Alec's Mission to Colombia: 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.