[ 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
Monday, July 9, 2018
Week Ninety Five
[ Ralph's report came via messaging this week ]
just finished playing basketball with the kids in the ward.
colombia is depressed about losing in world cup
holy. crap.
legit thousands of lonely grandpas drinking beer alone in bars listening to vallenato
that was the whole day
holy. crap. week 95!
the new mission president. he's...cool. no one will reach laney's level
i'm pretty sure laney will be hitting general conference soon
i'm getting so tight with the members here
we need to live on a river
i want to see charles again
my district is just 4 other missionaries who live far and we never see them and they are super obedient so they never want to hang out
hahaha
we've had like 2 district meetings
i wish there were other missionaries but whatevs
i went from seeing tons of elders every day to being with 1 comp 24/7 again
but my comp is awesome
just finished playing basketball with the kids in the ward.
colombia is depressed about losing in world cup
holy. crap.
legit thousands of lonely grandpas drinking beer alone in bars listening to vallenato
that was the whole day
holy. crap. week 95!
the new mission president. he's...cool. no one will reach laney's level
i'm pretty sure laney will be hitting general conference soon
i'm getting so tight with the members here
we need to live on a river
i want to see charles again
my district is just 4 other missionaries who live far and we never see them and they are super obedient so they never want to hang out
hahaha
we've had like 2 district meetings
i wish there were other missionaries but whatevs
i went from seeing tons of elders every day to being with 1 comp 24/7 again
but my comp is awesome
Monday, July 2, 2018
Week Ninety Four
[ Ralph's report came via messaging this week ]
dudes
whoa the rally looks cray
holy crap!
this was not a normal thing when i left
big game tomorrow
we are about to DESTROY england
i was just talking w chris southcott about it haha
he and charles are watching the world cup
dudes you have no idea
my area is a 24/7 party during the world cup
all these old dudes inviting us to come drink beer with them haha
today i had some members take us on a roadtrip to this cave 3 hours away
tons of bats it was insane
THERE WAS A PACK OF LIKE 50 ALL HUDDLED TOGETHER THEY ALL STARTED FLYING
it was dope i invited my converts from my last bucaramanga area and this dope member family and we went w this member who has this huge van
made me trunky!
i'm not wasting any of my pdays till the end
wednesday i meet my new pres
4 of july
i'm gonna bring him a burger
got my last email from pres laney
so weird that he's gone
i called the aps and they told me he was crying and sister laney HUGGED all the office elders
hermana laney was a super diff misson mom
she would swear super sarcastic super funny
for sure you should write them
dudes i am so stoked
less than 60 days
just being in the presence of my fam
i think i just want to enjoy a couple weeks before it hits me that my life starts
and it will be good to see what everybody's doing and make plans
there's a member mom here who lives right by us who loves your blog haha
she doesn't speak english
maybe a bit
she gave me the news about your hair
and my convert told me about the rally this morning
tons follow your ig
so funny
yeah everyone hooks it up here
it's crazy
our area has tons of kids
so many
they stay playing out in the street till 10-11
all of them know us now. whenever we walk by they shout CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA
everytime i see any kids i say #hey how are you what's ur name good morning brother" in THICK colombian accent and they all stare SHOCKED and then the next time we pass they all shout the same thing
it gets dark super early 7:00
i have invites from chris and charles to live w them
idk what i should do
weird having so many options
any advice on being a good comp to elder lucaila?
i say ecuatorian swear words because his reaction is super funny
we eat lots of ecuatorian food
rice tuna tomato onion salad
chicken thigh w rice tomato onion pepper
this week i cleaned dried vomit out of a glue addicts sink
so thats why i need good pdays
haha
love you guys!
p.s. -- here are pics:
dudes
whoa the rally looks cray
holy crap!
this was not a normal thing when i left
big game tomorrow
we are about to DESTROY england
i was just talking w chris southcott about it haha
he and charles are watching the world cup
dudes you have no idea
my area is a 24/7 party during the world cup
all these old dudes inviting us to come drink beer with them haha
today i had some members take us on a roadtrip to this cave 3 hours away
tons of bats it was insane
THERE WAS A PACK OF LIKE 50 ALL HUDDLED TOGETHER THEY ALL STARTED FLYING
it was dope i invited my converts from my last bucaramanga area and this dope member family and we went w this member who has this huge van
made me trunky!
i'm not wasting any of my pdays till the end
wednesday i meet my new pres
4 of july
i'm gonna bring him a burger
got my last email from pres laney
so weird that he's gone
i called the aps and they told me he was crying and sister laney HUGGED all the office elders
hermana laney was a super diff misson mom
she would swear super sarcastic super funny
for sure you should write them
dudes i am so stoked
less than 60 days
just being in the presence of my fam
i think i just want to enjoy a couple weeks before it hits me that my life starts
and it will be good to see what everybody's doing and make plans
there's a member mom here who lives right by us who loves your blog haha
she doesn't speak english
maybe a bit
she gave me the news about your hair
and my convert told me about the rally this morning
tons follow your ig
so funny
yeah everyone hooks it up here
it's crazy
our area has tons of kids
so many
they stay playing out in the street till 10-11
all of them know us now. whenever we walk by they shout CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA
everytime i see any kids i say #hey how are you what's ur name good morning brother" in THICK colombian accent and they all stare SHOCKED and then the next time we pass they all shout the same thing
it gets dark super early 7:00
i have invites from chris and charles to live w them
idk what i should do
weird having so many options
any advice on being a good comp to elder lucaila?
i say ecuatorian swear words because his reaction is super funny
we eat lots of ecuatorian food
rice tuna tomato onion salad
chicken thigh w rice tomato onion pepper
this week i cleaned dried vomit out of a glue addicts sink
so thats why i need good pdays
haha
love you guys!
p.s. -- here are pics:
roadtrip to stake conference
stake conference, last pic w laneys
bats, the cave was not lit at all just flash
we made jugo de tamarindo
roadtrip
the first vision
cueva
Monday, June 25, 2018
Week Ninety Three
How's it going fam??
This week went awesome.
Elder Lucaila and I have been KILLING it down here in PiedeCuesta.
Our ward mission leader Alonso said we were "bringing back the spark."
By the way, Alonso our mission leader is awesome. He is a baker so we always go buy his bread in the morning. He has like everybody's phone # memorized. He legit can recite off the top of his head almost all the members phone numbers.
We are getting pretty famous in our area. All the neighborhood kids know us and shout "GRINGO GRINGO WHAT YUR NAME??" whenever we pass.
We are teaching a dude name Wilson and his fam. Wilson is our neighbor and lives a block away. He has a motorcycle parking lot and 2 weeks ago he got robbed by 2 thugs. They almost cut his arm off with a machete and sliced his face. He has a pretty gnarly scar now. The crazy part is that this happened at 6:30 PM a block from our house.
Yesterday was Stake Conference and it was so cool seeing all my friends from my old area in Bucaramanga. Found out my convert Julian is Ward Mission Leader now. He gave the closing prayer at Stake Conference. That was crazy. Everybody was so surprised to see me. Most thought I had already finished. Plus, I saw my old Bishop Wolfang Martinez! Saw him and we both started singing "I was made for loving you baby.." So funny.
Yeah so Stake Conf ended and the chapel emptied in 5 seconds because everybody had to watch Colombia play. My area was a FIESTA holy moly. Everybody on the street inviting us to come drink beer with them. People dancing salsa everywhere. Huge stereos blasting Vallenato. And every single person wearing their Colombia jersey.
We saw a dude get scissor kicked in the chest in a neighborhood fight yesterday. All the grandmas watching sighed "dios mio."
It's been raining a ton in our area.
I really like working with Lucaila. I try to stack the days with lessons and charlas because the fastest way to learn is to teach teach teach. I love days that are filled with charlas.
We have been finding good people. I love when we find people who actually read the Book of Mormon. Mostly I like teaching 1st Nephi chapter 4 when Nephi kills Laban. Then we always blow their minds and ask them,"Why didn't God make it easier for Nephi?"
Other things:
We saw a tiny old dude carrying this huge gasoline tank all by himself so we helped out and literally carried that thing 5km with him. I do not know how he does it by himself...
Anyway, things are going good. Today for p-day we went on a massive hike to a waterfall. We got lost but we found a river. On the way we saw wild banana trees, orange trees, passion fruit trees. We dunked our heads in the river.
P.S. Hermana Herrera reads your blog, Mom. The Herrera family are the coolest members.
Love you guys and miss you!
Elder Blair
This week went awesome.
Elder Lucaila and I have been KILLING it down here in PiedeCuesta.
Our ward mission leader Alonso said we were "bringing back the spark."
By the way, Alonso our mission leader is awesome. He is a baker so we always go buy his bread in the morning. He has like everybody's phone # memorized. He legit can recite off the top of his head almost all the members phone numbers.
We are getting pretty famous in our area. All the neighborhood kids know us and shout "GRINGO GRINGO WHAT YUR NAME??" whenever we pass.
We are teaching a dude name Wilson and his fam. Wilson is our neighbor and lives a block away. He has a motorcycle parking lot and 2 weeks ago he got robbed by 2 thugs. They almost cut his arm off with a machete and sliced his face. He has a pretty gnarly scar now. The crazy part is that this happened at 6:30 PM a block from our house.
Yesterday was Stake Conference and it was so cool seeing all my friends from my old area in Bucaramanga. Found out my convert Julian is Ward Mission Leader now. He gave the closing prayer at Stake Conference. That was crazy. Everybody was so surprised to see me. Most thought I had already finished. Plus, I saw my old Bishop Wolfang Martinez! Saw him and we both started singing "I was made for loving you baby.." So funny.
Yeah so Stake Conf ended and the chapel emptied in 5 seconds because everybody had to watch Colombia play. My area was a FIESTA holy moly. Everybody on the street inviting us to come drink beer with them. People dancing salsa everywhere. Huge stereos blasting Vallenato. And every single person wearing their Colombia jersey.
We saw a dude get scissor kicked in the chest in a neighborhood fight yesterday. All the grandmas watching sighed "dios mio."
It's been raining a ton in our area.
I really like working with Lucaila. I try to stack the days with lessons and charlas because the fastest way to learn is to teach teach teach. I love days that are filled with charlas.
We have been finding good people. I love when we find people who actually read the Book of Mormon. Mostly I like teaching 1st Nephi chapter 4 when Nephi kills Laban. Then we always blow their minds and ask them,"Why didn't God make it easier for Nephi?"
Other things:
We saw a tiny old dude carrying this huge gasoline tank all by himself so we helped out and literally carried that thing 5km with him. I do not know how he does it by himself...
Anyway, things are going good. Today for p-day we went on a massive hike to a waterfall. We got lost but we found a river. On the way we saw wild banana trees, orange trees, passion fruit trees. We dunked our heads in the river.
P.S. Hermana Herrera reads your blog, Mom. The Herrera family are the coolest members.
Love you guys and miss you!
Elder Blair
Monday, June 18, 2018
Week Ninety Two
Hey family! Miss you guys.
This week was sweet.
Pie de Cuesta is an all aorund work out.
Elder Stevenson of the 12 visited our mission. The entire mission came which has never happened in my mission before. It was the last time seeing a lot of my best friends here + the last time seeing the Laneys. Pretty big bummer. People who have been the most constant in my life for the past 2 years. Have lots of love for my friends here, who knows the next time we'll see each other.
But it was super cool hearing from Elder Stevenson and his wife. Def got my comp and I excited to get to work.
We are bring Pie de Cuesta back to life. I look back on my early areas and there's a lot I would do differently, but I don't want to have any regrets here. We have been legit running around all over the place. Sometimes I have to run pushing behind my comp Elder Lucaila, haha.
So here are some other things that went down this week:
We saw a gang of these birds eating a dog:
The black vulture type bird is called a "chulo" and they are ALL OVER my area. We call them "satanistas."
We found a dude named Carlos and visited him the nexr day. Pretty much the most draining visit I've had my whole mission. This area is all around physical/emotional/everything workout. Won't share too much details right now. Carlos is in lowest of low. We didn't even share anything with him, we just prayed and then cleaned his entire house. His house was so nasty. I cleaned the roach filled kitchen. Washing 3 month old food off dishes. Lucaila is getting a hardcore intro to mission life!
Other people we are teaching:
Luis Prada: ex-marine who just got his motorcycle stolen
Elisabeth and Juan Carlos: A pizza chef and her son who is a skater
Rosa Prada: she is the girlfriend of this member Jorge and she has a parrot that bites me
Cristancho Family: A less active family who sells juice in Bucaramanga
We are getting tight with our neighbors. The walls of our apartment building are pretty thin, so we spend our personal studies listening to reggaeton and Colombian rap on full blast.
Sunday was cool. We gave talks and I'm the music director.
I'm getting way into juice making skillz. The way you make juice here is: you buy the pulp of the fruit you want and you buy milk or use water + sugar.
Really like training. Elder Lucaila is a really good kid. He is a really fast learner and always asking for feedback.
Lots of ideas for things to do here... but I dont want to be an idea person i want to be a doer.
Really love and miss you guys!
Elder Blair
This week was sweet.
Pie de Cuesta is an all aorund work out.
Elder Stevenson of the 12 visited our mission. The entire mission came which has never happened in my mission before. It was the last time seeing a lot of my best friends here + the last time seeing the Laneys. Pretty big bummer. People who have been the most constant in my life for the past 2 years. Have lots of love for my friends here, who knows the next time we'll see each other.
But it was super cool hearing from Elder Stevenson and his wife. Def got my comp and I excited to get to work.
We are bring Pie de Cuesta back to life. I look back on my early areas and there's a lot I would do differently, but I don't want to have any regrets here. We have been legit running around all over the place. Sometimes I have to run pushing behind my comp Elder Lucaila, haha.
So here are some other things that went down this week:
We saw a gang of these birds eating a dog:
The black vulture type bird is called a "chulo" and they are ALL OVER my area. We call them "satanistas."
We found a dude named Carlos and visited him the nexr day. Pretty much the most draining visit I've had my whole mission. This area is all around physical/emotional/everything workout. Won't share too much details right now. Carlos is in lowest of low. We didn't even share anything with him, we just prayed and then cleaned his entire house. His house was so nasty. I cleaned the roach filled kitchen. Washing 3 month old food off dishes. Lucaila is getting a hardcore intro to mission life!
Other people we are teaching:
Luis Prada: ex-marine who just got his motorcycle stolen
Elisabeth and Juan Carlos: A pizza chef and her son who is a skater
Rosa Prada: she is the girlfriend of this member Jorge and she has a parrot that bites me
Cristancho Family: A less active family who sells juice in Bucaramanga
We are getting tight with our neighbors. The walls of our apartment building are pretty thin, so we spend our personal studies listening to reggaeton and Colombian rap on full blast.
Sunday was cool. We gave talks and I'm the music director.
I'm getting way into juice making skillz. The way you make juice here is: you buy the pulp of the fruit you want and you buy milk or use water + sugar.
Really like training. Elder Lucaila is a really good kid. He is a really fast learner and always asking for feedback.
Lots of ideas for things to do here... but I dont want to be an idea person i want to be a doer.
Really love and miss you guys!
Elder Blair
Monday, June 11, 2018
Week Ninety One
What is up family?
I had an awesome week.
Back in the field again. So good to be back.
I'm training Elder Lucaila (Luke - ay - la ) from Ecuador.
He's the dude sitting by me with his legs crossed. He is from Guayaquil and is DOPE.
His hobby before the mission was downloading anime episodes and re-editing them down to the BEST parts and then adjusting the audio so youtube wouldn't recognize copyright. These last transfers are gonna be SWEET.
Started the week off with the new missionaries meeting at the mission home.
Then Lucaila and I set off for Bucaramanga. We went on a 10 hour bus ride (which was nrough on Lucaila's stomach haha). The bus passed through Bogotá, Tunja, Barbosa, Socorro, San Gil, Cañon Chicamocho, PiedeCuesta, Bucaramanga. Our Zone Leaders picked us up at the bus terminal at 3:30am. They gave me our phone, the house keys, and told me our address was in our phone. We loaded up our bags in a taxi and 30min later arrived at our house in PiedeCuesta.
We took up our bags, I made our beds and we slept.
Next morning, we got up at 6:30 and did exercises and unpacked. I cleaned our bathrooms and we mopped the house. Then for brekky I made arepas and eggs and juice and then BOOM OPEN AREA TIME.
We called our:
Bishop
Mission Leader
Elders Quorum President
Lunch Lady
Pretty much all the #s in our phone.
We have just been running around our area this week. Our Bishop- Bishop Lizcano took us around in his pickup and showed us where the chapel was.
Yeah my area PiedeCuesta is just pure Colombian pueblo. Tons of 14 year olds with rattails whistling and riding motorcycles around with their girlfriends. Hot and dusty and green. Nobody wears clothes.
We have been getting home exhausted everyday. One of my hardest working weeks of the mission. We just learn all the neighbors names in the area and pound fists with all the kids.
TONS of water comes out of my shower. Legit a river comes out of this little spout. And it's freezing cold. But so dope. I take like 3 microshowers (20seconds-2minutes) a day and just jog in place.
Also stoked to be back in Buca becuase I can drink HIPINTO PIÑA again. It's my fav soda in Colombia- pineapple flavored.
We scheduled breakfast with the ward mission leader and he gave us like 20 less active families to visit.
So tons of stuff happening but I also have to remember my kid Elder Lucaila. Such a good dude. Super good at taking feedback and always in a good mood.
We have already had a lot of good talks. Mostly trying to make these last transfers tons of hard work but tons of fun. We watch church dvds at night.
Some words I learned this week:
Garrotero - someone from piedeCuesta
Chaparrita - a short girl
Love you guys!
Elder Blair
I had an awesome week.
Back in the field again. So good to be back.
I'm training Elder Lucaila (Luke - ay - la ) from Ecuador.
He's the dude sitting by me with his legs crossed. He is from Guayaquil and is DOPE.
His hobby before the mission was downloading anime episodes and re-editing them down to the BEST parts and then adjusting the audio so youtube wouldn't recognize copyright. These last transfers are gonna be SWEET.
Started the week off with the new missionaries meeting at the mission home.
Then Lucaila and I set off for Bucaramanga. We went on a 10 hour bus ride (which was nrough on Lucaila's stomach haha). The bus passed through Bogotá, Tunja, Barbosa, Socorro, San Gil, Cañon Chicamocho, PiedeCuesta, Bucaramanga. Our Zone Leaders picked us up at the bus terminal at 3:30am. They gave me our phone, the house keys, and told me our address was in our phone. We loaded up our bags in a taxi and 30min later arrived at our house in PiedeCuesta.
We took up our bags, I made our beds and we slept.
Next morning, we got up at 6:30 and did exercises and unpacked. I cleaned our bathrooms and we mopped the house. Then for brekky I made arepas and eggs and juice and then BOOM OPEN AREA TIME.
We called our:
Bishop
Mission Leader
Elders Quorum President
Lunch Lady
Pretty much all the #s in our phone.
We have just been running around our area this week. Our Bishop- Bishop Lizcano took us around in his pickup and showed us where the chapel was.
Yeah my area PiedeCuesta is just pure Colombian pueblo. Tons of 14 year olds with rattails whistling and riding motorcycles around with their girlfriends. Hot and dusty and green. Nobody wears clothes.
We have been getting home exhausted everyday. One of my hardest working weeks of the mission. We just learn all the neighbors names in the area and pound fists with all the kids.
TONS of water comes out of my shower. Legit a river comes out of this little spout. And it's freezing cold. But so dope. I take like 3 microshowers (20seconds-2minutes) a day and just jog in place.
Also stoked to be back in Buca becuase I can drink HIPINTO PIÑA again. It's my fav soda in Colombia- pineapple flavored.
We scheduled breakfast with the ward mission leader and he gave us like 20 less active families to visit.
So tons of stuff happening but I also have to remember my kid Elder Lucaila. Such a good dude. Super good at taking feedback and always in a good mood.
We have already had a lot of good talks. Mostly trying to make these last transfers tons of hard work but tons of fun. We watch church dvds at night.
Some words I learned this week:
Garrotero - someone from piedeCuesta
Chaparrita - a short girl
Love you guys!
Elder Blair
Monday, June 4, 2018
Week Ninety
Hey family what is up??
I'm going into my last 12 weeks. At the beginning of the mission, all the new missionaries have to do a program called First 12 weeks — you read through a manual with your trainer and practice teaching lessons —things like that.
So now I'm going into my last 12 weeks.
It has been an insane week. President Laney gave me the choice of staying as AP or finishing in the field and I told it him I was ready for whatever. I'll head out on a 12-hour bus ride this Wednesday to my final area: Pie de Cuesta (Foothills) Zona Bucaramanga.
I'll be training and opening the area. I'm stoked out of my mind. I've really missed having all the time in the world to make my area sweet. I've never trained a new missionary and its gonna be awesome.
Things that happened this week:
I went on splits 5 of the 7 days.
Tuesday
I went out with an Elder in a super rough patch. We had a sweet day and then a good inventory in his house.
Wednesday
I worked in my area with Elder Hernandez from Peru. We had a good day. I have become bffs with this recent convert grandma in our ward named Maria Mercedes Portilla. With Elder Hernandez, we took her to do Family History at Brother Trujillos house.
Bro. Trujillo was mission president of the Cali Colombia Mission in 2003-2005. He told us, "Out of the 5 people who know the most about family history in Colombia, I'm #1." Whenever Bro. Trujillo gives a talk at church, he prints out copies of it and gives them out afterwards haha.
Here Elder Hernandez and I are sitting in the Gordon B. Hinckley seat at his house. The seat where Pres. Hinckley sat in his house I guess.
Maria Mercedes Portilla and Bro Trujillo.
Later Elder Hernandez and I surprised our mission leader at his work and we brought him donuts.
Thursday
I spent the day with Elder Leon also from Peru. We had a good lesson with Janet, a single mom from Venezuela. She lives in my area with her son Jesus. We visited her with our mission leader, Nephi. She used to repair furniture back in Venezuela and had a good business and now she can't get work anywhere. And some hooligans stole her phone last week. Just going through hard times. There's a lot of Venezuelans in our ward so yesterday at church we got Janet set up with friends. Forgot to take a pic with Janet and will probably never see her again. A lot of Venezuelans just need a support system because Colombia can be a cruel place.
At the end of the day I took Elder Leon to a Peruvian restaurant and we got leche de tigre (tiger milk) and Inca Cola. Peruvian food is super strong flavored. Really sour and spicy. But I dug it.
Friday
I was with Elder Maldonado from Argentina.
I can only remember visiting super cool siblings in our ward — Sebastian and Laura. We just shared Enos 1 with them and somehow tied it to missionary work, and then we asked them about less actives and people who need help in the ward, and people they know to invite to an FHE. Went well.
Saturday
My replacement came. Elder Heninger — super good mission friend. He makes movies too.
Saturday was crazy. We helped the Buitrago family move houses for the whole first half of the day. Then we went to mission offices and I taught the new APs how to do transfers and multi-zone conferences.
So we wrapped up the week this Sunday. Brought some goodbye cards for Bishop Rojas and Victoria Correa. Then all afternoon we did transfers. Mostly I just supervised. I went to the terminal with the secretaries to buy all the bus tickets needed for transfers. We finished the transfers and were all starving so we waited till midnight to go out and buy some food (to not break Sabbath). I bought bread and this camembert cream I found. It was nasty haha.
We forgot the house keys and slept in the mission offices.
I'll miss my companion, Elder Dias. We got along awesome. AP was super fun seeing all the missionaries and changing anything that didn't work well. My area was hardest area I've had so far.
Anyways, really good week. Elder Stevenson the Apostle is coming to visit the mission in Bucaramanga in 2 weeks and the entire mission is coming out so it will be sweet to see everyone one last time.
I'm ready to go hard these last two transfers. I'll never be a missionary again in a really short amount of time. I'll have to deal with school and work and rent. I don't realize how much freedom I have here. But I'm ready to go hard, make hard lives better.
Love and miss you guys.
Elder Blair
I'm going into my last 12 weeks. At the beginning of the mission, all the new missionaries have to do a program called First 12 weeks — you read through a manual with your trainer and practice teaching lessons —things like that.
So now I'm going into my last 12 weeks.
It has been an insane week. President Laney gave me the choice of staying as AP or finishing in the field and I told it him I was ready for whatever. I'll head out on a 12-hour bus ride this Wednesday to my final area: Pie de Cuesta (Foothills) Zona Bucaramanga.
I'll be training and opening the area. I'm stoked out of my mind. I've really missed having all the time in the world to make my area sweet. I've never trained a new missionary and its gonna be awesome.
Things that happened this week:
I went on splits 5 of the 7 days.
Tuesday
I went out with an Elder in a super rough patch. We had a sweet day and then a good inventory in his house.
Wednesday
I worked in my area with Elder Hernandez from Peru. We had a good day. I have become bffs with this recent convert grandma in our ward named Maria Mercedes Portilla. With Elder Hernandez, we took her to do Family History at Brother Trujillos house.
Bro. Trujillo was mission president of the Cali Colombia Mission in 2003-2005. He told us, "Out of the 5 people who know the most about family history in Colombia, I'm #1." Whenever Bro. Trujillo gives a talk at church, he prints out copies of it and gives them out afterwards haha.
Maria Mercedes Portilla and Bro Trujillo.
Later Elder Hernandez and I surprised our mission leader at his work and we brought him donuts.
Thursday
I spent the day with Elder Leon also from Peru. We had a good lesson with Janet, a single mom from Venezuela. She lives in my area with her son Jesus. We visited her with our mission leader, Nephi. She used to repair furniture back in Venezuela and had a good business and now she can't get work anywhere. And some hooligans stole her phone last week. Just going through hard times. There's a lot of Venezuelans in our ward so yesterday at church we got Janet set up with friends. Forgot to take a pic with Janet and will probably never see her again. A lot of Venezuelans just need a support system because Colombia can be a cruel place.
At the end of the day I took Elder Leon to a Peruvian restaurant and we got leche de tigre (tiger milk) and Inca Cola. Peruvian food is super strong flavored. Really sour and spicy. But I dug it.
Friday
I was with Elder Maldonado from Argentina.
I can only remember visiting super cool siblings in our ward — Sebastian and Laura. We just shared Enos 1 with them and somehow tied it to missionary work, and then we asked them about less actives and people who need help in the ward, and people they know to invite to an FHE. Went well.
Saturday
My replacement came. Elder Heninger — super good mission friend. He makes movies too.
Saturday was crazy. We helped the Buitrago family move houses for the whole first half of the day. Then we went to mission offices and I taught the new APs how to do transfers and multi-zone conferences.
So we wrapped up the week this Sunday. Brought some goodbye cards for Bishop Rojas and Victoria Correa. Then all afternoon we did transfers. Mostly I just supervised. I went to the terminal with the secretaries to buy all the bus tickets needed for transfers. We finished the transfers and were all starving so we waited till midnight to go out and buy some food (to not break Sabbath). I bought bread and this camembert cream I found. It was nasty haha.
We forgot the house keys and slept in the mission offices.
I'll miss my companion, Elder Dias. We got along awesome. AP was super fun seeing all the missionaries and changing anything that didn't work well. My area was hardest area I've had so far.
Anyways, really good week. Elder Stevenson the Apostle is coming to visit the mission in Bucaramanga in 2 weeks and the entire mission is coming out so it will be sweet to see everyone one last time.
I'm ready to go hard these last two transfers. I'll never be a missionary again in a really short amount of time. I'll have to deal with school and work and rent. I don't realize how much freedom I have here. But I'm ready to go hard, make hard lives better.
Love and miss you guys.
Elder Blair
Monday, May 28, 2018
Week Eighty Nine
Hey family,
This week was good.
Super tiring.
Tuesday: We are making a binder of info about the mission for the new mission pres. Getting all the stake presidents #s and mission numbers together.
Wednesday:
I had splits with Elder Vincent. I got us a deal to go on a radio show where they interview foreigners about Bogotá. We taught charla (discussion) #1 and got 5000 new investigators. We just answered questions about the church, Bogota, the temple, and missionaries.
Thursday: Spent the whole day weighing bags of missionaries who are going home and dropping them off at the airport. I was with Elder Sanchez who used to be a ñero in Guadalajara, Mexico. We had a really good inventory. He's about to finish his mission so I dropped some life tips.
Friday: Had splits with Elder Osorio from Valledupar (Colombia). Hes a good friend on the mission. We sang Vallenato all day long. I've never had a Colombian companion but always wanted one. We had a good FHE with the Garcia family and brought them a bag full of chocoramos. (They are like Colombian Twinkies that everybody loves...but aren't even that good.)
Saturday...we went to Suba to attend the baptism of Julio.
This is Julio. My companion, Elder Dias, knocked on his window in the rain 3 months ago. Super cool dude who requested "Battle Hymn of the Republic" to be sung at the service.
Elder Dias and I have been visiting way more members of our ward. The mission is focusing on supporting recent converts who have been neglected. Sunday is way better when you are friends with the members. We have FHEs planned everyday this week haha.
There is this homeless dude from NY who has been showing up to church on Sunday lately. He asked me for some clothes and I told him I'd bring him some this week (our house has tons of missionary clothes). He gave me a Harley Davidson hat as a gift.
I feel like we have very little time to do everything we need to so I've learned tons about planning and time usage these transfers. Mastering morning routine and studies.
I really like "zeal w/o knowledge" by Hugh Nibley. It talks about how we don't have eyes on top, behind, and on the sides of our heads. Only in front. So everywhere we look is a choice. So every second of our lives is a moral measure of ourselves. That's also been a focus lately — thinking about the best things and "looking" better.
Today for Pday we went to the Tatacoita desert. We went with Elder Johnson and Elder Thompson from Suba and got a sister named Diana to drive us out.
Tatacoita is a desert made up of sand canyons. Really pretty. It would be a great place to make a western. Americana landscape. Here are some pics Elder Dias snapped on his GoPro:
I want to go hard for the last of my mission but holy crap I'm excited to come back.
Sure love you guys! See you soon.
Elder Blair
This week was good.
Super tiring.
Tuesday: We are making a binder of info about the mission for the new mission pres. Getting all the stake presidents #s and mission numbers together.
Wednesday:
I had splits with Elder Vincent. I got us a deal to go on a radio show where they interview foreigners about Bogotá. We taught charla (discussion) #1 and got 5000 new investigators. We just answered questions about the church, Bogota, the temple, and missionaries.
Thursday: Spent the whole day weighing bags of missionaries who are going home and dropping them off at the airport. I was with Elder Sanchez who used to be a ñero in Guadalajara, Mexico. We had a really good inventory. He's about to finish his mission so I dropped some life tips.
Friday: Had splits with Elder Osorio from Valledupar (Colombia). Hes a good friend on the mission. We sang Vallenato all day long. I've never had a Colombian companion but always wanted one. We had a good FHE with the Garcia family and brought them a bag full of chocoramos. (They are like Colombian Twinkies that everybody loves...but aren't even that good.)
Saturday...we went to Suba to attend the baptism of Julio.
This is Julio. My companion, Elder Dias, knocked on his window in the rain 3 months ago. Super cool dude who requested "Battle Hymn of the Republic" to be sung at the service.
Elder Dias and I have been visiting way more members of our ward. The mission is focusing on supporting recent converts who have been neglected. Sunday is way better when you are friends with the members. We have FHEs planned everyday this week haha.
There is this homeless dude from NY who has been showing up to church on Sunday lately. He asked me for some clothes and I told him I'd bring him some this week (our house has tons of missionary clothes). He gave me a Harley Davidson hat as a gift.
I feel like we have very little time to do everything we need to so I've learned tons about planning and time usage these transfers. Mastering morning routine and studies.
I really like "zeal w/o knowledge" by Hugh Nibley. It talks about how we don't have eyes on top, behind, and on the sides of our heads. Only in front. So everywhere we look is a choice. So every second of our lives is a moral measure of ourselves. That's also been a focus lately — thinking about the best things and "looking" better.
Today for Pday we went to the Tatacoita desert. We went with Elder Johnson and Elder Thompson from Suba and got a sister named Diana to drive us out.
Tatacoita is a desert made up of sand canyons. Really pretty. It would be a great place to make a western. Americana landscape. Here are some pics Elder Dias snapped on his GoPro:
with the Virgin
majesty of tatacoita
desert solitaire
I want to go hard for the last of my mission but holy crap I'm excited to come back.
Sure love you guys! See you soon.
Elder Blair
Monday, May 21, 2018
Week Eighty Eight
Hey fam what is up! Betty killed it on her talk.
We had a good week. Our area is picking up and we have an awesome investigator pool.
Some of the people we teach:
Jacinto Delarosa: Architect from Santa Marta
Hermana Delarosa: Lawyer for Fiscalía (the police)
Olga: Lawyer for the military
Jose Davila: Flute teacher for special needs kids
Victoria Correa: Metalworker from Texas
Luis Linares: Venezuelan construction worker
Love our investigators.
We have pretty little time in our area so when we get to work there we are running from lesson to lesson — which is the best feeling.
Some things that happened this week:
I had 2 splits — one with Elder Burbank, one with Elder Navas. Both good friends. Burbank is from Logan; abaseball player who gives baseballs to everyone.
Elder Navas is half Colombian half Hondureño. We had an open house in the chapel and got a ton of people in. Super fun dude to be around.
We finally got the last punch on our card from the empanada store across the street and got 25 free empanadas. #dope
Elder Powlus and I saw this dude practicing rapping in a park and had a rap battle with him.
We had the leadership council for the mission. My comp and I gave a training that went super well. I had an idea of bringing out an ironing board and iron and trying to iron a wrinkled shirt in front of everyone without plugging it in. Obviously it doesnt work. We use it to illustrate a point that an iron doesn't work to iron a shirt without electricity and the Book of Mormon doesn't help people without the Spirit. Pretty corny haha. Everybody was freaking out when we brought out the ironing board.
Our main transportation here in Bogotá is Transmilenio.
Transmilenio is a bus system. Costs about 70 cents to use and is almost always open. Pretty dope. Some qualities are:
Always smells like piss
100% always Venezuelans selling things
People playing music
Grandpas rapping
Fights (mostly after 7pm)
Robberies (24/7)
Students practicing their presentations in front of everyone (awesome)
Preachers preaching
Mormon missionaries preaching
Shocking things that shouldn't be in missionary emails home
Yeah so you get on the bus and there is always someone selling candies or just sharing their situation and asking for help. Super draining stories always right in front of our face. Lots of people make up stories but we can't judge who's making up and who's legit. Missionary policy: we give coins when we feel like we should.
But I have grown to love transmilenio
Some good Spanish words:
jeva: a girl who is almost your girlfriend
aguacero: downpour
plomacera: a fluttery of bullets
gomelo: rich person
papichulo: pimpdaddy
Anyways, awesome week.
Love you guys a ton!
Elder Blair
We had a good week. Our area is picking up and we have an awesome investigator pool.
Some of the people we teach:
Jacinto Delarosa: Architect from Santa Marta
Hermana Delarosa: Lawyer for Fiscalía (the police)
Olga: Lawyer for the military
Jose Davila: Flute teacher for special needs kids
Victoria Correa: Metalworker from Texas
Luis Linares: Venezuelan construction worker
Love our investigators.
We have pretty little time in our area so when we get to work there we are running from lesson to lesson — which is the best feeling.
Some things that happened this week:
I had 2 splits — one with Elder Burbank, one with Elder Navas. Both good friends. Burbank is from Logan; abaseball player who gives baseballs to everyone.
Elder Navas is half Colombian half Hondureño. We had an open house in the chapel and got a ton of people in. Super fun dude to be around.
We finally got the last punch on our card from the empanada store across the street and got 25 free empanadas. #dope
Elder Powlus and I saw this dude practicing rapping in a park and had a rap battle with him.
We had the leadership council for the mission. My comp and I gave a training that went super well. I had an idea of bringing out an ironing board and iron and trying to iron a wrinkled shirt in front of everyone without plugging it in. Obviously it doesnt work. We use it to illustrate a point that an iron doesn't work to iron a shirt without electricity and the Book of Mormon doesn't help people without the Spirit. Pretty corny haha. Everybody was freaking out when we brought out the ironing board.
Our main transportation here in Bogotá is Transmilenio.
Transmilenio is a bus system. Costs about 70 cents to use and is almost always open. Pretty dope. Some qualities are:
Always smells like piss
100% always Venezuelans selling things
People playing music
Grandpas rapping
Fights (mostly after 7pm)
Robberies (24/7)
Students practicing their presentations in front of everyone (awesome)
Preachers preaching
Mormon missionaries preaching
Shocking things that shouldn't be in missionary emails home
Yeah so you get on the bus and there is always someone selling candies or just sharing their situation and asking for help. Super draining stories always right in front of our face. Lots of people make up stories but we can't judge who's making up and who's legit. Missionary policy: we give coins when we feel like we should.
But I have grown to love transmilenio
Some good Spanish words:
jeva: a girl who is almost your girlfriend
aguacero: downpour
plomacera: a fluttery of bullets
gomelo: rich person
papichulo: pimpdaddy
Anyways, awesome week.
Love you guys a ton!
Elder Blair
Monday, May 14, 2018
Week Eighty Seven
[ We had a Mother's Day videochat on Saturday, May 12th. No weekly letter today, but we messaged a bit. He said: Our investigator smuggled a dog into sacrament meeting. haha ]
Monday, May 7, 2018
Week Eighty Six
Hey family, how are you guys?
June is 8! Holy cow June!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do you feel?
Happy birthdays to June and Bett.
Pretty normal week.
Had splits with Elder Tracy. Such an awesome day. We found this gangsta on the street walking his dog wearing a t-shirt of an indian skeleton and so we talked to him for a bit. I asked if he was from Ecuador because usually dudes with black ponytails are form Ecuador but he wasn't. But he agreed to listen to a message so we taught him in a bakery. Then halfway through he was like, "Hey one sec," and he sprints away with his dog. We thought he ditched us so then Tracy said a quick prayer and right when he finished the dude came running back with a different dog.
This is the dude #evidence His name is Andres Moreno and the 1st dogs name is Rocky.
We have gotten to be way better friends with the bishop. I stand by what I said... being a good missionary is just being best friends with your bishop. He visited our investigator Victoria with us. Victoria has been looking for somebody to take care of her dad in Houston and bishop Rojas came and set her up with these members looking to live in Texas. Love when people can find real solutions to their problems.
Anyway then Bishop drove us home and told us all about his wife and his mission. Super young dude.
We aslo found Jacinto Dela Rosa and his family. Lives right in front of the temple and missionaries have never talked with him. We knocked his door. He is from Santa Marta which is a coastal city donde queda la gente relajada
Also had the activity of taking out elders from the MTC to work.
I went out with these dudes. I love getting new missionaries WAY out of their comfort zones. I made them sing Called to Serve on the train and then we got interviewed and filmed at the temple by university students studying Mormons and I made them answer like all the questions even though they don't speak Spanish.
Also we forgot to pay the electricty bill so we took out all the candles from our emergency bag. Freezing showers in freezing Bogotá!
Elder Dias and I making salad for the missionaries going home.
Sure love you guys!
So excited to see June and Betty! Looks like you guys have grown a ton! By the way, I don't know if June knows but I was at her school this week!! I dressed up as her teacher and she didn't even realize...
Elder Blair
June is 8! Holy cow June!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do you feel?
Happy birthdays to June and Bett.
Pretty normal week.
Had splits with Elder Tracy. Such an awesome day. We found this gangsta on the street walking his dog wearing a t-shirt of an indian skeleton and so we talked to him for a bit. I asked if he was from Ecuador because usually dudes with black ponytails are form Ecuador but he wasn't. But he agreed to listen to a message so we taught him in a bakery. Then halfway through he was like, "Hey one sec," and he sprints away with his dog. We thought he ditched us so then Tracy said a quick prayer and right when he finished the dude came running back with a different dog.
We have gotten to be way better friends with the bishop. I stand by what I said... being a good missionary is just being best friends with your bishop. He visited our investigator Victoria with us. Victoria has been looking for somebody to take care of her dad in Houston and bishop Rojas came and set her up with these members looking to live in Texas. Love when people can find real solutions to their problems.
Anyway then Bishop drove us home and told us all about his wife and his mission. Super young dude.
Also had the activity of taking out elders from the MTC to work.
Also we forgot to pay the electricty bill so we took out all the candles from our emergency bag. Freezing showers in freezing Bogotá!
Sure love you guys!
So excited to see June and Betty! Looks like you guys have grown a ton! By the way, I don't know if June knows but I was at her school this week!! I dressed up as her teacher and she didn't even realize...
Elder Blair
Monday, April 30, 2018
Week Eighty Five
Elder Blair
30/04/2018
Misión Bogotá Norte
This Is My Week Report
First off: what is upppp???
Ill start the week report off w this pic of: Problem Solving Mode
Betty and June gearing up for BIRTHDAYS.
This week we wrapped up transfers and President Laney went to Peru so we were the mission babysitters..
That included: picking up the new missionaries and meeting with the trainers.
Some awesome new missionaries came to our mission from Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia.
We had a meeting with President Laney to train the trainers. I told the missionaries that during my training we worked super hard and got home exhausted every night so they should shoot for that. Today one of the trainers came up to me and told me they're getting home tired. That was sweet.
After we met with the trainers we walked with all of them 20 blocks to the Nogal Chapel. It was hard walking there because a RIOT was going on in Bogotá blocking the way. The secretaries were walking with all the new missionaries to the chapel and the riot was blocking their path as well so that was way fun.
Elder Vieira left us. His mom thinks he's coming home in May so he surprised her. I'm waiting on a video.
Vieira and Mattos both stayed in our house during their last week. Super trunky hearing them talk about plans.
They both left to the airport to return to Brazil so Elder Dias and I headed to our area to get some work in. We contacted some bodyguards and personal trainers and then got a call from an unknown number: Elder Mattos at the airport.
His suitcases were too heavy and he needed $100USD to get on his flight home so we cabbed. I got $$ out at the mall and we saved Elder Mattos' mission. And then when we were about to pay, a dude came from out of nowhere telling LATAM AIRLINES that missionaries are under an agreement and don't have to pay.
So we did all that for nothing haha.
But we had dinner at the airport in CREPES & WAFFLES, so all good.
We also had the DISTRICT MEETING.
Elder Tracy, my best friend on the mission is my District Leader. We all learned how to protect ourselves from earthquakes. Tracy has been a huge help for me throughout my mission. Always calling. One of the coolest people I know.
Im stoked about this transfer because Elder Dias and I will have way more time to work in the area than normal because there won't be any zone conferences.
I was calling different contacts I had made last transfer w/ Vieira and having 0 luck so we said a prayer to call the name we needed to call. I told Elder Dias to choose a name afterwards because he wouldn't have bias and he chose to call Nereirda. I told him, "Nahh I tried calling her 3 times and no answer...but let's try." And she picked up 1st try and was like, "Please visit me! Is it alright if my husband and kids come too?" Power of prayer.
We have been getting tight with our Bishop — Mario Rojas. Super young dude with craziest son ever. I always tell missionaries they can never call their bishop too much.
We had our meeting with Pres. Laney.
Our meetings go like this:
Sunday night, 7:00pm, Laneys house.
1. Pres greets us and says "Hola Elderes, Como están?"
2. We go inside his office, he turns the lamp on and we sing a hymn in English.
3. We talk about the missions' numbers of the week.
4. We talk about missionaries having trouble.
5. We talk about ANY OTHER TOPIC and it takes another 2 hours.
6. We go eat cookies and milk.
Always look forward to the Sunday night meetings with President. President Laney is so cool. The mission is gearing up for a new President. President Laney told us to be keeping track of areas to close and open.
Elder Dias my new comp is so cool. Super humble and well adjusted. We seem to always be on the same page. He just came ready to work. He is also helping me on Portuguese. I think it helps that I have become super interested in Brazil that I can just ask him questions all day. I always tell Brasileros about Joyce Moreno who is an MPB singer.
We went to eat Brazilian food and in the restaurant was worst music video I've ever seen: MC Bin Laden - Ta Tranquilo Ta Favorável
Highly don't recommend it haha.
It has always helped me during my mission when I'm mad at my companion to ask him about his life.
I'm super excited for the skype with you guys next week!
Love and miss you guys more than I can say.
Elder Blair
30/04/2018
Misión Bogotá Norte
This Is My Week Report
First off: what is upppp???
Ill start the week report off w this pic of: Problem Solving Mode
Betty and June gearing up for BIRTHDAYS.
This week we wrapped up transfers and President Laney went to Peru so we were the mission babysitters..
That included: picking up the new missionaries and meeting with the trainers.
Some awesome new missionaries came to our mission from Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia.
We had a meeting with President Laney to train the trainers. I told the missionaries that during my training we worked super hard and got home exhausted every night so they should shoot for that. Today one of the trainers came up to me and told me they're getting home tired. That was sweet.
After we met with the trainers we walked with all of them 20 blocks to the Nogal Chapel. It was hard walking there because a RIOT was going on in Bogotá blocking the way. The secretaries were walking with all the new missionaries to the chapel and the riot was blocking their path as well so that was way fun.
Elder Vieira left us. His mom thinks he's coming home in May so he surprised her. I'm waiting on a video.
Vieira and Mattos both stayed in our house during their last week. Super trunky hearing them talk about plans.
They both left to the airport to return to Brazil so Elder Dias and I headed to our area to get some work in. We contacted some bodyguards and personal trainers and then got a call from an unknown number: Elder Mattos at the airport.
His suitcases were too heavy and he needed $100USD to get on his flight home so we cabbed. I got $$ out at the mall and we saved Elder Mattos' mission. And then when we were about to pay, a dude came from out of nowhere telling LATAM AIRLINES that missionaries are under an agreement and don't have to pay.
So we did all that for nothing haha.
But we had dinner at the airport in CREPES & WAFFLES, so all good.
We also had the DISTRICT MEETING.
Elder Tracy, my best friend on the mission is my District Leader. We all learned how to protect ourselves from earthquakes. Tracy has been a huge help for me throughout my mission. Always calling. One of the coolest people I know.
Im stoked about this transfer because Elder Dias and I will have way more time to work in the area than normal because there won't be any zone conferences.
I was calling different contacts I had made last transfer w/ Vieira and having 0 luck so we said a prayer to call the name we needed to call. I told Elder Dias to choose a name afterwards because he wouldn't have bias and he chose to call Nereirda. I told him, "Nahh I tried calling her 3 times and no answer...but let's try." And she picked up 1st try and was like, "Please visit me! Is it alright if my husband and kids come too?" Power of prayer.
We have been getting tight with our Bishop — Mario Rojas. Super young dude with craziest son ever. I always tell missionaries they can never call their bishop too much.
We had our meeting with Pres. Laney.
Our meetings go like this:
Sunday night, 7:00pm, Laneys house.
1. Pres greets us and says "Hola Elderes, Como están?"
2. We go inside his office, he turns the lamp on and we sing a hymn in English.
3. We talk about the missions' numbers of the week.
4. We talk about missionaries having trouble.
5. We talk about ANY OTHER TOPIC and it takes another 2 hours.
6. We go eat cookies and milk.
Always look forward to the Sunday night meetings with President. President Laney is so cool. The mission is gearing up for a new President. President Laney told us to be keeping track of areas to close and open.
Elder Dias my new comp is so cool. Super humble and well adjusted. We seem to always be on the same page. He just came ready to work. He is also helping me on Portuguese. I think it helps that I have become super interested in Brazil that I can just ask him questions all day. I always tell Brasileros about Joyce Moreno who is an MPB singer.
We went to eat Brazilian food and in the restaurant was worst music video I've ever seen: MC Bin Laden - Ta Tranquilo Ta Favorável
Highly don't recommend it haha.
It has always helped me during my mission when I'm mad at my companion to ask him about his life.
I'm super excited for the skype with you guys next week!
Love and miss you guys more than I can say.
Elder Blair
Monday, April 23, 2018
Week Eighty Four
I'll start this week report off with a quote that recently came to my inbox:
"I'm super chaaaaarged. Bout to take this whole thing to mars."
-Kanye West
These are my feelings.
How are you family?
I hear some Blair cousins are getting married?
We had a crazy week in Misión Colombia Bogotá Norte.
This dude just came to visit our mission:
ELDER ZIVIC, BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA
We had 2 huge conferences with him — 1 in Bogotá, the other in Bucaramanga.
see photo below: a view of Giron, and Bucaramanga
It was awesome having him here. Elder Zivic is President of the Caribbean area (so not sure why he came to our mission haha) and he turns 70 this year, so he has almost finished his duty. Zivic gave up going to the Olympics for track & field so he could keep the Sabbath day holy. He taught about listening better, working better with our bishops.
OTHER THINGS
I had 2 splits this week. First one, the Zone Leaders from Bogotá came — Elder Skinner (Missouri) and Elder Valenzuela (Panama).
We all went to Suba to pick up my next companion: Elder Dias. Also from BRAZIL. Im super stoked. Elder Vieira finishes this week. We have so many jokes now and the mission is a 24/7 party with him. Dias will be awesome though. We lived in the same house in Suba and got along super well.
This is us at the terminal. I'm sitting next to Dias.
My other splits were in a trio with Elder Dias (my new comp) and Elder Wood (he used to be AP). We had a sweet day. We found this lady named Pilar who is a powerhouse. Her husband is tied up with intense military vs Guerrilla stuff in Arauca and she hasn't seen him in a year. We taught about the Restoration and she gave us orange Gatorade. #winwin
The whole mission is having tranfers today.
Last night we were doing transfers till 2:00 am.
At 1:00 am we got a call from Zone Leaders in Cúcuta and they told us sister missionaries in their zone wouldn't answer the phone at all throughout the day. They went to their house and the sisters weren't there. I called Pres Laney at 1:00 am and he told me to tell the ZLs to go home and sleep...wait it out.
This morning still no good news...on the day of transfers. We were making calls to all the missionaries and different members in Cúcuta patching the story together. We got a Sunday 7pm last sighting from a member. and then...
12:00 pm news: turns out the sisters were in their house asleep. #praise
Anyway, anything that could go wrong went wrong but everything is all good now.
We are trying to help missionaries call us with solutions instead of problems. We must take 100% responsibility for our lives.
Elder Zivic repeatedly shared this verse with us as well:
D&C 82:3 For of him unto whom much is given much is required; and he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation.
Anyway we are bulking up for a crazy week of receiving new missionaries and saying bye to old ones.
Sure miss and love you guys.
Elder Blair
P.S. We finessed our way into the AVIANCA VIP LOUNGE and got to sit in these seats. #fighttothetop
Monday, April 16, 2018
Week Eighty Three
My Week Report
Hey fam. How are you guys doing?
We had a super busy week.
Started off on Tuesday with a ROADTRIP with President Laney and Sister Laney. We went to Duitama.
On the drive there, we stopped at Price Smart which is legit just Costco.
There are even samples.
We also found this:
We also stopped in PAIPA which is this town known for leatherwork.
Pres. Laney loaded up on leather bags.
Then we got to Duitama. We stayed with the Zoe Leaders for the night. My comp Elder Vieira served in Duitama so we visited this family who loves him:
The dude hugging us is named NELSON and he is insane. His house has so much stuff. That's the only way I can describe it. HE HAS SO MUCH STUFF.
Nelson kept on saying: "The mountains didn't come to Mohammed; Mohammed went to the mountains." #wordofwisdom
Nelson also has a costume shop:
NEXT DAY: We had a good Multi-Zone Conference. We trained the missionaries on going ....the.....extra mile :)
So much fun seeing the missionaries in form in Boyacá. Bogotá Norte has awesome missionaries.
My companion and I finished up the trip by going to Nobsa with some members. Nobsa is known for CALIZA stones which are used to make concrete. A small town made up of farms and smoke towers. We got a RUANA for Pres. Laney and his family.
OTHER STUFF
I had 2 days of splits this week...with Elder Espinoza (from Lima, Peru) and Elder Oliveira (from Sau Paulo, Brazil). So good seeing Oliveira. He was in my district in Suba and we have had some crazy days.
With Espinoza we just worked like dogs in freezing rain for 6 hours straight.
Oliveira and I contacted a lady walking by the temple. She asked us where we were from and I said "Arauca" as a joke (because Arauca is a super dangerous Guerrilla-filled city) and it turns out... her family is from Arauca. I think she took it as a signal. We were talking with her and she was like, "Whoa, I'm feeling something...I never take this way home but I decided to take it today...and I'm trying to find meaning in my life...and you mentioned Arauca!" So pretty sweet that we name dropped Arauca.
Tons and tons of Venezuelans in my area. We have become pretty good friends with Luis and his niece Victoria. Luis has been in Colombia about 2 months. A lot of families go to bed hungry where I work. Super draining...
We had an awesome show up of investigators at STAKE CONFERENCE.
We cabbed to Stake Conf. with Luis and Victoria...and Victoria from Texas showed up as well! She has been off grid for 2 weeks...I thought she wasn't interested anymore. But we were stoked to see her and Pres. Laney came and talked to her as well. Yeah it was a good Stake Conf.
HAD A SWEET PDAY TODAY AS WELL
We went to the Salt Mines of Nemocon way out in the boonies. We took like 6 buses to get there haha.
Nemocon is part of the Sabana section of Cundinamarca, Colombia with tons of fossils and insane geology.
Highlights were:
XILOPALO: fossilized wood.
This 6000 year old flute made out of human bone
Email is too large now so I'll send other pics by message.
Anyways. Miss you guys a ton. Hope everybody is busy doing meaningful projects!
Love Elder Blair
------
Salt Mine photos:
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