I'm going to miss this guy!

So quick week and not much to say...

Last week we were contacted by a 35 year old, less active man named Jonathon, who seemed desperate for our missionary services.   We set up the appointment and had the lesson later last week.

Jonathon says he's been less active for over a year now and isn't living the way he should. He didn't get into details but he said he wasn't living the commandments. He also informed us that he is an x ward mission leader... Yikes.

He seems to be depressed and just looking for spiritual relief. We talked about the importance of reading the scriptures everyday and we committed him to do so. He says he already prays everyday so we committed him to continuing to pray. We asked why he didn't go to church - (this is where the lame excuse usually comes into play) and he said:  He had to wash his laundry on Sunday mornings.... Come on! Haha That's so lame!!

Anyways we let him know we thought it was lame. I felt like he was just using us to feel some spiritual relief, and I hate when people just try to get spiritual relief and don't want to repent and change their lives! So I brought that up as well and we said that his salvation was in his hands and that he needed to chose for himself to go to church on Sundays.  Then we talked about the atonement and gave him the spiritual relief he wanted. We'll see if he starts going to church!

We also have been working with some members in the ward and are getting to know neighborhoods we haven’t worked in yet. It's always great to see the faith that nonmembers have in Jesus and it's good to know there are so many people prepared to hear about the Restoration

We had a cool p-day today and the whole zone played soccer!

Elder Conoway (My Zone Leader from Fillmore) is finishing his mission this week. I'm going to miss this guy!

This next week is also Changes so I'll find out what happens!

Well I gotta go, talk to you all later.

Love Elder Z

Temple Trip

Hey so we had a crazy week!

First off, that butterfly was insane!!  One day when we returned home I walked into my room to brush my teeth and while I was in my room my companion yells for me to come see something gnarly! The biggest black butterfly I have ever seen is just chillin on my door frame! The photo I sent does not show how big it is! It wasn't there when I walked in and we have no idea how it got into our house, but my companion was set on that it's a death omen. 

I, being a somewhat superstitious man, was a little nervous. I wanted to put it in a container or something, but my companion said that we could just leave it there and that it would stay. I told him it was going to disappear and reappear in the worst time and way possible (Like eating his face in the middle of the night)!! Didn't believe me... So we just shut all the indoor doors and we left to work. That ¨Mariposa Traicionera¨ Mana song was stuck in my mind the whole day.  When we got back later that night, lo and behold the monster's not there! Maybe it got out of the house we thought. So then the next day still no sign of it! 

Well 2 days later at night, after our planning session, I'm just writing some nightly poetry, peaceful and everything...  And I move a box that's under a table and THE THING just flies out like a Bat, and of course I'm screaming my head off! My companion just runs into our room and locks the door before I get there. So I go back and see it on the curtain (We only have 1 curtain...). I grab a big plastic container, trap it, and throw the container out the window. There have been no further sightings thus far.  

I've had some crazy dreams here in this house! In one of them I was standing in the shower, and it took me a while to notice that the water had risen to my neck! The shower door was closed, but not water-tight, so the water outside of the shower was like at knee level! I thought, ¨Oh shoot I guess I'll just have to wait for the water to go down the drain before I can open the door and get out!¨ 

We had some way cool lessons this week and Maria Jimenez is going to get married soon so she can be baptized! She's super prepared and goes to church every Sunday and keeps all our commitments!

We watched The Restoration with Alvaro Marquez, but not the short one that's better for investigators. We watched the beginning of the 1 Hr movie because that was all we had access to at the moment.  It still had a powerful impact on him, and he went on and on about his favorite part: when God says ¨This is my beloved Son, hear Him!¨.  We asked him inspired questions and he answered them revealing his growing testimony. We talked about baptism, invited him to be baptized, and he said he would like to, but that he wouldn't set a date.

I don't know if you have seen the District Missionary Videos, but there's this one cowboy dude that says the exact same thing in the video.  I don't know why, but those videos are sooo funny to me!!! It's an Office type of awkward humor!! Hahaha Maybe you gotta be a missionary to get it.

We switched this week's pday to Tuesday because we wanted to go to the Temple, and Temple's are closed on Mondays. It was really cool to visit the Bogotá Temple!! It's amazing how big the Church is and that you can find it anywhere! 

<3 Elder Z

Another Sweet Week

What can I say.... Another sweet week has passed away.

Funza is great and I love our ward! It's full of great families that really love us! 

We contacted a couple people in the street, and a couple of people contacted us in the street... I don't know why, but people somehow always know who we are, and what we do!  And don't worry, we did not get robbed mom. (;  So now we are teaching Edgar amongst other people.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, and I'm too lazy to check, but we have a sweet mall in our area!!   From my experience here in Colombia I'd say that the most popular store, and the most widely recognized is ''EXITO!''.  It means SUCCESS!... And whoever thought up that title was a genius, 'cause it was an Exito!  It's pretty much like a Target but everything is Yellow instead of Red and there's no Target...   So I always buy my food and everything at Exito.

It's cool to see what American stores they have here! I found ''Payless'' Shoe Store the other day in our mall! The mall is also really cool 'cause the bathrooms are free, and that's like insane! Nobody lets ANYTHING be free here! Every other bathroom has people that stand outside of it, and they make you PAY to go in!

We get our money out of the bank every 2 weeks and we use the mall's ATM machines.  Once we went to get money and some team of heavily armed men were there putting in stacks of money! It looked so cool!  Like something from Call of Duty! They walked in a triangle formation and everyone had a gun pointing in each direction! One dude had a pistol and another was scanning the ceiling! That's Colombia for you. There's always more guns than money, when money is involved!

We are teaching Maria Jimenez who pretty much is ready to be baptized and is waiting to be! She just has to get married and her future husband is member. She goes to church every week and we ate lunch at their house yesterday.

I'm starting to get sick of rice!! I know Jake has it worse in Cambodia, but seriously this week was tough!! Today we had the most delicious soup I've ever eaten (or that I can remember eating). It's super famous here in Colombia and a family prepared it for us today as a special treat! I took a foto of it!

Today we got together with some Elders from our zone and we played Futbol!  Colombian weather is super bipolar!! It was soo sunny today!!!  I almost got sunburned!  It's been getting cold and then really hot! It's harder to sleep when it's hot, as I am a light sleeper.

Last night I woke up to kill some mosquitoes and had a little massacre! I kept hearing them fly super close to my ears and then I just got fed up! I killed one and when it hit the floor red blood drops just oozed around it! Human blood! I don't know if it was mine or my companions!  I told my companion in the morning, and as a joke I asked him if his blood was red too!! He replied calmly that yes it was indeed.

Alright sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!

Love Elder Zierenberg

General Conference was Fantastic!!

Alroit E'ryone, (Australian accent) ¿Como están Ustedes?

Estoy muy bien aquí en Funza! 

Well my new area is pretty much my favorite area so far. Parts of it remind me of San Felipe, Mexico for some reason. There's a lot more sun, about 40% sun, 60% rain these days. So that's an improvement. Not that I don't love the rain. 'Cause I always have.  I love how green Colombia is. It's like a big park (or Jungle...).

This week was chevere (Cool)!   So our area includes a village to the North-West side called Madrid (named after Spain's capital) and we pay 2000 pesos ($1) to get there and another 2000 pesos to return. It takes about 20 minutes in the (relatively) safer buses, and less in the sketchier buses. 

Anyways so Madrid... Well the members there act like they’ve been deprived of missionaries because the old missionaries almost never visited them. We went these last 2 weeks and have gotten to know some cool members and we have received a ton of references.

One of the references is Mayerly (pronounced: Majedly).  She is the wife of a less active 25 year old man. The man's family is active and we received the reference from them. Majerly is really interested in our message and wants to know if it's true. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and Bible and praying everyday. We taught her the Restoration and she still has some doubts thanks to the Internet. We invited her to watch General Conference but she was too busy. We will continue working with her and she will receive her answer.

Something funny is that everyone calls white people monos (monkeys) here, which doesn't make any sense because monkeys aren't white... Although no one means any harm, I've been called a monkey at least a million times here in Colombia!!

General Conference was Fantastic!! The talks were so inspiring! I loved how people are beginning to speak in their native languages! That's awesome because now the world won't feel like the church is only for English speakers anymore.

I don't know if you know this, but Elder Scott does his own translations by the way and he is FLUENT!  His talk was one of my favorites because I actually was listening to his voice! And yes I did watch the whole conference in Spanish this time... It's a funny story.  Elder Nieman (District Leader) and I were planning on watching it in the clerk's office but a series of unfortunate events caused us to give in and just watch the smorgasbord through Spanish translators.  First off Bishop Sanchez (I keep thinking of Mr. Sanchez from the Incredibles) locked the keys to the Clerk's office, in the Clerk's office...

We tried the window. Even though it's barred we thought (Bishop included) we could use a broom or something to get the keys from off the computer desk. The window was locked good. As a joke I asked the Bishop how much the window cost and he made a nervous laugh. Although I was only joking he knew I was kind of serious because I really didn't listen to un-emotional Spanish translators.  You KNOW you're missing out when Henry B. Eyering is bawling his eyerings out, and you just hear a monotone voice reading his talk out in Spanish.  Even Ballard's monotone is better!! 

So we watched the first and second Saturday sessions in Spanish and the Bishop said he would try to get another copy from some other leader the next day.  Then I got a brilliant idea: Pretty much I thought if I could get up into the attic, I could lower a hook with a cord through the moveable panels on the ceiling and just fish for the keys. So i connected my keychain to an Internet cord and bent the key ring into a hook and Nieman and I climbed up the attic ladder in the Janitor’s closet. Once in the dusty attic (I can't say ''dusty attic'' without a wheezy-dusty voice) we ducked our heads and walked like hunchbacks over to the Clerk's office vents. I realized then that the whole area over the clerk's office is barred like the windows. Smart. So I moved a small panel and laid down on the bars and lowered the hook into the room. (Mission Impossible) I could easily see the keys on the computer desk and I started swinging the cord towards them. 2 minutes later I got the hook behind the keys and dragged the hook through them, pulling them up carefully whilst Nieman and I chuckled like evil geniuses.

It was so cool and I felt like robbing a bank or something! I learned that the mission can really be a mission sometimes! Jajaja (Latinos laugh with J's)

So we giggled all the way down the ladder, and even harder when Nieman banged his head rather loudly on a shelf in the janitor’s closet. We opened the clerk's office and got Conference ready but there were no computer speakers! Fortunately Nieman had brought his speaker but unfortunately his speaker broke with a pop when he plugged it into the computer! Then the conference speakers just sounded like aliens communicating. So it was broken and useless and Nieman just got kind of quiet and started mumbling about how he wouldn't be able to listen to music anymore... I just wanted to hear Apostles' voices....  So we just walked into the Sacrament room like losers and watched the conference with the Colombians. 

Every talk would start in English and then the loud translation would just bury it. It was super funny when Elder Christofferson said ¡Buenas Dias! I think even the translator laughed a little and he didn't even translate that part!!! Jajaja

One of my favorite talks was by Hugo E Martinez, who spoke in Spanish. So it was the only talk to be without a translation.

He made a joke that none of you English listeners would have gotten. He said ''El que sirve, sirve.'' A play on words in the Spanish world. (meaning: He that serves, functions or is acceptable). I thought it was hilarious but I guess you just had to be there.

Anyways I love you guys, Elder Zierenberg (The sane one)

Our Chapel

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

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