Hermana Miranda Madsen: Un día en la misión

{A day in the mission}

{I think it's important here to say that Miranda doesn't put together this blog. She writes on Monday, then tries during the week to send us pictures from her wifi camera if she's at the church with a good internet connection. So we get her pictures sometimes 3 days, 5 days or more than a week after she writes. So they are way back-dated, and they have nothing to do with the words in between them. Since today's post is chronological, it almost looks like these are supposed to be the pictures of her "day as a missionary" but no. The pictures are usually more of the zone activities on Mondays, and way before she writes her letter. Ok, carry on.}

So I realized that a lot of people, even members, don't really know a lot about what happens in the life of a missionary. So here is a typical detailed day I live out here in Bolivia.

I wake up at 6:30 AM, and it is extremely important to me to not sleep longer. I say a prayer that usually doesn't make sense because I am still half asleep. Then I exercise for a half hour, and right now it is FREEZING in the morning so it's hard to exercise, but so worth it once I warm up. Then my companion and I get ready for the day while we listen and sing to David Archuleta, Pentatonix, etc.

Then comes daily planning and studies. I actually love this part of the day because I would not rather do anything in the world. I love reading the scriptures, receiving special revelations for our investigators and for my life, and feeling the spirit every moment. Typically I do studies all bundled up in lots of layers because it is still super cold and they don't have heating in the houses here.

For breakfast here I absolutely LOVE fried eggs and some fruit... and occasionally hot chocolate=)

After studies we leave basically right to lunch. We either walk or take the micro, or bus, to our pensión where we eat with a member family. They are super amazing, and the food is pretty good even though it is usually rice, potatoes, and chicken. I think I am going to be sick of these things by the end, but right now it's still pretty good!

We also always start out with a soup and then comes the second plate... Lots of food! At the end of meals they always thank everyone at the table, like some families thank every single person individually! Then everyone responds with "Provecho" which means provided... doesn't make sense in english, but something cool and different they do here!

{zone activity}

The rest of the day we are walking from place to place and visiting investigators, and finding new people to teach. It is super super scary to start talking to random people, but honestly I found that you just need to do it. It is really nice to have a companion because when you run out of words, you can just turn to your companion and they have to open their mouth and continue. And really when we have the spirit with us we are able to open our mouths and the words just come. We also have to be careful which roads we take, not because of the people, but because the dogs are vicious here! It's scary sometimes!

The appointments we have here usually fail us because of what is called "Bolivian Time." This means that everything starts a half hour after they say it will. And when they say they will be in their house it means that the past week they were in their house at that hour, not necessarily that they will be again...

But really it is okay because it is part of their culture that I have had to get used to. And it gives us the opportunity to go meet new people! As long as we are doing our part, the Lord blesses us!

At nighttime we get back to our house, call our district leader to let him know we are safely in our house, and eat a little snack before bed. Our dinner is usually only a snack because we eat so much during the day.

We pray a lot during the day, and we always end the day thanking Heavenly Father for the success we had. We ask blessings for all the people here who need it, for the progress of our investigators, for the safety and well-being of our families, and for our personal progress here in the mission.