Cameras & Clothes & Photos

Isabella's Letter

buenos dias familia mia les amo mucho les quiero por siempre!

janice, dave, i didnt answer last time because i didnt know what would be best i still dont know what a camera will cost but it be better i buy it here i cant imagine it be more that 700bs but i miss my camera alot, of bolivia besides the people which i love, i like most their music especially from tarija and their graffiti its so cool, if i wasnt a member and didnt believe in honoring the laws of the land i´d probably be a tagger i had a lot of friends in vegas who would tag and get cought and so i stopped hanging with them because of what i learned in church which i knew was smart and true. the gospel is smart and true but i still love to see rebellious creative art on streets. there is an artist here in my zone who writes of christ its so wonderfully beautiful, and i would show you but i lost those pictures. last weekend we had a dance festival to which i was able to take investigators to it was so wonderful i attached a picture. last wed i think was the aimara new year, they still have burnt offerings of gold and silver and coca leaves and llamas to the god sun. (the incorrect traditions of the fathers) this week i said how can i chose faith over sadness for the hardness of heart like chris said in one of the letters i received we need to be the first to believe in the change of heart they can have. and my eyes were guided to this scripture when i was having a hard day verse 7 .. there was no water that could hurt them their vessels being tight like a dish (vaso) and verse 10.. & thy had light continually whether above or under water.. this scriputre talks about the brother of jared ( meaning chris jk ha ha) and how they were trying to make their way to the promise land. i liken the promise land to my eternal home with all of you and my bolivian brothers and the way we make it there is making our vessels tight like unto a dish that no water can hurt us. and pleading with the lord that a few rocks (our debilities and difficulties) can be illuminated by his ever loving hand that we may have light under water or above it (in good times or tough times) and what is our vessel? our faith. Our faith is what carries us home to a Hevenly father we cannot see but feel. i have to go but i love you and drink deeply from the water of life, the scriptures are living water. this week i saw how one investigator of 6 months was converted by one scripture and a dream relating to the scripture i shared. ezq 36: 26 oh and i spoke to a nun about how she should have a familiy and she should ask GOd if what i shared was true and that if it was she should follow his counsel she said she would although she looked scared. i´ll tell you more next time ciao hna florido

Elders and Dance Festival Costumes

Mission President's Farewell

Dance Festival

Isabel's Zone

Christopher's Letter
Okay!
I love you all very much, and I am happy.

A few things. I´ve lost a lot of weight. I can wear a 36 size pant. Very soon I´ll need money to buy new clothes(sorry!)  With 100 dollars I can buy more than enough. So, if you could, when you can, thank you so much.

Um.....

I don´t know what to say. I love you I miss you. I hope that grandpa gets better. Maybe he could eat raw foods! Buy one of Gabriel Cousen´s books. He can raise the dead by nutrition (and cure diabetes).

Um. My companion is really funny. I can pick him up with one arm. Haha. He´s like a little brother. But he has secrets! He talks a lot with other latin misionaries. And with me, he´s really quiet, but a fantastic person.

That´s all I have. The next week i´ll plan the letters better!

Elder Arevalo and Elder Hill

Visiting a cave

Chris' House

A road near Chris' house.

Light & Roots

Lead Kindly Light:  Isabella's Letter
There were transfers yesterday and in my heart i prayed really fervently please send me to another ward a loving ward a young ward and i plead and i felt that my payer was heard so i got all happy and then i thought but that doesnt mean you´ll send me there? oh please oh please send me to another place please oh please i felt like a 10 year old asking for roller blades. then finally i matured again and said but whatever the president decides i will do so let your will be done. then the temptation again crept in oh please oh please send me to a zone with 4 sisters and a nice zone leader and.... suddenly i felt ´´or would you want me to send you to potosi´´ (potosi is frozen during the winter) i humbled right back okay let your will be done. and guess where i am now yup still in the same ward ha ha ha its so funny chris is right everything about the gospel and missionary work is linked to families to be better in our own families to be eternal families some day. it seems we´ve been going through some of the same things training is like having a baby they are so needy and mine for some reason are so obedient to me and humble and loving really sweet but super needy and i am so independent its been a challenge but one that i am grateful to go through i can see myself bettering my character because of it. my compi are going to have 2 transfers together and well she is also a country girl. and i so understand what chris says people here all hear other denominations with respect but laugh in our face and they all say go to all the churches but not that ¨joseph smith or mormon one¨ this week i have sung this hymn over and over frankly i like it more in spanish and it just lightens my soul maite got baptised and here is a picture we could find she is so great and i am so greatful for her and the progress she makes each week. this week has been a good week. i sent letters but it was cheaper to send in one package so my mom will send it from there to janice and dave and crystal. and i tried to send a package to chris but it would have cost me 134 bolivianos and i dont have that kind of money and so sorry chris for that kind of money here i can buy you another nice thing and give it to you when i see you the same for everyone else moms was going to cos 157 and janices 102 just to much. i am still kinda sad for my camera but the Lord helped me my last companion had made a cd of my pictures before she left and i said to her why do you want my photos she said its just easier this way than picking and choosing so she made a cd and she is going to send me the copy!!!! yay. i love the restored gospel please share it with all you can! les amo


hna florido

The roots dry and stretching to the depth for water:  Chris' Letter

I don´t know why I made that the title. It´s just what came to mind. I was thinking about how the trees here don´t have good roots because there is always water. This land is perfect, but perfectly fragile at the same time. I love it here, but my roots as well aren´t very deep. I am learning how to love my investigators even more. My love is becoming a weapon. As much as I fight for my life and the lifes of others, I´m learning how to let the weaker ones die (because of the consequences of their actions) so that our time is not unwisely spent.

All will not be saved.

And that kills me. And I don´t understand it. And I don´t know how to let go. Or let the ocean tide swallow up the grains of sand that have fallen from the high safe ground... The work of the mission is that of a colander, catching the fiber and taking nutrition from the fat. Our time is short here.

This week is to be cut short. I want to be obedient. I want to write more. I´m sorry. I just have to help my companion and I lose time. The next week I´ll be wiser.

I love you.

I Love My Kids & A Double Letter Monday!!!

Isabel's Letter


this week i have been reading our legacy its wonderful in the beginning it talks about this camp that had as an objective to rule out the whiners and grumblers and to make the men more ready and strong for the stewardship's they would have as leaders of the restored church of Christ they didnt know it then but the odyssey that awaited them would be cruel as satan would use every mean to attempt destroy them from off the face of the earth. this of course had been prophesied impossible and satan knew it but the our early saints were still tender in their testimony and im sure the minions of hell knew that the key was destroying the saints morale so that it would be easier to give up from building zion and gathering isreal. this camp was tough to say the least it was called Zions camp and it was lead but joseph smith and they marched 1000 miles up to a canyon and had no more than a little rotten ham, maggot infested bacon, soured butter and moldy bread to eat. many murmured and many quietly followed their leader. the point of this was to strengthen the future leaders and rule out the weak in spirit. many of our early apostles and prophets were in the camp and made it back home. the lord said to joseph my people need to learn to be more humble and more obedient before me. i thought wow how much more and the thought came to me even as a little child yea even as the dust. this was so special and dear to me. i wanted to share it with all of you. my mission has been tough, but its a privilege to go through if at the end i am counted as one of the saints, i am happy to be taught to be more obedient and more humble before the Lord. and i might not know it now but i feel im being prepared for the future. this week God showed mercy to us we only had 16 lessons in the week thats really low no one was home not even the members! but Maite was baptized the she was so greatful and her testimony was so beautifully simple i was filled with joy. and i have learned so many hymns this week that brought confort to me. i am greatful.

ps: they stole my camera with all my pictures of my mission for this i am sad but I am sure God will be kind to me and ill gather photos from other missionaries memory cards i hope. janice thanks so much for the shoes and debit card! i will keep and eye out

les amo, hna florido
 
pss:chris please take care and let us know whats up in the jungle! the mail is still on strike 


Chris' letter


Dear Mom and Dad,
I´m sorry that I didn´t write and sometimes I don´t because I don´t have enough time.
Please forgive me and understand.  Just know that I have to use my time writing to
President Flores.  Last week, I had a special report to do for him.  This week has been
a very good week.  Wednesday we had changes and now I´m training.  : O
Elder Coreas went to the city and in place of him came Elder Arévalo, from El 
Salvador, who I´m training.  Honestly, the experience of training is very interesting.
It makes one feel good that the Lord has trust in them to guide another, but it´s
like having a child.  Every experience that I have in the mission makes me think
about being a father, a husband and a leader.  It´s really beautiful and wonderful.

Elder Arévalo is from the field, as they say.  He worked cutting coffee, seeding
beans and corn and sundries.  He´s very, very quiet and has never used a computer
before.  I love him a lot.  He´s very shy and my goal is that he´s the best missionary
ever.  :) 

I am glad that you are gardening.  The photo was really beautiful.  I would like it that 
you might grow pumpkins.  I really love and long to eat pumpkins.  I think today I 
might buy the mashed pumpkin that they sell.  Mmm.  (I think when we have a garden,
amor, that we´ll need to grow lots and lots of pumpkins.  Here, I eat mostly seeds of
ayote.  I think that you probably know Ayote, right?)
I have fallen in love with the families here. They´re the best.  Someone received a testimony
about Joseph Smith, which to me is beautiful.  There are lots of doubts about the church here,
that we worship Joseph Smith, that the Book of Mormon is the diary of Joseph Smith or something
similar.  Sometimes we hear that people think that there are statues of him in our churches with
secret rooms to do weird ordances.  Haha.  It makes me laugh, even though it effects us a lot.
We´re strangely persecuted here.  It´s one of the true signs of the true church of Christ that we
will be persecuted.  With the thousands of churches here, they say,"Hey!  Go to ANY church but
THAT one."  Really.  People think we´re zombies with tattoos of Joseph Smith.  Haha.  Or something.

I have a goal that only beautiful, uplifting words will leave my mouth.  I really like the book of James.
It inspires me a lot.  If you could it would make me happy, if you all read it think week.  It contains
five chapters.  It can be read really fast.

Um.... One more thing.  I don´t have money.  I really need money.  If you could even, desposit 25 or
30 dollars that would help me a lot right now.  If you can´t, that´s okay.  I completely understand.

Thank you so much for all of your sacrifice. 
You´re such a blessing to me and I´m so,
so very sorry for the years of being a teenager.
I hope that you can forgive me for that time
of my life.

With all of my love,
Chris

Lesson & a Namesake

Isabella's Letter


my companion has kept having dreams that she is crying and is home and frankly well im concerned because thats how hna blackburn got when she went home but im hoping for the best and heres the funny part sometimes we pray for the best and hope for the best and when something doesnt go the way we think it should have gone we think well i prayed... but i have a firm testimony that the best does happen. one time i was in an argument with a friend who said God does not exist and i asked her to ponder the wonderful creation and perfection of all that is around us and she scoffed and said even the earth is tilted and off axis and i smiled and said and thanks to that we have seasons. she didnt get it or me or where all this hope in me was coming from. that was sad but that experience will always remain with me, and she might forget it but i truly believe it was for my benefit i remember it as one of the times i stood as a witness in all places in all times. this week surprise! was hard again. we had someone yell we looked like testicles walking two in two, another said that my companions testimony was baught in us dollars, and  then the usual one person understood all of the restauration but said okay it might be true but im going to die catholic. and so on and so forth some people asked me to never come back and after you love them and pray for them well that really does hurt worse than break ups. so i was praying and asking why is it so hard what am i to learn i know this is perfect even if in my heart it hurts and i thank you Lord but what am i to learn so that i can rejoice in the lesson and not feel despair in it. i was shown thinks i need to repent of thinks i should strive for. and more importantly it was brought to my remembrance that fact that two transfers ago i begged in prayer to be humbled to be more longsuffering that i might one by one achieve charity. and now i was in tears wondering why people had been so harsh with us this week... duh so i could be humbled and be more longsuffering.  and i went through each experience and i noticed i have changed i answered boldly but humbly and was more longsuffering. each trial i testify is perfect and we should rejoice in our joys and in our ¨apparent sorrows¨ because each is for the perfecting of our character. we found a lady who has very little understanding so we teach her one principle at a time sometimes the same concept of that one principle over 7 times till she understands. i do it with all of my heart with all of my mind and spirit and my prayer is please understand please come closer to Christ. i feel like that sister of little understanding and God will give me lessons and will teach me one concept of one principle with so much love and patience. i am grateful. the mission changes you. perfects you. not that you go home perfect but that you learn things that you didnt before and you pass through experiences where when you think and ponder in prayer you see yourself in the masters hand.
 
janice thanks for the shoes and the debit card i need them though, but when you can. and dont worry about the credit card  i cant use it anyway, and would you look into the Benson agriculture institution of the church i would like to look into that when i get home. also an investigator named his daughter after me. and maite is getting baptized this saturday andi got chris letters and i was so happy thanks chris for writting.


No letter from Christopher today, I think Isabel and I are both learning lessons in patience!!! I really hate not hearing from him!