Being In Charge

Hey Everyone,

So just so you all know, I am loving being district leader. Its pretty sweet. I never really wanted to be it but I was mistaken. I have found that I like being district leader, not because am “powerful," its more because I like being able to help out the other missionaries in my district. I also love the baptismal interviews. I am super glad that I was called to do this. I feel like I have been able to help people out. It made me remember a quote “It is a curious thing, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it.”  Gotta love Albus Dumbledore. It is a lot of work and late nights but I don’t seem to mind.

I haven’t done any trade offs recently. I need to get my area up to snuff before I can start doing that. President Pitrach taught me that trade offs are to show the Elders how they should beI'm doing things, not to say that I'm doing it better  but just try to be the example. He told me to think about my own personal area should be a “Show Room” with lots of shiny cars and all the newest tech so that others will see its awesome and want to work like that. I’m thinking I'm going to start doing exchanges the end of this week or the first of next week. I need time to get everything ready.

Well, the best part of my week this time was when we got to teach the Zuñiga family. They are all just so great. The mom is a less active member and the daughters are non members. Four of the daughters have baptismal dates now and are super excited about it. One even told a friend when she asked what religion she was she said “right now I'm not in any church but I'm going to join the mormons and be baptized”. It was so great to hear that. I’m so happy that there are people looking for the truth in the world. It reminds me of this scripture:

D&C 123

12 For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it—

13 Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven—

14 These should then be attended to with great earnestness.

Wednesday was kind of fun this week.We got to baby sit an Elder until his new comp came from Armania. Well, “baby sitting” is a strong word, it was more like he was accompanying us until his comp came in at 2 so we just hung out and went to lunch then picked up his comp. So yes, that means that transfers happened this week and Elder Conti and I are still together. I’m pretty sure we are going to be together for at least one more transfer after this but I'm not sure. He is great to work with.

So still no news from the office as to when I leave. My visa expires March 5th so by my count the closest transfer is the last week of February but I know nothing at the moment so everyone can stop asking. As soon as I get my “trunky letter” I will tell you all.

Well, I have to apologize for only one photo this week. I hope I left my camera in the house because I cant find it in my bag. Next week I should have it. Sorry : (

Well, that shall be all my benevolent compatriots, until next week.

Toodles,

Alec

2 for 1 McDonald’s Combos - Today was a good day!

Food & Paperwork

Hey All,

Thanks to everyone that sent me details about Braden & Taylor’s Wedding. It was really weird not being there but I’m glad it went well and they are happy. The mini video of the day that Dad sent me was awesome. Its still weird to think that he is married. Everyone is leaving, it's a weird feeling to know that life moves on while I’m not there. Braden and Taylor are married and Lydia has a guy she is dating and will probably wait for her on her mission. I’m the only one single, well I guess for my mission I can be like a nun and be married to the Church. I’m busy enough to feel that way. My last few p-days have been spent on the internet almost all day since I have to fill out all the forms for the district online. It's an excel file that has 6-7 pages that I have to fill out every week with all the info of the other areas in my district. I confirmed it this week, my district is the largest in the mission other then the office but they don’t really work in the field so I have mountains of stuff to fill out. I also need to wash my clothes so it hasn't been that fun on p-days lately but I'm getting the hang of filling everything out so I will be able to do it faster now.

As for me it's walking, busses and paper work and teaching. The busses are nice here, a few years back they created a Metro System of busses so everything is nicely connected. It costs 1,700 pesos to use the bus which isn't that bad but we use them a lot since we live in the middle of the nada so it adds up quick. We have to use the buses to go to more then half our lunches since no members live in our area. As for walking, thats all we do really. After we get back to our area its all on foot. Our area is just one super long street that has little off shoots so that means walking is out the wazzo.

Best part of this week was that an investigator (Loira) told us that a lady that lived in front of her house was a less active member. We contacted her after the lesson. When we came back she wasn't there but her daughters were. We explained who we are and what we do. We have been able to teach all of them twice now and they all have a baptismal date for the 29th of November. It is awesome. Especially because the Zone Leaders wanted us to start focusing on families and the lord guided us to this family. 

Wednesday this week I scored at the grocery store. We don’t have very many options and it always the same old stuff no matter where we go but this week I found some cheese. It was gruyere cheese and it was so good. I eat it with crackers for snacks at night. I'm happy that Colombia is finally coming to their senses about good cheese.

Also the sister that was supposed to feed us lunch on Saturday forgot so after the baptism we had the other elders ordered a pizza from Domino´s. We had to have them bring it to the church since they don’t do deliveries to where we live. The best part was they have the 30 min or less guarantee and they took 40 min to get to the church so it was FREE. It was a good day.

So that was my week. I’m glad we just shared this time together, until next week my compadres.

Toodles,

Alec

P.S.I’m not interested in moving into Braden’s old room even thought the closet is bigger. I like my room cause its next to the bathroom and thats a nice luxury.

P.S.S. The mouse we thought we killed didn’t die. It just became stronger. We also bought a trap and he has stolen the food without setting it off. I think he escaped from the same lab as the Rats of NIMH.

P.S.S.S. Can someone tell me about where Braden and Taylor went on their honeymoon. With all the stuff people wrote me I did not hear about that at all.

Food of Colombia - Dominos Pizza

The giant dog I made for dinner one night.

Lunch canceled so we made sandwiches on french bread.

It comes in 3L, I’m getting one.

Being District Leader

Hola Amigos,

So first off my brother is getting married this week and I’m kind of bummed not being able to be there. It just is weird I’m going to come home and he will have a wife. It’s strange that life continues happening with me not there. I’m also kind of bummed that there will not be a life size cardboard cut out of me at the wedding like they had talked about. With two brothers on missions and two cut outs needed, apparently it costs too much. Lame excuse but I understand. I guess my Dad’s mad photoshop skills will have to do for including me. I hope everything goes awesome. I also can’t believe that every one in our house has gone through the temple now, that is so cool. I’m so excited that Lydia was able to go through Saturday after all and be at the sealing. The temple is the place to be.

Well, back to mission stuff, being District Leader is cool. I get to help out all the missionaries with what is going on in their areas. I also love the baptismal interviews. I can really feel the spirit when the people are ready. One of the biggest things I do differently is that I have almost no free time any more at night. I have to receive calls from everyone in the district and it is one of the biggest districts in the mission. From 9:35 to 10:30 each night I am talking with the district. As for my district, they are all super awesome people and work hard. I’m happy that they all are so diligent in the work. It makes my job a little bit easier. One funny thing is that one of the sisters in the district (Sister Perez) was in Chinchina when I was there. It was awesome to meet up again.

So my “town” (if you can call it that, it is super small) is not bad. Its crazy that all of our area is pretty much one street. Its just super long and we walk forever but hey we can never get lost. As for a store, we have a little one near our house. Its just like all the other little stores here in Colombia. The closet real store is in the shopping mall Buena Vista which is a 10-15 min bus ride so that gives you a good perspective that we live in the middle of nowhere. The church building is the stake center so thats awesome, whats not awesome is it is about 20 mins by bus to get there. Having investigators come may be hard. I can take a picture today. Its in a super posh area of Montaria so its supper fancy with AC and everything.

So my best moment this week was when we were teaching. We were teaching a sister named Loira (Spanish version of Loire). After we taught her the restoration she was able to repeat it back to us step by step, she said that she knew that it was true and promised to read the Book of Mormon. It was super awesome. We have an appointment with her tomorrow and we will see how it goes.

So now that I’m in the middle of no where again I thought we might be using Moto Taxis again but I just learned from my zone leader here that the moto taxis in Cerete were never approved by the mission president. Our zone leader lied to us. So we were breaking or transgressing the mission rules each time we used them. I felt bad, but it's not my fault. We trusted that our old zone leader was telling the truth almost a year ago. They were crazy scary anyway so it's no loss.

My comp is feeling great now, were able to have a full week of work. He is a super awesome missionary. The best part? He speaks sarcasm. It is so great to have someone that speaks in fluent sarcasm here in the mission. He is also a gamer and loves Anime. He has dragon ball z statues on his desk. He is a great guy and I’m pretty sure that we are going to be together for a good amount of time since he is new in the area as well.

Well, that is all for this week, here is to wishing a jam-packed week of awesomeness.

Toodles

Alec

P.S. I really liked the flow chart that my Dad sent me. Its super funny but its super true. I used it in district meeting as an object lesson so now I’m sharing it with all of you. 

P.S.S. We had a mouse in the house so we put out chocolate with poison, he's gone now.

My new comp, Elder Conti.

The power went out but I still had to verify my district.

Patacones are the best! I even made these myself.

(green plantains with homemade sauce of spices and veggies)

Here is the chart my Dad sent me, awesome huh!

Loving General Conference

Hey Everyone,

So first off my comp is now totally fine. He got a clean bill of heath Friday night so that means now more Dengue WOOOOOOOO! We can now teach and preach and work as missionaries do. As for the president I’m not sure if he knows that we had to save his life. He knows he went to the hospital but not that he was super dehydrated, or he may know. I don’t know for sure. Just glad he is doing ok now.

I have been able to meet quite a few of the members, although almost all of them live in the other area. We have to take a bus ride almost everyday to go to lunch since they live in the town next door. I am currently in a branch right now. We had about 45 people come last week. Its super small, however all of the people are super helpful. While my comp was sick the mission leader went and visited a few of the people we have been teaching. It was great to see them helping us out. They were really worried about him.

My new area is good. It’s fairly big but its basically a really long dirt road that goes on forever, so it's not like we can get lost. It has a few paved roads but most of them are dirt and it is indeed super freaken’ hot all the time. It’s around 95-100 everyday. However the good news is I’m getting tan again. 

This week were able to teach but only two lessons. It was to a sister that they had been teaching before in the area but lost contact. We found her one night when we went to buy hamburgers, now I have to ask, was it hunger or inspiration that led us to buy food. That my friends is a good question. She is great. We were able to invite her to baptism last night and she accepted a date for the 8th of November. I’m excited that she has the desire to learn.

The best part of the week had to be General Conference. It was so awesome! My favorite talks were Elder Uchtdorf´s from priesthood, Elder Eyring´s from Sunday morning and Bednar’s from Sunday afternoon. However all of conference was awesome. Tears were flowing many a times. The spirit was super strong. I’m really sad that this will be my last conference in the mission. I have enjoyed the spiritual insights I have received. I loved how I was thinking I wish they would talk about this or that for the people we are teaching and then boom, Elder Uchtdorf comes in and (with love) cuts our or at least my, head off. So awesome. I also loved Elder Eyrings talk. I can believe how emotional he got. I always loved his talks for the quiver in his voice, but wow, he almost cried this time. I really felt the spirit. That talk is one of the biggest example of why I tell people that hearing a talk in the language it was given is the best. All that  raw emotion can be felt and the spirit flow freely. So right after I’m saying that what happens? Another boom! People giving talks in their native language at conference! I thought the talks in different language was super cool. We even watched the two in Spanish in Spanish. The rest were in English with subtitles although from the bits and pieces I heard from the gap in translation I could understand a lot of the guy from Brazil in Portuguese. It is super similar to spanish. 

Speaking of Spanish, it’s going to be great to be able to talk with Beanakins  (aka Lydia) in Spanish when she gets back from her mission. Although I don’t think I’m going to like her accent. It will be super different then mine. So excited she is going to serve the Lord and that I will get to see her in the MTC before she leaves.

Also something cool happened when I opened my email. An elder that is going to go to the Colombia Medellin mission was searching for "Good Missionary Bags for Colombia´´ in google and found my blog so he wrote me and asked what I think he should buy. It was cool. He is from Southwest Wyoming and is leaving this October for the MTC. I felt super cool being able to help someone that is going to be a member of my mission family, and who knows, I may end up training him. Only time will tell.

Well, thats all for this week. Sorry there are no pictures, we didn’t do anything so I have nothing to show.

Love you all lots.

Toodles,

Alec

P.S. I’m not so sure about Mom’s quote of the week.

"Relax, we're all crazy, it's not a competition."

I’m pretty sure I am winning the crazy competition.

P.S.S.

Oh and ya, I sent the link to the write up on Dad’s motorcycle for that online magazine to Elder Cutler. I now he will hate me for it and be so jealous but i think he will love the article