Ipiales - Week One

This week was pretty long. Monday and Tuesday I had to work with some random missionary in Tulua who was also going to train a new missionary. I got to meet a lot of cool people that I’ll probably never see again haha. Then on Wednesday I got to meet my new son Elder De La Cruz, he's from Peru, but he's a pretty cool guy, he reminds me a lot of Nick. But the cool thing is that he's only been a member for about a year. My friend Alistar has been a member for longer than him, and he's on the mission! Also he's the only member in his family, so it's got to be pretty hard for him, but he's pretty great.  He knows a lot, and he's a good talker haha. Anyway, on Wednesday we couldn't go straight to our area, since it is in Ipiales, and we were in Cali, and it was like 4 when we were ready to leave, so we had to spend the rest of the day with the zone leaders in Cali.  I left with the zone leader who had only been in the area for like 2 days so we spent all day contacting people, which stunk since nobody was really interested, but hey! It's all right. Then on Thursday we took a 14 hour bus ride, and when we got here, the area book was like empty! So we have to start literally from zero. Also, the members don't really trust us, so I guess the other missionaries who were here weren't that great, so that's cool. Another fun fact, there isn't any washing machine here, so I have to wash all my clothes by hand in ice cold water! (Since its really cold here)...The good news is that, according to the rumors that have been going around, I’ll probably be a zone leader next transfer, so I won't have to suffer too long hahaha.........but in seriousness, we've been working hard, doing street contacting more than anything else, which is something that I've never had to do before.

On Friday, or Saturday night, we had nothing to do, so my companion suggested that we go to a park and contact families with The Light the World cards that we have, so we did that for about an hour....it was pretty cool! Since there was a little nativity setup there we started contacting all the families that went to go take pictures with it, and, we ended up making like 15 contacts. The coolest thing was when we were like ready to go back home, a small family of three came up, parents and their daughter of like 3 years, and the dad looked pretty scary, with a cigarette, piercings, and a big leather jacket, so I was like, haha, this guy probably doesn't want to talk to us, but then I felt like I really should've talk to him, so I did, and he ended up being like the nicest guy in the world and was super excited to talk to us and told us to go to his house and teach him. He ended up not living in our area, but I bet that he’ll get baptized soon. It was a cool experience that reminded my of my favorite scripture, 1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

I think Ethan says he doesn't go to church because nobody invites him, and it doesn't occur to him to go. He says that his dad literally never talks to him and probably thinks that he's doing drugs. One of the reasons I want to study in California is to help him get back. He just needs a friend to invite him. Ethan also been telling me that Alistar has disappeared from the face of the planet, I was writing to him but he doesn't respond.

Ipiales - Week one

This week was pretty long. Monday and Tuesday I had to work with some random missionary in Tulua who was also going to train a new missionary. I got to meet a lot of cool people that I'll probably never see again haha. Then on Wednesday I got to meet my new son Elder De La Cruz, from Peru, but he's a pretty cool guy. He reminds me a lot of Nick, but the cool thing is that he's only been a member for about a year and he's on the mission!" Also he's the only member in his family, so it's got to be pretty hard for him, but he's pretty great and he knows a lot. He's a good talker hahah. Anyways, on Wednesday we couldn't go straight to our area, since were in Ipiales, and we were in Cali, and it was like 4 when we were ready to leave. So we had to spend the rest of the day with the zone leaders in Cali and I left with the zone leader who had only been in the area for like 2 days so we spent all day contacting people, which kinda sucked since nobody was really interested, but hey! It's alright. Then on Thursday we took a 14 hour bus ride, and when we got here, the area book was like empty! So we have to start literally from zero, also, the members don't really trust us, so I guess the other missionaries who were here weren't that great, so that's cool. Another fun fact: there isn't a washing machine here, so I have to wash all my clothes by hand in ice cold water! (Since its really cold here). The good news is that, according to the rumors that have been going around, I'll probably be a zone leader next transfer, so I wont have to suffer too long hahaha. But in all seriousness, we've been working hard, doing street contacting more than anything else, which is something that I've never had to do before.

On Friday, or Saturday night, we had nothing to do, so my companion suggested that we go to a park and contact families with the Light the World cards that we have, so we did that for a bout an hour. It was pretty cool! Since there was a little nativity set up there, we started contacting all the families that went to go take pictures with it, and, we ended up making like 15 contacts. The coolest thing was when we were like ready to go back home, a small family of three came up, parents and daughter of like 3 years, and the dad looked pretty scary with a cigarette, piercings, and a big leather jacket. So I was like, nah, this guy probably doesn't want to talk to us, but then I felt like I really should talk to him. So I did and he ended up being like the nicest guy in the world, and was super excited to talk to us and told us to go to his house and teach him. He ended up not living in our area, but I bet that he'll get baptized soon...It was a cool experience that reminded me of my favorite scripture, 1 Samuel 16:7......

I think Ethan says he doesn't go to church because nobody invites him, and it doesn't occur to him to go. He says that his dad literally never talks to him and probably thinks that he's doing drugs. One of the reasons I want to study in California is to help him get back. He just needs a friend to invite him. Ethan's also been telling me that Alistair has disappeared from the face of the planet. I was writing to him but he doesn't respond. Ethan doesn't go with Steve because of Steve's girl crazy, if you know what I mean.

I guess thats it. Love you

Buga - Weel eighteen

This week was pretty cool. First, we were working with Danielle, this girl who's gonna get baptized. We had a little lesson with her on Sunday, but before the lesson, she had a lot of questions and doubts. We had invited her to be baptized last week after she came to church but she wasn't really sure, but we taught her yesterday, and, after answering a lot of questions, we showed her the baptismal font (we teach her in the chapel because her parents are super catholic, and even though shes like 22, they won't let her talk to us in her house) and talked a lot about baptism-what it means to her and what blessings she would receive by being baptized. You could obviously see the spirit working in her, and in the course of like 40 minutes she went from being like, "eehh maybe I'll get baptized" to being the happiest individual when it comes to her baptism. So that's really cool. AND she's only 1 of the 5 baptismal dates that we have here in Buga. I think the cool part is that we only know her because her boyfriend was less active, but the missionaries decided to work with him (he lives in Cali) and now that he's active he had to start keeping the law of chastity, so that's why Danielle wanted to know more I guess...But like, if the missionaries had never decided to work with this guy, Danielle wouldn't know anything about the church and wouldn't be as happy as she is right now. Something small but kinda cool how the dominoes fall...

Also, this week we did a little branch activity with the Light the World video. Buut...that actually didn't go very well because they planned it on Wednesday and did it on Thursday so the participation wasn't all that great, but the idea was pretty cool. We watched the video with the members who were there, pegged the Light the World cards on some helium balloons with lights inside, and the plan was let the balloons go but the helium kinda ran out and the light weighed a lot so we couldn't really do the plan. We had to buy other balloons so that they lifted the light balloons with them jaja. Then we went and talked to everyone who happened to be passing by and invited them to the chapel to go see the video. The only problem is that the chapel in Buga is in like a private neighborhood so nobody was really down to go see the video, but I think like 3 or 4 people came and really liked it a lot. So, if those 3 people end up getting baptized then it'll all have been worth it!

Afterwards, I sang with Axel "Muerte en Hawai" it was pretty dope 

The sad thing is that I got transferred.....I'm gonna go train again and "open area" in Ipiales, which is like right next to Ecuador, and its really cold...so Christmas is gonna be fun! ha..

I called a lot of the members to say goodbye and I called Brayan last, and afterwards I just started crying like a ton, I didn't think that they were gonna change me so this was really a surprise, and I didn't want to leave Brayan since he's been having a ton of problems lately, and I don't know, I just kinda walked to the balcony and cried for a few minutes. I'm leaving a lot of great friends behind and 5 great people who have baptisms date. I'm not sure if my son is gonna work hard with them since his new companion is kinda famous for being super disobedient too. So I'm not really sure what's gonna happen now. 

I didn't actually get to see James but I got the package! It's really saving my life down here...

Love you!

Buga - Week seventeen

If I focus on the bad stuff, this week was pretty bad. We have no idea where Pilar is, and Cristian ran away from home, so we don't know where he is either. The other baptism we were gonna have, Mayuri, decided to move in with her boyfriend, who is less active, and Adriana is feeling kinda reluctant about the church and didn't go yesterday. BUT there were 2 really good things that happened this week and Id like to focus more on those...

First, Axel, my convert, blessed the sacrament for the first time, and as I watched him I started thinking about how much he's changed since the first time I met him. Honestly, he was a punk, talked to like 5 girls like everyday and straight up told me that he wouldn't be baptized. Now he goes to church every Sunday, even if nobody else in the house goes, and he goes in a white shirt and tie and stays all 3 hours. When they give him an assignment he does it, better than all the other YM who have been in church since forever, he goes to seminary everyday and reads the Book of Mormon on top of all the old testament homework they give him in seminary, and when he does divisions with me, he teaches the people, and has a testimony that's sooo strong! I love that kid so much.

Also the Light the Wold video came out, "Ilumina el Mundo" and I think its really awesome. We´re already using it and getting people to do the 25 ways in 25 days thing. We showed the video in our family home evening with the Yate family and gave them all a little card, so they can give it to their friends or neighbors. The cool thing is that even though not all of them are active members, or members, everyone committed to do the 25 days thing and give the little card to someone so that we can go visit them. I think that was really cool. We took pictures at the end.

Hermana Hernandez in the district had a birthday on Sunday. So we threw eggs at her (that's the tradition here) but she also threw them back at us. I don't think I'll be able to use that shirt again. 😧 but we ate cake too. It was fun!

cool.....love you all!

Buga - Week sixteen

This week, Elder Gamboa got moved, so now we have to work in like 2 thirds of the city and have no idea who lives in the area because the other Elders didn't fill the area book at all, but I WAS informed of the baptism/wedding that was planned so it was all up to me to get these investigators married and then baptized, so I DID! They're named Andres and Gisella, really cool people, but Andres is only 18 and Gisella 15 HA! They were already living together when we found them and Gisella is also kinda 3 months pregnant so Andres can't go on a mission, so the best option was to get them married. They're really happy. 

Also this Wednesday we went to paint a house as a district. It was actually really fun, I think we spent more time painting each other than the actual walls though. It turned out really bad, but it wasn't really our fault. Also, my companion decided to not help and to play with the kids of that family so that was also really cool. But I had a blast. Also the sisters decided to write DISTRICT WOODMANSEE on the wall, and told me to do my little, "hey look at me" pose that I like doing, so that's also there.

Also we have like 3 baptismal dates, Cristian, who's trying to stop smoking, Pilar who couldn't be baptized last week due to job stuff, and Mayuri, some member's girlfriend who lives out in the middle of nowhere (we had to take a bus to get there). We're working really hard, and with the other area that we have now, we think that we might have 7 or 8 baptisms before the end of this transfer, so that's coool. We won't be able to baptize Adhara (frank;s sister) this transfer because she couldn't go to church this week, because she was "studying"

thanksgiving isn't a thing here.

According to what they're telling me, that guy decided to bring his 4 year old son here too, so he's like getting a passport for him. They're telling me that he'll be here the first week of December. They're sending him pictures of my shoes so that he feels bad and hurrys up haha

love you

Buga - Week fifteen

So the news for this week is that Elder Torres went home to Peru because his visa expired so now we're in a trio with Elder Gamboa. We're called Woodmansee and the Bolivians, which would be a cool band name, but now we have to work in like 2 thirds of Buga. The plan is to just do divisions everyday with different members, which I'm actually enjoying because I only have to work with Elder Roman for every 3 days-that guy is really stressing me out. I'm still training him so I guess that means I still have to teach him things every once in a while, but if I wasn't I'd just leave with Brayan everyday, but I can't really do that...!

Pilar is going to be baptized this SUNDAY (some things came up and the only free time she has these days are Sundays, so I guess Sunday is the day we'll baptize her). It's kinda lame though since I thought that we were gonna baptize her like 4 weeks ago, but we also haven't been working too hard with her because she already has all the lessons and stuff.

Brayan introduced us to his younger brother, Cristian, who is pretty cool, but I guess he has like serious weed problems. The first time we went to go teach him the house just reeked of weed and he was like, "yeah come on in" and we were like, "maybe we should come back later..." haha but he ended up going to church this Sunday and he really liked it, so we think were gonna baptize him this transfer too. He actually hung out with us (the district + Brayan) today and he seems like he wants to change.

Yesterday we went to do our FHE with the Yate family and it was actually pretty cool. It was also the one of the sister's birthdays, so we did a short little lesson and celebrated her birthday. (I think it's really weird that the members here actually invite missionaries to their birthdays here, and at home I didn't really want anything to do with them hahah). I'll see if I have time to send the videos of the family home evening we did. We acted out bible stories and the people had to guess what story they were. We did Samson and Delilah, Eve and the Forbidden fruit, Peter walking on water, and David and Goliath. It was super funny.

everyone here is sad about the election because "now they'll never be able to go to the united states" hahah

ok, times up.....LOve you!

Buga - Week fourteen

This week went pretty good. Since last week was pretty terrible, we tried to have a really good week this week and we ended up having one of the best weeks I've ever had (statistics wise)! We taught a lot of people and had a lot of the new people that we're teaching go to church! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So Pilar is going to be baptized this Saturday, if everything goes according to plan (she told us last week that she does have a coffee problem, so we're hoping that she leaves it this week). But she seems convinced and decided about the baptism, whereas last week she was kinda just like, eh. Which I think is really cool because she actually wanted to be baptized LAST Saturday, but we told her that she had to stop drinking coffee first and gave her some time to stop. Her progression is pretty cool.

We did divisions this week; I went with elder Torres, who is actually going home like tomorrow (weird visa things made it so that he didn't finish the mission at the end of the transfer, like normal). It went really well. We went and taught Pilar and did some visits with Brayan who fixed my shoes! (my shoes are kinda screwed) Then I got to put on his little hat and poncho that he bought.

I actually did give the priesthood to Brayan on Sunday, which was really cool! So now Brayan has the big boy priesthood. I think we´re gonna go consecrate oil on Wednesday or something. He's also really good when he comes with us to do visits. He also had an interview with Pres Pricoli about going on a mission, and Pres said that they're gonna have to write a letter to the First Presidency to ask for special permission, but it's likely that he'll be able to go....Super cool! We´re really happy for him.

We´re kinda upset that the branch presidency forgot about Axel and so he still doesn't have the Aaronic priesthood even though he was baptized like a month ago.

So, about Frank (the gay guy): He doesn't seem to be progressing (he didn't go to church yesterday, seems really distracted when we visit him), so that kinda sucks. Also, I think he got mad at us because we started to teach his older sister and his mom (who will probably be baptized this month. They're super good investigators). I think he has this weird jealousy thing with me and his sister or something, but whatever...

okay, love you ❤