Missing Elder Perez

Gosh I love you guys so much! Once again thank you so much for the

letters and support that I get from you every week. It is truly a

blessing that very few missionaries have here.  I love you guys sooo

much!

Well I´ll just cut straight to the chase.  Elder Perez is gone:( gosh dangit

I´ve never felt anything like this after a companion leaves me behind

in an area. Usually I´m super happy and excited but now I´m just kind

of in a funk and missing him. WE just worked so well together, we

never fought or argued once. He didn´t even annoy me at one moment

during the last 3 months that we spent together. Gosh it was just

because we both were able to get along easily with mostly everyone, so

when we were together it was just so chill and relaxed, and yet such a

busy and hectic time with all that we had to do and get accomplished.

He was the very first companion that I had that we would just stay up

and talk all night. Haha even when we were in companionship study we

would just get on a gospel topic and talk for the whole hour not

really studying anything but those were the best companionship studies

because we really became friends and that united us and made us work

really well together. We both this morning confessed to each other

that he has been my favorite companion and I also was his favorite. He

left to Bucaramunga this morning to finish his mission there.  He has 3

changes left so it’s pretty probable that he will die there. He is also

not zone leader anymore. As for me, I get to be with Elder Landa from

Peru. He was my zone leader in Cucuta for 2 changes so I hope that we

can work even harder for these next 2 changes that I will be with him,

he gets here tomorrow morning so I am in trio with Elder Hicken (who

went to the salt mines with me) and his new companion. Elder Hicken

has also become one of my best friends here in the mission.  He’s from

Logan haha. Went to Logan high and was friends with Spencer Mckay lol.

So whenever I talk about some of my cache valley friends he usually

knows who I´m talking about. It´s just weird because I kinda feel like

dad felt when I left to come here. (obviously on a scale a lot smaller)

But I know that I can have a better next 2 changes here then the last

2 changes.  I know it´s possible but I just can´t see how it could get

any better than it was with my compy Elder Perez. One thing I can say

though, is that I enjoyed every minute of our time together. I don´t

have any regrets about how we spent our time together, and that is a

great feeling and these last 3 months that just passed by like the

blink of an eye will be such a cherished memory:) Honestly there are a

lot of good things out there and a lot of good feelings, but there is

no better feeling than getting home at 9 o clock planning, being super

tired physically but knowing that you did some good work and feeling

just spiritually full. Like just such a huge peace that we had a good

day, and we did a good job for the Lord:) I had a lot of those nights

with Elder Perez.

So I´ll tell you how our baptism went this week, yea it was a little

crazy lol. So we got to see the baptism of the bishop’s sister in law.

And guess who baptized her....yeah of course the bishop! haha he’s

awesome. BUT so I guess there was a marriage going on on Friday night,

the night of the baptism. We didn´t really think anything of it, just

that we´d have the baptism in the baptismal room and the wedding party

would be in the cultural hall. Well we were wrong! so the baptism was

supposed to start at 7, and we got there at 5 to start filling up the

font but NO. I guess the caterer needed to use the baptismal room to

serve the food (yes the kitchen is in the room where the baptismal

font is, a little weird but there you have it) but he wasn´t using the

stove so I asked him politely if we could help him move his things to

another room in the church and he got all mad and huffy and told us

no, haha he was even a member and told us no. Not wanting to argue I

called the bishop and was ready to call the stake president lol, the

bishop told me to just kick him out, but to do it nicely and we could

all figure it out. By this time it was 6 and we hadn´t even started to

fill the font. We told the member that we had direct orders from the

bishop to use the room for the baptism and not for the wedding party.

So he gave in but was pretty mad(I still don´t know why, it was

just a room) so we felt like he was not liking us very much. We helped

him move all of his stuff and food, to another room which was the same

except it didnt have the stove or a countertop and it took about 15

minutes. So I turn the hot water on in the font not bothering to check

it because usually it is always hot. Then we organized everything and

cleaned the room and got everything ready. All of this took about till

7:15 and no one had showed up. So we just waited a few minutes and

everyone showed up at once wanting to do the baptism quick. Then the

bishop had the idea to feel the water, it was ice cold lol. I guess

the hot water heater didn´t turn on...oops. Then he kind of

reprimanded us for not checking, my guess is that he did not want to

get into an ice bath (shay:) haha on a dark drurry day when it was

already raining. So he spent about an hour trying to fix the hot water

heater, but his efforts were fruitless! haha so he just bucked up like

a coast guard lifesaving swimmer and stepped into the water, the

investigator too got in. And after all that time and hassle, basically

yelled wow this is freezing! Everyone started to laugh and he baptized

her and everything worked out fine. Afterwards Perez told me, well I

felt like halfway through everyone hated us, but now it’s all good. It

was a good little adventure for us:)

So today I didn´t really have much of a p-day, we had quite a few

changes in the zone and since my companion left early this morning I

have been trying to get everyone where they need to be, coordinating

with all parts of the mission. And taking lots of taxi rides lol, and

here the price is not negotiable so I have spent more money then I

would have liked. Haha funny story before I have to go, one hermana

got changed to go to Cucuta. So the bus left at 3 and I told her she

needed to be there at 2 because if she got there at 3 she was going to

miss the bus. Well we went to the bus station at 2 to drop an elder

off and pick up another one. And they hadn´t arrived yet. So I called

again and they said they were just going out the door. Haha well that

was just a little white lie. Because the assistant called me at a

quarter to 3 and asked me why the hermanas still hadn´t gotten to the

bus station. Well that made me nervous so I called them and they were

still in the house lol. So I told them that they were going to have to

find their own way to Cucuta because they missed the bus. I think they

met the bus on the outskirts of Bogota but am not sure because they

haven´t called, nor will, nor do I want them to.

Well I sure love you guys, I got a good kick out of shay at booster

club:) she is so funny, but thats just shaylen for ya:) as awesome as

can be. Love ya toots!

-Elder Crook