HE IS IN COLOMBIA !!!

We have been anxiously waiting for the past six days to hear from Will. Today is his prep. day and they are allowed to e-mail us. This is his first letter from Colombia and it sounds like an amazing place.


November 10, 2008

Hello family,
It’s now my prep. day so I’m doing my first emails. I am alive and in Colombia so don’t worry. I have about 45 minutes so I´ll try to tell as much as I can.
We left the airport in Miami and went on a humongous plane to Bogota. It was like 8 seats across and many rows. We got into Bogota at night and luckily they just took my passport and stuff and didn't ask me many questions. After that we got our bags and the AP's flagged us down and threw all our stuff in a van. They were both gringos from Utah with a member guy who drove the van. They immediately started telling us all about Colombia and how much they like it. They took the Elders that are going to Barranquilla to a visitors center at the temple to stay the night and leave in the morning and they split the rest of us up to stay with other Elders in the area until we had all our paperwork etc done. Elder Lee(Utah) and I went to some Elders, who had been here a little over a year. One was actually from Utah so it was helpful to have him so we could know a little bit of what people were saying. We stayed in an apartment right off a huge road in Bogota on mattresses on the floor. The traffic was ridiculously loud and they said the water was bad so I only drank it with my filter water bottle.

Honestly it was a little scary for those first few days. The people talk very fast and it is very difficult to understand everything they say. But the next day we went to the Presidents house and there were a bunch of other elders there (no Americans except my group and the one other and the APs). We sat there and talked for a little bit. Then the president came and we had a very, very good dinner and he had us introduce ourselves a little. He doesn’t speak English but he had the AP's translate what we didn’t understand. I suppose he is a pretty funny guy because people laughed a lot at what he said (ha I just don’t know what it was). Then we did interviews with him and we were done there. I can usually get my point across to people and I usually have to ask them to speak slowly and I can make out somethings that they are saying.

After the mission home we went and got all our money changed and did paperwork stuff. I guess right now the dollar is double the Colombian Peso so I have a lot of money but I don’t take very much with me. This place really is a whole different world. It was quite scary to be in this strange country with no one who I could understand and with such weird stuff but I´m getting used to it just fine. I told my Mission President "Ire y hare lo que el senor ha mandado." Anyway after that we went and started tracting and doing stuff. We tracted and did contacts with the Elders who are in Bogota for a while and I started a few contacts on my own and then kind of passed them to the others when I couldn’t understand. It basically stopped being scary when I started doing the work. That night we had dinner with a member family who was very nice. The food is definitely different but it’s alright. Then we went and taught a lesson to one of their investigators. Those days in Bogota I got to be with the Elder from Utah, which was really helpful so I could talk a little English. We got there and they asked me and Elder Lee to teach the investigator about the sacrament and we went for like 15 minutes just talking about sacrament and bearing testimony, It was very cool, although I'm sure my accent is still ridiculous.

We stayed in Bogota for another day (we found out we were going to Bucaramanga right away but we had to finish our paperwork stuff) and then at about 6 at night a few days ago they put Elder Lee and me on a bus and sent us on a "quick" 9 hour bus ride to Bucaramanga. They played Indiana Jones in Spanish and tons of people talked to us about what we were doing and where we were from. We got here at 3 in the morning and the Elders from this area were there waiting.

My companion is Elder Amador from Argentina. haha He doesn't speak any English. He is a hard worker and I can understand him somewhat cuz I”m getting used to him. They took us to the apartment and it is actually quite nice. He told me it is the second nicest in the mission. It’s on the 8th floor of a big apartment complex and it has a kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a washing machine. Upstairs there is a big deck thing on the roof where you can walk right outside onto the road and there is a very cool view of all the big buildings that are in downtown Bucaramaga, a few miles away.

There are 4 Elders in the apartment. One other companionship and none of them speak a lick of English. I can usually get my point across when talking to them but when they have their own conversations I usually have no idea. The water in Bucaramanga is all safe and good to drink unlike parts of Bogota. However there is NO hot water in our apartment. It’s great to drink but showers are absolutely freezing, it definitely wakes me up in the morning. A lot of the stuff here makes me realize how lucky we really are. We got there at about 3 30 am and went to bed and the next thing I knew, I was up and we were doing daily study. I just read PMG and scriptures in Espanol and try to learn all I can and then my companion and I discuss what we studied for companionship study and go over stuff for investigators.

Then we hit the road and started doing the work. It is really hot and humid here. Almost all the people in my area (Real de Minas) live in little neighborhoods called Barrios. They are for the most part, quite poor. The barrios are basically a bunch of apartments together with a few stores built in. ha to describe the usual scene The people are always sitting outside talking and little kids running around with weird Spanish music blaring and usually a few people drinking. The people are so humble though. We first went to a lady who is a member in one of the barrios and she is helping some of the poor families who are progressing or just baptized. Everywhere I go I stick out because I'm a gringo, and everyone stares at me and whispers things as I go by, I just smile at everyone and talk to whoever I can. My first day some crazy man followed us around for like 15 minutes and tried to get me to help him with his English. Tons of people try to say the English words they can to me and ask me to talk in English and then they laugh like crazy when I do.

We usually have lessons scheduled for most of the day and when we don’t we walk around and contact and it's pretty easy to get people to let you teach them. They are so humble and receptive its amazing. You introduce yourself and talk for a minute or two and ask if they would like to know more and I would say over 50% of them say yes and we end up teaching them. We teach about 5 lessons a day usually and always have lunch with a member family. It’s pretty sad how poor some of them are and how little they have. Every meal we have gone to, they give us the most food and it’s usually humongous plates. It makes me sad, for example we went to a single lady member, who had 2 sons, for lunch the other day and her house was cement with an old used couch and run down everything and yet she gave me this gigantic plate of food that I could barely eat and you know it was hard for them to come by, but you need to eat it or they would feel terrible. It is very humbling.

My companion and I have 3 maybe 4 baptisms set up for next week, I don’t know if I will do any of them because they started before I got there but right now we have 4 or 5 more that are very close to being baptized. Like I said they are so receptive and they believe you as soon as you start teaching. The other day we were walking down the path in one of the barrios and a little girl asked me where I was from. We ended up going in and teaching the whole family and they want us to come back, I think they all have potential to be baptized and are interested except the mom worries me, I didn’t realize it cuz I can't understand everything, but according to my companion she really, really wants me to meet her older daughter next time. But as far as the lessons, Elder Amador does most of the explaining and teaching and I add in as well as I can, I teach one or two of the principles and bear testimony. I can’t wait until I know the language better and I can fully communicate with people but the Elders say I speak very well for a new gringo.

I think it is an advantage to be an American down here because a lot of the people just like to see a tall white person and they are interested in listening to my terrible Spanish. But really they are so receptive to the message and able to feel the spirit. It’s like in the book of Mormon, over and over the Lord humbles the people and then they find the gospel. These people have definitely been humbled and they are ready for it.

I went to church on Sunday and it was the same, yet very different. There just aren’t a lot of people who are well equipped to be priesthood leaders etc. The counselors to the Bishop are returned missionaries of about 5 months and about half the people don’t have church clothes so they put on their best blue jeans and tee shirts and come to church. I keep saying it's incredibly humble and I respect them a ton. For us it's so easy to be members and have everything we need, but for some of these people, it’s a big sacrifice to get to church each week and do everything. During gospel doctrine class they didn’t know the names of the counselors in the first Presidency so I was asked to go write them on the board and tell them some of the other apostles. They had me introduce myself so I did and bore my testimony and everyone wanted to know where I was from etc.

I don’t understand everything that people say, but I can get my point across and I am improving bit by bit everyday. According to everyone I talk to it’s like this for everyone and I'm doing fine. Honestly it was quite scary at first but now I’m just great. It’s frustrating not to have the language down but I’ll just stay patient, por que se que el senor nunca da mandamientos a los hijos de los hombres sin preperarles a via para que cumplan lo que les ha mandado 1 NE 3. 7. But the church is true, even in Colombia it’s amazing to see how although it’s way different, it’s the same.

I’m running out of time but all is well. I love you much and I´ll write next week.