Independence Day in Colombia

Wow flags and music everywhere, mariposa seems to be the favorite by juanes or mana I don’t remember it. I kind of love this song now, but we will see by the end of the day.

I love you guys so much.

Celebrate Independence Day with me 

Mom make Sancocho soup:

Rice

Colombian beans

Grilled chicken

maybe fry a banana

This is what I have eaten every single day since I got here, hahahaha, no joke. Good thing I like it. 

Love you lots

Off to the forest today again 

Baptism... maybe. We can only hope, she has been having lots of doubts. 

Lots of love 

Elder Lyle

P.S. Aven make juice

Mango in the blender with orange juice and water

Strain it 

BOOM… juice 

Lots of love and hugs to everyone

1 Month

YES, today it has been 1 month

23 to go...

Another unexpected online exchange with Rawly today

Rawly: Just want to say I can receive mail. An Elder received a box of peanut butter yesterday, ahahaha

I love you 

Elder Lyle

Us: Do you have a mail address that is better than the mission home in Cali??

What would you like from home :)

Rawly: Mission home in Cali. 

I don’t know, I’m just saying I can get stuff, but it has to come in the padded envelopes that you can seal shut.  

I'm really in no need of anything, I love the food here, I have lime chips, and I have my new favorite candies and everything. 

Us: Well we knew that you would LOVE the food…

Although Kricket and I think of you every time we eat something GREAT :)

Us: Don’t forget to take a picture of your first baptism :)

Rawly: Of course not, her name is Evelyn. She is awesome, oh my gosh, like seriously so awesome. 

I forgot to tell you; everywhere we go kids, kids, kids. I love it. I got adopted by one last night at family home evening and he kept calling me papi, hahaha.

Seriously this is just solidifying my career as a pediatrician. 

Rawly: Oh, also they send little CD’s or mini thumb drives that are small with videos on them. Like; Hey how’s it going or pictures of a big event or something like that. 

Rawly: We love it here 

Lots of love, Elder Lyle and Elder Borg

Love it when I'm online while Rawly is...

Here are just a couple of communication emails we had going back and forth yesterday. Some of it is informative about his living conditions and some of it is really funny:

Rawly: Remember that what we have to cook with is a portable stove top and an olla, you’ll have to translate that I can’t remember the English word.

I love you tons send you an email tonight.

Lots of love Elder Lyle

Rawly: Sorry. I sent three pictures of a game we played for like 2 hours today in P-day. We spent the day in Coconuco. The van is how we got home for an hour, ha-ha. (We never got the picture of the van)

Us: So the picture with the two S.American’s, are they also missionaries?   Rawly: My companion and a random drunk dude who was playing the game with us.

Us: Your Dad was very very happy to see you wearing Barcelona… Rawly: I’m wearing that right now!! With my white pants of course. I fit in much better, hahaha. Us: Of course you are wearing those white pants.

Speaking of, so how are you doing your laundry??? Rawly: A dude shows up with a machine on his bicycle.... hahaha Us: so like to do your laundry? Rawly: No to drop off the machine silly, hahahaha. We RENT IT! HAHAHA. Us: There's a guy that drops off a machine to do your laundry? How does that work? (Right about now I’m envisioning some kid on a bike delivering a full size washer, so I say: That is soooo funny!!  So what kind of machine do you rent? Like a washing machine? Rawly: He drives up on a bicycle in the morning, knocks on our door. Walks the machine in, sets it down and hooks it up to the sink. We pour soap and clothes in and boom LAUNDRY! Us: What that is sooo funny...we want a picture of that next week! Rawly: Yeah like a top load full sized washing machine and the kid is like 14 and waddles. I will next time he shows up.... ha-ha we will see when that is.

Us: So are you getting our messages that we send to you during the week? Rawly: Yes I am getting them all.  I LOVE them so much they really make my day. Us: I am so glad. Wasn’t sure if you could get them. Did you get the pictures of your Dad in Alaska? We thought your companion would like to see all the snow in July. Rawly: Yes he loves it! He wants to be a pilot but probably won’t have the chance. The Prince’s paired me up with him because they hope I can teach him English. Most senior companions have to teach their "niños" Spanish. Well I’m teaching him English. If I can teach him English in 3 months he can go to BYU. Challenge Accepted. Us: Do you think you will have him for the whole time? Rawly: I hope so. I will talk to President Prince on Wednesday, interviews!!! And during my interview with him I am going to talk to him and his wife about it. They told me to teach him English and I’m positive I can do it. I just need the rest of his 3 months to do it. It is his dream to go to BYU and he has the chance to do it. Him and I are working at finding people. Plus I’m sure they wouldn’t have a problem with me staying with him. Us: That sounds so great. 

Us: We did see that the Prince's are doing interviews and Sister Prince comes and makes sure your apartment is clean....YIKES. Rawly: Well, we are making sure she comes to ours. We are missing everything. Warm water, draws for our clothes, places to put our books. We bought a telephone wire that we hang our clothes on, ha-ha and our bathroom constantly smells of poop. It’s disgusting and we have no idea why, we think it is because we are on the second floor....

Rawly: If you want to see where I live; I live in La Ladera it’s a barrio in Popayan.

Us: Dad wants you to know that a 23 year old Colombian named Nairo Quintana is in 2nd place in the Tour de France!!!  Rawly: Oh I know; we all know. There are four things Colombian’s like to talk about:  Food. Sports. Religion, and Music, in that order. There was a huge futbol game last night, the favorite team won. People ran through the streets screaming and honking horns and playing music, ha-ha.

Us: So...Have you meet any other missionaries that are in Popayan? Rawly: Yes, I made quite a ripple from what I’ve heard. I’m known as the Mono or monkey, gringo that can speak Spanish. I’m already known in the area, ha-ha. There are 20 missionaries here in Popayan and I have the best area because I’m not in the city but on the outskirts. I love me some dirt floors, ha-ha-ha. Us: So mono means monkey...gringo??? Does that mean that you speak really good Spanish for a white boy? Rawly: Mono is what they call the white people who live here ha-ha-ha, so yes.

Rawly: I have to go right now. We need our CASH BAD, ha-ha-ha.

Lots of love. Your missionary. Elder Lyle

Us: Rawly, soooo LOVE YOU and are soooo PROUD OF YOU!!

GO FORTH WITH HONOR AND SERVE THIS WEEK!!!

Love you to the Moon and Back. Mom

Rawly: Tell everyone I miss them like crazy it’s a good thing I have a companion that I’m so tight with, because I’ve been missing you guys a lot lately, and the food. HAAHAHAHA 

Here is the Update...

All right so this week was interesting:

We didn’t have our baptism. Our investigator’s name is Evelyn and she is 14 years old. We moved her baptismal date to this Saturday though!! It will be really incredible. 

For the most part we spent the past week out. Like OUT. Ha-ha, our area covers a neighborhood called Barrio Cristales, look it up. Although I didn’t get the sleeping bag mission, I have the coolest mission in the world. We had to hike up a mountain maybe for 2 hours to reach this place in the middle of nowhere. I wish I could have stayed there; it is one of my favorite barrios. 

My favorite food here is ahyuca, spelling not quite sure. It’s a soup that is absolutely to die for along with maracuya juice. (Tarren I realized the granadilla and maracuya are cousins, that’s why it was so familiar but maracuya is soooo much better than granadilla). Everyone makes juice here; they just throw some fruit and water into the blender, blend it, strain it and serve. It’s so awesome and easy. Why don’t we do this at home??

This week nothing much went on. I did get sick do to some nasty drink an old lady made me, ha-ha. I didn’t throw up though; I think I lost the ability to throw up with my surgery.... hahaha

This lady was maybe 102 and when she poured the water into the canteen it spilled all over her and the floor, but she was doing everything so fast it was like she does it everyday! The drink was some mixture of the left over burnt corn made into a coffee substance. I’m assuming because it was made of corn it was okay to drink. It was warm instead of hot so not all of the granules dissolved, actually like none of them did hahaha. But yeah that was really fun later. My companion was just laughing and said ¨welcome to the next two years of your life”. 

We found 25 new investigators this week. We are having the times of our lives! My companion can be a little stubborn at times but we are getting along great. 

Today we went with a new investigator family to Coconuco. Look it up it’s so cool. They went to the natural hot springs, which my companion was absolutely disgusted with the smell, ha-ha, and we played a game with rings. Its kind of like toss the ring, but little rings and there’s multiple points you can receive. The main goal is to try and put it through a metal frogs mouth, which is entirely impossible. 

My companion is hilarious, he is honestly like a big brother in everything, and I look up to him so much. Its hilarious though he hates rice, blackberry (juice) and can’t seem to choke down breakfast or dinner, hahaha.

We ate lunch with these investigators picnic style. And man when Colombians picnic, they PICNIC. Ha-ha we had to walk up a shear cliff for a little while, then across fields and through all of this they are caring a whole cooked chicken, and a pot of rice, a large POT of rice, hahaha. 

I have ridden in some awesome automobiles, not going to lie. It’s been so awesome! I ´m getting to know the members of the church and they are helping us so much. All the people we are finding are through the members of our ward. They are amazing and so energetic to help. This is honestly how every family should be in the church; filled with zeal to help raise Zion. It is not our responsibility if they accept the message you share, but you are responsible to share this message with them. 

I am growing so much as an individual. It’s incredible. 

The gospel is TRUE; I know it with all my heart. 

Pray with faith, you will receive the answers to your heart 

Lots of Love 

Elder Lyle

Lucky number 13

It seems that Rawly's lucky number is 13!

He graduated in 2013

Received his endowments on the 13th

And today, the 13th, he has his first baptism...

For his first baptism I sent him a letter with this poem in it because I believe it says a lot of who Rawly is and the gift he has for loving others... As Rawly talked about in his last letter when the mission president asked him what they were doing to be so successful and he answered: "We just think of the people we teach as our friends and share with them the message we love."
Then I wanted to share it here because I believe it says EVERYTHING about what missionary work should be and how to be successful and how simple it really can be... Be a friend.

THE ROSE

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully, and before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon blossom and also the thorns, and he thought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?"

Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready to bloom, it died. So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential. 

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorn and find the rose within others. This is the characteristic of love, to look at a person, and knowing his faults, recognize the nobility in his soul, and help him realize that he can overcome his faults. If we show him the rose, he will conquer the thorns. Then will he blossom, blooming forth thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold as it is given him.

Our duty in this world is to help others by showing them their roses and not their thorns. Only then can we achieve the love we should feel for each other; only then can we bloom in our own garden.

Sharing a letter to Dad/Because according to his Dad, "He is one of a kind...Amazing!"

Hey Dad! 

Oh my gosh I am having the time of my life, seriously I can’t even begin to describe the peace and happiness that I feel every day when I wake up. Maybe it’s the mandatory 8 hours of sleep...hahaha

Dad I just wanted to say that I love you so much and that we are so coming back here when I finish my mission. This is the most incredible city in the world, though you might have to lower your standards of living a tiny bit hahaha. Dad I love it here, the people that I am teaching are truly the most humble people I have ever met. Imagine teaching people where we all have to sit on the concrete floor because they have no tables or seats besides a bucket, which the 76-year-old grandma is using. Dad the more and more I am studying the gospel the more and more I realize how incredible it really is. I realize how easy it was for me in the past to go along with the flow and really not think all that much about religion. The miracle of life itself is a testament of the love of our Heavenly Father, I am learning so much everyday of his overwhelming love. Someone emailed me and asked me, why does God allow such poverty to exist in the world where people are barely scraping by. 

I was able to think about this over the past few days and honestly I have such a firm belief in one cliché answer:

They are not the poorest people on this Earth; in fact those who have the most are normally the poorest. My view of poverty has changed immensely. The amount of love that I see here for everyone is absolutely incredible Dad they love everyone. If they leave their door open my companion and I start talking to them and they invite us in because they love us the moment they see us. The family’s here are so united its amazing. I really have been able to think that although some people have riches, they truly are dirt poor, because they are missing out on some of the most amazing experiences of life, laughing and enjoying life with your family little by little through the hard and easy. That is what a family is and I have seen that here more than I have ever seen in my life. 

It’s crazy how just a few weeks can change your perspective on life, granted it has a lot to do with the way I have been living these last few weeks but still, I look back on who I was just a month ago when I left and I see a scared boy with little understanding in what it means to live. I had a hard time writing that college essay because it was missing the truths of life, it was missing knowledge of what it means to live here in this life. I feel stronger than I have ever felt in my life, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically and I am ready to take on the world. Little by little I feel like I am doing just that.

I love my mission, it is changing the way I live and will change the way I live forever. I understand the meaning of time rather than money, which really is one of the biggest, challenges this world has to overcome. We live in a world where people think that the newest update is more important than an hour with your family and although I do love me an update, family and those people you love in your life are starting to have so much more importance to me. I don’t feel proud when I say this, but it’s true; I know the meaning to life. Through the Gospel I have found what it means to live, what it means to have a family, what it means to hold close those people in your life that truly make a difference in who you are.

I’m sure you are going to tear apart my grammar and spelling, ha-ha my English really is starting to move downhill quick, my Spanish is slowly getting better, my phone conversations are getting better unless I’m talking with an Argentine, hahaha 

I love you so much Dad

I just wanted to share with you some of my experiences that aren’t purely physical 

Love you to the moon and back 

Your Son