Lately I've been able to see more cultural fun around here and I'm so happy! There were people dancing in the street next to our house. It was so cool there was lots of hip swinging, haha and the guys were dancing so well! They had these cool boots with bells on them. There was a talent show in our ward on Friday. We were going to sing in it but it started late so we couldn't. There were some cool acts. And its crazy the people here just don't get very nervous. They played music so loud, because some young men were in charge of the music, haha. It was really fun though. We have some references because members brought their friends who aren't members. I am so happy. I'm back in Belen! Can you believe it. I love it. Its like coming home. I got so many hugs from the members and I got to see my convert Aide. She has her own chocolate business that is going to get started really soon. Her chocolates are so good! I love seeing her. It almost made me cry to see her doing so well and she has a calling as a young womens counselor. We have three baptisms coming up this month and three more for next month. I can't tell you how blessed I feel to be here. My companion now is hermana Randall. She is from Utah. I've never seen an American hit it off so well with the people here. Everyone automatically loves her. I feel very lucky to be her companion. I just hope I can learn a lot from her and help her out if I can. Guess what, a monkey was climbing around the patio of some investigators we were teaching. It was their pet. I was a little nervous I have to admit because it was a kind of big monkey, haha. And it walked around making a growling sound that I didn't know monkey s made,haha. Me and my comp had our first fight thing the other day. It was because I am not talking as much. It's just hard because I am not used to the way she teaches. And I can never tell when she is going to stop or when I need to come in. So to punish me she made me say the prayer at the end of every lesson. I got ticked because she was treating me like I was under her and I had to explain that I'm just trying to learn how to teach with her. So we figured things out and now we're good. We had a baptism planned this last Saturday but the little girl was terrified of being in so much water even though she goes swimming at water parks with her family. I think she was just nervous and the water was really cold because the water can't get heated up in that chapel. We tried to convince her, along with everyone who was at the baptism haha, but it didn't work. We even put our feet in the faunt to try and calm her down. But nothing worked. That was a first for me. I'm hoping it'll be the last too. I'm having so much fun here. I feel like I can be myself and be a missionary at the same time. It's different because I've been very strict in my conduct and how I talk with people but being with my new companion makes me realize its so much better to be yourself. People really respond to that and open up more and its just natural.

July 11

It sounds wonderful to have so many people there for the fourth. It was really cold here for the fourth. It was too hard to imagine it being summer there. But its hot again now. The weather here so so crazy. You never know what to expect. I had a really great birthday. My companion and the hermanas we live with made me breakfast in bed and then we ordered pizza that night! It was so much fun and a few people called me to tell me happy birthday. It was so nice even though it was kind of against the rules. But its nice to know that the Elders care and want to help me feel better about not being with my family for my birthday. I was so blessed. It was so nice. I still can't bring myself to say I'm 22. Its just too weird. It was a little hard honestly to not be with you all like always for my birthday but I didn't get too sad about it because I got so much help from others and from Heavenly Father. So lately I've been getting a little sad because I feel like I'm halfway through my mission and I'm not sure I've helped a whole lot even though I'm trying so hard. But I know that feelings like that will pass. I just can't think things like that because they don't do anything to help. I realize that the times I feel the saddest are the times I think about myself. So I'm going to try harder to look beyond the things that are hard for me and focus on just helping others in any way I can. We are going to have cambios this week. I don't know what to think. There are pros and cons about staying or leaving But I know whatever happens will be for the best. So I want to tell you about some stuff. There are lots of animal shaped bushes here. They love to do bush art work here. They are pretty creative. My favorite is this big rubber duck shaped bush on one of the corners we always pass. I'll send a picture next time. I was feeling a little unworthy to be here and praying and praying for help to overcome that feeling and I read Mosiah 28:4,7 they helped me so much. I can honestly say I receive answers to my prayers every single day. I got my hair cut here for 15 bolivianos, that's like two bucks. But she did a good job and I don't have lice! haha I bought one of those pan flutes for my birthday. I can make sounds with it! I am so happy. Last Monday, I was kind of having a bad day. My feet hurt so bad I could hardly walk and the buses here are super crazy, so that being said, after we went to the grocery store and got on a bus full of people I was struggling. I couldn't get my hands on any of the bars and I fell into my companion and she fell into a few people because of me. Then this old man reached up and told me to give him my bags. I was reluctant at first then I gave in. He had such a warm smile on his face. Then when he got off he told me to take his seat. I cried after he left because I felt like the Lord really reached out to me and helped me in that moment. I know He lives and works through us. I am so grateful He helps me so much. I can't wait to be with all of you again.

July 4th

This week I got sick and its been cold so its been really fun but I think I am at the end of it. I just got a really bad cold. I've received lots of help and blessings though. I was trying to wash my clothes today and two hermanas we live with came out of the house and basically ordered me to go to bed and they finished washing my clothes outside in the bitter cold. And my companion has been really caring. She has made me soup a couple of times. I am so blessed. I feel so much of my Savior's love and support through times like this. Its been an interesting week. We didn't have a whole lot of success but we had one of our investigators come to church and she watched the restoration video with us. After we invited her to baptism and she just asked where they baptize in the church and accepted . She is seventeen and has so much faith. She loved it when we taught about how the church is built upon the priesthood and prophets. She loved this because she could see how essential it is to have those things. We are so happy to have found her. Its so incredible how we just happen to come across people like her even after four months in the same area. I read a conference talk that was so perfect for me right now. The Savior suffered so much before the miracle of His resurrection. So it gave me a lot of hope to know that maybe the things I am going through are just preceding something really great. I am so thankful we have conference and we get to read the talks after. I hope you are enjoying your summer. It is super super cold here but we should be feeling the heat again in August. I hope you have an awesome week.

The End of the World

So, lately people have been stressing out a lot here about the 21 of mayo because apparently it's going to be the end of the world. I don't know if you've heard, haha. It's funny that almost everyone we meet on the streets asks us what we think about that. It's even on the news here. We have Martha's baptism that day so we joke about how we hope it won't happen until after she's been baptized. Mother's day here is on the 27th. That's weird for me. I wish we could call twice for mother's day, haha. Martha is so ready for her baptism. The elder who interviewed her said she has a strong testimony and he even learned something new about repentance when she commented. Her family isn't happy with her choice but she won't budge on her decision. Isn't that great. It makes me want to cry happy tears. We have a new investigator who is so ready to hear the gospel. The first time we visited her she thanked and thanked us for finding her and told us that we are angels sent to help her. She's so in tune with the spirit too. When we teach her she says "that's true" after almost everything we teach. I can't wait to see what happens with her. I hope you have a really really good week! I'll write next Monday.

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!!!