A week of Pday...

This week just seemed like 1 long Pday. 

The majority of the people here are Catholic, and if they aren't, they all celebrate the traditions of the Catholic church. One of those traditions is a huge 3 day fair with parades and LOTS of drinking to celebrate the virgins and saints of their church. There were 2 of those this week. This past weekend the celebration was literally right outside our window. We live in a plaza where all the party was happening. There was a huge concert one night with some good bands from around here, and we didn't sleep hardly at all that night. The next two days were pure parades and fair games and NOBODY was in their houses. It seemed like the whole world was in the park in front of our house. 

It was super cool, but there isn't much we could do to contact or do missionary work because everyone was drunk, and it was in celebration of another church.... haha!  This week will hopefully be better!









{I don't know if they can be friends...}

Concerning the work, I went on exchanges with Hermana Campana. She is from the U.S. but she was born in Mexico and her first language is Spanish. I loved being with her and visiting new people. Something on that exchange that was super cool was that we talked with A LOT of little kids. Kids are so so special and it is way less stressful to talk to them than to adults jaja maybe I'm just still a little kid.

Other than that we put two more baptismal dates with our investigators, and I am so excited to help them along that path.

Even though this week was long, and seemed unsuccessful, I know that every effort I put into serving the Lord is good for something and He is taking into account everything I do!

Fun Facts:

-Everyone here looks at me like they've never seen a white person before... they just stare.

-I have literally seen 1 iPhone here. The rest is Samsung, and they all have a certain amount of credit every month, and you have to buy little cards if you want more calling/ texting/ internet credit.

Helados de Cerveza

Ok funny story, we were buying icecream from a sweet cholita in the street, and I saw a green flavor in her box. Green being my favorite color, and thinking it was lime or something, I was about to buy it. Luckily, the vendor was going through telling us all the flavors... turns out it was beer flavor!

This week was crazy! I arrived in Cochabamba and it is HOT! I got to my area and it is FLAT! But we are in a valley with mountains surrounding us like at home, but on all sides! My companion, Hermana Pastillo, is AMAZING. We get along super well, and she told me a lot of things about her life that have made her an incredibly strong person. I have a ton of respect for her, AND she treats me completely like an equal. When we started working, I decided that I was going to be better here in Cocha than I was in Sucre. I love talking to everyone I can and getting to know the members and investigators.

Something I continue to see everyday is that God answers EVERY PRAYER. I was studying in Matthew this week and it says the apostles, when called upon by Christ, dropped everything INSTANTLY and followed Him. I really wanted to be able to put this into practice. Our opportunity came when we were helping prepare lunch at a member's house, and right when it was going to be ready we got a phone call from an inactive sister who was crying super hard, and just said, "Hermanas, where are you? I need you to come right now. You are my only family here, and I need help." So we went almost literally running, leaving behind lunch to go help her. When we got there, we spent a long time with her because she was going through a really hard time with her partner and his family. Everyone was screaming and fighting and there was no respect, no spirit in their home. At the end, her mom came from a few cities over to sort everything out. 

It is a delicate situation and made me so so grateful for my wonderful family, my calm life, my parents who have raised me in the gospel with morals of patience and true love for others.  I am really grateful that we were there for her when nobody else was. I know God needed us in that moment in the life of that sister. I am satisfied with the chance we had to drop everything and follow the will of the Lord.

I know I am going to see miracles in this area, I know this is where I am supposed to be. And I know the adversary never leaves us alone as missionaries, nor as members of the church, so we just need to make sure we are always inviting God into our lives through every little thing we do.

If we are with the Lord, we will never fail.

Fun Facts:

-This week we had the law of chastity lesson with the young women in our ward, and they are A LOT more direct about everything in Spanish.

-To take out the garbage you just listen for the bell, horn, or song of the garbage truck and you have to go running with your trash to catch it. 

{Ok, it looks like this is the cultural celebration she talked about before, where the missionaries were allowed to attend because they had investigators going; and it looks like they set up a table at the entrance and handed out information about the church beforehand.  I'm going to put all these celebration pictures here.}

-- Don't count the days, make the days count!

~Hermana Madsen

¡Chao Green Table! ¡Hasta manzana!

So much to say and so little time to say it! I'm gonna work my way backwards through this week. Yesterday we received our cambios(transfers). I am leaving Sucre =( but I am going to Cochabamba to an area called Jaijuaco (I think that's how you spell it) ad I am going to be with Hermana Pastillo from Ecuador. I have only heard really good things about her and I am so excited to be her companion. The craziest thing about me going to Jaijuaco is that a few days ago I felt the impression that I was going to be sent there. So when I heard the news there was only a peaceful familiar feeling of the Holy Ghost telling me thats where I'm supposed to go.

Saturday was super cool. We had the opportunity to attend "Churuquella de Plata" which is a festival of tradicional dances of Bolivia. It is run by this organization that helps kids in need. So the stake here in Sucre helped them out. Each ward as assigned a different part of Bolivia, and danced the traditional dance from there.  All the missionaries were allowed to attend because there were a ton of people visiting who weren't members. So that was super cool to see something super cultural from Bolivia! I wish we had traditional dances in the United States! Y'all should start that.

The rest of the week was full of success! We taught really well, and found more people to teach. One family who we found is the Romero family. They were a reference from the Stake President. I am telling you, references from members are always the best investigadors! These have some family issues and are ready to add Christ back into their lives. The coolest thing the mom, Carminia, said to us is that she was having a hard time wanting to stay with her husband, and decided to stay with him to try to help him through his problems, and was thinking of ways to do that right when we "appeared in her living room."  She knows we were sent from God to help her family out of this rut.

There are so many people who are so ready here in Sucre to hear the gospel. It stinks that I have just recently met a lot of them right before I'm leaving. But really it means that I am leaving my area in a better condition than I found it, and that is exactly what I want=)

 

Fun Facts:

- One of our investigators offered us a shot glass of wine... We didn't know it was wine until she said,"It doesn't have a ton of alcohol like the others!!!"

- The word in spanish for cookies is the same as crackers. So I have to specify that I want the kind of crackers with sugar=)

{I like this picture so much, even though it's blurry of Miranda because it's so candid of her fun personality.  I had to put it in.  And I love how her camera is everyone's camera. They're always grabbing it to take selfies of groups... I don't post even a third of all the pictures that she uploads.}

-- Don't count the days, make the days count!

~Hermana Madsen