Week 5: Five More Days!!

Well, 5 more days and I’m out in the real world!  I could not be more excited!  I know I am going to have so much fun, because every time we go proselyting, I fall in love with the people! Haha.  For the most part they are so friendly and are so accepting.  There was this one person that my companion and I talked to.  He was the perfect investigator!  He was very accepting.  We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he was so excited to read it!  I was really tempted to challenge him to be baptized right there because he was so amazing!  Anyways, I’ll have many more things to write about when I get out into the field.  More adventures, funny, and crazy stories! 

In reality, what I’m going to miss the most here in the CCM, are the teachers and the spirit.  The teachers are the most amazing people I know.  I had this one teacher named Hermano Castiblanco and he was like my best friend.  That’s how all of the teachers here are.  They’re all just so young and so much fun.  It will definitely be a weird experience when I get out into the field, not having these amazing teachers to help me along the way!  It's really a sad thing to think about but such an exciting thing at the same time!  

I can't wait to do the Lord's work and spread this amazing gospel.  If any of you are having trouble with your testimony or your faith in Christ, I would recommend you read Alma 32.  It describes faith perfectly.  I have been able to use it in my lessons with investigators and I know it touches their hearts.  

I love you all and plan to write more next week after being in the field!  Thanks for all of your support.  I cannot thank you enough!

-Elder Marsh

My whole district at Bogota Temple.

Elder Kendall and I wearing cool wool sweaters from the market.

Week 4: One Month Down!!

Wow I can’t even believe that i have been out here in Colombia for a month!  …like what the heck!  Sorry about my punctuation and everything, the computers here are weird and I don’t have a whole lot of time to find all the keys to them! But anyways these last 5 days have been amazing!  To start, I’d like to tell a funny story, at least I think its funny (hahaha)!

So on Friday we got to go proselyting, which is my favorite!  Me and my companion had a goal of getting 15 contacts.  I was determined to get that many people’s names and numbers.  So basically every person we pass we try and talk to them and there were these two ladies standing next to each other so I was like... “hey we’re going to talk to these two ladies!”  I was talking to them for a while and asking them if they believe in God and Jesus Christ and they were like oh yeah!   And they had these little pamphlets on prayer so I was like,  “Oh no way that’s awesome!  Jesus Christ is really important to us” and the lady said something about Jehovah and so I said, oh yeah that’s Jesus Christ’s other name and she got all serious and was like no!  That’s God’s name.  I wasn’t sure what she meant I thought it was a Spanish miscommunication or something so I just brushed it off and I asked them what religion they were and they said Testigos de Jehovah.  So I was super happy they believed in Christ (everyone here does) and I kept trying to get their contact information and they refused.  I wasn't sure why?  I kept asking them for it and they were like nope!  So we left them and my companion was like you know those were Jehovah Witnesses, right?!  And I busted up laughing!  I had no clue!  I heard about them before but I guess they don’t like Mormons very much! hahaha  Well anyways that was super fun!

Conference weekend was great!  It was the first time I watched all 5 sessions and took notes on it and it really made a huge difference!  It was sad when it was over because I enjoyed it so much!

Today we got to go on tour and it was BEAUTIFUL!  We went to the top of the mountain of Bogota and saw the entire city and it was seriously so cool!  hahaha  It made everything seem so real.  It was amazing!  I wish I could go back because I loved it so much!  After the mountain tour, there was a llama and we got to sit on the llama and take pictures it was so cool! haha 

It’s my last two weeks here in the CCM and I couldn't be more excited to serve my mission and spread the gospel to the amazing people of Colombia!  I love it here and I cannot wait to get going!  I love you all and I hope you are safe!

-Elder Marsh

Top of Bogota mountain

Elder Marsh riding a llama :)

Week 3

I'm so glad that this week felt like it went by fast because that just means I'm so much closer to getting out into the field! It’s time to put these teaching and Spanish skills to the test even though they aren't very good haha.  Spanish is great and all, it’s just so frustrating when I can’t figure out verb tense to use!  There are so many different tenses and conjugations that I get them all mixed up.  So I just use the regular verb half the time hahaha.

This last Friday I was called district leader!  When Presidente asked me, I was kind of shocked because I'm not the leader type haha.  I'm not the kind that likes to talk in front of people and tell them what to do.  I'm the type that just keeps to himself and leads by example.  But it has gone really well!  Sometimes when we're new at something and it's out of our comfort zone, sure it's hard but we grow from these experiences.    

In the CCM (Centro de Capacitacion Misional) we are learning and studying all day.  It makes for a very long day.  It’s okay though, I'm getting close to being out in the field and out of my sheltered little bubble that I've been in all my life! haha  Just like usual we got to go to the temple today and it was great!  Tomorrow we get to go proselyting so I'm really excited to leave the CCM haha.  Things are going well.  I'm so grateful for all of your support!  Thank you so much!  Love you all!

-Elder Marsh