Fresh Starts

Dear Family and Friends,

Once again, an entire week of laziness and heat. But it's over now, and after achieving the successful baptism of Duvan, Elder Hurtado went the way of all the earth. There isn't much to say about this week, but my ramen food storage got used up, so I guess I'll have to start that up again. My new companion should be here pretty early tomorrow, so we ought to be able to get right to work from square 1. My new companion's name is Elder Fernandez and from what I have heard, he is a Bolivian that may or may not care abut mission rules. But rumors are rumors and I'll just have to find out for myself. Good news is Nelson and Duvan should get the priesthood this next week if all goes well and we are going to start working with Cristian. I'm hoping to find the old investigaters that we were working with and maybe find some new people that live closer. To the Lord's principles, that is...

Fun Food Facts: at approximately 1:00 every normal day, food vendors plant themselves on the corner by our house to cash in on the school across the street's lunch break. And, among the delicacies is fried and buttered cheese! Terribly unhealthy, but very cheap and quite delicious. Not recommended if you don't like cheese.

I'm currently with Élder Centeno, the zone leader, awaiting our new companions. I didn't know I would be with him, so I don't have pictures or anything really, so all the fun stuff is going to have to wait. Sorry about that.

I think that's everything! Have a great week everyone, keep on praying!

Love,

Élder King

Trunky

Dear everyone,

This week, we have been working to ensure the total conversion of Duvan. He is still on track to be baptized this coming saturday and this week we will be doing what we can to get his step-father to agree to get married to the mother of these wonderful boys. It has been extra hot this week and my Companion has lost, to some degree, his motivation to keep working. This will be our last week together and his last week in the mission, and as such he finds it difficult to work in the heat of the day. However, I have hope that this next week will yield results, and even if not, fresh start with transfers next week! Eogenio seems to have stopped in his progress and that is worrisome. We haven't seen Lesyanis in a while.

Anyway, not much went on this week, not sure what next week will look like. The floor is really hard here. I don't think they use carpet at all in colombia. Flooring varies from dirt to tile, with differing levels of cement in between. Also, the best method to describe the heat that I have found is this: breathe on the back of your hand. Then, imagine that feeling on your entire body. This will be especially effective if you have not yet brushed your teeth today, as the air can be particularly smelly.

That's all for now, feel free to ask questions.

Love,

Élder King

Busily Unproductive

Okay, I honestly don't remember if unproductive is a word or not. Maybe inproductive? Anyway, Hi Everyone!

So, this week consisted of lots of meetings, travel and sweat. Let's get started with the rundown:

Tuesday

We had a Zone conference that lasted the whole day, so we passed the time in Montería, doing lots of practices and listening to the current focus of the mission. We have completely changed the way we record our progress with investigators or less actives and it's going to be a tough change.

Wednesday

My companion had to go to Montería for some visa stuff, so he took Elder Vergara and they went off the whole day and left Elder Peterson and I to manage both our areas. We had a lesson with Duvan and with a family of investigaters in the other area. We had a meeting with the ward mission leader but ward council was moved to Sunday

Thursday

We spent the day fixing up our white board, which consisted of scrubbing off permanent marker with hand sanitizer and a lot of elbow grease. Then meticulously drawing new lines and grids for the new format. It took almost all day, and we onlly had time to talk with Rafael, whose son david is set to be baptized this Saturday

Friday

We had a training meeting that lasted all day with President. We had to get up super early to get there on time and spending the whole day there learning, we retired late, completely exhausted.

Saturday

We visited the Espitia family. Sister carmen started crying because she thinks that soon she won't be able to walk. We are about 100% sure she is exaggerating, because we see her walking to the town center and back, as well as doing tons of errands around her house. I am not quite sure what the problem is, but she doesn't seem to motivated to go to church, and making plans to go to the temple is "unthinkable." I guess it just frustrates me that she doesn't want blessings in her life. Everyone else we attempted to visit weren't home.

Sunday

Duvan came to church, putting him on track to be baptized on the 28th. Pretty exciting for us! His brother will have to wait a bit more because he hasn't been able to come to church. Also, sister Radel came with her son and had an interview with the bishop, so she is on the path back to reactivation. Her husband is coming along as well, but he needs to have some interviews on the stake level since we are not sure if he is still the first counselor or not.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but my camera is out of charge and I seem to have misplaced the charger... I'm going to find a new chord today, so I'l have some more for you next week.

As far as some thoughts I have had recently, I have been thinking a lot about what makes people tick. Specifically that motivation ultimately has to come from within. A person can understand everything they must do to obtain whatever blessing they wish for, but still not comply for lack of motivation. Self motivation is what turns belief into faith, knowledge into wisdom, and sinners into saints.

Fun fact: open fans can also work as nail files when used properly

Love you all,

Élder King

Dear everyone,

A somewhat uneventful week as far as missionary work is concerned.

Tuesday

We went to see Nelson and his family. It was a great lesson, Nelson is studying the Book of Mormon in depth and he has already finished first Nephi. He had a bunch of questions about Isaiah chapters, which got interesting, but my companion had to do most of the answering. Isaiah and Spanish don't go well together. But his mom and brother both want to be baptized. His mom may be difficult to baptize because her companion doesn't really want to get married for whatever reason. We still have yet to talk to him. Duvan has a date for the 28th of this month. Duvan is 15 and seems just as interested as his brother. We really found a wonderful family.

Wednesday

I honestly can´t remember what went on. We need to find new people to teach. That's the moral of this week, because we visit everyone in a day or two then we don't have anyone to visit for a while. We will work on that this next week.

Thursday

We taught the Espitia family a lesson, spent some time talking about their dog and chickens. Again. We found Kaoris selling patacones on a street corner with her mom (at least I think it's her mom) and talked with her for a while. Not a lesson, just a long chat. Then we dropped by Wendy, but we caught her as she was leaving, so we just ahad a little chat with her as well.

Friday

we went with a member to visit Nelson and his family, but he was the only one who was there, so we had a lesson with him. We discussed the priesthood, mentioned the mission a bit.

Saturday

We had an appointment with fredy at the chapel, but our phone was freaking out, so we couldn't call anybody and just waited there to see if he would come. I guess he forgot or something like that. We did have a lesson with Eogenio and his wife, and it seems there problems have been a lot deeper than some offenses that have gone on. They feel neglected by the ward council, as they haven't gone to church in two months. He is the first council to the bishop, and as he is in the process of coming back to church, He is wondering where the support from the bishop and stake were for those two months. But we are doing what we can to work all this out. We really love this family and it has been sad to see them facing challenges like this.

Sunday

We had a wonderful stake conference, Nelson's two brothers came with us and on the bus ride back, the younger brother, Cristian, also accepted a date for baptism, the same 28th as Duvan. If we teach this family well, It is very possible that the three brothers will go on to serve missions. It may just be a dream that Elder Hurtado and I have, but the Spirit will guide the honest in heart to the correct path and help them stay there, so our job always is to invite the spirit.

It was great talking with you family, especially you mom!

This week we will get a visit from our wonderful President and that always excites me.

Love you all,

Élder King

Surprise

1st Baptism of the mission!  Elder King, Nelson, Elder Hurtado

Dear friends and family,

Super crazy, probably undeserved miracles went down this week, so I'm just going to dive right in.

Tuesday

We were all ready to help Freddy move, but he never called, so we missed that opportunity. So sad, I was beginning to feel like I was in an Elders Quorum back home haha. We dropped by Nelson's but he wasn't home so, we went and visited the Espitia family. We are trying to build some faith in Sister Carmen, because she really doesn't get the whole concept of "blessed for obedience" thing. She is very worried about her health because she has bad knees and apparently the cold (that is like, 60 degrees here) damages her knees and she can't walk. We dropped by Eogenio's place and Talked to Wendy, the oldest daughter who is kind of investigating. Fun fact, Eogenio means Genie. Go figure.

Wednesday

We went to teach Nelson the last couple of lessons and give him a new date for baptism. About halfway through the lesson he tells us he will be gone almost the entire Month of May, making it basically impossible to baptize him until about Mid June. But as we got talking, he told us he feels super ready and he wants to get baptized before he goes. I basically went through my entire range of emotions in that lesson as we told him we would do whatever we could to make it possible for him to be baptized. We made the long walk back to ward council, where the High Council was giving some training, making it somewhat difficult to explain in detail the needs of our investigaters. The meeting went really long and eventually we had to leave early to be home on time.

Thursday

Companion exchanges with Elder Vergara. Unfortunate, as the day was pretty much a bust. Nobody was home, which is surprising here in the coast. But we did get to our appointment with Nelson, where he had his interview for baptism and everything checked out. He has tremendous faith and it's really amazing how this all played out. Me and Elder Vergara went to an appointment with the Torro family, but they weren't there either, so we had some Arepas rellenas, arguably the best form of arepa. I'll look you up a picture to give you an idea of what it is.

Friday

We spent friday scrambling to get stuff ready for Nelson's Baptism, calling members left and right, working on getting the agenda ready, calling more people. We had an appointment with Wendy, but she wasn't there, so we just invited everyone else in the house to the baptism.

Saturday

More preparations for the big day, a few commitments fell through, the brother that was going to baptize him had some family matters, so I got to do it. We had the baptism and it was a wonderful experience. The spirit was very strong and I really can't describe how great it is to dunk people without them getting angry at you haha. But in all seriousness, probably the best experience here in the mission. First Baptism!!

Sunday

In church we had the confirmation, most of Nelson's family made it, which was wonderful. Eogenio's wife, Radel also accompanied her children to church. We haven't seen her in church for a while, so it's good to have her coming again. It was through her that we found Nelson and his family, so I'm really glad that she decided to come. I just hope that her Husband starts coming again

So, to recap, Really awesome week, next week will be better hopefully. We have stake conference next week and as far as the mothers day call, I'm planning on calling in the afternoon. I'm still working on all the details on my side, but be ready by 2:00, that'll be the earliest i'll be calling. It shouldn't be much later than 3

The lord blesses righteousness, even if it's just a little.

Love you all,

Élder King

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