This is what I did this week. On Tuesday we had a conference with all the missionaries who were in Cali, like in the city of Cali. I saw a lot of my friends there. Elder Kayser, who was my friend in the MTC for 6 weeks, and Elder Chaiña, who was in the MTC with me for 2 weeks were there.
It was good to see them, but I was jealous of Elder Kayser who right now is in what people call "the best area in the mission" and he started his mission in what people call "the 2nd best area in the mission" and looking at what I have, well yeah. I saw Elder Bello, my dad, he was like "dude, your Spanish is incredible!" cuz it is. lol I saw Elder Almeida and Elder Smith and Elder Vaca who are still in Jamundi. Every district had to do this Christmas presentation in English. We decided to reenact the story of the Grinch, and my companion was going to be this Grinch, but he didn't do ANYTHING that we planned on him doing, so it was kinda awkward. They gave a missionary manual cover to everyone, which was kinda cool.
I liked Christmas because I got to talk to you and I got to drink cold Dr Pepper. We actually ended up playing with the Nerf guns for like hours. I ate all the Reeses pieces and the Skittles, and I only have 3 more things of Pez. So thanks for the package!
This one family in the ward always wants me to sing Christmas carols with them because the family doesn't have a bass, so I sang with them a lot. We've already sung in sacrament meeting twice, lol.
I also bought myself a Clippers jersey. It's really cool! I'm just sad I can't wear it, because it doesn't have sleeves...So I'm looking to buy a plain white shirt right now, lol.
And then we had Christmas dinner with a family in the ward. They´re really nice. So that's mostly everything.
Here's something lame. My companion told me he had to talk to his family on Thursday because they were going to be traveling on Christmas. so I sat there in the internet cafe for like 2 hours while he talked. Then he was like "hey, when do you talk to your family tomorrow?" and I told him at 3 to 4, and then I heard him start telling his family "yeah, tomorrow at 3 to 4 we'll talk again!" So I was kinda upset. But then the internet place only had 3 cameras (not enough for him) so he didn't get to talk 2 times. Hes kinda mad at us for that. That's my companion for you. Disobedient and doesn't care.
Colombia has Santa. Christmas here is literally the same. People always ask me if Christmas in the US is like this and I'm like, yeah, its the same thing!
The ward didn't have a Christmas program. But the ward mission leader is big into choir and since I'm an amazing singer he always asks me to go sing or go Christmas caroling with him. lol We sang in sacrament meeting together with his family, and we went Christmas caroling with some of his friends. I had to sing tenor with him because no other tenors showed up in this choir of 25, and so I sight- read all these arrangements of Christmas music. I thought I did alright.
This area is still pretty trash. I literally haven't even taught a single investigador lesson since I got here. I guess part of the problem is that a lot of the people here are just super lazy. We had an activity this week where we were gonna show the movie Meet the Mormons and the plan was to have members bring their friends so we could contact them. This was announced at church like a million times last week and the week before, but literally nobody came. We watched it just the 4 of us missionaries. The bishop didn't even come. The ward has like 800 members but only an attendance of 130. I don't even think any of the wards in this stake should be wards.
I'm talking with the stake young men's presidency about organizing a soccer tournament between the wards. There's six wards and they all have their own chapel so we can do home and away games and I'm thinking of doing round robin pools to seed the teams and then do a double elimination tournament. The idea is that the young men invite their friends so we contact them, like we always did in churchball. Invite friends to win I mean. The young men like never come to church here. And I wanna be in charge of it becauseI don't trust the Colombians to do it, and I have all this experience running Smash Bros tournaments, so I know what I'm doing, lol.
A problem I have is that every Sunday after we make food my companion and this guy from the other companionship go to sleep and I talk to this kid from Idaho, Elder Killpack for like 3 hours and it just stresses me out, because all he wants to do is talk about how awful the church in Colombia is and how screwed up the mission leadership is and how the church here doesn't progress, and every week it stresses me out. lol. It just kinds stinks how there aren't any good things to really talk about. mission-wise.
I think w'ere gonna try and talk at 2 or 3 on Christmas day after lunch. But the problem is is that we still haven't found a internet salon that'll be open on Christmas with cameras and stuff. And we're not allowed to go to the houses of the members. It might be a search, but expect to hear from me this Friday!
This week was literally my worst week ever stats wise on the mission. I got
to my new area and my new companion literally doesn't know anyone. It's pretty
much like we're opening the area and I'm senior companion. Tuesday night when we
were planning he says "Okay at 2 we're going to go for this person....and
there's nobody else." And I was like what? There's no way we only have one
person to visit tomorrow. So I looked in the area book and the list of less
actives, and on my second day in the area I planned the whole day out. I guess
nobody likes him very much because he;s really disobedient and flirts with the
hermanas, and he talks back to all of the leaders, but if he's with a good
companion (like me!) he'll work hard. I get along with him pretty well, but I get
along with almost everyone pretty well. We've just been visiting members less
actives and recent converts sharing this "A Savior is Born" thing
that the church is doing. I literally didn't teach a single investigator this
week and I don't even know any. The ward members don't really work with the
missionaries but we're going to change that pretty soon. I've gotten to be friends
with a lot of the members so far. My plan is to make friends with all the
members so they actually want to come with us and not just because they're
obligated.
It's just the two of us in the apartment. The view is really
nice. And I got the package on Saturday in the zone meeting. I think it arrived
sooner but they just are now giving it to me. Did you put a picture of the holy
virgin and the divine child Jesus on it? lol.
We got a text message this week that just said "you
can't watch the Christmas devotional, you have to work" from the zls.
Something funny, I met this guy in the ward who is like 70
and bought tickets to the Rolling Stones in Bogota this March, and he was
telling me alllll about it. He bought the most expensive tickets so he could be
in the giant pit in the front and I'm pretty sure he's gonna die.
Something spiritual, we were visiting some members and we asked
if we could leave them with a prayer. They're about 60 and it's just a married
couple living alone. The husband started saying the prayer and it was literally
the most powerful prayer I've ever heard. And it wasn't even for anything
special. He started crying during the prayer. If we all prayed like that I
think we would see the results a lot clearer.
Something interesting, The ward mission leader sings a
really good tenor, his wife alto, and his daughter soprano, and when he found
out I sing an "amazing bass" he said that we were going to go Christmas
caroling just the 4 of us (none of the other missionaries can sing!)
