San Gil is Great

September 14, 2009
Hola querida familia,
This week has been another good one. I spent the week away from Bogotá in Bucaramanga and San Gil. I can’t believe how fast the weeks are passing, it seems again like I wake up one day and its Thursday and the next morning its Monday again. Last Monday after we wrote, we flew up to Bucaramanga.

I got there and was going to go on splits with the zone leaders etc. but we found out that Elder Williams (who got his appendix taken out was going to have to spend over a week in bed. It's a good thing that he made it to Bucaramanga before it happened. He is in a little old town called San Gil that’s about 2 hours away from Bucaramanga. We spent the first day in the house with him etc. and then we decided that I could go back to San Gil with his comp (Elder Butron) until Friday at least so that we could help keep his area up.

Anyway, we took the winding bus ride to little old San Gil on Wednesday to spend some time working there. It has about 40,000 people and a little solitary branch. Actually they have been having lots of problems with the branch and some of its leaders doing things like asking converts for money etc. so President Hacking also went to do interviews. The town is shaped like a V... there is a river that crosses thru the middle and the rest is just hills going up from either side. You get tired pretty quick climbing the hills everywhere. It’s got the Spanish design with their type of buildings and only tiny little streets. It’s an amazingly cool place.

One crazy story from San Gil, they explained to me is about a strange family that lives up out of town on a farm. I guess they had tons of money but now they are completely poor. They have lost everything and just live alone up on their farm. One of the little girls has claimed to see spirits and stuff and the people seriously just look like the walking dead. They asked us to visit them and say a prayer or a blessing for the home. It was seriously crazy. We went to see them and they are all losing their teeth, they are completely pale even the little kids. They just slowly walk around like zombies. It is so sad. We shared a message with them, said a prayer and blessed the house and got out.. We had a good time working in San Gil, taught some good lessons and it was a great all around experience.

Also, the Jensen’s were traveling to Bogotá so they asked if we could go and teach at the little university where they volunteer teaching English. So we went with Elder Butron and followed their lesson plan and it went well. It was a little weird because the class only had 8 students and they were all college girls between 18 and 21. We told them about the church etc and practiced English and the missionaries should be visiting them this coming week.

Friday, yes September the 11th, I took a flight back to Bogotá. On the airport TV I saw the clips of some tributes and stuff they did in the States and also a clip of Obama talking and then a senator called him a liar. Ha I guess I am glad I don’t know anything that is going on there. It’s a little scary. The only thing you hear around here is that the US is thinking about putting military bases here and all the other South American countries are freaking out about it, especially Venezuela.

But anyway returning to the work here, everything is going great in our area. The Diaz Family (the ones Zari and I found by randomly knocking on one door that we felt good about) are progressing amazingly. We have been taking an awesome member family, the Barrios, to every lesson and they have become great friends and helped them a ton with everything. This week we taught the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity and they accepted them right them away, it was amazing. I was a little nervous because the mom (Lily) used to drink tons of coffee, but she completely agreed with it and has stopped drinking coffee. She also tells about how her family and coworkers have been trying to tell her bad things about the church and stuff like "are you sure you want to do this? this isn’t like you Lily" and she just tells them that she can feel that it’s right and she knows it’s what she and her children need. It really has been amazing how quickly they have gained testimonies and how strong they are. Yesterday they all came to church with their dresses on etc. and after they had their baptism interviews and all passed. They are way excited for their baptism this Saturday. A little girl from the ward is also getting baptized so we are planning it all together and it should be an awesome service. I am so excited and happy for them, you really do grow to love your investigators. The little girl (Bridget) asked that Brother Barrero baptize her, the older sister (Angie) asked that Elder Zari baptize her and the mom Lily asked for me to baptize her. Also the 26th we should have 3 more people who I will write about next time cuz I am out of time.

But all is going great; I am loving every minute of it. It’s weird to think that I have spent more time here than I have left so I am just trying to enjoy every second. Thanks for Everything; you’re all in my prayers. Hope all goes well with the Chemo for Ben, and Happy BDAY AMY!!!! The church is true, I love you, Bye. Elder Barnard