Week 54

Hey.  Hows it goin?

This week was pretty cool.  I hope that you enjoyed our totally awesome video.  yessss.  we rock.  So we had a great week.  lots of really cool stuff happened.  and We get to go and make salteñas after this... sweet. the most delicious food in Bolivia.  I will make them when i get home.. but the problem might be that the ingredients might not exist in utah... oi.. crap.  but ya, i will send some pictures if we can find an internet that is fast enough next week.  haha.  well everything is going great in Sucre.  we are teaching and working.  We have a lot of really super cool investigadors.

One of them is Oscar.  His girlfriend is a member, and we have been teaching him since i came here to sucre... before christmas.  He is super stubborn.  He changed his opinion every time that we went to teach him.. he is the one that invited all of his atheist friends to come listen to the lesson... sigh.  well, needless to say,  he has had a hard time with his testimony.  He really didnt want to pray and ask God for an answer, because he was afraid that God wouldnt answer and he would be disappointed.  We asked him the baptismal questions two weeks ago, and he said that he was uncertain about all of the questions... we knew that he wasnt progressing and he wasnt keeping the commandments that we had taught him.  This last week, we planned a lesson for him, promising him that if he prayed everyday and kept the commandments for one week, that he would recieve his answer.  And if he wasnt willing, we would have to drop him... So we went to his house, all prepared... and we sat down with him and a member... he seemed to be really happy. and he told us that we really didnt need to come visit him anymore.... uh oh... we thought that he was rejecting it all.... but then he told us that the reason was that this last week he was keeping all of the commandments and praying everyday, and that he felt a lot happier and that he had already recieved his answer and wants to be baptized next saturday.  wow!  He kept the promise before we even offered it to him.  major whiplash compared to the other lesson that we had with him.  He came to church and was participating the whole time.  it is like he is a completely different person.  wow.  It is amazing to watch the changes that God makes in the lives of the people who are looking for the truth.

My companion also overcame her fear of cows this week.  sweet.  She thinks that they are going to go all crazy and start attacking us, like in the bulls in the movies... i told her that they are just going to keep eating grass and pooping.  they have no reason to attack us.. haha!  but ya, it was pretty funny.

I also had to kick two drunks off of our doorstep .... twice!  so we could get into our apartment.  I guess it is an advantage to have 6 inches on everyone here... haha ! what can i say... i am hackin intimidating to all of the drunk bolivians. success...   well, i hope that you all had a great week,  i love ya, good luck, godspeed, and all that jazz

Hermana Milne 

Week 53

Hey HeY!

How are ya?  So it was a pretty good week... after carnival ended.  sweet!  We were trapped in the house all sunday and monday.. but at least i wrote a ton of letters.  sweet.  Then, on Tuesday, we had our zone conference with president. sweet!  President said that we might do an exchange with the sisters in Potosi.  sweet.  so i might go on a three day trip to another city.. awesome sauce.  Potosi has some of the most history in south america.  o man. cool.... but really, it is ridiculously cold there.  woo hoo.  we shall see.  but ya, it was a lot of fun.  also president taught us a ton of useful stuff.  We also redeemed the rest of the week in the five days that were left over after carnival.

So my companion and I got bored again... and so we made a valentines day movie.  enjoy!  we worked super hard on it.... haha.... ya.... o man we are so crazy.  but ya it was fun. and ya we just worked normal on valentines day... sigh.  bueno.

O ya and I got to hold a baby lamb this week... soooo cutttteee!  o man o man. it was on top of this mountain with one of the girls that we are teaching.  her name is olga and she is super super smart.  One of the smartest 11 years olds that i have ever met.  haha!  but ya, it was pretty much the coolest.  i know that this is short... but we are going to play some wallyball with the zone.  awesome.  o no! so we are sitting in an internet cafe right now, and there are a ton of teenagers here... and ya one of them has the same power ranger ringtone that i had before the mission... ahhh.  i am reaching for my cell phone that doesnt exist to see who has texted me... o man this is so oo  weird.  But ya i hope that you have a good week.  good luck. love ya and godspeed

Hermana Milne

Movie - my companion and i singing

foto 1 on top of a mountain with the little girl and the lamb

foto 2 during our weekly planning session.  the two best things from our respective countries.  USA - peanut butter   Argentina - Matte

Week 52

Hey HEy,    HApPY VaLeNTiNeS DaY!!  I hope that you all have a super great day!  haha, it will be a normal day for me... valentines day is in september in Bolivia... whatevs

Dont worry I am still alive.  so this week has been really crazy.  We have had quite a few carnival experiences... So a little kid had a water gun and was waiting for us in the street. My companion told him that we werent playing and that we had books, but he just smiled and sprayed my companion right in the face from 4 feet away... we almost killed him... but then we remembered that we are representatives of Jesus Christ... o ya.... sigh... bueno.  just keep walking.  We have been pelted with various water balloons and water guns, but we have yet to experience the bucket of water... i guess that is a blessing.  We couldnt leave the house yesterday because it was so crazy, and tomorrow we have zone conference... and then carnival is over... sweet!!! Mom is right. this is truly testing my patience and love for the people... oi... haha but ya, the elders think it is a ton of fun.  sigh...

We had a bbq with the elders last monday.  it was pretty good, but it ended up that the sisters had to cook and clean and the elders just played card games and board games... what the heckkk? whatevs.  o man o man.  but ya, it was a lot of fun.  

Okay, it is time for Janessa´s crazy moment of the week.  We were climbing a mountain out in the boonies.  the people only live on top of the mountain, and it is all dirt paths... as we were climbing... i was suddenly reminded of the Lord of the Rings... and the surroundings were almost the same as the movies... so naturally..... I totally started acting out Lord of the Rings on a small, abandoned, dirt mountain path in the middle of Bolivia.  yep... It rocked.  And my companion totally joined in,  Sometimes we are just hackin crazy, no wonder the kids think that we are going to steal their organs.  

But ya, i hope that you are doing well. I love ya and good luck this week.   godspeed.

Hermana Milne 

Week 51 - One Year Mark

Hellooooooooo!  yep dont get too excited, but i will have one year in the mission this week.  yes i know..... I just blew your mind.  

It is kind of blowing my mind as well.  okay, so this week pretty much rocked.  we woke up to some rockin fog this morning... first time in Bolivia that i have seen fog... weird.  o and i finally got all of your packages and letters!! that took two and a half months... but ya, thank you for the christmas notes and packages.  they really mean a lot.  shout out to shawn and chelsea. their letter pretty much was super hilarious.  thanks to the ward too!  it was really fun to read all of the notes from family and friends. and all of the members who tried to read my letters really enjoyed the notes in spanish too in my giant christmas card. haha! 

Okay, well what happened this week? we have been dodging children and adults with water guns, buckets, and water balloons. all week long.. sigh.  worst holiday ever.  And we found out that carnival is an old tradition where they pretty much worship the devil.  they do what ever they want for two weeks, and then it is exactly 40 days before easter, Like the demon inside of everyone is released, and then afterwards they go to church to repent for 40 days before easter for all that they did during carnival.  They ignore all of the laws and get super drunk.  we cant leave our house for four days during the climax of this holiday.  sigh.... boring.  Now they are starting to throw ice water balloons... yikes.  so illegal.  We now wear our plastic ponchos where ever we go.  haha we look ridiculous and slightly like blue aliens... and everyone laughs at us, but at least my scriptures are protected.  also the drunk bands are becoming more and more common.  sigh... oi.  We actually had two drunk old ladies give us cactus fruit and figs the other day ..  so random.  but these two types of fruit are like super delicious... and i totally got to eat fruit that Jesus ate.. blew your mind again. o ya and there is the plant here that they used to make Christ´s crown of thorns.  it is wicked sharp.  yikes.    

We helped a lady wash her laundry in a stream this week... how many of  you have had that experience?  awesome.... 

We are teaching a guy, and his uncle from Chile is listening in on our lessons too... it is the same guy that invited all of his atheist friends to the lessons.  well, his uncle is a math professor in Chile and he is Bahai.  which is like buddhist christian ish... i think... the lessons are getting more and more interesting every single time.  But his uncle is actually really cool.  haha!  O ya and one of the girls here got her mission call to serve in the arizona temple, cool right? she is leaving in march.  she came to proselyte with us this week.  which makes her very brave to come out with us during carnival.  she is super cool.  

I also had to get all of my shoes repaired this week... Somehow every pair of shoes that i own broke in the same week.   sigh... but ya, its all good now. o ya and we bought some hair dye... we were bored... needless to say, i am not really blonde anymore.... Just blew your mind AGAIN!! wow i am rockin this letter.  Well i will just leave it at that... i hope that you have a great week!  good luck and godspeed  Muhahahahaha!

Hermana Milne

Week 50

Hey HEy!

 

Okay... so transfers.... I am staying in Sucre with my companion, Hermana Cervera!  WooHoo!  sweeeet!  This transfer is going to be eight weeks long, so ya,  i am here until the end of March and probably even longer after that.  sweet.  We didnt have a lot of changes in the zone, so ya... its going to be pretty cool.  and fun!  yesss.

 

Okay so .. not a ton happened this week.  We dogded at least 20 water balloons this week, but yesterday the hackin kids finally caught me... i got hit with 2 water balloons on the way to a less actives house... sigh.. bueno. They say that when Feburary starts the people will start using buckets of water instead of water balloons... and their main target is all of the girls that are walking down the street.  they usually leave the men alone during Carnival.  really really bad news for sister missionaries.  haha!  so naturally, we are going to start wrapping our scriptures, cameras, and all valuables in plasic when we go out to teach.  We are also going to start wearing plastic ponchos everyday... haha o hackin.  so ya, we are going to look like total fools for the next two weeks... wearing plastic everywhere that we go.  oi.

 

Our wrd mission leader got married this last week, and we got to go help out with the food.  It was super cute!  His wife is catholic, so we hope that we will be able to talk to her sometime.  They made food from argentina, and it was sooooo good!  my companion was pretty happy to have some food from her country.  yum yum yum.  So we had some pretty crazy lessons this week.  The thing is... We really try hard to keep the investigators on subject with the gospel... but sometimes they pull a fast one on us and start talking about other super crazy stuff.  haha! this week in particular was strange.  we had conversations about the beliefs of Einstein, physics, Hawkins, aliens(several conversations), dinosaurs, and every other subject imaginable. hackin.  but ya, we usually can get them back on the right subject afterwards.  haha! o geez. Sometimes we just have to stop ourselves from just laughing!  but ya, we are waiting for all of the students to return to sucre in feburary.  Hopefully we will have some more normal conversations.

 

But ya, everything is going super great here in Bolivia.  I hope that you are doing well.  Good luck with this week, godspeed. i love ya family!

 

Hermana Milne