Elder Jayden Dawson: Lorica, Life in the Hot City Week 6

Hellooooooo and welcome to the mission field! These last 10ish days have been pretty busy! So I left the MTC last Tuesday morning which was great. I love the MTC and having clean sheets and stuff, but sometimes it was unnecessarily strict and obnoxious. So from the MTC I flew to Medellin on a 1 hour flight which was sups pretty! We got to the Mission Office in the same morning and pretty much stayed there all day just doing orientation stuff pretty much. That night we went to a Chapel and met our new companions/trainers and found out where we were going to! My trainers name is Elder Bigelow, he is from Alaska, he is white, and he's pretty great. He has 17 months in the mission, and I'm his 3rd child hes trained. My area is in a small city called Lorica on the coast. Its very very hot here. My house has not been blessed with AC as of yet, but me and Elder Bigelow and working on trying to find one asap as possible.

After we met our companions, people going to Medellin went straight to their new houses, but other people had to stay the night in this mission house called the hotel. The hotel was pretty cool, not an actual hotel, but we fit about 25 people into a 4 room apartment. In the morning all the peeps heading to the Coast took a 9 hour bus to the city of Monterìa. Ive been spending a lot of time in Monterìa just because we've been practicing for all sorts of Christmas plays and singing things. Monterìa is an hour and a half bus ride away from Lorica. I`ve only spent a total of one day in Lorica doing normal missionary stuff. Yesterday we were in a different city for church and didn't get to go with our branch. Our branch seems nice though! I`ve met a couple really nice people. After New years things should start to be normal missionary work which Im excited for!

My Spanish is okay. The people here talk like Chinese people so I cant understand anything they say yet. I can understand my companion when he talks in spanish and most of what the latino Elders say. Life here in the field seems quite a bit different than the MTC! Hype.

To Mom:

Ya my zone is called Monteria. Theres a Monteria south, and a Sincelejo zone as well. Those 3 zones make up the region called the coast. The 3 regions are the coast, Medellin, and the city of coffee or something like that haha.

Did you meet Elder Allen (Jayson) from Mesa?

I did! He works in the office and is super chill! He picked us up from the airport. We've talked a lot. Elder Guerber here lived at signal butte and ray. He's cool, not in my zone though. he has never bought deodorant since he always runs out of money ha ha ha ha.

So did you get any of our packages?

I got the Christmas package yes thanks for all that! I miss peanut butter though haha. deodorant is expensive here too, don't let me forget that when you ask me what I need in a package. I haven't got the present that you sent me though. I got the letters that you sent to the assistants, it came in a stalking with candy which was nice of the assistants to make for us.

Pres. Calderon is super awesome! Love him lots! Elder Bigelow is from Alaska and knew my roommate Isaac at BYU! He's totally awesome! Laid back, but still hard working. My apartment is not the best, but its live-able! Its the nicest house in Lorica according to Bigelow. Everyone else just lives in cinderblock houses with dirt floors, and only fans, sometimes. Ive only spent one day in Lorica so I don't know much about it! I'm in Monterìa and have been for a while just because we've had Christmas plays and programs and all sorts of stuff. The shower in the house leaks and floods the house, but were trying to look into how to fix that. 2 other latinos live in the house. We have no AC, but a couple of fans which is NICE! WE have to rent a laundry machine. We have no closet so we have to live out of suitcases.