Dec. 30, 2013

Thank you so much for your email.  It was really nice to talk to you on christmas and it was uplifting at the same time.  For my first call I think i did a pretty good controlling my homesickness.  I just got a little sad talking with ardie...man i miss that kid and his annoyingness at times.  I still think it is weird that I havent seen him for almost three years :)  I think it is funny that mindy is having a hard time with him and his sarcasm... welsome to the life of kirsten :). That is cool that mindy will visit DC with her roommates (that should be nice to see all of them)  When I visited Mindy in DC that was really fun and I will always remember that trip for the rest of my life and our family california trips (those were really fun.) i still think my heart is in San Fran.  I really like that scripture dad, it is one of my favorites..all we can do is grow in the light of christ day by day and then one day we will arrive to the Perfect day..it realy is quite the promise.  We really do have a lot to smile about and if we only knew what was to come we wouldnt be able to control our excitement.  I think it was stan johnson (the best BOM teacher at BYU) that quoted an apostle and he said something along the lines "if we knew the blessings that are waiting in the heavens for us we wouldnt be able to sleep at night because of the anticipation".  I just hope that one day, little by little, we will be worthy to recieve all of these blessings.  I really do love this gospel and I dont know what I did in the pre-life to have this gospel, to have my family, and to have all of my blessings...we really are soooo blessed.  I feel really blessed to have the heritage that I have.  Sometimes I get a little bit down and I think "wow this is rough, not physically but mentally spiritually and just a lot of responsibility" but then I remember the words of  President Hinckley and I remember Omi, and I remember Jens Nielsen and all of those trials that our family had to endure for the truth and I get a new energy.  We really do have believing blood and I feel blessed to have a heritage so great in the gospel.  

I think it is super crazy that lindsay will have three little boys (that is amazing and will probaby be really hard for her.  They make really cute boys so I am excited to meet him when I get back and am excited to meet little lon (blue eyed baby)  All boys and carolyn sure is different then our family.  Oh and Ardie I am sure that with you going to aubreys wedding it just made her that much sure that her decision is right haha.  And Poor justin haha Oh yeah I remember Billy Fox (he was a good kid) Mom, korean dramas are so popular here it is funny.  Yesterday my comp and I were on our way to the mission liders house and it started raining like crazy (rainy season :( but we got to his door just in time before it got really bad :) and his little three year old was watching Lie to me.  I will admit I really anted to watch it.  But then we waited for the rain to stop and then went to visit our people.  

We are planning baptisms for this saturdaut and we have a lot of support from our bishop pric. But I am worried because I think our converts are having doubts.  They know it true but I think they are angry with us because we couldt take all of them to the activity the other day because there mom need hep washing cothes and so they were a little upset with us (it is confusing and weird) teaching younger peole is always a little hard because you really do need to create a relationship with them first.  I posted pictures from the activity.  We made fruit cake at a members house.  The other pictures of the little boys are younger symbling of the family we are teaching. 

Another hard thing this week is three of my old converts are working in the fields.  They left there daughter at home to look at for the chickens and hens and I had been knocking on the door to see how she has been doing this transfer (she was less active and after she came back to the church with her family and then we baptized her famiily but I havent been seeing her at church since her family left) I was worried but every time we knocked her door no answer and everytime we called her no answer) the other day she came out (she is about 21 yrs old) when we knocked her door.  I asked how she was and said we would visit her on christmas.  Well we visited her the day after christmas and she was drunk and told me everything about her life and all the problems (she was pregnant but then lost her baby and then was beat by her dad when she was younger and then he left and she doesnt want to tell anyone...so as for right now I am the only one who knows) and all of this happened within the last two months :( when she wasnt answering the door.  She has shame and doent want to tell anyone and now she is drinking.  Just super sad.  I was really ticked that she was drinking and drunk because she totally knows better.  ANyways I just dont know what to do about that whole situation. I am the only one she has confidence in..so it is overwhelming. I tried yesterday to visit her with hno lopez to try and get someone else in there who can help her but no answer.  I am telling you the things that keep me awake at night are things that I never thought would ever be on my mind. I feel a super weird feeling when they tell me all of there problems ( I dont quite know how to describe it)  I am learning wisdom beyond my years but I have a feeling after my mission I will not be able to handle the situations that I am handling now with everyone.  I am grateful that heavenly father is helping me.  And am a little sad that I nw understand almost all of the spanish because now I have more responsibility.

Dec. 16, 2013

Hey Family!!! 

This week has been good! About the whole christmas thing..I dont know exactly how it will work.  I know we can use skype and that would probably be better than just calling home because it is a fortune to call home..and I think skype is free.  I think some of the computers have skype but I dont know how reliable it is but I will ask the other north american missionaries how they have done it in the past.  But right now I will plan on calling dads phone if that is okay probably sometime in the morning or afternoon and then after we can see if we can get skype working.  We dont have christmas plans so I cant say a time and then we can see if we can get skype working on one of mindy or ardies laptops.  Also I dont think the IPAD would work because I would need an apple product and I dont think apple exists here :)  So possibly in the your next email send me mindy and ardies skype names.  But I will tell you more in the next email.  

If I am not able to call you..dont worry.  In some ways I dont want to call because I am still really homesick but I would probably regret it if I didnt at least try :)  I told our district leader that I didnt really wont to call home because I have really been missing home this last month and he said that all missionaries need to try calling their families. I think i have only been missing home more this month because their are a lot of missionairies leaving for their homes during this time of year..and I think about the future to much. But dont worry I am not crying just a little depressed :( Bolivia is a crazy place and sometimes I just crave to be in a america for thirty minutes with clean air, water, safe people, safe food. but I am glad I can share the message to this people they need it. 

In other news at the beginning of this week we had a christmas devotional with president and his wife.  We listened to there talks and then president thought it would be fun to have a push up contest and so all those missionares lined up and did push ups..president did about 60.  He is so fit..I could telll sister dyer had stars in her eyes watching him do push ups with all the elders...it was funny.  And after we had mashed potatoes and turckey.  Our little christmas celebration.  I havent seen a christmas tree still.  I am in the poorest part of cochabamba and so the people really dont celebrate christmas.In some ways it is nice because then i dont think about home or christmas.  I havent even heard a christmas song and we havent really sang christmas songs in church or have had an activity So Bolivia doesnt have christmas tradition at least that I know of

  I think you all think I am in a rural part of bolivia but i am really not.  I am just in a really poor part of a city (probably like mexico city-I heard people compare parts of bolivia to that.  Which has its own set of challenges because it is a lot more dangerous) I have had a couple close calls but quick thinking and quick walking really helps.  I havent gotten robbed yet which is pretty cool  

But I am healthy.  Since I am in a bad part it is pretty much a miracle that I am healthy.  My district leader said that if I can stay healthy here I will probably be able to stay healthy my whole mission which is sweet.  

Our zone is number two in the mission for most baptisms! The Number one zone is in tupiza for argentina (the bottom part of the missino) it made me feel good when president recognized us.  We had 14 baptisms in our zone the month back and I was a little prideful and it felt good knowing that four of those were mine haha  

Investigator time!!! 

Okay two of our investigators who have a baptismal fecha for the end of this month it looks like it is going to fall because elena still hasnt gotten permission from her grandma to be married to miguel and miguel doesnt want to go talk to the grandma be3cause of his past.  Our missino leader is his dad (a convert) and he told us that miguel used to get drunk and hit elena and the grandmother knew about that and has really hard feelings against him but now that elena is pregrnant we think that the grandmother will loosen up.  I think that miguel is changing but then hermano lopez told us the other day that when elena was in the hospital miguel wasnt bringing the money in from his work and he has been lying about what he has been spending it on.  So tomorrow when we teach them we are going to have an intervention...if miguel doesnt man up and talk to the grandmother and marry elena we are going to have to talk to hermano lopez about dropping him and not benig able to teach him because he doesnt have a strong enough desire to be baptized in order to make the changes necessary.  

Our other baptismal fechs are recent.  THIS FAMILY IS GOLD.  we found them knocking door.  We have been asked to not knock on doors but instead to work through the less actives in order to find  new people to teach but me and my companion were passing by and just thought we wouild knock the doors before we went to lunch.  We we knocked therir doors and our teaching theree of the kids 10 yrs old, 13 yrs old, and 15 yrs old.  They are so ready for the gospel it is amazing.  People like them make the mission worth it.  They cam to church the other day and then came to the activity last night for the young women.  The other day we showed them ther restauration video and rapheal the 10 yr old started crying and said that he felt sad and happy at the same time.  He is a great kid  The most spiritual kid that I have ever met and is way beyond his years.  I started crying our second lesson with them because I imagined Raphael as a a missionary. Everytime I testify I feel inside of me a burning and then I almost feel a little weak because of how much I know that it is true.  I know it is true with all my heart.  I didnt realize how much I didnt have the burning until I came on the mission and and now I have the burning. There are feelings that you feel here, things that you learn here, that you really cant learn any other place.  I am so blessed to be serving a mission. Also The daughter Wara, she has 15 yrs and she asked us how she can prepare to go on a mission.  The only problem with their whole situatino is that the parents are always busy (washing clothes or going to the market) and havent had time to talk to us but they are always respectful when we come and offer us something to drink.  But we need to teach them also and I am nervous for that. They are always in my prayers and I really hope that they will continue with their desire to be baptized I feel such a strong love for them. 

Also one of my converts ( a little black boy) I will need to send you a picture of him next week I forgot my camera but anyways we forgot to pick him up for church) and we felt so horrible after an so we went back and apologized and he said.  You forgot to pick me up because I am the only black boy uh?? it was so funny we both just started laughing.  And so we said as mends we would take him to part in our area with swings and would buy ice cream for him (he was like yeah sure) so tomorrow... rapheal, wara and carla and piero (the black boy will go to the park with us haha) 

I have been a little strwessed this last couple weeks because I have had to show my comp the area we are both equal companions no one over the other which is kind of stressful because a lot of people in the ward will call me and other missionaries will call me and it is still really hard to talk spanish.  Or they will describe where their house is and it is still really hard to search through my area. Our area is the third biggest area in all of the mission :)  We dont have adresses in my area just descriptinos for the houses  (for example- a referance I recieved from another missionary-three blocks down from petrolera (a street name) with a green door, there is a tree in the backyard and it is the only house with a big rock in front) and there you have it and now we need to go find it :)  I was joking the other day about how they will start saying it is the only house that has a black dog  infront of it...and then we asked a lady where her house was and she said a gray dog was usually in front of it.  Hahaha it is frustrating and funny at the same time  (mainly frustrating) My comp is from la paz and has her visa for venezula so she might leave at the end of the transfer or before...we will see.  She is convert of four years.  She is hard working and is obediente so I really cant complain.  she has a hard time teaching she doents know the lessons so I have been trying to help her.  It is hard because a lot of times she will say and now we will share a scripture and just look at me and I need to pull out a scripture from my head haha (it is a learning and growing process) 

I love this gospel and I know that is is true with all my heart.  I love this people and I feel blessed to be here through the hard and good times.  The work is hastening.  We really cant keep this message to ourselves.  I feel my desires changing. The thinngs that are important in life...what I thought was important before my mission really isnt.  The lord, other people and family are the most important things nothing else.  When I am infront of god in the final day I want to be right with myself and be able to say that I did my best to devote tmyself to the lord.  Testify of this work, it is the only way to get the burning so just testify..nothing else. the other day i was worried I  thought "wow I have almost five months and I dont know if I have learned enough or helped others enough in these five monnths" (it scares me that I only have thirteen months) I pray everyday that I am becoming the servant of the lord that he needs me to be and that I am helping his childeren with all of my heart. might , mind and strength.  We dont have much time in this life and we will never have enough time in this life to be worthy to live in the celestial kingdom in the rest of god, yet we are able to because of his atonement.  So dont let the atonement of god go to waste.  Work.  Learn.  And testify so that one day we wont have the guilt when we are infront of god that we could have done more.  

I dont feel worthy to share such a grand message of this gospel but I know that the lord will qualify who he calls and he is qualifying me little by little. 

Love you all so much.  Give those little boys kisses for me! 

Kirs