The same as it is everywhere else. Mind-numbingly boring. Usually an exercise in futility, self-loathing for not being "worthy" enough to baptize lots of people. Living on not enough money or having enough resources. Having to dress like a dorky 1950's IBM salesman every single day. Sneaking a whack-off when you can, and then lying about not doing it.
"Here are LDS-friendly educational videos about Panama. We scoured YouTube to find the best quality videos about Panama, that are free from inappropriate music, immodesty and profanity."
Some of us went on real missions, and had to slog through malarial swamps and eat left over crocodile and stuff in order to baptize people into ghawd's church.
I beg your pardon. You have no idea how hard it was to walk down the Champs-Élysées, and avoid the temptation of stopping for a glass of wine at a Paris sidewalk cafe! Talk about hell...
Before I was a Mormon I went to Panama a couple times, once with my Costa Rican girlfriend. She had a friend incarcerated in a prison in the middle of the jungle--reportedly the same prison where former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega called home. We showed up to visit her friend--he'd been pulled over driving a pickup full of pot (bad idea). Our group included two Costa Ricans, one Colombian, three Panamanians, and one gringo (me).
Although I was covered with tattoos and piercings, the Panamanian guards waved me through the security screen unchecked, even while subjecting all my companions to full body-cavity searches. Then a tropical downpour hit, and the warden sent out a trustee with an umbrella to hold over my head while we made our way to the main cellblock. All my friends got soaked, while I remained dry.
Later I asked my friends why I received the strange special treatment--hell, I can't even get out of LAX without having my hands wiped down for drugs. One of the Panamanians explained: "You have to remember that, back in the '70s, the U.S. returned the Panama Canal to Panama. Ever since then, our economy's turned around and we've earned billions of dollar from the canal. If you have a U.S. passport, WE LOVE YOU!!" Strange, huh?
Of course, you can't extrapolate my experience to that of a Mormon missionary. Those guys are lucky to get through any barrio alive, IMO...
I lived there for a couple of years until just recently. I can tell you that other than in the biggest towns (three, including the capital), you hardly ever saw the missionaries.
When I did my mission in Central America in the late 1970s, the countries I was in were crawling with missionaries...at least it seemed so to me.
It's probably slightly better (safer) than most Central American countries for female or male missionaries. About the same as Costa Rica.