Woah....

Why does it seem that everything happens all at once? So my stuff has happened in the last week, it is almost impossible to cram it all into one email. Apart from what happened on Monday, a week of stuff happened yesterday and today.

Yesterday, we got up at five in the morning to get my companion to the bus terminal (which happens to be on the other side of Bogota) by eight. We were out of the house by six thirty, but lo and behold, the worst traffic jam that I have ever seen here. This is in part thanks to the fact that the main street of Engativá is the same size as a two lane residential street in the States and that on this same street passes about twenty buses every minute. Tell me that isn't a traffic jam waiting to happen. We finally got to the terminal with just minutes to spare. Just enough time to eat some good ol' Dunkin Donuts and get him on his bus to Cucuta. Eighteen hours in a bus, poor guy.
Whew. But wait, it's not over yet.

I got together with Elder Porflit and we went to the clinic for a doctor's appointment that I had to follow up on my arm. Thing is, that too is about an hour in a taxi. We got to the clinic and picked up my X-ray. But when we went to the desk to check in, we found out that the authorization that the office elders sent wasn't up to date. So, we ran across the street to an internet cafe and in fifteen minutes had the proper form. And back to the doctor. The doc saw me and said that I am now ready to go. Still can't do weights, but I am now set to do whatever thing I need or want to do. Thank goodness.

After the doctor, we went to get together with the other elders from the zone. They were in a very fancy and very cool mall called the Atlantis Plaza. We decided to go there to eat lunch. To my awe and surprise, I found myself in the front door of the first and only TACO BELL in COLOMBIA!!!!! Happy day and hallelujah! According to my sources, it just opened about a month ago. I was so happy I wanted to cry. I ate a hard taco, a bean burrito, and a crunchwrap for the first time in a year. With a lot of fire sauce of course. =D It was glorious. The Latins really like it too, but the gringos most of all.
I was then sent to the other side of Bogota, to the apartment in Dorado, to wait with the other elders who were going to be trainers. We waited and waited until about 7:30 when our greenies, our sons, finally got there. My companion is awesome. He's called Elder Quiñonez. He's from Guyaquil Ecuador and is often mistaken for a gringo (don´t know why). He's going to be the best missionary ever. I just know it.
We finally got back to Engativá at eight and I helped him unpack all his stuff and get acquainted. We slept, got up and started straight into mission life. Exercise, shower, shave, dress, breakfast, personal study, companionship study, all of it. Right now we are following the mission training plan so that he gets the basics down and then, well, we´ll see where we go from there. So cool to be with a newbie, makes me feel like a newbie again. Thing is, he think I know everything, while the truth is I don't know anything. Funny isn't it, to be on this side of the trainer-greenie relationship.

Well, I think that about sums it up. In all I spent about five hours in taxis yesterday. Very much enjoyed all that passed, especially eating the American food. See (well not literally) you all next week!

Love ya!

-Elder (Gabe) Rallison