Don't use Bolivian Internet!!!! (July 23)

Hey everyone!

I hope y'all had a good week this past week!

So something really really cool happened this week. This week I had leadership training for all of the Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Trainers in Sucre and Potosi. And I had to give a class.....again. This time I was with Elder Salmon (an Elder from Alabama) and we were assigned to talk about working with the local Priesthood leaders. So, Elder Salmon and I felt inspired to talk about working with the leaders through the ward mission plan(a plan that helps the missionary work of the ward move forward through collaboration between the missionaries and the ward). And one cool thing was that when we were teaching the class, President Dyer (the mission president) stood up and said " I hope you all are paying attention here, because this is really important!". So, the conference ended and we went our ways, and then we had District and Zone meetings on Friday, and the Zone leaders told all of us that President Dyer had spoken to the Stake President of Sucre and that the Stake President in turn was going to talk to all of the bishoprics of the wards in Sucre about starting and having an active ward mission plan. So, yesterday we had a meeting with the ward council and started putting together ideas so that we can help the Bishop write a good ward mission plan so that we can truly help this ward grow. This is a huge change for me on how I've worked in my mission, but I have a good feeling about it.

Also we've been doing a lot of street contacts lately. It's honestly kind of nerve racking to just approach people like that, but it's been giving good results. It gives us a bunch of more people that we are talking to, and we are finding more news this way. A good thing about my area is that it's urban, and not commercial, so that people that we contact are the people that usually live around there. We also found a young man named Luis who looks to have a lot of potential as an investigator. We taught him the message of the Restoration and he is super excited to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it's true.

Elder Ruiz is doing really well as a missionary. He learns really quickly, and I am enjoying working with him!

I hope you all have a good week!

Dad- House shopping does not sound fun. At all. But I know it's necessary. Like off-season for skiing and boarding, but what can we do? I hope you have a great week!

Mom- I hope you have a great week!

Aly- Yes, prayers do work! I hope you enjoy your new house!

Emi-Hope you have a great week!!!

Until next week, y'all!

-- 

AEA

Elder Craig

Wadda week!

¡Hello Family and friendssss!

This was a good week for us here in Santo Domingo!

So, this week I started off sick. I got chills and a fever and diarrhea(yup, being honest here) and I was just all nasty and what not. It was really a rough way for us to start the week, and I was kinda down a bit to be honest to have the week start like that. Oh, but during the day before, we went as a zone to go play paintball. Yup we shot high flying paint balls at each other. Yes, I did shoot people, and I got shot in two of the places that you never want to get shot while playing paintball............the head and the hand(what were y'all thinking....hahaha!). I actually got shot twice in the head- Once in the face(don't worry I was wearing a mask, so I didn't feel a thing) and the other time in the side of the head(I got a welt- can't see it but I can feel it.) And the shot I got to the hand(my left pointer finger) made me bleed blood. That hurt like crazy, but all in all it was an adrenaline rush! I honestly would love to do it again. But, then I got sick.

And I had to do more of my responsablilities as DL. I had to pay rent and pension (food). That means that I had to carry around more than $1000 in Bolivianos (around 8000bs) to go pay stuff. To be honest, I did not feel safe carrying around all of that money, especially since the ATM's closest was in the middle of a busy market. I used a kangaroo pouch so that the money was against my body and not in my pocket. And I was able to pay everything without a problem.

This week we had an activity in the ward called a "Zapato Misional"(Meaning Mission Shoe). All four of us from the ward split up with one priesthood holder and a group and we went to go visit less active members. It was super cool. With my group we found one member who was having lots of problems and the ward mission leader and I were able to give him a blessing. And it was just a great experience in general.

Unfortunately this week three of our baptismal dates fell through- Of Jesus, Dorian, and Carla. My companion and I weren't able to find them this week, and a bunch of college celebrations happened this week, so we're a bit worried about them. But we had a bunch of investigators come to church on their own this week, which just made this whole week better!

Dad- Yes, busy is good. where are you looking for houses? Have a great week!

Momma- A new bishop that I still don't know, huh? That's cool. And I didn't even know that Ryan was dating anyone. Congrats Pancho! Have a great week!

Aly- Yeah, heart disease is a problem in our fam, no? Just be healthy and you'll be fine. Could you send me Kalina's email. I'd like to send her a email to encourage her. She'll definately be in my prayers. Freaky when that happens to a friend. Have a good week.

Meemerz- Hey, congrats on being an almost normal teenager! That means we'll have the same driving level when I get home, hahaha! Work hard this week!

That's all for now!

-- 

AEA

Elder Craig

A busy week!

Hey everyone!

Ok, so I'm pretty sure that I've used that title before on my emails, but whatever. This was a good busy week for me here in Santo Domingo.

So, my companion and I are haveing some good times here. We have three college kids that are listening to us right now, named Jesus, Carla, and Dorian. They all live together(Jesus and Carla are siblings) and are all listening to the Restored Gospel, and they are amazing! They are accepting all of the commitments that we've given them, and they also came to church with us yesterday! Things are looking well with them, so we're really excited. We were also able to go and find the parents of two kids that we're teaching. These kids are really good and are also loving going to church. We've been looking for their parents for a while, and so when we found them, we were super excited! The problem is that the dad works in a mine 12 hours away, so he's almost never home. And his wife always is traveling with him, so she's never home either. But we were able to teach the both of them, and they are willing to listen to us when they are home.

I also had my first baptismal interview this week! To be honest, I was pretty nervous, but things went well. It was for one of the companionships in my district, the elders from Delicias 1. It was an 18 year old kid who is now the only member of the church in his family. He had a very strong testimony, and the interview was a very spiritual experience for me.

I also had to do my first interview as a district leader. I did it also with one of the elders from Delicias 1. It was with Elder Salmon, an elder from Alabama. He's a really cool elder that I've known for a while, and we did lots of work together. It was fun to go and work with him because he's a really good missionary, and he knows the scriptures really well, so he's able to help his investigators really well through the scriptures. It helped me learn even more about how important it is to know the scriptures well. That's something that has been a struggle for me throughout my mission, and I'm still working hard to over come that weakness of mine.

I hope that everyone has an amazing week, and I wanna hear from all y'all for next week, yeah? :)

Dad- Thanks for your advice, Dad! I hope you have an amazing week!

Mom- Including me and my companion, I have 8 missionaries in my district. I hope you have a good trip to Boise!

Aly- Don't stress! It'll be a great week! Just relax and enjoy it! Have a good week!

Stinky- Happy summer break! Enjoy it and work hard at your job!

  

Until the next time...... ROCK ON! XD

AEA

Elder Craig

First Week as a District Leader!

¡Hello family and friends and such!

 

I hope that everyone had a good week!

This was a looooooooong week for me. Weeks of changes honestly blow. I was thrown around like a rag doll on Wednesday because there was horrible communication from the secretaries to the zone leaders. So, I literally did nothing all day that day until they finally told me that I was just going to stay the night at their house. Thursday was a madhouse for me as soon as I got the the airport. Two of the Elders in my district are training new missionaries this transfer, so they had to go to Cochabamba to pick up their "kids". Well, the secretary who is in charge of buying the plane tickets somehow forgot to put the two trainers in my district on the flight to Sucre with the rest of us. Soooo, I was on the phone with my zone leaders in Sucre figuring how to deal with two newbies who didn't know their areas. Luckily, because that same secretary forgot to buy other elders in Sucre their plane tickets to Tarija, we were able to work out how to get the new kids to their house in Sucre.

 

My area is called Santo Domingo 1. It's part of a ward that just got upgraded from a branch literally a month ago. I went from my area in Punata, which was completely flat, to a city that is literally built on hills and has absolutely no flat areas. My legs honestly hurt a little. But my area is full of dirt roads and cholitas, just like my past three areas, so not a lot of things have changed. Looks like my little knowledge of the language Quechua will still be useful out here. My area is really thin, but we also have some outlying neighborhoods that we work in as well.

 

Well, for those of you who want to know, my responsibilities are the following:

1. Do exchanges with ALL of the missionaries in my district.
2. Pay for the pensions(our cooks) and for the rent.
3. Do all of the baptismal interviews.
4. Take care of the health of the missionaries in my district. 
5. Teach a class once a week to my district.
6. Take responsibility for emergencies that happen.
7. Report the weekly numbers of my district.

That's all. Plus I have to work normally, so once in a while I will have no time for anything at all.

 

Dad- Air show sounds awesome. Sorry it got rained out. I'll go with you next year, and we'll chill all day! have a good week at work. I'm sorry about your friend passing away.

 

Mom- I traveled by plane, not by bus, so I was pretty safe, don't worry. ;) Have a good week!

 

ALy-Have fun with SOAR this week! Have fun and it'll be less stressful. Have a good week!

 

Emi- Good luck on your tests this week! Have a good time and study hard!

 

¡Hasta luego!

 

--

AEA

 

 

Elder Craig

 

A crazy week of cambios

Hello everyone in the US, Chile, and possibly elsewhere!

I hope everyone had a good week! This was a crazy week for us here in Punata with a finish that NOBODY was expecting.

So, this week was Punata's anniversary, which means that the entire town was a huge freakin' party. So, that made the work here really hard this week. We really had to take advantage of the work we could do on Tuesday and Wednesday, because we did a little work on Thursday, and Friday we had to stay in the house because of all of the drinking and drunks around the city. Also, sadly, we weren't able to get any baptisms this week like we had wanted to. We really wanted to baptize Mario this past weekend, but we went to try to find him all week, and we literally could not find him once. Ok, so on Saturday we were determined to go find him, so we went as early as we could and just about one block away from his house we see him riding his bike away, so we tried to shout and whatnot, but we never got his attention. Sooooo, we went back in the afternoon, and his workshop was open, and his son answered and said he wasn't home. Then later we were tracting a little ways off and his son passes on a bike and says that his dad's at home. And this was about the time that he shuts his shop, so my companion and I practically ran to go see him, but again as we got there, just one block away, his shop door shut, so we lost the opportunity to talk for the entire week.

We were able to helpone of the companionships in our ward to have a baptism. It's been MONTHS since they've had baptisms, so they were really excited for the baptism. And it turned out to be one of the most spiritual experiences that I've had in my mission. This baptism was really cool because the girl who got baptized was truly converted so the entire thing was an awesome spiritual experience.

So, we got out changes, and I am out of Punata. But things were wacky this time because they are merging my area with the area of the other elders here in Punata because there isn't enough missionaries in the mission right now to fill the space. And Elder Blackwelder(who's the only one staying from our house) is training in now the largest area in the mission. It was really unexpected that that would have happened. My "kid" is going to work in the mission offices as one of the secretaries, which is really cool. I am headed to Sucre to be a District Leader over eight missionaries, so I'm freaking out about the responsablility, but I think I'll do well, cuz that's where the Lord needs me right now.

Dad- Wow, I want a po-boy....sooooo jealous. Have a great week!

Mom- That's cool that you saw an eclipse! And no, I did not gain a million pounds. Just two. Hahaha, have a great week!

Aly- You read that Bible! I tried once here, but I failed. Also, have a great week at work. Just listen to my music, and it'll just fly by!

Emi- Glad your school did well in track! And I know you'll do well on all of your  tests. Don't you worry! ;)

Next week I'll be writing from Sucre! Until next time!

-- 
AEA


Elder Craig