Little by Little this Area is Picking Up!

This week was really good, little by little the area is picking up!

We have an investigator, Hermana Lourdes, who is so wonderful. Hermana Duckardt always laughs because everytime we talk or visit with her when we're walking away I always say "Hermana, I just love her soooo much, I want her to get baptized so much!" She finally went to church on Sunday, the Relief Society president went and picked her up.   Turns out their husbands are really good friends, so I’m praying that her husband will start listening to us too! He’s super catholic, like everyone here in Tarija.  But poco a poco.

We also started teaching a menos activo, whose husband and kids aren’t miembros.  She’s really great, really wants to come back to church but feels guilty for how much she has fallen away.  We talked about the Savior’s atonement and the story of the prodigal son and it went really well.  I know she’s going to come back and bring her family with her!

The ward I’m serving in is so great, seriously.  The members are so willingly to help us and the ward council is amazing.  I’m learning so much. To be honest, I’ve never been in a ward that functions so well in my whole mission.  It’s really nice haha.

Heavenly Father was so kind to me this week, as always.  I’m always amazed at how far He will go to help me and answer my prayers.  He never leaves me alone and for that I am eternally grateful.  I love you all so much. 

Congrats, Sammi on the engagment! 

I hope you all have the best week!

Love,

Hermana Willes

I'm not in Santa Cruz anymore!

Well I’m not in Santa Cruz anymore! I was transferred to Tarija, which is a different apartamiento than Santa Cruz.   It’s at the very bottom of Bolivia—by the Argentina border.  (Tarija is 14-15 hours away from Santa Cruz!  It resembles Argentina more than it does the rest of Bolivia.) It looks just like Utah, with mountains and real houses and cars!  It was really hard to leave Santa Cruz after a year there, it honestly felt like leaving home all over again, but I’m learning to love Tarija too! It was sooo hard to leave Hermana Garcia.  We got to the point of being sisters and so it was sad to leave her.  But she’s here in Tarjia too, so I’ll get to see her sometimes. The members here are sooo great and my new companion, Hermana Duckardt, is really awesome too! She’s from Argentina and we live with two other latinas.

Yesterday in church we had a menos activo go to church for the first time in years! He’s an RM and his wife recently came back to activity and their daughter is eight years old so he has goals with the bishop that he will be able to baptize her.  In consejo de barrio, the bishop made plans to help him make friends through fishing trips and playing football, so he feels comfortable with the  ward.  It was awesome, I was super impressed.  They are so great, so nice and a really wonderful family!

We don’t have any investigators, but we have a lot of plans this week to find people and get to work.  It can only get better! I know that as we give it all we have, the Lord will lead us to the people He has prepared for us.   It rains here A LOT—even more than Santa Cruz, but that’s ok, there’s pizza!!!

I’m so grateful to be a representative of my Savior Jesus Christ.  There is nothing better than being a missionary.  I`m so grateful for the gospel, because it is designed perfectly to help us become like our Father in Heaven.  I know my Savior lives and that my Father in Heaven hears my prayers.  I’m so grateful for the both of them. 

I love you all and I hope you have the best week!

Hermana Willes

Missions: The Best Thing in the Whole World!

This week in Steve’s email to Lundy, he told her about a new Babolat tennis racket that is coming out that has sensors in it and keeps track of shot power, strokes and serves etc. You can sync it with your phone so that you can analyze your tennis game.  (We’re pretty excited about it at our house:)  Thought we’d share Lundy’s email response to him…

“Sounds crazy about all those cool new things, especially the tennis racket! It’s so weird to think about all the new inventions.  One of the new gringa hermanas told us there was an iphone six and it blew all of our minds.  It gets really easy to forget that stuff exists when I haven’t even had a microwave in over a year!!"  

Well, this week was nuts! Cambios are this week and we got pulled out of our area a little early. President is pulling all the hermanas out of the outer rings of Santa Cruz to close a bunch of areas partly because of safety but mainly because more misisonaries are leaving than are coming and so we won’t have as many misisonaries until abril.  I think they are going to put almost all the hermanas in the first couple rings.  They just decided to pull us out early and we are staying with Hermana Romero (mi hijta!) and Hermana Johns in the centro until cambios on Tuesday. It was really sad to leave Guapilo.  It was a really good area, but I know Heavenly Father has lots of plans for the both me and Hermana Garcia! 

We had a lot of really good new investigators and we had a really good lesson with Marita.  We were able to bring a member.  We taught the restoration and the spirit was really strong.  I always love teaching the restoration.  I’m praying really hard that Marita goes back to church.  The members love her, so we left her in good hands!

We also had  a noche de hogar with Roxana and her husband and so many members came! It was so great, at the end she said "I really hope this isn’t the last time you all come and visit me!”  It just goes to show, how important it is to visit others and make them important.  The members are so important to the work!

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week! I’m so grateful to be down here in Bolivia preaching the gospel.  Best thing in the whole world! I know The Church is true and Heavenly Father is our Father, who loves us more than we can understand and who is always always there!

Hermana Willes

She loves being a missionary!

Everyday I Realize How Much I Need My Savior

This week was another week full of miracles! On Monday,  in the micro we met a menos activo who lives in our area, Hermana Asunta.  We started visiting her this week and she’s wonderful! She and her daughter are the only members in her family. Her husband, other daughter, and grandkids aren’t members so we’re going to work on them as well! 

Also, the husband of Hermana Roxana, Hermano Erwin, went to church yesterday! That was a huge miracle.  He hasn’t accepted a fecha yet, but poco a poco.  We also had a huge miracle with their son and daughter-in-law.  Hermana Garcia and I had sent the reference of their 

house to the mission, but it’s in the other mission and the missionaries hadn’t stopped by.  They have been attending our ward here, and I was just praying so hard that the missionaries would find them so that Julia could be taught and baptized.  On Sunday, the son came to church and he told us that he had found out what ward he is supposed to go to because he ran into the missionaries in the street and talked to them! it was such a reminder that this is the Lord´s work and He takes care of everything!

We had miracles everyday this week and I’m just so grateful to be a missionary down here in Bolivia! I know that my Savior lives! I feel like everyday I realize more and more how much I need my Savior.  I’m so grateful for Him and the sacrifice He made for me!

 Love you all and hope you have the best week!

Hermana Willes

Lisa's Favorite :)

With Hermana Ortiz

Hermana Willes and Hermana Garcia in their apartment

Celebrating her 20th birthday

With Hermana Garcia

Having Fun!!

reunited with Hermana Feddock

Hermana Willes and Hermana Zapata

Hermana Willes loves Hermana Cladera!

Hermanas at the 50 year celebration

Hermanas

Hermana Willes and Hermana Cladera

Hermana Lainez loves her BYU shirt!

Hermana Willes and Hermana Adams (MTC Comps)

Thank You!

Merry Christmas! ok a week late, but still! Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and Christmas wishes! Seriously, thank you all so much! 

This week was really good, all over the place, but good.

First, the bad news.  Ricardo didn’t get baptized.  That was super sad.  He wants to move to Çhile and work and so he told us he is going to postpone his baptism.  It was crazy.  But, both Hermana Garcia and I felt the spìrit tell us that we had done all we could, that we had given it all we could.  He told us he is going to get baptized in Chile with his wife and daughter, so we’re praying that really does happen!

We finally got Hermano Ismeal to go to church! His wife is a less active who we are working with and por fin he went to church! He said he liked it and he made a lot of friends! They are both great and I know that if they listen to the spirit, he will get baptized and one day they will go to the temple.

We also found a new family-- a mom and dad and their two kids.  We’ve only taught them once, but they are awesome! They all listen to us, super attentively and ask really good questions.  They accepted a baptismal date for the 31 of enero!

Anyways, this week I will hit my one  year mark in the field.  It has gone by so fast! It has been both the hardest and best year of my whole life.  I’m so grateful for the decision I made to serve a mission because it has changed me so much.  I’ve come to know my Savior and to understand His atonement and to truly understand what it means to live the gospel and not just talk about it.  I know my Savior lives and loves me and is my best friend.  I’m so beyond grateful to be His representative and to share the gospel with the people of Bolivia! I don’t want to be anywhere else!

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great new years!

Hermana Willes