Viva  Los  Estudiantes!

 September 23, 2013

In Bolivia they have like a million holidays, which is fantastic. Yesterday was el dia de los estudiantes (day of the students), so I figured I would celebrate with them as my subject line. We most definitely need to make this change in the US - day of the students, day of amor (different from Valentine’s day, which they also celebrate), day of moms, day of women (yes, two different days), day of dads, day of men (again, two different days), and even day of dogs. And a ton more. Basically, the Bolivians look for any reason to celebrate, and I love it!

The work is progressing here in my little area of paradise, Braniff, Santa Cruz! I love it here. It’s incredible the love I have developed for our investigators and for the members of our ward as I have gotten to know the majority of them pretty well. Every single one of them, like every single person, has real struggles in their lives, and as missionaries, we have the privilege of learning about and helping them through many trials, but what’s incredible is that they remain firm in the gospel. These people with their firmness huge trials of all types are incredible examples to me.

But anyway, like I said, the work is progressing! We’re preparing our miracle investigator, Hugo, for his baptism this Saturday, and I’m super excited for him. He has changed so much from the first time we met him, when he called out, "Hey, I need to talk to you! You two can help me." At that time, he was super sad and hopeless, and didn’t believe that God loved him or that he had the power to change his life circumstances. Now, three or four weeks later, he has so much more confidence. He is living the commandments, praying, reading the Book of Mormon, going to church, and is so much happier. This gospel has real power to change lives.

We are also working with a family! They live in the same house as us (like I said in an earlier email, basically everyone lives in these compound -type things with one central door and then a garden or patio with several apartments or rooms so when I say they live in the same house as us, they rent a room in the same place). It’s great because it’s super easy to teach them, and the person who owns all of our rooms, la dueña, is a member of the church, so we can always teach them with her. Anyway, they are quite religious and active in their Christian church, so in past lessons, they have been interested in what we had to say but they never really understood why our message was important. But finally on Saturday we helped them understand that we literally have a prophet on the earth in these days that is the same as Moses or Abraham. They were shocked by this idea, but love it. They asked us, "How can we know what this prophet has to say?" We explained about General Conference in two weeks and David, who in the past hasn’t been too interested in going to church with us, said immediately, "We’re going to General Conference." And that was that! They aren’t married, but this week we’re going to teach them about the Plan of Salvation and the Law of Chastity, and commit them to marriage and baptism! I’m super excited for them.
 

I love the mission because I love how we get the chance to see so many people changing and growing. I love seeing the miracles that the Lord puts in our path every day. I have too many stories to be able to share in my emails, but I can tell you all that I KNOW that the Lord is preparing people, that His hand is in the details of our lives, and that the things that happen every day aren’t just coincidences. I read a talk from President Monson from Conference October 2012 where he talks about how we need to recognize and acknowledge the blessings and the miracles in our lives. I think too often we write things off as coincidence or think that things happen because we made them happen, but in reality, God is in the details. I invite everyone to take an inventory of the blessings, large and small, that they have seen in their lives. I did that this week and am starting to recognize more and more the hand of the Lord, and feel more and more grateful for all that He does for us.

Love you all!

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

La Semana Loca

September 16, 2013

Yep, that about sums up my week. It was loca. It all started Sunday night/Monday morning last week, early in the morning, when I started to feel pretty sick and spent a lot of the night throwing up. After I threw up magnificently in front of my entire zone of missionaries, the zone leaders made the executive decision that they were taking Hermana Maldonado and me to the clinic, ha. And Mom, Dad, although maybe that doesn’t sound very funny to you, believe me, it’s pretty hilarious. It was super similar to that time when I got sick on the airplane, with this uncomfortable silence with all the missionaries staring at me and no one exactly sure what to say while my companion looks frantically for a Kleenex or something and no one has anything... definitely memorable, ha. And hilarious, so don’t be worried. Anyway, so we went to the clinic, which was SUPER crowded so we were there for the rest of our Pday and more, and ended up losing some proselyting time, all for the doctor to say he thought I had a stomach infection but he wasn’t sure, so he wasn’t going to do anything and come back if I felt sick again. So that was Monday.

Tuesday, I felt a lot better, but it was still a crazy day because we had interviews with President Willard - my first interview with him since coming to the mission. He is fantastic, seriously like a dad here in the mission. It was weird, we had the interview in English and I had to pray in English but I couldn’t do it. I ended up praying in a kind of weird, mixed up Spanglish. Then that night, Hermana Wursten, my companion from the CCM, flew into Santa Cruz from Tarija and spent the night with us, because the next day was... immigration! That’s right, I am now officially a resident of Bolivia, for the next year until I have to do immigration again. It took like half the day, which was a pain, but it was fun because I was reunited with everyone from my district in the CCM, or at least everyone who is now in Santa Cruz. Those guys are like my family. Fantastic. The only downside was that, once again, I started to feel pretty sick. Once again, the zone leaders made the decision that yes, I was going to the clinic, and yes, they were coming with us. This time, the doctor decided that I did have a stomach infection after all, and gave me medicine. And not to worry, I now feel much better and am in tip top condition. This happens once to basically every North American missionary, or so I’m told.

 

Anyway, so with that crazy start to the week, Thursday we were finally able to get started with some real proselyting, but still, the entire week was full of challenges. We couldn’t find investigators, members couldn’t accompany us on visits, etc... it was one of those "if it can go wrong, it will go wrong" weeks. We ended up losing the baptism dates for two investigators, Augustin and Soledad, because Soledad didn’t want to go to church when we went to pick her up, and Augustin because his mom, who is menos activo, decided that she doesn’t want him to get baptized. But the good news is that we are continuing strong with Hugo for a baptism the 28th - he is progressing really well and has now gone to church on his own three times! Also, we are preparing Karen for a baptism on the 28th as well. After she traveled for a few weeks, we are finally going to get started teaching her again tonight, and I know that she’ll be ready for her baptism. Even in the hard weeks, I know that the Lord is with us and He is preparing people for this message. I’m learning lots here in the mission and I’m super motivated for this week. I know it will be lots better. :)

 

 

Here I am in the clinic with my IV thing.  They hydrated me with a bunch of stuff on Monday, and then decided there was nothing wrong with me and sent me home. 

 

 

My district from the CCM reunited at immigration!  A fantastic day.

 

This is day two in the clinic with another hydration thing (and yes, I know that I'm wearing the same shirt but I promise it's a different day, ha)

 

 

Hermana Maldonado and me in the clinic.

 

The bathroom in the immigration office in Santa Cruz.

I liked that the bathroom signs are in English and Chinese.

 

BE THOU HUMBLE

 September 9, 2013

Yep, that’s my theme for the week. I definitely had an interesting week, but a good one, and I definitely learned a lot about the importance of humility. For some reason at the start of my week, I got it in my head that I was a pretty good missionary. My Spanish is coming along well, I’m getting along with the members of the ward and the investigators, winning their confidence and developing friendships, we were finding lots of new people to teach, I felt good about my teaching and the questions I was asking during lessons, and all in all I started to think I was a pretty good missionary. But at the same time, I recognized that this was pride and that I needed to rely on the Lord, not on my pride, so I decided to pray for the Lord to help me be more humble. And guess what? The Lord answers prayers!

We had some tough days with very little progress with anyone, walking around looking for our investigators, but no one was home and no one wanted to talk to us. I was feeling pretty frustrated, and then it hit me: you asked to be humbled, and here you are! And so I learned my lesson. In all things we need to rely on the Lord, and especially here in the mission. He knows perfectly the needs of our investigators and who is really prepared for this message, and it’s only thanks to His help that my Spanish is coming along and that my teaching is improving. And so, I humbled myself and repented, and guess what happened? We started to have more success!

At the end of the week, we FINALLY found Karen again after going to her house a bunch of times for nothing, and she accepted a new baptism date for the 28th. We also contacted some people that I really believe are ready for this message. One person, Rosario, started to cry in the door and said that she desperately needs to hear what we have to say. Unfortunately, she was about to leave and she doesn’t live in our area right now, but she’s going to move to our area (just like Hugo) in the middle of September. We have her phone number and know where she’s going to be living, so I’m stoked for her. And I’m trying much harder to rely on the Spirit to guide my mission life, praying more throughout the day and whenever I start to notice pride in myself, I learned the trick to get rid of it: think of the Atonement. It works every time. But it’s probably a lifelong challenge to overcome pride. I feel like I’m in a mini Nephite pride cycle all the time, but one that repeats itself over the course of several days or even several hours, ha. Crazy life.
To respond to your questions, Mom and Dad, yes, Hermana Maldonado has visa issues. But her visa should come this transfer. And with Abacuc, it’s actually spring now and will shortly be summertime, but he decided to avoid our lessons when we visit Augustin. I guess that now isn’t his time to be baptized. Soledad has been tough to find and teach, but we’re still working on that, and Hugo is progressing still, although his big challenge is a lack of friends. Everyone, when new people come to the ward, PLEASE be friends with them immediately! It makes all the difference in the world for an investigator. Our ward is really small, so I’m not really sure how they found 16 people to be ward missionaries. However, our training with them was suspended for the next Sunday, so hopefully we can get going with them soon! And Dad, as far as I know there aren’t any senior couples serving here.

Anyway, that’s my week! I am so grateful to be on a mission. I can see myself changing and growing closer to Christ every week.  Love you all!

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

One Transfer Down,

About A Million More To Go!

September 2, 2013

Hello everyone! As I said in my subject line, I have officially completed one transfer here in Bolivia. At least I think it’s called a transfer in English. In Spanish, it’s a cambio. Anyway, the important part is that I'm no longer the newbie here in Santa Cruz! Woo! Quite an accomplishment, I must say. :)

And that means that I have a new companion! Hermana Castañeta is now in her house and my second trainer is Hermana Maldonado. She’s from Cochabamba and this is her temporary mission. She served six months in Tarija, which is part of Mission Santa Cruz but is way far away, and she will serve six weeks with me here to complete my training and then she will go to her real mission in Venezuela. She is happy all the time and focused on the work and I think we will work well together.

Well, this was a week of a lot of highs and, unfortunately, some lows. First off, the highs. We have two more people with baptism dates! One is a niño, nine years old, named Augustin. I'm not too sure why he's not baptized yet because his family are members, but he's not so we're going to give him the lessons and get him baptized! And then we're also working with his cousin Abacuc. I don't remember if I've mentioned Abacuc or not. He's 10 years old and doesn't want to get baptized because he's deathly afraid of water. However, the goal is for him to get baptized on the 21st with his cousin and we're praying hard to receive revelation to help him do that. We've started to win his confidence, but we know that it'll be a slow process because he has been pressured for more than two years now to get baptized and he doesn't trust the missionaries much since he knows what we're there for. But we're going to do everything possible to help. Our other person with a baptism date, also for the 21st, is... remember Hugo? The golden reference from last week? Well, he surprised us big time by moving to our area for work! And so now we're meeting with him a lot and helping him prepare for baptism. He really desperately wants to change his life, but he doesn't have much confidence in God or in himself. We're working on helping him feel more confidnece and also to make friends in the ward, but that's a challenge since theres almost no one his age. However, I know that with the Lords help its possible! Other highs are that the members are helping us a lot! We got some references from the members and are getting all kinds of contacts and I think we're going to have a lot of new investigators very shortly. Also, we have a training with the 16 new ward missionaries this week, which will be a lot of help, especially with retencion, so I'm pretty excited about that as well. Yay!

The lows are that, unfortunately, both Karen and Soledad who had baptism dates for the 14th, didn't go to church this week, so both of their baptism dates fell through. :( However, we're going to keep working with them. We've recently started to see a change in Soledad, who seems to have more interest and be feeling the power of this message more in her life. What's missing is that she doesn't really understand the importance of going to church, and it doesn't help that her sister that she lives with, who is a member, doesn't really think going to church is very important either as long as you're praying and trying to do the right thing. But I really think that Soledad will get baptized. It will just take a little more time. Karen we are also going to keep working with for a baptism at a later date. She didn't go to church this week because she traveled to Montero, but we're really excited because we met her husband for the first time yesterday, and today we have a lesson with the two of them! Although it will take longer to work with the two of them, this is what we want to do, because after all, this gospel is all about families.

Anyway, I’m learning a lot and I'm happy to be here! It's not easy, but it's definitely worth it. Love you all!

Hermana Chelsie Faulk