The Darkness and Light of Potosí

Hello Society Before I get to this week I wanted to let you know that this next week we will have P day Tuesday, so when you get your letter, you will get it Tuesday. Today the zone got special permission to visit one the the mines in Cerro Rico (Rich Hill). It was probably one the worst/best experiences of my life. Cerro Rico is one of the most abundant mining locations in the world. They have been mining here since Spain entered Bolivia, so the mine is thick in culture… terrible culture. Potosí has a terrible history of devil worship, which continues on to today. They believe in several gods, but the most renowned is the devil (Tio) and his spouse or girlfriend. Deep in the mines they have devil statues. TO THIS DAY they offer sacrifices to the statues. We happened to go to the mine the week after they offer the most sacrifices. The week of sacrifices they paint the walls with the blood of the lambs. Once we got into the mine, it was super cool, up until we hit the first devil statue. It was terrible to see the statue. It made me want to puke. I took tons of pictures of the first part of the mine, but once we hit the Tio, I didn't take any pictures until we left the mine. We all felt sick, and the Spirit was gone. There were many other things that disturbed me about the mines, but I wont go into the details.

I don't know how we got permission to go to the mine, but I never want to go back. I am just so happy to have been born into the gospel and that I have the knowledge I do. If anything this made me want to bring the gospel even more to the people here in Potosí. The life of these miners is so sad. They just need the gospel so much in their lives and everything would be so much better for them. Besides this, my week was really good, but really unusual. I can't go into the details, but I will never forget this week. Haha WOW. Besides the mine, I am falling in love with this mining community a little more every day. It brings me great joy to see the Atonement working in the lives of the people here. This week was Stake Conference here. It is amazing how the Lord seemed to direct all addresses to me. And we were pleasantly surprised to have 8 investigators in church. Two families and two other people. I am forever grateful the for Savior and his marvelous Atonement, because it changes lives. Elder Balderama of the Seventy said something that I will never forget. As members of the church we are often referred to as Mormons, but as we all know, this is only a nickname. Our name is The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day SAINTS. He then asked us a question, “What does it actually mean to be a saint?” In the Catholic church they believe and worship saints and virgins, and many people believe that this is the definition of a saint. Now obviously as members of the church we do not believe that we are saints like the Catholics worship, but we believe in something different that no other church believes. We believe that through JESUS CHRIST, we can become SAINT like, or become like God. It all links to the Plan of Salvation. If we really understood the purpose of God, We would understand our potential as children of God. Our church's title is the way it is because it is the Church of Christ that he established on the earth, based on one principle, repentance. Through the Atonement of Christ all mankind can be saved. Through the Atonement of Christ, we can repent of our sins and one day become like God. We can become saint-like, which really means to be pure. To be a saint is to be pure. As members of the church, none of us are pure from all sin, but this is what we want to be. This is the reason why we have the name we do. This week was excited, crazy wild, but full of the Spirit. I love you all and pray for you every day. Your Elder Heaps