Monday, March 26, 2018
Monday, March 19, 2018
Week Seventy Nine
Week Report
Hey fam! Missing you guys a ton.
This is my week report:
Monday- the whole mission had transfers. While everybody was traveling to their new areas, we basically just ran errands. Went to Banco Occidente so my comp Elder Vieira could pay for his renewed foreigner visa. Mostly spent time in the mission offices answering questions.
We also went to the bus terminal (in a taxi driven by a dude without legs) to hang out with the missionaries there and greet the missionaries arriving in Bogotá. Fun seeing some of my friends coming to Bogotá from Bucaramanga.
Tuesday we received the new missionaries from the Bogotá MTC. Nine hermana missionaries and 2 elders. Most came from Peru. One from Argentina, one from Bolivia, one from Cartagena. Pretty awesome. We went to the MTC, loaded their luggage in a bus and we all went to Parque Nacional.
Parque Nacional is a super chill park where Colombia was dedicated for missionary work by Pres. Kimball. Pres. Laney started the tradition to go there with the new missionaries. We sing “Oíd El Toque del Clarín” (“Hark, Listen to the Trumpeters”). Then they go out to contact. We started a new part of the ceremony where each missionary gets a sheet to fill out goals for their mission. They each go to a different corner of the park so they can think about it. The sheet is small enough to put in their scriptures afterwards so they can study their goals throughout their missions.
It's a pretty cool introductory ceremony to the mission. (Sidenote: I've been missing the song Ceremony, by New Order lately.)
I had my 18 month birthday and finished my hermana mission #RIPHermanaBlair
Other notable thing was splits with one of my best friends, Elder Vincent. My area has pretty big mountains in it and we spent pretty much all day there. The most insane divide of rich/poor people. These super nice apartment complexes right by essentially favelas. But I love the mountains. It's the coolest part of Bogotá.
Anyway splits was SWEET we visited this dude Juan Camilo who was a reference sent to us. We taught him in his lobby. First lesson went OK but every time we talked, Juan would just wave to people walking behind us, and whenever I looked back no one was there. #yikes
Later we tried to visit this less-active dude named Robert who wasn't home. So we ended up knocking doors for the rest of the day and we found another less-active family who lives with some non members. They let us in and it was dope. We started talking about prayer and we asked them if they had ever received an answer to their prayer and the wife told us that God revealed the names of her kids to her -- Noa and Jacob. Normally would weird me out but I'm so used to hearing stuff like that at this point...
Bogotá is a great city though. It's a serious city. Bucaramanga is super chill 100% of the time. The weather alone tricks your mind into thinking it's on vacation. Cúcuta is dusty and dirty and super hot and humid. Tricked me into thinking I was homeless. Bogotá on the other hand; you know business is getting done. Mostly red brick buildings that go up into mountains. There is a word for Bogotá OGs: Cachaco. I'll attach a photo of a Cachaco.
This is a Cachaco. They bring a lot to the Bogotá vibe.
Forgot why I'm talking about this but it's okay.
Anyway, that was the bulk of what happened this week. I had some pretty cool personal studies this week. Read about Elijah and Elisha. I think Elijah is my favorite Old Testament prophet. I liked how he would just say, “Ok if I'm a prophet then (x) will happen.” And then God always makes it happen. Elijah was just good at taking advantage of the perks.
Also read this quote from Howard W. Hunter: “Our genuine concern should be for the success of others.”
We are getting a training ready for the zone conferences this transfer. We keep starting, getitng somewhere, then we change our minds and start over.
Also, pretty sure I lost my phone. I left it charging in the offices and when I came back it was gone. 100% no doubt in my mind it was the cleaning lady.
Lots to think about. Words that keep coming back to my mind are, “Times are a changing.”
I feel it in my bones. It feels weird to be on a mission knowing at the back of my head that insane tech is dropping every week; that and 10,000 other things. Cool being in a bubble but at the same time I want to be a part of everything going on.
But better to stay in mission mode (turn peoples sucky lives into sweet lives). Those are my words to live by. PAZ
Bogotá w Andes Mountains
P-DAY
Elder Vincent contemplating the mission.
Vieira thinking about his gf. :(
Me contemplating the world of possibilies opened by crispr...
Living the pure life @ Monserrate.
Splits with Vincent.
Falling off the mountain.
Love you family! Live it up.
E L D E R B L A I R
Hey fam! Missing you guys a ton.
This is my week report:
Monday- the whole mission had transfers. While everybody was traveling to their new areas, we basically just ran errands. Went to Banco Occidente so my comp Elder Vieira could pay for his renewed foreigner visa. Mostly spent time in the mission offices answering questions.
We also went to the bus terminal (in a taxi driven by a dude without legs) to hang out with the missionaries there and greet the missionaries arriving in Bogotá. Fun seeing some of my friends coming to Bogotá from Bucaramanga.
Tuesday we received the new missionaries from the Bogotá MTC. Nine hermana missionaries and 2 elders. Most came from Peru. One from Argentina, one from Bolivia, one from Cartagena. Pretty awesome. We went to the MTC, loaded their luggage in a bus and we all went to Parque Nacional.
Parque Nacional is a super chill park where Colombia was dedicated for missionary work by Pres. Kimball. Pres. Laney started the tradition to go there with the new missionaries. We sing “Oíd El Toque del Clarín” (“Hark, Listen to the Trumpeters”). Then they go out to contact. We started a new part of the ceremony where each missionary gets a sheet to fill out goals for their mission. They each go to a different corner of the park so they can think about it. The sheet is small enough to put in their scriptures afterwards so they can study their goals throughout their missions.
It's a pretty cool introductory ceremony to the mission. (Sidenote: I've been missing the song Ceremony, by New Order lately.)
I had my 18 month birthday and finished my hermana mission #RIPHermanaBlair
Other notable thing was splits with one of my best friends, Elder Vincent. My area has pretty big mountains in it and we spent pretty much all day there. The most insane divide of rich/poor people. These super nice apartment complexes right by essentially favelas. But I love the mountains. It's the coolest part of Bogotá.
Anyway splits was SWEET we visited this dude Juan Camilo who was a reference sent to us. We taught him in his lobby. First lesson went OK but every time we talked, Juan would just wave to people walking behind us, and whenever I looked back no one was there. #yikes
Later we tried to visit this less-active dude named Robert who wasn't home. So we ended up knocking doors for the rest of the day and we found another less-active family who lives with some non members. They let us in and it was dope. We started talking about prayer and we asked them if they had ever received an answer to their prayer and the wife told us that God revealed the names of her kids to her -- Noa and Jacob. Normally would weird me out but I'm so used to hearing stuff like that at this point...
Bogotá is a great city though. It's a serious city. Bucaramanga is super chill 100% of the time. The weather alone tricks your mind into thinking it's on vacation. Cúcuta is dusty and dirty and super hot and humid. Tricked me into thinking I was homeless. Bogotá on the other hand; you know business is getting done. Mostly red brick buildings that go up into mountains. There is a word for Bogotá OGs: Cachaco. I'll attach a photo of a Cachaco.
This is a Cachaco. They bring a lot to the Bogotá vibe.
Forgot why I'm talking about this but it's okay.
Anyway, that was the bulk of what happened this week. I had some pretty cool personal studies this week. Read about Elijah and Elisha. I think Elijah is my favorite Old Testament prophet. I liked how he would just say, “Ok if I'm a prophet then (x) will happen.” And then God always makes it happen. Elijah was just good at taking advantage of the perks.
Also read this quote from Howard W. Hunter: “Our genuine concern should be for the success of others.”
We are getting a training ready for the zone conferences this transfer. We keep starting, getitng somewhere, then we change our minds and start over.
Also, pretty sure I lost my phone. I left it charging in the offices and when I came back it was gone. 100% no doubt in my mind it was the cleaning lady.
Lots to think about. Words that keep coming back to my mind are, “Times are a changing.”
I feel it in my bones. It feels weird to be on a mission knowing at the back of my head that insane tech is dropping every week; that and 10,000 other things. Cool being in a bubble but at the same time I want to be a part of everything going on.
But better to stay in mission mode (turn peoples sucky lives into sweet lives). Those are my words to live by. PAZ
Bogotá w Andes Mountains
P-DAY
Elder Vincent contemplating the mission.
Vieira thinking about his gf. :(
Me contemplating the world of possibilies opened by crispr...
Living the pure life @ Monserrate.
Splits with Vincent.
Falling off the mountain.
Love you family! Live it up.
E L D E R B L A I R
Monday, March 12, 2018
Week Seventy Eight
TRANSFERS
This is my week report:
SATURDAY AFTER WRITING:
We were walking home from the offices and passed by Restaurante Daniel. A sketchy white van pulled up and a mariachi band piled out. They started playing as they walked inside. Fitting end to the week.
SUNDAY
No memories.
MONDAY
We went to Bucaramanga for the Zone conference. I took advantage of airport wifi to download "LE LIVRE DE MORMON" + "TEACHINGS OF BRIGHAM YOUNG"
Flight to Bucaramanga was short. I sat next to a Caleño. There was a travel magazine advertising Sau Paulo (where my companion Elder Vieira is from). Looks like a good city. It has 2nd largest Japanese population in the world after Japan.
We got some time to visit a few of the converts here. Everybody in my area was shocked when they saw me. So awesome seeing Arelis and Thomas. Didn't have much time but we had some small talk and said a prayer with them.
We went to stay in North of Bucaramanga. I was with Elder Goncalves for the night. His area is so huge it doesn't make sense. There is a massive steep hill of favelas in his area. I asked what the hill was called. Goncalves told me its called "ESPERANZA" (hope). Right when he told me, we saw a 12 year old with a rattail and a HUGE BLUNT in his ear head down the stairs of the hill.
Thats what I call esperanza. ;)
The zone conference went well. It was the last one of the transfer. That was a relief. You can see pics of it here.
We had given the same training 5 times throughout the transfer and it felt great putting it into the shredder. Sweet seeing Elder Skinner and all my boys from Bucaramanga!
Elder Patterson came to visit the mission with his parents and they stopped by the zone conference as well. Sweet seeing Patterson again!
We had 3 more splits this week. All were pretty tiring.
CAMBIOS
So yesterday during Sacrament Mtg, President Laney sent us a text saying he already had the transfers ready. After church we went to Bishop Rojas' house for lunch and then scrambled back to mission offiices to get our stuff and go through transfers to look for mistakes, and then we ran to the Mission Home.
We had our meeting w Pres Laney. We told him the mistakes we found in the transfers. There weren't many. (One elder was gonna be kept in an area for a 6th transfer so we stopped that.) We made plans for the multizone for next transfer. Then we finished the meeting and Sister Laney gave us Coke for the long night that awaited us.
We headed back to the offices, counted all the missionaries who will travel and we sent the secretaries to buy bus tickets. Then we started filling the EXCEL Transfers sheet.
Then we made calls to all the zone leaders in the mission and told them who's coming and going. Always funnest part. :)
We were in the offices till 3:30 AM. Right as we left, I realized I forgot my keys. We had to walk to the Secretary's house like 10 blocks away from the offices (Bogotá is cold at night). Finally got to our house at 4:20 (blazeit) and I said the shortest companionship prayer ever and we slept like logs.
Love Elder Vieira. He always says "mas loco que el Batman" —"crazier than the batman." EX: "these transfers are crazier than the batman." It's supposedly a saying in Brazil. I keep telling him Batman isn't known for being crazy haha.
Way cool seeing Maude and Olive in France. Awesome that they got to see the Lecrosniers. One of the best families ever.
This is our next Mission Pres:
to put the fear in you.
Love you guys so much!!!!
This is my week report:
SATURDAY AFTER WRITING:
We were walking home from the offices and passed by Restaurante Daniel. A sketchy white van pulled up and a mariachi band piled out. They started playing as they walked inside. Fitting end to the week.
SUNDAY
No memories.
MONDAY
We went to Bucaramanga for the Zone conference. I took advantage of airport wifi to download "LE LIVRE DE MORMON" + "TEACHINGS OF BRIGHAM YOUNG"
Flight to Bucaramanga was short. I sat next to a Caleño. There was a travel magazine advertising Sau Paulo (where my companion Elder Vieira is from). Looks like a good city. It has 2nd largest Japanese population in the world after Japan.
We got some time to visit a few of the converts here. Everybody in my area was shocked when they saw me. So awesome seeing Arelis and Thomas. Didn't have much time but we had some small talk and said a prayer with them.
We went to stay in North of Bucaramanga. I was with Elder Goncalves for the night. His area is so huge it doesn't make sense. There is a massive steep hill of favelas in his area. I asked what the hill was called. Goncalves told me its called "ESPERANZA" (hope). Right when he told me, we saw a 12 year old with a rattail and a HUGE BLUNT in his ear head down the stairs of the hill.
Thats what I call esperanza. ;)
The zone conference went well. It was the last one of the transfer. That was a relief. You can see pics of it here.
We had given the same training 5 times throughout the transfer and it felt great putting it into the shredder. Sweet seeing Elder Skinner and all my boys from Bucaramanga!
Elder Patterson came to visit the mission with his parents and they stopped by the zone conference as well. Sweet seeing Patterson again!
We had 3 more splits this week. All were pretty tiring.
CAMBIOS
So yesterday during Sacrament Mtg, President Laney sent us a text saying he already had the transfers ready. After church we went to Bishop Rojas' house for lunch and then scrambled back to mission offiices to get our stuff and go through transfers to look for mistakes, and then we ran to the Mission Home.
We had our meeting w Pres Laney. We told him the mistakes we found in the transfers. There weren't many. (One elder was gonna be kept in an area for a 6th transfer so we stopped that.) We made plans for the multizone for next transfer. Then we finished the meeting and Sister Laney gave us Coke for the long night that awaited us.
We headed back to the offices, counted all the missionaries who will travel and we sent the secretaries to buy bus tickets. Then we started filling the EXCEL Transfers sheet.
Then we made calls to all the zone leaders in the mission and told them who's coming and going. Always funnest part. :)
We were in the offices till 3:30 AM. Right as we left, I realized I forgot my keys. We had to walk to the Secretary's house like 10 blocks away from the offices (Bogotá is cold at night). Finally got to our house at 4:20 (blazeit) and I said the shortest companionship prayer ever and we slept like logs.
Love Elder Vieira. He always says "mas loco que el Batman" —"crazier than the batman." EX: "these transfers are crazier than the batman." It's supposedly a saying in Brazil. I keep telling him Batman isn't known for being crazy haha.
Way cool seeing Maude and Olive in France. Awesome that they got to see the Lecrosniers. One of the best families ever.
This is our next Mission Pres:
to put the fear in you.
Love you guys so much!!!!
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Week Seventy Seven
This is my week report:
We have to go on splits with all the zone leaders every transfer (there are 12 zones, 24 zone leaders). This week, pretty much every day was splits.
I have only gotten to work with my comp in our area once this whole transfer haha.
It was fun because almost every night this week, there were 4-6 missionaries staying with us. My companion, Elder Vieira, has this workout video called AB RIPPER X and we all do it in the morning. We quote from it all the time i.e. "IF YOU NEED A BREAK, TAKE A BREAK!" and "NICE MY BROTHER." and "DON'T DO THIS EVERY DAY; YOU DON'T NEED IT."
So this week on splits I went with Elder Crandell (from my first district, one of my best friends here.), Elder Varillas, and Elder De los Santos.
Splits were so much fun with Crandell. Back to good old days when we went on splits together in Barbosa and Tunja and didn't know any Spanish. A member named David came with us the whole day. He just finished his mission in Frankfurt, Germany. (His dad passed away during his mission and David gave an awesome talk 2 weeks ago.) We visited Victoria (the lady from Texas). Victoria is doing awesome. She always participates a ton in Gospel Principles. Afterwards we visited a less-active family way out in the mountains. It was a sweet lesson and we got them pumped up to go back to church again. Mostly it was fun hanging with Crandell again.
Intercambios with Varillas was cool. At the start of the day we said a prayer to meet a family. We pretty much got rejected 8 hours straight. Then before heading home we knocked 1 more door and a family let us in. The Murcia family. They are awesome. Sebastian lives with his mom (who is kind of loopy. She thinks she is Sebastian's sister). His grandparents had recently died so we taught a pretty good Plan of Salvation lesson. Brother Cando was with us all day. He is from Otavalo and taught us some quechua: ALI PACHA.
Yesterday was a great day with Elder De Los Santos. De Los Santos is a chef from the Philippines.
I had nothing planned so we were just gonna go out and wing it. I called brother Castiblanco (a member I met last Sunday in my ward). I asked if we could swing by and visit. He said yes so we cabbed over. We visited him with his parents. His parents got baptized in 76 and are the 2nd oldest members in my ward. The mom got eye surgery this week (not LASIK, it sounds like they surgically installed lenses in her eyes. What is that called?). Anyways it was a good call to visit them.
Then we asked them if they knew any other members we should visit. Immediately, Hermano Alonso (the grandpa) told us to visit León Velasquez. He is the OG member with the most time in the ward. We invited Hermano Alonso to come with us to visit him and we all headed there.
P.S. — Hermano Alonso is a powerhouse and introduced us to 3 people on the way to Leon's house.
We got to Leon's house. Leon is 85 and lives in a private old-people neighborhood. He is in a wheelchair and can't really talk anymore. Mostly grunts. But Hermano Alonso was good at translating what he said. I asked Leon what his favorite verse in the BOM is and he said it was "a brief explanation about the Book of Mormon". I asked why and told him thats' not a verse. He just told us to read it to him and never explained why. But Leon is awesome. Two things he did that blew my mind:
1. He told Hermano Alonso to remember his daughter's birthday on April 21st. Leon has all Hermano Alonso's kids birthdays memorized.
2. We asked if there was a service he needed and he told us, "Buy me a nice coffin." MIC-DROP.
I really admire Hermano Alonso as well. Every Sunday, he wheels Leon home. He was also good about moving his wheelchair around.
After those 2 member visits, Elder De Los Santos and I got some good contacts in. We went to see if this dude Danny was home. I had met him the the day before. Danny was there and so was his family. They are from Maracaibo, Venezuela. We taught them on their floor because they don't have any chairs. They gave us Arroz con Leche. Pretty awesome. Big love for Maracuchos.
So turned out to be a sweet day w/o plans.
Other stuff:
- Awesome administration. We were preparing the mission results for leadership conference and there were some numbers that would NEVER LINE UP. We painstakingly went though 1 by 1 for hours .GETTIN BUISNESS DONE
- CRAZY CRAP GOING DOWN IN THE MISSION. Some dudes sneaking out at midnight, some love note etc. Lots of crazy phone calls. We have had to shut down 3 areas this transfer.
Yeah we go to Bucaramanga on Monday. Stoked! Will see lots of my best friends here.
Love you guys
Elder Blair
We have to go on splits with all the zone leaders every transfer (there are 12 zones, 24 zone leaders). This week, pretty much every day was splits.
I have only gotten to work with my comp in our area once this whole transfer haha.
It was fun because almost every night this week, there were 4-6 missionaries staying with us. My companion, Elder Vieira, has this workout video called AB RIPPER X and we all do it in the morning. We quote from it all the time i.e. "IF YOU NEED A BREAK, TAKE A BREAK!" and "NICE MY BROTHER." and "DON'T DO THIS EVERY DAY; YOU DON'T NEED IT."
So this week on splits I went with Elder Crandell (from my first district, one of my best friends here.), Elder Varillas, and Elder De los Santos.
Splits were so much fun with Crandell. Back to good old days when we went on splits together in Barbosa and Tunja and didn't know any Spanish. A member named David came with us the whole day. He just finished his mission in Frankfurt, Germany. (His dad passed away during his mission and David gave an awesome talk 2 weeks ago.) We visited Victoria (the lady from Texas). Victoria is doing awesome. She always participates a ton in Gospel Principles. Afterwards we visited a less-active family way out in the mountains. It was a sweet lesson and we got them pumped up to go back to church again. Mostly it was fun hanging with Crandell again.
Intercambios with Varillas was cool. At the start of the day we said a prayer to meet a family. We pretty much got rejected 8 hours straight. Then before heading home we knocked 1 more door and a family let us in. The Murcia family. They are awesome. Sebastian lives with his mom (who is kind of loopy. She thinks she is Sebastian's sister). His grandparents had recently died so we taught a pretty good Plan of Salvation lesson. Brother Cando was with us all day. He is from Otavalo and taught us some quechua: ALI PACHA.
Yesterday was a great day with Elder De Los Santos. De Los Santos is a chef from the Philippines.
I had nothing planned so we were just gonna go out and wing it. I called brother Castiblanco (a member I met last Sunday in my ward). I asked if we could swing by and visit. He said yes so we cabbed over. We visited him with his parents. His parents got baptized in 76 and are the 2nd oldest members in my ward. The mom got eye surgery this week (not LASIK, it sounds like they surgically installed lenses in her eyes. What is that called?). Anyways it was a good call to visit them.
Then we asked them if they knew any other members we should visit. Immediately, Hermano Alonso (the grandpa) told us to visit León Velasquez. He is the OG member with the most time in the ward. We invited Hermano Alonso to come with us to visit him and we all headed there.
P.S. — Hermano Alonso is a powerhouse and introduced us to 3 people on the way to Leon's house.
We got to Leon's house. Leon is 85 and lives in a private old-people neighborhood. He is in a wheelchair and can't really talk anymore. Mostly grunts. But Hermano Alonso was good at translating what he said. I asked Leon what his favorite verse in the BOM is and he said it was "a brief explanation about the Book of Mormon". I asked why and told him thats' not a verse. He just told us to read it to him and never explained why. But Leon is awesome. Two things he did that blew my mind:
1. He told Hermano Alonso to remember his daughter's birthday on April 21st. Leon has all Hermano Alonso's kids birthdays memorized.
2. We asked if there was a service he needed and he told us, "Buy me a nice coffin." MIC-DROP.
I really admire Hermano Alonso as well. Every Sunday, he wheels Leon home. He was also good about moving his wheelchair around.
After those 2 member visits, Elder De Los Santos and I got some good contacts in. We went to see if this dude Danny was home. I had met him the the day before. Danny was there and so was his family. They are from Maracaibo, Venezuela. We taught them on their floor because they don't have any chairs. They gave us Arroz con Leche. Pretty awesome. Big love for Maracuchos.
So turned out to be a sweet day w/o plans.
Other stuff:
- Awesome administration. We were preparing the mission results for leadership conference and there were some numbers that would NEVER LINE UP. We painstakingly went though 1 by 1 for hours .GETTIN BUISNESS DONE
- CRAZY CRAP GOING DOWN IN THE MISSION. Some dudes sneaking out at midnight, some love note etc. Lots of crazy phone calls. We have had to shut down 3 areas this transfer.
Yeah we go to Bucaramanga on Monday. Stoked! Will see lots of my best friends here.
Love you guys
Elder Blair
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