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:

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

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

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 ]

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