Hello Friends and Family
Oh my gosh. Here we go.
Since we left off I was in Cali. In Cali I was chosen to go out with the missionaries for a quick, debriefing.... well they chose me to go to one of the most dangerous parts of Cali, hahaha, I loved it, something about me being not quite as a gringo as the others... Anyways the poverty is incredible. In Cali we had to go down under the street to a family’s home. But the most amazing thing, as I was sitting there in a concrete floor, roof, wall, one room house, I noticed something. The people are incredibly happy. It doesn’t matter what kind of status your family is, as long as you are together it is home. I was the only white person there everyone else was African Colombiano. It was probably one of the most impoverished places I had ever seen, but the people were all the happiest.
My Companion: Elder Borg
Elder Borg in one word is, hilarious. I have never met a better person in my life. I thought I got along with my last companion; comparatively I was just tolerating him. Elder Borg and I are doing awesome together. Today was P Day and instead of going to play futbol with the other missionaries what he wanted to do was cook. He hates rice, which is all we eat here. So we cooked. I cooked gnocchi and he cooked chicken.... It was probably the best food I have had since I got here, his chicken was soooo good and affordable it only cost us about 4 dollars for juice, chicken, papas, flour everything! My companion and I are having the times of our lives. He is finishing his mission and I am starting mine. He is from the Dominican Republic and has lost like 70 pounds on his mission ahaha he was a big boy. He plays baseball religiously and is a rapper singer. Before the mission he was recording with some of the people we hear on the radio. He’s awesome.
Okay, so we made our way to Popayán via bus for 5 hours, and when we arrived we beheld our apartment. I LOVE MY FIRST APARTMENT!!!! It´s.... minimal hahahaha. I was elected to get the apartment with the pipe in the wall in the downtrodden neighborhood, AND I LOVE IT. I can’t help from laughing sitting here at the computer telling you guys all this. It’s a cold shower every morning, so of course I can’t help but singing and doing the taro patch twist. (For those of you that haven’t heard this song, it’s a great Hawaiian song our family loves) HAHAHA We don’t have a closet to put our clothes in and the spider webs...well they’re gone now haahahaha. My companion was disgusted with our apartment, it’s a good thing I don’t know anything better cause, I LOVE IT!!!!! Oh my gosh I love it. We have a tin roof and an amazing view of the city. We bought some wire to hang our clothes on. The plates are where the laundry normally goes when washing it but that’s fine. I titled this Channeling My Inner Aven because that’s exactly what I had to do. I felt like I was creating my own little cafe in a tree house. Putting plates over here, laundry over there, sweeping our wooden floor yaddah, yaddah, hahaha. We live on the second floor, but it’s weird cause the second floor is road level, you have to go down under the road to meet the neighbors. I LOVE MY HOME!!! Its a little run down but its mine and I love it.
The weather in Popayán is perfect, seriously. It began to rain the other day while we were out walking and got soaked. Literally dripping wet, best moment ever of my mission.
What we are doing is we walk, walk, walk and then walk some more, climb a hill, climb down a hill, meet a family, eat, talk, eat, talk, eat some more, eat even more, and continue walking. Saturday I had three lunches, which are all huge, like fast Sunday, always big, and I had three!!!! Oh my gosh. What we eat is rice with some sort of meat and lots of it, and then soup. And always, always, always juice. I’m in love with the amount of juice I have drunk. The most common is something like a tomato from a tree, but I don’t know the translation and it tastes kind of like tomatoes but more fruiter and is actually delicious. I also love lulo fruit, and GUAVA!!!
Well President Prince called Elder Borg and I personally today to address an issue...
What are we doing with our time?
Because in the 4 days we have been here we have found and started to teach 17 people, we are on fire. He and I are very much alike and are always laughing and joking. We told him that we are just meeting people talking to them and asking them what’s going on in their lives. We are already starting to help tons of family’s. Our goal for the four days was 15 people and President Prince was a little surprised he told us that 15 people in an area that we don’t know at all in 4 days in really hard to do.... hahaha. We are having the times of our lives.
My first baptism is on Saturday.
Funniest moment of the week:
(I have NO idea what he is trying to say here, except that I think he believes that dogs go to heaven and has a scripture reference for it but obviously it’s not in Apacolpyse)
A drunk guy came up to me and asked me why dogs can’t go to heaven, and showed me a scripture reference in the end of Apacolpyse where it said so, I continued to tell him in meant the dogs of men, like those with bad heart and that dogs are will forever be mans best friend, The moment I said this I look down and a little dog is peeing on my backpack and my shoe...HAHAHAHAHA I about died. Elder Borg about had an aneurism(spelling!?)
I love my scheduled life, though man will I come back in shape, we do exercise, hard exercise every morning, I feel like I’m at Bible Boot Camp or something. Hahaha.
6:30 we wake up and exercise, starting at 7:30 we study till 12. Then we go out for almuerzo (lunch), then we visit and at 10:30 we are asleep no siestas, hahahaha
We really only eat one time a day for lunch, which has taken a little getting used to, no breakfast or dinner. Elder Borg got sick in his mission and really can only eat one time a day or he gets sick, yikes. Well, it’s all-good though.
I’m on the outskirts of Popayán, in the more rural area in the hills. Which I like a lot. The people are amazing and incredibly humble.
One thing that I do love is the bread. There are bread shops everywhere, which smell so incredible, really incredible. The bread is flaky like in Europe. Seriously America what is up, why can’t we seem to get it? They drink hot chocolate with their bread here and they put cheese in it, but it’s a weird cheese that doesn’t melt. It’s actually quite delicious.
I love you guys so much, it’s so amazing to see the progress that these people are making. I am so incredibly grateful to have so much in my life and I have been majorly humbled here. I really can’t believe the way some people live here. What I thought to be smog when I first got here is just smoke from all the fires in the street that people have made to cook their food. I love it here, the people are amazing, I never want to leave Popayan, it’s absolutely amazing. My trainer, Elder Borg is so awesome. We are having the times of our lives.
Love
Elder Leelay
Outside of Rawly's 1st apartment
Rawly cleaning the cobwebs out of the apartment, who knew he knew how to clean?
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