Panama day 4

It was a full day indeed. Here goes:

Today we visited the Miraflores Locks, a.k.a. The Panama Canal. We watched a few ships go through the locks and watched a video in Spanish about it, then went through the museum. It is absolutely fascinating how they were able to construct this canal, ingenious really. It was fun to see and they are undergoing an expansion of the canal in the near future to allow even larger ships to pass through.

A note about the language: It was great to see Todd's confidence return with Spanish. Sure he was rusty at first; it has been nearly 13 years since he returned from El Salvador. As the week wore on, he made a great translator for us all, along with my little brother, DJ. My college Spanish came in handy too, though my understanding outweighed my articulation. It's a beautiful language and I'd like to pick it up again someday.

From the Locks, we went to a Kuna Indian marketplace, with all the authentic Panamanian goods on display. We spent a good amount of time (and money!) here as there was so much to see. Then we headed over to the Albrook Mall. This place is ENORMOUS!!!!! We made a mistake by going here on a Saturday. "Packed" isn’t quite the right word for how crazy it was there. People were everywhere, all of them giving us gringos strange looks. We decided that they walk the same way they drive: plow into you and keep on going, with not so much as a look in your direction. We didn’t have long and I hate shopping in chaos so we went home empty-handed. This wasn’t at all disappointing to Todd. We may end up going back at some point.

Then we headed over to the cultural event for the temple dedication. When we arrived I thought we either were at the wrong place or that we were way early because there were less than 100 cars in the parking lot. I thought how sad it is that the prophet came all this way to not have a big turnout from the church. Then I walked into the convention center. There was a sea of beautiful brown people—thousands sat listening to our prophet. I then realized that most of them either walked, took a bus or cab to get here. Very few have cars of their own. It was humbling indeed to know we had two at home in our garage. We got to listen to President Monson speak—President Uchdorf and Elder Scott are also here. (Side note: My aunt got to prepare the flower decorations and welcome tray for the prophet’s room. My mom’s friend from here gets to feed him for 3 days.) It was as if we were at a rock concert people were cheering and screaming so loud. In fact, I kid you not, we had 3 young girls right behind us screaming in our ears for every performance (just like the Miley Cyrus concert!). Luckily they decided to move. Then we watched the youth of the church do some authentic dancing in beautiful costumes—they were so talented. All the missionaries came out and sang "Called to Serve" in Spanish. I was amazed at how many missionaries there are here. They did an awesome presentation of the plan of salvation where they had some youth act out different stages of life. When they got to marriage, they had a gorgeous replica of the Panama temple lowered from the ceiling and a husband and wife kneeled together in front of it. The entire congregation erupted into screaming and cheering like crazy. Of course I was bawling like a baby. The reality is that many people here have yet to go to the temple, let alone be sealed as a family. We spoke with Pres. Lamb a stake president here and Mom’s friend, and he said they do 2 trips a year to Costa Rica, but even then people can’t afford it. It is $110 to take that trip. Unfortunately that is half a month’s salary for most of the people here. Can you imagine? What a blessing it is for these sweet people to have this temple here! I love to see people excited about the gospel like I did tonight. It was another testament to how true this gospel is and how blessed we are to have it in our lives and temples so close to us at home. I think I take the temple for granted knowing it is just down the street. How blessed we are!

Then we went to the Lamb’s house to get our tickets for the dedication tomorrow. We got the first session so we will be able to see the cornerstone ceremony hopefully. That means no sleeping in and I should already be in bed. I love you all and will update you again tomorrow!