Friday, August 8, 2014

August 4, 2014

So now we did get the flight confirmed. I was just a little wrong. I leave on WEDNESDAY night and get home THURSDAY morning at 9

July 31, 2014

Hello family. You may be wondering why I´m writing today and not Saturday, but it´s with news....

So we went to the doctor Tuesday to get my cast taken off and he actually couldn´t see me. So I went to see a specialist. The specialist had them do another x-ray and he said, "it´s not an incomplete fracture.... it´s a complete fracture. They read it wrong the first time....
So that means that I have about 4 more weeks of rest... So President and I decided that it would be better not to spend those last 2 weeks around the office. So the next flight home is the 5th of August at night, but it gets to Salt Lake around 10 am.....

I will be returning home on August 5th and getting home the 6th.... I´ll still have about 3 weeks where I can´t walk on my foot... I´m getting off the plane in crutches... it will be legen.......... dary hahaha.

I love you all and I´m excited to see you! Sorry if I´m ruining the great old get home plans, but I´m excited!!! I love you!
 

July 26, 2014

So the week went well here in the office.... I´ve come to know what boredom is so when I get home I realized that I just need to work or do something because this is just ridiculous haha. But it´s okay. My cast comes off on Tuesday and then I´ll be traveling with the president to Valledupar and finally able to go out and work in our area!

So this week we were able to go and eat lunch with a member that has a daughter and son in law living in Utah. And when we went to eat luch they were there! They offered to let me come over and eat some Colombian food (arepas, coconut rice, etc.) when I get home.

Yesterday we went to our wards friendship night and it was really good. They did and awards ceremony for all of the members giving out cupcake trophies and awards for everyone.

Hope that Pioneer day went well. Love you all buh bye!

July 19, 2014

Hello!

So I´ve been glad to read your letters and thank you all for the prayers. I know that I´ve been blessed despite the difficulties. Unfortunately I have not been able to go out and work these last few days and I don´t think that I will be able to until my time in the cast is up in about 10 days, so it´s been good to catch up on lost study time here.

I´m here in the office and there is another elder that got hurt during the soccer game so we just hang out here once everyone goes out. I´m still able to help out the president and I´ve been able to do a lot of little things that he doesn´t really have to do or worry about such as: writing security reports, updating bishop and stake president phone numbers, and calling in all of the little disobediences and talking to the missionaries to see how they´re doing.

I was however able to go out and visit Sebastian yesterday and see how he´s doing. I went with the other injured elder in a taxi and we came back in taxi. Sebastian is doing really well. He´s already in 2 Nefi 17 and said that he loves it... and these are the Isaiah chapters!!!! What a guy. But he is a little bit unsure about his baptismal date for August 9th, so if you could add him in your prayers so that he makes it to that day.

So that´s my week... I think I´ll be putting a little bit more weight on in these 2 weeks, but that´s okay haha. Love you all bye!
 

July 14, 2014

So it´s good to write you all! Sorry that I had to wait ´til today... So it´s been good and bad week. Last Wednesday we had the leadership counsel and it went REALLY well. We were able to give an awesome training. My companion and I on Monday night had a good come to Jesus meeting and we were able to discuss a lot of things and get a good solid training going. During the leadership counsel I felt the spirit really strong during the training and afterwards all of the zone leaders told us that it was the best leadership counsel in quite a while. YEAH!!!
I know that the Lord was able to inspire us! I felt the spirit of unity working together and getting prepared and I know that it was God´s will that we trained what we did.
We were also able in the leadership counsel to discuss a lot of the problems and solutions here in the mission.

Thrusday I went with the President to Cartagena for 3 days to help him out with the mission interviews. While he interviewed the misisonaries I went through their area books, agendas, and weekly reports of lessons to less actives... It was a good experience and humbling for some hahaha.

Now to the sad stuff..
So I already wrote that I lost everything including the most irreplaceable items such as scriptures and journal. I was pretty upset after that but I just pray and pray to know the will of God and I remember that everything is according to God´s will. (also lost my retainers... again haha)

Now to the worst part... Today we have P-day.... so we went and played soccer in the morning.... whilst playing like a latin... somebody kicked my foot pretty hard..... It really hurts and I was limping all day hiding from President and Sister Searle, but Sister Searle caught me... and made me go to the doctor.... The said i´ve  got a small fracture and I´m in a cast for 2 weeks......
I don´t always understand the will of God... but I´m planning on finding out what it is in these coming days...
I´m super sad. I just want to finish strong, but they said I can´t leave for 2 weeks and I´ve got to use crutches in these 2 weeks and my foot can´t touch the ground.

Other than the sad news. Sebastian didn´t go to church, but a new investigator named Alexi did! and she liked it. After church we went to visit Sebastian and he said he slept in, but we had a great faith building lesson about how the spirit talks to us. I felt the spirit really strong at one point. We were teaching the law of chastity and he said that it´s gonna be tough, but he also said, "I understand that I´m making changes that are good for me and that I have to make them to be a new person." It just filled my heart with a testimony of the healing power of the atonement.

Well, have a great week
 

July 12, 2014

I´m helping president with the interviews so I´m not really going to write today... but I´ll tell you the bad news. Last night I went to stay with some zone leaders here in Cartagena and I went with one to buy something to eat and the other one said he´d take my bags in to the house... but he forgot. They went inside the house and he later remembered that he left all my stuff outside, but it was too late. Someone had passed by and swiped it all.

I lost the following:
Backpack
Scriptures that I´ve used the whole mission
Ministers certificate
ID (colombian not american)
Camera with pictures since my 1 year mark
Two days worth of clothes
Running shoes
Preach my Gospel
and the worst................................  mission journal........

but life goes on. I´ll write more on Monday

July 5, 2014

So we´ve been busy with zone conferences, finishing up the transfers, organizing the transfers, welcoming the new missionaries, saying bye the the old ones, and now preparing for the leadership counsel this coming Wednesday!
Also this week we had a really fun experience. My companion and I went out to the area to work one afternoon and some appointments fell through, so we started to contact and we noticed that nobody listened so in the contacts we said, "Hi we´re missionaries and we want to sing to you," and people listened! haha. Some still said no, but the people were a little nicer afterwards. We sang families can be together forever and in the end someone finally let us in which was nice and I totally think that they can progress.

The atmosphere these last few days has also been just absolutely wild for the soccer games, especially when Colombia plays! During the zone conference in Santa Marta Colombia was playing during president´s part which distracted a lot from the spirit that was trying to be there haha. Those big loud horns blowing, loud music, cars honking, and drunk people right there on the corner screaming can be pretty distracting.

But yesterday for the Colombia game nobody had to go to work so president told us that as soon as the game starts we should all head in doors so the whole mission was locked in yesterday afternoon, but that gave us a little time to get a head start on the leadership counsel coming up. But unfortunately Colombia lost... so now we don´t have to worry as much about the world cup.

Yesterday being the 4th of July and all I did the most American thing I could think of..... called and ordered a hamburger for dinner haha. All we were lacking was the fireworks.

Today we went to the zoo and it was pretty cool. A good way to enjoy the pday.

We´re working hard with Sebastian and his mom and step dad now. So let´s pray that they can all go to church tomorrow and read the book of mormon