25/7/16

Where has this week gone? It seems like just yesterday I was trying to figure out something to write about, and once again here I am. That might be a sign that this week was either really busy and exciting, or I didn't do anything all week. Not too sure which one is more accurate...

So, if this letter doesn't reach the minimum approval rating, it's not my fault. Anyway, after cranking out last week's letter, we all went down as a zone to try to play another game of kickball. And I have to say that it went a lot better this time. It might be because we eliminated some of the rules, but whatever. As the day rolled on, I found a little extra time to kill. So I decided to try to peal a coconut using only a steak knife. After a very long time, I succeeded and arrived at the conclusion that the matchete is MUCH better at opening coconuts. Who would have thought.

Something that we have been trying this week is to focus more on contacted references we receive from different sources. So we spent much of the week walking around and getting to know better the area. It also feels like an adventure some times, as the addresses here are not always the most accurate. It gets even harder when the streets don't have names and the houses don't have numbers. That said, Tuesday and Wednesday passed by fairly calmly with plenty of tanning time.

Also of interesting note, almost all the people we were visiting with before have slowly lost interest in our message. Even though it's sad, we have also been constantly finding new people that are interested. Funny how this things work. Thursday night we had again our weekly activity night sponsered by the missionaries. It looks like the fame is growing, as a very good number of people showed up. We hope it keeps going strong and many people will get to know the gospel this way. (If anyone is interested, we start the activity with a scripture, a small video, and then play games. Very entertaining.)

In this past week, we had 2 birthdays in our house. And they just happened to be companions. Not that we did too much, just eat cake and sing. Also, since I'm told that the independence day of Peru is this week (don't remember the date; 28th I think) the 2 peruanos made sure to buy a big flag to show their patriotism. And then they hanged it up on our balcony. Since it doesn't have the symbol of Peru, it looks like the Canadian flag without the leaf. My companion and I make sure that the people know that we are not peruanos.

When asked if it was safe to hang the Peruvian flag in Bolivia he responded:
Well, we're still alive and nothing has been stolen; it's not quite the same level as having a chileno flag. I'm told that Peru and Bolivia were actually one country many years ago, so maybe there is some old family ties.

We still make sure that others know that we are (proudly) not peruanos.

We had a very adverage Friday and Saturday. The only things of notice are the things that we do every week. Friday we play and Saturday we go and play futbol. We might be stuck in a rut. Not that there is too much we can do, except wait 7 more weeks (not that we're counting...). The good news is that, even though everyone always tells us that a cold front is coming, the sun keeps on coming out. Hurray for then sun! It does make Sunday afternoon a little uncomfortable, since we only sit around in the Church building with nothing but a few cieling fans. It looks like the people still arn't quite used to the afternoon church time. Not that I blame them; 9 o'clock church is the best. Since most of our proselyting time is in the afternoon, it also makes it feel like we don't do much on Sunday. Oh well.

If the letter didn't satisfy, some of the pictures that are coming should (hopefully) do the trick.

Con Amor,

Elder Yates

A part of our area, if anyone wanted to know how the outskirts of Trinidad are.

Pirañas that out pensionista fished, one amarilla and one roja. I didn't even know that they came in types. They are quite tastey, but with a lot of little bones to pick out.

A turtle that we found as we were walking along. Not sure where it came from or where it was going, but it wasn't making very good time.

As we visited a family, I let them borrow a Book of Mormon I carry around just for the ocasion. When we told them to go to a certain page, they told me that said page didn't exist. And, would you look at that, it didn't. The book replaces the chapters of Jacob-Mosiah 10 instead of the rest of Mosiah. I think this is how the apostasy started...

A little request fron Gran about how we wash clothes.

This is were I do my meditations and reflect on my life.

18/7/16

One week farther from when I started, and one week closer to the end. Of interesting note this week, we got to meet the new mission president, Presidente Cabezas, and his family. They are from Sucre, Bolivia, and have spent many years serving in church callings and even working for the Church. They have 5 children, but only 1 is young enough to be in house still, so only one came to the mission with them. Will send pictures later.

Since Pdte Cabezas arrived Tuesday, we were told Monday to use the day cleaning the house. So we did quickly, and then spent the rest of the day doing other things to kill time until we left to visit some people in the evening. Tuesday morning we went to a little 'get-to-know' conference with the Pdte where he introduced himself and his expectations for the mission. He seems like a good guy and has a big plan for the future. Too bad I won't be here to see much of it...

After the little conference and a small lunch, we had our first interviews with Pdte Cabezas. The interviews where a little strange, as they were different from how Pdte Zambrano did them. While one Elder had his interview, the rest of us played games with the Flia Cabezas and we got to know each other better. I guess the interviews ran long, as several Elders with dismissed to work with the condition that they returned the next morning to have their interviews. My companion and I had ours the first day, so we didn't have to worry about that.

Wednesday morning we found a service to do, so we went out to serve. We went to help a family build a fence out of chuchillo, and wound up spendin most if the time cutting the chuchillo to be ready to be used in the fence.

Working hard cutting those chuchillos

The 4 of us Elderes of the house had left to help, but we got a call informing us that the Pdte was going to do house inspections, so we sent the others back home to that someone would be there. I think we passed.

After the well-done work Wednesday, we returned to the house to change and go eat lunch with the Pdte Cabezas in a nice steak-place called La Estancia. I'm not sure how much meat I ate, but I do know that it was a lot. Yum.

Selfie with the Flia Cabezas! (even if they didn't know)

My first plate in the restaurant. I think about 3 more followed.

Thursday passed along pretty normally, only a little birthday celebration after the district meetings and proselyting and the like. We did try having another activity night in the chapel, and more people showed up this time. I guess it's just like a sandball rolling down a sand dune that grows as it goes.

We decided to do an intercambio Friday with the Elders of the other branch of our district, so we changed companions after we finished our weekly planning. I went to work with the E' Elder Cochran in his area and we had a good time. We had to walk a very good amount to cover their area. but oh well. A little more exercise never killed me. Since the E' Cochran will also be ending in September, we had plenty of things to talk about.

Bright and early Saturday morning means game time, even if I was sleeping in a different house. We went and played and returned to the other house until it was time to end the intercambio. When we returned back to my house, we found that the house was hosting a funeral service since the grandmother of the family had died. It was awkward trying squeeze our way through.Somehow we did it and returned to our normal working pace. In our travels, we found the family we had helped Wednesday still working on their fence, so we stopped a while to help them build a little more before continuing on. Always a better week with service.

And so that's just about it for this week. The weather was pretty nice almost the entire week, until it cold cold Saturday night. Luckily it went away by Sunday afternoon. Glory to the sun.

Several fotos should be coming.

Much love,

Elder Yates

There are a whole lot of motos in Trinidad, if I hadn't mentioned that before.

A wagon out front of the restaurant La Estancia

A little parrot to match my tie

The whole Trinidad zone with the Flia Cabezas

The missionaries in Trinidad that will be ending in September

(exept for the sister to the far right; not sure why she is there...)

11/7/16

Yet another week gone by, and the end getting ever closer. Got to enjoy it while it lasts, and this past week definitaly was an exciting one. Not in the sense that something went horrible wrong, but in a good way, and we wern't bored this week.

In celebration of the great American Independence Day, we really didn't do too much as the zone is mainly Latinos. But we did enjoy some tacos for lunch (same continent; close enough). The house I'm living in is currently composed of me and 3 Latinos, who do not share the same patriotism for the US, but at least they all agreed to join me in eating hamburgers. Will try to send photo of the closest thing I could find to a good ol' Murican burger.

We were going to visit normally Tuesday morning, but the ZLs called us to inform about a little zone leadership meeting were were going to have. So we headed down to see what happened. We talked a bit and then returned to work. One of the families we visit sells relleno during the day and, whenever we go to visit them, always shares with us. Pretty darned tastey, cow intestine filled with meat and rice. Would recomend. So we passed by to visit said family Tuesday night and enjoyed.

Wednesday was a very normal day, spent walking and talking. And then, in the evening, it was the birthday of one of the ward members, so we got invited to a dinner. We are not the type of people to turn down invitations, so we headed on down and shared some food, physical and spiritual. Thursday we decided to do an intercambio with the other Elders in the ward. Since E' Abrego is still trying to get comfortable in the area, we sent him off and E' Flores came to work with me. We had a pretty good day, and I got a good reminder of why the stereotype in South America is that Peruanos talk alot. 

For the first time in a while, we got up early to play futbol over in Paititi Friday morning, before we returned home to study and the like. We also wanted to change things up a bit and get the ward more excited, so we tried hosting a little movie night. We watched the movie 'The Testaments' since we couldn't get ahold of a copy of Finding Dory just yet, maybe next time. (heh not really; we just wanted to show something a little more spiritual.) Unfortunately, not as many people as we hoped for showed up. Maybe if we keep on trying with different activities...

After our usual Saturday morning futbol game, we were informed that we were going to have a zone service activity for the first time in who knows how long. The service wound up being in our area, even though the family lives in another ward. Anyway, we went out to help transport construction materials (chuchillo if anyone was wondering) and build a little house, as well as help clear out some tall grass with the Bolivian lawnmower. It felt so good to use after such a long time. The rest of the day was not as exciting, as we wound up walking a good bit of the day. Some good exercise done at least.

With this Sunday being the second week attending in the afternoon, it looks like people are getting a little bit acostumbed. At least more people arrived. However, there was some important transmission from the Area Presidency, so we had to cut the regular meeting short and send the people down to the stake center. And, unfortunately, we were not invited. So we had to find something to do until the day ended.

In a little recap, the weather this week was nice, as the temperature only dropped once. Wednesday morning we woke up cold, and it stayed the same all day, until Thursday afternoon. I've been told that another cold front was going to arrive yesterday or today, but thankfully nothing just yet. Hope it stays like this.

With love,

Elder Yates

ps. Happy Birthday Mom!

You've had a birthday shout hurray!

We want to sing to you today!

One year younger and wiser too!

Happy birthday, to you!

¡Que las cumplas feliz!

ps My companion didn't show up in the foto, woops. The other 2 are the other Elders in the house

¡4 de julio!‏

Woo! Happy Fourth of July! Even though the people around me don't seem
to be as enthusiastic, I'm pretty pumped for the good ol' USA. And the
weather this year is a whole lot better than last year, when it was
freezing cold and pouring rain. For now the sun is out and showing
it's smiling face. Not sure just yet what we're going to do in
celebration, but I'll figure something out.

¡USA! ¡USA!

In this last week preparing up for this day, things were pretty
normal. Not once has it gotten realy cold, even though at the
beginning it was a little chilly. All week people have been warning us
that a cold front was going to arrive, but nothing arrived. What a
shame. And so, Monday in the afternoon we went as a zone to play some
volleyball. We wanted to try a new place, but only 2 Elders new where
it was, so we all meet up and started getting to know more of
Trinidad. I don't think any of us got lost. At least, E' Abrego and I
could later head out in the evening to do some proselyting.

When we were heading around visiting Tuesday, we received a reference
that lives in the little hidden neighborhood of San Silvestre that we
found some months back. We had stopped heading out there because it
wasn't yeilding any results, but we had to go back to try and find the
reference. It was fun taking the very sturdy bridge for the first time
with E' Abrego, who was not thrilled to give it a shot. Heh heh. And
then, Wednesday morning, we did some arts and crafts with a family to
help create a 'read and pray' reminder for their house. It was quite a
change of pace, but not exactly something I miss very much from
elementry school.

We had an interesting District Meeting Thursday, since half the
district had to leave about half-way through, leaving just the 4 of us
Elders from the house. So we really just had a House Meeting in a
different place. A very common thing here in Bolivia (at least in
Santa Cruz/Beni) is to have parrots in house. That said, in the
afternoon of Thursday we had some fun playing with some parrots as we
waited a few minutes to share a message of the Gospel. And we didn't
get pecked at this time, a win-win. It is also common that the fathers
of families leave the city to work in the fields for long periods of
time, which happened with some of the families we're visiting. How
difficult.

Once again Saturday morning was futbol morning. While futbol is
growing on me, I'm still not a fan of waking up even earlier in the
morning. Oh well. In the afternoon, as we were searching for another
reference we had received, we contacted a family kind of by accident.
As we shared the gospel, they seemed very interested. Guess there
arn't any accidents in the work of the Lord, ¿no?

Our scheduled Church time changed this week, so instead of starting at
8 in the morning, now we're attending at 4 in the afternoon. This
first Sunday was kind of weird, as I've never gone to church in the
afternoon before. And, based on the attendence this first week, the
ward isn't too used to it either. I hope that we can adjust quickly.

Photos will be coming.
Mucho amor,
Elder Yates

E' Abrego and I with one of the parrots we found.

This contraption is the 'motorcar' which is basically a motorcycle use for hauling stuff around.

¡Nuevo Cambio!‏

Woo and now we start a new cambio. I'm sure at least a few of you are excited to know what happened, and I'll tell ya'll shortly. But for now, it'll just be an agonizing wait (unless you just skip ahead, which I'm sure someone will do.) Even though it was the last cambio that Pdte Zambrano did, and should now be heading home soon, the mission doesn't really feel different. Not sure what I was expecting, but it didn't happen. Maybe in the next (and my last...) cambio it'll be different.

For the very last P-day of the last cambio, we all got together as a zone and we ate tacos. It has been a very long time since I ate Mexican food, and I definitaly miss it. And then, in the evening, we had a big FHE with our pension because it was the last Monday night of one of the Elders in the house. We ate cake and BBQ.

Really tastey. We also had a larger despidida Tuesday night for the same Elder, but this time without BBQ. I liked Monday night better.

After a long day of work and anxious waiting, Tuesday night the ZLs called to tell us our cambios. (Not too long of a wait in the letter, ¿no?) And so, we learned that my old companion, E' Quiroga, is now assigned to Riberalta, the northern part of Beni, while I stay here in Trinidad. My new companion is E' Abrego, a Latino from El Salvador that arrived in Bolivia with me. I was kind of hoping that I would get a new Elder to train try help me not be trunky, but instead I'm with an Elder that will be ending with me. How strange. And I might just be in my last area.

If it sounds like I'm getting trunky, it's a lie. I'm completely focused still. Wednesday in the afternoon we picked up E' Abrego, who was just in the neighboring ward, and started to get to know the new area. We took a little break to give our last farewells to all the Elders that were ending their mission in the airport, and spent the rest of the day walking and visiting a little. And we were told that the both of us were District Leaders together. Not sure how this will work out, but it looks like my little vacation from leadership positions has ended.

Normally, every Thursday morning we have the missionary meeting and Friday the weekly planning seasons, but for whatever reason this week it got switched around. I think it was kind of weird for most of the zone, as many missionaries were still waiting for their companions to arrive and had to plan alone, but who am I to judge. At least it gave us one day extra to plan the district meeting.

In the early morning of Saturday, we all went as a zone to play futbol together and get to know the new arrivals. One of the newbies is E' Quispe, my old companion from El Dorado that I trained. And now he must have almost a year or more in the mission. How crazy to think how fast the time has flown by. Sunday evening, after a very normal week with its weather, things decided to change. We were sitting in ward councel normally, and then it suddenly started to pour rain and the temperature dropped. Because there was no warning at all, none of us had brought a jacket. Luckily we only had to tough out a few hours before we got to return home and warm up a bit.

Most of the week after Tuesday we spent helping E' Abrego get to know the area, and us getting to know each other. We're super excited for this next cambio, and we are currently helping several people progress towards their baptisms. If all goes well, this month should be a white one.

Mucho amor,

Elder Yates

20/6/16

And here we go with yet another letter home. I think this letter will be a little better than last week, but I'm not entirely sure by how much. Something of note, it hasn't been too cold this week. A few days it was actually almost normal. Unfortunately, I've been told that it will soon get very cold. Oh well, living the hard mission life...

Our last P-day was pretty calm for us, as we played a few 'FHE' games to kill some time. And, when we visited a family in the evening, we ate some relleno beniano (the sausage cooked in a cow intestine; very tastey). I also had an interesting ride back home in the night, as the father of the family we visited offered to give me a lift in his motorcycle. He is a nice guy, and has Parkingsons. Luckily it doesn't show too much when he drives motorcycles.

After a normal day of proselyting Tuesday, we wanted to have a FHE with a family that we're visiting. But, instead of doing it in their own house, we brought them to the house of a member of the ward, who also just happens to be their uncle. After the small lesson and some hymns, the members busted out giant plates of a traditional dish called majadito. We returned home very full and content.

For a little bit of fun excersizes, we woke up early Wednesday morning to play futbol. When we got back home, we started an intercambio. I left the area again to go work with the DL E' Olson. Poor E' Olson is returning home this week, as his time has come to an end, and it's starting to show a little. We explored a little when we had some extra time between visits and got invited to eat several times. In one house, we got invited to some very unique lemonade made with salt instead of sugar. Not the best invention, and the family spent a lot of time apologizing. Would recomend.

Thursday we had the last District Meeting of this cambio; crazy to think how fast the time has flown. As we were visiting, we found 2 young men that have a lot of potential to progress in the gospel, and have a lot hope for them. Even though they are in situations very different, it's amazing to see how the same gospel of joy brings so much hope to us. Also, a package arrived from the States, and we enjoyed some good ol' American candy.

¡USA USA!

We had our last weekly planning Friday as well for this cambio. Not entirey sure what'll happen with the new mission president, but it seems like I grew roots here in Mangalitos. Maybe I'll just finish here and not have to pack my bags again. The proselyting day was interesting as we ran into a less active member who was very unhappy with the people in the church. We tried to help him shape up a little, but I'm not sure how well it worked as he didn't show up Sunday...

As is the tradition, Saturday morning we got up to play more futbol as a zone. After the game, we got invited by a family to eat some breakfast. We headed over and enjoyed some patasca. It's a soup commonly eaten on the weekends here that is normally cooked with the head of a pig. But we can't eat pig, so the family used something else for the meat: cow head. If you don't really think about where the meat that you eat came from, it's really tastey.

The patasca soup. All that meat is from the cow head. Yum.

Us eating the patasca.

The rest of the day passed without any major incident, just another visit with one of the young men that we found the other day that is doing very well. We visit the other young man Sunday, and he also improved bastante.

Will send pictures to complement letter.

With love,

Elder Yates

Out exploring a little

Russian boat, American conquest.

13/6/16

Remember a few weeks ago when I said that a difficult week to write about was going to come? Well, it looks like this week is that week. Not sure how much will come out in this letter, but we'll see. One thing that I can write about is the weather, which has been really cold basically all week, especially in the morning. Sometimes it warmed up enough that by the time we were outside it wasn't too bad, but then the cold night returned. And we're told that it's still only autumn time; winter officially starts the 21 of June. Oh what joy.

Well, to be more accurate, the cold didn't start Monday. Monday it was still normal, and we had our visits without a problem. Tuesday morning the cold did hit. Oh well,  just something I'll have to get used to. When we invited a member to join us to visit a family, we unexpectedly reunited 2 friends from another city that had lost contact with each other several years back. Odd how that worked out, ¿no? Now I hope they don't lose contact again...

Even though Wednesday morning was even colder (or at leat it seemed) than Tuesday, the other Elders in the house were set on going to play futbol in Paititi. Since I can't stay home alone, I went to go run around a bit. Even running around we felt the cold. And then the trip home in motorcycle was even more fun. One way or another I'll get used to the cold it seems. The rest of the day was average, just dealing with the weather.

Yet again Thursday morning was cold. And then we had our missionary Zone Meeting, the last one that  we will have under the dirrection of Pdte Zambrano. How strange to think about for me. But the mission keeps on going. At least I still have plenty of time left to go, right? We visited some people in the afternoon and had some good success. I think that Friday morning was actually the warmest morning of the week, so it wasn't as hard to roll out of bed as it was the other days. But our study time was still chilly, and the doing nothing but read doesn't help keep one warm. We powered through and then went to do some proselyting.

In light of the little written about until this point, I'll try to make things a little more interesting. Saturday morning we went to play more futbol. Latinos and their sport, ¿no? (In other news, I've heard  that the US is doing pretty well  in the Copa America right now...) As we were walking along Saturday, we found a family working on building a little storehouse out of something called chuchillo. From what I understand, it's a type of reed that grows by the rivers that, once dry, become hard enough to build with. Yep, a house made of sticks; seems like that little piggy wasn't as crazy as we thought. Anyway, we stopped and helped cut the chuchillo and build a wall  until we had to move on. In the night we visited a family again that was living together without being married and we had been trying to help be more obediente, either through marriage or seperating. Saturday night they told us that, to be obediente, they are going to seperate. Not what we had hoped for, but at least it is a part of the repentance process.

Sunday morning, which might have been the coldest morning of the week, we got up early to go wake up other people  with the hopes that they would make it to church. We passed by several houses, and some of them made it to church. However, for the cold many people didn't make it to church this week. So it looks like I'm not the only one that doesn't like the cold. Luckily that by noon the sun came out and everything warmed up nicely. As we were walking along, some one called us and started asking about the Church. A nice reversal of what normally happens. We stopped to talk a while, and he seems like someone that wants the restored gospel.

Sorry if this  letter isn't what ya'll hoped for, but at least I can send the fotos from that week that I didn't send. 

With love,

Elder Yates

Mostly fotos of the Flia Gaston, reciently married and baptized. The last one is a view of my bedroom window of the mango flowers. Unfortunately the cold killed most of them.