Dear everyone,

As I now find myself working a lot, I may skip the day to day droll and just talk about new people and people that show some progress. Also, just whatever fun stuff comes to mind. Sound good? Good. 

The ward has gotten better at trying to help out, which is great. Unfortunately, all the references we get are for little pueblos that are a few hours out, if you leave from Montería. The mission has been putting a lot of focus on the area plan, which keeps us busy reminding all the ward counsel members what their responsibilities are. Sigh... paperwork. We will be losing some of our best help as the Elder's quorom president will be moving to Montería this week.

We spent five hours on thursday contacting in the very hot heat. As stressful as contacting can be, it does bring some of the funnest experiences. We found a lot of people that didn't really want to talk to us, a few crazy people and even fewer people that actually really wanted to talk to us. Knocking on doors, we found one woman that told us that she had recieved the missionaries before, many times actually and that a singer had taught her all the lessons. Both me and my companion almost asked her if it had been a certain Elder Archuleta, but decided not to. Then there´s Cherys. Cherys is a Catholic woman who actually reads the bible and is extremely curious about other religions. She is my personal favorite kind of investigator, not because she is gold or anything, but she has tons of questions about different doctrines and is very open about the answers. We should be going back this week, I can only hope she progresses. People here have stickers on their door that say things like "here, We´re Catholic and we ain´t gonna change". I try to avoid doors like that, but it´s sometimes whole blocks. also, sincerity makes life a lot easier when tracting, because it´s frustrating when people just try to avoid you.

I had an exchange with Elder Peterson and we both enjoyed a day away from our respective companions, with english and sarcasm to boot. His area is extremely fascinated with white people, and two white guys doubles the fascination. We met some friends of members that just wanted to ask questions about the United States. We get lots of questions like "why does Trump hate Latinos?" and "why are people constantly killing each other?" Usually the explanations are wasted.

Manuel and Edison both have Baptismal dates, but the don´t make it to church, so we will see how that goes. Referrences are still really low despite our best efforts.

Did I mention it's hot? However the chemistry nut just goes wild with the effects of humidity coupled with extreme heat and greater air pressure. It´s almost more fun than watching bubbles form in soda.

The United States, despite losing the first game against colombia is in the Semifinals of the Copa America. Tuesday they play against Argentina, and despite not being a huge fan of soccer, I'm hoping it comes down to the United States and Colombia in the finals. But both my teams have got tough opponents, being Chile and Argentina. All this information comes from our buildings guard (a generous term for door-opener)

Anyway, Love you all! I´ll get you some more pictures next time.

Love,

Élder King