Let me tell you I am really in Colombia

Okay so first off I got to tell ya about my last week in the CCM.

 

My district got the record for the most references for a district in proselyting!!! My district is amazing!!! We got 128 total references!!! Me and my companion got 30 references in 3 hours. It was one of the coolest things ever!! It was so much fun! We met a guy named Juan Pablo, he is about a year or so older than us. He was really funny, we taught him about the Book of Mormon, and he said "Wait, so you guys are happy with just this book?" We said yeah this book and our church is all we need!! He said " You guys don't drink or party, or get many ladies?" (He spoke English pretty well by the way) We said yeah! He said "But the women!! Guys the women!!" He was funny, I explained how we should have one wife for eternity. He said he would read the Book of Mormon and think about what we said. So cool.

 

A quote from Nacho Libre that we use all the time in the CCM

"You don't think I give a crap about the Gospel, but I dooo."

So I left the CCM, and I really miss my district because they were amazing, but now I am in the Field living the real Mission life!!

 

Let me tell you I am really in Colombia.

 

My new companion is Elder Ichuro, he is a Latino Elder from Bolivia. He speaks virtually no English, we do everything in Spanish. The people here talk really really fast! Most of the time its really hard to understand what is happening when we talk to people or go places. But the people are awesome!! I have met a lot of them, my branch president, the ward mission leader, a bunch of our investigators and members. Church this last Sunday was interesting. I didn't really know what was happening. But it was cool because it was exactly the same as if it was in America, just a lot smaller. My area is called Tintal, and my zone is La Libertad. I'm still in Bogota, but ya know, south!! I also met our district and zone leaders, one of the district leader's name is Elder Momberger. That is really his name.

 

Also, the way we contact sometimes is pretty fun. In Bogota there are like 8 million people or something like that, so a lot of people live in tiny box apartments that are stacked on top of each other, but sometimes people don't live on the bottom floor, there are just the stairs to get to the apartments, and the door to the stairs is always locked. So we can't get to the actual doors of people's homes. So we get a little pebble, and throw it very gently at their window. Then we have a conversation through their window and see if they want to learn more. We have done this a lot, along with other contacting. 

 

Mornings are really difficult, because my brain can't work Spanish, and my companion only speaks Spanish, so pretty much everything in the morning goes over my head, but I am learning.

Also, you'll never believe this, but I used my nail clippers to try and clip my big toe nail, and my toe nail clipper SNAPPED. I have literally grown and Iron toenail, I'm going to have to buy a new one so I can clip it.

 

I have seen some crazy stuff. An Elder the first day leaving the CCM said you see some crazy stuff, like apparently the women here just breast feed right in front of you. I thought, no way!! That can't be true!! But guess what..... I have seen things mom..... Yup that's right, a women in a family we were visiting just whipped it right out and started feeding, so yeah......

 

There has been a lot of stuff that has happened, but I am alive and I am eating food and I love my Area!!!!!

Elder Kendall

 

Me and Hermano Castiblanco

My best buds from the CCM

My new companion

 

And life is good.

So I'm going to start off with some funny stuff and end with some spiritual stuff.

 

So we have 3 red language learning books of different sizes, and we call each one a different Pokémon. The order goes from smallest to biggest, smallest being Charmander, medium is Charmeleon, and the biggest is Charizard. So yeah whenever we get those books out we are all like, do I need my Charmander or my Charizard for this battle? (With the language that is). Or Charmeleon I choose you!!!

 

And life is good.

Apparently I look just like Phineas from Phineas and Ferb. We had a district vote on it, and they all voted yup most definitely. So you can call me Phineas.

Also I had to convince everyone in my district that my tie with Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty is really him, because they say its just a guy holding a flag.

Doctrine and Covenants 6:36 en Espanol "Elevad hacia mi todo pensamiento; no dudeis; no temais."

 

Now a wonderful rendition of my life in the ccm in spanish

Mi vida en el CCM es no facil, pero Yo me gusta las actividades de el CCM. La comida es mas o menos bien y a veces es muy dificil para mi a como, pero muchos de tiempo es muy sabroso. Cuando mi companero y Yo ensenando nuestros investigadores, Yo siento muchos ama para ellos. El helado en Colombia es muy muy delicioso, y mejor que el halado en Utahh.  Excepto el Helado de Kravers. Yo estoy saliendo el CCM en cuatro dias!!!! Pronto yo estare ensenando los investigadores ea realidad!!!

 

I don't think it's all 100 percent correct XD

So in our district for a district meeting we did an activity where we all took a turn to sit in the middle of everyone else, while everyone else in the district would find scriptures that applied to the life of the person in the middle. It was amazing, these are the scriptures they picked for me:

 

Daniel 5:14 Mosiah 5:15 1 Nephi 3:7 DandC 75:2-4 DandC 58:27 Alma 36:20

 

And Elder Scott even wrote his own scripture about me:

 

"And now behold, Elder Kendall is and shall be a ray of overwhelming happiness filled jollified creature that is at high risk of infecting all the inhabitants of the earth with the total and incontrollable inability to frown. And this it shall be forever and always, amen." 

Wow right?

 

 

Temple today

 

 

Kicked out of the Hobbit Hole

So yeah I only have 2 weeks left in the CCM! Then its off to real life missionary work in the big old world of Bogota South!!!

 

Here are some of the things I did and saw.

 

There was this guy who was just in the middle of the street juggling, he was really good at it.

 

We went proselyting again!!! This time we went for 3 hours and it was an amazing experience!!! Me and Elder Marsh made a goal to get 15 references (which is peoples contact information) and we got 17!!!! It was really cool, we talked to A LOT of people. Most were really nice, others just didn't have time to listen!!! 

 

We ran into some Jehovah witnesses, but my companion didn't realize who they were, and I didn't know how to signal him without offending them. So Elder Marsh tried to get their contact info while I stood there awkwardly and the Jehovah witnesses tried to share a book and some of their pamphlets with us. It was really funny after we finished talking to them and I told Elder Marsh who they were. He had no idea.

 

Elder Holland's talk was my favorite!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!! I just love Elder Holland!!! Also Elder Bednar's talk was fantastic. 

 

So for the last 4 weeks in the CCM I've been in the same class and the same district, and our classroom became affectionately known as the Hobbit Hole. Because it is so comfy and small.  However, these last to weeks they kicked us out of the Hobbit Hole!!!! But, to make up for it, they combined the 2 districts that they split off at the beginning, so now I'm in one big district with all the Missionaries that I flew in with!! Which a super cool blessing.

 

 

We also went on tour!!!! I have a lot of pictures of different stuff, so I will be spending time sending those to you.  I SAW A LLAMA AND I RODE IT!!! You got the pictures right? You saw the pure glee in my face!?!?!

 

 

I hope you know how much being a missionary has made my life awesome!!! I enjoy it a whole lot!

 

 

My dreams will come true shortly...

Some random facts about stuff here.

The best thing to eat are the cheese filled croissants, which we get each Sunday before the next group leaves. 

I am almost on my last 2 weeks!! Then I'm really going out there as a missionary!!!

So if you can please send me some peanut butter!!!! They have cero peanut butter down here, and I didn't even realize how much I missed it!! haha please if you can send like 2 jars XD.

I'm really bad at shining my shoes.

It gets cloudy pretty much every day and mostly stays that way, but not Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs unfortunately.

The people here are really pretty nice, unless you are driving in the traffic.

Next week we get to go on a tour of some of the city, and I hear that you get to ride a Llama and take a picture!!! SO basically my dreams will come true shortly.

Also I've been playing a lot of volleyball, every time we have gym in fact. I am really bad, the Elders y Hermanas say its pretty funny to watch.

General Conference is happening!!! I literally cannot wait. It is going to be so good!!!!

We  watched Elder Scott's funeral, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and I nearly cried because it reminded me so much of Choir and so much of High School and my friends, it was really powerful!!!

All the missionaries that I came into the CCM with are singing a hymn during Sacrament the last Sunday that we are here. Its called OH MI PADRE but we are singing it to the tune of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It sounds really good and I know how to sing it.

So yeah life is good!! Also we get Oreos every Sunday and I have started to save them because they are really good and I need a stockpile!!! So yeah one day if you could send me some American food, that would be cool but it is not required.

We eat SO much rice!!!! I love it!!!!XD XD

Some cool flowers

A cool bridge thing (Zach's exact words)

The gate that keeps us locked in for time and eternity!!!

What they call here MY LOOK... So in class one of the Maestros wrote in Spanish "Satan is trying to distract you" and I made a face and a point to go along with it.  So whenever Satan is trying to distract us, I literally point it out and do that face

A cool truck

Me!!