Family
Well it sounds like a missed a fun family camp. That's OK I will be there next year for the next one and it will be 10 times better because I am there (I am my fathers daughter). This week was good, a bit uneventful. First off dad you will be proud of me I found out my address for you. It is in the street Ingavi. It is house number 152. Yep that is my address. We live with a gillion families. Lets see as you know this is my comps last week as a missionary here in Potosi. She will leave to Cochabamba on Sunday to have a farewell shindig with the president. I don't know what the plans are for me but I am 99.9 percent sure I will just work with Hermana Sullon and Hermana Madrid until my new comp gets here. My comp and I have a bet, she says that I will be a trainer again and I tell her no it will be a North American from Cochabamba because they are due for a transfer. We have a packet of oreos riding on this bet. Now you might ask if she goes to cocha how in the world will I get my oreos (no worries I am right). The beauty of it is that is she is returning to Potosi after a week so how lucky am I. My favorite candy here is I don't remember the names but it is a fruit candy that has lime, orange, cherry and banana flavors. Also I love the wafers they have here, when I eat them I feel like I am in the nursery again. Patricia is doing great. We talked to her to see what was going on, talked about the gospel and have a new date for baptism. She came to church by herself yesterday brought her daughter and her brother. The brother was a surprise. We talked to him once and he didn't seem interested but hey he came to church, maybe it is a sign. We have a Family home evening in a members house tonight. Hopefully that will go good. We are also teaching Madelens family. They have started listening and her younger siblings have a date for the10th of August. They have attended church since we have started teaching them. Then we have another kid we are teaching who's sister is also a member. He is 11 years old and is a hoot. We taught him the 10 commandments yesterday and when we asked a question he would have a whole story about something random and then the answer. I was just laughing the whole time. I love this area, hopefully I am here for at least one more transfer (this transfer doesn't count because I am here no matter what). It is getting warmer now actually, well a bit warmer. This past week was freezing, though everyone has been on winter vacation since the first of the month because this month is the coldest. Well it was extended for one more week because it is supposed to be colder. It wouldn't be as cold if the wind wouldn't blow. They say the wind is the worst in August. I think I told Hadlee this but sometimes I feel like Marilyn Monroe trying to keep my skirts down. I gave a talk in church yesterday, this time the Bishop asked me the day before after we finished eating lunch with his family. It was on how the Young Women's Program helped me prepare for a mission. First he asked my comp but she told him no and said Hermana Nielsen can. It makes sense though since she was never in the YW program. Though she now gets to talk this week on the Relief Society and missionary work. Life here in Bolivia is good. I think the Elders are a little sad because we aren't allowed to play soccer anymore. An Elder who came in my group was sent home because he hurt his knee really bad while playing soccer. Other than that nothing much right now has changed but I am sure a lot will change. Presidet Tenorio was very forgiving. Well I don't know what else to write so remember the Church is true and the Lord loves you.
Jenna
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
HOLA
Hello my family,
First thanks for the package. The shirts and deodorant are awesome. Oh and the birthday cards. I especially felt loved by Cade when he said he missed me and wanted me to come home now. Lets see first off with the questions like always. The birds I see here are Pigeons. I did see a parrot at a members house. That is about all I see, nothing to exciting. Oh I saw my first butterfly and spider the other day since I have been here. Potosi is good. The people here are very relaxed. Some have a very hard life and some are just making it by. Then you also have the people who do have money. For the culture down here yes the children are taken care of. Sometimes we will knock on a door a kid will come. We will ask how old he/she is and they will say from a range of 5 to 10. we ask if their parents are home and they are not. They are working at this time and will not be home until about 9 or 10. I asked my comp who cooks for the kids and she said the parents teach them how to cook and they cook for themselves. I see little kids roaming the streets solo all the time but it is normal here. Lots of the people will work from 8 to 9 at night all week. The most common place for them to work is in the mine. Though there are a lot of lawyers down here. With the hike we left the Zone leaders house at 8, got to the hike about 8:30. We got to the top at 11ish stayed up top to take pictures as a zone because this was the first time that a whole zone hiked to the top. We started hiking down about 12. Few of us got down at 1 but waited another hour for the rest of the group to come down. The rest came down at 2:30 ish then we went and had a hour to eat and then email. Though I was late for email and only got 25 min. That is why my letter wasn't very long last week. My comps knee didn't bother her when we were hiking so maybe the pain is a figment of her imagination. No I am sure her knee was hurting. Lets see this week was good. We had a baptism of a ward member. Well she was baptized a year ago but the kind elders didn't fill out the right form so they couldn't find her. I don't remember the word for it but her paperwork that says that she is a member. Her name is Sarahi and she is 13 years old. Now the baptism was supposed to start at 2 and punto. Everyone kept saying that. Guess what? didn't start at 2 and punto. It started at 3, yep welcome to Bolivia. We have this one investigator Patricia, she is 26 years old and has a desire to learn more. I am really excited about her. Well she had a baptism date for the 27 of this month. Well the rule is, is that they have to attend church 3 times in a row before the baptism. Guess who didn't come to church yesterday :(. She talked to a members of a different ward and he said that her baptism date was to soon and that she needed to learn more before she was baptized. She has had almost all of the lessons she just needs to learn about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of chastity and she has them all. We told her that it was a process of learning in the church. We cant learn everything all at once. We then talked about faith, and we also challenged her to pray about this. I felt the spirit during this lesson and I am sure she did to but oh well we all have our agency. We will just have to continue to work with her and find that ward member and beat him up ha ha no. That was the sad part of the week but other than that the week was good. We taught some people, felt the spirit, there is no doubt in my mind that this work is true and that the church is true. Oh I got a short email from Kevin, sounds like he is excited and ready to work in Mexico. Well life is good have a great week. Give my nephews and nieces a hug for me.
Love you all bunches
Jenna
First thanks for the package. The shirts and deodorant are awesome. Oh and the birthday cards. I especially felt loved by Cade when he said he missed me and wanted me to come home now. Lets see first off with the questions like always. The birds I see here are Pigeons. I did see a parrot at a members house. That is about all I see, nothing to exciting. Oh I saw my first butterfly and spider the other day since I have been here. Potosi is good. The people here are very relaxed. Some have a very hard life and some are just making it by. Then you also have the people who do have money. For the culture down here yes the children are taken care of. Sometimes we will knock on a door a kid will come. We will ask how old he/she is and they will say from a range of 5 to 10. we ask if their parents are home and they are not. They are working at this time and will not be home until about 9 or 10. I asked my comp who cooks for the kids and she said the parents teach them how to cook and they cook for themselves. I see little kids roaming the streets solo all the time but it is normal here. Lots of the people will work from 8 to 9 at night all week. The most common place for them to work is in the mine. Though there are a lot of lawyers down here. With the hike we left the Zone leaders house at 8, got to the hike about 8:30. We got to the top at 11ish stayed up top to take pictures as a zone because this was the first time that a whole zone hiked to the top. We started hiking down about 12. Few of us got down at 1 but waited another hour for the rest of the group to come down. The rest came down at 2:30 ish then we went and had a hour to eat and then email. Though I was late for email and only got 25 min. That is why my letter wasn't very long last week. My comps knee didn't bother her when we were hiking so maybe the pain is a figment of her imagination. No I am sure her knee was hurting. Lets see this week was good. We had a baptism of a ward member. Well she was baptized a year ago but the kind elders didn't fill out the right form so they couldn't find her. I don't remember the word for it but her paperwork that says that she is a member. Her name is Sarahi and she is 13 years old. Now the baptism was supposed to start at 2 and punto. Everyone kept saying that. Guess what? didn't start at 2 and punto. It started at 3, yep welcome to Bolivia. We have this one investigator Patricia, she is 26 years old and has a desire to learn more. I am really excited about her. Well she had a baptism date for the 27 of this month. Well the rule is, is that they have to attend church 3 times in a row before the baptism. Guess who didn't come to church yesterday :(. She talked to a members of a different ward and he said that her baptism date was to soon and that she needed to learn more before she was baptized. She has had almost all of the lessons she just needs to learn about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of chastity and she has them all. We told her that it was a process of learning in the church. We cant learn everything all at once. We then talked about faith, and we also challenged her to pray about this. I felt the spirit during this lesson and I am sure she did to but oh well we all have our agency. We will just have to continue to work with her and find that ward member and beat him up ha ha no. That was the sad part of the week but other than that the week was good. We taught some people, felt the spirit, there is no doubt in my mind that this work is true and that the church is true. Oh I got a short email from Kevin, sounds like he is excited and ready to work in Mexico. Well life is good have a great week. Give my nephews and nieces a hug for me.
Love you all bunches
Jenna
Sorry I am late
Hello family,
Lets see to start with your questions....I did get an egg on my head to be exact two. The Elders had a barbecue last Monday, and during that they said that it was a bbq for the North Americans since it was our independence day. They took pics of all the NA by the meat. Then when we were cleaning up they said oh we need to sing to you for your birthday but you need to stand in the middle. I said no I can stand on the side and you can sing. That didn't fly so I stood in the middle and at the end of the song I got two eggs on my head and a pile of flour on my head. It took three washings to clean out my hair. Also that night my pensonista made lasagna and a cake for me. Then I was sang to then my face was smashed in the cake. Another tradition for down here for you. I am taking warm showers finally. My comp doesn't get sick but right now her knee is hurting her. We walk a little bit slower. She leaves the mission 3 de August. She is excited to be with her family. She will be in La Paz for a week and then come back to Potosi to live because this is where her family lives. When I say we have 10 people in church that is members, us the missionaries, and maybe 1 or 2 investigators that come to church. I have lead the music in church almost every time since I have been here. They do not tell mining jokes in Potosi. At least none that I have heard of. I don't know what picture it was with flour all over me but if it was in Potosi the only time I can think of was when we were playing different games and lets just say shaving cream was involved in one of the games. That is the only time that I can think of. First off my nephew is a cutie he looks like me. I must say though I think J would have been a better middle name ;). I showed him off to everyone. We went to Sucre this week. I didn't get car sick. We met President Dyer and Hermana Dyer. Hermana Dyer doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. I translated for her during the conference. It was a little bit difficult because I would use Spanish words instead of English. Today we all hiked to Cerro Rico. You would be proud of me. Lets just say it is probably a hike that I would do only once. They said that it would be freezing up top but never listen to a latino about cold. That is why we are all late. I don't have anything else to write but HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM. I hope all is well and that you had a good one. Just think for your next one I will be home and I can smash an egg on your head and shove a cake in your face :). Oh the traditions that I will bring home. Have a fantastic week love you lots and the church is TRUE!!!!
Hermana Nielsen
Lets see to start with your questions....I did get an egg on my head to be exact two. The Elders had a barbecue last Monday, and during that they said that it was a bbq for the North Americans since it was our independence day. They took pics of all the NA by the meat. Then when we were cleaning up they said oh we need to sing to you for your birthday but you need to stand in the middle. I said no I can stand on the side and you can sing. That didn't fly so I stood in the middle and at the end of the song I got two eggs on my head and a pile of flour on my head. It took three washings to clean out my hair. Also that night my pensonista made lasagna and a cake for me. Then I was sang to then my face was smashed in the cake. Another tradition for down here for you. I am taking warm showers finally. My comp doesn't get sick but right now her knee is hurting her. We walk a little bit slower. She leaves the mission 3 de August. She is excited to be with her family. She will be in La Paz for a week and then come back to Potosi to live because this is where her family lives. When I say we have 10 people in church that is members, us the missionaries, and maybe 1 or 2 investigators that come to church. I have lead the music in church almost every time since I have been here. They do not tell mining jokes in Potosi. At least none that I have heard of. I don't know what picture it was with flour all over me but if it was in Potosi the only time I can think of was when we were playing different games and lets just say shaving cream was involved in one of the games. That is the only time that I can think of. First off my nephew is a cutie he looks like me. I must say though I think J would have been a better middle name ;). I showed him off to everyone. We went to Sucre this week. I didn't get car sick. We met President Dyer and Hermana Dyer. Hermana Dyer doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. I translated for her during the conference. It was a little bit difficult because I would use Spanish words instead of English. Today we all hiked to Cerro Rico. You would be proud of me. Lets just say it is probably a hike that I would do only once. They said that it would be freezing up top but never listen to a latino about cold. That is why we are all late. I don't have anything else to write but HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM. I hope all is well and that you had a good one. Just think for your next one I will be home and I can smash an egg on your head and shove a cake in your face :). Oh the traditions that I will bring home. Have a fantastic week love you lots and the church is TRUE!!!!
Hermana Nielsen
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW
Hello my family,
Well yep it snowed yesterday. Who would have thought that I would see snow on my birthday? It was wet snow and didn't start sticking to the ground until about 8. Well when I woke up there was about 1 inch of snow but as the morning went on it melted. Everyone is cold but what can you do? Oh all the people here say that it shouldn't snow anymore because Cerro which is like an 8th world wonder or whatever you call it, could collapse and then good bye potosi. It makes people want to listen to us though because they are all terrified of dying. I am going to buy thick nylons that the cholitas wear and leg warmers. I have one pair but I want more. Life is good here. I didn't make the brownies or the cookies because lets just say they do not have any of the ingredients. It was a very sad day for me. This week we got permission from President Tenorio to go ahead with a baptism. We got the permission on Thursday morning planned the baptism for next Saturday so the bishop and ward members could come. Well needless to say she called the Zone Leaders on Sat and they asked why we were waiting and told us to baptize her today so we spent the rest of the day running around like our heads were cut off trying to get ward members to come and find the Bishop. Well the Bishop was traveling and only a few members came but it turned out good. Truth be told I really don't know this investigator very well we have only visited her 2. My comp and her old comp taught this woman, no every missionary in this area taught her. She has been waiting two years to be baptized. She was very excited for this day and she was also baptized with her daughter who is 9. That's probably the most exciting thing that happened this week. I didn't do anything exciting for my birthday because well it was a Sunday and what could I do? My comp told me happy birthday and made me a card in the morning and then we were off to church and to work the rest of the day. I asked a lady to make a cake for me but lets just say she forgot :( oh well I will have to get a cake today and celebrate later. Then it started snowing in the afternoon so not many people would answer their doors. It made for a long afternoon. We talked to an inactive member and he was offended so he stopped coming. We have a lot of these here in Potosi. The youth here are going to the temple today. It is a special temple trip, they are out of school this month because it is when it gets really cold so they planned it for now. They will take a 6 hour bus ride today to Cochabamba then spend one day and leave in the night Tuesday to be back by wed. This cost them about 200 bolivianos, which is a lot for the people here. Be grateful we have a temple not so far away. Lets see what else happened on my birthday oh the zone leaders called to wish me a happy birthday. My comp told them Sat night at the baptism that it was my birthday. It was nice of them to do so. They also said that since it was a tradition to smash an egg on your head they were planning to do so in the morning. I told them they could try but I didn't think it would happen. Now I need to watch my back all day. We have an activity where the elders are going to cook for us today. Hopefully I don't end up getting sick. This week we are going to Sucre Tuesday and Wed. We are welcoming President Dyer to Bolivia. Tuesday is our interviews with him and Wed is our zone conference. We get out of the cold weather for a while. Hopefully I don't get sick. Well That is all I can think to write. Thanks for the Birthday wishes everyone. Have a good week and soak up the sun for me
Jenna
Well yep it snowed yesterday. Who would have thought that I would see snow on my birthday? It was wet snow and didn't start sticking to the ground until about 8. Well when I woke up there was about 1 inch of snow but as the morning went on it melted. Everyone is cold but what can you do? Oh all the people here say that it shouldn't snow anymore because Cerro which is like an 8th world wonder or whatever you call it, could collapse and then good bye potosi. It makes people want to listen to us though because they are all terrified of dying. I am going to buy thick nylons that the cholitas wear and leg warmers. I have one pair but I want more. Life is good here. I didn't make the brownies or the cookies because lets just say they do not have any of the ingredients. It was a very sad day for me. This week we got permission from President Tenorio to go ahead with a baptism. We got the permission on Thursday morning planned the baptism for next Saturday so the bishop and ward members could come. Well needless to say she called the Zone Leaders on Sat and they asked why we were waiting and told us to baptize her today so we spent the rest of the day running around like our heads were cut off trying to get ward members to come and find the Bishop. Well the Bishop was traveling and only a few members came but it turned out good. Truth be told I really don't know this investigator very well we have only visited her 2. My comp and her old comp taught this woman, no every missionary in this area taught her. She has been waiting two years to be baptized. She was very excited for this day and she was also baptized with her daughter who is 9. That's probably the most exciting thing that happened this week. I didn't do anything exciting for my birthday because well it was a Sunday and what could I do? My comp told me happy birthday and made me a card in the morning and then we were off to church and to work the rest of the day. I asked a lady to make a cake for me but lets just say she forgot :( oh well I will have to get a cake today and celebrate later. Then it started snowing in the afternoon so not many people would answer their doors. It made for a long afternoon. We talked to an inactive member and he was offended so he stopped coming. We have a lot of these here in Potosi. The youth here are going to the temple today. It is a special temple trip, they are out of school this month because it is when it gets really cold so they planned it for now. They will take a 6 hour bus ride today to Cochabamba then spend one day and leave in the night Tuesday to be back by wed. This cost them about 200 bolivianos, which is a lot for the people here. Be grateful we have a temple not so far away. Lets see what else happened on my birthday oh the zone leaders called to wish me a happy birthday. My comp told them Sat night at the baptism that it was my birthday. It was nice of them to do so. They also said that since it was a tradition to smash an egg on your head they were planning to do so in the morning. I told them they could try but I didn't think it would happen. Now I need to watch my back all day. We have an activity where the elders are going to cook for us today. Hopefully I don't end up getting sick. This week we are going to Sucre Tuesday and Wed. We are welcoming President Dyer to Bolivia. Tuesday is our interviews with him and Wed is our zone conference. We get out of the cold weather for a while. Hopefully I don't get sick. Well That is all I can think to write. Thanks for the Birthday wishes everyone. Have a good week and soak up the sun for me
Jenna
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