Week 68

Okay well so this week in the promised land ...

Martes: We went to give service to a few members and well like Seth the service isn't exactly what I had in mind. They told me they needed help with english so i said of course, only they really didn't need help with that much all they did was record my voice . I had to read a few things so that was interesting, but cool , even though they are using my voice , I might become famous in Colombia jaja jk , but that is a good idea to make money! 

Miercoles: We had to practrice singing a song for a conference that we were supposed to have with Elder Montaya , however his visa didnt come on time so it was cancelled, and now he isn't coming to our mission sad day:( , but I know that everything has it purpose and maybe he had to do something more important , it actually was good for us (see viernes) 

Then we had a lesson with a recent convert who hasn't come to church in like 4 month , but we are working on that she is awesome reading the BoM and everything.

Jueves: We had a lesson with A_ and we talked about the importance to come to church and all that good stuff , and well we will see , but hopefully she will start coming , i dont know why it is so hard to go to church! Than we taught her son english , and that went well , and then he agreed that we can start teaching him the lessons too! Later we had intercambios with the zone leaders because my comp had to interview someone, who was baptized this Sat. Anyways while with Elder Lopez we were walking and this guy appeared out of no where , and aksed if we spoke  english because he trying to start an english class, and well we also talked a lot about happiness it was super awesome , and he wants to learn more so that is awesome! 

Viernes: Well we got a call in the morning had to go to give a blessing , and well it was pretty bad , and no one could take him to the hospital so we went with him and were there all day , but luckily he is back after being there a few days, but he is feeling a lot better!( this was the day Edler Montaya was supposed to come ) God works in mysterious ways:) 

Sabado:We went to one of  the baptisms they had in the ward it was cool !Then we had a lesson with B_, and then gave her friend a blessing for her health and we have an appointment set up to teah her again!

Domingo: We had a super cool lesson with a less active family , well the husband isnt member , but he listened to us and well excepted the baptism invitation  which is awesome , now we just have to help them get married so that will be a tough one , but we are totally going to do everything  in our power to help them out!

love you all have

 a good week !

Elder Strong

Week 67

 

alright so this week,

Martes: well lets just say a day full of running 

 

Miercoles: We had our zone meeting ,thank heavens I'm done with that , it was great to be listening to them instead of giving the capacitaion. But there are times when I actually miss being a zone leader , but I know I am here , because God wants me here! Anyways as we were contacting this day we ran into some who was trying to talk to people about this bienestar program , so we stopped , and talked to him to see if he might be interested , in our message , so after talking with him for a while he tried selling something in cup that looked like water , but then we talked about the word of wisdom with them , and it was cool , but I think they only listened to us because they thought we were interseted in their product.

 

Jueves: We had lunch with some members and the daughter , makes cupcakes , so I shared an example about how the Gospel is like a cupcake it is so good , and how we are all happy when we recieve a cupcake, and how we need to share a cupcake to help others taste the goodness! Then we had a meeting with WML (ward mission leader) which went really well , he is really great and has really good desires to work hard in the missionary work , so hopefully we can get the ball roling but it would be so much easier if we had all the members helping us with this work!

 

Sabado: We went to the top of the mountian to do a service project , it was really awesome, and we moved a lot of bricks , but it was super good, doing something new for a change, so if you guys ever need service please call the missionaries Im sure they would be more than willing to help! Oh then while we were contacting we ran into someone from salt lake , and well he lived here for 7 years working here , and he asked me what I wanted to study , I told him sports science , and he was like well if you want you can come back and work here in our sports programs here , I told him that I was only a missionry while here , but he seemed pretty nice , because he has heard the Elders before , so he was like you guys are really dedicated , and that is whoo I need , so that was kind of cool jaja. 

 

Domingo : well the family we had lunch with , they made us cupckaes , because they said it was a very inspiring example jaja , super cool! Then we went to the mountian to look for a reference but didnt even find it!

 

Lunes : we had go to immigration to tell them that we moved , and I ran into Elder Carson , and looks like thay are going to have 2 Baptisms this week ; even though I wont be there it was great to hear about my Old Investigators in Chia :) 

 

Week 66 Hard week! Opening a new area

Well this week has been a little hard , but not too bad...

 

Martes: Well we basically did a lot of walking getting to know the area, because my comp nor I know the area , and the missionaries before didnt do a great job working in the area , so that is always fun , but I know that it will be hard but not impossible just another challenge from the mission to help me out ! 

Miercoles: So we had our district meeting , and my comp is the district leader which is cool , because Im leaving with 3 leaders the zone leaders and my comp ,and well Im the only with out a leadership postion , but it is great, being able to focus more on my area , and helping the people here, so that is awesome. Oh so Elder Johnson is also in the district and the three of us were in the same district in the CCM jaja how cool does that get. Anyways later we went exploring the area a little more conatcting and looking for directions , but not too much luck , but this part of Bogota is super cool it reminds me a lot of the states, and I found a Barrio named Chico , super legit , so I visted Chico a few times this week jaja ;) 

Jueves : we had a lesson with N_ , he is mas o menos interested in the gospel , he only really wants to know what it is , but we are being really patient with him , because his faith in God is really weak , so we explained a lot, about god , and then Adam and Eve , because he had  a lot of questions  about the unjust in the world , but he is super cool , and I think one day he will come to know and understand the truth better, but the spirit was so strong, and he promised to pray for an answer so that was super chevere! 

Viernes: We had a lesson with a less active lady , she actually knew the church in las vegas , but was baptized here ,she is super awesome though , and plus it was a great lesson , then she  asked if we could come talk with her son the next day , because he wants to learn english, so we said, yes por su puesto, even though they live pretty far from the house it is definately worth it!

Sabado: We talked with her son J_ he is super awesome , about my age , and well so we are going to teach him english and the gospel too! IT is  going to be so legit!

Domingo: Well church went well , this ward is pretty big , and there are alot of people who speak better english than I do jaja , but it is cool , it is always a little hard starting to work in a new ward , but they just called a new ward mission leader so that is cool ,and he is ready to help us  get the work going here!

Hoy: We went to a mall , ate mexican food , and had ice cream , pretty relaxed day! 

Week 65 transferred to Bogota

Well we had transfers today, and I'm leaving to Bogota which isn't too far from here , no more zone leader , for now , and Im going to open an area , but it was good being with Elder Carson for  2 weeks probably my favorite two weeks in the entire mission , but it was way short . Well I think I might be able to write later today , so just keep posted. Also dad do you know anyone with the last name huff from Idaho ? Also Elder Carson nows some Ricks too!

Wow that sounds like a pretty busy week! Yeah it is kind of sad when people dont want to hear the message you want to share or want your help , but thats how it is sometimes everyone , has their agency:) And lots of Ballers in the family , I think we are going to have to play an epic game when we all get back . and kayden will destroy us all jaja:) That is really cool that the activity went really well , and it was really sprirtaul! 

Okay so this week went super great ! 

Well I left my paper that I wrote everything down on so I dont remember anything in order but I will tell of some of the highlights of my week...

So Tuesday , we went to lunch , with a family from the ward , and with out us asking she invited two of her neighbors, so they came over and ate lunch with us the whole time we were talking with them they had lots of questions about the church, and missionaries and all that. Later after lunch we shared a message with them , it was so great , and the sister bore her testimony about how she became a memeber , it was so amazing probabaly one of the best experiences i have experienced on my mission , so spiritual ! Then they asked us, ¨ when can we give you guys lunch¨ super awesome !!! 

Now they have a FHE planned this week , I hope they will get baptized ! 

Another Neat experince , almost the same thing , the memeber invited us over and he invited a friend , so we ended up talking about the gospel , but at first he really wasnt too interested but as we talked with him and also one of the members cousins who was there who isn't  a member either , they became interested , and now ECasrson has a lesson with them this week! This is how the missionary work should be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Later Sunday we had a great meeting the third hour of Church, basically we talked all about missionary work , and now every family is committed to have at least one convert by the end of the year! That was so awesome! Elder Carsoon and I shared simple Ideas that the members can do to share the Gospel, so this is for you guys back home ! Get READY! 

1.) Invite them to Dinner, with the Missionaries

2.) Intivite them to an activity and introduce them to the missionaries

3.) Invite them to an FHE with the missionaries

4.) Always use mormon words :) and invite them to learn more

Anyways Well now I'm in alambra , in Bogota , my companion .is elder Carrion from Peru. he is pretty great. Right now we are openning an area, and we are living with the zone leaders here, ELDER TIPTON , we just cant get away from each other jaja:) Anyways that was pretty mcuh the highlights of the week , but the week was awesome ,, Im going to miss working with Elder Carson so much , but the Lord knows best ! :) 

I love you have a great week , and share the gospel , use these ideas from above , they work because Ive seen them work!!

con much amor ,

Elder Fuerte:)

Week 64, back to work, lots of miracles

Wow I guess I should get used to hearing about basketball every week jaja:) How pv soccer doing ? Is it almost playoffs ? That is awesome that you have that experince of going and seeing less actives Mom because , even our smallest efforts make a lot of difference even though it may not seem like it. So Im not the only one who dosent like it jaja :) But maybe ill give it a try when i get back , well maybe we will see:) 

One crazy week filled with Adventure , and Mircales :).....

Martes: We read a letter that president sent to us a missionaries, it basically told us , how we committed and made a promise with the lord to serve him for 2 years and not less than that. Because I guess a lot of missionaries  are asking President if they can go home a month early to go to school, or other things in their lives, which is kind of sad that they dont want to take advantage of the 2 short years they have to serve100% in this work! So we talked about the story of Peter as a fisher men, and how he left his nets to serve Jesus , and how it was forever , not just while he was alive , the question Jesus stated, Peter do you love me more than these? So that was cool I learned a lot from it !:) Well we didnt have a lot of luck with lessons so we contacted a lot which didnt go to well either , then my comp told me , we are going to contact someone who is going to get baptized right now! Then he asked me which way should we go, so i looked to left then toward the right , and I went with What i felt toward the right, after 20 steps we ran into someone who had lived in the states and had listened to the missionaries and he wants us to come by!!! God does work Mircales!!!!

Miercoles : lots of contacting , and then we had a lesson with S_ and L_ we read the BoM which went well.

Jueves: Well it was really interseting , so we contacted a lot of people who knew a little english so now we are thinking of starting an english class so we will see. And then we went to another part out side of the town and while looking for lessactives, we found some who was moving so we helped her with her things , and after word she invited us to a soda , and we talked about the gospel with her, and now we have a lesson with her this week! It was like an Ammon experience :) 

Viernes: We went to Cajica a small town outside of Chia , and well on the way we almost fell out of the bus because the door was open and the bus driver doesnt know how to drive , but luckily we didnt fall out:) Then while looking for less actives in Cajica , we ran into two guys who seemed pretty scketchy . and they started to ask a lot of questions of who we are and what we do , and well after talking to them for a while , they also invited us to a soda, so after I was thinking great we are down , but we went , and talked , a little longer , and a as we were talking , a lady walked by but , and she has been   searching for their church , because she had just moved from Bolivia so that was a mircale , to find her , and set up a date with her to come vist her and her family , because her family aren't memebers. And then I forgot my wallet in the house and only had enough for one person back to Chia and my comp had spent all his money , except a few coins, and anyways, after a lesson we had I told him I didnt have enough money to get us home so he pulled out his wallet , and he had just enough for ,us  to get home . I have seen the hand of Lord in so may ways this week! 

Sabado Well we had a good day contacting , and a few good lessons, also my comp plays lacross and the sport isnt common is colombia at all , but we found two people who had lacross sticks and we were able to talk with them. so that was cool! 

Domingo: They talked a lot about the Sabbath Day so that was cool , because how you guys have been talking a lot about it too. it is really important I guess! 

Anyways that was my amazing week in Chia even though we ddint have a lot of lesson , we defintaley felt the spirit guide us this week!

I love you all so much , have an amazing week!

Elder Fuerte:)