It's not so much "whatever that means." It's whoever...

"Dear Elder Cannon: you are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Colombia Bogota North Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months...You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language... "


Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Hace calor...

Hello everyone. It's your favorite part of the week! The part where Elder Cannon gets to talk at you for a while about stuff that either doesn't make sense or doesn't really apply to you. I'll try to fix both of those things, but no promises.

Time is just flying. I can't believe that it's already been almost 6 weeks. I've been a missionary for more than 3 months now. Crazy, eh? The work is going well. The Spanish comes more and more every time I speak it. It still takes effort, but it's not as hard as it used to be. The funny thing is, when I got to the MTC, I could understand more than I could speak, and my branch President told us that understanding is the hardest part. I disagreed, because I could understand, but it was hard to say what I wanted. Now it switched. I can say what I want, and don't trip up too much, but to understand people, when they're talking 700 kilometers an hour...it's just hard. Also, I used kilometers just to throw you off and remind you that you're not cool enough to use the metric system. Or. Something like that. Anyway, the language will come. I'm not worried. I only have one problem. As some of you know, I used to be super shy. Like, couldn't look people in the eye, let alone talk to them. It's been a few years since I got over that, but I'm having the same "breaking out of my shell" problems in Spanish. Because, I have words I can say, I just find myself wanting to keep quiet instead of talking. My comp is Colombian, so it's easy for me to just sit back and let him do the talking, even though I know I need to contribute to the conversation as well. Anyway...I just need to be brave like Nephi and say words.

Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?

Read words kids!

My favorite part about writing emails is seeing the little red line go under almost every word I type. Very entertaining. :P 

Colombia is pretty much awesome. It's different than Ecuador in a few ways though. In Ecuador, there was a lot of traditional style dressing, and homemade stuff and such. Here, it's basically like the United states. Dress-wise, anyway. They do sell furit on the street. I had to ask my companion if they sold mangos here, because I hadn't seen any. He told me they're just not in season. Avocados are in season though. Does anyone remember those huge, green avocados we found at a Walmart once? Well all of the avocados here are like that. Huge. Oh, and the only reason I think they're in season is because everyone and their dog is out on the street selling them. Heh. Another thing that's different here than in Ecuador is the cost of living. It's about $2 minimum for a taxi ride around town. You can take a bus for about $0.75, which we did today. It's quite the adventure. The buses just stop wherever a person waves them down, and lets you off wherever you want as well. The only thing is that they don't really ever stop. It's more of a tap on the brake pedal. You just have to hope you get far enough away from the bus before it runs you over. ;) Okay, so I'm exagerating a little, but you guys remember how the drivers were in Ecuador. Insane. It's hard for me to cross the street, because in the States, I can account for the tap on the brake the person gives as I cross, but here I have to account for the tap on the gas pedal as they speed by. Hehe. Luckily I have a Companion that knows what he's doing. We've been able to stay safe so far. Sanos y salvos, as they say here. :)

Well, it's been nice talking at you all. I hope all is well wherever you may be. Say hello to my mountains for me, and maybe listen to some HTTYD if you have a chance. 

I love you all! Carry on.

-Elder Joey

P.S. Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile!

P.P.S. Near, far, wherever you are....



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