July 20

Thanks so much for your email and news from home. I was hoping for a
bit of international news too because the rumor in the mission is the
the US and Bolivia aren´t getting along that well at the moment.

I´ve had an interesting week because Hna Simons is as different from
Hna Gonzales in personality as you can get. While Hna Gonzales is
quite introverted and doesn´t like big activities or new people that
much, Hna Simons is super extroverted and loves to talk to everyone.
This is a very useful trait in missionary work, but it is also a huge
change for me and is a bit much sometimes. For example, Hna Simons
pretty much shouts ¨buenas tardes¨ at absolutely everyone. She is very
confident and very eager to work hard, which is great because the area
has a lot of potential, but needs a lot of hard work.

You´re right that her name is European. Her father is originally from
France, but has lived in Bolivia all his adult life.

The talk of the mission at the moment is all the problems that Potosi
is having. They are having what appears to be called a civic strike.
None of the stores can open, nor transportation, nor really anything.
The miners are striking for more industry in the city instead of just
the mine and it´s really difficult for all the people and missionaries
there. Although there is food, no one can open the stores to buy or
sell it and the missionaries had a very hard time leaving and entering
again during cambios. I think President Hansen changed as few
missionaries as possible because my new companion, who came from
Potosi, had to walk with her luggage a long way and then the bus took
a longer route than normal to avoid the protests. This doesn´t really
affect us here in Cochabamba, but we are a bit worried about the
members and missionaries in Potosi.

I am also worrying about what I´m eating, but as you say I don´t have
a ton of control over it. I also enjoy my pensionista´s compliments
that I always eat everything I´m given. I enjoy Bolivian food for the
most part, but I am aware that an awful lot of it is fried and
starches. Generally, a plate has either meat or chicken, rice (or
maybe noodles or potatoes, but mostly white rice) and what is called a
salad. A salad is not actuallly salad, but chopped vegatables (usually
cooked) and often with sauce or mayo. We also eat soup first most
days, which is usually a delicious noodle soup with vegetable and a
bit of meat or chicken. This is all generally pretty healthy; it just
needs more vegetables and fewer fried things or sauces with a lot of
oil. Vegatables are super cheap, but as often more of a garnish than a
main part of the meal. I walk a lot every day, but still seem to be
gradually gaining weight. I hope to go to an area with a lot of hills
in October, but if not I will just have to try to excersize more in
the mornings.

I really like my area and am happy to be here for more time. However,
all the cars and too many people are frustrating and I do not think I
would be happy living in a city for a long time. On the other hand,
living in a place is very different than being a missionary in a
place. If I was just living and working or studying in a downtown area
like Cobija, I would spend a lot of time inside and not have to be
walking around and trying to cross busy streets all day. What I really
like about being a missionary in a downtown area is that the tall
buildings provide shade and all the streets and most of the houses are
helpfully labeled.

I still haven´t found new batteries for my camera, but I still have
more pictures from previous weeks to send you. These include:

Also at the temple, Luis Angel was really cute reading his new Book of
Mormon with big letters because he´s just starting to read well and
the little letters are harder to read. He´s Hna Loida´s grandson. The little girl is Casey, her granddaughter.

The last few pictures from the temple. includeing when we ran into Hna
Ana Eguino, a new member of our ward who works in the temple three
afternoons a week. She is a good friend of ours and we visit her at
least once a week to help out in her house and sometimes go visit investigators with her, if they don´t live too far away.

Photos from Jose´s baptism. Hno Angelo, the elders´ quorem president
baptised him. His fiance, Shirely, is also in the picture and gave the
talk on the Holy Ghost. It was really cold and rainy that day, but we
got the baptism fount water to heat a little (not much) and people
showed up for the baptism.

The mission asked us for photos of our house. This is our house. It is
very nice and comfortable. It is on the second story, which makes it
warmer and have fewer ants (a month or two ago we finally killed all
the ants, and I am very happy to notice that they haven´t tried to
come back).

The view of the mountains with snow as we can see them from Cobija.

Tunari: Missionaries in the snow, somebody brought a plastic washing
tub thing to try to sled, but it broke before I got a turn, a little
iced over creek, llamas from the window of the car as we returned, a
little village that is either abandoned or only used for collecting
the llamas and sheep at night (there are sheep too, but I didn´t take photos of them).

I have been using my retainer once in a while and lately, hardly at
all, because I never have time in the evening to clean it before I can
put it on. I´m trying to make time, but lately we are taking a long
time to do daily planning for the next day in the evening and I barely
have time for anything afterwards.

The other benifit of living in the city is that we can put our trash
in the dumpster half a block away whenever we want to. In Villa Mexico
we had to wait for the dumptruck to come by once or twice a week and
run outside with our trash.

With Hna Simons we are having a lot more success in Cobija. Mainly, we
are making our lessons much shorter and more to the point, which lets
us visit a lot more people each day. Also, we are working more with
the members to have references and invite them to visit with us.
We have also been inviting more people to come to church with us even
if we have only taught them once or twice, . Even if they don´t end up
coming, whether they accept the invitation or not tells us if they are
really interested in learning more about the church or if they are
just friendly enough to let us come talk to them a bit.