Popayan (Recuerdo) - Week Two

We actually did get our energy back like last Monday night, so you don’t have to worry too much about that!

I’m thinking that we can probably baptize like 4 families this transfer (which would get me the prestigious "Captain Moroni" award. I got "Son of Mosiah" in Buga!) This area has a lot of potential, since there haven’t been good missionaries here since like, 2015!

We’re still working with the Jurado-Vasques family, the family of 4, and we actually taught the older daughter finally. We know that we have to baptize them this transfer, but every time we teach them, we don’t feel it....if you know what I mean. But they’re really good. The last lesson they even said that they know that the point of receiving us is to see if they like the church and then get baptized. They couldn’t go to church on Sunday because something happened with their parents in the hospital again, so I think it’s probably the Adversary working with them...

We found some old teaching records in the house (like 10 years old) and while we were looking for some of those people we found another family, Paola and her 11-year-old son Juan.  They said that the missionaries went to their house once (like 10 years ago) and never went back, or invited them to the church even, but they’re really cool and also want to get baptized! And they were also going to go to church on Sunday, got up early, got ready, and when they were about to go out the door, her aunts came for a surprise visit, so they felt bad and didn’t want to just leave them there so...I think again, somebody is working real hard so that they don’t go to church.

And then there’s Sonia and her daughter who are still really excited to go to church and are learning a lot, but on Sunday Sonia had a job interview (like, she just got out of jail like a month ago, so she really needs a job to be able to take care of her kid), so I guess what I’m trying to say is that nobody went to church but there’s a ton of potenctial here in EL RECUERDO!

We´re also working hard with this punk named Sebastian, (see picture) who’s active in the church, but does/says a ton of stuff that worries us. He’s like always talking to us about some girl that he hung out with on the weekend, and to be honest, they’re all kinda slutty, and he also has a bunch of  posters and notebooks with inappropriate pictures. The other day he was asking us stuff like if we broke the law of chastity before the mission, and how the repentance process was.  Also we are always helping him with homework and stuff, we really want the best for this kid, but he’s making it real hard to help him.

Hope Dad’s okay! But hey he got the rebound, so it was probably worth it. I actually bought a basketball the other day and we’re playing ball in the mornings with the district (I’m still the only American but this kid from the Phillipines is pretty good.)

I never heard back from president.  The problem that I have with Pres Pricoli is that he never responds to my letters. Like never. So this wasn’t an exception. Whatever, I’m still working hard.

Popayan (Recuerdo) - Week One

First off, when I was talking to my new companion, he told me that in his 6 (7) months in the mission, he hasn't had a single baptism, and that all of his companions (including his trainer) haven't been hard workers. So he asked President in interviews for a hardworking companion so that he could have baptisms. There haven't been any baptisms in this area for a loooong time. So I guess that's why they sent me here, which makes sense, because President told me in my last interview "wherever we put you, we know  that you have the potential to shine."  And I guess they lowered me because the district leader here (a great friend of mine, see fotos in drive) just got here and is training. So I’m thinking that's why they transferred me, and I'm not a DL because there's already a good one here. So that made me feel a little better. President hasn't responded to my interview solicitud either. Oh well.

The area is really big, but my companion only knows a small part of it, so we spent a lot of time exploring the area. We found 14 new investigators this week (above the mission average) and we even went out to work one day at 10 (when you should do it at 11), so were working really hard. The coolest people I've met are 2 families that we’re probably gonna baptize this transfer. They are both so prepared and married, so that makes our job easier!

The first family is the family Vasquez I think? A young couple with 2 daughters, but the older is always upstairs with the boyfriend and never wants to talk to us.....but the parents and the younger daughter (13) are super receptive, and prepared! They have said that they feel the Spirit any time we go teach them, they're super excited to read the Book of Mormon (we even gave an English copy to the dad because he's a translator, he actually knows a ton of English) and when their neighbors started criticizing us (”they worship Jose Smith!”) and they actually defended us! they didn't go to church on Sunday, were not sure why since we called them on Saturday night and they said that they would go, but the grandparents are sick in the hospital so im thinking something happened there. But we’re really excited for them!

The other family is just a single mom and her 8 yr old daughter, and the Mom (Sonia) just got out of jail like a month ago, she doesn't tell us what she did but she's really trying to make a big change. Her and her daughter have a baptismal date for the 18 AND they went to church yesterday, and they walked there! (Which is really impressive, because they live like an hour away walking!!!) her faith is so big, she was willing to walk that far just to go to church that she's never been to before, with her 8 and 3 year old daughter....

Also, we don't have energy in our house....the bill got to us like on Wednesday and on Thursday they came to cut the light....so we've been sleeping with candles, and we also can't cook anything since our stove is electric, so we've been eating delivery like every night, which is kinda expensive...

AP physics was really easy...for me anyways, cuz I’m good at math. Physics and Calculus were the only AP classes I took senior year, and I didn't do too well in calculus because the teachers method didn't favor me at all (explain very briefly how to do the problems and then let the class do homework for an hour, helping the students who didn't understand and letting those who do understand work, which isn't really a bad system, but the teacher always gave priority to the girls and left me alone).

People always ask me how I feel about Trump, and my response is always "eh" the Colombians don't like him either. They ask me about Obama a lot too. I normally respond "at least he was cool and tweeted about basketball." I’m not a big politics fan. I don't think I’ll vote when I get back anyways, I’ll be a happier person.

Is Darcy gonna get married yet?

Ipiales - Week Six

Well, on Monday I almost didn't have p-day because we had to go to Pasto for interviews.....I came out of the interviews pretty excited because President had told me some things that really motivated me, when I said that I felt bad because our area was pretty bad and that I was training, he said he knew that the area was bad, that's why he put me there, and that he knew that I could make it better, and some other things, but we got back to Ipiales and we started going to work. We started visiting a ton of members and organizing family home evenings with their neighbors, we starting talking to a bunch of people in the street, and in the week we were able to complete our goal of 10 new investigators!

On Thursday we did divisions. I went with Elder Rivas, who's pretty new and for the first time has a disobedient companion and was starting to let his companion convince him to do some things, so I had to TRAIN him in these divisions that we did together. We went to that alcoholics foundation with a member who used to have a drinking problem before he was baptized, and he ended up sharing his testimony about the Word of Wisdom and how much the church has helped him. A few of the members started tearing up. I think a member's testimony ALWAYS makes a huge difference in the lessons. 

We also taught the mom of this 18 year old girl (who got baptized by herself like 4 years ago and has attended the church ever since!) and the mom was a little confused about why her daughter would spend so much money just to go to Ecuador (Guayaquil) just to go to a temple, so we explained a little bit about family history and baptisms for the dead, and then she got really mad because her daughter had asked for information about her grandmother, who, according to her, was a really bad person, and how she didn't want her daughter to do anything for that woman...but we explained a little bit more about the spirit world, and told her that as human beings we all make mistakes, in this case, her grandma was really bad to her, but how up there in the spirit world, she probably feels really bad about the damage she caused, and that this baptism would help her grandma to repent and help her as a person to grow closer to her family. She ended up crying during the closing prayer, but wasn't able to go to church on Sunday, we'.re not sure why.

We were also working with a less active, Brandon, who's 18 and was filling out his papers to go on a mission, but then his grandparents died and now he has a drinking problem. We pretty much told him "do you think your grandparents are proud of you, watching you drink every day from the heavens?" It was pretty direct, but he ended up going to church on Sunday, also we got him to commit to do the temple work for his grandparents (which includes being worthy to go to the temple) But he ran out of church crying during the last hymn, because there was a little testimony meeting of the people who went to the temple and the last testimony was about a girl who had done temple work for her grandpa. I think he felt really bad, and not worthy to be in church, so he literally RAN from the chapel

I would like to know how things keep going in Ipiales, but I got transferred because the Zone leader hated everybody and was finishing the mission, so he invented a bunch of stuff about all of the missionaries in the zone, and almost everyone had transfers, except my son, and all of the leaders were lowered, (ALL of the district leaders, and the other zone leader) some of them junior companion of new missionaries, and now I'm in Popayan (AGAIN) with another disobedient missionary (AGAIN), but I wrote a letter to president, and asked for an interview to be able to explain what REALLY happened (with evidence), so I think in a few weeks I'll be district leader again. Just a normal day in the Mision Colombia Cali 😒

It was paint, and foam. but mostly paint. 

Love you!

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!