April 20

Yes, I have a transfer and am going to the Cobija ward (not to be confused with Cobija, which is a province in Bolivia outside of the mission limits and in the jungle). I am going to be with Hna Gonzalez, who is from Puno, Peru, and has a year in the mission. She seems nice from the two times I´ve seen her.

Cobija is in the center of the city and is small and flat, which is pleasent, but not paticularly exciting. Hna Gonzalez says that people aren´t all that receptive, but I´m looking forward to a new type of challenge. I am hoping for more investigators who are sceptical and less who can´t get their minds around the fact that we are neither catholics nor evangelicals (okay, we only have one investigator who has trouble with that, but we do have a couple who can´t read much, which is really difficult for us.)

From what everyone says about Cobija, it´s a lot weathier than villa mexico and thus speak more English. We also are going to share a pension with three other companionships, inculding the secretaries, who work half the time in the mission office. Our area will also include apartment buildings, which means you can´t knock on doors as well. 

This Sunday Hna Nuñez and I gave talks in sacrament meeting on the Plan of Salvation. We only were told about it on Friday late afternoon, but we managed just fine and I think the talks went well. I´m really happy to know that I can plan and give a talk in Spanish with only a few days notice. Mine was actually a bit too long because I had too many scriptures to share and couldn´t bear (bare?) to cut any of them out.  I wanted to type and send it to you to test your Spanish, but I don´t have the time this week.

As promised, I took a lot of photos. First there a ton of photos of my kinder eggs, which I finally found last Monday. I have two little toys to put on my desk and fiddle with during planning sessions.

Roli´s family have five little chicks and Hna Nuñez wanted a photos with one. They also have a super fancy and beautiful yard because Roli´s Dad works as a gardener in the north of the city (wealthy part). The gardener show up more in the pictures with Roli.

The big octopus is the entrance to the parque pulpo, which is a main landmark in villa mexico. We spent a lot of time waiting in the covered basketball court (not pictured) waiting for members to come to acompany us to appointments. We never actually went in the park because it costs 1 bs and is all little kids.

I took pictures with Isabel Catorceno, who is a somewhat less active member of the church. She smiles a lot more in real life, but seems to have the habit of not smiling for photos. I think this comes from the fact that you can´t smile for id photos. Isabel comes to church every Sunday, but she never stays for more than sacrament meeting, so she still doesn´t know a lot about the church after 4 years as a member.

We took pictures with Roli who is a really great investigator, who I´ve written about before. He also didn´t smile. Usually he has a sort of nervous smile.

I took pictures with Hno Lopez, the ward mission leader and his son, whose name I´ve just forgotten. Hno Lopez has improved a ton as a ward mission leader in the last 6 months and is really invested in missionary work.

Next are some photos of the area from a sort of lookout point. The big blue building is a glass factory that serves as a useful landmark.

I took photos with Valeria, an investigator who lives just across from the church. She is now great friends with Noelia. Then we took pictures with a bunch of the young women and jas from the ward. More details about who the people are next week.

My new agenda.

Edith and her brothers, the youngest of whom is investigating the church. Henry, the older brother, is in our ward and teaches gospel principles, but feeds the elders from lindo, because no one from lindo really wanted to.

Then there are a lot of photos from Hna Nuñez´s camara, from the whole time we´ve been together. Description will have to wait, but I think you can figure of a bunch of them.

Thanks for the photos of Charles. I enjoy trying to teach Hna Nuñez about rowing, and new england´s trees.

I get to call home for mother´s day, but I´´m not sure if it´s for the american or bolivian mother´s day. Both are in may, but different days. I´ll figure that out in the next couple of week.

April 13

The six week period is in Spanish a cambio and in English a transfer. At the end of the ¨cambio¨ on Sunday night, we find out our ¨cambios¨or when we are going next. The actually day for moving is Tuesday morning, so that we have Monday to say goodbye and pack. I will know my cambio the next time I write to you,

Hna Nuñez´s cough is finally getting better. We called Hna Hansen and she said it was just a cold, which made me feel a lot better. However, we still spent a couple days being given conflicting medical advice from every single person we talked to. In all of this, I only got slighty sick for two days with a headache and being generally exhausted the first day and a sore throat the second. 

I find it interesting how the way we talk about body shape varies with culture. In Spanish it´s acceptable to call someone ¨gordita¨ and and Hna Nuñez says that she´s had to learn not to say that to gringos (americans) because they get offended. People are also less politically correct about race. For example poking fun at asian names. However, Korean soup operas are hugely popular. 

Going into the center of Cocabamba we often pass a billboard that reminds me of the subject of income inequality. In magazines at home I often saw ads to donate to the smile train that does free surgery on kids with problems in how their lips or nose and mouth are formed. In Cochabamba there is a big billboard with the dates when the children to receive the operations will be selected and what days the operations will be. 

Gender equality is also not an issue I find myself especially interested in, but I have noticed here in Bolivia a real problem for mothers who don´t have daughters. Daughters help with the cooking, cleaning, and laundry and a mother with only sons has a lot more work for herself. 

I finally have a good number of pictures and hope to have even more next week as I say goodbye to people in this area. 

First, Hna Quispe who served in this area a while ago and has since finished her mission came to visit for a day while attending the temple (she´s from la paz).

 Elder Thomson made a cool cardboard suit of armor to talk about the armor of God in a distric meeting. I don´t remember who it is wearing the armour. 

 In Molle Molle (a part of our area) there is a monkey in a tree. It is always there and creeps us out a bit. None of the photos came out very well because the monkey was moving and we felt a little awkward taking photos. 

 Hna Anavel gave us a chocolate egg each with a toy inside. I can´t seem to find any kinder eggs to take a pìcture of, but there are lots from cheaper brands. My little alien spins and tells you si, no, nunca, and tal vez. 

 We took pictures with Magali and Carola (estefani wasn´t home). The girl with the cat on her shoulder is Magali. The three of them got baptized together a bit over a year ago, but have a ton of problems at home that often made it hard to establish a habit of always going to church. 

This morning our district got breakfast (at 10:30) in the center. From left to right we are: Elder Pasten, a new missionary from Chile, Elder Galan, me, hna Nuñez, Elder Laksberger from California, Elder Thomson, also from California and the district leader. None of these photos came out very well either. The restaurante sells saltenñas, something similar to an empanada that they call a wistu and various drinks. I got banana milk which is the closest I could find to a milkshake. It´s milk and sugar and a banana. It´s cold, but not the same as a milkshake.

This Saturday the elders had a baptism. It all turned out well in the end, but we started two hours late because no one showed up to preside for the first hour and a half. To have a baptism we need someone from the bishipric to preside. 

As we arrived there Hna Nuñez and I realized that we had forgotten to go pick up an investigator who was going to come. I felt so bad because Roli is a really great investigator and I was hoping that seeing the baptism would be a spiritual experience for him. However, as we approached the chapel we noticed that Roli was there waiting outside. He had come all by himself! Roli is a really awesome investigators becasue he is a really good christain who actually reads the Bible and trys to apply it to his life. However, all his family goes to an evangelical church which makes it hard for him to choose to come to church with us on Sundays. 

April 6

Thanks for the letter and pictures. I only had two pictures this week and the computer was giving me problems, so you´ll get them next week. 

I finally got your letter (Dad) this Friday along with a letter from Grammie in Newburyport and a Christmas letter from Brother Gentile. Thanks for the news and thoughts. 

I´m sad to hear that Grandma and Grandpa are thinking of getting an apartment. I´ve always had an unrealistic dream of living in the big brick house in Allentown. I agree that they do have a lot of stuff to be moved. I´m thinking of all the old kids books and comics on the little bookshelf downstairs. 

I don´t think there are any mormon spanish phrases. We never say adios, just like in English you rarely say ¨goodbye¨. We say cuidese and hasta luego ( take care of yourself and see you later) when saying goodbye. The missionaries have plenty of slang, but half of it is english. 

It´s interesting to see how people adapt to new places. For example, one sister who has been in the mission a few months longer than me has had a lot harder time adjusting. From what I can see, it´s all about attitude, and also that she came not speaking a word of Spanish and changed areas four times in the amount of time that I´ve just been in one. 

The difference is that she is always finding the things she doesn´t like about Bolivia or all the says that it´s different from the US instead of just accepting it as a different place. Also, she misses home a lot more than I do because; I think, she was a lot less independent before the mission. She was really sad to not be home for Easter, while I was really excited because there are kinder eggs here (I have yet to buy one, but I will this afternoon). 

The only really big thing this week was General Conference, which was great. This is the first time that I actually watched all of conference and I really enjoyed all the messages. It was so much more fun to watch in a group of missionaries (all the norteamericanos watched in a different room to have it in English) than alone at home. The general themes of the conference to me were the family and the atonement of Christ. One of the main messages I got from it is that salvation is not something I can earn through my own works, but only through relaying on Christ. However, we still need to keep the commandments to show our love for God. 

There was also a great message about the parable of the prodigal son that concluded with the message that we are really all the prodigal son. The speaker said that he had often thought of himself as the good son who stayed home, but that he realized that to God we are all prodigal children that must be forgiven even though we have made so many mistakes. In general, it was a beautiful conference and a vacation for the missionaries because we got to watch conference instead of working for two whole days. We only had two hours in the evenings to go visit people. 

Also, semana santa is a big deal here. On Friday night I saw a bunch of Roman soldiers walking down the road, no doubt, going to a reenactment at a nearby church. The tradition is to cook on Friday 12 different dishes and eat fish instead of meat. Most people cooked fish and a couple of the dishes, but not all. We can´t eat fish. :(

I love you all and look forward to the emails each week. Keep doing exciting things to write to me about. :)

Thanks for the reminder that germs cause illnesses, not weather. Everyone mentions the changeable weather when explaining why people are sick and I don´t even know the word for germs in Spanish, but there was clearly a cold or flu going around last week as the weather turned a little colder (not that much colder, in my New Englander opinion).

I´m glad you could figure out how to help Charles´ health. Hna Graciela, who got baptised a few weeks ago, has really bad asthma and ends up going to the hospital every couple of weeks. I am embarrassed to say that almost all of my knowledge about asthma comes from fanfiction, but it was very well researched fanfiction, so I know a lot more about asthma than Hna Nuñez. 

Hna Anavel's struggles with her kids (who are 8 and 4) seem very familiar to me. She is contantly fighting with Joanna, who is 8, over her homework. We try to tell her to be patient, that she´s only a little kid, and that it´s okay if she makes mistakes in her homework, but Hna Anavel is often upset with Joanna, which makes the whole house unhappy. My apologies to the boys for all the times I was yelling at you and they were just trying to eat dinner. Any advice we can give Hna Anavel? 

Oh, thanks for the family photos. Everyone says I look just like you (Mom), which I take as a compliment, and that we all look the same.

March 30

I´m sorry my last email made you worry about me. I really am enjoying Villa Mexico. Although I am looking forward to a transfer and getting to know somewhere new, I will also miss this area and all the people a ton. I feel comfortable in the ward and haven´t gotten us lost for ages. 

The fact that the last few months of one´s mission are the hardest to focus is well known among the missionaries. This feeling is called being ¨trunky¨ or ready to pack your trunk. Although, not all the Spanish speaking missionaries seem to realize that this is a word in English and not just mission slang. (and spell it tronki)

I´m glad you saw the pictures of our sister missionary gathering. It was a lot of fun. We had some lessons from the sister training leaders, a self defense class, a really nice dinner, and watched the general women´s broadcast. The self defense class was super short, but we learned some good, martial arts-y moves to get someone´s hands away from you or off your bag. The main difference with Impact is the length of the class, but also that Impact's main advice was not to be afraid to elbow or knee them as hard as you can, while this was more learning different moves that you can use to control the situation. 

Easter is a little confusing because for all the catholics the whole week is equally important (I think) and not just Easter. Also, we have General Conference this weekend, so there´s no Easter program at Church at all. Also, Easter is pedestrians´ day in all of Cochabamba, which means there are no cars or motorcycles anywhere and everyone has to walk or bike. This is a great idea in general because everyone dusts off their bikes and the little kids can use the whole street for tricycles and scooters without worrying about cars. However, it´s always on General Conference and some of the members live really far from the chapel. Dia peatonal is always the first is april, which happens to be easter this year, but is always general conference.

there weren´t any cars Sunday either because of elections (cars, motorcycles, and gathering of large groups are prohibited on election day). We couldn´t have church either.

The animal from last week wasn´t there anymore. I´m not sure if it got sold or just kicked out for eating someone´s pet bird. 

Pictures this week are of Hna Nuñez reciving her ¨carta trunky,¨ which has her instructions about the last few weeks of her mission. She has only one more transfer after this one. Behind her you can see the votes for what we are going to do the pday after this one. The decision is paintball again, because there isn´t really much to do in Cochabamba. Aparently, there used to be bowling, but the bowling place closed a few months before I got here. Today is going to be really boreing because it´s the very end of the month and no one has any money. 

Then there are two blury pictures of the temple at night. The mission home is just across the street from the temple, so I took these pictures as we were leaving. President Hansen also gave us roses, which I put in water bottles on the counter. The pink one is mine. 

Other news is that Jose Maria Leyes won the election for mayor. Since we don´t read the news I know the names and colors of the different parties well, but not any of the issues. 

Also, Hna Nuñez has had a cold and bad cough for days now, which I have still managed to avoid catching. I think it comes from the way the weathers been lately. Cold, rainy nights and really hot during the day. I got sun burnt again, but not too badly. 

This week we had intercambios with the sister training leaders and I went with Hna Rumaldo to her area, villa luz. This intercambio wasn´t as eventful as the last one and was really just a normal day in someone else´s area. They eat lunch with two pairs of elders and the elders are fun, but just as immature as ours were when we ate with elders. 

Thank you for all the pictures. Who took them? They turned out very well. I think Charles looks different, but I´m not sure how. 

March 23

Thank you for your emails, for your thoughts and the news from home. The news here is that we thought we were going to be stuck inside for all of next Sunday because of election, but it turns out that we have a normal day, except that church is canceled. The elections are for mayor, governor, and some other smaller things and are a much bigger deal than those are in the US, as far as I remember. Gathering in large groups is prohibited and thus, we don´t have church.

The other big news here in Bolivia is that a few weeks ago the main bridge to Santa Cruz gave out and now trucks have to use a really old and out of shape road to go to the west of the country. I think this affects most fruit prices because most of the fruit come from Santa Cruz, but I don´t pay enough attention to fruit prices to really notice. 

We´ve had a pretty good week. Although almost all the members who were going to come visit with us canceled on us, which is disappointing. I also reached (I don´t know what verb to use here. In Spanish we use cumplir-to turn (an age)) 5 months in the mission. I´m not brand new anymore. 

I have plenty of photos this week.

First are several of us with Luis Fernando, who is currently our best investigator. I don´t know why he´s not smiling in the pictures. He is generally a very happy person, despite all the problems he has in his life. He is 76. He always surprises us by how much he understands the Book of Mormon because he sometimes doesn´t seem to understand us. However, I think it´s more that he doesn´t feel the need to directly answer our questions when he has other things he wants to talk about. He hasn´t come to church yet because his wife is very sick and can´t be left alone and his two teenage grandchildren, who live with them, aren´t very reliable. However, he´s a really awesome person and, now that the ward is starting to take him seriously, I think he will progress more. Also, he has a really old Book of Mormon because his stepson, who died several years ago, was a member of the church.

Then we have pictures with Brenda, who is the cousin of members of our ward and lives just around the corner from them. We aren´t teaching her a lot because she´s only 10, but she likes to come to activites and made us cute little foam thingys. 

We went to the temple with Noelia and Graciela this week. They are doing great. I didn´t realize until now how much Nicole, who got baptized in December, is struggling in comparison. The Cochabamba temple is really beautiful. I like how the walls for the first floor are slanted like Incan building are. (You can´t really see it in the picture.)

Magali, Estefani, and Corala have a new pet/animal that happens to live in their house. They already have a ton of small dogs, a rotating half dozen cats, and a random sheep. I don´t think what this thing is (I forgot), but it is very much a wild thing and not a pet. Carola is the girl in yellow and the little girl is her younger sister, Leonor. Magali and Estefani are a bit older and are not in the photos. The older 3 were baptized a little more than a year ago and are technically active in the church, but need a lot of support. 

This week we finished an assignment from the president´s assistant (2 elders who serve as councilors). They gave us a 3 week long schedule of scriptures to read and things to ponder each day all on the topic of Christ and the Atonement. I enjoyed it because I read closely a lot of great scriptures that I can now use in lessons and because it really increased my testimony of Christ and the importance and reality of the Atonement. 

I find it hard to believe that Robert is taller than Dad. You all sound really busy and constantly doing new and different things. I am also really busy, but always with the same things, just the people change occasionally. 

March 16

This week we had a fun activity with a bunch of the young single adults. We (the 4 missionaries in the ward and the ward mission leader, Hno Lopez) invited them to come on Saturday afternoon to talk about missionary work and make and eat pizza. Everything ran very late, but it turned out well in the end and we hope to have more people who want to come visit with us.

We continue to visit Noelia and Graciela several times a week to keep supporting them. We also really enjoy visiting Noelia and Graciela. They are doing well and happy to see us. It makes me really happy when Noelia asks us questions that show she is reading her Book of Mormon really closely and how excited they both are to go to the temple with us next week.

This Sunday one of the leaders from the stake came to give a talk in our ward, reviewing a few things from the stake conference the previous week. He gave an example of how we should try to learn from conferences and lessons in general. Once there was a penguin who knew how to fly. All the other penguins wanted to learn too, so he said he would teach them. The next day all the penguins came to learn how to fly and practiced all day until they could fly. Then they all walked home. He explained that when we learn something in conference or at church we also need to apply it and remember it when we go home.

This Sunday, like most, I felt like I was herding cats trying to get everyone to go to their classes. Daniela wouldn´t enter relief society without us, but we had to go track down Loida to get her to go too. Also, everytime we turned around Alejandro and Kevin escaped from young men´s. And, half of the primary is always in the hallway, which the ward is trying to work on and isn´t really our responsibility, but we try to help too. We finally got everyone into their proper classes more than halfway into the hour and finally entered relief society ourselves. Herding cats.

The photos are: my continuing adventures in braiding my hair, a cheap hard candy called ¨watt´s,¨ and a bunch of photos from today. We went to pyramani, which is more or less and national park. We barbaqued, which was very yummy, but just like in the US had lots of flys and some bees. We also hiked about 20 minutes to see a small waterfall and some very steep cliffs. This is all about an hour and a bit from my area, on the other side of the city. 

Oh, my shoes came. They seem great, but I will try to wait at least a month more before using them.