Wow, what a first week in Bolivia

ok, so what's up everybody from Bolivia for the first time...

wow. it's kinda weird that I'm actually here. so lets' start from the beginning i guess

got here on Tuesday but stayed in a hotel for two nights. during those two days we got to meet the president. president maynes who is really cool and a nice guy. ooober oober strict but that's the best type of president i think you can have. even though i think some rules are way too extreme....I'm starting a new mission this week and so I'm gonna try my best to be 100 percent obedient. which in this mission will be really hard actually.

so then on thursday we got to our area. i'm in the sixth ring of santa cruz. inside the city but on the outskirts. in fact my area actually runs to the limit of the city. my area is called fortaleza and it's fairly big. like i said it doesn't have a limit on one of the four sides. my comp is elder titto. he's a peruvian but from cusco. he has four and a half months in the mission and is a great elder. we get along great which is gonna help us a lot. in our area the missionaries were taken out a year ago. they went nine months without any missionaries and then three months ago two missionaries came to open it. now me and elder titto are taking their place...we are both new to the area and the missionaries who left didn't leave any investigators for us, outside of one young kid who's gonna be baptized this saturday. that's nice but outside of him literally there is even the area book to work with. it's kinda sad but we'll see.

so the thing about santa cruz is that it's very unorganized. there are very little street names and the houses don't have numbers. so it makes finding anything almost impossible unless you know the area. so me and titto have been walking around just looking and struggling to find any member and then asking the direction of other members and references. it's gonna be hard but we are starting to get to know the area really good in such a short time. we're confident you could say.

so this sunday was interesting. the ward had us share our testimonies and elder titto is apparently ...how do they say it...stage fright or shock or something like that.. .he doesn't like to be in front of a lot of people and talk. so that was fun...mine was a little more normal and trying to animate them to work with us. well, the member seem to be chill. they gave us a bunch of references and their directions by drawing a little map and so we should have a lot more to do this week, so we're even more excited.

now about bolivia. the mission here is ooober strict, like a said. the rule that i hate the most and will have to put everything i can to obey is that we can't receive letters from anyone who is not our parents, brothers and sister. basically if they're not direct family we can't read them. and we still can't write to anyone outside of those same people. in all honesty i don't know why they do that. i understand not being able to write them but not even being able to read messages from friends seem a little too much for me...but we'll see what we do. maybe y'all can send me a letter by emailing it to my ma first and then she forwards it to me but i don't exactly know. but if you send it directly to me i can't open it or read it. something ridiculous like that. but it's a rule and I'm gonna try to obey it even though i don't understand it.

now about the cool Bolivian weather. so, for those who don't know, santa cruz is like a jungle. it's very green with a lot of trees and bugs and animals in every frikin part of the city. kinda weird to be walking down the street and there is a herd of cows, on the next street a herd of chicken...then horses... then sheep... then frikin bambis...or something like that. it's just kinda funny. I'm gonna try to take fotos and send them but i don't know exactly when. santa cruz is kinda dangerous too. not like too dangerous but there are not too many lights at night so it's easy to get robbed if you're not careful. and like all jungles the weather is just strange. when we got here it was humid and hot. i was sweating like a person from Arizona. but then Friday and Saturday it got really cold. like ridiculously cold. it's windy and they say it will be for about two months more....fun fun. and the best part is when it rains it doesn't sprinkle like in Lima...we're talking like monsoon frikin type rain. you go one minute and you're drenched. it's horrible...but fun. i love the rain and the best part is that i got to use that giant trench coat thing that we got. the first time. I'm gonna have to buy boots though. o ya so the entire thing is mud and mud and wind and sweat and cold all at the same time. it's crazy. that's how you can describe the weather.

so ma, when i was in the airport i had to pay for the suitcases which was a ridiculous 214 dollar but the office is supposedly gonna give us that money back. if you noticed that's why it disappeared. i don't even think it'll be possible to use 214 dollars in Bolivia in a year. but ya I'll let you know how all that goes. but ya so when i need something it'll be a million times cheaper to buy it here then to have you send it so i will never ask for any packages or anything like that. if you wanna send something, send money....and even then remember that 20 dollars is 140 bolivianos here and a lot of money. so ya.

let's see don't know too much about the rules, the things are very different here than in Peru. so we'll see how all this goes. I'm still trying to get used to the schedule and things like that.

o on a random note, this Friday was my comp's birthday. so i bought him a cake and we had a very mini party type thing. with cake and dinner and some good old fashioned Disney music. it was kinda weird but i got some cool fotos and I'll send those out to y'all.

OK so i don't know what else to write...I'm excited to be here. it'll be fun. the people seem really chill and me and my comp are gonna work like crazy people to have some success in our area here.

ya so that's about that. bye

I just love general conference

hey everyone

i just love general conference. what a cool opportunity to hear the prophet and apostles talk. and what powerful messages they gave this year. just made me shiver like a peruvian bum sleeping on the floor in ayacucho.

so ya i loved the general conference but unfortunately we only had two investigators go to it. the thing is that the stake center is so far away from my area that it's hard for our people to go. it costs a lot of money and time. but we tried to get them there, didn't really work. but they are great people. we are teaching some families. some big ones. hopefully we can help them out and they can get baptised. that would be great, to have another family united in the gospel.

this week in my consilio or district reunion I'm making cookies. my lesson will be something about if we follow the recipe God gives us in "preach my gospel", as missionaries we will feast on the rewards which are sweet to our taste. something like that. just a smart way of making and eating cookies if u ask me. but it'll work.

Peru is finally starting to cool down again. still some days are horribly hot but it's getting better. i just think about how lucky i am to have gotten the hill part of san juan for the summer. lucky me but its helped me a lot. stay in shape and not get to fat. cause I've been eating a lot of junk food. every weekend we're supposed to eat with the members but our bishop hasn't done the list so we've been eating out four times a week. kinda funny actually. but he'll have a list this week and it's back to members. which helps a lot. also my mom number three or my pench here just makes food that we like. she hasn't made fish since i got here and gives us a ton. she's really i think one of the best penches in the mission. but i'd be fat because of it if it weren't for the hills. so I'm ok. I'm even excersising. and i forgot how to spell excercise in english.... how do u spell it.... that's just bugging me but whatever. so ya doing push ups and jump rope for like 30 min a day. i try everyday but i don't cause i get lazy.

ya, so were doing good. cambios is this week and everyone in our zone is scared. nobody knows who might be going. most in the zone have only 3 months here or less so it'll be interesting. and ya i'll let y'all know as soon as i know.

o ya about Bolivia. i hear that they will start by sending five missionaries from every mission there. don't know who or when. but they say that five from north and central have already gone back. the info comes from a good source. it's from a hna who works in the ccm. she was in charge of the visas and travel info for all the missions here in lima. so she sorta knows i would assume. so I'm sorta scared but not really. i would love to go to Bolivia and be in my mission. what i wouldn't like are the bugs, humidity, heat, food and other stuff like that. which i would get used to anyways so I'm cool. really,,, i just wanna know if I'm going or staying. i wish they would just say. go or stay and i'll be happy either way. but what can u do.

Bryce I'm so stoked ur gonna have ur farewell this week.. that's great buddy. I've sent some letters to u, but they're in a card to mom. so ask her. u'll be a great missionary i have no doubt. and the best part is that i'll get to see u probably when i finish my mission. so that'll be cool. well I'm looking forward to it.

ok everyone. time is probably close so I'm gonna let y'all. go.. .. thanks for everything u all do. for ur prayers and faith and everything. i miss u all but I'm doing good and I'm happy here. I'm doing good work and i can't come down. my new sorta pep phrase for my district. we are doing good work and we cannot come down. so ya. talk to ya next week

Thanksgiving in Lima

what's up y'all. so this week was all good and fun and all. we were working real hard to get some people with fecha ready for their baptism. so this week we have two people who are gonna get baptized this saturday. linda brahmon and isabel carmen and both are really cool. linda is a girl 11 years old daughter of a menos activo and isabel is someone who contacted us, about her grandson eloy. eloy is our best investigator tho. he understands everything and is changing his life like crazy. he was into drugs and all sorts or other good stuff like that. but its been two weeks since hes gone there and is reading the boook of mormon and went to church. so were excited. we are gonna put his fecha for the end of december if all goes good.

and ya tomorrow we have interviews with the president again. so ill talk to him and explain the problem wtih the foot and knee and well see if anything happens. if not i don't really care too much its not that bad and it wont kill me, or send me home.

i was wondering wen the 6th harry potter movie comes out somebody let me know. not that i can see it just wanna know if ill be back b4 the seventh one gets out.

on that note, i thought that this thursday was thanksgiving but apparently not. everyone was telling me today is ur country´s dia de gracias but they lied. i guess its this thursday. so have fun enjoying it cause that's the second holiday they don't celebrate in Peru. but don't really one of my favorites anyways

but since i got the request here are some things I'm grateful for

1- I'm grateful to be in peru cause that just cool to be able to say I'm in peru
2- I'm grateful for my family and friends obviously
3- I'm grateful for the church
4- I'm grateful for the catholics that yell at us wen we walk through their idol parades (they are really fanatics here in surco)
5- I'm grateful for the Jehovah's witnesses that visit us every Saturday morning
6- I'm grateful for smiles of little kids and just how cool all of them are
7- I'm grateful for food
8- I'm grateful for America and i hope u know how lucky u all are to be there (but its cool to visit the other places in the world)
9- I'm grateful that i have at least 8 things to be grateful for.
10- I'm grateful for all the emails and letters u all give me
11- I'm grateful for the investigators that we have
12- I'm grateful for change because through change we can exercise our agency to get better or worse (hopefully better)

so ya there is some things that I'm grateful for. there are a lot more, but the time thing ya know.

so this Sunday i gave a talk. basically spent all my time explaining the difference between member missionaries and us missionaries. the members all said that my spanish was really good. but it was hot and i was sweating. so it was kinda funny. like nervousness and hotness mix made for a sweaty elder. kinda sucked cause i hate sweat, like with a passion. but what can u do. they got the message and we are starting a new plan to involve the members in the work. cause if they don't get in the work the work will get really slow. so we are working with them a lot more now. o and something kinda funny was that they counselor gave me a paper saying my time was up. i used up all the time. i was excited. i don't know y but that's what happens when ur a missionary.

so that's all thanks everybody for all ur help and have a chill thanksgiving with turkey and other good stuff.