Bolivia Bound

TRIO!!!

Happy Monday everyone! That’s right, you read the subject line right... I am now officially in trio! It’s kind of a crazy situation. Hermana Johns, our new companion, arrived fresh from the Colombia CCM on Tuesday. She is from Utah, but her Spanish is pretty good so they sent her from the CCM two weeks early! So now, Hermana Maldonado, who was still training me, is now training both me and Hermana Johns. But since I’m basically done with my training and getting ready to train in a week and a half, it’s kind of this weird halfway thing, where sometimes it’s like Hermana Maldonado has her two daughters, and sometimes it’s like Hermana Johns has her two moms. We’re never quite sure, ha. But we get along great, the three of us, and although it’s definitely been a challenge to figure out how to teach with three people, I’m loving this opportunity to learn a lot and to see an example of how to train from the beginning, as Hermana Maldonado trains Hermana Johns. I’m definitely taking mental notes to apply to when I have to train.

Anyway, this week we had a few disappointments, the major disappointment being that Monday night last week, Hugo told us that he broke the Word of Wisdom, and with that, he lost his baptism date. We are working with him to help him understand the true meaning of repentance and why it’s important to completely abandon your sins, but he is having a hard time. We’re hopeful, however, that he will be able to give up drinking completely and get baptized. In this way, it’s been a tough month. Four people accepted baptism dates for September, and all four fell through for different reasons. Ouch. But what I’m learning in a big way, and this is something that has never been easy for me, is that all I can do as a missionary is invite people to make changes in their lives, and help them make those changes. I can never obligate people to do so, as much as I would like to, ha. The good news, however, is that a lot of those people whose baptism dates fell through in September, I believe will be ready for baptism in October. I don’t know if I’ll be here in Braniff to see them get baptized, but I’m confident that it will happen, with Hugo and with Soledad as well.

The other good news is that we’re working with a lot of new people! One person, Fabiola, is really fantastic. I don’t remember if I wrote about her last week, but she has three children, one of whom has some kind of developmental disability, and I love her and her family. And she accepted a baptism date! Her date is the 26th of October and I’m way excited for her. Also, we’re working with two sisters, Monica and Naneth. They are both super great. We contacted Monica in the street and she and Naneth came to church last week after just a contact, without a lesson. We taught Naneth during the week about the Restoration (we wanted to teach Monica too, but she traveled) but Naneth was super interested, both of them came to church yesterday again, and said that they’ve been ready their pamphlet (which almost never happens, ha) and that they have questions for us and want to keep coming to church! I’m praying that they, too, will accept baptism dates for October. :)

Anyway, so that’s my big news for the week! And Dad, I’m definitely loving your advice to get sick in every new zone as a way to make more friends. Definitely going to take it, ha.

Love you all!

Hermana Chelsie Faulk