Morichal - Week Three

Did you guys hear about the earthquake in Ecuador/Colombia? So I guess on Saturday or Friday--I don't really remember which--there was a huge earthquake in Ecuador and in Valle Cauca Nariño, Colombia, (literally only my mission) and a ton of people died...but the night it happened, we were on our way to an appointment that we had, and we saw everyone start running outside, and we were like "why is everyone outside?" and we later learned that there was an earthquake. LOL. We literally didn't even feel it at all. But some of the Ecuadorian missionaries are super sketched out because they don't know if their families are safe, and I guess the mission wont let them call home. I'm writing a friend I met at the MTC who's in Ecuador and she said that all of her converts are dead now, so that's depressing. But everything's all good in Cali. 

Also this Tuesday we got robbed..kinda...so after the district meeting we were walking to our pensionist's house to eat, and we walked the path that we normally do because it's the "least sketch path" that we could have taken, because it's a pretty busy street, and were like walking, and then these 6- or 7-year-old kids walk up to us and tell us to stop and pull out switchblades...kids who are almost as tall as my waist, and they're like, "Give us what you have in the bag!" and I literally looked at them and laughed, and then he swished is knife at me, lol. I was gonna keep walking but then my companion was like, "You want what's in the bag?" and he pulled out his Bible and handed it to them and they freaked out, begged us for forgiveness and then ran away as fast as they could screaming "Father, forgive us!" so that was kinda funny.

The other part that kind of stinks is that I might be poisoned. or at least I think so LOL. So I was walking in the street the other day, and I kind of walked under the branch of a tree, and then like 15 minutes later I felt something crawling on my neck, and I swiped at it and killed this weird bug thing, but before it died, it bit me! And my neck started hurting really bad, well not really hurting but it burned pretty bad for like an hour...now I feel fine but I have this weird looking mark on my neck, so I hope I don't die or get sick from this or anything because that would really suck.

And then the really super cool thing is that we found this "family of GOLD" who are probably gonna get baptized in like 4 weeks. We had this reference for a really long time (well actually we have like pages of references that we need to go contact...lol) and one name was "L__ L__" we had no idea who she was but one day I was like, "Today were going to go contact L__" and we knocked on the door, and it turns out L__ is this 15-year-old girl, and she lives with her sister mom grandma and grandpa, the dad and the mom are married and still together but the dad is in New York working, so they have them dolla dolla bills, and I guess they do video calls every night, but we teach the 5 who are in Colombia.  The first time we went we couldn't go in because the grandpa wasn't there, but we ended up just talking for like an hour outside. The second time we went the whole family wasn't there but I helped with the English homework and we answered some questions (when the dad called them that night they mentioned us and he said, "Oh, they're Mormons, they have multiple wives and worship some guy named Joseph Smith") but yesterday we taught them finally and they're literally perfect! The Spirit was really strong during the lessons, and I think that they already believe it! I was gonna invite them to be baptized, but they asked a lot of questions and we kinda lost the topic, but they're already wanting to go to Church on Sunday and they're excited to read the Book of Mormon. So that's pretty cool!

So I guess that's it. Love you.

Morichal - Week Two

This week was alright. I guess the main thing that I wanted to talk about was that we did divisions this week on Wednesday. Since I'm SENIOR COMPANION I had to go with our district leader, Elder S__. He's like, 18, and has like 5 or 6 months in the mission. So he doesn't really speak Spanish that well. Hes also really shy, but he's a good guy. But, we did the divisions, and I guess the area presidency said that the new way of doing divisions is that the leaders need to have the "model area" and that when we do divisions, both companionships have to stay in the "model area". So we lost a day of work in our area.

At the beginning of the day, I was being like, the normal missionary me that I am with my companions...I was contacting families in the streets, I was taking all the initiative in teaching the lessons, and since he didn't know the area that well, he had a list of directions of where the people live, and I was the one who like, looked for the houses, and if we knocked on the wrong house, I contacted the people that live there. I actually contacted this super sick family that I actually wish was in my area, because it is a mom (with no dad, so we don't have to deal with all the marriage stuff) and her 4 sons who are all in their 20's, and I was talking to the youngest who likes watching the NBA and playing street fighter and I was like, "Hey that's really cool because I like watching the NBA and watching street fighter too!" and we made that connection (after teaching the actual lesson of course...they're very receptive lol) So I hope that the other missionaries are doing good with them.

But the point is, is that I was doing almost everything by myself, and at like 5pm, I realized that this guy is supposed to be training ME and not the other way around...so I told him that, and then stopped taking the initiative in everything, and then the quality of the day just plummeted.  We would sit in a members house for 2 hours because he wouldn't start the lessons, and then after he wouldn't say "okay we have to go now." We stopped contacting people in the street, and if we went to a house and it WASN'T the house we were looking for, we just said "oh okay bye" instead of contacting them. And the worst part was is that when we got to the house, my companion, and his companion had bought movies and started watching movies, and I didn't say anything because I told the DL earlier "man, you're the district leader. When the district starts doing dumb things you have to tell them to stop!" 

So yeah. Then at the next morning I talked with him for a long time about how when I stopped contacting people, and taking the initiative he didn't do anything, and about the movies and stuff, and about how he still struggles with Spanish because he reads the scriptures every day in English...and stuff like that. It's frustrating.

The work in our actual area was pretty good. We had a lot of lessons, and I contacted a lot of people in the streets. We had a lot of people commit to go to church, but in the end nobody ended up going, So the baptismal dates that I put during the week fell through. you know. because they didn't go to church...but I'm assuming things will get a lot better. 

There's this one family in my ward who were in JAMUNDI (my first area) when I was there and they moved in like January. So that was really cool! I talked with them for a long time, and my converts in Jamundi are still active members!  

Yeah, so, love you guys.

Morichal - Week One

So this week we didn't really do that much in the area because Monday I was in a bus, Tuesday we had to do the district meeting and a ton of other stuff like the mission coordination, Friday we couldn't leave the house until some guy showed up to fumigate it, and Saturday and Sunday was Conference. As far as the ward and the area goes, its true what I thought last week--it's full of black people. Not that there's anything wrong with that...lol. My companion barely has 5 months in the mission. So I have to take the initiative in almost everything. Which I guess isn't a bad thing. He's probably my companion most obedient that I've had. He's like 23, but he doesn't really act like it. One different thing that he does is that he doesn't shower in the shower, but he washes himself with a bowl of water outside in the washroom...lol. But something sketch that just happened RIGHT NOW is some dude got shot like 5 times right outside where im writing...or at least they got shot at 5 times and everyone ran out to see what was going on. I'm literally in the ghetto.

Because the conference was this week I almost didn't get to know anyone from the ward. I also only got to know like 4 investigadors, and a lot of them are teenage girls, and I'm not about that "flirt to convert" life like some missionaries are...so that kind of stinks, but my companion is pretty set on getting them baptized. The parents have never talked to the missionaries before either...lameee.

This conference the gringos from the zone went to go watch the conference in English in the secretary's office. They invited me, but I decided to not watch it in English with them...I mean there was no real reason to, since I already understand everything, and if you listen to the missionaries who watched it in English, they still don't speak Spanish that well, even though some of them are about to finish...and all the other missionaries and elders told me that I made the right decision anyways...

Everyone was surprised at how short the talks by Thomas S Monson were...that little name thing that normally pops up 3 times in each talk? (at the beginning, middle, and end) only showed up twice...for both of them! They were short but POWERFUL. Everyone also talked about how good Elder Holland was. also POWERFUL and great to end the conference. But I think the best talk of all of them was the talk that gave Neil L Anderson about the children being a key party of the kingdom of heaven...wow. At the end of the talk a lot of people had a bunch of tears in their eyes, and even the guy doing the Spanish voice over had a hard time reading the talk without crying. By far the best talk. The lame-ish part is that it was Saturday so I know a lot of people didn't see it.

Love you.

Pasto - Week Twelve

This week we literally didn't do anything. HERE'S WHY:

So Monday President Pricoli showed up in Pasto for the zone conference that was on Tuesday, but Monday we has a family home evening with the whole stake and he was there. He also gave me my birthday package (the ties are dope), and in that package was a GIANT REESE'S EASTER BUNNY that I ate in about 5 minutes. 

Tuesday was the zone conference, it was pretty cool. They took pictures but they haven't sent them yet, so i guess ill have them by next week. 

After lunch at the conference I started feeling sick, like my head hurt really bad, and it was really hard to concentrare, I had like, no force in my body to move me, and it got REALLY cold all of a sudden, which I recognized as a fever, so when we got home I took my temperature and I was at 101, so I called Hermana Pricoli, and she didn't answer me because she was sick. President told me to drink water and take ibuprofen every 6 hours, and he also said "get some rest."

Because he said get some rest, also because he knew I was throwing up and going to the bathroom every 10 minutes, I assumed that get some rest meant "HEY DON'T GO WORK TOMORROW CUZ YOU MIGHT DIE" so we didn't leave the house on Wednesday, because we had permission, but at night time the zone leaders called and were like "hey, what did you do today?" and I was like, "Nothing because I was dying, Hermana Pricoli told me 'to rest up' today." So then Hna Pricoli called me and YELLED AT ME because we passed the day like tourists, and we didn't have permission. She was pretty mad.  So was I. (Technically I guess, SHE didn't give me permission, but the PRES did.)

Then the next day I went to lunch (we did get a new pensionist btw who makes giant hamburgers and lasagna and cheesecake and stuff) and the husband was like "Dude, you look terrible why aren't you like, sleeping in your house?" and I told him what happened, and he got SUPER mad, and called the hermana and was like "what are you thinking? how can you send you missionaries out to work in this condition?" and pretty much yelled at her. Then I talked to her and she was super concerned and told me to talk to this doctor who immediately sent me to the hospital. So I went to the hospital.

They put some tubes in my body and now I'm fine. But we only got to work 2 days this week, and it was like the holy week or whatever so nobody was home. 

Also I got transferred, some members cried when I told them I was probably leaving. But we got the transfers, and they said that I was  . . .

going going, back back, to Cali Cali!

So I lost my pday in the bus ride, and it's Tuesday night and I'm writing you guys. My new area is called MORICHAL. From what I can tell it's pretty poor and only black people live here. Also it's REALLY HOT. I forgot how not hot Pasto is. I've been sweating so hard. My companion is Elder B__. He has like 5 months in the mission. I'm senior companion again. Everyone when they find out that I'm from San Diego always says, "Ohhh, so you knew Spanish before the mission, that explains it." So I guess my Spanish is really good LOL. The best part about the area is that there's these Jeeps that function like buses, and when they're full we just hop on the back bumper and hang on for dear life. I'm gonna try and take a selfie while doing it this week LOL

I'm looking forward to conference because the last time I had a hard time understanding things, but now the Spanish is pretty natural so I'm kinda stoked to like, understand what they're saying! This time we have to bring investigadors to the stake center, so it'll be a lot harder to get people there because it's kind of far.

Love you guys.

Pasto - Week Eleven

This week was pretty good I guess, but since that giant party that I went to yesterday I can't remember anything else that happened this week. 

The zone had this thing this week that said "if the zone finds 100 new investigadors this week we´ll have a SUPER PDAY" so we had to find 10 investigadors to do our part, so we were looking through the area book and found a few old investigadors that we were going to go visit. So we went to go visit them, and the 3 families that we were able to find all told us "you know I was just thinking about the church and the missionaries and how I wanted to talk to you guys again, and then immediately afterwords you called/arrived etc." So it was really cool to see how the Lord is preparing the people before we even get to know them, But none of them went to church this Sunday-- so whatever, they're lame, jk, but were still gonna work real hard with them. The only lame thing is that were pretty sure that there's a law of chastity problem with all of them...Marriage...

We were going to baptize L__ on the 26th, but yesterday he told us that he's moving to Bogota this week, like today or tomorrow, I don't remember. So that's really lame, but he says he's gonna get baptized in Bogota, so I guess that's kinda cool. 

And then we had like, three birthday parties yesterday, because two member families invited us to have parties, and then today we had a birthday party with the zone because there's this one hermana from Brazil who also had a birthday the same day as mine, except she's like 26 now or something. One of the three couples that were going to get married actually was at my birthday party, because the guy is the son of the less active mom and the sister of the girl I helped reactivate. They're really cool, but, the marriage process here is so lame if they start now they'll get married in like 6 months, the fastest.

That's kinda it. Love everyone!

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.