Rain & Baptisms!

May 26, 2014

Hey, what`s going on! This week has been alright, but super hot. We did have the blessing of receiving a little bit of rain after months of none. Hopefully this means that more is on the way. 

A familia that we`re teaching left to right Amauri, Maria, Daniel, Lucila, Edison. They came to see the baptism and for the noche de hermanamiento

This week has been kind of tough finding new investigators. A lot of the areas where we have contacted are predominately catholic so we pretty much get rejected there but we`re still keeping at it! 

This past Sunday the ward announced that we are going to be moving back into the old church building where they met before. It will be better because it is actually located closer to a lot of families, many of which can`t go to the new building because it is too far; but the down side is that it is way smaller than the new one. This should help us have a better attendance with the investigators and the less active members. 


 This past Friday there was a baptism for the other set of elders in our area. We went to the church to support them and what not, but the problem we discovered when we arrived there was that the water pump was broken and the baptismal font only had a few inches of water in it. So we went all old-school 'Turbaco ' and busted out some buckets to fill it up! It took a while, but we filled up about 3/4s of the font and then some guy got there to fix the pump to fill the rest up.  

Noche de Hermanamiento

We`re working with some families here, teaching them the word of God and everything, but a lot of them still need to get married. That has been our biggest obstacle this past week. We`re setting up our game plan for this week to find more new investigators. 

That`s about it for this week. I`ve been thinking a lot this last week about my mission. It`s weird that I`m in my last transfer and only have 5 weeks left. I feel like the time has passed by so fast. But I feel like I have changed a lot and have learned a lot. I`m so happy that I've been here and can`t wait to see you all when I get back. Love you all! 

(Oh, I`m supposing that if we still had the plans to pick me up we would be canceling them right now for dad`s hip operation? Good thing we didn`t make the plans right?)

Abrazos y besos!

Last Transfer in La Misión

Left to right Elder Contreras, Elder Quispe, Hermana Huatuco, Elder Figueroa, Hermana , Elder White, Elder Abad, and I

May 19, 2014

This week is the Last of the Transfers for me!!!

Hey! How`s it going? This week has been pretty good but it`s getting hotter here! :( . We`ve  still been working hard to visit our investigators and people that are less active.

We`ve been able to leave more and visit with the members this week. Also, we have received some references from members to visit their friends. We've had a lot of help from the branch, especially the relief society, they visited a few of our investigators and they were really happy to be visited.

People like to bug me because I am one of the oldest in the mission

A lot of the people that we are teaching right now need to get married so that they can get baptized, so in a lot of the lessons we talk about chastity and marriage. Also this week we had some good visits with less active members, we had some charla francas with them to tell them that they needed to come to church and it worked!

We just need to help the other less actives to get to the church on Sunday`s. The only problem that some of the members have is that the church is kind of far from where they live, so they have to walk pretty far to attend.

My missionary tan matches the white wall

We`re trying to work more with the branch to see if some of the active members can help us to visit and bring them to church.  This last Sunday was pretty rough because when we got to the chapel, there wasn`t any power. We don`t know what happened or why it got cut, but we had to make it through the whole time without AC or fans :(

Today for pday we had a zone activity. We all went to a restaurant called El Corral and then we went to an aquarium. There were some pretty sweet fish there, but at the end of the tour they went all environmentalist on us and told us that us humans are killing all the sea life. Besides that it was pretty great, also we passed by some street stands and got some little souvenirs.

Good week. Doing great. I am now starting my last transfer in the mission. Crazy how time passes so fast. I am happy, but sad...the mission is coming to an end.

I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Lunch at a restaurant called El Corral - Burgers!

The Zone Manzanares at the aquarium

The Day After Mother's Day

May 12, 2014

Happy Mother's Day!!!  It was great to talk w/ everyone yesterday - so awesome! Even though we only had 45 minutes or so, it was great to see you and hear your voices! 

Well, this past week has been similar to the one before....a lot of sun and a lot of walking. 

Last Skype call!

We`ve had better luck finding new investigators this week, however not a lot of people came to church because of the whole mother`s day thing. It seemed like everyone just peaced out to other cities to go visit their moms. The people that we found this week are pretty interested in the gospel, we just need to continue to work with them this week so that they can make it to church. 

Scripture Jeopardy

Things are going well with my comp; we`re practicing the lessons quite a bit so that he can get the hang of things. Yesterday was super awesome talking to you all; I can`t believe that it was my last call to you. It`s freaking that me out that I only have 7 weeks left. 

We`re working a lot more with the branch members to join us for lessons with our investigators and less active members. On Friday we had an activity in the church where we played a cool scripture jeopardy game. The members all loved it. Plus the questions that were worth 400 and 500 points we had a castigo if they answered wrong, which was a little cream pie in the face! 

Saturday I got my new scripture cases!! They are super awesome! I love them so much! Today we didn`t really do much for pday. We played some soccer in the morning with the other missionaries, then went to a mall to print pictures and eat. 


 I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Life's a Beach!

Cinco de Mayo - 2014

Yo Soy Colombiano!

This week has been going pretty well overall. We`ve still been working quite a bit with the members and going on visits with them. Last Sunday in our Ward Council we talked about choosing a family to visit for the week. They chose a family less active in our area and did a lot of visits to the family and in the end they all came to church yesterday. 

 
 












One thing that has been a bummer this week is the heat. It`s been getting really hot, but hopefully this means that it is going to rain soon. A big bummer yesterday was when the power went out in a large part of the city. We were without power for a few hours, but luckily it came back on just in time to sleep at 10:30. 

We had some investigators come to church yesterday,but they need to get married so we`ll be working with them more so that they can put a ring on it. They are both reading and praying and know that the Book of Mormon is true so they are good there. 


Today we had the awesome opportunity to go to a national park called Parque Tayrona which is basically just pure jungle and beaches!!! We went with 10 missionaries from the city. The rule is that you can only go once because it`s kind of expensive and far away. It was really awesome! 

 Traveling time took about 50 minutes to get there in a bus, then another 10 minutes in a van, and lastly our 1:30 walk....soo long....but SOOO WORTH IT! I miss the beach soo much. It was fantastic, but such a bummer that we can`t go in the water. We went walking around on the beaches, napped in a hammock, played some soccer and got super burnt! It was great. 


We left at 6 in the morning and got back at 4:30 so it took up all our day...which means I haven`t had time to wash :( My feet are really sore from walking. That`s about it for this week.

Things w/ Elder Quispe are going well.  He's a little homesick at times, but he's a great kid.  I was able to see Elder Bautista at Parque Tayrona - he only has 2 weeks left in his mission!  I can't believe that I only have 2 months left - it's gone fast, but it's also been a long time too.

Elder Bautista and I

Ya, one thing that I want you to know is that I want to give up xbox as in please don`t buy me xbox games. I`ll still play with friends every once in a while, but I don`t want to waste my time in front of the tv. The Nintendo DS is fine, but help me with this?


I`m pumped to Skype with the family next Sunday!!!! I`ll be on at 3 my time!! Abrazos y besos!!

Food Week + Moth Mania

April 28, 2014

Hey! How`s it going?? I hope super great! I was really pumped to hear that Megan put in her papers!!!! I can`t wait to find out where she is called to serve! 

This week has been a pretty good one. We`ve been going on visits with the members so that they can show us around the area and introduce us to some less active members and other members that we don`t know yet. Our area doesn`t have as many hills as Turbaco had, but the hills that we do have here are very steep so we`re usually exhasusted by end of the day. My comp is acclimating to the mission a bit better.  The heat really hit him hard, but he`s feeling better now. 

Oh, a couple of things about the food here - I love it!  One of my favorites is called a salchipapa.  Basically on the bottom there are french fries, then they use a bunch of condiments, then add on meat - chicken or hot dogs (cut) and lastly a little layer fries on top.....it`s fantastic... I don`t know why we don`t have it in the states!  Another thing that I like is something called 'pizza vomito.'  It`s a super pizza with meat, veggies and I don`t know what else. It`s huge and amazing!

Salchipapa

This week we also had interviews with the president. The interview went well, we mostly talked about what I`m going to do after the mission and how things are going. I really like interviews with President Searle, he`s a really good guy.  He called me his "accordion man" (his guy  that he just puts where he needs help) so that made me feel really good. 

Pizza Vomito

Our branch is improving with the attendance rising and having better Branch councils. We just need to keep going and working hard with them. This week I didn`t get sick, I just was coughing a lot, a lot, a lot!  My voice became super raspy like an old smoker, which in the end made it difficult for people to understand me. They kept saying that I talked with a funny accent. But don`t worry mom, I`m better now! 




Today we got up early in the morning to go play soccer with some other missionaries. It was really fun, but I started coughing a lot while I was running so I decided to chill with another missionary, Elder White. We just talked about movies which made me excited to see all the new movies that are going to be coming out. 

Sami's Favorite Thing - Huge Moth Attack!

This last week was a little difficult with the water situation because our water pump broke. We had to bucket out water from the tank to shower, wash dishes, and flush the toilet. Luckily today a less active member came by and saved us! We now have zero problems with the water and everyone is happy again. I can finally use a real shower now :). I haven't had a hot shower since leaving the MTC in Bogota almost 20 months ago!

Well that`s it for this week! I love you all! Abrazos y Besos!

Working Away Again in Santa Marta Ville

April 21, 2014

Hey! How`s it going! Well this week has been better and worse at the same time than last week. Better because we are getting to know the area more and getting to know more members, but worse because this week was Semana Santa (Holy Week), which means that everyone goes out of town for vacations. That has made it a lot more difficult to teach people and to contact. 

Even though that took us down a notch, we were able to have success with the church attendance. We are teaching a lady named Lucila and her kids Darlin (female) and Edison (male). They live pretty far from the church, (about an hour walking distance) but they left early Sunday morning and all attended. We`ll be working more with them this week to help them progress. 

Elder Quispe & Nathan

This week we had an awesome conference with an Area 70,  Elder Wadell. It was a really great conference. He talked a lot about our purpose here on the earth and in the mission. He explained that our purpose really isn`t to just baptize people, but they need to go to the temple to make more covenants with God and to be sealed as a family. Made me grateful to be together in the church with our whole family. 

Also I got my birthday package!! Thank you! I`m totally going to go back home with a blazing white smile!(crest whitening strips) Also people go crazy here for the chocolates, so those are all gone. Dad, thanks for the little business cards, they are super awesome! I love handing them out to people. Oh, and I love the little Stinger Waffles - they're great!

After the missionary conference with Elder Wadell, all the branches came for another meeting where Elder Wadell explained more about how we need to work in the branch to have the most success and help more people. So now our branch is working a lot harder to bring people back and help the converts to progress. Elder Quispe(my comp) had the amazing opportunity to have a special interview (randomly chosen) with Elder Waddell. Eler Quispe is getting better with all the mission stuff and adapting quickly.

So that`s kind of it for this week. For pday we went to a mall called Buena Vista to buy food for the week and walk around. Most days we eat Rice and meat. We just buy our own food for breakfast and dinner. 

For exercise & working out, it`s going good. Here in this house there is a pull up bar so that made me happy.  We do not do a lot of jogging because my comp is always super tired in the morning,

Santa Marta en La Noche

It`s still a drought here in Santa Marta so hopefully we`ll be getting some rain soon. 

I love you all! Abrazos y besos!

Opening New Area & New Greenie - Elder Quispe from Peru!

April 14, 2014

SOO This week has been pretty crazy! Last monday I was bugging some of the zone leaders for information about my transfer, but they didn`t budge! However, one told me that it would be something that I wasn`t expecting. 

Monday night I got a call that I wasn`t expecting. The zone leaders told me that I was going to train again and I will be opening an area in Santa Marta!  I had to wash all of my clothes and pack everything that night. I ended up going to bed at about 12 30 and had to wake up at 6 to get to the bus terminal on time! 

Rebel Roadblock

When we left Cartagena, literally not even 5 minutes on the road, we ran into a little rebel roadblock. People put  branches, boards and a bunch of stuff in the street and no one could get through, so we took a very long side way cutting through Cartagena. And in that process another car hit us so we had to wait even longer. In the end we finally made it to Barranquilla in one piece, but very late. 

Me & My New Companion Elder Quispe

We had a capacitation from the president and the assistants and then received our new missionaries. My new comp is Elder Quispe from Peru. He`s 20 years old and new in the mission. He`s a really good guy, but a little shy. 

Elder Figueroa and Elder Contreras, elder contreras is the short one

After we finished that meeting we had to wait another 2 hours for our van to arrive at the church to take us to Santa Marta. We got to our house at about 9 30 to find out that the water pump didn`t work so we had to fish out the water from an underground tank with buckets (a little like how we filled up the baptismal font of Luisel.) 

My new area is called Pando 1 and it`s a branch of about 70 to 80 people. The temperature is a lot cooler here than in Cartagena. We`ve been working really hard to get to know the area. I`m stressing a little bit because my comp really doesn`t know what to do because it`s a different culture, money system than Peru.  Also, where he lives, in Lima, it`s not hot, so that`s been rough on him. But everything is going good, I just need to get to know the area and not lose myself. 

Familia Montero, we had a family night with them.

We live with another 2 elders; Elder Figueroa from Chile and Elder Contreras from Ecuador. This Wednesday we`re going to have a conference with Elder Wadell, an area 70, so for sure for sure I`ll be getting my birthday package this week!!! 

Call me Jared.

That`s it for this week. Happy where I`m am. Ready to DO WORK. I love this new area & I'm excited.  Oh, the new missionaries have a book "The First 12 Weeks" and I don`t like it because it`s counting down my last 12 weeks. 

Love you all! Abrazos y besos!!