well.
This past week was a pretty stellar Yopal week.
We caught iguanas, we fought mixes of sun and rain, we hit a RECORD
BREAKING NUMBER OF INVESTIGATORS IN CHURCH, HAD A SICK BAPTISMAL
SERVICE, had a swwet halloween activity at the church, taught some sweet
lessons and helped some awesome people accept baptismal dates, and we
had transfers but I am staying in Yopal with Elder Angulo! We are gonna
go CRAZY.
I have learned something about
Colombia. Literally every single party that they have, EVERY SINGLE ONE
there is a huge sound system and people dancing salsa. I love it so
much. Huge sound systems are like a big deal here. Like I have seen so
many people that can have like a really humble house, eat simple food,
and live complicated lives of hard hard work where they don´t earn much
money but they ahve teh coolest sound system you have ever seen and it
is sooo cool. I just love people here. They just love to have fun and
live it up and just be happy (just sometimes I wish they did it a bit
more cleanly...hahaha but little by little). I officially challenge
everyone who reads this letter to listen to some good salsa music and
see a big group dancing and not just want to get up and go crazy. I am
determined to start a US salsa revolution. Catch on now or get LEFT
BEHIND
I remember that before I came out,
someone told me, "You will see how much your focus changes. Your whole
life is focused on other people. Everything you do, say, or think is
based on others. You will just see how much it means just to take a
moment and like make yourself a glass of Kool-Aid and feel like the most
lucky person in the world." I thought I understood what he meant when
he told me that ahha but I was suuuuuuuuuuuuper wrong. the other day I
splurged and made a few pancakes in the morning for my comp and I and I
just felt like just soo treated and pampered. I think of how boring my
life was back in the day and how it was so focused on me and that makes
me feel weird. The mission kinda makes you think things differently I
guess. That´s pretty cool, helping other people is like the bomb, 4SURE
This
week I learned a lot about Christlike attributes and what they really
are. With some stuff that was going down, we had to sit down and talk
about what was going on, what needed to happen, and what we needed to
change. We made some realizations that often, our understanding of
things is very basic and weak. When we think of patience, we think of
not talking about. When we think of charity, we think of service. When
we think of humility, we think of not acting out. while all of those
things are great and true and help show and help develop those
attributes, they are only a smaaaaalllll part. It is a really shallow
understanding and application of those attributes. Patience isn´t just
not talking back, but it is not even getting mad. Charity isn´t just
serving, but it is the feeling behind all of the service that might be
rendered. Humility isn´t and outside action, it is an inner
understanding of our incompetence and need for our Heavenly Father´s
help in all things. I think that deeper we understand things, the more
God can help us to make them part of our lives. If I want to be truly
patient, I need to understand what it REALLY is and then I can start
trying to at least fake-it-til-you-make-it. I dunno. Sometimes I think
about stuff. I feel like I am starting ot understand a bit of what God
really wants from us and it is so much more than what I had thought of
all these years. The good thing is that along with that undertstanding
of His divine expectations, I have come to get a better understanding of
the divine help that He offers us in Christ. I just feel hope and
happiness. The plan is so perfect that we never have a good reason to be
sad or hopeless. We should just feel grateful and ready to do our part,
little by little.
As I wrote that last line, I realized that all that probs sounds pretrty cheesy. Sorry if you´re lactose-intolerant
JOKE OF THE WEEK: (latin humor is not like gringo humor)
ONCE UPON A TIME there was a chicken who breathed out of his foot. One day he stepped in a puddle. He drowned.
my
comp´almost fell on the floor laughing when that joke was told. I just
used my profesional fake laugh. I think I wasn´t tired enough to
appreciate it. OH well hahah.
EAT PANCAKES, THEY ARE DELICIOUS. I eat them with condensed milk, because syrup is expensive here.
Elder Prack (almost 21 months here and they still can´t say my name)
