Ipiales - Week Five

Honestly, like I said last week, we really didn't do anything because of the carnavals. It was actually pretty scary, leaving the house, so we only did it like 3 times all week, and those three times, the people painted us, and stuff. On Friday I ended up buying a spray thing that everyone was using to be able to defend myself while I was out and about. I took a bunch of videos from my window but the internet where I am is soooooo sloowwwwww that I can't really upload them right now, but you can really see that the people were like ruthless in painting people. I took one video where this one guy was just walking minding his own business, and when I say that these guys were gonna paint him, he started running but they caught him and pinned him on the ground and started painting him and throwing flour and stuff on him, and if people get mad that they got painted, everyone just responds with "hey ---- if you don't wanna play then go home and sleep!" so that's something

Something was that we were able to buy some of the spray stuff and totally got the zone leader that nobody likes and that finishes the mission this Saturday, so that's something. This guys really stresses me out anyways, like always calling me and yelling at me for stuff that I can't do anything about (like the carnavals).

Haha if there's something that I've learned it's that missionaries all over the world use the same exact examples for everything. I personally use the example that the original church was funded upon 3 pillars, (profets, apostoles, and the priesthood) and that the church was like a glass statue, and when the pillars were taken away the church fell and shattered into a million pieces. Normally the people realize that that's where all these churches come from before we explain it.

It's good that Granny's okay. How's Grandpa? Last I heard from him he was pretty bad...

Something cool that you might like is the gospel topics essays that are on lds.org. I read some of them, but in Spanish.

Love you all!

Ipiales - Week Four

This week was actually kinda funny since the city where I am right now the people are kinda crazy, on Saturday and Sunday we literally weren't allowed to leave the house, and also the mission decided to leave us here during the carnivals, so I’ll be going directly back home after I send this email....because the people literally are starting to scare me, they throw paint at like anyone who decides to walk by, so this week I’m gonna pretty much be in my house all the time, and not do anything, and I already had a little taste of that on New Year’s Eve, we just watched the same 3 church movies over and over again, washed my clothes, stuff like that. The power also went out at like 9:30 and came back at like 10 because the party outside was so hard....On New Year’s Eve there's a tradition here, a bunch of gays put on dresses and a ton of lipstick and start kissing everyone on the cheek, unless you give them money, and the thing is that it's like, totally accepted. If you get mad when they kiss you everyone is like "what's wrong with you?" That and a lot of other things are why we haven't been able to work

We did have a cool experience with one family, the missionaries have been visiting them for years, but based on the stories that they have told us, they went just to eat and play games rather than actually teach them, so I think they would progress if we actually taught them, and their aunt is member, so they have that good influence. But we decided to watch the Joseph Smith movie with them, and we started out with just the same 3 people who always listen to us, and the aunt-member, (10 people live in that house) and when we finished almost the whole family was watching and asking questions while they watched, it was really cool. We didn't really have time to talk about it afterwards, but we’re gonna try to go in the morning this week before the crazy starts to talk to them.

On New Year’s Day we had to go work, and I actually felt like really bad in the street, like someone was watching me. We were going to a member’s house, walking down a big hill and this black guy who was on the stairs started whistling when he saw us, and we heard whistles in response that came from the other side and I legit had this feeling that I should just go back home, but we had to work (according to the zone leader, but I don't believe that honestly), so we went to the house of a part member family and taught something small, and ate empanadas that they made, which was really cool,

That's about it. The week’s been kinda slow. December is always pretty bad for missionaries here, but I hope things get better from here on out, after the carnavals anyway.

I literally can't think of anything else to say. Love you!

Ipiales - Week Three

Ipiales - Week Two

This week was actually pretty cool, we ended up finding 26 new people to teach, which was literally "the most in the whole mission" also was probably one of the coolest experiences that I've ever had in the mission. We got a reference and we ended up going, and it was like a group of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the boss had asked other missionaries to go and teach all of them, so we showed them the "Light the World" video. The Spirit was really strong, a lot of the guys started crying, and shared their testimony, said that they felt the spirit really strong, (they like to shout "Amen!" and "I testify!" a lot haha) and almost all of them wanted to go to church, but they couldn't, because the boss, or the guy that runs the house said that he already had plans for that Sunday and that they can only leave the house if he takes them out to do something together. That group is already kind of sad, since there's 18 kids who live there mixed with 60-70-year olds, and seeing how drugs and alcohol have ruined their lives and how even still some of them sneak out at night to do drugs, but I really think that we can make a difference.

My new son’s also really cool, and such a hard worker, he's really in tune with the Spirit, and even though we´re opening area with hardly any investigators, he's not getting down or anything.  It kinda sucks that he's starting the mission in a place like this--he's gonna think that the whole mission is like this when it's really not, and the fact that I have a 38 degree fever and that they're gonna take us out of our area for the carnivals in about a week doesn't help either, but were doing the best we can.

We also had our Christmas conference this week, which was really cool. I got to see a lot of my old companions and friends the pictures in order are "Elder Tantachucco,

Elder Berrio,

The old distrct Morichal,

Elder Cumbal,

Elder Martinez,

Elder Meneses,

Hna Copa,

My District,

and the Zone.

We also did another Christmas carol thing like we did last year, ill probably put the video on Google drive when I have more time

My companion told his family between 3 and 6, Colombian time, so I hope that works out for you! Haha if not you might have to skip your meeting...anyway, see you on Sunday!

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!