A Week Full of Firsts

 This week was full of firsts, as you can tell from the title.  haha For example, I found my first tarantula at our house, I tried my first bite of fried cow stomach, I saw my first opposum, I got my first hat to wear while proselyting, I had my first MultiZone Conference with Presidente Rodriguez, and I baptized my first investigator.

   All of the above are true events that I experienced this week.  Crazy huh?  But the one that I think was the most memorable, along with my first time baptizing someone, was that I had my first great miracle this week.  This week we had planned on 3 baptisms for Saturday, one of them was rescheduled for Sunday because he couldn't on Saturday.  On Saturday, we baptized Jesus Rodolfo Paz (10 years old boy) and Irma Villca (15 year old girl).  It was such a cool experience to not only baptize someone, but to do it in Spanish.  It was a feeling that I've never felt before, that's for sure.  

On Sunday, we expected to wake up, pick up Elian Bustamante (16 year old boy/man) and his family and go to his baptism.  But it went so much different.  His baptismal service was supposed to start at 8:00 am.  He was always excited to be baptized and has such a strong testimony, participated in the lessons, did awesome in his interview and everything necessary to be baptized.  We went to his house a little late at 7:40 to pick him up, and nobody was awake.  Finally after knocking over and over for about 5 minutes, Elian came to the door in his pajamas.  He had a sad look on his face.  We asked him if he was just tired or if something was wrong.  He told us that he didn't want to be baptized yet because he didn't feel ready.  He felt like everything we taught was true but because he's young and he's made mistakes, that he didn't feel ready to be baptized.  Satan knew that Elian was doing so well so that's why he was working really hard on him.  My companion shared a scripture with him in Mosiah 18:9-10 which basically says if you have a desire to be baptized, that nothing should stop you.  After this, I told him that perhaps sometimes the hardest part of repenting is forgiving ourselves for who we once were.  But once we come back up out of the water, we're a different person.  If we trust that we can change, the Lord will give it to us.  We talked a little bit more about this and Elian said to us, "Hold on, one second" and went inside.  At this point I said a short prayer asking one thing, "Heavenly Father please bless Elian with the desire to be baptized."  About 3 seconds later, Elian came out and said, "I can be ready in 10 minutes, is that okay?"  We later got to watch Elian be baptized and his confirmation right after in Sacrament Meeting.  I truly believe in miracles, we just have to be wise enough to look for them.

   I have never felt closer to the Lord than I have on my mission.  Missions are hard, but we shouldn't want or expect anything less.  How could we go about teaching so much about Jesus Christ and his pain and suffering for us, and not be satisfied for going through a very tiny fraction amount of what he went through?  I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve a mission.

   I love you all, I hope you're all doing awesome, you're in my prayers.  Trust in the Lord.  

--

-Elder Cheshire

"We saw this weird animal run up a tree at our home and I was able to get a pic.  Enjoy."

"I got a hat from my mission president's wife this week and I LOVE IT DEARLY!"

"Our baptisms this week.  One young boy named Jesus..he is 10.  Eliam who is 16 years
old and one girl Irma who is 15"

!Hola todos¡

Hola familia y amigos,

   This week was pretty cool.  We didn't have any baptisms, but we did A LOT of contacting and finding new people to teach this week.  It's very rare to find people that actually want to listen, but I guess perhaps that will make it even sweeter when we find that person or family that has been hungry to hear this truth.

   Quick story:  This week, on Friday, I believe, we were going back to our home for the night, and we decided to stop at one house.  A sister came to the door and she recognized us as "Elderes"  but she was hesitant to let us in.  She said that there was one time she was invited to the church.  And as she went to the church that Sunday, as she was about to go in, a member told her that she couldn't go in looking how she was.  She is a poor lady she told us and she was very saddened by that experience.  My companion started weeping in front of this lady  because of this one experience she had with the church.  That she had this one thing happen that makes it really difficult for someone to try to attend again.  I wasn't really sure what to say, but I told her that in this church, something that we truly believe in is change.  We believe that anyone, in any circumstance can change.  And perhaps at times, it is some of the people who are in the church that might need this the most.  But I told her that nobody is perfect and that we as missionaries aren't perfect either, far from it.  We are only here to teach about one person who is, Jesus Christ and that through him, we can all be changed.  

   She told us that we could come back and visit and that we could teach her more about our message.  We ended up teaching her yesterday and I feel like it went really well.  I truly can feel the spirit as I'm teaching.  Heck if it weren't for the spirit, these people wouldn't be able to understand a word that I'm saying.  I know that the Lord helps missionaries.  Not only the missionaries with badges over their heart.  But all missionaries, any person who in any way tries to share the gospel, the Lord assists in the work.  I'm so thankful for the opportunity that I have to be here to help these people realize that they too can change and have more happiness in their lives.

   We have 4 baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, so hopefully they will all turn out and I'll attach pictures of the big day.  I love you all and I'm so thankful for all of your prayers.  I truly can feel them.  Talk to you next week.  Paz.

Nuestro primer bautismo

¡Hola familia y amigos!

   We had our first baptism as a companionship this Saturday for a lady named Nestoria Parada.  Although she was being taught before I got here in the mission, it was still cool to have helped teach the last lessons and prepare her for this covenant with God.  We spent all of the day before her baptism finding a gown that would fit her for her baptism and we found two that we thought would work, but she said that neither would fit, because she is a bigger woman.  But luckily she had plain white pants and a plain white shirt that she could use to be baptized.  She was scared of one thing, and that was that she didn't want the water to be cold.  But the water to fill up the font is only one temperature here, freeezing.  But she took her time to get in the font and she did awesome.  

   After she was baptized, she looked up and said, "Gracias, Padre Celestial"  (Thank you Heavenly Father).  She knew how important this day was and how important it was for her to be baptized.  This next Saturday, we don't have any baptisms, but for the 24th of September, we have 5-6 I believe.  So it'll be a very special and busy day.  Yesterday, 9 of our investigators attended church which is pretty good.  We have an investigator named Elian who is awesome.  He's 17 years old and is just always happy.  He brought his siblings to church with him.  One is 12, another is 8, and the other is 5 years old.  Hopefully the 2 can be baptized around the same time as their brother if they have the desire.  

   This week we had 29 lessons that we taught which is fairly good, but we need to find more people to teach.  In Preach My Gospel, it says: "The only way that anything happens in missionary work is when you have someone to teach."  (something like that anyway).  I'm so thankful for a Heavenly Father who has blessed me with this opportunity to be here.  Even though this place has very temperamental weather, some days it feels like an ice box, and the next it feels like an oven on broil.  There's dirt constantly flying in our faces, doors being closed on us, but being here is the best decision I've ever made.  At times, it's frustrating learning a language and adjusting to missionary life, but I'm happy here.  Because I know I'm supposed to be here.  I love this work.  I love you guys and I hope all is well.  Talk to y'all next week.  

Holaaaaaa

Wow.  This week was awesome!  I'll just jump right in to the spiritual stuff, sound good? 

   This Saturday, we have our first baptism for a wonderful lady named Nestoria Parada.  Whose only worry about being baptized is if the water will be cold.  So we'll do our best to make sure the water is nice and warm for her big day.  

   We have another investigator, Gregorio Christiano (21) who's baptismal date was the 24th of September.   He told us yesterday that he wants it to be sooner.  We told him that we could do it on the 17th because it's always on a Saturday so that they can receive the Holy Ghost on the Sunday.  All he has to do is attend one more week of church.  He's awesome and as we teach you can feel that he truly believes in what we are teaching him.  

   We currently have two families that have children that they want to get baptized.  We have one other man, Jose Raoul (23) who has all of his attendances at our church, he just is lacking a testimony of it all, just to know that it is all true.  And Ilian (17) seems to have his testimony increasing, but needs to attend church a couple more times.  All of these people are wonderful people.  

   The thing that's great about Bolivia, is how much they appreciate their families.  They have so little.  Lack of money, lack of serious electricity and lack of a clean home.  But they have one thing that they recognize as the most important.  Family.  It makes it sooo much easier to teach about how the Gospel blesses families when they appreciate their families as much as they do.  I love the people here, at least from what i can understand from them, from my lack of language skills in Español.  

   Short story: Sweet Nestoria Parada made a gelatin dessert for us missionaries and unfortunately insisted that we ate it in front of her, right then.  This gelatin was made from the leg of a vaca (cow) and basically tasted about how you would image it, yet maybe a little bit worse.  It just had a lack of fruit flavoring, rather than just plain cow flavored jello.  Hahaha.  But other than that, most of what I've had has been bearable.  I've found a lot of different things that I like.  And yes, they get offended here if you don't eat everything.  But it's all good.  I'm very appreciative of their love.  I love my mission and this Gospel is changing my life everyday.  There was one quote I read this week from President Holland that i loved.  It talks about as missionaries, if we want our investigators to read and pray more, we must do the same, if we want our investigators to search for answers, we must do the same.  It's much better how he worded it, but I have been trying to live by that quote this week.  I love you all, don't ever worry about me.  I'm doing awesome here.  Stay safe, stay strong, love ya.

"My workout bench"

"Just a regular day of us walking the streets :D"