City Girl!!! Country Boy!!!

Isabella's Letter

so im so close to the temple i cant say this enough cochabamba is so normal i miss the craziness just a bit... ha ha not really im just glad i had five months in sucre and could really take in the culture and beliefs of the people im serving. again this week our numbers were low which really bumbs me only one investigator went to church but we spoke on sunday about missionary work and my mouth was just filled it was grand i even called them to repentence and shared moises 6: 59 its was great really one thing that i remember was that i said we are here to make it back home and as your own understanding of the attonment increases then so will your desire to share the gospel and i read mosiah 27 of alma the younger and it was a flawless speech and i know that is was the spirit of the lord that spoke through me. the bishop keeps giving us a hard time for not bringing people to church and then also wants us to come to ward council on sunday morning so the night before i had been so afflicted by his words that i looked at preach my gospel and opened right where it said that if missionaries ever had a conflict between picking up investigators or assiting to ward council we needed to go to pick up investigator and so we showed up that sunday and showed him preach my gospel and he hasnt said a word since YES! one thing that sucked was that we had 4 baptismal dates and one of them was really super duper excited but then when i called her she said dont come back that hurt to the core then at night when we called to give our weeks numbers the district leaders said oh we passed by ilma´s house she was really excited to see us and the dad agreed to meet with us to give us a chance to talk about her baptism that hurt even more like i am trully excited that the elders made progress but why havent we had that much success? the point being is i dont know how many times i have prayed to meet with her dad just have him open the door and have the spirit testify and its never happend and then all of the sudden they knock an their he is, and agrees to meet with them. it made me feel like a bad missionary. so i took a long time writing to the president today i think my problem lies in that there is and elder that came with me from sucre and i didnt like him then and now that he´s assistent i really dont like him so i think that i need to learn charity for him i dont know what im doing wrong. and we´ve been in the hospital bc of my compi today we are going gain wish me luck! and today i found granada!!! mom would envy me ha ha.

Cochabamba Temple

More Fruit???

Granada

Christopher's Letter
 
Hi!

I really miss you all so much. Every e'mail really touched me. Thank you so much for all of your love.  So, I´m in Siguatepeque which is paradise.... It´s one of the most beautiful places on earth. I just wish that they grew chocolate in place of coffee. Haha. They grow SO MUCH COFFEE here. Haha. So, this week I have walked about 10 miles everyday, and I´m losing weight quickly because we don´t eat with members. Yaaay!!! Less food, more fresh fruit. I´m going to find a cherimoya today! Whoo!

Oh! So I have to tell you that I love birds. I am going to have lots of birds (or at least one that sings).  There are so many beautiful birds here. And the bananas taste so amazing and I just... wow. I love where I am. The interesting thing is that we have to walk reeeeeally far to get to certain appointments. Like I said, we really walk about 10 miles every day. And I haven´t eaten dinner really in the last week. And I feel so much better physically, which is really nice. Also, people really do practice witchcraft here. We went to the market with a member that was visiting with us and we had to go to the eerie side of the mercado, which is like a grand labyrinth. She had to buy some medicine and we went to an herb shop and it was the worst, weirdest feeling ever. I felt like I was in an alley in England at night in the 1400´s. Really, really strange. I don´t even want to buy herbs from them, it was so strange.
So, here , we´re in a branch, which is novel in a way. And the Branch President is an amazing person. He taught me about tithing the other day, and confessed all of the miracles that happened in his life BEFORE he was a member yet paying tithing. And now he doesn´t work. He owns property and dedicates his life to the gospel. I am going to look into that. Owner of land. I don´t have lots of updates about the work because I ´ve just been getting to know everything and it´s all very different. I hope that God lets me stay here for 6 months.

So, don´t worry about me. Everything here is very, very calm. Very safe. I hope you like the fotos.

Love, Chris

Loves the Birds!

Christopher's New Comp....Elder Green!!!

Elder Valsquez (not companion, but another missionary)
They are doing service!