Popayan (Recuerdo) - Week six

This week went pretty well, even though my companion went back to staying silent and letting me do everything by myself. But he got transferred so weeeeeee!!! My new companion is named Elder Torres, from Ecuador, he's pretty new in the mission, I think I might be his third or fourth companion? and this is his second area. He seems super motivated and ready to work, so I hope I'll be able to keep his spirits up, he kind of told me that his last companion was kind of a bum so he was pretty discouraged about that. The weird thing is that he is just barely 18....Darcy is older than he is! And you can totally tell that is like 3 years younger than I am, but he seems like a really good kid. While we waited for him the terminal I went to "el Morro" with Elder Lindao and took a bunch of pictures, but something went wrong with the camera, so we could take pictures but the screen wouldn't turn on.  So we didn't actually know if the pictures looked good or not.

I feel like the reason this branch doesn't progress is that the members are so lazy! Yesterday when sacrament meeting started, there were only 15 members in the chapel, and almost ALL of the members showed up 20 minutes late, while we were singing the sacrament hymn! Things like that frustrate me. I immediately felt like giving a talk where I make all of them feel bad so that they start doing things right........this week they decided to do a "mini MTC" branch activity, that we "the missionaries" didn't even know about until they called us 5 minutes before it started. saying that they need help! Things like this, are pretty irritating....I could name a bunch of other things that aren't good in this branch (the branch president speaks every Sunday and talks about things he really shouldn't when there are at least 100 members who haven't given a talk in years) but whatever.

The mini MTC was pretty cool though. They paired all the returned missionaries up with all the young men/women who where in the MTC, and I was paired up with "Elder Arcos" (who doesn't even go to my branch but decided to go to the activity), and he was really cool. I was able to explain how to use the planner, how to study, we did a bunch of scripture games and missionary practices, and after a few motivational talks, we went to go do street contacting! So it was pretty much exactly like the normal MTC. I told Elder Arcos that I would do the first few contacts and then he would have to do the rest but I would help him out, and the experience we had pretty much reminded me why I don't like to do street contacting (everyone said that they were Catholics almost immediately and told us to go away hahahah). But I told Elder Arcos not to get too discouraged, and we kept at it, and the last guy we ended up contacting was actually super cool, and has a family! And he said that he would really like us to go visit and teach him.  So I guess what we learned is to keep at it, even when the first hundred people are super rude. Elder Arcos was like super stoked afterwards and gave me a huge hug and said he would always remember me haha, so I guess it was a pretty good experience for him. It's an everyday experience for me!

The only investigador that Im hyped about is named David. He's like 19 or 20 but he's living out here by himself, going to college. He's pretty confused. I think his parents might have been Jehovah's Witnesses because he has a bunch of really weird ideas in his head and is probably the only person I've ever taught who instantly doubts what we teach him. Which I guess isn't really a bad thing. He's also a CS major so we get along pretty well, always making programming jokes and stuff. When I ask him if he ever has any questions he always says that hes "compiling." That always makes me laugh. He said that he would go to church yesterday, and when I called him in the morning and asked him if he would go to church he said he was already leaving but then never showed up. I think he might have gotten lost or something, but I know that he'll progress in the church and get baptized, he has such a big desire to learn more, and read the Book of Mormon, and everyone who has the desire and reads the Book of Mormon always get baptized....the problem is is that hardly anyone actually does that...😣

Love you!

Popayan (Recuerdo) - Week five

I think one gift (or skill or whatever you call it) is being able to read something one time and then years later being able to remember what it is that I read. I finished reading the Old Testament like a little less than a year ago and I literally only read it once (but it was a super detailed reading), and someone on Saturday asked me why some people say that its a sin to have your palms read and stuff like that and they were pretty insistent on why it was okay. And I suddenly remembered  that this exists in Chronicles 10:

 13 ¶So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it;
 14 And inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.

So as soon as the question was asked I was able to open the Bible and explain that it's not good because we're asking man and not God, and they (also my companion) were pretty impressed. I was too since I literally had only read that scripture like one time before sharing it! haha.

Also, I was finally able to talk to my companion when some members and other missionaries noticed that he wanted me to do everything by myself, and he even said that I had to do everything by myself since I was senior companion. I guess he actually wants to work hard but thinks that he just has to follow me around and not make decisions, and since I had told him before that he had to put more effort into the companionship, and he didn't listen, I told this RM who just got back and the other missionaries to talk to him, and he ended up changing, which is nice.

We also ended up getting some eternal investigadors to go to church. Pilar, the mom of that one punk kid Sebastian finally went to church, since she always complains to us that her son is a punk and doesnt respect her, and how she wants him to go to church, and we were like, "Hey, what are you doing so that he changes?" And she said, "Nothing." And we proceeded to scold her and yell at her (not actually yell but I'm not sure how to say "regañar" without it sounding weird in English) and tell her that she needed to change so that he changes.....so she went to church! She just has a bunch of excuses of why she doesn't want to go like "I don't like it when the teachers ask me questions" or "I don't like to read in the classes" so I had to talk to the gospel principles teacher and tell him not to have her read or ask her questions.....but I guess it all worked out.

Also we're teaching this guy named Vicente, who's acually been going to church for a really long time, but can't get baptized since he's living with his "wife," (less active) and they're not married. They've been in the marriage process for a year, but since the marriage process in Colombia is trash, they probably won't get married for about another 6 months. He told us that this really hurts him and that this Sunday he literally felt like he wanted to cry because he can't take the sacrament. I think this is so cool because he's not even a member, and he understands so well the importance of the sacrament and its even hurts him knowing that he's not worthy to partake.  When I think many of the members treat in like the Sunday mid-meeting refreshment, and even a lot of people at BYU that I knew would take in unworthily, but Vicente, doesn't, and it hurts him. Vicente understands. I wish everyone understood like he does. So I told him that he should live somewhere else. He's going to talk it over with his (member) wife, and were going to call him in the morning. If he does take the decision to move out, he'll probably get baptized this Saturday.

Love you.

Popayan (Recuerdo) - Week four

So like on Monday we had a little family home evening and while I was singing "I love that my Heavenly Father loves me" I had a spiritual confirmation that it’s true. It was the strongest I’ve felt the Spirit in a while, so it was pretty cool.

Also this week I literally condemned someone to hell. In Matthew 10 it says: And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

So we didn’t shake the dust off our feet, because there are active members who live in that house, but we did something similar. We were teaching this one chick who lives in the house of our pensionist, who has been to church a few times, but I was just thinking that she never was baptized just because the last time there were good missionaries in this are was in like 2015. So we started teaching the restoration, reading a ton of scriptures from her little Bible, and she even said that it made a ton of sense, but when my companion was testifying, I could totally feel the Spirit and I know that she did too, she just got up and started washing dishes, like, what the heck?? And then she absolutely refused to say the closing prayer, (and she’s said the prayer hundreds of times before!) and so I felt impressed to say something like "Vivi, I know that you’ve felt the Spirit and that God has answered your prayers, and in this moment He’s told you again by His Spirit that what we’re saying is true, just know that if you don’t say the prayer, your soul will be condemned and that you will regret not listening to us when you’re in hell!"  She started laughing, not like hey that was funny laugh but literally an evil laugh, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the devil possessed her heart, and she let it happen.  The members who were present told me the same thing....pretty sad.

Also, I’m having problems with my disobedient companion--he literally doesn’t talk, he lets me plan and contact by myself, and if I don’t keep silent for about 10 seconds in a lesson, he doesn’t teach either. So on Friday and Saturday I told him that I was going to be like him (I’ve told him several times that he has to participate more, and he just responds with "I’m junior companion") and I literally didn’t talk. Or walk anywhere, thinking that it would make him take the initiative, but no. It probably wasn’t the best thing to do, but I guess if he doesn’t want to be a hard worker, what can I do?

Sometimes I look at some other missionaries, and think that life’s not fair. For example, my friend Elder Alcorta had 2 trainers, the first is the current assistant to the president, the second was a former zone leader. Then he was a trainer and a district leader, his son was awesome, he trained again for a transfer, now he’s a zone leader. In about 5 transfers, all of his companions have been pretty great. Meanwhile, I’ve literally only had 3 good companions, and 2 of them were when that one thing happened with that zone leader who lied, and the other was my second son, but I was only with him for one transfer in a pretty bad area (for the carnivals). I guess I’ve learned that the mission is about more than just about being a leader, and that not all good missionaries are leaders. Or the lord wanted me to learn something with all of these companions I’ve had. I think I’ve become a great leader without actually having a leadership position, but just by having to deal with all of these guys I feel like I’ve grown as a person and learned how to deal with these kinds of people, which is something that I’ll probably need when I have a job and stuff.

After the transmission where they announced the new rules, we got a text message that said "the schedule is the same, there isn't dinner", so for us the only change is that we plan in the morning and have a longer pday I guess.

Tell Blake to put Mark 8:38 or Romans 1:16 on his jacket.