Photos from La Cumbre, Bucaramanga, Colombia

These stairs let me eat whatever I want. The members are not succeeding in fattening me up.

I do a series of rigorous exercises to stay in shape.
The fruit also helps me stay in shape. It is delicious

The area I serve in is called La Cumbre. It means 'the summit'.
The next photo is one to worry your mother. A tank for crowd control.

Life is great. The church is true.
Love Luke

Do all dogs go to heaven? and other controversial topics

3 March 2014

Dear family,

I have gotten the Christmas thing that the ward sent it was very nice. However I would like to know why it did not arrive with any Jesus stickers. Why are you guys acting like Laman and Lemuel and forgetting the wise counsel that others have given. Repent and put Jesus stickers on the envelopes, and Jesus pass along cards and whatever else Jesus!

Today some guy chased me down on the street and when he started talking I thought that he wanted to Bible bash - and I was thinking bring it on - my doctrine is flawless. I will bash you to pieces here in the street. But he asked me why dogs are going to heaven. That kind of threw me off. I asked why he thought that dogs were not going to heaven and he said because in Revelations it says so. So I said hmmm I don't know and he said it is a really hard problem and left. Soooo ya. 

My new comp is from Chile and he only has about 3 months left on his mission. For his job he needs to speak English so he is speaking English all that time . . . The other day I decided to fast for new investigators and received 8 in one day. That was pretty cool. Also our teacher for gospel principles decided to go less active because she does not like the girl friend of her son. So I have a calling in the ward now ¡yay! Thats like a half yay because teaching is fun so I do not mind doing it. It does make me worry about some of the members here.

I know why we have chichi members here. It is because no one is doing their family and visiting home teaching. I never knew how important it was until I saw a ward that was not doing it. Pres Hinkley said that every member needs 3 things: 1) a friend, 2) a responsibility, 3) and nutricion by the good word. Family home teaching does this. If it is done correctly it gives everyone more then one friend a resposiblity and nutricion. Since the ward is not doing it they are not unified, and because they are not fullfilling this responsibility they are not prepared for other greater responsibilities. Really this is bastante importante.

Really the more I study the gospel and the more time I spend in it the more convinced I am that it is the truth. It is so profound and so simple at the same time. There are just so many awesome things in the gospel. My testimony was based on faith and now, more and more, it is now based on knowledge.

  

OK this is all I have time for right now. I have work to do

Love you guys. The gospel is true 

Cambios & Luau in Colombia

24 Feb - late again

So this week has been good. I am writing early because we have cambios so i am getting a new comp and my old comp is leaving. So I will be with another missionary or companionship for a greater part of the day. So I might not be in my area or have time to write later. 

This week my comp and I had a casa abierta / luau in our church building with different classes about what our church does. In our casa abierta we gained 13 new investigatores and unified our ward a little bit so that was really awesome and I felt like a real missionary so that was great. 

Because I do not have a lot of time I think that this is all I am going to send. The church is true, the book is blue, Jesus is a Mormon, and I am too!

Lessons from Boy Scouts

17 Feb (I know - so late)

Soooo due to a series of unfortunate events here in Colombia we lost our gas in our stove. It has been out now for more than two weeks. When it first went out i thought to myself mmmm ok that is fine I will just eat the things I have that I do not need to cook . . . and then I opened the refrigerator . . . see photo

 

We did not have a lot of options and I did not want to go Rambo and eat raw eggs here in Colombia, or anywhere else. So I thought to myself what can be done to correct this problem. And then like a tidal wave of inspiration a remembered my Boy Scouts particularly something with Brother Lane about camping. That a can with toliet paper, soaked in alcohol, can burn for a decent amount of time. The paper acts as a wick of a candle and the alcohol like candle wax. And so I created picture 2 and my comp and I were able to eat. God bless the Boy Scout. God bless America! 

I do have a journal. I probably need to write in it more. I would like another Jesus The Christ in English because the one I have is dead (falling apart). 

Entonces . . . asi es la vida. I am doing a lot of walking and preaching so that is pretty awesome. This week we met 2 men (on different days) who told us that they had seen visions. One said that he saw a cloud. And in the cloud they saw the face of the angel which was the face of the lion. The angel spoke to the man and as a result of this vision he wanted a Book of Mormon. I was thinking this guy might be crazy (because all of the crazy people find me - that is not and exaggeration of any kind. They are attracted to me like magnets.) But hey that is really cool. He also wanted to know about the Word of Wisom and so we told him. Then he asked does that apply to Coca Cola. (idk why but the people have an affinity for this type of soda. It does not even taste good.) We told him that if someone was living the law in the highest form that they probable would not drink it. Then he said Coca Cola is from the United States - as if that would change the commandment of God. He is right that we totally are the people living in the favored land.

The other I think was just a liar. He said he saw christ . .  I believe he was lying to make us believe he had spiritual authority. He started off saything that he wanted to hear our message and that he didn't have a church. Then later he said that he was a missionary and invited us to his church and told us that he had seen Christ. I didnt bother to ask the details but maybe I should have. But I said, "Oh it seems to me like you are ready for more revelation. Here it is" and I gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he will read it . . . vamos a ver. So take that Satan.

Today I ate at burger king. The other day though I ate cow tounge so I felt like I deserved some fast food. 

 

I also played soccer (futbol). It was me and my comp and another companionship that were playing. The two Latinos said hey let's do Gringos vs Latinos because they wanted to beat us really bad. And we totally won. So that was awesome. I totally threw some gymnastics in there. Splits, flips, todo . . . I have to admit we also threw some American football during the game.  They were pretty sore losers haha que vergüenza para ellos.

I do not want to tell you about our fechas or anything else because I do not want to jinx anything. So this is pretty much it. Next time I will try to send pictures. Love you guys and the gospel is true.