Week Fifteen

Merry Christmas

There was a Christmas celebration in Bogota on the 23rd. Half of the zones of the mission were there. Maybe 100 missionaries.

Each zone prepared a skit to preform for everyone + Mission President Laney.

Our skit was pretty dumb. It was about different types of missionaries contacting a Grinch family.

I was in the Grinch family. Everything was going fine. Then one pair of missionaries contacted us. We told them to get lost. One of them tried to give us a Book of Mormon. We were telling him no. He handed it to me, let go, I didnt catch it, the Book of Mormon fell on the floor so loudly. It got quiet.  Everyone went like "oooooh". So yeah never gonna be assistant now.

Also secret santas. I had Elder Picuasi of Otavalo Ecuador. He has a ponytail. I got him a hair straightener. It was funny. Elder Elmer got my a puppy piggy bank.

Also in the celebration, there was one part where missionary representatives from each country told their Christmas traditons. When they were taking too long to tell traditions everyone just started clapping to kick them off. It was really funny.

It was cool meeting new missionaries though. Met some guys who listen to the same music as me. We all got pretty trunky.

Went back to Barbosa for Christmas Eve.

We baptized a girl named Doris. We had spent a good 4 hours cleaning and filling the baptismal font (which is like a giant trash bag here in Barbosa). So I wasn't feeling the day- but after the baptism happened it was all good.

Me and Elder Manrique bought burgers and a ton of soda for Christmas Dinner. We made a Christmas tree out of our fan. We drink so much soda here. I have a nice beer belly.

Christmas Eve was pretty out of control in Barbosa. Music and fireworks. Super loud. But Christmas day was really quiet. Everyone sleeping in their houses with hangovers. They open presents Christmas Eve here.

There was sacrament meeting. Doris got confirmed. She was late to the meeting so everyone was eyeing me like "where is she?".

Had skype call with you guys made me super trunky.

We went to the Ramirez Family's house. They have a missionary in Argentina. They were talking with him. We said hi. He is training a gringo too. So I'm in Colombia getting trained by an Argentinian and he is the reverse. It was funny.

Today was P-day. We bought presents- soccer jerseys, I got a machete with a sweet sheath. We also checked out a horse gear store. It was just one guy there. He was making leather belts. I asked him if I could buy the leather. He said it was leather for horses so no. I don't know why that's a reason.

Postobon Manzana is the best soda here.

and thus it is written

amen

Week Fourteen

[ No emails this week, but we could message instead. Ralph shared this story. ]

oh there's a funny story

passed from elder hunsaker to elder porras to me to manrique

its called hammerflaggen:

a horse lives on a beautiful farm

just a perfect place to raise a horse

and his farmer loves him so very much

and he gives his horse these big beautiful juicy red apples

so good

the horse loves these apples

so so good

but the farmer is running low on cash

he has to sell the horse

he sells his horse to another farmer

and this farmer doesn’t feed him apples

he feeds him hammerflaggen

disgusting

barely food

so nasty

it’s hard for this horse to swallow

but after awhile

it’s alright

after awhile

it’s not so bad

after awhile

it’s actually pretty good

after awhile

this hammerflaggen hits the spot!

after awhile

give me some more of this hammerflaggen!

then the first farmer is in a good economic situation again

so he buys back his horse

and gives him red apples once again

and the apples were so far superior to hammerflaggen and the horse remembered what real food was

-----

how does this story relate to missions?

just how home life is way better than mission field but you get used to the mission field

me and manrique love the preach my gospel study videos and we call them tv hammerflaggen

Week Thirteen

Dear Family

This week was sweet.

Elder Manrique is cool.

He got to the apartment and installed a hammock. Also took out RISK. He said its the first thing he'd grab in a house fire. I asked why because he could buy another. Its because he keeps track of every time he wins on the box.

This cambio is already good. I pretty much get to choose what we do and who we visit every day since Manrique doesn't know the area.

Saw one lady with a shirt that said, "Eyeliner blacker than my heart."

Talked with an old dude in town center. He was eating an ice cream cone. He said he was over a hundred years old. At one point he took his shirt off to show us this gut lump he had.

One of our investigators, Kevin, has a crazy grandma. She was eating birthday cake and tried to stuff it in me and Manrique's mouth.

There was a really nice holiday. Noche de Belitas. At night everyone puts candles or candles in bags on the street. Lots of fireworks too. And everyone sits outside and talks through the night. It's for the virgin. Its a shame we don't worship the Virgin — seems natural. Is it apostasy to say that? No me importa.

Can always see the north star and only the north star.

Manrique also brought a recorder. We have been dueting "Silent Night" — him on recorder, me on harmonica — to open or close visits. It's the only thing I can play. But inspired by Adam Christensen.

Week was good. Life is good in Barbosa. Now I've lived with a Frenchman, Englishman, Mexican, and Argentinian. Miss you guys hope all is good.

Desposita la plata o le manda la moto
and thus it is written — amen

Week Twelve

Week Report

Dear Family

I heard about the Oakland Fire. The story was playing on a member's TV during lunch. So crazy. Didn't know 36 people died.

Everyone here has been talking about the futbol team who was killed in a plane crash in Colombia. 70 something people died.

Parted ways with Elder Porras this morning. This week we made a pact to see a Real Madrid game live after our mission.

We were getting our hair cut and a pirated fantastic beasts was playing on the TV.         

I really like making words little in Spanish. Everyone here does it all the time — just changing the ending to ito or ita or ico or ica. bachata--> bachatita.

My new comp is Elder Manrique of Argentina. I meet him tomorrow. He was a Zone leader the last cambio.

Feeling anxious about managing Barbosa. It'll be good though.

We had interviews with Presidente Laney in Tunja. After interviews, the Elders from Tunja (Elder Loaiza of Peru, and Elder Arteaga of Bolivia) came back to Barbosa with me and Porras — to interview Osman (one of our key investigators) for his baptism. On the bus ride to Barbosa "She Will Be Loved" came on and we all said "ooooh" at the same time. Everything went well and Osman was baptized the next day. It was really good.

It was also Stake Conf in Sogamoso. It was good for Porras because he could say goodbye to a big chunk of the members he's known.

Yeah a lot of craziness this week. Lots of traveling. Porras gave me a tie. I gave him a $10 bill I signed.

Also talked with Elder Arteaga about Sucre Bolivia. He showed me pictures it looks so sweet. He says there are pink dolphins in Bolivia.

Paz en sus huesos

Miss Christmas at our house. I need to buy decorations for our apartment.

Havent met my new comp yet. He is from Argentina. I have heard he is kind of reserved and quiet.

Sounds like scrooge was amazing. Got an email form the Gorbutts saying it was awesome and that Oscar had an angelic voice lol.

Hope Roman is doing okay.

I think the song from The Snowman is the way to go for the Christmas Party. 

If you look up Willee Porras on facebook, you should be able to see his video. [ VIDEO of Ralph and Elder Porras, in Spanish. ]

We watched the Christmas talks from SLC live in Tunja yesterday. Tunja is cold so it is much better for Christmas. Barbosa is like Florida.

I use the duct tape every day.

and thus it is written

Amen

Elder Blair

Week Eleven

Dear Family,

This week was emosewa.

I had my first intercambios. I went to Tunja and spent the day and night with Elder Loaiza of Peru. Tunja is much colder than Barbosa and looks like another country. Every city is like a different country. The weather really sharply changes. The members in Tunja are super cool. There are two siblings who speak perfect English as well as French and Portuguese. Their dad is a linguist who raised them in English. He speaks a dozen languages himself. Another member Nicholas likes the same music as me so we talk a lot.

Thanksgiving was cool. Me and Porras took two of our key investigators - Deisy and Hari - out for Tacos. We all said what we were grateful for.

Friday we painted the Pardos house. The Pardos are members in Barbosa. Severro Pardo is the father maybe in his 60s. Always walks around shirtless with his cross necklace. He also plays soccer with us on Saturdays and always scores on everyone like 6 times. He has 4 kids and they are all older now. There are always like 20 other people in their house. There was a French girl there the other day that was cool.

Porras and I were walking down the street and this dude stopped us "Just one question- does man believe in god or god believe in man?"

What do you guys think?

One thing super sweet- we met a filmmaker. Jose. Today (pday) we made a movie with him. It was an interview with Porras about his mission and shots of us walking around and contacting. It got finished about an hour ago. You guys will be able to see it soon. One of these p-days I want to make a movie with him in the Jungle recreating a folktale or something like that. He is really cool. He and his younger brother also played "Torbellino Beleño" together.

This is Porras's last week. He heads to Bogota Saturday. Pretty crazy. I asked him what his 3 genie wishes would be and he said, "First I would wish to be a wiseman and then with the wisdom I would make my other wishes." Don't know if he stole that answer from somewhere but I thought it was pretty cool. Porras will be home for Christmas. Lots of goodbyes. Everyone loves him.

Yeah that gucci elder is on my mind too. Idk if I said this last week but from him I had the idea of a group of construction workers draped in gucci, louis, hermes, everything, but covered in concrete and mud and not addressing the luxury at all. Thats the future of fashion.

I am betting lenin commented on your ig. He is one of the members who always comes with us to lessons.

Miss the christmas decorations.

The teaching tips are gold. This is what I need. Language classes are going good. The first half everyone is always quiet and shy and the last half everyone is awesome and then it starts over every time.

I should probably know english grammar before teaching english even though true fluency transcends grammar.

We find people contacting contacting asking for refs. We don't have service every week. Most of the service in Barbosa is cleaning houses- but this week was all painting. It was awesome.

Like the branch a lot. Anxious to see how things will be when Porras leaves.

Yeah good good week.

and thus it is written

Amen

E
L
D
E
R

M
O
N
I
T
O

Also forgot - there were 2 Colombian teams playing - nacional y américa. There were riots and a motorcycle parade comparable to Run-a-Mucca with fireworks and everyone honking horns - so awesome.

The Real Eagle

Week Ten

Week Report

The first cool thing that happened was right after I emailed last week.

Me and Porras were walkin round the town. Everyone was ditching out on our appointments and it was getting late. There was a group of friends playing guitar and talking so I told Porras we have to go over and hang out with them. They were this group of bikers from Argentina. They just bike from town to town in South America, playing music for money. I talked with the dude with the guitar for about an hour about Argentina. His name was Pedro Ivan Guevera Florentin. I got Argentina film recommendations from him. We sang Under the Bridge RHCP -- everyone here loves RHCP. He also played Voodoo Child. Porras got the guitar and serenaded us too. He sang "Deja" by Vanda El Recordo. I played Strangers by the Kinks. We had Mate this really hot drink. Yeah they were really cool.

Next day we had to go to Bogota to renew Porras Visa so he wouldnt be illegal even though he has like 2 weeks left. Going there is like goin SF-->LA. Long bus ride. There was a dog movie playing on the bus. We stayed with the secretaries who have such a nice apartment. We also had Papa Johns which is a big deal. Colombia played Argentina.

Me and Porras got some food poisoning from some bad arrepas. We had to stay in the house most of the day.

Had a Zone Service at Fundacion Moroni in the surrounding hills of the city of Duitama. Me and Porras had to get up at 4:30 to travel there. Its an addiction recovery program. We were just cleaning the facility. I hung out with Elder Almeida from Brazil. All the Brazillians missionaries are so cool its just in their blood. We had to machete down these logs. It was fun. There was one Mexican missionary dressed head to toe in Gucci, just workin in the mud.

Sunday- taught another lesson on missionary work. It went well, got people to talk. 6 investigators came to the branch so me and Porras were happy. After church we had lunch with the Ramirez family. They have a son whos serving in Argentina. We looked at pictures of him for about 10 hours. After lunch we were walkin around. It started downpouring. We walked passed the big Barbosa soccer field. Barbosas team was playing so we watched them for a bit. Then we visited a less active memeber after and saw the clearest double rainbow. Visited one of our main investigators Osman and his friends. We were telling riddles for an hour. Porras had a good one.

3 friends spend the night in a hotel. The next morning, the owner asks them for 30 bucks. They each give 10. The friends walk away and the owner realizes he charged them 5 bucks too much. He sends an employee to give them the 5 bucks. The employee takes 2 bucks for himself and gives a buck to each of the friends. So subtract a dollar from what they each paid. So now its like they each paid 9 bucks. 9 x 3 is 27. + the 2 bucks the employee took for himself. 29. What happed to the missing dollar?

We also read BOM with them.

Today we had a Zone Activity, again in Duitama, again 4:30 wake up time. First we bussed Barbosa to Tunja. Got there at 6. Tunja was freezing. Me and Porras were looking for hot chocolate. We found this alleyway with different shops and cafes. The alleyway was on a hill. We kept peeking our heads into the differenty shops asking if they had hot chocolate. Everyone kept telling us "mas arriba" --like "higher up". We kept walking up the alleyway and finally found a place. The hot chocolate tasted like Jessica Albas smile. Played futbol the whole Zone Activity in Duitama.

Elder Porras is def excited for home- but still working hard everyday. I dont think my last few weeks will be as focused as his.

Will miss thanksgiving. We are taking some of our investigators out to eat. It will be fun.

Miss everyone so much. this mission is super hard but lots of rewarding experiences.

Sometimes I remember an average day back home and am shocked at how heavenly it sounds. Its like Aunt Jordan said, in a missions youre literally not doing what you want to do for 2 years. So its super hard alot of the time but the cool parts are so cool. Spanish is really coming along too. When im not feeling the mission, I can just work on spanish. I feel like my spanish is where my french was after a year.

a good week
I miss my family
and thus it is written
Amen

Elder Porras & Elder Blair

Week Nine

[ First email ]

Week Report

America is dead.

------

[ Second email ]

Part 2

This week was good.

First Zone Meeting in Duitama. Met my Zone leaders. One is from Ecuador and has a ponytail from his tribe.

Contacting a lot everyday. It's crazy because a good 9/10 people give us their address and number and everything. Feel like that wouldn't be the case in the US. My favorite thing is sitting down with the old cowboys on the road and talking with them about God. Everyone always asks us about the Virgin. Do you believe in the Virgin?

Lots of dogs sleeping that look dead.

More French people. French is harder now, Spanish keeps slipping in. I want to buy a French grammar book so I can keep up.

Colombia was playing Chile in Futbol. It was like the super bowl. Literally everyone had a jersey. Every store, business, bank had the game playing. Tons of people watching TVs in the street.

Chupando La Piña means making out — sucking the pineapple.

Today was a really good p-day. We went to Tunja and met with other missionaries in our zone to play soccer with members in Tunja. One member was a 19 year old who had a guitar so I hung out with him. We were playing the best Strokes songs.

On the bus back to Barbosa, me and Porras met a German girl who is teaching English and German here. She was really cool. I talked with her about German Christmas markets.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Elder Blair

Week Eight

Week Report:

The apartment is good. My shower is basically a hose with only hot water. Actually kind of nice. No oven but a stove top. Good stuff. My p-day today was playing soccer at 6:30, breakfast, going to our friend Lenin's house. He has an electric guitar so I was in heaven. Then we went to the house and napped.

Me and my comp speak only Spanish outside and Spanglish in the house. Spanish is hard but def coming along. I can understand lots of words and phrases but miss a lot of context. I am confident in lessons and contacting though.

Don't really ever see other missionaries. Just us two in Barbosa.

Want to hear more of your missionary stories. I loved the journal entries you sent last week.

Secret stairs look awesome, wish I could be there.

Love my parents Facebook rants.

Halloween was awesome. Most of the costumes were anonymous masks and sexy animals. There was big parade at night and we took pictures of the best costumes.

Every night before bed, me and Elder Porras started saying. "God, I´m ready to die."

I like the field because everyday I'm forced out of my comfort zone. I had to teach an hour lesson on the merits of honesty at church this Sunday. Taking up an hour of the lives of 10 Colombian adults in broken Spanish.

Every day for breakfast we have rice, and fried ham wrapped up in a tortilla.

Me and Elder Porras are the only missionaries in Barbosa, but we frequently go to Tunja for district meetings. I don't know if I said this last week, but I cherish the bus ride to Tunja with all my soul. It feels like 5 hours. I can just sleep and think.

I am the only gringo in my district. I speak a lot of Spanglish with Porras.

I contacted this one dude who was an immigrant from Venezuela. He thought we were cops. That was pretty crazy.

We saw a dog get hit by a motocycle and then walk away like nothing happened.

It´s really cool that we just get to have indepth conversations with different Colombian people everyday. A lot of talk about aliens and vampires and reincarnation.

I bought these soccer shorts because they had the 3 lion Normandy flag. Maybe William the Bastard's flag because I think its for an English team.

Me and Porras got matching ties and we are putting Mexican and Colombian soccer patches on them.
The best juice here. Every house has a big jug of homemade juice. Really foamy and cold. So good. 

Me and Porras were watching a town soccer game. He told me, "The first gift of a Latin Father to his children is a ball". He says bada** stuff like that alot.

Porras only has 4 weeks left so I told him we have to do everything he hasn't done yet these last few weeks.

Played soccer this morning with members. The branch pres and the old branch pres were really competitive. Literally everyone is good at soccer.

English class went well. We went over common Colombian phrases and their English equivalents.

Everyone talks to me about the election here too. Nobody likes Trump anywhere.

Good week.

Paz y Consuelo en sus almas

ETS

Week Seven

Happy Halloween!

Yo yo yo ok here is the report:

I am now in Colombia.

Bogota was awesome. Super green. Lots of bricks. Surrounded by mountains.

Mission President Laney seems super cool. His wife was on ski patrol at Sundance. They will be here my whole mission.

Love the APs. One is Elder Borges from Brazil who also lived in Spain for 4 years. The other is Elder Hunsaker whos family is super tied to Germany. We went to the Bogota CCM and it is tiny. Im so glad I got sent to Mexico.

-Met some French girls at immigration

My first Area is Barbosa
-Accessed via a 3 hour bus from Bogota to Tunja, then a 2 hour ride in a tiny bus from Tunja to Barbosa
-Barbosa is one of the coolest places I've ever been to
-about Argentan size, a little smaller
-so many motorcycles it's insane. Kids riding em and 5 people piling onto one. Trailers on the back sometimes. Amsterdam has bikes, Barbosa has motorcycles
-Everyone knows each other
-music is playing everywhere, usually Regaton. Hotline Bling a lot too. (miss Drake)
-really hot, rains at night
-I'm digging the food a lot too. Lots of avocados, garbanzo beans, pasta, rice, chicken. We make breakfast and Dinner and a member makes us Lunch
-so much fútbol everywhere MESSI
-A lot of poverty. Most of the houses we teach are dirt floor. The people still give us hot cocoa or bread. Its crazy.
-Lots of cowboy hats.
-Girls are prettier than Sofia Vergara #lockyourheart
-members are super cool. Jorge Ariza is one. He comes to lessons with us a lot. He has a flame motorcycle and skeleton gloves. One is named Ley. He loves Paramore and Linkin Park and Assassins Creed. there is also a Colombian Frere Bojou
-Colombian kids really like the stuffing pencil in ear trick
-kids are outside playing and walking around late at night.
-lots of hills like SF
-surrounded by mountains and jungle
-Haiti+Italy+Mexico is kind of what it is
-It´s like everyone here is a stereotype. Cowboys and dancers, Wisemen, Hairdressers.

Parted ways with Elder Dallas Karren. He´s headed to Bogota.
My trainer is Elder Porras of Mexico City. I am his last comp. He returns home December 4th.

He's pretty legendary. Mexican Taylor Lautner. He would go to raves in the forest back in Mexico.
He loves dancing too. We exercise every morning, and one morning he taught me bachata dance.
He's crazy at soccer. We play soccer Saturday mornings. He has a girlfriend waiting back home. He wants to learn French for her so I am teaching him. His personality reminds me of Victor Clouet D Orval. He made me contact first morning in the field which was crazy.


We started free English, French, and Portuguese lessons on Thursdays to get to know more people.
Starting a branch fútbol team. I am stoked.

I invited a family to be baptized for the first time and they said yes.

-most of the day is drifting around. Sitting down and talking with people on the street. Really long rich days. Exhausted by bedtime. Vivid dreams.

Tons to say
Colombia is super cool.

Miss everyone

Elder Gringo Bandito

Week Six

Week Five

Week report:

First things first- blog header looks sweet. Wish I was an Adobe  illustrator wizard like Oscar.

This week was sweet.

Thanks for sending donuts oh my heavens. My district was stoked. You guys are awesome.

A lot of ccm friends left to the field. Feels empty.

My district is all anxious to get to the field.

We got our travel plans! Pretty much all my district is going to Colombia. We leave to Bogota 3 am this Monday. Packing and weighing has commenced.

The Young Womans general pres of the church -President Oscarson-  spoke to us last night.. Her husband shared a story of a family getting baptized in a river in Sweden in the coldest winter since 1805. Reminded me of Oscar´s.

I've been playing different investigators in lessons now. It´s really fun. I pretended I was obsessed with ghosts.

My district thought it was funny that in my family pictures, mom has different hair in every one. Awesome mama.

Get Oscar and Betty and June in soccer. No matter how much they hate it they will eventually love it.

Really don´t know what to expect from the field but excited to go. I feel good about my Spanish, but have a feeling once I get there, any confidence I thought I had will slip away.

One crazy thing this week was that me and Elder Tracy started a (cult?) called "obscuro". You were initiated by reading 3 Nephi 3:7. Then to see if someone was a member, you would go up, adjust their tie and say "your tie is a little off." and if they said "my bad, it was" you knew you could trust them. It had a max of 12 members but got shutdown by our teacher Wolftown. Apparently some exclusive groups developed on his mission so he warned us. It was funny.

During our Spanish Teacher´s mission (Mexico)- he and his comp taught a druglord in this huge mansion. The guy eventually told them they had to stop coming because if there was ever a raid on his home during a lesson, the missionaries would get killed in the gunfire.

A good Colombian friend I made here- Elder Urratitu - left to the field. We traded ties. Super cool guy.

High spirits, peace and love

Elder Tigre Santo

Pictures:

Pretty Morning

​Crazy critter Me and Karren found

This badboy I got at the Temple store

Elder Lopez from Mexico, Elder Tracy, and El Colombiano who left to the field.

​

This armored pupper showed up here a couple days ago.

Week Four

I don´t hear anything about trump here but that news made me throw up a little bit in my mouth.




Awesome facebook post. I´m sure it got a good response. I need to figure out the absintee ballot.




I can receive pictures. That one is awesome.




Can´t go to websites.




You can send me messages throughout the week through missionarypackage.mx - i believe thats the site. try it out.




I´ve heard the Oak 1 Ward high priests meetings are intense.




Very used to the ccm schedule now. Looking forward to the field.




I´ve been able to see Hermana Lattin alot! She seems to already have the swing of things. I told her to go to you guys for food and anything else.




I also need to tell you guys about Maestro Martinez:




One of the teachers- maybe 22 years old used to own a tiger. It was 90000 mexican pesos- about 5000 bucks + it ate 5 chickens a day so it was pricey, but now thats my main post mission goal.




The ccm president is also super cool. hes been kidnapped twice. We´ve heard two devotioanls from him and both were sweet.




Elder Karren seems to be doing much better. He´s getting a hold of spanish now. He always is saying that he can´t wait to go to the field.




We did this thing where we taught lessons to mexican members here, and me and Elder Karren asked one guy what all his sins were. That was rough haha.




During gym time, my district started playing lightning with soccer. Really fun.




Duing one of the gym times, me and Elder Tracy helped these mexican workers dig a hole. They taught us more slang.




Did I tell you that somebody had your same mission dream here? where they go home and don´t speak the language.




We say "PLATA O PLOMO" alot here. It means silver or lead--bribe or bullet. Its what the cartel supposedly says.




Our first zone leaders left to the field. Theyre going to washington.




My district also likes doing waterbottle trickshots trying to flip it can have it land standing up.




Like reading parables.

Wrote a spanish poem;

Por la yerma
Por los cacharros
Los sabuesos en el calor
un país de mineros
Desfiladeros de minerales
Escombros Volcánico
Y siempre gargantas de ron

Cool that seminary is going strong. What´s your favorite scripture?

I think about Maude in Paris alot. Trying to live through her haha.

Mexcio is so cool. Love talking with mexican dudes here. Mexico city is also crazy driving through. 







Miss you guys




Elder Blair

Week Three

GENERAL REPORT


Week 3 was sweet. It´s weird because going to the temple feels like going to Disneyland, and watching conference is like going to the movies, because it´s finally a break from doing the same thing every day. During Conf, when the dude shouted opposed, everybody in the auditorium laughed-which I thought that was kind of messed up. You have to be brave to do something like that. My favorite talk was Juan Uceda and his story of the Inca bridge in Peru 1977.

Spanish is going good. It get´s a little smoother with every visit with the fake investigator.

So far, me and Elder Karren have gotten 3 fake investigators to commit to baptism so I´d say things are going well.
I started playing soccer pretty much any freetime I get. Really fun playing with the guys in my district. Elder Mooney is the only one who´s actually good. It´s a good workout and then we go get ice cream after.

Love keeping a journal. I´ve been drawing a little postcard with each entry.

Learning a lot about guns from Elder Karren. I asked whats the sissiest gun someone could own is, and he said a 22.

He has to go to the infirmary a few times a week, which is actually sweet because they have puzzles I can do, so I just do puzzles. There was an Italy puzzle that was there for like 3 weeks that finally got finished.

Saw Hermana Lattin last night! Brightened my day. I´ll send a picture. Only got to talk for a bit but excited to talk with her for a few weeks.

Please send me good scriptures or views on Mormonism because I get tired of hearing the same testimony 400x a day.

Sammi Lattin - A good friend from Colorado who is serving in Oakland, but learning Spanish in Mexico

Week Two

Glad people liked the email, Loved all of yours.

Say hello to Steve Roland and the missionaries from me!

Want alex and Sammi's emails!  When does Sammi come here?

There's another 'really funny' joke that started where you ask 5th or 6th week missionaries ¨how's you´re first day going? and they get really mad. It's so dumb but it's funny.

I really like coming up with bizarre spanish sentences and testing them out on my teachers

Quiero comer el corazon de una leona
Que daría para cambiar la naturaleza del diablo?

I like reading proverbs in la Santa Biblia.

Spanish is going very well.

Now inspired to try out switching the subject to waterslides haha.

Always look forward to devotionals. We´ve watched two recorded Holland talks.

Bore my testimony in Spanish about the Mormon Batallion and the Gold rush.

So sweet that Oscar got the part haha. Tell Olive to deny everything.

Teachur es nuestro salvador.

Going to the Temple today, and excited to leave the CCM for the first time.

Two guys in my district called quits and went home which shook everything up. They were cool guys so it was a bummer. Really like my district though.

During gym time, my district plays world cup which is soccer elimintation try to score every man for himself. You have to rep a country and shout the country when you score. I've been Norway. It's fun.

One of my teachers whos really funny made me and Elder Tracy do 50 pushups because we kept calling people "mi sirena".

I like getting cornettos and peachios at la Tienda.

I think a site to send is missionarypackage.net (I would be stoked if you sent american stamps because they go faster)

Elder Mooney, Elder Watts, Elder Peterson (who went home) and District Leader Elder Nielson.

Elder Tracy dabbing

Elder Mooney- really good at soccer, has identical twin here, really funny

my comp Elder Karren boiiiii

Week One

Notes about 1st week:

So CCM is pronounced Say Say Em Ay I thought that was cool

I remember at the airport in sf talking to the other missionary. We realized we were going to different gates so we were like - good luck on your mission man!- and then parted ways. It was cool.

My companion Elder Karren loves Ted Cruz and guns so we get along super well. He's actually a super nice guy and he bought me peachios. He has a super serious gf that he talks about alot and a like 4 page long patriarchal blessing that he talks about even more. One part says that he'll have a companion who will disobey mission rules and i'm pretty sure he thinks i'm the companion haha. But we talk about utah and Colombia (he's going to Bogota) and mountain biking and leather. Idk how to send pics yet but i'll send soon. He actually had a super rough first week so I had to amp up my comfort skills from day 1.

I love my district. Guys are so funny. Elder Tracy is prob my best friend from the district. We play a game called -what are the odds- that I would play with Alex Lattin - You say -what are the odds you do __dare__ ? They say a number and then you count to 3 and if you both say the same number, they have to do the dare. Mostly we make each other do embarrasing stuff while meeting w investigators haha. In the missionary handbook, page 33 talks about no flirting, so anytime we see any guy and girl talking, we shout PAGE 33. I love my spanish teachers too. My morning teacher is named Wolftown - Villalovos. I'm gonna name my son Wolftown. Me and Elder Tracy always ask him if we can skype him on xmas or if we can by him a ticket to Bogota and we're setting him up with a Spanish Teacher across the hall haha. He's funny. My night teacher also plays the investigator that we meet with. Me and Elder Karren had to give our first spanish visit w him on day 2. I still dont know his name because I just call him Miguel- the name of the investigator he plays. He´s 21 and so funny. Me and Elder Tracy talk to him about his gf and tinder, and his car, and instagram followers. He always jokes with us and tells us hes send us home.

3 meals a day- its insane. Usually rice, chicken, cantelope, beans. I always drink sparkling water w grapfruit juice. Pizza days are tuesday.Sunday has the best food. Good cereal bar.

Spanish is going good and french is helpful. Learning is way faster than learning french but I wish there was more immersion. Everyone should learn Spanish- its way easier than french. You pronounce all the letters, and the r's are easier and most words are either same as enlgish or same as french. conjugation is the hardest.

Our district leader is super cool. Elder Nielson. First impression is a super no nonsense mormon but turns out he likes arcade fire and foxygen, and all these shows i watch and just a super funny, sharp dude. We do core together during gym time or jumprope. He also likes movies but not rated r.  I also like how he talks about mormonism vs everyone else at the ccm. i'm in a room w him and his comp. He's going to Chile, but the rest of the guys in my district are going to Bogota w me. The sisters in my district are going back stateside. Both are really nice and I talk guitar w one of them.

I love showering so i can be alone and I love journal writing and sleep. Super vivid dreams every night.

Idk the ccm address.

Zone leaders are funny and tell us all the beast food to get here.

I use the 100 pesos we get from ccm all the time for snacks and whatever I need.

My p-days are Wednesday and 3 of them at the ccm, ill be going to the temple. I have an hour to email so i'll pack as much as I can.

Very diff then anything ive done.

Sundays are super cool. We watched an old Elder Holland talk. Sundays are more relaxed then all the others. Sacrement meeting and devotional.

The spanish hymn book is super helpful. I use it about 20 times a day.

Me and Elder Tracy say Que pasa calabaza? Whats up pumpkin? to everyone we see. We also say quiero matar! - I want to kill! because it sounds funny.

There are tons of palm trees here and workers who go up in the trees and chop down huge leaves. There are tons of parrots. We hear gun shots all night in the surrounding Mexico City haha. We were here during Mexico Independence day. Super cool celebration performance w all these mexcian dances. Maybe you can see pics on the ccm site. But the coolest part was seeing fireworks over the city. The ccm is huge but super walled off. Really wished I could go out and party. Mornings are really pretty. The ccm is right next to a mountain coved with houses that light upat night. Very green. It rains a lot too.

Probably forgetting a ton.

I miss everyone

Elder Tigre Santo