Another Awesome Week

A group of Elders in front of the Bogota Temple. Will is in the back.

June 8, 2009
Hola Querido family,

Ok so I think I finally have some time to write a little. First off, congrats. to the Heavens on the move! and Happy Bday to Angie. It sounds like it was a great birthday and I am praying that nothing happens with the crazy weather and tornadoes there!! Umm if I forgot anything else sorry but it’s been another hectic week but I'm settling in and the spirit of the work and the strength I have received have been amazing.

Last Monday I opened the package. Maybe it was for a reason that this package was the first one yet to arrive early, but after a long pday that wasn’t really pday and getting to the apartment very stressed, I got to open my package, read what the family had said and enjoy some American candy and salt and vinegar chips. I’m pretty sure it was the Lord helping me out that it got here when it did.

Tuesday morning we got up early and Elder Corro went to Bucaramanga and I went to Cucuta. Bogota has 2 airports, one for international flights and one for national flights. We went to the smaller one (national) and took our separate flights. It wasn’t a big Jumbo Jet but it wasn’t some dinky little plane. It is a big airline here called Avianca and it’s all approved by the church so no worries. The flight was very short and I left the chill of Bogotá and felt like I entered inferno haha (hell) Cucuta was ridiculously hot, much hotter than Bucaramanga. I think it got to 40 degrees which is over 110 F.

I worked the first day with the Zone Leaders and then the second day with a companionship that were having problems with arguing. We try to help them out. We worked very, very hard and talked with President Camargo. One of the best ways to help missionaries with troubles, is to show them that working hard serving the Lord, feels good and brings more happiness than almost anything else you can do. This has been a great lesson for me also because when I get to the interchanges I have to do my best to be a really good example, which is hard for someone who is imperfect, but I did the best I could and I think they are doing better now.

The next day was the Zone Conference. (A note about the money, we got there and the Zone Leaders who were in charge of having food for the break told me they had spent all their money and had none. So I lent them our card to buy McDonalds for everyone. Of course the mission pays it back.) As far as the conference, we had based almost the whole presentation on a PowerPoint, which President Camargo couldn’t bring with him from Bucaramanga, so I got to do a Zone conference without my companion and without the presentation. But it actually went great and I was able to do more on the spot talking and get the missionaries involved rather than reading from PowerPoint and the President liked it. He said that for the next one we shouldn’t even use it. After that I flew back home with Pres. Camargo. It was awesome because we contacted some people, including a taxi driver, who will be visited by the missionaries soon and were absolutely waiting for the gospel.

We got back late Thurs. night and prepared a Zone Leaders Council for the next day. This is when all the Zone Leaders come to Bogota and the Assistants and President give trainings on how we can be better leaders and help the mission. We put something together as fast as we could and talked about practicing what we preach and being examples. It went very well but was a little intimidating to be "training" Zone Leaders who have more experience than me.

The rest of the week we got to work in our area and today for Pday we went to Monserrate. It it a ferry that takes you up to a giant mountain that overlooks all of Bogotá. It was amazing and you could see everything and I got lots of great pics that I will try to send when I get a chance.

I have had some amazing spiritual experiences in the last few weeks also. Four of the investigators that we found in my last area that I had invited to be baptized and set baptismal dates for, have been baptized along with 2 more baptisms here in our area. One of them was the week before last. A 23 year old girl named Elena who was a reference from a member. I taught her the first lesson. We had worked so hard because she felt like the church was true, but she said she hadn’t received her answer, so we did everything we could think of to help her receive and recognize her answer from the Holy Ghost. The first time the Elders there went to teach her she said, "I got it, I got my answer, I need to be baptized this week." She then asked them if I would be able to come baptize her because she said I had helped so much for her to reach that point. We were able to go last Saturday to my old ward and see 3 of the baptisms of my investigators and I baptized her. It was such a blessing and a great feeling to see them there and that they had followed through and received their testimony. Elena wrote a little card and said thanks for all your help with a little box of chocolates from where she works. Julian, a teenager we taught who was also getting baptized, ran up and gave me a hug when we got there and said he missed me. It was such a blessing to see and it is seeing things like that that makes the mission so great and brings so much joy.

Some other news, at the Zone Leader Conf. I got to see Elder Larsen, from my MTC group, for the first time. He just got put in as ZL, and afterwards we all went to the temple so I got to talk to him for a while. The temple was amazing.

Things are going great with my comp. Elder Corro. He has a great sense of humor and is very upbeat. We really have great unity and we work very well together. He is an awesome singer and very smart. He speaks English really well so usually, as we are walking or planning, he speaks English to practice and I help him with any problems and I, of course, speak Spanish so he helps me. haha Sometimes we get weird looks on the bus or in the street when people see a dark Chilean talking to me in English and me responding in Spanish.

Questions. Every morning we walk to the office and sometimes we go to the mission home to do exercises. They are very close. The mission office is on the 10th floor of a large building and in the office there are 4 comps. who work there. There is Pres. Camargo’s office and a seminar room. We usually don’t eat with members but sometimes they give us dinner. This is an interesting barrio because all the people from the U.S. Embassy work in this area so the ward is half gringos and we have had dinner with a few. Well, I'm out of time - love you all so much - the church is true. Elder B.