Buga - Week thirteen

Honestly, being the district leader is pretty stressful haha since now I have to do baptism interviews and run THE BOX (the zone leaders came over on Wednesday and taught me how to do it) around and pay the water bills for everyone in the district, and honestly, it's taking a lot of time from me. Also, having a companion who's not really willing to cooperate isn't really helping. I feel like every week my son gets more and more, unwilling to obey or do anything the way that we're supposed to do it. I try to help him and correct him but he just only gets mad at me. At this point I'm convinced that he hates me, but whatever. Also, other missionaries (and even the branch president the other day) are telling me that he has serious problems with the sisters in the ward and that he's always telling people about his past life (which was a sinful one). So a lot of the new members and investigators are hearing him and think that all missionaries are like that. My new district and training responsibilities are kinda sucking. I'd say that I'm getting stressed out, but that's not really true. I'm just kinda hoping that this transfer goes by really quickly.

The good thing that happened this week is that Brayan is gonna get the Melchizedek priesthood this week! He had his interview with the district president this last week and was sustained in the district conference. He also asked me to give him priesthood, but the branch president said that might not be allowed (I don't see why not) but whatever, most probable outcome is that I'll give him the priesthood, and it'll be cool to have a bunch of Colombians with Woodmansee as their line of authority!

I don't know if we said this last week but the district goal is to baptize 20 people this transfer, and so far we have 2. I personally have 0 and a lot of the people that we were planning on baptizing aren't progressing so, I guess that means we'll focus more on contacting people. Pilar will probably be baptized this Saturday, but she doesn't know it yet hahah. I'm about to go start working, but the streets are FILLED with trick or treaters, so we'll see if  anyone will attend to us...

As for the missionary who just got back from my mission, I've seen tall missionaries with red hair, but never talked to them. If I'm thinking right, he finished when I was still starting, so I don't think he knows me. 

Also, in the Spanish bible, the annotations make it clear that the teaching applies to ALL sacrifices, even if in that scripture he was only talking about animal sacrifices, but whatever. 

love you all!

Buga - Week twelve

So today were transfers, I thought that they would change me because they never leave me in the same area for a long time, but I'm still in Buga, so I'll finish the training Elder Roman. I'm also the new district leader in Buga!!🎊 I honestly have no idea what to do, especially since the district leader in Buga is the only district leader in the mission that has a BOX (box full of money that we use to reimburse missionaries) and Elder Alcorta, my old district leader, handed me the box and said "here's the box" and then got on a bus and left to Cali. So now I have missionaries asking me about reimbursements and I have no idea how to run the box... or be a district leader really. So that's cool

That baptism we were planning on having didn't happen because Pilar, the investigator, says that she's not ready, even though she has acknowledged that she felt the spirit reading the Book of Mormon and going to church. Freaking CATHOLICS! She says that she can't be baptized because she doesn't know that much about the church even though we've taught her almost all of the lessons. So I think that were just gonna teach her the lessons that she has left and then tell her, "okay, we don't have anymore lessons. You already know everything" and see were she ends up. 

Brayan, my recent convert, is going to receive the Melchizedek priesthood this weekend! AND might go on a mission! (He's 25, so to be able to go on a mission, he needs special permission, that he might get!) AND introduced us to one of his friends named Francisco, or Frank. 

Frank is 17, and he has some problems, like, gay problems, also word of wisdom problems, and pornography problems. When I talked to him the first time he told me that all that stuff he's doing is natural and that we should be doing it because it's scientifically proven that it's good for us or whatever. But that was like 15 days ago, and now that he has gone to church twice, he says that he thinks that knowing the church and the missionaries was probably one of the best things that has ever happened to him, and he wants to get baptized! Which I think is really cool, because the truth is, we haven't even really taught him the Restoration yet (just law of chastity, since, its kinda a big problem) and he says that he noticed that the people who go to church seem happier than anyone else he knows. So he's willing to make a huge change and leave all that other stuff behind (and the first time we talked he said, "I would happily be Mormon with no problems, but you can't take that stuff away from me) which I think is really cool how someone can change that drastically in 2 weeks, just by feeling the spirit! I hope he can be baptized this transfer, but he might not be able to because of the gay stuff, which requires a long repentance process...

Scripture to think about:

1 Samuel 15:22

22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight inburnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice...

My companion, is like always wanting to break rules, and tells me that we HAVE to do certain things to help our investigators, and always tells me (and everyone he comes in contact with) that "obedience brings blessings, but sacrifice brings miracles..." What he tries to say by quoting that is that we have to sacrifice obeying all of the rules to be able to have even MORE blessings (in other words, disobeying is okay, if its to help someone) I honestly have no idea who said that, but a Prophet of the lord said that obedience is greater than sacrifice, so I always tell him that and he gets really upset with me.

We can apply this scripture in a non mission rule sense. A lot of people tell me that they can't go to church because they have to sacrifice Sundays to go to work, and that God will understand because God knows how much they need extra money. But going to church is a commandment so, Hath the Lord as great delight in sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? No. There's probably a lot more of these examples that you can think of, but people in Colombia are trying to use "sacrifice" as an excuse to not obey the commandments.

Also, I traded my Captain Moroni statue for some dragonballs that Elder Alcorta bought, not because I actually wanted to trade, but because I saw that Elder Alcorta REALLY wanted that Moroni, and he'll be happier with it that I am, so bye Moroni!  🤗😭

We also played Jeopardy with the Yate family in our weekly family home evening! The topics were: The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Commandments, and The Restoration. I've never seen grown men and women yelling and crying and jumping out of their seat yelling, "I know this! I know this!" like 4 year-olds. It was pretty entertaining. Not everyone who was there is in the pictures we took at the end, but yeah. 

Since I pretty much didn't write anything last week, here's a really long letter this week! love you

Buga - Week eleven

So today we went bowling as a district to celebrate my 16 MONTHS! We literally just got here like 10 minutes ago, so I literally don't have time to say anything else. Sorry! But I have a lot of photos on drive hahaha

I'm having a lot of problems with my son-wanting to be disobedient and telling people that he wants to be disobedient. Honestly, I have no idea what to do, especially with the women he's like always all up on them and I don't know what to do. When I tell him that he can't do those things he gets mad at me...

Yesterday I taught a FHE lesson about scripture study with the Yate family, and pretty much said that scripture study is more effective if we take notes, so do it!!

Sorry for the super short letter, but ill write more next week

Love you!