Letters, Changes, Photos, & Tests

Isabella's Letter

hola mi familia

Janice thank you for doing my taxes and answering your question i would rather the refund go into my account in utah i have never had a refund acutally but if i do this time i would use it for garments and shoes and my baby tooth that is giving me trouble right now and might fall out or hna marina who is a dentist says that she would rather yank it out and help the tooth beneth come out but in all sincerity i am afraid of medicine here. downloading pics here is a real task. you have to save them by the paint program to shrink them. anyway this week end we had planned 1 baptism her name is gimena or how bolivians spell it Ximena, she 18 her parents are both members that are inactive and forbid her to come and took her to the country for the day so she wouldnt get baptize and indeed they succeeded bc we were left with the faunt full and no investigator. it was a way sad experience. my comp pressured her when the poor girl was afraid of being disowned by her family actually we had a fight about that. i told her its not your baptism, its hers and she should do it when she has the faith enough and the conviction enough to do it. we are to invite. she said she felt the spririt prompt her i said well if by their fruits we shall know them you pushing her didnt give sweet fruit. my comp is strange she cries in the bathroom when i ask her if i have offended her she says no and smiles, then the next minute she starts yelling at me and then the next she is sad again listening to the same song over and over again and then she pretends nothing has happened... it drives me crazy!!ximenas parents have the belief that if you get batized twice then surely God will curse you and your family. thats why they baptized theyre youngest daughter who also wanted to get baptized in our church, catholic when she was 9. its strange to here this customs and beliefs and try to teach them whats right becuase they simply dont believe you. we have 12 investigators from the age of 8 to 16. 14 if we count the two whos parents asked us not to come till febuary. and its a real struggle to get these parents on board. they all have baptismal dates but they dont count bc they dont have parent permission. needles to say i cant wait till transfers this 11th of feb. on a happier note here in bolivia they celebrate alot. and this month and next its carnaval and people grab hoses and water balloons and buckets and wet eachother and in the streets people play instruments and drink and wet everyone especially me! actually anyone who looks foreign ha ha. last week we went to whats called the black jesus it was supposed to be bronze but it turned black with the weather. oh and before i go in tights i am a 14 i want them loose. and if anyone can buy this i would be so grateful in target they have what they call toe toppers where they sell womens socks and a month here i get 550 bolivianos its 80 bucks but like chris said shoes and clothes and medicine is like north american prices so it goes really fast. well i love you all i hope to get mail from you soon take care!

hna florido

Barrio alto San Antonio

Cholita limpiando intestino de vaca

Cristo Negro en Churuquella

El Senor Pedro haciendo adobe

la familia ibarra

Ninos de barrio alemania unida

Our Beautiful Girl!!! Christopher loves her!!!

Vista del barrio Japon

Vista del barrio Petrolero

Vista Del Cristo Negro

Christopher's Letter

Hi,

I hope that all is well. I have learned that our time is very valuable.
That every five minutes has its purpose and that we should always
be doing something constructive, as has instructed Elder Uchdorf.
If we waste five minutes each day, in two years, we have wasted
2 weeks of 8 hour days. 

This week I have had a lot of... tests personally.  I have been honestly
very stressed out, and not to mention that, Saturday and Sunday
I got sunburned really badly and this week I have been a progessing
dermotological disaster.  I am covered with red marks and my face
is bright, bright red.  Like a lolly pop... For real.  Today I went to the
doctor to get blood drawn to assure that it´s not a reaction to something
else. I feel fine, but EVERYWHERE itches.  Everywhere.  It´s horrible.
I feel normal, healthy, but... exhausted.  Haha.

This week I have had every test thrown at straight at my face, suddely.
We have struggled with obedience in many little things(like doing exercise)
and I can see the difference.  I need to focus on diligence and my relationship
with my Father in Heaven.  How important is it to work with the Spirit.  Joseph
Smith said that the first principle in Heaven is obedience and second is 
revelation.  And when you have the spirit and follow it like a treasure map and
find hidden gold, it´s amazing.  Things were revealed that were secret. When
we meet someone, instantly we receive promptings of their necessities.  And
what a blessing it is to be a missionary. I can´t ever forget that God loves me
or any of his children.  But this week I have struggled a lot. And I think I´ve lost
a bit of the zeal that comes with being new.  When you have been rejected so
many times, you try new things and keep reinventing new ways to talk about
the same thing.  And in all of that, you lose the purpose.  The Gospel of Christ
(Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost) and the Resturation of the Church.

And... in other news, I´m leaving my area Monterrey and going to a new one, which
... is like twenty minutes away.  Haha.  It has a pretty name. It´s called el flor del 
campo or Flower of the Field.  My companion is going to be training and I´m going
to be with Elder Soto de Guate, who arrived the same day as me.  So even though
I´ve had my trials, I´m going somewhere new to start again and find that purpose & zeal
that give fire to the flame of your edurance.  And there I´ll stay.  A worker bee.

Also!  I will tell you that you should be more grateful for your already opened cashews
than you should for the air that you breath.  It is the most difficult thing to succesfully
open a cashew (en español: marañon "ma-ra-nyon" with emphasis over the -nyon").
I almost never want to eat cashews again.  So, my companion and I toasted a few
pounds of marañon, which took approximately 30 minutes or so.  And cashews have
a poisonous oil that can potentially burn you (but not really).  So when you toast them
leaves this oil and it becomes black as you cook the cashew.  You cook the cashew
unil it´s black and then crack it open and eat it.  The thing is I have yet to find a way
to successfully open them raw -- just with a machete. And when they´re not... wet in
the inside, they´re so incredibly delicious.  I don´t like cooking them, because the house
smells like Satan´s bowels afterwards and it´s potentially hazardous, but cashews are
SO delicious.  So, for you, are photos of my 1 hour experience of trying to succesfully 
open cashews.  

I love you!  Pray for me, please.  And thank you for your prayers.
And! If you can, donate money to my "I want to marry some unmarried family" fund.
Thank you!  Mom, I love you and I miss your hugs a lot.  And dad, I really would
have give anything to have gone for a ride with you this week.  I honestly don´t think
I missed home until my 6 month mark.
Also, I weigh 203.  I plan to lose 20 pounds this month of febuary!
Which reminds me... if I lose like 50 pounds, what do we do about clothes?
Just wondering, because I would really like to drop a lot of weight, but if I do
there are definitely some changes I´ll have to make with clothes, so...Yeah
Oh, and yes, I got my package.  Thank you so much. I really like the PJ´s.
Sincerely, Elder Hill

Service 1 mi compa, dos senoras y yo

Service 2 mi compa, dos senoras y yo

Cleaning the Cashews

Oil of Cashew

Cashews a Cocinar

Aawww the House is on Fire!!!

Hello everyone, this is the Mom.  Seeings how it is fast Sunday this up coming Sunday.  I was wondering if we might focus our fast for Chris and Isabel.  I am concerned about their health issues and I sense a little discouragement.  If you can and are willing that would be awesome!  See you next week!!!

Monday Letters and Photos!!!

Isabella's Letter & Photos
Its been raining hard core here!

This week has been so rewarding.  again we have been kicking butt finding new people to teach and after all thats what we have been called to do as missionaries. Before i used to get hung up on making them progress, and well you can't make anyone do anything. So now we find them and  like crazy pray over them and see who the elect are.  In doctrine and covenants it says that the elect hear his voice and harden not their hearts and that is the key. Another thing that I have been doing this week is praying like everything depends on the lord and working like a mule. I have lost so much weight this week I wore a dress that is a size 10 and before my mish I was a size 14 so I am happy about that. Chris one thing that has helped me is to learn from the scriptures how we gain a testimony and then explaining it to the investigators. Like when we first came to barrio pretrolero my comp contacted this young women she is 18 and is sorely shy and quiet but very bright.   She is learning to be a agriculture engineer. her name is Alicia.  We taught her and at the end of the lesson as I always ask I asked her what she learned or what gave her a new perspective because of the lesson.   She said I now know that there is only one true church and that it’s the one that has apostles and prophets which before I didn’t know.  I was like yeah she´s a chosen one. she got the message because she let the spirit testify of the truth to her and that’s why she understood. So then a week goes by and we go to pick her up for church and she hands us this note that says shes sorry but she's catholic and so is her family and she cant change and she's sorry for wasting out time. We, I , didn’t know what to do.  My comp said lets go back I said no lets wait and respect her feelings, but lets pray that if God wills it she be but in our path again. So we did and guess what she was put on our path and we I gave her alma 32 about comparing the word unto a seed, we told her to read it. And that we would stop by to say hello. Which we did during out reunion I felt she was very afraid and I don’t remember what my comp was saying which is bad but I blurted out have you been reading? She said no, I said do you not want to know if what we have told you is the truth. She said I can't change. I said you haven’t read or prayed to know because you are afraid of changing the tradition of your parents.  she started to cry a bit and said yes, then I kinda got mean and said do you believe in the catholic church ability to save your soul? She said yes and then I said how can that be if they baptize contrary to what jesus taught and baptism is the key to the kingdom of heaven, how can that be if they don’t have apostles or prophet I kept doing this praying to do it with love. She began to sob. I said I tell you this to remind you that we don’t chose a religion because it’s the one our fathers have chosen or because its what is most acceptable or gives us the most wordly freedom we chose the one Jesus established and we ask him which path leads to him. We told her, Alicia the answer to this is out there but you need to nourish the seed and water it daily to have it grow and testify of what we have told you. Will you cast out your fear and experiment our word with faith? She said yes the next time we saw her we took her to tour the church we asked her is she had been reading she said she had she said she got her answer with a smile I said yeah I know what it was but how did you get it she said everytime I got afraid I prayed and read and I asked him if what you taught was true if this church was the path to him like you said and I felt joy like I can't describe but it was soft but pure she said my comp and I were so happy. But then this Saturday she was afraid again because she had told her family she wanted to get baptized and then weren’t happy. We again dispelled her fears and told her she would be baptized feb 12 she said okay that sounds good, but this weekend when we went to pick her up she was in tears. Her family had told her that if she so much as stepped foot in our church they would disown her and she couldn’t return home ever. Her sister just kept yelling in quechua so I couldn’t understand it was horrible but she said I will figure something out and i´ll pray that everything will work out because this is true and God provides a way right? We were so proud and said right. Compare that to Dennis who just hardened his heart and kept questioning everything and finally I said when you decided to seek these things with humility and not with foolish pride God will show himself unto you. He got mad and said well i´m catholic anyway I said right and if you are unwilling to change God will not show you the way lest you condemn yourself by not heeding his response to you. This all happened this week and we had 7 at church this week and many less actives it was beautiful to see them again in church. God lives this is his work and glory and I get to be a small part of it!
Les amo! Hna florido

Eeeewww!!!!

Isabel and the Burros

Sheep For Jared

Singing In The Rain

Bolivia

Christopher's Letters and Photos
 
Hi! I have to go, but I don´t really have a lot to say. I´ve already used an hour writing president, uploading photos and reading your letters. Thank you so much for praying.
 
And thank you so much for you story Isabel. That was really beautiful. That´s my dream here, but with two people it always requires the both of us to feel the spirit, to work in unity.

Transfers are in two weeks exactly. Wow. Friday I complete 6 months in the mission.  I feel a little cheated of my time, but I can speak Spanish. That was my first six month and the rest is to learn to follow and recognize all of the promtings of the spirit. I love you all. I miss you. I pray for you.

Sincerely,

Elder Hill

Cashew Fruit

Up Early for Sunday Meetings

Flax Seed Bread Made in a Frying Pan on Low

His House and His Cute Face

Really Raw Cashews

Prayers Requested!!!

Isabella's Letter

How is everyone? i have hardly any time again. we have been praying to find this less active family, activate them and baptize gimmena.  we prayed alot and it happened! we found them and gimena will be baptized jan 29 th ! johnny should go on a mission but he just got a grant.... there is an opposition to everything. we testified of the importance of a mission, the eternal impact it has on the children of men. and then we prayed so that lord could show him the importance that we couldnt.  that same night our quecha speaking member canceled on us and we needed a translator. she recommended we ask johnny. we called johnny and he came with us to the lesson. of the experience he said it was better than being in love! we said isnt their salvation of more importance than your grant? and dont you think that the lord will bless you anyway? and he said you know that experience was an answer from god. i will get my papers started. there are somany people in my area who dont speak spanish they speak quechua and my heart swells for compassion for them.  the catholic religion has done much good and much damage among the culture and not being able to communicate with them makes me sad. i have poured my heart out to be able to speak quechua. to teach the people that I think could most benefit from learning the commandments that would prosper them in the land. saddly these people are the ones in the most need financially.  they have very little education. so have prayed over and over to have heavnly help to reach them and save them. and the lord answered. i have 3 families that only speak quechua. and i have been learning some basics to tell them i love them and want them to prosper. one of them in particular touches my heart its the familia Ibarra. they come from the field. they are farmers. they live in a room a bit smaller that jonathans and they have 4 kids and only 1 twin bed. the girls are adorable but you can tell that they have been trained to ask for money. the first time they spoted me they said ñañitay ñoqa munani colque? little sister i want money? i had learend to say so do i and laugh and pet their head they laughed too. the dad has been going to everyday to find a job and looks very stressed.  and  i have been also praying to have wisdom to lend a helping hand but as joeson said help them use their brain and here i had an opportunity to practice helping with wisdom so i knew the lord answered that prayer too. so while sitting in their little room i thought what could i do. so i prayed again and as soon as i mentally said amen the wife started to tell us that she makes hand made skirts. her dream is to have a sewing machine some day so immediatly said make me one how much would it cost she said 140 bolivianos that like 20 bucks. and i told her how much is the material 102 bs i told her so all this work you do how long does it take you she said like 3 days so i told her you would spend more on material and taxi and would only make 10 bs a day for all her work and that isnt enough for 1 person to eat let alone 6. she was greatfull for me helping her figure that out and now she will be making me a skirt to save for her business. im so happy to see the hand of the lord in all of our dealings. hopefully they will progress and be baptized b/c that will help them for all eternity.

i love you all this has been one of the best experiences this week.

Christopher's Letter

So...

Today is Monday.  Again.  And we have changes again in two weeks.  Which is... nerve wrecking. 

Because there´s a family here that I love a lot.  Like a lot.  And I´ve fasted and I´ve prayed for them 

a lot.  I want so badly that they can receive an answer that this church is the only true and living 

church.  That it´s the same church for which Moses was prophet and that Christ established.  ´More 

than anything I want them to know that they can be with their family that´s died.  I have two favors 

to ask (that don´t have anything to do with money!):  1) is that I would like to receive your testimonies 

and experiences on Eternal Families, 2) one of the things preach my gospel says is to pray for your 

investigators by name.  So, I´m going to give you their names and that you might included them in 

your prayers by name please.  

Belinda Montoya, Luis Carlos Medina Montoya, Cathia Medina Montoya, Jizel Montoya, Jose Luis,  M

ontoya, Gloria Calderon, Mario Flores, Celeste Flores, Oneda Borjas, Suyapa Flores.

This is one family that I´ve basically fell in love with.  Their dad died two years ago.  I´ve taught them 

since my second week (almost 4 months), and they are the sweetest people on earth.  They´re just 

very "duro" or hard people about their religion, which is fine.  It´s not easy to change after 30-50 years 

of living a certain way, but it´s worth it to know with a surety that you can see your father again. So, 

please do that and thank you so much.

In other things, yesterday I got suuuuuuper sick.  I puked 3 times.  I was fasting from Saturday to 

Sunday.  Sunday when I was ending the fast, I drank a bag of milk.  Ten minutes later, I felt like 

I was going to die in route to the house of Family Diaz.  There I threw up hard core, like a dragon 

breathing liquid flames (of milk), and after I felt great, like nothing had happened.  So I ate chicken 

and rice, and then rested because I suddenly felt woozy.  All of the sudden, I remembered that 

we had a lesson to teach, so we left and ran to the lesson.  Half way through the lesson I got 

super sick again, like I was going to puke, was dizzy and my head hurt really bad.  So we returned 

to the house.  Almost immediately there,I threw up again.  And after I felt horrible and great all 

at the same time.  So, yesterday, I slept from 4 or 5 in the afternoon to 6 this morning.  And I still 

felt pain in my stomach.  But all is well.  I just finished eating ice cream, so... I think I´ll live.

SO, how money works, Mom.  Each month on the 28th, I receive 2900 limpiras, which is like 150 

dollars.  I have a credit card to take out money.  We take out money once a month and then 

use it over the course of one month.  What happened this month is that I just spent more at the 

beginning of the month, simply bad managing and lack of planning.  But we´ll have money in two weeks 

more or less.  Right now I have, like, 150 limpiras.  How the money works here is that 19 limpiras 

is the equivilent of 1 dollar.  So five dollars here is 100 limpiras basically.  Which sometimes is great 

and sometimes doesn´t form things in the states.  Like for instance, a banana costs 1 limpira and in the 

states costs 50 cents more or less(10 limpiras).  So when you give me, let´s say, 15 dollars that means 

that I have an extra 300 limpiras (300 bananas, 30 coconuts, 6 pounds of cacao, 60 pounds of tomatoes), 

but when to buying, I don´t know, let´s say... Clothes! Clothes cost the exact same here.  I bought a pair 

of shorts, like, a month ago that costed me 400 limpiras (20 dollars!).  The only thing is it costs me 57 

limpiras to take out money.  Just so you know.

Also, I have no cacao!  :O   Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

And it´s hard to find, when I as a missionary can´t go to Mercado.  Which is fine.  Safety first.  Es cierto.

This week, we had a really tough week. We had 11 baptismal dates, but none of them came to church. 

So right now we have 0 baptismal dates, which is fine.  So, I forgot to mention the day before yesterday 

I got to meet Elder M. Russel Ballard, who is... really short.  Haha.  It was a really wonderful meeting. 

He spoke to us from the heart.  He taught us about faith in Jesus Christ and that God is our heavenly 

father.  He told us a story about faith.  There was a missionary in Canada, when Elder Ballard was 

President of the Alberta mission.  This new missionary came into his office for his first interview,

 and said that he was goingto be the best missionary that he had ever had.  And Elder Ballard laughed 

and said that that was good.  But the new missionary looked at him sternly and said that Elder Ballard 

didn´t understand.  He said,"No, from the flight to Salt Lake City to here, I have been praying for my dad. 

You see he doesn´t have the best of health and it´s almost certain that he will have died before return. 

But I´ve been pleeding with God that if I am the best missionary that I can be, he will let me see my 

dad again.  So, President, I am the best missionary that you will ever had."

Elder Ballard said that he sent this Elder to the most cold part of the mission, the north of the north. 

A few weeks later, this Elder and his trainer were eating with a family of members and his companion 

was carrying on a very appropriate conversation with the member, when this new missionary said," 

Elder...We need to go.  We need to go tracting."  

"What?" repsonded his companion, "It´s 20 degrees below zero right now."  

"No, you don´t understand.  We NEED to go tracting."

So the two young Elders put on their very heavy coats and went out in the harsh cold and the snow.  

Just as the door closed, the new Elder said to his Trainer, "Elder...You've got to help me. You've got 

to help me save my Dad.  I made a promise with God that if I am the best missionary ever, he will 

let me see my dad.  ´So, Elder... You´ve got to help me save my dad."

Tracting they went.  "And we actually found two families, and that they were.... teaching," said the Trainer 

to Elder Ballard, in an interview.  

Elder Ballard said that he had the priviledge to leave the mission with this Elder on his return to 

Salt Lake City, and the tears began to roll down his eyes when the joy hit his soul as he saw 

this Elder run to his father in the Salt Lake airport in the most warm and long-awaited embrace.

"That! is faith, my dear friends," Elder Ballard said to us. "The faith, the size of a grain of mustard."

Anyway, I hope you are all well.  I´m working, and I too will be the best missionary that my President will have, because also I would really like to see my family again and be married to Isabel for time and all eternity.

I love you so much.  Please pray for that family. 

Hey everyone it is me, the mom.  Dave and I are putting the family's names in the Temple.  Please pray for them and for Chris that he will be able to reach them.  Also please pray that Isabel will be able to communicate in Quechan, which is not Spanish, but a language of the indigineous people of the area she is in.  Thanks for your prayers!!!  Until next week! - Janice

Investigator or Disciple?...Monday Letters

From Isabella

so i again im left with like no time sorry i will tellyou the highlight of this week actually lowlight we have benn teaching these two kids in particular they are both 15 one is jessica and the other is mauricio their parents are way catholic and dont even sadly understand the bible they jusr dont want theyr kids to change religion but wont accept our invitation to hear us out and pray to know if its true like their children have and know its true both of these kids have read the book of mormon prayed to know if they should be baptized and have recieved and answer jessica dreamt she was reading the book and was so happy she woke up joyful and knew she needed to be baptized and mauricio has prayed and thought he didnt recieve an answer but then he said but what better answer than to feel peace everytime i read or learn more with both of you and besides chirst himself was baptized when he was older not when he was a child and its a commandment so i will pray that my dad will give me permission.... but hard hearted dad told us to get lost well not really but really he said please let me clear up some things for my child give me a space of 1 month and then you can come back again. my comp and i both felt this guy is so affraid of the change of heart his child has had he knows he cant change his mind if we keep coming. we are to go back feb 15 and we both left knowing that God was preparing the way for that family to be converted. we were upset but had peace nontheless. upset because the father kept saying i know my stuff i know my stuff i almost became priest.... i thought yeah almost but not quite right? i couldnt action a glove micheal jackson almost wore because it would be worthless... then he said and i decided and we both said at the same time how? and he said i studied many religions and then i chose which was best so we read him Prov 3 :5 on and 1 John 1:5 and told him that he had chosen with the understanding of man but he didnt even think to ask God which religion would save his soul. and he didnt understand what we ment, i always think of what jesus said... the darkness doesnt understand the light. and he sure didnt. poor kids they so wanted to do what was right but their parents got in the way. janice im hand writting you letter about richard and stuff sorry for whats happening. thanks for the gel and pjs they were heaven sent the the seeds too! and chirs pictures made me so happy!!!


les amo!

From Christopher
Hi! Today we went to the hospital!‏

So, it´s Monday. And I´m 12 minutes away from working, as it´s almost 6 o´clock.  Today we went to he hospital! Like I said...

Why? Well, to keep things short: my companion has had a dry throat that is literally unquenchable for days and days and days (3 weeks to be exact). So today we went to the office and then we went to the hospital and then we went to get drugs at the pharamacy. It was an adventure, and we get to do half of it over again the next week... Without money. Ha. Which right now is my problem:  I have almost no money. A little, but with the help of members, I´ll eat and get where I need to go.

I wish you could see the members. You don´t know how truly wonderful they are. (also a thought just came to my head: if you want to receive blessings in your life, visit people with the missionaries and refer people to them. the catch is you need to visit those referrals with the missionaries also. I promise that you will begin to receive more blessings that can be held. Try me. Or.. try God.)  The members feed us SO much. The members leave their families and visit other families. I asked 3 members if they had old Liahonas because I was searching for all of the General Confrences in the past 10 years (Like President Acosta of the seventy said that a living prophet is better than a dead one. So more and more I´m using this in our lessons.) And to say the least, they helped me. Now from 2001-2010, I have all of the general confrences.... ALL of them.

I wish you could feel when I´ve had a bad day and these members have randomly give me a hug or smiled at me or said that I speak like a latin. And all of it comes at rarely oportune moments, like when I need a drink of water in the desert and voila! There is water. It´s a beautifully sown symetry that God has woven in this
articulate fabric of time. And I love it.

I love Honduras. I love the people. Every day something make me want to be more like Christ. More strong in my conviction. More fortified in my decision.  I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. And so are you. You have all decided to be Christians, mom, dad, Isabel, grandma, grandpa and everyone else in my family (i began to name you all but i can´t write much more), which means you will always represent Jesus Christ. You are disciples, which means in every thought and action, if you can´t realistically imagine Christ doing it, do something different. Rather, those bracelets read the truth, "What Would Jesus Do?" And don´t you think the apostles know that they´re apostles?  That they know Christ. I testify that they do. I heard in person Jeffery R. Holland say,"I used to testify that Jesus lives, now I know that he lives."

Think about it.
Sincerely, Elder Hill

Foto Letters...Worth a 1000 Words!

Today we received four emails.  A letter from Isabel and then an email with four fotos!  Then two emails from Chris with 11 different fotos.  They look so good!  It was awesome to see their beautiful glowing faces!  I will try to write what the pictures are of.  ENJOY!!!  I have many times today!

Isabel's Letter

Hola familia como estan? I hate computers here it takes super long to just log in like 15 min no joke and everyone who is from here they just wait patiently they expect it to take that long but my zone liders are telling me to write in Word while it loads… smart so maybe next time i will have more time. Also I tried sending you all pictures from these past weeks and I had a delivery failure, so I guess they didn’t get to you and I spent so much time tinkering with the computer I couldn’t write much so I have written to joeson, jonathan and grandma and two investigators and it will be getting you next week. How was new years? Here everyone drinks soooo much and then they blow fireworks some of the elders did as well but of course we couldn’t! ja ja. Another thing that they do here is that all those chanchos or pigs that are out roaming around wild get eaten so I now know how to kill a pig yay! Jk its really gross. I spent all day telling pigs your going to die today pig so repent… its kinda sad but you have to have fun how ever you can and the funny part is that my comp would say don’t be so mean poor pig. Ja ja. If I was in the usa I think that I would probably feel sad but here seeing the necessity of all these people all you can say is I hope it nourishes them so bye bye piggy. So this weekend we had 1 baptism of hermanita Antonia who contacted us and is 75 years old remember? She ask us what we were preaching and then during many visits we had she confessed that she felt compelled to call out to us but felt scared she felt that prompt in her heart 3 times before she spoke to us and when she spoke to us we I felt this warmth all over me and I sat on the ground with her and kissed her hands and spoke to her for a while and one week before her baptism we asked her if she had asked the lord in prayer if what we taught her was true if joesph smith had seen the Lord and Jesus and if the book of mormon is his word. It was hard for her because she doesn’t know how to read and we couldn’t teach her one lesson at a time but rather 3 principles at a time and she couldn’t remember what the names of the commandments were like law of chastity or word of wisdom or tithe and so we prayed over and over that she could gain a testimony of what we taught her and she did it was amazing even though she cant pronounce chastity she understands what it is and she knows the 5 thing we don’t consume as members of the church and we would read out of the book of mormon to her and she said I don’t need to pray that book is powerful its true I know it is. We were so blown then we had another hurdle to overcome she handnt received and answer about joesph smith then after probing why she hadnt received an answer we discovered that she was expecting a dream and so I began and am sure my comp also began to pray over and over that this grandma could have her answer in the form of a dream and that it would be clear for her to understand or clear for us to interpret for her and in fact had received two clear dreams but she couldn’t understand them and I interpreted one where she had found many jewels that where spilling out of this wall and she was so happy but this man started yelling at her saying let that go it isn’t yours, you don’t deserve that and besides its mine. I told her that the jewels were the blessing of baptism and the gospel and that the man who was trying to frighten her so that she couldn’t have any of the jewels was the devil she said I think that you are right then the other dream she had hermana choque interpreted for her it was where two men in robes offered her an apple and lovingly insisted she partake but she didn’t know if she should. That same week even though her son told her you cant get baptized you forget everything better if you wait a month and then you learn more and then you get baptized. I was like no way he isn’t you and this ordinance is between you and the Lord and besides he isn’t a missionary we will tell you if you are ready or not and guess what you have faith and have repented of your sins you are ready so she went through the baptismal interview and in there she bore her testimony to Elder Salazar and she felt the spirit so strong she came out saying Ahh I couldn’ care less what my family says im old enough to do this by myself and the lord took from my heart all fear I will be getting baptized this Saturday hermanitas. It was so sweet. When she came out of the water I was so happy the Lord is so great. She got another chance in life and we didn’t ask her bear her testimony because we thought she would be too self conscious to do so and when we helped her change into her dry clothes she looked at us with those sweets old grandma eyes and said can I thank them I want to say thanks and we told her of course and she bore her testimony. sweetest thing ever. i love you all take care. till next week!

Isabel's 1000 Words

Cochabamba Bolivia Temple (Beautiful)



Elder Salazar and Hermana Antonia




Isabella, her Companion, & Hermana Antonia




Isabella, Hermana Antonia, and Companion before Baptism

Christopher's 1000 Words



First View of Hondi (Chris' Words)





The two above pictures are of the street in front of his Casa.




Johnny, Chris' 1st Person he Baptized!




Of Course...he would find a Spring.  This Mom loves this picture!




He titled this one in the flowers with grin of cheese
....Cheesy Grin...somethings just don't quite translate exactly!



Family Diaz...they eat with them most Sundays.  Chris talked about them in a previous letter. 
Thank you Diaz family for caring for my Boy!



These are three 16 year old friends, who were taught, converted each other
 and baptized  each other with the help of Elder Hill and Elder Christensen.
 Chris talks about them in a previous letter as well.




New Companion Elder Giron of Guatemala and Elder Hill




Another family they taught. 
They baptized two of the girls, Cinara on the right and Nicole in the middle.



Chris and his Cacao.  He titled this, "Cacao me pone Feliz."  Cacao makes me Happy!

Pictures and modern technology are so awesome...I am so blessed to be able to communicate with and see my kids beautiful faces.  Don't they just radiate with the Light of Christ!  I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I have today!  Ciao