Elder Brandon Beck : I'm looking forward to a one-man knife fight...

Week #6 1-30-14

Hey Everyone, So I'm not in Neiva. The word "snow" in Spanish is nieva, and I'm in Neiva. Its SO HOT. The only reason I got to sleep last night is because I had a fan 2 inches away from me all night. Wow its hot. I'm sweating all the time, but its worth it. So the last time I emailed was Friday? So since then I finished up in the MTC, not much news there. Then on Monday we had our going-away meetings. Then on Tuesday we took off at 7 in the morning, I didn't sleep much because all the Latins were up at 3 AM, so i was tired that day.

We left our luggage , which was taken to the temple and we went to the mission home, which are about 40 minutes apart. At the mission home we met the mission President, President Lozano. He is great. He is a convert to the church and much more relaxed than I thought he would be, but its nice that he isn't crazy intense. He and Sister Lozano live in a nice apartment in Bogota. We ended up sitting around in their living room for a while. I entertained myself by trying to play hymns on the piano, but I don't really play piano. My interview went well with President, he warned me to be humble, so I'm trying to work on that. We had lunch at his house, and Sister Lozano made some amazing soup that is a tradition here in Colombia. It was so good. It was also the whole meal. Then we left the mission home around 5 to go to the temple.

We slept at the temple, the church has a hotel across the parking lot from the temple for those who travel to do work there, since people have to travel far to get to the temple. The rooms there were very nice. The drive over was tough, traffic here is crazy and the roads are bumpy. After we had dinner I felt better. Then we got to go to bed early (830). It was really nice sleeping for so long. We all needed it. Then in the morning we had breakfast in the cafeteria in the temple, the eggs were amazing. After we went to a chapel a few blocks away for training. We weren't really told anything special, just basic mission rules. All the old gringos told us stories of when they had been robbed. So I'm looking forward to a one-man knife fight (where only one guy has a knife, the other guy) or having a gun pulled on me. But I'm not too worried now, Neiva is pretty chill and safe. Then we got our companions!!!!

I love my new comp. He is Mexican, from the North part, south of Texas. He speaks clearly, I can understand. He has been in the mission for 16 months and is a great trainer. I was SOOO happy to find out I was going to Neiva, and get out of Bogota. It would be nice to be in temperate weather, but its nice here. Were in a little pueblo, there arent any nice buildings anywhere, its crazy. There is a GIANT cathedral under construction. Literally GIANT. Its super hot here, probably 80-90 degrees all day. And night. The people are really friendly. We had weekly planning this morning, which was overwhelming. We have 3 investigators with baptisimal dates and about 7 more. So we have a lot of work to do. Everybody is named Tatiana or Dayana or Christian. So I have to get to know a bunch of people with the same names. We had our first lesson just before this. It was with The Chacon family, who are members. We got them to start family mission plans. They were really sweet, but I couldn't understand much of what they said. My companion says they use a lot of slang, so I have a lot to learn. Apparently I'm a mono. Here it means blonde, but everywhere else it means monkey. It threw me off at first. Our shower only has one knob, so there isn't hot water. But its actually my favortie thing, because I get to be cold, not hot. Its extremely refreshing.

I have to go now. I'll end by saying that I love this work. I've already felt the spirit and love being out in the feild. I know this is the work of God and that he loves all His children, everywhere. Its super cool being in a new place with different people. I hope I will be able to serve them well.

Elder Beck