Week 49

Howdy!  from Bolivia.

 

Random fact.... I have the same hairdo as Legolas from The Lord of the Rings today... awesome.  I may or may not pretend to shoot arrows all day long today...  o ya that makes me super cool.

 

But ya, how is everyone doing?!  It has been a pretty crazy week.  It has rained for the past three days straight... lame!  Why didnt i bring rain boots? oi.. but ya, everything is going well in Sucre.  We had a fun week, and i can´t believe the time is passing by so fast.  This is the last week of this transfer... blah!  and the transfers are so unpredictable lately, that i dont know where i will be next week. but ya, cool. 

 

 We had a training with the president last tuesday.  it was super interesting.  The problem was that the assistents had to come and teach a class to us.  but their flight was delayed so they couldnt make it... so the president asked my companion and i to give the class in front of everyone 5 minutes before the conference started... o boy... but it actually went really well.  It is a good thing that the spirit tells us what we need to say in the precise moment that we need it.  And then, we had a suprise house inspection... phew!  luckily, everything was clean.  haha! o man.  interesting conference.  Then on sunday, we had to teach the adult sunday school class and then the primary... we taught them the apostasy and the restoration... missionary classic.  and once again, the children paid more attention than the adults.  haha!  75% of the adults fell asleep at some point during our class... geez haha. but it was pretty funny.  we only had 30 minutes to teach, but we finished in time. 

 

Okay so what happened this week?  We visited the gigantic famous cementary in Sucre.  it was super cool.  the trees are huge!! .... ummmm o ya, and we ate sheep for lunch on saturday.  that was pretty interesting... and it was actually pretty good. The computers here are super slow... and the computers here gave my memory card and flash a virus!  ugh!  what a pain.  now they do not work.  and i have to find someone with computer skills to fix them. Carnival is coming up too... this holiday is pretty much an excuse to throw water balloons at everyone in the street for the next month... not good news for missionaries.  In feburary, the official three days of carnival, we are trapped in the house because it is so bad.  ugh.  but i am sure that it will be super interesing. haha!  i will let you know if we get super soaked in the next few weeks.  

 

O ya! So we were teaching this woman the other day.  We taught her the first lesson, and she seemed really nice.  Then she told us that she was a missionary too... for the catholic church.  wow!  cool. She goes out and teaches all kinds of people.  But she was really cool about it, and she actually accepted a baptismal date... suprise!! Hopefully we will be able to go back and teach her again.  ... teach a catholic missionary the gospel...... check that one off of my list... haha

Last Tuesday, We were in the street and a man just walked up to us and started talking.  He was obviously completely drunk.  He just started talking about whatever, and he bought my companion some chips... cool?... haha.  so we started talking to him too.  We were talking about the gospel... when suddenly.... he just turned and started talking to michael jackson, who was apparently standing next to us... hahahah o man o man.  so funny.  we told him that he should probably stop drinking. We taught him the word of wisdom and gave him the pamphlet... then he just started balling... wha?  o man, drunks are super funny.  But ya,.....Teach a drunk guy the word of wisdom in the street.... check that one off of my list....

 

Well, i hope that everyone is doing super great!  Good luck this week, and let me know what you are up to.  i love ya!

 

Hermana Milne

Week 48

 Hey, So surprise! we spent an hour searching for a functional internetthis week. sigh... sucre bolivia..... what else can ya do? Now i have to be super fast because we have a time limit that was totally up an hour ago... haha! oi! okay well anyways... what happened this week?

 

 Last monday we went to a dinosaur park... it was okay. they only had footprints of dinosaurs and giant fake dinosuars. I got some pretty cool pictures. But they are so cheap. they charge three times as much if you are from a different country... what?? and extra if you want to take pictures.. sigh... but it was okay ish

 

 So we have a part of our area that is pretty much on the top of a mountain. We also have to cross a river using stones to get to an investigators house. It was rained alot lately, so the river was a little more crazy this time. dont worry, my companion totally has a video of me stranded on a rock, in the middle of river... in a hackin skirt. oi..... but ya it was pretty funny.

 

 The more traditional people have some pretty crazy beliefs. I learnedthis week, that the people have a interesting tradition. So whenever there is a storm coming, the farmers are afraid that it is going to hail. In order to prevent the hail from coming, they shoot off fireworks, to save their crops. uhhhh. okay cool. So ya usually the storms here are pretty noisy with thunder and fireworks. We were talking with a little girl that lives on top of the mountain... we asked her why the other kids never talked to us. she told us that they think the gringas are coming to steal their organs... o boy.. i am so glad i have such a fantastic reputation among the natives. hahaha! so that is why they are so shy and afraid. They think i am going to take a kidney with me when i leave. no wonder no one wants to come to church. We were also trying to teach a super old lady how to pray in Quechua... i dont know how successful we were, but she seemed really nice. it is tough because most of them dont speak spanish very well... sigh.. bueno.

 

 I had to give a surprise talk in sacrament meeting this week, and then we were in charge of the primary again for two hours. woo hoo. i gotta admit, some the kids are pretty cute... and others... not somuch. haha! I am also officially addicted to oreos and peanut butter... which is tough because peanut butter doesnt really exist here. but somehow we had a jar in the apartment... sweeet!!! O ya and strawberry waferitos... it is the cheapest and most delicious ice cream that they have in bolivia. sweet it is like 20 cents... so worth it!! But ya, everything is going really well. we are teaching a lot of different people. from old ladies that dont speak spanish to 24 yr old atheists. it is a lot of fun, and i am learning a lot. This is a university town, so we are just waiting for all of the students to return for classes. I hope that everything is going great this week. good luck and godspeed i love ya

 

 Hermana Milne

Week 47

 Hey, so we spent like 30 minutes trying to find a functional internet, and now the internet is so painfully slow, i can barely stand it... sigh. bueno...
 
 Well new years was a lot of fun. I washed laundry and went to dinner with the rest of the zone... The food was good, and we played a question game. I won a can of Dr. Pepper... wow.. so american. and delicious. And at midnight, we woke up to all of the yelling and fireworks... sigh.. whatevs. But the funniest part, was that there
 was a marching band that passed by our house during the night and again in the morning. In the morning we looked out the window, we realized that it wasnt a normal marching band... it was a completely wasted marching band. All the people were completely drunk and marching down the streets while playing their crazy music... dont worry, i totally have a video. It wasnt very funny when we were trying to sleep, but in the morning it was absolutely hilarious. The next day, we went out to visit some less active members. We walked past two old drunk guys... one of them was attempting to play the flute and the other was completely bawling... haha! maybe you just had to be there. unfortunately, i couldnt get my camera out in time to catch the moment... blast. But ya, it was an interesting holiday. o ya and some kid told us that he hacked into secret information from the U.S. and Spain governments that is going to change the world in 8 months... haha! o boy... very very interesting holiday.
 
 So we are still teaching the atheists and it is going super well. we think that they are understanding a little bit better now, and are really open to learn more. We are going to talk with them this wednesday, hopefully they will be willing to learn more and feel the spirit.
 
 We had a super great baptism this last saturday. Her name is Susan, and she is 19 years old. she is super cool, and has such a strong testimony. It is amazing that you can really see the difference aftersomeone gets baptized. they literally shine afterwards, and then she shared the most simple and beautiful testimony that i have ever heard. I love that the simple things are more spiritual.
 
 On sunday, we had a pretty crazy morning. We had to make sure that Susan was going to come to church to be confirmed, and we had to go pick up other investigators. The thing is... the other people live on top of a mountain.. we did a little bit of mountain climbing before church, and the investigators werent home... so we descended the mountain and headed to church. When we finished the first hour, they told us that none of the primary people showed up, so we needed to go control the primary for two hours. bueno... Child control is super exhausting, but we survived. It was a super great week, and next week is going to be even better. I hope that everyone is doing well, and that you enjoyed your first week of 2013! good luck this week, i love ya!
 
 Hermana Milne

Week 46

Happy New Years Eve!!  woo hooo!! ITS THE END OF THE WORLD!! ..... o wait  .... oops  ITS THE END OF THE YEAR.... ya that sounds right.

So what are all of your sweet plans for 2013?  can you believe that 2012 is totally over?  ... wow.  weird.  i will definitely be sleeping when it is new years... whatevs.  until 2014... but ya, how is the holiday season going for everyone?  It was pretty cool here....

okay so what did i do for christmas... well we woke up and followed the same routine. exercise, study and then we had our district meeting in the stake center.  it was really interesting, and we got to say feliz navidad to the elders in sucre.  i really dont know any of them so it was kinda weird, but ya. whatevs.  Then we had lunch with some members.  they made us the traditional bolivian christmas plate... a soup full of corn chicken and carrots... but ya it was pretty good.  then we went to do some service.  A lot of the poor people that live on the farms come into the city to beg for food and presents for christmas. so sucre is full of super poor families during the christmas season. we went and made hot chocolate and buñelos and then gave them out to the people in the streets.  it was a lot of fun and i got to learn how to cook some classic bolivian food.  but all it is, is fried bread... sweet. Then we headed home and waited for our families to call. it was a super great day.  It was so much fun being able to talk to the family and it sounds like everything is going well.

okay what else happened this week.... hmmm. o ya!  you wont believe it. so we are teaching this guy, and he has a few doubts.  We went to visit him with his girlfriend, who is a member, and he told us that he invited some of his friends to listen too.  oh i see... now we know why he has doubts... because all of his friends are athiests.. o hackin.  so we taught about the restoration to a group of atheists.... it actually was pretty interesting.   it didnt turn out a complete disaster.  They were actually really cool and listened to us. one of them actually found the book of mormon in the trash at school and read it.  He really liked what we had to teach.   We are going to teach them the plan of salvation this week.  woo hoo!  awesome.  it was a really spiritual lesson, i just hope that they recognized the spirit of God in the lesson too!

The ward had a temple trip this week, and didnt get back in time for church... so there were like 10 people in sacrament meeting this week.  it is tough, because a lot of the members are students at the university, so they are not here in december and january... and all of our investigators went home for christmas too.  haha! o man o man.  so we ended up teaching the young single adults class the second hour, and then the primary in the third hour.  Honestly, the primary kids were more attentive and willing to learn than the adult class.... sigh....

The other night we were walking down the street, and we saw an older lady that was shoveling dirt and rocks into bags and taking it into her house. We crossed the street and offered our help.  She was constructing something inside and had to  move all of the material inside, before it rained and washed away all of the dirt... we were on a hill. So my companion, another homeless guy that was looking for work, and I started helping her.  We were helping in our skirts for the first hour and a half, and needless to say, we got some pretty funny looks. haha! then we ran home and changed.  I was able to carry the rocks inside.  they were super concerned that i would get tired or hurt myself... but do not worry. i have had the practice.  It reminded me of all of the roofs that i helped dad tear off, back in the day... pretty much the same work. haha!  they couldnt believe it.  but I helped the other homeless kid carry, and my companion shoveled.  We were there for two and a half hours.  i cant imagine how long it would have taken without our help.  pheww.  but ya it was super fun, and exercise!! ya! 

Well i hope that everyone has a fantastic new year.  Dont be too crazy.  good luck and godspeed this week.  enjoy the holidays! i will write you next year. 

love ya

Hermana Milne

Week 44

Bueno.... hey.

 

So all is super crazy because christmas is coming up.  woo hoo.  craziness.  How is everyone doin at home?  i am sure it is going okay. but ya... honestly not a lot happened this week.

 

We had our christmas devotional with the mission president this last week.  it was a lot of fun.  we listened to some super awesome messages and then got to play some games.  the games were super fun.  the president had a pushup contest with the elders and the president won!! woo hoo awesome.  We also played some fun games with toiletpaper and pingpongs.  and i saved my companion from eating almonds, because she is totally allergic.  The food was soooooo good! o man. that is the best apple pie I have ever eaten in my life. wow!  blew my mind.

 

We also had the primary christmas party in the ward on saturday.  we were santa´s helpers.  we had three investigators come and visit the activity.  sweet.  the husband of our pensionista dressed up as santa and the kids almost died with excitement.  You could hear him from two blocks away.  ho ho ho! haha o man o man.  well we helped them out and had to take off for some more appointments. 

 

We are teaching a little girl named Camila.  Her family is less active members.  we are reactivating them and she really wants to be baptized. she is super smart. we asked her if she had read the bible and she started reciting memorized passages.  holy cow!  Her family is so amazing and we had a family night with them the other day and watched some mormon messages.  it was so cool.  but ya... that is pretty much it this week.  i hope that you are doing great at home.  and i hope that you enjoy the christmas season, and dont forget what it is actually really about.  godspeed. i love ya!

 

Hermana Milne

Week 43

Hola! como estan?

This week was pretty interesting.  ... like always!!!  So last monday we went paintballing with our zone.  woo hoo! it was sooo much fun.  i got hit in the shoulder and in the back.  but Elder Piñel totally cheated and pretended that he was out of paintballs and then walked by and shot me!  o hackin.  it was latinos versus gringos... only slightly separatist. but whatevs.

So we were preparing this kid named cristian for baptism.  we always taught him in a members house. but this week we found out that he technically lives in the ward boundaries of Colon. the ward next door... hmmmm o hackin.. so we had to pass him over to the elders. sigh. that stinks pretty bad. but hopefully we will find someone else to teach this week.  

My companion and I were studying one morning and we were eating a little breakfast too.  there was one piece of toast left on the plate and i told my companion that she could have it.  i didnt want any more.  she didnt want it either, so we just left in on the plate on the desk.  we started reading preach my gospel together and when we finished a section we both looked up. my comp told me that if i wanted the toast that i could eat all of it.. not just one bite.  i told her that i hadnt touched the toast and neither had she... but there was a big bite out of the piece of toast.  we were a little creeped out... we totally have a toast eating ghost in our house.... kind of awesome.  in a way.

Last Friday was my companions birthday.  woo hoo. 2 birthdays in one week!  we got to eat pizza and cocacola and chocolate cake. yuuuuummm!!! we had another party with the elders that eat with us, and they gave her some more matte to drink.  cool!! this birthday party, the both of us werent partly sick... sweet

We had a huge christmas choir devotional in the temple yesterday.  People from all parts of bolivia came to watch it.  it was amazing!  We handed out 4000 invitations in our area and we have a whole bunch of references to go a visit now.  all of the missionaries were waiting at the doors to catch the investigators and bring them in to the temple grounds.  muahahah.  The activity turned out really well, and I got to see some people from my old area.  especially Zenovia.  my bolivian grandma that took care of me for the first 4 months in the field.  woo hoo They decorated the temple grounds with christmas lights, so it was beautiful at night too.  we are so lucky to have the temple in our area.  well i gotta go, but i hope that everyone is doing great and good luck christmas shopping!  I love ya!


Hermana Milne

Week 42

Hello!  Christmas greetings!! it is December! woo hoo!

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes. they were totally awesome.  This was probably my most interesting birthday in my life.  I will tell you all about it.  later. haha! This week was super interesting. we taught a record number of lessons.  We are handing out invitations for a choir christmas devotional in the temple, so it is super easy to start up conversations with everyone in the street.  and then we end up teaching them the gospel too. .. muahahah!  So there are a lot of street guards or watches in our area and we pretty much teach all of them because they cant escape from us.  but we were super surprised that one of them actually is interested in listening to us. haha! he had a lot of questions and we tried to answer all of them.  his name is Luis and he now has a baptismal date.  We also found a young couple named Luis and Jessica.  they have a 4 month old baby and are super interested in the gospel. they are like the ideal family that we could teach.  i will let you know how it all works out.  we gave them some mormon messages to watch and they are super interested.  they live like 2 blocks away from our house... sweeet! 

One day we ran out of breakfast food, so my companion and I decided to eat CocaCola and chocolate for breakfast... hahaha o man.  big mistake.  we were so hackin hyper allll day long.  We ended up line dancing in the street for awhile (dont worry no one was around) and bouncing off the walls in lunch.  But ya, it was a ton of fun!  haha!  i dont know if we will do it again though... because we totally crashed at night.

Okay so my birthday... let me just start from the beginning.  First of all it was fast sunday. so we didnt eat in the morning.  and it was dia de peaton.  which means that no cars are allowed in the street. everyone has to walk, to save the environment or something... so we had to walk all the way to church, which is like a good 35 or 40 minutes. o hackin.  we tried to pick up some investigators, but they couldnt come last minute.  so we just headed to church.  my comp was a little sick during church so we headed home. but we had to climb the gigantic hill back up to the house.  she almost died, ugh. but then we had a delicious lunch with the members slash landlords of our house.  they even made cake.. yum!!  Then I went out with the ward to hand out more invitations all day long. we did divisions, so my companion stayed with a member at home and i left with other sister missionaries.  But unfortunately, i was a little sick too.  3 and a half hours knocking doors in the hot sun... o man i wasnt feeling good.  we finally came back to the house and my comp was a little better, but i was worse.  One of the elders gave me a blessing and afterwards i felt completely fine!  wow, Priesthood works!  I know that the men in the church have the power and authority of God. We just need to have the faith and strength to press forward.  Then we had my  birthday party with my pensionista and 6 other missionaries.  They smashed my face in the cake because that is the tradition here and we sang and i introduced them to m&m sniffing... yes! awesome.  Then we headed home cuz my comp was still feeling a little down.  I am sending you some pictures from my bday and also from our jungle trip last week.   I hope everyone is doing well. and good luck this week!

Godspeed

Hermana Milne