Monday, March 26, 2012

3-26-12

Dear Family,

This week has been really good/very interesting...  On monday night, after I wrote to you and everything, we got a call from the zone leaders to tell us that we had transfers...  We were kind of sad about that because things have just been going so well that we didn`t want things to change.  My companion got sent to Medellin and my new companion is Elder Chicoma.  He is from Peru and he has been in the mission for 6 weeks... 

So as a result of the transfers, I am finishing the training of my companion.  We are now training with a new program that the church has sent out called the first 12 weeks.  It is basically a more comprehensive training program.  The main difference is that we are in the house until 12 00 studying every single day...  I am not the biggest fan of that.  I am used to leaving at 10 30 and getting right to work.  But I do have the chance to teach a lot of stuff to my new son (we call them our sons... which means that I am his mom...).  But we get along pretty well.  Transfers are always hard but things are going well and I am learning a lot.

My companion is a tongan sized fella... So he weighs about 260 lbs... And he walks SOOOOO slow.  And lets remember that my area his some pretty gigantic hills... I feel bad for the guy because we get to the top of the hills and he is sweating and breathing hard.   But he will get used to them.  Besides, who said the mission was easy?  

One thing that I didn`t really expect was to be teaching everything all by myself.  He doesn`t talk a lot yet, but we are working on that.  I guess thats my job to teach him...

I wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed reading your letters today (I always enjoy your letters...).  But I wanted to say that I feel bad that I am not able to write back very much.  Just know that I love you all and I love your letters.

I still love my area a lot and I hope I can stay here for a long time.  There is a family here that is very very nice and have basically adopted me.  They are really great and I call them my Colombian Family.  They aren`t nearly as great as my real family, but they are really cool.  The mom called me this morning and said, ¨¡Buenos dìas hijo mio norte americano!¨ Which means, ¨Good morning my north american son!¨  They are my favorite family that I have known in Colombia.  But don`t worry... they aren`t nearly as cool as you guys!

Well that`s about it...  This week should be good because of General Conference.  So enjoy it!  I love you all!!!

Love,
    Corey

P.S. Katie, pass the following message to Chloe please...  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHLOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, March 19, 2012

3-19-12


Dear Family,
 
This week was really really good.   I think I mentioned that we were going to have a few baptisms, right?  Well we did!!!  I have to say that it was pretty much the coolest most spiritual baptism I have ever had.  We baptized Sandra and her daughter Karen.  They are really awesome.   Sandra is about 33 years old and Karen is 9.  We are teaching their whole family so they are only the beginning of many baptisms to come.  I included pics of the baptism.  The first pic is the family (part of them at least...)and the second is of my favorite little colombian boy, Alejo. 
 
So Saturday, we were at the church all day long trying to get everything ready for the baptism.  We found that no one was there to clean the church so we got to work.  I'm pretty sure that it hadn´t been cleaned in a month or more.  So we decided to help out the branch and we cleaned the whole thing... all by ourselves.  Its not easy.  You can´t just vacuum the carpet.  You have to sweep the tile in the whole church, and then you have to mop it too.  It took us from about 10 00 in the morning until the baptism at 5 00 to get it all ready (with the lunch break of course).  But by 5 00, the church was skeaky clean and it made for an awesome baptismal service.  I was the speaker and it went really well (they like my accent here haha).  But I was really pleased by how it all went. 
 
Well now I will jump back in time to Monday night...  After I wrote to you, we headed over to our interviews with President Prince.  We didn´t have much time... but it went really well.  I was glad to be able to talk to him.  I told him that I wanted to finish the mission in my current area...  he said he would ask the Lord (I sure hope he says yes...).  Then we had a big fireside with President Prince.  The whole district was invited... which means that I got to see ALL my friends and converts from Chinchiná!!!  I can´t even describe how happy I was.  I was one of the happiest days of my mission.  I saw that almost all of my converts are still active and that some of the investigators that I had got baptized soon after my departure.  It was a pretty good day.  The only bad thing was that I forgot my camera...  I didn´t realize we had a big activity with all the members.  At least I get another chance during General Conference.
 
Then on Tuesday, we had Zone Conference.  We had to go all the way to Pereira to meet with 2 other zones for the conference but all went really well.   It was nice to see all the buddies and companions.  All of my companions that are still in the mission were there...
 
This week was one of the busiest weeks of my life... but it was really good.  I remembered a lot this week a picture I saw in the MTC.  It was of Superman pulling open his suit and showing a white shirt and tie with a missionary tag.  I have pretty much felt like that all week.  We did an impossible amount of things this week and it felt pretty good.  I am still not sure how we did it, but we did. 
 
Well I hope you all have a great week!!! I love you all!!!
 
Love,
Corey







Monday, March 12, 2012

3-12-12

Dear Family,

This week was very good.  I really love my area.  We have been working really hard lately to meet the mission goal of  ¨La Nevada¨.  Where we are absolutely bound by our compromiso (look that word up...) to baptize at least 2 people before the 20th of March.  Even while planning for this for a month it has been very difficult.  We have definately been tested pretty hard.  But it looks like our 2 baptisms turned into 4 yesterday.  So, this Saturday should be a pretty good day.  
So you know that guy I told you about that knows 12 languages and stuff?  Well he also has all the scriptures and every book by the church memorized... Don`t ask me how, but it`s true.  So we were stuggling a bit with an investigator that has a million questions and doubts.  So we took this guy and sat down with her and her family and cleared up every single little question that she had.  It was absolutely incredible to see this guy work.  He would quote scriptures right and left and say, ¨on page 524 of the book of mormon in the second column in verse 4...¨ It was unbelievable.  Now, she is ready to be baptized... We just have to get her married this week... 

Today, we have our interviews with President Prince.  Then, tomorrow, we have zone conference.  I am always pretty excited but this time I am a little worried because it means that we have about 2 days less to work this week.  And we have a ton that we need to do this week.  So on Wednesday, we have to throw it in gear and go non stop til next P-day.  I am not quite sure how we will do it...  But it will be allright...  

I know I said I would send pictures...  But you`ll have to wait til next week.  A lot is happening this week anyway so it`ll be way more interesting.

Something cool that is happening is that the branch pres of my area is giving us tons of opportunities to help in the branch.  Lots of times, the leaders don`t want any help and then they just fail... so we are excited to help out a bit.  He asked us yesterday to teach a leaders training meeting.  I think that if I am able to stay here for a while I will be able to help a lot in turning the branch into a ward.  

Well thats pretty much it.  I wish I could show you the experiences I am having here but I guess for now you have to deal with just words to describe the awesome things that happen to me...   Love you all!!!  Have a great week!!!

Love,
    Corey 

Monday, March 5, 2012

3-5-12

Dear Family,

It has been another great week.  I really love my area.  I just wrote to President Prince and said that I have never been this happy.  We haven´t baptized quite yet but we are getting close.  I forgot to tell you last week about something cool/funny we did...

On sunday, we got up even earlier than normal and got ready.  Then we left and went to pick up a family to take them to church.  We got there at like 7 30 (they live really far away) and woke them up.  Then we waited while they got ready and we dragged them off to church.  From that family, there were about 3 or 4.  As we started walking, people would look out their windows and ask where they were going.  They would say, ¨we are going to church...¨  Then I would yell, ¨come with us!¨  to the neighbors.  So after everyone got ready, we headed off to church.  We got to the church and everyone was there waiting for us... (we are very popular here...)  So they watched as our 15 new friends filed into the chapel.   I wish I would have taken a picture of the members faces...

Anyway, things are going really well here.  We are starting to organize some training meetings for the members here.  They are really cool and all, but they don´t know anything.  So we are gonna see if we can help.  The meetings tend to get a little boring sometimes.  Luckily, we have a really good branch president who is cooperative and everything.  

This week we had divisions 2 times.  It was rough.  I do not like divisions.  I had one with a Bolivian and another with a Brazilian.  And I had to do both of them in my own area which was a little tough because I don´t know it too well (it is really big...)  But I survived and all is well.  

Well sorry this isn´t too interesting.  I will do better next week.  Possibly with pictures...  Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, 
     Corey