Week One - Struggle Bus!

Hello everyone, 

Hello everyone, this week has been crazy! With so many emotions. I got to the CCM in Colombia at around 1230 and didn't go to bed until about 115. My companions name is elder Craig and he is awesome! There are so many cool stories to tall about our experiences. And to be honest this week has been really hard. We have had a lot of struggles with the language, the food is mostly horrible and a ton of rice and potatoes. At the beginning of this week, I wanted to write and say that this has been the worst week of my life and that I didn't know if I could take it much longer. For the last few nights i have been praying for a reason to be happy and to be okay. And Sunday and last night I got so many answers to my prayers. First off Sunday every single lesson we had that day was amazing and was about patience and about not giving up or getting down on yourself. It was just so good.

One of our teachers said in Colombia instead of choose the right, its choose the rice. hahah it really has been good here, but hard. Spanish is really hard and so is learning the gospel in Spanish. 

Then another thing that helped is last night I got ito my luggage and realized I had some presents from my mom that she packed into my suitcase. I hurried and opened two of them, the ones that said I could, and I unpacked a paper Christmas tree and a paper nativity set. So while my roommates were showering, I hung up the tree and got everything ready and when one of them got back, he opened the door and just started crying. He said he needed this to feel like home and had been praying for it for a while. He said the tree made him feel like this was home and we were his family. I have never been so happy in my life and seen someone so happy overs something so simple. Thank you so much mom for this.

Sorry my email is so short this week, I have had some major problems with the computers. On the way here my luggage got stuck at Georgia and I didn't have it for two days. I now know how long I can wear a pair of garments for while sweating. No more than two days. Also back to the reason why I need to be happy. My roommates and my companion are my family for a while. They make me happy every single night. And we stay up til like 1130 every night talking between bad Spanish and bad English. Spanish is so hard and I suck at it so bad. Every night i pray for the gift of tongues and what I get is you should have taken Spanish in high school. It would have given you a background on congregation and what not. Also sorry for all the typos, Spanish keyboards are not easy. I love the people here and the spirit, its just a little hard to feel the spirit when you don't understand any Spanish.

Thank you for everyone that has supported me to get her. I love all of you, lets see is there anything else I need to tell you guys.... I love everyone and the latinos are alwasy so happy about everything. Sorry for a quick short email this first week, don't have a ton of time because we had troubles loading up my email. love you all and until next week.  sorry one last thing. I love soccer now and the latinos are amazing! Also carter if you read this bring lots of snacks to the ccm. you will want them​ The food is not the best. 

Okay well, love you all again. 

-Parker Goudie ​