Noche Fogonera!‏

15 Junio 2015

Wow, this week has been quite the week! With a quick run-down of the week, my companion and I have been working hard in our area to talk to everyone that we can and to help her meet all the people her and we got sick this week!

We were sick with body aches, headaches, stomachaches and all kinds of aches for 3-ish days this week. We were just slumped in our beds for a day taking turns heading to... you know where ;D it was actually SUPER funny (not in the moment.. but you know ;D memories ;D) and really great bonding time with my new compi! ... So, we really didn’t get all that we wanted to done this week... BUT, we are happy to say that we are feeling A LOT better now! WOOO!

We got the awesome opportunity to be a part of the 1st Noche Fogonera [Fireside Night] in the mission Cochabamba Bolivia (from what I understand ;D) where the missionaries did all the special musical numbers and there were testimonies from recent converts and President Hansen gave a talk... It was WAY cool! Especially because my compi and I were able to be in it! She and another sister sang `Yo se que Vive, Mi Señor` [I Know That My Redeemer Lives!] and I was able to play the violin part to 'Savior, Redeemer of My Soul'! It was such a great experience and such pretty musical numbers! Way cool!

Funny story (actually from last week ;D) ... so you know how I have been teaching people here how to make American recipes? Wellllll, my Hermana Cruz and I were teaching an investigator that we have how to make apple cake in her house the other day. The whole time while we were making it, she and her husband were asking how I learned how to cook such delicious things (their words not mine ;D) and we got to the point where it was all cooked and we were putting the topping of cream cheese frosting on and something just didn’t look right... We ended up dishing everyone up and tried it... something definitely didn’t taste right.. my compi and I were looking at eat other mouthing `what is wrong with this cake?` SOOO it turns out that the cream cheese that we used for the icing was CHEDDAR FLAVORED! So we had apple cake with cheddar icing... it was an interesting experience to say the least ;D

Well, that is all I have time for today! But, take care, smile, enjoy the warmth and keep my updated on your lives!

Love you!

Hermana Mather

Making Mexican food in the pension [apartment] with my compi! Yummmmm

Cinnamon popsicles and puppie! What could be better?

The Noche Fogonera with all the other missionaries

I Have a NEW COMPI !!!!!‏

9 June 2015

I have a new compi [companion]! She is the best! Her name is Hermana Cruz and I absolutely love her! She grew up in California and her family now lives in Utah, but cool thing is that her parents are from Mexico so her Spanish is AMAZING (and we get to cook Mexican food!!! YUMMMM)! She has such an amazing spirit and an amazing knowledge of the gospel that is already helping me so much! I love her! We are so ready to get to work together!

Funny experience for the week: One of the Elders here loves to call one of the sisters here ‘Barbie’ just to get a rise out of her. And her birthday is coming up, so he was talking at lunch about how we would Barbie theme her birthday for her (which she just... loooovvveeed ;D) and suddenly the whole pension [apartment] broke out in the song of “I’m a Barbie girl”, even the Latinos know the song! It was hilarious!

Spiritual experience for the week: getting used to a new companion and a new teaching style is really different, especially because this is just my second companion, so for a few days I was feeling a little lost as to how we were teaching and everything... but I can honestly say that I gained a stronger testimony of how the spirit can help us in every facet of our lives! I was studying one morning about how prayer can invite the spirit into our lives. I can truly say that it works! Wow! When we pray with real intent, genuinely asking for the spirit, we can be helped so much! It can help us to love people more fully, and help us to know who we really are. It can help us to have a happiness that is real and lasting! It is so amazing to see the fruit of the spirit and the difference it can make in the lives of the people here, and to see the difference in my life! Wow! It really can make all the difference when we have this spirit with us to help us and guide us!

That is all I have time for today, but thanks for reading, writing, sending letters and packages and always being there for me! You guys are the best! Love ya!

Hermana Mather

We love our fruit here! SO good! Yum yum yum yum yum!

We love our packages! American stuffs! Yay!

Isn't my compi just so cute! Awe! Love her so much!

Growing Pains‏

1 Junio 2015

I will be 100% honest with you... This week was probably one of the hardest in my mission so far.

It has been hard to feel a little homesick with the focus of Hermana Llanos going home. It was hard to feel like the area was being handed over to me with the responsibility of taking care of all of the precious souls that are here and to get sick in the middle of the week with a cold that left my head spinning. It was hard to think that I would have a different companion and just SO much came to a climax this week. BUT, the thing about having challenges is that we can grow SO much from all of them!

It has been hard, yes, but man have I ever learned a lot! I have been able to see myself being stretched as a missionary and as a person in the past few days where I wouldn’t have been able grow this much in my comfort zone. There really are times in our lives where things get hard and at these times we have a decision to make: We have the choice to learn and to grow from it or to back down and complain that things are hard... and let’s just say that it’s much better with the primero [first].

I can honestly say that I know that Heavenly Father prepares us for all that we have to go though in this life and that this life isn’t meant to be easy for a reason. This life has a purpose and we are supposed to learn and to grow; anyone can tell you that with growth you get growing pains and for now I´m just experiencing the growing pains of the mission. I am so grateful for the chance to grow and to learn in the mission!

Wish me luck for this week! I will be picking up my new companion tomorrow from the airport; she is coming from Potosi! Her name is Hermana Cruz and is from the US from what I hear ;D we will see what will happen with all of this!

Love you guys!

Hermana Mather

Service project with machetes! Fun stuff

Fruit ninga... literally ;D

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