Colombians are Awesome!

Hola everybody! Hope you all had a great week!
First off, question: is this letter too long? I feel like it's a bit
big for those who don't really have a whole lot of time. I am thinking
of making a more summarized version for you guys and sending a
detailed one to Mom and Dad. What do you think? Give me some feedback!

Also, for all of you who got an invite to the ICloud album that
shortly disappeared, that was because I found out we actually aren't
allowed to use those. So, sorry about that. If you guys want to make
one and invite me, go right ahead! I just can't post stuff.

Labor Day was super fun. We didn't want to go anywhere because
everyone was on vacation, so we all got together at the church with
all the clearance water balloons we could find. Then we soaked each
other. It was great, and pretty much everyone played too! Then we went
to go find people. We didn't have much luck, with vacations and all.
Then the APs called. Guess what? They needed the van again. So, we got
THEIR truck this week. #unlimitedmiles #woo

Tuesday went pretty well! We saw one of the members that lives by us
that has been going through a rough time and helped them out a bit.
Then we went and looked for some more people without much luck. That
night we had more luck though. We went out teaching with Bro.
Z, and met with the V family. He gets along REALLY well
with them. We had a good talk.

Wednesday we went on exchanges! For the first time in my entire
mission, I went with Elder Schoenfeld to teach! It was super fun. We
went to some new trailer parks we had discovered on Sunday, and found
a lot of potential there. Definitely coming back. Then we had dinner
at the As house. It was incredibly delicious, and we both got
stuffed. The B family came too, which was a bit of a miracle!
They are semi-active, and we had been trying to get in contact with
them for weeks but they were never home. But not only did we meet
them, but we had a really good talk and I think made a connection with
them! After that we had the Book of Mormon class. A lot of people were
there, mainly because the members were doing planning for a branch
party and everyone was late. So, rather than waiting they all came to
class! J and L came too, which was fantastic. Then we did
music practice with the sisters for our song.

Thursday we didn't do a whole lot quantity-wise, but it was a great
day! Why? J told us he would be baptized! It was a really cool
experience. We talked about the basic principles of the gospel, and
Elder Moore blurted out (greenie fire is real) "what do you think
about being baptized in 2 weeks?" He looked a little unsure, but then
he said he would prefer it on his birthday, but yes! As soon as he
said it, it was like he changed completely. He was super excited! His
birthday is the 29th, the day before Elder Moore's, so afterwards we
are going to have a good ol' fiesta. But yeah, we are super stoked for
J. He has had some really spiritual experiences that have
prepared him for this.  After that we went to the new English class
the sisters had made. Only one person showed up, but it was ok, we
still all learned a lot.

Friday we had Specialized Training. It was really good! We tried out
the suggestion they had made in mission council about instead of role
playing what we had learned, to just go out and teach it. It was
great! All combined, we met 50 new people in total, and since we were
around the otter creek building where we live, all the Hispanics they
found we get to teach :) anyway, that went late so afterwards we just
did some weekly planning and stole some pizza the sisters made. Props
to you sister missionaries out there, you're awesome and us elders
appreciate you a lot :)
Then we went and played some futbol, which was great! Not a lot of
members came, and the adults there were off doing their own thing, so
we played against a bunch of 11-13year olds. We won, barely. And it
was all the missionaries and members against all the kids, they didn't
want to split teams! Kinda sad, they didn't even outnumber us. :P

Saturday we had the van again. We had to go print out some paperwork
at the library, which took forever since everyone was using the
computers. Then we went and contacted some people at the new trailer
parks. Miracle: the last door we felt we should knock on turned out to
be a less-active member we didn't know existed, and who really wants
to come back! Woo! Then we went around trying to find people. We got
to see D, the awesome guy from 2 weeks ago! He is doing well  and
we went over a bit more of what the Book of Mormon was really all
about. He seems to understand it well!

Sunday was the Primary Program, when the kids do a special
presentation in the main meeting. We combined with the English ward,
so it was pretty full. It was also extremely cute. I don't know why,
but my mission has made me love kids a lot more than I did. They are
just cooler, no offense :P anyway, the rest of church was good too.
Julian and his dad came, and the members welcomed them both really
well, which is fantastic. After church we gave up the car and biked
out to go visit some people. We saw R and had a good lesson with
him about the Book of Mormon. He seemed to understand it well.
Hopefully he reads!

All in all, it was a great week! I hope next week keeps getting
better! On another note, yesterday I hit my 19 month mark. EW. that's
just nasty. In a good way. But still. Anyhoo, love y'all! Bye!

¡Les amo muchísimo!

Our District

Spanish Sisters

Water Balloon Fight