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!
