June 8

I don´t think I have any photos this week and don´t really have time to deal with them if I do because I need to take my online spanish test which we take every 3 months or so.

I´m glad to hear that the grandparents are well. Everyone looks great and very sunny. It is also rather hot here today, but only in the middle of the day. Before 10 or 11 and after 6 it gets rather chilly. I went to church this sunday with a scarf and gloves and everyone was talking about how cold it was.

 Thanks for mailing the skirts. The other things still haven´t gotten here, but I´m hoping they´ll come next week.

We went to visit Roselyn and her baby on Wednesday. We only got to see the baby for a few minutes, but she´s adorable and is named Valeria. She has tiny, long fingers and everyone says she looks like her father, although I just think she looks like a baby.

Each agenda is for one cambio and has a page for each day.

Yep, success in the mission is determined by how hard one is working, how obedient you are to the mission rules, that you can feel the spirit as you teach, etc... However, it´s much harder to keep knocking on doors or walk half and hour to an appointment if people always say that they are busy, or are catholics or if when you get to the appointment no one is home. It´s the difference between finding internal motivation and being motivated by the people and events around you.

You can caption the photos for 3 mile yourself, I don´t know what I would say. I was thinking of tmi this week on a cold morning when I smelled a wood fire and thought of sitting by in fire in the minutes before breakfast.

Usually, I have a list of things I want to write to you, but this week not much happened to write about. We knocked on a lot of doors because we are trying to increase the number of investigators we have and a decent number of people said we could come back latter. The new missionaries arrived like they do every 6 weeks and we got to take one of them with us for the afternoon to our appointments. It was pretty cool because it made us more concious of how we are teaching and encouraged us to do everything just right, for example leaving good, clear commitments and ask for referals.

Right now I´m just feeling really tired because I wasn´t feeling that great this morning. I get sick so rarely, that I´m really wimpy when I´m feeling a little bad and just want to go back to bed. Hna Gonzales is much better at going out an working even when she feels poorly or tired. She has some osrt of bacteria or parasites in her stomach, which went away when she took some medicine against them, but now seem to be back. Also her back and feet often hurt, but she finally got new shoes today, which I think will help a lot.

Prayer is really helpful. We pray so much everyday, to ask for guidance, to have the Spirit with us, to pray for the people we teach, everything. You touched on a really important part of prayer, listening. A lot of people forget that prayer is a two way communication. It´s not just us talking at God, but also Him responding and we have to be patient and listen quietly to know the answers. We have to learn how it is that God speaks to us specifically, whether it´s more in our thoughts or our feelingings. Learning how to listen to God{s answers takes practice and also faith to keep praying as we slowly learn to listen, how to know what is the Spirit and what are our own thoughts. Something we always recommend to investigators is to ask specific questions so that they can get specific answers and understand them more easily. Because the Spirit isn´t a loud voice, or usually even an audible voice. It´s a whisper to your heart or mind that says yes, that´s good or, for me, reminds me of a scripture that answers my question or gives me guidance. There´s a scripture in the Old Testament of the prophet Elijah´s communication with God that says, ¨11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings 19:11-12).

June 2

June 1

Happy Birthday, Dad! 

The photos came through just fine. The yard looks very green and summery. We are feeling the winter more here. It still gets really hot and sunny in the middle of the day, but for fewer hours than it did a few months ago. However, the seasons aren´t that distinct and San Juan´s day (the winter solstice) is celebrated with barbaques. 

You were right that we didn´t change at all this cambio. I wasn´t that surprised because we had only been together one cambio, but Hna Gonzales was really hoping and half expecting to leave, so she was really sad. She seems disappointed more easily by the lack of success here in Cobija, but we are learning to get along a bit better. 

This week we had stake conference and in the middle of the Saturday night session they announced that Elder L Tom Perry, one of the Twelve, had died. It was sad, but President Hansen reminded us in his talk (the stake had invited our mission president to give a talk) that Elder Perry had lived a long, good life and was now reunited with his wife and other family members who had died. The conference in general was really good, but none of the people we invited came.

Hna Gonzales and I eating choripan (chorizo is sausage and pan is bread), a close realitive to a hamburger, but with a sausage cut open and grilled. In addition to tomatoes and onions it has cold, cooked carrots.

 More cool street art that just recently got painted, but the pictures didn´t turn out well because cars kept passing. 

My little cactus thing. I think it´s adorable, but none of the pictures turned out very well.

 Cool street art that I took a picture of to send to Hazel. 

My new agenda, which I think came out pretty well. I really love the quotes that Sister Meyers sent with me to put on agendas.

There are about 210 missionaries and about 20 missionaries per zone, so I think there are about 10 zones. At least 6 of which are in Cochabamba. Everyone pays a lot of attention to the new missionaries because we are interested in who they are and where they are coming from and if they´ve seen the latest movies. The missionaries who are leaving get teased. 

I don´t really remember Joshua. [I told her that my cousin and his wife are expecting a baby in September.--Kathie] Is he the one that teaches history?

Thanks for the photos. Robert looks a lot like Logan in this photo and the rocks are all crisp and in focus. :)

I love you all.

-Natalie

PS I´m going to try to send you some of the photos from the mission´s dropbox, because I´m not allowed to give you the password and name. 

PS There is a graduation gift for Charles that I left. It´s wraped in brown paper with yellow and blue ribbons.

May 25

Thanks for your great email. Hna Gonzales also says that I am thought of as pretty calm among the missionaries in the pension.

Thanks for sending me things, I'll let you know in a few weeks when I get them.

There´s not much to say about this week and I don't have any pictures. This morning we went as a zone (13 people) to play wally (volibol in a boxlike room like racket ball) and eat pizza. I´m not a huge fan of wally, but I like pizza and doing things as a zone. Hna Gonzales took some pictures so I might send them to you in a few weeks.

Yes, missionaries go to Potosi in addition to Cochabamba and Sucre, also Tupiza, Villazon, and Quiriza, but the last two only have elders. I´m not sure what you mean by zones within Cochabamba (or Cbba for short). Within the department (state) of Cbba there are a dozen or so provinces (a county, more or less, I think), but I don´t know their names. With in the city of Cbba places in the city are refered to by if they are in the north or south or near a major road and, within the church, by stake and ward. There are about 7 or so stakes in the city. Yes, there is a ton of uninhabited parts. I have trouble discribing how Acton isn´t in the city, but isn't a pueble (village) either.

I also think that Hna Gonzales and I will stay together this cambio. We are getting along okay. I wish she was more patient with my Spanish, which is good, but not perfect, and I'm sure she wishes I would hear her right the first time, and not be so awkward over the phone, and who knows what else bothers her, but mostly we get along okay.

We had a great zone meeting lesson Tuesday (every Tuesday we have district meeting for about an hour and zone meeting for about half an hour) about being in the present. We read the scripture that says for everything there is a season and the story of Lot's wife who looked back to the city thinking about her riches that she was leaving behind and what she would like to do with them in the future instead of focusing on the present moment and what she was supposed to be doing in that moment. Thus we've been joking a lot this week about how we shouldn´t do our daily and weekly planning because that is thinking about the future. But really, it's very good advice to stay in the moment and not be thinking about the next month or next pday.

Other interesting things I´ve noticed about Bolivia is the traces of socialism/comunism. For example, a little boy in a family we teach is called Vladimir Ilich (he goes by ilich, who his mother tells us was someone important in the Russian revelution). Also, an investigator, Gonzalo, who is a bit elderly, likes to tell us all about what Bolivia was like when he was younger, including spending several months traveling and working on different farms. He says that a group of people would be invited to a farm, harvest rice all day and dance and party in the night and the next day be invited to another farm and do the same thing until the rice harvesting season was over. He says it was great fun for a young adult, but that in the end you worked all month or more without gaining anything. I actually don´t know anything about how Bolivia´s politics work, despite paying attention to the city elections (the people with the green banners won is about all I know).

I'm glad you were able to have lunch with Heather and Beth. Aunt Beth is writing to me every once in a while, which is cool.

extras

May 18

Thank Dad for all the lovely photos. They also make me hungry (We're going to go get lunch after this). I'm having to learn how to budget a bit more lately. I bought a scripture cover for my Bible at the temple, and payed two months worth of fast offering that I had forgotten about, and some other little things this month more than I usually do and am having to think more about what i am going to spend my money on for the rest of the month. I mention this because I am thinking of what I will buy to eat for breakfast. Bread is super cheap and filling, but not as healthy as oatmeal or granola, etc. Fruit is also relatively cheap, except for apples, but goes bad pretty quickly. 

If you want to send me music, I asked and Handel's Messiah is definitly missionary music. CD, although it scratchs eventually, is the best way for me to play music. At the moment our dvd player does usb music too, but not all do.  

Interesting things that happened this week( I can't find a colon on this keyboard)

We are teaching someone who looks a bit like a younger Matt Riley and also acts a bit like him.

I only have two new photos. Hna Gonzales and Elder Mandujanu making invitations for an activities we are going to have in a week or so.

We saw a church with a funny no parking sign. Most places say prohibido estacionar or prohibido parquear (parking forbidden). This one says it's a sin to park there. 

The photos from last week are of the goodbye party for Hna Zaida, who is moving back to Utah, with the relief society. It was pretty fun. Everyone brought a lot of food and danced to fairly out of date spanish music. Now one sister is trying to get me to give her the photos, but, as she admits, doesn't understand anything about technology. I sent them to her email, but she doesn't understand how to open her email on her smartphone.

Things have gone much better with Hna Gonzales since Monday. We talked and agreed that Mondays are generally stressful for both of us. For me because I feel like I have too much to do and not enough time and for her because she is more introverted than I am (I'm finding that I'm not actually all that introverted) and we spend too much time Mondays in big groups of missionaries in crowed, noisy places. Today we are just going to internet, buying lunch and a few other odds and ends and going home  because we have a ton of stuff to get caught up on, which feels a lot calmer and more relaxed. 

In general we are getting along much better than last week and learning to understand each other better. Hna Gonzales says she's going to learn to be more patient and I am trying to be more loving and have charity. I've been studying a bunch about charity in the scriptures, which are very clear about how important charity (also translated as love) is. There's the most famous 1 Corinthians 13 that says that even if you have a ton of faith or good works, if you don't have charity, it doesn't help you and that "who is found with it (charity) in the last day, it shall be well for him" or something like that. 

There is also a passage in the Pearl of Great Price in which Enoch and Jesus are talking and Enoch asks Him why He is crying when He is allpowerful and allknowing and everything. Jesus responds saying (more or less), look at my creations (the works of my hands), who I love, to whom I gave agency and knowledge, They are without love between each other. 

Thus, I am trying to be more charitable and loving, especially with Hna Gonzales.

Yes, Roselyn is very pregnant. She's probably going to have her baby (a girl called Louisse) in the next few weeks. She has a good deal of support from her mom and her motherinlaw lives in the same building and also friends in the ward. We also go visit her a lot. Although, we are trying to visit her more to really help her and not just because she wants the company, because we spent way too much time with her this weekend when we could have been visiting other people too. She wanted help making cupcakes for the baby shower (for some reason baby showers here are almost always right at the end of the pregnancy) and we thought that would take about 2 hours, maybe less. We ended up spending the whole afternoon there, making a ton of cupcakes because the first batch didn't turn out good enough and the recipe was pretty complex. I try to be very patient explaining teaspoons and tablespoons and that you have to follow the recipe when baking, especially the first time, but sometimes I just have to let her cook the way she wants to and add bicorbonato even though the recipe didn't call for it. 

As missionaries we are always talking about truth and testifying that things (the church, the Book of Mormon, the priesthood) are true. However, I've been thinking more lately about what things are important. The problem most church member have isn't knowing if somethings if TRUE, but realizing how important it is. There are a lot of things that I know are true that I would like to teach people sometimes, such as how to follow a recipe, dental hygine, how to speak English, how to use a smartphone. However, those things aren't really as important. They aren't what I want to spend 18 months doing. The gospel, on the other hand, is both true and extremely important. I've know for ages that the Book of Mormon is true, but am just know learning how much it can actually change my life. 

Speaking of Roselyn again, there are so many little babies in this area. The first week here I got to hold a little baby who was only a week old while visiting an investigator (it's her sister's baby). There's also a less active sister who has a 4 month old, and now Roselyn's baby. All of the mothers are only a tiny bit older than me and the same age as my companion, which we find really weird. Neither of us feels nearly old enough to have children.

I will almost certainly choose may 3rd [2016, to return home], becasue it's closer to april 22nd and lets me complete my full 18 months. I still doesn't know what I want to study. Linguistics interests me a lot, but it doesn't feel very practical. I'd like to try to learn Arabic again or maybe do something math related.

PS Would you send me my recipe for chili.
It's in my 13wattn email because you sent it to me at BYU. I still haven't cooked any of the recipes that you've sent, except for pancakes. To make pancakes, I've had to add a lot more milk than the recipe calls for because I cant get the stoves to go low enough to cook the pancake through without burning when it's thick, but it tastes the same. 

May 11

No email today, because we saw and heard Natalie via skype this afternoon! She is lovely! Her new assignment is very challenging, so keep the letters and emails of support headed her way.