Ups and downs - keep going

Building a house for a service project

Hi family!

Whats happenen?  Hey sounds like this summer has really been a great one. I am so happy for that!

This week was interesting. We are teaching this kid of 19 years right now that is just progressing super great! His name is Bladimir and he knows the bible better than anyone i´ve ever talked to in bolivia! so its fun to talk to him- sometimes our lessons are 2 hours long! this is a lot and not recommended, but he seriously wants to keep learning. we always try to answer all of his questions, and when he doesnt have anymore, he asks, whats next? he will be getting baptized 24 of August! All of my converts tend to be Young men…well they will just all go on missions and convert all the families of the world. Thats ok. J He is seriously doing well though and we are (relieved) excited to have someone progressing!

My companion is still struggling which is hard. I have to give her pep talks, jump on her bed and sing to her, and when i do these things we are good to go: for one day. After, we have to start over again and i am tired. But its the work we do when we are tired that counts the most right?

My zone right now; favorite zone so far

The good thing is that i have awesome zone leaders right now. I think i wrote about how they sang to me on the phone one day? Well today we had an awesome getting to know you activity. It was nice that not only were the hermanas invited to the activity, they really seemed to care about us and getting to know us. This has really helped me not feel so alone. I keep working. And repenting. And working. And i can tell my testimony is like a ton stronger than when i started my misión. Like when we do have lessons (only like 10 a week…this is extremely low), I can just feel the spirit in the room when I bare my testimony. I have really worked hard to get to know God and his góspel, and it is really paying off now which is awesome. I am not only saying words when i talk. I am really saying what i know is true, from the bottom of my soul. This is exciting. I know God has more work for me to do here (even though satan is trying to convince me otherwise) so im going to keep working.

Last night Hna mita, the other “mama” sister who lives in the house and i talked a lot. She comforted me and i have more desires to keep doing good work even if i dont feel like anything is happening. I have more desires to talk to everyone, even if they do or say horrible things to me. Because how else are we going to find the people who ARE ready and waiting for the góspel?

I do love Bolivia. I love this church. I love the good news of christ.  I seriously get promptings to pray for people sometimes, and our [Provo] neighbors have been on the list for a while. I love this góspel. Its hard when people just dont get it. I just want people to be happy. But his is Gods work in HIS way. And i am grateful that He at least has the pacience to teach me every lesson.

Love you all,

Hermana Elisa black

ps  sorry... i think i really did used to write more...just know my thoughts are more here in bolivia now- i have less time to think about what i am going to write home. this is good haha. well love you all seriously so much.

pps oh also this week we had a consejo de lideres which was awesome. we got to talk with president and hermana Willard who are finally back in the mission! they are super inspired and i love that at conferences we now focus more on feeling the spirit, building ourselves up, and love. seriously such a diference. i am grateful that i am here to witness such diferent approaches to missionary work. also tuesday was Independence day for Bolivia! so there was lots of parades and dancing. that was pretty fun. President was talking during the council and a band was passing by the church we were in. he plays the drums professionally, and he just couldnt focus when the band was passing so we got to go outside to watch the parade. haha. i am learning about how to let go of stress which is nice.

ppss  oh funny experience- when i was at the conference, My companion had the cellphone. well Bladimir (our one investigator) texted her to ask where the practice was to dance in the ward talent show that night. well she thought he was one of the elders or hermanas asking about the conference, so she sent him at 8a.m. to a church building far away. then he asked is it too late to go? and she responded, use the light of christ. so he was looking all around bolivia for a church called the light of christ. well anyways he ended up calling and was like I am Bladimir and im super lost. well she felt super dumb but the great thing is is that people who are really prepared forgive you haha. love, me

NUMBER 47 baby!

oh mom i just love you so much. did you know that? and the rest of you guys too i guess ,)

This week really was a better week. seriously. I am very grateful for this. On monday we finally got to teach the Robles family! i think i wrote about them once when i first got here. They´ve got a son named Elder! We taught the whole family on monday and it was so great. I was so grateful for the experience of finally talking to someone with interest. One of the first questions they asked was where can we buy a hymn book? (thats always a good sign).

on tuesday i had an intercambio. the other sister leader came into my zone to do the intercambio with me. Ive got great zone and district leaders right now which is such a blessing. They planned this intercambio so that I could hopefully feel better and not feel so down. sweet huh? well anyways it was a great day. 

so on Wednesday we had a lesson set up for the Robles family though and i made my companion memorize the first vision to say to them. (normally you memorize this in the CCM but she didnt. we also have taught the first vision 2 other times but she just wouldnt memorize it). I told her that the Robles family is too important for her to fake her way through the first vision again. so i demonstrated how to share the first vision with the spirit. I practiced with her. I gave her pep talks. And as we were walking to their house she finally had it down. Unfortunately only the mom was home- her husband was working. But i think this lesson was the most spiritual experience we have had as a companionship. it went great. I think she felt good about finally doing something in a lesson. 

Our ward is definitely getting the mission bug more. ive been praying so hard for this. one family went to pick up an inactive family, and this other family live in the house and this young guy. well they ended up hauling all of them to church! so the young guy has a baptism fecha. we are so excited for this. 

also hna mita (sister living in my house) hast o go to theorabpy for her back, and she gave a book of mormon to the lady. the lady said, members live in my house, but they never invite me! so please, for the love of all that is holy, invite a friend to church this week. 

much love! love hermana elisa black

Perseverar

hey hello howdy

Ok so first off the top line of the key board doesn’t work so i can’t but exclamation points or question marks haha. its funny i never thought how important punctuation was for me until i lost it. That’s how all things in life though are i am learning.

Anyways thanks for helping me get my feet back on the ground a little more this week. This week was actually worse than the other week- we had even less investigators and less lessons. But i know it’s a test of my faith- to see if I will keep going even when I don’t see any results. It’s frustrating because I have so much desire to work and teach and help but there is just nothing happening here. Our ward mission leader runs when he sees us, our bishop just hides. The Jehovahs witnesses knock every door in our area every single morning these days, and our members don’t have time to help us. We have references, but we can never find them. So yeah, I’m just going to say this is my faith building, perseverar hasta el fin area. Which is ok.

I really liked the story mom and Patrice sent. I thought about how much I really truly suffered my first months in the mission, and how all the new girls coming in have it so great now haha. I thought, why did it have to be so hard for me at first. But then I realized that i am ok with the price I paid to know God. I really do know him now. I didn’t before my mission. Not well at least. I was really, really beaten down. I’m so different now haha. But it’s so great. 

Really don’t have anything to report this week. I summed it up in the second paragraph. Oh and elder nelson is just an elder who broke his leg so he has nothing to do but to take our phone calls when we are sick. haha. Our president should be back next week. It’s been hard without him. 

I really just want to work work work work work and help help help help but we end up just walking around a lot. Its stressfull because i am seriously worried about finding everyone that I need to teach. But I am trying so hard not to be stressed out. I love working so very much. Well this is seriously all I can write right now. I am doing good. Thanks for all your help and love and advice and prayers my life is the best  thing ever.

love, hermana elisa black

Keep going even when it's hard

ok hello and howdy!

First off  sorry if this email is hard to understand- the spacebar on this computer is                    messed up. haha. But anyways it sounds like at home was a super fun and adventurous week!    Can talitha ride a 2 wheeler? Or was she pulling the wagon on a 3 wheeler? So weird. She looks so big in the pictures you sent. Speaking of which thanks so oooo much madeline for the  plan de salvacion, talitha for the  drawings, and mom for the pics and      thing from Lula’s funeral.   All of these things are on my desk and wall now. thanks so much! Really enjoyed that lots and lots. also so cool that you are going to go see hna  melissa morris  for her homecoming!!! She sent me pictures of all the  things she is eating  haha. I miss her lots.  The girls in my house last night told me that I need to start trying to be  hna black and not hna morris...I think i must be talking about her a lot and how I want to be like her haha. 

As far as salud goes- i am feeling awesome. i did take the charcoal, along with some other things  perscribed from  Elder nelson, and even went to the clinic because                                               it just wasn’t stopping haha.  But they said I was perfecto. So i asked my zone leader for a blessing. The blessing said  that    because I   decided to use faith, the medicine in me would start to work little by little and that I didn’t need to take anything else! So.. ... I am learning a lot about faith this week. :)        

 on monday I was  kind of frustrated with   trying to do my calling as leader,  have good  logros (number of lessons? I dunno what logros is in english anymore haha)             and train my companion.  But     reading the quote  you sent me mom helped me to remember to take things one day at a time.  Sometimes I get frustrated because I just want the church to work as good here as it does in utah. I just want someone, anyone to                                be a home teacher or a visiting teacher. I know we are far from perfect in utah  haha but like    . ... a lot of things work a lot better  in utah. And i know like the chruch has been in utah for 200 years, and we are  just barely going to get to 50 soon here in bolivia. But sometimes because I’ve seen how the church CAN work i just want to  make everyone here do it in the same way. haha.

But anyways its really going good   here.  FAith though has become big this week for me.  sometimes when   you just  get no no no no no no no no no no day after day you start to get disheartened and lose faith. It’s because you want to protect yourself.  Well at least me.  i don’t want to be sad again, don’t want to get my hopes up, so I think I lose faith because it’s easier to just not believe that the people will progress. When you  really picture someone in white, really believe that they           are  ready, really   put all your heart and soul into helping them and then they don’t except the truth and happiness you have, its hard! And it  really hurts. so I think somet imes I   shut down a little  sometimes. But   you  just gotta keep having faith. gotta keep    believing that there are people here you are meant to teach and baptize.      And sometimes you go weeks without finding them, and if you’re like me you get nervous because you think,   where are the people I promised before this life that  I would find  ? What if i don’t find them ?!   But                   you just  gotta keep going with faith. Trust that the big guy    up above is going to make everything work out. I just have to do my part- which is           open m y mouth and talk to everyone and do my best.  God will do his part  if I let him.

 Anyways this week was also cambios.  I am still with Hermana Barrios ( one month with the same companion if you can believe it ! haha  ) but now there are two more    hermanas in our house that  are also working in our area! One of them is a new  gringa ! hna baldridge. No one can say her name here hahaha.    We went from 2 gringas in this mission to 6 this week!  so that’s cool.                  also thanks to my calling as leader I was                 helping with the cambios.  My favorite part of this was running down the street in front of a taxi with  6 mattresses piled on top. haha  

                              None of our investigatores came to church this  sunday, but we aren’t giving up faith. We will get there. We will find the people ready  and chosen for the gospel.  We choose to be chosen. God is in this work, God is my  captain in chief,  and this is   His work that I am doing. I love it. I love helping others. I love saving the world .   

 thanks for  everything! love, Hermana Elisa Black

Training is hard

hello hello! 

First off iffy computer so no fotos sorry. 

Also other noticias... i dont know if you guys remember that when i was with Hermana Morris in Centenario we found this Catholic priest guy that is like a representative from Rome. Hermana Morris and I only taught him how to pray, and then new hermanas came into that area. Well, he totally got baptized last month. Cool right? And oh the reason why I feel more segure is because we now have cellphones! So that’s nice. 

Bien. Well this week i got pretty disheartened. it’s just kinda hard training (she’s great just a lot of the new latinas think that the mission is like a happy little vacation. In the states, we learn the mission is hard! here everyone tells people that are going to go on missions that is so fun and beautiful and wonderful.). But i really hope this next week is better. 

Like this week we had a family home evening with some members that said they were going to invite the husbands brother who isn’t a member over. Well we went, and they were like "just kidding his brother is actually a member and lives really far away from here". And I’m just like, um... thanks for wasting our time.  

Then we have lots of investigators that are coming to church that just don’t want to get baptized. so like, we are working so hard but they just don’t want to get wet. Sigh. So lots of work with little results right now. 

Wednesday was kinda fun though. I went looking for houses with Hna Ariza and the assistants. We are getting lots of new missionaries this week! Well anyways tuesday in the night there was this helicopter with a search light looking around in our area and the areas around. The driver when we were looking for houses said that the police are looking for two of the last gang members of this columbian gang. They found the boss because he was looking for a house to rent, and the police found all the gang members except 2. Well hermana ariza is columbiano and so is one of the assistants. And what were we doing? Looking for houses to rent. hahaha it was funny. 

Also hermana willard who is amazing is in the usa recovering from breaking her foot last week. poor thing. We now have an elder who is our nurse. And guess who got really sick this week? That’s right me. haha. poor elder nelson. 

This week we found a new family though who have a lot of interest in the strength of youth. It’s a mom with two kids in youngmen/women. People want good things for their families, and I got news for them. We are the only ones who have what they need. Period. They came to church this week and loved it! So we are going to be working hard for Gladys and her family. I just need to stay happy and work hard and we should be good to go. 

Well anyways this is all for today. i love you all so very much. Thanks for being great!

love, hermana elisa black

ONE YEAR MARK!

hi mom and family and friends!

So I’m here in san pedro still. With the same companion, hermana barrios. I know it’s always a shock when things aren’t different haha. Anyways the pictures are of me and my girls here in this house. The one with pizza is last monday, and the other one is us celebrating my one year mark which is the same day as my companions 1 month mark! so that was fun.

Ok well this week was definitely less cold and we enjoyed it (well my companion was almost dead with how hot it was and I was like honey, this is winter here). But today we are feeling winds from the south which means it’s soon gunna be cold. Anyways a little bit about my house where I live: it’s awesome. Definitely the most beautiful house I’ve lived in here. Its right next to the church which is awesome. Also the owner of the house has a parrot, a little black cat, and a bright white bunny with red eyes. I love it. The cat and bunny play together. I’m  teaching the parrot to whistle "woot woot" any time someone says "hermana black". So far its working good! seriously the birds here are super intelligent. Also the other night we were all in one of the bedrooms when hermana ariza gave a little yelp! They were all sitting on the beds and i was sitting on the floor. Well usually when people yelp like that it means mouse! So i got up and turned around faster than rain clouds enter santa cruz. But it was just the bunny. haha. I chased him out. Definitely like the pets of this house better. 

Anyways the new president and his wife got here this week! President and hermana Willard from Arizona. Um they are seriously amazing. They are changing so much about the mission- so much that I knew needed to change for a long time. I am so happy!!!! Ah this week was super stressful because I’m training, opening a new area, doing intercambios, and well it’s a special week for Elisa haha. But i know that little by little things are really going to change here for the good. I know that i definitely got closer to god for all my suffering here, and maybe that’s why I had the president I had. But now with these new changes I’m going to feel so safe, enjoy my time more, and have a lot less stress I think. I’m very very grateful for this. Maybe I just needed to learn and see the difference. But seriously I just cried after our conference with the president on tuesday! The changes are very, very good. 

Anyways we have been struggling with the work here a little right now. We do have lots of references which is incredible. But we are doing a lot of walking and not a lot of entering. I guess i really just need to get over my fear of talking to people on the phone and call people a lot more. But yeah it’s good. I’m also learning humility a lot here haha which is good. I just miss my old zone that started saying "we will go and do the things which Hermana Black commands". haha gotta start from scratch again here. haha no humility is just what I need.

Anyways this is all for today. I’m learning lots and its awesome. Hope california was a blast! love, hermana elisa black  

Missing Paraiso; changing back to original mission

so hopefully you read my other email first. because now i am in san pedro! but a few house keeping items first... first of all um malorie had a frog? k didnt know that. but im sorry he died i guess. also i got a few dear elders last week from dad and malorie... a lot of the tmie i dont get the ends of the letters. sigh. i dunno maybe its easier just to send everything via email and i can trie to print stuff... its just expensive but i think its more secure...i dunno. also im in the south mission now but i think i wrote that in my other email.

ok back to this week. well all monday we were moving to our new home. i found out why we had to leave paraiso. its because the new asistentas to the president are taking over that ward. sigh. i seriously had a hard time all this week. i miss paraiso so much. also we had two baptisms this week and two more planned for this coming week. hopefully they are taking care of that all. but anyways san pedro is pretty cool. its the best house for hermanas in the mission! becuase its pretty and huge. but its aweful for the cold! and this week is the coldest week of my mission! holy cow it was crazy rainy and cold. thats basically what i have to say about tuesday. so cold and rainy. we are opening this area, which means we dont know anyone. the last missionaries that where here were hna white and hna ordunez, and that was a month ago. (yes everyone thinks its hilarious that hna white left and now they have hna black). but anyways we are trying to get to know the area and the people as fast as we can so that we can work here!

so with all the cold and rain and leaving paraiso, i kind of had a slumpy attitude. but its getting better. saturday we had a baptism! the hermanas before taught her everything, we just basically came in and baptised her. she is awesome. shes a recently devorced mom with three cute little kids, including a baby of 4 months. she is amazing. on sunday we were waiting for her to come in so that she could get the holy ghost, but she still wasnt there when we finished the santa cena. so we finished that and the 2ndo councilor was like one of the young people go and get the new convert. and i was like well no one knows where she lives except us. so we got up and ran to her house. its about 7 blocks from the church. we knocked on her door and these kids of the neighbor that lives in her house was like "she left". and i was like no! you´ve got to be kidding me! so we ran (well walked... we were pretty dead from running) back to the church. when we walked in one of the members was coming out and he was like where have you guys been? she was just in the bathroom. so yeah... everyone somehow knew she was there except me. probably i was just anxious and so i didnt understand the 2nt coucilor. thats what happens with the gift of tongues. if you dont have the spirit (and you only have the spirit when your not freaking out) you dont understand. so that was that experience. so embarrassing, because always on the first day that the missionaries enter a ward, you always give your testimony. so they also called us up and we werent there. haha.

anyways also it was the area san pedros birthday on saturday so the other picture im sending is of people dancing in my street. every area has a different name, and so does every s treet. and when its the birthday of your street or area, theres always a party. well i happen to be in san pedro and its the area of san pedros birthday. i dunno how everyone keeps the parties straight here, because there is a ton!!! some of the streets its easy to tell when its its birthday, because the streets name is 24 de novembre. i dunno how anyone keeps anythning else straight. but anyways theres always a party in bolivia. this one almost made us late to get in our house on time, but it was super fun i loved it. always parades. everyone likes to dress up here! 

oh also on wednesday i had another intercambio. i love doing intercambios. its fun to leave and help out other people. its always for 24 hours, so i even sleep over. it was fun because it was an intercambio with two companerismos, and hermana morris was with the other companion. so i got to see her for my last time i think before she goes back home. 

anyways lots of love and stuff from me this week. hopefully you get these emails today! love, hermana elisa black  

ps oh yeah happy 4th of july and completion of one year in the mission! wow its nuts isnt it? love, me