Pictures!

Elder Ruiz, Elder Gomez, Hermanas Jachacollo y Maldonado de mi distrito en Pasto

Cool pants from Bolivia!

The Power of the Priesthood - September 15th

Familia y Amigos,

 

This week was awesome, first off my companion and I pretty much did an exorcism. This guy felt a bad spirit following him so we gave him a blessing and it was an intense moment. My poor companion was shaking ha-ha! I gave the blessing and after that till this day he has not felt that presence. It's amazing to see the power of the priesthood at work. This experience was like a super testimony builder for me. We have this family that we have been teaching and they have a baptism date for the 27 of this month. We talked about the priesthood and how we are the only ones who have the authority on this earth and they were confused. They said that all churches are good so we told them to pray and ask god. They knelt down and did ask if what we said was true and after they prayed they said that they felt something really strange. We testified that it was the holy ghost testifying to them of the truth and they were amazed. Now they know that this is the true church and are supèr happy to get baptized. So yeah that was awesome!

 Today we went to the gym for our p-day and it was awesome. 5 months with out the gym and to lift weights again was so good. I loved it, I felt alive again. The great thing is that I have not lost any strength. I'm still just as strong. After the gym we then cleaned the house because when we arrived it was left dirty and totally disgustiing but now its like a temple and we can finally feel the spirit ha-ha. 

 Well yeah that was our week and the highlights of everything. Family are the family home evenings going? Remember to always do them and maybe you guys can read alma 37 and then tell me what you guys learned. I love you and have a good week.

 

Till next week,

Elder Gomez

Funny stories, super spiritual baptism and eternal Families!

Thanks for the sweater I love it and I love you! Best mom in the world :)

I hand knitted this vest for elder Gomez before he went on his mission.

 Querida Familia,

To answer some of your questions, I am serving in Bachue, Pasto and my district consists of Sister Manllea from Bolivia, Sister Panduro (funny name I know ha-ha) from Peru, Sister Jachcollo from Bolivia, Sister Maldonado from Honduras, Elder Pancheti from USA  y elder Longogrio de Mexico and last but not least my companion from Peru, elder Ruiz. I have the same schedule only that during the night I have to call all the missionaries to see how they're doing and see how I can help them. The only part I don't like about it is that before I would write in my journal but now from 9:30 to 10:30 I'm on the phone talking to my district but it is alright. Pasto has a volcano, in one of the pictures I sent last week the volcano was behind me. It was a selfie I took ha-ha. 

 

Some funny things about the people of Pasto, they like to play volleyball and they play everyday at a park near where we live. The funny thing is that it is the worst volleyball I have ever seen in my life. I seriously started cracking up I could not help it. What they do is to set the ball they grab it for a good 5 seconds place it in there hands and look at it then throw it in the air again to set it. It's so funny and ugly I was cracking up. What else, a dog almost bit my companion. He's scared of everything. I was walking really fast because we were late for an appointment and I took a corner and there was a big mean dog ready to eat our heads off! I stayed calm and just stopped and was going to let the dog calm down because we scared him, but my companion freaked out and screamed like a girl. He then took of running and the dog behind chasing him for like a football field. Everyone was staring at him and laughing I felt bad but it was really funny. The other thing that happened was that we were walking and it was night time and we were in the area of the sisters helping them out with something. We were heading back home and my companion saw 3 men and freaked out because it was just us and the three men in the street. He took of running where we came from thinking they were going to rob us, come on. I was so embarrassed I apologized to the men and took of running after him because he left me alone. He was freaked out saying, "No I won't walk home it's too peligroso (dangerous)". The funny part is we were in the area of the sisters which is the safest area and we are in Pasto were it's nothing compared to Cali so I had to force him to walk home. He's like an innocent baby but it's funny ha-ha.

 

Something awesome happened this week. When we first got here there was a family who has been trying to get married for like  a year now with a whole bunch of missionaries but have not been able to because of some thing with their papers. This week everything went through but the wedding day was set for this Thursday but the son wanted to baptize him. The son is going to serve a mission and is leaving today (Monday) and they could not get baptized because they were not married before he left. They were all sad, but I worked my magic (ha-ha) I talked with the president to see if we could do something. I asked if the dad could get baptized last Saturday before his son left so he could baptize him. The dad would have to live somewhere else until they got married and he approved that recommendation. They were so thankful for what we did but the best part was the baptism.

Son baptized his father and then left on Monday to serve a mission. Miracles still happen!

It was super spiritual everyone was crying the dad, the mom, the son, and the sisters. It was so awesome to see how a family was being united. I was sitting there watching and just imagining them in the temple being eternal and I could not stop crying.

Amazing family with eternal potential!

Then I thought in us and how blessed we are to be together to be sealed in the temple. Wow! It was amazing and the testimonies that the family gave were so powerful. I loved it! It was the best baptism I have ever been to.  Family, please work to be worthy to always go to the temple so we can be united as a family in God. I love you guys have a good week. I like the pictures please keep sending them.

Till next week.
Elder Gomez

Elder Gomez tried cuy, for the first time! 

 

He said it was super yummy!

Pasto my new area, new responsibilities, and a new son!

This is my new Area-Pasto. It is cold and it even has a volcano.

Hola Familia,

My week has been super crazy and kind of hard because I am opening an area here in Pasto. I don't know anyone and I don't know anything. The first morning I walked out my door and I thought now what? ha-ha It's very cold here and I don't like it. Cali had super nice weather, I would wake up and workout and feel good. Here, I wake up scared to get out of bed because of the cold haha and showering is the worst. The water comes out like droplets on your head so I'm there like a Chihuahua chupando frió (freezing) I hate it. The first  few days here in Pasto where not my favorite to put it mildly because the people are way cold. I would say hi and they would just tuck their head and keep walking. In Cali everyone says hi and they were very nice, I liked that a lot. That was hard at first but then I went to church on Sunday and felt a lot better because I got to get to know more people and the bishop is really good. Consejo de Barrio (Ward Counsel) was awesome. This ward actually works, it's nice to see that, which that was not the case in Cali. So that's a little about Pasto. We met a man who is way crazy. He's just like me has Colombian parents but grew up in USA and he moved to Colombia 7 years ago to get his roots. The man is like one of those people who studies the things of the world and has a lot of knowledge. So he has his own idea of God and stuff and I think he scared my son (companion) ha-ha. I felt bad. 

My new trainee, Elder Ruiz. I love him!

You ask what does a district leader do? Being a district leader I have to call 8 missionaries every night and see how their day went and give them advice in how they can work better and how they can have more éxito (success). I have to take down all their data and study it to see how our district can be better. On Tuesdays I prepare a message and teach them something. I also  help them with whatever they need. I am the one that does the interviews for the baptisms for all 8 missionaries to make sure they are prepared enough to be baptized. I give the approval yes or no and that's practically it.

Mom, I'm sorry to hear you were sick this past week I will be praying for you. This was my first week in Pasto. It has been really good. I love you very very much and the family and I hope you feel better soon. Read the scriptures everyday and I promise the blessings will come. I love you.

Elder Gomez
PS. And the people in Pasto talk super funny ha-ha!

I love you guys!

Zone Conference, transfers and big changes

Good bye to Elder Munoz - Bienvenido Elder Ruiz!

My comp Elder Munoz y el loro

 

Querida familia,

 

You guys won't believe what happened! There has been changes. I'm going to Pasto ha-ha. I'm scared because they moved me up to district leader and not only that but I'm also going to have a son: I am going to train a new missionary! I'm super scared because I don't know the area I'm going to be district leader at and I'm going to teach a missionary ahh! I'm scared. This is what missionaries do when they have been a year in the mission not 4 months! I'm going to trust in the lord and hopefully I don't die of stress ha-ha.

 

A  district leader is in charge of like 8 missionaries and my new companion's name is elder Ruiz and that's all I know about him ha-ha. I don't remember what area I'll be in. I was too freaked out about the other news to pay attention to the details ha-ha. I know Pasto is a colder area so I'm glad I have the vest you made me and I'm going to use it a whole bunch. thank you. 

It's awesome that you got to do all that missionary work it makes me really, really happy and to hear how the family is doing. Keep up the good work. This week my companion got sick and one day we stayed in the house all day how boring I know. It was cool because I got to study a lot but after an extra hour of studying I was bored of that too ha-ha.  We had zone conference with president Pricoli and it was awesome. His wife and him are really good, they are changing the mission drastically. President Prince was more about the numbers but with Pricoli its all about spiritual experiences so that the investigators can actually be converted to the gospel. That's way cool I like it. He trained us on how we can teach with the spirit. I also received an award of excellence for having 10 baptisms in 3 months and that was awesome. The award is called Capitán Moroni, also at the end they asked me to pray in English and I have forgotten all my English. I felt so dumb the prayer was awful and afterwards president Pricoli came up to me and told me, "you forgot your English ugh" ha-ha. Que piedra no puedo hablar Ingles ni Español ha-ha. (I can't speak English nor Spanish).

This coming week I will have so much to say because of the changes, new companion and new area. It will be cool but I'm going to miss my ward and the people here. I have grown to love them so much its not even funny. It's like a love much more than anything because these are the people I have served for almost 5 months with all my heart and I have seen their change so they all hold a special place in my heart but it will be cool to start that over again. 

 Family, this week I studied a lot about love and how important it is for us to have love. When Jesus came here on this earth he had a mission to teach us by example and the thing he showed us most was love and how to love. There is a saying that I love a lot and says, {its not how much you love its how much you are loved by otheres that measures your heart}. I love that saying from the Wizard of Oz because it teaches us that the only way we can really love is not by loving passively but by action like serving people. When we serve others they grow to love us. So when they love us is how we know we are really loving. Makes sense? I hope this week you guys can think of ways you can love others by serving them and I promise you will receive blessings. In 1 Corintios 13 -2 (Charity, a pure love, excels and exceeds almost all) shows us how important it is to love so think about that scripture and see how you guys can love meaning serve someone this week.

Love you guys have a good week.

 

Elder Gomez

Faith in Jesus Christ & miracles

Elder Gomez has served for 4 months already. Can't believe that!

 

 

Hola Familia,

It's so good to hear from you and all the great things that happened this week. I love you guys very much. I'm so glad you are having a family come over to the house and that you are helping the missionaries. More than anything the investigators need friends, invite them to something they like that you guys can do together. The missionaries do all the teaching but you guys  como miembros necesitan ser sus amigos (as members need to be their friends). They need to feel cómodos en la iglesia (comfortable at church). So éxitos con esa familia (wishing you success with that family).

 

Sorry for the Spanglish but I'm forgetting the English and my Spanish is still not quite there yet. I can't speak one or the other ha-ha. Dime con va todo con ellos y manda saludos de mi parte y que estoy muy feliz por ellos. (Let me know how everything goes with that family and please say hi to them from me and that I'm happy for them.)  El evangelio es el mejor cosa que pueden hacer como familia y que realmente pueden tener la certeza que su familia puede estar juntos por la eternidad. (The gospel is the best thing they can have as a family and they can be certain that their family can be together for all eternity.)

 Pues quiero como familia que todos podemos pensar cuanto confiamos en nuestro senor Jesucristo. El otro día mi compañero y yo estábamos hablando acerca de porque nosotros no podemos hacer milagros como los pioneros y llegamos a la conclusion que no tenemos suficiente fe y que no confiamos en el lo suficiente. Es algo que todos los días tenemos que pensar. Como podemos confiar en Jesucristo mas para realmente tenerlo en nuestras vidas? Yo se que puedo hacer cualquier milagro porque tengo la autoridad de Dios y se que si ustedes tienen fe y confían en el que pueden hacer y lograr todo lo que quieran. Les amo mucho y hablamos el próximo semana.      

 

I would like for you guys to think as a family how much do we trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. The other day my companion and I were talking about why we can't perform miracles like our pioneers did and we came to the conclusion that it's because we don't have enough faith and we don't have enough trust in Jesus. This is something we should think about every day. How can we trust more in Jesus so we can really have him in our lives? I know I can perform any miracle because I have the authority of God and if you will trust and have faith in him you can do and achieve everything you want. I love you very much and till next week.

 

Elder Gomez

Small and simple things

Hello family,

I feel horrible because I don't have much time to write today but I wanted to write to tell you guys that I love you. I promise I will write more next week. I wanted to share a scripture that I have been pondering and studying, it's Alma 37:6-7

 

6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

 7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

Esta escritura habla de las cosas pequeñas y que tan poderosas son. Tambien dice que las cosas grandes vienen de las cosas pequeñas. He tratado de aplicar eso en mi vida esta semana y tengo grande testimonio que es verdad. Quiero que como familia pueden poner metas en las cosas pequeñas que van hacer esta semana para ser mejores y les prometo que las bendiciones van a llegar. Yo voy a hacerlo también entonces todos como familia lo podremos hacer. Les quiero mucho y porfavor diganme como les fue con esta tarea. 

 

This scripture talks about the small things and how powerful they are. it also states that great things come about from small and simple things. I have tried to apply this principle in my life this week and I have a great testimony that this is true. I would like for us as a family to set goals this week to do small things that will make us better and I promise you that the blessings will come. I will also do it with you that way we can do it altogether as a family. I love you very much and please tell me how you did with this task.

 Till next week with love,

Elder Gomez