A dog bit me!

Hello familia and friends!

How was your week? Mine was great! It was an action packed week with exploding cars, kidnapped girls, biting dogs....ok, most of that was a joke, but the dog thing wasn’t....I’ll explain that a little later.

So, this week was a little rough for us at the beginning, because we didn’t have any lessons on Tuesday or Wednesday(ok, just like one or two, but that’s nothing for two days). So, we were really a little worried that we wouldn’t reach the goals that we set for the week. So, we buckled down and decided that we were going to reach our goals and finish the week strong. And man, did we do that! We worked our butts off everyday to try and reach our goals.

So, there’s this less-active girl that we’ve been visiting two or three times a week that we recently stopped visiting. It’s always tough to decide to stop visiting people, especially when they are non-actives or less-actives because they really know about these things, they know that these things are true, but when they don’t want to go back, it really sucks.... But, we’ve done all that we can for our part, and if she doesn’t want to, well, she has her agency. But it makes me sad still...

This week we finally have baptisms again! We are so excited to be baptizing people. Early on, my companion and I decided that we wouldn’t baptize anyone who wasn’t 100% ready, and we finally have some ready! They are two “jovenes”(as we say down here). I have been mentioning them in my past letters, one had the boyfriend living with her(they now live apart), and the other one really hadn’t received her answer yet, but has now recognized that God has responded her prayers. So, they have a set baptism for this Saturday! Expect pictures next week!

Ok, so the dog bit thing. My companion and I were entering into a house to teach new investigators, and their dog bit my leg as I entered. Luckily, the teeth didn’t pass though my pant leg, but still left a nasty scratch. But, I am totally fine, so don’t worry!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving!!!

Dad- Well, pray in the mountains for me! And summer here isn’t going fast enough!

Mom- I hope the move goes quickly...I want to see the new HQ for CommGap!

Aly- Don’t stress, it’ll all be over quickly! I know you’ll have fun too! ;)

Emi- Sounds like you had a good time. Yes, we as missionaries plan EVERYTHING out before we do it....I hope this skill sticks. ;P¨

Have an amazing Thanksgiving, and EAT LOTS OF PIE ¡!!!!!

-- 

AEA

Elder Craig

Muy-bien-hecho-Elderes!

Hey everyone back home!!! I hope that everyone had a fantastic week! This week was good on our part here in Bolivia!

Ok, so first thing , we are finally making progress with one of our investigators here with a baptismal date. Her name is Luz Maria, adn we've been teaching her for a while, and she has a date for this next weekend, but we've felt that she hadn't really been open to us, and so this past week we've been kinda rough on her. She's the kind of person that gives answers just because that she thinks that 's what we want to hear, which really is the worst thing that she couls do, becase that stops us from  able to help her. So, we started being real direct with her to try and get the real answers out of her- and it worked! She really opened up to us about all the things that she really feels and understands, and now we are going to be able to help her reach her goal for the 26th of this month to be baptized. It's really good to finally be able to help her, because we could tell that she wasn't being completely open with us.

We also have an investigator, Yeni, who is now progessing well. She received her answer about the church and everything and feels really strongly that she needs to be baptized, but she had something hindering her from being baptized- the law of chastity. She has been living with her boyfriend for 3 years now and she felt that it would be really tough for her to keep the commandment. So, we decided to talk to her AND her boyfriend. Well, we did it, and they later decided that they would seperate until they could get married, which means that she can also reach her goal of baptizing on the 26th! We are super excited because she needs the Gospel desperately in her life(she has a ton of problems with her family).

That's really all that's going on right now with me right now...this week we have a special conference with one of the Presidents of the Seventy, so that'll be interesting.

Dad- I'm super jealous that you're skiing...I miss the snow. It's super hot here right now. Hope you have an amazing week!

Mom- I amhappy that you are having success in your business, it really makes me happy. Have an amazing week!

Aly- Don't stress out this week! Just put on some awesome music and enjoy the ride! Have fun in Idaho(no, you da ho! ;) )

Emi- Have fun this weekend! DOn't do anything too dumb... ;)

That's all for now!

-- 

AEA

Elder Craig

There ain't no rest for the wicked...or missionaries!

Hey everyone back home!

Hope that everyone had great week!  Well, this week was awesome for me here in Tarija! Much better than the past two weeks….

Ok, so this week we’ve been super chuck full of appointments- like literally an appointment every hour of the day for four days. Which means that we’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Our area is really big, and we as missionaries don’t have a car or even bikes, so that means that we do a TON of walking. It’s normal for us to have to walk 15 or twenty minutes in between our appointments. This means that if we aren’t really careful, we can be late to ALL of our appointments.

Also this has been the week of finding problems with our investigators…literally. We’ve had a ton of our investigators come out with problems with the Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, keeping the Sabbath Day holy, etc. We’ve also had two of our investigators tell us that they had dreams with dead girls in them after they prayed to the Lord asking about the things that we’ve taught them. That has been creepily coincidental. But, all in all, it’s a really good thing, because now we know how to help our investigators (except for the dream….don’t have anything for that.).

We also found a new investigator who asked us in the first lesson what he had to do to be baptized. That was really cool for us, because that means that he’s going to progress well and reach baptism easily.

Dad- That was an awesome picture….I guess. Kinda creepy, but good to see you still have a good sense of humor. Pretty cool about that skiing movie. Have an amazing week and enjoy the snow!

Mom- Glad work is going well for you… and don’t worry about that Death Road…it’s not in my mission.

Aly- Just keep pushing forward, show ‘em whose boss. YOU DA BOSS! ;) Have a great week.

Emi-Well, well, well, have fun at that dance! Just be safe, ¿yeah? 

That’s all for now folks!

-- 
AEA

Elder Craig

Happy Halloween!!! And one year down....one to go!

Hello family and friends!!!  

                Well, I hope everyone at home had a fantastic week! This past week was well, good.  In reality it started off pretty rough for us. We literally went three days straight with our appointments falling through. That’s never fun, and really a bit disheartening, but my companion and I are a bit tougher than that. It takes more than a bunch of appointments falling through to get us down and to stop us from working.

                But, we have found some good new investigators this week, including a single mom and one of her kids. Her name’s Rosa and she’s super cool. We found her by knocking doors, and she’s one of those types that accepts all religious proselytes and so she accepted our visit. Well, we started to teach her and her daughter, and she was surprised because we taught so differently than the rest that had previously passed by, so she wanted to hear more. So we went back a different day and committed them to go to church on Sunday. Well, they both did(and seven more investigators!)! They are progressing really well, so we’re super excited for them.

                Remember about our investigator Herlan, whom I mentioned last week? Well, he’s come to church twice now, and is going to all the Single Young Adults activities. And we’ve only taught him once! So, things are looking good with him, and we have a bunch of stuff planned for him this week in our appointment.

                And that’s just some of the stuff going on here in Tarija!

                Well, I can’t believe it, but this week I complete a year on the mission….time goes by too fast. And they say that the second year goes even faster, but I hope they’re wrong.  It’s been such a privilege for me to be a missionary here in Bolivia, and I plan to work hard and enjoy every minute until the end.

Dad- Well, I will do a snow dance here in Bolivia just for you! Have an amazing week!

Mom- That is so exciting about the office! I know that things are going to get even better for you with your work.

Aly- Way to go on the job. You are an inspiration! I hope your first week of work goes amazing!

Emi- Sounds like things are going very well for you. Have tons of fun with that music…I’m jealous!  ;)

Have an amazing week everyone!

-- 

AEA

Elder Craig

Hey! I'm Still Here

HI everyone!

I hope that everyone had an amazing week! Things here were pretty good this past week here in Tarija.  It’s been really windy here, to be honest, and if these studpid computers would read my memory card, i would send you all some ridiculous photos of the crazy wind that my companion and I go through.

This week was a loong week for me and my companion. We literally had times where we would have an appointment on one side of our area, and literally have to go to the other side of our area, which means about 30 minutes of walking for us, because there really aren’t buses that go exactly where we needed to go.  But, we found some great people this week knocking doors. One is named Herlan. He’s a college student who really is intersted in the Restored Gospel. He showed up to church on Sunday, and we set him right with other Young Single Adults, and he found friends right away. It’s really cool to see how the influence of a member can really help out investigators feel at home in the Church. It really helps with this investigator, because he is a timid person, and doesn’t socialize really well. But we have really high hopes for him, because he really is taking what we teach to heart.

We’ve also been working with a family of inactives, whom we found knocking doors one day. There are two daughters in particular whom we’ve been focusing on. Both of them felt embarrased to go back to church because they’ve been inactive since they were little, and now have children, when the rest of their church friends are still kind of dating people. So, for the older one, we’ve put a goal for her to return to church in three weeks, and to help her out, we are stopping by three times a week for five minutes just to see how she’s doing personally with the goal. With the younger sister, we just had to invite her, and on Sunday she was in church. It was super cool to see her in church, because she seemed so happy that she had decided to go back.  I know that the church is truly for everyone, and that all can make it back and feel that same joy that they felt before.

Alright, now about the cambios, I am staying here in Tarija one more exchange. The President wants every companionship to stay together for two exchanges, unless they are dealing with major problems. But, my companion and I are going great, so we get six more weeks here to help more people out!

Dad- I had the wierdest feeling about that…i was talking to my companion and was like “You know, when I get home, I don’t know where I’m going to sleep!” Funny, huh?

Mom- That sucks that you got rained out again. But, what sucks more is that you didn’t get the best Dr. Pepper….oh well…hope you have an amazing week!

Aly- About the job, what happenes is what is supposed to happen, so don’t worry! And your hair cut looks fine, don’t worry! (I say that a lot, huh?)

Emi- Hope you have an amazing week! Hope to hear from you soon!

That’s all for now!

-- 
AEA


Elder Craig

Another conference....and another week!

Hello family and friends north of the equator!

Well, this was another super exciting week here in the land of Quechua! This week of full of suspense, terror, and….just kidding! It was a calm week (tranquillo, like we say down here.)

To be completely honest here, this week was full of lots of walking and rejections. It was actually strange for my companion and me, because usually our week is full of appointments. But, this week we spent most of our time knocking on doors in our area, which kinda sucked, because the weather this week was wacky. Literally we had rain, hail, super hot temps, and cold temps. And then a ton of people this week were rejecting us, to the point that my companion was saying “This is unusual for us…no one is letting us in this week. They usually do.” But, you know, I took it as a lesson from the Lord to make sure we didn’t get cocky, because that can happen with missionaries who have tons of success, no?

We also had Zone Conference this past Friday with our mission president. It was a good conference for us. We all reported the need for more lessons with members, which is really important for us. Experience shows that lessons with members helps that the investigators actually baptize. So, my companion and I are going to focus on that this week, because we have a ton of good investigators who just need the support of a member to help them into the font. So, a suggestion, if you can, accompany the missionaries to a lesson or two….they’ll really appreciate it, and you could help someone get baptized!

Dad- That flight sounds amazing….Hope you took some awesome pics. Hope you enjoyed the Warren Miller Movie. And way to go getting Marcos out of bed for that hike. Have an amazing week!

Mom-Sounds like you are having a great time learning about Bolivia…some things do appear pagan, no? But really, it’s a really cool culture.

Aly- Get that job, woman! I know you can do it! Best of luck!

Emi-That sucks that you’re having that many problems…I’ll pray for you. Have tons of fun this week!

That’s all for now!

-- 
AEA


Elder Craig

What an AWESOME week!

Hello everyone at home!

What an amazing week that this past week has been! It's included many surprises that even I wasn't expecting.

 

So, first thing's first. No, the earthquake didn't affect anyone here in Tarija....I didn't even feel a thing. Apparently other missionaries did, but my companion and I didn't feel any type of quake. All things are nice and quiet here in Bolivia...for now. I'll explain later.

 

So this week has been awesome for me and my companion for the work of the Lord. This entire week we've been focusing on the baptisms that we had, a massive activity for the ward mission work, and finding news. And you know what? With lots of hard work we were able to complete all of our goals. Our ward activity was pretty cool. Maybe y'all have participated or seen this before. It's a simulation of ward members and investigators that are on a plane that crashes...and everybody dies. Then according to a label on your boarding pass you get conducted by angels into one of the three kingdoms of glory, or outer darkness. I had the privilege of being an angel in the Celestial Kingdom. It was super cool, and a really spiritual experience for me. We had almost one hundred people show up, which is almost half of the actives in our ward. It was all in all a very good experience....you should all try it out.

 

Ok, so....I had 4 baptisms this weekend! The familia Sanchez got baptized...along with five others from the other missionaries in our ward. That was a cool experience that I won't forget. 9 baptisms doesn't happen every day. It was an amazing experience that almost made me cry. It's been so humbling to see a family that we've worked so hard to teach decide to make a covenant with the Lord and join His church. They are going to do so many great things in the Church, I just know it! Then yesterday the confirmations took FOREVER during sacrament, literally like forty minutes. Then came the surprise...I was asked to bless and give names to two children in the ward from a family of converts where the dad doesn't have the Melquesidec Priesthood yet. That was really cool. But, I had always felt that the children that I would first bless and present before the Lord would be my own,,,but apparently the Lord had different plans for me.

 

And, no pics this week cuz the computer is being dumb and won't read my memory...so you'll all have to wait for next week for a new computer to see the pics. Sorry!

 

Dad- Have an amazing week! Glad you've had so much fun hiking!

 

Mom- I tell you, your business is going places. Get ready for the ride of your life!

 

Aly- Well, tell Deborah "Hi, and welcome home" for me, will ya? Don't you worry, I'll pray about the job thing for you!

 

Emi- Have an amazing week! Hope all is well!

 

Until next time!

 

 

AEA


Elder Craig