[ No report today, but we got to message with Ralph for a few minutes. This is the last time before he gets home. ]
WASSUPPPP
we are about to party soooo hard my dudes
FOREAL
i’m with my bffs from the mexico mtc this week haha
in Bogota
dudes people have given me 3 BIRTHDAY PARTIES i love colombia sooo much
dudes that family you saw in the video from my last area — i definitely teared up when i had to say goodbye
the worst
yesterday i visited my favorite ward in suba
ill tell you guys everything in 2 days haha
the MTC missionaries are from missouri and utah
we all go to atlanta and then part ways
i just have my carry on and one big suitcase + backpack
holy smokes!!!!!!!!!!
dudes i have to go now to the last fhe with the mission pres
FREAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKK
SO STOKED DUDES
Monday, August 27, 2018
Monday, August 20, 2018
Monday, August 13, 2018
Week One Hundred
We had a good week.
Hot day in PiedeCuesta. 81 degrees, partly cloudy.
I can feel everything coming to an end. I dont want to leave Colombia; I'm so adjusted to everything now. The weird music is the best music now. The soup that made me sick cures my sickness now. I even get pissed when people spell it "Columbia" instead of "ColOmbia".
A few cool memories of the week:
Going on a hike with the ward. We hiked up to these waterfalls on Tuesday and brought Brian (the dude who looks like Jesus) and this 9 year old kid named Juan Diego, who always wants to hangout with us.
We also had a ward Karaoke night. Something I've never seen in the States haha.
I had my last interview with my mission president (I think there is one more right before we go home) but he just told me, "Well Elder, just looking at your face I know I need to say this. You need to get married AS FAST AS YOU CAN." And then he just stared at me and I would look away and look back and he was still looking. uuhhhh.
I am just trying to take everything in. There is not one street in my area that you could find in the States. All the kids playing on the street at 10pm. Crazy wild dogs running everywhere. Dudes walking around selling avocados in wheelbarrows. People yelling at the top of their lungs to sell yuca bread and fish. Things I've heard and seen every day that I won't see again in a long time.
That doesn't even compare to the people I've met here who have been my family for the past 2 years. Some of the best friends I've ever made.
It's gonna be weird leaving the safe bubble of the mission. No world news, no social media, you live in a sector with limits and that's what you know about.
My last companion, Elder Lucaila, has been awesome. He always warns me when there is dog crap in my path.
I am looking forward to the free days we get in Bogota to visit some of my fav families from the mission. Fam Castellanos.
Miss you guys so much!+
Elder Blair
Hot day in PiedeCuesta. 81 degrees, partly cloudy.
I can feel everything coming to an end. I dont want to leave Colombia; I'm so adjusted to everything now. The weird music is the best music now. The soup that made me sick cures my sickness now. I even get pissed when people spell it "Columbia" instead of "ColOmbia".
A few cool memories of the week:
Going on a hike with the ward. We hiked up to these waterfalls on Tuesday and brought Brian (the dude who looks like Jesus) and this 9 year old kid named Juan Diego, who always wants to hangout with us.
We also had a ward Karaoke night. Something I've never seen in the States haha.
I had my last interview with my mission president (I think there is one more right before we go home) but he just told me, "Well Elder, just looking at your face I know I need to say this. You need to get married AS FAST AS YOU CAN." And then he just stared at me and I would look away and look back and he was still looking. uuhhhh.
I am just trying to take everything in. There is not one street in my area that you could find in the States. All the kids playing on the street at 10pm. Crazy wild dogs running everywhere. Dudes walking around selling avocados in wheelbarrows. People yelling at the top of their lungs to sell yuca bread and fish. Things I've heard and seen every day that I won't see again in a long time.
That doesn't even compare to the people I've met here who have been my family for the past 2 years. Some of the best friends I've ever made.
It's gonna be weird leaving the safe bubble of the mission. No world news, no social media, you live in a sector with limits and that's what you know about.
My last companion, Elder Lucaila, has been awesome. He always warns me when there is dog crap in my path.
I am looking forward to the free days we get in Bogota to visit some of my fav families from the mission. Fam Castellanos.
Miss you guys so much!+
Elder Blair
Monday, August 6, 2018
Week Ninety Nine
Haha look what i found in the middle of Bucaramanga.
All of Colombia is trying to make me trunky : (
With Elder Mooney — friend from Mexico MTC. We are in the same zone!
Hey family, week 99!
I have a memory of meeting an investigator named Doris my first day in the field, and I use that memory as reference for how long I have been here. Seems like it happened 10 years ago. It's weird thinking I have seen Elder Porras more recently than you guys.
PiedeCuesta is going awesome. We have pretty much put together a hiking club of members/investigators. A few times a week we all get up at about 4:30 AM to start the day.
PiedeCuesta is a center for the Guerrilla. They aren't centered within the city limits, but they are in the outskirts and surrounding farmland. Colombian Guerrilla is still going strong. It started with good ideas (cheaper education, easier access to food/water), but got totally corrupted with narcos.
This week we visited a sector of our area called NuevaColombia. INTENSE.
This is an up-to-date pic I got off Google.
There are a few members who live out here that we went to visit. NuevaColombia is an area with extreme poverty and pretty much 90% illegal settlements. In Spanish it's called invasión. It is so dusty. You walk 3 meters and have dust in your eyes.
We visited the shack of a member named Carolina who is our Gospel Principles teacher. We were the first missionaries to get to her house. She lives way up at the top of the mountain. She lives alone with her chickens, a duck, and a blind dog. She makes a bike trip to Piedecuesta every day (12 km to get there, really gnarly terrain) and lives off what she makes from selling the eggs her gallinas give her.
All the houses there are shacks with corrugated metal roofing. We would just walk down the street and kids would come out shocked. They just gasped "gringooooo" when we walked by haha.
One cool thing was going to an open house in Cañaveral (one of my old wards). Two of my converts are there and one of them is the ward mission leader who led the whole operation. Julian Roman. So awesome remembering our lessons with him and answering his questions, and now seeing him leading all the missionaries. He and his sister Angelica are some of my very favorite people in Colombia.
I have gotten along with people in every area, but in every single area I've had, there is the one family who I love more than everyone else.
One thing I've been doing these last few weeks is networking like a boss. Anytime I meet someone cool I give them my Facebook or Instagram de una vez.
Also heard one of the best songs ever:
GRAN TRIBULACION BY MARINO
Look it up.
Hiking Club with Stake Patriarch and Hermano Vargas.
On one hike this week, we ran into the Mayor of Piedecuesta
who bikes up the mountain a few times a week.
Monday, July 30, 2018
Week Ninety Eight
Querida familia
This week was so much fun. Finally have all my energy back.
The minimum wage in Colombia is 780,000 Colombian pesos monthly, i.e. 270 usd monthly.
San Francisco minimum wage right now is 15 usd per hour (holy crap).
And all the Venezuelans that have come to Colombia in the past 3 years work for waaayyyy less. Like 200k or 150k which is about $50 a month...for a family. Super poor. Good thing is that food is super cheap.
Empanadas you can find easily for 1000 pesos. That's 30 cents. And 2 empanadas fill you up for lunch.
By the way, I can buy a stolen motorcycle here in Piedecuesta for $85 usd. (I wouldn't be able to ride it anywhere outside of Piedecuesta.) Or a legal one with papers for $175.
I'm seriously considering shipping a mecedora home. Its the best chair that exists.
THANKS FOR THE HI CHEWS we have been giving them out to all the neighboorhood kids and blowing their minds.
Here are pics:
Today we woke up at 4:30 to go on a hike with the Stake Patriarch to this place called the Ermintaños. It's a lugar on the crest of the mountain over the valley of Piedecuesta. It's where all these Catholic monks live. It was closed today... but the door was open. Nobody was there. And then we saw a tiny room with 50 monks in a monk meeting or something.
It's super fun. I do this secret handshake with all the kids in my area and now we just walk around and kids will come up to me and do the handshake.
We found this dude named Brian who looks like Jesus. All his friends call him Jesucristo. We have had some awesome charlas with him I'll send a pic.
I could for sure imagine living in Colombia or at least South America. I really want to visit the coastal cities of Colombia. Lots of people say the food is the best part about Colombia but the food is OK — the coolest part of Colombia are the Colombians.
We are working to make the ward better here. Mostly members and kids just want to have a good time, and parents just want their kids to have a good time without using drugs. That's mostly how we've been going about working the area. Going on hikes in the morning with young men, having huge FHEs. It's super fun.
I also spent a day in another area with Elder Baker. We had an FHE with a less active Venezuelan family and I told them my name was Elder Chavez and they thought it was the funniest thing ever.
LOVE YOU GUYS, GOODBYE
P.S. — This is Brian (Jesucristo) from my letter:
This week was so much fun. Finally have all my energy back.
The minimum wage in Colombia is 780,000 Colombian pesos monthly, i.e. 270 usd monthly.
San Francisco minimum wage right now is 15 usd per hour (holy crap).
And all the Venezuelans that have come to Colombia in the past 3 years work for waaayyyy less. Like 200k or 150k which is about $50 a month...for a family. Super poor. Good thing is that food is super cheap.
Empanadas you can find easily for 1000 pesos. That's 30 cents. And 2 empanadas fill you up for lunch.
By the way, I can buy a stolen motorcycle here in Piedecuesta for $85 usd. (I wouldn't be able to ride it anywhere outside of Piedecuesta.) Or a legal one with papers for $175.
I'm seriously considering shipping a mecedora home. Its the best chair that exists.
THANKS FOR THE HI CHEWS we have been giving them out to all the neighboorhood kids and blowing their minds.
Here are pics:
2 years later STILL USING THE ZIPTIES best gift ever
Elder Lucaila with the new mission president VALLADARES
Today we woke up at 4:30 to go on a hike with the Stake Patriarch to this place called the Ermintaños. It's a lugar on the crest of the mountain over the valley of Piedecuesta. It's where all these Catholic monks live. It was closed today... but the door was open. Nobody was there. And then we saw a tiny room with 50 monks in a monk meeting or something.
Cristancho family. I told you guys about them last week.
It's super fun. I do this secret handshake with all the kids in my area and now we just walk around and kids will come up to me and do the handshake.
We found this dude named Brian who looks like Jesus. All his friends call him Jesucristo. We have had some awesome charlas with him I'll send a pic.
I could for sure imagine living in Colombia or at least South America. I really want to visit the coastal cities of Colombia. Lots of people say the food is the best part about Colombia but the food is OK — the coolest part of Colombia are the Colombians.
We are working to make the ward better here. Mostly members and kids just want to have a good time, and parents just want their kids to have a good time without using drugs. That's mostly how we've been going about working the area. Going on hikes in the morning with young men, having huge FHEs. It's super fun.
I also spent a day in another area with Elder Baker. We had an FHE with a less active Venezuelan family and I told them my name was Elder Chavez and they thought it was the funniest thing ever.
LOVE YOU GUYS, GOODBYE
P.S. — This is Brian (Jesucristo) from my letter:
And more pics:
Monday, July 23, 2018
Week Ninety Seven
Hey family. How are you guys?
Thanks for the love during my sickness.
This week was cool getting back into the swing of things.
I made a call to Chile. My ex companion Elder Jaque has his dad in a coma. It was super good talking with Jaque. He finished his mission 6 months ago.
I remember Pres. Rains warning me that rejection would be hard, and I remember thinking, "There's no way that can be that hard..." But it just gets to you.
Like there is no way for me to start a normal conversation because of the baggage that comes automatically when people see us dressed as missionaries. We have to put an effort in how we talk during every time we make a phone call so people will think we are friendly.
At the same time people here are so awesome and way more open than I imagine it to be in the USA. People always give us lemonade.
This week was Colombia Independence day — July 20. Our mission leader invited us to see his son play trumpet in a parade, so we showed up. The parade was HUGE. Like 50 marching bands. All of Piedecuesta was there. I immediately told my comp to follow me to a paper store. We bought a huge poster board and markers from this grandma. We wrote on the board:
"HAPPY JULY 20TH LONG LIVE COLOMBIA CALL 3154624117 IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE"
Then we got the grandma to loan us 2 sombreros and 2 ponchos, so we dressed up like Colombians and snuck into the parade.
This is how we dressed:
It was so funny. Tons of members were there and they got so excited when they saw us.
We had an open house in our chapel. We cleaned the chapel with some families in the morning. The chapel here is tiny with lizards running all over the walls.
Elder Lucaila is a really good teacher now. I am really hard on him during teaching practices in companionship study, and he probably hates it, but he has improved so much. He asks good questions.
Our investigator pool changes all the time. People move a lot here. Or investigators will get new jobs and have no more time.
The most constant dude we have been teaching is named Oscar Saenz. He just broke up with his wife. We always have awesome lessons with him. He knows the Bible really well and if we say something that doesn't line up with what he knows, he calls us out. He loves hearing lessons and reading the Book of Mormon with us but he doesn't like coming to church haha. We are gonna take the "but the church needs your help!" route.
We also teach the Cristancho family. They were less actives for years, but have been coming to church for the past month. Their daughter, Lorena, wants to get baptized. Brother Cristancho has the 1st verse of "I am a Child of God" tatted on his forearm hahaha. Such an awesome family. Most of the charlas are just listening to them. Brother Cristancho ran away when he was like 7 or 8, and snuck on a coal train to the coast of Colombia. People have really gnarly life stories here.
I have about a month left and I hope to make the most of my time, because I'm never gonna be a full time missionary again.
Thanks for all the help and support.
I love you guys!
Thanks for the love during my sickness.
This week was cool getting back into the swing of things.
I made a call to Chile. My ex companion Elder Jaque has his dad in a coma. It was super good talking with Jaque. He finished his mission 6 months ago.
I remember Pres. Rains warning me that rejection would be hard, and I remember thinking, "There's no way that can be that hard..." But it just gets to you.
Like there is no way for me to start a normal conversation because of the baggage that comes automatically when people see us dressed as missionaries. We have to put an effort in how we talk during every time we make a phone call so people will think we are friendly.
At the same time people here are so awesome and way more open than I imagine it to be in the USA. People always give us lemonade.
This week was Colombia Independence day — July 20. Our mission leader invited us to see his son play trumpet in a parade, so we showed up. The parade was HUGE. Like 50 marching bands. All of Piedecuesta was there. I immediately told my comp to follow me to a paper store. We bought a huge poster board and markers from this grandma. We wrote on the board:
"HAPPY JULY 20TH LONG LIVE COLOMBIA CALL 3154624117 IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE"
Then we got the grandma to loan us 2 sombreros and 2 ponchos, so we dressed up like Colombians and snuck into the parade.
This is how we dressed:
It was so funny. Tons of members were there and they got so excited when they saw us.
We had an open house in our chapel. We cleaned the chapel with some families in the morning. The chapel here is tiny with lizards running all over the walls.
Elder Lucaila is a really good teacher now. I am really hard on him during teaching practices in companionship study, and he probably hates it, but he has improved so much. He asks good questions.
Our investigator pool changes all the time. People move a lot here. Or investigators will get new jobs and have no more time.
The most constant dude we have been teaching is named Oscar Saenz. He just broke up with his wife. We always have awesome lessons with him. He knows the Bible really well and if we say something that doesn't line up with what he knows, he calls us out. He loves hearing lessons and reading the Book of Mormon with us but he doesn't like coming to church haha. We are gonna take the "but the church needs your help!" route.
We also teach the Cristancho family. They were less actives for years, but have been coming to church for the past month. Their daughter, Lorena, wants to get baptized. Brother Cristancho has the 1st verse of "I am a Child of God" tatted on his forearm hahaha. Such an awesome family. Most of the charlas are just listening to them. Brother Cristancho ran away when he was like 7 or 8, and snuck on a coal train to the coast of Colombia. People have really gnarly life stories here.
I have about a month left and I hope to make the most of my time, because I'm never gonna be a full time missionary again.
Thanks for all the help and support.
I love you guys!
Monday, July 16, 2018
Week Ninety Six
[ Ralph's report came via messaging this week ]
sweet!!! dudes 6 more weeks
dudes i almost died this week
had the most gnarly virus
sickest i've been so far
imagine your entire body hurts, you have a cold, its really hot and your are abnormally exhausted 24/7
but i think it's finally coming to an end
haha
ps -- i broke my pinky and got an x-ray
the health secretary told me to drink a lot and sleep and ask my comp for a blessing
today we took a chill day
played guitar with members
the best guitarist i've ever seen was this dude from argentina i met in barbosa
there's one good member
but most don't know how to play
i connected with charles about the world cup
dudes france must be a party right now
dude everyone here was for croatia
why? the underdogs
i was for france — bah oui
i finally received divine revelation for my nyc movie idea
i just have the title
OLD YORK
dudes we saw 2 gangstas carrying a drugged out girl to a house, our investigator found out joseph smith had a 14 year old wife, we found 2 new families to teach, i made friends with a dude with a man-bun at the hospital
sweet!!! dudes 6 more weeks
dudes i almost died this week
had the most gnarly virus
sickest i've been so far
imagine your entire body hurts, you have a cold, its really hot and your are abnormally exhausted 24/7
but i think it's finally coming to an end
haha
ps -- i broke my pinky and got an x-ray
the health secretary told me to drink a lot and sleep and ask my comp for a blessing
today we took a chill day
played guitar with members
the best guitarist i've ever seen was this dude from argentina i met in barbosa
there's one good member
but most don't know how to play
i connected with charles about the world cup
dudes france must be a party right now
dude everyone here was for croatia
why? the underdogs
i was for france — bah oui
i finally received divine revelation for my nyc movie idea
i just have the title
OLD YORK
dudes we saw 2 gangstas carrying a drugged out girl to a house, our investigator found out joseph smith had a 14 year old wife, we found 2 new families to teach, i made friends with a dude with a man-bun at the hospital
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