Ate Cow Udder. It Was Surprisingly Good.

My little man Lucho. I bought him that hat and some candy for his second birthday. He was happy.

This week has been a good and frustrating one. It was really good. I came into the week ready to get a full week of work in as week one of this new transfer. Nope. Tuesday Elder Pinoargote woke up with symptoms of Chickiguña. He was feeling pretty sick, so we didn´t leave that day. It was real frustrating. Then Wednesday night we received a call that said that Friday we had to be in Bogotá for interviews... Another 16 hours of travel time.  So other than not having a normal week again, we were able to do some good.

Found in Yopul. Extremely expensive.

 We were also able to make some head way with Alba and Milena. They are both good people, just in a really tough situation. Milena accepted a baptismal fecha for the 15 of August and Alba received a date of rescue for the 15th as well. We will need to work really hard with them. One thing that is really hard with them is just feeling the spirit in their "house." The little boy, Felipe, and the 2 other younger sisters just do not know when to show respect. So the majority of our teaching will have to be done in others homes. The problem is that Alba can barely walk and there are not many other homes. This week they didn´t come to church because their friend got stabbed that very morning. All in all, I have faith that if we work hand in hand with them, we will see great progress.

Burnt.

 This week we had a great activity. Every single Thursday the missionaries put on either a Video Night or a Family Home Evening for the branch and investigators. This week we went all out. I finally made cookies for the event. They were not Mom’s cooks, but they were cooks nonetheless. Everyone liked them. Plus, it is a miracle that we have an oven. I have never seen an oven in Colombia until I arrived in our house in Aguazul. For the activity we a Night of the Brain. We talked about Agency, Thoughts, Intelligence, etc. Then we divided the group into 4 smaller teams and had a competition using 9 small mental games. Examples are finding how many squares are in a picture, how to remove match sticks to make more squares, how to fit 10 cows in 9 stalls, etc. It was really fun and the people loved it. I have never seen the members so animated. There was a little bit of bickering, but it was great. People left super happy and impressed with what we put on. It was a great activity.

Alba and Milena

Because of vacations, Diego still has work to do before he can receive the Aaronic Priesthood. He is a good kid and needs the church. Plus, his best friend is one of the only youth so that is a big help. He is making progress and we are happy to see that.

We had a cool experience with Paola this week. We have been practically begging her to pray about the church, Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, etc. She said that she was scared to because of the answer that she could receive. Anyways, she finally prayed and that night she had a dream where the missionaries, us, were looking for her, and she hid, but they came back again and found her. I do not proclaim to read dreams, so I will not attempt. However, she took that as an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. The latest compromise was to pray about baptism. We will see what happens.

I like in 2 Nephi 9 when it talks about the water of life. This same example is found in the Bible. I like to ask people if they are fully partaking of the water that Christ gives us, or are we just sipping.

Not sure if I mentioned this, but I ate cow udder. Surprisingly good. Sister Laney is a vegetarian. I feel bad for her. I was able to talk to her for a while and up to this point, she is having a bit of a hard time with the food. She was describing this soup called Ajiaco, which for the record is delicious, and was saying how bad it was. I just had to laugh because she is gonna be eating that for the next three years. I really love the food here. Is it the best food in the world? No. Is Indian food still better? Yes. But all in all I really do love it. They really use all of what the earth and animals give them.