Hey everybody,
Things are going so well here. I can't believe I have
already been here an entire transfer. The time is going by so fast!
I am getting super excited for Christmas. It is super fun to
walk around at night because there are a lot of houses with Christmas lights up
and it is super awesome and I can't wait. Unfortunately we won't be having any
Thanksgiving dinners here so that is a real bummer for me. But I do have another
North American in my area so maybe we will have our own Thanksgiving.
So I have been asking around about the whole mail situation
and I found out that it usually takes around 1-2 weeks for mail to get here,
but unfortunately in the past it has taken as long as 3 months for some
missionaries to receive mail from home. Also because all of the mail is sent to
the office in Barranquilla and my area is very far away, the only time that we
get mail is about the beginning of every month because the Zone Leaders bring it
back with them when they go to Barranquilla for training. Unfortunately, that
means that in order for me to get anything by Christmas, it needs to get here
by the end of November, which basically means it needs to be sent as soon as
possible. I'm sorry if that causes any inconveniences, but I am perfectly
comfortable waiting until after Christmas to receive any packages.
As for who will be my companion, I honestly do not know.
Transfers are tomorrow, but we will not receive a call until later tonight to
find out if we are moving or not. It is very likely that I will stay with my
current companion because I am still training, but it has occurred in the past
when a missionary has had two trainers. And due to the mail system taking
forever, I do not know if any mail will come within the next transfer. So if it
is easier for you guys, you can just address any packages to my companion with
my name and I will give it to him. And if there is a difference between my
package and his, you can just put a mark on it or a note inside. Sorry, but
it's rough working with mail in foreign countries.
But more about Colombia. The food, in all honesty, is pretty
mediocre at best. It's just a bunch of chicken, rice, and sometimes beef.
Something that is super good is called a plantain, which is just a type of
banana, but here the people fry them and they are super good. Also there are
lots of street venders here that sell some pretty good fried food. Very
unhealthy, but very good.
The real highlight here are the juices. There are so many
different fruits here and the people make great juices out of them. The most
common is called Tomate de Arbol, and it's basically a tomato that grows on a
tree. But the juice is super sweet and it doesn't taste like tomato at all.
The piano lessons have not started yet, but we will start
this Thursday. We were supposed to have them this past Wednesday, but when we
got there the guy plugged in the piano and it broke. But on Sunday when we got
to church we found a piano waiting to be assembled so that is a pretty good
sign.
Things are going great with the investigators. Right now we
have been working a lot with an investigator named German, who is getting ready
to be baptized in 2 weeks. Unfortunately what I found out yesterday is that we
might not be able to baptize him because my companion thought that he was 14
but he is only 13 and kids under 14 have to be baptized with a parent. But his
mom is really supportive of him so we are going to try to help her be baptized
too. But he has such a strong desire to learn and he is keeping the commitments
and attending church. It's pretty great.
I hope everything is going well at home. I can't wait to
talk to you guys in a few weeks.
Elder Parker
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