Más cartas (more letters)

Once again time to bless ya'll with my beautiful and elegant weekly letters. If only I also had the opportunity to read them... I guess I'll never know what it's like. Anyway, today we're in a different place than normal, and the keyboard is super funky. It's like an old style, big, bulky white keyboard. But the weirdest part is that it also has Korean keys. Super interesting.

 

As for this pas week, things went pretty well. On Monday we ate a whole bunch of food as a Zone, including enjoying some cake for Elder Moreno's birthday. Then, at night, we went to do a FHE with a family who also shared some cake in celebration. In short, we had a lot of cake.

 

On Tuesday we had a giant Multizone meeting. There was 6 zones, which I think was about 110 people, more or less. We got to listen to Presidente Zambrano and his wife give excellent discursos and learned much. Of course, they made sure we were also fed well. Before ending the Conference, we got a sneak peak at the new Church program for Easter, Gracias a que Él vive (Because He lives, or Grateful He Lives). It's pretty sweet, but (don't tell anyone) I like Él es la dádiva (He is the Gift) more. At least the people should actually understand the whole title of this one...

 

On Wednesday we went and took a little online survey because someone very important (I may have forgotten his name...) is coming to give a discurso at the end of abril and I guess we wants a little help deciding what we would like to learn of. The rest of the day went well.

 

Thursday we had a little intercambio that went pretty well, and Friday also passed without major incident. Saturday night the other Elderes had a baptism, so we went and supported that. Sunday was also nice and peaceful.

 

As for the situation with the house, we found a little home with some members that we can use, and, if it gets approved, we can move in quickly. The best thing is that it's actually in our area, so we don't have to walk as much. :D

 

Con mucho amor

Elder Yates

 

ps Picts inbound

 

So the chickens here climb trees fairly often. Not entirely sure if it's normal up there in the states, but it certainly is a bit strange to me.

The kitchen were we made the food, which was some traditional Peru dishes. Very tastey.

Elder Moreno and me enjoying one of his cakes, this one in the FHE (see next picture)

The family (Sanchez) with which we enjoyed said cake and FHE 

Elder Taylor, one of my two Zone Leaders

My other Zone Leader, Elder Ortega

 

 

Woohoo (Monday, March 9)

First off, I would like to say that today is the birthday of my companion, Elder Moreno. It may be unlikely that he reads this, but if he does (or someone at home can find his family and share through them our collective wish) ¡Cumpleaños Felices!

Anywhozit, this week was pretty nice in terms of the weather. There was a little rain one day this week, causing the next day to be super hot and muggy, but the rest of the week was overcast without the little showers. Then, this morning, it started pouring rain on our house. Luckily it calmed down to just sprinkling ('chicheando' se dice aquí) (they say here) so it was pretty nice. The only downside is that, once again, there is a bunch of mud everywhere. As for the day in which it rained, I was actually in an intercambio (splits) with our Zone Leader, so we got a nice picture walking in his area, which gets a little worse off than our area after rain.

 

Much of our week was spent studying in the morning with a few extra meetings in the afternoons, so we slowed down a little in the Work. We did, however, manage to tap into a grand help this week as we took some advice about talking with members a little more. So, we went and started talking to members about those who havn't assisted (attended) for a while and, lo and behold, we found some people that need a little help. Who'da thunk.

 

This last P-day we went and played a little of a sport that I think is called 'Wally' which is just Volleyball in a Raquetball court. It was super fun, but there was also a super nice looking pool that was pretty tempting to enjoy, especially after all the 'exercise' we had just done.

Today I think we have the plan to go and do some cooking and learning or something like that. Not so sure about the learning and cooking part, but I sure am excited to do the trying and testing part.

 

After much consideration, it is highly likely that el barrio Los Pinos (Los Pinos ward/neighborhood) is going to receive 2 more missionaries to wander and teach. Unfortunately, our little casita (house) only has space for 6. So, seeing as how our area is the farthest and the new area is probably going to be super close to the casa, the lot has fallen on us to find a new place to live. Luckily we still have the rest of this month to search, but it's going to be a little fun. We always pass places en alquilar (for rent), so we only need to find one that's acceptable, so it should be pretty easy. Not sure about leaving the only house I've known in Bolivia however...

 

Con amor, (with love)

Elder Yates

Marzo (March)

Hard to believe it's already the month of March, ¿no? Not entirely sure how your weather has been up there in the States, but down here it's still been hot. Seems like it'll always be hot, too. It wouldn't be too bad if it was also humid all the time. Plus, especially in my current area, good ol' AC is practically unheard of, so our only relief is found under trees. The good thing is that, unlike Arizona, there are actually trees down here, not just 'Green Sticks' (Palo Verde). So it goes without saying that it's pretty down here, as long as you ignore the trash in the streets...

 

Anyway, this week was pretty relaxed and easy-going. We had a grand breakthrough in the Work this week as we managed to have an investigator assist Church with us! Unfortunately, it was only him and his daughter, leaving behind his wife and 6 other children, but it's a little victory at least. Otherwise, it seems our biggest difficulty with people is Church because the chapel is a little far away; it's located in the tercer anillo (3rd ring) while we're stationed between anillos siete y noveno (7 and 9th ring). As such, its a good 15-30 minute Micro ride, depending on where you start, to Church. And, even though we start at 10, we get many excuses of people sleeping in until its too late to leave. It seems some things never change.

 

To start, we havn't been breaking into houses recently, and we didn't even have to do more immigrations this week! As such, we had a little more time to read some more scriptures. I celebrated by finishing reading the Doctrine and Convenents as well as the Pearl of Great Price. Really all I have left to read is the Old Testament, so if I start now I might finish it before finishing College. Woo!

 

When I was still in the US, I really didn't appreciate the grand sport of fútbol. Now, however, I've seen how this sport dominates the lives of some people down here, as well as the influence it has. Granted it might be because it's just about the only sport they play down here, so that might have a litte effect on me. Anyway, it's amazing how much I've learned about fútbol down here, especially about the equipos professionales (professional teams) (Go Bayern Munich!)

 

Hope everything is well way up north,

Elder Yates

Después la Carnaval (After Carnaval, Monday, February 23)

Well, we all survived Carnaval this year. It was a super fun 4 days of being in the house. I managed to finish reading el Libro de Mormón in 2 days, leaving plenty of time to do other stuff. We were a little spoiled in our house as we managed to borrow a projector and a 'screen' with which to create our own little movie theatre. We made sure to take advantage of it and watched a whole of bunch of (Church) movies, including almost 3 hours of Bible videos in English followed by another hour and a half of Bible videos in Spanish. We also ate pretty well, BBQing a bit and eating the meat salad. It was a nice little break from walking and talking all day.

 

After Carnaval, I got to do even more immigration work this week, and boy is this a fun story. Another Elder in our house, E' Taylor, also had immigrations with me, so we got up and got ready to leave by 5:30. After a horrible taxi ride (the driver running lights smoking the entire time, until passing a Catholic Church and quickly discarding the cig to do the little cross thing) we arrived and began waiting. And boy did we wait - we finished and left at 1:30 to start the hour trip back home. We made a little lunch and then went out to do some super fun Zone Leader work, as E' Taylor is ZL and I was with him for the day. It was a pretty good day.

 

Unfortunately, my compañero E' Moreno got pretty hit pretty hard by the new food, as it happens with most North Americans, and we took a little resting day Saturday to make sure he feels completely better. I got to do a few things here and there to clean up and get ready as well, so it was good for both of us. He's fine now and is super excited and eager to work and preach, a true ejemplo para mí. (example for me)

 

As an attempted peace-offering for not writing too much this week on account of mucho tranquilidad, (much tranquility) I will including plenty of fotos of our time in Carnaval.

 

Elder Yates

 

p.s. A little time locked up in the house meant a little time to avoid the task of shaving... >=)

Sopresa (Surprise - Saturday, February 14)

Not sure if this is a surprise for ya'll, but we got a little time today to write home before getting locked up for a while. It's probably because of the nuevos (new ones) that arrived this week, and the Presidente wants to make sure that their families don't get overly worried. Speaking of which, I got the oportunity to work with a nuevo, Elder Moreno. Elder Fleming ya se fue (is gone), leaving me here to continue. Elder Moreno is a Texan by birth, but all the rest of his family was born in Mexico. As such, he already speaks English and Spanish, the best of both worlds.

 

This week was a bit hectic as we had a few things to do in a short amount of time. Por ejemplo (for example), I had a few things to do for immigrations I was told of the day of, as well as immigrations for Elder Moreno that were to start an hour after we were informed. As such, we had a bunch of running around really quickly a couple of times.

 

Other than that it things have gone pretty well. After a little time to write, we're going to do a little shopping before getting locked up in our house for a while. Not entirely sure what more to write before starting the super-reading-session of the Libro de Mormón (Book of Mormon).

 

Lots of Love,

Elder Yates

¿¡Carnaval!? (Monday, February 9)

Well, first things first: I'm not going to be able to write this next week. Instead, I'll be locked up in the house because of something called Carnaval. Not sure if ya'll have heard of it, but (from what I understand) it's more or less like 3 days of free-for-all water gun/ balloon fights in the street, but with paint. So, from Saturday in the afternoon until Wednesday in the afternoon, we're not allowed to leave our house. To make things even better, cambios (transfers) are this week right before Carnaval, so things are probably going to change a little. It's bound to be loads of fun...

 

Ok, on with the more fun things. This week, while visiting with a family, un palta (an avocado) fell from a tree and broke open. It wasn't anywhere near ripe, but I was allowed to take it anyway. So, for the rest of the day, we walked around and I clapped the two ends together like in Monty Python with the coconuts (on a side note, we have a few coconuts as well) and I was pretty entertained. It's amazing how simple things are so thrilling as you walk around.

 

We also got the chance to do some more service with the ever-so-fun machetes >=). Everything went well, up untill the last few minutes, where my flawless 19year streak finally came to and end: Elder Fleming and I encountered a little bee's nest as we were hacking away as the tall grass near a tree. I was lucky enough to get away with only a sting or two, but pobrecito E' Fleming got a few more. Oh well. It was a little painful I guess, and it lingered for a while, but we forged ahead.

 

We saw the movie Conozca a los Mormones (Meet the Mormons) last week, which as a video was pretty good. However, it was lacking a little in a few movie aspects. Por ejemplo (for example), it had outstanding character development, but then it just kind of moved on. There was no real plot, no climax, no resolution. There was some action however. In all, it was pretty nice to watch (in Spanish of course) and a little break from the movie-less missionary life in Bolivia.

 

Sunday in the morning we actually made breakfast. Granted it was hamburgers with toasted buns and Ramen, but Mother would be proud of me for actually cooking something, right? I also figured out how to eat the treats sent from Christmas, as I just added a little water and cooked it like pancakes. They turned out super well, proving that we hard-core missionaries don't need to follow the norms of others, and forge our own paths.

 

With love for this week and the next,

Elder Yates

Una carta mas (One more letter...Monday, February 2)

Well, it's once again time to write and enjoy the little time I get to 'speak' with my family. Today I write a little earlier than normal because we, as all the missionaries in Santa Cruz, get the priviledge to go and watch the movie, Conocer los Mormones (Meet the Mormons). Not entirely sure if we´re going to watch it in Spanish or English, but I think it's going to be in Spanish. Good ol' Spanish.

 

This past week was nothing special really for us. Mostly it's been a little sad because most of the people we visited wouldn't accept our message, rejecting the glad tidings of great joy for little things here and there. It's amazing how the people are so quick to turn away because of something small that challenged their beliefs.

 

Our ward had another baptism this week, so that was pretty exciting. However, we had a little bit of difficulties before the service. For one thing, it was still filled with the old water from our previous baptism, so we had to empty it out and clean it. Then we had to fill it, once again filling and carrying buckets of water, from probably about 3 until 5. The funniest thing, however, was the attendance and start time. It was originally said that it would start at 4:30, so that people would arrive by 5 and we could start. The bishop showed up at almost 5:30. The person getting baptized and her family showed up around 6:10, and the baptism started at about 6:20. The Bolivians here arn't exactly very punctual...

 

Speaking of punctuality, we had a very interesting experience. A member of our ward was kicked out of her house this week, and needed a little help moving her stuff to a new house. As luck would have it, the only two people in our ward that have trucks are both Sumo Sacerdotes (high priests), and had a meeting the same night. So, when we called, they told us they would be unavailable until 9, after which they would go and help. At 9, we called and confirmed that they were in transit to help. At 10 we got a call from the moving member that no one showed up. We tried calling around to find someone to help, but everyone had their phones turned off, including the Bishop. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but eventually the Bishop showed up to help them, and the next day everything was ok in the new house. Very interesting the people here.

 

This week I finished reading Jesus the Christ, a good-length book about the life and ministry of Christ. It was especially interesting to read about the final 'trials' by the Jews and Romans. I really enjoyed it.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINA

 

Elder Yates