Workin' hard in Bolivia!

Hey everyone back in the US, Chile, Argentina, and elsewhere!

I hope that you all had  a great week. This past week for me was awesome! My companion and I had huge success....but with success comes some difficulties.

So, we finally had a lesson again with Jesus, Carla, and Dorian( they are the 3 college students that we're teaching, if you didn't remember) and we were chatting with them and Carla mentioned that they had recently gotten out of family problems, and so we asked if it was anything that we could help with....and so she told us. Carla is pregnant, and her whole family just about had a heart attack. So, we changed our lesson plan and taught the group about the law of chastity and repentance. It was a very spiritual lesson, because since the beginning we've felt like there was something blocking us getting to know Carla to be able to really teach her, and now we know and we are able to reach out to her and be able to apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ to her life.

Progress is coming, I can feel it.

We also went out teaching with our pensionista and boy, did we do a lot of contacts! And the majority of them were in Quechua. It was cool because I understood the jist of about half of what they were saying. We were also able to contact a family that lives a bit aways from the church that sometimes go to another ward because its cheaper for them(they only take one bus when to get to our church from where they live it takes two), and we now have a service project to help them out with next week- Building a bathroom! That'll be lots of fun, let me tell you.

I also had leadership training this past week. It was actually a really good conference because we had lots of classes that taught us things that will really improve my teaching as a missionary, and that things that I am now teaching to my district. Things are looking good for my district, cuz we have lots of baptismal date lined up for next weekend.

Dad- Happy Father's Day! It sounds like you had an amazing day. Hope work is treating you well. Have a great week.

Mom- Yeah, we hear weird healing stuff like that too here, so it's pretty common. And yes, I had a bruise from that shot to the head. Have a great week!

Aly- I had PIE this week! A member made it for a lunch that we had with her....so we had pie at the same time! That makes me happy. Have a great chill week at work!

Emi- Hope summer vacation is going well! Don't kill anyone in Driver's ED, work hard at work, and don't get grounded. ;)

That's all for now!(I have pics, but the freakin' USB ports don't work on this comp. :P )

-- 

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