SAIGEABAMBA, BOLIVIA
What a special end to the most special time in my life
Monday Aug 14 2017
What a special end to the most special time in my life that I will always hold very close to my heart.

Limber was baptized yesterday after church. His grandma, mom and twin nieces came. His mom said, "I can feel a lot of love, I like it here." She told us she wants to start coming and this morning we got to teach her about the Restoration of the church of Jesus Christ.

I got to sing a song that I made up here in the mission called, "Savior for you", for the baptism.
My comp and I have had a good cry and I'm so sad to leave her.

Bolivia will always be my second home.

Love you and See you tomorrow!






Thank you all for the support that you have given me
Monday Aug 7 2017
Although I know that I'm coming home in just a week, It doesn't feel real that everything is coming to an end. I'm sure if president were to call me now to tell me that I need to stay, I would say "NO PROBLEMA!" Haha but it will come to an end, and I'm really excited to see you all and share with each of you my testimony of these beautiful things that I have learned here in Bolivia.

This weekend there have been many bands and parties going on, basically its because they want to celebrate my time here before I leave, so my going away party! How sweet right?
No, I'm just kidding lol, the 6th of August is the National day of Bolivia so everyone has been celebrating by doing bands and having big parties all around.
Hermana Pastillo and I got to eat a traditional Cochabamba plate called Salchi-papa with a great amount of CocaCola and we enjoyed the rest of the day.

This week has been so beautiful. I'll go into more details when I'm home, but Limber is doing fantastic. His birthday was on the 1st of August so my comp and I bought him a little hymn book, a Liahona from this last General Conference, a missionary name tag, and a nice triple of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. He teared up as we gave him his gifts and told us that he would pray right in that moment thanking our Heavenly Father for sending "two angels in the form of missionaries" to his home because we had changed his life. He then bowed his head for a little. My comp and I looked at each other with tears filling our eyes! He told us that this was the best gift that he has ever received in his whole life and that he will never forget us for that reason.
His mom was smiling so big. Earlier this week she had let us in on her life story and her broken heart because of the death of her husband 16 years ago.
We also gave her a nice Bible that she had been in search of since then.

I'll tell you these stories in person. So I won't spoil it for you now ;)

I appreciate each of you for intently reading my emails. I hope that in this time that I have been given, to grow spiritually and have more opened eyes to a world full of problems with one amazing solution being the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that you as well have been able to feel the spirit and confirmations of this beautiful work.

This week as I contemplated on all of the things I have learned and as I could recognize my feelings, I thought I would share with you what has gone through my mind.
Coming to an end in the mission field is really only about to start in a new field of harder situations and more learning experiences. I'm so thankful that for the rest of my life, from all of the things that I have come to truly know with my whole heart and not only my head in this time, that I will be able to know why I have to go through certain trials that will come my way. Thanks to the Book of Mormon, I will always be able to have a stable guide to bring me through any tribulation that I will pass through. And with this confident and peaceful feeling that I feel as I come to the end of my mission, I will be able to have this same confidence and peace as I endure to the very end! Im thankful for my better understanding of the armor of God that we are to build stronger each day as the wars outside grow more furious.

I invite each of you to the same party that Christ has invited us to. That of Faith in Him, Repentance thanks to his suffering and everlasting Atonement, baptism, Constantly inviting the Holy Spirit and being worthy of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end, with me! That we can endure so well that we can be like Moroni in the last chapter of the Book of Mormon..

Moroni 10:

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

34 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen.

Thank you all for the support that you have given me. I love you and I'll see you in a week!!!


A whole day with us
Monday Jul 31 2017
This week was full of miracles and laughing our heads off at all the little things!

I loved this week for the happiness that my comp and I had and I'm so thankful that I get to enjoy Bolivia to its fullest in my last little time.
It's such a special experience for me!

We have an amazing investigator named Limber. He turns 16 tomorrow(1st of August) we met him knocking on his door, he let us in and we shared the first message with him and it went great, in the second lesson, we invited him to baptism and he accepted. He will be baptized my last weekend here.
He wants to go on a mission so we let him have a whole day with us. We studied early in the morning in the chapel and then we headed out to contact and do visits. We were basically rejected the whole day!
He asked us, "how is it that you're both so happy even though so many people reject you or lie to you in your faces?"
It's a very good question. How is it that some people are so happy even through hard times while others are miserable?
And it all comes down to really understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I remember in the beginning of the mission for me, it hurt when people didn't want to listen or when they yelled at us or just flat out lied to our faces. Even though I still wish that everyone would listen and give this life changing message a chance, I have to choose to be happy in every moment. Because if I let outside influences always effect me, I'll never be myself nor happy!

I know that this Gospel is true and has many promised and unknown blessings that only will come from living in accordance with each teaching.
I invite each of you to study the sacred scriptures and find what the Gospel means to each of you personally.

Have a great week! Xx


His dog had literally brought us to his home
Monday Jul 24 2017
What a beautiful week!

A couple days ago after lunch, my comp and I left where we were and walked past a guy who was holding the hands of two little boys with very familiar faces to the both of us. My comp and I looked at each other and it hit me that those two little boys were the kids of Erica, the lady that we sat with in the park as she cried and opened up to us, a few weeks ago. We continued walking so that we could get to our appointment on time. While walking we had to walk past Erica's house. We have never been able to visit her inside her house but we somewhat knew which house was hers. We kept walking and I felt really strongly that we needed to call to just see how she was doing and to set an appointment. My comp agreed, we called, and she answered. She cried and she told us that she had recently just fainted and that something had just happened and that she wanted to tell us all about it the next day. We told her that we felt we needed to call her for some reason and that we would help her with anything right then. We insisted that we come over to help her but she insisted that we talk the next day.
The next day comes and she was still feeling sick so we didn't get to meet with her.
Even though she insisted that we don't come over to help, I have a confidence in the spirit. I know that its trust in us only comes through the practice of constantly trying to do as the Lord would have us do. I know that the Lord knew that we would do our part and be more than willing to follow through with these promptings. Even if we couldn't physically help Erica in this hard moment she is going through, at least she can always know that we as representatives of Jesus Christ are here to help in any moment and any way possible.

A different day, my comp and I were planning in the morning to go visit a lady that we had contacted weeks ago that never ended up being home each time we visited. So that meant that after lunch, we would need to make a change in direction from the street that we normally would walk down from where we eat to get back into our area. As we walked there was a group of older ladies and two young woman, around 18 years old. The two young ladies looked at me and smiled back as I smiled to them. We were walking a bit faster and I decided to contact them immediately haha it was funny how quickly we stopped. As my comp was talking to the older ladies one of the younger ladies, Diana, looked at me and she said, "I know you." I looked at her very unfamiliar face (normally I remember faces well) and said, "you do? how?" she said, "you probably don't remember, but when you were entering your home late at night, I was outside of your house and you gave me a piece of pizza. Thank you for that." I then remembered... The funny thing is, I was so hungry and planned to eat this whole pizza myself, but I remember I walked in the door and thought, "caring is sharing" and turned around and offered her a slice, walked back in and felt happy.
I would have never known in that same moment that more than a month later I would be thanked for that "super delicious" small slice of pizza and would be recognized for that act of kindness. She said that she would love for us to visit her and teach her. We are planning to go back this week. And maybe this time we will share a whole pizza! Haha.

I invite you each to share with others. Even if it be little. It makes a difference and it surely does not go unnoticed as I have learned this week.

Lastly, Saturday my comp and I were contacting around 6pm. A big black dog did many circles around us and ran ahead, waited for us, did another circle as we caught up to him and then would follow us where we went. This dog would not let us touch him haha it was so weird cause he wanted to play. We walked a long time with this dog, and tried to visit investigators and none of them were home (there was a huge party going on in this sector, probably for that reason no one was in their homes).
I had mentioned to my comp that I thought the dog wanted to show us where to go but my comp thought I was crazy and so we kept on going lol. The whole time I just wanted to see where the dog would take us lol.
Finally, after an hour I said to my comp, "I think we need to be humble and let the dog show us where to go." She agreed and I told the dog, "show us where you want us to go." The big black dog started jumping haha he got so happy and started to run and would look back at us to see if we were still there and following lol. We told him to wait when he was about to turn. He waited, we caught up, and he started off again. Finally, we made it to the street he took us to. On this street, I remembered a few people we had talked to before lived around there and thought maybe to see if they are the "chosen ones of this dog" haha they weren't there. This dog went across the street onto the different block and there were 6 scary dogs that were fighting him. These 6 scary dogs are the reasons why I never had wanted to contact the doors on that street. But I felt that we needed to go closer to help the dog.
My comp didn't want to cause they were going crazy but I felt that we really needed to. We walked over and the dogs all calmed down and left.
The big black dog did a circle around us as he started to cry and ran to this random door and scratched it. We knocked a good 15 minutes until a guy named Hugo(28) came to the door. We explained that we had been sent to his home to teach him a message. (lol his dog sent us) He told us that some missionaries had visited him months ago and that he had been praying the same way they taught him since. He told us, "Today would have been perfect had you come just a bit earlier. I know that its not a coincidence that you have been brought here. There is always a reason why. I would love to learn more, I have many questions."
Hugo works in electrical things and has seen the death of many close friends due to his job. He told us that he had wondered what would happen if he died and where would he go or what would he even be.
We talked about the plan of salvation in the short time that he had and he said we could come next week to teach him, his wife, and his little 4 year old daughter. He offered a prayer and thanked God for sending us to his home to help him in his needs.
I too, know that it is not coincidence that his dog had literally brought us to his home. And that God is so aware of each and every one of our needs. (The dogs name is Oso).
The spirit works in many ways and we should never doubt a good thought that wouldn't do any harm if the goal will always be to help.

I know that God loves each of us. And for that reason, He guides us to help others that might not feel His love just yet, to feel it.

Love you all. Have a great week! Think positive!


Can you please keep praying and pray for more of my family
Monday Jul 17 2017
picture: My comp and I were looking for a house that we street contacted and she said, "is it the blue door?" I told her no, but if you feel like it is, lets look for the blue door right after this one. So we went and it ended up being a bunch of sweet kids, we sang "how great thou art" and all the kids came around us while we sang to their grandma and right after they all clapped and giggled it was so cute so I had to take a picture!

I'm pretty sure that last week I forgot to write about the other one of the two special people that we met in the street.

Her name is Mery Romero. She is 72 years old and while my comp and I were waiting at the door of one of our investigators, she randomly started to slow down until she stopped right in front of us and just looked at us. We looked at each other like, "do you know her?" and so we started to talk to her. So she basically she contacted us. After a good little chat, we asked her about her beliefs in God and if she goes to church. She told us that she doesn't believe that God exists. We asked her if we could visit, she said no but after talking a little bit more she accepted a visit. We set an appointment and she wasn't there, haha.

On thursday, almost all of our appointments fell through. It was about 7pm and my comp thought that we should go to visit Mery again. So we went, we knocked, she answered and let us in. She told us she had hardly any time to chat but that we could come in for a little. We ended up going into a room that had 3 chairs and nothing else. We each sat and things went a lot faster and to the point than they normally would. But I felt the spirit prompt me to do so by saying, "When we talked in the street last week, you mentioned to us that you don't believe that God exists, why is that?"
She opened up to us as she told us about her very sad life story and the many deaths in her family. She cried a lot and told us this story for about 40 minutes. We intently listened and I was praying so hard the whole entire time to know what I needed to say to help her feel happiness. Its understandable that believing that God doesn't exist after going through something so hard feels better. We constantly hear that God is so loving and she just didn't understand how people could say that as she has gone through what she had while being a good person.

I felt the prompting to sing but no song came to mind. I opened up my little hymn book as my comp spoke to her and prayed so that I could find the right hymn to help her. I started from page 1 and then found, "Come, Come, Ye Saints". We sang it to her. While singing and reading the words that I didn't really know from that song, I felt the spirit confirm to me that I had chosen the right song to help her. She smiled and thanked us for the song.

I asked her if we could kneel in prayer she said that it would be okay. I offered the prayer. It was long and I don't remember everything that I said, but in such an empty room, I remember feeling that it was so full. I ended the prayer and she said, "thank you, but can you please keep praying and pray for more of my family?" I agreed and started to pray again the same feeling came and I know that she felt it too.

We got up and sat again, there was a moment of silence and then she looked up at us and said very humbly, "If everything that I have gone through has happened to you, what would you do? What do I need to change?" I didn't know what scripture to share but I felt that I needed to share a scripture so I opened up and Mosiah 14 was the one! I shared with her verses 3-9 which says,

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of my people was he stricken.

9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no evil, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

I told her, "As much as we would try to put ourselves in your shoes, Christ is the only one who understands what you have gone through and only He will be able to help you in your trials. Pray to Him, He will answer you through your faith in Him."

The spirit was very strong and she committed to pray everyday the same way that we had done together. We're hoping that she will come to church as well.

This week had many sweet miracles. I know that God loves us, and that He is always there for us. I know that we need to go through our trials to grow and to prove to our Father in Heaven that we can live with Him for all eternity. I love this work.


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Hermana Geertsen

Called to serve in the Bolivia Cochabamba Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Feb 2016 - Aug 2017
Email Saige