Happy New Year to All!

This week was slow because of Christmas but we had a baptism so that makes up for the slow week. This coming week we are going to kill it!!!! Transfers were today and you won't believe it elder Munar my best bud comes to my zone haha. That's going to be awesome I'm excited!!!! My comp is cool we are still getting to know each other.  Something really cool happened this week, you guys know that I'm kind of good at giving talks right? This Sunday I gave a talk but was not able to prepare it really well it's kind of hard on the mission you just learn how to wing it. I gave the talk and so did my companion and everyone loved my companion's talk and no one would say anything about mine. I got kind of sad but after I started thinking about how stuck up I am and realized in that moment that I have a huge problem. I like to be the best at everything and it was like reality hit and I thought I can't be the best at everything that's a part of life. Now I'm focusing a lot on not trying to out do other missionaries or be better but to just do my thing not comparing myself with others. That was my humbling experience. I'm going to try working on being better. The mission is so awesome because you learn things about your self that before the mission one does not learn how to recognize. 

Today we went bowling and played ping pong. It was a lot of fun. We went with some members and investigators but yeah not much to tell this week because we talked just a couple of days back but next week hopefully we have cool stuff to talk about. I love you guys and don't forget to read your scriptures and be juiciosos en todas las cosas oyó mis socios ;) (be good in all things you hear).

 

Love,

Elder Gomez

Magic, contacting and other cool experiences

Well this week was alright nothing really exciting happened ha-ha. I have my new companion who is cool just that he's really young, he's 18. It feels like I'm training again. He's also new in the mission so yeah not going to lie I miss my old companion elder Joglar because I learned a lot from him. He had a lot of practice being a missionary and it was more chill for me because he would lead the area since I did not know anything. Now it's the other way around and I have to lead the area and I wanted to be chill but it is all good this is what the Lord wants for me.

My new companion elder Garcia and an invesrigator

Cool things that have happened: I'm learning magic and I have gotten way good. I have a whole bunch of fans its funny because everywhere I walk the people point at me and say, "mira el mago haga magia haha" (look it's the magician please do some magic). It's awesome it makes me feel important. Sometimes I will be walking and someone will come up and say hey everyone has been talking about you will you do magic? I have contacted a bunch of people through that its cool. I am learning from an investigator that we have. He will get baptized this Saturday. He's way good doing magic tricks and I'm getting way good as well. Who knew I would leave a dancer and come back a magician ha-ha.

Another cool thing that we did with elder Joglar is we went to a Catholic church because they told us some stories about the church and we wanted to see so we went and everyone was looking at us like what there's mormons here?  It was so funny and other people would take pictures of us but it was awesome I have never felt so awkward in my life haha but at the same time it felt good. Those are my stories this week love you guys can't wait to talk on Christmas .

At the beautiful Catholic Church

On P-Day with investigators eating salpicon

Elder Carlos Gomez
 

God shows us our weakness to make us humble ... the Book of Mormon the center of our faith

Mom was having a hard week and elder Gomez wrote this trying to cheer me her up.

 

Hello family & friends,

Mom, I'm sorry to hear you are going through some changes but everything happens for a reason. I have learned that over my short 21 years of life. There is a scripture that I love a lot in 1 Corinthians 10: 13 and it talks about how God will never allow anything to happen to us with out giving us a way to over come it. I have seen that in my life so much and I'm sure you have too. You just have to trust in him and he will help you overcome it. Another scripture that I have always loved and that I think we all already know is Ether 12: 27-28,  "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

 Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness." 

Have faith in God just like it says in James 1: 5 "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." God gives us trials so we can learn about faith and trust in him. He will answer your prayers and will help you I know this with all my heart because I have seen it not just in my life but in many peoples lives. So be of good cheer, I know the Lord has something great prepared for you and not just you but for all of us in our family. You must ask him. I love you a lot okay never forget that and you're always in my prayers :) 

 I'm getting a new companion but I don't know who he is yet he comes tomorrow all I know is that he's from Peru, his name is elder Garcia. I'm going to be training him how to be zone leader, He lived in Utah he was going to BYU so he knows English, that will be cool to be able to speak English with him ha-ha.

 This week we had the baptism of Emma which was awesome and we also put a baptism date to two more people. The work is progressing in Tulua. I want to share a pretty awesome but interesting story, Emma the one that got baptized called us the night before and said that she was not sure about getting baptized because a neighbor talked to her and got her all confused and did not want to do it. I calmed her down through the phone and told her to pray and she said alright and the next day she felt better and did it and my companion and I wanted to talk to this person so we did it and he started to try to cut or heads with scriptures and stuff and I was right back at him with scriptures it was like a war but awesome because I would always end up on top but we were not getting any where honestly just arguing and my companion started talking about the book of Mormon and it changed the whole feeling of the lesson. Like the contention was not there anymore and we even told him well my companion haha was like if you know that this is true will you get baptized? and we both learned a lesson there. He told me afterwards when you were fighting with him I was thinking of preach my gospel where it says if people want to contend talk about the book of mormon because nobody can deny it and he say so I tried it and it worked. It was funny because he said too bad I learned that the end of my mission haha but it was a cool experience for me. I learned that even though I can show all the scriptures in the bible that show that our church is true or to show that other churches are false it's in vain if I don't talk about the center of our faith which is the book of Mormon. It was a testimony gainer for sure and those were the highlights of the week.

P-Day in Tulua

Emma's Baptism

 

Elder Gomez

I love you and hope you feel better now :)    

The week of first's ... great experiences.

Hello,

This week was pretty awesome too! I had my first consejo for the leaders (leadership council) and it was cool I learned a lot. I also had my first zone meeting as zone leader got to teach all the missionaries and it was a lot of fun. I also had a baptism which will probably be the most interesting baptism I'll have my whole mission ha-ha and got to do house inspections which was way fun.

Tulua Zone

I will first start with the baptism of Cecilia, the sweet older lady which I told you about last week. Well, she decided that she did not want her husband to baptize her so she chose me. When we got to the baptism she says she can't go in the cold water because she has heart problems and her heart could stop. Over here it's so hot there's no heater in the water and the water is honestly freezing. We were heating up pots of water in the kitchen  but that would do nothing to the cool water ha-ha. So we get to the font and she's like, "no way that water is freezing I won't get baptized", and everyone was like you can do it! you can do it! and she was like no ha-ha. So I took her hand and little by little we started going down and we got to the middle like an hour later ha-ha and I said the prayer and then I tried to immerse her but she did not let me and was screaming saying forget it I'm not going to get baptized its to cold ha-ha. I tried to calm her and said lets go little by little, so I got her down to her knees. The only part that was left was her head and then my companion said, "do you want me to go in the water with you too? Would you feel more comfortable and she was like yes get down here ha-ha. So my compaion in his sunday clothes with socks and shirt and tie came into the font and I said the prayer again and between the two of us we baptized her. It was awesome!

Cecilia's baptism she's the sweetest lady!

Cecilia, her husband and elder Joglar and Gomez

 Later in the week we had a really spiritual moment with an investigator named Emma whom when I got here my companion said that she was not progressing so we were going to let her go. We were not going to teach her anymore and because I'm new to the area I wanted to visit her one more time. This week we had the first lesson with her and after the lesson I told her, "we are going to get on our knees and you are going to ask God if you need to get baptized and she said fine. Before every time she was asked she was saying no, no I'll never get baptized ha-ha. So when we prayed she did it, she asked God and after the prayer we had a moment of silence and she lifted her head up and said, "now I know I'm going to get baptized, God told me." My companion looked at me and was like wow what just happened and I was like I don't know but it was awesome ha-ha. We now have another baptism this Saturday. That was a pretty amazing experience.

 Colombia is popping in this time of year. It's awesome all the lights and candles and everything. I thought it was only the States that do lights but i think Colombia wins ha-ha. 

Street in Colombia all lit up for candle light day.

 

Tulua lighted up for Christmas. Lights are everywhere!

 

Yeah that was my week :) and it seems like everything is going well over there thanks for those notes you wrote down it was way cool and enjoy this Christmas with the family. I love you guys.

Familia Castaño, we eat at their house every day. They're a really cool family.

Hard work pays off, and surprise visit from President Pricoli!

Hola querida familia y amigos,

Well Tulua is cool it's really hot holy cow, but I actually like it. In Pasto all my skin was peeling and I would get some wick pimples ha-ha but since I have been here all the acne I had is now gone my face is like a babies butt ha-ha and now I don't peel so I like it! 

 I'm getting to know the area more now thank goodness  and yeah my comp leaves in 2 weeks. It's so funny when we talk to the people they always say, "hey you seem like you are from Argentina to me and then to my comp they say and you're gringo ha-ha. It happens at least twice everyday and we are like actually it's the other way around and nobody believes that I'm gringo. They're like no you're not don't lie and I have to speak English so they can believe me ha-ha but that's always really funny. My comp is really cool.

 

This week president Pricoli (our mission president) paid us a surprise visit he wanted to do visits with us. How scary I know ha-ha.  He called and said, I'm in Tulua and I want to do visits with you and we met up and started visiting ha-ha. It was awesome and while we were with him I contacted two ladies that were on the street and we set a visit with them and told them to invite all their friends. Then the night ended and the president said that he will leave Tulua happy because we are doing everything we are supposed to do and we are doing it good. So that made us feel really good :) but back to the ladies we contacted the following day we went to the noche de hogar (FHE) and she invited all of Tulua I think ha-ha. There was a TV set up in the garage and there were chairs starting from the garage all the way to the other side of the house. The whole street was filled with chairs and people it was crazy. I felt like a preacher ha-ha. We took all their information and we are going to visit them all this week! It was awesome from one person I contacted we found like 20 to visit and teach. It's awesome how the mission work works.

We have also been teaching this old lady she's so cute and her husband was just baptized and he's so cute as well. He tells her baby I want you to get baptized so we can get sealed in the temple. It's awesome but she's hard, she can't leave her traditions but we have been working hard with her and she's going to get baptized this Saturday and I honestly love her. She wants me to baptize her but we are trying to get her to change her mind so that her husband can baptize her because that would be so cute. So yeah those were the high lights for this week. I love you guys, juiciosos familia ,

 

Elder Gomez

President Pricoli & wife with new missionaries and their trainers. Alex is right above President Pricoli.

 

 

New Companion!

Hello,

Well I'm alot better now after being sick last week and I'm back at working hard like always. Mom, I have not heard about that new virus that's going around here but yeah the mosquitos are a pain. In Pasto there was nothing because it's cold so i would never get bitten now in Tulua because its hot they're every where and they're eating me alive haha but its all good just gonna have to get used to it again. 

 Last week in Pasto was sad I really did not want to leave para nada and the people were really sad too I think more sad then when I left from Cali.  My new area is dead, there's nothing here as in investigators. We have nothing, it's like starting from new which is bad because that means we won't have any baptisms soon. We got to find them but it's cool at the same time because its cool to know that I found the people and then they get baptized even if I don't get to see it. It also means I have to work harder to find new people haha but whatever I'm excited to work.

In the zone there are 18 missonaries and I'm not gonna lie it's very different being a zone leader I'm still trying to get the swing of things. My companion is elder Joglar from Argentina, he finishes his mission in 3 weeks and I'm kind of scared because I don't know the area para nada and he leaves so soon. I'm going to have to learn everything fast like how to be a leader and get to know the area because in a couple of weeks I'm on my own. Elder Joglar is way cool, actually he was one of my first zone leaders when I got to the mission so its cool to be with him now like zone leader. 

We had a special training on Monday it was awesome, the church is doing a lot this Christmas to promote the true meaning of it. There's a video called "He is the gift" that the church made to share with all the world and we have to contact por lo menos (at least) 10 personas cada dia (people every day) and show them this video and it's world wide all the missionaries are gonna do it. All the members also osea ustedes tambien (meaning you guys as well) and its starts the 28 of November so I'm way excited to do that and to work and everything. 

 Well I love you guys a lot keep up the hard work, favorite scripture of the week is Mateo 10: 28 es tenas. I love it!

 I love you guys so much and we will talk next week :)

Elder Gomez

This is my new companion elder Joglar from Argentina. He's training me as a zone leader.

 

Week 30: Transfers, new responsibility and dealing with illness

Hey family so yeah I'm leaving Pasto :( it's really sad but change is always good. I'm going to Tulua from the cold to the hot. I heard it's like an oven over there. I also have new responsibility as a zone leader. Now I'm going to be in charge of more missionaries and I'm going to have a lot more responsibility. I will have to travel a lot. I still don't know how I feel about all this ha-ha. I'm a little overwhelmed and I don't feel like I'm ready as a missionary to be a zone leader. I feel I still have a lot to learn but if that's what the Lord wants of me its for a reason so I'm just going to trust in him and not let my mind tear me down. I will just try to be the best I can be. 

We had a baptism this week I sent you the picture. I'm happy we got to do the baptism before I leave and the good thing is that I left a lot of baptisms for my companion which is another reason I wanted to stay but it's all good I'm just happy if they get baptized. :). So yeah that's the news for this week sorry so short its just that I still have to say bye to a lot of people because I leave tomorrow morning. and there's a bunch of people I have to stop by hope you guys understand and next week I will write everything. 

 

I love you guys 

Elder Gomez

 

Awesome Missionary skit!

PS. oh also we did a show of talentos (talent show) and it was awesome. We did the first 3 chapters of the book of mormon like when they left  their house to go to the promise land but in modern version ha-ha. It was super funny, I was Laman and my companion was Nephi it was awesome. I got sick for like 2 days with a fever of 103. It was crazy they had to IV me and fill me with fluids and that made me better. Today is the first day I feel good only that my arms hurt from the IV. They are all sore haha but I'm good now ready to work :)

My wonderful district in Pasto. I will miss them.

Cooking who knows what?