December 21

Hi Mom, Hi Mom, Hi Mom,

I am so excited to get to talk to you all later on this week. Even though it´ll only be for about 40 minutes, I can still talk faster than I can type. I will be calling on christmas day at  4PM. I plan to call using your (mom´s) account and will call to dad´s account. If there are any problems I will send a message from this google account.

First the fotos.

 Last monday after internet we went clothes shopping in the cancha. I found, in the used tshirt bin, a lake quinsigamond rowing shirt. I thought of buying it for Charles, but decided not to. See if you can find Bromfield on the back.

We went to the temple to say goodbye to the missionaries who were leaving and ran into Hna Aliaga, my trainer. Actually, we didn´t run into her, she was there to say goodbye to Hna Molina. Anyway, she seems to be doing well and to be happy. she has almost a year out of the mission and is continuing her major in agriculture enginering or something like that.

Here I am with my new companion, Hna Bender. She´s cheerful, chill, and generally really cool. We are trying really hard not to speak in English all the time. She´s from Boise Idaho.

i did get your box last Tuesday. All my presents are waiting for me and the pine cones are all hung up using dentel floss. Between your gifts and grammies I have plenty to open. Plus, President and Hna Hansen gave everyone a stocking with cookies, a kitkat and a chapstick that says Bolivia Cochabamba mission.

I have had a crazy week with Hna Bender showing up and Hna Callata leaving and also it´s started to rain about every other day. It often rains really hard. Tuesday the water almost flooded our pensionista´s house and we spent a good bit of time squeegying out about two inches of water in some places. When in rains it only rains for two or three hours at a time, but it rains really hard and a lot of the streets turn to rivers. It also dries quickly.

In other news, Roberto is going to be baptised this Satuday. His name is cool because he´s Roberto Carlos. He is really looking forward to it and I am very happy for him. He was really looking for the truth and is so happy to have found it. He is reading the Book of Mormon and marking all his favorite parts to read to us. I will tell you more about him and his awesome family on Friday and send you pictures on Monday.

I decided to get over my fears and try to teach all my companions to give back rubs. So far so good. Hna Callata loved it although she was not very good at giving back rubs. Since I´m in Bolivia, I give and get a quick hug and kiss on the cheek about a dozen times a day, but that´s different from someone you can give a good hug to. With all my companions, we´ve hugged each other after each time we pray together, which is a lot. Although, I would very much like a good hug from you, I am not completely without hugs.

Thats all for now because I´ll get to talk to you all soon.

Love, love, love 

Natalie

PS I almost singed off Hna Watt. That´s just who I am here.

PPS. Hna Bender says that Charles looks a lot older that 18 and I agree that he had changed a lot.

December 14

Hi Mom,

I have not gotten the [Christmas] box yet, but as I have Grammie´s package, I will have somthing to open on Christmas morning (or probably in the night, as is the tradition here). 

My companion on the computer next to me, just accidently deleated a lot of her photos and is all stressed. I´m trying to be sympathetic, but I hope it doesn´t put her in a bad mood all day.

I think I have heard of "you´re not special" before. I like the idea because it means that even if you only achieve normal things in your life, you are still a good person. I don´t need to be the best in everything or anything. I just need to achieve good, normal things in my life. I should study hard so that I can be happy with myself, but I don´t need to be in the top 10% of the class. I should work hard as a missionary because I want to please God, but the fact that others have more success does not mean my work is not important. I can do good and important things without being ¨special¨ or extraordinary.

This week we were given our new Christmas video to share with our investigators and the people we try to talk with in the street. Here it is, if you want to see it. I really like the music and the part that says rejoice greatly. It makes me remember and be able to tell people that God wants us to be happy. That´s why He gave us Jesus Christ. 

The photos today are:

A lot of photos outside the temple during intercambios with Hna Chicaiza

The sidewalk outside the temple says missionary walk 2001. I don´t know why or what it´s refering to.

Hna Vilca and I. The camera goes blurry at night.

Hna Callata going through her photos as we wait for lunch to be ready. We eat in the back of the pensionistas store because the kitchen is often crowded. 

I had a LOT more to say, but I didn´t keep track of the time. I´ll write to you first next week and arrange for the skype call too.

I love you all a ton.

Love,

Natalie

December 7

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!! I love you so much and hope you have an awesome birthday. I didn´t find the time to send you anything, but I´m thinking of you all the same. I send you lots of hugs.

This weeks has been once again busy, but very good. I was a bit sick on Tuesday. I ate something on Monday (luke warm papaya juice, I think) that made me sick, but I was better again on Wednesday. We had intercambios, which makes the week both shorter because we are too busy and longer because there is a lot to do.

We are assigned to the sister missionaries in two zones, six companioships, 12 missionaries in total. We do one intercambios per companionship per transfer for everyone. We generally do two intercambios per week. Other months we might have spread them out more, but Hna Callata goes home on the 17th. (they are sending the missionaries who leave this transfer home a week and a half early because it would be sad to get home two days after Christmas). We report on the intercambios to President Hansen and imform him if the sisters need any help from him. If they have problems we also work together with their zone leaders, who often see them more frequently.

Thus I have learned my area pretty quickly and am now able to be here for the day with another sister instead of always being the one who goes to their area.

I realize that my grammar is sometimes coming out wierdly, but I am too lazy to try to think of what would sound better when I know that it´s understandable. I do feel that my Spanish continues to improve. Phone conversations are still the most difficult, but I´m good with just about any other situation. My grammar isn´t perfect in Spanish, but people don´t speak with perfect grammar here anyway, so I´m okay. I no longer have to take the spanish exames. I had so much trouble getting them to work that Hna Hansen looked into it. It turns out that I never had to take them because I was in the MTC for only two weeks. I feel confident with my spanish. I look forward to be able to test my reading skills on spanish books other than the scriptures. The hardest thing to read in spanish for me is our booklet for training new missionaries, but I think that´s because it was translated from English really badly.

I think I will have permission to skype only on Christmas unless you really have a conflict with that date. I would perfer to skype Christmas morning like last year and hope to see the Christmas tree better decorated than last year. :) I have no idea where I will be or with whose computer, but I´ll arrange that the week before.

Thanks for the pictures and the story about your personal earthquake. I and my companion also laughed at the breakdancing story. Don´t worry, we laughed at the story, not at Charles.

One of the things I have been thinking of recently is having an eternal perspective. Thinking of things, especially when making decisions, in the bigger picture. This means remembering who we are, children of God, and that we have a huge potential if we chose to develop it. When I remember to have an eternal perspective, I remember that the decisions I take have consequences. Sometimes it´s little consequences. For example, I think to myself, I don´t want to wash my socks, but if I don´t wash them, I won´t have clean socks tomorrow. Sometimes the consequences are truly eternal. I remember God´s promises in the scriptures, that if I endure to the end and serve with all my heart, might, mind, and strength, I will have eternal life.

I think eternal perspective is what a lot of people, both investigators and some missionaries, lack. If you have eternal perspective, you realize that the spiritual part of life is of much greater importance than the physical and that obedience to realize future blessings is more important that our momentary desires. I guess, delayed gratification is very connected. If I had realized this earlier, I think I would have studied a lot more and made the sacrifice to wake up for seminary more too.

The Fotos:

Temple at dusk. It was actually cloudly for once. It´s starting to be a little cloudlier as it starts to rain occasionaly.

The temple´s nativity scene.

My camera is always blurry at night. I don´t know why. Hna Simons came to the temple from Santa Cruz and we talked for a few minutes. She´s doing well, but says that the transition from the mission to being at home is very hard.

This is how bananas grow.

The mission home is beautifully decorated for Christmas. We went because Hna Callata had her end of mission interveiw (even though she still has two more weeks). 

I love you a ton and hope you have a great week. I miss you, but I stay very busy. I send you lots of love and many happy birthdays and a hug with a kiss on the check, Bolivian-style.

Love,

Natalie

PS If you want to look up Bolivian music, Los Kjarkas are a popular folk music group. There is style of dance from Potosi called Tinku that I especially like.