Happy Days! Dunk Me In the Water!

March 17, 2014

Well this week has been pretty great! We had a zone meeting on Tuesday then a zone conference (with president) on Thursday. 

Carmen & Osvaldo - Baptism!

On Tuesday we got mail! I received a card and a book from Grandma and Grandpa Allred! Thanks so much, the book is really great! It has a lot of ideas about how to be a member missionary. I´m going to try to use some of the ideas in that book with the members here. 

Also on Saturday there were two baptisms and I had to do a baptismal interview so this week has been a little busy. Luckily some clouds are starting to roll in and it isn´t as crazy hot as before, but still waiting for the rain to come. I´m fine with it not raining because it totally kills the day, making everything muddy and flooded. Also my umbrella died back in my first area (don´t know if I told you that) so I just get wet. 

Everything is going well with my comp, I can´t believe that this transfer is halfway over. During the zone conference the missionaries that are leaving in the next two transfers shared their testimonies. It freaked me out because I knew a lot of them and that means the next zone conference I´m going to be doing the same thing! 

Carmen & Osvaldo's kittens

Javier

This Saturday preparing for the baptism was a lot less stressful than the wedding. Everything went smoothly, Oswaldo was able to baptize Carmen which was an amazing experience for the two of them. Carmen also shared her testimony and it made me so happy to see how the gospel and the church have made a huge difference in her life. Before she ´knew´ the doctrine, but didn´t know how to apply it in her life, but now has felt a peace in her life and happiness that she didn´t have before. Awesome. 

Cartagena Zone World Cup Team

Right after the baptism I interviewed one of the sister missionary's investigators, she passed the interview fine, and right before we were about to finish, she asked me who would baptize her. I told her that she could choose whoever she wanted...she chose me. So I'm going to be baptizing Heidy this Saturday for the Sisters. 

Apparently this is a Problem

Today for pday we went to Cartagena to play soccer with the zone. It was really fun, although there was one elder there (from Honduras) that thought it was a professional game and was drilling the ball with all of his soul. I didn´t like playing goalie...No one thinks that Americans can play soccer - so I try to show off my skills.  Often I use my body to keep them off me and to counter all their fancy-pants footwork.

Well that´s it for this week! I love you all! 

Abrazos y Besos!

Carmen & Osvaldo's Wedding FINALLY Happened!!

February 10, 2014

What is up? How`s it going stateside? It`s been kind of rough down here as far as the weather goes, it`s starting to rain. The only problem is that it`s only sprinkling, which means everything more hot and humid, which means it feels like I`m suffocating, but it`s all good! 

This week was super great because Carmen and Osvaldo got married! Yes!

Carmen, Oswaldo and Juan David

 I`m serious! It was such a hectic day. The dude that was going to marry them called at 1 and said that he was going to get there at 6 (which before he told us 7) so we were scrambling to call everyone to let them know about the time change. We got to the church at 5:30 and started setting up the chairs, food, and other stuff. Then 6 rolled around and the man still hadn`t arrived, so that was when we started getting nervous. 

We tried calling the man, but he had his cell phone turned off. 6:30. Members start asking us why the dude wasn`t there and
we had no idea. 7. Freaking out. 7:30. Contact! His flight had just landed and was heading over. 8. Waiting. 8:30. Arrived! Started the service, watched them get married and left at 8:56 to get home. (I`m soo happy we live in front of the church). 

That was pretty much the best part of this week and now Carmen will be getting baptized this Saturday (15)! so now we`re working toward the baptism. This week will be a zone meeting (just missionaries) and also a zone conference (with president) so we should be pretty busy this week. 


Today for pday we went to a mall to print off pictures and buy some picture frames to give to Carmen and Osvaldo, but that`s it for the today's pday adventures. 

I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Transfers & Still in Turbaco

March 3, 2014

Metal Shop

What´s up everyone?! So first things first.....transfers.....just as I thought, I´m still here in Turbaco with Elder Ariza, but the other missionaries in the district were changed. Elder Otteson has a greenie from Brasil, Elder Ribeiro, and now there is a three sister trio... Hermana Thomas, Quiroz (Peru), and Quiroz (Honduras). So that´s how my district is looking like now. 

I am Iron Bar Man

This week unfortunately was Not the wedding of Carmen and Osvaldo because there were some problems with Osvaldo´s son. The son came here to study, but the school that he is supposed to study at is under construction, so no one is studying until the end of march. The mom didn´t want him to lose so much time not learning so Osvaldo had to pay to send him back to where the mom lives. 



 BUT this week Carmen made dessert things to sell to the members to raise the money for the wedding. The official official date for the wedding is this Friday. I know you are all probably tired of hearing that has been put off, but this is official now. 

Church was good this week. We have more people coming to church and the ward attendance has risen these last few Sundays. Also, every week the ward chooses an organization, young men, young women, elders quorum, relief society etc. and visits the less active members from that group. This week they didn´t have anyone to visit so a lot of the members went out to visit our investigators. We left to work with the first counsler Orlando, he´s super funny and he knows a ton of people so he introduced us to some of his friends and we´re going to pass by them another day to teach. 

So that´s kind of it for what has been happening this week, one of my highlight experiences was with Carmen. When we went to visit her the other day, Orlando wanted to know more about her and how she liked the church. It was so great to hear her share how in her life she has been looking to be filled, but hasn´t felt that in other churches. She told us that attending our church and learning more, she feels like she belongs in a family and wants to keep progressing together with Osvaldo. 

 I´m so happy that I have been able to be part of this process for her and we´re going to do everything possible so that she can get married this week. 

I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Warming Up in Colombia - No Parent Pickup

February 24, 2014

Hey! What´s up? This week has been pretty good. It´s starting to get hotter, which means it going to be raining soonish. 

Colombia - Going to World Cup!

I´m sure that you are all really tired of hearing this, but this week should be the wedding of Carmen and Osvaldo. We´re working with the Relief Society to put everything together and get the whole money issue sorted out. 

The ward has been trying to do more activities that will help more people to come and get to know the church. There are guitar, piano, and English classes on Saturday. I help out a little in the English class, but it´s really nice to have those activites to invite people to go to church. People here really want to learn English / want help on their homework, so it´s a good opportunity to help them and meet new people. 

Watch Dog.

Yesterday was a little crazy and really tiring. Elder Gallardo and Elder Ariza have not received their patriarchal blessings yet, so we got everything set up to go to the stake center yesterday morning at 7 am., which meant we had to wake up super early to travel in order to make it there on time... which meant that I was super tired the rest of the day. 

Javiar.

Also since the ward that attends the stake center is Los Alpes,(my first area), I was able to see a lot of members. They all asked me when I was ending and how I had a  lot of time in the mission. It was weird to think that I left that area a year ago and that I´m going to have 19 months in the mission field tomorrow. 

This week was really great too because there are some members here that have family in the States, and they get food and what not from them. So they made us sandwiches with peanut butter and Nutella....it was sooo good. 

 Mom, my package got here to Cartagena, but the zone leaders have it, which means that I´m probably going to be getting it this week. Tomorrow are transfers, but I¨m almost positive that I´m going to be staying for another transfer. We´ll see what happens. So that´s it for this week.

Also, I´ve just been thinking a lot about the whole pick up thing these last few weeks. I would honestly love you have you two come down here and see the people and the cities, but I also feel like I just would like to go home and be with all the family. I also feel like planning everything for the trip would just make me unfocused. I know that you both would like to come pick me up, it´s just that I feel like it would be better to come home to everyone. So, hate to be a Downer on the plans, but I'd rather NOT have you come pick me up.  Maybe we can take a trip down later - even if it's just me and dad.

That´s cool about the Gilbert Temple, the pictures that dad sent look awesome! I hope that you are all doing well.

I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Bowling for Baptisms

February 17, 2014

Hey! How´s it going?? 


This week has been pretty well. We´ve still been working a lot with the less active members, trying to get them to come to church. We have a couple coming, and we are visiting about 6. We´re trying to work more with the ward members so they can help us pump them up to come back to church. It´s hard for some of them because they live far away it takes about 30 minutes walking or spending money for a moto. 

Me & Fitz

On Friday the ward had a talent show and a ton of people went so the church was packed. The church here doesn´t have a stage. We´ve also been working with the bishop so that we can work more efficiently during ward council and with the organizations. 

Yesterday we had a Rescue in Cartagena, but the ward we

Me & My Son

My & My PBA Form

went to had a very large area to cover and we spent a long time walking around trying to figure out the addresses here. Carmen and Osvaldo came to church yesterday, they told us last week that they are trying to get the wedding set up for this week. We´re working with the Relief Society so that they can help put together a little something for them. 

Trick Shot

Today for pday we went to Cartagena and went bowling!!! Super fun! We tried to get the whole zone to go, but some people didn´t want to so we went with a group of 8 and bowled a couple of rounds. I was just racking up the strikes there. 

La Coca Game

It´s weird to think that transfers are coming up again. In 9 days we´ll find out who stays and who goes. I don´t really want to leave Turbaco yet, I really like it here. 

That is pretty much it for this week, I love you all! Abrazos y Besos!

I Feel - Feliz! Oh, and Hot A Lot!

February 10, 2014

How I feel every day

Hey! So this week has been better as far as the weather goes. It´s been cooler than last week! We´ve been walking a ton this week, contacting, and finding new people to teach. 

We had a really great experience giving a blessing to a sister in the ward who was feeling sick and had a really bad headache. She asked us to give her a blessing, we gave it and literally minutes later she felt better... a great example of power of the priesthood! 

Go USA!

This week we also had a zone meeting and I got some letters from Grandma and Grandpa Allred, the Garrisons, the Bangs, Granny, and the Crandalls. Thanks for all the letters! This week I had an interview with one of the sister missionarie's investigators who is a 9 year old boy and he passed pretty quickly. He´ll be getting ready for baptism this Saturday along with Carmen (if we can get everything worked out with their wedding). She is soo close! They need to take out a few more papers and have the money ready and they´ll do it! 

Feeling Patriotic for the Olympics.

We´re going to be working and praying a lot for them this week. Church was good because we had a couple of investigators come. I was stressed because at the last minute the teacher of the gospel principles class bailed. I had to put together a lesson super quickly. The lesson went well, sorta, I was just trying to use a bunch of long scriptures to take up time. 


Today was a chill p day, we just went to a Centro to walk around and print off some pictures, (I haven´t put pictures in my journal for a while), but now it´s all good. 

That´s pretty much it as far as this week goes! I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Castle Week

February 3, 2014

Hermanas Huatuco, Thomas; Elder Gallardo, Otteson, me, Ariza

Hello! How´s it going? This week has been very hot and exhausting. We´ve been walking a ton these last few days to visit the less active ward members and other investigators.

A bit of bad news... Carmen and Osvaldo didn´t get married this week. They still need to get some papers ready and the biggest hurdle is the $$. They are hoping that they will have everything ready in 2 weeks, so we have our fingers crossed for that!

Botas Viejas

Hermanas Huatuco, Thomas; Elders Otteson, Gallardo, me, Ariza

We´ve been working with Osvaldo´s son, who is also called Osvaldo. He moved here about two weeks ago, but doesn´t have a lot of friends. We stopped by with some young men from the ward and invited him to some activities. He was super excited to do stuff with other kids in the ward and at church yesterday he was with the young men.  We´ll continue working with Osvlado (jr) this week.

This week we´ve also been leaving to work with the members, some of the young men and with the 1st consejero. When we left with the consejero we had a very long day, but had some great lessons. We were able to pass by some less active members, that weren´t really receptive to us before, but with the 1st consejero they were more willing to talk with us.

The mission has put a lot of focus on reactivating members so we´ll be doing more of that. At church yesterday we had 4 investigators come which was great! Now we just need to help them all get baptized.

Also, yesterday we went to Cartagena to have a "Rescue", basically visiting less active members, but there was also another activity going on in the stake center. Turned out to be only about 5 members who were able to go on splits with the 40 missionaries. Basically we spent a lot of time contacting in the area of the other missionaries.

Today we had a super awesome pday and the whole district went to the castillo (Castle)!! Super cool! I went there last year, but it´s still fun to walk around there in Cartagena. Really good pday. This week we´re going to be focusing our efforts with Carmen and Osvaldo.

I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

So I told a member that I really like these kind of shirts so they got me one! I know you´ll all love it!

#síseñor #sunsoutgunsout