Week 2

I forgot to write down on my last email that I had gone to the temple earlier that morning, probably because I didn't have the card on me at the time but yeah, the Bogota temple is super cool, but it is also really small. So I was able to go for the second time this morning and it was absolutely great. After the business of the week, it's not the soccer or the basketball on P-day but the relaxing feeling and peace in the temple, nothing tops it, even though I still feel like I understand absolutely nothing about what is happening at times.

After Colombia got knocked out of the World Cup they had to come back home, and we all ran out of the MTC towards this street where there was a parade going on and we actually got to see the Colombian national soccer team as they were driving through Bogota in this parade.

Learning Spanish has had its really annoying moments at times when I know that at one point in my life I knew the word I'm trying to say but I don't now, but it's also had some really funny moments as well. At one point during a lesson, our teacher realized we generally understood the concepts of the grammar lesson and then we decided to try some Spanish tongue twisters. I actually did pretty good, but our teacher trying to say "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" was probably one of the best moments of my life. They also had us sing the Spanish version of Apples and Bananas to practice our pronunciation of vowels too. Throwback to Kindergarten right there.

July 4th was the actual best! The MTC president had the kitchen staff make a massive American Flag cake for all of us, and we sang the National Anthem in the most random places at least 15 times and the Latinos all loved it.  I don't know why that was so funny but every time there was a decent sized group of us we just started singing the national anthem and all the nearby Nortes (Northeners or Americans) would come join and the nearby Latinos would all gather around and watch.

Elder Peterson was back at it earlier this week. We were all standing outside practicing what we would do for street contacting and Elder Peterson and his companion decided that we were all going too easy on them so they waited until they found a person walking on the sidewalk outside the MTC and they talked to them through the fence, gave them a pamphlet on the Restoration and it was just awesome. Later Elder James and I tried too and we got completely ignored, so that was fun. Guess I better get used to it though.

The reason we were practicing street contacting was because on Saturday we went out for the entire day with an experienced missionary into the Bogota Sur mission. Elder James and I were with Elder Carrera from Ecuador and he had already been out for about 20 months. We got to see this man's street contacting skills, and they were nuts; within the first fifteen minutes the guy had 3 new lessons set up for the next day. Then Elder James got his turn to try to street contact someone and he ended up talking to a very fiery Evangelical and he proceeded to get utterly flamed. Don't know why our luck with that is so bad, but such is life. All of the investigator lessons that day fell through but we visited a few members and we actually got to see 2 convert baptisms that night. That was an experience to be had, I can't wait until they're my converts.

Alright! I completely forgot to do this in my last email but I was counseled to do something during the entire 2 years of my mission, and I want everyone who reads this to do it with me. Every 6 weeks, pick an attribute of Christ that you feel like you need the most work on and write 3 goals of what you're going to do to develop this Christlike attribute in your life during the 6 weeks.

1. Pray for something specifically related to the attribute

2. Identify daily areas where you are lacking that attribute and make a conscious effort of action

3. Have a memorized scripture or article of faith related to the attribute to recite each morning.

This is just what I am doing, of course you can modify it to fit you best, and if you feel so inclined, let me know how it's going, I know in even just the 2 weeks I've been doing mine, I've already noticed a huge difference in the way I think. I can't wait to see what 2 years of this is going to do.

Well Hasta Luego! 

Elder Martin

Questions we asked him (with his answers)for just a little extra info:

1.  Are you taking lots of pictures?  Get everyone in your room as well as just you and your companion.

We can only have our cameras on P-days, so not a lot of pictures are happening unfortunately. We can only have them for about four hours too so I haven't been able to get any of the temple.

2.  Tell us more about the food.

I don't really know what to say about the MTC food. It really isn't that weird. There have been a few things I haven't had in the U.S. but they've all been using the same ingredients. For example real quick, I just had french fries with my lunch before I came to email.

3.  Give us a sample schedule of what a typical day is like.

Well every single thing is planned down to the 10 minutes sometimes which is incredibly annoying for my OCD but it basically alternates between something about teaching or studying, to something about learning or practicing Spanish. The good thing about the MTC schedule though is that there isn't a whole lot to be doing at nights so I've been going to bed about an hour earlier than I technically have to.

4.  What countries are your native roommates from?

Elder Chevez - Peru      Elder Cuadros - Venezuela       Elder Gutierrez- Bolivia      Elder Colquicondor- Colombia

6.  Is the Elder Peterson (that you sat near on the plane) going to your mission?  Is your companion (and roommates) going to your mission as well?

Elder Peterson is.  My companion is going to Bogata Sur;  none of my Latino roommates are going to Uruguay.

7.  Is there anything you find you are missing so far?  Dr. Pepper?  Ovaltine?  Any items you need that you want me to send to the mission home in Uruguay for when you arrive?

So far I'm actually doing fine. I'm actually really enjoying all the different things they have here, but eventually that is quite a possibility.

8. Will you be able to attend the Columbia temple?

I have actually been to the Bogota temple twice now. We get to go every P-day, and luckily they have English sessions so I don't have to use the stupid headphones.

9. What else have you learned about your companion?

I honestly can't remember what I've already said but he's from Michigan, he is a killer soccer player, and he is super spiritually aware, it's honestly a little scary at times. Ha ha! Luckily though I can scare him back because of how quickly I can remember or find scripture references and stuff. He said he has always been terrible at that so we make a really good team.

10. Does everyone have the same P-Day in the MTC?

Yes everyone has the same P-day because there are only like 80 something missionaries at this MTC. It's tiny. So everyone having the same day off doesn't have the same effect here as it would in Provo.

11. What service have you been assigned on your P-Day?

We actually have an hour of service on Wednesdays, not P-days, and all it is is basically just deep cleaning the MTC.