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
Monday, June 25, 2018
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
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