10/31/16 -- AM Emails from Connor

I'm on right now for a bit, but also at 4:30 I believe. I need to reprove my companion about how much he uses computers but my Spanish isn't good enough.

So my area of is called Granada. I'm in Bogota, in District Cedros.  So the actual place is Bogotá, in a smaller area of Bogota called Cedros.  My companion has been in this area a month and a half, but he's been out one year.  He's 27 so he is an old bloke.

We live in an apartment meant for four but just for us so it is nice.  He writes English but he doesn't understand or speak it.  It's really difficult for the Latinos to pronounce English for some reason. 

I should study Spanish but I haven´t been.  I read Book of Mormon or Bible for thirty minutes, memorize for thirty minutes, then companionship study a lesson, commandment, or chapter of Preach My Gospel. Everybody here is super catholic, so they usually don´t want to hear about the gospel

So my first Sunday was really interesting. We had a new investigator come. and he stayed all three hours. His name is Diego Garcia. (lots of people here are Garcera, Garcia, Ramirez). Anyways, he liked church I think. I gave a talk in Spanish about missionary work.  It was probably five minutes like a youthie.  But the special part about Sunday, it was missionary Sunday. There is only five young boys, about eleven, and four older guys 22-25 years old.  All of them pretended to be missionaries with us.  So we woke up an hour early, went to the chapel at 6:30 am, and had personal study, companion study, and other stuff with them. Then during Sacrament Meeting,we sang "We are all enlisted".  It was pretty bad. Also, there is nobody who can play piano, so a dude who plays violin accompanies everything.  

"Chevere." 
Chevere means lit or cool or dank. Really common word here.  After church, all the missionaries had lunch at different houses.  Then went and visited two in-actives, 2 investigators. We didn't get in any doors, but we found a new person to teach who lives near one of the in-actives. We went from 12 to 5 pm, and at 5 pm, we all regrouped and had a Testimony Meeting, and then went home.  We had dinner, then went to talk with an inactive of like twenty-five years. She runs a shoe shop. Anyway, we went there, I gave her a Book of Mormon, she said she might come to church next Sunday. 

All good. At closing time, the guy next to her shop needed help reaching his little tarp to dangle in front of his shop to "close" it.  So I tried to help since I'm way taller.  I saw that the inactive lady had a footstool, so I went to grab it. But when I did, I bonked my head really hard on a glass shelf, and gave myself a 3 - 4 inch cut on my forehead. So now I look really stupid. And I have a blister on one of my toes also. 

I don't need a new jacket.  Everything is fine, just super messed up from the rain.  A new copy of my patriarchal blessing would be good, but my other two are readable. We use Internet cafe's which are all over Bogota. I am not sure what part we are in.  But I think we're really close to the bottom half. I think we touch Bogota South Mission. But my Area is called Cedros. Few members, huge area.

I can communicate really well. I think I got the easiest South American Mission for white people, because they speak pretty clearly mostly and I can understand probably 70%, but I can´t respond very good. 

Got $60 bucks in Bogotard money (200 mil pesos). That's enough for a lot of bread from the store, milk, and some meat.  Milk is pretty scarce here, and comes in a 450 ml bag. It´s super weird.  And they serve all drinks at room temperature. So it is also gross if you don't buy it from the store.  Anyway, my Spanish is coming along.  I can tell my problem is that I need to develop a vocabulary. I can kinda conjugate, but I don´t know any words.

Good news though.  

We have four baptisms set for the 3rd of December.  But probably it won't happen because they didn't attend church this week, and they would need to attend all the rest of the weeks until then to be eligible for baptism.  It's my first family. It's a grandma, mom, and son and daughter. Leonor, Lucy, Diego and Allison. 

They fed us rice with milk, and it tastes a lot like oatmeal. It tasted really good.  Most of the food here is super bland. I miss the CCM, and the ability to have a lot of milk with frosted flakes for breakfast and dinner.  Here it's a little for breakfast, a lot a lot for lunch, and a bit of bread for dinner.  

I like the area, but I really wish we had bicycles.  It would make it really easy, although I´m not sure what we´d do with them once we arrive at an appointment.  But yeah, Colombia is very different from America, and I can´t believe that I've almost done two months. I also can´t believe that I have twenty-two more to go.

Also we blessed Leonor, and on the missionary Sunday.   I gave a blessing to the mom of a recent convert family. All good.

My companion, Elder Collahua, is from Lima Peru. He is 27 years old and he is a really interesting missionary.  I just need to work to love everybody. 

We teach this really old dude named Alfredo, and he doesn't remember any of the lessons we've given before. He's stuck in his house too, so he can't attend church.  But He did accept a baptismal date.  But he doesn't remember.  ha ha

I'll write for my blog tonight, I think I do need a card reader. 
I'll tell you for sure tonight, after I check if i can upload pictures.

I saw the group email. I will fire an email into it.

4:30 tonight.

One problem I do have, is all of a sudden my camera screen isn't working. It'll turn on, show me the waterproofing stuff, but afterwords It doesn't go into picture taking mode. It's charging at home right now, so I guess i'll see.

A word here that means rich. Pupi means rich, and Cheche (chichi) I'm not sure, means either crappy, or pee.

See you at 4:30 pm.