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!

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!!!

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

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!

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.

picture: We got to the house of this little boy every sunday after church and all yesterday he was saying "Hurtsen" to say Geertsen haha ALLL DAY and his parents were like wow, you're the first missionary that he doesn't just say hermana to, he remembers your name! hahahah he is so cute

He lives, my kind, wise heavenly friend.
He lives and loves me to the end.
(I know that my Redeemer lives-hymn)

I love the beginning of the 3rd verse to "I Know that my Redeemer lives".
Jesus Christ is the ultimate best friend.
It came to mind this week that as I'm here to share a message, there are many people that I have come to meet that haven't been able to find that kind, wise and heavenly friend that loves them til the end, in Jesus Christ. For what ever thing they have passed. I felt that if they can't find their friend in him, they can at least find that in me because I am here to represent him. I have felt more peace in working this way in this special time.

Everyone needs a friend that will just listen, that will be there for them, and that will be wise enough to help them to always stay on track in Gods eyes.

We went to Leonoras house on Wednesday to make cookies with her, we knocked and she had been waiting for us. She had everything set up to get started it was the sweetest thing. We made cookies and talked with her. She was so thankful that we spent that short time with her that she would usually spend alone. She told us that the next day in the morning she had to go visit her mom and sister in a different place of Bolivia called Oruro to help them out. That will be for 4 months. So I also got to say my goodbyes. I'm thankful to have met her and have been able to help her feel like she has some faithful friends in us.

We also came across two other special daughters of God that were walking in our path. The first one is names Erica, my comp stopped her as she walked by with her two little sons and we asked if we could share a message with her. She agreed and we walked to the park, she had told us that just barely she had been trying to come closer to God so that she could be forgiven and learn to forgive. We sat on a bench in the park as her little sons went to go play and she started to cry and told us all about her life and what has been going on in these past 5 years. We will visit her and her family this week. She was so thankful that we didn't just walk past her and that we could be an answer to her prayers. She told us that we were the first people she has been able to trust to tell everything to.

I got to feel a glimpse of how Christ might feel when we pray openly to our Father in his name. What a true friend he is. And by living the Gospel, we can also become like him so that people can have that best friend in us that will just listen and take care of them.

We also received a reference from a member in a different ward, Richard. The references name is Jorge. Jorge is 24 and before the discussion he had told us that how he feels about the church helps him know that he wants to be a part of it.
As we shared with him the first discussion about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we talked about the family and it turns out that he feels like his family isn't really a family and never had been. I asked him if one day he wants to have a wife and kids of his own and he said, "yes." I felt so happy as I was able to help him to realize that he doesn't need to focus on what he has had in his family but to think of what he can do for his own family one day. The Gospel of Jesus Christ helps the family to be strong with love and wisdom in each problem. He felt that everything was true before we asked him to pray about these things we had shared. And he accepted to be baptized in the beginning of August. He offered his first prayer ever given out loud and in the name of Jesus Christ. It was very simple, yet he cried and thanked us for helping him to understand such beautiful things.

This week was special. Also we have a new mission president and his wife, President and sister Montoya. They are amazing and have so much love and such a strong spirit.
We had their first conference along with my last. It was very powerful and it just made me really want to extend my mission haha.

Have a great week!

What a special 4 day week to be honest!

I'm trying to keep my emails from now on a little shorter so I don't tell you all the stories I want to tell you in person haha.

There are so many beautiful miracles in each day. Im feeling so good and so happy! WOOO!

Yesterday, my comp and I had an appointment right after lunch. We got to her house and we knocked on the door and as we waited, an older woman walked past us with a heavy bag of things, she smiled at us. We smiled back and then I just felt we needed to talk to her! So we stopped her to give her a card with the picture of Christ. Her name is Leonora, we asked her about her beliefs and out of no where she started to cry as she opened up to us and told us about her life story and how her husband of many years recently left her and her son (25 years old) a year ago. She told us how she is alone here in Cochabamba and that her family is living in a different city that is very far away and how she feels alone but that she knows God is always looking out for her. She said, "Look He sent me you two, angels, in my way to tell these things to that I have never told even my friend that I work with."
I picked up her bags and said, "We are always here for you, lets go." And it turns out that she lived right there, next door to our investigator. But Leonora, the lady we were talking with let us in her home and we got to spend that special time with her as we sang to her, "Nearer My God to Thee" and she cried and told us about how alone she is and how her whole life has changed and that she wants to get back on track and not feel so alone. We told her that we are her daughters here in Cochabamba. We are going to visit her this week to teach her how to make cookies! She was so excited and we left on the note of a 3 person hug.

It turns out that our investigator wasn't even at home at that time. And even though God knew that, He knew we needed to be there at that perfect time to walk past her and to make that contact so that God could remind her of His love in her lonely moment.

God works in marvelous ways! And Even towards the end of my mission I stand all amazed! Seriously. I love my calling as a missionary.

I love you all so much and I hope that this week is really special for each of you to help others around you, even those very people that give you the first glance smile, more love. BECAUSE EVERYONE NEEDS MORE LOVE SMILING OR NOT!

This week has been a rough one. Not a lot of progress with the people and no one wanted our help with anything! But hoping for a better week to come!

My comp is so sweet and so much fun it feels like were opening the area together since I didn't really learn my way around in that short time while I had my cast on!
We talked to many new people that we hope to visit this coming week so that'll be exciting!

Last night, something that I felt and really needed to feel was after we as missionaries sang, "A Childs Prayer", was an overwhelming feeling of peace, calmness and confidence in my knowledge that I really am a child of God. A literal Celestial being with a never ending love. I felt so happy that while listening to the given talks I couldn't help but smile cause my Father is a God and even though I have gone through tough times and trials that I myself wouldn't choose to go through, He loves me so much and wouldn't even give me anything to just cut me down, but to allow me to grow so much.

I suggest that you all listen to, "A Childs Prayer". :)

I know God loves us. I know we all have a purpose to be here on the earth and spread with others our happiness even if its just by helping others to know the simple knowledge that we are all loved children of a loving Heavenly Father,

I love you all. Have a great week!

We received our new transfer and Im so sad that Hermana Vargas leaves cause I wanted her to "kill" me. But, Im so excited to start my last transfer with a sister also from Ecuador, Hermana Pastillo!

I feel so good. So thankful for my time as a missionary and Im feeling so calm and pumped about everything to come! This is such a special area with many special people.

Yerco was baptized and it was so beautiful. His spirit is so strong and he was so excited. I know for sure that he really was ready for that special day and that God loves him so much.

This week I studied about how faith can affect miracles. My whole study was so beautiful and I was filled with motivation to leave right then and just work. After our studies we left to go meet up with a guy named David who also has a little 4 yr. old son named David that we met last week in the park and my comp and I swang for a few minutes to rest my foot, they accepted the visit. We got to his house and he wasnt there, I looked at my comp and said, then lets start on the house that was on the other side of the street from Davids house. So we knocked and looking outside the window was an older man, I looked at him with a big smile as I waved him to come down. I could feel the literal feeling of faith in my heart that he would actually come down and that something good would come of this contact.
Very quickly he (Onofre) and his wife(Leonor) invited us in, gave us fruit and we got to give them the beautiful message of the Restoration which I love with all my heart. She being an Evangelist had many unanswered questions that we were able to help her with and her husband is just starting to go to church with her.
It went so great that they accepted another visit. Ill keep you updated on them!

We left and visited an investigator, Miriam(50), that lives on the same street we sat for 5 min. cause she didn't have much time and we set another appointment and then we left. As we left their neighborhood, walking to his house was David with his little David! He thought we were going to come over at 3 in the afternoon! We didn't have a set appointment for that hour so it worked out perfectly, we came back and we also taught him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and wanted to keep knowing more! We will visit him this coming week! WOO!

Finally, we visited Miriam the next day, she had received the first and second discussion a few weeks ago. We planned to teach her the third discussion. However, she told us, "I want to know more about the Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith." I asked her if she sincerely wanted to know that she would allow her heart to be opened to any feeling and answer that she would receive as we read the first section from the Joseph Smith History in the Pearl of Great Price. She said that she sincerely wanted to know and that she would. I offered the prayer to start, I could just feel the spirit enter in with us. I know that it could be with us thanks to her sincere desire to know the answer.

We read to her because she cant read that well she has bad eyes. And the spirit was SO STRONG! She told us after we read that she knew it was true and marvelous. That Joseph Smith really saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and that if this was true, that this is the only true church on the earth.

We invited her to be baptized and she said that she wants to keep learning and maybe with time. Then, she shared with us about a time when she had surgery she had a dream that she was on one side of a little river that was horizontal to her, that there was a VERY tiny little bridge and on the other side was a huge gorgeous green land with a bright light. She said, she heard a voice tell her, "its not time yet, go back, and then she woke up.
The scripture from 2 Nephi 31:18 came to my mind so we shared it with her.

The spirit really was so strong, simple, and perfect. I love that as we start each discussion with an opening prayer and sometimes even a hymn, that we can literally call on heavenly guidance. I know that God always has work to be worked on. That He is eagerly waiting for each of us to get on our feet and do His will so that His work can move forward. I love our Heavenly Father so much.

GUESS WHAT!

I got my cast off!!! Now I don't have to do my happy dance with my crutches haha!
I'm kidding I still have to use them for like 2 weeks I don't know why cause Im walking just fine with a little limp but its okay cause theres always music playing in the streets so I kinda just make it look like Im super into the music.

Also, another elder this week on monday, Elder Uriarte, whilst playing soccer broke his foot a lot worse than I did. He had to get surgery and he has to go home now. Satan is out to get us!

Yerco is doing fantastic! He is so ready for his baptism. He also says the funniest things!
This week we taught him about the Law of Chastity and he agreed with it all. He then asked about it being something bad if he was Mormon but fell in love with a Catholic if it would be okay, and we explained to him that obviously it would be okay but that there are some consequences. We talked about how in the Temple a marriage isn't just between the man and the woman but also that they include God in their relationship.
If the two of them have that same goal then there will be more peace and harmony in the house and family and for their children.
And he said, "that makes sense, cause a Lamb and a pig can't get married cause one will be like, oh lets go eat lettuce and the other will be like no, lets go eat garbage!" HAHAHA his comments sometimes are the funniest!

Yesterday, Sunday, was such a beautiful day. I just felt good in general. In Sunday school our class was based on Repentance. Im so thankful for repentance. More importantly for the Atonement of Jesus Christ because with out His hard suffering, there would be absolutely no reason to repent. Jesus is the way. He is where all hope comes from. I feel so happy to have the beautiful blessing of knowing why its so important to repent but also to really understand and continue learning about the Atonement of Christ. He's the best!

My invitation to you all is that you can search and study enough about the life of Christ to find out what His invitation is and that you can know exactly how to act upon receiving this invitation so that you can receive more fully His personal blessings for you.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Jaihuayco is amazing!

My comp is awesome too! She is so motivating and loves working! The ward is amazing! Im feeling really good.

The week started out a little rough and I was a bit down to be honest about not being able to work how I normally would, but changing areas and everything has helped me to really recognize the blessings that God has waiting for us that He is eagerly waiting to give!

To start.. On the first day, we had a great lesson with an investigator named Elmer Romero. He is 27 years old and is a carpenter. we answered a lot of questions that he had had from the lesson about the Restoration and when we explained to him the importance of the Priesthood being restored he finally accepted a baptismal date for the 24th of June. He started to get really excited to read the Book of Mormon and pray and the lesson was so awesome!
I instantly had so much love in my heart for the people in this area.

later on this week, we visited another guy named Yerco Omonte he is 41 years old and LOVES that we teach him. He has lots of faith and knows so much! He had mentioned that out of all the people in the world, we are the most spiritual. Haha so cute.

He has an addiction to smoking but wants to stop so that he can be baptized on the 10th of June. As we thought about something we could do to help him, I remembered something so sweet that Amberleigh did in her prayer room/closet. She had a lantern and a bottle of oil sitting on a little tall table. I remember her telling me that she would put a drop of oil in her lantern to show that she was filling up her lantern and preparing herself.

I thought, "what a great idea!" so we told him about the story of the 10 virgins from the bible and we brought him a little jar and a thing of oil and we added a plastic water bottle with a money slot haha. We told him that every time he had the temptation to smoke, that he would put 1 boliviano(money) and then he would put a drop of oil in his jar so that he could physically see that he is preparing himself to be baptized! He was so excited to start!

I'll get my cast off this week, IM SO EXCITED!

This transfer is one of 3 weeks because of the change of mission presidents and then we have one of 9 weeks. Were pretty sure that my comp will leave me in like 2 weeks and IM SO SAD!

But whatever God wants :) God is the best. I love Him, I know He loves each of us. That He has a perfect plan for us and that everything in this plan has its purpose!

A sister here told me, "no es, por qué?" es "para que"
That is to say, "its not, why?" its, "for what"....

Its true! Cause there is a reason! Love you all, have a great week!

We got transfers this week, I'm going to an area called Jaihuayco! Its about 20 minutes from where I am and completely different from any other area that Ive had so Im excited to see how it goes!

Ill be with Hermana Vargas, she's from Ecuador. I saw her just 3 months ago when she started her mission cause the newbies would come stay at our house the first day. So she's just getting out of her training, I love a pumped up missionary!

The cast didn't come off, infact it wont for another couple weeks... Lets see! I just wanna work!

Do you remember Vivan? She was going to be baptized a couple months ago and then we don't know what really happened... She texted to tell us, "Thank you" for everything that we taught her. That she will never forget that we taught her to pray and all the beautiful things. It made me so happy.

And finally we got to visit her just the other day to at least say goodbye cause I knew I was going to leave. We invited her to a mothers day dinner and so shell be there! Woo!

We will have 2 baptisms this weekend, I'm so happy cause Carlos and Jesus are progressing really well and both have great desires and faith.

Who made up a happy dance? ;)

I hope you all have a great week! Love you!

This week was another week resting but I got to get out a bit more so that made me really happy!

We had a baptism for Johnny Condori, he is 17 and we have been teaching him lately. He was really happy to make this decision. The pictures don't really show it but, he was haha!

So one morning, I woke up and just studied a good 4 chapters in Alma which were really beautiful chapters! Then I got a little frustrated about not being able to leave cause I really just want to get out and talk to people!
I decided I would read in Preach my Gospel under the section about Patience and Hope. I studied the scriptures and stuff and I just remember realizing I need to be more patient!
Its hard that I know my purpose as a missionary is to get out and talk to as many people as I can and teach everyone who will listen about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, yet I have to stay in bed!
But I had a comforting thought come to my mind, "if you get frustrated about little things like being in bed for a month(could be worse) how do you expect to be worthy in the presence of God.

Frustration isn't a peaceful feeling if anything its a form of anger. So the thought made sense.

I learned that Christ-like attributes are for us to become worthy to be in His presence one day. And that a frustrated person wouldn't be worthy of that.
I felt more peace to just think, "well, its my trial, I gotta take it how it comes and learn what God wants me to learn, and this thing might be more patience!

Haha

I love you all!

So many things happened this week!

We had 4 baptisms!

Just kidding, Ive been in bed all day everyday haha I broke my fibula! I'm sure you all already know cause my mom has been so worried! Even I worried more about my mom being worried than I worried about myself!

So what happened?

Last week on Monday in the morning, before I wrote home, we played soccer as a zone.
To be honest I was really enjoying it until I made a weak step and heard a huge snap and tried to get up and realized that I didn't just roll it but something really actually hurt so I was like, "Someone help me" (I was kind of laughing so I don't think that they really took me seriously until I got serious haha) Only one elder knew what to do and so he helped put it back into place and then I walked on it for a bit and probably really shouldn't have done that but later on I went to the clinic and I now have a cast for 4 weeks, now only 3 weeks!

I'm doing great though!

One of the funny things that happened this week was when my comp and I were in our room (I basically didn't ever leave) and because I was hurt, my comp was on the duty of killing all the bugs or moths... So I'm laying on my bed and she's running around the whole room screaming and trying to kill this giant flying bug it came by my head and so I threw my blankets over me (The best I could do in this situation) and she just says, "You really don't wanna know where it is right now" then she said with a big relief, "Okay, you can come out" and she told me that it was on my foot (the one with the cast) I think I almost wet myself laughing so hard, I was so helpless!

Im feeling good and with good spirits. I can't wait to get out and work!

Love you all and hope that you all have a great week!

My new comp is so cool and its so fun we speak straight up spanglish but we are meeting so many new people and have found more families to teach!

Do you ever literally "Stand all amazed" at the love that Jesus has for you?
Cause I do!

There are so many times that in our lives we will pass the feeling of being alone, not good enough, frustrated, etc. But I can testify that God, if we allow Him to be, will be in every single moment like this. I know that He loves when we call for Him to join us in our problems. In fact, at times I really feel that He gives us our hard times to really more powerfully call upon Him. I also know that when we do our part to call upon Him, that He will send us our angels to walk with us and to give us that heavenly hug that every human being really is in need of. Whether they admit it or not.
We as humans cannot live without love and thats something that I love about Christ cause someone that can feel no love from anyone can surely feel it from Christ. It's so unconditional.

I hope that "Prayer" is a daily priority for each of you. This week I have been contemplating a lot about Prayer and what it has been for me in my life. I remember that when I was about 8 years old, possibly younger, I prayed every night that I wouldn't forget to say my prayers. I repeated the same prayer every night. However, since then I can promise you that I have been reminded every single night, to the point that I realized I can't end my day without ending it with a short or long conversation with my Heavenly Father.
I have come to learn that He absolutely LOVES it!

I invite all of you to make this a priority and if needed, to pray each night to never forget to remember Him.
He will bless you and you will feel it cause your mind will naturally start to recognize the spiritual kinds of stuff. Its the best!

If you would like to, you can even go listen to, "Did you think to Pray?" the LDS church hymn. I've been singing it lots this week haha.

We also have been teaching a family. La familia Camacho, their son, Enrique has a baptismal date for the 6th of May. He is doing really well and the past two weeks as been coming to church with his little sister who also has the same baptismal date.
Last night we had a family night with their mom and two little 7 year old twin sisters. Their dad lives in the states. The moms name is Karen and after we finished teaching the Plan of Salvation to the family she really liked it and felt that it answered so many questions that she has had. I felt the spirit so strong and my comp and I testified to her of this pure plan that God has for us and we committed her to pray about being baptized and she accepted and told us that she will come to church on Sunday!

Things are going great for me personally and in the area.

My comp, Hermana Campana is from Parris California and she's so fun! We get along so well and I just really know that God knows us all so perfectly!

Love you all! Have a great week! And don't forget to pray ;)

pictured: Here are some mariachis and I :)

This week was a normal week with some little special blessings (love those)

So I was on an intercambio with a one of the sisters who is in Villa Moscú (where I started my mission) her name is Hermana Howell she is from Las Honduras and sings like an angel!

We contacted so many people this day, its a harder area because the people are usually on vacation but we talked to every person we saw. One of my favorite things that happened that day was when we were walking and out of the blue just stopped to contact a guy sitting in his car outside of his house about to drive away and he told us that his son was studying to be a missionary like us and trying to make sure that it was our church and not of another he ended up calling his son so his son came out and was like, "hey sisters!" and came down to talk and we set an appointment with his dad to visit this coming week (I won't be there) and when his dad left the son had explained to us that he just sent his papers for the mission in, and then he said, "Thank you for being the answer to my prayers to teach my dad".

What a special little miracle!

Also, with hermana Jordan, we did a talent show and sang, "Love is an Open Door" from Frozen, I basically wet myself laughing and it was so funny, I'm going to try to send a video!

Were meeting a lot of new people and families to teach, so that makes me super pumped!

We had cambios this week, so Hermana Chambi will be going to a different area and Hermana Campana from California will come here to Cala Cala with me!

Love you all so much, have a great week!

Picture: cholita selling cocaine on the streets.

This week has been another week filled with small and big miracles. I love it so much!

More than anything, I love that our Heavenly Father knows our hearts and wants to bless us, obviously depending on the state of where our heart is at.

President and Hermana Hansen invited us and two other companionships in our Zone to have a family home evening with investigators and so we invited a new family that we just started to teach. I met Rosario (mom) while I was with a different sister, here in my area. We contacted her and invited them to go to church the following week, (last week) and she ended up bringing her daughter and granddaughter, Andrea and Samantha. So we invited them for the FHE but they told us that they couldn't cause they had something for Samantha(8 years old) at her school. So we visited them the day of the FHE and Andrea ended up asking more about the FHE and what it is and told us to convince Rosario to come so that they could all go. So haha we did ;)

So we were going to pick them up at 6:40 to be on time for the FHE at 7 and when we got there in a taxi the husband of Rosario, Edwin, pulled out their garage in his car ready to "drop us off".

We pull up to Presidents house and he is just waiting for us to all get out, I said to him, "hey you're not going to come?" and he told me, "no, I have things to do." So I told him, "but you're the father of the family you should just come to spend a little time with them." He insisted that he had other things to do. Then here comes the voice of the marvelous spirit, "Just 15 minutes and then you can leave with no problem." He parked the car and we walked in the house with the whole family.

Guess who stayed the whole time, and made a special comment about what he loved about how he felt, EDWIN!

I love the spirit so much. Its so bold, yet so subtle. He laughed as I told him at the end of the hour and a half, "how did you like the 15 minutes?"

He asked us to never stop visiting them until we leave from this area.

This was probably one of my favorite things that happened this week. I'm feeling so thankful and more than anything, I love to follow the spirit even if it's just a small comment, it can really create a big outcome.

Something I absolutely loved from conference was from Elder Rasband he said that the spirit often comes in a feeling from familiar words.

If it feels good and even familiar, just do it!

Love you all, have a great week!

This was one of the most beautiful weeks I've had.

I'll start with the funny parts...

So we found another scorpion but it was dead so we kinda just left it on the floor and as we were doing our studies, our house owners cat came in and totally ate the dead scorpion it was so funny. So my comp loves to do these "Happiness is..." and after that she said, in english, "Happiness is seeing a cat eat a dead scorpion." I died laughing!

Also, so here in this area, there is a garbage truck that drives around, and you know its outside when you can hear a song blasting. You hand the garbage truck workers you garbage bags, and they put them in... So we heard it as we were studying. We had to hurry and put together all the garbage in one big bag and we left and so as we were walking down it totally started to drive away and you bet, I ran after the truck hahha I probably ran a good block with this garbage bag in my hands yelling for the truck to stop. The music is still loudly playing and my comp stayed back laughing her head off, (I was literally sprinting in a dress) I almost got hit by a car.. but they stopped. but at least I got to do my extra exercise for the day!

So now more spiritual stuff... Last monday right after writing, as my comp and I and Hermana Jordan and her comp were all walking, we walked passed a main street where a little boy had been hit by a motorcycle and was lying on the ground and couldn't move his legs, many people were surrounding him. The first thing that came to my mind was, hey the priesthood, this kid needs a blessing. Then our comps kept walking (I was walking with H Jordan) Then we kept talking about how we could help him but we totally kept walking and then it hit me so hard, "You don't know what you could change for this family by just sharing the idea of helping" So we stopped our comps and turned around, it was a big group so the three of them stayed back as I went into the group and knelt down by the little boy and his older brother and in front of everyone introduced myself as a representative of Jesus Christ and how we believe that the Priesthood power of God has been restored and how with this special power men of the church can give blessings of health and asked if he would be okay if we visited them later. He said yes, and gave me his information. We called later and set an appointment but he ended up not being able to. But as far as I know, the little boy is better.

There was such a special confidence in offering this idea and everyone knew that I was a personal representative of Jesus Christ himself. I felt so much happiness. I don't know what will happen, but I'm so happy that I'm not regretting that I didn't offer, at least.

Another day, as we had a day of contacting and knocking in a neighborhood for many hours, we finally left to go to an appointment at 7, as we walked, I said a personal prayer letting God know that I was happy with all of these many contacts but that if we were to stop for anyone special that He knows he could trust in me and that I would. So just about 10 minutes later as we were walking up a hill I noticed a young woman walking down the street holding her baby, I immediately thought, "hey, the Plan of Salvation, and we could ask her where she thinks her baby was just a year ago." So you bet we stopped her, I suddenly felt a need of hers but didn't know exactly how to address her about it so that I could know what it was. But she told us we could visit her and after telling us where she lives, I asked for another street and then looked up at her as a big tear drop fell down her face and I felt the impression that something was going on with the father of her baby and a little more, and so I asked her if she would like to sit down and she said "Yes" and so we sat on the curb and let her cry it all out. She told us why she was upset. The spirit had helped me to know what had happened. She accepted a visit and we said a prayer with her and she left.

The Lord loves His children so much. He is aware of YOUR needs. He knows them. I testify of that.

I have more amazing stories from this week but very little time. I can't wait to share them all with you!

Love you all so much. But after this week I know that God loves you even more and that He is so in tune with every little thing you're passing.
Let Him in.
Come unto Him.
Let His love surround you, cause when it does..
It feels SO GOOD!!!

This week has been a really beautiful week. I love learning and studying about Christ. He just makes me so happy.

So this week I got to go to a different area in a place called Villa Moderna with a sister named hermana Camacho, she's from Ecuador and so sweet, we ate chuño and I actually really liked it hahah and then I got to dress like a cholita (I love them) and I held a chicken. WOO

We have met some really great people this week. We also found that family that Hermana Jordan and I ran after. They were so excited that we came and let us in right then. We didn't have too much time but my comp and I got to know them a bit more and got to share with them about the love that God has for each of them. They all have been reading the pamphlet that we gave them and they really are a cute family so lets see what happens this week! We plan on meeting with them again.

We also got to meet a father that lives in the same house lot thing and we gave him our card. His name is Mario, and just yesterday he called us to see if we could come visit him and his daughter and we taught them the beginning of the Restoration but turns out that he is actually really broken inside because of his divorce and how it all happened. I immediately felt so much love for him and for his sweet daughter. We shared our testimonies about the Book of Mormon and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I'm really so thankful for my understanding of the Atonement. Though it may not be a perfect understanding, I have a lot of faith in it. I know that through it and only through it I can actually feel the change that God has waiting for me.

A scripture that I have been really loving this week is in Mosiah 3 verses 7-9 and 19.

The suffering of Christ is literally for each and every single one of us even us who are completely subject to following the natural man, who is an enemy to God.

Everything about the Gospel of Jesus Christ really makes me so happy. I'm so thankful and I invite all of you to study His Gospel and His Atonement. After all, it applies to each of us!

There is not one heart in the world that doesn't have the ability to be healed by the Atonement of Christ.

I love you all!

So pretty much this morning I found a scorpion in my suitcase as I was looking for something and I was a bit thrown back. But, my comp and I put it in a cup and on our table in the middle of the room. We named is Sariah Saige. (our names) hahahahahahhaha seriously I don't know what the heck it was doing in my suitcase. They say that where there is one, there is another, and we have yet to find the other.

So Jorge couldn't be baptized this week because he had way to many things going on but we talked to him and we changed the date to the 25th of March.

A couple of my favorite contacts this week were:

So I was with a different sister for one day, her name is Hermana Jordan from Orem, Utah! She is so awesome. So were just contacting a bunch and all the contacts were great, but then we saw a family and we were like, "RUN" and so we ran and it was the cutest family. and they were so happy to receive us. We're gunna try to visit them this week!

Another, my comp and I were walking in the street to go find a house and we walked past this young girl and really fast we just ran over to her and she openly talked to us and we asked if we could pick her up to go to church the next day (Sunday) and she was like yeah! and so we tried to call her before we went and text but she didn't respond but we still went and we easily found her apartment in the complex and she walked out all ready to go! Her name is Elian Espinoza and turns out that her cousin lives in Utah going to BYU. We're also going to visit her this week and she is excited to come again to church on Sunday!

Another... So about 3 weeks ago with another sister name Hermana Maclachlan, we were contacting and we found a woman named Esther Flores and we have tried to find her many times but she hasn't been there but finally we went this week but this time before knocking, we both said a silent prayer and I just felt like my faith personally was so strong that she really would be there. and GUESS WHAT! She was, and she remembered us and let us in and we ended up teaching her and her husband all of the Restoration discussion and they loved it, were going to come back this week to meet with them. Im so happy! Where she lives, they also do corn tortillas (they're hard to find here) and I was so happy cause she gave me a bag filled when I told her I love them. THEYRE DELICIOUS!!!

God loves you all, I do too. Prayer does lots of beautiful things and I'm feeling really thankful for this Gospel!

Have a great week!

Pictured. The little boys name is Jezer, he is so cute! Hes 9 yrs old and Im teaching him english its sad cause his dad drinks a lot and hits him and his brother... its really sad!

This week as I was pondering a lot about the Lords will and how its so hard for us as humans to do it, I started thinking of why it's so hard. The best analogy I thought of was that we are literally addicts to our own ways.
Were addicted to what we like, we get too comfortable, and we just don't wanna step out of our Zone.
And like any addict that is trying to make a change, its not easy.
It takes strength, a plan, and desire.

But when we cross that bridge from our own road to the road that our Heavenly Father wants us to be on, it takes a little getting used to, but we learn that its the best fitted road for us. And that is literally FILLED with blessings.

Heavenly Father knows each of us so perfectly that His will, will never be something we wont benefit from.

The only way that we can start to want to do His will is through obedience. Obedience to His word to His commandments. To only do the things that wont offend the spirit, and to try and endure.

This week as we visited with Vivian, we talked to her about the Book of Mormon and she was so happy to read it and she immediately said, "I know its true". Man, I love talking about this book! Seriously, it makes me so happy! She then had told us that she had talked to her dad about everything that we had been teaching her and he told her that he wants to be baptized as well, we were so happy and told her that he will be able to but that we will need to visit with him so that he can receive a testimony of the teachings. We will visit him this coming Tuesday! Im so excited to meet with him!

We visited her again on Sunday cause she didn't go to church (our fault... She thought we were gunna pick her up #woops next sunday though) and she had told us that she told her dad that he could be baptized as well and he was really happy, like SO HAPPY! Because he had been to almost every church in the city and even had gone to different towns, but that no one would baptize him because he was too old and for whatever other reason and he was so sad cause he wanted to be baptized cause he never had been before.
We felt so much peace telling her that the Church of God will never reject, not one of His children that want to come unto Him. She was so happy to hear that.
Vivian had a lot of questions of just a lot of little random things but I just felt so much happiness and excitement about being a part of the true church of Jesus Christ.
She is progressing really great and Im so excited to continue to see more!

I know that I am teaching truth and that God loves us all. And that we are put in every specific road that we need to be in to meet who knows who and to really help this world make a little more sense and get together.

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

pictured: A woman holding her pet chicken lol I'm pretty sure shell eat it soon

So last week as we were contacting in the street we walked passed a young mom pushing her stroller walking along side her dad and as we passed my comp and I both turned around and we were like, "should we go?" and debating and then ended up running after her hahah (why do I even debate these things still? haven't I learned? lol) and as we talked to them and explained who we are and what our purpose is, the mom, Vivian, accepted a visit in her home for this week.
So we visited her and we taught her all about the Restoration and about Joseph Smith and this woman has a lot of faith! She believed in everything we taught her and the spirit was really sweet and present.

Later this week we visited her again and taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she accepted a baptismal date for the 25 of February. She was really eager to move forward and follow Christ.

I love how the spirit can push us as much as we need to, to find and rescue our brothers and sisters.
We could have totally just passed her and kept moving forward but we both new that we needed to talk to her, thanks to the spirit. She is more than anything ready to take these steps more fully in her life!
Im really excited to see what happens for her and to keep working with her.

Right now were in a moment of finding more people to teach but this area is great and has lots of potential I think!

I love you all have a great week!

Well my birthday went great! The airplane had problems so after we settled down they told us all to get off hahah so pretty much we were in the airport for like 4 hours! But it was enjoyable! And my comp welcomed me with a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY balloon!

So this week has really been so beautiful! I have felt the spirit so strong. The people are so fantastic and ready to hear the gospel and make changes. Our ward is really solid and Im just feeling really pumped to keep doing the will of the Lord. Its the most rewarding thing ever!

We have some great improving investigators that have baptismal dates for the 4th of February. One is a 13 year old girl named Nikole Rocha and she is so sweet, we gave her a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and when we went back she had read like 3 chapters but was scared that she hasn't received a powerful answer that she should be baptized and we talked about all the feelings that she has been feeling while we teach her and while she reads and it was like THE SPIRIT haha and she then realized that she had felt her answer and she's really preparing for her baptism!
We also have another investigator that is in a part member family, her name is Pamela Villarroel and she is great! She has a little girl and she has fantastic questions, the tricky ones that I love hehe, but we really helped her with her doubts and questions and she is preparing also for the 4th of February. I love seeing what the Lord does for the people with these beautiful teachings.

Im so thankful for the spirit that we can feel if we strive for it. Its the best guide we could ever have.

My companion is way cool, she's from La Paz, Bolivia and we have learned so fast how to work together.

This is a great life, even with all the messy and crazy stuff, theres always something that we can be thankful for!

Have a great week!

Yesterday we received our new transfers, I'll be going back to Cochabamba right next to where I was! My comps name is Hermana Chambi, I'll be leaving Sucre tomorrow morning. Its been hard to say goodbye but at the same time, these transfers are good and I know that the Lord will be by my side the whole time. He never leaves it all up to just us! I'll let you know more about my comp the next week cause I'll actually know her! But I'm really excited and full of many emotions! :)

I probably couldn't have had a better last week here in Sucre! It was such a beautiful week and full of many sweet little special moments.

Willma and María José (mom and daughter of Hadda) both got baptized and confirmed as members this weekend. The baptism was so beautiful and the spirit was so strong. Something I love about this work that takes a bunch of pressure off my shoulders is that Ive really learned that missionary work only works if the people have been prepared, and God really works his miracles and prepares people exactly how they need to be. I just gotta do my part! I'm so happy for them!
We had two investigators there that both told us that they felt something really special and that they wanted to be baptized too, that made me so happy to hear!

So something that made me really happy this week was when we were walking to find a house of a referral, I saw a little boy sitting on the street selling potatoes for his mom. I have this little talent that I learned here in the mission, I can talk to birds and they respond its like the identical sound, so we walked over and I told him that I was talking to them and that he could as well so I showed him how to do the whistle and he tried it and, he´ll get there ;) but he giggled it was so sweet then I put my hands in my bag and "pulled" out a little bird in my fist, and told him to touch the little bird that was in my hands (my wiggling finger haha) so he did and then I grabbed his hand haha and he just laughed it was so adorable, I told him that whenever he feels lonely to just talk to the birds cause they always respond and he smiled, then we gave him a Restoration pamphlet and as he passed through the pictures he stopped on the picture of Joseph Smiths first vision and said that he likes it how God and Jesus Christ are both talking to the little boy.
We were shocked that he knew who the two angels were! He told us he remembers them from when he went to church a long time ago.
I learned more this week why its so important to teach young children special little things while they are young, its because they stick, and because they make us feel calm.

Another thing that happened this week was with a young girl named Claudia who we contacted one night in the street on our way home. We visited her and it all went really well. She asked us if we would visit her more! Then she went with us to church and stayed the whole 3 hours and told us she loved it and she wanted us to visit her again later in the day (Sunday) so we went and read with her 3 Nephi 11 and asked her what she thought and she shared with us how important it is for her that she follows and believes in Christ.
She told us why... When she was a little girl, she broke her heal bone and made a promise to God that when she grew up that she would serve him the rest of her life if he helped her to walk normal again. God kept his promise 100% to her and she is walking perfect now. She told us that she wants to be baptized soon so we set a date for her for the 4th of February, I wont be here, but I told her to call me for it! :) Life with faith is such a beautiful thing.

Many things have happened this week and Im so thankful for the sweet blessings that we literally can feel if we just put our own heart into the will of God. Do it!!!
Love you all.
have a great week!

pictured: Me and one of the daughters from the penshion, Kelsi

Happy New Year to everyone!

This year has flown by so fast but I'm so thankful for every trial and hard thing I went through, I have literally learned so much about the endless grace and mercy of our loving Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ.

Christ has not only been a belief that I've had, but a real friend, brother, shoulder, person, for me. I have been able to turn to him in my hardest and weakest moments and like the promise in Ether 12:27, as we come unto Him, He will make our weaknesses strengths. I've seen it work, and I'm pretty sure I'll see it work for the rest of my life.
I'm so thankful for Jesus Christ.

I hope that you all have great new years goals that at least include one of the following:
-Saying morning prayers (everyone forgets the morning prayers)
-Read the Book of Mormon
-Come unto Christ.

I love the Book of Mormon so much. I finished reading it just a week ago and I promise every single one of you that if you have the true desire to read this book with a prayer in your heart, that you will come to understand truly who is Jesus the Christ. You will come to have your very own personal, special and sacred relationship with Him and you will always be able to lean on Him in your heaviest and hardest moments.

This week was a lot harder to teach people as there have been a bunch of parties and only drunks in the street to talk to here are a couple of short conversations that have happened yesterday:

"Hi, can we give you a pamphlet?"
"No mamita, I'm drunk"

Other guy,

"How was your New Years Eve?"
"Horrible"
"Oh no! Why?"
"cause everyone was drunk!"
"were you as well?" (you could easily smell it)
"Yes!" (he laughed though so that was good)

Other guy,

Us just walking down the street and him dramatically shaking his head looking at me and then closing his eyes and then WAY dramatically saying, "You are my queen, you are great" and then he repeated it like 3 times and I just said, "thanks" and I laughed so hard cause I have never been so flattered! hahah no really it was just funny!

So as we were walking in the street yesterday and almost no one was in the street, we noticed a older man sitting on the street and then the song from Carrie Underwood "Change" came into my head (it's beautiful) and so I thought, that we should just go and sit next to him and ask him his name and about who he is and it turns out I had a little conversation with him in Quechua cause he hardly knew Spanish but he was so sweet, his name is Santiago and we just talked to him and showed him the pictures of the pamphlet, "the Restoration" and as we turned to the picture of Joseph Smith and God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ, he pointed to them and was really just admiring the picture and it was a well spent 15 minutes.
My comp and I both walked away with tears in our eyes with the strong feeling that Christ would do the same with him.

I hope you all look for someone once a week every week to just ask them their name and their story and get to know your brothers and sisters here in this world.

I love you all so much and hope you have had a great Christmas and New year!

Happy birthday to my lovely nana!!!

This week went well!

So on Thursday, I was a little sick so I rested for a bit.So I would love to talk about the mercy that God has for all of us.
We finally left the house and my head still hurt really bad but we needed to work so we left and I could only think, "I really don't want to be walking and I just want pizza". That was weird cause Im not the biggest pizza lover haha... So I was talking to my comp and I told her about a pizza place called DeliVery that does delivery pizza and that we should order it haha, she didn't seem to interested but I really was just not feeling good.

So we kept going, and we did our 10 contacts for the day and then as we were walking around on a street to do more contacts, that has like lots of places to eat, I looked over at my comp and said, "hey wanna contact in there?" its a place called "LOFT" and its like a cafeteria and Ive only been there for ice cream haha but we were passing out Christmas pass along cards and trying to talking to the people about serving how Christ served, for this month. So my comp wanted to so as we walked over, we both just started getting really nervous hahah there were a lot of people and some dressed more fancy and had meetings or something, so we started to justify every reason why we shouldn't, like, "they're talking", "they're eating", "they're in business meetings", "maybe they'll all say no". So we almost didn't and then I told my comp, "look what Satan is doing to us, our spirits want to share the message and they have no fear to do so, but our bodies are scared of just other normal humans, lets go!"

So we both took a big breathe and went up and we presented to two owners of the Ice Cream place and the other, a Burger place, our message and asked if it was okay to share with everyone and they were really happy about it and said, "yes!" so we talked to everyone and even a woman that didn't want one, but after explaining what we are doing for these 25 days of Christmas on mormon.org she ended up wanting one haha its really cool to see the change like that in people really fast! Literally everyone wanted one!
Another group was a worker for the pizza place, and we gave her one and then these two other workers in the pizza place asked for one and then they said, "can we make you girls a pizza?" A FREE PIZZA!!!!

And that is the Mercy of God, that even though I just wanted to rest and eat pizza, I did the work and HE gave us a free pizza!

That man amazes me! I love Mormon chapter 9 how its talks so much about miracles and how God is a God of miracles and who ever says that He isn't, doesn't understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hope you all have a fantastic week getting ready for Christmas and all! I love this month!

Love you all!

This week was good!

Remember that one contact in the street of the woman who left her house to be calm? Well, her name is Basilia and we just visited with her yesterday!

It went so well, Im really excited to see how it goes. She took the discussions about 10 years ago and remembered a little bit about Joseph Smith and all that great stuff! So when we went to ask her to pray about Joseph Smith if he was a prophet, she said, "not only that, but I really want to pray about everything that you've all taught me." She also wants to go to church and activities and Im just praying so much that this goes really well for her. She is so great!

We also had the most beautiful Plan of Salvation lesson with Willma (mama de Ada). We asked her if she had any questions about our first discussion and she had a lot of great ones but it was really interesting to see how Satan had affected her right in between the week that we hadn't visited her. She was so sure and crying in the first visit and then she became a little more unsure and it was sad for me to be honest. But we answered all of her questions and personally I was reminded so much of the grace and mercy of God. I almost cried as I testified of that. We left and she was so happy and she said she felt a lot of peace. It really seemed to be the "perfect lesson" haha. i'm also excited to see how she keeps progressing!

Ada on the other hand is doing great! She's ready for her baptism this weekend! Ah Im so happy!

This work makes me really happy and just FELIZ! hahahha

Something sweet that happened from our contacting this week just happened on this Saturday, so we wanted to knock on doors in a neighborhood, so as we went, usually, we knock and wait a bit and if they don't come, knock for the second time and then wait a little and then we go, but this time, we did the 2 and then as we looked at each other like yeah lets go, I was like, wait, no, we gotta knock one more time!

So this old lady comes out and her sweet little 6 yr old comes out too and she was really a little angel. We shared with the old lady the pamphlet of the Restoration and on the front page is a lamb in Christ's hands and so we explained to them both that that little lamb was us and that we will always be in Christ's hands but only as we follow him will we feel his hands, the old lady didn't really give much interest cause she was very catholic and they usually don't give us the time of day, but she gave it to her sweet little Samantha and she just hugged the pamphlet and then as we left, we looked back and the old lady left but little Samantha was staring at us and saying bye and then her grandma looked at us and then said, COME IN! and she looked at us again and mouthed to us "chao" which is "bye". My heart just felt so happy we didn't even know the sweet little girl but she looked at us with familiar eyes and as I looked at my comp I told her, "she looked at us like we were angels!" and my comp said, "I was thinking the exact same thing."
I know that we pass every experience whether they accept us or not, to learn something new. God works in beautiful ways!

Have a great week :)

This week was really sweet and filled with many small miracles and blessings

Contacts of the week,
So, my comp and I had a goal to have 11 contacts for the day and we had finished our 10 (goal of he mission) and I was content and thought, If we didn't get the extra 1, we would be okay. However, while walking on the side walk, ahead was a young man and I told my comp, lets contact him, you start. She didn't hear me cause we just walked passed, it was funny. But then, on the corner was another young man and I said, no, he's the one. So we walked, as he put his arm up for a taxi, so I thought, or not, and the taxi got really close as if to stop and then just swerved and kept going right as we were passing, so I knew for fact we needed to talk to him. So we talked to him. and he said, he never has time, and I said, God never gave you a life that doesn't have a little time for him, theres always time. and he looked me in the eye and he said, you're right. (at this time there were no taxis passing) and I thought, I need to promise him that the next taxi will stop for him because he gave us time. So I told him that as I randomly lifted my arm and the taxi stopped right there. I walked away laughing at how God really follows through with the promises we make as missionaries! And quickly too, Haha!

A different day we had to go to the Stake Center to practice a song for our Stake conference that we had this past weekend. We finished and got in a taxi and I felt like we needed to ask for how long he had been a taxi driver and he said, "Its funny cause Im actually not, Im helping out my friend who just died yesterday, you didn't hear? He fell off the roof of the airport." and we asked him more questions and at the moment he said he doesn't believe in God. He has recently been divorced 2 months ago and his world literally began to fall. He told us many personal things. We explained to him about the Plan of Salvation and how one day he can see his best friend again. My comp had with her the very last pamphlet of all of our Plan of Salvation pamphlets and we gave him it. We told him that we know he might not want to hear it at the moment, but we are always here for him to talk to.
I love to see the hand of God in the little things, like which taxi stops, the last pamphlet for the very specific day after the death of his best friend. There is hope from believing in Christ.

We also had an amazing lesson with Willma, the mom of Ada. She cried starting with the opening prayer. She said, "its all real". She is the kind of person that reminds me of Nephi and Joseph smith, because she was born in a family of goods Christian parents who always taught her to have the faith. It really is so important for us to teach in our families the first and most important step of all, Faith.

This week was really just a sweet week. I love you all so much! Keep the faith and have a good week!

This week was so beautiful!

Here is a sweet little miracle of the week that I just loved so much!

We had visited the 1st counselors wife a couple days ago with our mission leader, in her home and we planned to have a family night for last night. So we left to go to the house and for some reason, we couldn't find the house and we walked back and forth for 30 minutes looking for the house we asked someone if he knew the street and he didn't, so we kept going and then after a few minutes I said to Hna. Cardoza, this means that God wants us to talk to someone, we looked around for another 15 minutes and there was no one really in the streets and then a young women walked towards us and I asked her about the street name and she told us she didn't know, and then as we walked away, I felt that we needed to contact her, so I turned around and asked to give her a folleto and she accepted, it turns out she had visited the church years ago with a friend and was just recently fighting in her home so she left to somehow feel more calm and then she said, "and look who God put in my way, thank you." and she had tears in her eyes and we just testified again of our first comment about the folleto, that God is really a loving Heavenly Father.

I don't have too much time to write, but I really know that God loves and watches out for each one of us.

I don't know how the elections went, but... Ether 12:4. Something I love about the Book of Mormon is that it was so inspired for us in this day. Keep your faith and hopes up high and you'll be able to see the whole world with better eyes.

I love you all so much! Have a great week

I love my hijita(daughter) her name is Hermana Cardoza and She is from Piura Peru and is the sweetest most angelic person in the world, I have felt nothing but pure gratitude! So I took her out for ice cream to talk and get to know each other a little better :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
In Bolivia its just another normal day so thats fun, but when we knock on doors, Ill ask for candy just to make it a good Halloween! Haha

Ada now has a baptismal date for the 19th of November! and last night we had a beautiful family night with her mom and other sister. We talked about their true identity being daughters of a heavenly king, they cried and asked us to teach them what we are teaching Ada and the spirit was just so peaceful and strong and we were just so happy!

Another day of the week we were walking up the hill after lunch at our penshionists house and there is this house that usually has about 7 workers who are men and a woman who lives there, and they always give us cat calls and so I looked at my comp and said, lets go give them a pamphlet and we went and they ALL listened hahahah and we actually have a family night with the woman that lives there and her husband and kids! She told us she is really interested and wants to learn more.
Im really excited to see what happens, Ill let you know next week!

Then, another day, we were contacting in the street on our way to an appointment with Ada and there was a young man named Sebastian and as he was walking into his door we stopped him to give him a pamphlet and share a short message about the Plan of Salvation and he was really interested and we ended up having an appointment with him and turns out he was so confused on what to believe that he started to believe that after death we would just be dust. He told us that his father had died around a year ago and that it hasn't been that easy for him. He said he felt a lot of peace about this message and that it gave him a lot of hope. It was cool to explain to him where his dad is right now.
We will be meeting with him next week after all of his tests in school. Ill let you know more about what happens with him!

Another cool experience that we had with contacting people in the streets was with another young guy outside of his house, his name is Limber and we talked to him about the restoration and yesterday after church, we met with him and taught him all of the discussion and about the book of mormon, and I think I just love talking about the book of mormon cause I don't know why actually, but it just makes me so happy to teach people about that book!

This week really was so beautiful and peaceful and I LOVE MY HIJA!!!!
Have a great week! :)

So it turns out that I've been 8 months pregnant and I'm ready to have a baby girl! I'll meet her this Wednesday! I'm so excited!!! hahaha President called me last night to ask me to be a trainer, I don't know if any of you remember that in the mission our trainers are our "moms" or "dads"... Haha I'm so excited, really nervous and actually quite scared! But I know that If this is what the Lord wants me to do, I can do it, as long as I include Him.

My comp, Hna Fuenzalida is going home to Chile, tomorrow. So she left on Friday from our area. So I've been in a trio with the sisters in the area next to mine. But I was able to go and work in my area with a couple members and it really went so well! We met amazing people. We had great contacts and not everyone just "had to go" cause they were in any hurry, they were actually interested!

So last week, we received a reference from the elders of a young girl named Ada(24) who lives in our area and she called the elders and told them that she passed the church and someone gave her 10 Liahonas and that she had been reading them and she wants to receive the discussions. So a member and I visited her and we taught her all about the Restoration and at the end I asked her if she felt that these things were true, that she would be baptized and she said, "I was just going to ask how I could do that or what do I need to do?". The spirit was so strong, we visited her another time on Sunday and explained about the Book of Mormon, wow I'm just so thankful for that book, I'm obsessed haha! After our lesson yesterday with her, her mom came and told us she has interest and that she thinks that this could be the change that they have been needing in their lives, with the other two younger sisters of Ada.

I really love to see what God does when we have the mindset to just please Him.

It's never too late to be obedient, wanna know why?
Because God has so many tasks for us to do and accomplish and the second we choose to sincerely be obedient, He offers us those tasks. There is much to do, but only those who He trusts will be able to fulfill His work. I really learned so much about obedience this week.

I hope you all have a great week! Ill send you pics with my "hija" (daughter) next week! Wow, time is literally flying! I've almost hit my half mission mark!

Love you all.

There is so much reward in purposely putting your focus on the positive and thinking thoughts centered in Christ.

This week was great! My dad gave me wise advice to just pray and thank God for everything in my life and blessings, and to not end my prayer until I have thanked Him for everything.

So, the first thing I did on Tuesday morning for my personal study, was kneel in prayer, as I left it open and opened my eyes to start writing everything, I felt a strong impression that I needed to write about all of my life, from as early as I can remember, until now. I am so amazed at the many things the spirit helped me to remember that gave me so much comfort as I was feeling a bit frustrated.

Do we actually take the time to recognize our blessings and gifts and most importantly, the love we receive so mercifully from God?
Are we only focusing on the tiny black dot on the pure white wall?
Do we sincerely want to be happy trying to do Gods will and not our own, or are we contently living in our own heads?

I challenge you all to write as many memories you can, starting with a prayer for the help of the Lord as you write. I promise that as you do this, you will be happier, and more sincere with those around you because all you will want to do is bless others, and as you try to bless others, our LOVING Heavenly Father, will bless you.

Alma 1:30
And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons as to those who stood in need.

I love you all so much and know that God does too. Don't forget your purpose, and if you haven't figured out your purpose just yet, you will only find it in Christ, so lose yourself in Him, and He will show it unto you.

something my companion helped me learn, was the thoughts that we are having, who are they coming from?

The answer will be found in the way you feel.
If you feel peace, confidence, happiness, motivation, etc. = God
Or if you feel, angry, anxious, anxiety, frustrations, discouragement, etc. = Satan

Be careful to whose counsel you heed.

We have also been writing down, at least, one miracle every night and it has changed my view from the black dot to the rest of the white wall. Try it!!!

Have a great week!

Photo: It was pouring so hard to my comp took this cool pic, the thunder was like a scary movie it didn't sound real and all the power went out! It was crazy!

This week was alright!

So my companion and I were contacting on a street and we came to this house and knocked and then looked up to a sweet looking old lady in the window asking who we were so we told her, "were missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and would like to give you a pamphlet" and she sweetly smiled and said that she will come.... Her sweet looking old husband opened the door and we told him who we were and asked him his name and personally for him, who God is in his life, and then we gave him the pamphlet, he told us he will go read it in peace but that he is catholic and that he reads the bible and then he put his right hand down make the gesture of a level and told us that we are right there and then threw his left hand up above his head and said, "and Im right up here, so you cant teach me anything." then slammed the door and I just got sick of saying, "its okay!" cause it actually hurts a lot, but maybe he read it in peace and loved it! Im waiting for his call.

Conference was really beautiful wasn't it! It made me want to serve more and love more, and in so doing I will receive the pure joy that Christ can only give us.

I've been trying to put my focus a lot better on Christ so for a couple of my personal studies I've drawn pictures of Christ and written about him and what He was like. It has really helped me to think more of Him, I think writing about Him and drawing makes it stick more in my head! So maybe if you need more help to focus on him think of his life here on earth and maybe even draw a picture.

I have wondered how many drops of blood He dropped for me specifically in the Garden of Gethsemane, then realized, it was perfectly just as many as He knew I needed.

I love you all and I hope that you all have a great week!

For Women's conference me and the sisters in our zone went to dinner before and it was so fun we just laughed so hard!

Conference was so amazing and when Uchtdorf got up, I literally felt like what I fasted for that whole day, was answered. I felt that he had literally thought about me and exactly how I needed to be talked to.

So all of Saturday I was fasting and we have never been offered so much FREE food before that was so good, well looked good! haha I was so tempted but knew that what I wanted in return for fasting was so much better and worth the wait and hunger pains haha!

So we were walking to meet up with our mission leader, we were already a little late but as we walked past a street that we had contacted about 6 weeks ago, I thought about a young lady that told us to come a different day (they all say that lol) and that we needed to go pass by. So we went and she let us in, she was actually so happy to see us and we talked and I told her about the impression that I had to go and visit her and we taught her to pray and in the prayer she thanked God for sending us to her in the difficult time of her life.
I find it so fascinating the way God works!

I wish it was easier to fast and to be able to do it more often cause seriously, the mission is like, enhanced while doing so hahah!

If you haven't ever fasted or even just haven't done it in a while, I challenge you to try it with an opening prayer of something you might want, and if its the will of God, He will allow it. Focus on what makes you happy and how you can be happier!

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

This week has been really good.

We have the most faithful investigator, that never leaves our sides! We named him bobby. He waits for us while we are eating in the penshion then follows us to our appointments and waits for us til we leave.
If only we could do baptisms for dogs! LOL.

Danitza was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was so beautiful, her friend came. The spirit was so sweet. She bore a beautiful testimony and I just felt my purpose here as a missionary, again. God does good things!


There was even a dog that came and joined us in the sacrament meeting haha, #onlyinBolivia.

Were still trying to find more people that want to hear about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which isn't too easy, but were trying!

Yesterday, the 18th, was the patriotic day of Chile and because I basically know more about Chile #4chileancomps, we celebrated by making empanás... Which were so good!!!
Then we went to a far away, hidden part of our area, and theres horses and cows and happy dogs and little homes and cute things! and we went to talk with investigators and menos activos but they weren't there. But it was so sweet to see that part of the area, its quiet and I don't know, I just loved being there! Cool to see the difference in our normal part of the area with tons of taxis and people hurrying around, to go to a land of peace! haha

Then, we went to Eugenia Canchis (investigator) house, she's a Cholita, Cholitas are women that work sooo hard! They will hold on their backs a bag filled with something, triple their size! They work so hard from like 5am til late at night. I really am amazed at how hard they work! Soooo, she let me dress like a Cholita and it was way fun haha! I told her that when she is baptized Ill dress like a cholita and we can do divisions (I'll go with her and my comp goes with different member) she was excited! Lets see what happens! :)

This week was good! I love you all, be yourselves, its important! Have a great week!

I know that God lives, and I know that he is not unaware of us. I know that He likes to answer our prayers, but sometimes we need to suffer just a little bit longer till we can feel the big difference.

I haven't really had the best week ever this past week. Things have been a bit harder and I haven't felt so much love and peace of mind, kind of like I don't have a purpose here.

I've been praying a lot to just feel it and haven't felt so much of answers to my prayers either!

Yesterday, before church, I had a really specific prayer of something I wanted answered and then we went to church, I started to feel a bit more peace in my heart but still a little troubled. Then, we had a lesson with Danitza, and we were talking about the commandments and specifically about the commandment to pray, Danitza specifically answered my prayer, word for word, I truly was amazed in a calm way. By the way Danitza is doing really good, she´ll be baptized soon!

Then, at the end of the day, for whatever reason, I still had this continued feeling of unsureness and unconfident in myself. With many, many, I mean like 6 billion prayers in a day, finally, just today, just 10 minutes ago, this random kind of odd guy came and sat by me, asked me if I was from Spain (I get that a lot here haha) and then I said no and that I'm from the US he started talking about all the things that he thinks are way better in the US yet he hasn't even been, and I felt bad that he didn't see the light in his own country, so I then asked him to tell me 10 things that he does like about Bolivia and it actually helped me even to see the light about this place. I've really just been having a hard time, but its part of the mission. Whatever missionary ever told you that everyday on their mission is so amazing and happy, they lied.

There will be hard days in this time, especially cause I'm trying to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, the life of Christ never was easy, why should I ever think that all my days should be happy bliss!

Anyways, he started to ask me a ton of questions, that really made me think harder about where I am in my thoughts and I just testified to him of the things I knew, and I myself was strengthened.

Hang in there, this life isn't easy. Nor will it ever, be especially being a member of the church of Jesus Christ.
There shall arise false prophets who will deceive even the elect who have died spiritually.
p.s.
He just came over to tell me: "you are beautiful" in his broken english, and then he asked me what it means. so I told him it means "You're a pig" hahahahahahah love languages I should probably tell him it doesn't really mean that haha

Have a good week I love you all so much!

Happy Birthday to dad yesterday! You're so old! whooop!

Haha not really, but I hope you got to skate with your buds and Uncle Dave :)

Many things have happened this week and Ive learned so much.

Danitza is doing so amazing. She is so strong and is ready for baptism, we've almost taught her all of the lessons and more! She's made a best friend in the church too! Her name is Dayana they're both studying to be lawyers and Danitza just found a house in the same apartment complex. She's literally trying to change her whole life. I don't know how many times I say it, but I really do love what God does to and for people.

I've been thinking a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The whole reason why we as humans can actually be happy and improve in our intelligences.

Christ died so that every person that came before him and that would come after him, will resurrect. I've been reading a lot in Alma lately. Alma and Amulek are such a strong companionship and I love how strong their faith is. They prophesied of the coming of Christ. I could imagine that it would be so hard for the people to just believe. However, they were prophesying of the things that God had revealed to them. And they sincerely knew of these things by the power of the Holy Ghost.

When Christ bled through each pore in the Garden of Gethsemane, I know that he felt every temptation, pain, sorrow, and affliction that each and every single one of us would feel. So that in our lives, sometimes lonely, lives, we can always know that there is someone that actually knows exactly how we feel. And when we come to him in our sadness, his arms are wide open and embracing us. To give us the firm knowledge that we are never actually alone, and that there is a tomorrow that is ready for a change, a change further towards our Father in Heaven. And when we feel the heavy feeling of guilt and we come to Christ in our sinless state, He will take that weight off and replace it with a calm happiness, and refresh our state of being.

I know that God has a plan for us, and the most essential part of His plan was that Christ would come to redeem us and to take away our sins so that we can progress and live again with our Dad, our Father, our King, and His beloved son, Jesus Christ.

I love you all. Have a good week and don't forget to count your blessings and improve yourself in this short opportunity of time, that we call life, that you have chosen.

BLESSINGS!

I hit my 6 month mark! Time is really going by fast.

I don't really know where to start because so many things have happened this week.

We have been praying a lot lately to know exactly how we should be as missionaries to have success in opening this area. Its not all that easy to open an area. So there is a saying, "Obedience brings blessing, Exact obedience brings miracles." So guess what we did! We worked on the things that we could do a lot better to be exactly obedient.

So, theres this thing called "Mundito" which is like "Mini World" and after lunch we thought about where exactly we should go and what we should do. And Satan gave us a small idea but we shunned him. Lol. So we went to contact by the mundito. To a mom and her daughter, The moms name is Tomasa. We talked for about 15 minutes and then she invited us to go to her house right then to talk more because she has had so many questions and just never felt like she could trust anyone. So we went to her house and taught her about The Restoration and prayer and the Book of Mormon and we gave her one and she was so happy that we came, and now we have another appointment with her on Tuesday.

Then, (I will say because we shunned Satan, God gave us those miracles) later that night, we went to the church cause every Thursday night, in the chapel, we have a lesson for investigators and play games or sports. So we got there and had our lesson planned, and while we were waiting for people to come in, this young girl Danitza Savedra(19) from Santa Cruz, came in and we went to find the room that we were going to have our class and we ended up just talking to her. She told us she came Monday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday night just to find us. She broke down crying to us saying that she wants to change her whole life and find peace and calmness and hasn't been able to find it in any other church. She knew the church from years ago from a friend but now that she has been hurting, memories of the the church came to her. She shared with us her beautiful repentant heart. It made me cry. We have been visiting her a lot and she will be baptized on the 10th of September. I have never met someone so ready and prepared for this step. She even went and bought a skirt that was long enough for church and just watching the young single adults of the ward just take her in like she was theirs made my heart so full. I haven't been able to think about anything else than, "Just look what God does, He is a God of miracles." And I'm sure he loves to give us these blessings and miracles. Im so excited for her.

Yesterday, we had a lesson with a family that had been taking lessons from the missionaries since January. We haven't been able to meet with them until now. So when we got in their house, we had with us our Mission leader Evelio and his wife Marcela, and the mom had her friends from school there to do a project. There was a really weird feeling and neither my comp and I nor Evelio and his wife, knew what to talk about. We shared a scripture and asked them questions. The mom was almost making fun of us in the way she was looking over at her friends and then responding and I started to actually get offended, in a way that I probably would have just walked away had I been at my house. But I was in a lesson. I prayed to know how to help cause it was like a hopeless moment that we were trying to share. Then all of the sudden in a moment of silence, I just said, "The things that we talk about are not things of man. They're things of God. We are here to testify of the words of God so that you can have stronger relationship with God cause He´s not just God, He´s our father. When we invite you to pray and read His word, its so that you can feel His love for you in your lives." I really don't know how I said all that, I saw all their heads turn to me and it got so quiet and I had never felt such a high immediately from the spirit. Like I don't even know how I was able to process these words. But it was way cool to feel that and to fight for the truth and not just take mans embarrassment of the word of God.

I love this work. Its really special and brings many blessings and a lot of happiness and the best part about it, is that you don't even need a missionary tag to fight for this truth.

Have a great week, God loves you all! :)

"Teach the children and it won't be necessary to chastise man."

Funny story for the week, #notsofunny

We were walking and we found a drunk guy laying on the street so we wanted to give him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet we wrote him a little note that said that God loves him. Heres some pictures of that event. #Godlovesyou #wantstotalktoyou #butcantwhenyouredrunk

This week was great!
Nelson moved but he was so thankful that he had the Book of Mormon to bring with him, he said he's going to read it and then he will be back in December and let us know how he feels about everything. He called us right before he left to just say, "thank you so much for everything you taught me, Im really going to read this book."

He's a good guy and Im happy that he can go with his Book of Mormon. I seriously love the Book of Mormon! Its so good!

There is a part member family in our ward, La familia Canchi. Their son Roger(20) is preparing to serve a mission, his two siblings are members but his parents aren't, so we have been teaching them!

Last night, we had a family night with them and they had lots of questions about the priesthood and what it is and every explanation was more and more confusing. I had a experience come to mind that could help them to better understand the role of the priesthood and what it does.

Before my mission, I remember I felt really heavy and no ordinary prayer could help me. My dad didn't know why I had felt this way, and I didn't know either how to put into words to tell him why I felt this way, all I knew was that I needed to ask my dad for a priesthood blessing (the ability to act in the name of God to help guide his children) after the blessing I received I remember feeling a little more comfort but still the heavy feeling. I asked my dad what he thought I should do and he told me that I needed to go to my room and just pray and talk with Heavenly Father.

I remember falling to my knees and for a long time just talking to Heavenly Father as if he were in my room just to listen to me. I no longer felt that heavy feeling. I felt like a feather so light and completely forgiven.

I know the priesthood is truly the power of God. And that it has been restored through Joseph Smith and that we can feel comfort and love through this power.

They understood really well, well, I think they did haha cause they were nodding... But they said it was more clear of what it actually is. And they are a lot more motivated as parents for their son to go on a mission and they want to learn more about the church! Woo! I love this family!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

This week has been so good!

I love my new area. Were not having too many lessons with investigators cause were basically starting from the beginning in the area. However, I'm learning so much.

Each of us who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ, I hope you know that even if you don't have a specific "calling" in your ward, that you still do have a calling. Its to be a disciple of Jesus Christ at all times. You can call upon the angels from above to accompany you in your service to others and in so doing, you will change lives like even Jesus Christ did.

God loves us so much. He wants to not only be there for us, but He wants to know about the small details in our lives. I promise you that as you pray, if you sincerely tell Him exactly how you feel and how you love this or don't like this and just cant have anymore of that, and you sincerely want Him to be there to help, He will be. He will never let you down. He will get right into the details of your life and I promise you that you will see them.

I know His plan for us isn't for us to just do alone. Its to do with His guiding hand and spirit. Because Satan has a plan to, and its working, and its powerful and its only to destroy. Where as God will only reward and give us the feeling of love and peace that He knows we, as humans, need to feel at least every now and then to keep us going.

This morning, I read in Alma 5.

I was so hit and felt like for the first time, I actually understood the message. In this chapter, it is about Alma who is talking about the importance of repentance and why and then later he tells them that he shares all the things with a spirit of invitation. God respects our agency. But only through following Jesus Christ can we actually feel real happiness.

I learned a lot from this great chapter. I hope to be the missionary like Alma, that is able to make the point clear, but lovingly invites everyone.

I hope all you disciples can feel the spirit of invitation this week and share your love and knowledge will others around you who might want to feel the love of God in their lives more frequently.

We are teaching a young man named Nelson Guerra Cortez. We contacted him one day in the street and it turns out he has been working on the house of the bishop and has been talking a little bit with them. We have visited him 2 times now and in the beginning, he had told us that he has his own beliefs cause he doesn't think it is necessary to be a part of a religion as long as he follows Jesus Christ. Turns out he actually had very similar personal thoughts and beliefs to the Gospel and what we teach. He is so pumped to read the Book of Mormon. He was supposed to move to Santa Cruz yesterday but turns out he won't be able to anymore and I know its a sign hehe :)

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

We received our transfers last night, My comp is going to train, Im so happy for her, she is going to be great! I got transferred to open an area in Mesa Verde in Sucre with Sister Fuenzalida, I bet you'll never guess where she's from! SANTIAGO, CHILE too! All of my comps are from there :) Im really so excited, she is so awesome, we leave tomorrow!

This week has been really good! I've actually had a cold so thats a bummer. But I've had this desire to just teach more than ever. I've wanted to talk to everyone and I just love these people!

Elizabeth is doing really good and growing a lot. Im sad to leave this area because of all the people that I have met. But I know that it will be a good transfer.

I don't know if you remember Ana Belmonte, however, her dad past away this week and she sent us a text to tell us and that she is so thankful for her knowledge of the Plan of Salvation because of the peace and hope it brought to her. The Plan of Salvation isnt just any ordinary plan, it literally is a plan of God because He loves us so much.

I know that God knows all of us so specifically. I know that He knows the desires of our hearts and that as we follow the commands and example of Jesus Christ, that we will want, what He wants for us, for ourselves. He wants the best, it just takes our own desire to be humble that we will find that. Im so thankful for Christ's example that he has set for us and his pure love for us. I know that we need to have struggles so that we may to know to prize the good. I really love God so much! I hope you all have a great week, and that you can do something to help you feel the love of God in your lives. Know that it wont always be easy, but that it will be worth it.

Love you all.

This week has been really good! "Tranquila no más" which is like calm haha

We have had great lessons with Elizabeth. When we taught her about our purpose as we are on the earth, we realized we needed to teach it in a more simple way to understand. I just started praying cause sometimes you can't just tell someone something and they understand! So then this thought came to my mind, "act it out" hahahahahahahahha.

So I told my comp that we needed to act out this life and so each step I acted out while my comp sat by her telling her a story:

Faith in Jesus Christ, so that I can Repent knowing that he will help us, and Baptism to make covenants with God and to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ and only through baptism can we Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and with that, we can Endure to the End.

It was actually really funny, but she really understood it, and thanks to Heavenly Father for answering our prayers so quickly.

Later, we had a lesson with a lady and her 5 year old daughter, we wanted to teach them something that they can both learn something from, and the young girl likes princesses so my comp shared the story about Ester in the Bible, how she loves her people so much and wants the best for them and she was a loved princess!

It came to mind, that all of us are princesses and prince´s, because our Father in Heaven, is a king. It was just a sweet thought that I thought I would share with you all!

He loves each and every one of us so much, He wants the best for us and to help us grow, and only He knows how we can grow the best.

Love you all, have a great week!

Mosiah 18

8. And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9. Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

10. Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?


I love these scriptures. Wednesday morning, I was thinking a lot about them and how this is our baptismal covenant that we make. I later, read a part of an email that my friend sent me. It has a quote that says,
"you were in the war in heaven and one day when you are in the spirit world you will be enthralled with those who you associated with. You will ask someone in which time. They lived in, and you might hear, I was with Moses when he parted the Red Sea, or I helped build the pyramids, or I fought with Captain Moroni. And while you are standing there in amazement someone will turn to you and ask, "which prophet time did you live in?" And when you say President Hinckley or President Monson a hush will fall in every hall and Corredor in heaven, and all in attendance will bow at your presence. You were held back 6000 years, because you were the most talented, most obedient, most courageous, and most righteous. Remember who you are!"

I was thinking a lot about this and how it can apply to missionary work. When we shared in our companionship study, as I was talking, I learned that we are here to believe in the people so much that they believe in themselves and believe that they are strong enough to do this. I felt the spirit so strong. And I, myself was pumped to go through the hard times.

Then we left and we had an appointment, we got to the house, and he wasn't answering. At this moment, we were just like, "What should we do, where should we go?" but nothing felt right. Then, in that moment, we got a call from a random number.

It was Elizabeth Marquez. (When I was with my first comp. we visited her but then she didn't want us to visit anymore about 2 months ago. And about 3 weeks ago my new comp and I were walking past her house and I just told my comp that we needed to stop by and just see how she is doing and not teach her anything, just so she knows that we are her friends and she can trust us...) so were talking and she said, "can you please come to my house and see me?" and my comp said, "yeah, are you okay?" and she just said, "just please come." so my comp looked at me and said something is really wrong, we need to go. So we both started running up this hill (me thinking cause were missionaries, that we would have some special energy, and I was out of breathe real quick hahaha.) we weren't fast enough and so we took a taxi to her house.

We got there, she let us in, we all just sat on the floor in a circle and it turns out that she told us she didn't want to live anymore. That she wasn't happy. That she was thinking a lot about her mom and how she died. We asked her why she called us and she said, "cause I felt alone." I was trying to think, (how am I going to say anything that will help her, in spanish...) But I testify, thats in moments like this, when you open your mouth, the spirit takes way and speaks from your mind the language that needs to be spoken. I thought of something my sister, Amberleigh, sent me a few weeks ago, she said, "If you ever feel alone remember that Christ had a moment when Heavenly Father himself had to pull way so Christ knew what it felt like to be completely alone."
I felt that I should share that with her so I did. We talked to her more and it started out that she felt bad, and didn't want to live. and then when we shared the scripture from Mosiah 18, we asked her how she felt and she said, "Alright". Then my comp suggested that we sing, cause that helps us. So we sang a song that we had been practicing that morning for a conference, "conmigo quédate Señor, and acompañame" mixed and after a moment of silence, we asked her how she felt and she said, "Peace and calm, better." And I knew that she had felt this way cause of her countenance. It was so beautiful and in my eyes, light.

Later that night, we went with her and Juan Carlos to an activity at the church and Juanca showed me the green CTR ring that someone gave him, I had already bought him a CTR ring and so he looked at Elizabeth and gave it to her and told her what it meant. And she has been wearing it ever since. I was smiling so big my face hurt and I just wanted to cry. The spirit is so amazing!

She has a date to be baptized for the 31 of July! We have been visiting her a lot, and she has been really happy!

I hope you all have a great week! Remember who you are and your abilities! You were put on this earth, at this time, with a whole lot of purpose! Love you all!

How can we live the Gospel?
In other words, How can we live the teachings of Jesus Christ?

This week, I realized how we can live the Gospel completely in just one step.

Now, There are 5 steps for all of us to take en this life. So that one day we can live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, again.

These 5 steps are:

-Faith
-Repentance
-Baptism
-Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost
-Enduring to the End

now, how can we live all of these things in just one step?

I have the answer...

Participate in taking the sacrament.

How?

We need to have FAITH. Faith in Jesus Christ that he can accompany us in our decision to REPENT. By taking the sacrament, we remember our covenants that we make with our Heavenly Father, such as baptism. In so doing, we are promised that we will have his spirit to always be with us. To be our guide. With the Spirit, we have the help of the Lord in our lives to help us endure to the end.

It really is a blessing that we have to take the sacrament each week.

Jacob 4:13 says

13. Behold, my brethren, he that prophesieth, let him prophesy to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls. But behold, we are not witnesses alone in these things; for God also spake them unto prophets of old.

We are going to have many experiences whether we would like it or not, throughout the week. And only through the Holy Spirit we can learn exactly what God wants us to learn. Or be aware of the things that God wants to protect us from.

I know we have this opportunity each week to partake of the sacrament, to be a symbol of God saying, he never mind last week, you do better this week. Give it your all, cause you can, Ill be there with you!"

Romans 8

31. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Time for a story....

So this week, my comp and I were contacting just knocking on doors. We came to a door, and my comp was like, "what a creepy house." and I was like, "yeah, but maybe a special person." haha so we knocked... She was super special.

She was paralyzed on the right side of her face, so her eye was shut and she talked side ways. She opened the door and looked at my comp and said, "I know you, come in!" and we were like "oh a sweet little old lady that knows my comp! lets go" (This never happens that someone just invites us in)

So we walked in and I walked in first and all I remember thinking was, this is so weird, theres so much space, and so many things but it just feels so empty. Then this old lady said, "dont be scared if you see anything ugly." I just looked at my comp and me being the biggest baby, my eyes just became so wide and I was looking for ugly things.

There were two couches across from each other, a 2 seater against the window, or a 3 seater with empty space behind, and a door to the kitchen, the window couch was safer to me cause in my mind, there were maybe uglier things where there was more space. So I sat on the two seater and my comp sat right by me and this old lady just slowly started to talk towards me like she was going to sit on my lap, but we asked if she wanted to sit and she said no... Then I got up and said, "lets sits over here the 3 of us." So we did and she was talking about random things. then got up and went behind the couch to walk scarily into the kitchen. I hurried and asked my comp how she felt and she said. "I don't know." and I said, "were going now." and I got up. (I felt so sick) My comp got up and walked after her to see if she needed help and she just turned so fast and said no, its okay." So then she came and sat with us again.

Now we asked her about Jesus and she started talking about the things in her house and I just thought (please don't say they're all from dead people) and she didn't say that and my comp said, "hey, we need to sing for her." and so her sitting in the middle of the 3 seater, we both got on the floor in front of her and sang lead kindly light" and she was staring at my comp and her eye went completely normal and big and then we finished and my comp stayed on the floor across from her. But I thought, well, this lady can see behind both of us so Ill sit by her so my comp can see behind me and I can see behind her. She was talking about how beautiful the song was then randomly shot her head to the right and asked my comp, "who are you looking at?" and my comp said, "No one" and she said, "Oh I thought there was someone right here." and my comp looked at the couch and it was as if someone had sat up from the seat. So I hurried and said, "Were going to say a prayer to bless your home okay." And she said okay, and yes, I held my comps hand and then we finished and ran out and she ran out and said, "when will you be coming again?" I lied. I said, next week. I wont be going back.

After walking on a busy street for about 6 blocks, we noticed her dog was running ahead of us and then coming back and doing circles around us. we kept telling it to leave. Then I prayed, and it left the second I said, "amen."

Haha she was half our size but I nearly wet myself.

That was a little story about my week! I hope you all had a great week. Im praying for you all and love you a bunch!

Have a great week with the Spirit to be with you :)

Happy 4th of July!

light some works for me, yeah? ;)

This morning I was studying in Mosiah 18. This chapter talks a lot about the baptismal covenant that we make and its so beautiful!

8. And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9. Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life-

10. Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

30. ...how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.

Are we living our lives so that one day when we come to the judgment bar with Jesus Christ, we are ready to say confidently, when he asks, "do you know me?", say, "yes."?

One day, when we come to the presence of our brother Jesus Christ, I know without a doubt all of us are going to be so in awh! Because no matter what he´ll be there with his arms ready to embrace us. I know that if I could chose anyone in the world to judge me when the time comes, that sincerely Jesus Christ is the only person that can. Because he knows me and he knows my heart, perfectly. The same for each of you as well.

I love these scriptures so much because if everyone can be there reaching out for just one person, then we can all be able to feel Gods love through someone.

I know that God loves us. I know that He wants the best for us and that it is never too late to turn around and try better. I know He sent us His perfect son, Jesus Christ, to be our example, to follow him, and to become the best person that we can be within ourselves. I know that service to others builds an inner confidence between our relationship with us and our Heavenly Father. And I know that we are given trials to literally become better at something, to throw our hand out in service and to mourn with those that mourn. I know that at times it will be hard to have that spiritual desire to serve and love reading the scriptures and pray, but I know with all my heart, that in those times, when we do those things, we will feel stronger and more able to lift others around us and in so doing, God will lift us.

I love you all so much, and Im missing the 4th of July vibes! But I really do hope you all are having a great week and that you're having lots of laughs! Haha

This past week was my last week with my mamíta and she was super sick so we didn't do as much as we wanted to with our investigators, and then she left to Potosí to be a leader for all the sisters. I miss her sooooo much and it was hard to let her go haha!
But she will be such a great leader. I'm happy for her :)

I got my new comp! Hermana Gonzalez, she is also from Santiago, Chile and she speaks really good English and that's not normal cause I'm new and I'm supposed to learn the language before I get comps that speak English but President thinks different this time I guess! Haha.
Shes awesome and super funny too, I'm excited for another step in the mission with many more things to learn!

So this past week, Hermana Bisama and I were visiting our investigator Ana Belmonte. She has a 21 year old son who has a 3 year old daughter. We just taught Ana on Tuesday about the Plan of Salvation and she knew a lot about it cause she has visited church many times before and she just thought it was so beautiful and then because Hermana Bisama was most likely going to leave before the next week, she invited us to make dinner with her on Friday, we made Plato Piseño (my favorite meal, its from La Paz) and her son Sergio and his daughter Maite came and ate with us and he was like, "so my mom is gunna be mormona?" haha he told us that he actually is really interested. He said, "my mom was telling me about a lot of what you believe, and what really caught my attention is that, you believe that we can be with our loved ones after this life." So were going to start teaching him too! They have a great family. I really love the Plan of Salvation so much. It really brings so much light and peace and hope to our lives.

So, this past week was Fathers Day. I love that we celebrate on a specific day for our mothers and fathers. Because they really have the biggest impact in our lives, but... Did you know, here in Bolivia, they have a day to celebrate for the kids?... That would be cool too in the US! Haha.

Something I'm so thankful for about my dad, every Sunday growing up, we(my sisters and I) used to walk to church with him and he used to tell us stories and stories and stories about his childhood and mainly about his mission. Because of him sharing with me the most important things to him, real life matters, I had a desire to serve the Lord at a younger age, and I thankfully made the choice to be a missionary and it has done so many things for me and I know more about who I am and Gods love for all of us. Having said that, I know I'm not perfect whatsoever but that I have a potential, just like all of you too! Ahhh you're all so great! :)

You will love a lot of people but first, you have to serve them!

I wish I had a lot more to write about from this week but we didn't get too much done cause my comp was sick :( I miss you all and love you!

What a beautiful week!

We got to go to the temple with Juan Carlos! It was his first time, he said he felt so good in there.
It was so beautiful you guys! Im so proud of him. He is starting mission prep classes soon cause he wants to go on a mission.

As you know we have been teaching his older brother Jorge Daniel, he is so amazing! We talked about the word of wisdom and he thought it was funny that we don't drink coffee cause he loves coffee but he said, he wont drink it anymore and so we told him about a drink called ECCO, its sooo good! I don't know what its like in the US but in England, its just like Barley Cup! And so he bought it the next day and hasn't been drinking coffee anymore, he said he likes ECCO a lot! Its ricisimo! Hahaha. He really is so great! His baptism date changes cause he wasn't able to make it to church this Sunday so we have to wait just a little longer, but he is excited. And me too! I love their family. We went over last P day to make cookies and just spend time with them to get to know them better and Im just in love with their family! They are so strong and funny.

Something personal, and very special for me happened. So back in April, actually on Ava's birthday (21st) my comp and I were at the stake building and two elders brought in this member and his girlfriend who isn't a member, and I met her and gave her a hug and she wanted to learn english, and thats all I remember. Yeah, so her name is Carolina. Her boyfriend now is on a mission, and she was taking the lessons from the Elders. So last P day when we went to the BBQ, it was at her house. She sings and plays the guitar. Well we found out, the reason she invited us to go to her house was because when she walked into the stake building a month ago, she said, "I looked at her, (pointed at me) and I felt her spirit through her eyes, and I knew I wanted someone like her, to teach me, because I know I could trust her to be my guide, and then she gave me a hug and I felt like I had come home."

This was really special for me to hear. Sometimes in life we really don't realize the effect we have on people around us, literally random people that you might run into for just 3 minutes. God has a plan, and we are all a huge part of it. We all have something to share and something to take from someone.

I love the opportunity I have right now for this little time of my life to learn about the part I play and how I can play it the best I can! I love you all so much! And I know you all have such a beautiful part to play in many lives, so take the time to cultivate that part and spread some love! Haha!

I love you all. Have a fantastic week!

Juan Carlos received the priesthood this Sunday! And his older brother Jorge Daniel(19) has a baptism date for June 18th! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he so humbly told us that he has a lot to learn. We found out that their dad served a mission! Both of his parents are inactive members. It's cool to see the difference in their home compared to other homes around here, even though they are inactive. They still received the Holy Ghost as a constant companion after their baptism.
Having Juanca baptized recently, I know has changed a lot too in their home. Jorge told us, "He used to be so shy and now he has so much more confidence and he isn't so serious like he used to be." Thats what Jesus will do for you!!

We had a lesson with the whole familia Calicho. It was so awesome! Towards the end, they confided in us with a story from the past and in brought a little argument between the family, (reminded me of my family HAHA) and I was like, "oh no, we can't leave on this note." and then so humbly my companion bore her testimony to them about this situation and asked them each to say something virtuous about one another and we were all laughing and smiling and the spirit came again.
but I was like wait I wanna compliment you guys too! and I looked at Ceasar and said, you are so strong and such a good father and I can see you care so much for your family, then I looked at Liz and I said Liz, I always want to call you Luz (light) because you are such a light always and for your family and together your'e both such a strong (accidently said birds) but I meant couple and my comp corrected me and they laughed and then I said really though, just look at your kids, and they looked and I was like, they ugly but... and we just laughed so hard. It's funny cause I think Ceasar loved that I said that, they were laughing so hard and just repeated what I said and same with my comp and then I was like no really though, look at them, they're great kids and together your'e all so strong. And it just ended so well and then they offered to drive us home. I love their family so much!

There are so many ways that we can invite the Spirit. Fasting, praying, singing songs of worship, and simply just complimenting and finding the strengths in people, will help us to invite the Spirit to dwell with us.

So I challenge you all to compliment every person you talk to this week, with one virtue that you see in them!

Doctrine and Covenants 6:21
"Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am the same that came unto mine own, and mine own received me not. I am the light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not."

This past week, in our house, one of the lights blew out and the rest of them were all dull and it was kind of dark. We finally decided to buy new bulbs and change the lights. We made sure to buy ones that were warm and bright so that we could feel more at peace in our home. And let me tell you! It changed so much. I want to relate this to an analogy that I thought of months ago.

It was early in the morning and I was along the side of the mountain and the sun was behind this mountain, so I was in the shade. It looked so gorgeous all around me, with snow and the mountain was a deep healthy green. As I looked out to the West, the sun was shinning on all of the west part. It looked foggy and not as beautiful as it did around me, in the shade. after an hour or so, I drove out to the west and it was SO gorgeous! Way more gorgeous than the shade that I was in. This made me think of something spiritual. When we are spiritually in the dark, we wont always notice. We might think that everything is okay cause things are still enjoyable. But the minute that we go into the light (feel the spirit) we realize that we were in the dark and that there is a better feeling that we can have and a better peace that we can feel.

Try to find that light that stands a little higher. It will always lay within Jesus Christ and He will, without resistance, give you that warm light with a peaceful feeling.


I love you all! Thank you for everything. Have a great week!

So as you know, I was sick last week, and it carried out to this week too! Woohoo!
Wednesday night at like 10pm, I was feeling so ill, so we went to the Hospital and they gave me an IV and I felt a whole lot better, Im still getting better.

That being said, we had a few days in the house being sick. But all is well, all is well... I have the best comp!

Here in Bolivia, Mothers day is the 27 of May. Which is also my mums birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! I thought about you all week!

And here is the mission, we´re always sharing messages with the people about the love of God. So my comp and I wanted to focus on how the love of God is so similar to the love of a mother. So unconditional and strong. And even though sometimes we don't like to admit it, they're always right! HAHA (at least mine is). My comp in the mission, is my mamita (mom) cause she is my trainer, hahah she always tells me, "Mothers know best." And we had a funny conversation about how when we were home it was funny cause moms really always know what is going on and if somethings wrong or what haha.

So Im really thankful for moms! I love the example of Sariah in the Book of Mormon, the wife of Lehi. She was so strong, so trusting and such a good leader for her children.

My dad always said, "I'm the head, mums the neck." so basically, you dads out there can't do anything without your wives hahaha! Nah, joke. You can do many things, but you can do it better with your wife.

So Happy Mothers day to all you mothers! I hope you know how special you are. :)

We have been teaching this family. La familia Calicho. Liz(mom), Ceasar (dad), Brandon(son), Ceasar (son).

Brandon is 15 years old and he was the only one receiving lessons in his family. The missionaries taught him to pray, and he taught his family to pray and now they all pray together making it a priority. A family that prays together stays together, no ve? (no ve in Bolivia means like, right?)

Ceasar, the dad, he didn't ever want to listen to the lessons from the missionaries. But now, when he has time, he loves to come and talk with us and he´ll ask us when we can come next.
So last night we visited and only Liz had time, so she told us that this week, Ceasar and her were on their motorcycle and they got in a crash, her whole right arm is super scratched up and she had to get stitches and she said, "the only thing that we could think to do was to thank Heavenly Father for keeping us safe so that we can take care of our kids still." She committed to baptism for the 18th of June! Before that, were going to have a wedding for her and Ceasar. She is so excited and so wise with such a bright light. I love to visit their family. I can easily see them all in white.
Last week, I was with a member and we visited her and talked to her and he son Ceasar and we were just talking about reading the scriptures and saying our prayers and she explained that sometimes she gets too busy and I bore my testimony to her how God has time for all of us, that there is always time for God. And just yesterday(Sunday) Liz and her son walked into sacrament! She told us last night that she really realized there really is always time for God, so she went to church. :)

I love you all and hope that you all can find that time for God, its always there. Have a fantastic week!

2 Nephi 31:21 says, "And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen."

We went to go visit Juan Carlos earlier this week and I had been studying this chapter a few days before. When we were with him, I felt strongly that we needed to read this chapter and also chapter 30 of 2 Nephi, and while reading, at the very end of the chapter, I felt the spirit so strong about this verse. I then thought about the hymn, "I Am a Child of God". Such a simple, short, but super bold song.

"I am a child of God, and He has sent me here, lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way."

We are children of God, and we have been sent here and we fortunately get to follow and be guided by Jesus Christ.

Jesus is our light we just get to follow it. Imagine you're walking in a dark forest, and sometimes its hard cause you accidentally trip on that rock on the ground, or get cut by the branch to the right of you, or bird poop lands on your left shoulder(lol hate when that happens) and you didn't even see it coming(hate it even more when I don't see it), but all will be well as long as we are following the light, Jesus Christ.

So this week, I ate something and I got super, super sick. So Friday at 3am I woke up super nauseous so I went to the bathroom but nothing was coming so I laid back down and then felt it again and thought, I'll bring my scriptures this time. I got in there and the light was flickering and I was scared (Im a baby) and my comp was asleep and so I just felt sick, alone, and scared. So Immediately, I just looked up and said, "Heavenly Father, please just stop this light (it immediately stopped) In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." I opened my scriptures to where I was reading in Jacob 3, and verse 1 says;

"Look unto God with firmness of mind, pray unto Him with exceeding faith, and He will console you in your afflictions, and He will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction".

My testimony of this verse grew so quickly.

I was firmly praying because Satan was like,"Ahh she's weak, let me scare her!" (what a brat haha)
I don't even know where my strength came from in that the light (a physical thing), would just stop, but it did in the very middle of my prayer.
Console, He comforted me in my scared feelings in the time that I was having pain in my stomach.
And God pleaded my cause, I know He did. I know He loves to help us, and as He does so I know He wants us to feel His love for us too. Im so thankful for this experience, only for this reason, but other than this experience I could've done without ;)
But after all, Nothing in our lives just happens to happen, they happen because we have something to learn, that could help us or someone else, in the future.

I love God. My love for Him is simple it doesn't need to be complex at all, I've learned. I hope that you all, ALL, can try to do something to feel His love and to feel love for Him. It's a really peaceful and comforting feeling.

I also love you all!

PS Sorry for TMI haha. Have a great week!

Today is my 3 month mark! Time flies so fast!

So early in the morning on Saturday, Hermana Bisama and I went on a run with President Hansen(Mission President) It was so beautiful! Then, Juan Carlos was baptized on Saturday! It was supposed to start at 6:00pm but we're in Bolivia so everyone including JuanCa showed up at 7:00 haha! It was so beautiful! My first baptism in the mission and the first in our ward in over a year! He bore his testimony and said, "I can't hug the sisters but they will forever be in my heart, and one day I want to do what they did for me, for other people." He is such a light and he was so happy and I was so happy and we we're all so happy it was like eat, drink, and be merry but like learn about Christ, be baptized, and be merry. Haha

My short message for this week-

2 Nephi 26:25 "Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. but he saith: Come all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price." And Vs. 27 Says, "Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance."

I feel like I write a lot about repentance and I know for a lot of people (including myself before my mission) that it is a subject we often want to avoid. However, just this past week, I was reading this chapter and these two verses, what I took from them, is that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is sweet and as delicate as milk and honey and whether we want it or not, the Atonement is there for us. Its a gift that we have been given for our earthly life! How sweet of Jesus
:) (No pun intended)

So then I started to think about the great apostasy after Jesus Christ died and all of his apostles, Many churches were created and none of them taught true repentance in the loving manner that Jesus Christ did when he was on this earth. I love the Book of Mormon because right there in 2 Nephi 26 we learn that his Atoning Sacrifice is as sweet as milk and honey and we can partake of it being completely satisfied. Its so beautiful I think!

I hope you all know that I love you so much and pray for you and that you are all so special in the eyes of God, and that He loves, absolutely loves to bless us, we just need to come to Him first. :) "...knock and it shall be opened unto you."

Have a great week everyone!

The Sacrament... En español, La Santa Cena which is like the holy dinner...

This week I really learned something more about the Sacrament.

First off, we take the sacrament to renew our covenants,each week, that we have made with God. Baptism, etc.

What I learned this week was that each time that we take the sacrament, we are basically being baptized again, in a way and starting fresh for the up coming week. I love that so much! I really felt so strongly the other day during sacrament, that God only wants us to recognize our faults and come to Him with them and then start fresh and do better each day. I felt the love of God so much! He doesn't and never will want us to dwell on our faults! This life is a time that we have been given to learn, grow, and understand more about our purpose here on the Earth. However, if we are always focusing on what we did wrong, we will never see our potential to be better. God wants to live with all of us again.

Ether 12:27 Its talking about all them who come closer to God, He will show unto them their weaknesses and through Him their weaknesses will become strengths. I love this scripture because it really shows us that God gives us the opportunity to have confidence in Him, and to trust in Him.

We have a new investigator, her name is Stephanie! She is 18 and lives all alone, we got to her house/shop and she was about to do her nails and then I ended up doing them and it was really fun haha! She is really excited to learn more so were visiting her this week. Its fun to meet people with similar interests. Missionary work isn't only in talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is most definitely 100% being a friend too. If you think about it, Christ was the ultimate friend! :)

Juan Carlos has his baptism date for this coming Saturday (May 7) turns out his mom is actually a member she has just been inactive for a while. But she is so excited for him to be baptized, we changed the date cause his whole family wants to be there. His older brother Jorge (19) wants to take the lessons too! When we go to see Juanca, his brother is there sometimes and we usually talk and Ill help him with English and the last time we were there, he was like I want to learn more about the Book of Mormon, and then we can still talk too! Hahaha I love the people here! We invited him to come with us that night to an activity to watch "Meet the Mormons" and he was asking all about baptism and then he said he wants to be baptized! Theres still a lot that we have to teach him, but Im so excited!

Haha funny story for this week.... Anyone know Bryce Rummler? He went to Lone Peak last year... So... We went to the church building to practice a song that we were doing and Rummler was playing the piano. Behind the piano was a window and the blind's were like the long ones that break really easily, so like 4 of them had fallen and I tried to fix them while he was playing the piano and it stayed and I was like all chuffed to bits that it was fixed so I turned to look at my comp like "thats right" and one of them falls back down away from me onto a table to the left side of the piano and Rummler is playing and Im like to the right side of him.... There like this little glass vase for the flowers and the blind thing kept sliding down and it started to move the vase and I notice that it isnt stopping and its going to fall off the table onto the tile floor so I, without thinking, reach my arms to stop the vase and Rummler is like right there and it was so awkward and the vase fell and smashed, #Rummlerwasintheway hahahah we laughed for a good 30 minutes!

And then today I played soccer with a couple of the Elders and then there was a group of guys playing and one of the guys ran into me and hugged me and it was so awkward cause I didn't know what to do and I just froze. #Missionaryprobs #KarmafromwhatIdidtoRummler

Thanks for everything.
I hope you all have a super good week I love you all!

I love the priesthood. I love the power that it has. My dad once told me that the priesthood is stronger than a whole worlds army. And I have no doubt about that.

Remember Juan Carlos, our investigator who used to be atheist? This week, my comp and I thought that we should go up the big Cristo at the top of the hill, to talk to him and just talk about the love of God. Well, he called us the day that we were going to go, to tell us that his girlfriend had appendicitis and she isn't doing well at all. We haven't ever met his girlfriend, but we asked if we could go to the hospital to visit her and just talk to her and see how she is. He said he would be honored. So we went and we talked with her and her mom and we asked if she would like to receive a priesthood blessing. She said yes. We talked a lot about our beliefs as members of the Church of Jesus Christ and after we went back to Juan Carlos´ house and he cried and he told us that he knows for sure that God exists. And that he knows that God loves him. WOW! It was so amazing to hear him say that, he said he knew it with everything in him.

So the next day, (yesterday) we had church and JuanCa was supposed to come but he didn't answer his phone and he missed his ride. We were sad and sitting in the chapel and right before sacrament, in RUNS JuanCa!!!! We were so happy, he had ran all the way from his house about 3-4 miles away from the church, just so that he could take the sacrament. He was out of breathe hahaha but we were so proud!

Then after church we went to the hospital with two of the elders to perform the blessing for Camila, (women don't hold the priesthood) and the elders preformed a healing blessing for Camila. It was beautiful. We left and then later yesterday, we had a fireside with all of the missionaries and their investigators. Juan Carlos came all alone and at the beginning he sat in the very back, and after about 15 minutes, all alone, shy Juan Carlos walked all the way from the very back to the frontest of frontest rows. And he was crying. It was so peaceful and the spirit was sweet and present. We asked him at the end why he was crying, and he told us that Camila, his girlfriend, told him right after the blessing, immediately she felt no pain.

I know, that all things through faith and all things through God, have power. He is always there for us. He will never move. If He has been there for you in your life before and you don't feel like it now, have no fear because He is the same yesterday(that time in your life before) today, (when you might not think He is there for you) and tomorrow. He will always be there for you and always want the best for you. Have hope and choose faith over doubt every day!

I love you all so much! Thank you for everything. Have a great week!

This week went well, pretty normal, but well!

DC 50:24
"That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light growth brighter and brighter until the perfect day."

So we have an investigator, his name is Juan Carlos(17 years old), he used to be atheist before we started teaching him. He was so shy, very serious and yeah, just very shy! My comp and I noticed a huge change in him this week. He has been so happy and laughing so much and smiling so much, and asks so many questions and just loves to talk to us. He told us that we are like his best friends and that he loves us. We fasted this week with him and he just explained to us how happy he is and he brought me and my comp cake and pie (tan rico :)) He is planning to be baptized the 30th of this month.

I love to see what the teachings of Jesus Christ, does to the countenances of people. Its so beautiful.

To follow that, this morning, we were at La Cancha, a huge place to shop, and my comp and I were walking to find the other sisters to get a taxi so that we could go eat at a place called Mexico(a place owned by a guy from highland, he married a Boliviana and they're moving to Highland this week!) anyways, haha #ADD... As we were walking, we walked passed these two huge scary looking guys... And they were speaking english!!! haha I got so scared and just walked past them and got the strongest feeling, "hey they're children of God too! Go share your message!" So I told my comp that we needed to and she was like yeah, we don't have much time, but if you think we should lets do it.
We turned around and I was like, "hey guys! I heard you speaking english, and I speak english and I wanted to talk to people that speak english!" haha they were like "Hey! Yeah, whats up hows it going? (looked at my tag) you're from the church!" and so I was like yeah! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you know about this church?" and they were like "No!" haha so I was like, "Mormons?"... "Oh mormons! Yeah, well a little!" So I said, "Well, since Im always sharing our message in spanish, could I share it with your guys in english?" They kind of hesitated but then he was like , "Yeah, sure!" I just started telling them why I was here, because God loves us so much, and I want everyone to know that. That we are all children of God and He wants the best for us, I really cant remember everything I was saying! I was just so at peace to share the message in english, but not only that it was in english, but that I literally saw something in his eyes as I was talking to him. change. We gave him a pamphlet of the restoration and he said, "Im going to read this. Wow, thank you so much, yeah Im going to read this, thank you!" THE SPIRIT WAS THERE, IN LA CANCHA!!!

God loves us so much, and I love that I get so see a small portion of His love for everyone around me!

Just this past Saturday, There was a huge party across the street from our house and we just were joking around about how funny it would be if we could go all dressed funny and ready to share our message... So we made the funniest video, Im going to try to send it but Im still trying to figure out how!

I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic week!

Oh and Happy Birthday to McKinley, Ava and Skyla this week :)

No hay palabaras para describir esta semana pasada! (There aren´t words to describe this past week)

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28

Well I loved so much in conference last week, someone said that we make the choice to choose faith over doubt everyday. It is so rewarding to do so. Obviously there are a lot of hard things about the mission, but man, when I chose faith whole heartedly, I feel the hand of God guiding my day. My spanish is better, Im able to share my testimony in a language I barely know, but completely understand and feel what Im saying. I love that we have been given agency in this life, because without this agency, we would never know the difference between good days and bad days. Therefore, we would never know happiness. There are two different kind of choices that we get to make throughout our lives, good or bad. When we choose faith, everything works out and makes sense! I just love it.

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors though him that loved us."
"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to seperate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:37&39

WOWOW!!! How motivating! Seriously! I love it so much!

A recent convert and his brother and my comp and I were all talking about our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. And when it was that our testimonies were really set in the Book with no doubt. He said, "while reading the Book of Mormon, I realized how much confidence God has in all of us." I loved that, its so true! Our Heavenly Father has so much faith and confidence in all of us, I feel it while talking to investigators everyday. He is the ultimate dad! (sorry dad youre fantastic too ;)) But really! He knows we can overcome any hard thing, because He knows that He will always be there for us. I love God :)

sooooo... I've been kissed by a man.

It was an accident, Im still getting used to the culture hahahaha.

Yesterday, was fantastic. After church, we did our studies and went to go to one of our appointments with a family. And I just randomly felt like I needed to bring my Plan of Salvation layout thing, (even though thats not what we planned to talk about),that Jordan Hansen got me before I left, (shout out to reddragon haha) We called Wendy, our friend who is a member of a year and a half now! Woo she is amazing she´s 18 years old and is planning to go on a mission! Anyways, we went to her house so that she could accompany us. There is an inactive member named Flora who lives right by her and we always go to just spend time with her and see if she needs anything, we´ll sing for her and just we love her so much :) anyways, while we were waiting for Wendy to come out, we walked accross the street with Flora so that we could talk to her in the shade, so we sat on the curb. We had 20 minutes til our next lesson, and I got this strong impression to talk about the Plan of Salvation with her. So I quickly told my compañera and we asked her if that would be okay with her and she said yes! So we sang a short hymn and then we asked her who she would like to offer the opening prayer, she volunteered and it was so sweet! So I asked her if she had heard about the Plan of Salvation, and she said never! I got so excited to teach her that I think she started getting so excited haha its my favorite part of all things that we share on the mission, because it clearly shows Gods love for all of us, His children. She got so happy and excited and kept saying "START!" So we started with the Pre-Mortal Life, she was like "What! Keep going!" She was loving it so much. She asked about babies that die because she has always worried about them and we explained to her a little bit about Moroni chapter 8 how it talks about how young children die in Christ basically. That they dont need baptism because they are no sins. She just started crying, We went through the whole Plan with her. She told us this has answered all the questions that she has had in her life, because she was so confused. She was so happy about it and thanked us a million times.

The Plan of Salvation, is a plan that God prepared for us before this earth. We came to the earth to obtain bodies and experience all things, but most importantly, to except Christ, live His gospel, and allow his perfect atonement to heal us so that we can be happy for all eternity. It was so special with Flora. I felt the spirit so strong. I know that God created the Plan for us to one day live with Him. I love sharing this Plan with everyone I can, because I feel so much love from God, I feel close to him, like I know more about him.

In Jarom verse 2, I dont have the exact scripture, but I love that he says something about how the Plan of Salvation has already been revealed many times, so he doesnt need to explain it again. This verse for me, shows me how important this plan is for us to know, 1 because God wants to live with His kiddos again (us) and 2 because we can learn how we can return to live with our daddiyo again, for all eternity, gaining all that He has. I just love it.

I've met so many cool people here, like legit gangsters with tear drop tats on their face, that have solid testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the food is amazing! I love the food. I drink so much coke everyday but Ive lost about 10 pounds...

My compañera y yo make the funniest videos, Im going to try to send them. hahaha I love my comp. She is so strong, and I have learned so much from her! Im just so happy, and I feel so previledged to devote this short year and a half of my life to think about other people all day and how I can serve them.

I love you all and hope that you guys have a fantastic week :)

I love Cochamba! My area is Villa Moscú, Cochabamba. About 3 minutes from the Cochabamba temple. It´s so gorgeous! My comp is Hermana Bisama from Santiago, Chile. She is amazing we clicked so fast! I love her. We go on runs around the temple in the morning! Lots of hills. Haha! Skyla would love it here because there are stray dogs EVERYWHERE! Mum would hate it because they talk all night long. The people are so cute and little.
I want to clean everything and spiders watch me when I pee and showers are COLD and I want to clean everything and bleach everything and clean and clean and I have to throw away my toilet paper!!! Hahahahaha!:))
The little boy in the pic would hold my hands and we would dance and then he would give me the biggest hug!!! and the cute little girl was glued on me as we were teaching her mum about repentance. Heavenly Father really helps :)

Anyways, we had a lesson with a girl named Elizabeth, she is 17 years old and lives with her older sister. Our first lesson was about the restoration and prophets.
Hermana Bisama had a great visual analogy thing! She put out her fist and asked Liz to put her fist out beneath hers but not touching and said, "now follow my hand" and Liz followed. Then she said, "now close your eyes and follow my hand." Liz couldn't follow because she couldn't see it. Then she held the top of the pencil in her fist and told Liz, "hold the bottom of the pencil without touching my fist and follow mine." Hermana Bisamas fist was God, we were Liz's fist and the pencil was the prophet. We can't see God, however, we do have prophets that guide by the word of God that we can follow and come closer to Him. I loved that!

1 Nephi 22:2 "And I, Nephi, said unto them: Behold they were manifest unto the prophet by the voice of the Spirit; for by the Spirit are all things made known unto the prophets, which shall come upon the children of men according to the flesh."

I really loved general conference this weekend, and I hope that you all got to watch some of it. We are so blessed to know of a living prophet, and apostles, who loves us so much.

I really loved what all of them said, here are just a few of my favorite things:

"Something so completely destroyed can with no doubt, be restored." This can apply to so many things and people. I also like how he said that "God will force no one to Heaven." In fact, anyone who doesn't come to know God or doesn't care to know God, wont even want to dwell in His presence. This is sad because God wants to live with EVERY single one of us, again. We are His children, whom He loves unconditionally.

God see's us as we truly are and He see's us worthy of rescue. As much as we might forget to think of Christ, remember, that he always, Always! Remember's us. Thats so special.

The Holy Ghost is simple, and offers a constant flow of guidance. That being said, "offers" Is a key word, because He also honors our free agency.

If we seek to do our best, The Lord will help us!

God will never desert us. It´s not His character. Give God your heart and tomorrow will be magnificent.

I love you all and encourage you to watch conference if you haven't.

Oh how funny is this! Gabe Crosby, my friend from Lone Peak high school is serving in Cochabamba too and he called me the other day and we were both like what the heck, hi! Hahaha. That was way funny. He's a great missionary!

Thanks for everything!! You're all in my prayers!

It´s natural for man to have questions and to not understand all things. It’s not natural for man to have a perfect faith whatsoever. However, through faith man can receive unexplainable answers. This week my comp. And have been teaching a philosopher, he doesn’t know if God exists, nor does he know how he can find out. We have been working with him on how he can grow his faith through prayer every day. We were studying in our scriptures to help our investigator understand the importance of his relationship with God so that he can receive answers to his questions.

In Colossians 2:8 it says, “Beware lest any man spoil you though philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

I love to teach our investigators about the importance of their own personal relationship with God. This makes me think about how blessed we are to have a modern day prophet that doesn’t teach us about their relationship with God but we listen to their beautiful counsel about the importance of having our own personal friendship with God.

I believe that following the commandments, is like flying a kite. Imagine that were the body of the kite. A kite fly’s in the air by the power of what? The strings with the help of wind! Now if someone were to cut the strings, would the kite fly higher or would it come crashing dow to the ground? Good job! It would come crashing down to the ground. Haha Now, imagine that every string you hold is a commandment, and instead of the kite crashing down, the commandments of Jesus Christ revealed through prophets, allow us to soar in the air!

People often feel that having to follow and keep the commandments are keeping us from living our lives the best way. However, the commandments really allow us to contently soar throughout life! No matter how chaotic the wind might become. The blessings are beautiful. We don’t HAVE to follow them, we GET to!

In 1 Nephi 18 it talks about how Nephi was commanded to build a ship, and Nephi’s brothers didn’t think they he could build it. Nephi knew that if he was commanded, that he could. After he built the ship, not after the manner of man, but in the way that the Lord had shown him how. His brothers saw that it was good. And the Lord had provided much for them and they were safe. In verse 9 it says, “And after we had been driven forth before the wind for the space of many days, behold, my brethren, and the sons of Ishmael and also their wives began to make themselves merry, insomuch that they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak rudeness, yea, even that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding rudeness.” They became very prideful.

In Ether 6 the brothers of Jared are in a ship and the wind was blowing and they were buried in the deep but there was no water that could hurt them. Now in verse 9 it says, “And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long, and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.” And they did soon after arrive in the Promised Land.

When we put all of our trust in the Lord that He is the only way to the Promised Land and eternal life, he will deliver unto us, the Promised Land and eternal life.

This week I have been trying to recognize when I might become a little prideful, that instead of thinking I did something well, that I need to thank Heavenly Father for what he has allowed me to be able to do.

Studying the Christ-like attributes are really so special! I challenge you all to study Christ-like attributes and pray for opportunities to develop these attributes. It might be hard for a bit, but I promise you that the Lord will help you along the way.

This week was great, we had Taylor G. Godoy from the 70 come and speak to us with his wife. My MTC president’s son baptized him. How awesome! Let us all lift up our torches of Humbleness and share our love with the world.

I love you all! PS It was Amberleigh´s birthday on the 18th, HAPPY BIRTHDAY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND MISS YOU!

My comp hasn’t been able to speak to any of the Latinos here because of her Spanglish, so last week when we were on the bus to go to the temple, our bus driver brought his little son…. It was the first time she connected with a Latino, hes 4. Im so proud of her!
LOLOL

God is our loving Heavenly Father. His love for us will never change! He loves us with open and embracing arms. At times we might feel that God doesn’t have time for us, or that we are forgotten and unloved by Him. These are most often the times that we haven’t made time for Him, have forgotten about Him, and haven’t demonstrated our love, for Him.

Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Meaning His love for us has and never will change, but that we might. It says in Mormon 9:9, “For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and in Him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?” Gods love for us has no variableness, it is only constant and unconditional!

WOW! Don’t you just love God? I do. Serving someone is the best way to show someone you love them. I seriously love this work!

1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Our human eyes often see through a glass darkly, we notice the negatives in life and others. The closer we come to our Heavenly Father and brother, Jesus Christ, we can see others also as we are known. I learned during one of our lessons with our investigator, that God knows our hearts, he knows our feelings, and he feels for us. He wants the best for us! Better than what we could even want for ourselves.

Alma 5:15 says, “Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith…” God looks at us through an eye of faith. He has faith in us. How patient is God, that He would forgive us every single day we ask for forgiveness.

Last night, we had a devotional and something I loved that one of the speakers said was, “We are blessed, because we have come to believe in people.” I believe that our greatest blessings come from that of believing in others and looking at them through a glass, lightly. That we see them as they are and love them as they need.
I love you all!

This week has been really good we had an awesome devotional with all of the missionaries around this area of Peru, come to hear Elder Robbins speak, it was awesome! I saw Elder Dahl (a good friend of mine
from home ward) so that was cool!

I learned a lot that we choose our captain, and when we choose our captain, we must heed unto their counsel.

I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your love and support.
Xx Hermana Geertsen

Every night, my district (Elder Phillip's, Elder Babbit, Elder Southern, Elder Dunford, Hermana Hoffman, and I) share something that we read about earlier in the day. I didn’t have anything from my reading stand out to share, however I kept thinking about “The Tight Rope”. The Tight Rope is a sketch with an explanation and deeper understanding of this life. My dad showed me this, he made it up on his mission, I believe.

I told my district I didn’t have anything to share from reading, however, I did have a drawing to share. So I drew out on the white board, a sketch of “The Tight Rope”. I explained each step as I drew
it. I said, “This is the Pre-Earth life.

This is Earth life as if we are walking on a tight rope that Satan has his hand gripped on so tight. Some people are running across this tight rope, some people are jumping, some people are laying, hanging, and dangling, diving and some people have fallen off. There is a net at the bottom of this tight rope. This net will catch us if we allow it to. If not, we have decided that Satans plan is more suitable to us.

If we allow this net to catch us, step by step we are able to climb up a knotted rope.

The first step is Fe (faith). Faith in Jesus Christ, that he has all the power to help us.

The second step is Arrepentimiento (repentance). Sincere repentance, having a broken heart and a contrite spirit that we know God has a better plan for us than what we would create for ourselves.

The third step is Bautismo (baptism). Baptism by someone who holds the authority of the Priesthood of God.

The fourth is La Recepcion del don del Espiritu Santo (receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost). The Holy Ghost doesn’t just accompany us when in time of need, but the Holy Ghost will be our companion in time of growth as well. Lastely, but not least, Perseverar hasta el fin (enduring to the end). Enduring to the end doesn’t mean we can just end at faith in Jesus Christ, it doesn’t end at repentance, nor does it end at baptism, or receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We take these steps to one day live with our Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ, again! This is continually progressing, continually having faith, repenting every day, allowing the Holy Ghost to be our companion! And with open and embracing arms, our Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ will be there to welcome us back home.”

Elder Babbit said, “I don’t really have anything to share from my scripture study either, but while Hermana Geertsen was drawing this out and explaining, I wrote a poem.” This is how the poem goes.

“In this life, we walk a tight rope.
It is not easy to walk.
We will slip, trip, and sometimes fall.
Satan stands beneath.
He wants to devour us.
He stares, wants, and knows,
That some will fall, themselves.
But the strong ones,
He knows he has to shake.
He plays with the rope,
He grabs at our ankles.

God is waiting at the end.
He watches us He guides each one of our steps.

But yet, we will fall.
But when we fall,
If we keep our eyes on God,
We are caught by a net.

The Atonement.
The net we fall on is held up by Jesus Christ
He will hold us, Pull us,
And carry us back to the Kingdom of our Father.
Our dad.”
- Elder Babbit

Hermana Hoffman shared her scripture of the day and one of the cross references. The cross reference was in the Bible, Hebrews 12:13. I don’t have my scriptures with me at this time, but it starts off something like “keep your feet on the straight path.”

God has such a beautiful plan for us! Satan has a plan for us too. We just have to decide which plan we will accept. This week was amazing, I love Sundays mainly because it’s the only day that is in English!

I really feel that there is no better work than that of the work of the Lord. My dad told me before I left, “Youre going to be doing the Lords work, but don’t forget, youll also be getting the Lords pay!” I got my first pay check and let me just tell you, the Lord doesn’t mess around when he pays. The blessings are grand! (And no the Lord doesn’t pay in money).

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Jeremiah 4:19-20
“My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me;
I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast Heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.”

Hahahaha, the food here is good but doesn’t agree too well! Loling… Hermana Signs from Colorado, one of the other sisters here, showed us this because of her similar experiences. We're all so close, I'd say!

Lol. Seriously though I love my Hermanas! And the Elders in my district are amazing, SO strong, hilarious, and motivating! I know they will be fantastic missionaries.

This week has been so good. Very adventurous. I love President and Hermana Moore. They are purely servants of God, and their countenances radiate!

I really want to explain how much I love repentance and the Atonement.

I've taught a few lessons of El Plan de Salvacion with our “investigators” this week and I myself have learned and come to

understand it so much more! I strongly feel that Repentance is purely symbolic for us humans to show God that we are willing and have a desire to follow the path that he has paved for us, whether we know it or not. The Atonement is so perfect and essential for all human kind to feel real happiness and to eventually live with our Heavenly Father and His Hijo amado, Jesucristo, again.

I read a talk this week and it said, “You are going to be tested and tried to prove what you are made of. I just want you to know that if

you don’t get what you think you ought to get, remember, God is the gardener here. He knows what He wants you to be. Submit to yourselves His will. Be worthy of His blessings, and you WILL get His blessings.”
– Elder Hugh B. Brown

I loved reading this. Often times I hear the word worthy and it makes me second guess if Im worthy. Once you have felt the forgiveness, the following guilt can only be sent of Satan. Who would destroy you if he could.

Its Raines birthday today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAINE, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

AND MISS YOU, I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT YOU ALL WEEK!

I challenge you all to rise to a new sense of commitment to serve the Lord. This doesn’t mean anything extraordinary, just a little

something extra to lift the spirits of others around you… Like a smile or something sweet! I love you all and I really appreciate your

support. Thank you for the prayers, they have been very much needed, I can feel them!

¡Un grado mas!

(This means “one degree more!” If we all gave just one degree more, imagine the difference!)

My first week here at the CCM (say, say-em-aye) has been sooooo filled with different things and feelings.

The flight went really well and me and Hermana Fullmer, from Utah, sat next to each other. We know a lot of the same people so that was cool!

She is so awesome and has a strong testimony.

The first day I got sick with a super bad sore throat and thanks to ASAP silver water, my sore throat went away the next day! Definitely thought it was going to get worse! Thank you Moellers for the Silver Water it has already been put to use!

Then on Sunday I got a bad sinus infection and I was sneezing so much and I couldn’t even see and I got a really bad head ache. So they let me take a 3 hour nap!

My comps name is Hermana Hoffman, she is from Seattle, Washington and she is so cool and she will also be serving in Cochabamba, Bolivia!

(We are the only sister missionaries serving there. The rest are all Elders and then the other Hermanas are going to Peru missions.) She reminds me so much of Amberleigh cause of her motherly nature and she always has the best insights! We have become so close over the past week (that has felt like a month) whilst in the bathroom stalls next
to each other… LOL. The food is really good there is a big variety of things they have but mostly rice for every meal. We are so much alike with our differences though! But we laugh at everything! Even when I get emotional we end up just laughing at me. Haha.

I lOVE THE LATINOS! They are so sincere and their eyes are so genuine! Whenever I feel nervous or scared about being on my mission or even just missing my family, I just look at the Latinos and see how thankful they are for the Gospel and how much it has really blessed their lives. They are so passionate about it. It keeps me motivated
just by watching them.

The language is going well. Im definitely so thankful for my back ground knowledge of the language. We are already teaching our investigadores… (in quotes) they are just our teachers but a lot of the time they play the role of how they used to be with all the questions that they had before they were converts. My companion hasn’t had any back ground of Spanish so I basically teach the lessons, but she is getting better and learning really fast so she speaks Spanglish.

Every day we have an hour to excersize, so my comp and I have been playing futbol(soccer). Hahaha so we were playing right, with a ton of the missionaries and the Latino missionaries(theyre so good) and the ball came straight to me and I caught it between my mid-legs so I turned around and hopped over to the goal we all just started
laughing. Haha it was so funny. Almost scored…

I have really seen, here at the MTC, my strengths but have noticed so much more of my weaknesses, as far the language, Ive realized how much I do know and Im so surprised I know so much and can understand the Latinos because they speak so fast, but Ive seen more of how much I don’t know. The language is my favorite, but at times I get hard on myself. Lol its been like a week!

I really encourage you all to read the Book of Mormon and the Bible side by side, they really complement each other. Its cool during our lessons with the investigators to have scripture references come to mind from the bible as well as the Book of Mormon.

I miss you all and love you so all so much, I think of you all and have had dreams of everyone, if you don’t think you’ve been in my dreams, I am almost positive you have been.