A drunk man bought us popsicles

Yes, it is true. We were sitting on a curb talking to a lady named Rosa (more on that later) and he walked by, shook our hands, asked if we were married to Rosa's sons, left and then came back with popsicles. A little weird...But we were okay with it...free popsicles. 

     We contacted a lot this week. It was great fun! Like always, we contacted some strange people. We talked to this one guy in English. He had lived in the states for 24 years so he could speak pretty well. He knew all the swear words pretty well too. Haha.

     We talked to a lady at a park and she seemed pretty interested. After the lesson she pointed to a guy sitting on a bench a ways away and said "You should go talk to him!" Okay. We went over to talk to him and it turns out he was sitting there studying English for his class! How cool! Thank you lady at the park! He said he is going to come to our English class!  

     But we contacted really nice people too! We passed a woman named Rosa on the street. She was sitting on the curb and looked like she had been crying. We passed her then said "Should we talk to her?" We pretended to buy something in a tienda then went back to where she was and started talking to her. She told us she had four kids but two of them lived in Brazil (they are older). She said she misses them a lot. I shared Alma 7:11-13 with her (to read it online go here  https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/7?lang=spa ) and told her that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love her a LOT and that Christ suffered all of her pain and sorrow. I don't think I have ever felt so much love for a person before. I didn't even know this lady named Rosa but I loved her and I wanted her to be happy! That is what I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It makes people happy! I am grateful to be here and teach people about happiness. 

Love,

Hermana Eaves

Another Week!

 
  Wow, it was another week of contacting. We had some funny and crazy and awkward experiences. We had contacted a lady named Carmen before and we went back for our sita. Well, we knocked the door and a lady walks up to the other side:

Through the closed door...

Carmen: "Who is it?"

Us: "The missionaries, we're looking for Carmen". 

*opens door*

Carmen: "Yes, what is it?"

Us: "Hola, we came by the other day but you were cooking..." 

Carmen interrupts: "Carmen isn't here".
We just looked at her like, You are totally Carmen and you are telling us that she isn't here. We then said "Okay, goodbye" and left Carmen, that isn't actually Carmen. 

   We knocked another door and the lady that answered said, "Sorry, I was just about to leave". We said, "Can we give you a folleto really fast?" She said, "Actually, my mom is a little sick, so no". We were like, umm, "Okay, goodbye then." We can't give her a folleto because her mom is sick? Usually people make up better excuses than that. Haha. 

     Some really cool things happened this semana. One happened in Consejo de Barrio yesterday (Ward council). Someone brough up the name of a member of the ward and said "This sister's grandchildren aren't coming because they don't have clothes or shoes to wear to church". Instantly the members that were in this meeting began offering assistance. About 5 people raised their hands and said things like "I have some clothes to give them" and "I could buy some shoes". It was amazing to see their charity and love for a member of the ward that they probably don't even know that well. I want to be like the humble people of Bolivia; willing to give up some of what I have for people who have less. 

     Hna King and I had a crazy experience this week. We had contacted a guy (we can call him Carlos) earlier that seemed pretty nice and went back to his house to teach him. He had invited his friend (he can be Juan Carlos for the story). Well we went in and talked for a bit but when we wanted to begin the lesson, Juan Carlos (who told us he had studied the Bible for 34 years) began completely attacking everything we believed. He attacked everything from the name of the pamphlet "The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" to Joseph Smith to missionaries. He would not stop talking so we just sat there in silence for about 30 minutes as he attacked everything. It was such a crazy experience though because the more he attacked Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, the more I felt the Spirit of God testifying to me that these things were true, that Jesus Christ really did restore His church through Joseph Smith and that the Book of Mormon really was another testament of Jesus Christ. I felt SOO STRONGLY that these things were true. Finally, he asked a question and gave us room to talk and I told him "If this was a question of knowledge of the Bible then I would loose. I am only 19 years old and I don't know a lot, but I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know he was called to restore the church of Jesus Christ in it's fullness. I know that Jesus Christ came to the Americas and I have read every verse and every word of the Book of Mormon and I know it is true. I know that families can be together. I know that we lived with God before this life and I know we will live with Him again. I know these things because I have read and studied and prayed about them." He didn't really take me seriously, in fact he sort of laughed at me after I said that, but I do know without a doubt that what I said was true. I am happy that I know these things. I am glad to be a member of the restored church of Jesus Christ. Even when the Juan Carlos's of the world laugh at our testimonies, we MUST NOT stop bearing them. Anyway, that was my week! I hope you guys have a great one! Love you all! 

Love, 

Hermana Eaves

Hey!

We knocked a LOT of doors this week! When I got to this area we had 6 investigators (3 of which we have since dropped because they lost interest). So we have been doing a lot of contacting, which means a LOT of sunscreen because in Bolivia we are still in summer (Sadly, I learned that summer lasts all year round here). Knocking doors is actually pretty fun. There is no other time in my life that I can knock on the doors of random strangers and talk about the gospel. We knocked one door and then Hna King says "Oh no, RUN!" and starts sprinting away. So we run around the corner (in skirts-picture it) and she told me that they knocked that door once and the people were REALLY MEAN. So we just door bell ditched a house. Also, we were knocking doors and accidentally knocked on the door or one of our 3 investigators. Haha, we just had a lesson with her. We knocked another door and the lady opened it about 3 inches and didn't say a word. She just glared at us. Haha, we were like, "Um, we wanted to give you a folleto (pamphlet)" and she stuck out her hand. She didn't say anything. So awkward. Then we mentioned that we do service and her whole countenance changed. She came out the door and was smiling and we planned a day to come back and do service in her garden. Honestly, she was probably thinking "SCORE. A free landscaping company." Haha. 

     We were talking to a 13 year old about the plan of salvation the other day and he asked about repentance. Then he says, "I don't have many sins, I just lie". Haha! 

     By the way, my typhoid only lasted one day. I think it was so mellow because I got the vaccine. Luckily. 

We played paintball today in our zone. And had a barbeque. It was fun.    

    Anyway, Bolivia is great. The mission is awesome! I love contacting. Even though our feet hurt and we are exhausted at the end of the day, it is more than worth it because people are hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have a great week! 

Love,

Hermana Eaves

New Area, Typhoid and Conference. Doesn't that sound exciting?

It's been another long week! I think that is because SOOO much has happened! It's all been so exciting. We had cambios on Martes. (Transfers on Tuesday) and I went to Alamos (the next zone over) with Hna King, from Idaho. She is so nice! 

The area is so different though! Whereas Quillacollo is all dust and cobblestone streets, Alamos is concrete and asphalt. Our apartment is sort of falling apart (as in cracks in the ceiling, the flooring is coming up and water leakages) but that's Bolivia. 



It's a big apartment and it has all that we need (except for a toilet seat). Haha.

 We need to find a bunch of new people to teach because they recently had a few baptisms so all the investigators are recent converts. But it is exciting to learn a new area and new people! 

     Also, this week, I did get Typhoid Fever. How? Well, probably from the outside of a fruit that had been washed off with dirty water or something. I did get the vaccine for Typhoid before my mission so I think that made this a lot more mild. 


On Friday, I woke up and was normal but during study time was suuuuper cold and shaking (from cold). Later, I took a tiny nap because I didn't feel too good. I woke up with a really high fever. Hna Hansen (mission president's wife) sent us to the Clinica, where they gave me a shot in my back to take down my fever (the 600 mg of Ibuprofen I took weren't doing it). Then they took my blood and I gave samples, all that fun stuff. Then they told me I had typhoid and I am taking 3 different pills now to handle it. It was so fun! I love typhoid! You can be happy and grateful in every circumstance! It actually hasn't been that bad. It was only bad on Friday. 

     GENERAL CONFERENCE! It was so cool! I always love General Conference! We watched it in English with the other missionaries in our zone that speak English. 



Some of my favorite talks were:

     Women's Conference: Linda K. Burton. I liked her question "What comes next for willing hands to do?" 

     Saturday Afternoon: Mervyn B. Arnold "GO TO THE RESCUE!" I love this because sometimes we, as missionaries, feel like we are going to rescue the menos activos all by ourselves. We need your help!

     Saturday Morning: Thomas S. Monson (I always love his talks)

                                Dieter F. Uchtdorf     I love the stories he shares and that he speaks from his heart. :)"Obedience is the process by which we discover what we are really made of." 

Anyway, it was a great week! Go back and watch conference! lds.org I love you all! 

Love, Hermana Eaves

Easter, Women's Conference and Cambios=one crazy week

Hello everyone! 

     So this week was crazy! Hermana Cicotte and I were looking forward to the Women's Conference the whole week!!! On Saturday, we had to be in the mission home at 4 PM and Quillacollo (our area) is the farthest away so we left our house at 2:50, took a trufi and got there right on time. :) 

We had some games, like "Simon says" and watched a slideshow of our pictures. It was really fun. We then had REAL. MEXICAN. FOOD. You do NOT understand how AMAZING that is until you have eaten rice for 7 months. It was real Mexican food with real guacamole and salsa and beans and LETTUCE (which is ONLY allowed in the mission home) and CHEESE (not the goat cheese that the Cholita's make, actual CHEDDAR CHEESE). I ate three. They were that good. I managed to fit in some homemade Texas sheet cake. After being in Bolivia for 7 months I can eat like a dragon. :)

     Hna Cicotte saved my life. I almost was run over by a giant truck (you would think it would have stopped for a blonde girl crossing the road) but my companion pulled me out of the way. She's the best. 

     So we had a lesson with an elderly Cholita menos activa the other day. A conversation:

Cholita "Donde esta su pueblo?"

Me "Las Estados Unidos" 

Cholita "Que?"

ME "Un poquito mas arriba de Mexico" 

Cholita "Que?"

Me "Un poquito mas arriba de la Paz"

Cholita "ohhh"

Haha, you can Google translate that. La Paz is in Bolivia. Saying that the US "is a bit above La Paz" is sort of a lie but you gotta teach what the people understand and that Cholita understood La Paz. 

     One Menos Activo told us "I don't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon." We asked him if he was praying and he said "no". We asked him if he was reading the Book of Mormon and he said "No". And we asked him if he was coming to church, also "No". Well, of course he doesn't have a testimony. Testimonies are like treasures. We can't just sit around and hope they fall into our laps. Treasures take work and time. We need to WORK and FIGHT for testimonies. If anyone wants a testimony of the Book of Mormon then read it, pray and go to church. Your testimony will come as you act on your faith. 

People in Bolivia are very faithful. Pretty much everyone here believes in God. 

Instead of presents under the tree at Christmastime, they have nativity scenes. For Easter, there is no Easter bunny or plastic eggs. The humble Bolivian people remember Christ and His Atonement. This week we have been sharing the scripture 3 Nephi 11:14-15 (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/11?lang=eng). It talks about how Christ, when he came to the people on the American continent, invited all of them to come unto Him and feel the marks so that they could know without doubt that He suffered and died for them. He loves us!! Isn't that amazing!!! I just want to be a missionary forever so that I can share that message with the world! He lives! And because He lives, we too will live again. It's amazing. I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love, 

Hermana Eaves

Another week has flown by!

Wow, another great HOT week in Bolivia! Summer is still going strong. 

Surprise!  Bolivia isn't actually a jungle, like I assumed before I got here.  Haha!  Bolivia has really pretty views.

Here's a funny story:

     We were getting out of a trufi and Hermana Cicotte couldn't open the door. An old Cholita lady behind us says, "Come papa, papa mote. Da fuerza." (It wasn't really correct Spanish but the translation is : "Eat potaotes and corn (a type of corn). They will make you strong.") Haha. Maybe instead of exercises in the morning I should just eat potatoes. Haha! 

      Some #onlyinBolivias:

          -They cut grass with an edger (mom, tell that to the boys whenever they complain about mowing the lawn)

         -This country is BYOTP-Bring Your Own Toilet Paper. If you ask to use someone's bathroom you had better have toilet paper in your bag because Bolivians don't like to share toilet paper. Haha! 

         -A marijuana shaped air freshener (no wonder that trufi smelled a little funny).

         -Bolivians celebrate a holiday called "Dia del Mar". It's where they all remember that the Chileans "stole their ocean" and talk bad about them. Fun. They also have a day where they celebrate all the dogs and tie bells around their necks. Good times.

Well, we cleaned a school.  These are all the members that showed up to help.  Haha!

One more funny story:

    My companion wrote me this note during church, "The guy behind us just pulled a hair off your shirt, looked at it in awe, played with it for a while then gave it to me." Hahahaha! The perks of being blonde in Bolivia. 

Some cool stuff happened and some frustrating stuff happened. 

     One really cool thing was that the man blessing the Sacrament in church began to cry. I was listening to him and just felt that I always take the Sacrament for granted. Could you imagine one week without the Sacrament's cleansing power? I can't. It is such a privilege to have time every week to remember the Savior and 

His Atonement. I hope all of you take time each day to think about the Savior and to try to live as He did. 

     The frustrating part of this week was that two recent converts (not any of the ones baptized when I was here) got offended by someone in the ward so they decided to not come to church anymore. Ugh! I am so sad for them because they have the gospel in their lives and they have all the blessings just waiting for them but they let a petty argument take the blessings. It also made me think about charity. Even if people treat us wrongly and say mean things about us, even when we have arguments, we still need to LOVE! Charity is the key word. If you have problems with someone then love them! If you feel like you can't love them then pray really hard and fast for Christ-like love. If we have love for others and choose to not be offended then we can change the world! 

Love, 

Hermana Eaves

PS Happy Easter!!! Remember the reason for the season. Though the Easter bunny comes to bring you gifts remember that the greatest gift was the gift of God's Only Begotten Son! John 3:16

"My son is single...Can you marry a Bolivian?"

Hello, Hello. 

It's been a great week here in good 'ol Bolivia. I hope you are all doing well! 

     So this week went by SUPER fast. I am still in Villa Moderna, Quillacollo with Hna Cicotte (cambios are soon so we will see if I stay or not). Anyway, we have had some fun stories:

1. We were walking through Barrio Esmerelda and all of our citas had fallen through. We saw a guy carrying a table on his head (normal). He almost fell over so we offered our assistance. We helped him carry the table to his house. He let us in and gave us some Tampico Citrus Flavored juice (imagine the taste and color of Sunny D). And everytime we would stop drinking for more than 15 seconds to talk he would say "Sirvense, sirvense" ("Drink it, drink it"). I was like "Is he trying to drug us or something?" But really he just wanted us to finish fast so we could help him bring all the chairs for the table too. He was a strange man though. These are some of the things he said to us in the course of our "service":

     "My son is single...can you marry a Bolivian?" (If anyone is interested I will hook you up-for those of you who like crazy father-in-laws).

     "Do they have chica(a very strong alcohol made from corn) in the US? What about chicherias (bars)?" 

     "I don't drink alcohol." (See statement above and judge the truthfulness of that).

     "You are beautiful...I like girls." (This he said as he shook our hands. Yup, we aren't going back to our return appointment). 

Anyway, we also went and visited a Menos Activo yesterday. His name is Beto Adriazola and his son is our convert, Ander. Beto just doesn't come to church!!! So we were joking around with him and told him that the flood (it rained a TON when we were there and flooded his new exercise room-luckily no permanent damage) happened because he didn't come to church yesterday. He also had to go check on his sauna when it was raining and we told him "Watch out for lightning, God knows how to aim." Haha, hopefully he will come to church next week. 

 

Okay, one more funny story. Today Hna Cicotte and I were walking down the street and we saw a Hindu clothing store. We stopped and were like "A Hindu clothing store? In Bolivia?" We decided to go in and check it out. There was actually a member of the church working there. She was really nice. But her boss was a strange man that only spoke Italian. So he was just talking to us and we would nod like we understood. It was cool. 

I put on a crazy outfit with a headband and made us pancakes this morning. Hna Cicotte called me the "Domesticated Lamanite" 

We are getting creative with our dinner ideas (we only have 30 minutes so we have to eat fast).

Anyway, Bianca was confirmed yesterday. It was such a HAPPY day! I love Bianca! She was at the chapel before we even got there (rare) and looked so beautiful and radiant. She was confirmed and just so happy! Man, I love bringing these people the gospel. Even if I had only baptized one person on my mission it would have been worth it because that person would have the Spirit and the gospel and a faithful, happy, forever family. I love my mission. I love representing Jesus Christ everyday! I love the chances I have to change and teach and be taught! This is the best! I love you all, have a great week!

Love, 

Hermana Eaves

Machetes y Mojadas

Hey!! 

 So guess what???? BIANCA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!

Por fin!!! Apparently she has been through about 5 sets of missionaries and she finally was baptized! Man, it was a miracle. (To explain the heading, mojada means "Wet". Haha, because Bianca was wet.) Anyway, to explain how this all went down, Friday night at 8:30 was the programmed day and time for her Entrevista (Interview). (To be baptized into the church, a person needs to have an interview with our District Leader-a missionary-to assure that they are ready for baptism). Anyway, her interview was planned for that day. The Elders knew about it, we knew about it. The only problem was that Bianca did not know. And she was not answering her phone. We were trying to contact her all day, leaving notes at her cuarto, asking her sister's to call her. It was 7 PM and we still had not gotten ahold of her. We were up in a part of our area called Takata Norte and we were waiting for a trufi. We were planning to take a trufi to Bianca's cuarto to search her out. Two trufis passed by but they were full. We were getting tired of waiting and a little frustrated. Bianca called right as a trufi pulled up. Apparently she wasn't in her cuarto! She was going to her sister's house! So we said "Lo siento", closed the door of the trufi and went to her sisters house. We showed up right when she did. She told us she had left her phone in her cuarto and had just seen our missed calls. (This was 7:30 PM). Then she told us she had started working Sundays so she wasn't going to be able to come to church. PROBLEM? I think so. So we went into her sister's house and taught a great lesson about Dia De Reposo (I think that translates Keep the Sabbath Day Holy in English) and promised her many blessings if she kept the Sabbath Day Holy and stopped working. We said she could tell her boss that she would work one more week while the boss found other people to come in. She said she would. We headed to the Entrevista at 8 PM and she passed. So on Sunday we fasted for her to be able to tell her boss that she could only work that Sunday (yesterday) and no more. BUT GUESS WHAT? She came to church!!!! She walked in and we were so happy! It was AMAZING! She told her boss that she couldn't work Sundays and she came to church! AHH! Then she was baptized and so many people from the ward came! Man, it was amazing! She was nervous but she came out of the water so happy! It was a great day!

     Now to explain the other part of the subtitle: Machete. I chopped down a tree with a machete.

Yup. My first time chopping a tree down with a machete. For future reference, an axe would have been way easier. I think me and an Elder chopped at that tree with our machetes for 2 hours. But if anyone wants to get me a present when I come home next year I would be fine with a machete. They are very useful. The Cholitas here carry them around all the time. 

    Anyway, it was a great week! I love you all! 

Love, 

Hermana Eaves