October 26

Thank you for the news. Hilary Clinton makes the news here as does Donald Trump as the republican canidate. I am relieved to hear that he is not especially popular there.

This week I finally received Grammie´s package and Grandma´s birthday card, which was very cute.

We´ve had a kind of dificult week in that it´s been hard to stay motivated and keep working hard. Hna Garcia gets pretty tired and discourged when things don´t go well and it rubs off on me. We are always either incredibly rushed which makes me all stressed and flustered or we have nothing to do and can´t think of anyone to visit. We have some great investigators, who come to church and everything, but no baptisms planned any time soon. Some times I feel like we have way too many investigators and will never have time to visit them all and sometimes I feel like we don´t have anyone to teach. 

My pictures are once again uploading super slowly, so you might only get last week´s and none of this weeks.

Nevertheless, this week´s photos are:

A nativity set I bought. It´s so perfect and I compeltly fell in love with it. I just hope it doesn´t break.

Sprite in a platic baggie. They very commonly sell soda in a tiny glass bottle (only 190 mL) for only 1 boliviano (less than 20 cents). You have to drink it there and return the bottle, or, if you want it take it with you, they can put it in a plastic baggie with a straw.

Several fotos and tiny video clips from a multi stake activity. We went with Loida and an investigator named Edwin. It was fun although we couldn´t stay for the whole thing, we had to be home at 9:30.

Sunday morning in my new scarf from Grammie.

Cool mural this morning. It says: Cut the strings that hold you prisoner. Say no to laziness.

Hna Garcia and I waiting for the bus after the zone activity (paintball). It is very hot and sweaty. My hair is in braids and are attached together to keep them out of my face. You can see the pedestrail bridge behind us. 

Temple Trip Photos

October 19

Hi Mom, Dad, brothers and people that read my blog,

We had a good week this week. The bishop asked us to go look for the people that we have in the ward lists, but that no one knows or whom no one has seen in several years. In doing this we found a lot of new investigators. Many of these people seem ready to return to church, but just need an invitation and a bit of help in doing so. They also often have children or other family members who will investigate the church for the first time. For example, we talked to Magali, who hasn´t been to church in at least 15 years. She was anger with the church and with God when her son died, but now has calmed down a lot and is thinking about returning to church. She had to work this Sunday, but she sent her daughter and her neice and a family friend to church with us. 

We are also starting to teach a 12 year old girl named Estela who reminds me so much of myself. Her grandfather is an active member of the church, but lives in Santa Cruz. Estela lives with her aunt and grandmother who are both not active although they are aparently members. Estela started coming to church a few weeks ago and, after some confusion with the elders over who was going to teach her, this week we visited her for the first time. She´s really smart and really curious. When we ask most of our investigators what they want to learn with us, they say that they don´t know or whatever we want to teach is fine. Estela on the other hand said that she wants to know more about the Book of Mormon and wants to learn how to pray better. That made us super happy. 

What else happened this week? We had a really dissapointing Sunday afternoon. No one was home and I was generally stressed. Sundays can be really stressful. Most days of the week, we spend all morning in the house studying and then we go out and teach. On Sundays we sometimes (such as yesterday), need to be ready at 7am, call a few people to invite them to church and then be out the door at 7:15 to pick people up and walk (or take a taxi if we´ve late) to church, which starts at 8. All morning we are in a big group of people, talking, coordinating, helping all the investigators feel confortable and know when to go, talking to members, etc.... Then we have ward council with the ward leaders and yesterday we also had a meeting with the ward mission leader and the member of the stake high council assinged to missionary work to go over what the responsibilties of a ward mission leader are. We should have planned time after lunch to go do our personal study, but there wasn´t time because we had appointments set all afternoon. However, almost all of those appointments fell through and we ended up spending an hour in Hna Loida´s kitchen chatting with her family, because we didn´t have any energy to go looking for someone to teach for the last hour before dinner. However, we got to know her daughter who has recently come back from Peru and we will encourage to also come back to church. 

I have pictures!

But they are loading really slowly.

First, photos from going to the statue of Cristo two weeks ago with the brand new missionaries. I took some pictures with Hna Balderrama and Hna Baird, who was taking the pictures, also took one of her self. I´m trying to be more creative with hair styles. 

Hna Garcia and I when we took Loida and Alfonzo to the temple last week. 

Several photos of Loida and Alfonzo, who does know how to smile, but just doesn´t seem to want to for photos. 

The city at night as we left the temple.

One of the relief society sisters borrowed my camera to take pictures of everyone. I{m so happy to have pictures of almost everyone. 

More cool street art. 

Pday last week.

The bus number 3 passes right by the temple and thus in it´s list of places it goes has: Tplo Mormon, which is templo Mormon. Cool, huh?

Thanks for all the cool pictures. I really loved Grammie´s pictures too and bothered my companion to show her all of them. 

I have not gotten a letter from Dad nor the package Grammie sent me for my birthday. It sounds like you didn´t get my birthday card for Robert either. 

I hope you are all well and are enjoying the fall weather. I miss you all and love you and send hugs for everyone. 

Love,

Natalie

PS Yep, this week I reach 1 year in the mission and also two months until Christmas. :)

October 12

Hi Mom, and everyone else because this letter is for the blog.

Things are going well here with my new companion, Hna Garcia. She is from Chile (we are getting a lot of comments about the ocean, but mostly in a friendly joking manner) and is 30 years old. That´s a bit older than most sister missionaries. The mode is probably 20 or 21 like me. (Look I still remember things from math.)  

Hna Garcia and I have a lot in common, both converts, we both like to read, and we are getting along just fine. What I like best about her is that she knows why she´s here in the mission and has strong testimony. She studied early childhood education and has a ton of pets at home (she just showed me photos of her dog´s five new puppies). We are working hard and trying to find more people to teach. 

I was planning to write back to a ton of people who have written to me (Aunt Beth, Charles, Robert, Dad, etc...), but you will have to wait a bit more, because I want to use a bit of my internet time for family history, which I have gotten really excited about.

This Friday we went to the temple with Alfonzo, who got baptised almost 2 months ago, and Loida, his wife, to do baptism for the dead. We helped them organized and enter in internet their own family names and I also gave them each one of mine, my greatgreatgrandparents, Philip Eidemiller and Mary Magdalena Schuck. It was so special to finally do the family history work for my own ancestors. I´ve researched a ton, but I hadn´t actually taken any own the names to the temple. 

Being in the temple with Loida and Alfonzo was a great spiritual experience and it makes me really happy to remember that in a little less than a year they can be selled (I still can´t spell) in the temple with their daughters. 

Dropbox is not loading today so you might not get any photos. 

My feet are doing just fine, just sweaty because it´s hot out. My shoes are holding up just fine and I really apriciate the socks that Grammie´s neighbor gave me. They are the only socks I use and I think they will last the whole mission. 

I love you and hope you are all well. 

today we played capture the flag. It was fun, but very hot out. Pictured: Hna Balderrama, Hna Silva, me, Hna Garcia

October 11

October 5

There´s a new mural under the overpass by the church. It´s not really painted there, just printed on thick plastic. 

My new agenda with women from the scriptures with one of my favorite quotes. I had the same quote on my bedroom door, if you remember. 

One morning we cooked a more complex breakfast than normal. We make orange juice (oranges are cheap, but it´s still more trouble than it´s worth), and a recipe for fried plantains. Ecuador (and other, hotter parts of Bolivia) have about a million ways to cook plantains. These were fried a little, flattened, and then fried again and served with scrambled eggs. 

Hna Palma tried on Hna Eguino´s hat. She then rested her foot and took photos while I tidied Hna Eguino´s house. 

In our area there is a new park with fountains of colored water. It´s really pretty and we stopped outside one day to take a few pictures and a movie that is way too long to send (and also not that clear or interesting).

Women's Conference