Dear Family,
Happy Thanksgiving!
Week went awesome.
Tuesday:
I was with Elder Avila from PANAMA. Every time I'm with a Panameño I teach them A MAN A PLAN A CANAL PANAMA (thanks, Dad). He calls me tio (uncle). We had a fun day. We visited these new investigators named Pablo and Sylvia. The first thing they asked us was about the Book of Lehi. Fun lesson. Pablo is one of the best guitarists I've ever seen and has a band called ROTTEN SPIRIT. He and Sylvia rolled up to church on Sunday. It was awesome.
Wednesday:
We had a district meeting. Our district is pretty tight knit. We always do splits with each other. Pretty fun group`of guys. After the district meeting, Jaque and I rolled out to this unknown sector of our area to tract. It's called PALOMITAS. We were down there a half hour. Lots of pottery. I was dying. We went to visit our investigator named Will Smith (ah yeah) and I was on the point of passing out. I had fever so we went home at 3 and I fell on my bed and slept like 20 hours straight. But that was the end of sickness.
Thursday:
We had a Thanksgiving party with the District in our house at night. We had fried chicken and all shared what we were thankful for.
Friday:
I was with Elder Quiñonez. We found 3 random less active families just by knocking random doors. We met Omar Salamanca, this dude who knew the missionaries in the 80s and still remembers their names —Elder McAllister and Elder Ingram. One less active we found was named Edgar. He has the most massive hands I've ever seen. We talked with him for awhile and he showed up to church on Sunday.
Saturday:
Saturday morning we moved a house. Easiest move so far because there was an elevator. Had lunch with the Stake Pres. We planned this huge Christmas choir with him. We are stoked about it that. Had a zone open house at night. I was with Elder Do Carmo, a brand new elder from Brazil. We talked about Cidade de Deus (city of god) which is a dope brazilian movie. Do Carmo is a tae kwondo maniac straight up thug. We contacted like crazy in the street and got some cool people in the church.
Sunday:
Rolled up to Church and they told us we had talks haha. I talked about Article of Faith 9. Then we spent the afternoon tracting and found an awesome family. Then we visited the Caceres family who just agreed to get married. We went with the ward secretary who is a lawyer and it was so sweet.
Busy week, lots of errands. Lately I've been putting on the Spanish Pochahontas soundtrack while we sleep.
Miss and love you guys
Elder Blair
Monday, November 27, 2017
Monday, November 20, 2017
Week Sixty Two
Week Report
Tuesday we rolled over to San Gil. San Gil is a colonial city out in the boonies and the whole area had been closed for about 2 years but they just opened it up again about 3 weeks ago. The elders are staying in a hotel right now (lol) because there is no available missionary housing. The branch is also having their meetings in the hotel as they get the new chapel prepared. It's pretty funny because the elders get fresh towels everyday + packaged soap. But they live over 2 hours away form everybody so I think they've been feeling isolated.
Anyway, I spent the day in San Gil with Elder Torres. His Mom is from Bogota and his dad is from NY. His aunts live in Bogota and have visited him like 5 times haha. Elder Torres is awesome though. He has the most massive calves I've ever seen. We went beast mode all day in San Gil. We found an elderly couple of door makers. Jorge has been making doors since 71. I asked him if he made wood doors and he glared at me and said "never." Wrong question I guess...
San Gil also has like 10 tiny pueblos that you have to bus to but count as being part of the area. I convinced Torres to take me to one of them. We rolled up to BARICHARA. Pretty sure we were the first missionaries to ever go there. It's a white city. One of the best looking towns I've seen in Colombia. Look up BARICHARA. It's famous for stone sculpting. So we hung out and contacted in Barichara. Then we bussed back and contacted this dude. We asked him if he wanted to come to church. He said "when they give me my freedom!" ...#housearrest. Torres asked what he did for work and the dude was like, "I don't talk about that on busses."#yikes
But I got to know Elder Torres way better. We're buds now.
Wednesday
Cant remember anything.
Thursday
So Julian and Angelica have been our key investigators. Angelica is an environmental engineer and Julian is a vet. Power siblings. Every lesson started with them questioning us about the Isaiah chapters of the BOM. But some of the most thoughtful people. Angelica prayed for a signal to know if the BOM is true. Opened the book up to 3 Nephi 12 and she read the last half of verse 2: Yea, blessed are they who shall believe in your words, and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of their sins.
They had their baptismal interviews on Thursday. Our district leader Elder Skinner did the interview. Elder Jaque stayed with him. I went with Elder Quiñonez (rapper from Guatemala) back to his area. We had a pretty crazy lesson with his Bishop and this Mother and Daughter they are teaching. The daughter is 17 but has a 30 year old boyfriend and the lesson ended with her breaking up with him. It was crazy. Won't say anything else.
But me and Quiñonez rolled back to their house and made burritos. Quiñonez is a trooper. None of his family writes him so we are trying to be his best friend.
Friday we had splits in Piedecuesta (Foothills). I was with Elder Hulet. Piedecuesta has been a dead area for awhile so we rolled up and worked like dogs. Had a crazy visit with this radio guy. His wife had told the missionaries, "I don't care if an angel comes down and tells me your church is true, I'm never getting baptized." Gotta respect the commitment but still...
Next morning we made arepas and french toast. Then we rolled back to my area. Baptism day. We cleaned the font and ran 50 errands to get the clothes ready and the chapel ready and keys to the font and all this other crap. Baptism went dope. Good showup. I baptised Julian and Elder Jaque baptised Angelica. They will be good Latter Day Saints. Have become family.
After the baptism, I was changing clothes and suddenly realized I had to throw up. There was like 10 people in the bathroom but #gottadowhatyagottado. Kind of embarrasing lol. I STILL don't know where the food poisoning came from. But that's the mission: CLEAN FONT - BAPTIZE - THROW UP. Julian and Angelica brought me soup (best friends). Elder Jaque was a beast comp. He had to force me to stay in bed. That was a horrible night. Throwing up takes all your strength. Sorry to talk so much about puke.
Sunday was awesome. Julian and Angelica got confirmed. We went to gospel principles. I lasted 5 minutes and felt like I had to pass out. Longest hour ever. I would have left earlier but...idk. Brother Aranguren saw that I was bad and gave us a ride home early. He's such a good dude. We baptized his best friend and have become bros with him. We got back to our house and I collapsed on the bed and slept till 7 at night.
Woke up, rolled over to a FACE TO FACE event. Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard gave a program to the youth of the church. We went with Julian and Angelica and it was good because they got to know all the youth of the stakes.
Today we played soccer.
Really grateful for mission life. I feel like so much of life before was about comfort and the easiest way out. Love the mission for pushing me.
Miss you guys more than I can say!
And thus it is written,
Amen
Elder Blair
Tuesday we rolled over to San Gil. San Gil is a colonial city out in the boonies and the whole area had been closed for about 2 years but they just opened it up again about 3 weeks ago. The elders are staying in a hotel right now (lol) because there is no available missionary housing. The branch is also having their meetings in the hotel as they get the new chapel prepared. It's pretty funny because the elders get fresh towels everyday + packaged soap. But they live over 2 hours away form everybody so I think they've been feeling isolated.
Anyway, I spent the day in San Gil with Elder Torres. His Mom is from Bogota and his dad is from NY. His aunts live in Bogota and have visited him like 5 times haha. Elder Torres is awesome though. He has the most massive calves I've ever seen. We went beast mode all day in San Gil. We found an elderly couple of door makers. Jorge has been making doors since 71. I asked him if he made wood doors and he glared at me and said "never." Wrong question I guess...
San Gil also has like 10 tiny pueblos that you have to bus to but count as being part of the area. I convinced Torres to take me to one of them. We rolled up to BARICHARA. Pretty sure we were the first missionaries to ever go there. It's a white city. One of the best looking towns I've seen in Colombia. Look up BARICHARA. It's famous for stone sculpting. So we hung out and contacted in Barichara. Then we bussed back and contacted this dude. We asked him if he wanted to come to church. He said "when they give me my freedom!" ...#housearrest. Torres asked what he did for work and the dude was like, "I don't talk about that on busses."#yikes
But I got to know Elder Torres way better. We're buds now.
Wednesday
Cant remember anything.
Thursday
So Julian and Angelica have been our key investigators. Angelica is an environmental engineer and Julian is a vet. Power siblings. Every lesson started with them questioning us about the Isaiah chapters of the BOM. But some of the most thoughtful people. Angelica prayed for a signal to know if the BOM is true. Opened the book up to 3 Nephi 12 and she read the last half of verse 2: Yea, blessed are they who shall believe in your words, and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of their sins.
They had their baptismal interviews on Thursday. Our district leader Elder Skinner did the interview. Elder Jaque stayed with him. I went with Elder Quiñonez (rapper from Guatemala) back to his area. We had a pretty crazy lesson with his Bishop and this Mother and Daughter they are teaching. The daughter is 17 but has a 30 year old boyfriend and the lesson ended with her breaking up with him. It was crazy. Won't say anything else.
But me and Quiñonez rolled back to their house and made burritos. Quiñonez is a trooper. None of his family writes him so we are trying to be his best friend.
Friday we had splits in Piedecuesta (Foothills). I was with Elder Hulet. Piedecuesta has been a dead area for awhile so we rolled up and worked like dogs. Had a crazy visit with this radio guy. His wife had told the missionaries, "I don't care if an angel comes down and tells me your church is true, I'm never getting baptized." Gotta respect the commitment but still...
Next morning we made arepas and french toast. Then we rolled back to my area. Baptism day. We cleaned the font and ran 50 errands to get the clothes ready and the chapel ready and keys to the font and all this other crap. Baptism went dope. Good showup. I baptised Julian and Elder Jaque baptised Angelica. They will be good Latter Day Saints. Have become family.
After the baptism, I was changing clothes and suddenly realized I had to throw up. There was like 10 people in the bathroom but #gottadowhatyagottado. Kind of embarrasing lol. I STILL don't know where the food poisoning came from. But that's the mission: CLEAN FONT - BAPTIZE - THROW UP. Julian and Angelica brought me soup (best friends). Elder Jaque was a beast comp. He had to force me to stay in bed. That was a horrible night. Throwing up takes all your strength. Sorry to talk so much about puke.
Sunday was awesome. Julian and Angelica got confirmed. We went to gospel principles. I lasted 5 minutes and felt like I had to pass out. Longest hour ever. I would have left earlier but...idk. Brother Aranguren saw that I was bad and gave us a ride home early. He's such a good dude. We baptized his best friend and have become bros with him. We got back to our house and I collapsed on the bed and slept till 7 at night.
Woke up, rolled over to a FACE TO FACE event. Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard gave a program to the youth of the church. We went with Julian and Angelica and it was good because they got to know all the youth of the stakes.
Today we played soccer.
Really grateful for mission life. I feel like so much of life before was about comfort and the easiest way out. Love the mission for pushing me.
Miss you guys more than I can say!
And thus it is written,
Amen
Elder Blair
Monday, November 13, 2017
Week Sixty One
Dear family
Hope all is good in the Bay! Did you celebrate 1 year of Trump?
Things are doing good in Santander.
This week was sweet. Super tired. I'm bummed because this internet cafe doesn't have an sd card reader so no pics this week but next week ill come through!
Elder Jimenez and Elder Parra finished their missions. Good friends. We dropped them off at the terminal.
This transfer was easy. Only a couple new missionaries came to the zone.
We did an intense service in La Cumbre - pretty much favelas. We made cement and then laid it for a good 3 hours. They gave us lemonade and empanadas after. There was a construction worker with us and while we were eating he said, "Indio con hambre no puede trabajar..y lleno tampoco." Which means, "The hungry Indian can't work. Neither can a full one."
Everyday we walk down this huge Z shaped path down a mountain to get to our area. Always filled with potheads who think we are cops.
Rolled over to visited 1st Counselor in the Bishopric yesterday. Gerson Sandoval. Told us how he went on a mission because his best friend was going and he didn't want to be bored at home. Ended up getting called to the same mission, and later they were comps. But they ended up hating each other as comps and asked for emergency transfers. Friends are one thing, comps are another.
Love my zone. Tons of hard workers. Missionaries with rough home lives who are making tons of sacrifices to be here.
Love our invesitgators. We have 10 main investigators and all of them rolled up to church. That felt sweet. We were all sitting on a bench together.
One line in the Colombian national anthem is "el bien germina ya" which means "the good is already germinating."
The good is already germinating.
amen love you guys!
E Blair
P.S. Some pics pday today. We went to a Jesus statue.
Hope all is good in the Bay! Did you celebrate 1 year of Trump?
Things are doing good in Santander.
This week was sweet. Super tired. I'm bummed because this internet cafe doesn't have an sd card reader so no pics this week but next week ill come through!
Elder Jimenez and Elder Parra finished their missions. Good friends. We dropped them off at the terminal.
This transfer was easy. Only a couple new missionaries came to the zone.
We did an intense service in La Cumbre - pretty much favelas. We made cement and then laid it for a good 3 hours. They gave us lemonade and empanadas after. There was a construction worker with us and while we were eating he said, "Indio con hambre no puede trabajar..y lleno tampoco." Which means, "The hungry Indian can't work. Neither can a full one."
Everyday we walk down this huge Z shaped path down a mountain to get to our area. Always filled with potheads who think we are cops.
Rolled over to visited 1st Counselor in the Bishopric yesterday. Gerson Sandoval. Told us how he went on a mission because his best friend was going and he didn't want to be bored at home. Ended up getting called to the same mission, and later they were comps. But they ended up hating each other as comps and asked for emergency transfers. Friends are one thing, comps are another.
Love my zone. Tons of hard workers. Missionaries with rough home lives who are making tons of sacrifices to be here.
Love our invesitgators. We have 10 main investigators and all of them rolled up to church. That felt sweet. We were all sitting on a bench together.
One line in the Colombian national anthem is "el bien germina ya" which means "the good is already germinating."
The good is already germinating.
amen love you guys!
E Blair
P.S. Some pics pday today. We went to a Jesus statue.
Monday, November 6, 2017
Week Sixty
Dear Fam,
Happy halloween.
This week was pretty empty - a lot of travel.
This past transfer, our district has been super tight knit. We have done everything together, all really good friends.
Our district leader Elder Tracy made a pot of chocolate milk and we all took turns drinking from it for the last district meeting of the transfer.
I like being zone leader because you get to know everybody, every area, all the investigators. It's way less boring because there is always something to do.
I'm remembering Elder Menesses. He's an elder from Bolivia who is the zone leader of a neighboring zone. We always travel with him to Bogota. Super funny dude. He's always speaking English. He says, "Dude. dude. Please dude. Take it easy. Dude please, listen to me." He also is always pretending to wave at someone and then laughing when everyone turns to look.
Our investigators are our best friends.
Julian and Angelica use the white pages at the back of the BOM to write all their questions. Both really smart.
Arelis and Thomas. A mother and son. Thomas was Michael Jackson for halloween. He's 10. His friend came over and didn't have a costume. Thomas was like, "Dude wheres your costume?" His friend said, "I don't do that, my mom says that's from the devil."
Our investigator Alex really hit me hard. When I arrived in this area, he was alcoholic and never talked with us. Super isolated. We've just tried to be his friend and for the 1st month he just walked into his room every time we came by to visit his family. But this past month he's become our best friend. We helped him give up alcohol. He's a trooper working really hard to fix his family. Super big change of heart.
Love being comps with Elder Jaque. Really hard worker. We both just want to go as hard as we can.
Not that great a letter. So many people I wish you guys could meet. I don't know, I can't write good descriptions of people.
Love you guys!
Elder Blair
Happy halloween.
This week was pretty empty - a lot of travel.
This past transfer, our district has been super tight knit. We have done everything together, all really good friends.
Our district leader Elder Tracy made a pot of chocolate milk and we all took turns drinking from it for the last district meeting of the transfer.
I like being zone leader because you get to know everybody, every area, all the investigators. It's way less boring because there is always something to do.
I'm remembering Elder Menesses. He's an elder from Bolivia who is the zone leader of a neighboring zone. We always travel with him to Bogota. Super funny dude. He's always speaking English. He says, "Dude. dude. Please dude. Take it easy. Dude please, listen to me." He also is always pretending to wave at someone and then laughing when everyone turns to look.
Our investigators are our best friends.
Julian and Angelica use the white pages at the back of the BOM to write all their questions. Both really smart.
Arelis and Thomas. A mother and son. Thomas was Michael Jackson for halloween. He's 10. His friend came over and didn't have a costume. Thomas was like, "Dude wheres your costume?" His friend said, "I don't do that, my mom says that's from the devil."
Our investigator Alex really hit me hard. When I arrived in this area, he was alcoholic and never talked with us. Super isolated. We've just tried to be his friend and for the 1st month he just walked into his room every time we came by to visit his family. But this past month he's become our best friend. We helped him give up alcohol. He's a trooper working really hard to fix his family. Super big change of heart.
Love being comps with Elder Jaque. Really hard worker. We both just want to go as hard as we can.
Not that great a letter. So many people I wish you guys could meet. I don't know, I can't write good descriptions of people.
Love you guys!
Elder Blair
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