Chinchina, Basically Sodom and Gomorrah, Week 51

Happy Halloween Homies hope you're all dressed up as Bob Ross to celebrate his 74th bday that he can't. 

We couldn't find any cool costumes, so we are just regular missionaries today. 

The majority of the members of the branch of Chinchina work as coffee pickers. 

From what I can tell Halloween is surprisingly kind of the same here in Colombia. Kids dress up and go to houses saying TRIKY TRIKY to ask for candy. They don't seem to knock on doors to ask for candy, but rather they walk into stores. And if they do knock on doors, they are doors in rich neighborhoods. Most people here don't have enough money for more than rice and soup. 

This week we met a man named Glen. We were walking through the central park of Chinchina when a man yells at me in English. Normal stuff. People yell at me in English all the time. I just smiled and waved. Then I hear very clearly, ¨Where you from bro??¨ Not a normal Colombian thing to yell. So we went and talked to him and he was born in California, then moved to Mexico when he was a young adult and has been in Colombia for 7 years. We don't know what he exactly does but it sounds pretty sketchy. Its nice to talk to white people in English.       

Something funny that the Colombians ALWAYS SAY is ¨EEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH AVE MARIA PUES HOMBRE!¨ which basically translates as ¨EEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH  BIRD MARY MAN¨ The phrase is used when they are angry. Ave Maria comes from a Catholic prayer. Colombians are cool. 

The work here is chug chug chugin along like the little train that could. Love you guys and HAVE A SPOOKY HALLOWEEN!!!

Chinchina, Basically Sodom and Gomorrah, Week 50

A short week because I wrote last Tuesday! 

Not a lot to say, but things are going well here! My comp is starting to be pretty trunky but its normal, he finishes in 3 weeks so everything we do is, uhhh only 3 more ward councils...

There's this cool bald guy that lives close by the chapel here and we always talk to him. He tells us random facts and asks me how to pronounce the work cotton. Impossible for Latinos. He says that he has the first Spanish to Hebrew dictionary and has invited us to come see it! It doesn't sound that cool, but who knows maybe it will be!

This week I said, "Here we go part two!" And I asked myself what that was from?! Then I realized it was me that said that because I'm hilarious. +2 spooky points if you guys know when I said that.

I haven't seen a cat get sacrificed so I got that going for me. I've heard of missionaries in Chinchina seeing that before. 

Pic 1 When me and my comp tie our ties with the short side

Pic 2 Look close and you can see a man playing the flute outside of a bus for money

Thank you all for the support! 

To Mom:

Ya that's our church building. The church building is okay. There's not a drinking fountain, but it has a computer I can use to Skype on xmas. 

Ya I got that package with all that stuff! pretty dope

Lol I've never seen that flavor of Postobon!! The hit juice is my favorite here. Grape Postobon is normal grape soda which I like.

The zipper tie is a classic one I love it.

Looks like you had a fun week! Our week was good! We don't have very many investigators but its okay. Our investigator Diana broke up with her boyfriend to keep the law of chastity this week so her boyfriend tried to kill her is what her mom told us. So the mom called the police and they took the bf away and then Diana got mad at her mom and tried to kill her with a knife. 

It's weird that that whole situation seems normal to me. Colombia does weird things to my brain. 

Don't worry tho everything's good! Oh ya Diana is 19 and her bf was 41. LOL. 

Love you lots have a good week! 

When me and my comp tie our ties with the short side

Look close and you can see a man playing the flute outside of a bus for money

Chinchina, Basically Sodom and Gomorrah, Week 49

Hey homies! Not much to say, it was a quick and good week here in Chinchina.

We had a nice lesson with a daughter of a recent convert. Diana and her mom have always had problems in the house. We taught Diana about the restoration (honestly no idea if that's how it's spelled it looks SO weird!) and how families can be together forever and we invited her to pray at the end of the lesson. She did and in the middle of the prayer her and her mom broke down crying and hugged each other once Diana had finished. It was really sweet. 

This Monday, instead of PDay, we went to Pereira (WOO) and had a multizone conference thing. 4 of my old comps were there which was funny and I learned a lot! Elder Cruz had to bear his ^Final Testimony of Death^ in front of like 70 missionaries and he was freaking out! 

I think Chinchina celebrated its 500th bday or something this week but the whole week was a party with music and party. 

Not much else to say, love you homies lots! 

Me and Elder Cruz

A biiiiig ooool Catholic Church 

Elder Cruz and Elder Dawson

A Big Old Catholic Church

Usually there's water 7 days a week. just here it goes out sometimes...

Only big stores have Snickers. The thing is that they cost a dollar each! That's so expensive! So I buy lots of Gatorade to stay hydrated, but less snickers. 

Elder Piñate is a district leader in my old district in Pereira loool, He lives in my old house too. In that district I have 3 old comps. Elder Welling, Elder Saez, and Piñate. The only comp that's not in the Eje Cafetero rn is Elder Gallardo who is in the coast. It was a good meeting tho! 

I got 2 packages this week!

I got the year one and the one with tons of food!

Thanks a ton its all great!

Chinchina, Basically Sodom and Gomorrah, Week 48

There's a common joke here, What´s the difference between Sodom and Gomorrah, and Chinchina? Chinchina hasn´t been destroyed yet.

I´m alive. That´s the good part. Things are weird here. It´s like everyday is the weekend, and then the weekends are Christmas. And not normal Christmas. Colombian Christmas.

We have running water 6 days of the week which is a blessing.

Sometimes English confuses me when I try to help the Latinos. Like the difference between scratch and itch. Is there one???

I eat hotdogs and eggs everyday. 

It smells like coffee everywhere all the time because of all the coffee plants there are here in the city. 

This morning I ate a snickers bar and drank a Gatorade and it was literal freedom. 

This week a man came by our house and was looking for a direction, something that WE do a lot as missionaries. Whenever we are looking for a direction the first thing people ask for is who we are looking for, so we tell them, and the people tell us, ¨I don't know any of my neighbors¨. So Elder Cruz was helping this guy and Elder Cruz asks him, ¨Who are you looking for?¨ Even tho we don't know any of our neighbors. He has become full Colombian. 

I feel like I'm finishing the mission in 6 weeks because my comp, the district leader, and one of the zone leaders are ALL finishing. Trunk city.

One of my zone leaders, Elder Peña, had his bday this week so we went to a ¨Fancy´¨ steakhouse called Leños Gourmet! It was bomb and he bought us nice food. 

Pic 1 Lunch

Pic 2 The dead man, plus Manizales is cold as crappp so ft. sweaterplussuit

Love you homies lots 

Lunch

The dead man, plus Manizales is cold as crappp so ft. sweaterplussuit

Chinchina is good! temp is a little hotter, but rn with the hurricanes its raining all the time so its cool. 

I'm in a branch, and Manizales is a district not a stake.

Elder Cruz is super cool and nice, we work together and plan together really well, he likes English and funny memes, 

Theres a road  by us with 9 cats.

We live alone and there are only 2 missionaries for the branch.

The house is good, better than the old one in Pereira.

No fans and kinda hot but its okay, we might move houses soon to a 6th floor apartment.

Our neighbors have no problems with us, never seen or heard them.

Prostitutes all day every day.

Witches not a lot.

Not a lot of good places to eat. a wing place, but that's it. 

Yasmin didn't get baptized and idk why. Her, Juan, and Camilla have a baptismal date for the 29th, Idk why. 

We can't see the volcano from here. But from the zone leaders house in Manizales we can see the volcano.

Lol classic Madi.

Thanks for the pics haha.

I never went to the museum place no.

4 pairs of garments would be nice just to keep replacing old ones.

I haven't got any packages in a while.

I can't think of anything lol.

  

We're just gonna go eat I think rn and go get our haircuts. it's like Lorica here there isn't much to do. 

Pereira, A Whole New Wooooooooooooorld, Week 47

Transfer calls came in and I am currently in the city of Chinchiná with Elder Cruz who finishes the mission in 6 weeks. 

Chinchina is famous for its prostitution and witches from what I have heard. 

Of course I enjoyed conference (watching it in English with the other Gringos in Pereira) and it was good to have Yasmin and her family come with us both days to the Stake Center. She should be getting baptized this Saturday. I´m sad that I got transferred, but I feel good about the way that I left my area for other missionaries. 

It was an interesting trip to get here to my new area. I basically got off the bus and no one was waiting for me. We normally take buses alone here if we have to for the transfers. I had no phone and had no idea where I was. It was an interesting 3 hour trip  that would have taken 1 hour. 

I don't have my conference notes here with me rn, but I remember enjoying President Uchtdorf´s talk about the Plan of Salvation. It really is amazing. 

Our neighbors have a cat and last night the cat decided to come into our house. 

We learned how to play an Argentinian card game this week called Truco which basically consists of throwing cards and screaming, like most card games, like Yugioh. 

Love you homies lot, thanks for the love and support 

1. Juan Pablo and me (He cried when I left :((((((() (Yasmin´s son)

2. The District

To Mom:

Ya I left Pereira which is sad. Yasmin should be getting baptized this Saturday. I'm gonna ask permission to go to it since I'm only a 40 minute bus ride away. 

Chinchina is not the best place. Its well knows for its prostitutes and witchery. 

I traveled alone last night to Chinchina without a companion and it was nuts. They dropped me off at a gas station and I had to get in a guys truck for him to take me to Chinchina. Then I got there and nobody was waiting for me... So I had to call someone to ask what was up. But I didn't have the number of any missionaries. So I called the Relief Society Pres from Pereira and she gave me Elder Bagley's number. I didn't know where I was but he told me to go wait in front of a supermarket. A member showed up and took me to the terminal of Chinchina to go to Manizales. I got there finally where the missionaries were waiting for me. lol all with my three suitcases. pretty sketch. Chinchina at night is a scary place.

To Dad:

Colombia's pretty cool. The church is just really small. I was talking to Tyson and mom about how its because of the war and how we can't enter half of the cities in our mission because of the war. I found a lot of comfort in Eyring's talk because he talked about how much the US has grown. I really do love Colombia even if their food is gross and their people are mean. The church will be strong here some day. 

Love you lots have a good week!

To Mom:

Hey I didn't write much so I'm back on for a sec. 

I'm all good. We got to Chinchina all good. It's like 40 minutes from Manizales. Basically half way between Pereira and Manizales. Things are good. My comp is super cool. He's from Mexico and was in the office when I got to the mission.

Here are 2 pictures of SMALL DOORS! lol Colombia is weird. Or maybe I'm tall. Things were good with conference. Glad you had a good week, Thanks for the update! I hope you have a REALLY HAPPY B DAY ON FRIDAY!! Love you so much mom you're the bestest! 

To Grandma:

We watch conference in the stake centers. It's really cool. But the gringos always watch conference in the clerk's office on his computer in English. It's fun. 

The talks are mostly translated to Spanish before hand, but the apostles and prophet can change it according to the spirit so those ones are translated. But even those ones they give a script of what they will say to the translators before hand. It's really well done. 

I liked all the talks about missionary work haha.

I'm about 40 minutes from Pereira rn in Chinchina.

Salento was about an hour and a half away towards the south. not too far. 

We eat Domino's a lot. I can't remember what pizza I said I ate in my letter haha so I honestly don't remember! 

Love you lots!

Juan Pablo and me (He cried when I left :((((((() (Yasmin´s son)

The District