7/14

Dearest familia,

Rumor has it all of you are around the world and country. It makes me feel weird that no one is home and all your lives are so exciting and crazy..I want to play! Can we do this stuff together when I get home? Is that okay? Guess what, I actually go home in a year from like tomorrow. I sound super trunky right now, but I am just making you aware. And okay...maybe I miss you alot. LIKE ALOT.

but of course I love it here and everything is going great :) I am starting to adjust to the new area. My comps are great and latina which is always good and I love being on bikes in the dreadful heating going uphill for hours. I really do! Or riding in the pouring rain is super sweet. So I felt slightly discouraged our first day in the area. There was only one investigator on the wall and the goals were like a third of the goals from my last area. But I thought about it, and God's elegidos are in this area too. So I just prayed like crazy to build our pool this week and it went quite well. We found 8 new investigators last week and already 8 this week (starts Monday)- it's still hard cause there weren't many progressing when I got here so we're just starting from scratch, but hopefully some of them are legitimo and progress. Louis actually is. He is the best we meet with him like every 2 days and he comes to church and always brings his book of mormon and just is the cutest! He is super shy and doesn't open up a lot. But he shared an experience that he had a dream about his salvation and that he had to do certain things to have it which totally prepared him to meet us. Only problem is he won't accept a bdate! He wants to and knows its true, but he doesn't want to fall after being baptized. We have explained the sacrament and preserverar hasta el fin, but it has to come from him. He will though. And we met with the daughter of one of our investigators and she seriously accepted a baptismal date right away. She LOVES the message and she is only 13! Her dad is the sweetest man ever and we ran into him yesterday and he seems reluctant cause they are catolico. So pray that A. they will let her get baptized. and B. they will too! Thanks. It gets pretty discouraging that people will progress so far and just not get baptized. It eats at me all the time. this past week we visited a less active who used to be ward mission leader and hasn't been to church in a long time. He told us that he is sorry to say that it will  be a long time before he can turn back to the Lord cause  he is really bitter. So my heart lept when I saw him at church on Sunday. There is no better feeling to see someone overcome the most powerful enemy of pride and humble themselves before the Lord. And I had to speak at church AGAIN that same day. It was intimidating. And this ward is quite large and they are all so friendly I really do love them! So I never talk about miracles in the VC, but we really see them all the time. I have had the wonderful experience of taking non members on tours who upper box, which means they refer THEMSELVES to tmissionaries. GOLDEN!!! My fav experience was this last week. A Bolivian man and woman came in the other night and I figured out he wasn't a member so I started taking him on a Restoration tour (which can vary in resources). But the sSpirit prompted me in another direction to show them a talk by Thomas S Monson and to let them choose which one. They chose a talk on comfort in death. We continued on and they informed me that her fiance, his brother, just passed away at a young age. I showed him a kiosk of the spirit world and we all were crying, because I have been holding in all these emotions about dad lately, and of course cause I felt for them. He had not the slightest doubt it was true. He kept asking, "Did Jose (the brother) know about this?"- And the fiance explained to him that he had and believed it and it brought him so much comfort. we became the best of friends. he wants me to come stay with his family in Bolivia after my mission haha. I have seen the most incredible miracles in the VC as well even though I never talk about it. I still am not yet IN LOVE with being a VC sister, but it will come I am sure. I am humbled every time someone comes in just out of pure curiosity and they want to learn more and meet with the missionaries. I got a WHITE family the other day that all upper boxed! They were so GREAT! And this guy who came in just to see the art work and he was interested with the fact the Christ visited his people in the Americas after his resurrection and wanted to learn more. Some other really cool experiences.

Okay I am out of time. Just know I love and pray for you ALL THE TIME. I am jealous that your lives are so cool and super eventful