Pasto - Week Ten

I really liked this week because we found 2 families, and they both have young children and they both came to church. lol

The first family is actually a reference from the zone leaders, that they contacted in the street and live in our area. HA. They're like 20 something and have a kid, who's like 2 months old or something. They're really cool. They were gonna baptize their kid in the Catholic church, and we read Moroni 8 with them and now they're not gonna baptize their kid in the Catholic church. And then after the lesson they bought us ice cream, which was pretty dope. They went to church too! So I'm pretty hype for that. 

The other family is the son of this one family I'm good friends with. Well, the family is a mom, O__, and her 16 yr old daughter, K__, and K__ was less active but now she's not and O__ still is. But my last companion liked K__, so we used to go visit them a lot, so I'm good friends with K__. She told us that we should go visit her older brother and his wife with their 2 kids, so we did. And they went to church. but O__ kinda hates the third hour for some reason and she took them away after the first hour :( 

The thing that stinks is that neither of them are married, because nobody gets married here because the marriage process in Colombia is so messed up, that its not worth doing. So pretty much the only married people here are members of the church. 

L__ is doing pretty good, he went to church again, but I'm starting to doubt if we should baptize him on the 26th, because . . . I don't know. He seems interested during the lessons, but during church he looks kinda bored, and I think he only goes because a member takes him on his motorcycle. but chances are that I get transferred the 28th, so we'll see. 

The hardest thing to sell is definitely the law of chastity. In Cali it's normal to be unmarried and have a kid at 14. 

We don't have a mission nurse. One night my companion was straight like, shaking super hard like almost a seizure and we called the president's wife and she said, "Elder, take an Advil." So, nah. I didn't get any first aid for my cut. Got the cut because I ran into a ceiling, outside. 

That's about it. You'd better celebrate my birthday this Sunday in my honor. Love you.

Pasto - Week Nine

This week went pretty well. We found a lot of new investigadors by just talking to random people on the street (that I've  honestly never done before--I guess it works sometimes) and by searching old investigadors in the area book. We found 4 that are probably gonna get baptized, 2 of them are old investigadors but stopped coming to church for something that the other missionaries did...but they came to church this Sunday, because the aunt of one of them is a member but goes to another ward, but she brought them to church on Sunday. The other 2 are a couple that I contacted in the street. They're really good, they have a 3 yr old son and the good thing about them is that they already are planning on getting married, which is weird cuz literally nobody here is married. 

L_ is still gonna get baptized on the 26th, but he didn't go to church this Sunday, because he went to a party and got drunk and felt bad, like not worthy to go to church. We haven't taught him the Word of Wisdom because he told us that he doesn't like drinking or smoking, so we thought we would just teach it last, but I guess now we have to teach it next! We've taught him literally everything except tithing and the Word of Wisdom, so that kinda stunk. 

Another lame thing is that I've been fighting with my companion this week, because, well, he doesn't listen to my opinions, I kinda voice my opinion and he just kinda ignores it, and since I'm not really down to argue with anyone I just kinda let it slide, but 2 weeks of this I was like, I'm gonna argue . . . and so that happened.  LOL. But we´re kinda getting along now I guess. Funny because in spite of this, were still having a ton of success. 

I bought cereal and milk for the first time this week. This cereal doesn't exist in the US, but it's called Chocopic? It's really goood lol. And I've been cooking french toast because it's like the only think I know how to cook (without an oven).

Love you. Hope everything goes well with being the bishop and everything. 

PS. Oh yeah. This week I wasn't looking, and I ran into something while I was walking. But at least I have a cool scar now. 

Pasto - Week Eight

Dad's gonna be bishop? Woahhh.  Crazy. I know you said tell no one but I'm gonna tell all my companions. Does that count? He's gonna be really busy now I imagine.

Blake made the volleyball team at Mission Vista! Since basketball and soccer got banned in the mission, I've been playing a lot of volleyball. I'm pretty good, so that just means I can beat Blake at something else now...

So this week a few things happened. The first is that we have another baptism planned for the 26 of March. We're gonna baptize L_, who's like this 20 yr old kid who lives here. He kinda doesn't do anything, but we taught him 2 times this week, and he said that he pretty much wants to learn more about the church and then eventually go on a mission like us, this kinda surprised me cuz he's kind of a punk kid and he's always like, laughing and stuff. But he went to church this Sunday and was pretty serious. I've got so much hope for this kid.

My recent convert here, J_, just got the priesthood on Sunday (the lower priesthood) so that was pretty cool, it's only a matter of time until he gets the big boy priesthood! Also he told us that he bought an engagement ring, and he's planning on proposing to his girlfriend like, next week! So that's really cool--we're gonna help out and stuff so that it all goes well.

In this mission we have pensionists, like we eat lunch everyday with the same family, but the pensionist in this area hardly gives us anything, like a spoonful of rice and a glass of juice, and if we complain she just gives us more of what we don't like, so I've been suffering lately, but this Sunday a member talked to me and said she wants to be the pensionist, and that she used to be the pensionist for the missionaries but she like, had a child, but she's promised to give us pizza, hamburgers, philly cheesesteaks, tacos, lasagna and a TON of food. So were in the process of changing the pensionist.

And last all of a sudden since the other 3 missionaries left the ward, the ward is like, super excited to work with the missionaries again, and all the members want to go do visits with us and everything, so that's pretty good. My companion has like 13 months but I'm senior companion, but he's says now he's going to be really obedient cuz he said the last transfer he almost didn't do anything, and he wants to make up for it this transfer. So we're working really hard, which is good.

Love you all

Pasto - Week Seven

This week some interesting stuff has gone down. The first thing is the baptism, which was really cool. Jorge is a really cool guy. He learned English by watching videos on Twitch, but he gets nervous when there's a gringo in the room so he never speaks English to me. Everyone (the missionaries who are learning English with their gringo companions) says I speak the weirdest English and they can barely understand me, So I guess Oceanside speaks the coolest English.

The weird thing that happened was that I guess a ton of missionaries went home early without honor for something that they did, so everyone is kinda sketched out, and then my companion got a phone call Saturday night from the zone leaders that said "Hey, back your bags, you're leaving tomorrow" which is really weird, cuz the transfers are TODAY, and normally when you get emergency transferred they at least tell you the area and who your companion is gonna be but they literally didn't tell him anything...so I was like, without a companion on Sunday and today I'm with this guy Elder B__, who's really cool. His companion just finished the mission so they put us together until our companions get here. I already know my new companion. He's pretty cool, but I'm senior companion again even tho he has more time than me, which is pretty lame that they keep sending me companions like that, like literally all 5, and then I see people in my group or people who have less time than me training and stuff, It's kinda laaamee but what can you do.

Love you tho!

Pasto - Week Six

I'm kinda stoked about this weekend cuz were gonna baptize Jorge this Saturday and he said "ELDER WOODMANSEE I WANT YOU TO BAPTIZE ME!" and I was like "Yayy!" 

I learned this week that some missionaries are idiots, and they baptize people by convincing instead of converting. This week we went to a recent converts house and she had a ton of questions, like "how do we know that Jesus is Jehova" (cuz in the Bible in Spanish it pretty much never says God it says Jehova), and a ton of other stuff that she should've known before she got baptized. And the lamest part was that she didn't want scriptures or examples from the Book of Mormon, or D&C, just the Bible, and when I asked her why, she was like "Just because." And then this Sunday (this was something I didn't know before the mission but every Sunday in literally every chapel in the world there's a class for investigadors and recent converts and less actives) the teacher for that class wasn't there so we had to teach it, and we were supposed to teach about the Holy Ghost, and we mentioned that the Holy Ghost doesn't have a body like Jesus and God the whole class (who were pretty much all recent converts from like 3 or 4 months ago) all flipped out. Like they had no idea that God and Jesus have bodies, and when we tried to explain to them with scriptures from the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants they were all like, "NO we only want scriptures from the Bible." It's like all these people got baptized just because the other missionaries convinced them, not because they had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, it kinda frustrates me.  

Love you!

Pasto - Week Five

My companion pretty much doesn’t speak English. But I speak good Spanish now so I don’t have problems talking to him. My legs don’t hurt as much now, so I guess you could say that I’m getting used to walking the hills here.

The week was pretty good. I played the piano at a baptism this week (of an 8-year-old) and I don’t even play piano. It was interesting. I did a lot of service, today we had to move a giant pile of big heavy rocks from one spot to like 6 feet to the left of where they were, so my hands and arms are like super destroyed because Colombians don’t know what gloves are. Everyone thinks I’m from Utah, (I’m so glad I’m not from Utah) and we still have 4 people who are really excited about the church and stuff.

The pictures I have are me with fairy wings, cuz the new beginnings for young women’s was this week so the YW president asked us for some help.  [We didn't get Drew's photos.]


Love everyone!

Pasto - Week Four

This week we put another baptismal date and so now we have three! And we have plans to put three more. This week we invited an investigador, Jorge, to be baptized. He’s the boyfriend of one of the members who’s literally been going to church for 6 months, and just recently the member, Amery? asked us to come and teach him. I think she waited so long to ask the missionaries for help cuz the missionaries who were here before were really disobedient. So this week we taught the lessons with Amery and her younger brother Duvan, who’s really cool, he’s like 20 and waiting for his mission call and always goes out with us, and Duvan and Jorge are in a band together so they’re good friends, but we invited him to be baptized and Duvan bore his testimony, cuz I guess he had a time of rebellion and hated the church or whatever, and he was like "I KNOW this is true" and everyone started crying. Except for me. But it was really cool.

The other person I’m stoked to teach is this punk kid Luis, or Luigi, he goes by both. Like, we taught him with a bunch of his punk friends and they just kinda laugh at us, but he’s genuinely interested, and is reading the Book of Mormon and stuff. He didn’t go to church this week cuz it was stake conference and the chapel was really far, but he has a lot of promise.

And also this week I found and bought a GALAXY JERSEY for 45 mil, which is like 13 bucks. I was super surprised to see it cuz it’s literally the first MLS jersey I’ve seen in Colombia and I see a million jerseys for sale every day. It’s super nice, but it’s kinda small, like it fits me but I’d like it a size bigger. So if I find a bigger size I’ll buy it again and send this one to Riley. I think it’s kinda funny how i came to Colombia with t-shirts of my favorite teams and now I have 90% legit jerseys.