im in barrio los angeles... and i have a new companion, i
really mean new companion, im training him, i am his first companion, and other
news, im now district leader. i know i was shocked to here all the new
responsibilies that i was going to get too, but i know that the lord will help
me on the way, i hope taht everyone gets to enjoy there stay and watch
conference this weekend, ill be looking for you dad and casey. lol and hope
that everything goes well, for everyone. including riley... poor dog.. well, im
gonna keep this one short i hope that everyone has a good week, and works hard.
i know that i will do the same, oh btw, im in santa cruz again. love you guys.
im doing really well, i should say that i have had a good
week, i had a baptism and had a very humbling experience. This last tuesday, my
investigator that was in the wheel chair died, he passed away the tuesday the
13th. Im not too sad, and his wife isnt either, im pretty happy about the whole
thing cause i know that he did the right thing, and because he was sick and
always in bed, that he could not have done any pecado antes de su muerte, i
know that he is in a better place now, and i was happy to have been a part of
his salvación. the cool thing is, that if me and my companion would have not
have talked to our presidente and moved his date of baptism, then we would have
never got him confirmed in the church, and he would have had to wait a year
before having the blessings, im just excited for his wife and his wife is
excited about going and doing his work in the temple, i know that she will
prepare to do it too. well, other than that my baptism was good, i should have
one more this week before conference, and then that should be it until after
conference then i should have another, wow, kinda wierd to think that im having
so much success, well, i want to you all to know that i am doing great and that
i am loving the work, love doing what i do, ccasue i know that it is the best
thing that i could be doing right now, i know that a lot of you are not bible
readers but i have been reading the bible in my personal studies and have been
losing it, if you want something cool to read, read about the jews and the gentiles
in romanos and hechos, works? i think that is it, not sure. romanos 3:1-2, then
romanos 3:8-10 some pretty good stuff there. if you need to switch the jews and
the gentiles words with, Latter-day saints and members of other churches. its
pretty cool stuff. well, gotta say that i miss you guys adn that time seems to
fly just like my main man peter pan, ¨time does fly, and so do you i see¨
-Captian J. Hook
first off just wanted to wish those who have a birthday in
the family a happy one. (sorry for missing you last week jeanette)
okay, as for this week nothing really special happened with me and the obra,
but it was cool, we had stake (district) conference, our presidente came from
santa cruz, and we had all kinds of conferences, me and the other 7
missionaries here got together saturday morning to have a conference with
presidente, but sunday morning was really cool. we did not have a traditional
conference, it was broadcasted from utah, it was a conference given by 2 70´s
the primary president, and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. it was a braodcast in
spanish and english, and was broadcast in 4 different languages, solamente para
bolivia, (Quechwa, Aymará, Guaraní, and español) the 70´s talked in spanish,
the hermana, said ¨buenos dias¨ with a very north american accent, and even jeffrey
r. holland talked some good paragraphs in spanish. i heard him bear his
testimony in spanish, it was a very very strong amerian accent, and it almost
made my ears bleed, but i was happy and blessed to have heard him make the
effort to talk with the bolivians in there ¨native¨ tongue. other than that i
was very happy to have heard and learned so much from an apostle. and all the
talks were specifically inspired for the people in bolivia. well, i hope that
you all have a good week this week, know that i love eeach and everyone of you,
and even if i dont hear from you just know that i think about you often, you
are ALL in my prayers.
well this week was a special one, I had a wonderful
adventuer to tell.
okay, so this week i had an unexpected baptism! His name
is Hno: Juan Eudez Araníbar. El es muy bueno. but he actually is very sick. He
has brain tumors and had recently had a stroke. Which we all know how bad that
can be from our experiences with aunt vicky... But that is really the only sad
part about his story. Well we first taught him back in january. which was a
pretty long time ago, not. but when we first started to teach him he wanted
nothing to do with us, and like missionaries seem to always do is that we
talked about baptism the first visit, telling him how we were the only true
church and how we were the only ones with the authority to do it. He did not
accept our message telling us taht he was baptized in the catholic church
(babilonia) and that it was good enough for him, that he
never wanted to change. We accepted his decision but we had the determination
to come back and teach him more. We left a folleto with him and told him to
read it. hoping that he would, we got back the next time and he was there, we
found his wife and realized that she was a menos activo. She immediately
started out helping us with him and being willing to read, because he cant. so
she helped us out a ton. But taht lesson he had the desire to end the lesson
with a prayer (which he did not know how to do). So, he started in his
progress, after having the attack of the stroke His desire to listen grew a
little bit more, he had the same feeling that we did where he might not live
much longer. we gave him a chapter in the Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 31 to read, he
read it and the next visit he had read it and wanted to be baptized. this was
in the 3rd week of Febrero so that was sometime ago, becuase he has health
problems he could only asist the church once since that day always going to
argentina, or having to stay at home por causa de dolor. So last week in email
my companion talked to presidente about him, we expected to get the response
this week. but wednesday during an intercambio (companion exchange?) i got a
call from presidente.he talked to me
about our investigator, i told him of the change that we had seen, and he told
me after fighting with himself in his own words, which was funny to hear on he
phone, he told me¨and i quote, Élder, Bauticele este Sábado!¨ i just said,
Gracias Presidente! Voy a hacerlo!¨ so we went to his house thursday, friday,
and finally found him friday in the evening. we taught him what he needed to be
taught to pass his entrevista, then he had it saturday in the morning (side
note: he has tumors, which makes him forget a lot, he calls
us the moreno and rubio he doesnt even know our names, but he remembers
everything we teach him about the gospel. rubio means im blond btw, and im not
even blonde) we got to his baptism I had to help him in the water with my
companion then had him sit in achair in the water because he cannot use his
left leg, and we baptizwed him like that, but it was funny the water pump broke
for the bautism font, so we had to fill it with 5 gallon buckets from a poso
outside, (pozo means
well) que bueno no?! but everyting went well, he was
baptized and confirmed and now a memember of the church. I am very grateful to
have helped him come to God and make this sacred covenant with him. that is
pretty much everything that happened in my week, pretty eventful if you ask me,
but im super stoked, cause we are working with 3 other families and a joven
that is getting ready to be baptized in two weeks. im certainly happy, and know
that you guys are doing just fine, I hope you are all too, well, love you guys,
My companion says hi, and thanks for the support. and dont worry, chocolate
m&ms dont melt, ¨dont worry they have a hard candy shell¨ ¨your heads has a
thick candy shell,¨ ¨shut up richard¨. and with that note im out!
Hello everyone,
im gonna try and change my email style for now, sorry its just a little hard to
answer everyone the same stuff in the same emails three or four different
times. so, a lot of people are asking me about the area that i am in. Well,
first thing is first, i did not have a transfer the last change, im still in
Yacuiba which is in the province of Tarija. it is really really close to
argentina, lets just say that i can see it every day. well, at least the
mountains that are there. and yes i am now in a different enviroment
completely. It is dryer, and hot still, but not as hot as it was in
Guayaramerin. The people are still great and i love the service, I am with a
north american companion still, Elder Fa´Alafua. He is a samoan, well, his dad
is from samoa and his mom is from Hawaii, with chinese and japanese heritage.
So he looks pretty much like the mix between a chinese and samoan. well, we are
doing well, working hard and trying to help these two people that we are
working with get baptized. so yeah us! I would try and send some pictures but i
have fear of getting a virus in my chip and it eating all my pics, im just not
down for that, so sorry you guys might have to wait a little bit until you guys
see my photos in the house. Well, other than that, a good experience i had the
other day. I was walking out of a house, from visiting them in the tarde. it
was a nice visit but we continued to walk. we were walking up the street and i
had the impression that we should stop and visit a member, so i told my comp,
¨hey lets stop here and visit¨ he agreed and we stopped to visit. We got there
and realized that there was another member from the church visiting, she said
that she was sick with dengue and that she was praying for strength and that we
would come and visit her in her house, but she did not know how, because we
never visit her, so we stopped and gve a bendicion de salud. it was awesome, i
got to bless her and give her the blessing, i felt inspired by the spirit and
it was an overall great experience, she got up from the blessing and was
crying, she said it was exactly what she needed to hear. I felt priveledged to
be a part of that blessing and especially to have listened to the inpressions
of the lord. gotta say one thing that i have learned here in the mission, is
that there is no such thing as coincidence. God has a plan for us all, and that
we are all a part of it if we give the heed and acknowledgement to the spirit
that we need too. Other than that I survived all the borrachos and partys of
carnaval. I spent a boring 3 days in the house with nothing to do, but i do say
that i was able to do some drawing which i had not done in a while, so i
enjoyed that very much. well, im glad to here that all the babies in the family
are doing well, and that everyone seems to be doing well, other than the few
health issues we have and the poopy pants from lillys potty training, me siento
para lilly, los inodores son feo, especialmente acá en bolivia! well, hope that
everyone is doing well and i hope to see you all next week. Hey quick reminder,
my driver´s liscence is going to expire here soon, like in 4 months, so if you
or someone could please go and renew it, i signed a paper that allowed for it
to be done, hope you guys still have it. well, hope you all enjoy this one
email, I plan on doing this from now on. so keep it real yall, happy fin de
Febrero!
