Called To Colombia: Elder Jared M. Lewis' Mission Blog: Week 63: Lost a Plane, but Found a Family

Alright! So Happy Thanksgiving Family!

It was good to talk to you guys, it has been a great week, especially since we have been in the area all this week. We haven’t had any interruptions so we have really just made a lot of progress in the are this week. I am really enjoying this companionship that I have right now, just because my companion has so many good ideas. I am learning a lot from him, especially about how to be organized about everything. I really love that about my companion.

We have this family named familia Cano that will be baptized on the 23^rd of December, and they are really great. I want to share with you guys how they received their answers about the Book of Mormon. So Adali, who is the mother, received hers because when she asked about it, she got a really peaceful feeling and she felt like she wanted to cry. Then her daughter felt about the same thing but on another separate occasion. She has 14 years… crap… she is 14 years old and is so mature about reading the Book of Mormon and asking, I can just see their change. And then Camilo was the coolest answer that I think I have ever heard on my mission. He prayed and asked about the Book of Mormon, and he said that he felt like he was in another world. He felt so much peace and his mom was calling him, but he didn’t answer just because he didn’t want to disturb the peace that he was feeling. These are just examples of how the Lord answers your prayers when you ask about the Book of Mormon. So that was really cool.

Then we have a family called Holguin-Medina. They are fantastic. They are a group of young guys ranging from like 13 years old…wait no there’s Julian, Julian is like 3 to 25 and they are orphans. Their brother Jesus is taking care of them because their parents died. Jesus was baptized a little while ago, in May, and we baptized Juan Pablo a couple months ago. Now we are going to baptize Jason and Brian is what we are planning on, we just have a couple of things to get out of the way. Jason is 17 and like a brother to me. He has got a slight mental handicap but we have gotten the all clear to teach him and to baptize him because he understands a lot. He goes to church alone, when Jesus and Juan Pablo don’t go, Jason is always there. He will go up and give his testimony and everything. It’s funny because we will get to the house, and the house is REALLY humble, they have got brick walls, cement floor, and siding for the roof and it is really just kind of patched together. Everything we get there Jason meets us out in the road and he says “HERMANOS!” and I got give him a big hug and say “JASON!” I really love him a lot. I love that family so much, they are like a bunch of brothers to me. But ya, we are going to look at baptizing Brian and Jason in a couple of weeks. Jason told me yesterday: “Hermano, I want to be baptized to leave all of my sins there.” He was talking about what we had taught him about baptism, and it just really touched me that he understands that. Both of the families that we have got going, we have got another baptism as well that is Jessica Martinez, and she is the novia, the girlfriend, of a member and they are going to get married this Saturday, so we are going to set up a baptismal date with her. I am pretty excited about that, we have good things going on here in the area, as well as in the zone. The guys from Yopal have really pulled it together and I am just really happy about everything that they are doing. I have a lot of love for them. We also met a family this week, we had an activity that was really fun, we did the “trip to Hawaii” thing, with the airplane, I think you have heard about it. You take everyone on a trip to Hawaii, and then they go play games and buy food with fake money that you give them. Also, there are missionaries there with materials of the church, “selling” those. And they have to make good choices and buy good things that are going to last. Then you put them in the airplane again and you take off and then the airplane crashes and you go show them the 3 kingdoms of Glory. It was really fun. Hermano Angerita, one of the best members that I have ever known, put together the avión, the airplane. Really really cool. So we projected the cabin of the airplane on the wall on the front of the stage, and then with the new sound system that they bought for the church we had sound effects of like, taking off and then me and a member named Kevin had microphones and we were the pilots. We said things like: (Note from Jessica: Elder Lewis goes on in a long string of beautiful Spanish here that says something like: This is celestial airlines from Sogamoso to Honolulu, etc. That’s about all I could understand.) And then when the plane crashed, they shut of the lights and I was yelling “MAYDAY! MAYDAY! AYUDA, AYUDA ,AYUDA! VAMOS ARRENCAR!” and then they flipped the lights off and then there was a sound effect SUPER SUPER SUPER loud and then there were people on the side that were members, the young men, they had theh curtains shout, and then they pushed the people in their chairs from the other side of the curtain. Everybody was screaming and then BOOM! It hit and there was silence. Then I got up and with the microphone I said something like: “your plane has now crashed. Unfortunately, there were no survivors.” And at that point, everyone was like WHOA. At that point I asked them the golden question. “Where will we go after this life? We have left everyone behind, our families, everything that we were going to do in this life, so where do we go now?” and we had 3 rooms like the Kingdoms of Glory. The first one had like cutout stars all over it, and it had a flashlight in it for the light. The next one had a lamp for the terrestrial kingdom, and it had moons cut out everywhere and then it had a lamp. Each of these rooms you had members dressed for each kingdom explaining why they were there. Then they go to the Celestial Kingdom, which was in the Sacrament Meeting room, and…. Oof. They had suns, and the whole place was white and it was really cool. They had a family in white that explained why they were there and everything. It went out really cool.

But we met a family through that activity that is the poorest family that I have seen here in Colombia that we are going to start teaching this week. We went up to their house and it was just devastating. Just seeing…. He husband is very sick with cancer and she has 6 kids, she’s just so cool. She says that she is really sad, but she’s gotta smile for her kids. I don’t know if you guys have already sent the Christmas package that you were going to send to me, but if not I would like to ask for some toys for these kids. There are 2 boys and 4 girls all under the age of 10. If not, then I am just going to pull some money from my personal fund and help them out. I had something touching happen when we went up to their house on a hill. One of their sons gave me a beat up Power Rangers action figure that he had, and he said “I want you to have this.” And I got down on my knees and I was just about crying, and I said “I cant take this from you. thank you so much.” I gave it back to him and he took it, but he has such a big heart. I just want to give something to him.

Well, that’s about all I have for this week, I am out of time. Actually I am sending this late because I have been a little… I have been having fun with the food here…. It has been messing with my stomach a little bit, so I had to leave the internet for awhile. So I am going to send this and then we are going to a Family Home Evening that we have planned with familia Cano. I dunno, the food in these pueblos is a little more… it just gets you a little bit more. Depends on the family and where you eat. I think I know why actually, I think I drank the water. I think I accidentally, YA! I drank the water on accident the other day and I am paying for it now. Good times… ya well enough of that. Feel free not to include that on the blog. (Note from Jessica: Too Late. Sorry Jare. Get feeling better!) Love you guys so much. I know the church is true. I know that Jesus is my Savior. I testify of him. I finished the Book of Mormon for the second time in Spanish today. It just strengthened my testimony so much that he is my Savior. I have seen him work wonders here. He will always work wonders if we allow him to do it. En el nombre de Jesu Cristo, amen.

-Elder Lewis