Mission Report

Alec had to wait over a week to report on his mission because of Fast Sunday but it only made his talk even better. His Spanish is just amazing and we could tell why most people thought he was a native speaker. His talk went really well and after we had everyone over to our home to visit with him. Lydia had come home for medical stuff from her mission 3 days before so she got to be there and support him too. He really was an amazing missionary and his stories we keep hearing of teaching and service just reinforce what we already knew, Alec was an incredible missionary!!!

The Unpacking

Having the whole family over to see Alec unpack was a lot of fun. He had brought home so many fun things from his mission. Some were silly and some were pretty amazing but all of it was really fun to see.

Alec Is Home!!!

He is finally home!!! Alec came home from his mission today and we can’t stop hugging him. It took a 6 1/2 hour bus ride from the coast to Medellin and a 1 hour flight from Medellin to Bogota to start with. They had a 16 hour layover in Bogota and were super blessed to be able to go to the temple and attend a session and grab some food. After it was a red eye to New York but his plane got delayed 2 hours and it took 2 hours to go through customs. With only a 1 1/2 hour connection to start with it was a given he was going to miss his next flight. Instead of arriving at 10:30 am we had to wait until 3 that afternoon to see his cute face but it was worth it. Most of his cute cousins came and made posters to welcome him home. There was lots of hugs and kisses and excitement al around but we did not get a lot of time to visit. The MTC in Provo had called the night before and asked if we could bring Alec straight down from the airport to visit his sister who was struggling with homesickness. When we told him the plan he was more than happy to do it. Sister Lydia Meyers needed him and he was really excited he would see her so soon. He was able to spend two hours helping her come up with coping strategies, read her blessing and scriptures together and even give her a blessing. Since she was so homesick they even let us as parents be part of the visit too. It was sad when we all had to say goodbye to her again but I think having her big brother there really helped.

The next day the family all came down again to have dinner at Alec’s choice, In-N-Out Burger. After they all came over to our house to open his luggage, see the toys he brought home and hear his stories of serving. It’s so exciting to have him home! Now all he needs to do is have his homecoming report on March 8th and he will be done with being an official missionary.

Airport Arrival!!!

Visiting His Little Sister in the MTC

Posting from the Apple Store

Hey, I can't write much. I survived the bus ride and we are now in Medellin. We found an Apple store so we are all writing quick. I took out the money you guys sent me so I can pay cash for every travel thing along the way. I'm going to convert it back when I'm in Bogota before we leave or maybe in Salt Lake. 

Love,
Alec

My Last Letter?

Hey Peeps of Mine,

First off, I have some news. My travel plans have changed. I will not most likely be able to email you guys next week. I will be on a bus all day so I probably wont be able to write at all. This may be my last letter. Don’t stress though cause only part of my travel has changed. I will still be arriving in Salt Lake the morning of the 27th and still have the same red eye flight from Bogota to New York but everything else is going to be way more drawn out. I now get a 14 hour layover from Medelin to Bogota. I’m really hoping as it gets closer that the Bogota Mission or the MTC might be stepping in and taking us to the temple or something but at this point I think we will just be bored out of our minds at the airport but at least I’ll have 6 other Elders to hang with. Our connection in New York is tight, only 1 1/2 hours, so hopefully customs goes super fast. I’m going to be skipping breakfast it looks like. I’ll be in transit 26 hours not counting my 6 hour bus ride 2 days before through super curvy roads. I’m hoping to not throw up this time but I’m pretty excited. I’m officially trunky!

Also thanks for the money that you sent me for a few last minute souvenirs I might want and the extra travel money for next week. With my huge amount of travel time I’m going to need extra food for sure with the long layover and the bus.

As for food I want for my first meal back with the family, I don’t really care, but I will be asking you to take me to In-n-Out on the way home so I can buy a greasy american hamburger and a big dr. pepper. If everyone wants to join us then thats fine too.

I actually only really have 1 week of real work left. Next Monday I will load up all my stuff on the bus for my long ride and then be at the mission home Monday night. Tuesday is official transfer day and all the guys going home will be here for a special “deMTC” class. It's an all day class they do down here for 6 hours about self sufficiency. It's mainly for the latins since they don’t know what to do with their lives after the mission sometimes, but I’m pretty sure I will be able to learn a lot. We then will spend the night again in the mission home and I’ll fly out Thursday morning for Bogota.

In the mean time I’m still going strong. This week was great. We were able to help a couple that we are teaching do all of the errands they need to start their marriage process. The just have to pick up their records from the notary today, then they will go to the tribunal to get a date for marriage. I am so happy that they are going to get married, even though I’m not going to be here. They really want to get baptized but since they were not married cause of the high fees to do it, we had to put them off a bit. They also finally made it to church this weekend. They loved it. Also all of the members provided a warm welcome. I have high hopes for them and what they are going to be able to do in the future. They have already said that they want to go to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. This last week that I have should be an awesome week to give them the last little help that I can before I leave.

Something funny that happened this week was we locked ourselves out of the house. I left the keys on my desk and the door looks by itself when we leave so we had to pry the window open with a knife to open the door with a stick. The only problem was that as we had the knife in the window it slipped and cut my comps thumb so he bleed all over the house. It wasn’t a bad cut, it just bleed a lot. It was funny.  I felt so bad for him and then we had to clean up the mess.

As for my health I’m fine and don’t think I need to see a doc when I get home. I still feel tired but my fever is gone so I think I will be fine. The heat is not helping for sure.

It was really nice to hear about Lydia’s first week or so in the MTC and that she is getting over her homesickness now and liking what she is doing. Nobody likes the MTC so you really can’t judge from that. As for the MTC freaking me out, Dad was wrong. I didn’t hide it from you. I never had that, never had a melt down, never cried in to my pillow at night. I was just a tough little cookie. I did hate the MTC but that was for other things. I sent her a super long letter through Dear Elder last week. You have a 7000 character limit and I had like 200 left. I also asked the sisters in my district to write their testimonies about their missions. I’m going to give them to her in the MTC when I see her for my visit.

Well, I love you guys! See ya in 10 days.

Toodles, 

Alec

P.S. I care about your fiber, I have for a long time now.

P.S.S. As for Valentines Day, i didn’t realise that it was on Saturday until I was about to go to bed and looked at the date. Oh well.

My comp and his blood on the house.

Eating fish.

Splurged on some Jet candy bars.

Now My Comp Is Sick

Hey Everyone,

I’m super super, sorry, I still don’t have photos to put up this week. The beach activity was canceled so I had nothing exciting going on. This week was also super slow and Elder Smith got sick with the same crap that I had so we did nothing to exciting. Promise I will have photos next week, I will make sure of it.

Well, as for my heath, I still have a slight fever (97-98). It's not really anything. My legs also hurt, well its more of an ache, and normally its just in my right leg. Other then that I’m just peachy and getting better every day. My comp on the other hand got it hard this week and he hates hospitals and doctors so he would not go not that really can do anything about it. Mosquitoes are just stupid. He is just sucking it up and dealing with it just like I had to.

As for trunkiness, I’m good. I want to come home but it's not like I’m dying to. I’m finishing strong no thanks to my comp. He is saying as hard as he can to make me more trunky, he things its funny. Super nice huh. As for my actually homecoming, I need a few things. Can you make me an eye appointment for when I get back. I know my eyes are worse for sure. Also, when you come to the airport can you bring me a big, cold bottle of Virgil’s root-beer? I have been totally craving it.

It was cool to see all the pics of Lydia heading to the MTC this week. It’s sad none of the sisters dress like she does here. They all are in bland colors and its sad. She is going to be awesome and I’m excited to get to visit her in the MTC. She totally stole my bag though. She must have seen the pics of the one I bought here and wanted one just like it. Lydia is another reason my letter is a bit short. She gets the big letter this week for support from her awesome brother. Don’t worry, I’m sending it via Dear Elder so she gets it sooner than her p-day on Friday since you said she is pretty homesick and struggling with Spanish. I almost ran out of letters that I could use on the sight with how long I made it. I got her covered so don’t stress.

We did get out a tiny bit early in the week and had something awesome happen. Elder Smith and I walked though the pouring rain to make it to an appointment we had (which wasn’t there when we got there) but before we made it to the appointment we felt the impression that we should pass by a sisters house that we are teaching. She had a fight that morning with her husband and she had been praying that God would give her a sign that everything was going to be alright. Then we showed up soaking wet just to say hello. The look in her eyes was awesome. She knew and we knew that it wasn't by chance that we passed by that day.

Like I said before, I'm super sorry for the lack of photos. I WILL have photos next week.

Love you all!

Toodles,

Alec

No Superbowl

Hello Everyone,

Well, I still have Chikungunya. The effects usually last a few weeks up to a few months but I’m hopping for quicker. The effects are not as bad even as last week so that is good. It mainly aches in my legs and every once in awhile I’ll get headaches, but other then that I’m good. I have had to rest some nights after being out all day so we get back to the house at like 7-8 because I am just hurting but it hasn’t really affected our work and it will not be permanent.

Sadly, in Colombia they don’t care about Football let alone the Superbowl so no one was excited Sunday like we were. They only like soccer, which is a sissy sport really. The guy gets pushed and he falls over like he snapped his leg in half then gets up and runs after they give the other guy a penalty. In football if you see a guy after a play on the ground its because he is dying. I miss the manly man mentality where if you can you walk it off and not let any one know that it happened. We did not watch so next year I’ll be psyched for our family bowl party.

We have been able to contact a lot of new people these last two weeks. I think it is the American smile effect that we are using. People just want to know why there are two gringos walking around in Colombia with white shirts and ties. Sadly a lot of people will listen to us once or twice and then just lose interest, it sucks. But we still have some great people we are teaching. There is a family we are teaching right now and they just agreed that they need to get married because they want to get baptized so we are gong to get everything worked out this week so that they can get married soon. It will be awesome. Sadly, I will not be here for their baptism. It is going to be on the 14th of March but my comp says he will send me photos.

The best part of this week was our area fast. Elder Smith and I really felt good about it, also it helped that we had a cold Dr Pepper after we ended the fast. We have already seen changes in people.

So Sunday was the last Fast Sunday / Same Tie Sunday for me. I can’t believe that next month I will be home and we are wearing ties for Lydia and her mission. Speaking of same tie Sunday, a lady in my ward tried to steal my tie. She tried to tell me that I should leave it for her so she could send it to her son in his mission. I told her no and explained what the tie meant. She said that was a stupid idea and that I should give her the tie any way. Yeah, thats not happening.

Well, that is all for this week, I also know I am a slacker and don’t have any photos, but next week I will have quite a few. We are going to go to the beach for a zone activity so that should be fun.

Love you guys like a midget loves stilts!

Toodles,

Alec