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

Birfday week! (received 5/14/12)

Hey everyone! 


Well, happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! I hope you had a great day yesterday! This week was a TON better than the past week. It was more successful and rewarding than the last week.

So, my companion and I did a lot of work this week. We focused time into working mainly in Yacanahuyo and with the Crespo Family. Lately it has been rough for us to have investigators come to church, and now we are having our investigators come to church, but now the problem is that they come late to church. And the Area Presidency has declared that for the asistence to church to count towards the baptismal date, the investigators must participate in the Sacrament.....that means that even that we've had 5 or 6 investigators show up to church, we've had to report 0 investigators at church for two weeks in a row. That's been really frustrating for us, but we're really happy that they're even coming to church, which was a huge problem before. But, our investigators are progressing well now.

Ok, so you all probably wanna know what happened on my birthday. Well, it was a Tuesday, which for us here means that we travel to Cochabamba to go  to our District Meeting. So, we were in meetings all morning, and we got back to Cochabamba in the mid afternoon, so we had to go and start to work, because we had several investigators to go visit. So, at dinner that night we got to dinner, and there was a cake box on the table. Well, I thought it was a cake, so I gave everyone a hug and everything, and opened the box, which was full of corn and had a sign that said "The Cake is A Lie!" (it's a video game joke- Google it.), and we had a very good laugh about that. Then they brought out the cake and we sang Happy Birthday and then they wanted me to bite the cake, which is also a tradition here. And normally they smash your face into the cake, so I told everyone to get away from behind me and went in to bite the cake. Well, Elder Martinez flipped the table up and my face got completely enveloped in the cake. So it was a good night after all. Then the next day, a member family invited me over and they had another cake for me. AND that night at our Missionary Fellowship night, the ward had bought me ANOTHER cake. So, I got three cakes for my birthday! I don't feel like I'm 21, but here I am, 21 years old.

We also had our Zone Conference this past week. It was a good conference and all, but the weird thing was to see the sisters from my group go up and give their final testimonies. They're going home next week. Weird. I also had my bi-transfer interview with President Dyer, and we spent some time talking about how I'm going to finish my mission. Soooo.......You'll just have to wait and see. ;)

Family- It was great to see you yesterday and to be able to talk to you! I hope that you have a great week!

That's all for now! ¡Hasta luego!


-- 
AEA


Elder Craig

A TRYING WEEK (received 5/7/12)

Hello everyone!

Well, this was a pretty rough week for me to be completely honest with you all.

We started off the week doing even more service! Service is something that we've been doing a lot of lately because the mission president recieved revelation that that's what the mission needs to be doing right now to help boost the numbers of the mission. So, the first project of the week we went to a small town called Nasacara to help out the 2nd counselor of the ward harvest corn. Here, to do that they cut the stalks of corn down and put them into huge groups to take the corn off and then BURN the stalks. Soooo, we got to work cutting down the stalks. I don't know how the traditional american style is to cut down corn, but because this country is behind by several years, we used machetes! I had sooo much fun cutting the stalks down. We had contests to see who could cut down the most stalks in one slash, and I got second place with 4 in one awesome slash. It was a lot of fun and we're talking to the family to try and go help them again, because we cut a ton in a space of a couple of hours.

The second project was for a less active member. We went to another pueblito called Pampa Grande to help him cut alfalfa. Well, that wasn't as fun or easy as corn, but we still had fun. We got to feed these three massive milk cows  and two little bulls. It was cool, and we were able to help a lot, because this member has been less active for years now, and he's thinking of returning back to the Church, so we're really excited. And we also have plans for helping him out again on Wednesday, with the other two elders in our house, and we're going to learn to make artisan Bolivian bread, so this will be a fun day.

Ok, so on Friday, I was SICK SICK SICK all day long out of no where. I was, unfortunately,  in bed all day with diarrea and vomiting. That absolutely killed us this week for our work, because ALL of our lessons were for Friday, so missing that really destroyed us for the week.

But, on Saturday ( I was feeling MUCH better...power of the priesthood.) we spent all day helping the other missionaries prepare for a baptism they had that day of one of their investigators. The thing was that we had to get the water heated from this thing that heats the water up by gas.....that hasn't been used in about 10 months. So, I spent literally all that morning getting the heater to work, while the other pair went to Cochabamba to go pick up the clothing for the baptism. THEN, the jacuzzi that rotated the water and kept it warm BROKE and actually make the font overflow, which meant all of the warm water was gone. Plus the gas tank ran out of gas, so the option of re-heating the water was out. So we as missionaries said a prayer that all would go well with the baptism, and you know what? It did.

This week was dificult for me because we taught very few lessons this week, but all in all it was a good week because there was a successful baptism for the ward. And that's what really matters.

Dad- Guess there's lots of work for both of us, huh? I can't wait to talk to you on Sunday!

Mom- Nope. No Mexican food(or beans) here. Weird, I know, but that's how it is. Sunday!!!!!!!!

Aly- Bear Lake sounds amazing! I hope you have a great time! I can't wait for Sunday!

Emi- Just tell me about your week on Sunday!

Have a great week everyone!

--
AEA


Elder Craig(Now 21 years old!)

Destroying to build the kingdom! ;)

Hello everyone!

I hope you had a good week! This was a good week for me here in

Punata. It was with plenty of service again(said service was probably

the most fun that I've had in my mish, but more of that later.)

So, this week my companion and I have been working on our

investigators that are progressing more. One awesome thing was that we

got a reference from a member kind of by accident. He was talking to

us casually about a family that he knew that were listening to the

missionaries about a year ago, and we just asked casually where they

lived. Well, technically that counts as a reference from a member. So,

we went and contacted this family and taught two members. It turns out

that the youngest son has come to church almost every Sunday for

almost the past year because of friends that he likes to go to church

with. So, we've already put a baptismal date on him, and it seems like

things are looking really good for them.

Our investigator Pablo is doing REALLY well. He's been here every

Sunday for the past month, and he's getting ready to be baptized on

the 19th of May, so we're really happy on how he's progressing. Things

are going well with him.

Ok, so we had an amazing service project this week- WE GOT TO DEMOLISH

A HOUSE! IT was AWESOME! It was this really old adobe house that was

falling apart, so these members asked the ward to come help them out.

Well, the only members of the ward who came where the bishop and a few

other random members and the six elders from the ward. So, we took

pickaxes to the walls, and it all came tumblin' down! It was fun, but

we were FILTHY by the time it was all over.

Dad- Glad work's going well! Work hard, and have fun!

Mom- Sunday school, huh? Well, glad you got good kids to

teach..Blessings I guess. Have a great week!

Aly- Just have fun this week! No angry parents this week!(I hope) Kuv ya!

Emi- Bummer that you didn't make it to state...But you got one more

shot(next year!), so don't get bummed. And I like reading Isaiah too,

it's fun.

That's all for now!

--

AEA

Elder Craig

A long week, but very satisfying

Hey everyone at home!

I hope you all had a great week! This week has been a good week for

me. There has been lots of stuff going on here for me.

Ok, so the first thing that happened this week was that we finally

got to go to the temple again! It’s been such a long time since we’ve

been, so it was amazing to get inside and feel the Spirit of the Lord

that strongly again. I love going to the temple, but the worst part is

the distance for us. We had to get up at 4am to be able to get there

at 6:30am. That means that it was hard to stay awake inside, but I did

do it! Then, afterwards, I had leadership training for about seven and

a half hours. That just made a long day longer, but we had the visit

of a local Seventy (an area authority), so that made things better.

We also spent time this week doing lots of service. The first project

included the four of us here in Punata. We spent the morning building

a stone wall, and then we spent time building duck houses for a

member. That was a lot of fun, but those ducks smelled horrible!

Hahaha!

The second project was for our investigator Mario. He’s living along

right now, and because of his bad knee, he hasn’t been able to clean

his house and workshop, so we came over (just my companion and me),

and we spent time sweeping, moving stuff, and getting rid of nasty

pictures on the walls. It was awesome, and we were able to help him

get ready for church on Sunday (and he came!).

I also had my first exchange in a while with my District Leader,

Elder Blackwelder. He’s a cool guy from Florida, and he is such an

amazing Gospel scholar! I have learned so much stuff from him, and he

has taught me really how to study the Gospel. It was a good

intercambio, and we had a lot of fun at the same time.

Dad-I am so happy for you! Congrats! Have a great week at WORK! :D

Mom-Glad you had a great week! I can’t wait for more Hawai’i pics!

Aly-Well, I have a HUGE farmers tan from being a missionary, so I know

how it is. Looks cool until your shirt sleeve rides up, lol. Have a

good week!

Emi- Well then, sounds like new challenges with music. And with your

running, just do your best to work your speed back up!

That’s all for now!

--

AEA

Elder Craig

Gettin' lost in Punata.....in the work and in the fields. (4-16-2012)

Hello!

I hope that all of you had a fantastic week this past week! This week

was a good week for us here in Punata.

So, first bit of good news is that we got in contact with one of our

old investigators again! Our investigator Pablo had literally

disappeared for 2 and a half weeks. But on Wednesday we got a call

from the hermana who gave us the reference for Pablo to go teach him.

She was freaking out, saying "Pablo's here, Pablo's here! You two

better get over here as soon as you can!" Well, needless to say, we

hurried over there as quick as we could. Unfortunately, that means 25

minutes of walking. So, by the time we had got there, Pablo had gone,

and we couldn't find him. But on Friday, we were just happening to

pass by this hermana's house, when we heard talking going on- and one

of the voices was Pablo's! Well, we didn't miss a moment, and we

knocked on the door and got in the house. It turns out that Pablo had

been in the hospital for two weeks with the flu(He got his niece to

pay for the bill). But, he was super excited to see us again and to

start listening to us again. He also finally made it to church on

Sunday! So, things with him are looking very up.

Also, another investigator, Mario, is progressing ridiculously well.

He is developing a strong testimony of the gospel. Yesterday(sunday)

we went to visit him because he's been having a rough time with his

knee and so we wanted to know how he was doing. And while we were

talking, he said "Once my knee gets better, I'll go out with you guys,

because that's what you should do once you know that these things are

true." Wow! I know members that are less animated than him. So, things

look good for him.

And.....now about the title. My companion and I were in a neighborhood

called Santa Ana and we wanted to try to contact some of the farmers

out there, cause it's pure farm land. Well, we got very lost and

actually followed a water canal until we reached a road that took us

back to Punata. Funny story of the week.

Parentals(Mom and Dad)- Have an amazing finale in Maui! I can't wait

to hear from you this next week! Luv ya!

Aly- Sorry about the rough week. This one will be better! I know it.

Emi- Hope you're studying hard and having fun! I want lots of pics next week!

That's all for now folks!

--

AEA

Elder Craig