Potosí and General Conference

Well tons have happened and I don’t have a ton of time. Like every P-day I will try to answer all of you questions but I will probably forget a ton of them. Well Potosi is B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. My area is the edge of the city, but as you get closer to the center of the city it looks like Italy. In my area it is more modern, but in the center all the buildings are super antique, The cathedrals are amazing. The streets are super old and narrow. I wish I had pictures but this morning was crazy and I forgot to bring my camera today. I honestly thought I was going to this tiny mining community but I was surprised, this place has so much history so many cultural traditions. I absolutely think this place is incredible. Long ago Potosi was only a mining community out in the middle of nowhere, but now it is a bustling tourist community. We are so high up in altitude its crazy I have never seen the sky so blue. In the mornings its super cold and by lunch its super-hot. The sun is really strong. Let me just say mom you probably won’t recognize me by the end of my mission, because I will be so brown. Some days I hardly recognize myself when I look in the mirror. Well this week was probably the most different week I have had in the mission. Tuesday morning was the day of transfers. Saying bye to my companion at the airport was harder than saying bye to the members. Elder Petien was like my brother, and we grew so close as friends and companions. We probably looked like idiots as we said goodbye, both of us crying. All the other missionaries were fine. Just us two cried. Haha thank you dad for the Caring/Crying gene, it’s a blessing and a curse. Haha The plan for the traveling was to take a plane to Sucre and from Sucre a two hour bus ride to Potosi. The problem was, there was protest in Sucre blocking the way to Potosi. We ended up taking the scariest 4 hour rapidito (they are like express bus taxi things they have here) ride through a terrible dirt road to Potosi. Cars here don’t have AC. It was hot. And there was several times my heart leaped as we drove by the cliffs. Obviously everything turned out fine because we made it to Potosi. This week was super good, but really slow. When we first got here, we did not have a house or a phone. We were living in the house of other elders in our area. It is so hard to do anything from planning or showering when four Elders live in one house. We had tons of goals of things we needed to do, but because we didn’t have the things necessary to start, we were not able to do much. We spent most of the week mapping out the area or contacting. Saturday Morning! We moved!! Our house is great. It is the only missionary apartment with real heating. The other houses only have portable heaters. I have never been so grateful for heating! Regardless of the slow start, we had a lot of success contacting. We have been praying so hard that the spirit will lead us to people who need our message in their lives. And we found a ton of people from all walks of life who are ready, and the spirit led us to tons of people who were investigating the church before who quit investigating for one reason or another. Conference is the favorite time of the year for missionaries but this conference was… well… interesting. Here it is required for everyone in the stake to go to the stake center and watch at least two sessions of conference or you can’t go into the temple for a year! As Americans, they had a separate room set up with a small TV for us to watch in English, but the TV was not plugged in correctly. We would be watching and everything would be going fine, and the TV would turn itself off, 20 seconds later turning itself back on. It was TERRIBLE! Every time the speaker was about to say something important, pow! No television. An example and probably one of the worst. I am not even exaggerating at all. Really though! “The six things we need to do in this life to have peace are First POW.” chau chau TV. -missionaries began to scream in frustration, TV turns back on. “The second is.” POW! again, chau chau TV. -Now the missionaries begain to pull out their hair screaming again. “The third is” Pow -Now the missionaries began to laugh. Completing every phrase with something crazy. “The fourth way to have peace is” Pow! An Elder "to eat at McDonalds every day of the week, making sure to buy extra food for those who cannot afford to eat McDonalds every day." We were all just praying that we would be able to hear the Prophet’s and Elder Holland’s addresses. And we were able to hear them. Out of the two address I heard completely, I got so much out of conference. To me all of the talks I could understand seemed to focus on temples, and strength in the family. I especially loved President Monson’s talk about what path we would take in life. And Elder Holland's talk was incredible. How important it is for us to always look towards tomorrow with happiness. What I got out of his talk is this. The Lord commanded us to be perfect like Him, but we will always fall short. We need not be upset and not live happy because we are falling short. The Lord blesses us for trying. The Lord gives us problems and trials because in this way we can grow and become like Him. And when we fall short, We can be happy because the Lord has paid the price for us all. As soon as Elder Holland said amen POW, and the TV did not turn back on. Elder Holland’s talk was something I really needed to hear. How often in my life have I been upset because I am too hard on myself. I expect myself to be a perfect missionary now... But we are here on earth to learn how to be perfect. God knows we will not be perfect and that is why he sent his Son. When I was in the CCM my first week was really difficult, because I wanted to be a perfect missionary. I wanted to speak the language perfect and to touch the lives of all of our fake investigators. But for the life of me I could not progress in the language. I was so frustrated with myself and the progress I was lacking. It was when I quit worrying about my Spanish, that I began to progress in my Spanish. I found that when I was in the class in the CCM that I could not really speak at all, But when I was in the lessons that I was able to speak just enough to touch their hearts. Since that day Spanish has not really been a problem. I can speak fluently and understand almost everything. I obviously have miles and miles to go in my progression of the language. But I know that all things are possible with Christ and his Atonement. We can become perfect through the Savior. We can become the disciple of the Lord we want to be, but only through Christ. I love you all and I hope that you can keep the addresses of conference in our hearts and study out the addresses. I promise I will write more of you individually next week. Con todo mi Corazon