Back in Bucaramanga

Well fam life is great back in Bucaramanga. My companion Elder Butler and I are doing great and working like crazy. Elder Butler is from Houston Texas. He is about 6 foot and used to play basketball and football also. He is a very good missionary and a great guy. He is very humble and easy to get along with and I think we make a veery good team. He is a hard worker and we are doing great. He has about 6 months less than me in the mission. He was here in Bucaramanga as Zone Leader but in Real de Minas (where I started) but now President put the ZLs in Pinos so we are both new here.

It is the strongest ward in the stake and we use the brand new big stake center (it’s the nicest chapel in the mission). The Bishop here has had some problems with the missionaries but we now know that it’s because he has the ward and its plans very organized. He wants to make sure that what needs to be done, gets done. The first thing we did in our area was visit him and tell him we were there to serve him and asked what we could do. He gave us all kinds of ideas and we have been helping him lots. He seems to be really happy with what we are doing. Haha so the ward has very good leadership and he has them helping us like crazy and I think we will do great things.

This week we were all over the place moving into a new house and organizing things. We taught 14 lessons and 13 were with a member present which is almost unheard of. In church we had 11 investigators and all of them have friends and are progressing. This week we will have our first baptism. It’s a girl named Gicell. She is living here with her aunt and been going to church forever but the missionaries didn’t realize that they only had to call her mom and get her permission to be baptized. So we did just that and she will be baptized on Friday.

We live in a huge apartment complex with like 5 towers of 14 floors. We live on a 7th floor apartment with a nice view of downtown, there are 4 of us in the house and it’s a little small but it has a washing machine and its good enough.

We have all kinds of ideas to start helping the zone. Right now there isn’t a whole lot going on in the other areas but there are good missionaries and we are going to try very hard to support them and get them going. We have made a calendar of the whole transfer (6 weeks) with all the splits we will do with each area and all the activities we have planned. Our zone includes 7 companionships in Bucaramanga and the 3 in Barranca and we should do splits with all of them at least once each transfer. That means we are in at least 2 every week from now on. I can’t wait to get started working with them.

Today we gathered the whole zone and did a little training session about some things we thought were lacking and to set goals for this month. Then they played sports for a little while, watched a movie, and the sisters (there are 2 in the zone) and some elders prepared a lunch. We had everybody put in 5 bucks and then they went and bought a bunch of steak and potatoes and we had Argentina style Milanese (basically chicken fried steak) with mashed potatoes. Ha, we spent the whole first part getting things ready etc so my companion and I couldn’t play sports with the others but at the end we finally got to rest for a second. It was a good chance to improve unity in the zone and teach the missionaries and get them pumped for the month.

You can really see the needs that they all have and our job is to elevate them and help them be happy and be able to work as well as they possible can. Ever since we got here we have hardly stopped to take a breath. Even today was like that but on Wednesday and Friday we go to the zone leader council in San Gil so that will be a second to stop and relax for a bit. I think I have always been a hard worker in the mission, but knowing that there are only 2 transfers left I feel an even greater desire to make every second worth it and do everything possible so we have been going like crazy. The spirit is great and I am loving life.

I’m so grateful for all the great experience I have been able to gain throughout the mish and now I feel completely comfortable helping all the missionaries and our investigators. I get almost 3 more months to use all that I’ve been able to learn and it looks like it’s gonna be great. It’s so good to have a good companion. I feel like we are a great team even if we are 2 gringos in Colombia. We have all kinds of things planned and are working as hard and smart as we can.

I know the church is true, thank you for everything, Love you, Gotta run. Talk to ya next week. :) ELder Barnard