April 25: the penultimate post!

Hi Mom and everyone,

How nice to hear from you. As I get closer to seeing you I think of you more and more.

The good news it they are not beg bugs, but fleas. A few weeks ago the family that we live with got a new dog, which they found on the street and took in because it looked just like the old dog that had died a few months ago. However, it was very badly behaved and had a ton of fleas even after being bathed. They decided to get rid of it and yesterday took it to get adopted by a nice little family who aparently have enough space for a medium sized dog. Thus the fleas can from the dog and we are hoping that they will disapear in a few days. We are also treating them with a lot of antiflea spray, and bug spray and anti-itch cream. Any other advice for fleas?

Although I do not think they are bed bugs at all any more (we never found any in the bed or sheets and they don{t bite much at night, mostly when we are sitting at our desks in the morning and evening). I still think washing everything (in a less extreme way) would not be a bad idea. Just because I neve trust neither hand washing or the tiny little washing machine, that we are only allowed to use on the lowest setting, really get things clean. 

Who am I now? I don{t know if I{ve changed a lot. I{ll let you decide that one, but I am a little different. I think I am more social and aware of other people. Although, I still wish more more alone time that I get as a missionary. I still don{t like doing lots of things at once and get stressed by too much activity, but maybe less so. Other all, I have more defined goals for my life and who I want to be and what I want to do. My faith is stronger and I can better articulate what I believe and why. the main thing that I have learned is how to notive defects in myself and strive to change them. That doesn{t mean that I have succeded yet, but at least I know how to try. I hope to spend lots of time chatting with you and dad and the boys and seeing how you have and haven{t changed. 

I got Dad{s letter yesterday and was sooo happy with it. I translated it out loud to  hna Vilchez, like I do with most of my letters. I had been feeling pretty confident in my Spanish abilties (I am practicing sight translation and trying to translate out loud in real time from our church videos too). However, I could not translated any of the political parts. I look forward to reading more things other than church materials in Spanish and perfecting more my Spanish.

I loved the updates on the news. I can{t believe that Trump is actually winning the republican primary. Bolivia is pretty unanimously against him (if it is that they follow international news) and I thought it was more of a joke that got the media attention. Will I be home in time to vote in the primary? or did it already pass for Massachusetts?

Yesterday I gave a talk in church after only getting 3 days notice. I had to speak on sustaining our leaders and think I did a decent job. I found a good balace between writing out everything and winging it by writing my keypoints and a few parts that I wanted to explain in a particular way. I was going to speak for 15 minutes, but at last minute I was asked to speak for only 10, but that was okay because my talk when I praciticed it was only 13 minutes and it wasn{t too hard to shorten a little. I think of it as a test run for speaking in the Acton Ward. I know now that I can talk for 15 minutes without making a fool of myself. 

I focused my talk on why be sustain our leaders and the manner in which is church is organized by God in the same way in all eras. We can trust our leaders because God is trusting them. 

We have a great investigator named Yamile (Ja-mil-e). She is a young lawyer who rents the office under our room. She has come to church 4 times in a row now and is reading the Book of Mormon. She says that she hasn{t recieved an answer to her prayer to know if the Book of Mormon is true yet, but that she really likes the church and the things that she{s learning with us. I am very hopeful that she will be ready to be baptized in a month or so. Hna Vilchez has a photo of us. Maybe she{ll pass it to me. 

Thanks of the photos of the boys. I finally got all my photos loaded. The only ones that are from this last week are the last few with the dog. (I took the pictures to send to Hna Bender who met the family when the dog was tiny only a few months ago. All the girls are friends of a less active member who let us in even when all her friends were over studying biochemistry and we introduced ourselves to them all and after a fun conversation got their direction to visit them or send the other missionary. 

I love you all so much. I miss you a ton. I can{t wait to give you all a big hug (and probably a kiss on the check too, because that{s what I{m used too. ) I love you.

April 18

Thank you for the email. I might also get lazier with shorter emails in these last weeks. I don{t think I will call on Sunday of mother{s day because I will be busy with my last visits to people in Cochabamba. I also will not email on Monday the 9th.

I don{t know if anyone will travel with me, but I expect that there will be other missionaries with me until Panama or maybe until DC. I am finishing the mission with 2 other american sister and one american elder, but if they are going to the west coast we might part ways in Panama. 

I know the first names of most of my companions because of offical documents or email addresses, etc, but we never use them. 

Well, this has been a decently eventful week. 

First off, we are battling either beg bugs or fleas for the last two or so weeks. I washed all my clothes and sheets in hot water and it got a bit better, but we think the dogs of the member who we live with probably have fleas and we are going to buy some spray today to try to get rid of them. However, this has been a good learning experience for me because I have learned that I am capable of dealing with bugs without stressing out or thinking about it all the time.

Today we went to a village/town about an hour away called Tarbuco. (see photos) It was very peaceful, but there is completely nothing to do. It seems that there is a big Sunday fair that all the tourists go to, but early Monday morning everything is closed. We wandered around a bit, took photos, and had a adventure of finding a public restroom when they were all closed. One of the elders taught us to make a peashooter with a part of a plastic bottle and a balloon and we shot peas (which he just happened to have with him) at each other and for distance. 

On Friday we had a conference with all the missionaries outside of Cochabamba (Sucre, Potosi, Tupiza, Villazon, Uyuni) in Potosi. We visited very briefly the outside of the Mint House in the center (see pictures) and then had a lovely conference. I gave my testimony because it is my last zone conference. Potosi, the little that we saw of it, was very pretty, with an old colonial feel. However, the altidud gave me a headache and the trip home make everyone car sick because the driver went very fast around about a million curves. 

We met a great new investigator this week. Claudia felt like something out of 12 weeks (our training videos) because she expressed so openly that she is looking for something more in her life to improve her relationship with God. She has two cute little kids and we haven{t met her husband yet. It makes me so happy to be able to teach someone who really wants to learn more and to feel closer to God in her life. I know that this gospel will help her and her family.

I love you so much and can{t wait to see you all and hug you. I will have 18 months in the mission on the 22nd and then I will have 18 days left after that. Actually for me, I will only have until the 5th in sucre, working normally, then I go to Cochabamba for end of mission activities and time to visit my old areas. I love you so much. I miss you a lot.

April 11

Hi Mom and family and people who read the blog (does anyone actually read it?),

Thanks for the letter and news.

Those plans sound great. You can also invite ward people who we know if you run into them (like the Winroths and Whatcotts and Sister Pierce), if you want. 

I{ll pray for Tracy. Do you have any pictures of her purple and green hair?

I am also very enthusastic to hug all of you. I was trying not to count how much time I have left, but it is now a lost cause. Next Sunday I will introduce myself in our ward sacrament meeting (last week was stake conference and the previous was general conference so we haven{t meet as a ward) and after that I have only 2 more Sundays in that ward. 

I forgot my flash and my memory reader so you aren{t getting any photos this week. Sorry.

This morning Hna Vilchez and I went to the dinasaur park here in Sucre. It has impressive foot prints and a lot of cement dinasaurs (yes I know that it{s spelled wrong). I don{t know how realistic they all are, but it was pretty fun. Hna Vilchez took photos of absolutely everything and I might send a few to you if I have time. 

This week we had a good experience as we visited a reference that a member had given us of her less active mother and the girl (employee, I don{t know how to express that in English) who lives with her. They immediately welcomed us in and we were able to get to know them well. They are both very ready to return or start coming to church. The only thing that gets in the way in the lack of support of the husband, but we feel very hopeful to teach them. Every so often we meet awesome people that make us excited to keep teaching.

I am enjoying Sucre. I am getting to know the area quickly. There are a ton of international tourists in the center, which is just so wierd to me to hear people other than missionaries speaking in English. However, in the other parts of our area there are just the normal Bolivians who live there. 

I love you. I almost forgot to send this. 

April 4

I{ve had a good week with lots of new things. I already know Hna vilchez and I enjoy being her companion. We live in two little room, but we make every thing fit (expect a few photos).

Sucre is very nice. It is cooler here than in Cochabamba, although it still gets pretty hot and sunny in the middle of the day. Sucre is known for being very clean, which is it. There are a lot of toursits and also a lot of cholitas and also a good number of menonites, who are very blonde and European-looking. 

I enjoyed watching general conference, but I had to watch the majority in Spanish because I am the only white sister in Sucre (there are only 6 sisters in all), and there was no one to accompany me to the room where it was shown in English. But, I understand it just fine in Spanish. I just perfer to hear the original voices of the speakers. There were beautiful messages on a range of topics, but the ones that especially called my attention were about the importance of the temples. It renewed my desire to visit the temple as often as possible. In the Women{s conference the theme was service, both close to home and helping the refugees all over the world. 

You should find photos of:

pday with the zone in cbba

sights in sucre

Early morning sun and shots out the window.

colored lights in the park at night

pictures from our trip this morning with the other missionaries. We went up to Cristo Negro where a lot of people apparently sacrifice things and judging by the bottles, drink a lot. We hiked up (a little less than an hour) and down again.

Surprise, new hair cut. I really like how it turned out. I want to buy new glasses too, but I think I will wait to be home to do so. How much to glasses cost in the US? Because they aren{t as cheap as I thought they would be here. 

Thanks for the fall class schedule. It looks great. I{ll make the changes that we already talked about after I get home or after summer term. 

I think that{s all for this week. I love you all so much. I can{t wait to see you all in just a few weeks.

March 28

Yes, I do have cambios. i am going to Sucre!!!!! The ward is called Estacion and I will be with Hna Vilchez, who I already know pretty well. I am really excited because I know that Hna Vilchez is a hard worker who will help me to be diligent and to learn more. Also, the new ward will stop me from thinking too much of home because I will have to get used to a brand new city and a brand new ward.

I´m a little sad to not end the mission with Hna Bender, but I know that it´s for the best and that we will get to hang out in the US. I am not too sad to leave the ward. It´s a good ward, but it is also not the most supportive of the missionaries and I didn´t form strong friendships with many people.

This week we went to the temple with Brayan and Roberto, which was very special and very spiritual for everyone. I love visiting the temple and I am glad that I was able to go before I leave for Sucre.

Easter was very chill and uneventful. Really there was nothing Easter related going on. There were a lot of chocolate eggs for sale and we bought some. The catholic churches had a lot of stuff going on, but we barely even mentioned Easter at church, which was kind of weird. Here, the catholic tradition is to visit 12 different churches on Friday, which caused a lot of traffic. And no one eats meat for a few days, which is hard because no one eats fish either, it´s just a lot of pasta and rice and some lentils.

As you have seen on facebook we had the sisters´ conference on Saturday which was very fun and also spiritual. Hna Bender and I were assinged to teach about sacrifices. We dressed up as lamanites and sacrificed Lambie in a tissue paper fire. We then talked about modern sacrifices (our time, a broken heart and contrit spirit, personal interest for a more important task) and asked the sisters to write a personal sacrifice on a scrap of paper and put it into our ¨fire¨.

Hna Bender is feeling much better. We finally just figured out that she wasn´t still sick, but had been so sick for so long that she just had to take a lot of care of her stomach and let the good stomach flora grow back. However, she´s okay now.

I don´t really want to work at Kmart because I want to try out babysitting and get at least a little experience with it. I already know how to work at kmart or a similar store and know how to do it. However, I have almost never babysat and I think it is something that I should learn how to do at least a little.

I will fill my time with good things. I plan to volunteer (food project probably), visit the temple, get organized for classes (review some stuff for calc 1), help with the dog, etc...

That conversation about doubt and belief and everything sounds so interesting, but it is very hard to have deep conversations by email. I hope to be able to chat and philosophize with you all soon.

One of the things that I have learned about faith recently is that it is avery personal thing. By that I mean that you cannot borrow it from another personal or try to lend it or even tell someone else how to get it. Everyone has to find their own faith in their own journey. While we can try to help and support each other in their journeys, we can´t do it for them. For example, as we have taught Brayan and Roberto, who were recently baptised, we don´t know which things that we teach will really touch them or not and the moment when the faith and testimony really come is generally not a moment when we are there, but when they decide to pray or to study the scirptures on their own.

It sounds like my little brothers are all grown up now. Robert has a real summer job and Charles is all thoughtful and independent. I have missed a lot and also missed a lot when I was in college. I´m used to Roberto as someone who still doesn´t make his own snack and takes an eternity to put his shoes on, so I will be very suprised to see how much you have all changed.

Mom, your new hair cuts looks good. Roberts new glasses do too. I am hoping to also get new, cooler glasses and cut my hair to my chin or maybe a half and inch longer than that.

Well,  next Monday I will write to you from Sucre. (I´m traveling there tomorrow morning. It´s only a 30 minute flight.)

March 21

please excuse the lack of capital letters. the key is stuck and doesn´t make capitals.

i´ve had a busy and wierd week. in summary, hna bender went to the hospital because we were certain that her appendix was bad, but they declared her perfectly healthy and sent her home even though her stomach was still hurting. We participated in the ward talent show with barely two minutes of preparing our act (we prepared a different thing, but at last minutes dicided that it was too dark and violent. it was a christian rap song that brayan found online called el assaltante, if you want to try to google it.) We had stake conference on Saturday night and sunday, which was very nice and one of our investigators sang in the young woman´s choir. we also were invited and tried to go to a catholic baptismal service of robert and brayan´s neice, but we got there too late and it was already ending. We still got to poke around a very busy catholic church for a bit. It was palm sunday and very full. 

i think it was very different from Dad´s experience with the early morning latin mass. we were in a big cathlic church in the mid afternoon it was full of noisy parishors, people on their phones or taking picture, a few beggers, and a lot of people outside selling palm fronds, rosaires, and snacks. It was very pretty with all the paintings and candles, but made me remember when Christ cast the people selling things out of the temple for lack of reverance.

Oh, Happy Easter! Here is a cool easter video. I was looking for another easter video to send you, but there are too many to choose from on biblevideos.lds.org

the photos are generally self explainitory. last monday we went up into the mountain again and looked at an old building,

Hna Bender made me a cool little note with minions.

A tiny kitten in an investigator´s house.

Sorry for the short email, but I am trying to find time to organize my photos.