Moore on a Mission in Medellin, Colombia: Week 08 - Pereira Week 2

Q&A

1. How is the work going?

A: I am still learning and have a lot to learn, but the work is going great!

2. Are you serving in two wards or just one?

A: I am serving in solo una (just one)

3. How are you eating?

Good, I found some really good food here to buy and make, and the members feed us well, its just we always have rice, rice, rice and fried bananas at every meal.

4. What did you study this week?

I was studying and it I really learned that JESUS LOVES ME and KNOWS ME PERSONALLY!

5. New words you learned this week in Spanish?

Lets just say we were teaching about a certain subject matter and I really didn't want to learn any of these words, but I guess you kind of have to when teaching about this subject and the investigators asks questions about this subject.

WEEKLY RECAP

We did a family home evening and taught them how to preserve to the end. We used a great object lesson with flowers and water. We had them write down their goals on this paper and made flowers out of them and put them in the water and it slowly opened up. Props to my Big Bro JT Moore for sending some great Object Lessons. I have used a bunch already to help people and kids understand gospel doctrine.

E. Dawson is leaving home in a few weeks and he said he would give me his cool "Plan of Salvation" teaching lesson. It is this wooden objects that teach the Plan of Salvation, showing where did we come from, why we are here, and where we are going. It is made out of wood and is really cool, I am super excited to get that from him. He is from Arizona and is super cool.

SIZE

So my companion is from Peru (He is a super awesome missionary and great teacher), but next to me he is super short. Also must Colombians are also short in stature. Anyways whenever we go to anybodies house they are always calling me a giant and are always talking about how big I am. They always ask how tall I am, I am not sure in the metric system they use. Then they see how big my feet are and start saying funny stuff, like did I float in my shoes here, or did I take a few steps to get here. I have lost weight though, so I am not as BIG as I used to be.

CROCS

So one cool thing is that I brought Crocs to walk around in at the apartment on the mission. What is even cooler is that Crocs are the style here, everyone wears crocs down here, so I am styling with the Crocs trend that is going on down here in Colombia.

Drugs and Danger

So dad you know how you said Pereira was a bad area of the mission from what you read on the internet. Well I was like talking to everybody and my comp and they were like no, Pereira is a very safe place. So I am like O.K., I even started carrying around a decent amount of cash in my wallet and not worrying to much. Then on Wednesday we were walking home on this road that we always walk on going home and we saw a bunch of police cars and ambulances. So we asked some people what happened and they were like, oh somebody got stabbed and killed. So what I have learned is that most people get paid this week, which increases the drug business and it has become very busy for police officer and ambulances with all the drug business. Then after a few days it all calms down.

Transportation

So here is what I have learned about transportation. The cheapest is "Pirate" taxis. These are just your average Juan that wants to make some money but is not an official taxi. When you find one of them you agree upon a price and he takes you there as fast as he can. Next is the official taxis, they have the meter running and charge by the distance. However they are tricky and will try to drive you all over the place and take the long way there so you have to pay more. Then there is the bus, it is cheap but it some areas they don't go to, they might get you close then you have to walk a few miles but at least you don't have to walk the whole distance. Our area is pretty huge so we use a lot of transportation, and we always try to get the "Pirate" taxis because they are the cheapest and the quickest.

It has been a great week, we were able to teach a lot of lessons and we had a lot of people at church. I am excited for this week to come.

Love you all,

Elder Justin Moore