Cochabamba, Bolivia Temple

Cochabamba, Bolivia Temple

Monday, November 9, 2015

9-11-15

Well, another week past and gone down here in Bolivia. This week was pretty normal, without too much excitement or big adventures. The good news is that my companion, E' Solano, and I get along pretty well. We might even have become friends. Not quite as much as with ex-E' Fleming, but we're trucking along. The weather certainly has been interesting this week, as the first half was gloomy and rainy. Wednesday was hot and humid, but the last half of the week wasn't too hot or too cold. Just right, as Goldilocks would say, with some sun, some clouds, and some wind to make our time walking a little more fun.

After a fun-filled P-day and a gran FHE for Monday, we had to return to SC on Tuesday. The reason is because of the concilio de líderes (leadership counsel) that the mission has every first Tuesday of the month. In said concilio, all the ZLs, office workers, and hermana capacitadoras (sister trainers) of the mission gather to talk about how to improve or in what to focus on in the new month, or something like that. Yes, even the ZL from Beni come to SC for the concilio. It was a very spiritual meeting and we learned many things. We took the opportunity to do some things in the mission office before heading back to Montero, giving us just enough time to visit for a little while before we were supposedly going to have consejo de barrio. (ward council) Oddly enough, no one else showed up. Instead, we got drafted to give a small message in the RS activity that was going on before ending the day.
 
Wednesday morning we planned on going to the houses of the other Elders and doing some inspections to make sure things are going well. We received a call from a companionship inviting us to help in some service, which we originally declined, planning on doing the inspections. However, we felt the impression to help them and returned to call and offer our help. At the time it seemed like no big deal, but the next day, in the Zone meeting, this companionship shared the experience in this way (mas o menos): they planned on helping a family move houses, a service which would be very difficult with only 2 Elders, so they set to ask help. Unfortunately, all the other companionships were unavaliable. Worried about whether they could do the service or not, they set to pray for help. It was the moment after praying that we called offering our help. Coincidence? 
 
The service went well, and helped us remember the importance of serving others. As part of the moving process, we loaded up their stuff in the truck and we rode in the back to help keep things stable. It was easy going until the last 5min when the road got bumpy, leading to a fun last while of the trip. Thursday morning, for the Zone Conference, also went pretty well as we shared the information and teachings from the concilio with the zone. The biggest miracle is that there was a lot of participation from the zone, leading to even more learning and giving us the spiritual strength to keep moving on.
 
Friday in the morning we headed out to inspect the 4 other houses in the Zone housing the other 7 campionships of Elders. One of the houses is in another little town called Mineros, a drive of about 30min northeast-ish from the center of Montero. In the drive we passed with jungle on both sides, and found the small city tranquilo and peaceful. The other houses are much closer to our house. All the Elders appeared happy and excited to be serving missions. After the inspections, we headed back to our area to continue visiting and getting to know the ward.
 
Saturday and Sunday passed by without too much problem. Saturday morning was spent doing weekly planning since we didn't do it Friday, and we got to meet some more families. Since the weather was pretty nice, we enjoyed walking. Only a few areas were still muddy, so we didn't even have the chance to risk slipping. Sunday we had church in the morning, followed by some more walking and getting to know people. The members here are super nice, sharing a whole bunch of different types of fruit with us. It'll sure be interesting to return to Arizona and only find apples and bananas...
 
With love,
Elder Yates
 
As a side note, there are sooo many mango trees here that almost every house has at least one. Also very interesting, I think it became some kind of challenge to merge mango with other fruit genes or something, as we constantly find mango mixed with other fruits, such as the mango manzana or mango piña. Very strange

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