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 ❤

Buga - Week thirteen

Honestly, being the district leader is pretty stressful haha since now I have to do baptism interviews and run THE BOX (the zone leaders came over on Wednesday and taught me how to do it) around and pay the water bills for everyone in the district, and honestly, it's taking a lot of time from me. Also, having a companion who's not really willing to cooperate isn't really helping. I feel like every week my son gets more and more, unwilling to obey or do anything the way that we're supposed to do it. I try to help him and correct him but he just only gets mad at me. At this point I'm convinced that he hates me, but whatever. Also, other missionaries (and even the branch president the other day) are telling me that he has serious problems with the sisters in the ward and that he's always telling people about his past life (which was a sinful one). So a lot of the new members and investigators are hearing him and think that all missionaries are like that. My new district and training responsibilities are kinda sucking. I'd say that I'm getting stressed out, but that's not really true. I'm just kinda hoping that this transfer goes by really quickly.

The good thing that happened this week is that Brayan is gonna get the Melchizedek priesthood this week! He had his interview with the district president this last week and was sustained in the district conference. He also asked me to give him priesthood, but the branch president said that might not be allowed (I don't see why not) but whatever, most probable outcome is that I'll give him the priesthood, and it'll be cool to have a bunch of Colombians with Woodmansee as their line of authority!

I don't know if we said this last week but the district goal is to baptize 20 people this transfer, and so far we have 2. I personally have 0 and a lot of the people that we were planning on baptizing aren't progressing so, I guess that means we'll focus more on contacting people. Pilar will probably be baptized this Saturday, but she doesn't know it yet hahah. I'm about to go start working, but the streets are FILLED with trick or treaters, so we'll see if  anyone will attend to us...

As for the missionary who just got back from my mission, I've seen tall missionaries with red hair, but never talked to them. If I'm thinking right, he finished when I was still starting, so I don't think he knows me. 

Also, in the Spanish bible, the annotations make it clear that the teaching applies to ALL sacrifices, even if in that scripture he was only talking about animal sacrifices, but whatever. 

love you all!

Buga - Week twelve

So today were transfers, I thought that they would change me because they never leave me in the same area for a long time, but I'm still in Buga, so I'll finish the training Elder Roman. I'm also the new district leader in Buga!!🎊 I honestly have no idea what to do, especially since the district leader in Buga is the only district leader in the mission that has a BOX (box full of money that we use to reimburse missionaries) and Elder Alcorta, my old district leader, handed me the box and said "here's the box" and then got on a bus and left to Cali. So now I have missionaries asking me about reimbursements and I have no idea how to run the box... or be a district leader really. So that's cool

That baptism we were planning on having didn't happen because Pilar, the investigator, says that she's not ready, even though she has acknowledged that she felt the spirit reading the Book of Mormon and going to church. Freaking CATHOLICS! She says that she can't be baptized because she doesn't know that much about the church even though we've taught her almost all of the lessons. So I think that were just gonna teach her the lessons that she has left and then tell her, "okay, we don't have anymore lessons. You already know everything" and see were she ends up. 

Brayan, my recent convert, is going to receive the Melchizedek priesthood this weekend! AND might go on a mission! (He's 25, so to be able to go on a mission, he needs special permission, that he might get!) AND introduced us to one of his friends named Francisco, or Frank. 

Frank is 17, and he has some problems, like, gay problems, also word of wisdom problems, and pornography problems. When I talked to him the first time he told me that all that stuff he's doing is natural and that we should be doing it because it's scientifically proven that it's good for us or whatever. But that was like 15 days ago, and now that he has gone to church twice, he says that he thinks that knowing the church and the missionaries was probably one of the best things that has ever happened to him, and he wants to get baptized! Which I think is really cool, because the truth is, we haven't even really taught him the Restoration yet (just law of chastity, since, its kinda a big problem) and he says that he noticed that the people who go to church seem happier than anyone else he knows. So he's willing to make a huge change and leave all that other stuff behind (and the first time we talked he said, "I would happily be Mormon with no problems, but you can't take that stuff away from me) which I think is really cool how someone can change that drastically in 2 weeks, just by feeling the spirit! I hope he can be baptized this transfer, but he might not be able to because of the gay stuff, which requires a long repentance process...

Scripture to think about:

1 Samuel 15:22

22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight inburnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice...

My companion, is like always wanting to break rules, and tells me that we HAVE to do certain things to help our investigators, and always tells me (and everyone he comes in contact with) that "obedience brings blessings, but sacrifice brings miracles..." What he tries to say by quoting that is that we have to sacrifice obeying all of the rules to be able to have even MORE blessings (in other words, disobeying is okay, if its to help someone) I honestly have no idea who said that, but a Prophet of the lord said that obedience is greater than sacrifice, so I always tell him that and he gets really upset with me.

We can apply this scripture in a non mission rule sense. A lot of people tell me that they can't go to church because they have to sacrifice Sundays to go to work, and that God will understand because God knows how much they need extra money. But going to church is a commandment so, Hath the Lord as great delight in sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? No. There's probably a lot more of these examples that you can think of, but people in Colombia are trying to use "sacrifice" as an excuse to not obey the commandments.

Also, I traded my Captain Moroni statue for some dragonballs that Elder Alcorta bought, not because I actually wanted to trade, but because I saw that Elder Alcorta REALLY wanted that Moroni, and he'll be happier with it that I am, so bye Moroni!  🤗😭

We also played Jeopardy with the Yate family in our weekly family home evening! The topics were: The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Commandments, and The Restoration. I've never seen grown men and women yelling and crying and jumping out of their seat yelling, "I know this! I know this!" like 4 year-olds. It was pretty entertaining. Not everyone who was there is in the pictures we took at the end, but yeah. 

Since I pretty much didn't write anything last week, here's a really long letter this week! love you

Buga - Week eleven

So today we went bowling as a district to celebrate my 16 MONTHS! We literally just got here like 10 minutes ago, so I literally don't have time to say anything else. Sorry! But I have a lot of photos on drive hahaha

I'm having a lot of problems with my son-wanting to be disobedient and telling people that he wants to be disobedient. Honestly, I have no idea what to do, especially with the women he's like always all up on them and I don't know what to do. When I tell him that he can't do those things he gets mad at me...

Yesterday I taught a FHE lesson about scripture study with the Yate family, and pretty much said that scripture study is more effective if we take notes, so do it!!

Sorry for the super short letter, but ill write more next week

Love you!

Buga - Week four

This week was pretty good, but I'm kinda upset right now because I was gonna start writing like 30 minutes ago but the power went out in all of Buga. Now I only have 30 minutes to respond to everyone so that kinda sucks.

Whatever, this week was pretty good. On Tuesday we had a zone meeting where we talked about how nobody in the mission has baptismal dates. So I made a goal to put baptismal dates in the first lesson, and so we had 6 dates all for the 10th of September and all 6 said that they would go to church!

and then nobody went to church!! Wooo!! Colombia is great! 

I honestly don't know why they didn't go to church but it was kinda disheartening. We did have one investigator named Brayan (Brian). He's the cousin of one member of the branch who just got home from his mission about 2 months ago. He's already been 2 times (he went last week too) and he's really good. It helps that his cousin takes him to institute and the YSA activities, and also watches the Joseph Smith movie with him. It's kinda hard for us to teach him though because his parents hate the Mormons and won't let us in the house, even though he's 25 and can make his own decisions. We can't go visit him where he works because it's not a good environment, but we'll find a way I guess. 

My favorite investigator that we have is the Muslim man, William, who is super funny. This week he asked us how many Mormons there are in the world and we said around 16 million, to which he responded, "oh, if there's already so many I don't think you need one more" referring to himself (that joke doesn't really translate very well but it was something like that). So we decided to teach him in a different way: one principle at a time. So when we went we taught "God is your loving Father in Heaven," he gave us a big hug and thanked us for coming when we left! I really hope he ends up getting baptized.

We also had 2 family home evenings, and since my companion's pretty new, I ended up giving both lessons, and they were both fantastic! And pretty inspired. The first lesson I gave to a part-member family, (mom isn't member, dad is less active, son is active, but they can't get married because legal stuff). I taught a lesson about obedience and used an example of the 8 year old Thomas S. Monson who one time used matches when his parents told him not to and then almost burned down a national park. It went pretty good because afterwards the dad said, "God brought you this message!" to his son and then afterwards told me that his son has been misbehaving recently, so that's pretty cool!

Also, mom, I want you to know that I almost always talk about you when I teach people, and relate the stories I tell about God and us, because we're his children and he's a great parent! I'd give some examples, but I'm short on time so you'll have to remind me next week.

I don't share a religious message in my emails because I only have like 50 minutes to write each week and I have a lot of people that I respond to. So, there's not really any time and well, when I say we couldn't do much this week, I don't mean that we couldn't do anything, but that we had a lot of time taken away from us, and we lost a lot of time. Not that we didn't do literally nothing. And the garments? I mean, I had pants on, but what else was I supposed to do, put on a wet shirt? and I don't think that anyone really reads the blog anyways. 

that's it, no more time. Love you!