October 13, 2014
These first couple days have been really difficult but
everything is going pretty well. My companion doesn`t speak any english which makes it really hard to communicate about everything. Most of the time, I have no clue what’s going on. There is only one person in my entire zone that speaks english and he only wants me to speak spanish, plus I only see him once a week. It is super hot here. None of the houses have air conditioning and most dont have windows, just holes in the walls. I feel like I am in a constant state of sweat, but I’ve gotten used to it. The key is drinking a gallon a day and always having a fan and a little towel. It works pretty well. Our shower only has one temperature, but luckily its super cold. I never thought i would appreciate a cold shower so much. My mission president is awesome! He is one of the kindest guys I have ever met. My companions name is Elder Aramayo, he is from Bolivia and really likes telling jokes that I pretend to understand. Last night, we had a five minute english session. By the end, we were both laughing cause we had no clue what the other person was saying. Bolivian Spanish is really hard to understand. They mumble a lot and drop all of their s’s. When I talk to a peruvian elder in my zone, I understand almost everything. But whenever I try to talk to a Boliviano or my companion its really hard to understand what they’re saying. My companion and I are the only people living at our apartment. It’s really nice and big. It has two bathrooms which is practically unheard of here in Bolivia.
My first area is in Riboralta. Its a small city, or large village depending on how you look at it, in the very north of Beni. It's in the jungle and is the only city to have red dust and dirt everywhere.
Nobody here can afford to drive cars, but everybody drives motorcycles. Everybody drives a motorcycle, whether you’re 8 or 98. There are literally about 10 cars and 500 motorcycles. Its crazy! We ride on these things called moto-taxis. Its super fun! Its usually pretty safe too, unless the light turns green without the other one turning red which has happened a few times. It usually just ends up in a lot of honking and yelling though. We flew in on a small plane on Saturday. It was basically a really hot roller coaster without any air conditioning. I was dying by the end. The airport was just a runway with a control hut. It was an interesting experience. For the first couple days in Bolivia, we just kind of sat around, studied and filled out paperwork and medical forms for immagracions. It was kind of boring. But now we’re in the work and it’s going by super fast. Unfortunately, we couldn’t leave our casas yesterday cause it was the day that every bolivian voted for a new president. At night
there were a ton of celebrations. We’ve only been able to teach one lesson so far. They asked me a ton of questions about Utah but I didn’t understand hardly any of them. But luckily we get to teach two
more lessons tonight and I feel like these ones will go better. That picture of Lumber was super cute by the way. Every dog down here reminds me Lumber and I feel super bad for them. But there’s still no way I would ever touch one. They are pretty mean and gross. I don’t need any stain remover by the way, but the tide pen would still be nice. Also I need a little package of blue tac and little mirror. Apparently they don’t believe in mirrors down here in Bolivial.
My first area is in Riboralta. Its a small city, or large village depending on how you look at it, in the very north of Beni. It's in the jungle and is the only city to have red dust and dirt everywhere.
Nobody here can afford to drive cars, but everybody drives motorcycles. Everybody drives a motorcycle, whether you’re 8 or 98. There are literally about 10 cars and 500 motorcycles. Its crazy! We ride on these things called moto-taxis. Its super fun! Its usually pretty safe too, unless the light turns green without the other one turning red which has happened a few times. It usually just ends up in a lot of honking and yelling though. We flew in on a small plane on Saturday. It was basically a really hot roller coaster without any air conditioning. I was dying by the end. The airport was just a runway with a control hut. It was an interesting experience. For the first couple days in Bolivia, we just kind of sat around, studied and filled out paperwork and medical forms for immagracions. It was kind of boring. But now we’re in the work and it’s going by super fast. Unfortunately, we couldn’t leave our casas yesterday cause it was the day that every bolivian voted for a new president. At night
there were a ton of celebrations. We’ve only been able to teach one lesson so far. They asked me a ton of questions about Utah but I didn’t understand hardly any of them. But luckily we get to teach two
more lessons tonight and I feel like these ones will go better. That picture of Lumber was super cute by the way. Every dog down here reminds me Lumber and I feel super bad for them. But there’s still no way I would ever touch one. They are pretty mean and gross. I don’t need any stain remover by the way, but the tide pen would still be nice. Also I need a little package of blue tac and little mirror. Apparently they don’t believe in mirrors down here in Bolivial.
I love you and think of you hourly!!!!
Love, Elder Bell
Love, Elder Bell
October 20, 2014
I can't
print emails right now but I may be able to find a way in the future. It sounds
like everything is going great at home which makes me super super happy. I
can't even explain to you how much I have misssed you and the rest of the
family during this first week. All of our work this week has been with less
active families. We've only been able to teach one investigator. There are 300
members in Riberalta but only 60 of them are active. I am so grateful I have
such an amazing, strong in the gospel family.
I taught a
lesson this week to a family that's really struggling. They are really poor and
their kids are super overwhelming. I was able to testify with power about how
the gospel blesses families. The children stopped crying and the spirit was so
strong. I know I wouldn't have been able to do it without your love and amazing
example.
I fasted
yesterday and it was the first time that fasting was really hard for me. I was
so dehydrated that I even stopped sweating for the first time. By the end of
the 24 hours I literally had no power left, I could barely walk. But the spirit
ever since has been so strong. Every lesson has had the spirit and I'm learning
Spanish faster than ever. If you could also ask dad how he learned Spanish
Vocabulary and remembered all of it that would be great. I feel like a lot of
times I memorize something and then forget it.
I gave a
talk in church yesterday. It was only a little 10 minute one. It went super
well. I wasn't nervous at all because there were only about 35 people in the
congregation. I'm hoping that I can change that. It reminded me of one of those
wards we visited on our trips to mexico. Once again thinking of you.
The people
here love to talk. Each lesson or visit takes at least 50 minutes and we do
only about 30% of the talking. I'm really hoping that I can learn how to
control the lessons a little better. Overall the experiences and love for the
people I have gained so far have been incredible. At the begginning of my
mission I didn't know how I was gonna have fun for two years working every day,
but I now I understand that it's through the work, love, service and spirit
that you get all your joy.
I no longer
need a mirror but I do need 2 mesh medium crew neck garment tops and 2 mesh
garment shorts medium short. The only place you can get garments in Bolivia is
at the Cochabamba temple which sadly I won't be going to.
I love and
miss you guys so so much and more and more every week.
Elder Bell
October 27, 2014
It would be
better if they were all in one message but this is alright too. Summerisa's
package never got there but you gave me the letters and that was the important
thing. Sadly I can't find a chord to connect my pictures to the computer with.
Maybe you could try sending one. It just needs to be able to connect an sd card
to the computer. I don't think they put pictures on the blog of missionaries
that aren't in Santa Cruz cause there's no way to get them.
We played
soccer this week and it was super fun! Elder Escobar picked me first because he
saw me play at the CCM. All the Latinos thought that he was crazy and definitely
underestimated me. After I scored the first three goals they said that I
tricked them. "You're not a white north American, You're Latino!" It
was pretty funny!The beginning of this week was really hard. We had a day that
we didn't teach anybody. All of our appointments fell through and nobody would
listen to us when we contacted. It was the first time a door had been slammed
in my face. The week before everybody let us in. Now I see what contacting is
usually like. Right after that, My companion got super sick and had to go to
the hospital. He sat in the casa for 2 days. Luckily one of those days was my
day to go on splits with the zone leaders. Luckily it was the other guy in our
zone that speaks English. It was super nice to finally get all my questions
about the mission answered in a way that I completely understood! I got food
poisoning one day but was able to work through. Luckily it wasn't to bad.
The food
here was really good at first. But now it's chicken, rice and coca cola every
single meal. We eat lunch and dinner with the members. I swear eating this much
of the same thing has got to be bad for you especially with how much coke goes
with it.
We're
starting to teach a guy that I'm really excited about. The first things he said
to us were about how he really wanted to change and come unto Christ. I'm
really excited to work with him! So far we've had two lessons with him that
have both been really spiritual. When I get down, teaching him always makes me
feel better. The only problem is that he can't read which makes working with the
scriptures hard because he can't read them by himself. One of our progressing
investigators moved away this week which was hard because he was really close
to baptism but luckily he's moving into a great zone of missionaries. There are
so many families here. Every single one of our lessons besides one or two has
been to and about families. I know that I was sent here to testify about how
the gospel blesses families. Every time I do, I can't help but think about our
family. I couldn't have gotten a better family!!
We had 72
people at sacrament meeting yesterday which was super good to see. One less
active father agreed to go teaching with us and you could tell he felt the
spirit. He bore his testimony twice in everyone of our lessons without even
being asked. I don't think his family will be inactive every again!
My computer
just turned off twice and now I'm almost out of time. Love you!!!!!
Elder Bell
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