Busy times in Barrancabermeja

Well, I´m going way back with this one. To 20 de Julio.

So to start we had an activity for the district of Barranca (note-a district is the primordial version of a stake). We (the missionaries) organized the whole thing. We had a ton of fun with this thing. We served tamales (which here are made in a giant palm leaf) and drank punch. Had a ton of activities, musical chairs, and my personal favorite, the skit that we missionaries put on. It was a parody of a district meeting. We had to practice,in this meeting, our contacting. Went pretty well, with contacting in the style of Rambo, Shakespeare, Olympic athletes, and many more. I´ll have to see if I can send you a video. It was seriously really funny. Pres Hacking was there too, and he loved it. Also the jovenes del districto Barranca had an awesome dance presentation.


It is seriously hot in Barranca. But I love it. We are working really hard and have baptisms coming up this Saturday. This family is really sweet. Alfonzo, the forty something husband, loves having us come and is so ready to be baptized. He previously had quite a smoking problem, but now has completely changed. Originally he was the type who always talked to everyone about religion and got really confused with all the different beliefs. Like Joseph Smith type of confused. But now, he´s just totally ready. Yesterday we taught about family history and temples. He´s like....you mean I can be baptized for my grandpa? and my dad? He is so excited. His wife, Marina, and his son are the same. They love coming to church and just say it feels different. It feels good.

This past Monday we had a great P-day. Ate chicken with some of the members here in Barranca and drove out to the Puente. It is a big old bridge that crosses the river that separates the department of Santander from the other department. More importantly, the other side is the Mission Cali. After taking some pictures and admiring the oil refinery of EcoPetrol (which I´m told is the largest refinery of the largest company in Colombia). Afterwards we picked coconuts from a tree and cracked them open.

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More to come next week, I had computer problems yet again. Love you lots.
Elder Rallison

Barrancabermeja - say that five times fast

Well I´m here in Barrancabermeja. Yeah it´s a long name, I know. The license plates actually read B/bermeja here. It is hot. And humid. As in you step out of the shower and start sweating within a minute. On a hot day you can walk outside and there will be several iguanas sunning themselves on the front porch. We were walking to an appointment the other day and there were city workers trimming a tree. With machetes. It´s pretty sweet. Oh and our house is nicer this time too. We have fans in each room and a built in gas stove. The bedroom even has a small ac unit. Will send pictures next week. Right now I´m having problems with my camera and have not yet figured out how fix it. But never fear, there will be pictures.

My companion is awesome, he´s actually from my group. He´s from Peru (Lima this time) and is great to work with. We don´t have many investigators, so we´ve been doing a bit of contacting. We´re also working on activating the branch. There are about 400 members on the rolls, but on Sunday, there were only 30 in church. We´ve got a bit of work to do. My Spanish is coming along and I feel fairly confident communicating with people. Which as a missionary is something just a little important.

Love you all and hope you´re all doing fine. If anyone has a question about Colombia, Spanish, etc, let me know.

-Elder Rallison

Bautsimos, discorsos, cambios...Oh my!

This past week has been crazy. We had ten investigators who we were trying to get baptized before transfers, but we didn´t get them all. We got seven. Which is amazing by the way. Was a crazy week running around and making sure that they were all ready. For example, to do the interviews, the district leader came here with my companion and I was in Tocancipa for a couple days on an interchange with his companion, Elder Uarca. Since Elder Uarca has only 3 months, I was the senior companion for the day. Was fun, and I learned a lot. It was pouring rain all day so by the end we were saoked to the bone. After that, I returned to Zipa and continued working with my comp to prepare our investigators for baptism. In the end, Mirella and her children, Daniela, Alejandro, and Esteban (who I got to baptize, awesome experience) as well as two kids from another family Jhon and Daniela, were baptized on Saturday. Cake and ice cream were enjoyed afterwards by all present. This was followed by the bapism of Diana on Sunday morning (she is one of the kids of Mirella, but had to work on Saturday).

All of the above persons were confirmed in church yesterday. In this same meeting I had the oppertunity to give a talk. My topic? A man without eloquence. Yeah, when I heard that I was like, ´Wow a perfect topic for me.´ The topic is based on the conversion of Brigham Young and how if all worldly wisdom and cunning were presented standing that the Book of Mormon is true, for him, it would be nothing more than as the smoke on the wind. But the simple testimony of a man without eloquence or strength in pubic speaking, brought a Spirit which penetrated every fiber of his being and he could not doubt the truth of the words of that man.

To close, I got a call last night. I´m being transferred. To Barrancabermeja, area Pinos. Don´t know much about it, except that it is in Tierra Caliente, the hottest part of the mission. It sits below sea level. On the equator. Day and night at about 100 degrees with about the same humidity. It´s going to be fun. Will write more about that once I get there. I look forward to it. It will be hard to leave Zipa, it´s my first area and all, but I will go where I am needed. And that is Barrancabermeja. Well, hasta luego.

-Elder Rallison

PS-For some reason I´ve also been a little under the weather the past couple of days, but am feeling much better now.

The dispatch of the week

Yeah, I have my notes. It says...flores, templo en spanish, intercambios, conferencias.

To start, if you have a bouquet of flowers in your house right now, chances are it's from here in Colombia. Most of the world's flowers are grown here in Colombia. It is hard not to laugh when you contact a big old guy and he says he works in flower growing. But it's true. A lot of people here do it. This is one thing I learned a lot more about than I ever thought I would. You have no idea what goes into making that bouquet. All the growing, pruning, cutting, processing, inspections, packing, etc. It's a lot.

Next, we had intercambios with the zone leaders in Granada this past week. My companion for the day, Elder Cepeda, is going home to Chile in a week. He was awesome. We had the chance to go to the temple for the sealing of the first family that he baptized here in Colombia. I have discovered that is as much a special experience in any language, just a little harder in Spanish. But the Spirit can speak all languages, so it was all good.

Not much more time to write, love you all, and you're in my prayers.
Con mucho cariño,
Elder Rallison

Colombian nights, like Colombian days

So, this week it will be short. Why? Well, there was a lot of news, but I lost my notes of the past week´s events.

One highlight was an epic zone conference where President Hacking gave a great presentation about making goals. He showed us some hilarious slides about goals. One of my favorites was of Scrat, the little sabertoothed squirrel from "Ice Age". In the slide he is frozen solid reackign for an acorn that is always just out of his grasp. It is easy to feel like this at times with our goals. So, he chalenged us to make our goals SMART. Well, is spanish it isn't exactly SMART, but the same idea. Simple, Measureable, Attainable, R.....(que vaina, I don't remember R..), and Timed. Also, one awesome quote from the CCM that kept coming to mind. "If you can concive and belive, you can achive". In his presentation Pres Hacking used another eqaully profound. "If a man knows not which port, then any wind will do." <--That was as good of an English translation I can make.

Other cool stuff this week.... I got to help dedicate the grave of the brother of one of the members here in Zipa. That was a different experience. The things you learn in the mission. For example, how to cook bannana. Or how to walk really really fast (a skill that is utilized when you are running late getting home, which just so happens to be on the other side of town).

Had a few ups and downs. We had two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, but then had them fall through. But then, at the time that we were going to have the baptism we instead had a lesson were we obatined baptismal dates for all of Mirella's family (a family of five). This is the noramal ups and downs of missionary work. It is the most difficult thing at times, but others, it is something that I wouldn't trade for the world.

That's pretty much it for now. The next time I'm going to take better notes, so I can actually write a better account of my doings. But for now, I leave you with the fondest of farewells, Bye.

Les quiero.

Elder Rallison

And it all just keeps rushing by

Well, as I was notified by my companion, this past week I hit my 4 month mark. I can hardly believe it. It doesn't feel like four months. But it's true. And in another week and a half, I'll have been here in Colombia for 2 months. To me, that's crazy. I've learned a lot in the past weeks, for example, I can now actually communicate with my companion and the investigators. Yeah, there are still times when I need someone to help explain something to me, but those times are getting rarer and rarer.

I'm loving Colombia so much right now. Yesterday it was 60 degrees out (in Fahrenheit) and raining all day. In June. Yeah, that's one of the side effects of living in a rain forest at almost 9000 ft. There's a mountain on the eastern side of town, and yesterday, it looked exactly like something out of the opening scene of the movie Avatar. Tall, green trees with thick clouds woven into the scene. It was really cool looking. The next time I'll have to get a picture.

We have been busy this past week. We taught Daisy, a thirty-something lady who has two kids, one of which has 9 years. They both are getting baptized this Saturday. We are also working on getting Adriana married to her less-active member novio. Other than that necessity, she is golden. She'll listen to the lesson and then self-apply it to herself and then self-commit. That is cool. Now the only wrestle is getting her papers from Barranquilla, the coastal city where she was born. Which also happens to be in another mission. But the said papers are a necessity to make the marriage official. Such is life. We also have had a lot of fun with Mirella. She has five kids living at home, three girls and two boys. Yesterday we got to play relationship counselor again, this time with her and one of her daughters. The standard teenager and parent, but to a greater degree than I've seen before. At times it's a lot harder than you'd think, because both sides are trying their hardest to get you to side with them. Such a pain, but the end result is worth it. All of the above listed people came to church on Sunday. That is the real fight, so happy day with that one.

We had a hard time this past week trying to contact people, because along with the Mundial there was also the Election Debates. So, almost no one had time to meet with us. But now, the elections are over and hopefully people will be more open to listening to us.

I love the chance I've been given to serve here and help to make a difference in the lives of these people here in Colombia. It's been hard, but those happy moments make it all worthwhile.

Love you all,
Elder Rallison

Hey!.....nada.

Hola mi famila!!!!
Pues, este semmana fue muy chevre. We had some great lessons and a lot of opportunities to talk with people. Some better than others. For example, we had one lesson where we were teaching about keeping the sabbath day holy and the investigator offered us coffee. We, of course, turned it down, but that started us talking about the word of wisdom and ended with her telling us that she has a major coffee addiction. Like a cup or two every two hours. Yeah.... But on the bright side, she came to church on Sunday and said afterwards that she felt better than she´s felt in a long time. So we´ll see how that goes. On the other hand, we had a wedding scheduled, but now we are going to have to change the date. Why? Because that´s the day that Brazil and Portugal are playing in the World Cup. Yeah, for a soccer game. The World Cup is making it a little difficult to work here at times. It´s like Superbowl Sunday in the states but one that continues for a whole month. Yeah, that´s great. but on the upside, the underdog, USA, managed to pull of a tie with England, one of the top ranked teams. So currently, my allegiance lies between England, Germany, USA, or Brazil. I´m still not sure which I want to go with.

In other news, the weirdest thing ever happened this past Sunday. So, my companion and I were late to sacrament meeting this Sunday because we were out rounding up our investigators. We went straight from that to gospel principles and had a great lesson on the offices of the priesthood. Then we had to take one of the investigators home and were late to priesthood. Well, there was something a little different about elders quorum this Sunday. There was a gringo in the class!!! For me, this was a shocker. He spoke perfect Colombian Spanish and actively participated in the lesson, but had an American accent. After priesthood I started talking to the guy. Turns out he´s from Arizona!!! Yep, Arizona. Avondale in fact. How crazy is that. He was a missionary here in Zipa about 20 years ago, back when it was the Colombia Bogota mission. He is her in town visiting with his family, all of which speak fairly fluent Spanish's. I think his name was brother Tobler, but I´m not sure. But yeah, that was crazy weird. You don´t expect to meet another gringo from Arizona here in Zipaquira. Oh and even better, my companion and I have lunch with the family tomorrow. Really cool. Oh and guess what, he gave me kool-aid and a bag of gummy worms. Yeah, I´m in heaven. =D

I´d like close with two short messages. First, I have discovered that there a lot of different types of people in the world, and all of them have different needs. But, despite all the differences, the gospel message still applies to each of them in a highly individual way. Second, feed the missionaries in your area. Please. They work hard and deserve some love, and what is a better way to demonstrate that love for them than by feeding them a nice home cooked meal. That is all for now. Saludes de mi compañero.

Hasta luego,

Elder Rallison