Hi Family!!

Well I mislead everyone.. I`m actually not in Palmira, I`m in Cali again! I am in a sector called Terron Colorado and it is absolutely beautiful here! It is on the mountain of Cali and it reminds me of Utah because it has huge green mountains! Our house has an upper deck that we can go up to and it overlooks the mountain valley of Terron Colorado and it is soo cool! 

 

-We live in a 3 story house and the owners below us are really cool! They own a little shop on the first floor so whenever we want something from the store we just throw a little bucket with money down the stairwell and they send the food or whatever we want up! I thought it was funny but it is nice in the night to just throw a bucket down and have it come up with some chips or something. 

-I missed the food in Cali because it is super cheap! In Buenaventura we were paying soo much with the raise in food prices and the transportation every day but here in Cali you have about every store you need within 2 streets and the food is a lot cheaper. 

-Finally got the birthday package exactly one month after my birthday! Don`t worry sometimes you never know how long it will take because it always depends on what area you are in, when is the next transfer, etc. I was just glad to get a package with a bunch of stuff from Hawaii! I am excited for that little book of missionary quotes and also I was glad to get another shirt and some socks. I have lost a ton of socks in Buenaventura, and with my shirts all of them are like a little bit stained in places and are now a cream color instead of actual white haha. Thanks soo much for the package! and thanks Grandma Griffin for the letter in there too.

-We have some  really good investigators right now in Terron Colorado. We had 10 people attend church with us here my first Sunday.  We had to kill ourselves to get the people to come in Buenaventura. This is one of the poorer sections of Cali, but compared to Buenaventura they are rich! No one had money to come to church in Buenaventura. We have 2 baptisms scheduled for this Saturday so they will be my first baptisms in about 6 months. 

-I thought that when I came to Cali, there wouldn`t be really any problems in the wards here. I was wrong. There are still a ton of problems I think in most every ward or branch in Colombia and it is amazing how many people go inactive for little fights between members, or because they don`t like something or someone in the ward. Being in Buenaventura made me realize how much that we can help with the organization and helping things go smoothly so, I am hoping that we can get some more people active and solve some problems here too. 

-Today for P-Day we went to a Subway. First time I have smelled that "subway sandwich smell"  in almost a year! 

Thanks for the update of the family! Sounds like the summer came to a good end.  Love everybody!

-Elder Armstrong