Popayan (Americas) - Week one

I'm in the city Popayan, but my area is called Americas. There are like 3 wards in this mission called America lol. This is the first time I've been in a branch instead of a ward! But I don't really like the city. Cali is a big city like Los Angeles, Pasto is a smaller city but still big like San Diego, and Jamundi is a city suburb like Oceanside, but Popayan is like this middle of nowhere country town. I've run out of local examples, but it's really small! I don't like it...

Anyways, we honestly didn't do that much this week because in this last transfer like 25 missionaries finished the mission and went home, but the mission only got 3 new ones! So they had to close a lot of areas. Normally, there are 4 missionaries that work in one ward, but since they took out the other 2, we have to work in 2 areas! My companion isn't really familiar with one of the areas, so we kinda got lost. A lot of what we did this week was just walking around to get to know the members in the other area, so we could gain confidence. They would show us people to teach, but the problem is, the lessons with active members don't count as lessons taught for us! so our stats were kinda low. We organized a bunch of family home evenings that all the members loved! 

Also, I guess that the missionaries in the other area baptized a family, but they kind of "forced" or pressured them to get married and get baptized, so the parents started fighting and the dad only got baptized and didn't go to his own confirmation! His baptism was like 3 or 4 weeks ago. So, we worked a lot with that family and somehow were able to convince the dad to go to church and be confirmed! So, score! 

My companion is pretty cool. He's from Ecuador, but I don't really like the way he teaches: (reads paragraphs from these pamphlets we have.) I'm pretty sure he has music from the "world" on his player that he listens to in the shower. He's a HUGE fan of Adele, like has a huge crush on her, and he always brings our dvd player/music player/photo viewer in the shower with him. I can HEAR stuff like David Archuleta singing hymns in Spanish and the Mormon choir, but I can also hear stuff like him singing Adele songs. I think he maybe lowers the volume when that stuff comes on? He's still pretty cool. Last transfer he #killed" my trainer, so I don't think they worked that hard, because that's how Elder Bello is lol.

Speaking of Elder Bello, on Saturday we had to go clean out the house that the other 2 missionaries were living in, since there's only 2 here now, and it was pretty trashed. Then, while we were cleaning, the neighbors came and started screaming at us! Apparently Elder Bello got in a fight with the neighbors and they were threatening to call lawyers and stuff. I learned a few new words LOL. 

Anyway, that's about it. We played soccer as a zone today, it makes me frustrated because I've SEEN enough pro soccer matches to know what I should do, but I lack the skill and technique to actually do it...so everyone is better than me ;(((( lol.. but yeah. 

love you guys tho