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.
I miss my family
and thus it is written
Amen
Elder Porras & Elder Blair
