March 2

First we have Sebas (Sebastian) hiding under a washtub waiting to scare Hna Nuñez when she gets out of the bathroom. He is the 4 year old son of our pensionista, Hna Anavel, and is adoreble, He is also just starting preschool, and while he enjoys it, we can also see that he´s pretty stressed by it. Did you ever have trouble getting us to eat when we were little? Hna Anavel´s kids never want to sit down and eat their lunch. 

The close up is of a sort of bland popcorn snack, that is made with the big, tougher corn that is common here. We think it´s called tostado and also that it´s really cheap because investigators often give us a lot to take with us. 

 Next we have photos from the baptism of Noelia and Graciela and also the card we made Noelia. I did the design and Hna Nuñez wrote the message because I hate trying to think of thoughtful things to write in cards even when I really care about the people. Can you read the Spanish?

 The baptism was a really special experience for everyone. Noelia was really nervous before we started the service, but after her baptism gave a simple, but hearfelt testimony that she was happy about the decision she had made to be baptised. Hna Graciela, her mom, has been incredibly firm in her decision ever since she started to listen to us and stop opposing Noelia´s desire to come to church. Pablo, an investigator of the elders was also baptised at the same time. 

The baptism was a really special experience for everyone. Noelia was really nervous before we started the service, but after her baptism gave a simple, but hearfelt testimony that she was happy about the decision she had made to be baptised. Hna Graciela, her mom, has been incredibly firm in her decision ever since she started to listen to us and stop opposing Noelia´s desire to come to church. Pablo, an investigator of the elders was also baptised at the same time. 

Noelia´s grandma, brother, and sister also came. I´m really happy for this family. I´ve really seen how the gospel has changed their lives. Noelia and her mom get getting along much better and Noelia is making friends at church and she was super shy when we met her. They are hoping Alejandro, who´s 12, will want to be baptised too and Dayan will be able to be baptised when she turns 8 in a few years.

Pablo was also a miracle for the elders because he showed up in the ward a few weeks ago from Santa Cruz and told them that the missionaries were teaching him there and that he wanted to get baptised, but had to move here for work. The elders were about to call the missionaries in Santa Cruz and confirm everything and finish teaching Pablo.

The other person in the photos are Hna Tania, our lovely young women´s president, with her baby.

Noelia and Graciela are so special to me and so eager to keep learning from the scriptures and the classes at church. Noelia also became good friends with another of our investigatores, Valeria, and I hope they will be able to support each other to be firm in the gospel. 

 I also took pictures of my new agenda for the coming transfer, a photos of a photo from the caroling activity at Christmas, the chapel (the tree is pretty, but it covers the name of the church), Hna Nuñez (this morning waiting in front of the church for the rest of the zone. This is the biggest street in our area, except for the almost-highway that is our area limit on the other side). We all went to internet together because we had take an online spanish test. However, I couldn´t get it to work and we had permission to give up after half an hour of trying. 

Thanks for the letters from Elizabeth, but you´ve right I won´t have time to read them much. 

I am glad to be missing all the stress and endless conversations about rowing practices, but of course miss you all and also all the snow.

I think I will have more success finding a Quechua book here and also don´t really have any time to study Quechua. I still need to study Spanish better. I still constantly mix up hizo and hice and all the other preterite verbs and have no idea if I´m using por and para right. 

My shoes haven´t arrived yet, but I generally get packages on Tuesdays. I won´t need any other new clothes for awhile. 

This 6 week cambio has passed very quickly for me too. 

This week was really great despite the heat in the first half of the week. The ward, especially the laurels and JAS (YSA), is really stepping up to work with us. They come visit with us and also a lot of people came to the baptism. We are super busy and still haven´t visited a bunch of the corners of our area because we have enough to do in the other parts. Part of me wants to get to know another part of Bolivia, like Tupiza, where Hna Nuñez was for a while, but I would also really miss Villa Mexico. (Tupiza is almost to Argentia and actually has a clear summer and winter.)