Bolivia Bound

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.