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| It's Me!--Elder Sorensen. How crazy is this? One of the missionaries here bought this sweatshirt at a second-hand store in Bolivia and brought it to a meeting. I realized it's a sweatshirt from the high school my dad, mom, sister and lots of my aunts, uncles, and cousins graduated from in Washington. |
Hola hola!! How’s it going?? Our week out here in Bolivia was AWESOME!! One of the best in my mission for sure. We worked super hard and have been blessed to see lots of success. We´ve been working a lot more with members, especially the presidents of the church organizations. In each member house we focus on four things: 1) less active members, 2) part-member families, 3) people that used to talk with the missionaries but didn’t get baptized, and 4) friends and family who have never talked with missionaries. It’s awesome!! And we´ve been getting tons of references and awesome people to look for and visit. So this past week we looked for a ton of them, and then had super, super awesome citas/appointments with nearly all of them!! It was incredible! We had very few citas fall through, which is a miracle and blessing straight from God. God is soooo good.
So a few of the
people and families we´ve been visiting. First there are three little girls
that are super awesome and remind me a ton of my sisters. Their names are Cristal
(11), Fernanda (9) and Alexa (9). They come to church every week with their
aunt (who is a member). They really, really want to get baptized, and we
FINALLY were able to have a good cita with their mom, Maria. It was an awesome
visit, and we are super excited to help her progress.
Another family we´ve
visited tons of times is the family Villalba. We have a really hard time
getting citas with them, but lately we´ve been working with Aracely (16), and
she is actually reading the Book of Mormon!! and is preparaing to get baptized
the 30 de noviembre!!! She is awesome.
We also found an
awesome, awesome family. We had a little bit of time, and we decided to go look
for the Clavijo family. Valeria (20) is baptized, but her parents and older
brother and little sister aren´t. We´ve looked for them several times but this
time... they were home and had time right then!!!! WOW!!! They are a very well
off family and are very, very smart. (They all have learned English pretty well
too, which is impressive). They are incredible, and we talked about the Book of
Mormon with them, and when we left, they were super, super curious. The mom is
a strong faithful Catholic. The son believes in God but not in churches or the
Bible and kind of more or less in Jesus Christ as the actual Son of God. The
little sister kind of just listens quietly. Haha. They are awesome.
We also found the
family of Alison (17) who got baptized like a year ago. Her mom, Elizabeth,
used to talk with the missionaries a little bit then and even came to church a
few times a year ago. She was super nice and wanting to visit with us more like
she did before.
In the same house of
Alison, well the owners of the house are Yolanda (mom) and her kids. We
contacted them when we visited with Alison and then later had a super awesome
cita with them. The mom was like “I already have my religion,” but we were
able to push a little bit and read from the Book of Mormon with them about
prayer and the amazing power that comes from praying.
Another day we were
looking for a reference we had received and we decided to knock on the doors
around where we were looking. One of them, Danitza, said she had talked with
missionaries a long time ago (when she was a little girl). When we came back
later and had an awesome cita, she told us her parents got baptized but
she was too young. Now she has her own family, her husband and 2 little girls.
They are an awesome family, and we know God led us to knock on her door and
meet her. God is good and this truly is His work. He is preparing people
and guiding us to them.
We kind of got
contacted in the street by this lady named Fabiola. She talked to us in English
and told us she is an architect and worked with a Humanitarian EFY--where
youth from the states come to foreign countries and build schools or something.
She told us the youth had given her a Book of Mormon and had explained a little
about it. We came back later and had an awesome cita answering her questions
and explaining the Book of Mormon more. She is awesome and very smart!!!
Getting contacted is one of the best ways to remember that God is helping us in
His work.
A few days later...
WE GOT CONTACTED AGAIN... this time by a teenager in the street. Supposedly he
had talked to the elders like 2 years ago and wants to talk with us again.
CRAZY!!! Getting contacted almost NEVER happens! God is soooo good.
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| Right outside our apartment. Our neighbors coming out to fight, block the road, and build a bonfire after reports that a group of resistance was coming. |
Unfortunately we didn’t
have church on Sunday because things were pretty crazy and dangerous, so the
Stake President said better not. That was a bummer. Soo, the president of
Bolivia resigned Sunday and everybody was super, super excited and celebrating
like crazy. However after a few hours things got crazy because supposedly in
Venezuela the same thing happened, but the second in line for the president or
the military chief was good friends and just put the president right back in
power like two days later. So things are still super crazy, blockades and such
until they get it all figured out. Also, last night a ton of the supporters of
the president were super angry and started rioting and breaking into houses and
such. It was probably the worst in our area, but we don’t really know. Tons of
the resistance fighters and police (that have joined with the resistance) flew
past our house headed up to fight. Tons of people were right outside our house
blocking the road and ready to fight if the people made it down. It was pretty
crazy. It calmed down a bit, but around 1am people started yelling stuff like “here
they come!!” and “everybody come out and fight!!” It was super crazy and
once again the street was full of people with bats and sticks and started a
huge bonfire in the middle of the road. But then nothing happened. Goodness
gracious. It was pretty crazy. Soo seems like things haven’t completely settled
down yet. We are all good, don’t worry. :) Just pray for the country and the
people here.
It also rained pretty
good most of the weekend, and it was kind of cold. Hahaha. Life is good out
here. I love being a missionary and sharing my testimony every day. The goal of
life is to return to live with God, and we can’t do that unless we are like
Him. Through the Atonement of His Son, we can all become more ready to enter
the kingdom of God.
Les amo muchisimo!!
Elder Sorensen
Elder Sorensen