Jamundi - Week Seven

This week I realized how much I love America, because while we where teaching Felipe (who I think I already explained to you who he is) on 9/11 he said something about how America sucks at football and I was like, hold up, America is number one at literally everything. And he was like, nah, if they played Colombia we would win like 5 to 0. And I was so angry and I wanted to say so many things but I don't know the sport terminology in Spanish so I couldn't say anything really, so I just kinda told him that Colombia sucks and stood up and left. And then when I came back I asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes, also that he wants to go on a mission, and help his girlfriend Michelle and her family come to church, so that was really cool. The thing about him is that he's 17, and has a lot of problems with his family, like they're a bunch of drunks, so we've just been teaching him at his girlfriend's house, but this week we found out where he lives and talked to his mom a little. Were gonna teach him with his family on Tuesday, so let’s hope that they let him be baptized. He's really cool. We talked for like 30 minutes the other day just about random stuff. I think I’d be friends with him if it weren't for me being a missionary.

Also, we have this family of investigadors Family DeLaCruz. The parents are like 50 and they have a son who's like 20 and they're literally kids in the bodies of adults. We´ll be teaching them and the mom will be like "Wow, that's beautiful. Hey, Woodmansee, the beaches in US are really beautiful, huh?" and stuff like that, always changing the topic. One time she left in the middle of our lesson to go cook us lunch. It’s frustrating, but they're really good! They went to the baptism last Saturday, and the members there were really friendly and stuff, but they also went to stake conference the week before. I was talking to her this week and she was like, “Hey, is there another baptism this week? Because I really want to go.”  And I said, “No, but there's church on Sunday that you're always invited to.” She said she liked the baptism better. Why? "Because at the baptism everyone greeted me and talked to me and I felt really good, but at the church nobody talked to me, I arrived and afterwards I left and nobody said a word." Uhhhh, well that's awesome. I promised her that this Sunday would be different and when she came on Sunday, it was because I made sure it would be. SO it’s really important that the members help with missionaries! Because if the members aren't friends with the investigadors, there is no conversion.

All my other investigadors are more or less the same. The district is planning on having a "Noche Blanca" where we have all our investigadors baptized on the same night. We're planning for 10 baptisms, and so far we have 3, the other missionaries in the district don't have any yet but the other missionaries are really good, so I'm sure that they'll have some by then.

My area is REALLY big. about 7 times the area of the other missionaries in Jamundi. If you can look up on Google maps Jamundi, then Alfaguara, then Terranova.  Our area is all 3 of those cities, but technically they're all in the city of Jamundi. We don't really go to Alfaguara that much, because it's where the rich people live and we have to take a taxi to get there. But the members there are really cool--one time we visited a member family there and they gave us empanadas and Coca Cola. They also have a TV like Zack's new one and a PS4, so they're really rich LOL.

I'm in training right now. My companion is supposed to be training me, but he doesn't really ever. We don't ever get checked up on, but we go to Cali sometimes for zone activities. We see the other missionaries in the district like 4 times a week. Where we go depends on where were needed.

NO pictures this week, nothing happened. But maybe next week. LOL. Love you!

Jamundi - Week Six

This week was really good I think. One of our goals for the month of September was to baptize the 8-year-old daughter of a family of less actives, Familia Tulande. They were really less active when I first arrived but after six weeks of kinda teaching them consistently they started coming to church, and their kids (who are members) started going to seminary, and the parents said that they wanted their youngest daughter to be baptized and they talked to the bishop and then on Saturday her dad baptized her! Honestly we didn't really do anything special to help them.  They just kinda came back on their own.

But the service was really good. In the program they put that the missionaries were gonna perform a musical number, and I wasn't informed until like three hours before, and my companion really can't sing, and the other Elders in the district had an appointment so they couldn't be there, so I ended up singing a solo in front of everyone! It was short and not really anything special but a lot of people told me that I was really kinda amazing, so I guess I’ll take it LOL.

The families that I wrote about last week couldn't go to church and we couldn't really teach them that much because it was the 15 birthday of Michel Usma on Saturday, and in South America the 15 birthday of a daughter is literally huge, so they were busy planning all week and got home at like 7 a.m. on Sunday, so neither of the two families or Felipe the boyfriend came on Sunday, but we taught Fam Toro like two times this week and put baptismal dates for the two kids! The family is excited n stuff, they're going to be baptized on the 19th by the stake president who is really good friends with the father who is excommunicated, because that's what he wants. But we’re really excited for them.

Nothing else REALLY important happened this week, except for normal teaching, all of our appointments falling and the usual LOL.

There's honestly not that many things to take pictures of, I don't know what to say. I’m understanding a lot, but sometime's I'm really lazy and if I don't know what like 50 percent of the words mean I can't figure out the meaning and when I can't figure out the meaning I stop listening and think about something else. I'm trying to do better . . .

I eat literally everything cuz I like the food here, and I'm discovering that I actually like things that I thought I didn't, like corn on the cob, LOL. We eat lunch at a member's house every day, buy bread for breakfast every day, and for dinner I normally just make eggs with salchichas or sometimes I make French toast or something fancy. The other day for Sunday we made chicken Alfredo for lunch, wow, that was really good!

Colombia isn't really scary, some parts of Jamundi are kinda poor, but everyone is really nice. Every time we enter a house they give us free juice without even asking us if we want any. Now when we go to someone's house and they don't give us juice I think that they're being kinda rude, LOL.

For something spiritual, something I like is that every time I recite the first vision (which is kinda a lot) I feel the Spirit literally every single time, so that's always like a good reassurance of what I'm doing isn't for nothing.

Love and miss you.

Jamundi - Week Five

This week, this week.

We had a baptismal date for that kid, who put his own baptismal date, but it fell through. Not cuz he doesn't want to get baptized or anything, but his date was for this Saturday and we’d only taught him 2 lessons, so he wasn't ready, and he still isn't sure why he even wants to get baptized. Also his mom and his stepdad wouldn't let him because they all want to get baptized on the same day, but the mom is married to another man still, so she needs to divorce him and then get remarried, so that's a process.

We did divisions this week, and I was in my area with Elder Smith, who arrived like 4 days ago (when we did them) and we were in my area, so I had to make the plans and stuff. So even though he has more time in the mission (2 transfers, I think) it was like I was the senior companion, so that was kinda stressful/cool LOL. He pretty much told me that there are a lot of things that my trainer does wrong, and when we visited one of our investigadors, she said "your other companion is very undisciplined, huh?" LOL. But he's been here for like 6 months so I think I’ll get a mom* next transfer.

Also, Felipe, our golden investigador, finally was able to go to church! He said that he really liked it, but there were things he didn't understand and that he wants to know more. Were gonna put a baptism date for him this week. We were gonna do it yesterday but things happened and we couldn't teach him. The thing is, he's dating the daughter of a less active family, familia Usma, and the daughter isn't a member, and Hermana Usma is siblings with Hermano Toro, and familia Toro is another less active family whose kids aren't members. I feel like this week we need to work really hard with them, reactivate the families, and baptize their kids. Idk, I just feel like they're really important. The thing is, Hermano Toro is excommunicated, so I don't even know how that works. I think when Felipe is baptized it'll motivate all of them to do the same. I feel like these two families are a big reason of why I’m in Jamundi right now.

Oh yeah, to answer your questions.  We don't regularly eat with members. We have a pensionista that gives us lunch every day, the same member every day. It’s like a calling, so eating with other members (like we did last week) is different.

In Colombia literally every business is run out of peoples’ houses. Food, internet salons, hair cutting places, everything is just in a house. We have an investigator who has an internet salon right across from our house and he lets us write for free, so that's cool.

Love you guys!

*The mission lingo is that your first companion is your dad, but your training period is 2 transfers. So if you get another companion during your training, that's your mom. Also your first area is where you were born, like I was born in Jamundi, and when you finish your mission, you die, and your companion killed you. LOL

Jamundi - Week Four

So I told you about my broken shoes last week? The shoes are fine now, the dad one of our investigadors fixed them and shined them WHILE I was wearing them. I kinda felt like a king. And then he offered us free vodka! LOL

Three things happened this week that were really cool. The first is, I don't know why, but a lot of the members invited the district over to eat dinner, like three times this week. So we got a lot of free food. I'm not gonna complain!

The second, is, you know that 17 year old kid I told you about (or at least I think I did) that is dating the daughter of a less active? Felipe? We taught him 2 more times this week, and man is he made of gold. He kept literally all of our compromises, and (we had to visit with a member cuz the dad wasn't there) the member we were with asked him that if he wanted to get baptized if he knew this church was true, he said he would. Woo! We felt that it would be better if we put a date after he went to church this week, but the parents of the less active family were in Cali, his family has issues, and the daughter didn't want to go to church, so he didn't know how to get there...but he told us he really wanted to, so that counts?

And today, we had, I don't know what its called in English, like, emergency transfers? The transfer period isn't over, but one of the Elders in the district had to leave this morning and we got a new elder (not like new new like me.) So we had to wait for him in the morning as a trio, and when we found him he had forgotten his bags on the bus, so for like 4 hours this morning we had to frantically try and find the bus he was on and get his bags. He's a gringo too, but has 5 months in the mission, but my Spanish is a little better. haha The elder that left, left a ton of stuff too, so we all took it for ourselves. I got this really nice speaker! Sounds good. I'm gonna put conference music on my flash drive, so I can use it.

And the lame thing. This week on like Thursday Elder Bello bought this little ball maze game at the store. And he's like a little kid, man! He stayed up til like 11:30 one night playing it. Whatever, it didn't affect me. 

But one day, I think it was Friday? After lunch he said we were gonna go back to the house and do 12 semanas, but he took the ball and went right to the bathroom and locked the door, and I could hear him playing it. So I started doing language study, and read Preach My Gospel and whatever (cuz stuff happened and we couldn't do it earlier) and it had been like 40 minutes and he was still in the bathroom playing that game. So I thought, this is stupid, I'm not doing anything. So I decided to be a good missionary and pray for courage and words to tell him to stop being stupid, and I did. I think we've been working a little harder ever since. Lol

Love you all.

Jamundi - Week Three

This week was more or less the same with the numbers and whatnot, but I think the lessons we did have were a lot better. There's this recent convert in the ward, named Juan David. He's 16 years old, he's really cool. I think he and Blake would be really good friends LOL. Anyway, he gave a Book of Mormon to one of his friends at school, and his friend started reading it, loved it and the first thing he said to us when we met him was that he wanted to get baptized. Cool! His name is Yordi (the y in Colombia is like a J, so Jordy) We taught him and his parents twice this week, and the whole family is super interested and whatever. One cool thing the mom said is that she noticed a change in her son when he started reading that book, and she really wants to have that change too. Cool! So when they go to church next Sunday we're gonna put a date for all 3 of them! I'm not gonna baptize them though. I think it'll be more special if Juan David got to do it, and I told him he was gonna do it. It'll be more special for him than me, and I'll have more chances to do it later on. 

We had a zone conference this week, and we got to eat Dominos pizza again, lol. That was the best part. The lessons and stuff were good too, but I have to think really hard to understand when people talk really fast or not directly at me and it's hard to do that for a long time, but I'm still getting better! When I follow all the rules and the schedule in the morning I find that I can understand better than when I start personal study late, or go to bed late or whatever.

Also my shoes are already breaking. My companion says that my shoes make me look like I have 8 months on the mission, there's no way these are gonna last a year lol. It's a sign of hard work I guess? idk. 

Tell Zack I said happy birthday! 

It's weird that Chloe is married already lol. I'm older than she is! Is Darcy gonna get married in a year too? jk 

And we went to the zoo last week as a zone. It was fun, but I always feel weird talking to another North American. Its like, should I speak to him in Spanish or in English? It's weird, but everyone here is really cool.

Love you all!

Jamundi - Week Two

This week was a little more difficult than the last. Like 4 times this week we taught 0 lessons and had 0 new investigators. Sometimes I felt like my companion doesn't know how to use time wisely, and honestly he really doesn't. I was getting frustrated and whatever, but then one night he said "Dude you're so lucky, you get to start your mission in a brand new house (we moved on Tuesday), the members here are amazing, you got here at the best time of the year, I wish I had the same luck as you" and it really changed the way that I looked at things. Now I try to look at the good more than the bad.

We taught one really solid lesson with this family we contacted a while ago, and the second lesson they invited their daughter to hear too! We left them with a Book of Mormon and a challenge to pray, and I think that if they do that, then well have success with them!

One thing that sucks about being tall and being in Colombia is that I have to duck a lot. One day I wasn't looking and now I have this big gash on my head. LOL

In our new house we didn't have anything to put our little mosquito nets on, but I MacGyvered a little thing to hang mine up on and I'm really proud of it. lol 

I don't have time cuz we started writing at like 5:30 and have to finish at like 6 but I love and miss you all and I'm glad you're doing good!

Jamundi - Week One

So the first two days I had in the mission field I spent with the mission president and the assistants and stuff. We got to eat Dominos pizza and really nice food and what not. They explained a lot about the mission.  The mission is really small I think. We only have like three states or territories or whatever they're called in Colombia, the Valle, Cauca, and Nariño. The Valle is really hot, Cauca is perfect, and Nariño is really cold

Okay. My first area is called Jamundi, which is in the Valle, so its really hot and humid like all the time and I feel like I'm sweating all the time. Like I shower when I get home and wake up sweaty and come back home all sweaty. The best way I can describe Jamundi is that the nicest parts of Jamundi are like the worst and grossest parts of Vista. We have to sleep with nets over our beds too bedause the mosquitoes will come in and kill us, but everyone tells me that this is the best area in the mission in the best mission in the world, cuz this is where I was born, LOL. The best part about Jamundi is that the bread is super good, and there's a panera on like every corner, and you can buy like 10 things of bread for like 2mil! (which is like less than $1)

My Spanish is pretty okay. What the general consensus the people have on it is "he only understands a little, but he can speak really well" which is what I've heard people say a lot. But I'm pretty good at teaching lessons and stuff. We've taught a few, The only person so far that I've done all the work for (like contacted myself and taught a lesson--all the lessons except this have been with investigators that were already here) is this 17 year-old kid named Filipe, who is dating the daughter of a less active family. We taught him the first lesson and he was almost crying and whatnot. I really have high hopes for him!

My favorite area to go to is called Amigos 2000, which is like 20 minutes from Jamundi. Its like dirt roads and all the houses are just brick and concrete. Its really poor! I took pictures of the it and of Jamundi, But my companion erased all my photos when he switched the language on my camera to Spanish, so the only pictures I have are ones I took today! My trainer (or dad) is named Elder Bello, he's from Peru. I took pictures with him and stuff, but they got erased. He's a really cool guy and a good trainer. He knows a little English too, but I don't really like it when he speaks English to me because I really want to learn the language! But he tells me that I'm way better than every other newbie gringo, and all the families in the ward do too. 

Last thing I want to share is a cool experience I had. I normally take like 600 pesos in coins with me in case we ever need to make a phone call (We can't bring the phones outside the house). But on Saturday I was like, maybe I'll bring 1500, just in case, idk, it was a random thought and then when we took a bus from Terranova back to Jamundi my companion was short 1500, and guess who had 1500 pesos? Little things like that are really cool.

Love you all!