Monday, January 20, 2014

Elder Kade Larsen in front of the Bogota Colombia Temple, January 2014

Dear Family, (January 14, 2014)  These letters have been edited.

Well, I got transferred.. How frustrating right? I guess that's what happens usually so you just kind of have to deal with it. This last week went really well, we had around 6 or 7 attend on Sunday. There is a baptism this week and then on the 1st of February.  There are like 5 or 6 dates and then on the 8th there is one or two. I left there with quite a bit of people ready to get baptized. It was pretty dang hard to leave. I hope that every one of those dates are fulfilled. There are also like 4 or 5 other people ready to get a date for February but still didn't have a date. I just hope I can see the pictures after their baptisms. 

I was transferred to Barbosa. It's a little town in the Boyaca Zone. (Do you remember when I was in Tunja, sometimes we came here to play soccer or to hang out with the Elders). Same town. It's a HOT little town. So basically the closest other town with missionaries is Tunja. Kind of weird that I am close to my first area. We are like an hour and a half away. To go to Zone meetings and all its about 4 hours on bus and about 20 dollars. 

I am now District Leader again and my comp and I both new to the area. We are basically starting from nothing. Looks like we are going to be doing some contacting. I wonder if I can find some of the people I met a year ago here.. If they will remember me. We arrived here around midnight last night.. We don't have a ward here, its a branch. Kind of different. Its a Casa Capilla. Which is like an apartment building changed to a church. I will have to take a picture.

We live with 4 Elders once again and our house is kind of destroyed. My comp and I will have to try and fix it up a bit. My seems like a good kid who also wants to work. He is from Bogota, Colombia.  He also had three months in his last area when he got taken out.  He has almost the same amount of time as me but has had problems so he has been in and out of Bogota South, North, and the Bolivia Missions. Medical Problems, etc.. He knows Sign Language and is going to teach me. Hopefully my mind capacity can handle it =).
 
Here in this new area its pretty Hot. I remember from when I had come before and am already dying here, ha. My body enjoys the cold parts of the mission.. Once again we have cold water showers but I still don't enjoy them very much ha. 

At the temple it went really well and was cool. I enjoyed the movie. I did like how they used Utah for the desert.

Well honestly we got to get going because we have to get to lunch... We are running a bit tired because we got to bed around 2 or so. Hopefully we can get some work done this week. We have to win back the ward so we will be visiting the members we can find as well. I miss ya´ll and love ya. Have an awesome week =) 
Love
Elder Larsen,

Dear Mom, (January 20, 2014)

This week was kind of a hard week I guess you could say. We basically had to try and find some of the ward leaders on our own and we basically spent the week searching less actives and contacting. We were able to find around 11 people or so to have lessons with. We will be searching quite a bit in these few weeks so it will be good. Its an interesting process. We have met some really good member families. This town is pretty small. After about 2 days we basically know our way around like 90% of it. There are still a few parts we haven't gone to but those are in the plans for these next few days. Mainly we get to know more members so that we can have lessons with members.

It turns out that the other gringo here bought a water heater shower thing so sometimes I shower in their bathroom ha. 

Today for P-day we went and played basketball at a park with the two sons of the branch president. They had two friends who actually play really well. It turned out pretty cool but we played at 2:30 so it was insanely hot. It's ok mom, I plastered on sunscreen so I didn't get too burnt. =) We also had an investigator come and play with us. We are teaching him and his mom. They are pretty cool. It was good because we gained a bit of trust with him. Also the other two friends of the members said we can start talking with them. One actually lives in Tunja so that kind of stinks but he comes here like every weekend or so. We will try and work that one out. ha. 

One of the people that had baptismal dates back in Bogota got baptized last week. I will try and send you the pic but I still haven't received it..  

It was interesting to hear Emily's stories.  (His cousin on a Spanish speaking mission) If I was her, I would have been pretty ticked as well when they were correcting her Spanish. I know how she feels as well. Its one of those things that get under the skin pretty quickly haha. I haven't really had anyone correct my Spanish for quite awhile but once in a while they correct a vocabulary word or something. It all depends on how they correct you, haha. 

But anyways, things are going well here. We are working hard. I am pretty exhausted. Walking A LOT haha. But its ok. Hope all is well. Miss ya´ll and love ya´ll tambien.

Love
Elder Larsen