Monday, July 25, 2011

7-25-11


Dear Family,
This week was good.  For the most part...
We had interviews and zone conference with Presidente Prince!  He is really an awesome guy and he taught us some really cool things.  My interview was really cool.  He is relearning spanish so the first thing he said is, ¨I feel like we should have this interview in English...¨ It was really hard but we talked about a lot of things.  The conference was based on the theme of working with the members.  It was really good and he has now approved that we can play soccer!  We had ban on soccer from Pte. Bolivar and now we can finally play.  He really seems like he will be an awesome Presidente.  I am really excited to work with him. 
We had a baptism!  I attached 2 photos of the baptism.  Anderson didn´t get baptized yet, but we are working on baptizing him this week before he returns to the war...  But we baptized Pamela.  She is the one that called us up to tell us she wanted to be baptized. We did it Sunday morning before church.  It was really cool. 
Then yesterday, we had ward counsel.  We were excited to share the things that Pte. Prince taught us.  We got there and the circus began.  Ward counsel here in this ward is a joke.  They don´t respect anyone and they just laugh and joke around the whole time.  We had a bunch of things planned to talk about because we are in desperate need of help.  My companion said something (I don´t even remember what he said...) and the Bishop misunderstood and flipped out.  He thought that he was critisizing him and he started yelling at us for 15 minutes in front of the whole ward council.  He started insulting us and he lost control of himself.  We just sat there waiting for him to finish.   Later, he told me that he was mostly talking to my companion, and that I shouldn´t worry about what he said.  I told him that I had taken the side of my companion and (not using these words exactly...) he had lost control.  He truly was not justified in the things he said.  We have done more for this ward than they give us credit for.  I know there are things that we need to change and repent for and that we are not perfect, and we will change and repent, but he does not have the right to insult us and our work.  And we left...
It´s been a crazy week and I know this letter is short but I had to write Pte. Prince about our situation here.  He is going to call the Bishop today.  We are just hoping we can get through this with everybody in one piece.
Love you all and have a good week!
Love,
  Corey





Monday, July 18, 2011

7-18-11


Dear Family,
 
I didn´t get transferred!!!  I think God heard my prayers because almost all of my zone (the biggest zone in the mission) was transferred.  I really wanted to finish what I started here...

Now, you may be asking yourselves what I started here.  I think I mentioned that I had a little talk with the Bishopric here in Belen.  In this little talk with the Bishopric, I had the chance to talk about how we have been abandoned.  No one ever wants to help us, including the leaders.  We don´t have any support.  So I think I touched their hearts with my slightly hard words, because they gave me the opportunity to speak in church.  So the bishop gave me permission to speak very directly.      I spoke yesterday and had a really cool experience because the Spirit was filling my mouth with words.  We can already see a little bit of a difference and we have really high hopes!
 
So, I finally broke the wild horse!!!  My companion now respects me and actually listens to me.  We almost never have problems and I think he is learning how to have social skills.   So another transfer here should go just fine...
 
Anderson is really progressing a lot and is really excited to be baptized!  The other day, my companion asked him a very direct question... He asked him how many guerillas he´s killed...  I couldn´t believe he asked that because I imagine it could be a pretty sensative subject. But he opened right up and told us all about his job.  He didn´t tell us a number, but he decribed a lot of really cool things.  It was really interesting to talk to learn all about what he does.   Then we started talking about guns, which I really enjoyed. 
 
Oh yeah, the subject of this email is the word that I have implemented into my vocabulary this week.  ¨Q´hubo!¨  It is the closest equivalent to, ¨What´s up!¨ that I can find.  Sometimes, words just start jumping into my vocab...
 
Well thats about it for this week...  Love you all and hope you have a good week!!!
 
Love,
    Corey

Monday, July 11, 2011

7-11-11


Dear Family,
 
This week was awesome!!! I feel like all my hard work here is finally starting to pay off! 
 
Anderson and his wife (well, future wife...) have progressed a ton.  We have taught them for 1 week and we can already see a huge difference in their lives.  He is by far the best investigator I´ve ever had.  He invited us to go to his house for lunch today.  They are gonna get married on the 15th and baptized on the 23rd.  He said the other day that he wants us to go to his house everyday to teach him!  He is excited to be baptized and I´m excited to baptize him. 
 
And we have another that wants to get baptized on the 23rd too.  She called us up the other day and said, ¨Hey, come teach me, I want to be baptized!¨  We were pretty surprised because she had already rejected us.
 
I just hope I´m still here.  Transfers are this week...  I am just praying that God will let me stay here.  I know that if I leave its for a reason, but I desperatley want to be here. 
 
Oh, this week I had to flip a lid to the members.  I think I told you how the members are really lazy here and stuff including the leaders and stuff.  So I had the chance to talk to the Bishopric about all of the problems..  Now they have assigned me to speak in church.  The Bishop said to speak really directly to the members.  So I´m pretty excited to do it, if i´m still here...
 
Well sorry for the short letter this week.  Next week will be better.  I promise. 
 
Love you all!!!

Corey

Monday, July 4, 2011

7-4-11


Dear Family,
 
First of all I have to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!  It´s kind of weird not to be celebrating the 4th of July like usual...  I love America.  Not to say I don´t love Colombia too, because I do.  A lot.  Its just different. 
 
All is well here in Colombia.  Its super hot today and we are dying but luckily we aren´t walking the streets today.    There is a huge soccer tournament called  ´la copa america´  going on right now here in South America.  Its in Argentina but Colombia is playing and doing pretty well, so its cool to see.  Not that we get to see it...  But its cool to be in a soccer world.
 
We are finally starting to find more people.  We found 3 or 4 this week that will probably get baptized.  One of them is someone really cool.  His name is Anderson.  He is in the Colombian Army fighting the guerilla in Southern Columbia/Ecuador.  He is in the most dangerous war zone in South America.  His wife just had a baby this week so he is here for 30 days.  He wants to be baptized and he wants to take the Book of Mormon back to the war so that he can share it with his soldiers.  He is about 28 or so and he is a leader in his unit.  We got to talking and it turns out that he was contracted by the US to go to Iran and Iraq to be trained and to fight.  Then, came back and now has his own special operations unit.    His wife says that almost everyday on the phone she hears gunshots and then he says, ¨sorry, I gotta go...¨  But its cool to talk to him and its cool that he really truly wants the gospel in his life.
 
President and Sister Prince got to the mission 3 days ago.  It was hard to see Pte. BolĂ­var leave but it turns out that Pte. Prince is really cool.  He came to Medellin today to meet us.  He has about 6 kids but only 1 is here in the mission.  He still speaks spanish pretty well (he served his mission here in Cali)  and his wife is learning.  Its cool to see because she only ever studied spanish in high school for 1 year but she has so much faith in the gift of tounges that she is already speaking really well.  His daughter doesn´t speak much spanish and so I, being 1 of 2 Americans in all of Medellin, talked to her and helped her quite a bit. All the other missionaries were jealous of me cause she is pretty cute and they couldn´t communicate with her...haha.  She is 19 years old and in August returns to Utah to go to BYU.   But they seem like a really cool family and I´m excited to see how things go here in the mission now. 
 
Well, I´m about out of things to say...  Have a good week!!!  I love you all!!!
 
Love,
    Corey