Lastly we became a branch officially!!!

 

Uh sorry It's been a while but here's my email for the last like 2 1/2 months 👍

Honestly so much has happened I'll touch on some main stuff that happened pretty recently

December in Colombia is the hottest month there is because it doesn't rain during that time... basically there's two seasons: hot with rain, or REALLY hot without rain. Luckily they sell little bags of water for like 1/5 of a penny so those were life savers.

During December we celebrated Christmas, met the first lady of Colombia, found the phone I lost in the last email, we were strangely happy to find out someone wasn't married, I got a violin, transfer news said I'm gonna be in my baby area for 7 months, we saw a bull fight, our area 70 spoke to us, and WE'RE A BRANCH NOW BABY

🤠I found the phone I lost like 3 months ago on a bus when some dude (he was like 5 feet tall) walked up to us and said he had it! That was a nice miracle because we would've had to pay for it... I think that's the first time anyone has ever gotten a lost phone back in Colombia🤩 

The first lady actually pretty nice! We represented the church at some event because tons of supplies were donated to people that had pretty much nothing. We went with some members from the big city and it was super fun! 

I bought a violin because it's fun 🎻 I need more ideas for songs like if you got any 👍

A member family in our area is working on getting baptized so the guy can be worthy of tye priesthood and his wife can be baptized- but like every other fetching person in Colombia- they're not married 😀 the guy said he had a previous marriage and they went to check the legal documents and they never got legally married - only in the catholic church. Basically this means they don't have to get divorced which is SO much easier. Love seeing the Lord progress the work and lifting burdens!

There was a cool "bull fight" were a bunch of guys hop in a stadium and chase around a bull that's trying to stab em 🦬 fortunately no one died this time but some dudes did find bull horn where it shouldn't be

Our area 70,- Elder Becerra- and his wife spoke to us and it was incredible!! I truly felt the spirit so strongly and he gave awesome thoughts on Jacob's ladder in Genesis and the temple covenants- and how the baptism and marriage (first and last covenants made in the temple) have the Son, The Father, and the Holy Ghost. 

Lastly we became a branch officially!!! We've been a family group for someone's and the application to be a branch was submitted- meaning we'll get a bigger meeting place and some leadership! Super excited to stay for 7 months and see the progress!!

Shout-outs:

mom for teaching me about Jacob's ladder and being the scriptorian she is

My comp Elder Silva for not getting too trunky on his last transfer💀💀

bleach for being invented

Elder Zavaleta and Rendon for leaving on the iron for three days 🤦

Pics:

We killed a tarantula and told an elder it's a toy - I didn't feel that bad until he realized it...

Nap-time on the bus!

Iguana eggs: taste weird but the iguana tasted like BBQ chicken 🐔 🦎

Church! 

Some quick dips in the local pool with white clothing and *real* priesthood authority! 

(Just a baptism don't worry President)

Medical People

 Johnny went with an elder from the other companionship in his apartment to go feed the starving dogs in this elders area. While going Johnny felt prompted to take his journal. While out they saw a crippled man in a wheelchair. They wheeled him up the hill to his home, to find he needed help. They noticed all the filth. His bed was crawling with bugs. They changed his sheets then scrubbed his clothes in a bucket of water. The Man watched them work. He kept saying your medical people. No the elders would respond were elders missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ. How the world will ever have is the truthfulness of the gospel and the greatest healer the world will ever know is Jesus Christ our. The Man watched them work. He kept saying your medical people. No the elders would respond were elders missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ. How true the man’s words were. The greatest medicine in the world will ever have is the truthfulness of the gospel and the greatest healer the world will ever know is Jesus Christ our savior and redeemer .

Very prepared for us

 Hey! It's been awesome here in El Carmen! These last few weeks have felt exciting; we witnessed the Lord's hand SO much, some drunk guy sat on me, we got in some newspaper articles, we impersonated a cop, I lost our phone, and we witnessed a little 3 year-old kill a baby chick. 

We see the Lords hand so much, especially with our members and traveling. A member was remembering when they saw us and he said he felt impressed to walk over and talk to us. He'd been inactive for a while and he is a huge part of our future branch now!

The Lord won't break the "law of the land" but fortunately he has his Colombian disciples to do it for him: On one of our bus rides home, there was a LOT of traffic, so much that we would've gotten home super late. I was getting worried when the bus driver flicked on his red & blue flashing lights with his siren and he started speeding up... we were all laughing at the long line of angry cars we had just passed and we made it home in time!

We met a former mayor of our city who did the local newspaper. He was SO excited to see us and invited us in. He'd been asking for missionaries for a long time and found us. He said we can put anything we want in the newspaper; he's an amazing guy who was very prepared for us. 

One bus ride we were sitting next to some drunk guys, one was asking me what his tequila was called in English so I told him he was drinking weenie juice. They had to throw up so they just sat on me on their way out of the bus...

We're teaching some people that sell chicks after they dye them and as they were roaming around the floor, this little 3 year old accidentally stepped on one and when we showed her its broken foot and neck she started laughing... we're debating between plan of salvation or the "don't murder" commandment for the next lesson haha

There's a long update! Appreciate you all!

after he was baptized he started swimming around..

 Buenas! These last couple weeks have been suuuper sweet! We had some interesting bus rides, I bought a ukelele and we had a baptism!

Last week we were on our daily bus and the police stopped us for an I.D. check- just to limit gang activity between cities. Because I'm new and don't have an I.D.... I just gave them my temple recommend (I have no clue what i expected) and I was kinda worried because we had a busy day that day. The police just saw it and probably thought no way this dumb American's in a gang and just let us go.. super cool blessing!

We had a baptism Saturday!! His name is Sebastian! He's a funny kid that wanted to get baptized so we rented a pool place and after he was baptized he started swimming around.. I'm so glad I was able to help give Seb the amazing gift of the Holy Ghost and I know that the gospel will bless him!! 

Yesterday in sacrament we hit a new record!! We got 22 people and we had current investigadors come!! I'm so glad that the church is growing here and we're on track to be a branch by January!

Pics:

some cool turtle bread

SEBAS

Chruch😎

motocarros are lit

teach him how to write

 Hey! This last week has been super awesome! We traveled a whole bunch this last week... and I'm traveling as a write this right now... 

we will have traveled on the bus for about 14 or 15 hours by the end of this week😎 we were only able to work in our city a few days but we got in a couple dates and did plenty of contacting! We got 9 people in church yesterday and expect 15 or more in a couple weeks! 

We also had our English class and I love it every time! There's a couple people on that class that are super cool- one named Alejandro and the other named Cesar. Alejandro has very good English, and he wants to work in a call center. Hes AMAZING at guitar and we relly look forward to lessons with him because we usually end up listening to him play. Cesar is someone we found online, and we started lessons with him but it felt kinda weird because he NEVER spoke to us. We would ask him stuff and he just smiled, but the next time we asked if he read the Book of Mormón, and he read like 14 ir 15 chapters In a couple days. Super cool dude, I noticed learning englisb was hard for him and then saw that all he knew to write was his name... I'm gonna try to teach him how to write.

When we were in a Barranquilla, it was 5 of us new missionaries trying to get around to the different visa places. By the evening we headed to the bus station and just COULDNT find a taxi anywhere. After a couple hours we found a funny guy. We stacked all of us in the back and it felt like we were in a car chase. This man was swerving in and out of lanes and it was so sweet- once we made it to the bus we got a call to stay in Barranquilla because it was too late... I felt kinda disappointed but that feeling disappeared when we got to the zone leaders house. We had a good night and im so glad I met them before we left! 

Anyways, if you made it thus far then congrats go make yourself a sandwich 👍

-Élder Seffker

people dedicated to what

 WOAH- my church login didn't work for a second but IM IN MY MISSION NOW! These last 3 weeks have been pretty crazy and awesome! The people here haven't failed to humble daily. After getting off the plane in Barranquilla, we stayed in some hotel that had hot water! I got my companion- Elder Brown- from this weird city in Utah called Syracuse or something. 

We were assigned to a pueblo called El Carmen de Bolivar. It's amazing here and we have been trying to get a branch started up in El Carmen! I live with a couple other Elders, Elder Bryan and Elder Patiño. Theyre super sweet and they all help me practice my Spanish 💪

We live in a pueblo called San Juan and then just travel to get to El Carmen. There's complications with living there, but hopefully by January we'll be able to live in El Carmen. One thing that I've learned to love is our English classes on saturdays! It's one of the only times in the week when i fully understand everything, and can really help people learn English. Learning english seems to be a really big deal here because if you know it, you have a chance to go to America and live there. I feel so blessed to have grown up knowing English, and the 

 they want gives me motivation. 

A couple families we're teaching have touched my heart so much! One family, which is also half of our members, remind me of some of my siblings and I love teaching them and mostly talking with the kids. The kids here are SO funny because they practice their English with us, but can really only quote movies and swear words. Talking with them is easier anyways because they talk slow and have a smaller vocabulary for me to understand. 

also about the subject crunchy pancakes; I figured out, if you ever want to try it, to make one, you get normal batter with pancakes, maybe a little extra milk, and leave it on the stove for about 20-30 minutes. It tastes really good never.

Things I love about the mission so far:

All the dope geckos EVERYWHERE

the AC unit in our room 

The random flash floods

The insane drivers

The bread shops on every corner

Some dude named lucho: "fighter" in english

Another guy named Nestey (smart guy) who was supposed to be named Einstein

Finding peanut butter at the store

Random dogs with a random amount of limbs

here's some pictures

our english class

my favorite section of the store?

Ya 

Uh huh

Pictures