Jamundi - Week Sixteen

This week we had another baptism tho! We're really good friends with this family down the street from us. (They have an internet salon that we like to use sometimes.) The family consists of Paulina, her husband Clelio and their son Daniel. The parents are like 55 and Daniel is like 20. I feel like if I weren't a missionary I'd be really good friends with Daniel. We do a lot of the same things, the only thing he does that I don't has to do with his girlfriend ...but he's been to church like 30 times. BUT ANYWAY, Paulina has told us for a very long time that she wanted to be a member of the church but we just hadn't taught her everything. The other week we taught her and invited her to be baptized and she straight laughed at us lol. She said she wasn't prepared and didn't know enough. Then we had a member bear his testimony about prayer and how to recognize the Holy Ghost and we committed her to pray. We visited her the next day and the first thing she said to us was, "I prayed, and the answer was positive. I'm gonna get baptized!" So yeah, I baptized her.

The service was really good, and she even bore her testimony at the end! She was really happy on Sunday, too. 

The other kinda cool thing we did was I made 2 pizzas, because we were with Fam. Toro and I mentioned that I worked at a "pizzaria" (Little Caesars) and they were like okay now you have to bake us a pizza.

So we bought the stuff and I made some pizzas. They were pretty good. Everyone liked it at least.

There's a new rule in the mission that says we cant play soccer or basketball anymore, Like we can't even touch a basketball, so that kinda sucks. But we played volleyball with the ward for like 4 hours this morning, because that's the only thing we can do. I dominated. 

You asked about how we contact people. Here everyone talks to everyone, so we don't have a problem with people not wanting to talk to us. A lot of the time people contact us because they want to know what we do. Everyone thinks were students, or pilots, or businessmen, or things like that lol. In this mission it's literally against the rules to go knock on doors because its a "waste of time" and there are more effective things to do to meet new people. 

About the new Church handbook changes.  Nobody has said a word about it here, I wouldn't have known if you didn't tell me.

Love you!  

Jamundi - Week Fifteen

This week started off pretty lame but ended up really good! On Wednesday we went to the house of Family Toro with the intention to put a baptism date for the 14th of November, And we did. At first Camila STILL wasn't sure and had doubts. But I read this scripture from, I think, Matthew 4 when Jesus calls Peter and Andrew to be disciples, and how it says  "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him." And I was like "listen, when Jesus told them to follow him, Peter and Andrew didn't think "maybe well think about it for a few months, maybe if we listen to his talks and we like him a lot, THEN maybe we'll follow him" but it says they left their nets IMMEDIATELY and followed him. And they didn't know anything about Jesus Christ or the gospel, but you know everything and still are too scared to follow him. So you're going to pray tonight and we'll come back tomorrow for your response and NOTHING ELSE."

I lied, because the next day was her birthday and I made brownies for her and the family, and then she said she felt really good when she prayed and wanted to get baptized, on the 14th. Cool! But then the next day her dad called us and was like "hey, were going to do it this Sunday." Because the Hermano Toro baptized the wife of the stake president on his mission, and since he's kinda excommunicated and can't baptize his kids, the stake president was going to do it for him, and Sunday was the ONLY DAY he could do it. SO we had to call the zone leaders (we live like an hour away from the rest of the zone), and we made the agenda and wasted all day Friday making plans for the baptism, but it turned out really great.

Aside from them being baptized, two cool things happened. One, the stake president's wife gave a talk during it asked me to stand up and then started crying and thanked me (and my companion but mostly me LOL) for all our hard work and patience we showed towards them, and I even almost started crying because the spirit was so strong. The second cool thing was that the district sang A Child's Prayer, and when I say the district I mean three of us and a member. The first verse in Portuguese, the second in English, and the last in Spanish. So that was really cool. But I was so happy to finally see them get baptized after three months of work!

Nothing else really happened. If everything goes well were going have another baptism this Saturday. (Paulina) She's really funny. When ever she says my name she says "Woodmansee, Ve!" which is like "look!" and says funny things to me in the middle of the lesson like "Woodmansee, Ve! speak English to Rolly (the dog) maybe he'll understand you!" "Woodmansee, ve! In California the beaches are really pretty, no?" "Woodmansee, ve! Elder Bello didn't know anything, huh?" always right in the middle of the lesson. One time we were reading the Book of Mormon. and she was like "hold on a second" and went to make us lunch, in the middle of the lesson. Sh'es like Eve before she ate the fruit of the tree. LOL

The members went to the temple this week and brought be back some cool things like Jesus the Christ in Spanish because I already read it in English and a temple recommend holder. And . . . I'm fat.

Love you!

Jamundi - Week Fourteen

This week really sucked. We always set appointments, but everything always falls through. Its like, we'll call in in the morning and the appointment will be confirmed, but when we get there, they're not home. We go from house to house and nobody is ever there. So I talked with my companion and we both agreed that this week we're just gonna go drop literally everyone that we know, well almost everyone. Everyone who hasn't come to the church yet, which is like everyone but five people, and we're gonna open the area. It's going to be hard because I'm friends with a lot of people here, but they don't want to do anything! What's more frustrating is that I get a lot of good contacts who seem like they'll be really good but they live in the area of the other missionaries. I know these two kids who are always playing League of Legends in our neighbor's house who I'm pretty good friends with (and they go to church like every other week), but I can't teach them because they live in the other area. But they're always in our area so the other missionaries can't teach them either! It's frustrating. But even so, I have like three people that I refuse to leave this area without seeing them baptized. One being Paulina (who dressed up as a Mormon Pioneer for Halloween LOL) and the freakng Toro kids. I'll be working hard with them for sure.

But they do celebrate Halloween here. It's actually kind of weird.  When you ask for candy you have to say "Quiero paz, quiero amor, quiero dulces por favor!" which is "I want peace, I want love, I want candy, please!" LOL

And everyone dresses up, and it's pretty much the same. I actually got a lot of candy just because the members gave me a lot.

The ward had a little party that was pretty cool too.

Honestly nothing noteworthy even happened this week. The most noteworthy thing was I learned how to tie two different tie knots that I can do if I'm ever feeling a little fancy.

And now I have a Book of Mormon in Portuguese, so I can learn Portuguese and talk with Riley. LOL

It rains every night here and then during they day when we work it's sunny and hot and then in the night it starts raining again, which is good because I don't want to work in the rain!  LOL

Love you guys !

Jamundi - Week Thirteen

A few weeks ago we ran into this older woman (like 70 or 80) in the street and she was like, "You look like the Mormons...." and we were like, "Yeah, we are the Mormons!" It turned out she was baptized in Cali in 1999! And went to church for like a year after that but moved and didn't know where to find the church again, and hasn't been for like 15 years. But we just visited her for the first time, and she literally cried when we showed up because apparently the Jehovah's Witnesses show up every Friday to teach her husband.  She said they hate her and make the house feel bad. She still has her baptism photo and showed it to me and was really excited to come back to church (she did!), and I talked to her while my companion tried to teach the JW. He'd obviously spoken with the JWs, before, and seriously, what those guys teach don't make any sense. First he was like, "OK, let me see your Bible," and the guy gave him the bible, that said "A modern translation of the holy scriptures." My companion was like, "This isn't a Bible, show me where it says Bible." (it doesn't)  "Sorry sir, but you're not studying the bible." Then the old man said something about Jesus, God and the Holy Ghost being the same person and my companion read Matthew 3:13 - 17 and was like, "Let me get this straight, Jehovah was baptized, then while he was in the water, the heavens opened, and the voice of Jehovah came from the heavens, EVEN THOUGH he's standing in the water, and then Jehovah came down in the form of a dove, upon himself? Tenas, man." Then the man said that we didn't live with God before this life, and my companion read Jeramias 1:6, and a ton of other stuff like that. But at least the woman came to church!

I also cried this week, and I honestly don't even know why. We were teaching an investigador named Paulina. She's really cool, but she's like 50 years old and acts like she's 5, her husband too. We were teaching the plan of salvation and I knew that she wasn't understanding, and her son who was there didn't understand why marriage is important. So I started to explain to her temple marriage and the sealing and eternal families and how this was only possible through the church and my voice just broke and I couldn't finish my explanation, and I had tears in my eyes all of a sudden.  Elder Vaca had to finish for me. But after she was like "Oh, now I understand." I don't know why that happened, but at least she understood in the end.

Also on Sunday we were trapped in the apartment, because it was raining and thundering and lightning and hailing and we were not about to go walk around in that.

I like the way my new companion thinks and plans, but I don't like how he teaches. Like, this week we made THE BOARD, that has the names of literally everyone we know and where they live so we can plan more effectively. 

But I don't like how he doesn't really let me talk that much. Like he just kind of takes total control of the lesson, but I assume we'll get better as time goes on. 

To answer your question, ours is a ward, but it's really small. Like, when people visit from Cali they comment on how small the chapel is. There are about 400 members in the ward but only 150 - 200 people show up every week. 

Love you guys!

Jamundi - Week Twelve

This week was the last week of this transfer, and since I'd been here for 3 months I didn't know if I would get transferred or not. Elder Bello already was here for 6 months so he was for sure going to leave. And just this week is when we contacted a lot of new people and started to have people go to church and start to progress after like 3 months, lol.  We get notified of the transfers on Sunday night and leave Monday morning, so Sunday night Familia Toro invited us over for dinner and to play games and stuff with them, which was cool.

Afterwards Hermano Toro got all teary when he said that no other pair of Elderes has cared so much about them or has showed the amount of patience and love that we show them, and that when he tells his kids that were coming over they get all excited and that they love us and they'll miss us so much if we both leave. It was really special for me and stuff. It turned out that I'm still here in Jamundi, for I hope only one more transfer.

This morning I had to go to Cali to say bye to Elder Bello and get my new companion, Elder Vaca. He has like 10 months in the mission and is the new district leader.

 But now that I'm still here and I'm senior companion until my new companion learns the area, I want to keep visiting familia Toro until their kids are baptized. The thing is is that Juan Camilo wants to get baptized at the same time as his sister Camila, who isn't sure if she wants to get baptized. But the parents are reactivating!

I feel like I did a lot this week but I don't really have anything to write, ya know?

It rains during the night in Jamundi but then the clouds leave during the day and i'ts all hot here and then at like 6 the clouds come back and it starts to rain at like 9 all night. But I'm not in Cali, I hear it's worse there. On Sunday a lightning bolt hit the ground in our neighborhood! It was really freaking loud, but there wasn't anything near it so nothing really happened.

Love you guys

Jamundi - Week Eleven

We had interviews with the mission president this week on Friday, so we had to go to Cali for that. We were there for a while but honestly my interview with both Hermana and Presidente Pricoli were only like five minutes long each, while everyone else took like, 15 to 20 minutes, but I’m assuming it's just because I’m not doing anything wrong. We had to memorize D&C 84 33-44 for the interview though, so I did that and Hermana Pricoli told me that I told it better than most of the Latinos and that I don't have a gringo accent. Presidente also told me that I don't have a gringo accent, so I’m pretty happy about that!

I also finally got my Colombian ID, and it looks preeetty cool.

Also when I said that the Toro kids were gonna get baptized this week, I lied because their Dad got called into work for the whole weekend on like Wednesday, so we had to cancel it. Well, for them anyway, but we still baptized Michell Usma! And when I say that we baptized her, I mean that I did it. Woo! So now I've officially baptized someone. She was really happy and content, but a lot of things happened that were bad so that the service was kinda iffy. First, we didn't have a ward mission leader until this Sunday so we had to plan it ourselves. Second, her parents argued a lot about the time because Ali, the dad had to work or whatever, so we changed the time of the baptism like five times. Third, I don't know why but the water in the font was literally black, like you couldn't see the floor. I say I don't know why because we got there early and cleaned the font really well, with soap and everything, so I think it was the water. So Michell is gonna have to remember her baptism with black water. I told her it was the sins of all the other people we've baptized. And Fourth, we didn't even have baptism clothes for her, we had a jumpsuit for fat people. So she (understandably) refused to change into it until we went to go do the service, so it took a little longer than normal.

Because of this we don't have a picture of us outside in all white, but we have a picture of us inside with normal clothes if that counts for anything...

Despite all the things that went bad, she really liked it and her family did, too. Jamundí 1 brought some investigadors to the baptism and they said that they felt really special, so I guess I did it right. But . . . baptism number 1 already down, yayyy! I think we’re gonna baptize the Toro kids this Saturday, and the dad said he was gonna have a serious talk with Camila and stuff so hopefully she’ll get her stuff straight. Originally she said she wanted her brother to get baptized first, and if nothing bad happens to him then she’d do it the week after, but since she saw Michell get baptized (who she said "Is more difficult” than her) now she’ll be willing. These families have been inactive for years and have tried to come back like 3 times before but now its actually happening, which is cool.

And today is the birthday of Elder Smith, who is in Jamundí 1. So we're gonna bake a cake tonight, and we played volleyball today with like all of the young men and women, some families in the ward and with the Usmas and Toros! So that was fun.

Love you guys.

Jamundi - Week Ten

A lot of stuff happened this week. On Wednesday I finally got my cool scripture cases!

 I feel like I have the best scripture cases in the world, but the bad thing is that now I don’t have any money, which sucks because my scandals broke, so now I have to buy new ones...

On Thursday we went to this cool place called Gato Monte. as a district to visit an eternal investigador.

He’s way more active than most of the members, but he lives with his girlfriend and kid, married to a different woman, and will probably never have money to pay for the divorce because it costs like a million dollars. But he lives up this giant mountain and has a big farm, so we spent the day visiting with him. He’s really cool--he taught me how to play The Girl from Impanema and Tears in Heaven on the guitar! lol

On Friday Elder Bello and I went to Cauca (like, a different state in Colombia) to give a blessing to this family who lost their baby son on Tuesday. They live really far away in a city where the church doesn’t exist, and we spent the whole day there. I guess we were the closest missionaries to them. It was really sad but really spiritual. I’d like to visit them more if they didn’t live so far away.

Saturday and Sunday was conference, so we didn’t really so anything but watch that. For three of the five sessions, the four missionaries were the only ones in the chapel watching, lol. But we got to eat pizza for priesthood and had a lot of investigadors attend Sunday morning! It was frustrating to start to hear them speak in English, only for a Spanish voice to come and be really loud. But I understood like 75% of it and took a lot of notes, lol. In my notebook I have them titled PAGINAS DE REVELACIÓN or pages of revelation lol.

And then today we painted a house.

The house of Familia Toro, who are gonna get baptized on Saturday! I might have ruined my clothes...

Love you!