Pigs Feet.

Hellllo.

Hey everybody! How's it going? Hope everything is good. SO - we didn't have transfers this week. They got delayed until next Tuesday or Wednesday! I will complete more than 3 months in this area with Elder Cartes here in this week. We had a few baptisms fall through, but I could kinda see it coming. Bummer. We are going to marry Octavio and Carmen tomorrow, and have their baptism service the 28th. That's awesome. Prayers for them. So nothing too special this week. We had a pretty good family home evening with investigators and members this week. I was the boss of the game we played. It was a miracle I conducted the game perfectly, and in Spanish! That was a good time for sure. So this Sunday I had to bless the sacrament in Spanish, too. That was interesting... But I did it the fist time perfect! WHEW. I was defiantly sweating! Haha. Today for p-day was interesting... We woke up, and first thing went to help Carlos (he is from Spain and is a member, but his wife isn't) work on his wife's haircutting shop. We fixed holes in walls, and tore out carpet, and all sorts of stuff. When it came time to eat lunch, Elder Zambrano and Elder Cartes didn't wanna go because the lunch was with a member way up the mountain side - a long hard walk. So me and Elder Wilcox thought it would be rude to just not show up, so we went ahead and hiked the mountain. After 40 minutes we got up there (ugh!) and then ate lunch. Pigs feet and tendons. YUCK! It even had pig hair on it. We walked an hour and a half up a huge hill side to eat pigs feet and tendons! hahaha We choked it down, and then started the long walk back laughing, saying, "Well at least we have a story to tell!" Ha! Then I walked back to the apartment with Elder Cartes, showered real quick, and now I'm writing! Quite the p-day, huh? Anyway, so for sure this next week I will have news about transfers, and maybe even some baptism photos :) Prayers for the investigators! Talk to you all later. Caio.

Elder Dean

3 Months In Limonar.

 Hey fam and friends.

So bad news - no baptisms this past week... Bummer! But don't worry, I will continue to work and I'm  certain that I will have good news in the future sometime soon :) Anyway, I sent some pictures from the last week when me and Elder Wilcox bought stuff and Price Mart (Ghiradellis brownies, Nature valley granola bars, Marshmallow Mateys, Pringles, Old Spice etc.) Haha. Today for p-day we went and ate lunch at Pricemart again but couldn't buy anything because we didn't have a member or a card with us to buy stuff.... lame. But it's OK. I had a chicken bake and soda and french fries. Yum. After, we played chess for 20 min or so and then hopped on the bus back to the areas. I got my haircut and now I'm writing the quick letter! Not too eventful of a p-day, but it was good. So this past week we had a division, and I went with Elder Walker here in my area the whole day. Elder Walker has one transfer less in the mission than me, and Elder Cartes and I didn't really have any set plans that day, but we did pretty good for a couple of new gringos! haha. I complete 3 months here in Limonar, 2 here in Cali this week, and we have transfers coming up. This will be my last week with Elder Cartes, and I am done with training this week too (even though there wasn't too much training) haha. Anyway, everybody -  hope to have some good news this next week maybe some baptisms, and I will fill you all in about transfers! Oh, we plan on marrying our investigators Octavio and Carmen next Tuesday, and have a baptism service with them. Prayers for that! Love you all. Short email this week, but enjoy the few pics from last p-day! Caio!

Elder Dean

Price Mart.

Hey.

Fam. Friends. How's it going? Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers about the situation with Elder Encarnacion. We are starting to get rolling again here in Colombia Cali. This week was pretty good. We had a conference with Elder Waddell of the 70 earlier this week. That was cool. We talked about not just having baptisms, but having actual conversion. We have a lot of baptisms here in this mission, but there is a lot of inactivity. We have a few baptism dates for this Saturday. One is Jaison. He is kinda having a hard time right now though, and prayers would be appreciated on his behalf. So this Saturday we had a activity at the church in the afternoon. We played basketball, volleyball, and soccer. We didn't have as much people at the activity though, so that was kinda lame. My team in basketball lost. Yep. Sad. But I had 4 kids on my team and didn't ball hog it :). Today for pday we played soccer with another zone for a while on a artificial field again. That was cool. I scored again. It's a miracle. I can actually play soccer. We had a few investigators come with us too, so that's cool. After that, me and Elder Wilcox dragged our companions to Price Mart with a member who has a membership there. OHHH my goodness! So cool! Me and Elder Wilcox were practically crying - it was awesome. We bought stuff like brownie mix, pancake mix, syrup, nature valley granola bars, and doughnuts. All that good stuff you can't find here. Our companions weren't too excited, but we were defiantly happy campers. Anyway I gotta get movin here, but thanks for all your prayers, and I hope to have good news this next week! Love you all.

Life Is So Much Better With The Gospel.

Hello All.

So another week in the mission field has come and gone. This week we had a little earthquake for like 4 seconds. That was pretty interesting. I was in the house of my recent convert, Monica, and bang- earthquake for a few seconds. It wasn't too bad. It was a pretty little one I think. So this week we had a service project with an investigator named Octavio. Octavio is from Buena Ventura and has one of the coolest accents I've ever heard... Unfortunately I can't really understand him, his accent is sooo different. But it sounds cool though :) So he works on TVs, and electronics, and all sorts of stuff, and we cleaned out his shop/house. We took out probably 30 or 40 old tvs and reorganized everything and cleaned for probably 4 hours. It was hard work, but it was acutally kinda nice to work like that for a while. Anyway, we had an activity at the church Saturday, too. We played a little basketball, and volleyball, and of course soccer with members and investigators. That was fun, and I actually scored in soccer. I got the chance to not play goalie, and I took advantage of it hahaha. Belive it or not, my soccer skills might be improving a little bit. So everything was good until Saturday night when we recieved a phone call, and we learned that Elder Encarnacion was shot and killed. SO sad. We sat in silence, not saying much, for a long time. I had the oportunity to meet him a few weeks ago we played soccer one pday together. He seemed really nice and was a really good missionary. Definantly a bummer situation, but I'm ok. The whole mission is kinda in shock right now, but we will need to get going again, and not dwell on it too much. He gave his life in service to the Lord, and that's something very special. Prayers for his family would be good. Anyway, today for pday everybody was kinda low and not wanting to do anything, but a few of us got the motivation to go and rent an artificial grass soccer field and play soccer for an hour. It was nice to run and get our minds off the matter for a while. Anyway, I'm ok though, and I'm grateful for all your support. I hope you all have a good week and remember to pray, read the scriptures, attend church, and go to the temple, etc.. This life is so much better with the gospel, and I'm grateful for the hope it brings us. I'll talk to you all later. Love you all.

Elder Dean

El Gato

Aloha.

So this week was pretty darn normal I suppose! We had a conference with zone Farallones, Agua Blanca, San Fernando, and maybe one other I can't remember. It was Wednesday with President Prince and the assistants. It was good to hear some motivation from President Prince. He's awesome. I'll miss him when we have a change of mission presidents next May. So this week we were in a leccion when the sun went down. We were in an area called Los Chorros. Anyway, long story short, this area is sketchy during the day time, and we ended the leccion after dark, and then there was a power outage in the area. Dang! All dark in Los Chorros. Sketchy to the max, but don't worry, I got out alive. So here in Cali, I'm not sure why, but people love to drink hot hot chocolate, even when it's blazing hot outside. Every time I'm dying of heat, people always give me hot choc.... Haha. This Sunday we also had stake conference, so our church attendance wasn't too hot, but it wasn't too bad. We had about 6 investigators show up, so that's pretty good for a stake conference. I hope they heard something good during the conference. So today for p-day we actually did something different. Me and Elder Cartes went with an investigator and saw some more of Cali. We went to an old catholic church, which was cool, and then we went to a church/museo called La Merced. That was pretty sweet, too. Then we went to the Parque de Gatos. It's a big statue of a cat. Kinda random, but cool I suppose. Ahh! I have no time to write this week, but I'll send some pictures! Hope you all have a good week. Talk to you later.

Bob

 La Hermita

 La Hermita y yo

 El Gato

 Jaison y yo

La Merced

Haircut And A Busted Table.

Waddup Everybody.

So this week was pretty normal. Nothing too exciting. I had my first haircut here in Cali on Tuesday, I think. YIKES. Somebody call Brooke and tell her to hop on a plane for Colombia. Haha just kidding. It actually wasn't too bad. I paid like 6000 pesos (about 3 dollars). So for my first week here in Zona Farallones I was the only gringo, but now we have a new zone leader- Elder Wilcox. He's a pretty nice guy.  He's from Alaska. He's been out about a year. It was weird talking in English a little bit the past few days. So now we have 3 or 4 gringos in the zone. In the zone meeting we had this week, Elder Lawrence, a new missionary in this zone, wanted to arm wrestle me... Not sure why, but I said ok, and we arm wrestled. Haha! We were arm wresting and we totally broke the table in the church! My elbow totally went through the table haha! Saturday we had a activity at the church for investigators and members. We played soccer, of course. My team won all the games, not sure why (maybe it's because we have an awesome goalie.) It was good. Even the bishop played. Anyway, we had 10 investigators attend church this Sunday, so that's awesome. We will try to keep working with them, and then get them baptism dates soon. Nothing too exciting this week, but it's all good! We have stake conference this Sunday too, so not sure what will go down with that, but we'll see! Today for p-day we played soccer against Zone Agua Blance for a few hours and then rode the bus with the zone leaders to burger king and ate lunch. One of these p-days I might get a chance to rest, but I doubt it! So fam, friends.. until next week.  I'm outta time. Hope you all have a good week.

Elder Dean

Rain in Cali.

Howdy.

How's it going all? So this week in Cali we had rain! For, like, the first time since I got here! It was nice. It cooled off quite a bit, which was awesome. The problem now is, it's going to heat up again and probably be even more humid than normal, but it's all good. It was nice to have some cool weather for once. So this week we did splits again, earlier in the week. I went to another area called Israel with a elder from Peru, named Elder Viza. We ran into some Jehovah Witnesses and had and interesting talk. Ha! Funny stuff. This week they cut the water in Cali for a day or two. That wasn't too fun, but you do what ya gotta do, ya know! So Elder Cartes told me that I sometimes speak Spanish in my sleep. He says I say funny things- whatever that means! Hope it's not bad... Oh, this Saturday we had an activity at the church for a few hours. We played soccer for a few hours, and invited some investigators. It was good. I had to walk 30 minutes to the church with an 8 year old named Julian on my shoulders. Haha! Dang kid wouldn't walk! I was pretty pooped out, that's for sure. We didn't have any baptisms this week, and looks like we won't have any for a few more weeks in the future due to church attendance problems, but we have people in mind for the first or second week in September, so pray for those weeks! We had transfers today, but me and Elder Cartes both didn't get transferred, so we have another 6 weeks together. Not anything too exciting the week other than some dude on a motorcycle smacked me as he drove by... What a jerk! Ha! It's all good though. Hope you all have a good week. We´ll talk later! Ciao.

Elder Dean