May 1, 2017 - Luna Park Week 13

Well another week gone here in Luna Park.  The mission had transfers on Sunday, but Elder Mann and I are staying together for at least 6 more weeks.  Out of the 90 companionships in the mission 75 had transfers!  And they Changed the districts here.  So now Elder Mann is the DL and our District has 2 other areas that weren't there before...  So now our District is completely different.  But we'll see how it goes.  This week we helped C.... move out of her house because she and her "Husband" decided they can't live together so we moved her about a block away.  6 hours later we finished.  We didn't have any help from the ward.  So it was me, my comp, and her ex-husband.  So that's cool, but she and her son might get baptized on the 13th with one other of our investigators, but we will see.  That is about all that is going on right now I think.  Still working hard.  I love y'all tons!  Have an awesome week!

Matthew

April 24, 2017 - Welp Change of Plans this weekend...

Hey Family!

This week was hard.  We contacted a lot!  Our baptism fell through.  And our ward doesn't do very much.  So that was fun.  C.... and her future spouse decided that they didn't want to get married anymore less than 24 hours before the baptismal interview.  They got in a fight and now she and their son are going to move out.  The good thing is they are going to stay in the ward and she still wants to get baptized just when she moves out... But we'll see what happens.  So that was pretty disappointing, but we will get over it.  Um not much happening honestly.  Lots of contacting.  Today for P-Day the ZL(The only companionship in our zone that lives close to us) came over and made Mom's chocolate chip cookies and we played Risk for 4 hours.  So that was fun.  Transfers are on Sunday so we will see what is going to happen with that...  Anyways love y'all tons!  Talk to ya next week!

Matthew

Pic 1.  Me with our ward mission leader.

April 10, 2017 - The Blessings DO come!

Hey Fam!

This week was really good.  We had been contacting A LOT the last few weeks with almost no success, but this week we had several new investigators from all of our contacting!  Then we were in our English class on Tuesday and one of the counselors from the bishopric pulled us out to talk to us and told us that he had talked to C....(Investigator) and L....(Member) and said that they wanted to get married and had the papers and everything ready and want to get married and her to get baptized on the 21st of April.  To give a little background to this.  We were teaching C.... when I got here and they almost had all their documents and everything ready to get married.  Then about 4 weeks ago she decided that she didn't want to get married to L....., who is a member but they live together with their 11 year old son so she can't get baptized before she gets married, because they had been having problems.  We were stuck and we decided that we would let them both get counseling from the bishopric and see what happens, cause she didn't want to talk about it with us.  They are now, after lots of counseling, ready and excited for the marriage and her baptism!  They will get married on the 21st in the morning then they want to do the baptism as soon as possible so we are going to do it that same day in the afternoon.  They are so excited and happy and it is so cool to see the difference!  We now have a lot to do to get them  ready for the 21st!  Today for P-day we didn't really do anything.  Our zone is really lame and doesn't want to do anything...  Other than that don't know what else to talk about.  Spanish is doing good.  Slowly but surely we are getting there.  Love y'all!  Have a great week!

Pic.  Elder Mann and I eating lunch today in the apt.

April 3, 2017 - BOOOOOOOORING WEEK!!!

Hey!

So nothing much happened this week.  We just contacted A LOT!  We did have splits with the assistants and we had General Conference.  The Splits went well.  I was with Elder Mendoza from Ecuador, my uncle in the mission family, and it was fine.  He got on my shoulders at one point to give this old lady in a second floor window a Book of Mormon.  That was kinda funny I guess.  Then conference went well.  We watched 3 sessions in English and 2 in Spanish(Priesthood and Sunday Morning).  The conference was really good.  I really liked the talks from Elder Bednar and Pres Eyring in Priesthood!  Anyways, not much time and not much happened this week.  I hope y'all have a great week!  Love y'

all!

Matthew

Pic.  Elder Mendoza and I

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March 27, 2017 - "Are you both gringos?"

Hey!

This week was pretty good. Elder Mann and I get along really well. We have some problems sometimes because we both got the ADD so we can't focus to save our lives! We will be studying and someone will say something and we get super distracted, but it is pretty funny and we work hard so it is okay. We spent basically the whole week contacting because we don't have a lot of investigators. We didn't have a ton of success in finding news, but we got blessed with 2 investigators in the church on Sunday which was awesome! We had gone 2 weeks without investigators in Sacrament meeting so we were pretty pumped. My Birthday was on Saturday and to celebrate we contacted for 6 hours in the pouring down rain. That wasn't super fun but whatevs. I got my B-day package this week and opened it on Saturday morning. Mom you are awesome! Then we went to a members house here and we made cake there with them. That was fun! Then that night we ordered Dominos and ate a butt ton! Sunday was good. In gospel principles our investigator straight up showed up this less active who was kinda bashing on Joseph Smith and the BOM. She just proceeded to tell her what the BOM is and that it was true and that obviously the less active needs to read it more or she would know it is true too. Elder Mann and I just kinda looked at each other and tried not to laugh. The less active shut up after that. Today we didn't do a lot for Pday, but we organized the house a little. I hope all is well with yall! Thanks for everything! Love yall!

Matthew

Birthday Box!

Me with my Bday cake with the Ospina Family, They are awesome!

 My wall of pics by my desk now.

Elder Mann and I, sorry the photo is kinda blurry

March 20, 2017 - 6th Companion

Hey fam!

So this week was pretty long and difficult not going to lie. We didn't have any success in any facet of the work. Well, today we had transfers. Elder Tapia left for Ibague this morning. My new companion is Elder Mann. He is from Montana, USA and he has 17 months in the mission. He was in my Zone in Villao for 3 months so I know him alright. He is pretty cool and a hard worker so I am hoping that we can have some good success here. But we don't have anything right now so we are going to have to work like crazy to better the area. Anyway, we had a decent number of transfers in the zone. We now have in the zone 11 Gringos and 11 Latinos. Today for P-Day almost all of my time was spent helping with transfers because I was the Zone Leaders comp because his comp finished his mission. We went to the offices of the mission in the North of Bogota which has a crazy amount of security. It is kinda funny. Also, today we ate Dominoes in our apartment with the ZLs and one other missionary who is waiting for his comp to get here. So that was fun. My birthday is on Saturday! That is somewhat exciting! We gonna party that night after we get home! I think that is all that happened this week. I love y'all tons and I hope y'all have a great week!

Matthew

Elder Tapia and I on Sunday

Ward Party Sunday Night

March 13, 2017 - 8 Months and English Class!

Whats up!?

This week was pretty quiet. Not much happening here. We had a pretty decent week. We found 5 new investigators, but none of our investigators went to church so that was pretty disappointing. Anyway, this week we had a ton of rain! 2-3 hours every single day. Elder Tapia and I got super wet a few times. Also, something I forgot to tell y'all about is that we started an English class which is going well. We have classes every Tuesday and Friday night. There are 2 classes. One for adults with an English Professor who lived in NYC for 30 years and one for 10-16 year olds that I teach. It is honestly really nice to teach them. I didn't realize how bad I was missing teaching my swim lesson kids. It is super relaxing for me. It's fun to hang out with them for an hour. Um what else is happening here right now? I hit 8 months in the mish today! That was cool. We find out about transfers on Sunday. So there is potential that I will be writing y'all on Monday with a new comp. I'm starting to get super excited for General Conference in a few weeks! Sorry these are always really short, but I can't think of anything else happening so... I love y'all and have a great week!

Matthew