Buenos Tardes Familia!
Still here in Sogamoso, although this week we took a detour
to Yopal, which is like a city out in the jungle which is 5 hours away from us.
What happened this week…I guess I will start with Wednesday.
Wednesday night we got to the house and we got a call from
Yopal saying that they were having some problems with some companionships and
things. So we called the assistants at like 10 o’clock at night, we said “Hey,
Elder Piquasi, can we go to Yopal right now?” and he’s like “Why?” “because
they are having these problems…” and he said “be careful, but do it.” So we
went at 10 o’clock at night to the terminal, and there was only a mini bus that
was available to go to Yopal. So we took it. That was the most miserable bus
ride of my life. Usually In the buses, they’re really nice, the big ones, but
the little ones, the seats don’t recline very far at all, and you can get on
the bus and imagine that two guys, called llanuras,
or plainsmen, I guess you would say, they are like cowboys here in
Colombia, they sit down and they smell SO BAD of beer. I was being asphyxiated
by the smell that was there, Fortunately we got about half way to Yopal and
they got off the bus. But man, I will tell you what… the thing is that to
Yopal, the road is really bad. There’s a lot of rainfall in Yopal, and it rains
hard, so it washes out the road. There were a couple of bridges that were down,
they have to go take a detour around the bridge on the dirt, or the mud I
should say. It’s just as winded of a road as you have ever seen. It was crazy.
But we got to Yopal at 4 o’clock in the morning. We left at
like 11 and got there at 4.
We got to the house of Yopal 3 and we slept there for a
couple of minutes. It was really great getting out of the bus, cuz the humidity
just hits you and you just feel wet. I actually miss that feeling from
Bucaramanga. It reminded me a lot of Bucaramanga. It’s a lot hotter, but at
night it was really nice. So we got to the house of Yopal 3, and they pulled
out some mattresses and my companion slept in what’s called a Chinchorro. It’s a hammock basically,
but a little more stretchy. I couldn’t sleep in the chinchorro, so I just slept
on a mattress on the ground. It wasn’t pulled very tight, the chinchorro, and
you kinda doubled in half. But I enjoyed sleeping without a blanket for the
first time in 7 months. That’s also something I miss. In Yopal you cant really
sleep without a fan in your face. We woke up the next morning and went to the
other house in Yopal of the missionaries and we resolved some problems and then
I went out on exchanges with Yopal 3. It was SO HOT down there in Yopal. I
don’t know, I think it would give hell a run for it’s money. It’s so hot. It
couldn’t have been less than 95 degrees. But I enjoyed it a lot. You get out of
the shower, and you don’t feel any less wet. That’s how it is in Bucaramanga as
well, but I had forgotten how that felt.
Yopal has some cool things: they have iguanas that are as
long as my arm, and they will whip you so hard with their tail that it will
tear your pants. That happened to a missionary about a month ago. Also, one
side of Yopal has mountains, and the other has plains. One side you will see
these mountains touching the sky, and on the other side you just see flat.
Totally flat. And there is jungle surrounding Yopal. It’s crazy how diverse my
mission is. Sogamoso, the landscape, it’s green. It’s like Utah in Spring. Then
you go 5 hours away and then you’re right smack-dab in the middle of the
jungle. Outside of Yopal, I didn’t get to go outside, but outside of Yopal
there are monkeys and… I’m not even sure what it’s called, it’s like a giant
rat, it’s called a chinguirro. There are monkeys and chinguirros, birds of every
kind, it was really cool! But ya, I enjoyed that. We got back friday night to
have the entrevista de bautismo, the
baptismal interview, with Jefredy. He was baptized on Saturday, which was
great. I will try to send some pictures, I think next week I believe. Just so
you guys know, we did have a baptism this week and I have really enjoyed
Sogamoso because we have been able to baptize every month that I have been
here. So that’s good. We found a family of 7 this week that looks really
promising. The Lord is blessing us, even though we don’t deserve it completely.
But still, it’s great to see his hand in all things, and how he leads us
without us really knowing.
The highlight of the week I would say was really Tuesday. We
had exchanges with some of the missionaries and I stayed in my area and went to
an investigator named Paola. And Paola, we found her in her store when we went,
actually, to grab some water. She asked us: “what do you missionaries do?”
She’s a joven…. A young lady of about
25, but so prepared for the Gospel. We came back with a member the next time
and every lesson has been powerful. This time we taught the Doctrine of Christ:
Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End.
I have never felt the Spirit like that before in a lesson in my mission. Just
her answers were amazing, she shared with us an experience that she had with
repentance: I guess she has had some problems with her family, her
sister-in-law, I guess has been being abusive to her brother and to her niece.
So she got mad and actually has worked in the police of Colombia. She went and
hit her, her sister –in-law, but then she felt bad about it afterwards, and she
went to her sister-in-law and apologized and then she went to the Lord, she hit
her knees and asked the Lord to forgive her, because she just felt so bad. and
we hadn’t even taught repentance yet. She said that she just felt this
overwhelming, strange feeling come over her, and the hate for her sister-in-law
just went away. It just went away. In that moment, I just felt the spirit so
strong. It gave us the opportunity to testify, in a very special way, of the
Atonement of Jesus Christ. That is evidence that he has experienced everything,
and for that, he can take it away when we humble ourselves and do what’s
necessary. It was so great. I felt the spirit so strong, just guiding us what
to say. I felt so many promptings and had so much personal revelation during
that lesson, it was just amazing. Me and Elder Ferral, I left that lesson just
walking a mile off the earth. Just on a spiritual high. That was the highlight
of my week I think. She’s actually not in our area, dang it, so we had to send
a reference, but she is still going strong, and I plan on going to visit her
every once in awhile in her store, which is in our area. And, eventually here
in the near future, the 25th of November, seeing her baptized. She
is already giving us references. She just told us at the end of the last lesson
she was crying and she told us “thank you so much for the peace that you have
brought me. I just can't even describe it.” Her prayer was the most sincere
prayer I have ever heard anybody say. Elder Ferral, afterwards he told me “man,
I feel like garbage about my prayers, they’re nothing compared to that.” She was just thanking her Father in Heaven
for the peace that she felt, and having guided us to go there. It’s really
interesting, you can relate it with the talk by, I think it was Elder Renlund,
that talked about there isn’t such thing as a coincidence. We just went in
there to get water, but I can see now how the Lord was guiding our steps. We
were going to go the other side of the street to grab it, but then we thought:
“go to the other side of the street to get the water.” Maybe it was in that
moment, but we didn’t recognize it as a prompting, but… ya. The Church is true.
The spirit guides us. We should always listen for it.
Well family, have a great week. Love you all. Chao Chao!
-Elder Lewis
Iguanas in Yopal. as long as Elder Lewis' arm and their Tail Whip can tear clothing!
The view from Yopal 3's apartment. Elder Lewis worked out here in the morning, and the mountains in the photo are home to monkeys and chinguirros.
Chinchorros in the apartment
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