Divorce and Belief in Colombia - Tanner's Take

Things are good with the investigators. The Gonzalez family is doing well. We had a bit of a frank chat with them in order to have more lessons with them. It went really well and they are excited for their baptism this upcoming Saturday. It should be great. Carlos, the son of 18 years, will not be baptized this week because he lacks many of the missionary lessons. Plus, he has a special university class for the next 3 weeks that occupies his Sundays. If all works out well, he will be baptized in October. The baptism of Tatiana and Xiomara will take place at 5PM Colombia time on Saturday. 

This week also went well with Andrea and her daughter Sandra. They are both super excited and have all the necessary elements to join the church and progress. Andrea works in the food business, so this week we had a multi-zone conference and we contracted with her to make the food for 45 people. It was good food, she made good money, and she was super happy. Alexander, the man that she is living with, is super great and has a strong testimony. They are working on their papers. Papers to get divorced here in Colombia can be sticky. If you have money, especially a lot of money, not problem at all, but it can delay a long time if you lack the cash. They are not that poor though. Marriage can be fairly easy. There is a member of the church that works in a Notary who helps with these types of things. We will see how they go down.

 This week we did 3 interchanges. 2 with district leaders, and 1 with the assistants. I had the opportunity to go back to my old area in Diamante II and see a few people that still love me. I was especially happy to see Sandra from my old area and her family. They are a family that is still marginally active, but they love me so much. I was super happy to see them.

The other interchanges were ok, though nothing too special. The Assistants are good.

Intercambios. I got to see Sandra and her kids from Diamante again. I love them so much.

The multi-zone conference that was held was ok. Honestly it was not that good because President and the Assistants taught literally the exactly same thing that they already had us teach during our individual zone meetings. I think that some of the ideas that the Assistants have are not good ones. It’s all good though.

To answer Dad`s question. Everyone here has beliefs. I have met less than 10 atheists here in Colombia. Almost everyone is super devoted to their church or is convinced that all churches worship the same god, so then there is no need to associate oneself with a church. It is great that the Colombian people are a faith driven people, but they don't usually want to search for greater understanding of what God might want for them.  

Today we had a zone activity. Elder Gonzales and I planned to contract a bus to take us to this tourist place about an hour outside of Bucaramanga. It was cool with great sites, but not that cool. I can’t send the photos that I took. Sorry.