Week 52!

Hey mom! I'm sorry if this letter is way too short, I really don't have a ton to say.  This week was just kind of nuts, and I kind of already told you guys about it on Sundee.   It was super cool to see you guys on Skype though!  I was real pumped about it.  I just love how it's just a normal conversation as if we were just talking at home.  I know it sounds weird, I just like how chill it is.

Other than that, this week wasn't too interesting.  We went and sang Christmas carols in everyone's areas so we didn't have a ton of time in our own area to work, but it was still a lot of fun.  We got some good contacts too that should hopefully be investigators soon.

We didn't really think we would have anybody at church because it was Christmas eve, and nobody wants to go to church on Christmas, but it was pretty rad because we had 5 people come with us to church! :) I set a goal a while back that I wouldn't have another week this year with nobody at church, and so far so good! Getting people to church has always been kind of hard, but we've been trying real hard lately and we've been having a lot of success with it.   I guess that's why they make us set so many dang goals during the mission.  Literally....so many goals.  All is well though.

The Christmas party we had yesterday was a ton of fun too.  Everyone brought food and a game to play so we just messed around the whole time. We ate a bunch and just did some real good hanging out.  Lot of fun. 

Thanks guys for everything you do. :) Thanks for the letter.  Merry Bob Saget Christmas.  I'll try and send some photos...but this computer keeps freezing every time I do.

Christmas Eve Skype!

We only got to Skype for 55 minutes!  But it was amazing!  Elder Leishman is clearly so happy doing missionary work!  He is making great friends along the way and LOVES Colombia and the people there.  He is missing music and wanted to know the latest news in the music world from his brothers.  We were excited to meet his companion, Elder Hancock, and a few other elders from his mission.  

Week 51!

Hey mom! Just so you know, the 24th, at 5:00 COLOMBIAN TIME we will be skyping so be ready :)

Glad to hear you guys had an interesting week! Hahaha, this week was pretty interesting for me as well.

Well we all thought that this week was going to be a little more chill because the Christmas parties and everything were over, but HECK, the week was still full of stuff to do.  Oh well, it was still fun.  I think they try and keep us pretty busy and distracted because Christmas time is pretty rough in the mission.  

The other day the zone leaders texted us and told us, "Hey, tomorrow you have to be in the North in the morning to help out with a service project."  And that was it.  Nobody told us what we would be doing, or how much time it would take...or really anything. We got there the next day and we got to help out some Venezuelans get some food.  For those that don't know, Venezuela isn't doing so well.  It's pretty much in civil war because their president is so corrupt.  It's almost impossible to find food, paper, soap, or really anything.  So they are all doing everything they can to get out of Venezuela, but when they get here they don't have much.  Including food or money.  So the church donated a bunch of food to help these people out.  Since a lot of them were mothers with babies, they had us carry their food boxes to the bus, and help them get everything they needed.  It was cool to help out, plus some of my friends from the North mission that I met in the MTC were there so we had a real good time. :) The only bad part was that I got SUPER heckin' sunburned.  Hahaha, everyone made fun of me at church because I was so red.  Oh well, I can't help that I'm gringo.  

Also, this week we had 5 investigators come to church :)  I know that doesn't sound like anything too great, but DANG WHAT A MIRACLE.  Getting people to come to church sometimes feels like pulling teeth, but this week wasn't so bad so I'm plenty happy about it, haha.  A lot of people that hopefully will be ready for baptism real soon. :)  

Starting last week (and continuing this week) we are singing Christmas hymns as a zone in everyone's area.  So we started yesterday in our area...but there was a concert going on right next to it the whole time, so nobody could hear us very well, and it was just kind of nuts. But we are gonna keep singing this week and we'll see how it goes, haha. :)

Thanks for everything guys!  I pulled some money out today to buy myself a sweet pair of shoes.  They look pretty rad, I also got some stuff for my district for Christmas so thanks mom (and Grammy). :)  I love you guys a ton.  Can't wait to see you guys next week :) I'll try and send some photos in a bit.  

Week 50!

Hey mom! What a week.  Wayyy too busy, haha.  It was a lot of fun though.  We had the Mission Christmas Party which was a lot of fun.  All four Elders from Leticia came up and stayed in our house so it was really cool.  We just went with 3 zones from the mission, so it wasn't everyone, but it was still a lot of fun. We got to go to the temple with President and Hermana Baquerizo which was really cool.  Although we had to get up HECKIN early to get there on time.  Then we all got to watch Moana :) which was super cool, but I don't feel like I got the full effect because it was in Spanish, and the speaker barely worked the whole time, but I guess it'll just be something I gotta do when I get back.  In the end  a ton of fun though.

The next day we had the huge Christmas party with the ward.  It was a ton of fun.  Sadly we don't dance, but I def need to learn to dance all the cool dances they do down here.  I might learn to dance the Salsa and Bachata and use that to score a hot wife one day.   It was a lot of fun though :) A lot of music and we had like 7 investigators there so it went really well.  We had planned to sing a funny missionary song for the talent show, but in the end they didn't have one so we just didn't do it, haha.  We got to hang out and talk with the ward and with the investigators so it went really well.

ALSO, I got my Christmas package :) totally awesome! Thank you guys so much.  I've been feeling like a rich bass in all my new Brooks Brothers stuff, haha :) Also, we've been loving the poo-pourri.  My comp says thanks a ton for everything.  We have been loving it.  I'm using the voice recorder to make some good messages to send you guys because its real easy.  I think little by little i'll get used to talking to it, and I can send better messages.  I hope you like the ones I sent though :) 

This week we also did an activity with the MTC.  The missionaries come to our zone and work with us for a day. It was a lot of fun.  Crazy to think that I was there almost a year ago, haha. It kind of freaks me out.  

Well, although it was a crazy week, I guess I don't have a ton to say about it, haha.  I love you guys, keep on keepin' on.  

Week 49!

Hey mom! Thanks for the long letter :) I appreciate it.  Sounds like a pretty eventful week.  I emailed grandpa to let him know I love him.  Haha, I love the story about "give Marci a raise. :) Haha, if I could could call and say the same thing :) 

This week was pretty good.  We felt like for the majority of the week we just didn't have a ton to do.  We have some really good investigators that we have been working a lot with, so we really have been spending a lot of time for them.  But we really felt like we needed new investigators.  We did a lot of contacting (tracting?) and we didn't have a ton of success. But we kept trying and working, and I guess in the end, the Lord saw our diligence and blessed us with some new people to teach. :)  It came down to yesterday and we barely had any news, but a member brought 2 friends to church! So we talked to them and set an appointment to pass by yesterday after church.  They accepted, and we went over.  They lived there with two other people who were really excited to listen.  So in the end, we got 4 new investigators.  It was pretty awesome.  Its really cool when the ward participates in the mission work, it makes it a lot more efficient.  

Also, we had interviews with the president this week.  I always like to bring questions to my interviews because the president pretty much knows everything.  He is super smart and can help with everything.  So I pretty much asked him about everything.  We have some investigators who are progressing really well, but just aren't ready to get baptized, so I asked what I could do to help them.  He really helped me out a lot.  I also asked him what I can  do to help my district more, and he helped a ton.  Really a super smart man.   In the end my interview was like an hour...I think it bugged everyone else but hey, it helped out.

Being a district leader is pretty cool.  It's kind of the best of all the leadership positions. Everyone wants to be a district leader.  It's fun.  My district is a lot of fun.  For the most part, sisters always work really hard, and they don't have any problems with disobedience, so it's not very difficult.  Overall my district has a lot of success so I'm really happy.

This week we have a Christmas activity with the mission.  It should be pretty fun, I think I am going to get to see a bunch of old friends from the mission which will be a ton of fun. :) Also we have another Christmas party with the ward, which should be cool too.  I think we are going to sing a hymn or something.  Maybe I'll sing some metal or something, I don't know.  Its supposed to be a talent show, so maybe I'll punch dance.  

So that's pretty much it from this week. I hope everything is going well for you guys in Eutaw.  Love and miss you guys.   Keep on keepin' on.  Talk to you soon :) the computer is super slow so I'll try and send photos in a bit. 

Week 48!

Hey mom! This week was pretty alright.  We had a lot of fun contacting with the churches "Light the World" thing they are doing again...but how wierd.  That was my farewell talk.  I'm already about to hit a year!! Ah! I don't believe it.  I'm already coming up on the halfway mark.  Holy cow.  

Haha the contacting was pretty good.  We made sure that just about all the members in the ward received a few "Ilumina el Mundo" cards so we'll see if we can get them all to hand them out :) we also did a ton of street contacting, and found a few new people to teach, so you can't go wrong there.

This week we also had exchanges with the zone leaders this week. It was fun, the only problem in that whenever we do exchanges...every appointment falls through.  Hahaha, that's just how they always go though.  It was even weirder because we didn't have water for a big chunk of the day...so we didn't get to shower until after lunch, hahaha.  All is well, all is well. 

Today was transfers!  Elder Hancock and I are both staying, but sadly 2 sisters from my district (Hermana Dorado, and Hermana Miranda) got transferred.  I know Dad said that some sisters could be a pain in the butt, but here they seem to be the best workers, haha.  They both left this morning, and I'll get to meet the new sisters this Friday when we have district meeting.  It's also weird...we had a district of 4 elders and 4 hermanas, but they moved the elders to another district...so now it's just me, Elder Hancock and 4 hermanas in the whole district.  All is well, I can tell it is going to be a successful district.

Saddish news.  We didn't even have LUNCH on thanksgiving...the members don't love us enough I guess, hahaha :), I kid.  So we ended up calling the sisters from our ward and asking if we could tag along with them for lunch...in the end, not so bad.  When we got home at night we tried to celebrate, but all we could really do was eat ramen noodles and watch the cool Bible videos the church makes.  WOOO.  WHAT A PARTY.  

Thanks for everything mom :) you're number 1!  Thanks for everything.  I'm sure everything will work out with your job :) 

Also...I've tried the google drive thing 100 times and I can't get it to work.  It keeps telling me to set the correct time and date...but no matter what I do it doesn't work.  I'm sorry :( ill keep trying :)

Week 47!

Hey mom! Congrats on the JetBlue grad! Sounds like a tough experience but I'm glad its over.  Good thing it all ended up well.

This week was pretty alright for us. Not a lot happened.  We weren't able to find that many new investigators, but that's okay, we were able to work quite a bit with the people we were teaching last week.  Lot of work to do :)

Also, this week was kind of weird because we had some other random things we had to go do.  The stake held a blood drive this week, and they asked all the missionaries from the stake to come help.  We all went and had to contact outside of the church and try and get people to donate blood.  It was kind of interesting...a lot of people know we are missionaries so it was a quick "No" and walk away. So some people you had to tell them after they already denied "It's just a blood donation" and they sometimes turn around and go "Ah, cool" and take a flyer and go in, haha.  I think the best part of the blood drive was when we ran in and grabbed a hymnbook and sang as loud as we could to contact.  We would have 3 people sing and the other would hand out flyers.  Haha, I don't know if it really worked but we had a lot of fun doing it.  

Also...today we literally took a portal back to freaking Costco.  It's a store here called Pricemart, and its just Costco's divorced wife or something.  We have a member who let us borrow their card and so you KNOW we hit that up.  We found all kinds of good stuff.  It's kind of hard though because they are basically American prices, and they sell everything in bulk to it's a bit much for a missionary budget.  We did what we could though :)  It was super weird...we are just walking down the aisle dying at everything we see, and all the sudden we hear a bunch of people speaking English.  What the heck??  So we look at them and go "hey, uh, are you gringos?" and they go, "Oh hey!! What ward are you guys from?" and we were like, "huh? Gringos...and members??" haha, it kind of freaked us out.  That doesn't happen too much down here.  They were super nice, and gave us some shopping tips.   They (or their husbands) work in the US embassy so they all live down here.  Super crazy run-in.  They were super nice too, they invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner even.  Sadly, it's outside of our mission, but they were super nice to invite us.  They even bought us lunch after.  Super cool experience, haha!

After our cool Costco experience we headed over to a mall called Hayuelos (where JUMBO is) and went bowling as a zone. It was cool and really a lot of fun.  I'm still pretty awful at bowling but that's okay I still love it.  And heck, Elder Hancock freaking killed it.  Who woulda thought, haha.

And that's kind of the week! Not a ton happened, but  just enough to keep it interesting :)  Love you guys, keep on living large.

From Jessica Wilcox (pictured): Saw your cute son at PriceSmart today and want to share! We invited him to thanksgiving, but we live in the Bogotà north mission so they didn’t think they could come! He seems to be doing well. They were so cute, we gave them some cash to buy lunch and they tried to give us the change back.  It was fun to run into them.  Keep my name somewhere in case you or he needs some help (we forgot to tell them our names).  We American members down here get it and are happy to lend a hand! 

Week 46!

Hey mom! I asked about Skype, and they say it's like a three day thing, where we can choose which day, so we should be alright.  Sounds like things are super busy for you guys! I'm glad you are ending your training, it sounds tough.  Yeah Christmas is gonna be weird, but hey I only have to deal with one out here, then I'll be home and the next Christmas will be rad.

Things here are good!  The good news is, Andrea and her son Sajam came to church! They got a lot of friends and they really seemed to like it! They even brought 2 friends along with them so it was a really solid experience.  Things are starting to look up really well this week.  We are super excited.  

We set a goal this week to find 6 new investigators, 3 from members, 3 from contacting.  We totally got just that! Last night, we were short the 3 investigators from contacting, and we didn't really have enough time to find them, so we were slightly bummed about that, but we got to an appointment early, so we decided to contact some doors.  We contacted a bunch with no luck, but then we hit one last door, and the lady let us in.  We got to share with her, her husband and another guy who lived there as well.  It was basically a miracle.  They talked about how there are a ton of churches, and so many of them just open up for money.  So we explained that an honest prayer can help up find the truth.  When we got to the part of the lesson where we talk about the Book of Mormon, they both (the couple) went, "Of course! We always knew that there were more books!" They were super excited about the BOM.  Everything cool.  

Today I might have taken a little early Christmas present...sorry.  The sweaters I have were starting to look pretty rough, haha, so I went and bought myself some.  I tried to find a good deal so it wouldn't be too expensive.  Thanks ;)   ALSO.  We went shopping at that place called Jumbo (the one where I found A1 with Elder Nielsen) and we found...wait for it...DR PEPPER!!!  It was pretty pricey because it was imported, but dang it was good.  Good times. 

That's kind of the run down of this week! Thanks for the write, and everything.  Love you guys! Talk to you soon.

Elder Hancock and I having a grand ol' time

Week 45!

Hey mom! Thanks for the write! I'll look into getting permission to Skype Christmas Eve, that would def be better.  Also, on the scriptures, I don't need the smallest ones, just smaller than the ones we bought.  And, if you could somehow get your hands on the quad that has like a little buckle or cover kind of thing that would be ideal as well.  Just for convenience :) 

This  week the mission work has been pretty alright.  We had  a lot of time out of our area which was kind of hard.  We almost missed like 3 whole days (Well, we missed three days, but not the whole day) due to interviews, meetings and baptismal interviews.  It's all good, that's just the mission. 

This week we were able to find two new investigators that were a reference from a member (which is almost ALWAYS better than knocking doors).  She is the aunt of a real recently returned missionary.  She took the lessons from the missionaries a while back, maybe a little less than a year ago? But never really got to the point of baptism.  BUT the good news is that now she lives with two recently returned missionaries so they are probably going to help her out a lot.  She also had a son who we are teaching.  They both are really cool, and I hope they can gain a testimony.

Today is a holiday here in good ol' Colombia (who knows what...probably some random catholic holiday) which means we got to go to the temple! The coolest part was getting to see my "dad" Elder Sotoski!  Haha, I haven't seen him even once since my training ended, so it was really cool to see him.  Plus he got to meet his "grandson" Elder Hancock.  So we took a cute family pic.  Good times.

After going to the temple, we went to a place called Mundo Aventura, which is like a mini lagoon. It was a lot of fun.  We got to go with some of the people from the zone.  We had a lot of fun there.  

That's pretty much whats cookin' down here in Colombia Bogotá South. Things are good.  Love you guys, talk to you soon :)

Week 44!

Hey mom! This week was pretty good! I'm glad to hear Collin is home and had a good time.  I hope to hear some good experiences from him. 

Things here in the good ol' Colombio are good.  We have just been working hard and having a good time.  We had one pretty funny experience yesterday while contacting, haha.  We knocked on a guy's door and started introducing ourselves and trying to share a little with him.  We talked about the importance of family and how key it is, and he goes, "Can you wait five minutes and come back?" So we said yeah, sure, but then he goes, "Hold on," and he opened the door, and invited us in.  Turned out to be his 6 year old daughter's birthday party, haha!  So he told us to sit, and we figured since it was like 8pm it must have been ending and he wanted to listen after, but one after another the girl kept opening presents...with two gringo missionaries chillin' in the middle of the party.  Super weird.  They even brought us over some soda and food.  We kind of talked to some other parents who were there about the mission and our church and stuff, but it was still super weird.  We could tell the party wasn't ending soon, so we said bye and left.  If nothing else, we got his number and we will be calling to set up an appointment :)

We did quite a bit of contacting this week.  It's kind of hard because our area is like more than half apartment buildings so we have already contacted nearly everything.  It's all good...we might just need to do it all again.

Today we went and had a "Halloween Party" as a zone.  It was kind of just playing volleyball, which is still a good ol' time.  The zone leaders brought me my package so that was super rad :) Thanks guys, 'preciate ya.  So I was thinking, for Christmas you guys don't need to send a package. :) If you wanna, just put some money in my account so I can get some cool stuff here.  I know it's kind of hard and expensive to send packages so that could work just as well.  

Soo...kind of tragic story.  Down there in Leticia, I left my English quad in my bag, that I accidentally left on the floor...and the house flooded.  So my English scriptures are kind of destroyed.  You don't need to rush it, but if you get a chance to send a kind of smallish English quad down here, I'd appreciate it :) 

Tomorrow is gonna be a big huge leadership meeting for the whole mission, so all the district, and zone leaders all get together and have a big training thing or something.  I guess we'll see how it goes.  

Thanks for everything guys! Love you so much.  Talk to you soon :)

Week 43!

Hey mom! I know it hasn't been very long since the last time I wrote you, so sadly I don't have a ton to report.  

So the hard thing is, I am HORRIBLE at directions, but the good news is that Elder Hancock is great at them.  He basically already has the area down, and I'm still lost most of the time, haha.  So it's been really good that he's got it down.  

This week we basically just visited members to try and meet the ward and learn the area.  It's been really cool.  This ward has a lot of really good members.  A lot of returned missionaries too and everyone wants to help in the mission work.  So I'm super excited to start getting referrals. Yesterday my comp Elder Hancock had to give his first talk in the mission field in Sacrament Meeting.  It was awesome.  It was based on President Monson´s talk in April.  He did really well.  Everyone was really excited for him.  Especially since so many of them are returned missionaries and they know how nervous the gringos are when they first get in the field.  But, for being his first Sunday in the field, he killed it! 

Today we got to go check out centro again.  It's been awhile so it was fun.  We just kind of walked around and looked at stuff.  It was a good ol' time.  We also went to McDonald's which is always fun.  Almost the whole zone was there so it was pretty cool.  A bunch of other missionaries were there too so it was really cool to see some old friends from the mish. 

Just so you guys know, we have been hecking using the spices you guys sent, haha.  I love it.  Sometimes here when the members can't give us food, they just give us money, so we buy food and run back to the house and cover it in spices, haha. 

Love you guys! I hope everything is going well for you.  Thanks for the letter.

Week 42!

This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased:

Hey mom!  Wow...what a crazy week!  Now, to start off explaining the title, I'm a trainer!  I got the call Sunday night that I was leaving Leticia to go "open" an area in Kennedy called Marsella 3 with my new son [companion].  So yesterday I came up to the mission home to pick up my new comp!  His name is Elder Hancock and he is from Gilbert, Arizona.  I'm super pumped to be out here working with him.  It's going to be an adventure since we are both in an area we have never seen before.  There were just missionaries here a week ago, but for some reason the president pulled them both out, and sent me and Elder Hancock in.  So far so good! 

Also, another cool thing is now I am a district leader! I have 8 missionaries in my district, 4 sisters, and 4 elders.  I'm super pumped. Its going to be a cool experience.  

So, just a little about my area:   Its called Marsella 3, its in the Kennedy zone.  Its considered the "Poopiest" area in the mission.  Thats Colombian for the richest area in the mission.  Its really cool.  It's covered in really cool malls and restaurantes.  Apparently we have a Fuddruckers here, hahaha.  And Pricemart...which is freaking Costco.  Literally, everything is Kirkland brand, hahaha.  So its a pretty cool place.  I don't know the ward yet, but everyone that's been here says its the coolest ward in the whole mission.  I'm super excited to get everything figured out.  It's gonna be a really cool experience.  

Haha, my Marci senses kicked in Monday when I got to my new house with another elder who was staying with me for the night (Elder Cantos, Quito, Ecuador).  We got there and I have never seen a bigger mess in my life, haha.  You would not believe.  It was covered in boxes and papers and crap.  It was pretty bad.  So Elder Cantos and I speed cleaned everything.  It went pretty well, it doesn't look super bad now.  It was at least clean enough for my new comp to be able to come in comfortably.  

So that's about all that's been going on!  It should be really good!  Also, thanks for the package! I love the ties! I'm rocking the polka dot one right now :) and def if you ever send ties, don't feel obligated to send flower ones, I've got a bunch :) Thanks so much mom! Love you.  Talk to you soon.  

Tanner and his new companion, Elder Parker Hancock

Hugging a sloth - from last week's Amazon River adventures

Week 41!

OH.  MY.  GOSH.  You guys won't believe the kind of day we had today.  Haha, I know everyone wants crazy spiritual experiences, but when you live in the rainforest, sometimes you gotta throw in the crazy other experiences.  So, a super nice bishop from Texas named Lucas came down with his daughter to visit for the week.  A while back he called us to let us know he was coming down so see if we needed anything.  The guy used an entire bag just to bring us beef jerky, Junior Mints and ROOT BEER!!! I know it sounds weird...but that's the kind of random crap you miss when you come down to Colombia, hahaha.   So he had a whole bag full of that stuff, and other stuff (markers, colored pencils, etc.) just to give people.  He also wanted us to set up a service project for him when he got here, so we got to go help a recent convert paint their house.  Wow.  I just couldn't believe that he was down here for vacation, and he wanted to offer service to people he didn't even know, and make sure the Elders had anything they needed.  He is just an awesome guy.

So, last night we get a call from him inviting us to go down the river with him and his daughter.  He said he was going to rent a boat and wanted to see if we could go with him to check out some cool (and super remote) villages.  Well, to start off, riding in boats is a COMPLETE no go in the mission.  It even says in the mission manual that we cant get in boats...but it also says the mission president has the right to change these rules according to the place we work.  So we cast lots to see who had to call the president...and guess who had to call... ME.  So I gave the president a call last night and said "Hey, this guy from Texas wants to take us out to an island tomorrow" and he goes "Do you need to go out on a boat?" and I said yeah.  He goes, "Uhhhh..." and I thought he was gonna say no and then he goes, "Alright, go ahead, just be as careful as you can."  And we all flipped, hahaha.  We were all in our apartment doing happy dances.

So today we met up with our good friend Lucas, and he took us to the guy we were going to head out with.  Unfortunately, his daughter was really sick.  But she is a real trooper and wasn't going to miss out on the adventure so she still came with.  So we are out on the water about 15 minutes and she just doubles over and puked right in the boat.  Poor girl puked quite a bit.  Her dad was on the front of the boat, and couldn't get back to her, so he asked us to give her a priesthood blessing.  What a dang experience.  Elder Pond and I gave a priesthood blessing...in the back of a boat...on the Amazon River. What the heck???  Haha, it was pretty crazy, but a really cool experience.

So our first stop was a place called Puerto Alegría.  Its part Colombian part Peruvian.  But it was crazy cool.  Its just a little village off the coast of the Amazon, but they had all kinds of cool animals.  We got to hang out with sloths....SLOTHS!!  It was super cool.  They are just really slow, but they just rap their arms around you and it just feels like its giving you a hug and they just hang on.  Haha, it's so cool.  Then we got to hold a crocodile, a big ol' snake, and even a porcupine! It was a ton of fun.  Then after that we jumped back in the boat, and went to a place called "Isla de los Micos" or Monkey Island.  It's just a little place where they hand you a little piece of banana and all these cute little monkeys come climb all over you and eat it out of your hand.  It was crazy cool.  After that awesome experience, we got back in the boat and went to a little village.  It was real cool.  Obviously they've just changed all of these little villages to be super touristy, but the people still just live out there in the dang middle of nowhere.  So I bought these bags (I don't know why, I just think the whole Colombian hand bag is like the coolest thing ever) made of a material called Chambira.  I don't know how true this is, but they say that they make chambira by taking this tree bark from some Amazonian tree, and they roll it on their leg into a twine.  Then the weave sweet baskets and bags out of them.  Of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  These people literally make them from scratch.  Super cool.   Then after a few good hours of seeing villages and playing with cool animals we headed back to Leticia and are now writing to you guys.

Super cool day.  Super blessed that Lucas came down here and was willing to let us hang out with him.  Really cool guy.

Thanks for the email mom.  I'm glad to hear everything is going well at home!  Ill try and send pics.  Love you, see ya!

Elder Leishman

(no pics from Elder Leishman, but thank you to the wonderful Mercedes for sending these to me!  So fun to see Tanner learning to cook!  I hope to see pics of his amazing day on the Amazon River . . . someday! But I did google the places he visited.  Incredible!)