Lorica, Life in a Tropical Wasteland Week 16

Epa homies! Hope everyone had a good week and is doing just fine. 

This week we had our first baptism! I wish I could say that we did tons of stuff to prepare her for baptism, but we really didn't. She was an investigator in a different city for 6 months where she got all the lessons and a testimony and everything, she just didn't want to get married. So when she told us she wanted to be baptized, all she faulted was attendance at church, which she gladly did. Marly is an awesome gal tho, she's 21 and has a son named Axel who is 1. They're both super chill. The baptism was very small, but it was nice because she doesn't really like people (same tho). Teaching Marly was a great experience because it reminded me that none of our efforts are ever wasted as missionaries, even if we can't see the end results. 

I also got THREE packages this week THANKS MOM! I got a Christmas one, with Bob Ross socks, a peanut butter one, and a Valentine' Day one. They came with decorations, so I decorated my table in the house, even tho its almost March and not Christmas at all....

The 2 pictures are Me and Marly and Me in front of my table, in case it wasn't obvious. 

This upcoming week may be my last week with Bigelow which makes me sad, he's been the 2nd best dad I've ever had. 

We oinked at little piglets this week and they came over to us and OH MY they were adorable. 

We got our electricity bill and it cost 3x as much as the previous one... Psh, idc, we need our AC to survive.

My friend in my zone Elder Robison got pranked hardcore this week when his district leader told him he was getting an emergency transfer and had to pack all of his bags to leave asap. So he packed his bags, called us and said goodbye, went outside with all his bags to wait for the district leader to come help him take his bags to the terminal. But then his District leader called him at said it was just a joke. 

We were on a big bus that got stopped by the police to check everyones Identification this week! Bigelow didn't have his ID, so we just pretended to not speak Spanish and the cops left us alone. I coulda been Pablo Escabar's right hand man with my 3 packages filled with cocaine and they would have never even known! Perks of being a gringo I guess? 

When we were filling out a form for Marly for her baptism we needed to know the year her mom was born, so we asked her mom, Evelia, and she had no idea... No idea what year she was born... It was either 59, 60, or 61. Idk. 

Thats about all the stuff I got for this week! It was a good one! A member of the 70 (I think?) visited us which was tight. But ya, hope everyone has a good week! 

Me and Marly

Me and Christmas decorations from a package I finally got in March!

 

Lorica, Life in a Tropical Wasteland Week 15

Epaaa homies! Hope everyone has 20 months left in the mission like I do, oh wait... But fo reals hope everyone is doing well. Hope no one has a heat rash like my companion Elder Bigelow. We went to the hospital to get it checked out and had no idea what to do or where to go since neither of us have been to a hospital in our lives, especially in Colombia where theres armed guards at each entrance. So we just kinda walked around til we kinda found out where to go. 

This week we bought peanut butter that came with free microwave popcorn which was pretty neat. PB&J sandwiches are bomb.com. Only one person in our branch has a microwave so we made the popcorn at her house and she was amazed. 

Shoutout to Hannah for praying for the people here to give me food I can actually eat.

Our mission is getting changes to the way that meals work. Right now we have to buy our own breakfast and dinner if we want them, and different members feed us lunches each day of the week. Now, the mission is going to start paying one member per like 4 missionaries to cook all 3 meals for them every day. That means that perhaps, we can tell this cook person what kind of food we would like to eat (not beans). So maybe all my problems will be fixed. Blessing from the Lord. It should start in about two weeks so I'll keep you all updated on that sitch. 

Everyone here takes English classes from the time they are young to the time they graduate. But as far as I can tell, the ONLY thing that they can say in English is "How are you?" But none of the English teachers here actually speak English so no one can pronounce English words. So what it ends up sounding like is "HARJOO?!"

We had a capacitation (I think that's an English word) all day on Saturday from our Mission President Calderon about the importance of teaching with clarity and it really is true. Theres a quote somewhere that says that a true expert is someone who can explain something complicated where everyone can understand. Being an expert doesn't come from knowing. It comes from organizing and expressing that knowledge. 

This week we were walking by our favorite pizza place, which is actually the only pizza place in Lorica, and we noticed something weird. There was a sign on the door that said: Do not enter, keep closed. Kinda weird, like oh maybe they're cleaning or something. We keep walking and we notice that there are people inside, eating pizza! Now we're just confused, like did these people ignore the sign, or is it actually open? Then we realized, the sign is in English, these people don't speak English, they have no idea what it says. It made us giggle a little bit. It was a real testament to me that in the words of Selena Gomez, everything is not as it seems. 

Love you guys lots! Hope you homies are all good

Construction started on the Baranquilla temple! I forgot to mention that! 

Lorica, Life in a Tropical Wasteland Week 14

Epa homies! Epa is a word I found in the dictionary this week and I think it means heyooo so Imma make it my Spanish thing. There's also a word in Spanish for the space between your eyebrows, entrecejo, neat-o huh?

Something weird here that I have maybe mentioned before is that everyone knows who John F Kennedy is... I remember going proselytizing in Bogota and some drunk guy was asking me questions about him because he was like my President at one point. Every city here also has a neighborhood named Kennedy. 

Last Monday we went to the beach with our friend Andreina and her son which was sups fun! We bought weird fish rice that tasted bad, chilled under some shade on the beach, and called some friends in our zone. This lady came up to us and asked for a massage, we said no, and then she started to massage Bigelow anyways for like 5 minutes. We watched Shrek 4 after our District meeting and it was probably the best one of the 12 Shreks there are right now or whatever...

I've been reading scriptures in Spanish recently and in the Bible it describes David as being blonde while in English it doesn't... Maybe I just suck at reading in Spanish, but I thought it was pretty comical. Sometimes we read talks in Spanish and they try to translate jokes and they just don't work. 

Something that is annoying is that Latinos are PARANOID by things that are plugged in. So when they leave the house they unplug EVERYTHING! Idk why, but its annoying.

Our Investigator Mileida is still going good. This week she had a problem with something that is said in the Bible and something we believe, but I think we got it figured out. She told me that she doesn't know what a quesadilla is which made me sad. 

We have another investigator who we've known for a while because she's the daughter of a lady that gives us lunch, but we didn't think she'd be interested in hearing us talk. So we never asked her to hear us, but one day she just told us that she wished she could get baptized, but she can't because she's a single mother. So we were like uhhhhh, ya you can get baptized! Apparently she was an investigator in another city for 7 months and now she's ready because she doesn't live with her boyfriend anymore, so hopefully everything goes well with that! 

Last week I can't remember if I mentioned that someone started their opening prayer in sacrament by saying, "good morning brothers and sisters". But it happened again this week. The apostasy continues...

Other than that not much is up. Hope you homies are being homies! Love you all lots

Lorica, Life in a Tropical Wasteland Week 13

Ayo homies! Not much happened this week, so this letter will be a little short. 

I figured out that bologna is cheap so I bought lots of that to eat. Food is something I think about a lot here. I started eating lots of bananas because they're 7 cents. We pay 250 pesos for a banana, but our district leader says the banana peddler is ROBBING US GRINGOS because bananas only cost 200 pesos, 6 cents. We just giggle at him. Someone else tried to feed me beans this week which again, didn't happen. A lady fed us cow liver which is possibly the worst kind of meat I've ever tasted. My comp Elder Bigelow just straight refused to eat it. 

Me and Bigelow have started to make french fries at night which is a good idea! They're super cheap and tasty! 

Bigelow's other son he trained was in our zone for a week so we had a family reunion, but then he left on an emergency transfer thing.

Our AC stopped working for 30 seconds, and we planned our funeral. 

We have been teaching the Rodriguez family a lot this week and they're awesome! They have a lot of questions and are progressing greatly. We visit them every day. Not a lot to say about them except our lessons go great. On Sunday we had them come to Church and this couple came as well who have been investigators for 2 years! We teach that couple too, mostly about the Book of Mormon because that seems to be their problem. 

I don't have a spiritual message because I forgot to think of one, but I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Wadley is Bigelow's other son and he came to the our zone to finish my friend Robison's training! Super hype! So since Wadley is my brother then Robison, my bff from the MTC, is my nephew lol. So we took a family picture. But then Mckinley, the secretary of registros, went home. And Wadley was sent to the office. And Robison was sent to a different zone so now the family is dead and we're sad :(

To Dad:

If I sent you a letter and included American Cash in it would you be able to spend it?  Just thought that may be fun to get some cash to buy what you want with it....

The only store that accepts dollars is Panamericana, which is like an electronic/book store. People like to see American money tho so maybe that would be cool? I'm thinking about converting all my pesos into dollars so that if the rate goes up I can convert them back and be rich lol. It's either that or buy lottery tickets. But they like search through packages and letters that get here and they'll take money. Bigelow got money taken out of a package one time. It would be the most illegal thing in the US, but here its totally normal. We went to the post office to send a package for our zone leader the other week, and they opened it up right in front of us, took out some candy, and said, oops you're not allowed to send this. The package from Rich and Chris was opened and rifled through. So it wouldn't be a good idea to only send money. Thanks though haha! 

To Mom:

I do know about the zika virus! Ive just never seen it spelled out, so I didn't connect the words since I've only talked about it haha! I haven't gotten it yet, because the mosquitos barely bother me... Bigelow got it before I got here and he was sick for like 4 days where he stayed in bed during the day, cus it hurts if you're in the sun. People here think that the disease comes from the sun, so thanks for confirming what I thought that it comes from mosquitoes haha! Can't see the pics of the suckers, but maybe they're boom boom booms? Those are popular here. If you go to the Colombian store get any of the Hit juices cus they're so good! Hit Limon is great, but they discontinued it, so its super expensive, but whenever Bigelow finds it he buys it. 

Lorica, Life in a Tropical Wasteland Week 12

Heyo homies hope everyone is doing swell! You may not have noticed, but the title of the email changed, something Imma try to do every 6 weeks. But ya, this place is a tropical wasteland, its like kind of tropical with palm trees and exotic people, but like a wasteland, cus you walk outside and your face melts from all the nuclear fallout. 

But this week was good in Colombia! We continue to teach investigators, recent converts and less actives every day to grow the Lord's Kingdom the best we can! 

We bought an AC this week to put in our room which is beautiful. Words can't describe how good AC feels. Imagine, walking into a room that's 85 degrees with 0 humidity! It's the greatest thing that's happened to us since we got here, being able to sleep without sweating. Sometimes I feel like it's a little too cold even! It's been weird waking up and being cold... We bought the thing for about $30 and the guy said that when we're done with it, we can bring it back to him and he'll give us our money back! Like what. Blessings come in different shapes and sizes, and sometimes it's an AC that makes living possible. It's great. Have I told you all how great it is? 

This week we were teaching one of our progressing investigators and she told us she had started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning! Awesome sauce right? We start asking if she has any questions and she starts telling us about all the things she likes and tells us about 1st Nephi 3:7 and how much that scripture resonated with her. All of our lessons with her go great! She bought us iguana eggs to eat this week, not as bad as you would think!

A lady gave me a bowl of beans to eat this week, the first time in my mission it's happened! I just gave them to my comp sneakily. Gosh they're no good. 

So in Lorica we live in the neighborhood Kennedy, which is the biggest most central neighborhood there is, basically the most poppin place to live. Well this week was the neighborhood's 52nd birthday! So everyone was crazy drunk all week blasting loud music and being crazy. The weekend was even worse, with random midnight parades, people throwing colored flour and everyone, and more drunk people. It was pretty nuts. 

This week I got hungry and ate probably 6 loaves of bread.

Our roommates had two baptisms this week which was a neat experience! I had taught them a few lessons and they're super cool people.

The most common thing I've been hearing from my comp lately about my Spanish is: Ya that's how you say it in English, but in Spanish it doesn't make sense at all. Which has been a little frustrating and discouraging tbh. It's just strange how you think learning a language just means knowing two words for every word, but you really have to know how to say what you're saying, which takes a lot more time than just memorizing words. 

A scripture that has helped me a lot this week is found D&C Section 15

6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen.

I really like this. If you have anyone in your life who isn't sure if they want to serve a mission, I would encourage you to show this to them. This doesn't only apply to full time missionaries either. Every member is a missionary. The Gospel is about peace and happiness. We should try to share this message with everyone whether being bold and talking to them about what we believe, or just by being a good example and a good person. Easy peasy.

Love you all, Bob Bless

Lorica, Life in the Hot City Week 11

Heyo homies hope everyone is doing good!

It's the first day of a new transfer and me and Bigelow are staying together which should be tons of fun! Things were good this week! We did have a hopeful progressing investigator fall through because her mom said that she couldn't be baptized, which is unfortunate, but we found lots of new people to teach! There was a worldwide missionary broadcast this week where we (Elder Bigelow) were expecting them to say that all missionaries with 18 months completed could go home. But it was better than that! They talked a lot about the importance of teaching with our missionary purpose in mind and calling people to repentance. We also had six investigators attend Church with us this week which was super tight! The other Elders in the branch taught a class with all of them about agency and it was just great. 

I had a 30 second talk with this guy in my ward this week and he shook my hand 5 times. He just kept offering me his hand. Idk. 

During a lesson outside of someone's house this week someone walked by wearing clothes that looked like they just took a Twister board and sewed it up into clothing shapes. Needless to say I had to take a breather after seeing that one by walking around in the street for a while to calm down. 

This week I went on Exchanges with our district leader which was a good time! We went to a lunch where they gave me a fish, which I don't know how to physically eat a fish that looks like a fish and I didn't want to waste half the meat, or eat scales, so I told her that I didn't know how to eat it and she made me some eggs which were great.

We taught a lady who doesn't know how to read. I have a whiteboard so I just drew lots of pictures for her. Almost died, but its normal. Ya it was a good day with him! 

A scripture that I really like is found in 1 Ne 20:10 which says

10 For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

Big font, but ya this scripture is great. Everyone's furnace is different. Throughout our lives we will have many different furnaces, I know I have. One of them is right here in Lorica. The temperature is literally like that of a furnace. But I know that this furnace that I'm going through, will help me to be a better missionary. If any of you feel like you are in a furnace right now, realize that it's okay, the furnace is to refine you and make you into what The Lord wants you to be. 

Love you all and hope you have a good week!

To Dad:

Ya there's a zoo in Medellin that I'll have to go to when I'm there. In Monteria my friend went to a park where they have huuuge monkeys just chillin. Also tons of iguanas in Monteria. Here in Lorica there's not many animals. Oh ya there are capybaras which are crazy huuge! I didn't know that's what they were because here they're called chickweedas or something like that, idk how to spell in spanish haha. No one knows how to spell in Spanish, everyone forgets to add the h at the beginning of the word. When I went on splits this week we taught a lady who couldn't read. Love you lots! 

Lorica, Life in the Hot City Week 10

Heyo homies! Hope everything´s good with everyone.  This week was full of challenges that somehow through prayer, Elder Bigelow and I made it a good one. The hardest thing for me and my companion this week was that we had to be in a trio, with our roommate Elder Bravo, who we don´t really get along with all that well. 

We had a more than average number of people yell at us this week which was fun, Bigelow blamed it on Bravo, but it´s probably just chance. One old guy yelled at us and followed us for a bit asking us who the brother of Jesus was, using all sorts of obscenities.

Being in a trio was good because we got to visit all the people in both of our areas who are progressing, because we didn´t have a lot of time to do a lot else. So because of that we consistently had good lessons with good investigators who love to learn! 

Being in a mission outside the US is a little strange at times, because I've been a member for longer than most of the people in my branch I would guess. The Church is described here as 'being in diapers', which is really true, we have to teach classes, bless and pass every week, and be a good example to all the members like all the time. I don't know how to describe it other than like the members here are like Catholics, like they still do things that are Catholic. It´s weird. Of course I love the members here and I love serving them, but at times it´s hard to deal with their Catholic ways. 

My daily food rant today is about lots of stuff. Here there is no difference between ketchup and pasta sauce. So I was eating my pasta this week and was like wow, this doesn't taste good, this tastes like ketchup and noodles, because that´s exactly what it was. I try not to think about it too much. Two foods that I can not eat are salad and lentils. I just cant do it. I´m going to start telling people to not give them to me because I can't do any more lettuce/cucumber/onion mashup or lentils. Yesterday our lunch appointment cancelled on us so me and Bigelow made MAC and CHEESE! He had Kraft and I had this food storage stuff and oh my it was the best lunch ever. We also ate at this ladies house this week and she gave us ice cream, a true blessing.

A true miracle happened this week because Bigelow and I have two investigators who are awesome, but they both told us they wouldn't be able to come to church because of reasons out of their control. So we were all sad until at church they BOTH showed up! Now we have two progressing investigators who have learned so much and I'm excited to keep teaching them.

Last week the beach was amazing and our friend on the beach hooked us up with a place in the shade to sit. 

I love you all and I love this church, every time we share the first vision with someone I am just filled with joy to have the knowledge that I do about this church. Hope you all have a good week!

en Trio

To Mom:

Our church building is small. It has the chapel and a main classroom which have AC. The big room splits into 2 rooms. Then there's another un AC room where we have priesthood. The kitchen where youth meet. An unused bishops office which girls use and has AC. Then theres another bishops office and a secretaries office. Outside theirs a soccer court thing. Nah I don't need a scripture case for my Spanish scriptures. I don't get super burned, but sometimes I feel burned even though its hard to tell because I'm pretty tan now. They sell peanut butter at the store but its like $5, maybe ill try it soon with personal money. Ya theres lots of JW, they meet like the same times we do so we always see them walking thursday nights and sunday mornings. They hand books out to everyone. In our house we have a JW bible, which is in Castellano, not spanish (!), and a book that answers all of life's most important questions. We´re teaching a JW right now too, she's 18 and sups cool! She knows a ton about the bible and has been responding positively to the lessons and has TWO  church attendance's IM EXCITED! You need 3 before you can be baptized. My camera wont work in this computer, so I cant do anything with pictures today. Thanks for everything, love you lots! I got the package from Rich and Chrissy and my zone leader says he has 2 more for me at his house that imma get today lol. He has a small and medium one, the biggest one the assistants still gotta get out of the warehouse.