So this week was fantastic! We have four people with a baptismal date! It has been so amazing to see people take that first step and start making changes necessary for baptism. We have one guy that we've been teaching for a while now who just accepted a baptismal date and he is going to try to quit smoking and drinking coffee. He has two little girls who are just adorable. One is four and the other is 7 but her birthday isn't until August so we're hoping that one day her dad will be ready to baptize her. When we were talking with him about the word of wisdom his daughter, the seven year old, told him he needed to stop smoking and drinking coffee. It was so cute to see her so determined to tell her dad he couldn't keep dong those things. She keeps telling us she wants to be baptized. She is so smart, she's reading in Apocalypse right now in the Bible and is very concerned with what will happen when Jesus comes again. But i think she's starting to worry less. We're also teaching a little family who just melt my heart. They have prayed to know if the church is true and the other night we went by just to see how they were doing and asked them if they'd gotten an answer and the boy who is eleven said, I know its true! He said it so boldly it made me want to cry. I am so grateful the Lord has blessed me so much to be here. I keep thinking how much my mission has helped me prepare for the future and it amazes me. And I still have time to keep learning and having wonderful experiences. More and more I am coming to appreciate the family I've been blessed with. Things are so different here I just feel so much gratitude for the mercy Heavenly Father has showed me and continues to show me.

Oh, my goodness! I think I need a lot of humbling and patience because I got sick again last week. I got Dengue, it's the dreaded sickness that everyone prays they don't get. It only lasted a couple days though thankfully. So, I've been really thirsty. I can only drink this special stuff called suero that supposedly helps when you have the runs. It' pretty tasty, but I'm excited to drink water again. I loved watching conference. I got to watch the whole thing and a couple sessions in English. We had two different investigators come on Saturday. We were so thrilled! I love love love all the talks that were given. What a special treat. I felt so blessed to have received so many answers to my prayers through the prophet's words and his apostle's too. We got to watch with some of the elders in our zone, they are so fun and good. I'm so grateful we have such good elders here. They were talking about how much they miss waffles and pancakes. It was so funny. I love how strong and dedicated the missionaries are here. I have so many good examples around me. So, tons of people came on Sunday for the first session which was fantastic! so many people crammed into the stake center. I loved it. The language is coming slowly but I am surprised how much I can communicate even though I don't know all the words. I have a lot of work to do still but I know its coming more and more each day. I love you so much. I hope you are all so happy. I can't wait to talk to you next week.

Okay first I want you all to know I love you so so so much. It's so fun to hear about what's going on at home. It took two months but I finally got the packages my mom sent!!! I was so thrilled. I share my candy with my roomies every day. I think they are starting to really like me haha. My companion is from lots of places. The last place she lived was in Quetar, I don't know how to spell that. But she was going to school at BYU in Utah. Her dad works in an oil company so they've been to lots of places and lived in different countries where there is oil. She has been to so many other countries. Its fun to hear her stories and adventures. I love our ward and our area. The people are really great and the barrio is really nice. But lately we've seen tons of guys peeing in the street haha. They don't even try to be discreet about it. They just stand next to the wall or next to their car and go, seriously its so shocking! And every time I can't figure out what's going on. They're looking down and I hear running water but I always figure it out too late. Then I turn my head really fast haha. Its definitely a different culture here. We had someone ask us if we were from Germany the other day haha. That was a first. But they said we speak really well so I don't know where that came from. Fathers day was on Saturday here so guess what everyone did, they partied and got drunk. So sad. But we saw one family walking arm in arm with their dad in the middle of the road on our way home that night so that made me feel better to know some families spend fathers day that way here. It made me miss my dad a lot and I felt this urgency to send him something haha. I'm all confused now. My mom asked me if I needed anything. Well, I could use some new feet haha, I can hardly walk in the morning. It's more funny than anything because I look like an old woman hobbling around in the mornings and my feet are all swollen but i don't need anything. I love you all. (Brittani also wrote: Please let people who are emailing me know that I am trying to write to them, I just don't have much time.)

So I feel like I have a mountains of things to tell you. I don't even know where to start. Okay Carnaval was fun. We had to spend three days in the house and during this time we weren't sure if we would have cambios. So we were pretty anxious during this time. We made pancakes! I was so happy. They were really good. We bought these pouches that were instant betty crocker pancakes and all you needed was water to make them. I was in heaven. The way they truned out was more like crepes and we put condensed milk on them, at least I think that's what it was. It's the sweet milk stuff thats the same consistency as syrup. Anywho, it was so good. We also made this meal called tomatada. I will make it for you when we get home. We made meat too, with oriental top ramen seasoning and spaghetti noodles with eggs. It was really different but I liked it a lot. I have a new comp and area now. We are in a small area of two barrios. It's called Guaracal. This place is so nice. The streets are actually paved! In my last area it was mostly dirt roads but the homes are pretty nice and the people are very kind to us. My companera's name is Hermana Tibbitts. She has been to lots of other countries and she is like the exact opposite of my last companera. It's really funny. I was so nervous to be with an american. I just feel a lot more security with a native but so far we are doing really good. We got like 85 contacts in two days. There are a couple people we are teaching that we feel will probably be baptized soon. I am living with an hermana who was my companion in the MTC her name is Hermana Harman. It's really fun to live with another companionship. The comp of Hermana Harman is from La Paz so she is the only native in our house. She is so cute and fun. I feel so blessed to be here. My comp can speak so well and she is very gospel smart. On Sunday we couldn't go out teaching so we only went to sacrament meeting and home. That was perfect timing because I really needed some time to pray and search the scriptures. I was blessed so much as I did this. I felt so much peace and understood that I am alwasys learning and growing and becoming better if I keep my eye single to the glory of God.This mission is so hard for me sometimes, but I know it's important. I have faith that even though I feel like I am not doing so much to help and I feel like people don't listen to me, the spirit will touch the heart of the people I am trying to reach. We played volleyball with our zone today and we got to meet a couple of the new missionaries. There is one sister who is struggling a lot with being here. She told us she just wants to go home and she doesn't like the heat. I could feel for her because it is not easy. I have had my struggles too so I just told her the real strength to overcome comes from reading the scriptures and praying. I hope I helped. I'll talk to you next week!!! I love you.

This week was so good and then Saturday came haha. I was a little irritated becauses my Spanish was not good during one of our lessons witha couple teenage girls and one of them had really hard time focusing on what we were saying. She was funny and just kept trying to make us laugh but I felt like the reason she lost focus was because my Spanish is so bad. Anyway after this we tried to find an investigator's house. My companion didn't remember where she lived but I remembered her and her directions really well. Which is very rare for me because so often I get turned around here. The streets and house numbers are so unorganized I have to remember most of the homes we visit by trees or stores that are nearby haha. She was so happy to see us and we got talking with her about her family and found out things aren't so good with her husband. He is not good to her at all and she is depressed most of the time because of the way he treats her. So when we explained the plan of salvation she started crying. It was such a precious moment for me to feel how much the Savior loves her and how important our timing was to share the things we did with her. She accepted a baptismal date in March! I am so excited. I was feeling so good and all charged by the spirit and then we went to a baptism for a little girl in our ward and I was asked to give the message. I don't know why but I got so nervous. I was so afraid to give a talk on baptism, I felt like I couldn't do it and I started to cry. My companion helped me find a scripture and told me to just bare my testimony afterwards. I fumbled through the whole thing fighting back tears. Afterwards I bawled like a baby, I honestly had no clue at this moment why I was sent to Bolivia for my mission. My companion said so many things that helped me feel better but the one that helped the most was when she told me the Lord can see how much this experinece will help me in my life and I need to trust in him and not in myself. And on the way home the thought came to me that I promised specific people that I would find and teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can't even explain how this made me feel. Even now I can feel the same strong spirit testifying that this is true. I am so grateful I was given such a powerful witness of the Spirit, it has helped me so much. My companion is so stressed and unhappy because she wants so much to be perfect. It makes me really sad because I can see how much of a toll this takes on her. I tried to help her but she isn't doing much better. I am really missing food from home haha. Even quick spaghetti, I know I can hardly believe it myself. I'm so looking forward to the time when I'll be with my family again. I miss you all so much. Tell everyone I love them and think of them often. I hope you all have a really good week. I won't be able to email next Monday because there is a holiday called carnival where people soak each other with water and paint for three days haha. So we won't be able to leave our apartment for the 6,7, and 8 of March.

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!