Holy Hills!

September 23, 2013

Hey! What´s up? This week has been alright. We´ve spent a lot of time contacting and walking. Our area is pretty big and there is a part that has a ton of hills so I feel like I´m going to die at the end of the day, but it´s great here. The people are really receptive here (better than my last area in Barranquilla) so I´m happy to be out here. 

This week no one came to church, which was a bummer, but I saw Carlos at church!!! Carlos Leon is the kid that I helped baptize a year ago!! It was so awesome to see him. He was visiting for the weekend, and when I saw him I freaked out and kept telling my comp that I knew him. It made me really happy to find out that he is still active in the church and that his family is also still active. 

We don´t have a ton of investigators in our area so we´ve been spending a lot of time knocking doors and talking with people in the street. My comp is kinda shy / lacks the confidence to talk to the people so I have to do a lot of the talking. We´ve had some really good lessons this week too. 

And I wonder why the power always goes out when it rains?!

One lesson that was just super awesome was with a lady named Luicel. She came to church last week, but only stayed for 2 hours, so we didn´t have time to ask her how it went. We stopped by her house to visit her and while we were talking to her she told us that while she was at the church she ´felt something´, something that she didn´t think that she would feel (The spirit). We talked with her more about that / it being an answer that the church was true and she told us she thinks that it´s true also. Luicel now has a baptismal date for October and she is very excited to go back to church and to keep learning more. We´re really happy about her progress!

We might have a baptism this Saturday too for Eloisa. She isn´t sure because she still lives with her parents and she is kinda scared to talk to them about baptism. We´ll find out tonight if it is going to happen. So fingers crossed. 

That´s pretty much all for this week. Not a ton happened and this week....  we´ll just be hitting it hard contacting. 

Love you all! Abrazos y besos!

New Area, New Comp - Turbaco, Colombia!!!

September 17, 2013

What`s up everyone! I got transferred!! I`m back in Cartagena, but in a town about 30 minutes outside of the main city. The town I`m in is called Turbaco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbaco). I came here before for an activity and I hated it, but now I'm actually working out here and I love it.

My new comp is Elder Centon, he is from Peru and has 6 months in the mission. He is pretty new so he doesn`t know all that much about teaching and stuff, but I`m going to work hard with him so he can be awesome.

My Old Modelo Distrito
Sisters Alves, Toscano, Lopez, Gomez, Matarrita, and Vera.  Up top:  Elders Bastos, Palmer, Bossel and Me

The house we are in is super big! It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a big entry room so I finally have plenty of space to organize my things. Also Elder Anderson (from Utah) is my district leader and we`re in the same ward so that`s great. The other Elder Anderson (from Arizona) is the zone leader.

The Awesome Shower Head in my bathroom.

The area that we have is really big and has a lot of hills so I`m beat at the end of the day. The people here are great. They don`t have a ton of money and they are more accepting of the gospel. We have some really great investigators, two of them are probably getting baptized the 28th of this month. One lady Eloisa, she`s a single mom, and loves learning about the and likes the church a lot.

There is a dog that just chills outside our house, I call him Javier.

We are also teaching a kid, Juan David, he`s only 15 but just amazing. He already considers himself a member of the church and is super excited for his baptism. He understands everything that we teach him and remembers it all too.

The only problem that we have in the area is finding houses. Here in Cartagena they don`t use addresses so it`s almost impossible to find where people live. I`m excited to be out here and pumped to get working. I love the people in this area and know that we can have a lot of success. I love you all!

Abrazos y besos!

Last Week in Barrio Paraiso in Barranquilla?

September 9, 2013

What`s up!! This week has been kinda crazy. Maybe I explained a little poorly last week, because it wasn`t last week that we had transfers, it`s this week. I already know that I`m leaving the area here. 

The bishop accidently said that we were going to only have 6 missionaries in the ward and then later the first counselor came up to us and took his `last picture` with us. 

Both Elder Bastos and I are leaving, but we don`t know where to. Tomorrow night they are going to tell us. It`s a weird feeling, because I keep thinking `ya...I`m leaving`. I`m kinda bummed because now we won`t be here for the baptisms of the investigators, but I`m glad that Elder Molina and Elder Schwab (the AP`s) will be taking over. They`re good missionaries. 

Friday was GAMEDAY and it was madness!!! The Colombian people live for soccer. When there is a game people shut down stores, don`t work, and cancel classes just to watch the game. Also this Friday we had an intercambio and I went to the area of Elder Bossel to work with him. 

Everything went well until after lunch. We left work, and it started raining, then about a minute later it was straight up gale force winds, huricane rain, lighting cracking across the sky, and thunder so loud I thought the sky was going to break. It was soooo intense! Wetried to take shelter in front of an apartment building, but the wind was so strong that it blew the rain and we still got soaked. It was such a crazy storm! Rivers in the streets, cars got taken away, and trees fell over. We stayed in front of the apartment building for about two hours until it settled down. 

This week we`ve had some good lessons. We`ve been preparing Luisa, Laura, Adriana and Ana for baptism. They are great and always have a ton of questions so we spend a lot of time answering everything. They`ve had awesome experiences and are strengthening their testimonies about the church and the Book of Mormon. 

This week we`ve also spent a lot, a lot of time contacting and we always end the day super tired. 

I happy that I`ve been able to serve in this area and grateful that I have been able to help, in a small way, the church grow. Love you all! Talk to you next week in my new area! 

Oh yeah!

Abrazos y besos!

Toenail Love Again!

September 2, 2013

What´s up!? This week has both good and kinda bad. We started off great! Had some good lessons with investigators and less active members. The lessons went well and the people told us that they were going to come to church. It was awesome! We found new investigators too. 

We´ve been trying to have lessons with Ana, Adriana, Laura, and Luisa, but they are in classes nearly every day during the week so it´s really hard to meet up with them. But we had a really good lesson with them yesterday. They somehow found the movie 'The Other Side of Heaven' online and watched and they loved it. Ana told us that she thinks that it was God telling her that it was true. So super cool!

We´ve been passing by and looking for another investigator Ricardo, but he moved! :( We don´t know where he moved to and we´re kinda bummed about that. Also, on Friday we went to the Clinica because my toenail is starting to become ingrown again and the doctor basically just told me to go get a pedicure. So I went and got the worst pedicure of my life! She cut sooooo deep on my toenails and kept asking me if it hurt. I just wanted to yell at her and say "yes!", but I was too busy trying not to cry... just kidding. 

Basically after she finished my feet / toes hurt really badly so I didn't leave to work Friday and Saturday. Kinda lame there, not doing anything the whole day! Saturday I was with a guy in the ward named Oscar. He´s the ward mission leader and he also speaks English! So we talked a lot in English. It was nice, because right now in the house there isn´t a gringo so I feel a little deprived of speaking English. 

Junior Tu Papa

Everything's going well here, just working and working! This week I should be getting mail so I´ll let you know what happens!! 

Me with the flag of JUNIOR!! The soccer team here in Barranquilla. People are crazy for Junior.

Love you all! Abrazos y besos!!

Zoo-Lander

August 26, 2013

What´s up! To be honest this week has been really slow. We've been doing a lot of contacting and there has been quite a bit of rain which means a lot of mosquitos. There was a house with literally hundreds of mosquitos at the front door. It freaked us out so we ran away. 

Barranquilla

Elders Bossel, Palmer & Nug

Baptism of Sisters Lopez & Gomez

We spent most of the time contacting / talking with everyone.  We found a lot of people with very strange beliefs, kinda frustrated me, but we did have some really great lessons too. We have 5 people with a baptismal date in September and we´re working hard with them so that they can be all prepped and ready. 

Easy Tiger!

Elders Bastos, Bossel and Nug

Last Pday we went to the zoo and it was alright. It´s not really that big and all the animals were just sleeping in the shade because it was so hot. So kind of a let down, but we did take some sweet pics riding a tiger! 

Also, we had lunch this week with a member who lives in an apartment that is a high rise,  so I took a picture of part of Barranquilla from the apartment view . Not very much to report this week. I'm sorry this letter is lame. Hopefully this week will be a little more exciting. 

Today we´re going to eat burritos and sleep maybe. Love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Shawarma!

August 19, 2013

Elder Molina and I

What is up!! To be honest, this week has been super long. We got shut down hard core. Kinda rejected everywhere we went by everyone we talked to, but we did find one new guy Ricardo! He`s great! He has studied a lot about other religions and that kinda stuff, but has never felt like the other churches gave him clear answers when he has had questions. We answered a lot of the questions that he had and told him about the Book of Mormon. I think we did a pretty good job answering his questions because we`re going to teach him again on Thursday.

The rest of the week was unsuccessful in finding new people to teach. We walked a lot a lot a lot and the worst part was that it rained this week so we had to wait inside of different places or just get drenched. The main problem with the rain is that the street turn into rivers, arroyos, and it`s basically like a flash flood. The other day a car got taken away in one, so they can be really dangerous.

Blister after using my shoes for the first time

We did have some good lessons this week. We were talking with a kinda less active member, she has been having some problems with her testimony. We just explained to her the importance of the Book of Mormon and that she can pray to receive a confirmation that it`s true. After we spoke, she was crying a little bit and told us that she knew the gospel was true and is going to come back to the church!

Zona Paraiso & Lucero with El Presidente!

We also have been teaching the 4 girls from the previous week (Luisa, Laura, Ana, and Adriana.) They are really great because they read the Book of Mormon and complete the commitments that we give them. Adriana went to another city to visit her family, but the other 3 came to church and really liked it! So they are doing really well and if they keep progressing they`ll get baptized in September!!

Also, a fun highlight from this week is that I ate a Shawarma. Yes, a Shawarma. Do you remember at the end of Avengers when Tony Stark says that he wants to eat a Shawarma? Well, I ate one and it`s actually pretty good!

That`s it for my week! Love you all! Abrazos y Besos!

Shawarma

Great but Tough Week

August 12, 2013

What`s up!! This week has been both wonderful and awful. 

Me, Soraya, & Elder Bastos.

It started out good last monday night when we had family night with a  guy in our ward and he invited some people in his family to join us that aren`t members. They have gone to church a lot and have been familiar with the church for over 20 years, but have never been baptized. So now we`re teaching them! 

Baptism Group!

Elder Tocamo (in white) Soraya, my comp and me.

Also,from another less active family we found 4 new people to teach. These 4 are girls are here attending the university, but are living with the family. They are really interested and want to learn more, it`s awesome! 

We had a zone meeting where I received some letters and 2 packages! One package with my new Tevas and one package from Sheridan! Thanks! I love American candy!! Also, we had a baptism this Saturday! It was awesome! Another Elder, Elder Tocamo, who started teaching Soraya came to baptize her. He was extremely happy too! 

Ready to play!

The Team!

The bad part of the week was that we didn`t teach a lot of lessons. Literally almost every lesson that we had planned, fell through. We spent soooo much time contacting, knocking doors, talking with people in the streets, but literally no one wanted to listen to us. Kinda bummed us out, but finding the new people to teach and the baptism boosted us up a little bit. 

Thanks' Nielsen's Frozen Custard!!

Today for P-day we`re going to go print pics and buy stuff at PRICESMART!!! Tomorrow we have a zone conference with the president, so the whole day we`ll be chilling in some nice AC! Well, that`s it for this week.... 

My Journal.

Oh, also I finished my journal! I started July 25th 2012 and ended August 11th 2013. I`ve written in it everyday and included pictures too! It`s super legit. Be proud of me. Thank you Nielsens for giving me that journal! It`s been put to good use! 

Love you all! Abrazos y Besos!