a moth

Mango Agria con sal y pimenton (sour mango with salt and whatever pimenton is

Dear everyone,

There were a few days that we got rained out and I'm a bit foggy on which day everything happened, so I guess I'll just give a synopsis and hope some highlights find their way into my memory.

We taught Leidy the law of Chastity. Unfortunately Jacob was not available for the majority of the lesson because he was off with friends. When he finally did come back, he was headed off to a "job interview" With his new soccer shoes and without a shirt. I figure if you are going to lie to the missionaries, at least make it believable to my companion. He irks me in so many ways. We hope that he can mature enough to make the correct decisions so that Leidy at least can make commitments and get baptized. We dropped by Nelson's house a ton this week, but there was always something so we couldn't meet with him. He is still reading and he showed up to a church activity for the young men/ysa's without us even inviting him. We didn't even find out about it until saturday night. He didn't find his way to church on Sunday unfortunately, we're not sure exactly why yet. Come to think of it, none of the investigaters showed up, however we did get Kaoris and Luis, two less actives that have not gone to church in a good while now. Kaoris is progressing more than luis, but we are beginning to find luis's needs, which is pretty cool. We also have days that we can visit each of them, so we will actually be able to find them now.

A family has asked us to prepare their son david for baptism as he turned eight last month, so we will be working with them as well. They are wonderful people, one of the few sealed families I have had the privilege of meeting here. The other missionaries had another baptism this week, so we spent most of saturday prepping for that. She was sick and almost didn't come to church for her confirmation.

A somewhat uneventful, rainy/really hot week, but the mission life always has it's fair share of surprises. Keeps me on my toes you could say.

Anyway, I love you all, I pray for you, have a great week!

Élder King

District meetings, Elder Petersen and Elder Vergara

Wet from Rain

Wet from sweat

A comic I thought dad would like.

All is Quiet in Cerete

Dear family and friends,

We began the week by spending Tuesday in Monterìa watching all of Saturday conference. I was able to watch it in English which was a great relief. It is always great to hear from our awesome Apostles.

Wednesday was somewhat complicated. Elder Hurtado had to do some Baptismal interviews because the District leader in Mocari, Elder Garrison, had to go to the clinic to get his blood drawn. So I went with Elder Garrison and spent most of the day there.

On Thursday, nobody was home. Like, nobody. It was really weird and we had no idea what to do. We walked around for a long time and sweated a lot. Then we ended up doing laundry, because we were out of clean clothes and had nothing else to do.

Friday

We visited Jacob and Leidy. We didn't really know what to say with the whole Jacob situation. But we talked with them for a while regardless. We then visited Nelson, inviting him to the multi stake conference. He has been reading a lot, I feel like he will get baptized if he keeps coming to church. Eogenio is still offended, it might be a while before he gets over it. It's a shame when people don't go to church because of something someone said in a moment of anger. We also dropped by Freddy's and he is actually pretty animated about the church right now. He hasn't drunk beer in a month and he is working on his smoking habits, so hopefully he will get baptized this transfer. Lesyanis wasn't home again. We went to the church to practice to participate in a ward choir. Which consisted of seven people, four of them being us missionaries.

Saturday

Lunch went really late because the sisters of the ward are really chatty. We dropped by the Acosta's house and only the young daughter was there, so we tried lesyanis again. Again, nothing. We went to help with a youth activity and practice the choir again.

Sunday

We had the multi stake conference which consisted of all the stakes in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Dallin H. Oaks and Robert D. Hales both spoke, which was super awesome, I didn't expect so much apostle in one month. Dallin H. Oaks gave his best attempt at Spanish, which was kind of funny to be honest. The Seventy leading the meeting also spoke really heavily accented spanish. I guess it's harder to learn a new language once you are older. Nelson and Lesyanis both came, which is awesome because they are the two investigaters closest to baptism. We had to go to Mocari for a bit, then we came back and the Assistants called to tell us about transfers. We had fun for about an hour before that, convincing Elder Vergara that they had already called and that he was getting transferred to sincelejo as a follow-up trainer. My comp kept it going until he started calling people in the ward and saying goodbye. No one actually got Transferred, so it is going to be six more weeks here with Elder Hurtado. Pretty fun, but I am going to have to break Elder Vergara's recorder (those really annoying flute/carnival prize things). He only plays hard rock songs, which just makes it worse.

So yeah, that's everything I can remember. Mother's day is around the corner, next week I'll have seven months away from home.

Love you all!

Èlder King

It Never Rains but it Pours

On Tuesday we found ourselves catching up from the week before and visiting everyone who was home. We talked to Leydi and learned that Jacob will be coming back from Bogota. We still haven't seen him but I'm not very happy about his recent choices, so if we do end up talking to him again, it will probably be a call to repentance. We talked to Lesyanis who still has some reservations about being baptized. We aren't exactly sure what her problem is, but  it may just be she doesn't want to get baptized. Which would be sad, as well as frustrating. We had a family home evening with Carmen Causil and she is making great progress. She has been talking to the sister missionary who converted her through facebook and is studying the Book of Mormon in depth. We visited Kaoris for the first time as well. She is a less active 19 year old who basically doesn't go because she is lazy. We visited Dreysi again. She was being really vague about some new problem that had come up, but eventually told us she is pregnant. Which I had already figured out, but I'll just pat myself on the back and move on. She is working on getting married to her boyfriend who is in the army right now and won't be back for another three months or so.

Wednesday

We woke up early to go to Monterìa in the morning for our interviews with President. The training went overtime as usual, so the interviews were cut kind of short, but still aslways fun to have some one on one time with President Calderòn. We got home and Sister Calderòn had filled our fridge with fruits. Which would be great if it consisted of less papaya. And if Èlder Vergara hadn't drunk all the yogurt by the next morning. That was kind of sad as well. You know how I like yogurt, but it seems the other elder likes it more. Anyway, nice of the Hermana to try and help us eat healthy, it would be nice if we could afford to buy our own fruit. Looks like it's just cheerios from here on out.

Thursday

We visited all the rest of our investigaters and less actives in one day and we exhausted ourselves in the process. First, the Espitia family who seem to think the missionaries need to come over and explain every doctrine in depth, which normally wouldn't bother me, but they live far away and we have a lot of people to visit. We then went to visit Eogenio, who is sick and has a mild form of asthma restricting him somewhat. We aren't sure if that is the only thing keeping him from coming to church, but it is his given reason. He asked for a blessing, so he isn't that far gone. We visited Nelson, currently our most promising investigater, and taught him about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. He's pretty gold, we just need a few more lessons, a bit more commitment and hopefully he will feel that baptism is the right thing for him. We then visited Lesyanis again. I think she wants us to help her friend/boyfriend Freddy out, because she is always asking us if we have visited him. I hope it's something so simple.

Friday

We didn't have anyone to visit after Kaoris so we walked around in the heat for a while before just retiring back to the house. We did go and visit Carmen Causil, but we didn't really teach a lesson.

Saturday

somewhat similar to friday, Dreysi cancelled because she had a doctor's appointment and we found ourselves running errands and completing some paperwork for Elder Hurtado.

Sunday

At church, our turnout was somewhat disappointing and the meetings were kind of weird. A new less active appeared and Freddy came without Lesyanis. His life and values make acceptance of church lifestyle somewhat difficult for him. After church, it rained for the first time since I got here. And the streets flooded in about thirty seconds, continuing in that condition until the rained stopped and then some. 

on a side note, it has also been raining mangos, in some cases quite literally. Everyone is giving away mangos, by the dozen. It honestly feels like zucchini season. We have something like twenty four mangos currently in our fridge. And none of us like mango very much. So we are trying to figure out who we can give it to.

Anyway, Love you all

Èlder King

Conference Week

Dear family and friends,

I've got interestings stories from this week, but the consist completely of tuesday and wednesday`s activities. Just promise me you won't worry too much about the missionaries, when we are obedient, the Lord protects us.

So, on Tuesday we went to visit Leidy, try and cheer her up a bit, but she wasn't there. Instead, we found a large croud of people anxiously watching a drug dealer bust. We did what we could to keep away from the commotion and talked to a less active sister about what was going on. We went and tried to visit Lesyanis again, but it seems she hadn't gotten back from Medellin.

On Wednesday, Colombia played against Ecuador, so we couldn't leave the house until about five. We then went and taught Nelson Avila, invited him to conference and we are working with him so he can be baptized. He says he has his answer, so we are just making sure he knows what he is getting into. We then went and visited a recent convert/less active.  We were pretty far out, so we had to cut the visit short, especially since Colombia also played against the US that night, and I'm easily picked out as a "gringo."  

p.s. congrats to Preston for the temple in Quito, but a 3-1 game is kind of shameful... My companion is from quito so we were pretty excited about that new temple.

So, we weren't allowed to leave the house from Thursday until Sunday, so we missed a lot of proselyting time and all of Saturday conference. Kind of lame, but even more annoying is we ran out of minutes on the cell phone, so we had no contact with the members or investigaters unless they called us. It just makes it all the more miraculous that Nelson came to conference on Sunday and was very impressed with the messages. He says he has never heard a church that preaches so much peace. He is pretty much gold so far.

 

We weren't able to watch conference in English, so I got a huge headache translating hours of profound spanish, and that put me to sleep for a good portion of the afternoon session. I'll be watching the rest of the sessions today. If you have them, this week or next, I'd love to hear your favorite talks. Why they were your favorite, favorite quotes even, everything is appreciated. 

Love you all, don't worry, be happy and all that jazz,

Elder King

                                        My old zl's Elder Crandall, Elder Sanders, and me, celebrating my B-day

Elder Kind and Elder Hurtado

Holy Week

Dear family and friends,

This week was somewhat crazy, being a week off for colombia. On Tuesday, we had a zone meeting and weren't able to get back to our area until pretty late, but we went and visited the Espitia family and learned that many of our investigaters are currently on vacation. Wednesday we talked to Jacob and learned he doesn't want to get married to his pregnant girlfriend and honestly doesn't really know what he wants. He is completely afraid of responsibility and we learned later in the week that he ran of to Bogota with about 500,000 pesos he stole from his mom. We aren't too happy with him, but we are trying to help his family as best we can at the moment. Thursday was a soccer Game day, so we couldn't leave the house for most of the day. Friday was exchanges with Elder Vergara. We went and got some records filled out for the baptism they had this Saturday. On Saturday, we went to talk to Leydi and Jacob's Mom and afterwards we had the baptism. Sunday, We had a good number of less actives show up and a few new investigaters, so next week should be promising, without all the festivals and with new opportunities to teach.

This next week we will have interviews with President as well as possible exchanges with the Zone Leaders.

Love you all,

Elder King

Cripples Don't Like Me

Dear family and friends,

On  Tuesday,

we visited Jacob and Leydi and taught them the plan of salvation. We then visited Nelson and taught him the same, invited him to be baptized and he accepted. He has been reading and show real interest, so I'm hoping he will be one to progress. We went and chatted with Fernando Espitia and his wife, a less active that we are trying to get to the temple. They are really spiritual, but also really old, so they have a hard time getting to church.

Wednesday

Our lessons with Lesyanis and Freddy fell through, then we had ward council and a meeting with the Ward mission leader

Thursday

We visited Carmen Causil, a less active that came to church last week. We taught her the gospel of Christ, which turned out to be a pretty inspired lesson to figure out what she needs. Then, we had  a lesson with Lesyanis. She says she isn't ready to be baptized yet, but that she will be ready next month. I'm not too worried about it because she is genuine aobut it and she keeps coming to church and reading, so she'll get there.

Friday

Another lesson with Jacob and Leydi. It was really hot. Jacob's younger brother is investigating now. We had another lesson with the espitia family. The title comes from stuff that happened this day. A dog went kind of crazy and was barking at us. The same dog had done it before, but the gate was open this time so it came out and startled us a bit. It only has three legs, so I wasn't super worried about it. On the way back from the Espitia's house, we walked past a guy with a limp and a cane. He looked at me as we passed and I could tell he was crazy and I thought he was trying to ask for money. But about five seconds later, he starts yelling and waving his cane around. Seems he doesn't like white people. He was crazy, but it was super scary and he kept following us, but he can't move very fast, so we hid in a members house as he walked past, still yelling somewhat rude things.

Saturday

We visited Jacob and Lady again and basically just went around inviting everyone to church.

Sunday

Lesyanis came and brought Freddy, and a less active family also came. But church was kind of a let down.

That's basically the week. It was pretty good, and we still have high hopes for conversion

Love you all,

Élder King

The food here is a lot better. I don't know why, but it is

The Coast

Dear family and friends,

it´s hot.

Tuesday

Travel day from Manizales to Medellin. Basically a free day, but I spent a lot of time just catching up with other missionaries.

Wednesday

Ten hour bus ride from Medellin to Montería. Lot´s of Spanish movies played on the bus. I actually understood them, which shows some progress in Spanish I guess. There is basically no escape on  a bus, so we just tried to ignore the movies. We arrived in Montería around six O´clock and then it was about an hour to my area in Cerete

Thursday

We started off with a great day, Élder Hurtado and I. We taught lessons to Lesyanis, our investigater that is on schedule to be baptized this next Saturday, Jacob and his soon-to-be wife Leidy, the second counseler to the bishop and his wife, Dreysi, and a less active lady with her kids. Pretty full day and I was purt´near tuckered out there at the end of the day.

Friday

We had a zone meeting in the morning and didn´t get back to our area until about four, but that didn´t break our stride too much. We visited dreysi again. She is less active and was in a bike accident last year, so she is slightly incapacitated. She can´t walk very well and she has lots of pain meds she takes, so she doesn´t make it to church very well. we'll see how she progresses. The second counseler hasn't been to church in two weeks, so we are visiting him and his family. As far as I understand, there is some social problem with the bishop or other members of the ward that makes him not want to go to church anymore. But we are working with him and his wife and they are helping us find new people. We already have a family of less actives and a family of investigaters from them, as well as an opportunity to teach their nonmember daughter.

Saturday

We had a lesson with Lesyanis and now she has all the lessons and seemingly no problems with the commandments. We had another lesson with Jacob and Leidy. Jacob is a really less active member, mostly because his family is. His Girlfriend and him are going to get married soon and she has a baptismal date right after she gets married, so we´re doing pretty well there. We visited some less actives, an old investigater for a second, people gave us food.

Sunday

So, I gave a talk in sacrament. The missionary that was here before was supposed to do it and then got transferred and dropped that on me. But good news is pretty much everyone we worked with showed up to church! It feels like a miracle. We are projecting five or six baptisms this transfer.

So yeah, it´s hot, but I decided not to complain about it and that has made it easier to bear. I´m enjoying a companion who wants to work and I expect great things.

Love you all,

Sweaty Élder King

oh yeah, I got Katelyn´s christmas package, and Grandma´s birthday package and a few letters