and that was
it xD

Thursday- well.. we were supposed to END divisions.. but the ocean was
too bad to leave... the boats were all cancelled for thursday and
friday, and we were going to have a baptism on saturday! sooo... to
get back to my area, i decided to hike 3 hours through the jungle
(with a guide) to get closer to Playon, so that i could canoe back to
playon xD it was crazy xD but it was cool. super pretty walk

Friday- We went to the jungle with eric to gather coconuts and open
them and load them into the kayuko :) it was super fun : )

Saturday- we went on my last jungle trip... :( we went with bolivar.
Im hoping that that man will finally start coming to church again.

Sunday- well... I was basically clued into having changes... so we
spent the day saying goodbye :/ It went pretty well. Im surprised that
I didnt cry though :P maybe i will tonight we i say last final
goodbyes....

Monday- Well. Me and my comp spent the day hanging out on a private
island of a member. I put up my hammock and napped in the strong ocean
breeze. the ocean breeze actually gets chilly :) its nice. And then we
got the changes phone call and i found out where i was going, talked
with my comp, etc. By wednesday morning ill be in my new area...
shoot.

well... all said and done... I hope ive accomplished what the Lord
needed of me here in Blas. Ill continue being a Zone Leader in
Concepcion, but Itll be different than being Zone Leader here. Im
excited for the change and the excitement of getting to know something
new.. rumor has it that concepcion can get cold at night... that would
be a nice change :) I sleep better when its cold :)

So next week ill give you an update on travel and how my new zone and
area are :) its crazy how quickly things can change.... I think the
Lord for every expereince and opportunity that he allows me to have.
its been a great blessing to be here and get to know the Tule people,
learn their language, their culture, even though the apostasy of their
culture can be frustrating. Im ready for the new challenges and
eperiences that face me :)

Love you all! Stay strong in the faith!

Elder Bradburn
Machi Senigua
Tule Bander