11.25.13

Hola familia!
Wow, I always start my emails saying that.. but I don´t know what else
to say. This week was good. Our numbers were a little bit lower but
still a good week… and I have excuses for the lower numbers but we can
never have excuses, right? Anways we had transfers and me and Hna
Choque are staying here in Tarija!! So I will be here for Christmas! I
am excited about that. I don´t know anything about how we are going to
talk Christmas, I don´t know when they will let us know. But it will
probably be last minute like everything thing is here in South
America.

First off, Chrissy thanks so much for the package!!!  I love it.
But.. there wasn´t any mascara  I don´t know what happened there. And
I will be sure to try and capture some photos of the horrid camel toes
here (every wears tight legging pants here). But that might turn into
an awkward situation. Also, the other say on the bus Gangham(sp?) was
playing and I REALLY wanted to stand up and do the dance. And it made
me think of Nathan and his dancing. Hahaha
Anways so with transfers we we set back a little cause we had to stay
with Hna Wolf in her area almost all of Tuesday because her companion
went to Santa Cruz to get her hija because she is going to train. Hna
Wolf got transferred to Bermejo, which is like 3 hours away. The next
day we said bye to all the missionaries leaving. I cried. A lot of the
missionaries that I would consider my friends were leaving and it was
really sad, but after an hour I felt better. I never like the
beginning of of a new transfer cause you have to adjust but it always
works out good.

Also, another Hermana was with us for Wednesday until Thursday cause
she missed her flight to Santa Cruz. But that was fine. We had a
lesson with the sisters of Demetria (Adela and Aleida) and we invited
them to baptism and they said yes! Adela told us that she feels happy
when she thinks about baptism. BUT they didn´t come to sacrament
meeting this Sunday so their baptism date fell and we have to invite
them again and change the date. Also, Ana came to church again and
after we had a lesson with her and  the spirit was definitely there.
She told us that she feels this is the truth. We invited her to
baptism too and she said yes! BUT she told us that is going to visit
her family for 2 months and is leaving this week. NNOOOOO!! We are so
sad cause she is SO GREAT! So she will most likely get baptized when
she returns and I am pretty positive that I won´t be here  But God
has a plan and whatever happens is fine. Noemi came to church also and
we were really happy cause it seems that she is developing more of a
friendship with the young women.
It POURED the other day. I had forgotten that you told me that it was
going to rain. Haha we had to return to the house and change cause we
were soaked. So, what does the weather look like for this week, Mom?
So I can be a little more prepared.
We have an investigator that is so great. Carolina. We taught her one
time and when we returned to visit her she told us that she is now
praying with her sons every day. We were so happy to hear that! We
taught her the Book of Mormon this week and she wants to read it. She
told us that she likes how we FEEL and how we are more dedicated in
the church. She is catholic and told us that she feels like a lot of
people just go to church just to do it. We have a lot of faith in her
so we are praying that she can progress cause she truly wants what is
best for her kids too and we testified MUCHO how this Gospel is a
blessing to families.
That is about all. I love the mission! Hna Choque and I are always
finding ways in how we can be better and I feel really good about the
things we are doing more. That is sad that you guys aren´t doing
Thanksgiving with the fam. But then I do feel a little bit better that
I am not going to be missing out on much. I can´t believe Christmas is
a month from today! I am so excited to talk to you guys! I hope that
we can skype but I really have no idea what we are going to do. We are
singing Christmas songs in church and I am so happy. I love
Christmas!! But I have to admit I am going to miss Christmas at home.
But I am so grateful that I am only missing one Christmas. I LOVE
YOU!!!!!


Hermana Wursten

p.s. Elder Suxo-Sanchez is my district leader now. haha I figured you
would want to hear that.

 Me and Hna Wolf imitating an Elder

11.18.13

Hola!

There is always so much that happens in the week and it´s hard to
always remember. We always have good days and then there are always
bad days.The mission is definitely a roller coaster!

We have transfers tomorrow. I think I am going to stay here with Hna
Choque (I really hope so, I never want to leave Tarija) but we will
see. I never like change but in the end I am always happy.

Like I said we are trying hard to work more with inactives. But I find
myself that I am more sad while working with less actives. It is SO
SAD to me to meet people who at one point had a testimony, but now
they are so far gone. Satan truly works so hard with people and a lot
of the time he wins. That actually angers me. I hate him and the
things he does to people. Almost all of the inactives that we talk to
have left the church because someone offended them. That frustrates me
even more. I just want to punch about a million people here. First the
people that offended the member.. why are we so judgemental?? and also
the people who leave the church because someone offended them. How
stupid is it to leave Salvation because some dumb person offended you.
Sorry, I just get so agitated when I think about it. But it is out of
love, I promise. Last night I cried myself to sleep because there are
so many great people that KNOW the Gospel is true but the spirit is
just dead in them. It makes me so sad and I want so badly to change
them but all the people have their agency. I am just praying a lot
that the Lord will guide me in what I should do and say to help these
people return to the church. So what I want to say to everyone is
first off.. be careful in the things that you say to people and never
judge!!!! and second.. if anyone in the church offends you, forget it!
And focus on your testimony and how this the true church and nothing
should change your mind in that, or more, your actions. So there is my
rant.

We had some good lessons this week. We received a reference this week
of a hermana who is going to institute and has boyfriend that is a RM.
She is great (Ana Matias)! She truly has the desire to know that these
things are true. We taught her the restoration and plan of salvation.
She told us that she is praying to get an answer but still hasn´t
received it. But she told us that she wants these things to be true. I
know she will get an answer. At the end she prayed and it was probably
the most sincere prayer I have heard in the mission. She was crying
and truly talking to God. I love that. Also, we taught Noemi this week
and she is great! yeah, she can´t get baptized but she is still
reading the Book of Mormon and praying. We left Enos for her to read
and when we returned, we read it together. She had already read it and
had her favorite verses and what so excited to read it again and talk
about it. That seriously is the best, when the people are enjoying
the Book of Mormon. It´s cool too cause I find so much joy in the
scriptures and so it is cool when our investigators enjoy it too. But
at the end of the lesson she was crying really hard cause there are
some problems with her family. Hna Choque and I were talking about how
the mood had changed and we can´t remember. haha but we just testified
of how God loves her and she can find comfort through prayer and the
scriptures. We had a member with us too and she was a lot of help.

We had 3 people at church. Ana, Laura (other investigator) and Aleida
(hermana de Demetria). Demetria couldn't come cause she had things to
do for her school. But her 13 year old sister, aleida, came by
herself! That was awesome. And she is reading the book of mormon
tambien. She had some pretty serious  things happen to her so I am
happy to know that she is reading the Book of Mormon and wants to come
to church. But she is really shy and the young women don´t talk to her
very much. We need to talk to them about that, sometimes girls are
just so clicky.

I forgot to share in my last email how the morning that I was so sad
about Noemi I read in Alma (I think ch. 8) about how Alma was
discouraged after preaching to the people in .. crap I can´t remember
the city.. and he was leaving and an angel appeared to him and told
him to go back and said how he is blessed and there are many things in
that he can rejoice because he is keeping the commandments...
something like that, I am trying to translate what I read in Spanish
into English. I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES! Seriously it is like god is
talking specifically to me through the scriptures. how did I always
forget or didn't have time to read the scriptures before?

The mission is hard but so great. This is definitely a time of
learning and testing. I know that as I put in all my effort God will
take care of the rest.

I am glad that Sammy is ok! A lot of people were talking about what
happened in the Philipines. God truly is protecting his missionaries.
... That is why I wasn't too worried about rabies when that dumb dog
bit me.

I love you all! Gin, I hope you have a great birthday this week! Sorry
I can´t send you a letter or what not sooner but I am working on it.
Don´t have too much fun without me! I hate missing out on fun. Until
next week, which will go by super fast. I can´t believe how fast time
goes by here.

Hermana Wursten

Me and Noemi!

Our Zone.

11.11.13

Hola familia!

I will be honest. this week was tough. first off I will count you in
on what is happening with Noemi. Her baptism date is this Saturday,
but that won´t be happening. Monday we went to visit her and she told
us that her mom doesn´t want her to get baptized. She is 17 so she has
to have permission so be baptized. She said she wants to get baptized
but she can´t because of her mom. We told her to talk to her Mom more
and tell her why she wants to get baptized. She visits her family in
the weekends so this Saturday we fasted that her Mom would allow her.
We prayed a TON too. And this morning I went to talk to her and see if
her Mom gave her permission and ... no. I sobbed. for about an hour. I
just feel so beat. and I have to hold back tears right now. Hna Choque
cried too. We talked a lot about patience, faith and hope. Those are
the qualities that we need to focus on. Because we have been working
really hard and not having much success. We are always talking about
how we can improve personally and as a companionship. I realize how
imperfect I am but I am striving every day to be better. Anyways to be
honest I am really bummed out with that. But we talked and said that
we aren´t going to let this get us down and we are going to have more
patience in God and his timing. But I will admit, that is freaking
hard.

Also, we are going to focus more on the good things that happen. Cause
even if we have a rough day there are always good things that happen
too. Like this week we found about 4 inactives just by knocking doors.
We are working more with inactives and I actually really enjoy it. I
think cause I just imagine missionaries teaching Jack or Chrissy and
it makes me more motivated.

Yesterday we went to 4 houses before church and NO ONE came to church
:( I was sweating when we got to Church (mind you, we walk every
where) Well Demetria but the last 2 hours and the most important part
is sacramament meeting. We were really persistent too. It´s actually
pretty funny. We went to a inactive family to take them to church with
us. We knock on the door and his granddaughter answers the door.
us:"Is hermano williams here?"
Grandaughter: "Oh he is sleeping"
Us: "thats ok you can wake him up"
she leaves and then his grandson comes to the door
grandson: "oh he is not here, he left to go to the hospital"
us: "ok then you guys are going to go to church with us, we are going
to come back in 5 minutes to get you"
we come back and knock on the door and Hermano Williams answers (yeah,
he didn´t go to the Hospital)
William " I´m going to go but I have to do something before"
Us: "no hermano you are coming with us right now"
After much disputing (not disputing but convincing) we realized he
wan´t going to go with us but said he would go.

Yeah, he didn´t go to church. Ugh. I can´t even count how many times
people lie to us in the mission. Serisously. But we are going to work
more with them and be more persistent cause they aren´t going to do
nothing if we don´t push them. I don´t care if it is obnoxious. They
will thank me later in the celestial kingdom.

But yeah this week we taught lessons and I hope that we were able to
find people that will progress and have potential. We always pray to
find people that are ready to receive this Gospel. Because every
person has their time and I am learning that here in the mission.

Kimmy is engaged?? To Jeff? How crazy is that. It´s weird to think
that there is so much going on at home and I am just here in Bolivia
speaking Spanish and teaching the Gospel.

It is really hot here. I miss swimming. But I am getting pretty tan..
only my chest, arms, and feet. I die inside when I think about how I
have a farmers tan.

Truly the work is great. It is hard but if I had the chance to go home
right now, I wouldn´t. Hard things happen but I am learning to always
trust in the Lord and count my blessings and do my part. I love this
Gospel! I love you all! have a great week!

Hermana Wursten

Oh and can you give a shout out to Madison Williams. I got her letter and please tell her thanks and that I am so
happy to hear from her!    Oh and tell her I am going to write her back but it might take a while

and that I am so happy for her and her wedding and I am sad I am going to miss it but I understand!

But I expect to be photoshopped in the wedding  pictures. 

p.s. I got a letter from the  5th ward young womens saying happy
halloween. hah Tell them thanks for me please!

11.4.13

My beloved familia! How are you?

First I am going to answer all your questions Mom. This week was good.
We had some good days and some other days that were not too great. So
we weren't  able to teach as much as we wanted to but we are going to
work extra hard this week! Yeah tomorrow is my 5 months! How crazy. It
feels like eternity but at the same time it has gone by so fast. Every
week goes by faster and faster. I seriously can´t believe it is
already Monday. Yeah, some days we don´t that many appointments, it´s
hard but it´s a good time to find other people to teach. We knock
doors a lot here. Before I was nervous to do that but now I don´t even
care. I actually kinda like it. I don´t have fear to talk to people
which is pretty cool. We had 4 people at church yesterday! Noemi, Rudy
(a reference from a member) and Demetria and her sister Aleida (but
they only came the last hour). My companion is good. I really thinnk
that we work pretty good together. She is more timid so a lot of times
I am the one initiating but I guess that´s ok cause I am her mother and
the senior companion. How weird is it that I am the senior companion
of a Latino who speaks better Spanish than me? ha ha Truly God calls
the unqualified. But I love this work so much and am constantly
learning how I can improve as a missionary.

We are trying really hard to work more with members and so far it is
going good. Truly the members have such a great influence. I hate
myself for not helping out the missionaries before my mission. We can
teach these people and what not but really it is the members that make
the difference. Because it is THEIR WARD, not ours. We´re only here
for what? 3 months? Not very much time.

We moved houses! Thank the heavens. We live with a member and her
house is so much nicer. Especially the bathroom. Goodbye pure pink
bathroom! ha ha BUT yesterday there were 3 spiders in the bathroom and
one was pretty big. I almost died.  ha ha but I was the one who ended up
killing it. Now I have fear to go to the bathroom.

We weren't able to teach a ton this week but I really think that we
found people that have potential to progress. So I am excited for
that. I really really really don´t want to leave Tarija ever. I don´t
want to go to Santa Cruz and I have fear that I am going to be
transferred this transfer.

We taught Demetria again this week and it was good. Whenever we visit
our investigators we verify if they are doing their commitments (such
as read the scriptures, and praying) and Demetria never does her
commitments except for go to church. It is frustrating cause those are
the things that are going to help them gain a testimony. But yeah
anyways we asked her if she had prayed and she said yes! She told us
that we went to a church and prayed before her night classes and
prayed sincerely to God about all the things that are going on in her
life right now (Her sister is going through a lot of stuff right now
that Demetria has to deal with) and she said that after she just felt
so happy. the happiest she has felt in a long time. I was so happy to
hear that! Cause even though she isn't reading the Book of Mormon she
now has a testimony of Pray. So step by step (poco a poco) she is
progressing.

I love the Book of Mormon! I think that everyone should read it. It´s
da bomb. Seriously sometimes I wish I could justt study all day. haha
only Gospel stuff, not college stuff (school sucks). Noemi still has
her baptism date for November 16th. She lives with the member that we
live with so we are going to work with her a lot now! Like rad the
scriptures and stuff together. I am really excited for her.

Yesterday a family in our ward, their son died (3 years old). It is
really sad. We went to the showing at the capilla. We sang hymns and
what not. I cried. I can´t even imagine what it would be like to lose
a child. And the mom is pregnant. How sad. So yesterday we were a
little busy with helping out with that and what not. We are also
trying to work more with inactive members. We seriously always end up
finding inactivos in the streets when we contact people. And we have
had 2 inactivos tell us that they are going to go to church this
Sunday. So I really hope they come! We always teach lesson 3 (Gospel
of Jesus Christ) at first and I always ask them about their baptism
and conversion so they can remember and have a desire to feel the same
way again. All these people KNOW that the church is true but it is so
hard for them to return. It´s sad.

Anyways that is our week in a nutshell. I am excited for this week!
This work is the best and everyone, EVERYONE should be involved in
this work. Especially members cause they have more power than us
misioneras. There is my short preaching for you guys.

I´m sad I missed the blessing of Hadley but that is exciting. Give her
tons a kisses from her aunt Letty please. I missed home on Halloween.
They don´t celebrate Halloween here much but we saw some kids dressed
up. I want pictures of all the nieces and nephews in their Halloween
costumes!

Les quiero mucho!!!! Mi familia es la mejor! Realmente les extraño
mucho pero estoy muy feliz en esta obra y sé que esta es la obra del
Señor. Siempre sigue adelante.

Until next week!

Hermana Wursten

All of my Zone at our activity last monday.

My horrid sunburn. Everyone we talked to said something to me about
how red I was. How embarrassing? The life of a gringa in South
america.

Me with a kitten of a member

They don´t have halloween here but dia de los muertos. They give
bread insted of candy. You can google it.

10.28.13

Hola Familia!

We had our activity with our zone this morning so that is why I am writing a little later. We went to a lake but couldn´t swim. haha so that was a little tempting but it was fun cause we played futbal norteamericano. I am super sunburnt. I never know what the weather is going to be like here cause one day it will be hot and the other day it is raining and cold. And we can´t just check the weather on the internet. The things we take for granted. But this week was good! I feel like we are improving more and more as missionaries and I have gained a love for teaching.. but only teaching the Gospel. Because it is true. I love the misson cause I am always learning more. Seriously everyday  learn something new or my testimony grows in a priciple in the Gospel. It´s so awesome. Like this week my testimony and understanding of Faith has grown SO much. Because we always talk about faith in our lessons and the people here (almost everyone is catholic) always say how they have so much faith. I want to punch everyone who says they have strong faith in the face. Serisouly. Because they don´t don´t know what Faith is exactly. And I´m perfect and I know the definition of faith. yeah, thats a joke. I just now realized here in the mission the importance and true meaning of faith. In the scriptures it says that when we have faith, we will be saved. Yeah, that seems pretty easy. But no, It´s so much more to jsut say you have faith and believe in something. When we believe, we act. the 5 principles in this Gospel are 1. Faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement 2. Repentance 3. Baptism (with the correct authority and through immersion) 4. The gift of the Holy Ghost and 5. Endure to the end. We have to have the faith to do all those things. If we don´t have faith we don´t have anything. So that was something that just hit me this week.

 

We also taught Demetria about Faith this week. I think it was one of my favorite lessons in the missiion. I just felt so close with her and I truly felt the gift of tongues. I was starting to believe that the gift of tongues isn´t real because I had never had a crazy experience with the words just coming out of my mouth. But I realize that I have been blessed with the gift of tongues a lot here. My spanish is 10 times more better when I am teaching. Always. and I guess I just took for granted the words flowing out of my mouth. But this lesson with Demetria I just felt like I wasn´t even thinking what I was saying, the words were just coming. It was cool too cause we went into the lesson planning on teaching the Word of wisdom but somehow I just started with Faith and went with it and I truly think that was the guidance of the spirit cause after the lesson she told us she wants to do what is right and work on her faith. I was able to share my experience where I knew what I should do but didn´t have the faith to do it. Then eventually I just relied on the LITTLE faith that I had and just did it. And for that my faith grew more and I didn´t see the blessings right away but now I understand why I was supposed to do that. It was really special and She shared some stories with us too. We talked about a lot of things. Overall it was just a really good lesson.

 

Training is going good. I actually am really grateful for this time to train, it is definitely a lot more stress but I am learning how much stronger I am than I think. The Lord truly is carrying me through. Noemi has a baptism date for November 16! She is so great and I am really excited for her. So we are going to do all we can to prepare her for her baptism. Yesterday was stake conference and Elder Calderon of the Seventy was there along with the President of the Cochabamba Temple and Presidente Willard. It was really great! And... we had 4 investigators there! Noemi, Demetria and her 2 sisters (Adela and Aleida). It was really great and I was so happy! Demetria and her sisters were an hour late and we were waiting in the hall for them the whole first hour. I was stressing hardcore that they weren´t going to come and sad that they were missing the talks of Presidente Willard and Temple President. And once again, like always, I cried (the whole time I was just thinking please don´t cry please don´t cry). I truly stress for these people. But they came and I am happy.

 

A miracle of this week. Not my miracle but it was really special. There is a member in our ward that her husband isn´t a member and the missionaries have been teaching him for the past 8 years. Well yesterday at conference he said he wanted to get baptized and the Temple President baptized him and Pres. Calderon and Pres. Willard were all there for his baptism. The baptism of the century, yeah? The baptism was so incredibly special and spiritual. The wife bore her testimony and I was crying pretty hard, and everyone else tambien. I can´t even imagine how hard that would be for her for so long her husband not wanting to get baptized for so long. She is so incredibly strong. I get sad when the people don´t want to listen to us or they don´t go to church.. so I can´t even imagine how much more sad I would be if it were my husband. So that was an experience really special in the mission. Mom, I think that if you were on a mission you would cry a ton. haha Cause I never really thought I cried that much before but now I am always crying. I love that I can feel the spirit so much here! Best feeling in the world.

 

So I thought more of what I want for chirstmas. New clothes. I already hate all my clothes here and I still have a year left. haha You can just buy a skirt or so from DI I don´t even care, just something new. Also, a USB so I can get pictures from other missionaries.

 

The only thing I want when I finish the mission and go home is a pedicure (my feet are disgusting). and new clothes, and your car. That isn´t too much to ask, no?

 

The mission is great and I am so happy. I love the experiences I have and the things that I learn and the people that I meet. It is great too cause when I first got here I felt like I couldn´t show my personality much because I didn´t know how to talk very well. But now I feel like I can actually be myself and talk. God loves me!

 

Thanks for everything! I love you a ton! I am so grateful for my family. You guys are the best. I always miss you and I know you always miss me... because how could you not? Hasta luego!

 

Hermana Wursten

 

The Libro de Mormon that we gave Noemi with Chocolate for her birthday. 

 We had Zone Conference this week too and that was really great like always! I always learn so much. All the Hermanas.

 

I still got style.. at least I am trying to have style still. 

The fish that we ate today.