Mision Braniff!!

Hello everyone! Well, here I am, back in good old Braniff! I flew back from Yacuiba on Tuesday, and we had cambios Wednesday. I was a little sad, fully expecting a to be moved to a new area because Presidente Willard said it would probably have to happen, but to my surprise and pleasure, I got to stay in Braniff for one more cambio with Hermana Lopez! Woo!! So basically, seeing as how the first six months of my mission will be in one area (with the exception of my five days in Yacuiba), I have officially labeled myself "mision Braniff." And that's great with me. :)

Hermana Lopez is doing WAY better, emotionally and physically. Looks like the doctors FINALLY found the salmonela that was hanging out in her digestive system, and she's taking medicine and now isn't throwing up every day. So that does a lot to help keep our spirits up. :) However, it's now the rainy season in Santa Cruz, which means it's also now the season of bugs. Those of you who knew me before and knew that I was horribly afraid of insects, you should see me now. I handle insects, including massive cockroaches, without fear! The bad news is that insect season means a ton of bites from mosquitos and who knows what else. But hey, I'm learning lots of self-control as I practice not scratching, ha.

Well, I learned a lot this week, as always! More than anything, I learned a powerful lesson about faith. We have an investigator, Candi, that wants to get baptized. She's 14 years old and her stepmom and stepsister are less active members. For a long time, she never wanted to talk to the missionaries, but about a month ago, she suddenly announced that she wanted to get baptized, and totally changed with us. We're now like her best friends, she always comes to church, she reads her scriptures, she always prays, and she always wants to listen to us. But, her dad doesn't want her to get baptized. So, when he told us a few weeks ago that he doesn't want to give permission, I kind of gave up. We kept visiting Candi, but I didn't really believe that she would be able to get baptized, so I wasn't really putting forth a ton of effort. But last night, my lider de distrito called and asked about Candi. I explained the situation and started in with what I later realized were basically excuses for why I haven't been working hard to help Candi. But as I talked, he cut me off and said, "Hermana. Take the permssion slip to Candi's dad. This is Santa Cruz de los Milagros (miracles), and in this mission, God helps us to see the miracles if we just act in faith. You put a baptism date for her; that was your faith. Now, you have to act. Just have the faith, hermana." He then gave me a few scriptures to study in my personal study. Well, that definitely humbled me. I thought a lot about it, and realized that I've started to think about the mission as something that my companion and I do, without thinking so much about the reality that this is the work of the Lord. But this IS the work of the Lord, and He WANTS to work miracles here. He just needs our faith to be able to do it. So I've definitely repented of that mindset, and am now way motivated to work hard for miracles, to trust more in God and the promises in Mormon 9 and Ether 12 where it talks about the fact that God is unchangeable, that He did miracles in old times and He will keep doing them today, if we just trust Him. I know that as I turn more to Him, I will cease to do my own work, and I will become an instrument in His hands to do His work.

What else? Leonela is progressing still to a baptism! We also had another young woman accept a baptism date for the 21st of December, Naireth. She's a PF and we're working on reactivating the rest of her family, so that's great!

Well, there's so much more I could say, but there's never enough time, is there? But I love being a missionary and I love the responsibilities I've been given here! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve as an hermana capacitadora (I'm going to my first mission leader meeting tonight and tomorrow - woo!) and to train, because I learn a TON from the missionaries around me. There's no doubt about it, leadership opportunities definitely aren't to be proud, they're to learn. Anyway, now I'm just rambling, ha, but I love the mission and I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. :) I'm not too sure if some of them will work because I lost all my pictures from a virus and then some kind elders recovered them for me, but recovered them kind of weird. But we'll see. The first two are from our baptism, with Monica, Naneth, and Nahuel from the ninth. One is of everyone that came to the baptism, and the other is of me and Hermana Lopez with them and the hermano that baptized them, Hermano Jorge.

Then we've got a few from Yacuiba. This is Hermana Black and me in front of the Yacuiba airport, which is TINY, and the airplanes are tiny and I thought I was going to die in the air, ha.

This is me on a railroad track crossing over a dried up river. Sweet. :)

And finally, this is a birthday party for a kid in the ward. We were invited by the president of the Relief Society to help out.

Hola de YACUIBA!!!!

That’s right, I’m now in Yacuiba! And it rocks! Although I imagine that your first question is, what the heck is Yacuiba? Well, Yacuiba is another city in Bolivia, in the far south about 10 minutes from Argentina. So to answer dad’s question about where else missionaries go that isn’t the actual city of Santa Cruz, I will explain... Our mission is the south half of the department of Santa Cruz (departments here are like states), and then the department of Tarija. So, there are missionaries in the city of Santa Cruz, then in a city called Porto Suarez in the department of Santa Cruz, then four cities, Bermejo, Villamontes, Yacuiba, and Tarija, in the department of Tarija. And of all these cities, the options for hermanas are some parts of Santa Cruz, and then Bermejo, Yacuiba, and Tarija. And now I’m in Tarija!

So, how did this happen? As I mentioned last week, Hermana Lopez has been having kind of a rough time, particularly emotionally. Well, she’s also been having a rough time with her health because she’s been throwing up on a pretty consistent basis for almost her entire mission. We’ve gone to the hospital a few times, but they haven’t really found much. But this week, it got a lot worse, and she had to rest a lot, so we weren’t really going out to work. But at the same time, Hermanas Black and Cladera, who are in Yacuiba, had to come to Santa Cruz because Hermana Cladera got really sick and there basically aren’t hospitals in Yacuiba. So after a few days, Presidente Willard decided that the best option would be to leave Hermana Lopez and Hermana Cladera in Braniff (my area) together, and send me and Hermana Black back to Yacuiba. We flew here Thursday afternoon (it’s like an hour flight in a TINY plane for 20 people) and the plan was that I would just be here until today, Monday. But it looks like I’ll actually be here until transfers this Wednesday. Not too sure how it’s all going to work out since I have to fly back to Braniff for all my stuff and then from there, go to my new area if I have a new area, but hey... we’ll get it all figured out.

It was pretty sad to leave Braniff and to know this might be goodbye to Braniff forever, and it was especially sad to know that I might not be companions with Hermana Lopez anymore depending on what happens with transfers this Wednesday, but I have to say that I LOVE Yacuiba. It’s SUPER hot here, which is not fun, but it’s a city of 100,000 people compared to Santa Cruz, which is 3 million. So it’s a lot more tranquil and clean, and it’s SO pretty. We’re surrounded on all sides by a hilly jungle, and just crossing into it a little bit we reach Argentina. The city is really interesting because it’s the first time I’ve REALLY seen the poverty of Bolivia. I thought I saw poverty in Santa Cruz, but it was nothing compared to here. The city is divided in two parts, the rich part, and "la playa" (the beach), which is where all the poor people live, and it is SUPER humble. (It’s called la playa because when it rains hard here, it floods hard core, like water up to the waist, but Yacuiba is a hill so all the water floods la playa and sometimes destroys houses there and things like that.) Anyway, so Hermana Black and I are in a branch here and working a ton with reactivations and part member families. In these four days here, we’ve already committed 3 people to baptism for the end of the month and we’ve got another three or four who are ready, but just need to accept baptism dates. Sweet! We’re also working a LOT with menos activos. There are a TON in La Playa, like whole neighborhoods of inactive members, and we’re going house by house activating them. The branch really lacks priesthood, but I LOVE the enthusiasm of the leaders. They go out every Sunday, all of them together with the missionaries, for three hours to visit less actives, and these less actives are so touched by the visit that they almost always come back to church, right away. I love it here. There’s a ton of work to do and a lot of good things happening, and it’s way fun to be companions with Hermana Black. She’s the hermana with the most time in the mission, and she’s also an hermana capacitadora, so she’s been teaching me a lot about what I should be doing with this assignment. She’s also a ton of fun and super hilarious, so it’s great. I miss Hermana Lopez and I’ll be super happy to see her again (and especially to be her companion again if that’s the Lord’s plan) but I’m going to be way sad to leave Yacuiba. As I say like a million times a day to Hermana Black, "Yacuiba es lo MAXIMO!!!" (Yacuiba is the BEST!!!!!!!!)

Also, something sweet was that one of my old investigators, Omar and Noelia, moved from my area to Yacuiba! So I got to talk to Noelia today. She is now living with her sister, who is actually a less-active member! It just goes to show that the Lord always has a plan and is always preparing His children. Maybe they weren’t ready to get baptized in Braniff with me, but now they’re in a great place, listening to the missionaries again, and I know they’ll get baptized. They were always really special for me, so this was one of the tender mercies of the Lord to be able to see them again. :)

But no matter what we’re doing or who our companion is or where we are, the mission is the best. I love it so much and I’m SO grateful to be here. I love that I can see myself changing every day and growing closer to the Savior. I’ve already seen a lot of miracles with investigators and especially with Hermana Lopez these past weeks, and I love it!!!

Love you all!!!

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

 

Baptisms! J

Hello everyone! This was a great week in a lot of ways, but as always, it had its challenges. But we’ll start with the great news... Monica and Naneth and Nahuel got baptized! It was the best, such a special moment for me. They were all so happy, especially Monica and Naneth. Probably the greatest miracle of the mission so far has been the two of them, as I’ve already said before. Naneth is already talking about going on a mission, and the two of them are already excited about having callings in the ward. AND, their mom from another part of Bolivia got to come and see the baptism, and she now wants to listen to the missionaries in her house! We took down her information and she’s going to be baptized before long, I’m sure of it. It won’t be long before the three of them go to the temple to receive their endowments and be sealed together as a family with their dad who passed away a long time ago. That right there is probably the best part. Monica and Naneth almost cried when they learned that they could do baptisms for their dad (okay, a man can do it, but still) and then be sealed to him as a family. And Saturday in the baptism, Monica said to me, "Ever since the first day when you and Hermana Maldonado found me in the street, you have been angels for me." There is nothing sweeter in life than being able to be an angel in someone else’s life. That’s the second time someone has told me that, and every time I hear that, I’m so filled with gratitude to my Heavenly Father for being so aware of His children and for giving me the wonderful chance to be the instrument He uses to bless them. Wow, what a blessing the mission is.

We’re also working with someone new, Leonela. She is 15 years old and fell in with some bad friends a few years ago. She started drinking and made some pretty bad mistakes, and now she feels a lot of regret. She wants to get away from her friends and get away from alcohol and change her life completely, and she accepted a baptism date for the 14th! She came to the baptism on Saturday and came to church for the first time yesterday, and even though she was the only one in Young Women’s, (yep, one of the challenges of this ward is that basically everyone leaves after the first or second hour) she loved church. She lives with her grandma and some aunts and uncles, and Hermana Lopez and I now want to contact her family.

I also did my first exchange this week. Actually, I did two, but with the same companionship. And to answer your question, Dad, all the companionships that are my "responsibility" are in Santa Cruz, close to our area. The furthest is probably a 20 minute bus ride, and that’s how we travel, almost always, by bus. Anyway, it was a great experience to be able to help out a companionship that’s struggling a little bit. One of the hermanas is pretty discouraged because she’s had a lot of health problems, so the first time, I went with her and my job was to try to motivate her to stay in the mission for the last three months. Later in the week, we did another exchange and I went with her companion, who has been having a hard time being in the house a lot with a sick companion, to give her the chance to be able to go out and work for a change. It was good to be able to serve them and serve Presidente Willard, who requested these two exchanges. I’ve got one more to do this coming week with another companionship, so we’ll see how it goes!

The only rough thing about the week is that Hermana Lopez is struggling a bit. She has also had a lot of health problems, pretty much all her time here so far, and we had to stay in the house a lot of Saturday and Sunday. She’s also pretty discouraged, for her health and for some other things that are going on in her life. So if you could all keep her in your prayers, that would be great! She’s really fantastic, and I’m learning a lot about my capacity to love and have patience as we’re working together.

Well, that’s all for now!

Love,

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

These are two photos of the entire zone, first at the lomos de arena, and after at bowling. It was fun to go bowling, especially since almost no one in the zone had ever done it before. I'm ashamed to say that even though I've bowled my entire life, I got second place... our zone leader, Elder Salgado, dominated.

 

Happy Five Months!

Hello everyone! Well, happy five months in the mission! Okay, so tomorrow is five months in the mission, but still, close enough. :)

As always, this week has been SUPER eventful. It all started Monday, with our previous P-day. After internet, we went to our pensionista, Leidy, and together we cooked Peruvian food, lomos saltados, courtesy of Hermana Lopez. Super fun, and SUPER delicious. There we were, eating, everything calm, when all the sudden the phone rang. I answered, and who called? Presidente Willard, the mission president. When the mission president calls, you know it’s something important, and sure enough, he called to ask me if I would accept the assignment to serve as the new Sister Leader, or as we call it in Spanish, Hermana Capacitadora. WHAT???? Of course I accepted, but I was thinking, "I just barely, three weeks ago, finished my training! I can’t be a Capacitadora for hermanas with way more time and more experience than me! The other capacitadoras have at least 8 months in Bolivia, not just over 3!!" I was basically freaking out. But, here I am, new Hermana Capacitadora! Basically, I now am responsable for four companionships, plus of course my own companionship. When they need something or have a hard time, I’m responsible to see how they’re doing and help them out with whatever they need, and my main responsibility is to be in charge of exchanges with these four companionships. I’m planning my first exchange for this week. I’m nervous about being a leader now, but I know that the Lord gives us assignments for a specific reason and our job is to humbly accept them, leran what we can, and strive to serve the Lord in whatever capacity He asks of us.

Then, Thursday was Halloween! They don’t really celebrate Halloween here, but Hermana Lopez and I decided to celebrate in a little way... with ROOT BEER!!!!! Root beer doesn’t exist in Bolivia, but in Hipermaxi, the super market, they sell a few American products at ridiculously expensive prices (93 bolivianos for a bag of Reese’s, for example). And I found root beer! I was super excited, so I bought two, regardless of the price. We drank it for Halloween, which was fun. Hermana Lopez hated it, ha. But for me, it was heaven :)

Then, on Friday, we had the wonderful privilege of seeing Marcos get baptized. He was super excited, and the best part was that we were able to get some good ward support for the baptism, which in the past has been a little tough. And we had a few investigators come to the baptism. We were especially excited that Abacuc, another child in the ward, came to the baptism. He’s 10 years old and isn’t baptized because he’s afraid of water. But he came to this baptism and he’s going to come to our baptism this Saturday as well, so we’re praying that he’ll feel more comfortable with baptism in the future.

The plan was for Nahuel to also get baptized Friday, but Nahuel’s dad traveled for work and although he gave us permission to baptize Nahuel on the phone, he has to sign the permission slip before the baptism and he couldn’t do it. So, Nahuel, along with Monica and Naneth, will get baptized this Saturday. We are SUPER excited for Monica and Naneth. They are fantastic people, and their experiences are so powerful. They have told us about how drastically their lives have changed thanks to this gospel. They have a lot of trials, but they come to church every Sunday without fail, they read their Book of Mormon and pray every day, and they are so happy to be in the gospel! They’re already super motivated to bring this gospel to their family that lives in other parts of Bolivia, and Naneth is already thinking about a mission. I keep thinking about how huge of a miracle missionary work is, especially with them. Hermana Maldonado and I contacted Monica one night on the street when one of our lessons fell through, and I didn’t really think she would be especially interested, especially because a couple of lessons we scheduled fell through but Hermana Maldonado was persistent and kept rescheduling until we finally found them. Thanks to the persistence of Hermana Maldonado in the beginning, the lives of Monica and Naneth have been changed forever. It just goes to show that we never know who is going to accept the gospel, and we should never write someone off. The Lord knows who is ready for this gospel, and He directs this work. Wow, I love being a missionary, and I’m SO grateful to have the privilege to have played a part in the conversion of Monica and Naneth.

Well, here are a few pictures, of our root beer celebration and the baptism of Marcos!

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