July 21, 2014 Neiva!

July 21, 2014

Neiva!

Hi everybody!

It has been a good, super hot week here in Neiva!!! Neiva is a lot like Arizona, except there is a ton of humidity in the air (even though it still hasn't rained haha), so at nighttime it is still hot and we just sleep without sheets or blankets and with a personal fan haha. So my ward in Manzanares, and we have 4 missionaries here. There were 6 before (4 Elders and 2 Hermanas), but they took the hermanas out, and we are in charge of opening up their area and part of the other missionaries' area too. It has been kinda tough searching for addresses and people in an area we have never been in before, but I have figured out how to search addresses without a gps now, so it is all good haha.

So before all that, last Monday, I had a little time to say goodbye to a few families (including Familia Reyes in the photo). I'm gonna miss Modelia a lot! And then that night, I was up until like 1 in the morning packing. Tuesday morning, we took off in a big tour bus to Neiva! And I found out that two hermanas from my Zone, Hna Quijada and Hna Yauli, were coming too! And Elder Mills, it was cool to have so many people going down there together.

 

Familia Reyes

My companion is Elder Sariego, he is the District Leader of our ward, has 17 months in the mission, is Chileno, and a pretty cool guy. We have been working hard this week to find a lot of the people that are in our area books, all the people that the other missionaries had been teaching. And that isn't a lot haha. But while we were looking for some people, I saw a few people moving into an apartment building, and we asked if we could help them out. We then found out two important things: They are members, and they were moving into the 5th floor! Without elevator! So we helped them carry a bunch of stuff up the 5 flights of stairs, and I guess in return, they contacted their neighbors for us! So we got a few new investigators out of it!

The people here are a lot more open, too. The other day, we had like 45 minutes with little to do, so I started knocking doors, and the second door was a family that just invited us in, gave us lemonade, and let us share something! And there are a lot of people like that here! I heard that a missionary here a few months ago had 54 new investigators during his 6 weeks, so we are gonna see what we can do too!

Yesterday was the independence day of Colombia!

Today, we played micro with the district in the morning (there is a court just 2 minutes away from the house), and then later in the day we played with some of the elders from the zone! It was horrible haha. It is super hot, and I am super sun-burned; it was a good time, but it still sucks to play when it is super hot haha.

Well, have a good week!

Love,

Elder Toombs