Week #6 - Lovin' Bogotá MTC!

This week has been awesome! Class has been normal and a little boring, but Saturday we went out proselyting!! I was paired with a native from the MTC, Elder Villacorta, then we were driven out to a church building to meet with a missionary already out in the field. And he was from Mountain View! Elder Coltin Adair, it was crazy! 

{Below is a picture of the Bogotá MTC}

We went to their apartment and planned lessons, ate lunch then set out to go knock some doors. We walked up the street then Elder Adair told me to pick right or left. The left hill looked greener so we went left. It took a while to walk up the hills to get to the area we needed to be, then had to go up just ridiculously steep hills and stairs to get to the top. The entire way there dogs are everywhere, there is poop everywhere, and alot of kids playing soccer. 

When we started knocking doors, Adair took the first two, Villacorta took the third and I took the fourth. I started with the intro that we were misisonaries and had a message about Jesus Christ. She said ´no´, I said ´gracias´ and she closed the door. The next door that I knocked on I did the intro again then she just started going on about how so many bad things had happened to her in her life and how she prays to God to send help or guidance and then we showed up at the door. It was a crazy awesome experience! 

{Below is a picture of the Bogotá Temple}

After we had a two lessons with investigators, both went good. It was a really good learning experience for me, and a definate testimony builder. 

Yesterday all the other missionaries left to go to thier missions, so it was just me and seven other Americans for the entire day. We got to the temple around 9 then our drivier, Juan Carlos, told us he would pick us up at 12:30, we got out of the temple at 12, walked around took some pictures, then waited. For an hour. In the rain. He apparently went to help another driver take stuff to the airport and got stuck there. So we hurried back to the MTC, ate lunch, changed clothes, grabbed money and headed off to the currency exchange place and museum. 

The exchange rate is about 1800 peso for 1 dollar so I feel really rich right now.  The museum we went to was a gold museum and had the history of gold in the country/south america. It was really cool and interesting. 

When we were done, we walked outside and tried to call Juan Carlos on the phone he had given us. It had no reception. We walked around vendors, tried calling the number on other cell phone stands, got hit on by a prostitute, bought a watch and suckers for over 30 minutes then finally got ahold of him. Juan Carlos is not my favorite person. 

After we loaded back into the car, and headed off to a cathedral (Monserrate). This cathedral is on top of a huge hill, we had to take a huge gondola to get up there, and it's overlooking all of Bogota! We got up there as the sun was setting so got some cool pictures of that then, also with the whole city lit up in the dark. I´ll try to get send some pictures in the next few weeks. 

{Below are some pictures of Monserrate}

When we got back in the car to leave and Juan had some American music playing, we think he was trying to say sorry for ditching us twice. When we got back to the MTC we all had to change rooms so no Americans are together now and we´re getting 4 new Native roommates. After we got all changed we watched 17 miracles with President Hall. I had never seen it and it was sooo good!! 

{Picture of President & Sister Hall}  More on Bogotá MTC

Yesterday was definately one of the best days here! Can´t wait to meet new people and learn more Spanish, I´m getting more comfortrable with the language, but still have a ways to go. got some letters this week! Bummer the mail system is so slow, but I guess it's more reliable than people say! Love you all!! 

 Abrazos y besos!