Pasto - Week Two

All I really did this week was get to know the area. I really like my companion, but he told me that he’s been pretty disobedient for the past few months. But for a reason...His girlfriend of like 2 years or so just broke up with him and he was like, so sad he couldn’t work. He showed me all the letters she sent him (she sent him a handwritten letter every 2 months, with pictures!) and every letter was like a novel and they all said things like "we’re gonna get married for time and eternity, from your future wife and mom of your children!" So I guess it was pretty serious, lol. But we’re working hard now and he even said to me this week, “Dude, I feel so good!” The only real problem is that his other companion just flirted with all the girls so all the investigators we have are teenage girls and little boys, and I’m not really down for that.

The ward is super good though. The ward council in Granjas had problems. All they did was argue and not do anything. One time I sat next to the elders quorum president (in Granjas) cuz he’s really cool and he was just playing games on his phone the whole time, and I was like, “Dude, why are you playing video games during ward council?” And he was just like "They’re not gonna listen to me anyways, so when they fix the problem I’ll start paying attention.” I thought it was funny cuz its exactly what I would do--realize that there’s a big problem but not do anything to fix it. The only bad thing about the ward is that all the young women hate each other so they just go to different wards, and we have to go tell them they can’t do that, but they just say that they don’t like the other young women. Lame.

Yesterday was the birthday of my companion, so we celebrated that. It was fun. They requested that I sing happy birthday in English. I didn’t know how to play happy birthday. I improvised.

I’m literally in the coldest part of the mission. Every house has a heater and really thick blankets. I get to wear my cool sweaters now though at least. But the house is kinda small. Our area is really poor.

Love you!

Pasto - Week One

This week was pretty good I guess. We started it off really good by putting two baptism dates for 2 investigadors who are really really good! But then they didn't come to church. I guess from what they told us on Saturday that they see attending the church as a serious commitment and that they want to know more before they actually go. I tried telling them that it’s not even a serious commitment or whatever but I didn't want to push them hard either. So they actually don't have a baptism date. Cuz they didn't go to church. But they're really good.

Some of the pictures I put up are my companion sleeping during personal study, and our freezer overflowing with ice, cuz it’s that good.

Also we had a meeting this the ward mission leader, and we came up with this really dope plan, cuz the ward only has an attendance of like 120 but there are 220 active members, its just that they only come tp church like every other week, so we came up with this plan, we were gonna have a 5 family home evenings, but like huge ones in different parts of the area with every member family in the ward. We were gonna do divisions with the members too so we could do 4 at the same time. We were gonna do this activity cuz we have these little cards that have like 20 things on it like "scripture study, fhe, prayers, church attendance" and you could rank yourself from 1 to 5 on all of those things. Then we were gonna be like "let’s see in what kingdom of glory you're all in, if your score is less then this number you're in the celestial kingdom, this number terrestrial, and this number celestial" and we were 100 % sure that nobody would be in the celestial kingdom.

So we had all these things planned out and...I GOT TRANSFERRED. What?

My goal for the mission was to baptize at least one person in each area. But I was only in Granjas for 1 transfer. So I already failed my goal =/ and I didn't even get to say goodbye to anyone. We visited a lot of member families so Quinto could say goodbye and took a bunch of photos but I don't have any cuz I was 100% sure I would stay. But I at least got to take pictures in the morning with the security guards, or the "MYNIÑOS" cuz they always call us myniños. Nobody knows why. But now my companion is still there and I’m in PASTO.

I only have a little bit of time in Pasto. The area I’m in is called BELALCAZAR. It’s really cold and 100% on an incline. I’m always walking up or down a hill. That's pretty much all I know about the area. I also lost my p-day cuz the bus ride from Cali to Pasto was 12 hours. So that's why I’m writing right now. My companion seems pretty cool. His name is elder Yanzapanta. He reminds me a lot of Nick, but he has like 15 months in the mission and I’m senior companion again, so he must have done something disobedient.

I’ll tell you more about my new area. I just got here. I still can’t even say the name of it yet cuz it’s like Belalcanzaraskhfgjk or something. It’s cold.

Love you!