I'm in my new area FUNZA!

It's crazy-awesome here and I'm getting to know the ward, the less actives and investigators. It's been a good week with Elder Reyes from Honduras.

This Week's summary...

Monday: On Monday, as you all probably know, I woke up and found out I was leaving Federman and going to Funza. Elder Coronel and I met my new Zone Leaders in a bus station and we waited for like 2 hours or more for a companion of another missionary to arrive! Ha Classic Transfers.... They say be here at this time and you end up waiting a couple of hours because someone doesn't show up, or the bus isn't ready yet. Well Funza wasn't too far from Federman. I spent the 30 minute bus ride talking to my new Zone Leaders. Cool guys. I've known them both from a while back. Elder Jimenez was in my district with Elder Sanauano and Elder Coronel, from 2 transfers back. Elder Conaway is a beast and is from FILMORE!!! (Really close to Simi) He is a Wrestler and is super Buff. I can always tell when people wrestle; so I called him out before he told me. He's finishing his mission in 5 weeks. He's gonna take some letters home for me!  We got to Funza and I met my companion. We ate lunch with Hermana Farieta and then we played Futbòl. Good Pday.

Tuesday: Woke up and did the daily routine, studied like always. I've been teaching my new companion English and he's learning quickly. I plan on him speaking English in 3 weeks.  I found out my companion only has 6 weeks here and doesn't know the area as well as I need him to. So I opened up the dreaded Area Book and studied that thing for like 2 hours. I made a little chart with all the names of our investigators, less actives and recent converts, with their phone numbers, addresses and all the information I could find. That night we taught the Restoration to the Alvarez Family. They kept changing the subject though, the whole time!

For example: I would be talking about prophets and the father would ask me if I think that the end of the world is going to be within the next 5 years! I responded by saying that we would have to talk about that in another lesson and re-asked my inspired question about prophets. Then the 21 year old son started talking about evolution and aliens...  I told them they should probably watch more Discovery channel! Haha, no I didn't. The mom and the 11 year old son seem more prepared though. After the lesson they gave us plates of rice mixed with weird Mystery Meat Chunks. I organized them at the edge of my plate and flung them into my companion's plate when no-one was looking (not even my companion was looking). After saying goodbye and walking out my companion pulled a handful of the chicken hearts out of his bag and threw them at a dog. I started laughing because I hadn't seen him hide them! The dog got super mad because it thought my companion was throwing garbage at it. So we ran!  

Wednesday:  We had District meeting and I got to know the guys better. There are only 4 people in our district, including me. Elder Nieman (from Washington), Elder Cardova (Colombian), and my companion and I. We talked about the power of the Book of Mormon in conversion. When we use the BOM to answer our investigators' questions, they begin to develop a testimony in it, and search it for more answers. At night we both contacted an investigator, who we both believe to be the most prepared! Alvaro is GOLD!  We taught him the first parts of Lesson 1: The Restoration and he was really involved and completely agreed with our message! We're getting the Baptism date, next lesson!  Later at night we had our ward counsel and I got to meet and present myself to our Ward leaders. I feel we have a lot of support here from the ward.

Oh and I had to pay an old Gas Bill! We'll be reembolsed!

Thursday: We had Weekly Planning where we planned for our next week... . We had a FHE and we met a 3-member family of investigators. After the lesson of La Restauraciòn, we played a cool game: Tinga Tango. Ha! It was super fun but it's just too hard to explain.

   

Friday: Had a lesson with a 18 year old less active and it went well. He hasn't gone to church in a while 'cause he works on Sunday he said. So I got direct (with good humor) and told him that's not a good reason. I asked him what he did and he said he works at a bar. I told him his reason just got worse! We talked about the Sabbath day and used some great scriptures. I shared him the example of the rich man that approached Jesus to know what he lacked. I explained that we all have weaknesses but we have the strength to work them out. We should be like the Apostles, who when Jesus called them to go to church with him, left their nets (or jobs) immediately. He thought that was pretty cool.  He explained that he had gone less active for a doubt that he had. It was about how the Book of Mormon shows dates at the bottom of every page, and how they aren’t consistent in order. I explained that after the Plates of Nephi, the rest of the book was summarized by Mormon, who wrote in spiritual themes that sometimes disrupted the chronological order of the stories. He said his doubt was resolved and said he will get a new job and start going to church. He also asked about the Mission and we encouraged him to go!  

Saturday: We had another cool FHE! This ward has tons of them with the missionaries!! It's fantastic, and is a great way to meet new investigators! They pass around a sheet every week and the Members plan and invite families. We played Uno and it was a successful lesson!

Sunday: Shook like 200 hands. We have a small chapel, but a big ward! I've actually been in this chapel before, as it's close to my old area, Alamos.  We also had Mission Correlation with the Ward mission leader! He's amazing, really organized and also speaks English perfectly! He's actually an English Teacher.

I love Funza! Our area has a nice mall and I'm happy that Subway is included! 

Anyway, I'm planning on sending some cool photos next week!

Love Elder Zierenberg

Transfered to Funza

¡¡Hola mis amigos!!

Today is Transfer Day, and this morning we got a call from the Zone Leaders, and I was called to serve in Funza (still In Bogotà) and my new companion is ELDER REYES (Elder Kings)! He's from Honduras and is from the same stake as Elder Andino. He's a cool dude. I'm gonna miss Elder Coronel who is staying in Federman.

As for the weekly summary: (I really don't feel like writing about it, as I'm in a different area now...)

Well last Monday night Elder Coronel and I had a FHE with the Enciso's and 2 investigators attended. The lesson was on Prophets and we had a lot of participation. Something I always like to ask my investigators is if they think, had they lived during Noe's (Noah) time (right before the flood), would they believe him. It always makes them think more about faith and apply the situation to them modernly. It's so easy to say that you believe in an ancient prophet like Noe, but that's same reason why the Jews, who believed in Moses, rejected and killed Jesus. The truth is that it has always been the same, people have always ''believed'' in the old prophets but the majority never believed in their prophet. Only Noe's family followed him.  

After the lesson we played a cool game: (I'm going to translate it)

Entonces... Everybody sits in a big circle and gets renamed for the game. Your new name is the name of the person to your right.  So someone starts the game by saying: I am (new name) I have (no) stripes. How many stripes would (name) have?  Then whoever was asked about, has to answer saying: I am (New name) I have (no) stripes. How many Stripes would (name) have?

It's a little harder because the game is played quickly and you have to answer to your new name. If you mess up in the chant you get a stripe drawn on your face. If you don't answer by saying the right amount of stripes you have... you get another stripe!  So it gets really funny because everyone is freaking out and your looking around at faces covered in stripes! I remained stripe-less.

On Tuesday we had some great lessons, one in particular was with Juan Carlos. He is starting to study the Book of Mormon and is attending church almost every week. We read chapter 3 with him and evaluated every verse. I really enjoyed hearing the opinions and comments of Elder Coronel and Juan Carlos, and the story really came alive. We talked a lot about how we can be like Laman and Lemuel sometimes and complain about the hard things we have to do in life. We talked about Nephi's Christ like attitude and how we can try to follow his example. 

We have been sharing tongue twisters with the Latinos and them with us! The English ones are always way better though!!  Ha.  I love blowing them away with Fuzzy Wuzzy!! Others include: ''Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore'', which I've been thinking about...  Doesn't sound like a very good business plan!

Anyway, I’ve got to go, but I cant wait to let you all know how my week's been, once it ends!

Later, Elder Zierenberg

Here's the a photo from the Mexican Restaurant!!

Gonna miss these guys!

Tiring Week, Sore Feet.

I'm sure we (Elder Coronel and I) could qualify for the Guinness World Book of Records for The Most Distance Walked in a Week by LDS Missionaries! Haha Only Joking of course. A shoe from one of my pairs is falling apart in the back.... Wasn't I guaranteed a free replacement with free shipping?? 

Well this week we had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy FREEZING COLD showers for like 4 solid days!

Having found the monthly gas bill (late and unpaid) under Elder Reeve's study desk, we were all equally looking forward to cold showers and no stove cooking. We had some laughs though, every time each other’s deathly screams were heard from the icy-chambers of hypothermia. 

We went down-stairs, out, and into the reception building where the Apartment Store is at.  As we started pulling more items of the shelves than we normally do, the storeowner looked rather surprised. We explained how we weren't going to be able cook and therefore needed non-cookable foods. Too my great disappointment, I realized that I was unable to cook eggs. How was I then to eat my daily 5-dozen eggs? Was I not meant to be roughly the size of a barge, I thought.  Haha (Beauty and the Beast Joke). Well anyways, in Colombia they have strange bread toasters. The toasters close like clamshells and then they usually don't work as well as the handy toasters I am used to. So I just opened the toaster and cracked some eggs into that thing, closed it, and it worked fantastically! I ended up trading some scrambled eggs for Elder Reeve's Pizza.

Well after we paid the bill, the gas guy still hadn't come to open the pipe for us! So Elder Reeve and I woke up one morning and we knew something had to be done once and for all. We wanted Hot Showers or we wanted Death, so we went downstairs in our pajamas to see if we could do something with the pipes. We saw our houses pipe and we turned the knob and Elder Quispe looked out the window 6 stories up to let us know that it was no use. So we went back up and took our cold showers.

Literally like 5 minutes after I finished, we got a call from the reception room, and Sandra says the gas guy arrived!  We all wait patiently by the stove, knobs turned, just waiting for the moment. We came alive as the stove did.  Elder Reeve and I almost died trying to light the Big Water Heater in the back of our house!!   I just remember the sudden explosion of fire spreading in slow motion towards us and then we ducked out of the way, saving our eyebrows by a hair breadth!!  (Pun intended) 

Last P-day we went to a cool park! There were tree loads of kites stuck up in tall trees. Elder Reeve told me he'd give me 5000 pesos if I climbed up and got one of them for us to fly. I did so, and we enjoyed a couple hours flying an Egyptian kite, with a Sphinx as the cover image.

Last week I forgot to say that we went on splits with the Zone Leaders and I spent a day with Elder Johnson. Elder Johnson and his twin were born in Simi Valley just a couple months before I was.  (Same birthplace)

Elder Johnson and I think maybe our parents have met before.

Well the Johnson family moved to Valencia, California while he was still very young. During our splits we found out that we both went to the same Beach House (The Sailor's Sandcastle). He would go with his ward's youth group every year for spring break. It was great to be able to talk to someone out here about home and the same places!

I've eaten a ton of fruit here that I've never seen in my life before.  Near our apartments there are tons of berry trees with purple clusters of who knows what.

Love Elder Zierenberg

We have great hopes for his future conversion!

Hey Friends and Family!! How was your week??  Mine was fine.

     

Last week Elder Coronel and I worked like dogs trying to get Ligia and Damian ready for their baptisms!  They were persistent about being baptized ASAP, so we met with them just about every day of the week to get all the rest of the lessons done! We quickly scheduled their interviews with the Zone Leaders, and the 2 were interviewed and passed!  They were baptized Saturday, and confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints yesterday morning in Sacrament Meeting!! We are so happy for them and will continue to support their progression and help them endure as faithful members of the church! 

   

Ligia's son and Damian’s father, Oscar Rodriguez, attended the confirmation and felt the spirit so strongly that he got emotional and cried. He knows this is the true church and has a growing testimony! We have great hopes for his future conversion!

Now we are focusing on Nestor Sarmiento and his son, Miguel, who have accepted the invitation to be baptized. We received their references from the Bishop and his family and they have been accompanying us to teach the lessons!  It is SUPER important that members accompany the missionaries and participate in the lessons!  You should ask your local missionaries if you can accompany them sometime if you've never done it! Just be careful to only talk when the missionaries ask you to, and to not talk for too long, or teach anything that the missionaries have not yet gotten to. Focus precisely on whatever topic or lesson the missionaries are talking about and share your testimony! Lessons here can get WAY out of hand when people do NOT follow these guidelines...    

Some of the highlights of this past week include: Eating at the Mexican Restaurant owned by a member of our ward!! SO GOOD!

Every Sunday we collect the lunch list for the week from the Relief Society President. Well when Elder Coronel and I saw that the we were going to eat there we got excited, but Elder Coronel realized that we had splits with our Zone Leaders that day and that he wouldn't be there. The sister that owned the restaurant, and the Relief Society President happened to be conversing at this moment and my companion abruptly, and with embarrassment, asked if they could swap their days to provide our lunches, because the following day was lunch with the Relief Society President. Haha He explained to their questioning that he really wanted to eat Mexican food but had splits.... So the Relief Society president looked super offended and I couldn’t believe what my companion had done and Elder Coronel and I just started laughing!

Then we found out that splits was canceled and when we showed up at the Relief Society President's house we found that she had gone over the top with making the most delicious lunch EVER!! Haha She was surprised to see Elder Coronel!

  

Well I took my broken camera to a repair shop last week and the chap replaced the shattered screen for 90,000 pesos (about $45). 

I found a curious video that was recorded just before my camera was broken and I'm sure it was a very clumsy missionary who did it!!! I was mad because the person put it back in my bag and didn't say anything!!  Haha Well I can send more photos now! I included several photos from these past couple of days and I hope you enjoy them.

Love Elder Zierenberg