The Week After La Navidad & Skyping

December 30, 2013

Hey! How´s it going? This week,to be honest, has been kinda slow. A lot of people have been out of town for vacations and there have been a lot of parties going on here. 

The festival of horses was on the 24th, then on the 25th and 26th. Then from the 27th to the 1st there is a festival of Toros. So there is a lot going on here in Turbaco which has made it a little tricky to visit people. 

Christmas was pretty good. I waited until the 25th to open up the package... so mom you can be proud of me for that! 

This week we´ve been working a lot with Carmen. She´s super awesome! Carmen reads everything that we give her and she´s already finishing Alma in the Book of Mormon. She also has a son that is 8 years old so we talked with Carmen and him about everything and now they are both getting ready to be baptized on the 18th this month! 

This week I also had to do a baptismal interview for an investigator that the sister missionaries are working with. The investigator wanted me to baptize her and on Saturday I had the privilege to baptize her. 

Christmas!

Today for p-day, we didn´t do much. Luisel made us lunch and after we ate we came back home.  I watched Ephraim´s Rescue, sweet movie. That´s kinda it for this week, pretty slow with a the stuff going on in the city, but I´m excited for the new year! 

I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Almost La Navidad

December 23, 2013

Multi Zone Christmas activity

Hey! What´s up? This week has been pretty good. 

Crepes and Waffles with President Searle

Tuesday we had our Christmas activity with the mission president. We went into Cartagena to a church called La Pie de la Popa. We started out by watching the Incredibles!!! And yes, it was incredible! I miss watching movies....  it was great, I really like that movie. 

After the movie we walked over to Caribe Plaza, a mall close by, and ate at Crepes and Waffles. It´s funny because whenever I think of a restaurant that sells waffles, I think of the Waffle House back home (so not very good quality), but here it´s super fancy. I ate a mexican chicken crepe... Super awesome! 

After eating we went back to the chapel, listened to some messages, sung some songs, and came back to Turbaco at 7:30. Super Fun Day. The rest of the week we spent contacting and teaching and trying to find those chosen ones of God. 

The only problem is that now the parties are starting. The other day we couldn´t even cross a street to get to our area because there was a huge parade going through town. Yesterday no one came to church so that was a bummer. We tried passing by people´s houses to see why they weren't at church, but many weren´t home. 

Christmas for the district

Today for pday we watched ICE AGE 4!!! It was great! I kept thinking of dad saying ´Sid the sloth´.   Also I got the package today! Elder Bastos hooked me up and sent it here so now I have your presents and don´t worry mom, I didn´t open anything yet. I´m going to wait until the 25th. 

This week is going to be a little slow as far as missionary work because alot of people go out of town and what not. Also,  there is a big wooden stadium that they put up to have bull fights so it´ll be interesting to see what happens there.  I´m really looking forward to the Skype call! Thursday! 

I love you all so much! Feliz Navidad! Abrazos y Besos!

Baptismal Interviews & Getting Ready to Skype

December 16, 2013

How´s it going?? 

This week has been pretty good. Nothing much really happened, just a lot of walking looking for some less active members that live super far away. Sometimes I hate the area because of the hills and distance. We´ve been working hard to find new people to teach so we´ve been contacting a lot. 

This week I also had 2 baptismal interviews. It was kinda weird because I was alone and didn´t have my comp there next to me, but the interviews went well. One of them, German, is going to be baptized this Saturday. 

Mission Wallet

Yesterday we had to go to Cartagena for a Rescue... basically it´s  a visit to less active members in the ward. We totally lucked out and scored a ride there with a member in our ward so we went in an air-conditioned car :) . Later, we left with a member from the ward that knew the area, and he also had a car so we lucked out there too! 

Today we´re not going to be doing much because tomorrow we have a Christmas activity with the president so we´ll have to spend some $$ to travel there. It should be super fun. Also, we found out that now we can Skype! You guys need to tell me the day and the hour and I´ll be here for it!! (Well basically any day but the 25th, no internet is open that day.) 

I can´t wait to talk to you guys! Sorry this letter is short... we didn´t have much going on. I promise that next week will be better. 

I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Transfers & I'm Still HERE! Distrito Norberg!

December 9, 2013

What`s up everyone?? This week has been pretty good. 

Elder Manuico and I

To start with last pday we went to Cartagena where there was an artificial field and we played soccer with the zone. It was super fun to play, especially with all the missionaries. The only problem was there were about 10 sisters so we couldn`t play too hard with them, but once they left we went to town. As a result my legs have been shot almost this whole week. 

The Zone Nogal

 Also, we had transfers AND........nothing changed. I`m still here in Turbaco and my comp is still Elder Centon. The only change was that Elder Anderson left to Barranquilla so now I`m the district leader. Party in Distrito Norberg! We are 6 in total, Elder Gallardo, Otteson, Centon, Me, Hermana Thomas, and Huatuco.

This week we also had a conference with Elder Uceda, the Area P



 
resident, and the Mission President. They spoke a lot about the way that we need to work with the members and investigators. With the members, we really need to be on the same page with everything so that they can help us with the work, especially with less active families. 

Also with the investigators, we need to really have the people be converted to the gospel and be disciples of Christ not just a number for baptisms. The conference was really good. A few things were repeated from the last conference, but it was a nice refresher. 

We also had another meeting with the stakes in Cartagena. The meeting went late and we had to stay the night at the zone leader's house. The problem was that there weren`t any extra mattresses so we basically just slept on the hard ground....well, tried to sleep, just tossing and turning the whole night. These last few days we`ve just been super tired. 

A highlight lesson this week was with Carmen. We were talking to her asking how everything was going and if she had any questions, she pulled out one of the pamphlets and opened to the page where it has the person praying. She told us that she did it and said that after she prayed she felt the Spirit and believes that is was God telling her to keep going and learning. Super Awesome! She understands soo good and it makes me happy when she tells us that the things she learns really  help her. 

So that`s basically what has been happening this week. I love you all! Thanks for everything. Abrazos y besos!

Carmen is Awesome!

December 2, 2013

What´s up everyone? How is it going? This week has been pretty good and we´ve been working hard to find new people to teach. 

Dinner with the members

The highlight for teaching moments this week was with a lady named Carmen. She is about 54 years old and we found her through a member. Carmen is the one that I told you about two weeks ago, who found the Book of Mormon in the library. Well she has loved what she has read and learned so far. 

Simon and I

We left Carmen with the Book of Mormon, some pamphlets, and a Liahona because she told us that she loves reading and really wanted to learn more. So when we went to visit her again, we found out that she had read

through 2 Nephi 19 and also started reading the Index at the end and was at page 100. She had also read the pamphlets and remembers everything from them. 

It was so awesome! Carmen kept telling us how much she loves what she reads and feels full when she reads. Talking to her she strongly shows her desires to follow God and do what is right so she is now on track to be baptized on January 4th. Carmen even came to Stake Conference yesterday. It was about a 40 minute travel, but she went all the way to the stake center. During Stake conference people kept getting up and talking so it was hard to hear, but she was very happy to be able to go. 

My comp and I are in the process of setting up Christmas lights in the house and have been looking for a good tree.  We haven´t found one yet, but hopefully we´ll get one this week. On Thursday (Thanksgiving) we had interviews with the president so we went to Cartagena for that. The interview was pretty short, he just told me thanks for everything that I was doing and that this transfer I´m probably not going to train because only 5 missionaries are coming in, but the next transfers there will be 20 and 16 so I´ll probably train then! 

 Recently the whole stake and 70 have just been hammering on Ward Council so the bishop told us that we need to change things so that the ward can work better together with missionary work and not just talk about unimportant things and lose time. 

Oh also I found out that Reyla´s parents were baptized! (From my old area in Cevillar!) Today we are going to play soccer in Cartagena so I won´t be on to write again in the afternoon! I love you all! 

Abrazos y besos!