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