Monday, November 28, 2016

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

Monday, November 21, 2016

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






Monday, November 14, 2016

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



Monday, November 7, 2016

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