Week 81!

Hey mom! It was a pretty good week leading up to the birthday. :) Just lots of hard work, and doing what we can :)  It was a pretty cool week and we are hoping to have lots of success in the coming weeks because of it.

First off, we found some part member families...yes, more than one.  For those of you that don't know, that's missionary GOLD.  It's the easiest and quickest way to get someone baptized.  So we found a lady who has a grandson named Juan-David who hasn't been baptized yet and so now hes getting ready to get baptized in the next few weeks.  He is a really cool kid, and when we invited him to be baptized he was like "Yeah, sounds sweet, when can I do it?" So we are happy.

We were walking by the church the other day, and a little girl came running out and goes "Elders! My grandpa´s keys got stuck in the door, can you help us out?" and so we did.  My comp was talking to the little girl, and she told him that she was turning 9 today, and that she hadn't been baptized yet....CONVERT BAPTISM. Haha, little miracle but pretty cool.  She comes to church every week so she can pretty much get baptized real soon.

Also, a new member showed up to church yesterday.  We didn't recognize him, so we talked to him to see when we could visit him.  He goes "You guys can visit me whenever you want, but talk to him, he's the investigator" and pointed to his friend.  Turns out they just moved to Ibagué, and he is married to a member, but he just hasn't been baptized yet.  The whole family was really cool too, so he has a lot of support to help him get to baptism.  

Yesterday in the morning the branch President called me and asked if I could give a talk in sacrament meeting.  So real quick I threw something together about missionary work.  I think it went pretty well, considering I had like 20 minutes to prepare it, haha.  Not bad at all. 

 

But yeah, loving the work.  Loving being tired all the time.  Love the heat.  Loving life.  Thanks for everything mom.  Love you :) Talk to you next week.

Week 80!

Hey mom! Sorry, I'm a little short on time, so the letter might be short.

This week was pretty good.  We went back to teach Adriana and her dad, super great people.  The only problem is, Julio (the dad) isn't all too excited about marrying his girlfriend (of 32 yrs), haha.  BUT! He really wants to learn more and come to church.  Sadly, he wasn't able to come to church because when he was getting ready and heading over, his job called him in and he had to leave.  DARN.  Oh well, next week.  Even better news, Adriana has a son who´s 13 and hasn't been baptized yet. WOO!  That's what we look for. :) 

Haha super cool you got to meet Wyatt Thompson, for real, that guy is my hero.  I love him to death.  Also super cool you got to meet other people from the mish like Elder Ostler.  Small world. 

Today I'm in Bogota for a leadership meeting tomorrow, wish me luck! Love you. :) Talk to you next week.

Week 79!

Hey mom, to start off, I need to ask forgiveness...I can't send photos. I know you'll be mad, but it's better this way, haha.  I sent you guys photos last week and nearly lost 1200 pics, haha, so I'm probably gonna be a little less on the photos for a bit.  I'm still a little worried that I lost some photos, but we´ll see.  

So, the new area is real cool!  Its been a ton of fun.  Ibagué is a real nice city, and it's really green.  It's funny you mention that Colombia is playing in the world cup because the big "star" from, the Colombian team actually lives in my area :) Too bad he is in Russia so I haven't seen him yet.  JAMES RODRIGUEZ is his name.  Pretty cool stuff.  It is pretty crazy for sure because everyone goes NUTS for the game.  Our apartment building puts on a big screen and watches it together...sadly...missionaries don't watch the world cup, haha.  But since everyone has it blasting, we have a pretty good idea about whats going on. :)   

My new comp is Elder Araujo from Brazil.  He is from a state called Sergepe.  Hes got about 20 months in the mission so he's pretty closed to done.  We´ve been getting along real well and we're pumped to get the Ibagué zone to be the best zone in the whole mission. :)

So this week was pretty good.  We got to Sunday and we were pretty short on new investigators, so we tried to work hard on that and get some news, and we only found a few, but we found some good ones. :) We had a contact from about a week ago named Adriana, who said that she got baptized about 10 years ago, but hasn't really come to church since then, but she accepted a visit.  So we came by, and she wasn't home, but her dad was.  And we asked if we could share something with him and he goes "uhhh....weeeelll....errr....sure.  Come on in." And so we came in and started talking with him.  About 10 minutes into the lesson he goes "Guys, I want you to come to my house every day. I need you to come and pray with me and read the scriptures with me so I can get closer to God." And we were like cool man sounds good.  Then a bit later he goes "I'm not gonna lie...I drank a beer a little bit ago, and I'm a little woosy...but I need you guys to come over every day to help me stop" and we were like, you got it man.  Then after a bit more, he goes "I know this is the true church, a few years ago, some other missionaries were coming to the house, and we read the Book of Mormon, and I know it's true."  So now all we gotta do is get him to come to church and he's HITTIN' THE WATER! Haha, cool experience ;) plus his daughter got there half way through the lesson (the less active one) and said she would go to church with him too. :) WOO

So yeah, pretty good week.  Cool area, new mission president (President and Hermana Palhua from Perú)  we´ll be meeting them this week so I'll let you know how it goes.  Lovin' life.  Talk to you soon. PEACE 

PS:  P Day was a sweet 4th of July party.  We tried to grill burgers and hot dogs but the grill didn't really work.  We figured it out in the end though.  Awesome times.  It's kind of sad because I can't eat american food like I used to.  I'm just not used to it anymore. I didn't even eat that much today and I was dying haha.  BUT IT WAS WORTH IT. 

Week 78!

Hey, Mom! Good stuff. . .firstly. . .TRANSFERS!  I got pulled out from Villavicencio and sent to Ibagué (E-bag-gay) which is super cool.  I was told that there are 3 "paradise" areas in the mission: Leticia, Villavicencio, and Ibagué.  And now I've hit all 3. :)  Super pumped to be here.  My comp's name is Elder Araujo, from Brazil.  He's real chill and even likes the same music as me (the metal kind).  It's a super cool zone, and my man Elder Hancock (my beloved son) is here too.  So it's gonna be great.

I was pretty sad to say by to Villao though.  I had a ton of fun there and a bit of success.  I had to leave the week that we had 4 possible baptisms planned...and I had to leave.  But its okay, I'm super excited to get workin' here and make Ibagué the best zone in the best zone in the world.  WOO!

Things have been pretty crazy because of the world cup.  And, if you didn't know, Colombia is in it.  So everyone is going nuts.  Yesterday they played and our whole apartment complex (except for us, haha) watched it together.  Everyone was going nuts.  Gotta love it. 

Also, super dang sad to say goodbye to President and Hermana Baquerizo.  Super great people heading home this week.  Gonna miss them like crazy, we got  some good pictures together to say bye. :)  

So yeah, I don't have a lot to talk about because I just got here.  But I look forward to diving into the work here and having more to talk about in the future. :) Love you guys talk to you next weekski.

Week 77!

Hey, Mom!  Not a lot going on here either.  It was a pretty boring week.  I'm pretty exhausted these days too.  Just trying to work hard and take advantage of the little time I've got.  

 

We have some really cool investigators right now.  About 2 or 3 weeks ago we found a family that also lived in the amazons.  Well, we're preparing a baptismal service for the mom and the son this weekend.  The daughter isn't quite ready to get baptized yet, but she's coming around, haha.  They've just been awesome ever since the first day we found them.  We've just been trying to fill their lives with the gospel, to try and help them progress, and it seemed to work.  We've been inviting Giovanny to lessons and stuff and have been doing family home evenings with them and some other member families and they are really excited to get baptized.  

Also, our recent convert Alexander that got baptized like 2  weeks ago is still loving being a member.  He even goes and gets the other members to go to institute with them.  He waits for people to be able to walk to church with them so he's been doing really well.  We just love seeing how excited he was to become a member of the church and he just digs in and participates in class and stuff.  Haha, I know it sounds so little, but I was just happy to see it.  

And that's really about it.  Missionary work is really just doing the same thing every week and praying for miracles and tender mercies.  Gotta love it.

Love you, Mom.  Thanks for being number 1.

Week 76!

This week was pretty cool.  We had a pretty successful time finding news.  We found 9 even new investigators.  It's been rad.  And...we don't even have to knock doors! Knocking doors is kind of what you do when you literally have nothing else to do, and you need new investigators, but we've just been planning better, and life's good.  We've been finding like crazy.  We even found this awesome family last week that's from the amazons, and they all came to church!  We are all trying to baptize like crazy so President Baquerizo can have a killer last month before he goes...and also because, that's what we do as missionaries, haha.  So we're hoping to get them baptized this month! They are really awesome and they love the Book of Mormon, so we are hoping that their faith will grow quick so they can get baptized! 

Also, we had to run to this place called "Puerto Lopez" this week to grab some marriage papers for a couple wanting to get married so they can get baptized.  It was pretty cool.  Its considered the center point of all of Colombia.  They call it the "Bellybutton" of Colombia because its the center.  There is a cool obelisk thing there that you can see that is the exact center point, but sadly it was closed.  The whole place was covered in water too.  There has been a ton of rain so they've just been living in a ton of water like it was normal.  People are just getting around it little boats, haha.  I have a video of it...but I kind of forgot my camera so I can't send it...sorry. 

So yeah, Mom, I'm kind of on the home stretch.  They still haven't told me when I get home yet, but that day isn't too far off.  They'll be calling me in the next few months to ask me when I want to get home and stuff like that. It's gonna be pretty crazy. We've been doing really well lately so I'm glad that I'm entering my last 6 months with something good.  It's been a long...but very short year and a half.

Love you like crazy, Mom! You guys are the best, thanks for everything.  Have a killer week.

Week 75!

Dang you guys had a killer week! JEALOUS! But not too jealous, I had a good week too.  Hamilton and Pie Hole is hard to beat though. :) 

Dang that's wack a kid is coming to my mission is September.  Who knows, maybe I'll train him :) Give him my email so I can help him out with prep stuff. :)

GOOD WEEK THOUGH!  We got a baptism. :) His name is Alexander.  I'm not going to lie, when I first met him, I thought, "he seems like a nice kid, but I don't think hell ever come to church." But hey, here we are a few weeks later, and he's baptized! He was really nervous, but after he got interviewed he was real pumped.  He was even talking to some members about how he wants to go on a mission.

Also, miracle of the week.  Yesterday, we needed to find 3 new investigators to be able to reach our new goal, and we had made plans to reach it, but suddenly the plans fell through.  We got a little nervous but we trusted that the Lord would bless us.  We went and visited a less active sister who loves sharing the gospel with everyone that comes by, and we just shared a little scripture, and one of her friends sat down where we were talking.  We said hi and the member sister goes, "yeah she goes to a church, but I told her that our church is better!" Haha, kind of an interesting way to share the gospel, but in the end, she invited us in to teach her and her 2 kids.  They are from Mitu Vaupez in the Amazons so we got to talk a little bit about the Amazons because I lived in the forest for a bit too, haha.  It was really cool.  They really loved hearing the message of the restoration.  They were happy to hear that God still loves us and still calls prophets in these days. They were also happy to hear about the Book of Mormon, because it was pretty much written by their ancestors.  I'm hoping we can keep teaching them and that they can come to church.

We also had our last interview with Presidente Baquerizo.  It was pretty rough.  He started off the interview explaining the importance of our work here in the mission.  He said "You can never appreciate how important you're work is here, you'll get home, and be able to say, I baptized X number of people, or I taughtt X number of people, but they might go on missions, or their kids might, and the amount of people who come to know the gospel grows every time, so you really cant ever know how much of a difference you really are making."  That really impacted me.  It's true though, we never really know how much we are helping here.  It was  a pretty intense interview.  I'm going to miss Presidente and Hermana Baquerizo a ton. They have been some really great examples to me for the last 17 months.

But yeah, that's pretty much my week. :) It's been a good one for sure. Love you guys, peace.