Elder Bigelow and Elder Aguilar!

12/14/2015

hey there! sorry i am so late today. i had to wake up early to travel. we got our transfers last night. AAAAAAAAND.. im staying in Lorica! buuuuut i had to travel here to Medellin to pick up my NEW HIJO!! yup! i am going to be training for a 3rd time!! wooohooo! and guess whats EVEN COOLER. my 2nd son Elder Fajardo came with me because hes gonna train too!!!! I'm gonna have a nieto, I'm a grandpa in the mission now! i am super happy for him! and Elder Wadley got moved up to Sr. comp. i am so happy for them. tomorrow night i get my new hijo and on Wednesday we go back to Lorica. I'm super excited!

sadly Elder Aguilar got transferred and is going to pereira so i wont be with him again for THIS Christmas. but that's okay it'll be great still.

the week was good, my interview with president was SOOOO good and much needed. ill tell you some cool things about it next week. 

Wandy should be having her interview and getting baptized this Friday! lets pray it all goes well .

aaaand.. what else. OH! this Saturday the pres is going BACK to the coast for the Christmas Conf and dinner. I'm super excited.

that's pretty much all i gotta say.. the week was super fast. but awesome. I'm soo so happy for the opportunity to train again. ill let y'all know how it all goes next week i guess. i love you people!

"Silent Night"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

En Un Taxi!

chanchitos!

Hahaha

Colombian Sunset!!

Sandilla... which I am guessing means watermelon :)

12/7/2015

a greeeeat week we had. and a HOT one. it gets over 100 degrees lately. not liking that so much. but that's how it is i guess.

we are teaching this girl named Kelis that went to church last week and everything. but this week she told us she wasn't really as enthusiastic about going again. she said she has been having some problems and wanted to go to some witch doctor to heal her on Sunday instead. so we taught her about the priesthood and the true church and she didn't seem all that convinced.. honestly i was kinda sad when we left the lesson. for the next few days we called her and tried visiting her but she never answered her phone or the door. we decided to just find new people. we thought we had lost her... BUT, Sunday came, and she showed up at church!! she didn't talk all the much. but she was there and listening. and then she showed up a the church again at night for the Christmas Devotional. that was our Milagro (miracle) this week. our other investigator Wandy came as well and is also doing very well. she just needs a little help recognizing when the spirit is speaking to her.

we were able to work a lot with the members this week and found a good amount of people to start teaching.

i am hot, sweaty, exhausted, and thirsty ALL THE TIME. but i love it. and i honestly wouldn't wanna be anywhere else right now. i pray every night that you guys and my investigators receive the blessings for the work we are doing. i hope you guys can recognize them. i love you all. the church is true. cant wait to see you guys in a couple weeks!! :)

"Angels We Have Heard On High"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

At a baptism with investigators!!

11/30/2015

Last week of November was a good one. lots of working and teaching again. we had quite a few appointments fall through though. the family that went to church last week decided to go to Bogotá and they aren't coming back until January. and a couple other investigators basically aren't gonna be able to progress so we had to let them go. but we have got some good new people to work with. i feel like i am working harder than I've ever worked in my mission. and i love it. 

the Lord provides when we give ourselves to Him, make His work our work and His will our will.

its not just in mission work either. we should ALWAYS put Him first.

got to watch the Meet The Mormons movie this week again, had some investigators come and they loved it. did some contacting too and it started pouring raining, but crazy hard. so we hid on some random porch and ended up teaching the family that lived there, they didn't come to church but it was pretty cool. i hope something good comes of it. people here are getting ready for Christmas with their trees and lights, but it doesn't feel like December at all to me. it probably will in a couple week when i get to call you guys! super excited for that. gotta figure where we are gonna do it and everything though. I'm pretty certain it'll be the 25th this year. Really looking forward to it.

that's pretty much all i have to say. i hope all your wildest dreams come true! 

love you guys a ton!

"Jesus Once Of Humble Birth"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

mi burrito

itty bitty lizard!!

11/23/2015

the week went by super fast. lots of working walking talking and teaching.

been using the members a lot to help us. found tons of new people gain. we are basically filing through all the new people picking out the ones that are most likely to progress.

we have a family preparing for baptism on the 12th of next month. its a dad and his 2 kids. they all seem kind of shy, but miraculously they came to church yesterday and they participated and everything! i was so happy.

we have some other people preparing for baptism too.. but they didn't come to church yesterday, still working on that.

and yeah, besides how my body is reacting to the ridiculous amount of heat here i am doing good. learning new things everyday. I'm at the point where I'm one of the most experienced elders in the zone. i know the routine, know how it all works, don't have any problems with the language at all so its just work work and work until the end!!

i love you all! hope you have a great week and thanksgiving! cant wait to celebrate it next year!! 

"All Creatures Of Our God And King"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

Aydee and Leo

Companion Selfie

Birfday Cake!!!

He wasn't ready for this picture!

down to the river!

Catholic Church!

11/16/2015

Another 13th passed. that's all i will say about that. haha.

the coast is amazing guys. even though its crazy hot. the people are awesome. always happy and crazy and listening to Bob Marley. its super chill living by the beach. our whole zone is going to the beach next Monday. the pres gave us permission. I'm super excited. today we have to go to Monterìa again for another meeting. itll be cool though. last week in Monterìa was awesome. it was AMAZING seeing Aydee again. shes doing great. really active and really happy. she got called to be a ward missionary. I'm supper happy for her.

i hope to find more prepared people like her here in Lorica. that's the goal!

we found lots of people to tech this week and had a great time helping them out..... but yesterday kinda stunk cause nobody came to church. :( but we will just keep working, loving, teaching and praying. I'm so glad to have a comp who works hard and loves it.

yesterday also i blessed the sacrament for the first time in church since i was a priest.. kinda interesting. haha. and while the sacrament was being passed the branch pres came over to me and asked me to stay up on the stand and give a talk cause 2 people who were assigned didn't show up. so me and the pres had to improvise. it was good tho.

guys i love you. i know the church is true. and that God gave us the Atonement because he loves us. we can all use it daily to become better. i know that to be true. it doesn't matter what we`ve done. God only cares about what we WILL do from now on.

"Be Thou Humble"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

Old Zone in Pereira!

Stopping by Medellin ... saw Hernan and Sofia from Altamira

Lorica!!!

11/9/2015

LORICA LA BUENA

I cant even tell you guys how much i am loving this. the coast is officially my favorite place in Colombia. i am soooo excited to be back. My area is the best. We are in i little town on the beach. Not a whole lot of people and its actually not as hot as Monterìa. But its still crazy hot. haha. My comp is great too. Elder Apaza from Cusco Perù. He`s been out 13 months. Not sure why he`s my jr comp, he should be a DL or a trainer. we are having tons of fun and teaching TONS of people. the members here are awesome. our branch mission leader is a 22 year old convert who just got baptized like a month and a half ago and hes like one of the best members of the branch. we are living in an apartment with two other elders who are great as well. one, elder aguilar, is from my group and we started in the same zone in Medellin over a year ago and the other is his hijo elder bravo from ecuador who is just starting. so the house is good.

we had some REALLY good lessons this week. SUPER spiritual. and fun. I'm loving the mission right now. its good to have a companion again and not a burden :) to all my missionary friends, remember that you NEVER want to be that burden.

well guys the church is true. i love you all. gotta go here soon. we are going to Monterìa. gonna go see Aydee and Abelardo and all my friends from Mogambo! have a great week!!

"Now Let Us Rejoice"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

More Goodbyes!!

Saying goodbye to a favorite family!!

11/2/2015

Pa´ La Costa Otra Vez!!

  yuuuuup! that's right! I'm going back to the coast! but this time its the REAL DEAL. haha my area is on the beach!! haha wooohooo! so you'll start getting lots of pics again don't worry! I'm suuuper excited!

the week went really well for the most part. we worked with the members having them help us with the work. and in ward council we set up a program for the ward to visit the less actives and get references from them and then report back to us.. wish i could be here to see how it turns out. but its okay, THE COAST! 

so some sad news... Saturday, me and my comp got to the chapel, super excited. dressed in our suits.. set up the room, filled up the font and waited... and waited.. and waited... AND nothing.......... Alberto never showed up!!! never called. didn't come to church yesterday either. nothing. really sad that i have to just leave now not knowing anything that happened to him really.... an hermana said she saw him and he told her he was feeling a little sick...... pero yo no lo creo...

but yeah super sad.... at least we got the members helping now tho... 

gotta get all packed up tonite. i go to Medellin in the morning and then Wednesday morning we drive up to the coast!! pretty excited!

i love you guys a ton.

sorry mom but i don't have a lot of pics... i expected too with the baptism and all..... but next week you'll get a ton! okay? i love you and miss you!

"There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

Last P Day with Elder Baker!!

10/26/2015

the subject line is actually just the name of the Internet cafe I'm at right now and has absolutely nothing to do with anything that happened this week....... ANYWAYS!

this week was pretty good. went by so quickly though that i don't really remember everything (again!)

but it was definitely good. we met with Alberto a lot, preparing him for his baptism. he is super excited for it. its funny to see him talk about it. i wish you guys could meet and talk to him. I'm so happy for him. PRAY it all goes well, because this is more than likely my last week in this area! i cant believe I've been here longer than i was in the coast. doesn't seem real. i really do like it here. but it'll be exciting to find out where i go next.

been teaching the members about how they can help us better to find and teach people. seems to be working! haha i gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday and talked about becoming fishers of men. it got weird when i left the stand because an hermano came up to be and shook my hand and congratulated me as i walked back to my seat... the bishop was a little confused and so was i. bahahaha i felt like me and dad would have had a good laugh about it if he were there. i felt like the talk really did go well. made me realize some of the things i can work on personally to be better.

remember that we will reach our goals when we do things the way the Lord would have us do them. i love you guys! you all mean something special to me and are in my prayers.

have a great week!

"Come Follow Me"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

la Familia Jaramillo

cumpleaños of the grandma! she turned 73! ha

10/19/15

A good week. we got a TON of rain here. one day it never STOPPED raining. it’s been nice and somewhat cold. I love it. but today the sun came back out.. so that’s nice I guess.

had a good week tho. went on an exchanged with my ZL from Mexico. he's an awesome guy and we had a lotta fun. found some new people in my area and had some great lessons. this guy we found started the lesson saying he had heard the JW and catholics and all the churches and he was convinced that religion was a joke and a competition and that he was just gonna believe in God and nothing else. and after teaching him the Restoration he committed to be baptized and in his closing prayer thanked God for finally revealing to him the truth. :) love when stuff like that happens.

still working with Alberto, he's getting more and more excited. his date is 2 days before transfers so i'm praying it all goes well and he can get baptized while i'm still here! its not certain that i will be transferred obviously. but i feel like i will be.

ALSO! yesterday this lady gave a talk in sacrament and she started by singing (horribly) haha it was hilarious! then she talk an inappropriate story about the "red skins" teaching her medicine and ended by confessing her sins.... shes like 80 something years old. me and my comp had to strain to not bust up. but EVERYONE was laughing.

over all it was a good week! and we are gonna have a better one THIS week. remember what we ALL learned in conf this year: there's ALWAYS something we can be doing better. Always something to improve. Work on these things. "Be Ye Therefore Perfect.."

i love and miss all y´all!

"Love At Home"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

Guitar!!

10/12/2015

really fast week.. honestly there are a few days i don't even remember. i just tell you everything i DO remember.

i remember Alberto telling us he wasn't gonna get baptized. again. he said he needed to wait another month. we have decided that if he does this again we are gonna just let him be for a while.

i remember praying for a miracle and we were given one. we needed somebody to teach, we had absolutely nothing. then we got a call from a lady who was taught by the missionaries about 2 years ago. we went to her house, taught her and her 2 daughters. and they accepted the baptismal invitation on the first visit. and she gave us the name of her other daughter as a reference. it was awesome. it made my day that day.

i also was able to go on exchanges with a new elder named Elder Baker from Orem. it was great. it made me miss training. he has TONS of energies. we taught about 7 lessons that day. felt really good but i was definitely tired the next day.

lets see, what else do i remember... oh yeah.. got sick from some bad pizza and couldn't get out of bed to go to church... but i was feeling good enough to do some visits in the afternoon. we visited a less active girl. shes 15 and has a 3 month old baby. kind of a tough situation shes in. but her grandma really wants her to come back to church. so we are gonna do what we can there.

that's really about it. I've been reflecting on conference as well. cant wait to read all the talks again.

weelllll. i love you all. remember that you are always being watched out for as long as your actions are in accordance with the commandment. (excuse my English)

"Abide With Me"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

Sunday Best!!

10/5/15

This week we had a plan that pretty much failed. sad i know. we decided to make the members a bigger part of the work here by only finding new people to teach through them. and in the transcurso of the entire week we were not given a single reference. haha gonna have to find a new method this week. we have also decided to have a ward Halloween activity and hope that people invite lots of friends! GUYS if there is a ward activity coming up back home, invite people! its perfect for the missionaries!

we had a good time getting to know our area well this week as well. we did tons of walking. most missionaries here are jealous of us cause we have the flattest area in Pereira. but its also the biggest area. I've been here for 4 months and i still don't know it all. we found this giant park with paint balling and zip lining and fun stuff so we are gonna go there today and mess around.

conference was amazing! i loved all the talks! i am sure we all found something new we can work on to improve ourselves. remember to share any goal you have with our Heavenly Father so he can help you out with them. 

Alberto came to conference! he loved it and we are still going good for his baptism this weekend! suuuper excited!

well guys i love you all! keep Alberto in your prayers. and remember that y'all are in mine!!! have an awesome week!!

"If The Savior Stood Beside Me"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

Elder Crispín. la familia Castrillón. and Alberto

New Comp Elder De La Torre

9/28/2015

Elder De La Torre seems like a good hard worker so far. we will see how this transfer goes. Alberto keeps putting off his baptism. been trying to help him out as best we can, we are just hoping that in the general Conference will will receive his confirming answer.

been doing some contacting as well and were able to find some new people to teach.

while waiting for my new comp i stayed with my zone Leader for a couple of days and had a lot of fun working with him. hes from hawaii, has a hawaian name and everything but hes super white. haha its interesting but he´s a great missionary.

this week went by really fast.. and that's pretty much all we did. wasn't really an exciting moment or nothing. besides when my comp had an allergic reaction during lunch one day..

other than that everything is great. i am REALLY excited for conference this week. cant believe its already been 6 months since last conference and October is this week though.

thank you guys for the package! i love the new tie! and now i got snacks for conference! haha

love you all. ask God for help with ANYTHING you need this week. because, if you do it with faith, your prayer will be answered by His prophet and apostles.

Have a great week!

"My Redeemer Lives"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

Zone Jersey's

9/21/2015

sadly no baptism again.. we are having to deal with a few difficulties our investigators have. and Alberto, was supposed to be getting baptized this Saturday but yesterday in our lesson he kinda seemed a little less interested than normal. STILL working with him tho! and Luz Adriana is working on recieving her answer. we taught her this week about

how she has to DO rather than just want. she´ll get it tho. i got faith.

spent some time this week contacting. with poco success. we did find this guy named Herman Muñoz. hes about 55 years old and just moved back here a couple months ago from living in New York since he ws 20. He is absolutely hilarious. My comp doesnt understand him bien because he speaks half english half spanish. he asks me how to say some words in spanish sometimes too. he told us he wants to know what we have to say because he wants to make sure we arent confused. also said he found Jesus while he was "in the pit" for 12 years for murder. reminds me of the guy that took us out on the dingy in the middle of the ocean to fish halibut. he didnt come to church tho. kinda stunk. but we will visit him again this week.

ALSO cambios came last night and im NOT leaving. my comp is! so i get ANOTHER new comp, Elder De La Torre from Bolivia. i met him at the beginning of my mission and we have shared Zones a couple times. hes a good missionary so it should be a good transfer. im pretty excited.

another thing, my latest convert Luz Delia had an interview with the bishop yesterday and gave her a calling. she seemed excited about it. obviously she didnt tell me what it was, so ill find out next week in church. i was also supposed to give a talk yesterday but at the last minute the bishop told me i didnt have to give it because some people from the stake come to talk. i was happy haha.

well, i love you all. i hope that this was good and detailed. if you have any questions all answer them! the church is true! the atonement is real! 

Amen!

"Jesus Once Of Humble Birth"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

That is a snake!!!

P-Day!!

9/14/2015

had a sick week. but we got some work done. sadly luz adriana was working in Bogotá all week. so no progress there. and Alberto said he wants to take things a little slower. lo mas probable is that he gets baptized in October. if it all goes well. keep him in your prayers! been looking for some new people to teach as well. making sure to find people who really are prepared so we dont lose any of the little time we have here.

didn't end up doing the exchange because one of the assistants came so we were all in a meeting Thursday morning. i was talking with him too and he told me i am most likely gonna be transferred next week! kinda crazy. i dont feel like i've been here all that long but its already been more than 3 months! it'll be good to get to know a new place though.

thats pretty much it for this week. we took fotos but i forgot my camera cable.. maybe we can come back later to send them.

i love all you guys! hope you are all studying the scriptures and applying everything you learn! remember that that's what they are for!

"The Morning Breaks"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

Eating Breakfast!!!

Hunter with his Zone Leader, Elder Cedillo 

9/7/2015

it got HOT this week... nothing like it was in the coast but for this part of Colombia it was pretty bad... we made all our citas close to each other so we wouldn't have to walk as much. got a good amount of teaching done but didn't get to see the results this week...

didn't have anybody got to church... and we had a few baptismal dates fall... gonna have to work hard to finish this transfer with a baptism. we will see what happens tho. there are some problems with a companionship in the zone so i will be working in another area all week to help them out... hope everything goes well in my area while i am gone. it should be fun though. i really like the missionary i will be working with. he is from my group.

and as far as the week goes that's mainly it. worked a bunch and it made the week literally fly. i loved it. a year ago this week i left the ccm and came to the field in medellin. i honestly still feel new in mission. but over half the missionaries here have less time than me. this week i hit my 10 months left week. it is absolutely true what they say about time going faster when you hit a year.

remember everyone to love every minute of this beautiful life that God has given us. it is extremely important to love and be obedient. but that in NO WAY is a restriction. as a missionary it sometimes seems like that. but i know that that is what gives us our freedom. try it. change what needs to be changed. and y'all will see.not my promise, but the Lords.

love you guys!

"I Need Thee Every Hour"

ELDER H. BIGELOW

Add caption

Lake!

... I'll look good and you look like a goober!! That is what must have been said, right??