Starting the Real Mission in Cerete Colombia

Buenos Tardes,

So I’m finally getting to check my email and write everyone today. Looks like my p-day is going to be  Mondays in this area. I am now in the town of Cerete. It’s near the coast of the Caribbean but not close enough to get a nice ocean breeze. The town is super small and they do not have any buildings above 2 stories other than the Catholic church. It is super hot here and when I say super hot I mean it. If I’m lucky the low at night is 80-90 and the high is 110 from 12-3. The ten day forecast shows next week could peak at 124. This will be the same almost my whole mission. It is super hot but for some reason I love it. My house I share with 3 other Elders does not have air conditioning so all we have is fans to blow on us and when I left the power was out. Hopefully it will come back on before I have to go to bed. All the Elders in my house are latinos and my companion is from Mexico City. His name is Elder Gomez and he has been out for 5 months. He speaks a little bit of english which is nice so he can help me understand new words. He also wants me to teach him english so we will see how that goes. I know every one I teach will be taught my ''accent'' for words with er, so that will be interesting. I have already been robbed. Some one jimmied open our bedroom window while we were gone. I don’t know what they thought they could take since there are bars on the window but they reached through and stole my sheets off my bed. I bought new sheets here but the thread count is like 2 maybe 2 and half. They are really rough and they suck, but hey now I know to keep the window completely closed and nothing by it.

To get here to my mission from the MTC in Bogota I took a 10 hour bus drive and it was really long but it wasn’t that bad. It was like the equivalent of greyhound or other busses in america so it wasn’t super bad. It was kind of cool to see Colombia along the way. We stopped 2 times for food at tiny little towns in the mountains. For our first stop I bought some coke and a snickers, in the second place the church paid for our lunch. I got this weird beef thing since I didn’t understand what they said to me since they talk so fast. So far I’m eating lots of overcooked meat and rice.

I tried to upload pictures this week for the first time and I got my login right but this stupid computer would not see my camera. I don’t have a lot of time since i’m trying to catch up on 2 weeks of emails but I will really push for next week. I also found out that if people want to send me a letter or a package on my mission that they need to send it to the mission home so my address will be the same the whole time. If I heard correctly my district leader goes once a month and gets all the packages or they mail them if we are out of the way. Here is my address:

PACKAGES ONLY:

Elder Alec Stewart Meyers

Colombia Medellin Mission

Calle 7 Sur 42-70 Edificio Forum P.H.

Etapa 1, Piso 24, Oficina 2405

Medellin Antioquia

Colombia

LETTERS ONLY:

Elder Alec Stewart Meyers

Colombia Medellin Mission

Cra 42 #5 Sur-105 24th Floor

Medellin Antioquia

Colombia

Also, everyone keeps asking about the small scooter pins a have on my backpack, the only problem is in spanish they don’t have any word for scooter. Its all just motto so I have to say ''e''scooter so they understand since they always put an “e” in front of all english words with an “s” in the beginning.

Love,

Alec

The Bus Ride

I'm Gone!

Sup Family,

I can't read any of your letters this week. I only have five minutes to right home. I am currently in the mission head quarters for the Medellin mission. Its on the 24th floor of a building and has amazing views of the city. I met with the mission president, and he is super chill. He speaks hardley any spanish but he made it really easy to talk to him. I do not know when I will be able to check my email again, so don't freak out when I don't write back, for a little. As soon as I get settled with my comp and my place I'll write ya on my p-day.

Also I was told that if anybody wants to mail me a package that they should put the Virgin Mary on all the seams of the box you send. The people here will never deface her. Also packages should not be declared for more than 10-20 dollars. Follow these things and my package might actually not get stolen.

Love you all a lot, and miss you guys.

Love,

Alec

View from the Mission Home

Last Week In The MTC

Hola, 

I apologize for my letter being later this week. My p-day has been Wednesday the whole mtc thing so far but since last week I got transferred to a different district with all Latinos it is now Friday. Next week I have no idea what will happen since I will be leaving the MTC for my real mission in Medellin. As far as my Latino district goes, its good. My language is so much better having everyone around me only speak Spanish. I’m learning a lot from them. They make me laugh though. When we have down time back in our room and are trying to relax for the past week they have wanted me to sing american songs. Its been any thing from Dean Martin, Lady Gaga, Billy Idol, Justin Timberlake, Aha, to the Backstreet Boys. Its like putting our music library from back home on shuffle and they want me to take requests. I’m not even a singer! We also have been exercising together. We have been lifting weights in the morning and by weights I mean chairs stacked together because they don’t have free weights. Mostly its been doing bench press, squats, calf raises, and shoulder lifts mostly. We’re creative. There seems to always be someone within 3 feet of me at all times.

So this week for district meeting I said I would teach a lesson on the plan of salvation. So I studied the scriptures and drew out the picture of the plan that Dad has drawn in his own scriptures in my work book. I was feeling all set but when it came time to do the lesson the marker for the board died right after I drew the pre-existence. It was horrible. I had not prepared for a verbal only lesson. Eventually I think it turned out ok. At the time I was thinking how bad it was but now it is more funny.

For service lately all we seem to do is clean the MTC. Like this week in my new room I cleaned the black mold out of the shower. Not sure why someone did not do this before I got here but it feels so nice to know its gone. The Catholic school just has not needed us much lately. 

Oh and if my drivers license ever shows up from being renewed, lost in the mail and then sent again, I don’t think I’ll need it fedex’d down to me. Most of the people say we won’t be driving in Colombia, the roads are too crazy. From what I’ve seen they are worse than the roads in Mexico with our crazy cab guy. Motorcycles weave in and out of cars and the small cars are doing the same. I’ll let ya know before you spend the hefty fee at FedEx.

Oh yeah and I only took 5 shirts with me to do service in and workout and I’m already getting tired of them. If Dad’s printing up anything for scooters etc. I really want one. 

Love,

Alec

P.S. I don’t know when I will get to write agin with me leaving the MTC and heading into the field but I’ll do it as soon as I can. I love you guys lots!

Sightseeing in Bogota

Hola,

So this week I got to watch all 5 sessions of general conference in English here in the MTC. They put all the americans in one room and streamed it live hooking up a computer to one of the tv screens. Others missionaries got to watch it in Spanish. It was really great to get to hear them talk about service while I am on a mission, I got so much out of it. I have a lot of notes written down from what was said all in my journal.

As far as the Spanish is going, I was feeling pretty fluent, well at least until I got a new latin companion today. I ran out of things to say after a couple minutes so I need to pick it up. Conversational Spanish is harder than teaching Spanish. I’ll have 2 weeks with him now before I leave the MTC.

You know how I said the food here was awesome and fresh, well I’m not liking so much any more. It’s still good but they feed us mostly meat, rice and soup and its always the same so there isn't any room for improvement. I’m ready to chose my own food.

I traded two of the ties I didn't really care about with some out going Elders this week. I got one that is a baby blue tie with polka dots and the other is a vintage royal blue tie with light blue and white pin stripes. I’m going to turn the vintage one in to a slimmer tie because it is like 4 inches wide right now but it was kind of cool to trade and I brought plenty with me.

I’ve been asked if we have sister missionaries here and yeah we do.We see them all the time, however we are not allowed to associate with them very much. Apparently here in Colombia a lot of the sisters go on missions to find an American boy to take them back to the states and get married so I will not be talking to them much.

On my p-day this week I got to go sight seeing. We went to the gold museum which was way cool it had a lot of the gold from the time of the Nephites time, but most I guess would be from the Lamanites because it was all ceremony items that did not look very holy to me. Then we took a cable car to a church on the top of a mountain. It was awesome to see the city from the top of the mountain and because Bogota is so big we could only see 3/5 of the city from the top of the mountain. They let me take my camera with me so I got a few pics but I can’t upload them until I leave the MTC. While we were out I did see a few vintage scooters but they were all stripped down models, nothing like my Dad’s.

We also got to go to the temple again this week and got to do inititories. A cool thing happened though. I actually had to help the workers with t language this time. All of the names were German so I got to help them pronounce all of them. 

I also learned this week that Medellin has a SLOTH SANCTUARY. I’m going to get to hold a sloth, well at least I hope I get to hold one. It would be so awesome!

Last I apologize for all the spelling mistakes this week. I am being rushed to answer all my emails and since this computer is set to spanish it say every single word I type is wrong. Hopefully my Mom does a spell check for me before posting it on my blog.

I miss every one a lot, but hope you guys are all doing well.

Love,

Alec

A View Of Bogota

A Letter From The MTC Mission Mom

Dear Family of Elder Meyers,

I often think as I look out over the missionaries, "I wish their parents could see through my eyes, what I am able to see."  Since that is not possible, I would like to try to describe a little of what I saw and experienced this last Sunday morning before the first session of Conference.

The President and I have the responsibility of serving breakfast on Sunday mornings when we are not fasting.  That allows our kitchen staff to attend their wards.  The meal is simple:  cold cereal, rolls, and fruit.  When we arrived at the kitchen however, we found that it was not as clean as it should have been.  Tables needed to be wiped off, trays and silverware needed to be cleaned.  Without any requests on our part, a group of Elders that included Alec appeared offering to help.  I was trying to rinse off trays and one Elder said I'm an expert at that, that is what I have been doing for two years at Cafe Rio.  He quickly took over and started directing others in the project of washing and drying.  Others were out front wiping off tables and sweeping the floors.  After everyone was finished eating, they were back to repeat the process of washing, drying, sweeping, and wiping off.  I'm not sure the kitchen has ever been so clean!

The thing that touch the hearts of the President and myself the most was the fact that they had come all on their own, with a genuine desire to serve.  No one had to ask them for help. Then to make the experience even more sweet, they were joyfully singing hymns and Primary songs as they worked.  As they sang "We are as the Army of Helaman" we knew truer words had never been spoken or sung! 

That heavenly army that Alec was apart of truly touched us. We love him!  Thank you for entrusting him to us for this short period of time.

Love,
Sister Lynda Dyer

Figuring Out Spanish

Hola,

So most of my life for the past 3 weeks has been learning the language and I think the Spanish is going awesome. They mainly focus on teaching us the gospel in Spanish, so when I teach the practice investigators I feel really good and confident. I can understand what they are saying and answer their questions. Outside of teaching in real life my Spanish is okay at best. They think as long as we are able to teach, the rest of the spanish will come once we get out among the people and in the mission field. I think that makes sense with the shorter time we are here. It used to be a 9 month set in the MTC but with all the changes I’m now here for only 6 weeks. That means I am half way through the MTC now. I’m hoping the rest of the language will come easy soon.

With my Spanish still not all the way the temple and Sundays have been different. We meet only with all the other missionaries even though a ward uses the same chapel as we do in the MTC building. I think they don’t want the Elders talking with girls while they are fresh from home. Its all in Spanish so I am slowly understanding more and more each week.

My favorite Elder that is here right now came in on the last transfer. His name is Elder Riggs. His visa was delayed so he spent 2 weeks in the Provo MTC. He joined our district with another boy from Provo last week. All the other people are calling them the ´´Chicos de Oro´´ or the Golden Boys, because they think they are super privileged and wealthy. I like them because they come from the same sort of background that I do. It seems like all the other elders in the district come from poorer families, and they instantly judged them because they were different. I talked with Elder Riggs for like an hour - hour and a half about the vintage scooters my Dad has and all of the rallies I’ve gone to. He thought the scooters were super cool, and said he sees vintage scooters all the time were he lives driving down the road with the big mod lights and all the mirrors. Then he told me about how his dad collects and sells vintage cars, and all the ones he has driven and which ones he liked the best.

Times up again,

Love,

Alec

P.S. Also I think Dad forgot to hit send or sent my email to the wrong account cause I did not get a letter from him this week. Please have Lydia and Fargo punish him for me. I would advise using peanut butter.

Hanging A Bit Outside