MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! I'm not gonna go into a whole lot of details because I'm gonna talk to you guys in 6 DAYS, but Hna. Pastillo and I doing really well! We're in full Christmas mode haha. We're working really hard, and we just laugh and laugh together.
I have to send photos and a ton of family info to the offices and it's taking a lot longer than what I though, so I'm just gonna try and send more photos to you guys, and I'll give you an update sunday!
when do you guys want to do skype?? i'm thinking around 3 or 4 here, but i cant remember what time that is at home... if i dont hear from you guys in time, i'll go with that :)

Hey family!
Sorry about last week, but it was insanity trying to get the house all ready and packing all of our stuff.
So my new area is the about 10 minutes from the old one, and I like it a lot! It's called Cobija, and it's in the center of the city. Their are a lot of business and fewer houses, but it seems to me that the ward is very willing to help us out. We'll have to work a little to gain their confidence, but we've been visiting members when appointments fall through, and I think it's working.
My new comp, Hna. Pastillo, is also awesome. We work hard and we laugh a ton. She's still getting the hang of how the mission works, but she really wants to do what's right, and I admire her a lot. I think we'll have a great transfer together!
Nargila was also baptized on Saturday! Hna. Campana and I were able to go to her baptism, and it was really beautiful. She gave her testimony at the end, and it was POWERFUL. It made me feel very grateful to have been in Colon. She's going back to Brazil this week, so today we ate lunch together so I could say bye.
Last week Elder Falabella came to visit our mission, and he taught us so many things that I'm very anxious to start applying in out area. But, most of all, I loved that he spoke about the Atonement and all that the Savior has done for us. I don't have time to put write it out, but he spoke of it in a way that you don't hear very often, and it was very poweful.
These past few weeks I've thought a lot about if I've made progress during my time here in the mission, and I think that the love I feel for my Savior and Redeemer is worth more than anything else that I could've gained. Because after all is said and done, what could be more important? I could do all the right things and know all the doctrine, but if I have not come to love my Heavenly Father and His Son, I haven't arrived to were I need to be. I still don't feel like I love Him as I should, but it is my goal to get closer. Not only during my last transfer here, but throughout all of my life.
I'm glad to hear that you had a great week. I love you guys!
Hna. Rupp

Hey guys! I don't have a lot of time today because we've got a ton to do, so this we'll be shorter than normal.
Hna. Campana and I both got transferred! The Elders in our ward will be covering our half of the area now, and I'm going to Cobija. It's another part of Cochabamba (I think it's still the center), and I'll be finishing the training of an hermana from Ecuador. Her name's hermana Pastillo, and I bumped into her today. I think she'll be super cool.
Hna. Campana and I have to go clean up all of our house (and to make things worst, the owners are on vacation), pack, and get everything ready so that the Elders can find our investigators.
I love you guys a lot and will try to send pictures/write more in a little bit!
Hna. Rupp

Hey! I acutally totally forgot about Thanksgiving until my companion reminded me when it was almost already night time. So, that being said, I forgot to try and look for pumpkin pie... I doubt I would have found it though haha.
This week was tiring in the sense that we walked a LOT, but rewarding in the fact that we found more new investigators. We knocked on the door of a woman who lives up the mountain, and she's really awesome. She has 7 children (I think the father doesn't live with them), and she loved it when we taught the about the Restoration. She also said she would come to Church, but the next Sunday it's the Día del Peatón (there aren't any cars) and she lives very far away from the Church, so we'll see if she makes it.
Our Brazilian investigator has been progressing extremely well, but yesterday she didn't come to Church and didn't answer her phone, so we're going to go over today to see what happened.
Apparently Cochabamba is also running out of water. My area is almost the center of the city, so we're fine, but everyone talks about it. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the coming months.
I'm glad to hear that you guys had a great Thanksgiving and that Grandpa and Grandma could come and visit. Also, the talk sounded great!
Have and awesome week! Love you guys!
Hna. Rupp

Heyoo
Happy Thanksgiving!!
This was an... interesting week. Hna Campana and I walked and walked, and then walked some more. One day we knocked on so many doors and by the end, only one person said we could come back. Woohoo! But, the good news is that in the following days we found some more people who were receptive :)
We also have one big consolation, the Brazilian that we found a few weeks ago, and she's super excited for her baptism. If you saw her Book of Mormon, you would be amazed because she has so many sticky notes and markings, and she looks up all the footnotes in the Bible. I love it! She's very prepared. Basically everytime someone closes the door in our face,we just look at each other and say, "well, at least we've got her" haha.
Two weeks ago- and sorry if I already may have mentioned this- Hugo Montoya also happened to come to our Sacrament meeting. It was fast and testimony meeting, but they still gave him time to talk at the end, and it was really cool. He talked about a man who had a very hard life, but whenever someone asked how he was doing he would always respond, "Extremely well, couldn't be better!" The Spirit was very strong, and I'm grateful he happened to be in our ward.
Have a great Thanksgiving!! I'm gonna try and find pumpkin pie here so we can celebrate too. I love you guys!
Hna. Rupp

http://3yearsinbolivia.blogspot.com/

http://sisterviridianacampana.weebly.com/

Hna. Campana and I are doing really well. The last week was sad because we lost one of our best investigators, but now we have someone even better! She is here in Bolivia studying medicine. We found her contacting in the street, and we've been teaching her for two weeks. She has a baptismal date, came to church, and has been reading a lot of the Book Of Mormon. I'm really excited for her.

I got an answer to prayer that made me laugh. We were on a bus, and my companion and I sat apart so that we could contact. However, when I took a good look at the 30ish year old woman next to me, I totally started to chicken out. I generally don't get nervous about talking to people, but she genuinely looked scary and she was busy on her phone. So, I said a prayer to help find a way to talk to her, and, as soon as I said amen, the bus driver slammed on his brakes to avoid another car, and everyone in the bus almost fell out of their seats haha. The woman obviously got distracted from her phone, and we both made a few jokes about bus drivers. We then had a great conversation, and she told me a lot of her life and the churches she's been to. The Lord answers prayers. Maybe not in the way you expected, but he does.

A less fun experience was that yesterday we were knocking doors, and I stood close to an anthill, but didn't realize until two climbed up my legs and bit me. And they were HUGE. They stung like crazy, and one bite even drew blood. Obviously not a lot, but more than you would ever expect from an ant. I was impressed :)

Today we went to Incachaca, a jungle 3 hours from Cochabamba, which is super pretty. I think I sent a lot of photos when I went earlier in the year, and this computer is really slow, but I'll still try to send as many as a I can.

The little house looks awesome, and I can't deny that thoughts of you guys and the beach are a little more frequent haha. But, I love the time that I have in the mission, and I am determined to work hard until the end. Also, 2 months isn't enough time to still learn what I need to :)

Anyway, have a great week! Thanks for everything!

Love,
Hna. Rupp

Hey!

What did you guys to for Halloween? You'll also have to let me know how elections go!  My comp and I realized this morning that tomorrow there are elections. I think I'll be staying in Bolivia.

This week had some ups and downs, but it still was great. I'm doing fine! My companion and I walk a ton and we're trying to find new people, which is very tiring, but we have had some very cool experiences. I think she sometimes thinks I make up rules though haha, because she's new and when I say we can't do certain things she just looks at me like I'm a buzzkill. But, other than that we get along really well, and we work hard. I think we'll see a lot of miracles this transfer.

We have one investigator who is seriously golden. She reads every chapter we leave her, and she says she feels so much peace when she prays, and she notices a big difference lately. She had a baptismal date, but right before we went to go visit her Saturday she sent us a text telling us not to come anymore. We decided to go anyway, and she let us in, but wouldn't change her mind. We talked for at least a half hour and answered all of her questions, but she just kept saying she had too many doubts. I think there could be something else because she has always acted so differently. Either way, we pretty much lost our best investigator. However, the Lord has put other people in our path and, although we were really sad after our lesson with her, I think she'll accept the gospel later on.

What I love about the mission is that you can have a really hard hour or two, but as soon as you start to teach someone else, you feel good again! After talking to her we visited an inactive family with a lot of problems, and we had a great lesson. The mother and one of the daughters drink a lot, but we made a plan with the Dad and his other 2 children to help them come to church. And they came through! The daughter also goes with us on visits, and I think little by little the whole family can get back to church.

Overall, it was a great week! We continue to see lots of tender mercies, and we sleep very well at night haha.

I love you all, and I hope you're doing well!

Love,

Hna. Rupp

Hey!
So, here's a little bit more about my new area. Colón is near the very center of the city, and it's a very wealthy. It's a little bit harder to find interested people, but there are also some nice perks. For example, our house is sweet. We live on the third floor of  a member's house, it's big, and- most importantly- it has a large balcony that overlooks all of Cochabamba. Not bad haha.
Hna. Campana is my new companion, and she's realy cool. She's from Paris, California, but her parents are both from Mexico so she's fluent in both Spanish and English. So I'm more or less with my first gringa companion!
We worked extrememly hard this week. There aren't so many investigators, so we've been contacting a lot, and we've seen results very quickly. My first night we found a reference, and she's someone who is very prepared for the Gospel. She's read every thing we've left her, and she's already starting to get answers to her prayers. I think she will be baptized very quickly if she makes it to church these next few weeks. We have also had some very powerful lessons with other investigators and less actives, and overall I've been able to feel the Spirit very closely.
The only downside that I maybe see, is that the ward doesn't trust the missionaries very much. I'm not sure, but my comp and I's goal is to change that. We taught Sunday School yesterday, and we've visited a few members to ask for references, and I think we're making progress.
When I tell people that I now have 15 months in the mission, some of them ask if I'm trunky, which is funny because this was seriously the least trunky week I've ever had haha. It's so much fun to be a missionary, and it's so easy to forget about yourself while you are working.
I'm glad you guys had a fun week, and I hope you know that I love you all!
Hna. Rupp

I got transferred and will be heading to my last area tomorrow! I'll now be in Colon, an area in Cochabamba that is close to the Temple (if I remember correctly haha). I'll be with Hna. Campanas, a sister who I think recently finished her training. Because I've been in Sucre I don't know a lot of the hermanas that have arrived in the last few months, so I'll have to give you guys more info the next Monday. I'm sad to leave Sucre and my current comp- because we get along super well- but at the same time I've learned that transfers are usually only as stressful as you make them. So, that being said, I'm sure my new area will be great!
More importantly, M got baptized! She's only 14, but I think she will stay very firm in the gospel. I think her mother, who only speaks Quechua, is a great potential investigator as well.
We have another investigator, R, who was supposed to be baptized as well, but she didn't get permission from her parents. However, we haven't spoken with her parents personally yet, so I think there's still a good chance that she can be baptized in the coming months.
This week we were able to find some really awesome people. I won't be here to see how they progress, but it's crazy how you can genuinely come to care about someone you just met. I think that it's one of my favorite parts of the mission. It doesn't matter where you are or who you're with, the love for the people is the same. It's my goal to make that continue when I get home. Have an awesome week, and thanks for everything! Love you guys!
Hna. Rupp

Hey guys!
This week we went to Potosi!! Well, I really only got to know the Chapel, but the view driving there was very cool. The majority of the photos didn't turn out great, but there are parts that remind me a lot of California. We left Wednesday morning, and drove back the same day after the Zone Conference.
Yesterday was also great because two hermanas arrived from Tupiza, and they stayed the night with us. We were able to do divisions with them in our area, which helped a lot because we lost a day in going to Potosi.
While with Hermana Jordan, we decided to go visit a less active who is kind of rude to us, and beforehand made it clear that she didn't want visits. We haven't gone for over a month, so I wasn't sure why I wanted to return. I even felt nervous as we walked up to her house haha. But, when we got there she received us very well, and we had a great lesson. At the end, she told us that she had gone to Church that morning! She went to another ward, so we never would have known if we hadn't passed by. She told us that she wanted to return, and that she would start reading her Book of Mormon once again. It was great! And it was also a reminder that the Lord is always guiding us, even if we don't realize it in the moment.
It sounds like you had a good week, and I hope everything is going well! Love you guys!!
Hna. Rupp

Our zone went paintballing today, which was cool. I've never played before, but I think it's something I want to try again when I get home.

Family!
Hna. Rosillo's birthday is the 8th, which was fun because we could basically celebrate together. Hna. Cabarcas brought a cake to our zone meeting Tuesday, and on Sunday a woman in our ward did the same. The only problem was that it was fast Sunday for us, so we just saved a slice for later. Here, they always shove your face when you go to take abite, so maybe it was a tender mercy that we couldn't eat it haha. Overall it was a good birthday, and I hope you guys enjoyed the cake at home as well :)
A lot of our appointments fell through this week, but we still managed to get a lot done, and we found a lot of people with potential. I also could see that the Lord puts us where He needs us. I was on interchanges with another Hermana, Hna. Christensen, and as we waited outside the house for our companions to arrive, a girl passed by sobbing. We ran after her and asked what had happened. I think she had been drinking because she smelled very strongly of alcohol, but she responded very clearly and told us that her mother had taken away her son and kicked her out of the house because she wouldn't stop drinking. She told us she had no idea what to do, and that she wanted to kill herself. We talked with her for a while, calmed her down, and explained that because of the Atonement she could turn her life around. She accepted an appointment, but even if we can't ever find her again, I feel that maybe the talk we had was just what she needed in that moment. She was smiling when she left, so I hope so.
Life is good here in Sucre. It rains all the time now and there is a lot of mud in our area, but I like it. I can honestly say that the best way to find happiness it to do the Lord's work.
Have an awesome week, and thanks for all the birthday wishes!! I really appreciate it. Love you guys!
Hna. Rupp

Sorry I only have one picture, my comp's USB with all the pictures doesn't work on this computer

Hey!
This was kind of a crazy week, but it was good. We had limited time, but we worked hard, and we have some really great people who are progressing. The two girls that are making the most progress were both references from members.
We had Leadership Council Thursday, so we flew out Wednesday in the afternoon and had some free time before we had to go to the mission house. We couldn't go to the Temple, so my companion and I just decided to take a walk in the neighborhoods around the Temple, which was great because the climate was perfect. It's funny to me that when I am in my own area walking, I'm hot, my shoulders hurt, there are rocks in my shoes, etc. However, when I go for walk of my own free will, it's relaxing and very enjoyable haha. Proof that attitude is everything.
General Conference was awesome. I only had one specific question this time, and I was amazed at how clear the answers that I received were. I also loved that every talk addressed plain and basic doctrine, like the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Doctrine of Christ. The gospel really is simple and beautiful, and has all we need to be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father once more.
We have one less active who has been very hesitant about having an interview with the Bishop, but after watching conference the first thing she told me is that she was going to do it this week. I'm really excited for her.
I'm doing well! I get along really well with Hna. Rosillo, and we work hard. I'm almost sure I'm leaving my area in the next few weeks, but I'm just trying not to think about it too much haha.
Hope you had a great week, and that you all enjoyed conference! Thanks for all the birthday wishes as well! I had forgotten until I logged on and saw my emails haha. I love you guys!
Love Hna. Rupp

The sidewalk leading to the Temple and pictures from our flight back to Sucre.
My camera also stopped working last week which stinks, but I'll just pass photos from my comps' cameras until I finish.

Hey!!
M got baptized!! Her daughter is a member and she had been going to church off and on for a few years, but never wanted to be baptized beforehand. She only speaks Quechua but understands a lot of Spanish, so we find ways to understand each other haha. Not very many ward member came to her baptism, but it was still great.
All the hermanas in our zone also received permission to go out to eat and then watch the General Women's Conference together, which was super fun. In my personal study these past 2 transfers, I have been focusing on 2 things: charity and the doctrine of Christ. So, I pretty much got my mind blown during the conference :)
My companion and I also received a lot of help from members in our ward, this past week, and it makes such a difference. Multiple members not only gave us references (which almost never happens), but accompanied us when we went and visited them. We have multiple new investigators who are much more likely to progress and come to Church. The difference when missionaries and members work together is very evident, and I'm very grateful.
Thank you for all the love and support! I love being here in the mission, and I'm grateful that I have a family that has done so much to help me get here.
When I arrived, President Hansen promised me that if I was obedient, I would experience more joy than I had ever felt before my mission. And it is so, so true.  This is the work of the Lord, and I love it.
Hna. Rupp

Hey guys!!
I don't have a whole lot to report this week, but it was good!
When we got to Church Sunday, we only had 1 investigator and 1 less active who came, and I couldn't help but feel discouraged. I started to pray because I didn't know what more to do to help people come, and I'm trying to do the best I can. However, about 10 minutes later, a family showed up. Not all of them came, but the mother- who has never wanted to come to Church beforehand- was there, and I think she will be the key in helping her family progress. I felt so blessed and grateful in that moment, and I know that the Lord does His part when we strive to do ours.
Sorry, I don't have a lot more to say this week, and I also didn't take very many pictures haha, but the next one will be better :)
This week was have a baptism. She only speaks Quechua, but her daughter is a member, and she's very ready for her baptism. I'm excited! I'll let you know how it goes!
Have an awesome week. I love you all!!
Hna. Rupp


Family photo: I now have a little sister in the mission! my trainer is training for the 2nd time, and they're both in my zone!
I don't know why we thought this second picture was so funny