Slowly adjusting

ok what's up everybody

we'll start out answering all the questions i got.

first i'm slowly adjusting to the area and the mission. to be honest, my opinion is that all the leaders here care about is numbers and i don't work that way. needless to say I'm pretty stubborn and i think i'll have some problems with that down the road but i am and always will do what i think is best for the people that i am in charge of. i know that they just wanna help and whatever but i was called to this area to help these people and i will do anything to fulfill that mission. my mission isn't to make my leaders happy or the president happy. I'm doing everything i can to strenghten my members here and find people to teach. but i look at it like this. if i do all the work, find people to teach and teach them and the members don't learn how to do it then all I'm doing is saying that when i leave i didn't really help them. in my sight the only way to be successful as a missionary is to make sure the members know like i do that they are missionaries too. it's my goal. i don't need a million baptisms to feel successful. my goal is that by helping the members work like missionaries, i might not get baptisms or at least a lot....but the ward will forever be a little bit stronger for my efforts to help them help others. well, lets just say that i might be the only person in bolivia santa cruz mission that thinks that way but i think it's right. it's like people always say...the right thing isn't always the easiest. to be honest the leaders are the most annoying part of the mission but i just try to focus and work.

sorry bout that

next when we got here to bolivia we flew from lima to la paz...that was interesting landing in la paz. I'm glad we didn't have to get off the plane because most people get sick from the altitude. i stayed on the plane and just stuck my head in my book so that i wouldn't get sick. but then flew to santa cruz. it took about four or five hours.

now I'm almost positive that everyone can write me. what i heard was that only family could but i heard that from one of the elders who came over with us and i think he was lying. my comp receives letters from his friends every week and the pres didn't say anything against it. and in the manual missional it says we can communicate with friends and family so i think it's ok. and to be honest I've been dying every week to get a letter from Amanda. thanks mom for you help with this but until they tell me i cant I'm gonna say go ahead and send letters.

and now on that good note. supposedly the packets take about two months to get here but they do get here. i don't know if you wanna try something but in any case remember that 7 to 1 is a pretty good exchange rate. although there are a lot of things about getting a package that just make you all smiley inside. that sounded kinda special. Amanda you're a horrible influence on me. I'm cant believe i said smiley inside......next thing you know i wont know the difference between mayo and mayonnaise. jk love.

but ya anyways. this week was good we are getting better and better each week. it's actually kinda funny in the three weeks i have here the assistance in the ward has gone up 40 people each week. the first Sunday there we 87 the second 136 and this week 183. not bad to be honest but i don't think i'll be able to keep that going. we'll see.

the area that we have is huge. there are about 500 member registered but obviously most are inactive. so since the area is so big it used to be divided in two branches. but they combined them and now we get to work in both. but one is four times bigger than the other but with less actives. so we are basically gonna divide our days in two parts. almost every morning we'll be working in palmira...which is the huge part of our area with a million inactives.... and in the afternoons in fortaleza which is the part that we'll get almost all of our baptisms and investigators. we think it makes the most sense that way.

the members here are great and are helping us a lot. i don't know why but it seems like the area is famous for the members here...but not in a good way. all the missionaries give us warnings about the members talking bad about the missionaries and what not. a bunch of Bologna if you ask me. i just tell them that when you love them they love you back. and thats the plan. the members here seem great. they haven't talked bad or said anything bout us and we are working really hard to get their support and trust and just plain out get them working.

no people don't steal the cows. they basically just spend all day eating and wlaing around like what I'm gonna do when I'm 65 years old. sorry Amanda....but you can walk with me. but ya i don't think anyone eats them either although there are some crazy homeless people that might try to cook them every once in a while. in any case the food here is good. a lot of good meat and unlike in peru not everything has rice and chicken. there is more variety here in bolivia. the food isn't better but its not bad.

so what else. i don't think there were any other questions and ya. i'll try to start writing more about the lessons and people that we're teaching. we have a decent amount of investigators...not enough for the office apparently but enough. in september we hope to have somewhere around 4 baptisms. i'll let ya know next week exactly who and how they are progressing.

ok y'all talk to you later.