August 26, 2013

Hello everyone! This past week was a FANTASTIC week, mainly because I had the sweet experience of seeing Andres and Marcelo enter the waters of baptism!! It was incredible. A freezing cold day (as I've said before, when it gets cold here, it gets COLD, like bitterly bone-deep cold), but warmth in all our hearts. Wow, that was painfully cheesy, ha. But seriously, it was great. The baptism was planned for Saturday afternoon at 5:00 but we told everyone to be there at 4 because everyone in Bolivia is outrageously late to everything. And, as predicted, we didn't get started until 5:30 ha-ha, but it was still great. The Spirit was powerful when both of them entered the waters of baptism, and I just kept thinking, wow, this isn't just two new members of the church. Marcelo is a future missionary, a great blessing to his mom and sister, and Andres is a future dad in the church, who is going to get sealed to his girlfriend Jhosselj in the temple and raise a righteous family. I'm just praying and going to do everything I can to help them stay strong. Poor Andres and Marcelo were really tough. They were baptized on a freezing cold day in tepid, or maybe a little colder than tepid, water. At least it was tepid - that in and of itself was a mini miracle because they don't have hot water in the pipes at the church and they have to warm it by hand. But anyway, it was so great, and it was great to see them get confirmed in church the next day. I'm so happy for them and I'm excited to see Soledad and Karen get baptized next month, along with a few more children in the ward that are more than 8 years old and so fall under the responsibilities of the missionaries! One is Marcos, who is waiting for his brother to come home from the mission so his brother can baptize him. Another is Augustine, who is only waiting to get baptized because he wants to do it with his cousin Abacuc. Abacuc is the tough one. He's ten years old and knows he needs to get baptized, but is deathly afraid of being submerged in water. We're praying to receive guidance to help him overcome his fears.

As for your questions about daily life, first off, housing: There are houses, and then there are big complexes of one or two room "apartments" with a central dirt and cement area, and often with a central bathroom. But in all of the housing it’s the same, there are lots of families. In the complexes of course there are lots of families, but in the houses too. One person owns the house and the other people rent one or two rooms to live in.

The food here is FANTASTIC. I love basically everything, including chuños, which are freeze-dried potatoes and apparently are the ultimate test of if someone truly likes Bolivian food. The only thing that's an issue for me is the water, which I can't drink without getting bad stomachaches. But seriously, the food is great. A lot of meat, potatoes, yucca, salads of broccoli and beets (which are great, who knew?), and TONS of rice. Mom, get ready to put me on a serious diet when I get home, ha.

We basically always walk in our area. If we need to leave our area like for internet and for zone and district meetings, we take buses. I have only taken a taxi twice. Depending on where you are, the roads can be paved or dirt, but in our area, they are mostly paved. The weather isn't too bad now, not TERRIBLY hot because its winter. I hear that in a few months, I'll basically want to die. There are lots of dogs and cats here. Everyone owns like four of each, so I'm becoming very comfortable with animals. We have a cat and a dog in our living area too, and the cat likes to come in the house.

Not much else this week. Hermana Castañeta is going home to La Paz this week, so we'll see who my new companion is on Thursday! I'm really sad to see Hna Castañeta go. It took us a while to really get into a rhythm of working well together, but now we really have a lot more unity and are working really well. Right before she leaves, of course. I'm going to miss her! But Thursday we're going to visit her old areas as part of what the missionaries do before they leave, so that will be fun.

Dad, you were asking about service activities earlier. We had our first service activity as a zone on Saturday morning. We just were serving other missionaries in our service, helping some missionaries move houses. But hey, it’s something! And one other fun experience from yesterday. We were walking to a lesson when a man in the street said, Hey, I want to talk to you two! I was nervous that he was either a thief or a drunk, since normally men don’t stop us in the street to talk to us. But turned out, he wasn’t either of the above. His name is Hugo, and he stopped us because he really wants to change his life and had a feeling that we could help him do so. Once again, miracles of the mission! Luckily, we were really close to a member’s house so we walked over there with him and had a lesson! He has had a tough life and is really sad, and has a strong desire to change. We had a great lesson on prayer with him, really powerful. Unfortunately, turns out he doesn’t live in our area, he lives in the area of our district leaders, but I'm really glad we got to talk to him and pass on the reference. It was a super cool experience that he just felt like he should talk to us for help with his life. I know that the gospel is true and that it really does have the power to change lives for everyone that is willing to accept it. I know that the Lord loves each and every one of His children and always wants us to turn to Him and accept His love and mercy!

Love you all!

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

August 19, 2013

 HAPPY ONE MONTH!

Wow. Although I’ve been a missionary for two and a half months now, I officially reached one month in Bolivia on Saturday. I’m very happy to be able to count in months when talking with other missionaries about our amount of time in the mission field. It was embarrassing to have to talk in days, ha.

Well, the work continues here in Bolivia! I’m going to have my first baptism this Saturday!!!!! Yay!!! Andres and Marcelo are going to get baptized. It was kind of touch and go with Andres for a few days. We’ve been having a lot of trouble getting in contact with him, and finally we ran into him through yet another mini-miracle (there are a lot of those in the mission, and especially here in Santa Cruz de los Milagros!). We passed by the house of his girlfriend and she wasn’t there, but who came out of the house? Andres! He was pretty uncertain about his baptism, and for a few days, we visited and he kept changing his mind with different excuses for why he didn’t want to get baptized, then reasons why he did, and back and forth. Finally, we figured out that he was scared for two reasons: first, he was afraid that he would get baptized and then he would mess up and sin again and not be able to stick to his covenants. We assured him that yes, he would most definitely sin again, but that that’s okay because we always have repentance! Second, he thought Mormons weren’t allowed to dance, go to parties, or anything. Well, we definitely cleared that up for him, and now he’s FINALLY feeling good about his baptism. He and Marcelo had their interviews yesterday and now they’re all set to go!

We’re also finding new people who are accepting baptism dates! It’s incredible how the Lord puts prepared people in our path when we are working hard and searching for them. Monday night, we went to one of our lessons but the family didn’t answer the door, so we were leaving the door when we heard a little girl yell, "Hermanas! Hermanas!" We looked, but didn’t recognize her or her mom, so we just sort of waved, thinking it was a member. But at the last second, Hermana Castañeta said, "Let's go see who it is." We walked over, and turns out, it wasn't a member at all! It was a woman named Karen. She invited us into her house and we had a lesson. Apparently the majority of her family, her brothers and sisters, are members, and she goes to church with them sometimes, and that’s the reason her daughter recognized us as "hermanas." Well, Karen said she wants to have a happy family like the families her siblings have, and we testified that it's the gospel that makes the difference. And right then and there, she accepted a baptism date for 14 de septiembre, and she came to church with us this Sunday. Now we just have to work with her husband too!

Also, there is a woman in our ward with a nonmember sister, Soledad, who recently moved in with her. We’ve known Soledad for a long time because she would visit her sister a lot, but now she lives in our boundaries and we can actually properly teach her instead of just say hi every once in a while. So we went by to teach her, and although she previously hasn't had much interest in our message, she had a dream a few nights ago that she wasn't in the right path right now in life, and she wants to find the right path. Well, we testified that the right path is the gospel, and the door to that path is baptism! So she also accepted a baptism date for 14 de septiembre, and also came to church this Sunday! Yay!

The progress with Omar and Noelia continues to be slow. It's hard to find Omar because he works so much. We need to talk to him about marriage. We've talked about it a lot with Noelia, but we need a lesson with Omar so he, too, can understand how marriage will bless his family, and also that it's a prerequisite for baptism. But we're praying for them, and for all our other investigators.

One more quick story. Yesterday we met a girl, 20 years old, and started teaching her about the Book of Mormon. She was super interested and wanted to read it, so we gave her a copy and asked her if she would read 2Nefi 31 and pray. She said yes, and that if she got an answer she would be baptized the 15 of September (she works Saturdays, so she couldn't do 14). We were super excited of course, and then we asked where she lived (we were teaching her at her aunt's store). Turns out, she lives in a different area. Dang it! But we took down her information and are going to pass it on. I'm just imagining the excitement for the elders that get this referral, complete with Book of Mormon and baptism date, ha.

Anyway, those are the highlights of my week! I know that the Lord is a huge part of this work because He is bringing us to His children that are prepared to receive His gospel. Miracles are real, we just have to look for them!

Love you all!

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

August 12, 2013

 VIVA BOLIVIA!!

Hello everyone! This past week we celebrated Bolivia’s Independence Day, so I figured I could celebrate just a little bit with a subject line.

So... this week! It was a bit of a slow week unfortunately. We’ve been running into some trouble because Hermana Castañeta has back problems, so we’ve been in and out of the mission office and the doctor, which eats up a lot of time. Also, with a new mission president there are a lot of changes, so we’ve been losing some time with meetings and things. But, although we’re losing some time right now with these meetings and things, they will definitely help the work progress in the long run. This week, for instance, we had to travel a decent distance to pick up one of the sister leaders. We were in a trio with her for part of the day to get more contacts because they will be dividing our area, Braniff 1 and Braniff 2, at the end of August. We`ll be getting 40 new missionaries in the mission, and only 3 are leaving so they`re opening up a bunch of new missions. So we`ll have four hermanas in our ward! But, Presidente Willard said there’s a really good chance I’m going to have to train. AAAHHH!!!! Training after six weeks in the mission, when I`m pretty much always lost and live in a constant state of only halfway understanding what people are saying??? But the good news is, if the Lord needs it done, then he will provide a way. That's what I'm learning in a big way here.

But, the work continues to progress! We had a really good turnout for church yesterday. Sunday is seriously the most stressful day of the week because we’re trying so desperately to get all our investigators to church. Yesterday we ran around to pick a bunch of people up. One didn’t want to, one was drunk, and two, Omar and Noelia, weren’t in their house. I was totally disheartened, but especially for Omar and Noelia because in every lesson with them they are sincerely interested and want to progress, but we don’t get to teach them very often because it’s hard to find a time when they are both home, so they’re progressing, but slowly. Anyway, we were walking to church and I was praying, Heavenly Father, please let Omar and Noelia come to church, even if it’s on their own! Please let them remember and come to church! And then we walked into the church building, and who was sitting outside? Noelia!! She thought church was an hour earlier, and when we didn`t pick her up, she walked on her own! Fantastic!! And then Omar showed up a little while later. Turned out he had had to run an errand for the owner of the house where they live. I was so happy to see them there. Miracles do happen!

Just another little highlight of the week... remember Elizabet with the story of the Book of Mormon her dad had when she was little? And how when we went to visit her again, she was out of town but another person who rents a room in the same house, Litsy, met with us? Well, Friday, we went to visit Litsy again, but ANOTHER person who rents a room in the house, Milton, answered the door. He said that Listy wasn’t home. Elizabet? No, not home either, no one else is here except me, he said. Well, we were with a member so we decided to capitalize on this opportunity to teach a man since we normally can’t. We asked if he wanted to hear our message. No, I’m really busy right now, he said. Hna Castañeta said, "We won’t take much of your time, just the time you have for the Lord." He kind of laughed at that and said we could come back later, but he was busy right then. So we started writing down his information, when all the sudden a HUGE gust of wind came and, SLAM! The door shut, and he was locked outside, without a phone, and with no one in the house to open it for him. I guess the Lord decided that if Milton wasn’t going to make time for Him on his own, the Lord was going to take control and MAKE him make time haha. Anyway, so he ended up listening to our message on the Restoration and he was super interested and invited us back this week! So we’ll see what happens there! Who knows, maybe we can baptize all three of the families in that house haha.

And Dad, people treat me pretty normal. Everyone here is super friendly, and the only thing that is different about the way people treat me is that they tend to ignore me and talk only to Hermana Castañeta because they realize that there’s a language barrier. Occasionally I run into people who think the fact that I’m from California is really cool and they have lots of questions, but in general, no. And no, there aren’t a bunch of armed guards like there were in Honduras for Bryan. Our area, at least, is pretty safe. 

Love you all! And guess what? I don’t know why, but we now have an hour and a half for internet time! Is that a change in all the missions, or just ours? If anyone knows I’d love to find out. But anyway, the mission is great, I’m learning a ton and my testimony is growing like crazy. The church is SO true!!!

Love,

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

And some pictures...hope you like them!

This is an activity of Relief Society. We brought one of our less active members, Lidia, whose son is Marcelo who is one of our investigators with a baptism date. He is the boy in the front.

This is a picture of most of our zone together in the main plaza of Santa Cruz where we tried to go to the museum last Pday. Turns out the museum was closed haha. But instead, we bought ice cream, where I accidentally ordered way more ice cream than I meant to because I didn’t understand the Spanish haha.
 

And finally a picture of my sweet scripture covers.

August 5, 2013

This past week was pretty good! We committed someone else to baptism! His name is Marcelo, and he’s nine years old. His mom is a member that Hermana Castañeta reactivated before I got here, and now we’re going to complete the family by baptizing her son. He and Andres, Josselij`s boyfriend, are both getting baptized on the 24th, the noche blanca. Both of them are progressing well, and although last week I was a bit concerned about whether or not Andres was sincere with his desire to progress, I have a lot more confidence now. We had another lesson with him this past week, and he came to church yesterday, as did Marcelo!

Unfortunately, Omar and Noelia weren’t able to come to church yesterday because their son has some sort of illness right now. I don’t know what it is, but apparently its super contagious because everyone in the ward that asked where they were basically said, yeah, good thing they didn’t come, we don’t want the whole ward to have it too! But they are still progressing well, they have started to pray together as a couple, Noelia is trying to have more patience with Omar, and Omar is looking for a new job that will allow him to spend more time with the family. We weren’t able to meet with them on Saturday, but we will meet with them this Tuesday and challenge them to marriage and baptism for the 24th as well! We’re praying that they will feel the importance of this and do it.

As far as things go with Elizabet, she went out of town for the whole past week without telling us, so when we stopped by to talk to her, we instead ran into someone who shares the house with her, Litsy. Litsy is also super receptive. We have taught her three times in the past week, and she understands the importance of baptism and wants to get baptized. However, her husband isn’t religious and she is afraid of angering him and she doesn’t want to discuss it with him. This is the third time we’ve run into this problem with someone were teaching - they want to be baptized, but their husband isn’t religious or is Catholic and they’re afraid of talking to their husband about it. It’s frustrating, but we just have to be patient and trust that they will find the courage at some point

As far as the Spanish goes, I definitely have seen the Lord’s help these past few days. We fasted from Saturday lunch to Sunday lunch since it was Fast Sunday, obviously, and while we fasted as a companionship for our investigators, I fasted privately for help with Spanish, to be able to understand the people better and especially to have the confidence to speak without fear. Because one of my big problems is that I get so nervous about what I’m going to say and how I’m going to say it that I forget like all my Spanish! But it has been really incredible since I started my fast. My Spanish is still seriously lacking and there’s still a lot I don’t understand, for sure, but I can see a definite change all the sudden. Suddenly I understand more, and I feel a lot more confident in my ability to speak. I feel like I’m actually contributing to the lessons more and I feel like I’m actually connecting with people better, which is a huge blessing of the gift of tongues. The power of fasting is real.

On P-Days, we wash our clothes by hand (I will never again complain about having to wash clothes in a washing machine, for real.) And we email, and do some shopping, and clean our apartment, and then have some time to do a few different things. Sometimes we have zone activities. Today, for example, we’re going to some museum, and I hear that they play futbol a lot. Or we sleep, or write letters, or read, or cook nice meals for ourselves (or as nice as we can get with our super basic little stove thing, which is all we have ha-ha.) Other than that, I’m not really sure! That’s what wave done so far with our p-days.

Sorry that I still haven’t sent any pictures, I’m not sure where I put my cord... but I know its somewhere in the apartment, so Ill be sure to send some next week. Love you all! Thanks for your support!

Love,

Hermana Chelsie Faulk