Rain Rain, Go Away - Aug 6, 2018

Welcome to this week´s letter. It´s been a little crazy, but also super fun!

Tuesday: We had a reunion de distrito like normal (district meeting) and had a family home evening with the family Calvimontez Mancilla, since we changed pensions and wanted to spend some time with them. And also because they are less active members and have gone through a lot of hard things, and need lots of support. 

Wednesday:  First day with the new pension, and all´s good.  Her name is Mishel Melgarejo, and her food is super delicious! She is peruana, and seriously i have loved eating at her house all week long. We visited with an investigator, Camila, who has been progressing really well, but this week she told us that her parents said she can´t get baptized (she´s 12) but she has cousins that are members of the church. That was pretty hard on me. Also, we went to visit Pablo, one of my recent converts, and he was super drunk, and we haven´t been able to find him since then. I´m really worried about him. I thought he was over his drinking addiction. He hasn´t been to church in 2 weeks, and I´m not sure how to help him. Anyone have any advice? 

Thursday: We got rained in at one of the houses we were at in the evening because we were far from home and it was hailing!! Super crazy. We went to bed cold that night.

Friday: We had a fairly normal day, studied, ate lunch, contacted, went to a lot of citas, and had a noche de hermanamiento. I think that translates to Fellowship night, but i´m not entirely sure. It was fun though!

Saturday: WOW it rained. And when I say rain I mean R.A.I.N. All day long. And half the time it was hail mixed with rain. It´s been DANG cold. It was a little miserable, especially since in the morning it was only slightly raining, and we didn´t have appointments so we decided to contact for pretty much the whole day. We were freezing cold and wet, but we didn´t die, and we actually had fun somehow. Did I mention that I don´t have rain boots? I looked a little ridiculous with my sport socks and church shoes, and they got pretty dang muddy, but it´s ok because they´re clean now :) I´m grateful for umbrellas!

Sunday: We spent a lot of today with members of the ward. It was also raining pretty much all day, so that wasn´t super fun, but it was alright. It was fast Sunday, and it was awesome to hear the testimonies of some less active members of the ward.

Monday: Today was the Mormon Helping Hands day of service for all of Bolivia, so that was the majority of our day today. It was super fun! I love my ward so much, and I love that i can actually understand them and communicate with them now! Also, today when we woke it up was 10 degrees Celsius in our apartment!! that´s 50 Fahrenheit, it was SO hard to get out of bed this morning. Heating and air conditioning doesn´t exist here.

So that was my week! Keep the emails coming, I love to hear about how friends and family and doing! 

"We must lengthen our stride" Presidente Spencer W. Kimball this is my theme for this week.

Stay in school kids! (and the church, it´ll bless your life!!)

Something she had this week.  Apparently it is common to have chicken feet in your soup in Peru...

Umbrellas

Bolivian Day of Service

Workin' hard, or hardly workin' eh Mack? - July 30, 2018

Brownie points to anyone who gets the refrence in the title. If you don´t know, you can ask my sister because she and I refrence this movie all the time to each other haha

Tuesday: We got the chance to visit with a recent convert, Blanca, who hasn´t really been coming to church. We went with a member of the Relief society presidency, and it was really good. We found out that the father of her sons has been drinking and not paying what i think is something like Bolivian child support, and some other challenges as well. But w had a really good spiritual conversation with her, and she came back to church this Sunday, so I´m glad that she can rely on the Lord for this support. 

Wednesday: We had an early intercambio this week, and I was in my area again with Hermana Cristobal. One of the reasons why it was so early was because they told us that we had to change pensions. I´d never heard of a sister training leader being about to do that before, but they said that they were receiving promptings that we need to change. I´m really sad to be leaving this pension, but I´m also excited for the new one because it is a less active member and I think our presence will really be able to help her out spiritually. 

Thursday: I don´t know why this happens every week, but I really don´t know what happened Thursday, and I forgot to write Thursday night in my journal... whoops. Another thing to get better at I guess :) 

Friday: We had the chance to visit with one of our investigators who´s cousins is a recent convert, AnaCarla, but the investigator is named Camila. She is 12 and is super sweet! We set a baptismal date with her, and I was the one who asked! It felt so good. I´ve really seen big improvement in my Spanish, and actually a lot of people have started to notice that. I think a big part of it is that i´m not with Hermana Padilla anymore, since she was a TALKER! Hermana Piguave is a little more quiet, and so I have a lot more chances to use my Spanish with members of the ward. I feel a lot more like I´m in a companionship, instead of just being dragged along everywhere. I also love spending time and having fun with Hermana Piguave because it´s more of a righteous fun, if that makes since. We are doing more things in the Lord´s way, and I´m absolutely loving it! 

Saturday:  We had correlation with our ward mission leader (just like every Saturday morning) and we talked about some good stuff. It made me grateful for his support this week, and then I also remembered that at one point my dad was the ward mission leader. Thanks for your hard work Dad! I remember the missionaries coming to our house every week, and I know you were an awesome support for them. I´m also super grateful for the ward i´m in, because a lot of the members are pretty active in missionary work, and want to help out. My district leader doesn´t even have a ward mission leader, and they ask the bishop every week to call somebody but he keeps not doing it. 

Sunday: We only had one investigator come to church today, but it was ok because almost all of our recent converts were there, and a lot of less active members came too :) It´s interesting to me how Sundays feel less like Sunday in the mission, and a big part of that is because we are doing the same things in Sunday that we do on other days. Some times I miss the resting part of day of rest haha, but vale la pena, it´s worth it. 

Monday: Today we cooked Ecuadorian food with Hermana Padilla and her comp for the zone, and it tasted pretty good (though it was a lot of meat). It also took 4 hours for the meat to cook on the parilla (I think that means grill... it´s not exactly the same, but pretty similar) (yeah, i know, FOUR HOURS... it was a long 4 hours) so we played sports and talked and it was all pretty fun.

So that about sums it up! We worked hard this week, and we enjoyed doing it. I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be, and I´m excited keep on pushing through! I read an awesome scripture in Alma this week that has been a really good support to me, and might even become the motto of my mission: 

36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.  (Alma 37:36-37)

I can´t get the type to go back to normal, so i guess i´ll just let it be haha. Hope you all have a great weak, and use the power of prayer!!

Hermana Rowe

Jessica sent multiple picts of Bolivian dogs for her sister.  This one is particularly cute!

She spelled "Rowe" with her soup.  She is always finding ways to enjoy herself.

I'm a Big Missionary Now (and that's not just figurative, ha ha) - July 23, 2018

I´m officially out of my training and I´m with a new comp! (Did I mention last week that I have 4 months in the mission now?) Still in my first area, but it´s been really cool to see how I have to take the lead a LOT, even though I´m the junior companion. Hermana Piguave is AWESOME! I have absolutely loved this week with her.  She actually is what I think having an american comp would be like. Her trainer was american, and she is super rule oriented. We had our first companionship inventory this week, and she said that a lot of the other latinas don´t take the mission seriously, but that she was here to work, and that she knows we are here on the Lord´s time. I´m super excited to work with her! Of course she´s not perfect, nobody is, but for the most part she is a lot more serious about missionary work than Hermana Padilla is, so i´m really excited!

Tuesday: Spent a lot of the day waiting with Hermana Padilla for our new comps to come from the airport (since she just got changed to another ward in the same zone) and spent a lot of Tuesday helping Hermana Piguave unpack. (Or trying to help... she´s pretty independent and didn´t want a ton of help, but I sure was offering haha!) 

Wednesday: We spent a ton of time walking because I accidentally put us on the wrong bus! We were trying to go to Tejar (one end of our area) and I accidentally put us on the bus to Aranjuez (the other side of our area). I felt pretty bad about that, but it gave Hermana Piguave some good opportunities to get to know a lot of our area! In the evening we had an appointment with one of our best progressing investigators, Marcelo Martinez. He is seriously so awesome, and he was originally a reference from our district leader, because he is cousins with their pension. We always feel the spirit SUPER strongly in lessons with him. He says that he´s been looking for more peace and tranquility in his life, and he feels it every time he meets with us. It´s super cool.

Thursday: Yeah... I´m blanking on Thursday. Just assume we working so hard that we forgot everything that happened haha :)

Friday: We had our first district meeting of the cambio, and it was super awesome. I always love what my district leader, Elder Fisher, has to say.  We met with a lot of ward members on Friday which was great for Hermana Piguave to get to know more people. 

Saturday: Today was super long. So remember our investigator, Marcelo? He decided to start taking action to find more peace in his life, and decided to move to Santa Cruz to be with his wife and child (he was only in Sucre for work) so we helped him move out of his house (with the help of the elders) pretty much all day long, and he´s going to continue meeting with missionaries in Santa Cruz. We are sad to lose him, but super happy that he is starting to really see the importance of family. We also met with some inactivos in the afternoon (inactive members, sorry i´m used to using the Spanish for so many of these mission terms) and went to a baptism of some elderes because they wanted me to sing for the special musical number, and Hermana Piguave gave one of the talks. (I´ve actually sung for a special musical number like 3 or 4 times for baptisms, it´s cool that i can use my talents to help uplift and edify others)

Sunday: Basically all of today was church and appointments with families, so that Hermana Piguave can get to know them better, but it was a super good day :) I´m also running out of time to write

Monday: Today was the usual, woke up, studies, cleaned the house, ate breakfast, went and played soccer with the zone (and all the hermanas showed up so we could actually play, which was awesome, since we can´t play soccer with the elders). We bought groceries and ate lunch, then came to email. Ta-da!

There you have it. It´s been crazy, but it´s been good. Thank you all for your love! Keep up the good work, and always keep doing the small simple things.

Amor,

Hermana Rowe

Day 1 with Hermana Piguave

Part of her area in the background

Out of Training! (And hopefully not into the frying pan, ha ha) - July 16, 2018

OK! I did it! I made it through my training and I´m officially a normal missionary!! (except not... because I´m still learning Spanish and I´m a gringa... I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this before, but I can´t tell you the number of times a week I get whistled at just because of my hair color... it´s interesting). My comp Hermana Padilla is being transferred to another ward in Sucre (which usually doesn´t happen, usually they get sent to Cochabamba) and actually will still be in the same district as me, so that´ll be kinda fun! :) My new comp is Hermana Piguave, and is actually from the same group as Hermana Padilla, so she has 6 months in the mission. Apparently she is super serious, but I guess I´ll find out tomorrow! Here´s what happened this week-

Tuesday: We had district meeting and afterwards we had a testimony meeting as a zone, since about half the zone is leaving to go to other zones this transfer, and one of the elders is dying (mission lingo for going home) tomorrow. It was awesome, I love my zone tons. And we all are super good friends because there isn´t anyone else to hang out with on P day haha. Also: it was pretty cold on Tuesday.

Wednesday: Don´t know why (I think it was the cold) but I was having muscle aches all day, so we went out to lunch, went to 1 appointment, then went home to rest because my muscles were hurting THAT BAD. I don´t know what´s happening, before Bolivia I didn´t ever get sick this much.

Thursday: I actually felt tons better, I think it´s because we took time to rest on Wednesday. Thursday was cool because we had an appointment with a recent convert, Antonia Condori, and she is the cutest little cholita. (I need to take a picture with her, she is so sweet, and always gives me the biggest hugs when we see her at church) She speaks Spanish pretty well, but understands Quechua a lot better, but doesn´t know how to read either one. We had planned to give her one of the retention lessons, but felt impressed to start teaching her to read. We discovered that she REALLY wants to read the Book of Mormon, and we are going to have one of the ladies from the ward that speaks both Spanish and Quechua continue to teach her so she can start reading the Book of Mormon. We are so excited to see how that goes. :) 

Friday: Happy Friday the 13th! We had our correlation meeting with the ward mission leader, and did a lot of contacting, but it was super good! We got 2 new investigators, one of them is a 10 year old named Valedia, and she is awesome! She goes to her church on her own every week, and has a lot of faith. She actually came to church this week and said that she really liked it, so I hope she will keep coming!

Saturday: I had my third baptism of the mission this week! He´s named Pablo Saigua, and he´s had a long journey to getting to baptism! He originally started meeting with missionaries 8 months ago, but has had problems with his addiction to alcohol. But he is no longer addicted and is a member of the church!! So cool. He has a super strong testimony, and he wants to do what´s right. We are SO SO SO happy for him :)

Sunday: We spent most of Sunday visiting members because it was Hermana Padilla´s last week. It was super fun, and we had some good spiritually strengthening lessons.

Monday: Today Hermana Padilla has been packing, and I´ve been helping. For breakfast we went to the stake center and made quesadillas with our district. There´s is also a fair type of thing happening right now in Sucre, so we went to that, and it was pretty cool. And that was today :)

Ta-da! There you have it :) Thanks for all the love and support! Lots of love from Bolivia!

Hermana Rowe

Weird popsicles called lenguix that when they start melting are the texture of a tongue... I didn't love that one... ha ha

Pablo and his daughter Patricia who was baptized 4 months ago, and us!

Me and Hermana Bouwhuis (who has become one of my best friends in the mission, but is going to Cochabamba tomorrow) (RIP I will miss her ha ha)

Amo Sucre! - July 9, 2018

I asked Jessica what things the sisters told them they were doing wrong.  Did it apply to obedience or just the way she and her comp were doing things.   Both, there were some things that I didn´t even realize that were in the handbook (because we´d only read it together one time, at the very beginning of my training when i really didn´t understand that much (and actually we are supposed to read the handbook together every single day, which i didn´t know either...)) that we were either going directly against (and i seriously did not know) or that were being bent a LOT (I know I shouldn´t play the victim here but I feel a little bit like one because of all these things that i´d never known or realized because i´d never been told about, or i had but i didn´t understand). But it´s ok now because we´ve been doing a lot more things right this week :) 

So! Welcome back to the Bolivian life I´m living, friends and family! I have to say, I feel like I don´t have a whole ton to say this week, but we´ll see I guess. 

Tuesday: We had district meeting like normal, and the topic was the small simple things that we should be doing obedience-wise. It was super great. My invitation to all of you is to to do the small simple things that add up to a great big relationship with God: Read the Book of Mormon, at least a few verses every day, and pray every morning and night on your knees. I have seen such a large spiritual progression in myself as I´ve done these things, and I know that we can have the spirit with us more abundantly as we do these things. This is something that we talk about with people pretty much every day, and I have seen the huge difference it can make in people´s lives. On Tuesday we ate Pique Macho at the pension, and it was SO GOOD! Apparently the pique macho from Cocha is better, but I was happy to eat it. It is french fries with ketchup mayo fried egg, steak strips, hot dog, peppers, and onions... it´s pretty good :) 

Wednesday: Happy 4th of July y´all! I made sure to subtly rep my país by wearing red white and blue. We ate ice cream, and also made a dinner of hot dog, rice, eggs, and I drew fireworks on mine with ketchup mayo and mustard. It tasted super good. :) (Yes I know, Bolivian food is oddly sofisticated but super child-like at the same time) It was a good day, even though I was a little trunky thinking about friends and family :) I really tried hard to lose myself in the work for the rest of the week.

Thursday: We had interviews with Presidente Montoya, and he basically told me that Hna Padilla is going to Cochabamba for the next transfer, and that I´ll have at least one more transfer here in Sucre (YAY!!) But we won´t ´officially´ know until this Sunday night. It was really good to talk with him. I was able to express a little of my frustrations and ask advice about what to do when I want to be more obedient than my comp (he told me that was a common theme this transfer, so it´s good to know that I´m not going through this alone). 

Friday: I actually can´t really remember much from Friday. I know we actually had time to get in all of our studies, so that was good! Let´s just assume it was a good day because I can´t remember haha

Saturday: We were going to have a baptism, but the date fell through because she wasn´t ready. We are hoping that she´ll be ready in another few weeks, but we´ll see. But it was going to be a group`baptism at the stake center, and they had asked me to do the special musical number, so we went anyway. I sang Teach Me to Walk in the Light (because two of the people being baptized were kids over 8). I´m really glad I´ve been able to use my musical talents to help others feel the Spirit. I continue to play piano for the ward in sacrament meeting every Sunday, and I´ve been asked to sing for things many times.

Sunday: A very good happy day! I was a little stressed out in the morning because 5 mins before the meeting one of the people giving talks hadn´t showed up yet, and they asked me to share a message. It actually turned out pretty good! I´m choosing to count it as a blessing that I had to do that because seriously I have seen HUGE improvements in my spanish. I understand the majority of things that people say, and Ï´m able to respond adequately, so it´s looking pretty good! Almost every other week President Montoya tells me in response to my weekly emails to him that he is really seeing a lot of improvement in my Spanish as well! It makes me happy :)

Today (Monday): For P-day today we hung out at the stake center and played games. One of the Elders (My district leader, Elder Fisher) bought Settlers of Catan from the Cancha in Cocha, so he brought it and we played it! It was super fun. (It was also super cheapy and a rip off of the original, but I´m not complaining haha :) A lot of things in Bolivia are like that. For example: All the movies here you can buy for 1 or 2 bolivianos which is like 20 cents, and they are ALL pirated. It´s so funny because it´s illegal to pirate movies in the US, but in Bolivia it is actually legal. And ALL the stores do it. It is next to impossible to find a movie that is not pirated. So at the end of my mission every has to let me know what movies they want, and i´ll buy them here since they´re super cheap. And no, they are not all in Spanish) We also played soccer, and we were all surprised by how tired we were after! (the hermanas, idk about the elderes) (btw we played separately, don´t worry) But I guess it´s because we don´t run at all, because it´s not really safe for the hermanas to go on morning runs because it is still dark out when we get up (also it´s cold because it´s winter here). 

AAAAAaannd here we are. Thanks to all for your emails, it really does make a difference! I love hearing about what is going on in your lives! Lots of love and keep doing the small simple things!!

AMOR,

Hermana Rowe

4th of July Ice Cream

The dinner

A cool sign that they found (yes, she is allowed to wear pants, as long as she doesn't wear them to church or meetings,)

I Didn't Ask for Mezcla, But That's What I Got - July 2, 2018

This week was a mix of emotions for me. Monday night we started intercambios, and I was with Hermana Cristobal again, so that was pretty fun! I have a lot of respect for her as a missionary, she is awesome. (but we didn´t take a pic to prove it, so sorry about that) Tuesday we were in intercambios all day, and I was in my area again. At the end of intercambios I was feeling bad because the capas (hermana leaders) had a lot of things to talk to us about, that I didn´t even realize that we were doing wrong. But we have been working super hard, and been a lot more obedient this week. That evening, we found out that the brother-in-law of my pensionista died (brother of Hno. Absalón), so we spent a lot of Wednesday morning helping them out and supporting them. We got permission and went with them to do paperwork (because the cemetery is in our area) (actually the cemetery is really cool because it has a lot of famous Bolivian royalty, from back when that was a thing, presidentes, and people like that) and I was glad that we were able to support them that morning, because they were hurting BAD. My spirit even felt heavy, and I didn´t really even know him, but I have such a great love for their family. I really felt like I was "mourn(ing) with those that mourn, and stand(ing) with those that stand in need of comfort." 

In that same day we had an amazing lesson with Ana Carla, who was baptized this week! The spirit was super strong in that lesson, and we were so excited for her. That evening was the viewing for the hermano, and it was kind of really sad, but at the same time it was good because a bunch of members from our ward came and sang hymns. Our district leader and his companion came too, because last Saturday when we had the baptism of Blanca, Hno Absálon asked the elders if they´d give a blessing to his brother. They actually gave the blessing on Tuesday, and he died about an hour after that. Apparently that last hour he was a lot more peaceful  (because he was super sick, he had been in a bed for a year and in a lot of pain). Our pensionista Rocio shared with us that she was outside during this, and actually saw a pillar of light and heard comforting voices, and felt real peace when he died. Super cool experience that she said really strengthened her testimony of the reality of God. Anyway, at the viewing they asked me to sing "Conmigo Quédate, Señor" (Abide with me tis eventide) and I felt the spirit SUPER strongly during that (and yes that is the same one that I sang in the CCM). 

Thursday I was in Cochabamba for trámites (I think that means immigration or something like that... I´m not entirely sure) and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! A lot warmer than in Sucre (even though Sucre isn´t that cold haha). We ate empanadas with really good Bolivian cheese inside, with bags of chocolate milk. (I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this before, but most of the single portion drinks in Bolivia are in bags. Kinda weird, but it is what it is haha) That evening when I got back we had the baptismal interview for Ana Carla, and after that we were at the house of a part member family for a family night slash birthday celebration for Davíd Colque Alaca, who turned 11. It was a pretty good day.

Friday we ate RIDICULOUS amounts of food. We didn´t know if the pension would be open (understandably so) and made plans with a member to eat lunch. While we were walking to the member´s house, Hna Rocio called us and insisted that we eat lunch there. So we ate lunch with the members, then went to the pension and ate lunch AGAIN! I was SO SO full. (and in Bolivia if you refuse food it is super offensive, so we chose to go the less offensive route and gorge ourselves haha) We actually decided to fast a day early because the baptism of Ana Carla was Saturday night and we were planning to have a mini celebration with her afterwards (and maybe a little bit of the reason was because we had eaten a ridiculous amount of lunch haha). We also had an appointment with an investigator Friday that ended in a funny way. She (se llama Belen Serrudo) has a younger brother that is probably 2 or 3, and as we were saying the closing prayer, this younger brother was throwing spoons at my head! For the whole prayer! It was funny, and I was trying SO SO hard not to laugh during the prayer. 

Saturday we had the classes of English and piano, and 2 people showed up, that hadn´t been before, so I just taught the same things that I´d taught in lessons before. In the evening was Ana Carla´s baptism! A little bit about her, her family (parents and older sisters) were baptized 8 years ago but went inactive. Recently they have been re-activating themselves, and we had a family night with them about 2 weeks ago and found out that she was never baptized! But she was so ready, and already knew basically everything that we taught her. We got lucky that we got to be the ones to teach her, because it was like every missionary´s dream! :) During the baptismal service I sang for the special musical number, Lord, I would follow thee. It was a great baptism, and their family is so happy. (And so are we!!)

Sunday was fast Sunday, and there were a lot of less active members and investigators that came! We were so happy that they were there, and that they were sharing their testimonies! Especially Hno Absalón, because our pension family (Calvimontez Mancilla) have been really inactive, but I think everything that has happened this week has really humbled them, and brought them so much closer to Heavenly Father. We are so happy for them. They even set a goal for themselves so that they can go to the temple in Cochabamba (45 mins in plane but 8 hours by bus) and be sealed as a family. (That´s actually really common here, that there are members but haven´t ever received there endowments or been sealed) We are so proud of them.

Today for P day we went and toured a really old house museum thing that I guess was the house of a bunch of the royalty and presidentes of Bolivia. I think the coolest part of that was that we got to go in a tunnel that they had dug however many years ago, I think 200 or 300 years ago, and it was so small! We were basically squat walking slash crawling through it. But the tunnel lead to a different one of the government buildings, I think in case the people needed to escape in the case of emergency. But yeah, super cool, and that was my day. 

So there ya go! Lot´s of stuff happened this week, happy and sad, but I know that that´s just a part of life! I hope you all have a happy 4th of july and enjoy the fireworks for me!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Rowe

Primer Conversa! - June 25, 2018

Yes, it happened!! Blanca is a baptized and confirmed member of the Church, and she has such a sweet testimony! I am so happy and full of joy for her. But let me back track a little bit. 

On Tuesday, I felt like a missionary!! We worked so hard, had a bunch of appointments where the spirit ws really strong, and were super busy. I really felt pure joy and happiness and Tuesday, because I really felt like I was in the service of God, that I was really doing His work. I wish everyday was like that. Part of the reason why it was great is because my comp was motivated to work hard as well. I´m going to look for ways to help motivate her in the future. (Even though we only have 3 weeks left together, probably) Wow, I only have 3 weeks left of my training! I am really starting to feel like a missionary that is having some success, because I am really able to participate in teaching the lessons a lot more. I´m not perfect, far from it, but I really feel like there are some principles that I can teach well, and I´m starting to get better at contacting, and just talking to people in general. On Tuesday night our dinner was salchichas fritas (fried hot dogs) with scrambled eggs, rice, mayo and ketchup. I HIGHLY recommend this dinner option, it is delicious.  Wednesday was pretty similar to Tuesday (even down to the dinner) and I really enjoyed the work. 

Thursday... oh Thursday. I´ll come back to that in a minute. Friday was the zone conference for this cambio (transfer) and we were in Potosí again, so we all froze, but we all made it back without getting frostbite or dying, so that´s good. We actually were having dresses made for the conference (this brings me back to Thursday) (This is apparently a thing in her mission.  I have seen pictures on the fb page of sister missionaries with matching dresses and even sisters having matching dresses and elders with ties that match...) and a lady in the ward was doing it. We spent a lot of time on Thursday waiting for her to finish up the dresses, because the day before she said that she´d have them ready by Thursday morning. So that morning we went, had her do some adjustments, and went about doing the work again.  We came back early afternoon (because that´s when she said she´d be done, and we ended up waiting for half an hour while she was working. And when we tried them on again we didn´t have anymore time for adjustments, but that evening we tried them on again at the apartment where we have a better mirror, and it´s actually comical how ill-fitting they are. Needless to say we didn´t end up wearing them to the conference. Each one was 50 bs, but don´t worry too much because that´s only like 7 dollars. We felt bad about it, and actually we were both really frustrated because we asked her to make adjustments that she didn´t make, but it is a funny memory now. I will probably never wear that dress anywhere, actually. 

Saturday!! Baptism de Blanca! Really it was a beautiful baptism. And her sons came which was great! We are so happy for her. I´ll send pics :) Saturday evening was also good because we set up a baptismal date with another investigator, so I hope it works out! :) (Also, we were in an appointment with a member and I accidentally flipped off a member when I was counting down on my fingers! I´ve never done that before in my life!! It was so funny, and they knew it was an accident, but I was really embarrassed! Now is not the time to be making accidents like that haha!) 

Yesterday at church Hermana Padilla and I both gave talks (which I THINK went well, at least it seemed too). I really felt the Lord helping me out and blessing me in my preparations this week, because it was a 10 minute talk, and it was in Spanish, but I didn´t feel like I had a hard time at all figuring out what I needed to say. Today for P-day the zone got together at the stake center to play games and make chocolate chip cookies. It was a pretty fun activity. And that brings me to the present! I hope everyone had a good week, and PLEASE keep the letters and pictures coming! I LOVE hearing about what´s happening to those I know and love. Have a happy happy week!

Hermana Rowe

The ill-fitting dresses... They are wearing each others because they thought they might fit a little better...

Blanca's Baptism

The dresses... They are wearing each others because they thought maybe they would fit a little better.  They don't!

Blanca's Baptism

Muchisisisisisisisisisimo mejor!! - June 18, 2018

This week was waaaaaaaaaaaay better than last week. We were actually out working, and doing missionary things! Also, happy 3 months to me! Every 14th of the month I am 1 month better at being a missionary! This week one of our investigators, Blanca Arista, passed her baptismal interview and her baptism in this Saturday!! I love her SO SO much, and I am so excited for her to take this step in her life. She has had a lot of hard things happen to her, but I know the gospel will be a HUGE blessing in her life, especially since I have already seen the joy that it brings her. 

On Tuesday we got to do a super fun service project helping an investigator paint and move into his new apartment. He is one of the other people that eats at our pension, so we already are on a friendly basis with him. One of the things that I actually really love about having our pension in a restaurant is that it is a great way to meet new investigators! SUPER great missionary tool. That night we ate Pollo a la Broaster (fried chicken) (but don´t worry it was from a restaurant) (oh wait there´s more), and the next day I was sick and throwing up and we couldn´t work that day because I was feeling super choppy!! (Qetchua for bad) But Wednesday I was fine, so I´ve decided not to eat Bolivian fried chicken ever again and hopefully that´ll solve some of my stomach issues. 

This week our DVD player (yes, we have a DVD player) stopped working, so we´ve had to get creative with our daily exercize (wow i had a hard time spelling that) (I still think it´s wrong but that´s ok, i´ll figure out how to write in english again after my mission) because usually we do Zumba or P90X DVDs. But it´s no worry because now i´m doing a lot more push-ups and sit-ups. Something unexpected in the mission so far is that i´ve lost weight. Which makes me happy and at the same time confused me because I feel like I eat WAY more here than I did at home, since the portions are so big. 

The English and Piano classes are going well. I´m actually enjoying teaching English more than piano, and I thought it would be the opposite. Anybody have any advice for how to teach piano to a big group? Because it´s not easy. Also, anybody have any advice for easy things to cook on a stove? With minimal ingredients? thanks friends

This week we did a lot of contacting, so other missionaries and RMs have any advice for how to contact creatively? Man, contacting in another language is not easy. Yesterday, we were door to door contacting, and a cholita opened one of the doors, and I guess I got the order of how to do things mixed up, and I ended up asking her right off the bat, "What´s your name?" (not effective btw) and she said, "¿Porque?" And I thought she had said her name, so I said "Hola Malachia, mucho gusto, somos misioneras..." (etc) and Hermana Padilla started laughing at me!! And I didn´t understand why until she told me afterwards, but MAN that was so funny afterwards. What´s your name? -Why? Oh, Malachi nice to meet you, we´re missionaries... It doesn´t make any sense but yeah. Things like that happen a lot, because i think I hear one thing but they say something else. We laugh at my language skills a lot haha. 

This morning for P day all the hermanas in Sucre (there are 8 of us) got together to eat salteñas for breakfast. I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this, but MAN salteñas are good. It´s kind of like an empanada, they are filled with beef or chicken, have lots of other stuff that i don´t know what it is but tastes DELICIOUS and are full of meat juice. SOSOSOSOSOSO good. And they only serve them for breakfast, but I could eat them at any time of day, all day, everyday. SOO GOOD my mouth is watering right now as I´m writing this haha. After that we played wally and soccer as a zone. I think that pretty much sums up this week. This evening we have an appointment with a new investigator, and he seems really interested, so we are excited about it. 

Lot´s of love everyone! Enjoy summer because for me it´s winter, and we wear our coats everyday.The sun herre is hot, so sometimes it feels like summer in the middle of the day. I´excited to experience summer in December.

Hermana Rowe

We thought it´d be cool to take some pictures with these donkeys in a field next to where we were contacting. You´re welcome 

 After one of the classes de english and piano (not everyone is pictured sorry) 

Happy 3 Months to me!

My Comp Accidentally Poisoned Me! - June 11, 2018

Hola hola todos! I hope everyone´s weeks were full of fun times and laughter, because mine was not haha (I say that as I´m laughing, but actually this week was pretty dang rough). 

So, you know how Monday last week I was so hopeful that I would not get sick? Well, Monday night I started getting sick, so that´s cool haha But it´s actually not cool because we did absolutely nothing to further the work in our area this week, which on one hand was super frustrating, and on the other is still frustrating even though our bodies needed the time. On Tuesday we were in a different area because it was cambios (changes/transfers) and one of the other sisters was getting a new comp but had lots of appointments to go to. On Wednesday we spent the day in and out of hospitals and clinics trying to get mission approved meds (after three days of being sick you have to call Hermana Montoya (The mission president's wife (I believe)), and this was day 7 for mi comp) (this was our second time calling and those were our instructions). Then that evening Hermana Padilla was super exhausted so we rested. Thursday was when it started to hit me pretty badly, and that night we called Hermana Montoya for my behalf. Friday morning we were both feeling ok, so we went to the first district meeting for this cambio which was good to get to know lots of people. That afternoon I was feeling BAD (achy, stuffy nose, etc) and we went to the hospital for me, but couldn´t get an appointment, so went home and rested. Friday we both were super bad, though Hermana Padilla was a little better. (Here comes the part that you´ve been waiting for) That night Hermana Padilla was trying to do something nice for me, and decided to cook rice and chicken. The problem was (and i didn´t realize this) that the week before, there was a night where we had planned to eat dinner at home but ended up eating at the pension (since its a restaurant and we love their family so so much) and before we had left that afternoon she had left out the chicken to defrost, and when we got home that evening afterwards she stuck it back in the freezer as if everything was all good. So fast forward to one week later, she made the chicken and we ate it, and neither one of us could really taste or smell anything weird about it. But! Friday night (I guess Saturday morning) at 3:30 am I was up vomiting it all out. And then after that i couldn´t sleep because i had ridiculous nausea and i couldn´t breathe very well (still cant) since my nose is super plugged. Saturday morning (when there was actually sun out) i still was feeling terrible, and we had our zone leaders come over and give us blessings of health. They were both in Spanish, but it was super cool because i felt the same spirit as a blessing in English. I felt a lot of peace, and for a moment, it was like i wasn´t sick at all. And then the elderes left. And then i was feeling it again. That afternoon we went to the hospital (Hermana Montoya´s orders) and i got some meds to help me with the sickness and with the nausea. Sunday we didn´t leave the house. I felt bad in the morning, but slightly better in the afternoon. Hermana Padilla felt good in the morning, but terrible in the afternoon. Today the group activity as a zone was going to museums, which we both felt well enough to do, but right now i´m exhausted. And i have crazy sinus pressure. So please please please pray for our health. 

Love you all! Thank you so much for your love and support! I´m grateful for the example of obedience you are to me, especially since sometimes obedience is RIDICULOUSLY hard to do as a companionship, when you´ve got different priorities. That was one of the things I struggled with the most, sometimes more than the language, during my first cambio. My goal for this cambio is to continue working on obedience, little by little, week by week (we have weekly goals that for me this cambio will all focus on different aspects of obedience). 

Mucho Amor!

Hermana Rowe

End of Cambio 1 - June 4, 2018

My final week of my first cambio (companionship or transfer) was pretty good! (Although my email wont be nearly as long as last week) Monday night we started intercambios (exchanges), which was an awesome experience! The Hermana I was with is called Hermana Salazar, and she is super awesome! It was also kinda fun to be in my area, but to be with someone else who does things with a different style and a different flair. I learned a lot about just being bold, and talking to LITERALLY everyone about the gospel. Even if we weren´t contacting, but we were walking in the street every once in a while she´d just ask someone if we could give them a card about Christ. I know I need to be a little more bold. (Right now I think a part of my timidity is the language, but if i ever want to be not timid i need to start now) 

This week Hermana Padilla has been SUPER sick. She´s had the chills, sore throat, watery eyes (SUPER watery, as in crying all the time but not actually crying, just water leaking from her eyes), stuffy nose, junk in the throat, you name a symptom and she probably had it this week. So I´ve been working SUPER hard not to get sick. I've felt a little bit bad about it, but i have been refusing to hug her all week, and i haven't allowed her to cook anything (which is one of her favorite things to do). Ive been making her take airborne (which she thinks is one of the most disgusting things ever) and ive been taking it as well (one because i dont want to get sick and two because i like the tablets). Ive been drinking lots of water, and ive been making her drink lots of water, and i made her start using my mentholatum because i couldnt sleep because she was blowing her nose so much in the night. This week has not been a great week for sleep haha. I also was having stomach aches a little this week, but I think it was because I ate some risky fried chicken. (i didn´t know it was risky at the time because it was in a restaurant, but looking back i realize that it was a little risky) Sorry I dont have pictures of it. But Its been a few days and i feel good now. Also, idk if i have mentioned this yet but I have officially eaten weird Bolivian food! I ate panza (sorry no pics, didn´t know it was weird before i ate it) last week which is the lining of cow stomach. It tastes like how a barnyard smells, so yeah, pretty bad. But i ate all of it because you basically have to if you dont want to offend people.  But i´ve also had some really really good Bolivian food too! Next time I get served something really awesome Ill take a picture. Ill try to take a picture of normal Bolivian food also so you have some examples. 

Not much else to talk about this week. We were going to have a baptism 2 Saturdays ago, but our investigator, Blanca, had some doubts. We havent been able to talk to her since the first interview which has been really sad. She hasn´t been answering our calls, and she hasn´t been at home ANY of the afternoons this week, and usually she is at home EVERY afternoon. We´ve been praying for her a lot, she is so good and sweet. 

Love you all tons! Thank you to those who have been emailing me personally, I love to see whats happening in your lives!

Mucho amor,

Hermana Rowe