Teaching In A Tienda

Hey Guys,

So everyone has been asking me if we do anything for p-days in my new area since we did like nothing in our last one. We actually do. Normally we play football (soccer) with the young men and their non member friends in the mornings. After that the sisters and us buy food to cook in the house of a member that is a chief so its always super yummy and good. His wife is the lady that washes our clothes for us so they are kind of the ma and pa of us missionaries here in Chinchina. He actually asked if he could add my parents on Facebook. I told him he could but that they don’t know any spanish so it may not work out very well. :) Sometimes we go to Manizales for district/zone meetings then just hang out in the church there for a little talking with the other Zone. 

So I’m super excited for the holidays coming up. Christmas is supposed to be a really big deal here. I’ve seen them celebrate Halloween, Valentines Day (yep, its in September here), Colombian Independence Day and a bunch of other holidays that are not very important. They seem to have a holiday here almost ever two weeks if not sooner. All of them have been pretty tame, people playing instruments in the street, fireworks and the sort but apparently Christmas blows all other holidays out of the water. I have been told that the week before and after Christmas are full of parties, fireworks from almost every direction, people passed out on the side walk form to much beer, etc. I will have to wait and see if it is as crazy as they say. I’m planning on buying a small christmas tree for our house soon, something i can put on the counter in the kitchen or above the microwave. It should be fun. 

Maybe some of our apartment building will decorate too. Our building only has three doors on our floor so we have seen many of our neighbors. The lady right next to us shares an area that is a hole from the 4th floor to the first that has bars that we can hang clothes to dry, she is always dropping clothes on the the bars below, and since the is only access is from our apartment to retrieve the fallen clothes we are always passing her blouses to her. Interesting thing is that for safety missionary rules say that we cant contact or teach people in our building so we cant ever teach her or our other neighbors.

Funny thing happened this week on Tuesday. Elder Mansilla and I were teaching one of our in investigators in the tienda she worked in (its a little food place owned by a member so its totally chill). So while we were in the middle of the lesson the sister missionaries walked in to the tienda to buy a snack. When they saw that we were in a lesson in the tienda they were shocked. The looks on their faces were priceless when they discovered we were there. They had no idea who’s tienda it was or that our investigator worked there. They were just passing by and decided to buy something. It was pretty great.

Some sad news this week is that Elder Mansilla is being transferred tomorrow. His new area is in Montaria (yep close to were my old area was) so its kind of funny. I really going to miss him even though we barely got to be together. Here’s 4 reasons I liked him:

1. He has the same sense of humor as me so we always got along.

2. He was always helping me out in a nice way in improving my spanish.

3. He would always help me out to explain complicated things in spanish in the lessons

4. He bought me pizza more then once

Love you guys lots,

Alec

My comp, Elder Mansilla and the Elders Quorum President.

Baptisms Scheduled

Hola Amigos,

We have been doing lots of teaching lately and so have the sisters. We currently have 3 baptisms scheduled, and the sisters have 3 as well. There are two this week and, then on the 30th there are 2 and on the 5th there are 2 more so it should be pretty awesome. We are making progress.

As far as sending me money for a new backpack to replace my stolen one, I’m good right now. I don't really need to replace any thing. The stuff I cared about most was mostly sentimental value. I bought the ´´leg bag´ so I cant carry very much so I cant have any thing important on me and its working for now. My plan was to look for a nice leather messenger bag like the one I have at home when I need to carry things to district or zone meetings, or for transfers but I don't know where I am going to find one here. I will have to ask one of the members. I don't really need it right now, because its not really important but thanks. Also I cant believe that you still had the letters from trek that I had taken. That is so awesome! I was going to ask for those but didn't think that you would have them. Thank you so much.

Funny they had you talk about me in church Sunday. I guess its nice for everyone to get updates on us and maybe it will encourage others to go. I’m glad that every one had a laugh at my throw up story on the bus. It was terrible at the time but now its really funny.

As for any thing interesting this week. Well I went to the clinic this week since I had been sick for like 4 weeks so that was fun. Turns out I have seasonal allergies. Who knew right? He wrote me a prescription of drugs to take, then asked if I had a fear of needles. I said no so he sent me to get a shot to have the drugs active really quick. I walked in to the room and asked which arm do you need? The male nurse said that it wasn’t for my arm, it was for my tail so that was pretty fun. I am felling a lot better with the drugs he prescribed. So I should be fine.

Dad’s cafe racer is looking great. I love getting the pictures. Sadly my new comp doesn't know much about motorcycles or cars so I cant share what you did each week, its sad.

Not much else to say I guess.

Love you guys lots,

Alec

I got a hamburger delivered this week but it was way bigger than I thought it would be!

Church Activities

Hola,

Just so you all know, I love my new area. I think my new area is a lot better then my old one was. It’s more urban then my old area. I like walking and looking around and seeing buildings not just tiny little structures. Also when you get to the edge of the city to the north because its built in the mountains there is an amazing view, It has been rainy a lot here so there are clouds swirling around the mountain and down through the valley. The first time I saw that scene (and pretty much every time after as well)  I think of the Misty Mountains song from the Hobbit. 

It is really interesting here in Colombia with all the big catholic churches. A lot of the christ statues are bloody, since the people here combined the old ways of the ``Lamanites`` I mean Indians and what they knew about human sacrifice with what the Spanish ``taught`` them so they are a bit creepy to me. Its always a relief when I walk in to our church and there is the famous painting of Jesus in the red robe the first thing when you walk in. Its nice to have the restored gospel. I don't see why every one else doesn't think so.

The food isn’t very different here from my last area. We do eat a lot of lentils here. What is nice is that we have the same people for lunch every week (with a few days changing every other week between families) so they know that i don't eat mountains of food so they are giving me less. Im not getting much luck on not eating `salad of cucumber and tomato. I guess i will be forced to eat that for my whole mission.

The best part of the week was that our activity that we had planed for friday got canceled so Elder Mansilla, Sister Perez, Sister Cavero and I had to plan a new event. They wanted to do acts that were the typical lame church ones however I remembered the show “Who’s Line Is It Anyway” and all of the awesome acts they had on the show (yes i watched that show before my mission via youtube). So we took a few of the acts modified them slightly to make them be funny for colombians and it was awesome and I had a blast All the members said it was one of the best activities they had come to.

This week was really bad for teaching. There have been huge rain storms all week so nobody is in the mood to listen. It was really terrible : ( Although I think that the rain is going to let up (I hope) and we will be able to teach as we normally do. Although he here in Chinchina we visit a lot more less active members and I really like it. We are gathering all the lost sheep and it feels great. 

Oh and Dad, thanks for sending me my blessing. It will be nice to be able to have it for the rest of my mission. This time it will not leave the house. Whats funny is some of the members asked how I was going to get a copy of it here in Colombia. I told them I was just going to ask you for it. They asked won’t it take a long time for it to get here, I said no, my dad has it on his phone and can send it to me in a email. They were blown away that that you just had my blessing on your phone. 

Love you guys lots

Alec

P.S. I love Dad’s new orange puff coat.

Here is a picture of our bedroom/study area.

My mustache for my mission impossible skit at the church.

The ward gets together every Friday at the church, its so cool.

Getting To Know My New Area

Hey Everyone,

So I found out this week we cannot see some of the super cool historical sites in my new area. Most of the sights are Catholic and since we are missionaries we cannot go in. Super lame, but I understand why.

Also, sadly, no Dr Pepper is not going to be found in this city or in the neighboring one. I have heard legions of it existing in one store in Medellin but other then that I have no hope. I have also heard that if you are willing to p'ay a premium there are elders in Medellin that will send it to you but i don't want to pay what they want.

So in my new area we are actually tracting. We just did an area that had not had missionaries in years. We found a less active member of 20 years. She was baptized when she was little when her parents were baptized. She doesn't really know much about the church but she did agree to let us visit her this week so that was awesome. We also tracked another area and found two people that were super excited to her what we had to say.

We don’t have a ward here in ChinChina, its only a branch but we do have our own building so thats pretty sweet. (It also has a fooseball and a ping pong table, so that is awesome for activities.) We normally have about 80-100 people come each week to church so it fairly big for a branch.

Something fun this week was that we ate massive hotdogs for p-day. It was awesome. They were like a yard long and had guacamole and spices and a bunch of different sauce with cheese sprinkled on top.Oh and I finally have a microwave so i made carmel popcorn.

Thats all,

Alec

I bought the leg bag that I wanted in Cerete

Theses are the giant hot dogs we ate.

This is our group here in Chinchina, us and the sister missionaries. 

The Brother is always helping us out, he is super awesome.

I've Been Robbed

Hola,

So my new comp, Elder Mansilla, is from Chile. He is 20 almost 21 and has a little over a year in the mission. He is super cool guy. Him and I have the same sense of humor so we get along swimmingly. He is wanting to learn english so I am teaching him lessons in the morning. I think it is going well. He had lessons from another comp but he says that he wasn’t really good at teaching, so no pressure. I know the time I have with him is going to be awesome.

There are no plans for our kitchen to be fixed in the near future. It is the responsibility of the land lord to get it fixed but he hasn’t done any thing about it. We do have a portable electric stove that is set up around the corner in the washing area so we are not completely wanting and the fridge does work.

Super sad thing this week is that I had my back pack stolen with everything inside taken as well. We were in the church for an activity and I left it in the interview room since that is where we also have been leaving our stuff when we are in the church. The doors were left open so members could come in from the street. So sometime during the activity when everyone was in the cultural hall, some guy entered and stole my bag and left. Braden had his stuff stolen from his car, but this guy had the audacity to enter the church and take things. It was only my back back that was stolen but it had lots of stuff in it. I lost my bag, umbrella, my folder (with photos of the temple, family photos, genealogy, and family stories, the letters from trek, Braden's letter, my big plan of salvation drawing and my church videos), my mini hymn book, my super awesome mini mag-lite, but one of the saddest things is that they stole the pins that my dad gave me before my mission. I loved those pins. 

Later a ´´different´´ guy came the next night that ´´found/bought´´ a few of my things and sold them back to me at a premium. So i was able to recover my family photos, the church videos, mini hymn book, and the photos of the temple. I don't think I have any hope at recover my backpack, umbrella, flash light or any of the other things with value. As for the other papers i think they are in some trash some where : ( sad face.

Why do people have to be so mean.

I’m totally fine now. It was just a bit unsettling to have stuff stolen. I'm glad that it was stolen from the church and not while I was in the street at knife point. But its cool now I have a fun story to tell

oh, I forgot my camera so no pictures this week, sorry.

Love you guys lots,

Alec

Loving My New Area

Hey everyone,

So I made it to my new area with only a few problems. The bus rides were fine for the most part. It took two days to get here and I had to stay over night in Medellin in a house they have just for missionaries passing through to other areas. Yeah, our mission is that big. We had a pretty big group going out on the bus from Medellin to the Cafetera but just me and my comp from Cerete to Medellin. Nothing much happened on the 1st leg of my trip but the second half from Medellin to Chinchina was not good. Its super windy in the mountain passes and as you know I get motion sick some times. This time was no exception. I thought I was doing fine until a super windy part of the road came. I could feel my stomach getting worse and knew I was going to throw up. I ran to the back of the bus to get to the bathroom and pulled on the door but nothing happened. Another Elder was sitting in the back and he had his chair reclined and it was leaning on the door. He realized by the look on my face what was happening but by the time that he moved the chair it was to late. I spewed all over the back of the bus. They had to pull over and wash it out at a rest stop so that was fun for everyone.

The ride here may not have been good but my new area is super awesome. Its a lot cooler then my last area. I am now in the Cafetera and no longer in the coast. The Cafetera is where all the coffee in Colombia is grown. Its super pretty and green everywhere. We are living just one street away from the center of the city where there is a big park and a huge Catholic church. We are about 2 mins away from our church which is awesome too. My new comp is Elder Mansillia. He is super chill and has been out a little over a year and seems to know what works as far as contacting people here.

My new apartment is pretty small, it just Elder Mansillia and I in the apartment. Its a lot less chaotic in the house and really peaceful in the mornings and nights without 4 of us squished in. I really love it. We have 1 1/2 bathrooms here so I have moved all my stuff in the second one so after I shower in the other with hot water I can shave and what not easier. The members I have met have been great and friendly. Also the accent here is totally different, I can understand every one so much better.

Sorry my letter is not long but we have a meeting with a missionary couple and I’m excited to meet them. It is with Elder and Sister Peterson. He worked at NASA on all the Apollo programs to send people to the moon so I had to take a picture with an American hero. How cool is that!

Love you guys lots,

Alec

P.S. I don't think they exist but could you look for a pocket sized triple in Spanish for me, I’m trying to make all the stuff I have to haul around lighter.

This is the view from our 3rd story apartment.

Elder Mansilla took a picture of me preparing for the gospel principles class.

 (The hat was from his old comp, so i was wearing it)

My Companion, Elder Mansilla, bought this pizza as a house warming gift it was awesome.

I have a real closet this time.

This is our kitchen, the only problem is that a power surge blew through the 

apartment awhile back and none of it works.

This is Elder Peterson and my new comp. It was so cool to talk to him about NASA.

General Conference & My New Transfer

Hey Everyone,

So Conference this week was awesome! Normally we would just watch it in the church with the members, but since it is in spanish, Elder Cutler and I were going to watch it in the church office, but they stole the computer from the office to use for the main room. We had a member bring a laptop so that we could watch it in english in the office but the internet was so bad in the church having two streams open sucking the bandwidth neither of us could watch it so we had to stop even before we really got started on Saturday. Right after that I called an English Prof in the ward and asked if Elder Cutler and I could watch it in his house. (He is the one that brought the laptop of us). He was totally chill with us using the computer in his house. So we solved the problem of having to watch in spanish and not understand fully. As for lunch, when we in the house of the Brother, he gave us snacks on Saturday, then lunch of fried tilapia, steamed yuca, and a glass of aguapanelal. It was so awesome. We thanked him so much for giving us food. He told us that it was no problem and it was a blessing to have the elders in his house.

My favorites talks from conference were Elder Terence M. Vinson of the Sunday afternoon session and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the priesthood session. I took the most notes from Uchtdorf´s talk, but Vinson´s was really awesome. His message about how God could take care of all of our problems as soon as they came into our lives, but we wouldn't learn anything that way. He gives us opportunities and trials to go through to make us strong, and if we need his help, he is there for us no matter what. Its like the poem about foot steps in the sand. Jesus is walking with us all our lives but sometimes when times get so impossible and we have done all that we can, he carries us because he loves us. (His accent was also awesome)

Exciting stuff!!! We meet with a new man this week. It was after the Sunday afternoon session. We were looking for a house and were super lost. We asked him if he knew them, He did not : (  Then he asked who were and what I (being a gringo) was doing so far was home. We explained that we were missionaries and that we had a message about the restored gospel of god. Amazingly he said ´´That sounds really nice, would you like to come in and teach me and my wife?``. We were blown away. No one does that here. It was so cool. 

We also had a different member family come to the church on Saturday for the afternoon session of conference which was awesome. We had been working on them for quite a bit of time, then to have them come to the church was the bee´s knees. 

We don't really cold knock here in Cerete. Everyone is usually outside of their houses just chill-laxin in chairs so we can talk to who ever we want. They normally don’t go any where. The people here in the coast are lazy not just physically but mentally as well. The see change as something hard. Salvation is not a luxury. If they would just soften their hearts, they could have the blessings of heaven poured out on them.

Other exciting news. I’M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!! I’m finally leaving Cerete after more than 6 months and leaving for Manizales. It is at the complete other end of the my mission and I will be trading the heat of the coast for the cool breezes and mountains of coffee country. I am super stoked. I am going to miss the people here in Cerete, but I am finally going to leave. I leave tomorrow at 8 am in the morning to start my adventure of the bus ride of eternity, I am going to have two bus rides that are more then 8 hours long each to get to my new area. Elder Gomez is going to be a trainer again. So that should be fun for him. Elder Cisneros is going to become an office Elder. Elder Cutler is getting Elder Roberts as a companion (yep the same one from the MTC). Which is going to be awesome for him, and also for Cerete. He is an amazing Elder.

Love you guys so much,

Alec

Watching Conference

Going To A New Area