Past Two Weeks

December 9th:

All of you returned missionaries will understand when I tell you about Zone Leaders.  There are ones who are more relaxed, and others who literally walking rule books, Not that that is a bad thing.  Last week, we arrived at internet a little bit late, and internet is only between 10:30 and 12:00 here.  To the zone leaders, that means down to the minute.  I didn't want to send a huge letter mid sentence, so I just saved the stories for this week also.

So remember our investigator Nilda?  She got her test results back for her cancer to see if it is dangerous or not and.... she's going to be just fine! SHe has an operation ina few weeks that she is nervous about, but everything should turn out fine.  We still visit her every day, and loves hearing our messages.

3 Sundays ago I went to the hospital with a stomach infection.  My companion and I both assumed that would be the last trip to the sodpital for a while, but we were wrong.  Remeber the Holiday called Dia de Peaton? Where the prohibit to drive cars for an entire day.  Well, this is especially problematic for us, since we live in a tiny pueblito 20 minutes from the capilla.  The always seems to fall on a Sunday too, just our luck.  The night before, we slept with other elders near the capilla, but we had to find a way back to our area after church.  So, we came up with the idea od asking members of the ward to borrow bikes to go back.  My companion really wanted to go back on bikes, and since that was the only option, we did.  We got 2 bikes and made our journey back.  About 20 minutes into the trip, my companion hit a pot hole, and lost control of his bike.  He skid about 15 feet on the asphault before stopping.  The 2 members with us, and I rushed over to him, but he was having a tough time walking.  We hiked him up to a seat of another bike, and had to walk to bike about 3 kilometers to the local clinic.  Somehow, the clinic was full, and we had to take him to the hospital to get treated.  Luckily, nothing on him is broken, and all his wounds are superficial.  We were able to leave the hospital that night, and he is almost back to being 100% healthy! 

Last night coming home from the Christmas devotional was an absolute fiasco.  As you all know, missionaries normally don't have a ton of on hand cash to throw around. So at night, when there are no trufis to take, we fit as many elders into a taxi as we can.  Last night was no different, and we fit 6 elders into a 4 door taxi, and left.  About 10 minutes into the taxi ride, the taxi broke down.  Apparently the gas pedal disconnected and he couldn't go anymore.  We all got out to start helping him reconnect it, but we had no tools, or really any knowledge to fixing it.  The only thing we could find in the taxi was a piece of string...  And while this was not my idea, the taxista and some elders cooked up a plan to connect the throttle  with the string to make a very ghetto way of driving.  They fed the string from the engine through the hood, and then through the drivers window.  After, we all piled back in and were actually quite suprised at how smooth he was able to drive with the gas pedal on a string!

Miss all you guys! Write me soon!

Elder Potts III

jacob.potts@myldsmail.net

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Spreading the Word

It's been a full week of events and new ideas here in Cliza, and it's making my companion and I super excited for the weeks to come!  Things are progressing here greatly!

Here a bit of a cool story:  Wednesday night of this week, at about 9 oclock, we went to go visit one more person before we turned in for the night.  About a block before we got to the investigators house, we saw smoke coming from a different house, but just assumed it was from an oven, since there was only a tiny bit. So we kept walking, and knocked the door of the investigator... as he answered the door, we turned back, and there was a cloud of smoke so big nothing was visible! The house was burning down!  We rushed over to the house, asking the number for Bomberos, or the fire department..  Cliza is so small, there is no fire department. So everyone ran down a few blocks to a small river with buckets to put it out, us included.  What makes it worse is the house also has a furniture store in it. So everything was flammable, sofas, beds, closets, chairs, all made of wood and cotton.  The fire suprisingly got put out relatively quickly and nobody was hurt from it.

The family I told you about last week, Family Vasquez, lost their Dad last night.  All our efforts are going towards them now.  All of the kids are under 18, and there are 4 of them.  We are working hard with the ward, and have scheduled for the ward members to bring them food every night of the week.  They also owe the hospital a large payment for the hospital stay, but we are still working on a solution for that.  Evelin, who is 16, told us last night the only reason she is at peace is because of prayer.  Also telling us she never prayed before we started teaching her.  They are all being comforted, by the ward and the Lord, although this is probably the hardest time of their lives.

Last week in a conference, President Dyer told us we should always invite our investigators to kneel and pray with us.  To the point of even saying it would be a sin not to pray on your knees with them.  I initially took this as some strong counsil, but decided to put it into practice.  Ivan, who is one of our investigators with a baptismal date for 2 weeks in the future, lacks the permission from his mom, who is very catholic.  We also visit her, and teach her too.  After asking permission for his baptism, and inviting her to baptism too, we ended with a prayer, and asked them to kneel with us.  That alone brought the spirit so strongly! I know his mom felt it also, and she said she would talk with Ivan before giving the permission.  We are still waiting for the word though.

I'm starting up an English class again here, and because of the people I know, it's going to be big.  We have an open shop right on the square to teach, thanks to our pensionista, and I recently met someone who works for the television in my little Pueblo, Cliza. He said if we make a commercial, we can play it for one month for 20 bolivianos. So we might be making a commercial for it and everything!  This could be big for the church. I know not everyone will get baptized, but everyone will know about the church. I'm really excited for it all.

Elder Potts III

jacob.potts@myldsmail.net

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Investigators, Blessings, and Baptisms!

My area is still tough, but things are progressing amazingly. We now have a gigantic pool of investigators, and we have figured out that confedence in us is the key to having success in Cliza!  A few of my investigators have some pretty tough stories, but we are helping them in every way we can.

There is a family that we are in need of a lot of help. Their dad is in a coma and is in the hospital, and they are struggling without him. They have 5 kids, and we are teaching them all.  The mother is always in the hospital to stay with their dad.  Without a father at home, they have very little money, and no head of the house to look to.  Also, the medical costs have exceeded over 90,000 BS and they are unable to pay for it.  The dad can't leave the hospital until the pay the cost, so they are in a very tough situation. All of the children are girls, except for one. His name is Fabian, and he is 16.  Recently we have found out that he has been involved in gang activity for the past few years, but wants to change, telling us we are this.  After explaining to importance of families, and the role of a father, he has come to realize that he has to play that role now since his father is sick.  We have gotten together with the ward, and they are coordinating to be able to bring food to their house for them.  They will do this each day of the week for them, and our help.  After teaching the children, 3 of them have baptismal dates and attend regularly.  The only issue will be permission. Their parents are very catholic and closed minded when talking to them.  They are, however, very greatful for the ways that we are helping them.

This week we have gained much confedence of one of our investigators, Nilda. Before, she would not open up to us, so we did not know how to help her. Finally, she has come to trust us enough to tell us her problem. She has a type of skin cancer, but does not know how to tell her family. She is waiting to find out if it is dangerous or not before she tells her family. Now that we know this about her, she trust in us a lot, and tells us any updates. We taught her the plan of salvation after that, and explained how God has a plan for each of us. Because of her, we have realized that trust is one of the most important things to have with investigators.

The sister of this investigator with cancer is named Ely.  She is probably the best investigator I have probably ever had, for one main reason.  She is born and raised in Cliza, and literally knows everyone.  We are great friends now, and she loves hearing our lessons.  Through her, we get at least 3 or 4 references every single day.  All we have to do is accompany her to the store, and on the way we run into her friend, take out an appointment. Then we get to the store, and she introduces us to the store worker.  Everyone she knows, she introduces us too.  She has some doubts about the gospel, but when it comes to references, we couldn't have anyone better than Ely.

Elder Potts III

jacob.potts@myldsmail.net

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Cliza, Punata, Cochabamba, Bolivia: Challenging Area, but Not Impossible

Well, blame the zone leaders for not being able to write a family letter last week. They cut our time short if we arrive to the internet cafe as a zone, as they did last week. So I wasn't able to write many people last week. I'll make sure to catch you all up on what happened the past 2 weeks here though.

First of all, my area may be the toughest area in the entire mission.  Cliza is a tiny pueblo in the middle of nowhere. The closest other pueblo is called Punata, which is where the branch meets.  It is about 20 minutes in a trufi from Cliza, and is a bit expensive to get there. Many people are humble here, and want to listen to our message.  They will listen, and read what we give them, and even pray to know its true.  The only major problem is attending church for them. One, it is expensive to travel to Punata, there and back. Two, there is The Feria.  This is a gigantic market that they only have on Sundays.  Nearly every person who lives in Cliza is a vendor of some sort.  Since the Feria is only on Sundays here, that means either sell what they have, or have their family starve.  For many people attending church is almost not even an option for them. And if they can't attend church, they can't progress or get baptized. For this, there as been one baptism in 5 years in my area, which was actually only a few months ago by my companion.  Since there have been no baptisms here, that means there are no members either to help us, or even less active members to go visit.  For a time, the area was closed because of having no success, but now it is back, and we are now here, and ready to build up the church here!

Now there are many things that could discourage any missionary about this area, and it does to some. There are elders who pray they never come here.  But for my companion and I, it's just a challenge we have accepted, and are doing great here! We have many people who are progressing now.  Sunday mornings are always a fiasco, but if we put all out efforts in, we can usually convince 2 or 3 to come, at least for an hour to church. But that allows them to progress, and it is really helping them.

Here in Bolivia, and much of South America, Halloween is very sacred.  It's not a time to put on masks and ask for candy at the doors of neighbors.  It's a time to remember those who have passed, and hold ceremonies for them.  In Bolivia, they call this holiday "Todos Santos" or All Saints, and its never held on the 31st of October.  They believe the modern tradictions of Halloween have ruined the day, so they celebrate either 2 days before ( my birthday haha) or 2 days after.  We helped the only recent convert in Cliza, Edwin, and his family make special types of bread to sell for the holiday too. Once I have a camera cable, I will send the pictures of them!

So that's what my new area is like, and I am enjoying every day here! I'd love to hear from everyoe personally, when you all get a chance!

Elder Potts III

jacob.potts@myldsmail.net

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Me Voy a Punata!!!

Transfer information came in last night! I'm leaving my first area and headed to another area, about 2 hours away from the city!  The name of my area is Cliza, and is a pueblo, or a small town where they nearly only speak Quechua.  I spoke with my new companion last night about the area, and he told me sacrament meeting is in quechua, unless the bishop speaks.  I am super excited to be going there!!

SO back tracking to this past week, here was a typical day in Boliva:

I wake up, 6:30. It's still dark outside. I flip on the lights, but the electricity is out.  This means 2 things. 1, I can't see anything until the sun comes up at 7 or 7:30. And 2, cold showers.  All of the showers are electrically heated when the water hits the shower head, so I suffer through a cold shower.  After, I get ready and study in the window since there is only light there.  It's a Tuesday, so we have a district meeting in Quillacollo, about 30 minutes in a Trufi.  We get ina  trufi, go about 5 minutes, and run into a blockade. Nobody can get through in either direction, and Cholitas are sitting in the streets. Nobody ever seems to know why the blockades are happening either. SO we get out of the Trufi, and start walking on the highway, along with everyone else.  This particular blockade had 2 parts. One side of the blockade was about 2 kilometers from the other, so we walk, and walk, and walk. Finally we reach the other side, and take another trufi to the capilla there. When we get there, we find out the capilla just got robbed the night before. They took all of the chairs in there. SO we sit on the floor to have district meeting.

It was a long odd series of events, but things like these happen every day here.

This week we gave service to a lady who was carrying over 100 pounds of cement mix in a wheel barrow in the street.  She seemed to be struggling, so we lended a hand to her.  We did not know it at the time, but she had to bring this wheel barrow full of cement more than 10 blocks.  With the bags spilling the powder everywhere, and us sweating from head to toe, we finally arrived at her house, exhausted.  A few minutes later, she began to cry, thanking the lord for 'sending 2 angels' to help her. She told us it would be inpossible for her to have done it alone, and she was positive the Lord sent us there for a reason. She could feel the spirit, and we were so happy just to be able to help her. It was a great experience!

Elder Potts III

jacob.potts@myldsmail.net

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Past 2 Weeks: Blessings of Health, General Conference, and Sickness

First off, sorry for not sending a letter last week! I ran out of time writing individually and couldn't send the normal big letter! But this letter will include the stuff that happened the past 2 weeks.

Last week, we taught a kid who was like 14 or so.  It was an investigator who we found knocking doors, but he seemed very interested in all of our information.  He was raised catholic, but knew a ton about the bible, new testament, and old. It was the first lesson on The Restoration and everything seemed fine with him. We taught him about the book of Mormon, explaining what it is, how we have it and so forth, and Then we asked him was his thoughts were on the book of mormon... Ironically, he happened to get sick at that very moment, and threw up! All over my companions shoes too.  It was ironic, but so gross too. We ended up helping him clean up, gave him some water, and he ended up being ok.

General conference was also the weekend before last, as you all know.  I never knew how busy it would be as a missionary.  Everyone watches it in the capilla, so we spent all morning preparing the capilla; blocking out the windows to see the screen, cleaning the floors, setting up all the rooms for Spanish and Quechua, etc. After, we spent our time right before runnign around gathering up less actives and our investigators to attend it! I swear, if we don't knock on some people door every morning, they don't remember that church  is on Sundays haha. The actual conference went well, and I watched 2 sessions in spanish, and 2 in english.  I Learn from watching in each language, but watching a translation from your native language just isn't the same.

Yesterday a member asked us to give a blessing of health to one of her family members who is not a member. When we got there, we learned that this person is very sick. She has not eaten anything solid in 2 months, and has only had liquid. She is old in age, and is in a very fragile condition. We proceeded with the blessing, my companion and I, and during it, I could tell the woman felt peace. She went from pains of groans to peaceful resting. The family members are not members, but we have scheduled an appointment to talk with all of them, and about the plan of salvation. They already seem interested in the idea, since it will answer the questions of where she will be going, and other difficult questions. I believe the family is now ready to hear and accept the restored gospel!

This morning we awoke to a number that was not programmed in our phone. I contested the phone and only heard a histerical woman on the other end of the phone... It was a mixture of weaping and mumbling in a combination of Spanish and Quechua, and I think she was talking to me, and her family at the same time. Confusingly, I asked who was speaking and what the problem was. Finally she calmed down, and explain she is from the Mamani Family, that we visited and gave a blessing of health to last night.  She is the daughter of the sick woman, and called to tell us her mother finally after 2 months, ate a solid bit of food, a piece of bread. The called to thank us for blessing her mother, and said her whole family could feel the effects of our spirit when we visited.

Elder Potts III

jacob.potts@myldsmail.net

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Break-ins, Dog Apologies, and Forgiveness!

I ran out of time this week, so this one will have to be short.

This week our house got broken into. Oddly only my things were stolen from the house. They broke in the door, found my extra hidden keys, and took my camera, some money, my shoes, and the keys.  The land lady told us she is only going to fix the door, not replace the locks, so we have to do that ourselves.  We don't know who did it, but we suspect it is the person who lives across the hall, so we have to change the locks today to make sure they can't come in again.

One day this week, we were running late to a lesson from another and we were far from the next investigators house.  So we ended up trying to take short cuts, cutting through fields and small paths.  While going down a small path we ran into a big dog that started chasing after us.  I remember what happened last time, when the dog ripped up my pants, and I wasn't going to let it happen again.  So I picked up a huge rock and chuck it, pretty hard. My companion also threw a rock.  Anyways, the dog went running off and we though that was the end of it.  About 3 minutes later, a lady comes running after us! Apparently it was her dog who we scared, and she wasn't happy. We changed gears and asked what we could do to fix it.  If we could do service, or visit her, but she wouldn't accept our apologies. The next day, we contacted the house! She answered the door, and surprisingly let us in! We talked for a while, and apologized to the dog too. Although she did not want to hear any of our message, she now knows that we didn't mean anything bad by what happened.

Elder Potts III

jacob.potts@myldsmail.net

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission