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. 

Pasto - Week Eight

Dad's gonna be bishop? Woahhh.  Crazy. I know you said tell no one but I'm gonna tell all my companions. Does that count? He's gonna be really busy now I imagine.

Blake made the volleyball team at Mission Vista! Since basketball and soccer got banned in the mission, I've been playing a lot of volleyball. I'm pretty good, so that just means I can beat Blake at something else now...

So this week a few things happened. The first is that we have another baptism planned for the 26 of March. We're gonna baptize L_, who's like this 20 yr old kid who lives here. He kinda doesn't do anything, but we taught him 2 times this week, and he said that he pretty much wants to learn more about the church and then eventually go on a mission like us, this kinda surprised me cuz he's kind of a punk kid and he's always like, laughing and stuff. But he went to church this Sunday and was pretty serious. I've got so much hope for this kid.

My recent convert here, J_, just got the priesthood on Sunday (the lower priesthood) so that was pretty cool, it's only a matter of time until he gets the big boy priesthood! Also he told us that he bought an engagement ring, and he's planning on proposing to his girlfriend like, next week! So that's really cool--we're gonna help out and stuff so that it all goes well.

In this mission we have pensionists, like we eat lunch everyday with the same family, but the pensionist in this area hardly gives us anything, like a spoonful of rice and a glass of juice, and if we complain she just gives us more of what we don't like, so I've been suffering lately, but this Sunday a member talked to me and said she wants to be the pensionist, and that she used to be the pensionist for the missionaries but she like, had a child, but she's promised to give us pizza, hamburgers, philly cheesesteaks, tacos, lasagna and a TON of food. So were in the process of changing the pensionist.

And last all of a sudden since the other 3 missionaries left the ward, the ward is like, super excited to work with the missionaries again, and all the members want to go do visits with us and everything, so that's pretty good. My companion has like 13 months but I'm senior companion, but he's says now he's going to be really obedient cuz he said the last transfer he almost didn't do anything, and he wants to make up for it this transfer. So we're working really hard, which is good.

Love you all

Pasto - Week Seven

This week some interesting stuff has gone down. The first thing is the baptism, which was really cool. Jorge is a really cool guy. He learned English by watching videos on Twitch, but he gets nervous when there's a gringo in the room so he never speaks English to me. Everyone (the missionaries who are learning English with their gringo companions) says I speak the weirdest English and they can barely understand me, So I guess Oceanside speaks the coolest English.

The weird thing that happened was that I guess a ton of missionaries went home early without honor for something that they did, so everyone is kinda sketched out, and then my companion got a phone call Saturday night from the zone leaders that said "Hey, back your bags, you're leaving tomorrow" which is really weird, cuz the transfers are TODAY, and normally when you get emergency transferred they at least tell you the area and who your companion is gonna be but they literally didn't tell him anything...so I was like, without a companion on Sunday and today I'm with this guy Elder B__, who's really cool. His companion just finished the mission so they put us together until our companions get here. I already know my new companion. He's pretty cool, but I'm senior companion again even tho he has more time than me, which is pretty lame that they keep sending me companions like that, like literally all 5, and then I see people in my group or people who have less time than me training and stuff, It's kinda laaamee but what can you do.

Love you tho!

Pasto - Week Six

I'm kinda stoked about this weekend cuz were gonna baptize Jorge this Saturday and he said "ELDER WOODMANSEE I WANT YOU TO BAPTIZE ME!" and I was like "Yayy!" 

I learned this week that some missionaries are idiots, and they baptize people by convincing instead of converting. This week we went to a recent converts house and she had a ton of questions, like "how do we know that Jesus is Jehova" (cuz in the Bible in Spanish it pretty much never says God it says Jehova), and a ton of other stuff that she should've known before she got baptized. And the lamest part was that she didn't want scriptures or examples from the Book of Mormon, or D&C, just the Bible, and when I asked her why, she was like "Just because." And then this Sunday (this was something I didn't know before the mission but every Sunday in literally every chapel in the world there's a class for investigadors and recent converts and less actives) the teacher for that class wasn't there so we had to teach it, and we were supposed to teach about the Holy Ghost, and we mentioned that the Holy Ghost doesn't have a body like Jesus and God the whole class (who were pretty much all recent converts from like 3 or 4 months ago) all flipped out. Like they had no idea that God and Jesus have bodies, and when we tried to explain to them with scriptures from the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants they were all like, "NO we only want scriptures from the Bible." It's like all these people got baptized just because the other missionaries convinced them, not because they had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, it kinda frustrates me.  

Love you!