Hola hola!! This week was crazy. So much
has changed. Ok, so Tuesday we weren’t allowed to leave our houses. Wednesday
we were allowed to work in Pdays (casual) clothes. Elder Norton and I had an
awesome day working. We worked hard and had several super good citas/lessons that
day. We were super excited.
Thursday, we thought we´d be able to
work, but we had to stay home again. And then while we were at lunch, we got a
call from the assistants telling us that all North Americans were getting taken out
of the country. Man. That was awful. We were sooo sad and then angry, and sad.
We weren’t allowed to tell anybody either. That was the hardest part. We weren’t
allowed to tell anybody we were leaving, and we couldn’t say goodbye to
anybody. That was tough. It was totally normal in Cochabamba. At least it
seemed like that in my area. But watching the news and talking to people, the
military was there in Cochabamba, and there were other people marching and
doing blockades and little by little they were getting more upset and starting
to fight. So it was getting pretty dangerous, and we needed to get out.
So then Friday early in the morning
we flew from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz. We got there and had lunch and stayed in
the stake center there all day. It was pretty fun. Almost all the gringos
(North Americans) from our mission were there, and we just talked and played
games and relaxed.
Saturday most of the gringos flew out
to Brazil (to the MTC). Saturday I and a few other missionaries stayed in
Santa Cruz because they didn’t have our flights. It was kind of upsetting
because the Santa Cruz elders are all staying in their mission. It’s not super dangerous
there since most of the people there wanted the old president of Bolivia out.
So we worked with several sets of elders there in Santa Cruz. We had a good day
working like normal, and we had several good citas. It was kind of a sad day
because I was thinking about how much I’m really going to miss Bolivia and its
people.
Sunday morning we finally flew out of
Santa Cruz, Bolivia and made it to the Brazilian MTC. We met up with all the
other missionaries from our mission. We met with the MTC president and then had
interviews with him, and he told us our new mission assignment. I’m going to
the Colombia Cali mission!! I’m pretty excited! All the elders from Cochabamba
are going to 1 of the 5 missions in Colombia. The sisters are all going back to
missions in the states. Crazy!
Today we were able to visit the
temple here in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And then tomorrow morning at 7a we fly out to
Colombia. Word around here is that we will go to the MTC in Colombia for a
little bit before separating to our different missions. We are all super, super
excited. It’s super sad that we had to leave Bolivia. I learned a lot there and
will forever love Bolivia and the people there. I know I’m doing the Lord’s
work, and it doesn’t matter where I am; I still need to help and teach the
people just the same. God is good.
Les amo muchisimo!!
Elder Sorensen