Cartagena - Los Alpes! First Week in The Field

Well It´s been a long almost two weeks. In Bogota we went out proselyting again, packed our bags, and said our last farwells to the CCM at 3 a.m. At the airport we just handed the people our bags and they threw them onto the convey belt, which was good because I know both my bags were overweight. 

Just a llama on the side of the street

The flight to Barranquilla was about an hour and a half, but right when we stepped off the plane I felt like I was being hugged by a warm damp blanket. The Mission President greeted us then we piled onto a bus to go to a chapel. Once we got to the chapel we had a small lunch that consisted of chocolate bread, an oat smootie, and an apple. 

Then we slept on the church pews to catch up on sleep, but it just felt gross laying where everyone´s butts go. After had a quick interview with the President, and since I don´t know a lot of Spanish, it was pretty quick. They then shipped us out to some elders house where we paired up and headed out with another missionary already in the field for the rest of the day. 

Me and Elder Neff were together and the entire time people were just saying that we were gringos and couldn´t speak spanish and were sweaty. All of wich were true, but I just wanted to cry that day, I´ll be honest, that was the suckiest day. And to top that day off they made us put 7 matresses on the floor that had been festering in rat poop and then 8 elders had to share the 7 matresses and 2 fans. 

The next day (Wednesday) we went back to the chapel and got our new companions. My companions name is Elder De Los Santos from the Dominican Republic! He´s awesome, hard worker, and very nice so everyone likes him. He also lets me talk in the lessons so I´m loving that. 

After we got our companions, we loaded into another bus and headed to Cartagena where I am currently at. My area is called Los Alpes. The apartment has 5 other elders in it and I´m pretty sure undiscovered bacteria live here. Going proselyting is great, alot of walking, alot of not understanding, and a lot of sweating. 

I didn´t think it was possible to sweat this much. Just sitting in a chair I´ll be sweating. If there isn´t a fan near by, I´m sweating. Fans are like gold here because it´s eternally hot and humid and having a fan blow on your body is like christmas for your body. 

The people here are way nicer than the people in Bogota which makes talking easier. So far, I´ve been a witness for a wedding and 6 baptisms. So off to a pretty good start! 

Other randoms things: The only temperature on the shower is cold so I´m stuck with that for 22 more months, but since it´s always hot, it´s not a huge deal. Since today has been the first time we have gone to the store, my diet has been pretty much just bread and juice. The water here is like poisen. I think I drank some a few days ago because something destoyed my insides and I´m back to normal now. 

There are 3 other northamericans in the apartment and two latinos, my companion included. The fashion here is quite different from the states, for guys, swim suit bottoms are a must and a shirt is optional. For women, skin tight clothing is a necessity, no matter the age. Even old grandmas. And bras are also optional... It´s no bueno at times. 

It rains here like no one´s business, floods streets, and the sound of thunder sounds like the sky is about to shatter. I kinda almost got robbed too on my first day. We were walking and this guy walks up to me and asks for a cell phone, which I didn´t have, and reaches into my pockets, pats me down a bit then figured I was telling him the truth when I said I didn´t have a phone. 

Each day a learn a little more Spanish and am able to understand better. Although I still can never figure out where we are when we are walking. The streets are nuts, no signs, and crossing streets is like human frogger. I also ate some liver the other day. Didn´t taste too bad, but definately strange. Also we have ants evrywhere in our apartment. Oh and also if alot of this is spelt wrong it´s because there is no autocorrect and every word is this email is underlined red since the default language is Spanish. 

Well that´s it for me! Pretty exciting week! Love you all and thanks for the support! 

Abrazos y besos!