Week 57!

Hey mom!  Thanks for the letter :) Even if nothing really happens I still love hearing about it.  You guys are just s'dang far away, hahaha. 

This week was a little tougher.  We tried really hard and didn't have a lot go down.  We've just been doin' what we can though.  There are a few parts of our area that are a little more dangerous and we aren't supposed to go in there, but the hard part is that other than those areas, there are very few houses in our area.  So we have to look pretty hard to find places to contact, haha.  I've only been here 3 weeks, and we are already knocking the same streets again, hahaha.  Oh well.  We've decided to get a little creative.  We will hopefully be trying some more interesting things this week to find new investigators, so we'll see how it works out.  The mission has been really big on finding new investigators lately, so the assistants and the President released a sheet of creative ways to find new investigators.  For example, some missionaries went out and bought some bread, and offered it to people on their doorstep, and while they ate they showed a bible video called "The Bread of Life" haha.  I'd like to try that one...we'll see.  

Amidst our dang boredom of having nowhere to contact, we hit the area book.  We found an old investigator named Amparo.  We set up an appointment, but she wasn't there.  But her son Camilo was.  We asked if we could share a message with him, and he accepted.  Hes 20 years old, so I guess it kind of makes it easier to relate to him.  He told us he really wants to come closer to God.  He goes, "a lot of crazy things have happened to me this week, and after all of it, you guys come to my door."  The spirit was really strong in the lesson, and he even came to church yesterday.  So far so good.  He felt really good at church.  We talked to his mom, and she says she wants to come too so good things should be happening in the future.

Today we went for a short hike called El Carmen.  It was pretty fun.  It was like 30 or 40 minutes of walking up a mountain to get to another dang Virgin Mary statue, haha, but it was cool to hang out with the zone so it was fun.

This week we gotta head into Bogotá for a big conference with a general authority.  His name is Elder Gonzalez.  It should be fun.  

Love you guys! Thanks for everything.  You guys are #1.  

Week 56!

Hey, Mom! Thanks for the letter.  I'm so glad you guys got to have an awesome 117 Day!  

This week was pretty cool.  We are still just trying to find a ton of investigators because we are running pretty low on investigators to come  to church and stuff, but we have been doing pretty well at it.  Preach my gospel says that nothing can happen in missionary work until we find people to teach.  So we have been trying really hard to find more people to be able to work with.  This week we worked like "Berracos" as they say here, and found 7 new investigators.  They are all really good too.  We are hoping to start having a lot more success in the near future because of all our work, haha.

This week with "La Zona Villavicencio" was really good.  Last week we had it pretty tough with only 10 people at church, but everyone put forth an effort and this week we had 30 investigators at church.  The whole zone...not just us, haha.  We were pretty happy with the results from this week.  We also had a training with President Baquerizo and he talked about how to help people come to church and it worked out really well.

Today as a zone we went and played some frisbee and soccer at the church and then went bowling after.  Bowling is always a good time.  The frisbee and soccer was fun but since we are in "hot lands" I nearly freaking died.  Oh well, it was still a good time.  

Sorry, I feel like my emails are so lame these days, the whole mission just kind of becomes really routine and I feel like I don't have anything cool to say.  I'll try and keep my eyes out for cool things this week to write about.  Love you a ton, thanks for the email.

With Love,

Elder Leishmancito.

Week 55!

Hey Mom! 

This week was a bunch of fun.  First off, coming all the way out to Villavicencio on a bus.  Freaking 4 hour bus ride all by myself, haha.  I survived though.  I got here and have been hanging out with my man Elder Nielsen from Parma, Idaho since then.  It's been really cool.  It was weird teaching with him again.  We just already knew how to work together and how to teach together so it didn't take us long before we were back in the old routine again, haha. 

So a little about Villavo (that's what they call it for short and they pronounce it like Villao).  It's like a giant city in the middle of the dang jungle.  They call it the "llanos" which I'm pretty sure means plains because its just a ton of flat lands, but a big part of my area is mountainous which is pretty rad.  We get some good exercise climbing the mountains on foot.  Some of the typical food here is "Carne a la llanera" which is a food I think I might have told you guys about a while back.  It's meat they put on a think they call the "llanera"  and they let it rotate over a fire for a while.  It's like their own smoked meat. Real good though.  Dad would like it.  The music is pretty much normal Colombian stuff, but there is a style called LLANO that is pretty awful.  It's just really fast and made for drinking, haha.  The heat is a ton of fun to try and survive.   Today as a zone we went to a place called Cosechas, which is like Jamba Juice down here.  Its a dang missionary's best friend in hot lands.  It's the best way to escape the heat for a bit.   Today we also went to the zoo as a district (and some other elders from the zone) which was a grat tim [Tanner lingo for "great time"].  We just kinda walked around and saw some fun animals.  Nothing too crazy, except for the DOPE FREAKING FILTHY JOHNS PICS WE TOOK [Filthy Johns are the Dollar Store kid's sunglasses that Tanner loves].  Haha, the zone thought it was pretty funny, so everyone walked outta there with a good ol' filthy johns pic.

Other than that we've just been working like crazy.  I'm still getting used to the area and the people so I don't have a ton to say about the work.  But I'll tell you guys when we have more to talk abouty :) Love you all!  See ya.

Week 54!

Hey mom!  Thanks for the letter :) 

I'm a little short on time because I had to write a fat letter to the President because there have been some changes.  First off...PEACE OUT BOGOTÁ, HELLO VILLAVICENCIO.  I'm headed out of Marsella.  I've loved it a ton, and we have had a lot of good things going, but I guess Elder Hancock will have to hold the place up.  

So, Villavicencio is a part of hot lands...meaning it´s outside of bogotá and its real hot.  REAL hot.  But the good news is, Elder Nielsen (my comp in Leticia) is there, and he says it's kind of like Leticia, but just less extreme.  So the heat and the rain are just...less.  Also...crazy thing.  Elder Nielsen is going to be my comp AGAIN.  Haha, it's funny because they had to come stay at our house the other day because they came to Bogotá for a Leadership meeting, and we were joking about how I was going to be his comp's replacement because he is leaving...and whataya know I'm headed there tomorrow.  I have to leave tomorrow because I need to go to a zone leader training in the morning because Elder Nielsen and I are going to be zone leaders together.  Everyone says being a zone leader is tough, but I guess we'll see, haha :)

So yesterday we ran around and said by to everyone.  It was pretty tough.  Saying bye always sucks.  I don't know if you can tell, but the kid in the Halloween costume in the photo is crying because we told him I was leaving.  It was pretty heart breaking for everyone.  So we ran around saying bye to everyone and taking photos.  This morning we went and said bye to some of the people in my district who are heading out too.  So.... IT'S BEEN REAL MARSELLA, SEE YOU LATA.

Thanks mom for everything.  Love you  a bunch.  Talk to you next week.  I'll send pics of the area next week :)

Week 53!

Hey mom! All good over here in the gool ol' Colombo for the new year.  It sounds like you guys have been keeping pretty busy this week as usual.  Especially working on New Year's Eve.  Freaaaak.

This week we kept pretty busy here as well.  It been pretty wacky for new years because everyone in Colombia is a nut, but it's been cool.  This ward is really good and treats us really well so we have been enjoying the holidays.  Leticia Sandoval and her family made us a dinner to take home and eat (because we aren't supposed to eat dinner with the members on holidays) which was super cool!  They are way too nice to us, they always have us over and are so nice.  I feel kind of annoying sometimes because we are always over there. 

This week we just worked our butts off as usual, haha.  We had divisions with the zone leaders which was a lot of fun.  I went over to their area in Kennedy, and Elder Hancock stayed here.  They got us a new investigator so I'm pretty happy about it. :)  We did some contacting too and found some new investigators.  I'm pretty happy.  People in Colombia are pretty open to the message because I imagine knocking doors in the good ol' US of A doesn't get much done, hahaha.  

Other than that things have been pretty normal.  Yesterday for P Day we went bowling which was a bunch of fun.  It's pretty durn expensive but I can't complain because bowling is real fun.  Afterwards we went to this giant mall called Multiplaza that's pretty new.  The place is huge and really cool, except that everything is closed on New Years so we didn't really get to do anything. 

SO mom, I was talking with Leticia and her family about things to do when we come back to Colombia.  They say that in Melgar (the hottest part of the mission...they call it the hell of the mission cause its so hot) there is a place called Cafam.  Its just a huge water/amusement park place that they say we need to check out.  I don't really know anything about it, just that it's huge and not too expensive.  Check it out though and tell me what you think :)  Because I really don't think that there is anything you would like here in, Bogotá, hahaha.

Thanks guys for everything.  Love you a bunch.  I'll try and send some photos in a sec, this computer doesn't have a place for USB so I need to move computers.