What a crazy week that was....

I´m not kidding you at all with that title. Seriously, it was crazy.

Monday was the most normal. Went and played soccer as a zone in an awesome indoor football field with synthetic turf. Fun stuff that. I'm still not very good at football, the Latins schooled me (and all the other gringos), but all told I´m getting a lot better. After, we went shopping at a supermarket called Carrefour. This place was awesome. It seriously has everything. Including things that I´ve never seen before here in Colombia, such as Cambell´s Tomato soup, A-1 BBQ sauce, and the good old refried beans from home. The only sad part is that all of that stuff is prohibitively expensive for a poor missionary. For example, the Campbell's costs about 8,000 pesos. That's about $4.00. Now when was the last time you payed that much to have tomato soup with your grilled cheese?

Tuesday was fairly normal. That was also the day when I realized exactly how hilly this area is. It is seriously like San Fransisco, but a inland, Colombian version. We had several appointments fall through, but the last one still happened. Pedro is a reference from a member who is visiting from Bogota. He's 30-something, single, and loves paragliding. One problem. He's deaf. That makes it a just little hard to explain the message of the Restoration of the gospel. But we got to know him pretty well by miming and writing stuff. Will have to work on finding a more effective way to teach him.

Wednesday was also pretty cool. Taught a lesson to a family of recent converts, the Cortez family, who were baptized about a month ago. Who happen to have a little girl who has the biggest brown eyes I've ever seen in my life. She's two. It's like the Puss in Boots from Shrek, but in real life. She's so adorable. Going home later that night I saw something that sent me on a four hour long laughing fit. Here in Colombia everyone uses motorcycles to travel. Well, this night I saw a little old lady, probably about 80 years old, on a white three wheeled motorcycle, with Scottish-style plaid pants. I don't know why I thought it was so funny, but it was. My chest seriously hurt from so much laughing.

On to Thursday. We did our weekly planning and then went to work. Almost all of our appointments fell through, so we sent a large part of the day contacting. We knocked so many doors that day. In the end that was about all we did. It was then that I realized I was getting sick. Again. I hate it when that happens.

Friday...not much interesting. Contacted a Catholic priest who was here from Cuba on vacation. But other than that not much.

Saturday, talked with a guy who was baptized in Texas, moved back to Colombia, went inactive, and is now living with his girlfriend in his mom´s house. Oh and he also says that he believes that each person is his/her own church. AUUUGH. I liked the Catholic priest more.

NOW SUNDAY.....That was a weird day. To start, we went to church only to find that our investigator didn´t come even after we had called the night before to make sure she came. Even sent a member that morning. Worse, the main speaker in church that day was a no-show. What does that mean? That the Elders will have the pleasure of presenting a talk each with only a 15 min warning. That was fun. My companion talked about how we are examples, and I talked about gratitude (it kind of ended up being a hybrid of Pres Monson´s and Elder Holland's talks from general conference). Everyone says that it went well. Oh and I also played accompaniment in Sacrament Meeting and in Gospel Principles. Priesthood was one of those, "it´s a small word after all" moments. The high priest group leader was giving the lesson about baptism. He said, " I still remember the day I was baptized, more than 20 years ago." Then he whipped out a 22 year old wedding invitation. He continued, "I still remember the missionary who baptized me, Elder Clason. I am eternally grateful to him." I was like......" Oh...my....gosh....THAT'S MY STAKE PRESIDENT!!!!! Pres Clason, if you are reading this Cristobal Alvarez sends his "Saludos". Yeah. The word is that small. The guy who set me apart as a missionary is the same guy who baptized the high priest group leader in the ward I am serving in. After church we headed over to where Sonia, our investigator who missed church, lives. Turns out that she didn't come to church because someone tried to break into her house last night. Oh. So we were talking with her when her husband started fighting with some guy. People started to gather and things were starting to get heated there, so we retreated to the house of the second counselor of the bishopric, who just so happens to live on the other side of the street. In the end, a crazy, crazy, day.

Today, didn´t do much. Practiced a bit of football on the court in our apartment complex. Washed laundry. Read a lot of Alma ( I am reading it out loud in Spanish to help me with my pronunciation) and am now about halfway through with Alma. And now, I am writing this email. With that I close.

Love you all a lot,
Elder (Gabe) Rallison