Fruit Looks Like Brains! (And Story of a Gunman)

Momma!

Always such a pleasure to talk to you!  Mondays are superb.  I kinda realized I'm not very good at answering the questions you ask . . . So here ya go!  HA!  We eat three weird fruits here.  They are called Mora, Lulo, and Maracuya.  Ha wait til you see the inside of a Maracuya.  It looks like brains!  But it's all super good.  We make juice with them a lot.  

 

We had one more baptism this week.  Her name is Rosa.  I don't know her story because she already had a baptism date when I got here.  But we are teaching her son tonight, so hopefully we can baptize him, too.

 

We meet in a normal church building, but it's in a pretty dangerous part of the neighborhood.  It's just in a ghetto part of the city.  But the church is right next to the highway so nothing bad is going to happen.  DON'T WORRY!!  But none the less.  I think there are more people in this ward than we have in Fairview.  And with new people constantly being added!  Ha!

 

Today was awesome! We went and played soccer with the ward.  Ha the ward parties here are so much fun!  Everyone dancing and eating some food, and chit chatting a little bit!  And soccer is so intense! But I was able to keep up just fine!  I got super crazy bad burned though.  OUCH. 

 

So I spilled on my pants a while back and had to wash them.  They got all stretched out, so I had a guy fix them.  They're pretty super skinny now!  HAHA!  But I like them.  Also Brian's suit pants were way big for me.  So I had him fix those, too.  Super skinny as well!  I look good though!  I got a haircut today also!  I am working on getting this photo situation settled so ya´ll can see my pretty face! HAHA.

 

But anyways.  Nothing too much more has happened.  Just your basic lesson teaching and learning more Spanish everyday!  Much love to you and everyone!  I hope all is still going well!  

- Elder Anderson


[This next e-mail is what Kyle wrote to Brian today!]


Dude. Plain weeks are boring. But I gotta tell you a story of what happened yesterday. But don't tell mom. We almost got robbed. Freaking. We were waiting for the jeep to come and this kid pulls up on his motorcycle. Comes up to us, pulls a gun out and tells us to give him our money. We said we didn't have any. But I had some in my pocket. Freaking kid reaches in my pocket. Grabs my money. Lets go of it like he didn't even feel it and then just keeps telling us to give it to him. We emptied out backpacks and everything. Freaking this is where it gets crazy man! Two guys came out of nowhere and started talking to him. I thought they were just going to tell him to leave but NO! They freaking grabbed him from off his motorcycle and beat the freaking tar out of him. Right there in front of me and Elder Flores. I mean. This is what you see in the movies and video games. Not right in front of your face! They knocked him out, stole his motorcylce, asked if we were ok, and were to never be seen again. Freaking wow! Crazy stuff man. Angels exist!

- Elder Anderson

70 Pushups and three baptisms!

It's good to hear everything is good!  Things are good here, too!!! We had three baptisms on Saturday.  Ana, Camilo, and Estavan.  Camilo and Estavan are brothers.  Ana is 50... Something.  HA!  I baptized Camilo!  Didn't even mess up!  It was awesome!  The Spirit is so strong!  Also when they get confirmed the next day.

My companion knows English pretty sweet so it helps me learn Spanish!  We can communicate in both languages so that's pretty awesome!  Sometimes I have a hard time understanding investigators cause they slur the words.  But for the most part it's coming!

Yesterday after church we got pounded by the rain! It was so awesome!!!!!!!!!!  The streets were flooding up, but it's cool because they have these huge vent things that drain all the water!  Crazy cool.  We're probably gunna get hit again tonight!!

So there is this thing called CAPTAIN MORONI.  It's a thing where if you baptize more then 10 people in 3 months you get it.  Me and Elder Flores are totally going to do it!  First transfer!  HA!

Oh YEAH.  Does the bank know I'm in Colombia? Cause I don't wanna try getting money out and have the cops come after me!

 

[I asked Kyle about some pictures I saw on the mission blog of elders and the mission president doing push-ups.]  I did a bunch of pushups.  Like . . . 70 I think.  I can't remember.  HA!  But we wrote down how many we can do no matter what.  Then a new goal.  And then how much we actually did.  I put down 35 pushups, no matter what, and 50 for my goal.  Totally smashed it doing 70!  HAHA!  But anyways.  It is significant to our goals for our investigators.  So we made goals of how many investigators we are going to get no matter what. That's what the compromisos is.

 

 But anyways.  Today was kinda a boring day.  We took a taxi across town to the office to get something for Elder Flores.  Then it was back to the apartment to.... Sleep.  HA! It's days like today where I feel fat.  Cause I get so bored so I just eat.  But then the rest of the week I know I'm skinny again. HAHA! 

That's awesome about RHETT!!!!!! [His friend, Rhett Bird, got his mission call to Spain!  He leaves July 24, 2013!]  I'm so freaking happy right now!!! YES!  I wanna write him so hook me up with his e-mail.  I can write Abdiel, too.  The rules are write Momma first.  Then President.  And if I have time after (which I always do)  I can write friends.  So yeah!

But anyways.  Nothing to much more has happened.. So until next WEEK!

Much love to all of you!

- Elder Anderson

Transferred to Campo

Take it easy on the cars!!!  [We hit a deer while driving to work in the Manti Temple on Saturday morning.  I told Kyle to obey the rules, even the speed limit].  And so far I'm obeying all the rules with exactness!   (I think.)

I'm excited to hear about how Alex will do [Kyle's cousin, Alex Larsen, is going to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to serve his mission.  He'll be speaking Hmong].  He will do great!  I heard some people speaking Hmong when I was in the MTC in Provo and it's a weird language.  But it would be cool to learn!

Yeah, I've been in 2 car accidents [Kyle told Brian about the accidents last week, but not me, so I asked him about them].  I didn't say anything about them because they were so so so tiny.  We just bumped into the sides of the other cars.  Driving here is crazy!!! No lines on the roads.  It's pretty scary at times, but pretty cool.

Kyle and Elder Flores

My new companion is Elder Flores!  He is a super awesome dude!  Our area is called Ceibas 2.  We live in a city called Campo.  Its pretty small . . . compared to Cali.  But it has a lot of farm land and cows, which is good to see again.  Brings me right back to home!  Our area consists of a lot of small towns put together.  It's kinda like Sanpete is setup, with about six miles in between each town.  So we spend a lot of time on the bus, which I don't like.  It's super super crowded.  BUT!  It will be good once I know Spanish a lot better because I will have a lot of teaching opportunities.  All the houses here are really small.  They are about the size of the basement family room.  But my apartment has two floors, so it's two of those.  Probably a little smaller.  My bed is pretty hard actually.  Ha!  I wake up feeling like an old man because my back hurts. BUT!  If the pioneers could do it, so can this guy!

We can't drink the water.  We have to boil it.  I think I'm getting a little skinnier because you can see my dimples pretty good now.  But not too much.  I eat a lot of bread because it's super cheap and it's super good!  I bought a jersey and some glasses today.  That's pretty awesome.

We have two baptisms set up.  Camilo and his brother Estavan.  They are 12 and 14 years old.  We are all really excited about it!! Me and Camilo are buds.  It's awesome!

You don't need to worry about me coming home, momma [I asked Kyle if he's still happy].  This is too awesome and I love it too much already! I mean, of course, I miss you and everyone, but, you know, I need to be here.

Keep on keeping on!  Be safe!  I love you!  Until next week!!!

- Elder Anderson


[Kyle's e-mail to Todd today]

It's good that things are busy [with woodworking]! It's about time you got to work! Haha!  Sorry I can't be there helping you.  But I think I would rather be here instead.  I really hope that thing works with this guy [working with a man to build furniture]!  What a great opportunity!  

 

I haven't really heard anything more about the strikes, but yeah, I got transferred!  My new comp is Elder Flores.  I make fun of him because that's flowers in English.  Ha! We are already good buds. And we make a crazy good team! We have a baptism this Saturday with a little kid named Camilo.  We are already buds, too.  We are all crazy excited for Saturday!

 

But anyways.  Mom told me about the car.  What's up with that?!?!  But anyways.  I hope all is still going well.  Much love to ya!

 

- Elder Anderson

 

Eat Like Champions!

Hey Momma! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  Geez.  You and dad are just so lucky that I got to e-mail both of you on your birthdays!  Ha!  Hope it has been a good one!

 

We lose so much weight because estamos siempre sudoroso!!  HA!  We are always sweaty.  The members feed us like champions!  And we usually just have cereal and whatever else for breakfast and dinner.  We eat tons of rice. And meat. And Beans. And fried bananas. I like the bananas a lot.   And actually everything is just really good.  I think I might be losing a little bit of weight because I work out every morning and then sweat all day.  I think my face is looking skinnier.  But I won't know until 22 more months! HA!  

 

But anyways.  Not much has happened this week.  We confirmed three baptism dates, so that's good. We got another new companion though, so I'm in a trio again.  His name is Elder Jones from California.  He is pretty cool.  

 

We went up to a place called Three Crosses today.  That was awesome! Sweet view of Cali (it's up on the side of the mountain), and just totally beautiful.  The ride up and down was super scary because we took a really crappy bus up the mountain that was really steep.  But we lived, so everything is okay!  After that we went and bought some snacks and cards and went to the church with our zone and played.  It was pretty fun!  We spent the rest of the day cleaning the apartment and what not.  Nothing too serious happened this week.  

 

Any more details about your weeks? I would love to hear! HA!  But anyways.  Love ya much! 

- Elder Anderson