4.28.14

Hola familia!

This week was our best week here in this area :) we were able to find
new people to teach that actually have potential and we were able to
teach more lessons! That always feels great. But we still have a ton
to do and more people to find. The only bad thing is that no one came
to church except for a less active and her son. We were pretty bummed
about that. I honestly think that going to church is the hardest thing
for the investigators to do. I was in a bad mood for a little bit
(partly because I barely slept the night before because our neighbors
had music playing super loud until 4am and my comp forgot her plaque
and we had to go home and get it and because no one came to church.
hard life I live.). And then in Gospel Principles the teacher didn´t
show up so I ended up teaching the class and the topic was on the
priesthood. aha but it went fine. It made me even more grateful for
the power of the priesthood on the earth today.

Something that I have realized in the mission is that we are just
instruments in the hands of God. We have a golden investigator (Nancy)
and I realize that I have nothing to do with her true conversion and
that it is all God just working through me and through her. It´s
pretty humbling cause sometimes I think we all deep down want the
credit of the baptisms that we have but really all the credit goes to
our Heavenly Father cause He does it all and He truly is preparing
people to receive his Gospel. Nancy is so perfect. She wasn´t able to
go to church yesterday because she didn´t feel good at all. We visited
her after and she told us she was super sad she couldn´t go and kept
apologizing. Also, the other day we had an appt with her at 5pm and
when we were on our way her daughter called us an said hermanas you
had an appt with my Mom today at 4pm and you haven´t showed up and she
has been waiting for you. We told her at 5 was the appt and that we
were on our way. When we got there Nancy told us that she was super
excited all day and was super sad when we didn´t come at 4 and thought
we weren´t going to come. It was so sweet! I just wanted to give her a
big fat hug.

I love this Gospel more and more everyday. It hurts my heart to see
people just deny this Gospel and not want anything to do with it.
Especially with the people that have accepted the Gospel here in this
life and have fallen away. I often think back to the premortal life
and how these people accepted this plan and I know they had this
desire to return to God and live this Gospel, they have just
forgotten. I want to help remind them.. but also I have to respect the
agency of people.. and sometimes that is super hard. If everyone just
did what I wanted them to do,  the world would be perfect.  :)

I love Santa Cruz. The culture is so different here. The other day we
were teaching a lesson and there was just a parrot sitting on my
shoulder as we sang and prayed and what not. Yesterday when we were
walking there was Bolivian music playing in the street and I got a
little sensitive thinking about how I will be home before I know it and
that I won´t be able to hear the music and live the culture of
Bolivia. How Crazy that the Florence kid is coming here! He is going
to love Bolivia.

Well  I think that is about it. You never answered my question when I
asked how is Grandpa.

I miss you all a ton! I love seeing all the pics you send me but it
makes  me  a little jealous that you are all having fun without me.
Give hugs and kisses to all the nieces and nephews for me! Love you so
much!

Hermana Wursten

4.21.14

Hey Family!

But this week was fine. Just working hard and trying to keep a
positive attitude. This week started out super great and we found a
golden family they accepted baptism and then we returned a couple days
later and they didn't seem too interested. But we have an appt with
them this week and have the faith that they will progress and be
baptized.

But we did find a golden invesigator! Her name is Nancy. She is family
of our Bishop and has cancer. She has known about the church for a
long time but has never wanted anything to do with it. But now she is
super interested! We invited her to baptism for May 10th and she said
yes and later she told us "Dont worry I am going to get baptized, I
know it." That was super great to hear. It is so true that God is
preparing people to recieve his Gospel, we just have to find these
people.

The other day it was raining so hard and we were just walking in
pure mud and puddles. Some places in my area are just like a swamp.
And to make it even better a ton of our appts fell through. the
sacrifices we make for God. But I know it is all worth it.

Thanks so much Gin and Jason for the package! I loved it! I am
currently eating the starbursts that you sent me. rico! I got 2
pckages that day so I felt pretty popular. One from you guys and the
other from shealeigh (the best friend ever and one of the only friends
that still hasnt forgotten about me.. the mission is sad social wise).

How is Grandpa?

Easter here was just  normal missionary day. But I felt the spirit
super strong in Sacrament Meeting. I felt the love of the Savior super
strong and I felt super grateful for his sacrifice and love for me.
Jesus is seriously everything for us.

I wish I had more to write but I am going to end it here. I love you
all so much! I hope you enjoy the rest of your time with Aunt Tonya :)
I'm sad I can't be there!

Hermana Wursten

t rained the other day. I think if California had one day of the
rain that they have here there would never be a drought.

Paltas grandes!  Avocado is so big here, its awesome. And the
members and what not give us avocado like no other because they jsut
have trees and tress of it. I hope you are jealous.

4.14.14

Hola familia!

I love hearing about what is going on back home. Be sure not to have
too much fun without me.. even though that is impossible.

this week was another week lessons wise but I really learned a ton.
The mission is stressful because its not just work that you do but the
LORDS WORK. And that stresses me out when I feel like I'm not doing
very well. Something I am trying to do better is just really trust in
the spirit and let it influence me in every moment. And that is
actually pretty hard, learning to be able to recognize how to hear it
and know if it is just your thoughts or the spirit. But I figure if
you are doing everything right. the spirit guides you in your
thoughts. So I hope by the end of my mission I will be a pro at that.

We were able to have zone conference this week and another day a
conference for just the hermanas. It was super great! I always learn a
ton and leave with so much more excitement and motivation to just work
and be spiritual. I always feel like I fall short in so many things
here and that I can be a better missionary. I feel like I am so hard
on myself here cause I want so badly to impress God.


Here in the mission my testimony had grown a TON. Especially in the
Book of Mormon. I am convinced that if every member had a solid
testimony in the Book of Mormon and read it everyday they won{t go
inactive. 

Sunday was pretty sad for us. No one came to church :( But we have the
faith that this Sunday will be better. We are trying to visit the
members and get to know them a little better and ask for referrals
and so far it is going pretty good. This week is going to be a ton
better!

I don{t really have much else to write. I love you all a ton and
thanks for your love and support! Tell Gin I got their package, like
just before the Zone leaders gave it to me so I still haven{t opened
it. But thanks so much! I love getting packages!

The Gospel is true and read the Book of Mormon and pray everyday.

Hermana Wursten

p.s. YES the people CANNOT say my name here. It is actually pretty
funny. So they just say hermana misionera (sister missionary) most of
the time.

After conference, all the sister missionaries that were there.

conference with all the gringos!

Keepin it pretty like always

We went bowling last Monday... and I sucked. Bowling is only fun
with music and we cant have that here... obviously.

One of the less actives we are visiting. She came to conference.
her name is Grecia.

My comp, me and Elder Jacoby

4.7.14

Hola Familia!

So this week was good but a little rough too. First off, it is so
extremely hot here. Like I never feel clean and my face is constantly
just like wet with sweat. Humidity is the worst. And yes, there are a
ton of bugs here. like seriously. But I still am loving Santa Cruz. I
just think it would be better if I didn't have to wear a bra.

So yes we were able to see conference. All of the sessions. We always
go to the stake center and watch it there. Mom, Bolivia is a lot
different than the US, members don´t watch conference at their houses
cause they don´t have the channel. Technology is way behind here. So
all the members go to the stake center. But I LOVED conference! I was
sad when it finished. We were able to have investigators go to the
Saturday morning session and to the Sunday afternoon session and we
even had less actives there too! It was a miracle. I really enjoyed
the talk by Elder Uchtdorf and Jeffrey R Holland and Richard G Scott.
Well, I loved them all! I was able to see almost all of the sessions
in English. I can understand Spanish and what not but it is always
better to hear conference in your own language and to be able to hear
the actual voices of the people speaking.


So we weren´t able to have a ton of lessons this week cause we are
walking around lost half the time trying to know our area. But I
really feel like this week coming up is going to be great! We were
able to receive some good referrals and we have a lot of appts set up.
and we have been able to find some great less actives. This keyboard
bugs me so I won´t be going into too much detail of this week. Silvia,
the investigator we found that is an alcoholic we haven´t been able to
teach her this week cause she was never home. UGH that always happens,
when we find the perfect people and then they just flake out and lose
interest. But her son told us that she still wants us to visit her. So
we will see.

The other day we were teaching this lady and her cat died during our
lesson. It was like having a seizure and I said, ¨"is your cat ok?"
and she was like "oh it´s just dying cause it ate a chicken" and then
we just watched it die. It was seriously so weird. The people here are
just so casual about everything. I will never forget Bolivia.

Oh and Mom, Elder Jacoby is in my zone! haha He is in some of the
pictures I am going to send so you can show them to his brother.

There isn´t really much more to write. yes we still walk everywhere,
all my mission will be like that. Sometimes I just want a bike.

Love you all so much! thanks so much for raising me in the Gospel. It
has been the biggest blessing of all my life.

Hermana Wursten

At the house of the F. Cadima

Linder, our golden investigator in Tarija

The F. Arias.

If you can´t tell it was rainy this day and I was soaked.

The day I left Tarija, with my 2 daughters and my granddaughter

My good welcome to Santa Cruz. that is my bed. Don´t worry it is
now fixed. But I slept like that for 2 days

 me and Hna Duran

There is a monkey in a our area that just goes from house to house.
He is so cute!

The monkey drinking soda

the monkey playing with a dog

3.31.14

Hola familia!

So do you want to know the transfers?

I think you can just wait until next week.

This week was good.We were able to work hard and what not.

Oh, and I got transferred. To Santa Cruz! I am training again. I was
sad to leave Tarija but surprisingly I didn´t cry. One of our
investigators came to airport to say bye and she cried.  I felt
good about transfers. I was definitely sad but change is always good.
I am in La Pampa. So far things are going good! We are opening area
here. There were Elders here first but I´m not really sure what they
did here cause there isn´t much evidence of work. But who knows maybe
I just don´t know. We are in the house where they lived and it is a
nice house but it is TRASHED. Like seriously. There was soda bottles
everywhere and just trash. I don´t know how they lived. There were 2
companionships that lived here. So our house is pretty big for just
the 2 of us. So we have to look for another house. We live like right
next to the chapel so that is good.

My companion is Hermana Duran. She is from Nicaragua and is 21 years
old. This is my second companion from Central America. She is great!
She was in Nicaragua for like 2 months serving there waiting for her
Visa. It is weird being with someone that was in a different mission
cause they do things differently but we get along fine. She had a
super bad experience with her trainer in her country (I guess she was
super mean), so how lucky that she gets to be with a trainer super
nice and pretty? jk I am trying to be a really good trainer and just
love her so she doesn´t have to go through a bad experience again.

So this week we have mainly just been trying to find people to teach
and know the area better. But we have already seen miracles! It was
funny the elders just dropped us off at our house and then left. They
barely gave us any details of our area or anything. So we walked
blindly the first couple of days. But we were able to find members and
go out with them a little and meet less actives and what not. So that
was good! There are a TON of less actives here! The Bishop and a lot
of members have told us "You guys have a lot of work to do here" so we
are ready and willing! I love working with less actives so I am
definitely OK with it. It´s sad though cause a lot of the Less actives
have joined other churches. I seriously don´t get it. How you can be
in the true church and then just go to another church that isn´t true?
It´s so weird to me. But one of the miracles that we had was that
there was a less active that came to church yesterday when we had only
had one lesson with here. And she had told us that she wasn´t going to
come to church but then she just came! We were super happy.

Another miracle. Our first night here we talked with a drunk lady
outside of her house (the funny thing is that she kept saying the same
thing over and over and at the end told us that she loved us.) but I
asked her if she wanted to quit drinking and she said yes. So we said
we were going to come over another day when she wasn´t drunk.
Yesterday after church she was outside (sober) of her house and we
talked to her and she didn´t remember us (go figure) but we were able
to enter and talk with her. She told us how she has tried to quit
drinking so many times but can´t do it and how she has gone through
some pretty hard things in her life. I felt so much love for her. We
told her that we know she can quit and start over with her life and we
invited her to baptism and she said yes. Today we are going to visit
with her and make goals and plans to help her quit drinking.

In sacrament meeting I  was thinking about all the people that I have
known here and I felt so much love. I was thinking about how we meet
people and just after 30 seconds of knowing them I already love them
and just want to help them. And it´s people that we see their
imperfections and weaknesses but we just love them even more. I
imagine that is how God is with us. We are so imperfect but he just
loves us more and more everyday and wants to help. I have so much
confidence in this Gospel that we can have a better life if we just
live it. And that we can get receive comfort in the hard times. I love
the mission.

I´m really enjoying Santa Cruz. I was scared to come here but it´s
great. I feel like there should be a beach here... I feel like I am in
a city where there is a beach. But there aren´t beaches here. It´s
humid... but it´s been raining the past couple of days so the weather
is pretty good.  We have the goal to baptize 4 families and rescue 4
families this transfer. So we are working hard and having the faith. I
feel good about this transfer. So please pray for us and the people we
are teaching and also that we can find the people that God is
preparing for us.. and especially the families that he is preparing!

I love you all a ton! Chrissy I hope you had a great birthday! I
always remember Birthdays when it is the day but then I always forget
to say something in my emails so sorry about that. I hope everything
is going great and keep strong in the Gospel. Never stop reading the
Book of Mormon, praying and going to church.

Hermana Wursten

3.24.14

Hola Familia!

How are you guys? Sounds like things are going good back home. Love
you all a ton!

This week was good! We found the perfect investigator. His name is
Linder and I LOVE HIM (not in a romantic way but in the way that
missionaries love their investigators). He is 30 years old and is
super humble. He wants to change so bad and is reading in the Book of
Mormon and everything. The first lesson with him at the end we had him
pray and he had never prayed like we pray before and after I asked him
how he felt and he said, "I´m shaking!" It was so sweet. But he wasn´t
able to go to church this week cause he ended up having to work, but
he told us that for sure he is going to go to church next week and
that he felt super bad that he wasn´t able to go this week. I´m so
excited for him to be able to change and receive so many blessings
from this Gospel. Also, another miracle. So Monday we passed by to
visit him for the first time just to set up an appt but he invited us
in. BUT we didn´t have another sister with us so we told him we would
come back in 5 minutes. At that moment Litzie (f. Cadima) came into my
head so we called her to see if she could accompany us and she said
yes! So we were able to teach him and it was a miracle! And it was
cool cause Litzie was able to bear her testimony and stuff too.

The crappy thing about this week is that I have been a little sick.
Just a cough and stuffy nose. The other day my voice was so raspy and
ugly. In one of the lessons I made Hna Contreras talk almost the whole
time cause I hated hearing myself (she understood).

Lately we have been finding people that can´t read. There is a less
active that we are visiting and she can´t read so we are going to
visit her often and read the Book of Mormon to her.

This week Elder C. Scott Grow came to Tarija! He is a seventy. It went
really well and I learned a ton! The embarrassing thing is that when
he asked where I was from I said Sacramento, Utah. I have no idea what
I was thinking. Saturday we had a conference with him and all the
missionaries and President Willard almost the whole day. and then
Sunday he had a training thing with all of the ward counsels. And
members that wanted to go. It went really well and I think that ward
counsel will be a lot better and that we will be able to work together
more with the members. I´m so excited that Dad is ward mission leader!

I was able to finish the book of Mormon in Spanish today for the second time! :)

The thing I really learned from Elder Grow is Faith. I feel like that
is something I always talk about in my emails but it is something that
I am STILL learning. I am going to copy and paste what I wrote to
President so I don´t have to write it all over again.

"I feel like I always talk about Faith in my emails and here I go
again talking more about it. I think if I don´t learn anything else in
my mission the one thing I will have really gotten out of my mission
is the concept of Faith. It´s something really hard for me. Elder Grow
was talking about how we need to have the faith to be able to really
see success and things like that and I was thinking HOW can I have
this faith? Because I would absolutely love to be able to baptize more
and see success. So in my study the next day I was studying with the
question how can I strengthen my faith? I think I was able to find my
answer as I read in Moroni. I realized that I need to understand Jesus
more. I feel like that is something that I haven´t really tried to do
much in my life and I think that is a really bad thing. So I am
repenting of that and learning more about Christ and I have already
felt a difference. You´d think I would have realized the importance of
that before, right? Sometimes I don´t think. But something that I have
learned is that to have this strong faith sufficient isn´t easy. It´s
something you have to work at. Like it says in the scriptures. Faith
can move mountains, and I imagine that moving a mountain isn´t easy so
obviously to have the faith isn´t going to be super easy either. But
it´s possible. And I think that deep down everyone has faith, they
just have to build that faith. So that is my ramble on Faith. and I´m
sure throughout the rest of my mission you are going to end up hearing
more. Sorry about that. "

I have learned a ton in the mission. I remember one of the main
reasons I wanted to go on a mission, aside from the fact that I didn´t
know what to do with my life (which is OK for people to go on a
mission for that reason because going on a mission is never a bad
thing and is only going to help.) but that I wanted to learn and grow
spiritually. And that has definitely happened. But I am not here just
for myself, but to dedicate all of my time and efforts to the Lord and
his lost children. I´m so grateful for this experience and I never
expected to learn as much as I have here.

The church is so TRUE! And we should never blame the church for our
problems or ditch the church because we have problems. That is only
going to make things worse in our lives. So if you want to be even
more miserable, leave the church. Don´t be dumb people. Trust in God
and accept the fact that bad things happen in life and that is just
part of our progression and a test of our faith. And that a lot of the
time the problems we have in life are OUR fault! I love this Gospel so
much. I love you all so much and pray for you always. Keep strong.

Hermana Wursten

I love Tarija!

these dogs follow us everyday. It is super annoying. They follow us
to our house at the end of the day and whine. But by the morning they
are gone. Except for this morning one of them was still outside waiting
for us.

 Our zone!

We had intercambios and this is the pillow of one of the hermanas.
We thought it was pretty funny. It says pleasant goat.

Sleep over (pijamada!)! These hermanas are in Bermejo but came ot
Tarija to go to the Doctor and stayed the night with us. our house is
the sister missionary hotel.

Every sunday all the missionaries in our ward eat at the house of
this one member family and it´s always really fun. Here is a pic. the
sister was there but I think she was in the Bathroom at this point.

3.17.14

HI!

Como estan? Los extraño mucho pero estoy feliz aca en la misión!

So Chrissy is living at home now? Just for a little while? Does she
still have the house in Hawaii? I´m glad you miss me, Mom. I miss you
too. I´m super excited that you and Dad are going to come pick me up
from the mission here in Bolivia!

This week was good! One miracle that we were able to see is that we
had more members with us. It´s really hard to go out with the members
cause they all have their things to do and families and kids and what
not. We always have the same members that go out with us but this week
we were able to have other members too so what was super great. I am
jealous of the missionaries there that they have so many members
willing to help them out and especially Dad helping them out so much.
Jealous! I am always going to help out the missionaries when I get
back. And I want a calling in the Spanish Branch.

So we were only able to have 1 investigator in church yesterday but
it´s a ton better than the 0 that we have had for like 3 weeks! I
don´t know what is going on with that, our investigators just don´t
want to go to church. It is frustrating. But we are trying to think of
ways to help them have a desire to go to church. Milton went to
church. He is from the couple that we taught a while ago and they had
a baptism date but then it was super hard to be able to teach them
cause they were never home or were busy. And he and his wife (Blanca)
have a ton of problems. We have been able to teach him more this past
week and he came to Sacrament Meeting, but left after cause he has
diabetes and has to eat( we are figuring out how we can help him stay
all of church.. I think that we are going to bring food for him.
haha). we gave him a book of mormon and he is reading it so that is
great! I know that as he reads it his life will change and he will be
able to better his relationship with his wife. He has gone through
some pretty hard stuff so I think he has a lot of anger built up. I
know everyone can change by this Gospel, if they would actually just
live it! Why don´t people get it sometimes? Sometimes I wish everyone
was as smart and spiritual as I am. JK

I was able to have intercambios with Hna Choque this week in my old
area! It was weird being in my old area but it was cool, too. But I am
super happy where I am at right now. We have transfers in a week and I
am almost positive that I am going to Santa Cruz. I am scared.

The familia Arias didn´t come to church :( We were really bummed about
that. We have a family night with them and a member family this week,
too and we talked about the Sabbath day. We are visiting them today
and we are going to see whad up wit dem (I don´t know why I just
thought it was really funny to write like that) and why they are
flaking out on us Sundays.

Litsie, part of the Cadima Familiy got a calling yesterday so we are
super excited for her! We visited them last night and it was a great
lesson and we can see that they are progressing.

Currently I am suffering from sickness right now. I have a sore throat
and a stuffy nose. And this happens when I am actually trying to eat
healthier and do better exercise. But it´s fine, I can still function.
Hna Contreras and I are running every other morning and I feel a lot
better about myself, even if I am not losing weight and am still fat
and zitty.

I love you all so much and I hope everything is going great with
everyone back home! The church is true and so is the Book of Mormon.
Read it.

Hermana Wursten

Me and my pensionista after eating... we were full. She is super fun,
but super hard to get to go to church. She is inactive. but we are
working with her and I know she will go back.

3.9.14

Hola familia!
> Long time no talk, huh? I can´t even remember everything that has
> happened in the past 2 weeks so I will try my best to give you a good
> summary.
>
> Well first off, Ashley got baptized. It was a great baptism, aside
> from the fact that the water was freezing, poor thing. I don´t know
> why but our Bishop is against warm water. But the Elders in our ward
> had a baptism the following week and the water was warm. What the
> heck? But it was a great baptism, we sang the primary song, “ I like
> to look for rainbows whenever there is rain” I can´t remember the name
> of it. Hna Contreras told me that some of the members were crying when
> we sang. The effect of angelical voices  there were a good amount of
> members there too so I think they were able to feel support from them.
> We have had a baptism almost every week in our ward. I love going to
> baptisms. The missionaries always participate. We either sing a song
> or share a message. I always feel touched by the spirit to think how
> these people are completely clean and are starting a new life. It´s
> special to think about that.
>
> So Carnaval we hung out inside all day. Sunday we went to Sacrament
> meeting and after straight back home. We just studied, ate, and
> watched videos all the 3 days that we were in the house. Oh and we
> cleaned the house like no other. It was nice to rest and what not for
> 3 days but I was ready to get out and work again. The first day I took
> a nap, but ended up that I couldn´t fall asleep and after had the
> worst headache and felt like I was going to throw up. I´m guessing God
> doesn´t want me to take naps. The cool thing too is that I didn´t
> shower, wear make up, or wear a bra for 3 days straight. Keepin it
> sexy.
>  But it was a good time and we were able to study and learn a lot.
>
> This week was more difficult. We are losing a lot of investigators,
> either because they don´t want to hear us anymore or that we are
> deciding not to visit them anymore because they aren´t progressing or
> always flaking out on us. We know that we can use our time finding
> people that are actually going to accept this Gospel. We are teaching
> a family right now, the familia Arias. They are super great. they have
> 22 years together and ARE NOT MARRIED. that is so crazy to me. We
> invited them to talk about marriage and set a date and said that they
> have nothing really to think about cause yeah they have 22 years and 5
> kids. Their main challenge is that they don´t want to go to church. SO
> tonight we are going to have a family night with them and a member
> family and talk about the Sabbath Day. We are excited.
> Yesterday the church had a broadcast from Salt Lake exclusively for
> Bolivia. I felt special and I´m sure the members felt even more
> special. They talked a ton about the temple in Cochabamba and what
> not. How sad that we can´t go to the temple here. Sister Reeves talked
> too, Mom. How interesting that you were just with her too. She talked
> in Spanish, and I think I can safely say that my Spanish is better
> than hers and also than Elder Russell Nelson. Sorry, that was a bit
> prideful. But it was a great broadcast 
> The other day we found out that one of our investigators died. We felt
> really sad, but especially for her family. We have an appointment with
> them today and are going to talk about the Plan of Salvation and how
> families can be eternal. A member that lost her mom 3 years ago is
> going to accompany us so I think it will be a great lesson.
>
> It´s hard to remember everything that happens in the week and
> especially in 2 weeks but I think that I have written all the most
> important stuff. I love you all so much and I am super excited for Dad
> to be Ward Mission Leader! He is going to do so great. I wish Dad was
> our ward mission leader here (but our mission leader is great, too).
> Watch the videos of hastening the Work! It is super good and a good
> way to get pumped about mission work. Love you!!!

Hermana Wursten

In intercambios with Hermana Solano.

the baptism of Ana.

Face masks! Thanks to Chrissy :)

The baptism of Ashley! :)

They added something else on top of the world so now it is even more tacky.

 keepin it ugly.

9 months in the mission! It is tradition to take a pregnant photo.
My knees don´t show in this skirt, it´s just that I hiked it up to
help with the look of pregnancy.

3 days without washing my hair.

 pijamada! Hna Solano and Thorley had to stay the night with us last
night because there was a huge party thing going on outside of their
house. It was fun.