I Do Love The Colombian Accent

Yesterday was a Colombian Holiday so the internet shops were closed and that's why we are writing today.

Also, yesterday was day one of the new transfer, and my companion (Elder Reyes) and I stay here in Funza! I'm glad, as I love it here!

I had forgotten that the transfer was ending and so I bought a mountain of milk bags (the biggest size they have) and 2 big boxes of cereal 2 days before transfers!  I was worried that I would end up having to carry all that milk with me or worse... just leave it there for some lucky missionaries.  

This past week we celebrated Halloween by helping two different families move everything from their houses and into a big truck and finally into their new houses.

Helping 1 family move is ok...., but 2 is just a LONG DAY!!

I did receive 2 pieces of candy from the wife of the bus driver who took us home afterwards. Nothing compared to the US candy but still pretty good...  Among other things, I miss Beef Jerky... 

Our Mission is doing a Brownie Challenge: If we memorize the following:

1. The Mission Purpose

2. The Standard of Truth

3. D&C 123:17

4. 3 Nephi 5:13

5. D&C section 4

6. I Stand All Amazed 

We win a huge brownie for each language we memorize it in.

I've got them all memorized in Spanish and English so that'll be 2 for me. Haha

We are going to be teaching a man named Mauricio who is very interested in learning all he can about us. He contacted us in the street and told us he has family living in Las Vegas and they are members of the church. Pretty Cool. I love teaching people that are interested and come to us!

Our Mission has started doing things a little different and one of those is Lunch.  Before we would rotate through lots of families in the ward and I liked getting to see more variety. But now the mission just pays the same trusted sister to make us a ¨safe lunch¨ every single day of our lives... And I'm suffering from Rice Stress! I don't know if that's a thing but Rice is really starting to stress me out! Haha I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle the ¨Last days- food storage life¨ that Dad always talks about. Oatmeal I can do.  But the assigned sister is so nice and I love getting to visit with her family everyday. She's actually a great cook and should be one of the best in the ward. 

Her daughter and her are recent converts and they are the only 2 church members in their family. Sister Isabel Farieta has lots of older sons that we will try teaching when the opportunity arises. She has been visited by some Jahova's Witnesses and she told us that she has shared a bit of the truth with them. They have been returning so she is trying to set up a date and time that WE can also be there to share some peaceful discussions. 

I absolutely love confronting other missionaries and pastors from other churches because I could Bible Bash all day and win in a minute! Haha But seriously I just like hearing what they have to say and sharing points with them. I always try to focus on what we have in common and go from there.

We are teaching Mayerly that I mentioned in previous letters. She's the wife of a less active member. She is super interested and we just need to get her to go to church next week.  I have been focusing on committing investigators to coming to church in the first lesson. It's super great because it helps them progress quickly! Especially when the members befriend them and invite them to Family Home Evenings! That is the best! And if the investigators don't go to church- they don't progress by missionary definition, so it also shows us who to focus on.

We are making tons of goals and we plan on seeing a lot of success this transfer. I love the feeling that new transfers bring! It's like restarting you're favorite game and trying to do better or go farther than before. 

2 weeks ago, Colombia had a special conference broadcasted and all the Colombian stakes and wards got to listen to Elder Holland! I loved getting to hear him speak!  It was funny because he said that he hears that Colombia speaks the best Spanish (Accent). People told me that in the MTC as well and I do love the Colombian accent.

Man the power has been going off a couple of times all day, and thank goodness emails automatically save to drafts....

Well I think that's it for the week.

Love Elder Rod Z