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!