New Area - New Companion!

June 24, 2013

This week has been pretty interesting. Started out with transfers! I was transferred to Modelo here in Barranquilla. My new comp is Elder Ramirez from Mexico! My new apartment is so much bigger than in Cevillar!! I love it! In the house there are 4 elders in total. Elder Ramirez (my comp), Elder Juarez, Elder Davidson, and me.

The area is really nice (has a little more money than my last areas) but it´s a great ward. Everything had been going well this week, working in the new area, getting to know the investigators and members, working with my comp, and then Thursday hit and my toes started hurting again....yes....my same toes....I have issues.

Also on Thursday we had a meeting with President Gaviria on how to have a ward council...the same meeting that I had in my old area. Then Saturday we found out about the leadership broadcast on Sunday.We had to be at the Stake Center at 5:00 to watch the broadcast. Because of the broadcast, our church time was changed from the original time of 2-5 to 9-12. When we got to the chapel and it was absolutely packed!

There are two wards, Modelo and Paraiso, that were both there and during sacrament meeting they told us that they are fusing the two wards. Now my area/ward isn´t Modelo, it´s Paraiso, I think. And the best part of all is that there are 14 missionaries in the ward right now. 6 Sister missionaries and 8 elders! Pretty insane! So now we have to figure out the new boundaries and everything, which is going to be lame because with the ward changes we lost almost all of our investigators.

The leadership broadcast was super awesome! I think the missionaries are more excited about the possibilty of having a tablet or computer in the house. Today for pday we didn´t do much because another elder in the house had to go to the clinic and I had to go too because my toes are hurting me and basically the old-man doctor stuck my toes with anesthesia again, then rammed cotton under my toe nail to help it grow straight or something...so tomorrow I might not work depending on how my toe is doing.

So that´s about it for me...just living the life down here with my toe problems.

Bought these weights right before I left Cevillar - gonna get my burn on!

Love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Liseth!!!

June 16, 2013

How´s everyone doing?? This week has been pretty great and a little crazy! Tuesday was the soccer game, Colombia vs Peru, and oh my gosh it was absolutely crazy! The main street/highway that leads to the stadium goes through our area, so it was absolutely nuts!

Then there was a warning out because 3 people were killed, so Tuesday we only went out working from about 7 to 9. This week has been raining a lot, and that means that we have more mosquitos.... which sucks. I wish I had Lolo´s (Lauren Zaharis') super anti- mosquito power because these things are eating my feet off!

This week we had the baptism of Liseth!!! It was great! It´s awesome to see her be baptized and how quickly she has progressed and how much the gospel has changed her life!

Also, Sunday I gave a talk in church. It was all going awesome, I was talking about Agency, but then I looked at the clock on the wall and it said 9:55 and I freaked out and ended quickly because there was still one more person that needed to talk after me. Once I sat down, I looked at my watch and it was only 9:48. The people didn´t get the full message...kinda bummer.

This Wednesday we have transfers so we are all kinda freaking out and guessing who is going to be leaving. I´m pretty sure that I am going to leave and also either Elder Webb or Alvarez too. We´re going to find out tomorrow night so next week I´ll let you know what happened!

On Thursday we had our last conference with President Gaviria and his family. He talked a lot about marriage and also how we can know Jesus better. For example, what kind of things we can do to bring ourselves closer to Him and learn more about Him. It was a great conference and I was able to see a lot of buddies there because it was all of the Barranquilla missionaries!



This pday was pretty much a bust. We wanted to go bowling, so we told the taxi guy where the place was. He got lost and we got to the building late, only to find out that it wasn´t open. We decided to go to McDonalds to eat our pain away. Next we printed some pictures and came back home. So thank you so much Dad and Grampy for your donations for pday, but it looks like that money will be going to another pday in the future (I haven´t taken the money out yet).

So that´s about it! Love you all!! This week should be pretty crazy with transfers! By the way, this picture is like a "normal" Newspaper in Colombia.

Love you all! Abrazos y besos!!

What a Great Weekend!

June 10, 2013

What´s up?¡ This week was super awesome and kinda lame at the same time. Super awesome because Reyla and Leslie got baptized¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ So happy¡¡¡¡

Me, Reyla, Leslie, Elder Briceño

I ended up baptizing the two sisters and then Elder Briceño confirmed Reyla and Carlos (Leslie´s dad) confirmed Leslie. The baptisms were really great! Reyla and Leslie were kinda nervous before, but after they were baptized they were soo happy! Leslie started talking about how she was feeling and that she was super happy and Reyla kept saying that she felt soo good. Seeing them be so happy about their baptism made me feel really happy that I could help them in this process.

Also Elder Alvarez and Webb had a baptism too. So the ward had three baptisms in all¡

We´ve also been working really hard with Liseth. She´s progressed really quickly and now she´s going to get baptized this Saturday¡¡¡ We´ve had some really awesome lessons with her. She always reads the Book of Mormon, understands what she reads, marks the scriptures, and prays... it´s awesome¡ And Liseth came to church yesterday so now she ready to go for this Saturday¡¡

Denice (mom of Reyla), Leslie, Reyla, Jenice (mom of Leslie)

Alright,  now for the lame part of this week. I started working again, but I´ve been wearing sandals and everyone looks at me weird. I can't wear shoes yet because they are a little constricting on my toes. The problem gets worse because I have another, yes another ingrown toenail, on the other side of the nail. I'm so not happy about this! I called the secretary and he told me he is going to send me some pills, but I don´t know how much that´ll really help.

My spanish speaking is doing really well. I'm still working to work on a bigger vocabulary, but I feel really comfortable.  I feel like I can basically say what I want to and don´t have to struggle to think of what to say. It kinda just flows. One of my teachers in the MTC told us that if we think in Spanish, then it´ll be easier to speak in Spanish, so I´ve been really trying to think in Spanish.

The ´dryer´

I´m getting excited for the new mission president in July. Not sure what to expect, but excited.

Washing set up

That´s it for this week¡ Super great and this weekend should be super awesome too¡¡ For pday day we just went to the centro to print some pictures of the baptisms and walked around.

 Love you all¡¡ Abrazos y besos¡¡

Basically just spins the water and my clothes...doesn´t do much to actually wash.

The Toes Knows

June 4, 2013

 I'm sorry, but this is going to be the lamest weekly update ever! Basically last Monday after we finished writing families, the power went out. When the power goes out, it´s kinda sketchy so we had to go back home and it didn´t come back on until about 1 in the morning.

 Tuesday we had an intercambio and I was with Elder Webb and we worked in his area. Then on Wednesday we went to the Clinic and that was a horrible experience! The doctor there was this old man just in regular clothes, (didn't look very official) and he kept on telling me over and over that the reason I had ingrown toenails is because I was cutting my nails poorly. I didn´t register for him when I tried to explain that in Cartagena they took off my nails. All of the other nurses

kept asking me why I had my toenails taken off because that´s kinda the worst thing to do with toenails. So I got my toenails cut and I´ve been stuck in the house every since.

That has been the rest of my week... just sitting in the house doing nothing. Laying in my bed. We didn't have baptisms last week either because Leslie´s dad couldn´t baptize her.  The baptism got pushed to this coming Saturday.

I still can´t do anything today, so no pday for me. Ya... That´s about it! This week has been insanely boring, but love you all!

Abrazos y besos!