¡Bogdan in Bogota!

¡¿Q'hubo mi familia?!

 

So I'm finally in Colombia! It's been crazy cool, and a little strange to comprehend, but I'm not worried. Except for the fact that it took me a while to figure out how to get all the punctuation right on this keyboard. So I got to Bogota Tuesday night, where one of the Assistants to the President (AP) was waiting for us. His name is Elder Huaita and he is cien por ciento a stud! He's from Lima, Peru too! Actually, there are a LOT of Elders in our mission from Peru! The other AP's name is Elder Chacon and he's from Peru also (Trujillo)! You know who he reminds me of? Nate Morris! He acts like him and looks exactly like him except shorter and with darker skin. It's NUTS!

 

So Tuesday night we went to the mission home, which is right next to the Bogota Temple! It's beautiful, and big too! It's got a bunch of exotic looking plants around it. So we spent the night there, and the next morning we went to the mission president's house. Pres. and Sister Hacking are way nice, and they fed us breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, I got to try a new fruit called patilla, and it's really good, but we could only eat half of it because it's a natural laxative. One of the Elders in our group of 5 made the mistake of eating a whole one, and needless to say, he was in the bathroom for the first 30 mins of lunch. For lunch, we had this good soup with mayorza (?), which is some soft corn with bigger kernels. I think we tried some of it when we went to Peru. I also tried a fruit called granadia. The inside is filled with seeds that you eat, kinda like pomegranate. The texture and feel of it is kinda gross - it feels like you're eating snot with some crunchy bugs. But it didn't taste bad!

 

While we were at the President's house, he told us what area we were going to be teaching in and who our companion would be. So now I'm having my first day in.... BOGOTA! Yep, I'm staying in the city. Which is kinda cool because there are lots of people to teach, the weather is constantly 55 - 70°F (it rains a bit though), and I can drink the water here! Bogota takes pride in having some of the cleanest water in the world. But if I ever leave Bogota, I have to filter or boil my water. My area is called Alejandria, and it's actually been closed for the past year, so my companion and I have a lot of work to be done, and we're gonna start off by getting to know the bishop, ward mission leader, and members in the ward, and asking them for referrals. Oh, and my companion's name is Elder Velasquez and he's from Cusco, Peru! He's 22, he's been on his mission for 8 months, and he's short. But he's nice, and he doesn't know any English really! Awesome! And everybody's new to the area, so nobody knows their way around. It's just Elder Velasquez, me, and two sets of sisters here in Alejandria. My apartment is decently small, but we have hot water, so that's a plus. Well, this week is gonna be challenging, but I will do my best to rise to the challenge! Pray for me a lot please! I'm gonna need it. And heads up, pretty soon I'll probably be getting sick. That's what the president said. Even Elders from other countries in South America get sick at first. So I'm not looking forward to that....

 

LOVE

Elder BOGDAN