Monday, November 5, 2012

CAMBIOS: They'll knock the wind right out of ya!!

Well if you’re wondering where I´m sitting right now, I´m in Tunja, Colombia. It´s not Sogamoso but its pretty close, like 30-45 minutes I think. (Ask Moises he probably knows better) But it´s supposedley the coldest part of the mission. To me it feels the same as Bogota but I think it might get a little bit colder during the nights .Ok so I broke the big news.  Now i´m going to tell you about my best week yet that I´ve had in the mission. 
Well last Sunday we were expecting to have a baptism of one of our investigators named Karen, but we were really working hard with another girl named Leidy (yeah I know Lady lol but its a common name down here) She has been one of our eternal investigators that just was too scared to make commitments. So in our lesson on Sunday we just decided to put it in the Lord’s hands and let him do what He does best: answer prayers. So the whole time we just talked about prayer, and beat it like a dead horse over and over. Well it came to be Monday night and we got a call from her(around 10) saying that she had prayed, opened the bible to a random page and found her answer. You can´t even imagine how happy we were, me and Da Silva were jumping all around the house and screaming like little girls lol. saying things like ¨wow God really answers prayers, and  the Book of Mormon is true!! It really is. So that was just about one of the happiest moments of my mission. So yup we had 2 baptisms last Saturday. But I´m sure not done yet.   Wednesday we had the interview with Leidy and she PASSED! haha and it was also Halloween, so we went out trick or treating lol. Here to say trick or treat they say ¨quiero paz, quiero amor, quiero dulces por favor¨ or I want peace, I want love,  I want candies please. Lol sounds better in spanish. But anyways we took sweet pictures with some guys in the street like an indian and pirates haha. And people (members and investigators gave us tons of candy!!) haha just what I like. So yeah that was Wednesday,  Halloween night. Then Friday night we had interviews of the other areas which took all night until like 10:30 which was not good lol. Because Saturday morning me and Da Silva had to wake up at 5 in the morning to fill up the font (and no we didn’t use the kitchen with buckets lol GAGE) haha but we got there to fill it cause the baptism was at 9 in the morning. It was the only time that Karen could be baptized that day. Haha so after we got there, I laid on the benches in the chapel and slept for an hour, and left a giant drool spot on the cushion. I tried to clean it but I think it stained it lol. So at 8 we went and ate breakfast at a bakery and then at 9 had the baptism. It was the best baptism I have ever been in, She shared her testimony afterwards and how she has had a tough life but this is the best thing she has ever done. I felt the spirit so strong and I just can´t believe how much my testimony has grown because of my investigators. Then we had another garage sale for the young women lol. And during the night we had 5 other baptisms. The other area had 4 and we had one. The baptism of Leidy. It was soooooo great. Oh another thing is that all our investigators have chosen Elder Da Silva to baptize them but every service we have had they chose me to give a talk lol, So I have given a few talks before the baptisms during this change. Man then we had the testimony meeting of a lifetime! All of the recent converts went up and bore the BEST testimonies and one of our investigators too. We told them all that we would bear our testimonies first if they would do it too. Haha it sure worked! I can remember back home I would never bear my testimony during Fast Sunday. But now I´m doing it in SPANISH! Its a great feeling. I have never felt so much love for other people in my life. Goodness gracious I love my ward with all my heart, from all the members to all of the investigators I can feel Christ’s love for me.  It’s just something you can´t describe.
Then came the cambios...I had been praying like crazy to God to let us both stay in the area for one more change, we have been on fire! But we got back to the house last night and I learned that Elder Da Silva is going to  be Zone Leader of the zone that we were in, and I get sent to Tunja,  about 3-4 hours outside of Bogota. Man it hit me like a steamroller. Knowing that I probably  won’t ever be back in the ward that I started in. But I am also exited for this change. My new comp is Elder Ortiz from Paraguay (he was selected to tryout for the Paraguayan national soccer team) and I think I might kill him. Mission speaking that is.  He’s way cool but he’s only got 2 more changes so I´m pretty sure I´ll be his comp when he dies. And I think I´ll spend Christmas here which is good cause my area is more or less pretty close to Sogamoso. So today wasn’t much of a p-day.  I just got up at 6 (yeah i went to bed at 2 last night cause that’s when I got finished packing) and got on a bus at 10 and got here in Tunja at 4, yeah I was alone on the bus for most of the way but I felt like a boss cause I´m a gringo in Colombia that can get around on his own (haha all I had to do was get off the bus at the right stop lol) but hey THIS IS COLOMBIA.  Oh mom can you buy a Nasa size S shirt and a Fresno bulldogs hat for Elder Da Silva? You can take money out of my account,  I dont care.  I just want to get him something for Christmas because he really is like my best friend here. I love him to death so if you could do that I would really appreciate it. Oh let me know what happens with Coltons papers. AND WAY TO GO SHAYLEN YOU ARE SO AWESOME!!! KEEP IT UP BABY!!! I love you all sooooooo very much and am very very very exited to start a new cambio in a new area with yet another new Comp!!! Love you guys soooooo  much!!

                                       -Elder Crook

No comments:

Post a Comment