Adventure of a Lifetime!!!

Hey everyone!!

Today has been crazy!! We woke up at 4 this morning to go to a place called Incachaca! Its a rain forest somewhere in Bolivia and is SO beautiful!! literally there are no words or pictures that can describe it! It rained so hard all day so we were so so wet and muddy from head to toe but it was such an adventure and so worth it! we basically had to go off roading in our mini van to get there which was sooo sketchy hahah at one point we had to abandon ship because the rocks were super slick and our van was rolling backwards down the mountain because it couldnt take the weight! hahah everything here is seriously such an adventure!

I cant even describe how many miracles we see every single day here teaching these people! I have really learned the truthfulness of ´´and thus we see that by small means the Lord brings to pass great things´´ we are currently working to find a house and some kind of work for our sweet blind investigator Elsa that I talked about last week to get her away from her crazy drunk husband. It will be a lot easier to teach her when we get her out of there too because he hates us and we have to hide from him and more than once have been chased out of the house and down the street haha the people here are CRAZY! but the bishop is helping a lot, ive really seen how amazing the church is and SO generous! truly the church of the Savior! 

My comp told me our first day that it has always been her dream to learn english, so everyday I teach her a new phrase and she can now have a simple conversation! it makes me so happy to see her progress and she is so proud of it! haha also its the best when I cant take spanish anymore and can say ´´alright lets talk english for a bit!´´

Also a lot of the old people here speak Quechua which is seriously a crazy language. its quite a predicament when we contact someone and learn that they only speak quechua because my comp doesn't understand it either hahah when I hear it I seriously feel like I'm in Star wars talking to those animal things!! hahah i told that to an Elder and he told me that It really is the language that they speak. I think he was kidding but he sounded pretty serious and I think I believe it! 

The mish is so hard but I feel so so blessed to be here and am so happy!! I love being able to see these sweet people´s lives change as they find the truth! I hope all is well at home! Les amo mucho!

love, 

Hna Andersen

misson lyfe

hello everyone!!

Another week in Bolivia! The past 2 days we've had to stay in the house all day because they have this thing called ´´carnival´´ here where basically everyone in Bolivia gets drunk and dances in the street and throws water everywhere! haha it actually was great we had time to clean the whole house and also had a pretty sick water fight with the elders at our pension! and the water part of the carnival started last week - little kids carry around water balloons everywhere and they would hide in the bushes and seriously bombard us on every corner because missionaries are prime targets! haha between the freakin dogs and the kids with water balloons I think we looked more like ninjas than missionaries last week!

Brinley & Hermana Callata

Also we got to go to the Cochabamba temple last week with a few other zones! seriously SO beautiful and its always so good to get to see and talk to other white missionaries in english!

Ive already been more humbled here than i could ever imagine! these people live such simple lives but are content with the things they have! we've had some super sad experiences and seen some super sad things - last week we got a new investigator who is super great, she is a young mom who recently lost her sight from a brain tumor and has 4 young kids. sunday we went to get her for church and she called from the door (most doors here are just bed sheets) that she couldn't come, we asked if she is okay and she came out crying in pain. she explained to us that she was having what sounded like an appendicitis - but cant afford to go to the doctor because her husband uses the little money they do have for alcohol. she didn't want us to return with the elders for a blessing that day because her husband was home, and we haven't left the house the last 2 days so we arent sure how shes doing but I'm seriously heart broken for her - I cried the whole 3 hours of church! But we have been praying constantly are hoping everything will be okay today when we go check on her!

Things like this happen every single day here that are seriously heartbreaking, but we also so sooo many miracles every single day and it is truly amazing to see how the Lord works! I´m starting to get used to this Bolivian life and there is nowhere else I'd rather be! 

I love you alll!! Thank you for all the love and support!! 

love, Hna Andersen

Week 2 in Bolivia Done!

This week went by a lot faster and felt a lot more productive because I am getting to know the people and our investigators better! The baptism was awesome!! They were so so excited and the spirit was super strong! It only started 2 hours late! haha im convinced that i was sent here to learn patience. if they tell us something starts at 7, we can plan on about 8 or 830 and i get sooo frustrated because we waste so much time waiting for meetings to start. haha the baptism was supposed to start at 5 and at 7 there was still no bishop with the baptism clothes - we couldnt take it anymore so me and my comp took off running in the pouring rain to the bishops house to get the clothes ourselves! hahaha so we are soaking wet in all the pictures but i just couldnt stop laughing because only in Bolivia!

There are so many things here I cant get used to! for example if you dont greet and kiss every single person in the room everytime you walk in the room no matter how many times you see them a day or if youve never met them, you are considered rude! even the men kiss - we obvioulsy cant kiss the men but our investigators dont understand that so we have to keep a very sturdy hand shake hahah but sometimes is almost impossible. this week we were with an investigator for the first time and he went in to kiss my cheek and I leaned back and he pulled harder hahah my companion was screaming ¨no, no, we cant!!!´´ hahah i felt like i was in a movie! he kept on trying and my companion had to pull me away hahah he was sooo mad. i dont think he´ll be getting baptized any time soon! 

also something crazy here is the transportation. when we go into the city we take truffis - mini vans and if you can fit in, youre allowed! today i broke my record of 20 people in one mini van and right now there are riots and blockages on almost every corner because next month is election month, we got stuck in a traffic jam for 2 HOURS! hahaha take my word for it that you never want to be in a mini van with 20 angry bolivians for 2 hours! it smelt sooo bad and i just had to stick my head out the window and laugh! seriously i am always laughing here because what else can you do?!

I will never every take a washing maching for granted again! haha hand washing everything is so much more work than i imagined! this week my comp. said - ´´wow you have a lot less clothes to wash this week!´´ hahah I´m making them last as long as possible! 

Along with the goodness of the gospel, im bringing the goodness of no-bake cookies to Bolivia! we couldnt get anyone in the ward to help with treats for the baptism, and we dont have an oven so it was the only thing i could think of and the Bolivans DEVOURED them! hahaha im teaching how to make them for a relief society activity this week - changing lives one cookie at a time!

love you all and hope all is well at home!! 

Hey everyone!

I am officially a real missionary! haha I am in Tiquipaya which is a little pueblo in Cochabamba. actually its huge! My companion tells me that we haven't even seen a fourth of it yet and i feel like we have walked all of Bolivia! My comp is Hna Callata, she is from Peru and is super excited for me to learn spanish better hahah shes a really good worker which is good!

This place is crazy! there are stray dogs EVERYWHERE and they hate missionaries... hahah we have to carry books of mormon in our hands so that we can hit them away when they charge us. its my worst nightmare really hahah. also the men here are super creepy and when they are drunk so scary. (close your eyes mom and dad) this week we went into a little store and there was a drunk man and my comp whispered for me to be careful and her heard her and cornered us and started throwing punches. i thought we were done for and was wishing i had some more self defense classes! luckily he got distracted and we took off running! that was one way to teach me to stay away from them haha!

i actually have really liked the food so far, our pensionista is really good but my stomach does not agree. haha ive been super sick all week, the problem is there are no public bathrooms here, so its a pretty crappy situation hahah no pun intended. also my comp tells everyone we talk to and everyone has a different disgusting magic solution that i can assure you does not help with an upset stomach, if anything it makes it worse hahah but i am grateful that they care and want to help! 

we have 2 baptisms on saturday!!! its a mom and son and they are so excited, its so cute!! i don't really count them as my own because the date was set before i got here, but we have a couple investigators right now that are really progressing which is super exciting!

I hope everything is good at home! NEVER TAKE AMERICA FOR GRANTED. haha seriously its the best. but the people here are amazing and seriously willing to give everything they have! love and miss you all!!

love, 

hermana andersen :)