Pictures from Colombia

Will on the airplane going to Bogota.


Will standing in front of the temple in Bogota


Will and his companion, Elder Amador from Argentina, with a wonderful family ready to be baptized. He was able to baptize 14 year old Jolman.


November 17, 2008

Well hello,
Life is still crazy here in Colombia but I’m getting used to it, even the frigid showers. The week has seriously flown by. There is a little shop under our apartment where they let people pay to use computers. The dollar is like 1.9 times the Colombian peso right now so everything is incredibly cheap for me so it’s no big deal. As far as emails you know that we do them only on our Prep. days. You can send as much as you want, because we get an hour to do the writing and we don’t have to count the time reading them, so send me news of what’s going on at home etc.

As for the mission, like I said the week has flown by. We are up at 6:30 and are able to exercise a little, have personal, companion and language study before we leave to begin tracting for the day.

Every day we eat lunch with members at about 1:00 p.m. A lot of them are quite poor like I said and even the richer ones really don’t have much compared to us in the states. After that are lessons and/or contacting all day. My companion Elder Amador is a very good worker and he is very organized with all the stuff we have to get done which is helpful since I’m still figuring things out.

The people here are so receptive and willing to be taught. It is rare that we are not either in a lesson or on our way to one. We spend most of our time in 3 barrios because we just keep finding people to teach there. We have about 6 people right now who are progressing solidly and others who are close to it. Ha the lessons are pretty tough because I still don't understand everything that the investigators say but I always put in my 2 cents and Elder Amador does a good job of setting me up for opportunities to bear testimony and teach.

Every day I understand a little more but it’s a step by step process. I am starting to figure out a lot of the idioms and phrases people say and when I focus I can usually follow the words and piece it together. But the important thing really is to have the spirit. When we have the spirit strong you can see it on the people’s faces that they can tell and the words really come more easily.

Guess what, I had my first baptism... three of the kids from a poorer family in the Estoraques barrio named Guadalupe 12, Jeri 11, and Jolman 14. We visit the family often because there are 2 families that live together and they all have been baptized or want to. My companion was going to baptize all 3 because they set the date before I got here but Jolman said he wanted me to baptize him. It was really amazing and such a humble meeting, just the kids and a few family members. All the people have at least 4 names so I was very scared I was going to forget his names but I said it just fine (besides with a gringo accent). The spirit was so strong and it was so cool to see how happy they were after.

This week we have 2 possibly, 3 more baptisms and 1 or 2 lined up for each of at least the next 3 weeks with possibly more. It really is amazing how much you start to love the people especially when you go from contacting them and talking in their apartments to seeing them get closer and closer and see the spirit working on them.

I think I said in my last mail that I stick out like no one else here because I'm a gringo. Everywhere I go people look at me and just stare or whisper things under their breathe. One crazy man started screaming “DIABLO DIABLO”, (Devil) at us as we walked by the other day and there are a few that aren’t friendly, but for the majority, everyone is very friendly and nice to us.

The poverty in some of the poor areas is not like anything I have every seen. The other day we taught a lady with a chicken and little chicks running around and eating stuff off the floor. The climate is very hot usually but the last few days have been overcast. It is also very very humid. The ward members are great, I wish so bad I could carry on good conversations with people but they talk so fast and I’m just not quite there yet, but everyone I've talked to just says it takes time and practice.

The Bishop, for some reason asked me to speak in sacrament next week! He said I could talk about anything I wanted so I think I’ll talk about the Book of Mormon and I can use information from “Preach my Gospel” and the scriptures.

My companion is a very good missionary and very humble. I was lucky to get him for a trainer. He is actually 24 years old because he had to work for a few years to have enough money to go on a mission. The other night he just started crying because we have had so much success recently and he said he didn’t ever want to go home. He is a very good Elder.

I’m not sure what else to say, Colombia is crazy but I’m settling in and really starting to love it. Don’t hesitate to write because I have time to read. I will try to find a way to send pictures but I’m not sure if I can. Thanks for all the support, much love and I’ll talk to you again next week.
Love Will