Colombia Bogota North Mission

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Cucuta Week 26

Ok so I haven´t really thought about what I´m gonna write yet so we´ll see what comes out. Thanksgiving! Happy thanksgiving to everything even though no one cares anymore because it´s December and that means christmas! woohoo! The church has a really big christmas thing going on "He is the Gift" or "Él es la Dádiva" but no one here knows what dádiva means so we have to explain it everytime we talk to people about it. Just a minor detail, still a super cool initiative. But yeah my thanksgiving was awesome. It was a  completely normal day because no one here celebrates it but my normal days are awesome so it was awesome. My "Thanksgiving Dinner" was pasta and fried platano (a type of banana but it´s not a banana it´s a platano). But pasta here isn´t like american pasta, it´s noodles with salty hamburger meat, and water. Don't worry the water is warm though. The day before, our mom made us super bomb beans and so I think she was a little worn out on cooking because it was one of our simplest lunches. So I just had a normal day, I didn't even buy a pony malta (but on saturday I bought one and drank the whole liter in one sitting). So I guess you could say I celebrated thanksgiving on saturday. 

um....as for investigators we had a really good start of the week. We have been focusing on Viviana (baptism date for this saturday). At the start of the week we watched the 19 min video on the restoration and she was like "now I understand why you guys have talked so much about "the true church" and she said she´s received her answer that the church is true. She is so awesome. She also talked about how different her life would have been if she had grown up in the church and tons of other cool stuff. She´s been trying to quit smoking and has been going almost weeks at a time without smoking and hasn´t smoked since monday as far as we know. I say that because she hasn´t been answering our calls. The bad news is she didn´t go to church on sunday and has been declining our calls. We are going to drop by tonight and see what happened. Leidy and Paola and also Jasmin had dates for the 6th too, but they won´t be baptized, we have more work to do with them. 

It´s super hard when people stop progressing because I see the potential that they have. I feel like every person that we teach gets close to baptism and then just gives up and I´m really praying that that´s not the case with Viviana. She has so much potential. We´ll see how it goes, stay tuned. 

This week I have been attacking the scriptures so hard and it´s been awesome. I´ve been answering some questions that I´ve had for the last few months. The gospel makes more and more sense every day and I seriously love reading the scriptures which is kind of different than before the mission. Also I have been dabbling a little here and there with Jesus the Christ and it´s so good. 

In other news, I have been playing micro (soccer on a basketball court with smaller goals). It´s super fun but I´m super terrible. Did you guys know you can´t use your hands? like what kind of sport doesn´t use your hands? Do feet have thumbs? no. Then why are we using our feet? It´s whatever though I'm learning. Like I know what I should do, but I touch the ball and it does something else. I´m getting a lot better though. And I have 4 years until the next world cup so there´s plenty of time.

I hope everyone enjoys the start of december! I love christmas time, and even though it's super hot here year round, everyone has lights and decorations. You should all watch the he is the gift video and remember that God gave His son. It all comes down to that. He is the gift of christmas. I´m so grateful for our savior Jesus Christ. Well I hope you all enjoy singing your christmas carols and drinking hot chocolate. I've been singing my heart out in spanish because I love singing the christmas hymns. Take care everyone


Love Elder Downing