Best Week Ever

My birthday package got here last week. Thank you very much; we have enjoyed all the food. Haha I liked the Hawaii shirt and the ties also.
This has been another great week. We have all kinds of investigators and they just keep coming. This week we had over 11 investigators in sacrament meeting for the third straight time and we now have 10 people preparing for baptismal dates in the next 2 weeks and maybe 11.

I started the week going to do splits in Barranca. I didn’t get to Pinos where I was but I saw a few members from the other branches who remembered me and we worked well with the missionaries.

On Wednesday we had Zone conference here which went very well. We also did divisions with the missionaries from Kennedy. I stayed in our area with Elder Acosta from Peru and Elder Butler went to their area with Elder Vergara. It’s always cool to work with the newbies and get to know them and get them excited or feeling better. They were both a little down but we worked hard and when we met back up they were both more excited and we now have their confidence, so mission accomplished.

Things are going amazing in our area. The other day we were looking for a house and we took a wrong turn and just as we were turning around an SUV pulled over and called us over. It turned out to be a family whose daughter had been friends with President Camargos daughter and they recognized us as being from their church. They said they really liked the example etc. of the Camargos and would like to learn about the church. Serious Jackpot, they are married, well off financially and a very nice family. We went to teach them and they were very nice and receptive. The dad is from Mexico and the mom from here and they have a 19 year old daughter and a young housekeeper girl who lives with them.

Afterwards I found out President Camargos number and called them. It was cool to talk to him and sister Camargo and they sounded very excited to hear from me and asked how I was, how my mission was going etc. I told them about the family and gave them the number so that their daughter could call her old friend and congratulate her etc. They called immediately, turns out that the family is going to Bogotá for 2 days this week so the 2 girls are going to meet up and eat lunch and she is going to talk to her about the church etc.

This Sunday despite the election and raining, they all showed up in their car and it was a great Sunday. The ward had just got back from a temple trip and 4 families have been sealed, so Elder Butler and I each gave a talk and then the 4 couples gave their testimonies about their temple sealing and it was way spiritual. In total we had 11 investigators and apart from the Garcia family we also had another family of 4 (Gomez) who have been investigating for a long time. They both loved it and in gospel principles class we taught about eternal marriage to explain a little more and they all loved it and wanted to know how they could go to the temple and do the same thing. We had a very spiritual lesson with the Gomez family and challenged them to prepare themselves to be baptized on the third of July and they accepted. So we have 2 golden families and we will soon be inviting the Garcia family to be baptized also.

Literally baptisms are falling into our hands. This Saturday we will have 2. Basically we got to church and a member lady approached us and said "hey Elders we have been inactive for a little bit but now we are back coming to church, my daughter is 9 now so I need you to prepare her to be baptized" and basically the same thing has happened with 2 other families. I honestly don’t have time to tell about all the investigators we have but in a few words there are 2 baptisms this week and 8 more planned for next week. It was awesome because everyone was welcoming the new family at church and shaking their hands etc. and the same with our other investigators. The ward is really working great and we are working like crazy ourselves.

Elder Butler and I get along great. He is such a good worker and so humble. This week we will be doing more splits with the missionaries of the zone and getting our investigators ready. Please pray for them that they can keep progressing and not lose sight now. We are very close to doing amazing things here, it’s so rare to find two such great families and I really feel like the Lord is blessing us so much.

Although Colombia just missed making it to the World Cup it’s still a big deal here and everybody had their schedule or their sticker book. I actually bought the world cup sticker album too just to be down with what’s in. It’s got all the teams and you buy packs of stickers with players kind of like Pokemon or baseball cards and then try to collect all the players and stick them in your book. The book only costs $1 so I have it with a few stickers but all the little kids here go crazy about their sticker albums so it’s a good way to start conversation etc. The USA seems to have a decent soccer team now and if they win their next game they will go to the next round. We have little rivalries between the missionaries of whose country will do better although most of the Gringos don’t really know anything about it or our team.

Also the presidential Elections were yesterday so they made us be in our apartment at 4. Santos the conservative guy killed Mockus from the green party like 75 to 25 percent.

Well time is short but I’m loving it and trying to squeeze in everything possible in these last weeks. There are now less than 2 months left... Keep being of good cheer, I love ya, thanks for everything and talk to ya next week. Sorry if my letter is all over the place. Love Elder Barnard