Cucuta Week 32 January 12

Ok so I said last week that I would update on the ant wars. They have adapted their warfare tactics. I could take them all out at once when they attacked in swarms, and cut off their point of entry. But now they've spread out. I don't know where they come from and it's hard to spot them out. They sneak into my clothes in my closet even though I've put poison to block them out. All I'm going to say is that ants in my pants is a real thing. And ant bites in my pants.

This week was super cool though. On tuesday we went to a place called pamplona. It's over two hours away up in the mountains (which means it's cold!!) and we worked with some ward leaders to visit a few investigators and less active members. It's a super small town so it was sweet. During a lesson, there were tons of sheep bahing outside for like 20 min then this little lamb charges into the house and we had to stop to kick it out. Colombian lambs are just so silly. It was nice to be in the cold though. I have 7 months of heat and 1 day of cold now.

So we have been doing a lot of service for people. We painted the house of one family who aren't members except for one son. We went over 3 different mornings. And now the brother is listening to us and has a lot of potential. He's super religious and awesome and so we're just waiting for him to read the book of mormon so he'll want to be baptized.

In other news, James (a Colombian) won one of the two golden balls, so people here are pretty happy. Yes, It sounds really strange, it sounds better in spanish (balón de oro) and yes there are only two. He won best goal of the year. so pretty cool.Speaking of soccer, We have been playing here on pdays and it's super fun. I'm terrible because I wasn't raised in latin culture but I'm getting there.

Ok so to close out, fasting works!! My testimony on fasting has grown so much this week. We fasted for a few things on sunday but especially two investigators and their families, Viviana and Leidy. They were our most promising investigators, but we hadn't talked to them in about two weeks. We were calling and stopping by, but nothing. On monday we went out to work at 6 and before we made it a block, Leidy called us and said she wanted us to stop by, and everything was great! And then, seconds later, Viviana pulls up next to us on her motorcycle and tells us how she had just gotten back in town, and that everything in her life was working it's way out so that she can get baptized!! We were, and are still, so stoked! I felt the spirit so strong during our fast, and I can't deny that fasting is real and that God here's and answers our prayers. Fasting was such a great experience, I don't know if I'm ever going to eat or drink again!

Love Elder Downing (Elderek)

Cucuta Week 31 January 5

Ok so this week was really good. I'll start off with new years, because it was sweet. On new years everyone was busy, and so we mostly walked around from house to house to see which of our investigators or members would let us in so we could stop walking. It would be sweet if we had bikes, but we can't have bikes or white girls in the mission, because they would get stolen, so we just walked in the heat all day. On the bright side, my forearms and part of my neck (collared shirt) are tan now. So I heard that there was snow in Temecula, I'm glad you guys got to enjoy that. I'm pretty jealous, but then again people that live in the cold want the heat. And we've got that here so maybe I'm the lucky one? So for news years here, the people make dummies and fill them with explosives and stuff and then at midnight they light them! It's so cool. And during the day on new years, the put their dummy in the street, and block off the streets and don't let the cars pass until they give them money.l AND (yes there's more) they dress up as old widows while begging for money so it's super funny. So we've got kids and teenagers, dressed up as old women, roping off the streets and asking for change, to buy fireworks to fill their life size dummy, so they can blow it up at midnight! It's an awesome tradition if you ask me. The other tradition is that everyone gets super drunk. Like waaaay drunk. so our neighbors started drinking new years eve (everyone is in the street, no one's inside) and they were still outside drinking at 12 pm the next day, and at 3 and at 5 and then everyone was outside drinking again the night of the first. A lot of people drank for like 24 hours straight it was ridiculous. They must have amazing livers here. So, the 1st had a lot of walking too. We had to go home early on the first so we borrowed some board games from a member and bought some coke. Then we sat on the balcony listening to the blasting music that was playing in the street, and watched kids blow stuff up. It was cool.

So this week I read an amazing talk by president Monson "see others as they may become". It talks about how we need to remember the potential that everyone has. We might only see they problems and flaws when we look at people (or investigators or ward members) but everyone has the ability to change. I've been trying hard this week to not count people out because of the problems they currently have. After having so many investigators not get baptized, I started seeing the problems that some of these people have, and I would lose faith in them. I would doubt that they would progress or make the necessary changes. But thankfully, God didn't give up on me even though I was making that mistake. He let me stay out here, and I learned and changed. And everyone has the chance to learn and change and come unto Christ. That's why it's so important that we are out here teaching them how to do it. I've felt a difference ever since changing that perspective, and I have faith that these people here will progress and make the changes they need to come unto Christ. I'm starting to see people as they may become, and I'm starting to love them more and want to help them achieve their potential.

That's all for our show, but tune in next week for a report on the war with ants.

Love you guys. Enjoy the cold for me,

Love Elder Downing

Cucuta Week 30 December 29

On christmas this year I got three things, A loaf of bread, sick, and hundreds of ants in my bed! What a christmas! But as we all know, christmas isn't about receiving it's about giving. As for our investigators this week, no one progressed or went to church, Pretty much everyone was out of town or super busy last week so we did a lot of walking. I guess it was pretty cool though if you like walking a lot. Christmas eve was the best day, a family invited us over for lunch and we ate potato salad and ham so it was sweet! Then I got to Skype my family! So it was super weird because I was trying to introduce my companion to my family, and I got super mixed up on what language I was speaking. I started speaking spanish to my family, then I was like oh they don't speak spanish, so I turned to my companion to talk to him but I started speaking english, and I just kept going back and forth like that, with no one understanding me until I stopped and recovered. Then I did it again. It was super weird.

So it was so cool to see everyone, first Skype of the mission, how adorable. I was looking through everyone like, oh cool, there's my sister, oh cool, there's my brother, and then I saw my main homie, Big J, and I realized how much I missed him. And then after the call, I wasn't even that homesick or sad, I was just like "wow I wish I could have talked more with Jordan". But Mom, it was great to talk to you too!

So about my christmas gifts, In the morning I got sick (I'm still sick) but it's just a nasty cold so it's not too bad. I'm still out here baptizing. In the afternoon, a guy gave us a loaf of christmas bread. He's a baker. He's a nice man. And at night, I got a visit from hundreds of ants! About a week ago, they invaded Elder Valladares' bed, but I didn't think they'd invade mine too. But they did! They attacked on christmas, the same tactic that George Washington used to turn the tide of the revolutionary war. These ants seem to know their war tactics. So yeah I slept with hundreds of ants crawling all over me and my bed and biting me. Merry Christmas. Christmas was rad though because I bought a big bottle over pony malta. I tried to share with Elder Bartlome but he said it tastes like horse pee. I was like "yeah that's what pony malta means in english"

I hope you guys have a great new year. I'm setting some big plans and gearing up to baptize all of Colombia in 2015. It's happening. nah, but really I'm trying to be the be more like the savior each day, I hope that makes it on all of our lists of new years resolutions. My other resolution is gain 35 lbs. Stay tuned. By the way that's a joke (kind of). Love you guys

Love Elder Downing

Cucuta Week 29 December 22

Ok so the first piece of news is we got a white guy in the apartment! This is the first time I've lived with a white guy in 7 months so pretty cool if you like white people. He's brand new, fresh out of the factory and only speaks a few words of spanish but he's a cool guy! He's from Bear Lake Utah and he's 18. He brought his lasso and I roped my companion so that was fun. The only bad thing about him is that all of his sisters are married. You win some, you lose some.

Speaking of losing some, the ants have won the last few battles of our war. So I used my towel one morning after showering and I found out that it was full of ants. I found out because all of the little ants got angry that I was using them to dry off, and they all bit me. I have like 30 ant bites all over my body that are all really itchy. Their sneak attack was perfect. They just waited and I applied them all over my body. I think they're getting smarter. stay tuned.

We had our christmas conference this week wit the president and the APs. First we listened to a few hours of the president training us, and then we geared up in our pday clothes! Not to play sports or anything, but to do physical fitness tests! So cool I guess if you like physical fitness tests. And at the end they gave us all candy canes and a really cool cover for our planners (I really liked that part). Our president is super cool.

So my whole week basically has been singing. On wednesday we spent 3 hours practicing and 3 hours performing a choir presentation. On saturday we sang too. We prepared to sing at a stake activity on friday but we didn't because they ran out of time. I love the spanish christmas carols now. Check out "los pastores a belèn" and "mi burrito sabanero" (no it's not about mexican food).

To close, I just want to wish you guys a merry christmas (not much to update on investigators because we were so busy with other activities)

I have gained a greater appreciation for the saviour in this christmas season. We often forget just how extensive his atonement was. It was infinite. He paid for every sin, He suffered every sickness, and He endured every trial that we had, that we have, and that we will have. And thanks to him we can achieve our divine potential. We are children of God! I think it's easy to forget what that really means sometimes. We have a potential so much greater than the everyday tasks and challenges we face. But often we forget our divine potential and focus on our day to day tasks. I know I have. Merry Christmas everyone, and happy birthday to the One who made it possible for us to achieve our divine potential.

Love Elder Downing

Cucuta Week 28

Transfers! Im staying. So we don't have many changes in our zone. Last transfer, I was the only white person in the whole zone, with 3 latinos who speak english (one was born in the states and is Mexican, the others were born in central america). And now, the elder from the states, and one of the other elders who speaks english got transferred. And the zone is getting more latinos and a new elder whose race is unknown still. So rad I guess, if you don't like white people.

Even worse though is that ants ate my cake. So in our apartment there are lots of little ants. They're actually kind of cute because their really small. They're evil though. They bite and leave huge welts that itch for days and they destroy any food we leave outside of the fridge. I had my cake in a ziplock freezer bag and I thought it was safe, but they chewed a giant hole in the bag to get to the cake! I spent the next few minutes torching them with a lighter, so we're even for now but stay tuned.

So a lot of people (my mom) have been asking me about my health since i was sick a few weeks ago. I've been super healthy! My companion has been a little off though. His stomach was so bad one day we had to take a taxi back to the house because he couldn't make it walking. But yeah, I haven't puked or had to take Imodium so I'm doin great.

We did a service project (helping a guy build his house) and I got to break down a wall with a pick axe (if that's what it's called).It was sweet. It felt so good to work with our hands and get dirty (really dirty) and have a break from all the talking and teaching. Derek like smash!

I can tell it's christmas time because everyone is staring to hang up their virgen mary banners in front of their houses. We've been caroling in parks and in front of malls and spreading all kinds of christmas cheer. Our investigators are pretty much in the same rut as they were last week (Viviana told us about her boyfriend so now we have two difficulties with her) so I won't take too much of your (my) time.

I love you all, Elder Downing

Cucuta Week 27

Ok so this week we don't have much news so I'll throw in some cool bonus info and stuff. I hope you enjoy. Viviana and Mateo, Leidy and Paola, and Yasmin all had baptismal dates for the 6th but none of them got baptized. It's whatevs because we're going to baptize them all super hard in the next couple weeks. Leidy needs to get married, Viviana needs to quit smoking, Yasmin needs to go to church more consistently, and Adrian (baptism date for the 13th) needs his inactive family to start going to church again. A few small problems but we're getting there, or in spanish "alli vamos" the new favorite song of my companion. We always hear it in the street. The only news is that no one got baptized, but other than that things are pretty much the same.

I've been asked about my apartment by a few people (my mom) and so I'll throw in some details. It's one of the nicest apartments in the zone and we have a washing machine which is rad. We don't have a toaster though so I make bread on a pan, which is the spanish word for bread, so it makes sense I guess. But sometimes I get to tired to fry my toast so I just eat plain slices of bread.

I bought an adidas watch last week for 5 bucks. There's a lot of knock off and Venezuelan imports here so you can buy stuff really cheap. Elder Wong (from Peru) bought a Gucci shirt. Sometimes they spell gucci wrong though so you have to be careful. The watch I bought is original though, the guy told me.

So everyone (seriously everyone) has or has had chinkunguña (a virus). Including me. And it's super funny to hear all these remedies that these people have. One family was telling me how when their kids have a fever they make them go outside and play soccer. I always thought rest and lots of fluids was the key, but I guess high intensity exercise is better. Nothing better to bring down a fever like running around in the sun in 85 degree weather. I just like to listen and nod though. I think Charles Darwin would do the same.

I watched the christmas devotional last night in the stake center here. Adrian went with us. It was really good. My companion turned to me when the choir was singing and was like "I don't understand" and I turned to him and said "me either". Honestly I had no clue what the choir was saying. Am I the only one that has a hard time understanding motab? I mean I love motab just like you guys, but for some reason I can hardly ever make out what they are singing.

Speaking of singing I've been doing it a lot. Songs like "I'm dreaming of a white person christmas" and other classics. It's great that everyone gets so fired up for christmas. Last night, the streets here were full with candles. The people here put them in front of their houses the night of the 7th to welcome the virgin into their homes. People here are pretty catholic.

Being a missionary this time of year is cool. We can help people understand the true meaning of christmas and why it is so important in their lives. Many people don't realize that Christ was given as their redeemer and that by following Him, they will be happy. We are trying to teach as many people as we can about Christ and His miraculous birth, life, death, and resurrection. Merry almost Christmas everyone! And happy birthday grandpa!

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

Cucuta Week 25

Happy thanksgiving. My last first thanksgiving in the mission, wow I´m almost finished. No one celebrates thanksgiving here, so to be honest I´m not too stoked for it, I´m probably just gonna buy a pony malta to celebrate (it's a type of soda that isn´t really like soda but kind of). I usually buy pony malta to celebrate events, but some times I just buy it on normal days and so I´m not really sure if it still counts as celebrating, but it´s an excuse to buy pony malta so that´s my holiday plan.

First things first, we have to address the important news. There´s an iphone 6?? Before the mission I wondered what iphone number they would be on when I came home. It's weird that it's already come out though. I don't think I'm gonna buy it though, I'm holdin out for the iphone 8, I hear it will have a hologram feature. Here in the mission we use a type of technology called books, it's pretty cool. Now over to Elderek with investigator news (newscaster voice)

We have the coolest investigator ever, Mateo. He´s 8. His Mom Viviana is super cool too. They have four church attendances in a row and are super awesome. Viviana smoked for 8 years but she is totally quitting right now. After we taught the word of wisdom she went four days without smoking, and relapsed, but then felt super sick for smoking. She's gonna kick that addiction in no time. Her dad flipped out because he's really antimormon but mateo totally stood up for his mom and was like "no grandpa I want to go to church, I´m going". Suit that boy up to join the sons of Helaman! He´s hilarious. But yeah, they have had a lot of adversities lately but they are still moving forward!

Adrian is an investigator too (his family is inactive) and his friend fernando is always with him so talking about adrian is basically talking about both of them. Adrian really wants to do whats right and help his family, he's a great kid. Fernando basically lives (or literally I'm not sure) with Adrian and he's super funny. They've attended church but the family hasn't so we're working to help them out.

Health report: I might have gotten chinkunguña last week. It´s a virus, the name comes from Africa and means "doubled over in pain". Everyone has it here. One day I counted and six out of the 7 families that we visited had at least one infected family member. But my case was super short and I didn't have all the symptoms so I might not have had it, we'll see if I get it in the future. So I have been a little sick the last two weeks with a few illnesses but it's all good, it's just my body. Staying healthy in this area is a challenge but I'm trying and I know the Lord is protecting me too (that´s why my case of chinkunguña was soft)

I'm so grateful for this gospel and for the opportunity to serve the people here and share it with them. We often forget that all that we have comes from God, from the ground we walk on to the bread on our tables. I hope we can all remember that and thank Him with our thoughts and actions! Im so thankful for all of you! (especially Kelly Orme who delivered my package to Bogotá, you are the best!).

Love Elder Downing

Cucuta Week 24

Ok so first of all, to those that have been writing me, I´m so sorry that I haven´t been able to write you back yet! But don't worry I am repenting. My area is Caobos 3 in Cucuta which means nothing to you guys but it's a super cool area! It´s way close to Venezuela (I saw Venezuela on Saturday in our zone leaders area [it wasn´t exchanges it was a stake activity] so that was cool [we were on a really high hill]). I´ve been told that Venezuela has the prettiest girls and that Colombia is second, so hypothetically, the girls here should be really pretty, but I haven´t looked at any yet. I´ll have to tell you next week. My area is really cool though, it's a about the same temperature as my last area, so kind of hot sometimes but not too bad. The streets are full of big trees and most of the houses are one story so the streets look kinda cool. We live in the area of another companionship (closer to downtown) and we have 4 missionaries in the apartment so it's way more fun. I taught Elder Ramos from Ecuador how to do the dougie and he is teaching me salsa. The 4th Elder (Valladares) is from Honduras but lived in the US for 10 years so I speak English every once in a while! My Spanish has improved a lot. I´ve realized that I haven't complained about my Spanish in a long time so it must be pretty decent! For real though, I’ve gotten a lot of compliments so I’ve been pretty stoked. There are still a lot of things I don´t understand though haha. On Sunday, I gave a talk and I didn´t even have to think about speaking it all just flowed out naturally. I didn't have time to prepare much, and so I had to finish in ward council before church haha. My habit of procrastinating in high school paid off. I spoke on faith and home (and visiting) teaching. It made sense, trust me. The ward is lacking in fellowshipping and visits and so I talked about that, and we have plans to work with the ward council. The people here are really receptive though. We started teaching a family this week (Leidy Calderon and her kids) and they have a baptism date for the 6th of December! She already received the answers to her prayers! The Lord has prepared that family and others for us, and I think we are going to have a lot of success here. I'll let you know about the details next week because I´m out of time! Love you guys!

Love Elder Downing

Giron Week 23

First things first, my new area is Cùcuta! I leave in the afternoon, its way north by the Venezuelan border, and I hear that its way nicer than Giron. Giron is a little bit ghetto. I hear the people there are really receptive, it’s warm but not super hot, and everything there is cheap!! I’ll fill you guys in more next week. This week we had a lot of appointments fall through and we did a lot of walking. Yesterday we spent the whole night walking from house to house to house. The same happened on Halloween. All the kids dress up and trick or treat like in the states, so it was super fun to see them all. Viky's son, Estiven, dressed up as a missionary! That family will be eternal, I'm calling it. Rubiero said he doesn't want to get baptized. That family was so close, but whenever someone seems to get close to baptism, they fall. He says that he has too many problems (financial mostly) to move forward with marriage and baptism right now. I think there's a hidden problem though. His girlfriend Lizhet still wants to be baptized but can't because they live together and aren't married. Hopefully Elder Carballo can figure out what they need. The Valeck family accepted a baptism date for December 6th and they are super cool. We always visit them with members and so they know like 5 families. The only difficulty is they are super busy and involved, but I think Elder Carballo will be sending me baptism pictures soon. I'm a little sad to be leaving some of the people here, but I'm excited to start fresh and work hard in Cùcuta. I've learned so much in the four months that I've had here, I just hope I can apply it all. And I hope I like my companion, Elder Carballo has been awesome and it has been super easy to work and have fun with him. I like Bolivians. My next companion is Elder Olivo de Ecuador. I hope you are all doing well! 

Love Elder Downing

Happy Halloween!

Companion study

goodbye Giron!

Giron Week 22

Finally I had an interesting week! We preached the gospel a lot but there's some interesting stuff that happened too. I'll start with the good and finish with the depressing. We did a “service activity” that was presenting universal values to schools. I had to talk for 10 minutes on health without talking about the church or God or Christ or anything religious. The first school we went to had a group of about 70 kids between 15 and 17. there were no teachers to help us because they were in a meeting or something and so we had to sit them all down and they were all super rowdy during the presentation so it wasn't very good. A bunch got up and left during. And it was way more stressful because the mission president and his wife chose to watch our group of four out of the twelve groups. But he helped us out a lot so it was cool. The second school had about 100 10-12 year olds (mostly girls) and they were all super engaged it went really well at that school. When I said I was from the United States they all gasped, and afterward I gave about 15 autographs. I think they thought I was Justin Bieber or something. Ok, now time for the bad news. On monday we had everything planned for Lizeht and Rubeiro's baptism. From our activity we had raised the money to get their papers sent (we pulled some strings so we could get them mailed) and all they had to do was pay the money for the papers, set up a marriage date, and pay for the marriage. Four months of working my hardest every day had finally paid off. We were going to have a baptism before I left. Then they decided to spend the money that we earned for their marriage (and baptism) on other things. They didn't have any money left over to buy ingredients to make hamburgers for the ward, and they cancelled on everyone who had committed to help them (we planned two hamburger activities). So now they have no money to pay for the marriage. One of the things Rubiero used the money for was to look for a job which he found. So now the only chance is that maybe in the future they can save up the money. We can't ask for the help of the missionaries or members again because they already had it and misused it. My hopes were super high for them, but now i'm not even sure if Rubeiro wants to get baptized. We had a lesson at their neighbors house yesterday and he walked by without stopping or saying a word, and he looked pretty mad. Lizeht still wants to get baptized. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I was pretty discouraged from all of that. Alson, tons of our lessons fell through and we spent almost all of our time walking from house to house. Sunday something happened that changed my attitude. We went to visit Viky and we read a passage in the Book of Mormon. I could see how much her faith and love of God had grown and her desire to serve him. After the lesson, it came up in conversation that I'm probably leaving Giron next week. She got sad then after a little bit said “well you'll have to come back in December to baptize me.” I decided that even though I haven't baptized anyone yet, i've changed at least one life. And that's a pretty big deal. It's not very often that you get to change someone's life. And to say “change a life” is an understatement, because the happiness that comes from living the gospel is eternal. And even if all of our other investigators reject us tomorrow, it'll be okay because i'm confident that Viky will stay strong.

“Dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power, and then may we stand still with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God, and that his arm be revealed” 

D&C 123:17

I'm enthusiastic about the work again, and working hard. I might not have had the best numbers here in Giron but I know the Lord is pleased. I know I was meant to serve here, and ti'm going to miss a lot of these people. It's been my home for the last four months and i've changed a lot in my time here. I hope my next area is cool. If I don't write next week, don't worry. Chances are I'll be traveling and won't get to write. But if I don't write for the next two weeks, that means I probably got dengue fever. I get like 6 mosquito bites every day. So stay tuned. For real though, I'm really blessed because I haven't even gotten a little sick. Well, I'll talk to you all on Nov 10^th when I have a new area and comp and house and stuff.

Love Elder Downing

PS I ate cow stomach and intestine soup

Giron Week 21

We had a super awesome week! First I need to fill you in on Lizeht and Rubeiro. We have ben planning an activity to raise money for their marriage, and we realized that we could sell burgers at a multi zone meeting that we had (two zones to be less dramatic). This morning they sold 30 hamburgers and earned the cash they needed! Stay tuned for baptism. They scared me yesterday though. They didnt come to church, and We tried passing by twice and got rejected. His mom is here for the week and told us he doesn't want to go forward with this. His neighbor is the elders quorom president and he passed by and told us the same thing. I was praying super hard that Rubeiro would remember the personal testimonies that he has received, and later that night he called us. We made plans for the activity today, and he said for sure he wants to get baptized. He just had cold feet I guess. But Giron is typically hot, so they warmed up again pretty quick. In other news, my zone leader is from Murrieta! Crazy right? I found out when we were bowling today and we were both freaking out. Also he played water polo for two years, so that means I played his team. He went to vista. I drank beat carrot juice and it was an experience. Sometimes I wonder if it's better to eat healthy or just die young. Speaking of health, I'm giving a 10 min speech in front of about 500 kids about health. We are presenting to a bunch of different schools here about health, family, charity, and honor the law. So pretty cool I guess. Ill let you know how it went and give more detail next week. I got completely airborn in the bus today from hitting a bump (since wednesday, I have taken the bus 14 times). Also there was a scary dog on one of the buses this week, so that was cool. Love and miss you all.

Love Elder Downing

Granadilla jack-o-lantern

Giron Week 20

Ok, so I decided to write a more in depth letter on my life as a missionary because 1. You asked, and 2. I like when people write me in depth letters. So I’ll go through my daily routine and add special commentary. I’ll fill you in a little more on my thoughts and feelings throughout the day. We’re told that we’re not supposed to become occupied or think too much about home, that we need to be consecrated and fully dedicated to the work, I have mixed feelings about that though. Obviously we need to be fully devoted to the work but how am I supposed to not think about home. I spent 19 years with my family and friends, how am I not supposed to think about them a lot and worry about them? It’s not like I’m homesick or anything (my first week or two I was a little bit) it’s just that I think about you guys, I think about a lot of stuff. Okay quick side note, I get random inspiration and funny thoughts a lot, and I write them all down in a notebook, and I already have a bunch of funny ideas, I’m gonna hit twitter and social media so hard when I get back. Okay coming back from the side note. In the mornings I’m usually tired and don’t think about much, but when I do, I usually think about you guys at home. Sometimes I’m way tired and I’ll do really easy exercises since we’re supposed to exercise but I don’t want to. For real, I’ve gotten pretty good at jump roping. For breakfast I’ll usually eat something really fast, either egg sandwiches, pb&j, pasta, oatmeal (oats water and sugar), or hot dogs, I have to eat cheap food, and food I can make quickly, so I don’t eat super well, but well enough. I’m pretty adjusted to the food and juices here. Like I always enjoy lunch now, and sometimes I enjoy it a lot, the worst thing I ate recently was a super huge pork rind which is fried pig skin and fat. So basically a giant piece of pure fat and un-cuttable, un-chewable pig skin. But the rest of that lunch was so bomb. Personal study is probably my favorite part of the day. I wish it was 3 hours longer, no joke. I’m really grateful that I’ve developed a love for the scriptures, because before, I honestly didn’t have it. But now I love reading in the Book of Mormon, Bible, or in Jesus the Christ. I’ve only read the first 4 or 5 chapters but it’s so good and I’ve learned a lot already. You should really read it. I guess study might be a better word than read in that sentence. It’s full of references and I study most of the scripture references too so I’m not moving through it very quickly but I’m increasing my knowledge and teaching skills a lot. I study that book a lot when I have free time (sometimes I’ll have 15 min free time before bed). But yeah my favorite time is personal study. Honestly, that means that my day isn’t that fun. And honestly it’s not, its hard work that only stops for a few hours every Monday. I can’t go to the beach with my friends or go to a roller rink, dance party, and abandoned unfinished building to explore with my friends in all the same night. The mission isn’t as fun as the last two years of my life, but that should be obvious. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have fun though. I try to enjoy myself in each moment. It’s important that we remember though that fun isn’t happiness. Work and obedience often bring more happiness than dance parties. Already I’ve developed skills, habits, knowledge and faith that I know will affect the rest of my life and be a huge blessing. I can see that I’m laying the foundation for the rest of my life. I can see myself changing from being here in the mission, and even though I’m still “me” I’m different than when I started. I can’t say I wish the mission would never end. I’m looking forward to coming home (in the distant future) and being able to do normal things with my friends and family, of course only after I finish what the lord has commanded. I hope I get to the point where I don’t want to go home. It’s not that I want to leave, I’m very happy and comfortable here (Giron feels like home now) but I do want to go home (when the time comes). Hopefully the mission will become “the best two years” like people say and not just “the two most important crucial, drastically life changing years”. After studies we proselyte. My companion is super awesome. I do most of the planning, calls, guide the lessons, and stuff because I know the area and people but he works hard, teaches well, and is obedient, and he’s cool and super easy to live with. We have a good amount of members and families that accompany us in lessons. The ward actually relies on the missionaries too much. People come up to me in church (while we’re busy with investigators) and are like “Elders I need a blessing” then we say “have you talked to your home teachers, the Elders Quorum President, or the Bishop?” “no”. There are other examples too, like when we had to take on 4 responsibilities for a ward activity that had already been assigned but incomplete, so we had to try and do everything last second. We have good support though. Teaching isn’t hard anymore. Converting is super hard, but I’ve gotten way better at teaching and it’s not really a problem anymore (but still trying to improve every day). Seriously though, converting is so hard. Working 24/7 for four months, and I have for sure converted one person (well Jairo did [Viky’s boyfriend] but I did a lot of teaching to help) and Lizeht and Rubiero are at the testing point, so in about two weeks we will see if they are converted (hopefully I can finally have a baptism. I don’t say that for that stats but because if someone is baptized it is because they are ready and have been converted). So yeah, it’s a little discouraging that I have nothing to show for my work, and normally a South American town like Giron would have a lot of baptisms from what I understand. I might as well be in Germany. I might as well be in Germany in the 1940’s if I want to be really dramatic. It’s a little discouraging, but don’t worry I’m still working my hardest. If you guys freak out about the difficulties I have, I have to act like everything is rainbows all the time, so please never worry (feel free to give advice though). Yes, I’m being obedient and working hard and I don’t love EVERY one but I’m trying to (advice besides those things). The companion really is good though so things aren’t too hard. Sometimes he can be a little moody and hard to work with but I think that’s normal. Usually we’re good and we’re never bad. I wonder what things I do wrong because I know I’m not a perfect companion but I feel like I’m pretty easy to deal with. And that brings us to nighttime. We plan, eat, and sleep. My bed is pretty crappy because it is a metal frame with wood planks laid across, and the mattress lies on the planks, but the planks always fall through and that makes the bed super lumpy. If I put the planks back its comfy again though. I get destroyed by mosquitos. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night because my bites itch and hurt so bad, and I can hear the mosquitos buzzing around my ears. I’m going to buy a mosquito net (we were told we have to) but don’t worry, my faith acts as an antidote to dengue fever. Usually I sleep with the fan on and that helps. But yeah Giron is pretty Ghetto. Two blocks away there are little shack houses made out of boards and a tin roof. The drinking water is super clean (well I guess toilet water too) because Bucaramanga 40 minutes away has a lot of rich people. This week we preached the gospel. At the beginning of the week we had an inspiring zone conference (for real it was cool) and we got our new schedule for kiosks. We have been spending a lot of time in Bucaramanga standing by our sign waiting for people to be interested in the restored gospel. We have been working hard in the area but people progress and fall and progress and fall again. July has fallen pretty bad. Wendy and Nelson are on the decline (but not for long) and Lizeht and Rubiero are on the incline, trying to get married and baptized, but they’re getting hit by problems and so the next few weeks will determine if they fall or get baptized. But one person (Viky) hasn’t fallen so I’m happy about that. Converting people is way harder than they made it sound. The gospel is so great, I don’t know why people aren’t lining up in from of the baptismal font. It’s kind of the opposite though. One of our investigators hit their kid with a belt for letting us inside. She wasn’t very discrete about it. She cancelled the lesson because her husband “was working” but we were close, so we stopped by to make another appointment and the kid invited us in because the dad was home. Then he got beat, poor kid. They were some of our better investigators too. The other stories of rejection aren’t as interesting, but there are many. In other news I got brainfreezes twice this week from my shower. I thought it was pretty funny actually. This week we got a temporary cell phone, while we wait to get our old one back. The screen is shattered and completely destroyed, and the battery life is pretty bad but I was way stoked to have a cellphone again. Another funny story, our power went out for about 13 hours, so I made dinner by stovelight. Stovelight is like candlelight but funnier. I really like living in Giron though, its heat, ghettoness, and mosquitos have grown on me for some reason. It’s almost as if having a lot of money and nice things isn’t the key to happiness. I don’t now man it’s weird. This week I’ve been doing some reflection and scripture-reading and I’ve learned that people are wrong when they say we don’t have to be perfect. People always say “you don’t have to be perfect” but really Christ teaches “be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect” Matthew 5:48. A few other scriptures drew my attention and teach the same principle- 3 Nephi 27:27, John 13:15. A lot of the time we think we are fine because we don’t do really bad things, but the commandment is more, it’s to be perfect. Perfect in faith, hope, charity, love, virtue, knowledge, patience, humility, diligence, and obedience. This week I realized that we need to be improving every day for the rest of our lives, always, learning and repenting. Repentance is so awesome. I’m so glad we can repent all the time and keep improving. Well I guess I already knew that, but the importance of it really hit me this week. Before I was like oh yea, ok sure, perfect, got it. But this week I was like wow Jesus is serious here, he wants us to be perfect. But it makes sense, he didn’t pay for our sins so we can stay the same and say “well no one’s perfect” but so that we can become like him. Well, that’s my though of the week, I hope it doesn’t make you stressed. The mission life is treating me well though, it’s fun and I don’t know why. I shouldn’t be happy when I have to stand by a sign for hours but I am. It’s almost like the key to happiness isn’t partying and never working, I don’t know man it’s weird. Love you guys, and miss you (most of you [not Sammie]
Love Elder Downing

Almost forgot, on Thursday, after 6:30 pm we had to be in the house because it was “day of the women” or Woman’s day” and it was illegal for men to be in the street, only in our region though. Pretty weird right? One more request is that it’s fun to read in your weekly letters about news or trends like the ice bucket challenge or that Pau Gasol left the Lakers. I’m pretty cut off here, so little things like that are always fun.

Giron Week 19

We preached the gospel this week. And we watched conference! This week was pretty normal, not a lot of huge progress or losses. We are planning an activity to raise money for Lizhet and Rubeiro’s wedding. ($40 to be precise) and they are doing super well. Our other investigators testimonies aren’t quite as strong, but we’re trying to get them there. I leave November 3^rd (97% sure) and it doesn’t seem like anyone else will be ready for baptism before I leave, but I know that’s not the important thing. I really wish I could be here for Viky’s baptism, because she is super awesome. Speaking of awesome did you guys watch conference? So much spiritual knowledge and goodness that my brain couldn’t contain it all, it was dripping out of my ears. Wasn’t it cool that they gave talks in other languages? The Latinos were like “wow I must have the gift of tongues, I understood that whole talk and no one translated it.” I really liked Elder Christofferson’s talk on responsibility and how we are responsible for our actions and that we can’t avoid the punishments of sin,. I loved how he said that resenting gravity won’t save you from falling off a cliff. I think elder Klebinget’s comments on whole hearted obedience were really good too, when he said that you can’t watch a bad movie and feel good that you didn’t watch a really bad one. I also liked his comments on the relation between physical wellbeing and spiritual confidence (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Elder Christofferson also had some interesting comments that helped lead up to Elder Hollands talks. He said that it is God’s will that we are free from sin and poverty, and that we need to take responsibility and go to work. You guys already know that Elder Hollands talk on poverty and charity was super good, I thought it was cool that fasting was talked about so much. It was also cool that the first three talks on Sunday focused so much on the prophet. Another cool theme in multiple talks was time management. Tons of super cool things to apply in my life, I just hope I can remember them all. In other news I got a haircut. My companion said my haircut makes me look like I’m 16. Well, he didn’t actually say that, but that would be the closest English translation. My companion is super cool. If you take a letter out of his last name, it means horse. And get this…. His first name is Rider. I hope you all enjoy October, I made Jack-o-lantern out of granadillas (fruit) to celebrate.

Love Elder Downing

Giron Week 18

Ok so first let me start with my companion. He’s super chill and relaxed, but he’s not boring. He’s funny too but he’s not crazy like Elder Torres. And he’s really organized. I don’t think we’ll have any conflicts. There’s been a huge difference in the last week. During my training, I was more like a shadow than a missionary (mostly my fault). A shadow that doesn’t speak Spanish well. But now that Elder Torres left and Elder Carballo doesn’t know anyone or where anything is, I’ve been taking the lead in everything. Like I think I’m ready to be assistant to the President. But for real I’ve been working super hard and now I’m a real missionary who doesn’t speak Spanish well. It’s been really rewarding and really difficult and stressful. I have been praying a lot for the Lord’s help and that I can be capable of continuing the work in my area, and I’ve seen that the promise in Ether 12:27 is true “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” Honestly, in one night I’ve seen many of my weaknesses become strengths, and I know that the Lord is supporting me. It’s even easier to see the Lord’s hand in the lives of our investigators. One of our investigators Viky (isn’t baptized yet because she lives with her member boyfriend) accompanied us in a lesson and helped us teach. She’s like a completely different person now. Her scriptures are more marked than mine. She has wedding and baptism plans for after I leave though *tear*. We’re working on getting the papers for Lizet and Rubiero so they can get married too. And Nelson and Wendy. We’re trying to marry everyone out here. Something cool about this week is we don’t have a cell phone. It got sent to Bogota with the group of missionaries. We have to make all of our calls at roadside stands which made things even harder but the worst part is that it’s expensive. All my money has gone towards phone calls and transportation (on Monday I took 8 taxis) so I’m probably going to run out of money and get skinny. Just kidding I’m already skinny. Also kidding because I have a reserve fund. I have  problem much bigger than not having a cell phone or money (relax mom, I have a reserve fund), and it’s called language study. I’m not very happy with my Spanish, I feel like it should be better, and so I’m trying to study hard every day for an hour. Language study always makes me super tired. Lunch always makes me super tired too. Aaannnd  now we’ve been told we have to do language study after lunch, instead of in the morning. So now it’s more of a battle against my eyelids. But we’ll see how things go. Some interesting things, I watch my companion while I’m sleeping. Because of the angle of my bed and because I sleep with my eyes open I keep 24 hour surveillance on that boy. Maybe, if I angle my books right, I can study Spanish in my sleep. I’d like to dedicate this next part of my letter to my mom. Hey mom. Every week my mom says to follow all the rules so the Lord will protect me. Relax mom, I’m find I can take care of myself. I don’t need rules to be safe here, Colombia is known for its safety. Don’t worry, we follow the rules still though, so we can have baptisms and convert everyone. To close I would like to share a scripture. Genesis 9: 20-25 is super funny. After the whole are and flood thing, Noah decides to grow a vineyard. One day he gets drunk and passes out naked then he wakes up and curses his son. The Bible is awesome guys, you should read it more. And the Book of Mormon. One part of the Book of Mormon that I really like is when Alma is giving advice to his sons. In chapter 36:1,30 chapter 37:13 chapter 38:1 he teaches “inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God, ye shall prosper in the land”. I love these scriptures because we are teaching a lot of people with a lot of problems, and Alma makes it so clear, if we keep the commandments, we’ll prosper. It’s not just “you’ll be ok” or “you’ll be fine”. Alma is really wise, it’s like he’s a prophet or something. Well, I’m gonna go make some hot dogs. Stay tuned till next time.

Love Elder Downing

Giron Week 17

Cambios! Which means transfers! Actually it means changes, but I think in English they call them transfers. My assignment is....drum roll.... the same! I'm staying in Giron for another 6 weeks and after that I'll likely get kicked out. My trainer, Elder Torres, went to Bogotà this morning to go be a zone leader or something. My new companion (hasn't arrived yet) is Elder Carballo from Bolivia. I hear he's really short, cool, and pretty relaxed. So basically everything you could ask for in a companion. He has been working in the mission office as a secretary, so he's probably gonna be super stoked to baptize everybody. He probably also has glasses, because I'm pretty sure that's a requirement to be a secretary. To be honest, I'm a little unsure about carrying on the burden of the area, being that I'm still learning how to speak Spanish, but then I remind myself that I can rely on that Lord and then I'm like wow this is too easy. I'm glad to be staying in Giron though, because there are a lot of people that I still haven't baptized. But really, I have some awesome investigators there and they are progressing super well. And if I stay, I don't have to learn my way around a new area. But mostly, it's that seeing those people progress in the gospel and change their lives makes me really happy, I hope that when I have to leave, everyone is either baptized, or not progressing, because then it'll be super easy to go. Just kidding kind of. Lizet and Rubiero changed their minds again and said they wanted to get married, and I think it's for sure this time (probably). The same with Nelson and Wendy (they have very American names). The big difficulty is still marriage here. And from what I hear, all South American missions. It's super cool though that we have an in with the government. We keep the kiosks for the mission in the top story of the government building that does all legal documents and marriages. The guy in charge there is LDS as well as basically everyone else (don't tell anyone but we are taking over the government here). One funny story about doing kiosks to close- there was a homeless guy who makes a perfect meowing cat in distress noise. He would point up in the trees after making the sound and the people walking by would stop and look for the cat stuck in the tree. It was super funny. The church is true!

Love Elder Downing

Giron Week 16

So this week we preached the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. In the beginning of the week we had a ton of progress. July committed to be baptized on Saturday, Lizet and Rubiero decided to get married, and Anna (mom of two kids) said she wanted to keep coming to church because she wants her family to have the gospel. On Monday we went to visit July and Mai (her six year old daughter) was laying on the couch shaking and moaning because she was sick. We gave her a blessing (blessings are hard because you have to use a different verb tense and vocab that I still don’t know), and after the blessing she was walking around perfectly fine. It was a super awesome experience. The power of the priesthood is real. The next day, she was running around outside too. When Lizet and Rubiero said they wanted to be married and keep the commandments, we were like “alright we’ll call our people.” The church basically controls the government building that handles documents. We called up our boys and they sent a special request for us to get their papers taken care of. So basically I’m like a cartel boss but instead of pulling government strings to break the law, I pull government strings to keep the laws of God. So the start of the week was super good, but…. Everything fell this weekend. July chose not to get baptized because her boyfriend said she shouldn’t, Lizet and Rubiero are fighting over financial problems (big ones) and didn’t come to church because they were fighting (marriage plans halted), and Anna didn’t go to church either (oh I forgot to say July didn’t go).  Sooo,… no we’re farther behind than we were a week ago and we had 6 less investigators at church. I know that this is where I need to be, and that I’m doing the Lord’s work, so I’m not getting discouraged or anything. I think I’m going to trade my companion for a new one next week though and see if that helps (next week I get a new Latino). Last  P-day we raced go karts in our district (the zone leaders are in my district) and it was super funny because my companions tie got stuck in the chain and it was pulling him into the motor and destroyed his tie. Super funny. Also we ate super bomb pizza. This p-day all we did was clean though (woohoo). We no longer have maggots on the floor though so that’s good (it was really dirty). Shout out to anyone who is still reading my letters (not Lacey), I’ll try and have something crazy happen next week to keep things interesting.

Love Elder Downing

Giron Week 15

We had a super good week this week. A lot of progress in a lot of people so we’re pretty stoked. We had 8 investigators attend church which is a record for me! (In my ten weeks of experience) and it was super awesome but we had a little problem. We couldn’t be with all of our investigators at once, and there were times when they were just sitting by themselves. No one from the ward really talked to them so I don’t know how welcome they felt. The story of meeting Anna though was super cool. We got a reference from a member in another ward and went to the house because the phone number didn’t work, and we rang the bell and five seconds later she comes up the sidewalk “oh I had the feeling you would be here, so I left work”. She listens to the promptings of the spirit and so we’re probably going to baptize her. Also Lizet (young couple) had a vision about the Book of Mormon. She had a dream where she received the answer that it’s the word of God (like Viky did). We’re probably going to baptize her and her husband I think. Also, July went to church again, and she committed to live the law of tithing. We’re still working to increase her faith in the Sabbath and not working on Sunday, but I think we’re going to baptize her. Not everyone progressed though. We’re teaching a young pregnant girl who lives with an inactive member who we’re reactivating as well. They fight a lot and so to try and bring a positive mood before talking about marriage my companion asked the guy to say 2 nice things about his girlfriend. He said he couldn’t think of anything. After trying multiple times, he still wouldn’t say even one nice thing. Soooo they have a long way to come. A lot of people have been asking me about Shakira. Obviously, there isn’t anything between us because I am dedicated to the Lord, but she did say she’ll wait for me. News from this week is that I saw two white guys in the same day! I think I’ve seen five total. One of the two walked by with his Colombian girlfriend while we were doing kiosks (standing in the street) and he was like “how’s in goin buddy? “as he walked by. It was weird. I’m doing pretty decently at understanding, instead of getting destroyed I’m just getting beat up. Now it’s more like getting hit by a Honda civic instead of a semi-truck. I’m pretty adjusted to the food now too. I’m liking the raw onion salads now, but juice made with blended orange and lemon peel is still an experience. It’s weird that everyone is starting school again because here the school year starts in February and ends in November. Hope everyone’s doing well! Let me know if there’s anything you want to hear more about. Yes I’m still skinny (my testimony is still way jacked now though).

Love Elder Downing

Giron Week 14

Week 9 of training was pretty solid. We were supposed to have a baptism last Saturday but that fell through (probably permanently) at the start of last week, but the good news is that we just set two new baptism dates with two young families. I’m pretty sure there’s a saying about situations like this. Something like “a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush”. Actually though, I wouldn’t even want a bird in my hand. Here there are a ton of fat nasty vultures everywhere and I definitely would rather have them in the bushes than touch them. This week we worked a lot with July. Her problem has been “keep the Sabbath day holy” because she’s trying to support her 3 young daughters. This week we had a super bomb lesson about the Sabbath and the spirit was at level 10 for sure. We read 3 Nephi 13: 31-33 (so bomb) and we bore our testimonies about trusting in the Lord at the end and everybody was crying (except me). July, my companion and the catholic mom cried and I was trying to cry but I’m so manly it’s hard for me. The spirit was so strong though it was crazy. And on Sunday *drum roll* she went to church! *stage rises out of the ground and Queen is performing “We are the Champions”* *Jets fly overhead doing aerial formations but they’re actually transformers and they transform and land next to the stage and start shooting fireworks into the air out of their cannons* But also she said if she has the chance to work Sundays she’ll take it *decepticons charge in and break the stage and start fighting the other transformers* So we’re working with her to increase her faith to keep that commandment. But besides that she’s doing super well. To sum up the difficulty with everyone else – marriage. Well some investigators are married but they live with different people and not their spouses, so they have to get divorced and married which is way more difficult. The food this week has been pretty good. Especially the food we buy on the street. Empanadas and papas are so deliciously delicious. An empanada is a ball of meat, rice, and egg (there are other types but that type is the best) covered in dough and fried. Papas are similar but instead of covering it in dough they cover it in mashed potatoes. The bread from the bakeries is super bomb too. There are little bakeries all over. Something funny this week is that my companion is practicing words that sound like swear words so that he doesn’t accidentally swear. So he’s been accidentally swearing all week and it’s hilarious. Also, I found out that his eyelashes are so long because his mom cut them when he was a kid (I think just once). Also, when it was raining we got drenched by buses driving by and spraying us with the water puddled in the streets. It makes me laugh because of how cliché it is. Thanks everyone who hasn’t forgotten me yet, especially the ones who send pictures. Hope you’re all safe (heard there was an earthquake in CA)

Love Elder Dāonin

Empenadas

Break away turtle that stopped traffic. Super funny to me I hope you think so too.