Great New Ideas

Bogota
Q'hubo familia,
It was another week jam packed with interviews to get to know all the missionaries and dinners with Stake Presidents to start a good relationship with them. President and Sister Hacking are very comfortable and everything is going great with them.

This week we had our first interviews outside of Bogotá in a city called Duitama. It is about a 4 hour drive so we headed there early Friday morning with Pres and Hna Hacking. Elder Corro and I hardly knew the way there but we got some maps off the internet and managed to get everyone there alive. We stayed the night and we got to work with the Zone Leaders. We had a dinner with the Stake Pres that night and headed back in the morning.

We also had a lunch welcoming the new missionaries that got here a few weeks ago. One of them is Elder Sorenson that you mentioned mom. Tell his mom that he is in the north part of Bogotá in kind of a separated part called Suba. He's a great new Elder. We also had a goodbye dinner with an Elder from Chile named Elder Madariaga who I lived with for about 4 months in Bucaramanga and was my Zone Leader and a great missionary.

I am learning a ton about how to get around Bogotá because we guide Pres Hacking to the airport and to the different areas etc. We have also been having frequent meetings with Pres Hacking to get figured out what we are going to do and how. Some things are going to change in the mission like the “no music rule”. We came up with the idea to make mission approved CDs with MoTab and church music to give to the missionaries to listen to in their apartments. I think music is something that really invites the spirit and will be a big plus for all of us. Also the “sports rule” is about to end :) While discussing what we could do, I suggested we could set apart one or two P days every month where the respective Zones could get together and play soccer or basketball etc. but for a limited time and not too competitive. President Hacking agreed completely and we decided to put restrictions on the time etc. so people aren’t getting hurt or forgetting their purpose as missionaries.

Pres. and Hermana Hacking really are awesome, they are great people and I can see they are getting used to the mission and doing great things for it. We are going to get a new Assistant to the President. Elder Corro only has 2 more transfers after this one before he goes home and Pres. Hacking has been saying that he will definitely finish in the field because it’s always a great experience to end your mission that way. So there is a very good chance that when this transfer ends (August 9th), Elder Corro will be going to the field and we will have our new A.P. Pres Hacking asked us both for some suggestions so he can make the decision. It looks like I will have a new comp in August.

Now as far as this week, I am way excited. Tonight we are heading out on a flight to spend the week in Bucaramanga. Pres and Sis Hacking have dinners with the 2 Stake Presidents there, interviews with the 2 Zones there and the Zone Conference. We will be in Bucaramanga until Thursday, when we will go to Cucuta and have the dinner, the interviews and Zone conference. Then we will fly back to Bucaramanga on Saturday because they asked President Hacking to speak in a Ward Conference there on Sunday. We fly back to Bogotá Sunday night.

That also means we are starting the second tour of Zone Conferences with the first two this week. We had a good planning session and decided we would talk about chapter 1 of PMG which is "my purpose as a missionary" to help with the focus on what we need to be doing and why we need to do it, and then talk about Christ-like attributes. The basic message is that our purpose as missionaries isn’t totally to bring more people to the church or encourage people to live happier lives. It is to allow them to open the door that leads to the Celestial Kingdom which is (faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure to the end) and then we will talk about why that is our purpose and why our focus is baptizing. It is not for numbers or recognition, but for love of the people and understanding that it is the best way you can help someone. We have come up with some good and fun activities as well, so I think it should be great.

Saturdays are Baptism days and this August we have a rare "five Saturday month" which means there are 5 chances to baptize rather than 4. I really think we can break the mission record for one month (174 baptisms), so we are really going to try to get the missionaries excited and motivated to help the people here. It looks like we are about to start even busier times and I am very excited about what we have coming up.

Also on Saturday, Angelica (the girl we taught in Bucaramanga whose mom wouldn’t let her join the church) was finally baptized. I also ran into a member of Tierra Linda who had presented us a reference when I was there named Elena. We taught and then baptized her. She is now the Relief Society Secretary and completely active. She has applied to go study at BYU. It really is the best feeling in the mission to see people you find and teach and pray to find happiness in the gospel and really see the miracles that can happen.

Well I love you all. I have noticed lately my grammar and spelling seem to be getting worse so sorry if my letters seem weird. Thanks for everything; you are always in my prayers. Love Elder B