Elder Paul J. Horton....Colombia Bogota North Mission: Week 2, Columbia Bogota MTC "Stuffing My Brain"

HEY everyone! Elder Horton Here. The last two weeks have been totally crazy! First of all Christmas here is on the 24th of December. Everyone here goes flippin wild! Im pretty sure i heard gunshots throughout the night but maybe they were just fireworks. We got to tune in for a special Christmas devotional for the next day. Neil L. Andersen spoke and gave an awesome message on the Saviors birth. The following days after that we went straight to work learning Spanish. Everyday since then has been stuffing my brain with words, phrases, and scriptures. Ive learned so much in just 2 short weeks! We also had the opportunity to go the the Bogotá Temple! It's my new favorite temple! The temple itself is small but I love that about it because it helps me to focus and the important reasons of why we're there. The Latinos here LOVE to play Fútbol. I love getting in to games with all of them because whenever a white guy or "Gringo" scores a goal they all get hyped. My favorite experience so far out here on the mission was we had to opportunity to go proselyting with missionaries in the field and I've never done this before in my life, so I was pretty nervous to go. Elder Johnson was my trainer for the day and he was such a cool guy. One of our appointments did fall through so he said oh well lets start contacting people on the street. We ended up getting 3 new investigators just like that! I was amazed at how willing people were to stop everything they were doing to listen to our quick message! He taught me that sometimes you just gotta go for it and let the spirit do the rest! This week we watched a video for new years eve and Elder Bednar talked on how we can become more successful missionaries. He said "A testimony is not enough, it's a start, but your goal is to become converted unto Christ" That's not all he said but thats what hit me the hardest. I now know the difference between a testimony and conversion. He said the best way to become truly converted unto to Lord is to forget yourself and get to work. INSTANTLY I felt chills all throughout my body. Remember that gaining a testimony is just the first step. The next is to become converted unto the Lord! I love you all!