Sore But Not Sorry

 Montgomery

Dear Friends and family

We found a pretty promising investigator this week. His name is Andres and he is a friend of Miladys (a member who is prepping to serve a mission). He already has the first two lessons and he reads and understands really well. He also is the only investigator that came to church, but that's more kudos to him than bashing the others. Edison had to go to the doctor's on sunday morning, so we had to move his baptism date for the 20th of August. That's most likely my last week here in Cereté, so let's hope we can get these people converted! Oh, Andres also accepted the 20th as the date of his baptism. I'm the official chef of our zone (please, please, no applause necessary). Basically means I get to make breakfast for everone when we have zone meetings. So, like, two times or something like that. I'm thinking French Toast. Me and my companion are getting along a bit better. Still a ways to go until we are perfect, but I guess that's quite literally life. Doctrinally speaking that is. Julia gave us short notice lunch on Saturday, so we finally got in to talk to her and her daughter (both less actives that we found two weeks ago). They like us, so hopefully they'll start making steps towards active membership. Silvana, another less active, is also making progress. However, there is something keeping her from coming to church, so we still need to figure out what that is.

So, spiritual thought. The Lord definitely doesn't enjoy our suffering, nor is he the source of it. But he does allow it to happen so that we can grow and make ourselves better. At times we need a test or two, whether it be to strengthen our faith or to test our endurance. Just know that 2 Nefi 2:24 is the truth. In the verse that follows we find our purpose in this life as well. To have JOY!

Looks as though you all are having a lot of fun on Pioneer day. That's one down, one to go! Hard to believe it's been ten months already.

Love you all,

Élder King

p.s. I am sore, but never sorry. If anyone asks, tell them I'm working! :)

Dear family and friends,

This week went very slowly, despite having a lot of errands to run for the transfers. tuesday we had Elder Peterson in our area in a trio. Most of our plans fell through, but we did get to visit Milena, a less active we found last week. Wednesday we went and picked up Elder Ku after spending a bit of time in Elder Peterson's area. Elder Ku is from peru, but he looks like a tan chinese guy. He is kinda weird, but then again I still don't know him very well. THursday we walked a lot, talked to a crazy lady and almost got into a bible bash. Which, I will admit, I enjoy, but it's not something we should do as missionaries. I thought about camping a lot on thursday, not sure why. We found a possible new investigator, Kenya, visiting Draisy. She is interested, but she has almost no time. Edison finally came to church, which is wonderful because if he hadn't we would have had to set a different date for his baptism. It still isn't completely sure, but with prayer and some effort, he should get baptized on the sixth of August. We had an activity for Vanessa Gonzales, a member that will be leaving for a mission in Ecuador in the first week of august, and it made me think of my companions from the mtc that are serving in that mission.

Distances become further if you carry unnecessary baggage. That's my fortune cookie statement for the week. Do what you will with it.

I'm praying for ya'll, love

Élder King

The Bright Side

Dear Everyone,

No transfers for me. Six more weeks of Cereté!

Seeing as it rained this last Sunday, few people came to church. A shame really as I gave a great talk about true conversion. Leaning over for 15 minutes can be tiring. We met some interesting new less active members, namely Martha, one of the very first members in Cereté. Her husband is not a member, so we will see if we can do what no other missionary has been able to do. Julia as well, very interesting case. She has been less active for 15 years or so but she is very excited to get talking to the missionaries. Apparently nobody has done much work to rescue her. 

As for our investigaters, Edison still hasn't come to church, neither has Leidy. Alejandra is moving slow because she is unnecessarily embarrassed to talk to us. Marjudis, John's girlfriend, has been coming to church and is progressing quite nicely. They both have a lot of faith and are willing to make sacrifices to come to church, something I haven't seen yet in Colombia. It is strange to think that I am working with two separate couples that are all my age to get them to be married. People living together just seem like they should be older than me.

We had a zone activity to say goodbye to the missionaries that are leaving, so we wasted some time this morning. For Cereté, only Elder V is leaving, and it's about time. He has gotten kind of lazy and disrespectful since he learned to speak English.

Love,

Élder King

PS:  Thanks Guy and Sandra for the conference package!

Dear everyone,

Alejandra is back, and vacations are over, bringing good news and bad news. Most likely, people will be easier to find. But the school across the street will start it's daily ritual of making lots of noise at six and during study time.

Daniel seems to be avoiding us, seeing as we stopped by his house every day this week, and he wasn't there. Or the one time he was, the power went out and he was working in the store his family runs on their porch. Jacob and Leidy are working on a marriage date and I hope that this time they are finally sincere. Neris has all the lessons now, meaning the only obstacle is Rafael, who for whatever reason really doesn't want to get married, despite living together for five years now. Sherys and Edison couldn't visit with us this week. John Dairon and Marjudis, his girlfriend, were able to make it to church this week. Alejandra surprised us by coming with her younger sister. But those are nice surprises.

Next week we have transfers, and I'm also speaking in church. Both always fun experiences. We saw someone get robbed right in front of us yesterday, kind of freaky. But don't worry, the only kind of robbery people do here is kind of hit and run style, nobody has weapons. Two men don't have anything to worry about, except maybe each other.

Anyway, Love you all, probably forgot something, but yeah

Élder King