Week 13

Dear Family and Friends,

I have to brag about Janessa this one time while sending out her e-mail.  Janessa was selected to be the Valedictorian for her graduating class from S.U.U.  The President of the University selected her by her perfect 4.0 and the difficulty of the classes she took.  We went down to Cedar City to accept her award, it was awesome!!  The college she graduated in was Education and Human Development.  She wants to go to the U.Of U. when she gets home and get her degree in Physical Therapy.  At least that's the plan.

-Carolyn

hello hello hello.

 

   how are you doin?  how was the avengers movie??  o man i cant wait to watch it.  it is gonna be awesome.  okay so, once again... i had a crazy week.  so before i forget, no i havent received any of your letters yet. and i dont know if i will this week because we have zone conference tomorrow, instead of district meeting.  so ya.... o man!!! i guess this is just testing my patience right?  so thanks for the emails.  and it is good to know that i am officially graduated.  phew.

 

okay so i have been in the mission field for four ish weeks.  an hermana told me that i am allowed to be dramatic for the first month of my mission.  so i am going to take advantage of this opportunity and just be crazy.  o ya and by the way,.... dont worry. i will probably be dramatic for the rest of my mission. because it is way funnier than being normal right? 

 

so i barely avoided a catastrophe by like one inch.... i was drinking hot chocolate at my desk during breakfast.. it  was a good morning until .. boom. i spilled my hot chocolate all over the place!! it missed my new, beautiful scriptures by like 1 inch.... o my goodness.  ahhhhhh.  well it totally destroyed my agenda book, and it got at my language book... but o well. esta bien.  o my hackin.  that is one way to wake up in the morning.  phew.

 

An elder in my district is in the hospital.  his appendix burst.  o my goodness.  they said that it is a good thing that he came in when he did, or else he could have died.  the lord is protecting his missionaries.  we visited him in the hospital, and he said that he is going to be fine.  o my goodness i hope that i dont get sick.  but its okay he is going to be better really soon. 

 

we are teaching (reteaching) a inactive member named vanessa.  she was baptized when she was ten, but she said she has forgotten most of the principles of the gospel.  i am so excited for her.  she is full of questions, and she really wants to become active in the church again.  she visited the temple this week, and she wants to get her recommend.  she is so full of enthusiasm about the church.  haha i was surprised when she actually like studied the readings that we gave her.  wow! 

 

outside of our apartment, every weekend.  there are a few people that dance in the middle of the street.  it is so cool.  it is like the classic dances of bolivia!! i just want to go out and learn the dances.  so ya... that is what they do for fun on the weekends... thats cool... cooler than anything i ever did.  i so want to go and join them, but i cant right now... o well. esta bien.

 

so we had a lot of appointments set up this last week.... and you would not believe it.  every.... single... appointment ... fell through this week. no one was home.  what?! how often does that happen?  haha... we knocked doors... and found no one... there is a really strong catholic influence in this neighborhood.  unbelievable.  but no worries. we met with the bishopric on sunday and we are going to work with them this week.  the only people we actually met up with successfully was the members. ha.  o man.  we are going to ask for my references. 

 

o but guess what?  we were walking past this restaurant, and we started talking to this lady.  and then an old guy came up and started talking to us too.  i did not understand a single word that he said. and i dont think my companion understood him either.  he was missing some teeth,  and looked a little crazy.  but he was realllllyy funny.  so after he talked to us, he turned around and started talking to the cats that were sitting in the shade.  o man i just want to be that guy´s friend.  he was really funny.

 

hey! someone threw fruit at us this week.  crazy.  luckily, they missed.  o ya and they call me choca or chocita.  i dont know if it is an insult or just another name for gringa (american) 

 

okay so ya, we ate some bad chicken this week and i got another cold.  so we were out for the count on saturday,  but its okay.  we are doing alot better now.  o ya and our neighbors were moving out, so they had a party from midnight to six in the morning... ahhh o my goodness. what a crazy weekend. 

 

okay so ya, i have gotta go.  i hope that everything is going great.  good luck this week.

 

hermana milne.

Week 12

hey hey hey,

 

how are you?   so what has happened in the u.s. this week?  anything super exciting?  okay where to start....

 

may 1st is workers day in bolivia.  so naturally, the bolivian people take three days off of work. awesome.  i dont know how much i will be able to get done in the next 2 days, but whatever.  everything closes down. haha o well.  happy workers day everyone!

 

i found out that everyone gains weight in cochabamba... crap.  i refuse to accept that!  i wont.  ughhhh.  so ya, it has been really crazy in the last couple of days.  we have literally been running to our appointments.  but it has been really fun.  we have an investigator that had a sick baby.  we had the elders come to give him a blessing, but we waited for an hour and a half for her to come home.  but! it went really well.  i hope that she felt the spirit and her son gets better.  a lot of people seem to be sick right now.  because it is getting a little cooler.  so it was winter when i left utah, and now winter is just beginning in bolivia... o man!! but luckily, winter is not bad at all in cochabamba.  i really cant wait to know what the definition of reaaaally cold is here.  because so far.. i think that it has been great.   

 

i have discovered that shining my shoes is very relaxing.... just saying.  you should try it if you are stressed.  and my shoes looked awesome afterwards.  much much better than hand washing my laundry... blegghhhh.  ugh. i have to do that today. i am not looking forward to it.  but o well... i have to do it right? 

 

the stake had a talent show this week.  it was supposed to begin at six.... but it didnt start until like eight thirty. haha.  we had two investigators come to it. so it was really good.  and there was an awesome fireside on sunday.  the first three missionaries to come to bolivia and preach came and told stories and showed pictures.  one of those missionaries, just so happens to be my mission president.  and the other two are serving in the temple in cochabamba.  it was really interesting. 

 

the family that we are teaching came to church yesterday! it was awesome.  so we woke up and realized that our water wasnt going to be turned on in time for us to get ready, pick up our investigator, and go to church.  so we just skipped the whole showering thing and went to pick up daniela.  she was the only one that was going to come... because the rest of the family said that they needed wash their clothes.. but guess what? their water was off too... so all of them came to church.  yes!!! in your face satan. 

 

we had lunch with a family yesterday.  so i got a good piece of chicken breast in my soup, but the father got the chicken foot in his soup.... phew... i missed the chicken foot by one bowl.  yesss.  o ya and they have these really gross potato things here called chuño.  it is like dehydrated freezer burned black potatoes. ew.  i think i am going to avoid those from now on.  but no worries.  i am definitely over my dislike of tomatoes.  i have to eat them all of the time here.  but now i am used to them.  it is amazing what you will eat when you are hungry.  haha. 

 

we did some service on saturday for daniela. we helped her clean her room.  she is going to be baptized on may 26.  i am so hackin excited she is so faithful and strong.  the rest of her family is taking the lessons too.  she just showed up to church one sunday and said that she wanted to learn more.  now we are teaching her and her family.  yesss. blessings!! 

 

the hunt.... my companion walked into the apartment and then all of a sudden she started to yell and grabbed the broom.  she then proceeds to try and tell me something, but i dont understand any of it.  and then she tips over a bookcase and spills the books everywhere.  i am just standing there wondering what the hackin is happening right now.  she has me move the bookcase and then tells me to run... haha okay.... well needless to say, there was a little scorpion under the bookcase. and she starts smashing it with the broom.  my companion is very persistent... haha.  i think that the scorpions in her country are really poisonous. so she was afraid of them.  the neighbor said that they arent super dangerous.  ahaha i bet that we were quite a sight to see. at that moment in time.  her smashing the scorpion.  me looking totally confused and a million pamphlets and books all over the floor. hahaha.  maybe you had to be there. 

 

well i have got to go.  thank you for the email.  i love hearing from ya.  good luck this week. 

 

hermana milne

Janessa's Pouch Address

Family & Friends,

Here's is Janessa's pouch address if you want to send her a one page letter.  It only costs one U.S. stamp, but you have to follow the following instructions for them to send it:

Lay the letter blank side down.  Fold the bottom of the letter about one third of the way up the page and crease.  Fold the top of the letter to the bottom of the first fold and crease.  Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch in from each end, but do not seal the ends.  in the top left corner write your name and complete return address.  Affix a first class stamp in the top right corner.  In the middle write the missionary address as follows:

Janessa Milne
Bolivia Cochabamba Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

From: Carolyn

Week 11

o my goodness... how is everything?? 

 

i have so much to tell and so little time to tell it.  if this email is completely fragmented... sorry.  how is good old utah? 

 

okay here it goes.

last pday, we played soccer, ate burritos, and went bowling. it was a lot of fun.... except the elders really dont talk to me.  english or spanish.... why? am i that scary?  i dunno. i guess i am going to have to force them to talk to me today. muahahahaha.   o yaand a member bought us some bolivian pizza. it is not the same, but it was still hackin delicious.  the food is actually really good here.  i really enjoy it.  yum yum.  i havent really run into anything that has been gross.  if i do... trust me... i will let you know.  but ya it has been good.  i handwashed my clothes.... boring and lame.  but ya i am sure i will get used to it.  it is the little things that i miss about the u.s.  today we are playing soccer again because none of us have money because it is the end of the month.  and then the hermanas have lunch with the mission presidents wife at the mission home. i am so hackin excited.  i got to go to the temple last week and the cochabamba temple is soooo beautiful.  and then i got to hang out with my old companion from the mtc. because hermana fuentes was in a training meeting.  it was a lot of fun..  but one of the hermanas from chile that came with me. got really sick.  she couldnt even function while she was here in bolivia.  and i just found out that she went home... o man i am sooo sad.  she was really amazing.  we dont know why she got sick... but ya.  ugh...

 

so i had to buy a backpack, so i dont look like a tourist.  so naturally that blew all of the money that i had for this month.  ugh....  my companion and i may or may not have borrowed some toilet paper from the church because we have no money left... haha.  i only got a portion of my budget this month because i was not here for the entire thirty days.  but have no fear.  the end of the month will soon be here.  my comp doesnt have any money because she had to go to the dentist this month.  so we are just living off of what we have.  it is a lot of fun. and i am now learning how to budget my money.  yesssss.  my companion is really good. this is her first time training so we are figuring things out together.  she is really patient with me.  she is pretty new to the area too. so we dont know anyone.  it is like we have had to start from scratch.  but we got a new ward  mission leader and he is ready to work.  he helped us come up with a plan, and he is really trying to get us more references.  we knocked doors all week. because we had to drop our two investigators because their mothers didnt want them to recieve the lessons.  that was a downer, we are tryng to find new people to teach. 

 

we found a family yesterday that has a lot of potential.  we taught them the restoration and they seemed really receptive.  i couldnt really add much, but we had a member there. so he helped my companion explain everything.  the father prayed at the end of the lesson, and it was so awesome.  i didnt understand all of it, but i could definitely feel the spirit.  so my area is pronounced hi- why- ko    by the way. hahaa.  the people are really good here.  it has been really good.  o ya and guess what. i had to intorduce myself and bear my testimony in sacrament yesterday.. .i think that it went well.... i dont know if they understood me.. but whatevs.  our ward is really cool. 

 

tell aubrey and artem good luck with everything. i hope that everything works out with cadets and lifeguarding.  o ya and valedictorian.  for realsies?? awesome.  thank you for emailing them back and saying i cant go to graduation.  hey i am just glad that i know for sure that i am graduated now... yesss.  well, i hope that everything is goin great.  i gotta go.  i love you so much!! good luck this week

 

hermana milne

Week 10

hey hey hey!!

 

how is everyone?   you would not believe what i have been through in the last five days.  holy cow, where do i start.  well i guess i havent written for two weeks. i will just start at the beginning.  easter wasnt that exciting.  all we did was eat a chocolate egg and watch a bunch of bible videos at the mtc in peru.  our last saturday in peru, my companion and i went tracting in lima.  we had a lot more success than when i was with hermana caicedo.  we taught a few lessons and got some references.  my companion, hermana moscoso is just the coolest in the world.  she knows english and spanish, she has been a member her entire life. and she is just so smart.  i hope we are companions again once i learn spanish.  we would rock!!  well anyways, i guess i need to get to the good stuff.

 

the flight there was so long.  we went to the airport early in the morning and flew for two hours to santa cruz, bolivia.  and then had a nine hour layover... so much fun... not.  but! i can officially say that i have been in the amazon.  because that is where santa cruz is at.  so then we had a 25 minute flight to cochabamba... it took us all day to fly for two and a half hours.  o boy.  we were taken to the temple, and they have a sweet hotel on temple grounds. so we got to stay there.  we didnt get there until like midnight. one of my suitcases got left behind in santa cruz. so we had to wait all day the next day to get it.  ugh. but we got to hang out at the presidents house for eight hours.  my president and his wife are so cool.  they have only been here for nine months. so they will be here for my entire mission.   

 

the climate here is totally perfect.  it is cool in the mornings, but then it is just perfect during the day. 

 

we woke up the next morning to finish up all of the paperwork for our permanent visas.  and then i met my trainer.  her name is hermana fuentes.  she is from argentina, and she has been out for nine months.  we are going to be companions for 3 months.  and the ward we are serving in is called Jaihuayco.  i dont know how to pronounce it either, dont worry.  she is from argentina and she is very proud of her country. that is all that she talks about. ahaha i dunno.  she still cant pronounce my name at all. she is a hard worker.  and we really have a language barrier problem... hopefully we will get over it soon.  this is her first time training so neither of us know what to do.  it is tough, but i cant imagine that first five days of any mission is easy.  o ya and she has no desire to workout in the mornings.... she would rather snooze a little bit.  so i am working out by myself in the apartment.  so ya. chelsea!! you should definitely send me those little workout lists, because i dont even know where to start. when i am trapped in my apartment. she has only been in the area for a month so both of us dont know the area or the members. it has been interesting.   

 

my apartment is really small. it is just me and my companion.  our toilet barely works some of the time. and we have no food in the house.  and if you touch the showerhead or handle on the shower... you get shocked.  i learned that one the hard way.  the electric coil heats up the water as it comes out of the shower head... ugh.  unpleasent.  o ya and sometimes they turn off our water.  hahaa.  that is always a pleasent suprise when you try to flush the toilet.  i am adjusting okay.  i think i need a few more days and it will be awesome.  o ya and guess what!!  i have to hand wash my clothes.... wow.  this is just going to be quite the experience. and then we hang dry them outside of our apartment.   

 

the food is really good. they like chicken, rice, pasta, and really randon natural teas and fake coffees.  bleh.  not my favorite. the almost coffee is the worst.  but everything else is good.  we actually have a cooking lady that makes all of our meals for us.  her name is carmen and she is a member of the ward.  she is so nice.  she cooks lunch and dinner for us, and we are on our own for breakfast.  but my companion doesnt eat breakfast, so i just have to starve until one o clock everyday.  so i dont know what to do.  they really dont have cereal or milk here... as far as i know... of course i dont know much at all. we arent allowed to eat pork, lettuce, strawberries.  we only really have eaten bananas and apples because they are easy to clean.  so i havent been able to try any cool fruit.-  

 

we study for four hours every morning.  1 hr personal. 2 hrs. companion. 1 hr. language.  my companion is supposed to be studying english but she just goes and lays down during my spanish study. then we go eat lunch, and then we tract or go to our appointments.  then we have dinner.  it gets dark at like seven thirty and there arent many streetlights in this part of town. so if we dont have an appointment. we have to go back to the apartment.  it is a little sketchy here. but it is fine during the day.  but there are a lot of barrachos around here.  they are kind of like these random drunk guys that wander the streets.  they usually cant even stand up.  but sometimes they yell at us.. i dont know what they are saying, so whatever.  one of them tried to talk to us and followed us into a store.  the store owners chased him off, and then we got to ride in a police car to try and find him... that was interesting.  that was one of the most interesting things that happened so far.  the people are so nice here.  they are patient and try to help me speak as much as i can.  we got to go to a primary activity on saturday and all of the primary kids in the stake did all of the different dances from the different countries.  they did an elvis song for the united states. it was so cute.  it reminded me of the dance recitals i had when i was a kid.  their costumes were totally cool and traditional.  it was fun to experience the culture a little bit more.  it is funny when they try to make me translate all of the songs into spanish.... haha then they realize that it is my third day in the mission field. and then they tell me that it will get better soon. yaaa..... sure.... ahaa the streets here arent very crowded and there is much organization to the city... i have never j walked so much in my life.... haha.  and most of the time we just walk down the middle of the street.

 

okay the mailing situation. they said that most of the mail gets here just fine.  all of the mail goes to the mission office first. so i am pretty sure that the address i gave you is right.  you can double check in my missionary packet.  they said it usually takes 2 to 3 weeks to get a letter.  so ya you should definitely write me a letter. ahaha. i reallly really hope they forward my mail from the peru mtc to here.. but i dunno if that will happen.  well i really hope that everything is going well at home.  i gotta go.. and i love you!!

 

hermana milne

Week 9

Hey,

so i made it to cochabamba. it is so beautiful here. the presidentand his wife are really nice. my companion is really nice. she isfrom argentina. hermana fuentes i love you so much!

hermana milne

Week 8

hey how are you??  thanks for the pictures!! they were amazing.  i know i say this every time but i dont have enough time.  but i just wanna say. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM  (yesterday)  you are the best mom in the world.  now i thought that i would send some pictures right back at you.  i am going to take more pictures today, so ya.  how is everything going??  how did  you like general conference?  i thought it was just so fantastic.  we got to watch it live... IN ENGLISH. o it was so amazing.  but it was hard to transfer back to spanish after two full days of blissful english.  we also got to watch the world report and stuff inbetween the conferences and i thought it was really interesting.  i just have tons of notes on it all and i cant wait to read them again.  

 

so mail is really rare here.  so my district decided to write letters to each other and put them in the mailbox.  it is so hackin fun.  i got a letter from the flash yesterday.  pretty cool right?  and elder murdock got a letter from harry potter.  can you tell that we have been in the mtc for nine weeks?  i dunno.  we are getting a little stir crazy, but it is alot of fun.  i just cant believe that i am leaving for bolivia in less than  a week.  ahhh.  i am so hackin excited.  

 

so i have discovered something delicious.  they have these banana chips things.  they are so amazing it is like salty dry bananas that somehow taste like potato chips.  best thing this wweek.  and we got to listen to the lord of the rings soundtrack this week.  it was totally awesome.  but now i am dying to watch lord of the rings again.  but ya anyways. enjoy the pictures.  there are some from provo and my old district.  and some of my old latina companeras.  and some of peru. and the three musketeers of course.  haha i hope you enjoy.  good luck this week. i love you!!

 

 

PS - here are some more pictures.  enjoy

 

i dont know when i will be able to email next. i leave next tuesday.  i hope that i will be able to email in bolivia, but we shall see.  o ya and these are my addresses i think...

 

letters...

hermana janessa milne

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Casilla de Correo 1375

Cochabamba, Cochabamba

Bolivia

 

packages...

Hermana janessa milne

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Edif. Confort Piso 7-C

Av. Villarroel 1132

Cochabamba, Cochabamba

Bolivia

 

love,

hermana milne