6.25.13

Hola! Ok so the internet is being crazy slow and to be honest it was probably the most frustrating feeling and I am not having very good missionary feelings right now. Just towards the internet. So if you emailed me and I didnt respond it is probably because I wasnt even able to read it or open any pictures. this last week was really great! Time is flying by now. the first weeek went by so slow and now time is going by too fast! Yes I saw that worldwide broadcast on Sunday! It was AMAZING! I felt the spirit SO strongly and was more proud than ever to be a missionary and part of the amazing work that is going on. I loved all of it. After we had a district meeting about it for like almost 2 hours and we talked so much about such great things. My district is seriously awesome. We have a ton of fun together but also have great spiritual experiences and insights as well. Perfect combo. We somehow got on the topic of family History work and a lot of the Hermanas were talking about how they could feel their ancestors watching over them and what not and it made me think of my ancestors like Grandma Dorminy and Grandma Greene and all these ancestors that I have never been able to meet but know that they love me and are watching over me. Pretty cool to think about.  So this week me and Hna Faulk taught an actual real investigator!!!!! We were really nervous before but it actually went really well! We talked about the Restoration and during I felt the spirit so strongly and I testified of my testimony of Joseph Smith. Hna faulk said that that was when the spirit came into our lesson so that was cool. After our lession our teacher told us that the Lady couldnt understand everything we said but that she felt the spirit and felt that the things we were talking about were true. So that was pretty cool! I used to be really nervous to teach and now I like it more and more! Especially in spanish. No way is my spanish very good but I have felt that I have been progessing more and its so amazing to me to think that I am actually teaching lessons in spanish! My teachers have even told me that i am getting better so I am trying to keep a positive attitude.

Ok Chrissy THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PACKAGE!! Seriously I was so excited, I screamed. haha Its so great to hear from people in the actual real world. I love my family! I wrote you back and should be mailing it soon so get excited for that! Seriously I love being here. I came out on a mission mostly for myself, so I could grow and experience great things but as I have been here I have realized that I am not here for myself at all but here to spread the Gospel to the beautiful people of bolivia! Heavenly Father needs me. Not only does he need me but he needs us ALL!  Missionary work is seriously so awesome! Lately during language study me and Hna Faulk have been reading el Libro De Mormon out loud. It is helping us better with our pronunciations and stuff so that is great. The Templo was great today as usual. After we went to some stores. I bought some things so just as heads up if you see it on the credit card. I bought Ollie and Max cute little ties to wear to church so hopefully I can somehow mail that back or just have to wait until I get back from my mission to give it to them. If Nathan and Owen go to church regularly I will get them ties too. hint hint. I will try and email some more pictures if the internet is being better. Oh, what is the verdict with the Sister missionaries??? Are they going to be in my room or no? anywyas I love you all! If you havent written me yet be a good friend or family member and write me! Letters are da bomb. I miss you!

Hermana Wursten

ps. We got new roommates and they are white. I am so bummed. I miss all the latinos. Over 50 norteamericanos came in on tuesday and most of them were girls. Its insane.

Me and Hermana Faulk with our new hair clips.

6.18.13

HI!!!

Pdays are so awesome. We get to go to the templo every pday which rocks and then we get to walk around a little and shop. We take the buses to the templo and they are so crowded. like seriously. but its really fun/funny. This week was really good. We went out proselyting in actual PERU!!! Seriously I was so nervioso it was insane. I felt like I wanted to cry. I don{t know if it was just nerves or the spirit. haha probably mostly nerves. But it was great! hna faulk and I were together with one of our maestros. Our maestra ended up talking most of the time but it was stil la really cool expericen. People talk SO fast so it was a little discouraging cause I could barely get anything out of what the people were saying. but the people are SO NICE!! seriously, I think I love south america more than North america. The people are so genuine and even if they are not interested or have a different religion they will still listen to you and be nice. It so awesome. It was cool cause then I realized I didnt really have much to be nervous about. One man called us pretty Dolls in spanish. haha so that was flattering. Our maestro thought it was so funny. As we were talking to the people I just felt Gods love for them and its crazy to think that I have never even known the existence of these people but Heavenly Father knows them and loves them so much. I am so grateful to be doing his work here and to be able to show those his love for them. I am literally a representative of Christ, and its so amazing.

We have still been teaching our investigator and its been going pretty well. He agreed to go to church this sunday so that was cool! Hna Faulk seriously speaks spanish so good so she talks all the facts and I just testify and bear my testimony in all out lessons. haha she says I am very good at  testifying because I am sincere and she thinks that it brings the spririt. So that is nice to hear. All of the Latinos here left today. I am so bummed! i loved them all. One random latino Elder confessed his love for me last night which was really weird cause i had never talked to him. He had one of the hermanas translate everything he was saying to me cause I dont speak spanish very well. He just said that he diddnt come ot the mission thinking about girls and then he saw me and just felt really happy and was fine just watching me and not talking to me. haha I seriosly had no idea what to say so I was just like gracias the whole time. It was very flattering but also extremely innapropraite. haha My spelling is so off but im too lazy and have no time to change it so sorry.

Learning spanish is getting a little better. Sometimes I just feel like it will never come but I am just trying to keep a positive attitude! Its muy dificil to learn another language. UMMM I AM CURRENTLY IN AN EARTHQUAKE RIGHT NOW! ok It just ended. hahah ok nvm its still going. That was crazy. Dont worry it wasnt anything too crazy. Dad I am glad you had a great fathers day! I wish I could have been there but I was thinking about you. I love you! the longer i am here the faster time goes by. I am seriously loving it. Sometimes i feel on the verge of crying because I get a little overwhelmed, but most of the time I want to cry is because of the spirit. I am so grateful I get to feel the spirit so much. I don{t know how anything who has felt the spirit of god in their lives can deny it cause every time I feel the spirit I jus tfeel so happy and peaceful and want to feel more of it. the Gospel rocks. I have learned as I have been here more of the importance of the gospel in our lives and actually how simple it is and how much sense it makes. how can anyone deny the Gospel of Jesus Christ?!

I loved my latina roommates. We would always at night talk to eachother and whenver we would learn a new word in spanish we would yell baila!!!! and then dance and shake our hips. haha And then we would do "attitude" and smack our butts. haha Whenever people find out that I am 22 they are always really surprised and are like I thought you were only 19 or 20! I wonder why they think that.... ahha The elders will always joke about how I am sooo old and wise and have experienced so much in life.

during one of our lessons with Alberto, our investigator, I was bearing testimony of why I was sacrificing 18 months of my life for a mission, but instead of saying months I accidentally said monkeys. hahah we all laughed pretty hard. so that kinda killed the spirit a little bit. I write down a list of things to say in my emails everyweek cause I know I will forget them and I wrote down Romans 1:16. I cant remmbmer what it said but It must be a really good scripture if I wrote it down. Thank you so much everyone for all your love and support! I love it here. I am constantly learning and having so much fun. I was nervous that the mission would be all serious and I would never hae fun but I am laughing always and feeling the spririt so much so its the best combination. Half of my district is going to the same mission as me and the other half is going to Guayquil, Ecuador. 

I cant express how much I love being here. It is a lot of work but I know this is where I am supposed to be and I know that Heavenly Father has led me here. I have been able to do some amazing things in my life that I will always be forever grateful for but missionary work is something that is extremely special and amazing. Heavenly Father loves us all so much and His son Jesus Christ died for us so we can be happy and return to our Heavenly Father. this is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and it brings so uch joy, happiness, and comfort! I love you all so much! I am forevr grateful for my family and my friends. The backyrad looks great. I cant wait to see it when i get back. I think I left my pictures at home so do you think you could send them to me or email them? also can you email pictures of when I had black hair? some of the hermanas want to see it. I love you and thanks for always writing me! 

Hermana Wursten

p.s. I have had diarrhea for like the past week. Poor hna Faulk has to go everywhere with me so we are constantly in the bathroom. dont worry, its totally normal here. 

6.11.13

HOLA!!!!!!!!!!!! can you believi I have been here almost a week????? sorry if this email has a lot of typos I am rushing to write as much as I can cause I only have an hour and a lot to say! So if you emailed me and I dont email back its not because I dont want to but I am so grateful for your emails! the CCM (MTC) is crazy! It is SO BUSY!!! Seriously I feel like I have no time for anything. I feel like I have been here forever but it feels so weird to think that just last week I was home. Thank you mom I really need those things for me to get to Bolivia (shot and police records). first off, I love my district! they are awesome. We have 11 hermanas (one is a trio) and 4 elders. haha so muchos hermanas. My Companera is awesome as well. Her name is actually Hermana Faulk, not Hermana Call. haha We get along great and both have the desire to be great missionaries and to be obedient. We had companionship inventory on Domingo (sunday) and we were just complimenting eachother the whole time. haha It was great. Espanol es muy dificil, pero esta bien! I am trying my best to just not get discouraged and just do what I can to learn as much and what not. Hna Faulk is very good at spanish so she helps me a lot, which I am so grateful. She took 4 years in high school. sometimes I get down on myself cause I don{t know espanol as well as others but I just have to remember it will be awhile until I totally get it. But I know how to pray in spanish and I can testify!!! So that is a start. em mi cuerto (in my room) its me and hna faulk and then 4 latinas. They are super nice and always help us with spanish. We try to sit with latinos during meals so we can practice and they can teach us new things. Yesterday I accidentaly said a bad word to the elders, good thing I am american so they could excuse it. haha but they all laughed. and the other day hna faulk accidentally told our companeras de cuarto (roommates) she was pregnant. It was pretty funny. My Pday is on Tuesdays. Today we got to go to the temple! It was awesome. they has us use headsets so we could understand and actually feel the spirit instead of trying to learn spanish. I feel like because we are learning a language we don{t get to feel the spirit as much because we are trying so hard to translate and nothing is in english. haha Its fine though I am grateful it is that way. One super spiritual experience I had was on Sunday, we watched the Joseph smith movie, in english, and the whole time I was just trying not to cry, although I wasnt very successful. At the end one of the hermanas said a prayer (the spirit in the room was alrady really strong) and I just started crying so hard. I was trying really hard not to be super obvious but it was comforting once I realized I wasnt the only one crying. I was just so overwhelmed with how grateful I was to be a missionary and to spread the Gospel of Jesucristo that Jose Smith had restored. Never was I more confident in my decision to serve a mission. I will admit, It is a very hard adjustment and I often feel super inadequate but I just have to remind myself that Heavenly father knows my potential and he is going to bless me as long as I continue to stay close to him and be obedient. But yeah, I go through a lot of emotions throughout the day. One moment I will feel the spirit, the next I am frustrated with the language, the next i will just feel really dumb, the next I feel all motivated and excited, the next I am tired, and it goes on and on and on. But I am very happy. Our district we have a lot of fun together. I thought I was the oldest in my district (almost all the girls are 20 and boys 19) but then I found out one of the Hermanas is 27. She is serving as a missionary nurse and a tracting missionary.

 

This email is super long I apologize but there is just so much to say! Oh guess what.. they have VOLLEYBALLL HERE!! YAY. Seriously I was so excited once I saw that. We played the other day and it was really fun, even though my district sucks at volleyball. I was actually one of the better players, surprisingly. The food is awesome! TONS of carbs. rice, potatoes, bread and meat with every meal. and they always have desserts. haha so I am pretty sure i have already gained weight. So far I haven{t gotten sick. Sometimes the food tastes a little questionable but for the most part it is really good. I took some pictures today when we were walking around the town and stuff but I don{t think I have time to send pictures today. It has been a tad chilly the past couple of days here and I have been able to wear my raincoat, which I have gotten mucho compliments on so Mom, it was worth it. 

So we taught out first investigator ayer (yesterday)! It was just one of our maestros (teachers) but he was acting as an investigator and we get to teach him all week. His name is ¨"alberto". we were able to start planning the lección a couple days before and then after  personal study me and Hna faulk both felt prompted we needed to change the approach of our lession. It was so cool though! I told her how I was so grateful that she is worthy of the spirit so we can both be able to know what Padre Celestial (heavenly Father) wants us to teach and say to investigators. We ended up teaching him about La Expiacion (the atonement) and it went pretty good. We steered off a little and talked about the restoration of the gospel and Jose smith but overall it went really good and I felt the spirit as we taught him. I shared a story with him about myself so he could relate a little more. Mind you, this was all in spanish. i did write most of it down but I was able to testify to him in spanish all on my own. It was great. when we went to talk to him he had a picture of black jesus and told us he worships Jesucristo negro. hahah It was hard not to laugh. After the lession he told us we did the best out of all the other companionships that taught him so that was great to hear! Me and hna Faulk were pretty excited.. don{t worry we didnt tell anyone else he said that. We are going to teach him again tonight. We are going to talk about the plan of salvation.

 

Well I should probably go but thank you for all your love and prayers and support and emails! I love you all so much. extraño mi familia (I miss my family). tambien siestas (also naps). I am tired all the time!

 

yo se que el Evangelio De Jesucristo es verdadero. yo se que el Dios es nuestros Padre Celestial. Estoy agredecida ser una misionara para la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los ultimos dias. I know that the chuch of Jesus christ is true. I know that God is our heavenly FAther. I am grateful to be a missionary of the church of Jesus christ of latter day saints. Te amo!!!

 

Please keep me in your prayers and know I am always praying for you.

 

Hermana Wursten

She Made It!!

Here is the email my mom received on Friday June 7, 2013.  Letty left on Thursday morning.  I believe she had a layover in Dallas and from there to Peru.  We were happy to hear that she made it safely, and can't wait to hear from her again!  Here is her email:

HOLA!!!! I am at the MTC. Finally. I didn{t end up getting to the MTC until 445 in the morning. My plane was delayed and then by the time I got through customs it was 345 ish and no one was there to pick me up. So I asked a man if I could use his phone (in spanish, the best I could) and he did so I was able to call the MTC and they picked me up. As I was waiting I kept getting approached by men asking if I wanted a taxi. haha they knew I was american so I am sure they wanted my money. they let me sleep in until 9 this morning but I woke up at 830. My companion is really nice, I forgot her name already but I think it is Hermana Call. She is from San Jose area. So far I have just been getting the things I need and I sat through like 5 minutes of language class and then they took me out so I could email you. I feel inadequate cause the people here seem to know more spanish than me so I feel a little dumb, but I am sure that is just temporary. It is all a little overwhelming but I am excited to be here and know that after a week I will be used to things. From what I saw of the drive to the MTC (it was night so I couldn{t see a ton) it looks a lot like Ecuador. I am just grateful to be here. Yesterday was along day! I have to go but I will email you on my pday, which I dont know when it is. I love you!

Hermana W

The night before she left she wanted Mexican food.  So they went and ate at Carmelita's in Roseville.

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I leave in 3 days.

p.s. I have done some of the pre-missionary training, it just doesn't give me the percentage when I do it. Didn't want everyone to judge me cause it says 0%. Cause I know you were.