Hola Everybody,
Things are going so well here in the mission field.
We flew out of Bogota last Tuesday very early in the morning
and got to Barranquilla at about 8 am. We had several hours of training and
then got to meet our trainers. My trainer's name is Elder Reyes. He is this
super-star elder from Equador that has been out for 11 months. I also got
assigned to my first area, a city called Valledupar, which is 6 hours away from
Barranquilla so I got to take a nice long bus ride my first day. Valledupar is
a lot like Santa Ana in that it has its nice parts and its not so nice parts.
The area that we live in is fairly okay, we live in an apartment above some
members, but most of our area is really pretty poor. It is really humbling to
see how these people live, because they don't have nearly as much as I do.
The heat here is really pretty bad. Everyday is like walking
around in an oven, but the nights are not nearly as bad, in fact it kinda feels
like back at home during the summer. It rains a lot though, which is nice because
the water is really cold. Even our shower is really cold, which doesn´t
actually work right after a heavy rain storm, which we have had three so far
this week. In that situation we have a faucet outside on the patio which we use
to kinda clean ourselves up. All in all, the hygiene really isn't our number
one concern.
The food here really isn't that bad. There is nothing that
really distinguishes it from any other country for which I can tell. The thing
that they are really known for here is their juices. Everybody loves juice
here, and you can buy it pretty much anywhere because there are a lot of street
venders that are selling it, but I generally avoid that juice because street
food isn't really the safest here.
In regards to meals, we are responsible for our own
breakfast and dinner, and we have a less active member who is paid to make
lunch for us everyday. She is a super nice lady and loves to talk to us, and we
are working to reactivate her and her family.
For laundry, a lot of the missionaries will find a member to
do their laundry for them, but my companion likes to do his own so we rented a
washing machine thingy to do our clothes. The washing machines here are tiny.
Both the washing machine and the dryer are part of the same machine that is
about half the size of a washing machine at home. It only takes like a half
hour to do an entire load of laundry so that´s great, but after the drying
cycle you have to hang the clothes up to dry a little more.
We are working with a lot of investigators right now. We
have maybe 20 or so, but very few of them have baptismal dates. Our real
struggle is that we have to work with the investigators, less actives,
converts, and the ward also wants us to teach the members so that they will
help us with references. Our schedule is so tight that we really don't have the
time to help our investigators a lot. It's rough but with the Lord's help we
can make it happen.
I would like to share a quick experience that I had this
past week. One of the less actives that we are working with just came home from
his mission like a year ago, but he left early for reasons that I honestly
really don't know because I'm still struggling a little with the Spanish. But
we were teaching him about the priesthood and how we need to respect our
priesthood powers and always endure and follow the commandments, and he was
just overwhelmed with the Spirit and had such a strong desire to repent. It was
awesome to see how this guy's life was changed by the Atonement and how he felt
the spirit.
I hope everything is going great at home. I can't wait to
see everybody this Christmas. It is going to be great to see the kiddos again.
Hasta Luego,
Elder Parker
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