Bienvenido!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Holar!

Querido Familia
 
This week was pretty sweet! I can hardly even remember much of it now. But first, I wanna say happy late 50th birthday to mom! I was in a hurry last week while I was writing and I think I forgot to tell you that, mamasita! And on your birthday, I decided that I'd write 50 things that make you unique and that I love about you... But I decided 15 was enough, haha...
 
1. Mom is the sweetest woman on the planet, and we always want to treat her right. It's always so sad to see her cry, and when she does, you can't help but love her and want to hug her.
2. Mom wakes up early everyday and makes us lunch and breakfast, all before Seminary!
3. Mom loves to play basketball, and I love how she screams so much while playing that she starts to lose her voice.
4. Mom would always take us to pet stores because she knew we loved animals, but she'd never buy us any pets, but we convinced her with Todd and Copper!
5. Everytime I would pick up mom from work or the bus stop, I would notice how cute she looked in her scrubs, ahah
6. ''Eh-bah-quay-shun'' (evacuation)
7. Mom can talk on the phone for HOURS, and it gets pretty annoying sometimes, but I admire her endurance!
8. Mom loves to stay at church and talk till there's no one left to talk to!
9. There's one face that mom makes that I can never forget. It's when she squints her eyes, raises her hand, and says ''Pegalo''
10. One of mom's unique punishments was pulling our sideburns. OUCH! I can still feel it.
11. Mom loves  her ''oakmilk''!
12. Mom loves Reisen's
13. Mom loves ice cream - a little too much!
14. Mom taught us to love parks, zoos, Miller Outdoor Theater, swimming, and just the outdoors in general! More importantly, she taught us to love God, Jesus Christ, the scriptures, and the words of modern-day prophets (as she would always listen to them in the car). So I guess it's ok that she didn't teach us Spanish.
15. Everytime I read in the Book of Mormon about the mothers of the Sons of Helaman, I always think of you, Mamasita! Thanks for being such a strong warrior woman! I love you! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
 
So Conference was pretty interesting for me. I listened to all of it in Spanish except for one session. Man, that was hard. Not only to understand, but I've also realized that whenever somebody talks in Spanish a whole bunch and I can't understand the majority of it, I get really sleepy. All of the Spanish sessions were really hard to stay awake through, but during the English session, I didn't even get slightly tired. Haha, during some of the Spanish sessions, I would take a sip outta my water bottle whenever I got tired and just leave the water sitting in my mouth for a while, and maybe swish it around. I did help pretty nicely to keep me awake. I also started writing the 15 things I like about mom during one of the sessions to help me stay awake. What's even worse is that sometimes I get extremely sleepy during lessons with investigators! If the person likes to talk a lot and I don't get the opportunity to talk very much and get the blood flowing, it's REALLY hard. But missionary work is still awesome! The language is getting better. We have two baptisms we're planning on. One with Michael, a 10yr old, and another with Lucely Ramirez, who is just an AMAZING investigator! She has definitely been prepared by the Lord! At first she wanted to get baptized in 6 months because she felt like she had to know everything about the Gospel, but we've been slowly explaining to her that she just needs to know the basics, have faith, and have a desire to keep the commandments and be baptized, and that's enough! So she agreed to prepare to be baptized april 30th. Oh, and I don't really hate contacting anymore! One day we were contacting and we found a golden family! They love us and they want us to visit them and teach them every day of the week! Well, I know that God is real. I know that if we have faith in him, miracles are possible, and I've seen God's hand in my life and in my mission! I love all of you!
 
Con Amor,
Elder Bogdan

Friday, April 1, 2011

First week in Colombia ¡Que chevere!

Querido familia,

Colombia es bacano! Estoy aprendiendo mucho, y mi compañero es un poder. Sin embargo, a veces me pongo frustrado porque mi Español no es todo lo que quiero que sea. Pero el Padre Celestial nunca me deja y El me esta ayudando demasiado.

Ok I don't have much time, so I'm gonna switch to English now haha. This week has been extremely interesting! I'll start off with the bad stuff so we can end on a positive note, ¿cool? We have gotten lost quite a bit because neither of us know the area. Elder Velasquez is starting to catch on though, whereas I'm usually still in the dark as to where our next appointment is. But that's because I'm learning so much other stuff that is more important, so it's hard for my brain to have room to learn where everyone lives! Our first or second day, we were supposed to meet one of the church members at our chapel, and we didn't even know where that was, and we ended up leaving our area on accident and waiting for the church member at a different church building. And yesterday we decided we'd scout out our area on a bus, and the bus randomly changed it's route or something and we were on the bus for like an hour and a half before we finally got dropped off remotely near our apartment. The Spanish is coming, but honestly, it's REALLY hard. I can hardly understand anything! Thank goodness my companion is Peruvian and naturally speaks the clearest, most perfectly untainted Spanish! Or maybe it's just cuz I'm used to hearing mom's Peruvian Spanish. Man, it feels like I've been here for at least 3 weeks, RIDONCULOUS. Also, I've already gotten a little sick. Nothing much, just a case of the runs. Haha just kidding (but in all seriousness... not really). Also, I got a sunburn on my neck, arms, and face yesterday! ¡Que vaina! Every single day I haven't even gotten CLOSE to getting a sunburn, and yesterday for P-Day we played futbol and I got one. I think it's because every day I wear a suit jacket that covers my neck and arms, whereas yesterday I was wearing a t-shirt. I guess I'll just have to play soccer in my suit from now on...

Alrighty, time for the good stuff! Every day we pass by lots and lots of graffiti. It's awesome! I've always admired the artistic abilities of some graffiti-ists. My personal favorite is the one that says, ''USA NOS USA'', which means ''USA USES US''. I'm positive the first time I get robbed will be right next to that graffiti. We have been getting to know the members here very well and they are all so powerful and strong! I haven't met anyone in the ward who isn't a convert to the Church (besides small children), but they are all such friendly and righteous people! They are all extremely willing to help too! Right now we have two people who are pretty much gonna be baptized. Lucely is an older woman who showed up at church randomly a little before I got to Colombia. She has been extremely prepared for the Gospel. She understands everything, she believes pretty much everything, and she said herself that she wants to be baptized! We also have a baptismal date with a 10 yr old named Michael. And just about an hour ago we were knocking on doors and we found a woman named Norma who's extremely ready for the gospel as well. The Spirit of God has been a wonderful aid this past week. Well, I have to go! I feel bad because I talked more about the bad things, but trust me, there's a lot of good things. I love you all! Pray for me! 

Love,

Elder Bogdan