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
