I Felt It Very Strongly

Great Week

We are seeing a ton of progression with the people we are focusing on!

This weekend we have 3 baptisms planned, but we might move them one week further to make sure we have enough time to finish the last lessons, have them interviewed and announce the party!

The 3 are: Ligia Baldion, her grandson Damian, and Juan Carlos

Ligia and Damian want to be baptized as soon as possible, and we are very excited for them!

      

Juan Carlos is back in Bogotá and says his mom is doing well. (He was away visiting her in the hospital in Barranquilla, due to serious diabetes) 

We can hardly wait for our next lesson with him!

     

As of this week, we also have 3 new baptismal dates planned for September 21st!  They are (1) Nestor Sarmiento (2) his son Miguel & (3) Jorge Rodriguez

We should be getting more dates really soon.

We have been teaching a guy that I contacted one night like 2 weeks ago, named Alexander.  I now only contact people when I feel like I should. Well I felt it very strongly the night I bought some bread rolls from this guy.  (By the way, my companion contacts everyone!)

Anyway, so we have passed through the whole Restoration with Alexander and he's now starting to read the Book of Mormon. Last night we showed him Moroni's promise and talked about the Holy Ghost and how we can feel peace, love and a confirmation of the truth of these things. He got a little emotional and told us that he could feel it every time we talked to him! CRAZY STUFF!!

Alexander is a great guy and has a great family, wife and 2 toddlers.

     

I've been eating like 10 eggs every day and I swear I grew like an inch and a half!

Eggs here are really cheap, and there's this little store in the center of our apartment complex. The cool thing is that you can call the workers in the store and they will deliver whatever you ask for to your door.  I always have to buy more stuff though when I order things, because you can't just make them deliver 1 egg!   We have some weights in our house that we all use everyday, so we are all getting ripped over here!

   

My camera will be fixed by Thursday and I can't wait to show you guys what Bogotà looks like!!

That's all folks!

Love Elder Zierenberg

So Worth It!

This week was the fastest in my mission so far! I feel like yesterday was P-day...

I'm planning on getting my camera fixed this week so that'll be great. Then I can send more photos after that happens.

If you're wondering which of the Elders in the photos from last week is Elder Coronel, He's the dark, short guy with glasses. If you're wondering which Elder is me, well then... it's either been too long, or you shouldn't be reading this...

I hear Elder Andino is back in Bogotà! Maybe I'll get to see him.

So our area, Federman, includes the huge Bogotà stadium, where famous bands come and play when on tour here in Colombia!  One Direction came here like 2 weeks before I arrived at this area. The stadium is pretty close to our house. It's about a 10-minute walk to get there comfortably.

I can't wait to send some photos of all the cool scenery there is around here!

Yesterday (Sunday) the entire Rodriguez Family came to church!! During the gospel principles class, Oscar and his wife (Angelica) and mother (Iligia) all actively participated and answered questions! The class topic was Missionary Work and sharing the gospel with others. Oscar volunteered to demonstrate how to share The Book of Mormon with a stranger (with Elder Coronel as the stranger). It was a great class and really funny! We were so happy and surprised to see them there! Elder Coronel and I agreed that is was a miracle and blessing from the Lord!

One thing you learn on the mission, is that to find the chosen people that are prepared, you need to push through hundreds of people and miles to get to them. It can be tough and discouraging but when you find the golden ones it makes it all so worth it!

-Till next week

Love Elder Zierenberg

My talk went well

Today is the first day of this new transfer (BTW Transfers happen every 6 weeks). Elder Coronel and I are still together and stay in our area - Federman. 

The last transfer ended well and we now have 3 baptismal dates, Iligia Baldion, Sebastian Rodriguez, and Juan Carlos (Waldo;) Juan Carlos is really ready to be baptized and we are really excited for him! The spirit is always super strong when people are prepared and Juan Carlos is one of those! He learns quickly and has been going to church every Sunday and is really happy about it!

I had to give the talk in church yesterday, and I had a couple weeks to prepare so it was pretty good. I'm pretty calm about giving talks and I don't mind public speaking.  Unluckily, I woke up Sunday morning and my lip and cheek were swollen... I have no Idea why. I think I slept on my retainer or a bug bit me, but I couldn’t speak Spanish as easily. So I iced it and it went away completely. Thank goodness! My talk went well.

I don’t know if I've mentioned it, but our area is the biggest area in the mission, and it’s like 4 or 5 times bigger than the average area, and we walk usually, so our legs are pretty buff now.

The buses here are crazy! It's like hundreds of `Knight Buses' from Harry Potter, going about 100 miles per hour, and dodging each other on and off opposite lanes!  I'm sure some of the buses here have a turbo mode because something changes and a loud hissing noise begins, as the bus literally jumps forward, accelerating faster than normal! It's not natural! Amazingly I’ve never seen a bus crash yet...

As we walk past thousands of restaurants, millions of people try to get us into buying lunch from them and contend for the passerby. They talk so fast that sometimes they sound like “bid sales men'”.  Usually I ignore all of them, or I'll say ``Que Pena, de pronto otro dia...'' (Sorry, Maybe another day).   Well today as I walked past a Mexican Restaurant with my companion, I heard that is was a special day to… buy one meal, get another free... My companion had just bought some chicken, so I called up Elder Reeve. We had some good tacos, and it was only 5000 pesos each!! 

Tonight we have another Family Home Evening with Iligia, and her grandson, Sebastian. It’s going to be great. 

I got a couple photos from yesterday on the email... enjoy!

Love Elder R. Zierenberg

My Most Prized Possessions

Hello my beloved friends and family.

Everything is pretty great here in Bogotá. I’ve been getting a lot more studying done and I start my personal study at 7 instead of 8. I love studying the talks from the Liahona, especially from General Conference and I am feasting upon the Scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon! 

It’s really rewarding to take a notebook and title a gospel theme and start writing everything you know about it. Then you search the scriptures for a deeper knowledge, and fill the paper with all the scripture references and personal revelation that you receive. The scripture quad you and Mom got me is one of my most prized possessions.

Every week I find myself surprised it's P-day again!

I've almost hit the 11-month mark!

This is the last week of this transfer. We had interviews with the President and it was awesome to get to see President Andelin again!

Today for P-day we met with some other Zone members to play some Soccor, and eat some Dominos Pizza. It was a pretty good day.

Tonight we have another Family Home Evening and that should be cool.

Juan Carlos has a testimony of The Restoration and Book of Mormon and is reading it! We met 2 awesome families last week and I wish they lived in our area!  They work in a restaurant in our area, so we visit them there.

I don't have much time but I hope all is well with you guys.

Love Elder R. Zierenberg