September 9, 2013 Happy One Year!!

So this week was just awesome, well it didn´t start out that way, but it ended up fantastic. There´s a chilean food called "completos" that is basically like a hot dog but with avacado and tomatos and mayonaise, and I live with a chilean so he made us all one on Tuesday. Then we left to go to work. I started to not feel very good and had a little bit of a headacheand my stomach hurt pretty bad. We were visiting with a member and I asked if she had tips about how to git rid of the feeling to vomit and she said "Just do it," haha, so we kept walking and then......... I sat down and said "uh oh Elder.........   (BLAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!!)" I totally threw up in the street haha. Then 2 minutes later it came back again and BLAAAAAH!!!!! I could actually see half of the hot dog and I learned that I need to chew my food better hahahaha.
The we went at night to visit another member and they said I looked flushed and that I needed a soda and alkaseltzer, but drinking the super bubbly drink in the members corner store made me.......     BLAAAAAAAH!!!!!! and that was number 3 for the day right in front of the members house. I looked back at the members and the poor youngest daughter looked petrified haha, I looked at them, gave a thumbs up, and     BLAAAAAAAH!!!! NUMBER 4!!! 4 TIMES!!! haha. What a day. I didn´t eat anything afterwards for like 24 hours but I got better!
On Wednesday Enrique went to do visits with us and is freaking awesome! He teaches so well and has helped a lot of investigators. One investigator said she got her answer because of his testimony, but we´re getting to that. We´re also preparing Enrique´s girlfriend to get baptized this Saturday and it´s a little stressful because she still loves the Virgin Mary. haha. It´s okay to respect her.... but we can´t pray to her haha. But Enrique talked to her and on Sunday she came to church without her prayer beads and virgin mary necklace! woohoo!!! She´s excited to get baptized, but has a lot of opposition.
Her whole family is SUPER Catholic and they found out she´s investigating the church and now they don´t let her leave, but she leaves secretly with Enrique to talk to us, but said that she doesn´t think she can come to church because her family will kick her out. So we shared the story of Joshua and his priests crossing the Jordan river, that the waters didn´t separate until their feet got wet. And she said "Okay, I´ll get my feet wet." Then the next day she said she´ll come EVERY Sunday... YAY!!!!
And this last Saturday was super awesome. We had a baptism! His name is Cesar. He didn´t have much time to talk so all the lessons were really hectic, but he accepted it all and has a testimony. And what a blessing it was to see Enrique, the new convert baptize him. What a day.
Then Sunday was great. This family that has been investigating for a long time came to church! They came and then at night we went to visit them with a family here in the group and the member family all testified and it was awesome. I´m sure that they´ll get baptized this month.
We´re all a little nervous because transfers are this week on Wednesday. So we´ll see what happens! I´d like to stay here and for Elder Abad to stay too. We work well together and we´re getting a lot done.
I also completed 1 year in the mission! YAY!!!! I took an old shirt and wrote "1 year" and then I burned it. That´s about it haha. But it was still pretty cool!
I love you all and I love hearing about home!

September 2, 2013

So this week was really good and I want to thank all of you for the happy anniversary wishes haha. I can't believe that it's been a year... I STILL HAVE A LOT OF TIME LEFT!!!! I hope... haha
So this week was great because we're going to have a baptism this Saturday, let me tell you why. So this guy is a friend of Enrique and his name is Cesar. He's also really catholic, but also wanted to know more. We put a baptismal date with him in the first visit 3 weeks in advance and he's been coming to church, but the problem is that he studies in Barranquilla all week long and only has a little bit of time to talk Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday he came and we asked how he's been feeling and he said, ''I've actually felt a change,''  And we said that he was lacking basically all of the lessons and commandments and so we asked if he was willing to do the work to get baptized in 1 week and he said yes! So we've been teaching him everything super fast but he accepts it all and is willing and excited to get baptized on Saturday!
Also Enrique's girlfriend is stoked to get baptized and her mom fond '''Mormon Pamphlets'' and got mad at her and she said she doesn't even care anymore haha.
I saw my first Colombian mugging!!!! A guy who goes house to house collecting debts was at a house and two guys came up in a motorcycle wearing helmets so you couldn't see their faces and pulled a gun on him........ AND HE STARTED TO FIGHT THEM!!!! What a hero haha. They shot a bullet in the air and then everyone around screamed. We were pretty far away but semi-close. We just turned the corner and walked away, but it was still a little cool to see (natural man).
So those are some cool experiences of the week

I love being a missionary and can't believe it's halfway over. I know the Lord has blessed me and will keep doing so. I'm so blessed to be out here preaching the love and hope that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hope you all have a great week!

August 26, 2013

What a week! For us and you all there enjoying your wedding in the rain! The pictures look awesome and I´m glad it all turned out good. I look fantastic. So in this week we were super blessed here in our area. First of all we were working really hard to find some new people to teach and we found several people that are really good. We found a whole family and also a SUPER catholic that is going to make an awesome convert once he feels that the book of mormon is true.But the best part of the week was Saturday. Everyone remembers Enrique right?, the super awesome investigator that got his testimony super fast and super strong? Well he got BAPTIZED!!!!!! The day before his baptism we were teaching him and his girlfriend and he cried when we talked about how he could receive the priesthood and then baptize his girlfriend. He was studying to be a catholic priest at one time and said that it has always been his dream to have the priesthood, but was sad in the catholic church because he had to leave his girlfriend, and now he´s joining a church where all the leaders are married and he said it just makes him so happy!He got baptized on Saturday and I had the pleasure of baptizing him. Here in Sabanalarga there´s no font so we went to the nearest pool and I baptized him in water that went up to our mid chest haha, but it was awesome. He bore his testimony afterward and it was so awesome. The whole group here is stoked because they know that he´s going to be a huge help.On Sunday was his confirmation and Sunday was also good because some high counselman from the stake came to support us. I was a little nervous leading the meeting with them there, but it ended up fine. Afterwards they came and asked about Enrique and I told them that the group just received one if it´s best and most valuable members. They got happy and interviewed him. Enrique told us afterward that they said he needs to start preparing himself to be a leader in the group eventhough he just got baptized and he said (in the words of Nefi because he memorized it), "I will go and do the things the Lord has commanded..." I LOVE THIS CONVERT!!!!!!! He´s such a champ. At night he went with us to a lesson. A new investigator that´s super catholic. Enrique was nervous, but when I asked him to bear his testimony...... WOW!!! He showed this super catholic what´s up! After the lesson he was super happy and said, "Elder, can I visit with you more often?" He´s the best hahaWe also got to see the priesthood in action here in Sabanalarga. In priesthood we talked about how the melchezedick priesthood holders here in this group are the power in this whole city.Then afterwards the only 2 Melchezedick Priesthood holders came and said they wanted to go with us to visit our investigator sick in the hospital. We went and they gave a priesthood blessing. It was awesome.The mission is so fun and exciting, and spiritual. I Love you all and happy wedding brock!

We couldn't have a wedding without Cole!