Moore on a Mission in Medellin, Colombia: Week 04

Now that the Internet is working great I will recap what happened last week.

Question and Answers

No, I am not ready to leave the CCM, I have trouble understanding some of the Latinos, for example, some of the Venezuelans are hard to understand for me. Spanish is coming along but I still sound like a Gringo. Hopefully one day I will be able to speak without a Gringo accent. Yes, I am really bored of eating rice daily, today is the 43 time we have eaten rice, it also hasn't helped with the digestive system. I guess I will have to break my rules and eat some of that green stuff. My favorite scripture this week that I study was in Doctrine and Covenants where it talks about the Godhead, I really liked it and it clarified things for me. Also, I have written down some awesome talks that the CCM president has spoken. My teachers are really good, I learn so much from them and they help me out a lot. The schedule is good, I don't mind getting up early, it is just tiring sometimes because we are in class so long. Yes, I am loving the mission, but I do understand how you say it is hard sometimes. Yes, a different "hard" then when I wrestled. So we are going to the Temple today for P-day, I love going so much. No, I am not cold at all it is like California weather, I don't even put on a sweater. Bro Watkins wrote me, I am very thankful that I had him as a leader.

Recap of Week 3

So we were supposed to go get our visa, but there were some issues with our paperwork so we didn't go. We went over this one missionaries letter with the CCM president, it was a really sad letter where he just talked bad about his companion and how complained and said how much they didn't get along. I think his mom just emailed it out without reading it. The CCM president asked the missionary why he was talking bad about his companion and asked him if he knew his story and where he came from. The missionary said no, and the President challenged him to truly get to know him. Once he stopped criticising his companion and tried to really get to know him, they really started to get along. When his mission was over he wrote our CCM president and said thank you, that once he got to know him he ended up being one of his best companions he had on the mission.

On Saturday we went out proselyting with a missionary from the Bogata South mission. I think he was the Assistant to the President (AP), he was a great teacher and example to us. It was awesome, we got to knock doors (throw rocks at the door) to track out people. We went and talked to a young man whose name is Javier. He missed his baptism date because he had to work the past few Sundays. He lives in a one room place with just a bed in his room. We talked and the AP shared some scriptures and recommitted him to baptism, it was awesome! The only thing that sucked that day was that we were fasting and we walked down a few streets that had food vendors all over and it smelled so good, it was pure torture.

In class, they talked about really understanding our investigators and being their friend. This is covered pretty much every class. It is really cool and you understand that it is essential in the Lords work. I know I would be really good with this if I was an English speaking missionary, but obviously, there is a reason I need to learn Spanish. Maybe one day I will be able to speak really good Spanish. It might take all 23 months but hopefully, by then I will speak like a real "Spanish" person and you will all be impressed.

So for our recreation time, bump out (basketball) has overtaken four square. Some of these Elders are over competitive and don't know how to lose. They play a little too aggressive and take it to serious. I got bumped out by a sister missionary (she is really good) and I was like nice shot Sister. Some of the other Elders started giving me a hard time but I just laughed, it didn't bother me at all.

Recap of Week 4

We did a lot of service this week, it was really fun and we got to do different stuff. Well, all of the Latins and the 6 week Nortes (Americans) left the CCM for the mission field. E. Macdonald and I switched rooms and we thought we were going to get a big room but ended up with a small room. We got some new Latinos in our room and they are really cool. We had hot dogs and Doritos today, it was so great to have "American" food. It wasn't as good as Costco, but I ain't complaining. Everybody complains about the eggs here but I really like them. So we had a little miracle the other day. We were at breakfast and usually, the best thing we eat is we dunk this bread that is really good that they bring in from a Panaderia (Bread Store). Anyways we get to breakfast and there is no bread and everybody is all sad, and we begin to eat our breakfast all disappointed because we didn't get our manna from heaven. Then all of a sudden (cut camera to slow motion) in walks the ladies from the bread store, (pan out to the cafeteria) everybody jumps up screaming and applauding, giving thanks for the little miracle of the bread! The bread ladies are our heroes! We had salmon for lunch the other day and it was really good. We had "English" day this week, where we teach the Latinos Book of Mormon stories in English and teach them new words and sentences. Macdonald gave a talk in church and he was stellar! He did awesome! We went and did our immigration papers. We listened to a talk by E. Holland and he talked about when we return home we need to continue to grow and progress in the church. Don't think that we are done, because we have arrived, we need to continue to progress. He said that like 30% of returned missionaries become inactive, so don't be one of those. I couldn't believe it, I was like how is that even possible.

Well that is all for the week,
Love you all and miss you,
Os Amo mucho!

Elder Moore