Fun, Frio, Y Frustrations - May 28, 2018

Ok so this week! Well, it was two weeks, but i forgot to bring my journal, and thus week was absolutely full to the brim!!! The only thing I´ve got from last week is that I was "baptized" into the ward. The way Bolivians celebrate things (birthdays, holidays, welcomes, etc) is by smashing eggs on your head and then throwing flour at you. So yeah that happened. And I guess that doesn´t usually happen, that you get baptized into a ward, but I guess it was just something special for me from Hermana Padilla and Ronal haha 

So Monday! We FINALLY got to go to Uyuní, and it was super beautiful. The bus ride was 8 hours, and SO SO SO COLD. We seriously were all freezing. And what was even crazier is that we left on Sunday night around 10, but got stuck in the middle and didn´t get there until 8 or 9 am! So yeah, that was not super fun, but it was awesome to get to know my zone better. The first place we visited while we were there (we actually took a tour) was an old train graveyard, so that was pretty cool, but the coolest part of Uyuní was definitely the Salt Flats! (Salar) Wow it was huge! We drove to an island in the middle of it that had a ton of cactuses. I have no clue how they even got there, because it took us an hour of driving on salt to make it there. 

There were also random things (buildings and such) on the way there and back that we stopped to see. The bus ride home wasn´t nearly as bad because we all were so tired that we slept the whole time (yeah that seriously didn´t happen on the way there). We got back on Tuesday about 3 am. The cost of the trip was 250 bolivianos plus money for food. That seems like a lot, but actually that´s like 35 dollars, so not too bad. Although most of the missionaries in our zone have been kind of broke this week because we used up a bunch of money this week. But the new month is this week, so we´ll be alright.

Also this week: my first zone conference! and it was in Potosí, so it was also cold there! (that was Thursday). It was with our zone (Sucre), Tupiza, and Potosi zones. The other two zones only have elders, so that was a little interesting haha. On Wednesday we had meetings with Presidente Montoya, and I was really happy with how it went! It was a conversation, and i understood pretty much everything he said! El don de lenguas (the gift of tongues) is real! The sister leaders in my zone asked me to lead a special musical number (because on the bus to Uyuní we were singing hymns, and then people heard ME sing, and I guess I have a pretty good voice because right after that they assigned this to me) (actually it was kind of cool because the bus was super noisy, and the hermanas asked me to sing my favorite hymn for them (because they knew my voice was good) so I sang How Great Thou Art in Spanish, and by the end of the first verse the bus was silent because everyone was listening. (and they asked me to sing the whole thing, so that was a little bit awkward, but at the same time i think others felt the spirit, so that was good) ANYWAY so for the zone conference our zone sang Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy (because I got to pick, and it´s Mom´s favorite). It turned out really well. The conference was cool, we learned a lot of doctrine about the fall of Adam and eve (though i´m sure i didn´t understand all of it), and i got to share my thoughts at one point so that was awesome! (And even though the grammar wasn´t perfect, and it was a little choppy, i was proud of myself for sharing my thoughts, in Spanish, in front of 60ish other missionaries. 

So the frustration part: the longer i´ve been in the mission, the more i´ve realized what things are right and wrong, rules, etc. This week my compañion and i had more than a few disagreements about obedience. The hard part about this is that you are a companionship. I can´t just leave her and go home if it is late but she doesn´t want to leave a member´s house, (and things like that). Another thing this week was that going to bed and waking up on time are important to me, but they are less priorities for my companion. The problem is that we are supposed to go to bed at the same time, and she didn´t want to. So I was frustrated about that. There were other things too. I know that I can´t let her disobedience affect my obedience, but sometimes it´s unavoidable. But we had a companionship inventory this Sunday, and we talked through a lot of stuff. There was stuff that I had been saying that I didn´t realize that had hurt her feelings, and I expressed to her my frustrations with the obedience thing, with myself and the language, and my thoughts about home. Sunday this week was hard because the confrontation thing about bed time was Saturday night, then things were frosty between us all day, and it was Bolivia´s mother´s day so I was thinking about Mom and all that´s going on in her life So yeah, in our companionship inventory I was sobbing. That was the first time in the mission that that has happened. But It was a good thing, and after we talked everything through, we were really unified and now things are all good between us.

Her new sweater made out of Llama fur (wool?) and hot chocolate that she drinks almost every night because it is starting to get cold there.

Flowers that she got for Mother'd Day.  She said the Chocolate one was really good.

Today for P day we hike to the "7 Cascadas" which is 7 waterfalls, but seriously there was basically no water. It was fun though, we scaled some cool rocks which was awesome. No they weren´t cliffs or anything, but they were pretty big, and there wasn´t a ton to grip onto. So it was an adventure. Our companionship was the only one from our district that went, so there were a lot less gringos to talk to, which i think was a good thing, because i used more Spanish than usual on a P day. It was kind of funny because nobody fell down when we were scaling rocks, but i fell down when we were walking on the path. I guess that was me just being kinda clumsy haha. Don´t worry, I´m not hurt :) Actually I stumble around a lot, and I think it´s because the sidewalks are not very well kept, and are not smooth at all. But it´s ok because it makes for a lot of funny moments haha

I memorized one of my favorite scriptures this week. Josué 1:9 I´ll let you figure out which one that is :) "Mira que te mandes que te esfuerces y seas valiente. No temás, ni desmayes, porque Jehová, tu Dios, estará contigo dondequiera que vayas" 

Keep reading the scriptures and praying everyday! It´s so so important for your testimony to be in a constant state of growth, because it it´s not, it´s shrinking. I´ve seen that a lot here, because the majority of the members of the ward here are inactive. 

Lots of Love!

Hermana Rowe

This picture is for her friends at BYU... She is now friends with Elder Rivera (they apparently have a lot of friends in common.)

The Bolivian Life is the Life for Me - May 14, 2018

           This is a mandarin (a cutie, south american style... they are SUPER good! and bigger and green)


Ok so another week has come and gone. On Tuesday last week we weren´t allowed to leave the apartment, but every other day we´ve been able to do proselitismo. I have received questions about how  my stomach is adjusting to the food, and I´m doing great! I actually had a harder time in the CCM than here, and I think that might be partly because comida peruana is a little different than comida boliviana. (Bolivian food is pretty tame, I haven´t really run into much that I thought was gross or that my body couldn´t handle) (But in the CCM I DEFINITELY did). 

Thursday was a little weird because in the early morning we were told that we wouldn´t be able to leave the apartment at all, because the night before there had been a riot and the police shot and killed 2 college students who were a part of it. Then about 2 hours later we were told that we could go to lunch at the penisonista´s, but we had to wear P day clothes (which Hermana Padilla and I both enjoyed), and after we got back, we had a weekly planning session, and in the middle we got a call from our zone leaders that we could go out and do proselitismo, so we visited some families in the ward that lived near to us.

There is this one family, la familia Flores, and they are so cute! There is a 10 year old boy named Javier, and he absolutely loves me! He always practices his English with me, and is always interested in what I have to say, even if I can´t say much. There is another family, la familia Alaca, and they are super fun! It´s kind of a Volmer situacion, because there are like 4 different familia Alaca but they all live right next to each other. Its interesting because some of the families are all members, others are half, and some are only a few, but there´s a ton of them. And all the kids (when we went and visited them) were asking me whats this or whats that in English, so that was pretty fun. A lot of people have asked me if I´ve been to a Justin Bieber concert. Not sure why they think HE is the type of guy I´d want to go see, but eso si que es haha.

This week has been pretty chill though. Pretty much everyday this week when we´ve gone out to do proselitismo we´ve taken Ronald Mancilla out with us, which is pretty fun. Up until recently, he has been an inactive member of the church. He was baptized 3 years ago, but moved out of Sucre for work, and there was so ward in his area. But now he´s been back for 3ish months, and he has decided to reactivate himself because he wants to serve a mission. He´s fun to have around, and i see great potential in him to be an awesome missionary. Most of the time he just bears testimony, but sometimes I feel like he is a better missionary than I am! (I think part of that comes with fully understanding what people are saying to you). He´s the one in the picture from last week (with the Salchipapas), and I think I have another picture from this week that I can send. 

One of our investigators is named Blanca, and she is very sweet. She came to church this past week, and she has been progressing really well. We are hoping that she`ll be baptized next Saturday, but we`ll see. Other than her for the most part the work has been really slow, but part of that is because we haven´t been able to work in the same manner as usual. And also Hermana Padilla wanted me to meet a lot of ward members this week, so we spent a bit of time this week doing that. 

Another woman that we met this week is named Dora, and she seems VERY prepared to receive the gospel, so we are hoping that she will progress quickly and follow through with compromisos. (commitments). 

Sunday was awesome, I got to meet the ward! (officially). The Bishop asked me to share my testimony (which went fine) and since there is nobody that can play the piano, I played for Sacrament meeting. I also found out that starting this week I´ll be teaching group piano AND English classes, so please wish me luck with that one. 

I finally got to have my first district meeting this week! My district seems super fun, especially since 4 of the 7 gringos in Sucre are in my district, and both the district leaders are gringos. It made P day a little bit easier today because I was able to speak English! It felt good haha, but I also am starting to enjoy figuring out Spanish (even though my brain is exhausted every single night). And my brain isn´t the only thing that´s exhausted! My legs are going to be BUILT by the time I get out of Sucre, because no matter where you go, at some point you will hike up a hill. Even in the centro, it´s hilly. But like I said, my legs will be beautiful by the time I leave, so that´s a plus haha. Our Pday today was wally ball and mini indoor soccer, so it was pretty fun, and afterwards my district and the zone leaders all went to lunch (the zone leaders came with us I think probably because we have the majority of the gringos haha) and Hermana Padilla and I got Oreo milkshakes! (SO what I needed! And they were SUPER delicious) 

Love love love you all! Please send me pictures of what`s going on in your lives, as well as memes! (Extraño memes!)

Hermana Rowe

                                                 At her pensionista's husband's restaurant with Ronald

                                                                             The milkshakes!

Sucre Week 1 - May 7, 2018

So... I made it to Sucre and WOW!! Things are more than a little different here than Cochabamba. My new companion, Hermana Padilla, flew to Cochabamba Tuesday morning to meet up with me, and we flew to Sucre together. The Sucre airport is super far away from Sucre, so we had to drive about 45 mins to get home last week on Tuesday. My zone leaders picked us up from the airport, and they are super nice. They are also the only people from my zone that i've met besides my companion. More on that later. My first thought when we got out of the bus to Sucre was that it smells like a port o potty here. No joke. So that has been a little bit of an adjustment, but i don't really smell it anymore. Except when we walk by this super filthy stream thing in our area. 

Something else new about Sucre... DANGER. Yes, it is more dangerous here in Sucre than in Cochabamba. They have these things called Pardos, and basically it is the people being either happy or mad at something that the president does (the happy one doesn't make sense to me, but that's what my companion said), and so they set up a blockade in the road so nobody can drive through (but you can walk through). They sometimes are made out of cars, garbage, or people sitting in lawn chairs. There is also a bit of civil unrest here, i'm sure if you look online you could find some good videos of some of the things happening here in Sucre. 

One of the family members of our pensionista showed us some of the violence that has been happening. (Probably not what you wanted to hear about my first area in the mission, but hey! Its an adventure!) Thus we have spent quite a bit of time in the apartment this week. So, I taught Hermana Padilla how to make Deviled Eggs, and she knows how to say Whats your problem? and Thumbs up! haha. We also have watched Coco and spent a lot of time studying. We actually didn't have church yesterday because it was too dangerous, but our pensionista lives really close to us, so we were given permission to spend the day there. And then we have had to spend all of out p day locked up too, so definitely too much time in the apartment. We haven't been able to have a district meeting since i've gotten here, so that's why i haven't met anyone yet. But i do want everyone to know that i feel the spirit with me, and I have never felt in serious danger, because we have never been witnesses to the street riots and things like that. And even though i hear gun shots every morning during study time, i know that as long as we follow the spirit we will be protected, because we are here to do the Lords work, and we are being obedient. 

I love my pensionista and her family! Her name in Rodillo, and her husband owns a restaurant, so we eat there for lunch every day. They are less active members, and her brother, Ronald, is an inactive member, and he helps out everyday. They are such funny people! They really make you feel like part of the family, even though it takes me 30 seconds sometimes to realize that they are joking about me haha. But its all in good fun, they call me gordita, i call them bajitos, its all good haha. 

What they say about Bolivians feeding you tons is TRUE!!  I have heaping plates of food for lunch everyday, and we always are served a huge bowl of soup beforehand. I've learned to eat breakfast early and not snack before lunch, because it is offensive to them if you don't eat EVERYTHING! Lets hope i dont get too chubby on my mission. new favorite candy bar is Kilatte, and it is those awesome vanilla wafer things covered in chocolate. They are delicious.  We made

 Salchipapas this week! (If you forgot, Salchipapas is literally french fries, fried hot dog, ketchup and mayo, and seriously it is one of the best things ever created).

Thanks for all the love and support friends and family!

Hermana Rowe

Hola Hola Family de los Estados Unidos! - April 30, 2018

WOW I'M A MISSIONARY!! Ok I'll do my best to update you on the last 2 weeks. Loved my last week in the CCM with my district, and I've been missing them quite a bit this week. We left the CCM at 6 pm Monday night and didn't get to Cochabamba until 9:30 am! It was a long hard night on airport benches. I basically didn't sleep. When we got to the Cochabamba airport a lot of missionaries were there waiting for us, and they sang Called to Serve as we walked out of getting our luggage. We ate breakfast at the airport with el Presidente Montoya y Hermana Montoya, and then we went to the mission home. I had never realized that when people talk about the mission home, it is literally a house! and it is very beautiful, right across the street from the temple. And if you look at the temple from the mission home, you can see the Christus in the background!

I will be training in Sucre (which is apparently really touristy and is known for its chocolate, so I'll update you on that next week), because that is where my trainer is (i haven't actually met her yet) and ill be flying there tomorrow after a meeting with el Presidente and all the new missionaries. It would have been last week, but he had to leave to go who knows where that afternoon. So the two hermanas that I've been tagging along with all week are Hermanas Cristobal y Pardo, and they are so sweet and fun! (but i'm also slightly grateful that they aren't the ones training me, since there are quite a few rules that they are super lax on.

Cocha is beautiful! Even though its full of poverty and trash, as soon as i could see it the first morning i couldn't stop staring! I already love the people here so much, and I'm excited to see that love grow. 

Everything here is crazy cheap, and bolivianos are basically worth nothing. I think 100 Bolivianos is 15 dollars, to put that in perspective. I haven't bought any souvenirs yet, tho I've been tempted, since i know that I've got a year and a half ahead of me to buy cool stuff.

The first day i was here we were teaching lessons, and even though i didn't really say anything except share a testimony at the end, it felt great! (but we only got to go to three because i almost fell asleep in the last one, so we went home and i went to bed. that was at 7 pm) Seriously tho it has been so cool to be with real people instead of teachers all the time! And even though the majority of what i can do is bear testimony and explain maybe 1 principle a lesson (or share the first vision, since i have that memorized), i still love sharing the gospel! 

My first p day has been pretty relaxed, we went bowling with a bunch of other missionaries in our zone and in other zones. And we ate lunch at a members house. His name is Fernando and he was baptized this past Saturday! (he was an investigator of the 2 hermanas that I'm with). So cool to see a baptism my first week! 

I will say that this week i have struggled a little bit with loneliness. Hermanas Pardo y Cristobal both speak English, but basically never do, and a lot of the time i don't catch everything they say, and when they do speak with me about things, i have kinda a hard time responding (tho its been getting easier). I also have felt kinda like a dog following the 2 of them this week since I'm not doing much to help out, so I'm excited to ACTUALLY start being trained my my actual trainer. I also feel like I've had a loss of personality because i spend all day listening to people, and not saying much, but little by little its getting better. 

Speaking of dogs, they are everywhere!! And it makes me really sad sometimes, but what can you do

This week has been hard on me, but know that i feel a lot better at understanding Spanish than i did a week ago, and that i love seeing the light that the gospel can bring into peoples lives. 

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Rowe