October 12, 2009

October 12, 2009
Hooooola Familia,
Well it has been another very good week. We are working extra hard to have ideal mornings like we talked about in the Zone Conference and it has been very rewarding and has led to very good days. Things are going great with my comp and with the work. Elder Larsen (Texas) who is also from my mtc group, was called to be the new financial secretary and start his training. So he is now living with us in our apartment which makes things quite crowded again (he sleeps on a mattress between our beds) but it’s another buddy from our mtc group in the house and we are having a good time.

This week we had the last 2 zone conferences, somewhat of an adventure with them, some good days of work in the area, and some preparation for the big zone leader seminar. The zone conferences in Bucaramanga and Cucuta went well, we did the activities about goal setting and the “ideal morning” with the movie and everything and everyone seemed to like it and left excited to work. We did do the Bucaramanga Conference in Real de Minas in the chapel where I started the mission so that was cool.
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Back in Bogotá we had some good days of working in our area and we think we have found some really good investigators who are progressing. Saturday we had another baptism, it was a girl named Alejandra. Her mom was baptized in another ward a few months ago but now they live here and she wanted to join the church also. It was actually very easy, she just kind of showed up and said she wanted to be baptized, of course as missionaries are thrilled when people do that so we were glad to help :)

The last few days we have been doing everything to prepare for the big zone leader seminar this week. Every month we have what is called a zone leader council where all the ZLs gather in Bogotá and we have a meeting and a temple session. We decided it was time to change things up and do something bigger and cooler so we have prepared the first ever "zone leader seminar". All the ZLs and secretaries and us will travel to Bucaramanga, the promised land, and have a big all day meeting. It will go from 9 AM to 4 PM with a movie activity after, being divided in 3 sessions and with a lunch being brought in. We have assigned different missionaries to talk about special things outside what we always hear based on their talents or characteristics. One missionary who is really creative and tries all kinds of things will give a short presentation about creativity in missionary work, another will talk about enjoying your time as a missionary and another companionship will talk about unity outside of the lessons. President Hacking will also have various training sessions. Elder Gags and I will have about 3 hours worth of training stuff and activities divided up. We have planned the first session in the sacrament room with all the presentations of the zone leaders and then me, my comp and President doing a presentation about how to prepare and organize a meeting. (Because of the problems in organization with a few conferences and to prepare for future leadership in the church). Then we will eat lunch and do the second session in one of the big classrooms where we will talk all about teaching skills and do a bunch of filmed practices and situations with the different teaching skills. Then we will have another break and go back to the sacrament room for the third session which will be a little more spiritual, My comp and I will talk about the importance of service in our calling and as leaders and President will end with his last presentation. And then after that and another break time everyone will watch a nice movie. Not something from the church but a good clean movie like Remember the Titans or something to relax us a little and get excited to go get to work again. We are going to be very busy preparing everything but we have delegated a lot to the zone leaders of Bucaramanga to prepare. Anyway it should be awesome and it was my idea a while ago so I am excited to see how it turns out.
The time is passing incredibly fast, we are now half way through another transfer and the days continue flying. I have been working and trying extra hard to be a good example this last week or two and it really has been rewarding, although tiring, to put in more effort and feel the spirit that it brings.

If you remember Barranca, last week President sent the first American there (Elder Williams), so the times have changed... who knows what could happen with me haha I think that Barranca would be a fantastic challenge. The whole mission seems to know I have 4 transfers here as AP now, so people keep asking where Pres. is going to send me or who will be my replacement. Honestly we have been working so hard lately and I think I am just figuring out how to get the most done in this position and have big ideas for the mission BUT I also have tons of ideas and new things learned that I would love to put in practice as a proselyting missionary... so at the end of the day I will be happy with whatever happens.

But anyway thanks for everything, for your support and love and all the sacrifices you make to help me and others. When you are in the service of your neighbor you are only in the service of God. With the new challenge to read the book of Mormon again in our native language, my testimony of it has continued to grow, it really can explain what is happening in our world better than any daily newspaper can and every time I read I learn something new and see the application it has to my daily life. Hope everything keeps going well, the pics were awesome, and the kids are big! Till Next Week, Elder B