Pictures from Mission on the Fly package delivery
Friday, August 31, 2018
Week 57: The Secret Life of a Financial Secretary
Hola Familia y amigos!
Nos Vemos!
Élder McBride
This week was pretty crazy. Sunday was cool. Church was super good, we had lunch with this really awesome family, la familia Chacon. They're really young and just super nice. The husband served a mission a couple years ago and they have a super cute dog named Alaska, I pet Alaska a bunch that day. Also Élder Willes and I were contacting in a park and we weren't having a lot of success until we started contacting people with dogs! We asked them about their dog first so they would actually talk to us and then one of us would pet the dog and the other would contact the person and then we would switch off and it was super fun!
Then Monday was crazy. Élder Willes and I had to get to the offices at 6:30 to give some missionaries who were going to Leticia some documents and we ended up in the offices from 6:30 in the morning until 11:00 at night doing work, that was a long day! Then Tuesday we did more work in the offices and went to Migrations! Wednesday was also a lot of work. I'm learning how everything works. We have to pay pensionistas, reimburse missionaries, pay bills for the houses, do a report on the mission credit card and President and his wife's card and it's a ton of work. We also have to work with a bunch of banks and the church and the church is implementing a new system to do the credit cards but it still isn't up yet so that's causing us some problems. Then Thursday we had to go to Migrations again, we were there for a good minute and then we ended up in the offices super late again. I did the reimbursements for the entire zone, Tunjuelito, and that took like 2-3 hours which was pretty crazy, I finished it at like 8:30ish. We were planning on going home, but then we get a call telling us that Élder Luedtke was coming up to Bogotá from Ibagué! So we went and got him at the terminal and now he's with us! He got here at about 11ish so it was another late night. The offices are so much different than any other part of the mission, it's a ton of work and there's always stuff that comes out of the blue, it's crazy but I love it!
Then Friday was my 20th Birthday! Crazy it's already my second Birthday in the mission! We did some more financial work finished up the credit card report for the month and then we went to a super nice restaurant called Harry Sasson. The chef is known as like the best chef in Colombia and his restaurants are world-famous. I got a super good Porter house steak that I shared with Élder Miller. It's for like 2-3 people and it was amazing, Élder Willes ate it all on his own which was pretty impressive. Then today I officially have 13 months in the mission which is crazy, feels like I just got here. The time is flying by! I'm excited for where the upcoming months will take me. Tomorrow before church we're going to have a baptism in the ward which is going to be awesome! I love and miss you guys a ton! I hope you're all doing well! Now as Financial Secretary, I feel obliged to relate finances to the gospel so I would like to share with you a scripture in theNew Testament.
1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Élder McBride
Saturday, August 18, 2018
Week 56: Pictures
View from my Apartment
Week 56: It’s not about the money money money!!
Hola familia y amigos! Como están?
Yep this email is coming at ya hot on a Saturday! It's because today is my P-day! Now I know what you're all thinking, P-day is always Monday! Well not anymore! I actually don't have an official p-day anymore! It's just whenever I have time, this week it just happens to be Saturday. Now this is happening because I am going to be the next Financial Secretary of our mission. That is why I was emergency transferred to Bogotá. I'm here with Élder Miller(The current Finance secretary) and Élder Willes(the current Migration secretary). We are in a trio while Élder Miller teaches me all the stuff I´m in charge of. Basically I'm in charge of all the money in the mission. I'll handle the Mission's credit cards, I'll do all the "Reembolsos" or Reimbursments of all the missionaries in the mission, and I also cover all the "Pensionistas" who are the people that feed the missionaries lunch. It's going to be pretty hard but I'm excited to start learning. I did some Reembolsos the other day, not super hard but it takes forever, I was doing it for like 4 hours haha. I also paid some Pensionistas which was cool too. I'll be learning more as the weeks go along, that's why I'm here with Élder Miller he's going to teach me how to do everything.
Secretaries always have emergency transfers like this because you have to get trained how to do your new job It's not like normal when you can just leave an area and then go to the next one. So over the next couple of weeks I'll be basically studying and learning how to do this job! I'm pretty excited, even though it is a little different. I'll be working in a office almost always, we work in the mission offices( Mom I work at the address where you send the packages) in the North of Bogotá, our apartment isn't even in our mission; we live in the north mission. We don't even really have a schedule, one day we left the offices at 11pm because we had a ton of work! It'll be a little hard to adapt but I'm excited for the change! Honestly that's about it, I went to migraciones a lot with Élder Willes because we're in charge of getting all the Cedula's and Passports and all that good stuff. It's nice to be cold again! I've been wearing a jacket and it feels kinda weird honestly!haha. The food here is super good too! We went to the Hard Rock in Bogotá and I had Mac & Cheese for like the first time in a year! haha.
I also was in the offices when the mission on the fly service came so I got my package hand-delivered to me! Thanks Mom and Dad! My companion Élder Willes is literally in charge of all the packages in the mission so I'll always get my packages Mom! Well that's all from this week! I love and miss you guys! Hope you're all doing well!
Les Extraño mucho!
Élder McBride
Week 55: In Bogota!
Hola familia y amigos!
So this week was pretty weird...I got emergency transferred to Bogotá. I'm currently in a trio with Elder Willes and Elder Miller up here in Cuidad Jardin. Honestly that was like the only thing that happened this week. The mission has really weird weeks like these sometimes, mostly traveling and stuff like that. Even with all the crazy stuff happening I got to talk with the Taxista's about the Church and the Book of Mormon. I got a reference for some missionaries in our mission from a taxi driver that had been listening to the missionaries but had moved. As missionaries and as members we always have the opportunity to share the gospel wherever and whenever! We always need to take advantage of our opportunities to share the gospel with others! I miss you guys I hope you're all doing well!
Elder McBride
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Week54: The Book of Mormon
Hola familia y amigos!
This week was a little weird, not a whole bunch happened. First off Marco,Jacqueline, and Santiago didn't get baptized this Saturday, which was really tough. They were all ready and excited to be baptized but then lots of personal problems happened all at once in their lives and they decided to postpone their baptisms for an undisclosed period of time. It's hard to see them make this decision, but we're going to keep doing what we can to help them.
Secondly, I decided to start reading The Book of Mormon(pero es español) from the beginning and highlight everytime it talks about God and Jesus Christ. I started last Wednesday and I finished it this Wednesday, It was an amazing experience. I love the Book of Mormon! It truely is another testament of Jesus Christ. I can't remember a page where I didn't highlight something or someone taking about our Savior and Redeemer. Like the Bible, The Book of Mormon is sacred scriptures inspired from God. As we read the words and testimonies of the prophets of the ancient Americas and as we pray and ask god if it's true we come to know by the power of the holy ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he is our Savior and Redeemer, and thanks to him we can one day return and live with our father in heaven. We understand more clearly the covenants we make at baptism and understand more clearly the age of when someone is baptized, we learn that the fall of Adam and Eve was a step forward in God's plan of happiness for all of us, we learn that Christ ministered to the people of the ancient america's after his resurrection. Thanks to the Book of Mormon we can know that God called prophets and God still calls prophets, because he called young Joseph Smith to be a prophet, to translate the Book of Mormon and now he's called Russell M. Nelson to be the Prophet on the Earth today.
If you've already read the Book of Mormon before, I urge you to continue reading the Book of Mormon, and If you haven't read the Book of Mormon I invtie you to start reading it, meet with the missionaries, and pray and ask God if it's true. I testify that it is, and it will bless your life and the life of your family like nothing else in this world can. I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to share this message with the people of Colombia. I love and miss you guys!
Elder McBride
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Week 53: Pictures
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| The district ( Elder De Lama, Hna Chavez, Hna Francisco, and me) |
Estrella’s Batism
Week 53: Burned shirt, Baptisms,Floods and bad food
Hola familia y amigos!
This last week was pretty crazy. First we started off with meetings Tuesday, then we went and visited a girl named Estrella. She's 9 years old and she was preparing to get baptized with the other missionaries but they left so we took over teaching her. Most of her family are members and it was cool to get to meet here and her family.
Wednesday I officially hit 1 Year in the mission(which is pretty crazy) The day started off with our house flooding because the washing machine went crazy so we spent a good part of the morning getting all the water out of the house and drying the floor! We had some good lecciones that day and at night we burned one of my shirts and ordered some really bad food, and I felt sick afterwards.
Thursday we had the English class again and had a really good leccion with Ricaute, he's really funny! In the leccion he said "muchas personas dicen que son super-varones pero son super-tontos” which means there's a bunch of people who think they're superman but they're really just super dumb. Then Friday we did some baptismal interviews for Estreally and Marco and got everything ready for their baptisms. The plan was 4 baptisms but on Saturday but we got a call that Marco was really sick, we went over to his house and he almost had to go the hospital. So we only had Estella's baptism, Marco, Santiago, and Jacqueline will be baptized this Saturday! I'm so excited for them! Sunday we went to their house with the bishop and talked about their baptism and how we're going to help Marco get in the font because he has a wheelchair but it's all going to work out great!
Then Monday the zone played Paintball but for undisclosed reasons I didn’t participate but it looked like fun! That's about it from last week, I love and miss you guys! Christ lives, this is his church, and President Russell M. Nelson is a prophet called of God!
Nos vemos!
Elder McBride
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