Love from Colombia

Hi Elder Isom. We are in Columbia.  Hot and crazy.  We just wanted to pick up your email!

Love, Mom

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Hi mom. 

How are you? That is so cool that your in Columbia! Our bishops wife is Columbian and she's amazing. You know how I got my bike stolen, well don’t worry about it anymore, because the police found it. So I'm all good, except I have to get it a little fixed today, but it's all good. 

Love you Mom and Dad!

No Tengo Mi Bicicleta

So it was a really weird week. 

This Wednesday we got our new missionary in the Ward and in the house. He is Elder Alder and he is from Logan, Utah. He's cool and he is going to do great stuff in the Ward and with Elder Caines. We had dinner at the Bishop's and the food was amazing. But when we went outside our bikes were not on the car.

Bishop had cameras so we re-wound the video and a couple of young little Haitian boys stole our bikes. We called the police and reported it but ya know they probably won't get found. That night we went out trying to find them a little bit, but of course couldn't. It was awful.  So now I am riding a women’s bike that I borrowed from a Sister, but it’s all good. Our car also doesn't have miles so we are biking for the last part of the month. I love biking though. Especially in the rain, it’s cool.

This Sunday we had 4 friends at church, which was amazing. We had 2/3 people who are on date come, which was solid. Jaime, the person who is on date for November 30, came for the first time and he had a good time. We are so excited for him. This week we also found some inactive people. One was a family who was outside making tamales, wants us to come back and teach her kids who are 10 and 12, and I don't think they are baptized so we'll see.

I am so glad to stay in Greenacres for more time. Oh I am also learning to live off very little money, which is so cool. Today at the store I spent 19 bucks for food for the next week. I just needed a little bit of stuff because I had some stuff still at home. It is cool to learn how to live on your own. 

Ohhh and the sky is so beautiful here. It is one of my favorite parts. In the morning it's like a million different colors. It's amazing. Spanish is slowly coming along. I can understand a lot more than when I first got here. If people are talking I can pick out most of what they say but I can't say as much as I can understand but it's fun.

I am so excited for this next week. Every Week I just want to do better so every week is always better. I have read some bomb conference talks also. I love reading conference talks. I also read Moroni 7 and that is an amazing Chapter.

Take care ya’ll,

Elder Isom

A Fun Short Week

It's transfer week!! I'm not getting moved anywhere, I'm staying in Greenacres with Elder Alvarado for another 6 weeks to finish my training. I am so excited to stay and keep on working with the amazing ward and people here. 

This Saturday we had our wards dia de hispanidad. It was sooooo fun yall!!!!! There was so many people there and me and elder caines were the only white people. They had amazing food. My favorite food was the Cuban and the Columbian( probably because they were both made by the Bishops wife hermana Gonzales and she's a bomb cook) I also loved the Guatemalan tamales. Then they had dances and they were so fun. It was a hoot. The Mexicans did a western dance to the song achy breaky heart but in spanish. The Guatemalan did a cute little dance. We also had 4 friends at the event and they were all so awesome. 

Monday we did a 9er 9er. So we went out at 9am and found all day. It was awesome. We would go to different areas in the district and find for them. We found a total of 11 new friends on the day which is awesome. I got to go with a creel speaking elder for a little bit and that was amazing. I got to hear conversations in creel and it was so cool. 

God has been helping me a lot. My Spanish has improved so much. One lady said that I was humble for trying to speak spanish and that it was good. That just made my day. I have learned a lot about my priorities here and what I want and what I need. My wants have come down closer to what I need. My desire to follow and do what God wants me to do has increased. 

I am so grateful to be a missionary. It is awesome. There is nothing else in the world I would rather be doing than this work in this part of the vineyard. 

Love, 

Elder Isom

WE GOT DATES!

Sorry everyone, I forgot to say I was going to the temple so today is my P-day. It has been an amazing 10 or so. 

We got 3 dates this week. We put Jaime on date. He is amazing. We meet him 2 weeks ago and now he has a date!!  It is so cool. He is from Guatemala and is amazing. He is on date for November 30th. He is awesome and I'm so excited for him. Our other 2 dates are the Romanian couple whose dates dropped, and we reset their dates, so that is good. We also have some awesome friends who we are super excited about and are finding a bunch of new friends. 

The weather here is fine y’all. Elder Alvarado and I get up and go on walks every morning.  It's 6:30am and dark, but it's hot still. I don’t need a jacket or coat, like ever. The Ward here is so amazing. They are my new family and I love them. They are so fun and are amazing people. I love them. 

I'll tell some cool little stuff that happened. This lady gave us tamales as we were out and about for free, and they were bomb. There was a huge rainstorm, we drove through it, and it was crazy. A little boy was baptized in the Ward and I got to be in the confirmation.  It was one of the best experiences ever. The other Ward that we are super close with had their, "Dia de Hispanidad", and it was so fun. I was in the dance for Mexico and it was cool. We got to try food from all different countries. The Dominican table had some of the best drink I ever had.  It was like milk, orange, lemon, sweet, and condensed milk. It was amazing. We also had a family referred to us which was cool. 

Things are great here. My Spanish is improving, and I can make people laugh all the time when I say I am a gringo. I love it. I can understand more now. It's cool to think about that sometimes I am just speaking with other words. It's weird, but cool. 

Love, 

Elder Isom 

Conference Weekend!!!

Como estan??? This has been an awesome week. A bit has happened and I am excited to share some of my experiences with y'all.

This Tuesday was zone wide exchanges. I stayed in Greenacres while Elder Alvarado went somewhere else. I was with Elder Van Dyke who is a Creel speaking elder. I got the opportunity to take charge all do and do all the talking. It was amazing. I had the Gift Of Tongues. We made 2 new friends and they are awesome. One of them Jamie has a broken ankle from a roofing accident so he is home all the time so that is perfect. I talked to some Cubans and of course couldn't them so I just gave them a card and left. Then we went to our recent converts house and that has so fun. I got to talk more with them it was awesome. It was a really good day and showed me that I can do it. I even made a phone call in Spanish which was awesome but super hard.

Friday I was with Elder Caines (who is an other Elder in the house that we share the ward with and he is from South Carolina) all day and we worked all day. We biked 35 miles, which was fun, but I was pretty sweaty. I saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, well kinda I saw the water but there is a man made island or something a little ways out then its the real sea. I got a picture though. Elder Caines loves country music too and we had a tender mercy. We heard I'm from the Country by Allan Jackson and it was awesome. I miss music a lot.

How was general Conference for everyone? It was so good for me. I watched it in Spanish with English subtitles so I know I missed a lot but it was amazing and I can't wait to reread the talks. I love the Prophet. He is amazing and I am so excited for next spring. Some of my favorite talks were Elder Bednar's and Elder Ballard’s. It was a super uplifting conference. They talked a lot about the come follow me program. I know that that is super important so I invite everyone to look at how they are using that inspired program. Also a lot about joy, plan of salvation, perseverance, personal revelation, and how important the Book of Mormon is. 

The food here is so amazing. This week I had some Honduran Taquitos and Honduran Enchiladas that are just tostados in Mexico but are amazing. I love the food and the people. Time flies and I have been out in the field for 4 weeks. Crazy and love it. 

Have a great week y'all and look back at conference.

Love,

Elder Isom

Pictures:

-We did pumpkin carvings today for P-Day

-Tostados/ enchiladas

-Elder Alvarado and me made steak and instant potatoes for dinner and Elder Caines sang a country   song so it was like we were at Texas Road House

-Me and elder Caines at the ocean (kinda)

-A lizard in Elder Alvarado's Shoe