Hola Familia! So much happened this week but first I want to tell you about the baptism. Hermana Aide was baptised on Saturday!!! She was so happy. I love the spirit that is present at baptisms. She was nervous but so excited. We took pictures of her with her new ward family. After her baptism, she prayed before she got changed because she felt so grateful to the Lord for taking away her sins. It was such a beautiful experience. She is such a social butterfly she already has friends in the ward, she won't have any trouble at all adjusting. I'm so grateful everything went so well because our day before her baptism was crazy. All of our citas fell through. We had almost no success that day. My companion took it really hard becacuse she is a perfectionist. She wants so badly to be perfect. Its so sad because she stresses so much about things. I really admire her desire to serve at her best but its getting to the point where she has trouble liking herself. I 'm trying my hardest to help her but its hard when I can't express myself fully. I asked her to read the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf about slowing down and remembering the important things. I hope it helped her. We have two families I'm so excited about. I feel like they are my family. I love teaching them because they have desires to learn. There is so much joy in my mission, the Lord blesses me so much. If the day goes bad, it always ends well. My prayers are answered constantly. The spirit helps me everytime I try to speak with our investigators. I could go on and on but the point is I feel so blessed. We got a shower yesterday haha. It pours here, literally. We were soaked in seconds. It cracks me up everytime that happens. I love being here. This work is so hard but I love it so much. I'm so thankful for my eternal family. It comforts me so much tha if we live the way we should we can have the greatest blessing our father in heaven has to offer. I love you with all my heart. I am so happy to hear all is well with everyone! I love hearing about the things that are going at home. Its so nice to feel connected. I can't wait to hear from you. I love you!!!

Happy Valentines Day!!!

I love you all so much! Parents can make such a difference in the lives of their children. The other day I had the worst luck haha. I hit my head on the doorway of a bus because they are built for people who are a foot shorter than me. My skirt flew up around my waist because the wind here is so crazy, and I had a little two year old swear at me when I said goodbye to him. Honestly, the most heart breaking moment was when the little kid swore at me. It was so strange to feel so hurt by a word I couldn't understand. It hurt to think of him hearing that word often enough that he could understand what it meant and how to use it. He was upset because he wanted to leave so bad but his mom wanted to listen to us. I'm so grateful that I was able to grow up in a home where the Spirit could always be felt. Sometimes I feel like when I overcome something the Lord immediatly presents another opportunity to grow. I have to work really hard to remember that I don't need to trust in my abilities or what I think I can do but to trust in the Lord. We have had two all day meetings with missionaries from other zones that lasted from eight in the morning till six at night. we had to practice in front of everybody, talk about nerve wracking because at the same time Pesident Calderon would critique us on the spot. I think I did okay. But at the end of our last meeting he said we'll be getting 25 new misssionaries this next cambio. And five of them are sister missionaries, Hermana Calderon said this is evidence that the lord has a lot of trust in us because that means a lot of us will be training. I almost said "crap!" haha because that scares me so much. I just can't imagine myself ever being ready to take on that responsibility with what little knowdledge I have. But I'm trying to learn as much as I can to prepare for it just in case that's what the Lord wants me to do. Thank you so much for the ipod. Tell Hayley thank you, thank you!! My companion loves it too. (That's the only package I've received of the ones you've sent mom). I found out that not only do we have to wait for the packages to come from the US but sometimes the Elders don't pick up the packages that are in the offices. So I have to be really patient with them haha. We got to go to the baptism of Claudia! It was so beautiful. The Spirit there was so sweet. I loved it so much. I felt so excited about our work. Also, we have a baptism this weekend for Aide! I took a picture of her daughter Angi she is so crazy haha. I love her. She is so sweet and fun. Her mom read all the pamphlets we gave her and she answered the questios in the back of them which investigators rarely do. She is so well prepared to recieve the gospel in her life. I miss singing with my mom. Singing with people is a different experience here. My companion along with the majority of people here are tone deaf haha. It cracks me up when we sing without a piano. Anyway, I hope your week is fantastic and full of happy moments. I love you so much!!

I love my family!!! You are all so special and wonderful. I love you with all my heart. I found out all the letters sent to me need to be addressed to the package mailing address. It is the one now on my blog. My debit card works. I have been able to get money in Bolivianos. I am the proud owner of a shoe brush now. haha. I never thought this day would come. HaHa. I am doing really good. I don't feel any real pain where my appendix use to be. Only when I eat too much. I'm getting chubby haha. I eat so much at lunch because that is our only real meal and then I can't exercise like normal because the doctor said I can't for three months, especially not sit-ups and that's what I need most right now. I hope I don't come home round haha. I'm going to try to figure something out. But it's hard when families offer us pop and dessert stuff, or full on meals. I am so excited that we have baptisms coming up!!! This weekend is Claudia's baptism, she got married this last Saturday. Her wedding was small and only with family but it was so beautiful. She has such a strong testimony and desire to follow the Savior. My Spanish is getting better. There is woman we are teaching who has a baptismal date for the nineteenth. Her name is Aide and she has a five year old girl named Angie. She is such a doll. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week full of warm moments.

I love you so much. I have so much to tell you , but first off I want to tell you the Lord answers prayers. I know you know this, but I feel so much gratitude for this. Yesterday, I was so sad because I let myself get discouraged with spanish again. I asked the Lord why He wants me to be here speaking spanish and not in the U.S. where I could be doing so much more. I felt prompted to read a conference talk by Henry B. Eyring. The whole thing was exactly what I needed to hear. I think it was called "Trust in the Lord then Go and Do". I love the Lord so much. He is so patient with me as I struggle. I'm so grateful I am building my relationship with Him here. I have so much to tell you! There is a guy in our ward who is leaving on a mission to Cochabamba and he is supposed to go to the Peru MTC but its full so he has to wait three weeks, poor guy. He is in one of these pictures with his twin little brothers. They are in the family Chipunabi. They are my favorite family here haha. I love them so much. I have the same companion. She is so awesome. We have music to listen to finally. The son of our pensionista gave us speakers and cds. Which was shocking because he always teases us relentlessly. Sometimes its really hard to be patient with him haha. This week I had two dreams that I was pregnant haha. It was so wierd. Both times I felt really happy when I woke up. I think its because there are a lot of people we know who are pregnant or have new babies. I got to be in a trio again for a day with Hermana Ortiz, she was so nice to be around she has so much peace about her. Oh, I ate cow stomach. It's nasty. I thought I was eating fried fish because the texture was rubbery and the flavor was fishy. No one told me what it was until after I ate it. When I first saw it I thought it was chicken so I took this big peice. Now when we're in the street I can smell people cooking it and it makes my stomach turn haha. We have an investigator with a baptismal date! Her name is Aide, she makes chocolates. I have a recipe for these coconut balls. They are so so so good. Ican't wait to make them for mi familia. This week is Claudia's baptism. I hope we get to go we have to get permissions from President Calderon to go. I have a picture of her too with her husband and two kids. I love you so much thank you tons for telling me whats happening with the family. I can't wait to talk again next week, love you with all my heart!

It's so funny to me that my mom said she feels like time is going by slow because this week has felt really slow for me too. Honestly, there are times when I feel like I'm going to be in Bolivia for the rest of my life haha. But I'm so grateful for this experience. I've met a couple people who are truly awesome. One woman came to church all on her own because she is having so many difficulties in her life and she was seeking help from the Lord. She prays a lot and is close to the Lord. Her life is so complicated. I feel so bad for her but I'm so happy for her because she accepted a baptismal date in our first visit with her. Also, we met someone who is very much like her minus the super complicated life. He prays a lot and believes that its important that we have a prophet to guide us today. He also said if he comes to know the things we teach are true he'll be baptised. I am so amazed at how much the Lord prepares people to accept the gospel. Our investigator, Claudia's baptism is coming up. Whenever we visit her she is just beaming. It's so special to feel her excitement and see the change in her countenance. One sad thing is that she is actually living outside our area so we won't be able to finish teaching her. She was visiting the family of her boyfriend who live in our ward when we met her and we have been teaching her at their house. I hope we can get special permission to go to her baptism. There is a huge void in my heart because I can't be with my family, but I am filling it with the people I know and love here. I can't wait for the fun times we'll have when I'm back home. I'm so grateful I can email you. The pictures attached are of my first time eating pizza in Bolivia. I wanted pizza for such a long time and my companions said we would get pizza after my surgery so when we finally did I had to get a picture. We ate the whole thing in one sitting haha. I want to get recipes from my pensionista but guess what she told me. She doesn't have any. She cooks from memory always. My comp told me that mostly everyone learns how to make things by practice and watching their moms cook. The recipies are passed down through lots of generations. Cool huh? But she said I could watch and take notes so I can try to replicate it when I get home. That'll be interesting haha. I hope you all have a fantastic week! Oh I have comp changes this week. I don't know if I'll stay or go. I'm so nervous! But I know whatever needs to happen will happen.

Surgery in Bolivia

Can you believe I ended up needing surgery here.

I was sick for a couple of days with a stomach ache and a high fever. My companion was so sweet and carefully watched over me the whole time. She even wiped down my arms, legs and forehead with washcloths that had a mixture of water and alcohol. It was so nice of her. She did all she could to help me feel comfortable. Then I had to go to our doctors office and there I took a couple of blood tests and he checked my stomache. After that we came to find I needed surgery that same day. I broke down. I wish I could say I didn't but I did. I was so afraid and wishing so much that I didn't have to go through surgery in a differet country. My companion tried to cheer me up by telling me that I could talk to my family but I ended up not being able to, which is probably a good thing because I would've just cried the whole time. I wasn't at peace until I was on the gurney. My companion held my hand the whole way to the hospital. After surgery I couldn't feel my body from the waist down and that made me panic. I started sweating and crying then a nurse came to tell me it was part of the anesthesia and that it would wear off soon. I had to pray and sing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" a few times before I could calm down. I was so overjoyed when I could feel my toes again haha. I had to spend a day and a morning after that in the hospital. It felt like prison. I couldn't wait to get out of there. I could only eat broth and jello and crackers. Afterwards, I still needed injections so they kept the thingy in my arm so that my companion could give me the shots in the morning and at night. She was a nurse before the mission and Hermana Torrez was also working in a hospital. I felt so comforted knowing they had experience and would make sure everthing was done right. Hermana Castro was an enormous blessing. I cried when she had to go to a different area because she reminded me so much of my mom. I don't have to take anymore medicine or injections. I am so grateful for the help I have been given from the Lord. I know He is working through so many people to lift me up and help me through this time of my life. I'm getting my stitches out tomorrow! I wish I could talk to you on the phone so bad but I'll have to wait just a little while longer. I love you so much. Thank you for your help through prayers and your emails. I wish I could express how much I appreciate you. I hope you like the pictues haha. My companions kept me laughing during this long week. Time passed by so slow for me during all this. I am so excited to ge back t o work. We have one investigator who is for sure getting baptized this month. I can't wait to see that happen. Her name is Claudia, she is a girlfriend of one of the son's of a very special family in our ward. I love them so much, they ask me to translate things into spanish for them haaha. One of the daughters gave me an empty box of brownies to take home and translate the directions from english to spanish. I 'm sure it sounded so bad to her but she said she could understand it. I'm starting to feel more at home here. I love you so much. I hope you know how much I value our family. In my eyes everyone is so beautiful and perfect. I miss you, have a great week.

So lots of crazy stuff has happened this week. I got sick for the first time, I got diahrea, haha. I think it was because I drank water that wasn't pure. We were at a member's house and usually the water they give us is pure because they know our stomachs can't take it. Anyway, it was not fun. My companion got burnt by the shower because it decided to go crazy and steam. It was a scarey sight. So our shower is broken and we have to wash ourselves in the sink. But other than that, everything is fine, haha. Belen is pretty well off for the most part. There are a few poor areas. I like my companeras, I have two, they are both really nice but I feel left out a lot because they can speak to each other and I talk like a three year old when I try to. Pero, I read in John 14 and I feel a lot better now. I'm teaching people but I mostly read scriptures to people, haha.I wish I could do more but spanish isn't coming very fast for me. I got a blessing of health from our ward bishop and he could hardly pronounce my name. It was so funny. It was nice and I felt the spirit but I didn't understand a lot of it. That was a bit heartbreaking. I sure miss you a lot. But I am trying really hard not to be selfish and focus on why I am here. I got to bear my testimony in church, I wasn't afraid, I was able to say a lot and words came quickly. I felt so good afterwards. I love you so much and I can't wait to write more when I finally understand how to do everything I'm suppose to. We have to report the work we've done during the week to our mission president. Your'e in my thoughts and prayers. I love my family so much. You are all so wonderful. I don't want anything more than to be with you all again. Have a fantastic week!!!

I'm in Bolivia!

Oh my, I don´t even know where to start. I´ve already had many crazy times. It was so good to talk to you on the phone before I got on the plane. I am so glad I don´t have to do that again for fifteen more months. I still have jet lag a little bit pero estoy bien. So when we got to the airport in Bolivia it was like stepping into a sauna. It was so hot and muggy. I was instantly in love! The airport was playing 80´s music we joke and say we´ve gone back in time. Its amazing how much American music is here. I wasn´t expecting that at all. We met our mission president and his wife at the airport and the Elders who are serving here in this part of Bolivia. They brought us Subway. Everyone instantly spoke Spanish to us and the whole ride to our hotel was a learning experience for me. I felt like I got a ton of new vocablulary words from Hermana Calderon. She is so sweet and talkitive and she speaks really slow for us so we can understand. They let us go to our rooms and get some sleep or shower. I did both. Then they took us out to dinner. We had a chicken soup and then rice with three different kinds of meat. They had really good salad too. I love the food here! It is so different and yet similar to things I´ve eaten before so its not hard to get used to. That first night I slept like a rock because it is impossible to sleep well on a plane. But I got to do alot of contacting, well I talked to four people so I guess thats not really alot haha. They all came from different places it was crazy. One man I met on our first flight was from New York and he asked about how we decide where we serve our missions and he joked and asked if we just pull names of countries out of a hat ahaha. So I explained that we are called by God to serve through the leaders of the church. That was all we talked about as far as church topics go. He was very nice. I also met three different women on the flight to Peru. The plane was awesome. We could see where we were on a screen on the back of the seats in front of us. We also played games on them too. I beat Hermana Hernandez at Battleship, it was pretty great. Anyway I talked to a girl from Germany, a woman from the Netherlands, and a woman from India. It was so great. They all had very different backgrounds. I was able to give them passalong cards so they could look us up on the internet and contact missionaries in their areas. I loved talking with them, I was so relieved to know they all spoke English. The woman from the Netherlands speaks dutch, spanish, and english. Her husband is Bolivian, she met him in Bolivia when she was here for a school trip and fell in love and they have a son who was sitting on her lap for most of the flight. She speaks dutch to him and his dad speaks spanish to him. He was so cute, he tried to talk to me and his mom translated so I mostly used my hands alot when I communicated with him. So when we flew I honestly felt like I was on a rollercoaster on our first and last flight, we had major turbulance. But I loved every minute of it, even when I got nausiated. Our hotel is really nice, not by american standards but for Bolivia its probably better than most. We have warm water and we are served breakfast every morning. I still don´t know how I will send you pictures but I´ve taken alot. I get to meet my companion on Wednesday and tomorrow I´ll be contacting people on the street for the first time! I can´t believe I´m here and diving into this culture. It´s very different but nice. I liked going to church alot, the members were so nice to us some of the women did the touch cheeks and make a kissy noise thing with us. I´m not totally sure yet but I think my blow dryer is broken or my transformer. I hope its the blow dryer but I don´t really know. We got our first major rain storm yesterday. I loved it so much. The traffic here is totally nuts. I don´t know how people avoid accidents or hitting pedistrians all the time. The people here are fearless. I´m so grateful I won´t be driving. I like the buses, even though they are tiny. Its so windy here, I don´t think we´ve had even an hour of stillness outside. I´m feeling like doing my hair is pointless. I found out that I can e-mail Nanny and Bomp, will you tell them for me? I got all my legal stuff figured out today and I got my blood drawn, yeah I got my blood drawn in Bolivia. We had to go into a police station first and it was pretty intimidating but one of the men who worked there was so nice to us for the hour we had to wait to sign a few papers and get finger prints he talked to us which calmed me down alot. Supposedly I should be able to speak well within a couple months. I can´t wait, its hard to not know how to say anything. I can understand alot but I just struggle with making my own sentences. I´m glad the people I´ve talked to at least get the gist of what I´m trying to say. My companion is going to be a native from either here or one of the surrounding countries. I´m so grateful because I feel like I´ll learn alot faster that way. I love you all so much! My p day is on Mondays, I have to go now because I need to go and buy socks ahaha. My family is so wonderful, I love you with all my heart.

Oh, My Goodness!!!

Alright I'm so full of a million different emotions! This is the last e-mail I'm going to be sending you from the MTC. Aaaaah! I'm so happy though, most of my packing is done. I just have to weigh it and hope to high heaven it’s the right weight. You might be getting some packages from me in the next little while if my bags are too heavy. So this is my flight plan we're going to be at the Salt Lake airport around nine or ten, we fly to the airport in Kennedy, New York, next I'll be headed to Peru. My next flight will take me to my mission in Santa Cruz Bolivia!!! Crazy crazy stuff. It's going to take us almost two days to get there. We leave Friday and get to Bolivia on Saturday afternoon so basically I will have the Spanish language down before I get there haha I wish. The temple was so nice today. We stayed longer than normal today because it was the last time we will be able to be in the temple for sixteen months. I got emotional thinking about what it must have felt like for the Saints to leave their temple in the days of Joseph Smith. The temple is such a beautiful place. We truly are blessed to have them so near to us. Guess what was super crazy, I saw Justin Wall on my walk back from the temple! He said hi to us and I'm not totally sure he recognized me. I recognized him after he passed us because he was going kind of fast on a bike but it about gave me a heart attack. I haven't seen anyone I know around here so I was totally unprepared to see him. I totally had my prayers answered the other night during the devotional. There is something about getting closer to departure, lately for me it’s been me feeling like I'm unworthy to be doing this. But during the talks that were given I just felt the most overwhelming feeling inside of me. I pictured the Savior and from the words that were spoken, I understood for a moment the love that He has for me and how much mercy He has shown me because He has perfect love. The speaker's name was Elder Zwick from the seventy. He said his handicapped son asked him if he knew Jesus once. Elder Zwick then asked us if we could say we know Jesus. Often times I paint the Savior being only slightly harder on me than I am on myself but more and more I realize just how wrong that is. It’s almost embarassing to admit I've thought of Him being this way. I appreciate so much the experiences I've had here at the MTC. I've learned so much about the Savior and Heavenly Father. I've taught lessons over and over about their perfect gospel and the spirit is continually testifying to me in every one that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and He is the only way we can attain eternal life. Over and over today I've pictured myself holding the Savior's hand or being a child cradled in the arms of my Heavenly Father. These images bring me so much peace. The reason why I picture the second thing is because we have seen the Joseph Smith movie three times while we've been here and every time when Joseph is about to have his leg operated on he glances up at his father with so much trust in his eyes even though he is so scared. It is so symbolic for me because I feel like I am about to go through something wonderful but very difficult and I'm constantly looking to Him in hope and trust that everything will be okay because I am in His constant care. I hope you feel like this too. I love you so much and I can't wait to hear your voice!!! It will be so wonderful. Anyway have an amazing day!