I Hope Someday to be as Wonderful as All of Them

Jose Carmelo didn't end up getting baptized this week.  He told us he needs more time, which is ok because I don't want to baptize someone who isn't quite ready.  It was really sad, but we realized maybe we were rushing him to baptism more for us and less for him.

Joselin continues to progess and is getting baptized this week.  She's really sweet.  The bishop's wife is teaching her to read.  She's taught someone to read once before and she's really great.  Joselin had a dream about her grandparents who died and they told her to accept the gospel so they can be baptized.  Then, she told us she knows the church is true and went on to explain to us why it is important to keep the commandments.  Super powerful and amazing.  Hermana Feddock and I were like "yeah, ok, so when is the earliest we can fill up the font?" So I'm really excited for that!

Cambios are this week and we don't really know what is going to happen.  But, I love this ward and am so grateful for the time I've had to serve here.  They are all so amazing.  In Preach My Gospel it says the work we do with the leaders in our wards will bless the rest of our lives.  So true.  They are all so humble and ready to work.  The work is just exploding in this area and it really is because of the dedication of the members. I hope to someday be as wonderful as all of them.

The church is true and the Lord is hastening His work.  We have miracles everyday, like finding a menos activo in the calle or a woman just showing up to church on Sunday and telling us she wants to be taught (that was nuts).  I'm so grateful to be serving down here! 

Love you all! I hope you have the very best week!

Hermana Willes

Santa Cruz Sunset

 The Hermanas of the apartment

Missionaries and Members of the Ward

 P-day

At Church

I'll be eternally grateful for the opportunity to serve

Well, I hope everyone had a great week! This week was really good.  Leonardo Pedriel was baptized and confirmed! He is such a sweet kid.  The young men's president baptized him and it was so sweet to see how happy they both were! Now all we need is to baptize their dad! 

This week the Choque's son, Jose carmelo, is getting baptized.  He's thirteen and is a little different, but is really sweet and I'm so excited for him.  His dad is going to do it, which I'm soooooo excited for! They are just so great.  I love them so much.  

I always forget to talk about Maria Elena Gil, the menos activo that we have been able to help come back to church.  She's so great.  Her mom is in the presidency of the relief society and her brother is menos activo also, so the elders have been working with him.  But it's really funny because we literally visited her once and then she started coming back to church.  She got a calling the second Sunday she came back and hasn't missed a Sunday since.  So she's been active now for about a month.  She accompanies us on visits, is doing her visiting teaching, and is fufilling her calling to the fullest.  She's 22 and is so great.  I just love her. The best part is she acts like she's been active forever.  We taught her the other day about the plan of salvation and mid lesson she asked us "hermanas, why do some people leave the truth and the church?" Hermana Feddock and I were like, well hermana, there are a lot of reasons.  After we had to laugh a little because like three weeks ago that was her.  But she's so great, the other day she showed us the metas (goals) she has and one of them is to go to the temple and be married and raise her kids in the gospel.  

Hermana Feddock and I always have lots of fun and I always forget to write about those stories too! But, this week on Thursday night we were walking to our very last cita and it was kinda raining, but not a ton.  Anyways, in Bolivia rain equals flood and it started to pour.  We're talking Noah and the flood pour.  We huddled under a little tienda roof for about five minutes and then decided to ask the lady for plastic bags to put our bagpacks in so all our stuff didn't get wet.  So, we stuffed our backpacks in plastic bags and took off running.  We were completely soaked in about .5 seconds.  The water was up to our mid calves and it was hard to see, but we ran on.  We rain past the church and some members were waiting outside and when they saw us running past they started cheering us on.  It was hilarious.  I was dying.  I wish you could have seen it. 

Anyways, the mission is great.  It's hands down the greatest thing I've ever done. I'll be eternally grateful for the opportunity I have to serve. I'm loving every second of it.  The church is true and this is the Lord's work.  I know that because everyday miracles happen that make me so grateful that He is in charge and I'm not.  I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Willes

Baptism of Leonardo Pedriel

 Hermana Willes after surviving the downpour

The power of members

This week was great!  Shout out to Mamoo and Boppy for the package!  Thank you!  

We had zone conference on Tuesday, which was just amazing!  As a mission now we are memorizing The Living Christ in Spanish for a conference we're going to have in August when we will all stand and say it together.  I'm sooooo excited.  Hermana Feddock and I are working hard to memorize it.  We already have the first two paragraphs. 

This week we started teaching a family that is so wonderful.  They are really poor, they only have ten bolivinas ($1.50) for lunch everyday and they are a family of ten.  Their oldest daughter is 17 and from the age of five she has stayed home taking care of her siblings.  Because of that, she doesn't know how to read.  Meeting them has been a very humbling experience, but I know that the gospel can change their life and and make it better.

  

The Choque familia is doing well.   We're working on teaching their thirteen year old son.  He's a bit of a special kid, and he doesn't like going to church because he just wants to sleep.  BUT poco a poco.

This week we went to visit the Pedriels and their fifteen year old son, Leonardo, told us he wants to get baptized.  Before he's always been super hesitant and we didn't really know what else to do, because we had prayed with him, had super strong experiences with him, and he goes to church every Sunday.  But recently the young men's president sat down and talked to him.  After that, he decided to get baptized.  Goes to show the power of the members!  So, he's getting baptized this friday and that will be really great.  Now,  all we need is for the dad to get baptized as well. Pray for him!!

Right now we're working with a lot of menos activos, who are all really wonderful.  I love the ward I'm serving in so much and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve here.  The church is true and missions are the greatest thing ever.  Have a great week!

Hermana Willes

PS--Mom, (this was in response to some of the things I told her about Nicaragua and wondered if things were similar in Bolivia) yes, there are dogs everywhere.  Are there not in the states? honestly that seems weird to me.  Also that people live in houses with connecting rooms.  Are the houses there made of mud or bricks? and do they have actual doors or just cloth?  There are paved roads here, in the central. but as you get farther out into the rings there are only dirt roads.  Where I am now it's about half and half.  and the humidity is 100%.  You walk out of the house and you're wet.  That's also why, when it gets cold, it get's freezing.  And I know what you mean.   It does change you. Things that seem sooo essential aren't anymore.  I know that will be something that will be really hard for me when I get back.  But, it really does teach you about what is important and also just the importance of being grateful.  The people down here are so grateful, they will also tell us "we are so blessed.  We have food for our table, we all have our health, everyone in the family is living" and they will tell me this sitting in a shack with millions of bugs and animals crawling around and only having ten bolivinos for their lunch.  It`s very humbling. 

Hermana Willes and Hermana Feddock 

celebrating Hermana Feddock's birthday

This is His work

Hey Family,

First off, sorry I didn't have time to write last week.  I went through three computers trying find one that worked!  Also, shout out to Gama for the package, the candles are awesome and so was all the food!

This week was great. I had an intercambio with Hermana Cladera and that was super fun! She is honestly my best friend from my whole mission.  Which is super weird because we speak different native tongues, but it doesn't matter.  I really want you guys to meet her someday.  She's seriously the best.  She says thanks for the package. Also, we had a conference with Elder Uceda, the President of the area.  It was awesome.  He talked about how we have left behind the time of splitting wards and now we are in the time of multiplying wards.  He said that if there are seventy people in a ward, that's a ward family, 150 is a branch and 300 people is a ward.  He then talked about how we have to strengthen the wards down here.  So right now that is our focus, strengthing the wards.

  

Things are going well with our investigators and we are in the process of finding new ones.  Also, we're working a lot with the menos activos and converso recitentes! The Lord is opening up paths for us.  I think one of the most important things I've learned is that I can't do everything on my own and the Lord doesn't expect me to.  It is a good thing, because this is His work and before I was running around, trying to do the work of Hermana Willes, because I felt like I had to be the one to make everything happen.  To be honest, I was lacking faith.  But I've begun to learn that Heavenly Father does not expect us to accomplish the miracles or fix other people's problems, He just needs us to do our part and rely on Him so that He can do the miracles and the fixing.

The Familia Choque is doing really well.  I love being here, the mission is the best! Seriously, I just love the ward I'm in. I care about them so much and I want to help them become a stronger ward! 

Mom, I'm so excited for you and for Joseph to go to Nicaragua! That will be so awesome! I haven't been able to flush toliet paper in six months, sometimes I forget that it's possible in other places. But I forget a lot of things wouldn't be normal to you guys, like dogs in the streets and unpaved roads.  Have so much fun! Try to pick up some Spanish, whenever you don't know what to say just say va a discupar.  Bueno, no se si ellos dicen alla pero trate no mas! 

I finally got that package you sent several months ago.  The bottles of onguard were in the boxes and all the face wash and everything.  Thank you soooo much.  You're seriously the greatest! Have the best week.

Love,

Hermana Willes

Baptism of Josue and Luis Choque

 Santa Cruz has been really cold and with the humidity it's freezing!  

Just trying to stay warm!