This week was good. It turned out quite a bit different that we had planned. We all thought we would have zone conference and we didn`t. But, the pres. did come down for a stake conference. I turned out to be really interesting...
I think I have probably mentioned before that the leaders here in Pasto aren`t the kindest. Well mostly just in my ward. The They actively exercise injusto dominio (look that up... I don`t remember that word). They just want to control everything too much including us. They think that they can just boss us around and tell us what to do. They even occasionally try to change the President`s plans, which they can`t do. For 6 months now I have endured this situation very patiently. I just do what I can do to make them happy and ignore the yelling.
This week, the phone in our house broke. But we had no idea. We thought we had just been forgotten by the other missionaries and the members. But apparently everyone was worried. Everyone was calling but no one could get a hold of us. And when we called, it would ring and ring but no one would answer. So, friday night (finally...), the zone leaders came looking. they knocked on the door and there we were. They told us that the Bishopric was trying to get a hold of us and that they were mad because they thought we were avoiding them. So the Bishopric called President Prince and set up a meeting for saturday.
So... we went knowing that the Bishopric wanted to just get us in trouble. We showed up to the church and started the meeting. Pres. Prince and his wife and us sat on one side of the room and the ward leaders on the other. We started with a hymn and a prayer and then began the yelling. They started making up things to get us in trouble. President Prince, Sister Prince, my companion and I just sat quietly waiting for them to finish. After about 45 minutes of this they stopped. Pres. Prince looked at me and said, ¨Would you like to defend yourself?¨ And so I said, ¨Yes sir.¨ So I started and I let them have it. I told them that they were mistaken and that they had no idea what we have done for them. I told them that they wasted 45 minutes yelling at us for stuff we didn`t do. I went on and on. Then my companion was able to do the same. Then the Pres. said that we could be done but that he wanted to interview us before we left.
So, we were able to counter everything that they had said and we had the Pres on our side. In our interviews, he asked us to tell him everything about the ward. He told us to basically let loose. So we did. It felt really good to finally be able to speak freely. I had been patient for 6 months and I really needed to let it all out. Pres. Prince spoke to the stake president and we should be free of the harrassment (sp?) by now. Maybe. I never like to have this kind of problem with the leaders but I think it was necessary.
The stake conference went really well. President Prince and his wife spoke and also the 1st counselor of the Bogota Temple and his wife spoke. It was really really good. One of the best meetings I have been to in a really long time. And it was cool because that made the american population in Pasto increase by 5 times... I got to speak english with real live americans.
I hope you have a really good week!!!
Love,
Corey
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