Changes.... @.@‏

25 Mayo 2015

With my companion go home this coming week, I have been thinking a lot about how grateful I am to have my companion to help me to learn and grow for these two transfers. I have loved her helping me with my Spanish and to get to know the people here so well! It has been so great! I’m a little nervous to get a new companion this coming week... changes are always a little scary, but they are always good to keep us on our toes and keep us growing and changing within ourselves, too!

We had a baptism this week! Wow... was this ever an amazing experience! Everything just came together so well and we were able to feel the spirit so strongly and clearly. It turned out that only Paola was baptized this week (since we think that it will be better if Claudia is baptized with her parents). Paola’s baptism was special! She was so ready and so prepared to make this step in her life... It is an amazing feeling to know that someone is so ready to take this step in their lives, and watch them begin to truly follow Christ and begin a journey of a lifetime. A journey that is sometimes hard (baptism doesn’t just erase the troubles that we have in our lives- but it can make them easier to bare) but is so full of joy and love and growth – who couldn’t invite others to make this step? I am so grateful for the amazing experience that this was and for the opportunity that I have to share this love and joy of the gospel with the wonderful people here in Bolivia!

That is all the updates for this week! Thank you for staying awesome and for supporting me and all the other missionaries out in the world! It makes it so much easier to be away from home knowing that there are people always out there caring for us and willing to help us with everything! You guys are AMAZING!

Love you guys with all my `heart, might, mind and strength!`

Hermana Mather

Picture from last week: My whole zone  on the way to Tunari

Picture from last week: Llamas!

Picture from last week: Awesome missionaries! Love these peoples!

Paola's baptism pictures! So great!

We have amazing people in our ward! I love them!

Paula, Claudia, and ... Llamas

18 Mayo 2015

WOW!!! So much has been happening this week! Wow!

So, this morning we went to Tunari, Bolivia! It’s WAYYYYYY up in the mountains, and it is supposedly the only place in Bolivia that gets snow (if you go at the right time). We didn't see snow but it was super fun and super great to go have fun as a zone! Sadly, I don’t have my pictures with me right now :((( So forgive me, but I´ll have to send you pictures next week! Also, in the mountains there are llamas! AHHHH! too cool! I must have seen thousands of llamas today ;D

It’s crazy to think that it is getting warmer back at home and that everyone is getting ready to get out of school and get started with the summer! Here, it is actually getting colder where we have warm days but the mornings and the nights are REALLY cold! Especially cause we are always in skirts! hehe! So, enjoy the warmth and summer fun for me!

On the missionary side of things, My companion and I have been teaching an awesome family in our area! They are so great! Paula (17), the eldest daughter and Claudia (10), have a baptismal date for this Saturday (we are praying HARD that it works out!) Paula is SO amazing and has SO much faith! She does everything that an investigator should do when they are trying to build a testimony! She reads the scriptures and materials that we give her, she comes to church, she prays, she is really truly searching for the truth in her life with all of her heart and truly puts her effort into it! She is someone that we call a golden investigator, and a golden person! I love her so much! Her family is truly following her to come to know the truth! It is amazing to see the influence that one person can have on their family (cough cough, Elizabeth, cough cough;D)

Also, other news from the mission, my compi, (my “mother” in the mission) is going home in 2 weeks! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! So soon! It is so weird to think that people go home all the time from the mission... I am going to miss her so much! She has really taught me a lot in the mission and we have had some AMAZING times together! I hope that we are able to keep in touch after our missions!

Well, that is all that I have for this week, but just know that I love ALL of you guys and think and pray for you all the time!

LOVVEEEEEEE,

Hermana Mather

SOOOOOOOO HAPPPPYYYYYY RIGHT NOW!

11 Mayo 2015

Was it ever amazing to talk to my family yesterday? It is such a blessing to be able to talk to my family and really have that spiritual- moral recharge of really getting to see and talk to all my siblings and parents for an hour! SO GREAT!

We got to go to the temple this week! It was SO great to go to the temple and renew covenants and really enjoy this time at the temple! (picture below!)

So… updates from Bolivia... I have been given the awesome opportunities to get to teach the relief society American recipes and now all of the members in the ward want me to cook in their homes! Who knew that I could be so popular just from bringing a few recipes to make with members ;D I got the opportunity to teach chocolate chip cookies the other week and then this week I taught them brownies right before a baptism! YUM!

Speaking of the baptism, the elders in our ward had a baptism this past Saturday and to our surprise, President Hansen and Hermana Hansen came to the baptism! You should have seen our faces when we found out that he had come! My companion, two sisters from another ward, and I had the talk in between the baptism and the closing remarks while Abrahm was getting changing out of his wet clothes after being baptized. We were SO nervous! We ended up changing all of our plans for the message and when out in front of the church to get rocks and dirt (SUPER FUNNY just to see a bunch of sister missionaries digging in the dirt ;D) to do the awesome activity with the large rocks, small rocks and sand that represent our priorities in life. We had an empty jar that represents our lives here on earth that we filled with all of these things. When you put the smaller things first in the jar and then the larger rocks, not all of them will fit. but when you put the big things first, the things that have the most worth in your life (god, church education, family), and then let the small things (TV, sports, fun things) fill in the spaces, then everything will fit! It was very cool and it turned out really well!

That is all I have for this week! Thanks for reading, caring, and loving! You guys are great!

Love,

Hermana Mather

Me and my compi at the temple!

Bolivia has baby bananas here! How cool!

No Time... As Is the Life of a Missionary

4 Mayo 2015

AH!!!!! I am sitting in this internet cafe freaking out because we thought that we had had more time in the day (as if Mondays had an extra hour or something...). So let me just be honest... We logged on to read our emails this morning and respond to a few of them, and then we had people to see and things to do with our only free day of the week.... so to be honest, the time got away from us... So I really don’t have any time to write much right now =/

To update you on the week, I`ll just send you pictures with descriptions ;D and if I end up having much time I can send more of an update :D

Hermana Mather

Last P-day we had a BBQ and it was really cool,
because they had a parrot at the pension [apartment] that we went to!
Too cool!

We had some Sister Training Leaders from Sucre
stay at our place for a night after a leadership meeting

Super fun making pizzas in the home of a member for the training!

We made some pizzas for a ward missionary
training session that we had on Friday!
All they had were rectangular pans ;D