Week was pretty packed.
There were 4 baptisms in the zone. I had to do my first baptismal interview for the sister missionaries. It was for their investigator Jonathan. We went to their area: Cota (a farmtown right by the mountains a little out of the way with an indigenous village). Interview went well. At the end he asked me if Joseph Smith was a freemason.
We also had our interviews with Mission Pres. Laney. The night before interview day, I broke my nametag so that was stupid. My interview went good. Now I'm not sure if I'll be leaving the area quite yet. I had a bad cold so Pres. told me I should get more rest. At the end he said "that's some stylish hair. Maybe too stylish." I got my haircut the day before lol. My comp told me President asked him for a selfie.
Ripped my suit pants beyond repair yesterday.
Visited one investigator, Mafe, who always has good questions. The visit this week, she asked, "Where did the holy ghost come from?" and "Ok, so once we get to the celestial kingdom, what's the point there?"
Had an awesome guitar class with the neighborhood kids. There's a guitar in almost every house but lots don't know how to play. We taught the song Easy Easy by King Krule. Pretty simple and really good song.
Met with a new investigator Maria and found out she's under house arrest after being in prison 2 years. In Colombia there are no death penalties and pretty rarely life sentences. So we aren't sure what happened there. It was awkward because I invited her to come to church but forgot she can't leave the house.
We went to contact in the outskirts of our area (actually not sure if it was our area) in a sector called ALASKA. Super weird vibe. Everyone staring us down. But I also dug it.
We got locked out of our house Saturday so we had a sleepover with the Elders in Fontana area. Next morning we got a copy of our keys at the zone leader's house.
Thursday we had our first visit with Rosio Castellanos' family. Lots of distractions so it didn't go well. At the end Rosio said, "I want you guys to come over for lunch, but not interested in the church stuff." So I told them, "Give us one more chance and we'll convince you," and they agreed. So we went into a fast and had the next visit the next day. Went way better. We forgot it was fast Sunday. We almost did 2 fasts but we agreed our stomachs couldn't handle it. I like fasting though. I like what "Letters to a Young Mormon" says about hunger-- paying attention to it instead of just giving in to it or brushing it off. Paying attention to what hunger feels like (material hunger, hunger for sex, hunger for food, etc).
Got film for my camera.
Lately I've been in the mode of just working as hard as I can or as my body permits. But if your comp wants to take it easier you have to consider that too. I don't know, sometimes it's a bummer if your comp doesn't have the same take, but it's also a lesson of teamwork I guess.
This week for language study I learned a ton of Spanish expressions.
Some awesome ones are:
"alli hay gato encerrado" = there's something fishy going on there (or literally: there's a locked up cat in there)
"a otro perro con ese hueso" = to another dog with that bone! (when somebody's trying to sell you something crappy or talking to you about something stupid)
I've also been saying "a otro gato con esa leche" as a joke = to another cat with that milk!
Maria Blanco's husband died. She's a lady in our ward. Elder Ferrada and I gave him a blessing 3 months ago. She bore her testimony on Sunday; it was pretty sad.
I'm into immersive discipleship but sometimes I think I take it too seriously or literally. On Sunday morning there was this super drugged out dude drooling. We tried to talk with him but he wasn't capable of communicating. We put his shoes by him. But I was beating myself up for not finding him a blanket and getting him water and bread and stuff. But it's like dude you don't have to take it that seriously. It's also like - doing that would have been good and going the extra mile. I don't know. I think I'm probably going insane.
In a lot of our visits lately, we've been asking, "Why are you a member of the church?" or "Why do you want to be a member of the church?" and it's good at getting people to share. Lots of really interesting points of view. Everyone has a way different answer.
Things are going well. I'm trying to get the most out of this as I can but also want to stop thinking so much about myself.
Miss you all!
Elder Blair
Images from a few months ago in Barbosa.
