Hey Mom, this is Mason, I got here...

Mason emailed us 7 mini recordings of him speaking on his voice recorder.  Which of course we loved hearing!  But wasn't sure how to post them on the blog.  So here is the transcription: 

"Hey Mom, this is Mason, I got here in Barranquilla by plane.  My first companion is Elder Cavero  he’s from Peru, super cool. 

Here in Barranquilla, the driving is crazy.  Everyone drives all over the street where ever they want.  My favorite thing is called motocarts.  They are like little go carts that have  3 wheels, you just jump in like little tiny taxis.  They drive all over no matter what.  So It’s like, everyone drives how I wish I could drive on the roads. And It’s awesome.  They drive up and down the street. They pass people in 5 lanes, on a 2 lane road.

My mission president is President Searle.  He’s super cool, really nice.  We had one interview downtown in Barrangquilla.  My first area is in: associadad dos min uno

It’s a very poor area.  Everything is concrete houses, and dirt roads.  It’s really different.

The ward has some problems. The ward has NO home teaching.  The teachers don’t really know how to do their job.  We have 150 people in our ward.  But a lot of people don’t show up.  The home teachers never do their job.  There is a lot of inactivity.

We have done a lot of teaching.  People are willing to accept the gospel and are fine about being taught.  Pretty much everyone says yes to you on the street.  The biggest problem is keeping people active in the church.  

One point this mission had over 600 baptisms a month, several years ago.  But it’s now down to 50.  We don’t know where all the people are.  Keeping people in the church is the main focus of missionary work here.

Ok so we got here by plane.  We went to Barranquilla.  I had about 9 missionaries coming with me. They are all from Eqcuador or Venezula.  We went right to the mission home for about five hours.  Then I got picked up by my companion Elder Cavero. We went out to my apartment which is all brick, and all the windows are always barred, and everything is locked in with big huge padlocks.  That’s how everyone lives here.  That’s how all the houses are here. 

Sorry Mom, today we only had about 30 minutes to write.  Because my companion and I were getting crunched with time stuff today.  I’m having a hard time sending all these recordings.  I am trying to cram everything in.  But I don’t know how much I’ll get in.  So …yeah.

Love you Mom, love you Dad.  Spencer and Brinley, thanks for the emails.  Braden, I’m glad you had fun at AFY.  That was one of my favorite times."