End of January, 2011

Hello again!!!

Wow, this past week went super fast!

Ok, so this week we were supposed to have 3 baptisms.... and it was too good to be true. On Thursday, when they were all supposed to be baptized, two of them didn´t show up for their interviews. The weird thing is, the one who did show up for his interview was the one we least expected. And his mom was supposed to be interviewed too, but she never showed. Next, on Friday, we had a ward Missionary night, and that mom was supposed to come for her interview then, but....she showed up 20 minutes after our district leader( who´s supposed to interview her) left. So we wanted to try again on Saturday, but when we went to go pick her up from her house, no body was home(we could tell because their front door was padlocked shut). So we had a disappointing weekend. And with the lady´s son, he decided to go to a

pueblo(village) to go visit his aunt, so he wasn´t there all weekend.

He´s actually supposed to come home today because school is supposed to start tomorrow. And with the third person we were supposed to baptize, her dad had to leave for the weekend for work, so we had to move everything for this upcoming weekend.

Otherwise, we are working really hard. We definitely need to find more investigators. We have some very good one though that are progressing, with the exception that they don´t really have asistencias(church attendance). Also, the English classes are going well(I´m teaching English if you didn´t know...at least Elder North and I are), and we´re hoping that this week the attendance goes higher.

I´m sorry that this letter is so short, but our baptisms(that never

happened) are all that really happened this week.

Oh yeah, and we´ve had our first water balloon thrown at us. It barely missed my companion. He says that these are the signs of Carnaval. So, it should be an exciting time.

Also, we had a real breakfast this morning. I attached pics of it, along with the pics from my baptism last week.

Mom- I hope you had an awesome birthday, and hope all is well with Commgap.

Dad- That sucks about the audition, but you should totally keep trying. You´ll get there sometime!

Aly- I´m super sad that you were sick on your birthday, but I´m glad you got better. Have an awesome week!

Emi(¡Meemerz!)- That´s funny about your gym class. Hope hula is fun, and have a great week!

That´s all for now! I love you all!

Christian(Elder Craig)

Week 2 in Bolivia

Hello beloved family and friends!!!!!!!

Wow, another week has just flown by! I can`t believe it.

So, this week.....we were busy busy busy, which is good. We taught around 35 lessons this week, and I`m praying that these numbers stay consistent. But, I know that they always won`t be this good, but it`s nice to have these nuimbers anyways.

So, no baptisms this week, but we have two for sures this Saturday!!!

I`m super excited for them! It`s a mom and her daughter that have been taking the lessons for about a month and a half, and they are becoming super strong members of the Church! It´s been so awesome from what little time I`ve had with them to see them change even more! And now, we`ve just started teaching this hermana`s youngest son, who wants to find out for himself whether this message is true or not.

Another new investigator that we have is super awesome as well.  His parents are members, and he`s been going to church with them and believes that the Church is true, but he needs to be taught the lessons before he can be baptized. So that`s looking really up. So excited.

We`re also teaching the youngest daughter of a recently converted family, and  she´s getting baptized next weekend, so that´s awesome!!!!!

Another investigator that we started this week is just totally eating the  gospel up!!!!! Her only desafio( I forgot the english word) is that her husband doesn`t believe that God`s church truly exists.... I hope to change that . :)

And ANOTHER investigator is also getting baptized,  along with her fifteen year old son(Hopefully), next Saturday!!!1

Sooooo much work, but I´m loving it! Hopefully sometime this month, we´ll go and see the Christus statue that´s  towering over the city.

Don´t worry all, I´m being fed really well....like too well. I´m afraid I´m going to get fat. I can see why Allen loved the Bolivian food so much. Plus, we talked to our landlord, and we have running water, somewhat. We can take showers( hot showers!!!!! Love them!!!!), but the toilets still don`t flush too well, so we still use buckets.

But, all is well.

Mom- I´m alive and well. Hope you had an awesome anniversary!

Dad- Hope the powder`s still got you rockin`.  It`s been about 85 degrees here...which is super hot.

Aly- Hope you´re having fun in school! Study hard this week!

Emi- It´s about time!!!!!! i´m glad to hear you´re doing well(except for the physical therapy.... that sucks.). I want to know how peering is going! Good luck with finals as well!

Abuelita y Grandpa- Gracias para sus cartas. Estoy alegro que todo es bien con ustedes. Espero que tengan una semana fantastica!

Grandma Allen- I´m glad life is going well. I´m also glad that your dad is still going strong. He´s such an example!

Well, until next week!

Luv you all!!!

Christian

He's in Bolivia!

Hello family!!!!!!!!!(And beloved friends)

It feels like forever since I was able to write to you!!!! I haven´t had a P-day in about 11 days, so that´s probably why.

So, New Years was just another normal day at the CCM. That night, though, was crazy! Sooooo many fireworks. When we got outside the next morning, the air was so thick with smoke that it was literally blocking the sun!

I left the CCM on the 4th last week. I was up at 5:30 that morning and we left at about 6. Our flight didn´t leave Peru until about 10:00 that morning, though. We flew from Lima, Peru to first to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Man, that airport looks like Number 2 in Salt Lake( Parentals, you´ll understand what that means.). We were there for about 3 hours. Then we left for Cochabamba at about 7pm. We got to Cochabamba at about 8pm. We met out mission president, President Tenorio, who´s from Mexico. He´s awesome. We then ate Bolivian pizza for dinner, which is like ham and corn(weird, huh?). Then we stayed the night at a hotel because there wasn´t enough room at the mission home for us. The next day we spent the morning doing boring stuff like paper work..blah blah blah. Then after an awesome lunch and orientation, we went to a session at the Cochabamba Temple, which is right in front of the mission home. Then, that night, my companion picked me up, and I went to my apartment.

My apartment is on the fifth floor of a building, way way up. We live with two other missionaries, Elders Mendoza and North(Elder North and I have been together since Provo.). I share a room with my comp, Elder Atencia. He´s from Colombia, short, and very good spirited. He´s been in the field for six months. Now, back to my apartment. There´s only one problem with it....since we are at the top floor, that means that the water has to work really hard to make it up to us. That means that we don´t have a lot of water....we collect it in large blue containers and empty two liters. We mainly use it to bathe every day....yeah. Fun stuff.

My area is called Petrolero. It is a poor part of town, but the people are awesome. Very friendly and accepting. There are little tiendas every where that you look. It is on a small mountain(or a really large hill), so we have to walk up really steep hills, a lot. Our investigators are awesome! We have three baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, and two more next week, and more after that. It is soo exciting to see the Lord´s work progressing!

Yes, I am happy and healthy. I have two square meals a day(We don´t really have breakfast), and I´m drinking whatever liquids that our investigators give me, and what ever water I can get.

Mom- I arrived safely. Sorry that I couldn´t write sooner....this was my first chance.

Dad- Hope you´re doing well. I know that you´re loving the snow. Hope the job search is going well.

Aly- No dirt roads yet...just really dirty ones. Yes, I´ve seen donkeys, just yesterday, actually, but not pulling cars. Lots of taxis everywhere.

Emi- Hope you are doing well. YOU NEED TO WRITE ME!!!! I want to know what´s going on.

Well, until next week

Love you all!!!

Christian

P.S.  Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad(This Saturday!)