one little two little three little paltas (avocados)

hello hello from Bolivia!

These are exciting times aren’t they? I happened to hear yesterday that
they are going to turn our mission into two, but so far
president hasn’t said anything. But we are going to have a multizone
conference this week so maybe then we will know. We are also going to
be getting a new president this july, so a lot will be changing here.
But anyways thanks for the pictures and things i received this week- i
love pictures! :) Also, I’m going to need winter clothes soon. It’s
probably better for me to buy stuff here i just haven’t found where
yet. so i might need money... I’ll keep you posted.

Ok ok so into this week. Nothing much happened monday... but some
interesting stuff: facebook here is just called "face" and play
station is just called "play". It sounds funny when people are like
"Do you have face?" But yeah anyways...

Tuesday i called someone and just after saying hello this is the
missionaries they were like oh hi hermana black. So I’ve still got a
ways to go to sound Latin. ha. Ok so marcos birthday was sunday and we
totally forgot. So tuesday we brought him some sweets and watched the
movie "John Tanner" with him. (i love the church movies! they´re so
great). So that was fun.

Ok so Wednesday i had Mocochinchi for my first time! Its peach juice
really, but the thing is they always leave the peach in the drink, and
it looks super gross. Most missionaries call the drink "cerebral de
mono" (monkey brain). But this investigator served it up, and well it
was quite good! I was just grateful she didn’t put the brain in my cup
haha. also this day we had 7 lessons! oh it was so great. so so great.
I just love feeling like I’m doing stuff out here! :)

Thursday we were running around trying to get to all the references
we´ve been given in the ward. This ward is seriously so incredible.
They are always helping us out- one lady washes our clothes did i tell
you? Seriously it’s such a blessing. They feed us, bring us mangos (the
last ones of the season. I keep meaning to take pictures of the mangos
i get but i end up eating them too fast haha oops), and help us out so
much with the work. It’s so awesome! The bishop is helping us a lot
too. He loves to help us, because then he can practice his english :)
haha he is hilarious. And really understands how to work.

Friday we only had two lessons. It was one of those days that makes
you grateful for the seven lesson days. This work is tough sometimes.
But you know what? Days always come to an end. And this day ended
really well. One of the two lessons we had was at 8 at night. We had
been walking around with this new married couple that was accompanying
us. None of our investigators were home the whole time we were with
these two-from 6-8, but we found Lili home at 8. So we talked to her.
She’s super sweet. Unfortunately she doesn’t have any money, and her 9
year old daughter Josalin has been in the hospital a lot because she
has bone cancer. She doesn’t have a job, and her exhusband keeps not
paying his part. She has another daughter named Diana that is 2 years
old. Well, turns out I know a little bit about what it feels like to
have someone i love suffer from cancer, and so did this couple. Also,
Lili´s birthday was sunday, and this couple made her a cake!!
Seriously, the best ward ever.

Saturday we visited a reference from a mom whose son just left for the
mission a month ago. Cleidi, the reference, was friends with this
missionary before he left. He told his mom to have the missionaries
visit her. So Maria (the mom) came with us to visit Cleidi. Well the
lesson went well, and we are excited to be helping her. But the thing
i really learned was how much moms suffer when their kids go out on
missions. this poor mom is trying to be so strong. Her son is still in
Bolivia (in la paz) because he hasn’t got his visa yet. It is taking
all of her will power not to visit him. But anyways i just want to
tell you mom that I really am doing awesome!!!! I am loving the
mission. I am helping people and learning so much about the gospel.
I´m already such a better person than i used to be, and it is so
great!!! Thanks for being so awesome mom and strong. Seriously
everything is fine and im doing great and i love you so much!!!!

Sunday was great. Besides the fact that Hna Morris was pretty sick and
could hardly talk. But we managed to go to church, and Lili came with
her daughter Diana, and so did Pilar with her daughter! Pilar is also
a single mom 24 years old. She has started reading the book of mormon
and loves it and already has a testimony! Pilar, Lili, and Josalin
have baptism dates set for 16th of MArch so we are hoping all goes
well for that! Also Laura was supposed to have her baptism interview
this day. We scheduled it for the last hour of church. Unfortunately her
and her siblings left after sacrament meeting and we didn’t know
because her mom was still at church. We looked everywhere for her- her
house and the streets but we couldn’t find her. We finally met her dad.
Suffice it to say he isn’t very nice to those in the family who go to
church. We think he stopped her from going back for her interview.
Well we are hoping to be able to find her on Thursday to have her
interview. This family is in a bad place and there is nothing we can
do. Its hard living in a place where laws really aren’t enforced. We
are going to continue to pray for Laura and her family and hopefully
she will be baptized this saturday! But i just loved how things worked
out at church today. Both Lili and Pilar had problems with thier
daughters being fidgety at church. But for some reason, a lot of other
moms had more problems than usual with their kids too this day. I just
love that things work out. So the next time your kid is screaming in
church, just know it might be making someone else feel more
comfortable about their situation. :)

Anyways a good week. I really love reading the ensign/liahona. I read
the conference talk of Elder Uchtdorf this morning and i love what he
said about enjoying the now. I remember when i first started my
mission, i would think about the months ahead and it seemed like
they´d never end. But, if i thought, can i do my best today and just
today? The answer would be yes, and I was ok. (now im like, we are in
march?! but there´s still so much to do! what happened to February?!
haha) The future is important, but enjoying right now is going to fill
the past with pleasantries. :)

Anyways  i hope you all have an amazing week. The fotos are the baptism
(yeah marco is tall haha) and the outfit I’m wearing is typical of what
people wear during carnival. It keeps your clothes clean from paint,
and there’s pockets for storing paint, water, and foam, among other
things. haha.

much love, Hermana Black

aaaaand we're back!

hello hello and welcome back to the adventures of Hermana Black!

haha. Its good to be back! I am really loving the mission more and
more. And of course, the baptisms of Keila and Marco help with that!!!
Oh man it was so great. But i forgot my camera cord so i don’t have
pictures! But hna Morris is sending pics home and I’m sure you can find
those somewhere. But anyways thanks for all the updates mom and dad! i
love knowing what’s going on :) Also i got the valentines package a
week before which was awesome, and Marivels on valentines day, so i
had a great time with all that! Except the elders came for inspections
and i hadn’t taken down the heart decorations and they were freaking
out for a bit... haha.

Ok so im going to try to cover everything important that has happened.
Spitting experience: Hna Morris was sitting next to the window on the
bus. She turns to me at one point and says "I’m wet". i look out and
there’s no rain or clouds or anything. Then i look in front more and see
a woman just spitting and hacking loogies and it’s just coming and
coming. I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing. That’s just how things
are here. You just gotta choose to laugh or cry. :) And Hna Morris was
a good sport about it all.

Ok so for the interest of the YW of the ward- i gave their book of
mormon to this 9 year old girl named Laura. She is scheduled to get
baptized on March 2! All of her family are members, but they are
really inactive. So we’ve been getting the ward involved to help this
family come back, and help Laura get baptized! Thanks so much for this
special book of mormon for this special girl! Just pray that
everything will work out for this family. Oh but the first time i went
to her house i got head butted by a goat and bitten by a duck. haha.
goood times.

Ok so carnival was only saturday night until wedensday morning. But we
definitely were dodging water balloons before that. Also we were
waiting for a bus on saturday morning when another bus drove by and
some guy got me right in the face with his squirt gun full of paint!!
yeah dont worry i got a picture :) it wasn’t that bad- just a few
sprinkles. But hey, i got to be part of Carnival! Awesome. it really
was super crazy. All the buses are still trying to get clean from all
the mud and paint. It’s insane!

So Marco is amazing. We talked to him on tuesday (two weeks ago) and
he told us that he had not one, but two answers that the church is
true! He just couldn’t stop smiling and is just so happy! He has really
changed his life around, and this amazing ward is so helpful and are
just taking him in! Also Keila had to change some things in her life.
Its crazy, but they are both super firm and we had a beautiful baptism
for them both! There were so many people there they were standing out
in the halls! When they both got the Holy Ghost on sunday, in both of
their blessings it said they would be the examples that converted more
members of their families! Well obviously that’s exciting. So yeah it
was just all great.

So unfortunately mango season ended during January. But guess what
guess what? Its avocado season!!! OH MY GOSH! We do not know what
avocados are in the states. Here, they are huge, and extremely
delicious! Seriously! And i thought everyone had mango trees. But
apparently they all have avocado trees too! I seriously am in heaven!
I dunno how i´ll ever be able to eat another avocado in the states.
Guacamole was my favorite food before my mission. But i didn’t even
know what guacamole was before i got here!!!! yeah i love it if you
can’t tell. You should probably be jealous. I also love empenadas,
salteñas, and cuiñape. I hope i can find recipes for these things
when i go home. ha.

Ok so Malorie- LEARN SPANISH! Those RMs you wrote me about are crazy.
Also, you are going to the peru ccm. um the teachers there don’t speak
english. So you don’t learn to speak spanish. You just start listening
to spanish. So i would definitely try to learn it. I learn more
spanish when we have conferences here, because someone can explain a
rule to me. You don’t learn these things in the ccm! Those RMs you
talked to who said they catch you up in the ccm are very very wrong
right now. Everything changed at the ccms 8 months before i got in
there, so no RMs know anything right now :) but anyways i wrote some
more things to you in a letter. i am finally going to be able to send
letters this week so hopefully you’ll get them in 2 weeks!

Oh also about marco- three days before marcos baptism, his dad came
out to listen to us (and by listen i mean ask lots of questions that
he doesn’t really want the answers to). Well we started answering, but
then MArco just jumped in and answered in these perfect simple
answers. When our district leader finished interviewing him, he said,
wow Marco. You´re definitely a future church leader. I seriously
couldn’t be happier for these opportunities to be an instrument in God’s
hands right now. We are seeing miracle after miracle, because we are
following the spirit so much. And STRESS and SPIRIT can’t exist
together. (Remember that when your trying to learn spanish. or
anything). Its great.

Oh but i haven’t ever really written about the people i live with. It’s
this family of members. It’s a big circle our house, with a bunch of
rooms around the edges that just open in the middle. This is how the
majority of houses are. The living room is just open space and all the
other rooms are just around in a circle. I love where we live. Its
yellow, and people play music, and i just feel Latin. It’s fun :) our
piensanista is from Columbia, and she has a one year old son. (They
live in our house, with two other families that are of her husbands
sister and brother). She has a little boy that is one year old and is
named lucas. He can say 4 words: Mama, Goal, coca cola, and Hermanas.
haha he is the cutest thing ever ever!!!!

Ok well that’s got to be all right now. We are still trying to get
Maria Torrez married... she can get baptized if she just gets married!
Oh also i bought a new backpack (and dress) because my zipper broke.
haha.

i love you all so much! Thanks for all the letters and things! im
trying to write back. i am just exhausted every pday now haha. its so
great.

love, Hermana Black

More pictures

In the rain in Bolivia--January 2013

On the bus going to an activity with the Zone

At the end of the day, after your hair has been up
in a bun, on top of your head, in over 80% humidity...

A typical avocado, enough to feed a family of 10!

January's Mail Bonanza! = One Happy Missionary!

Typical Public Phones...Wanna Cracker?

Carnival

hello hello!

So good good week! Definitely one of my favorites in the mission.
Monday started out with our activity- i think i told you about it. I
wrote about my companion getting spit in the face on the bus right?
That was hilarious. Oh and sad too of course. But anyways it was fun-
i got to talk to a bunch of new elders and tell them about how things
get better. It’s nice to be the one saying that now instead of being
the one that gets told that. I like this end better. They’re great
though. We haven’t gotten any new hermanas since me and hermana
Huenchur! So that’s kind of weird.

Anyways tuesday was a conferencia. It was really cool- we had a chance
to teach this investigator- about 100 missionaries with this one
investigator. His son and wife are members- i think he just needed a
little push, and 100 people in white shirts (and like 8 with colors ;)
) did the trick. He´ll be getting baptized this month :)

Wednesday- funny you should mention the story in the bible about the
blind man mom- this week we talked to a couple that was blind. They
politely told us we were gringas. haha. it’s actually been amazing. we
are not brilliant spanish speakers (we have some people that like to
remind us of this often). But God is showing his power through us
every day and it is awesome! The language of the spirit is so much more
strong than anything else. Today we had an appointment with marco, but
he wasn’t home! This is always really weird. But we have found that
when Marco isn’t home, it means there is something else very specific
that God needs us to do. The first time we found Kaila. This time, we
talked to this new family that we are hopeful for. You just can’t give
up hope in the mission- there are always people that God wants you to
talk to.

ok anyways thursday. So thursday we talked to Marco and he is loving
the book of mormon. We gave him the plan of salvation pamphlet, and he
read it and taught it to us this day haha. oh also he was really sad
that he had to miss the lesson on wednesday- we don’t have a phone for
him to call and tell us these kinds of things. But anyways he is doing
great!

Friday- we met with Kaila and she too is doing awesome! We´ve only
talked to her a week, but i wouldn’t be surprised if she finished the
book of mormon before her baptism, also for feb. 16. She is very
smart, and is just soaking up everything. my favorite thing was when
we gave her a pamphlet for her to read for next time, she couldn’t help
but say "oh thank you thank you I love these!!!!!" it makes my day to
have these people that are discovering the wonderful gospel and can
see the truth! ah its just great!!! She’s 21 and marco is 22 I dunno if
i wrote that...

Saturday- well Nanci doesn’t want to listen to us anymore. But we found
another little family and the mom is super interested, because of the
light in our eyes. I was so grateful she said this- it makes me feel
like if anything, at least we are doing our part to be good servants
of the Lord. We really are working so very hard and it feels good!!!

ok so sunday- we finally got to talk to Maria Torrez again, and her
wedding is set for feb 15, baptism for 16 if all goes well. She has a
very strong testimony of the truth of the church, she just has tons
and tons of trials right now. She is 42 years old. She loves the
hymns, and i happened to buy and extra hymn book when i was at the
distribution center. She just cried and cried when i gave it to her.
Anyways pray for her that everything will work out for her wedding!!

Well obviously I’m super excited and thrilled and happy about these
upcoming baptisms. Unfortunately I wont be able to write next Monday-
we can’t leave our houses saturday night, or all day sunday, mon, tues
because its carnival!!! Everyone will be throwing water balloons full
of paint at each other, and rubbing shoe polish on each other’s faces,
and making mud puddles to push people in. so ill write on the 18th
about these baptisms!!!!

Thought: i read in the liahona (speaking of which I’ve seen Justin in
the Ensign :) ) an article by HB Eying "the Lord requires faith and
humility before he gives his help." love this! Also i got the package
of meds thank you so so so much! You should send a picture of extended
family if you can some time :)

muchooooooo ammooooooooooor!

hermana black

hellooooo

Hola familia!

So this last Monday i got so much stuff! I’m definitely the most loved
missionary :) I received packages and cards from the young women of
the ward, gramma and chichi and lula, Patrice family, Evan family,
marivel, the ward, madeline, deedee, dory, and morgan! (and mom and
dad:) ) so thank you so stinking much! Seriously, my zone leaders had
to take a taxi to bring everything. They were like, we just need to
have the mail go directly to Hermana Blacks house. Then she can bring
the one or two other letters to those who get them. Haha. Oh and yeah
i got your orange letter madeline, sorry i just have not been able to
write back! 

Also i do not have much time today- we had a big activity
and now we only have 30 minutes to write! But yeah. Thanks so much for
your letters and packages!!! Also my companion says thanks to grandma
and chichi for the stuff in the christmas package :)

Ok so i wrote last week about three families that came to church which
was amazing! Well two of them don’t want to talk to us anymore sadly.
But the third one a mom (Nanci) brought her two kids (sophia age 7 and
Israel age 8) to church with her, along with her brother in law,
Marco. Marco is progressing super fast! He already has a testimony of
the gospel during this week, and he is super excited for his baptism,
Feb 16! His birthday is feb 17, and he´ll be getting the Holy Ghost
that day! We are trying to prepare Nanci and Israel for that day too,
but they are going a little slower. Her husband, also named Israel,
doesn’t want to talk to us yet. But with this wife and brother
listening to us, we are hopeful that he will soon! Also, this lady
thats been coming to church for a while named Maria Torrez isn’t a
member because she isn’t married. But her husband was a member a long
time ago. We felt like we should visit her, and we found out that she’s
been preparing to get married this next week! So we are excited about
getting her baptized soon too. Then we also have Kaila, who is
planning on getting married to a member, so she wants to get baptized.
We are excited about these people right now. We definitely have so
much support in this ward, and that’s been so key in these lessons!
(and not just because the members can speak spanish haha)

Also congrats to afton in the play! someone record it for sure!!!

ok have i mentioned that it is hot here? wow its insane! i am hot and
rashy and man wow haha hot. id put some more descriptive words but i
really don’t have time and cant think fast enough in english right now
haha. it finally rained friday- for the first time since january 2nd.
i love the rain so stinking much!!! it was so cool. We looked and saw
these black clouds on the horizon at about 7. Then we knocked on a
door, and with this lady we watched as in less than 10 minutes, the
whole sky was super black and the world became SeaWorld. We ran home
as fast as we could (its dangerous sometimes with how much the rain
just pours and we didn’t have an umbrella or anything). we were
drenched! Well we couldn’t really leave so we made some popcorn and
watched the rain and listened to the thunder. It’s so loud here, like
it sounds like the sky is breaking. i love it so much!

so i read in the bible that parable about how first the rich people
are called to the feast, and then later other people until the feast
is filled. well i thought about that other scripture, about how many
are called and few are chosen. And as i read that parable, i realized
that we CHOOSE to be chosen. its in our actions and choices and who
we follow. I like that i have the control to decide.

Anyways it was a good week full of lots of hard work and i loved it!
January has flown by for me. It’s nice to understand the work and start
to have success. I love you all so much! Thanks for so much support
and love!

love , hermana black

ps if i could ever get a copy of grandmas testimony, that movie for
the church in spanish, that would be awesome! maybe for my birthday?
:) thanks!

PICTURES!!!!

Hermana Black with a scarecrow investigator

Cabbages the size of your head

Enjoying a cupcake on last day with Hermana Choquee

One of the "better" bridges over a water-runoff canal

"Soy Chismosa": translation = I'm a gossiper

hola!

hello hello!

So today my zone leaders came in a taxi to internet- because they had
to bring tons of packages! So finally I’m going to get stuff today.
Everything from December and January hopefully. I sneaked a peak and
saw that i have two from Marivel and one from sister Wendelboe! I´lll
let you know what else next monday. Thanks so much everyone! Oh also i
never asked if you got everything in my christmas package? There was
something for mom and dad and for the whole fam too. Also Hna Morris
just told me that her mom wrote and said that she saw someone at the
post office sending me something this week! I’m guessing it was
marivel? Anyways small world!!! Also i love that you are so good at
science projects family haha. Hna Morris is a chemistry major :)

Ok so parasite update: so my companion made me call sister Calderon
because i was sick. She of course said go to the clinic. i was not
exactly thrilled about this. But I’ve learned something out here
believe it or not. When there´s something hard that you need to do,
you need to ask God to help you with three things. Or maybe its just
me. But it really helps. First, you need to ask for STRENGTH to go
through with the trials or things that will help you grow. Then,
you´ve got to ask for the CAPACITY to handle the situation when you´re
in it. Then, you ask for the RESILIANCE to be ok and keep moving
forward after. When i focus on these three things and asking God to
give me these things, I feel like i have more control and receive the
help i need. So anyways, i went to the clinic on Tuesday, and got the
test results Wednesday. On Tuesday i got a blessing from my awesome
zone leaders. I also have been taking the drops like crazy. Well, I
don’t have a parasite! I mean im pretty sure i did, but thanks to the
medicine, sleeping all day Tuesday, the blessing, and i know tons of
prayers from family and friends, I’m cured! (that’s quoted from the
stripes book that Tali loves :) ) anyways so I’m super happy obviously
about that.

Monday- so i was pretty sick all day, and Hermana Morris washed
aaaaall my clothes by hand for me! Man she is the best. Also, we had
some construction going on at our house to move the bathroom door to
open into our bedroom and not to the outside. The walls were done in
one day, but we didn’t get a door until Saturday haha. Its been fun.
oh Hna Morris has been out one year.

Tuesday- sick all day. its easy to get fevers here because its so hot.
also people get pneumonia because you’ll be outside sweating like crazy
and then it’ll rain cold rain. But anyways wednesday i pretty much felt
perfect!

Wednesday- tons of hard work from hna Morris and hna black!! hna
morris really understands how to effectively work and effectively use
time. its awesome.  We complete our realistic goals and feel the
influence of the spirit like crazy!

Thursday- we didn’t complete our goals but we still worked really hard.
We got to know our bishop who has an awesome conversion story,
including running across Bolivia which is always cool right?

Friday- so we have 5 girls in the ward that are all leaving for the
mission soon, and are inviting their friends to listen to the
missionaries! they are so great- like even if one of their friends
arent´home, they have a backup plan with more friends!!! haha love it.
its so great. Also this day i had a whole conversation alone with one
of the girls when my companion was talking to another girl, and i
understood everything and was able to communicate!!! I am definitely
doing awesome with spanish right now :)

Saturday- what a huge difference effective planning and use of time
makes. I cannot even believe the difference in the work!! The day goes
by fast when we use it well!

Sunday- today is where everything really paid off- where we really got
to see the fruits of our labors. 3 FAMILIES came to church this day.
All three families are preparing for baptism for February 16. I dont
think all the members of every family will be ready be this date
maybe, but we will definitely be having some baptisms this transfer!
Hard work is paying off so well for us right now. hard work is worth
it because there are results! We have been able to find the people
ready in this area. Today i kind of felt like Ammon, bringing groups
of people to the waters of baptism. But im getting carried away. Feb
16 is still pretty far away and there’s much work to be done!

Anyways awesome week obviously. oh my piensanista is named Jose. its
really different here. Hna Roxana was kind of like a mom, but jose
just gives us food. We live in the same house with her and the family
of her sister. I’ll have to send pics of the house i love it. ha.
Anyways this is all i can write right now but thanks so much for your
love and support!

love, hermana Black