¿¡Qué más!?
Well , first off I will tell all of you what happened this week in a quick overview. We got back from Tunja on Monday night , then worked Tuesday-Friday afternoon in Barbosa and then left again for Tunja to watch Conference. We had to go to Tunja so Elder Hicken and I could watch it in English. We watched Conference on Saturday and Sunday which was AWESOME and then worked in trios Sunday night. Today we went bowling which was really fun! The game was between "The United States of Colombia" vs. "The rest of the world". Our team was Hermana Roa (Colombia), Elder Cardona (Colombia), Elder Hicken (Utah), and me (California) and the other team was Hermana Garcete (Paraguay), Elder Mendez (Bolivia), Elder Manrique (Argentina),and Elder Wong (Perú). So that 's how we came up with the names. And our team won. Yay! haha. The plan was that we were going to stay in Tunja Tuesday and leave for Duitama on Wednesday for our Zone Meeting, but we were told today we had to go back to Barbosa and in a little less than 24 hours go back to Tunja. Going back and forth is 3 hours and 18000 pesos...yay! Oh and we have to go pay our water bill tomorrow and hopefully we can because we were going to pay it before we left for Tunja last week but since it was Semana Santa (Holy Week) everything closed and today was the first day that we could pay it again. So , we will see if we have water tomorrow haha. So that ended up being a lot longer summary than I anticipated haha..lo siento. But now I want to talk about the good...feelings! Hahaha.
Anyway, the past couple months have been very challenging. What has been happening is that during lessons or just talking with people, people almost always seem to tune me out and stop list ening to me. I've gotten the question a lot of "You were talking?" and also people talking or laughing while I'm speaking and then when I ask them a question , they have no idea what I said. However, luckily my comp always listens to me and helps me out with it. It has been a struggle because I know the message I am sharing is true and I know it can help them in their lives, but then as I'm baring my testimony , their mind is in a totally different place and it seems that they don 't care at all. However, like I said, my comp has helped me a lot and has told me to just stop talking and wait until people are listening and attentive to start talking again. At first , I didn 't do it much because I felt weird to do it. But now , I do it alot and it has helped alot and when that doesn 't work , I ask them to please pay attention , haha. Its funny how God works. When you pray and ask for things to change or get better, God will not take it away instantly. If He did that, where would the time be for us to try ourselves and our faith and have an opportunity to grow? After all, that is part of the reason we are here on this earth. Instead, He tries us. He gives us the opportunity to turn to Him and when we keep the faith, trust in the Lord, and endure to the end , He gives us what we need, little by little, until months later you look back and realize that He has been helping you all along the way. And then you realize that the "great" issue that was putting so much weight on your shoulders and picking at your faith, really wasn 't a "great" issue at all. It was just a mountain on the trail, which at first is hard, but when you keep trying and don 't turn back, once you reach the top you can enjoy the view and take it easy on the downhill decent. I can say that this trial that I'm facing is still present . However, I know now that the Lord is and has always been with me and thanks to the hard times, I can finally see why they were necessary and take it a little easier as I continue along the trail. I'm so grateful for our Savior and Redeemer , Jesus Christ and for His Atonement. He suffered and died for all of us so that we wouldn 't have to suffer in this world alone. No matter what trail a person faces, there will always be one person who knows exactly how we feel and exactly how we can be helped. He rose on the third day and as a representative of Jesus Christ , I testify that He lives today. I love His church and His gospel. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Elder Richmond
Well , first off I will tell all of you what happened this week in a quick overview. We got back from Tunja on Monday night , then worked Tuesday-Friday afternoon in Barbosa and then left again for Tunja to watch Conference. We had to go to Tunja so Elder Hicken and I could watch it in English. We watched Conference on Saturday and Sunday which was AWESOME and then worked in trios Sunday night. Today we went bowling which was really fun! The game was between "The United States of Colombia" vs. "The rest of the world". Our team was Hermana Roa (Colombia), Elder Cardona (Colombia), Elder Hicken (Utah), and me (California) and the other team was Hermana Garcete (Paraguay), Elder Mendez (Bolivia), Elder Manrique (Argentina),and Elder Wong (Perú). So that 's how we came up with the names. And our team won. Yay! haha. The plan was that we were going to stay in Tunja Tuesday and leave for Duitama on Wednesday for our Zone Meeting, but we were told today we had to go back to Barbosa and in a little less than 24 hours go back to Tunja. Going back and forth is 3 hours and 18000 pesos...yay! Oh and we have to go pay our water bill tomorrow and hopefully we can because we were going to pay it before we left for Tunja last week but since it was Semana Santa (Holy Week) everything closed and today was the first day that we could pay it again. So , we will see if we have water tomorrow haha. So that ended up being a lot longer summary than I anticipated haha..lo siento. But now I want to talk about the good...feelings! Hahaha.
Anyway, the past couple months have been very challenging. What has been happening is that during lessons or just talking with people, people almost always seem to tune me out and stop list ening to me. I've gotten the question a lot of "You were talking?" and also people talking or laughing while I'm speaking and then when I ask them a question , they have no idea what I said. However, luckily my comp always listens to me and helps me out with it. It has been a struggle because I know the message I am sharing is true and I know it can help them in their lives, but then as I'm baring my testimony , their mind is in a totally different place and it seems that they don 't care at all. However, like I said, my comp has helped me a lot and has told me to just stop talking and wait until people are listening and attentive to start talking again. At first , I didn 't do it much because I felt weird to do it. But now , I do it alot and it has helped alot and when that doesn 't work , I ask them to please pay attention , haha. Its funny how God works. When you pray and ask for things to change or get better, God will not take it away instantly. If He did that, where would the time be for us to try ourselves and our faith and have an opportunity to grow? After all, that is part of the reason we are here on this earth. Instead, He tries us. He gives us the opportunity to turn to Him and when we keep the faith, trust in the Lord, and endure to the end , He gives us what we need, little by little, until months later you look back and realize that He has been helping you all along the way. And then you realize that the "great" issue that was putting so much weight on your shoulders and picking at your faith, really wasn 't a "great" issue at all. It was just a mountain on the trail, which at first is hard, but when you keep trying and don 't turn back, once you reach the top you can enjoy the view and take it easy on the downhill decent. I can say that this trial that I'm facing is still present . However, I know now that the Lord is and has always been with me and thanks to the hard times, I can finally see why they were necessary and take it a little easier as I continue along the trail. I'm so grateful for our Savior and Redeemer , Jesus Christ and for His Atonement. He suffered and died for all of us so that we wouldn 't have to suffer in this world alone. No matter what trail a person faces, there will always be one person who knows exactly how we feel and exactly how we can be helped. He rose on the third day and as a representative of Jesus Christ , I testify that He lives today. I love His church and His gospel. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Elder Richmond