Hide n Seek

Hola!  After I called you guys on Christmas Day, the rest of the week I thought about you all a ton and it was a good motivation to work!  So thanks for the awesome Skype call.

Most of the week we met with investigators we had found from Salvador.  They were all pretty excited to come to church!  We had high hopes, however, none of them made it to church because they were out partying all night for the New Year and it was a lot louder than Christmas.  A lot of our investigators relapsed with drugs or alcohol problems this week as well.  We keep trying and praying for them.

I gave a talk in church this week.  There were a whole two families there in total!  Maybe because they heard that I was the speaker.  :)

One day we met with this most interesting family who is kind of old and has very bad health. The man can't see very well because he has diabetes. anyways they gave us some yogurt.  The family can't eat sugar so they put lemon juice in the yogurt.  Yes, imagine.  Lemon Juice.  It was the nastiest thing I've  had to eat yet, but by some divine intervention I got it down.  If nothing else my testimony has grown stronger because I know the lord has strengthened me like he strengthened the pioneers to eat some of this food.  

Then it gets more interesting.  After our lesson, we asked the son to pray.  He was like thirty and the only one who really understood our lesson, and he so agreed.  He stood up --and so did everyone else-- and put his hands in the air and started praying like preachers from other churches.  The others standing started whispering things like "padre santo" and "amen" and it was kind of interesting and honestly a little creepy, but after we thanked him and the family and continued sharing the gospel. :)

Another guy who always yells at us about the Bible, and asks why we don't defend the doctrine of the Bible and all sorts of stuff like that finally read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and kept telling us he knows it's true.   But then he continued telling us we aren't defending the Bible, because he doesn't want to worship Joseph Smith he only wants to worship Jesus, and no matter how much we tried to explain he didn't understand.  Asking in my prayers and studies for help with this one. 

President Palma invited us over to his house for New Years to eat dinner and wanted to prepare something American.  He made ham and cheese pasta!  Divine intervention again for me, but it was nice to eat dinner like a family with the other missionaries.

Mangos.  I eat LOTS of Mangos.

Typical Colmbian breakfast, Fried Bananas and Oatmeal.

Mystery Meat.  I think it was pigs snout.

In regards to me getting fat, I was a little worried about it until I read proverbs 28:25 and recieved a spiritual confirmation for myself that I am a good missionary.    (Proverbs 28:35 He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made FAT.  Insert Big smile.)

A few other funny things this week:

While we were in the middle of teaching a lesson one to this family, their kid came in covered in dirt and screaming like a maniac and then we got kicked out of the house.

We went to visit another family who wasn't home when we went to pick them up for church, so we returned later in the day with cinnamon rolls and they weren't home again.   Then we walked around the corner  and there they were!  We found them.  They were hiding from us.  It was a little awkward but we gave them the cinnamon rolls and they thanked us.  Missionary Hide and Seek.  Haha.

Thanks for all the love and support and your prayers.  I can feel them.  On to another week!

Love,

Elder Donaldson