its time to grow up

i still am in awe that i am in bolivia. its insane. but anyways, my companion is from ecuador. her name is hermana donoso. she is the sweetest person ever. i know i said that about all my companions but this time i really mean it. she is so patient with me. my first are is the linde 2 area. its on a hill. like really...a hill. i walk so much that i feel pretty tired at the end of the day but its a good tired. 

being here, i have witnessed so many different miracles everyday. my first day when we were looking through our binder of records of our investigators and such, i had a strong impression to tell my companion that we should go and see this person. so when we went, we happened to run into the person´s cousin!

we didnt have to look for him. god brought him to us. another miracle is about the cars we ride. its like a taxi but a van called a truffe. its so cheap....7 bs is about 1 dollar in the usa. its 1 bs the most a trip. but anyways, one night we were waiting for the truffe to come and we have been waiting for 20 minutes. it was really dark. so i turn to my companion and say podemos orar? can we pray? so we prayed and lo and behold the truffe comes down the hill towards us right after we have said amen. the same thing happened last night as well. 

the people here are so humble. we have been teaching kids who were recently baptized or who are our investigadores. most of them live in really rough conditions. one of the families we teach, the daughter who is 12 years old cooks for her brothers everyday. her mother left them, so they only have their father. another family has their mom only and their father is in jail. they are always hungry so i would bring snacks for them.

i was able to go to the temple last week and we will be going this wednesday. its really beautiful here. its really a culture shock for sure though. its funny because everyone i meet here thinks i can speak spanish but when they realize that i dont theyll ask me where i am from and then when i say i am from hawaii they start getting so excited. its a blessing to be from hawaii.

what else...my spanish is getting better slowly. i can understand better each day because the people speak really slow here hahaha. but i still have to practice speaking the language. my ward is pretty awesome. its a lot of imformation to take in for my first week but i know that it will come. i am actually pretty patient here...its strange. its probably because i have been praying to be patient and its working. 

what i did learn is that i should never ignore a prompting from the spirit...and it brings miracles.

as for the large photo of me...bahahahahaha thats creepy. it brings me so much joy to hear about gabriel and jesse exercising the priesthood. its just such a joy to know that they hold it and use it to bless everyone.

mom, travel safe. dont get sick! i have gotten a little sick but my companion takes good care of me that i have gotten better quickly. its gets pretty cold at night. at least i am not in potosi haha.

in the ccm, they said if they get my letters, they forward it with the missionaries who are coming here. its okay. it will come when i need it most. i know it will. my faith has grown tremendously and continues to do so each day. i love being a missionary. more than i did in the ccm. the ccm made me more stressed but here...so far so good. 

today i am going shopping with my companion to get our nails done and stuff...haha since its so cheap and its a nice treat. i also order legit scripture cases for 30 bucks us dollars. ill show you them next time. 

i love you guys so much. continue to pray for me please. i hope to hear from you soon. its almost may! i swear i am never homesick. but when i do email you guys i do get homesick just a tad bit. being here makes me realize that i really need to grow up and be independent with finding a way around here and taking responsibility of my own choices. i keep telling myself its time to grow up rissy. haha

by the way this keyboard is missing the capitalize key...that is why everything is lower case....oh bolivia. 

but until then,

abrazos y besos,
con mucho amor,

les amo mucho,

hermana santeco

oh i forgot to mention that we were lucky to have a washing machine and dryer in our home. and we have two pensionistas to feed us two meals a day. mucha comida aqui....mucha....i am surprised that i can eat everything. its custom to each everything on your plate. so far so good.