Bolivia Bound

Bienvenidos a Paraiso!!

Well hello everyone!

First off, shoutout to my mom: once again, Happy Mother’s Day! It was great to talk to the family a little bit yesterday for the last time in the mission. Glad to hear that everyone’s doing well and glad that I could even see my nieces and nephew through double skype: me to my house, and Ashley's iPad to Heather’s house. Pretty sweet!

Well, as those of you I skyped with yesterday have already heard, I’m now in a new area! I’m in a ward called Paraiso (Paradise), and boy is the name accurate! I’m still in Tarija, and actually in the ward right next door to my old ward, Central. Like, the limit of our area comes right up to the limit of Central. I’m opening an area once again, and my companion is Hermana Lopez. That’s right... this is the second time I have a companion named Hermana Lopez, ha. But this time, Hermana Lopez is from the states, and it’s the first time in the mission that I’m not training! The mission just made a big change: hermana capacitadoras are now in companionships like they do in other missions instead of being with companions that aren’t capacitadoras. We now have enough hermanas in the mission to do that, which is pretty exciting! I have LOVED training my whole mission, but it is also a great experience to work with someone that has experience in the mission and can teach me new things, that has fresh ideas. And we are responsible for four other companionships of hermanas, or in other words, all the hermanas in our zone. (Tarija is a pretty safe city, so it’s full of hermanas, and in this zone, there are more hermanas than elders... pretty nuts!) We’re excited to see how we can lift the hermanas in this zone to realize their full potential.

Anyway, but things in Paraiso are going great! We have been working a lot to form a good relationship with the bishop and see how we can support him, especially since he’s pretty worn out - he’s been bishop for more than 8 years already, with no end in sight that he knows of. And we’ve been seeing miracles right and left. The fun thing about opening an area is that we don’t know anything about the people, don’t know our way around, and have to contact tons, and we’ve been contacting lots of people that seem really prepared. A few days ago, for example, we were lost and went to ask someone for directions (a great excuse to start to talk to someone) and it turned out that she had wanted to receive the missionaries a long time ago but hadn’t been able to coordinate with them, so we made an appointment, went by the next day, and she immediately accepted a baptism date. Another investigator that we had hadn’t wanted to come to church up til then because she was afraid, but thanks to the help of a member that came with us and made her feel more comfortable, she came - AND brought a friend, who also really liked church and said we could visit her this week! (Accompany the missionaries, everyone! It makes a huge difference!) We have been getting referrals right and left, we have people who want to help us, the bishop is great... this is a great ward, and I’m really excited to be here.

Well, something I’ve been thinking about and studying a lot lately is the word "sanctification." Here in the mission we need to work with all our "heart, might, mind, and strength" and as I pondered my last transfer in Central, it hit me that although I was giving it all my might and strength, maybe I wasn’t working with all my heart and mind, and that brought me to study sanctification, which is basically, the process of becoming spiritually pure before the Lord. I love Helaman 3:35, which says:

"Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God."

I know if we strive to purify our hearts before the Lord, He will help us to be sanctified through His atonement. And that is my goal for this cambio: sanctify myself. I invite you all to learn more about the doctrine of sanctification and apply it in your own lives.

Love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Love,

Hermana Chelsie Faulk

Here’s a picture of a place called Coimata, a hike we did last Monday in my old zone! I’ll have pictures from the new zone and with my new companion hopefully next week. :)