Bolivia Bound

It’s beginning to look a lot like... oh, wait

December 16, 2013

Nope, it’s NOT beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  We’re currently enjoying a Bolivian summer here in Santa Cruz, and it is HOT. But that’s okay, because despite the killer heat and the killer mosquitoes, here in Braniff we’re feeling the Christmas spirit as we give the Lord the best Christmas gift we can: the offering of our hearts. :) 

This week was a week of miracles. I love being able to see the hand of the Lord in His work. First off, we have our investigator, Leonela, with a baptism date for this Saturday. As I’ve mentioned before, she is 15 years old and really wants to change because she’s fallen in with some bad friends and has made some pretty poor choices.  For the past few months, we’ve been seeing her change a lot, and I know that every change in her is a miracle. However, she traveled with her family to Cotoka for several weeks and we couldn’t get ahold of her. No one ever answered at the two phone numbers we had for her.  We were concerned with her baptism date getting closer and closer that we couldn’t see how she was doing, especially since she had a problem before with the Word of Wisdom. Well, Hermana Lopez and I decided to fast on Friday for her, and we were praying for a miracle. That day, we called one of the phone numbers again, and her aunt finally answered and gave us another number to call Leonela. We got to talk to Leonela finally, which was a miracle in and of itself, and the other miracle was that she has stayed strong with the Word of Wisdom despite the fact that we haven’t talked to her for almost two weeks. Thanks to this experience, I can testify that I know that fasting works, and that the Lord WANTS to bless us with miracles if we have faith that He will.

The miracles with Leonela continued on Sunday.  She told us Saturday that she there was a chance she could come from Cotoka in the morning Sunday for church, but probably not. Well, we prayed hard that she would be able to come, and she called us that morning and said she would come! Then, we were going to pick up someone for church and we passed by Leonela in the street. She was in a spot of trouble with some of her old bad friends, who were drunk, but when they saw us, she was able to get them to leave pretty quickly. I know that the Lord guided us in that moment to help her, because I think it’s likely that if we hadn’t been there, she could have gotten into some serious trouble, or maybe even fallen in the Word of Wisdom again.

We kept seeing miracles Sunday. After several weeks without ward council, we had a ward council meeting, and for the first time our ward mission leader attended.  He gave a powerful presentation about our conversos recientes who have now gone inactive. When he did that, everyone in the ward council really got serious and reflective, and our leaders made the decision that we are going to completely change ward council and follow the guidance of the prophet to talk about people rather than activities and work together to bring about the salvation of many people. It was a complete change, something Hermana Lopez and I had been praying for a lot, and I’m really excited for the progress our ward is going to make in the year to come with this new focus.

Finally, we had another miracle with our investigator Naireth. She, as I have mentioned before, is a granddaughter in a less-active family and almost the only one who goes to church. We have been praying hard for her because she wants to get baptized but her family has been resistant to signing the permission. Well, this week we went by the house a lot, trying to gain the confidence of the grandparents (her legal guardians) and help them remember their testimonies. Then yesterday, we stopped by and talked for a while with her grandpa, and he FINALLY signed the permission slip! We’re now planning Naireth’s baptism for the 27th. I know that the Lord can soften and change hearts, and that this is just another step in reactivating the entire family.

Well, along with all these fantastic experiences, we’re also enjoying ourselves a ton!  

Hermana Lopez and I are getting into the Christmas spirit, and we’ve set up a little mini tree in our apartment, complete with ornaments and the presents Mom and Dad sent us.

We also had a sweet Relief Society activity, and tons of people came, including investigators and less-actives like Jhossely Carvahal, who we have been able to rescue so that she is no longer less active!

And here’s a photo of us with Naneth, who is traveling for Christmas, so this was the last time I think I’ll see her. That was a bitter-sweet moment. I am so grateful to have been an instrument in the hands of the Lord to bring her the gospel. She and her sister Monica are SO special.

Well, that’s my life right now! I can’t even begin to explain how wonderful it is to be a missionary. The time is passing way too fast, and I love every second! Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

And here are some pictures of a zone activity. We ate enormous sandwiches and played futbol and it was fantastic!!