Feliz Navidad!!

FELIZ NAVIDAD A TODOS!!!!!!!

I hope you all have the bestest week ever and that you really take time to remember the reason for this wonderful season. HA NACIDO UN SALVADOR. HE IS THE REASON FOR THIS SEASON. He was born for us, and he loves us more than we can ever imagine. This past week has been a little rough and I have really grown to completely rely on His great and everlasting atonement. HE IS ALWAYS HERE FOR US. In those moments where we think that absolutely no one understands, He knows. He knows every pain, sorrow, heartache, everything! And he knows exactly how we feel. He is always here to lift us up through our trials, all we have to do is trust in Him and ask for His help. My testimony and love for my savior has multiplied in size this past week and words cannot even describe my gratitude for Him. He is my Savior, Brother, and Best friend. I hope you all search for him this Christmas season, always, and forever. We have such a great opportunity to celebrate His birth this time of year, lets use it to our advantage to grow closer to Him.

I have also seen the hand of many angels in my life this past week. Mom, you have no reason to worry about me, I am in SUCH GREAT HANDS. There are sooo many wonderful Christlike loving people in this mission and I cannot express how blessed I am. Also, my mission president and his wife are the most selfless people on this planet and I know I say this a million times, but I am seriously blessed with the best!!!

I am now going to share with you one of my favorite scriptures that just goes so well with this christmas season. Isaiah 9:6

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

He is the reason for this great season. Look for Him. Trust in Him. He loves you more than you could ever imagine and you can feel this love if you ask for it. He lives!!!

I love you all so much and hope you have the best week ever. I hope you all are preparing for our awesome 40 minute skype sesh that we're going to have on christmas. Can't wait to see how fat you've gotten with all your christmas goodies... hahaha jk. but really.

FELIZ NAVIDAD HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Higham

"Conquer Today!" - my inspirational cough drop wrapper

Hooooooolllllaaaaaaa!

So this week was pretty weird and I don't really know where to start! First of all, Marilyn is doing great and is just a spiritual giant! Satan is just working really hard on her right now and the baby daddy just randomly decided to come back into her life so just keep praying for her!

We were able to meet with Pimpi (yummy bread lady) this past week and it was great! We haven't been able to see her for a while cause all she does is WORK WORK WORK. But we finally got in and we showed her an amazing video and the spirit was just so strong and she just kept talking about how she wish she had more time to focus on reading her scriptures and just as we were about to talk to her about keeping the sabbath day holy, she opens her mouth and says. "I've made a goal that next year I'm not going to work on Sundays so I can have time to go to church and spend time with my family" and we were like AHHHH and it was amazing. She is so great and one of the strongest people I know! She has been through A LOT in her life and has really come to know her savior!

So I don't know if I've told you about our investigator Paola, but here I go! She's 18 and she's amazing!!! Anyways, so yesterday she sent us a text saying that she wouldn't be able to come to church so we were a little bummed, but then during sacrament meeting she walked in!!! It was a miracle! She's amazing! We've only been able to meet with her twice because of her busy schedule, but she's already come to church 3 times and she came to Marilyns baptism last week! She's golden and is just the sweetest most innocent thing I have ever seen! She's totes getting baptized, we have a date for her on Jan 23, but we're gonna work to push it up!

So, Janet Russell, our less active. We still have doubts that she's a member and they can't find her records because she doesn't remember her exact date of her baptism, but she insists that she was baptized so we're still working on figuring that out. hahaha. Anyways, so we had this super weird lesson with her this past week. First she lets us in and then says "hold on just a second" and walks into the other room so we were just making small talk with her 80 year old crazy aunt for 5 min... 10 min... 20 min... 25 min... and we kept calling for her, but she wouldn't come so we were like uhhhhhh lets just come back later so just as we were about to leave she comes out and so we were able to teach her and she hadn't read so we read with her in the BOM and it was 1Nephi 6 where it's only like 6 verses long and we asked what she liked about it and she goes off for about a 25 minute rant about the most random things. She started by talking about what she thinks things of the world are then she talked about parties and from parties to drinking to modesty to the death of some leader of some church to how if the prophet died she wouldn't want to watch his funeral, back to parties and how she likes to be classy at parties back to her sick aunt.... and then she ended this rant with "yes or no?" we were just like uhhhhh... what just happened. Hahahahahahahaha WHERE ARE EPISODES LIKE THIS ON THE DISTRICT.  This happens way often with her too hahahaha oh Janet what even are you.

That's pretty much it for the week! I was a little ill this week so we weren't able to work as much as we would have liked, but it was still a great week! I want to share some quotes that reeeaaaallly helped me this week! It's from the general conference talk from this past conference by Oaks called "strengthened by the atonement of Jesus Christ".

"He had no debt to pay. He had committed no wrong. Nevertheless, an accumulation of all of the guilt, the grief and sorrow, the pain and humiliation, all of the mental, emotional, and physical torments known to man - he experienced them all" - Boyd K Packer

"Since the savior has suffered anything and everything that we could ever feel or experience, He can help the weak to become stronger"

This week I was definitely strengthened by the atonement of Jesus Christ. The atonement is so real and our savior jesus christ loves each and everyone one of you! I hope you all take time to remember him this christmas season and have a chance to share this beautiful message of hope with others around you.

That's pretty much it for the week! I hope you all are enjoying the cold sweater weather while I'm dripping sweat in 100 degree weather! Definitely doesn't feel like December haha. I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Con mucho amor

Hermana Higham

She Got Dunked!

Hola amigos!!

So guess what! MARILYN GOT BAPTIZED!!! Yayyy! The day finally came and it was wonderful!! We visited her countless times throughout the week and she was just so excited, it was so great! She was teaching US in our lessons last week, she was so prepared! Her baptism was on Saturday and it was great, not a lot of members came which was disappointing and we almost didn't have witnesses because like no one showed up, but it all worked out! And she was so cute and didn't even care who was there to support her. She was just so excited to make this covenant with Heavenly Father, she's so cute! But not going to lie, the baptismal service was hilarious. We asked some girls in the ward to do a musical number and only one of them showed up so me and Hermana Newbold volunteered to sing and we thought the one that was there was going to sing with us them BOOM she pulls out a recorder on us and starts playing so me and Hermana Newbold sang as this skreetchy recorder was being played. I was trying so hard not to laugh hahahaha. Then while she was changing they played these cheeeesier than cheese church videos and I wanted to die hahahahaha. But it was a wonderful experience none the less and we're soooo excited for our cute little Marilyn. Now we just have to find her an eternal companion. Theres a missionary coming home in the ward in like a week so we're hoping to make some magic happen there. Hahahahaha. Just kidding. But really. Hahaha.

So funny story about opening the package last Monday. We go to our pensionista right after lunch so I had my package and they were like EEEEK OPEN IT and they brought out this huge knife and just start cutting and bubble wrap and candy was just flying everywhere and there was just a whole bunch of chaos! It was so fun! They were so cute and I just want to send them packages all the time when I get home! haha. Also, she took us shopping after lunch and I may or may not have bought some awesome cheetah leggings while my companion bought grandma dresses. Hahahaha.

So just some other funny stories so yesterday we're just sitting in ward counsel just having a good ol time then all of a sudden something FALLS FROM THE AIR CONDITIONER FAN THINGY (yeah, Bishop is way lucky and has AC. Theres never AC here haha) and at first we were like eh, it was probably just a dust bunny or something THEN THESE COCKROACHES JUST START SCURRYING AROUND EVERYWHERE and there was one on Bishops arm and me and my companion were like AHH and no one else even cared! Like I guess they're just used to having cockroaches on their arms. This happened a few times until they finally decided to turn it off haha. Then during church this ginormous moth flies in and starts fluttering around the conductors face and she was like freaking out and no one else gave any bothers. The bugs here are going mad! Hahaha Only in Bolivia my friends. Hahaha.

Well, I promise we had a bunch of spiritual experiences this week too and we saw lots of people. But ehhhh, this was fun. Anyways. That's it for the day. I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful Christmas season and are eating lots of peppermint shakes for me!! And other yummy Christmasy things! I love you all and I hope to hear from you all soon! Have a wonderful week!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Higham

SHE GOT DUNKED!!!

Super excited to get my package!

Love her!

Tweeennnnntttttyyyyyyy

HI I'M NOW A WRINKLY GREY HAIRED 20 YEAR OLD SO THATS FUN. My birthday was oh so wonderful and I was so SPOILED! I felt so loved! My companion spoiled me with birthday surprises and my pensionista and her family just spoiled me! They made us BURGERS and FRIES for lunch and she made me a CAKE and the children made me put on all sorts of birthday attire and blew up balloons and my favorite four year old shoved my face into the cake and it was just all around a good time. They are like my second family and I'm trying to get them to move to America so I can visit them easier because I love them so much hahaha.

Anyways, so this week was pretty weird! Haha. So first of all I got like this weird eye infection, at first I thought that it was pink eye, but then my eyes like hurt so bad so we were in the house a little this week because i just couldn't see. And it wouldn't have been that big of a problem, but with all the bright sun and all the wind blowing dirt everywhere it was a problem haha. I looked pretty scary with my puffy eyes hahahahaha wish you all could have seen it. But it's all good now and now I can see. So yay! haha.

UMMMM SO OTHER FUN FACT! Marilyn's baptism is THIS SATURDAY and I never thought I would live to see the day she actually gets baptized! She's so excited and she is wayyyy prepared! Like when we go to teach her she ends up teaching us haha. So we're really excited to help her make this covenant and one day she's just going to be the general relief society president or something because she is so powerful. WOW. Yeah. So please just pray for her this week!

Sooooo funny story. So remember our less active Janet Russell? Well this past week we had a fun experience trying to figure out if she was actually a member and was actually baptized. She kept saying stuff that would make us question it like "I'm deathly afraid of water" and "to be a member is just to go for a while" but it turns out that she actually was baptized because she told us about how the elders with name tags dunked her in water as she was wearing white clothes. So yeah she was baptized. We were such good detectives though sneakily trying to figure out all of this information. Hahahaha. The struggle is real.

So Juana. Cute cute Juana. She is just the cutest thing ever and I just want to take her with me she's so cute! One day after we had read the scriptures with her and sang she was just saying some silly things and we were laughing SOOOO hard and they really aren't that funny, it's just the fact that she's laughing so hard with her no teeth that just gets us every time hahaha. And then in her prayer she said "Father, please forgive us for making jokes and laughing hard, we were just having a good time" hahahahaha she's so cute.

So this is just a random story, but I just have to throw it in here. So one day at lunch Hermana Derly made us some meat and holy cow (haha) it was the HARDEST PIECE OF MEAT WE HAVE EVER TRIED TO EAT. And we just couldn't not eat it because it's disrespectful so we literally chewed that meat for like an hour trying to eat it and it was probably one of the hardest trials of the mission thus far. And then when we finally finished that, she gave us some rotten watermelon that we sneakily fed to the dogs. Ohhhh Bolivia hahaha. 

Anyways that's pretty much it for the week! I am loving my time here in Bolivia and we are seeing so many miracles happen! I am so blessed to be here serving this wonderful yet crazy people of Bolivia! I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving and shoved your faces! Eat lots of peppermint shakes for me this christmas season! And enjoy the snow while I'm getting nice and bronze in this Bolivian sun! haha :) Love you all have a wonderful week!

Con mucho amor

Hermana higham

P.S. THE ELDER JUST HANDED ME A PACKAGE AND I JUST GOT SO HAPPY AND EVERYONE IS SO JEALOUS THANK YOU LOVE YOUUUUU
OH AND BY THE WAY ONE OF MY INVESTIGATORS FROM MY FIRST AREA (remember mateo?) JUST GOT BAPTIZED YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Soooo this is our adorable cute Juana that I talk about each week, she waves at us every time we leave and it is just THE CUTEST THING EVER! I want to take her home with me haha

Bolivia gets deep.

My companion made me pancakes for my birthday! She's the best!

Partying with my Bolivian friends!

I love them so much!

6 MONTHS

Well hi so time is literally flying soooooooo fast it's insane! It's so crazy to think that I'm already 1/3 of the way done with my mission! WHAT IS LIFE. We celebrated our 6 months with a cake. It was so yummy. It was like almond or something. Not that you guys really care about the flavor. Ha.

So this week was pretty exciting and we had some CRAZY miracles!!

So we met with Magdalena twice this last week (the one that was listening to the Jehovas Witnesses) and we were talking about how she hasn't quite gotten an answer yet so we invited her to pray in that moment if the Book of Mormon is true and to take a pause and just focus on her feelings. And her being so cute and honestly wanting to find out, she did it. And throughout that prayer me and Hermana Newbold were just praying so hard PLEASE LET HER FEEL SOMETHING. And after the prayer she just BEAMED. She gets really giggly when she gets happy so she just started giggling and said that she felt something just go through her. WHAT. The church is so true!! We talked to her about it and asked if she thought it was her answer and she said yes! So she's getting baptized!!!!!.... Buuuuut she's leaving to the campo this week (the outskirts of Bolivia where there is literally NOTHING) to visit her parents and she won't be back till January. WHYYYYYYY. So we set a date for when she gets back, but it's just still frustrating. But it comforts me knowing that she knows. And every time we visit her and whenever she prays with us she can feel the spirit so strong and just giggles and says "the spirit!". It's so cute! and she hates when we leave 'cause she doesn't want the spirit to go with us. I just hope and pray that she remembers her experience while she's gone! But it truly was a MIRACLE.

We were also able to meet with pimpi and she is just so cute! We had a miracle with her this week and she just opened up about everything in her life which has really helped us find her needs! We also got her daughter to sit in with us in a lesson and she looks more white than I do! She has like blonde hair and green eyes... they're definitely not from Bolivia that's for sure hahaha. But she's great and always gives us free yummy bread so we just love her haha.

Marilyn is also doing good! And she came to church! The only problem with her is that she's so lazy haha. It's the only thing holding her back, but she's great. She knows for a fact that the church is true and we're just working on her to get that habit of getting to church Sunday mornings. Which is going to be hard when it switches to 8 next year instead of 10 so AHHH. But all is well haha.

Juana, our 83 year old less active is still cute as ever! We went and visited her this week and she just melts my heart. She was feeling sick this past week and couldn't walk and it broke my heart 'cause she was just in so much pain. But she was so cute still. We asked her if us reading the Book of Mormon would help her feel better and she said yes so we read and sang for her. Then we told her to go rest and she said "I can sleep well now that you've read and sang to me" SO CUTE!!  I just want to pack her in my suitcase and take her home! She's my cute Bolivian grandma.

Janet Russell, our other less active from Spain is doing great as well! She's starting to open up to us and show more interest, and her son is too and he's so funny! We think he has some sort of disability, but he's so funny and so smart! We just have so many cute people in this area and I never want to leave EVER.

We found a new investigator looking for our other one and she is so sweet! She's 18 and just loves our visits and even came to church! She's so sweet and we're hoping things go well with her!

Here are some other random facts for the week:

- We went back to the apartment one night and found a little cockroach friend in our food and it was horrifying and while my companion fled for safety I was brave and I squished that cockroach and it was horrifying and the juice went everywhere. So fun. hahaha

- We visited a 92 year old member and it was so fun. we just sat there, talked about the gospel while eating cake, fanning ourselves with Bolivian fans, and drinking coca cola. So classy. hahaha. She told us how she just used to be so hot and how the men would always whistle at her. Oh Elsa haha.

- We literally run from lesson to lesson Wednesday and Friday nights because it's the only night that anyone can ever meet hahaha. We get to lessons PANTING.

-Some angelic Bolivian woman gave us free bolos(they're kinda like otter pops) the other day when it was soooo hot.

- People are always burning their trash here so theres always random fires on the side of the street so we came up with a cool band name -Trashfire. hahahaha so lame but so cool

That's pretty much it for the week! Things are going great out here in good ol Bolivia and I wouldn't trade this time for anything! I love this area and I hope I never get transferred ever! I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving this week and eat lots of yummy foods and pie for me this week! Mmmmm pie. And remember to always be grateful for all that you have and to serve others who might not have as much! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! oh. and P.S. I'm turning 20 this week and I feel so gross about it. Hahahaha LOVE YOU ALL.

Con mucho amor

Hermana Higham

6 months!!!

6 MONTHS!

Our beautiful cake that we bought!

I squished a cockroach! Gross!!

We went from plan A to Z back to Z to A

Wowowowww what a week! Things are sure getting hot here in los Olivos! It is always like a thousand degrees and when theres no wind it's like WOW. Hermana Newbold converted me to carrying around a two liter water bottle everyday because it's just soooo hot and if we don't drink water we would probably pass out and then some sketchy Bolivian bugs would eat us. So just picture me walking around with this ginormous water bottle... hahaha I look like a fool out here. There's no such thing as getting ready and at the end of the day we are so covered in dirt, sunscreen, and bug repellent and boy is it a sight! haha.

Anyways, let me just catch you up on Marilyn. SHE CAME TO CHURCH!!! Woot woot! Haha she's so great and all throughout church she was just panning her baby off to everyone haha, but she stayed which is good! She's doing great. She got a job so we haven't been able to see her as much, but she's still doing great and we're still working toward the 28th for her baptism so pray for her!! We also have recently started teaching her aunt as well which is great! We're hoping to just bring her whole family to this gospel!

Our other investigator Beatrice is also doing amazing! She like ate up Joseph Smith... not literally... we told that to another Hermana and she was like WHAT. NO she did not eat Joseph Smith. Haha. Anyways, she is amazing! Except it was kind of awkward, she thought we were testigos for a second, but she didn't turn us away when she found out we weren't so thats a good sign! We see a lot of potential and her and she is progressing so quickly!

Kay so JUANA. OUR 83 YEAR OLD LESS ACTIVE. She is literally THEE most precious thing I have ever seen in my entire life! We visit her like daily and she's just my favorite person! She cries like every time we come and she just laughs and laughs with her no teeth and she's just blind and she's just so cute! She told us that she had never finished the Book of Mormon cause she lost her eye sight so we've made it a goal to finish it with her. And she's starting to remember about things of the church and she makes me and Hermana Newbold cry every time she prays because she says "thank you for sending me these two angels to remind me I'm a daughter of God" and we just WEEP she's so precious! I'll send you a picture of her!

Fun Bolivia things:

- We found this other less active named Maria del Carmen Gomez and she is a HOOT. She's missing all of her top teeth and all of her bottom teeth are just halfway out so whenever she talks they just MOVE and it's the funniest thing ever. She was just sitting in a wheel barrow when we talked to her. She's a hoot!

- We also found this other less active named Gabriela Flores and she has a star on her front tooth. Whoa

- Yolanda, a recent convert, has this EVIL parrot. It kept trying to kill me and it like bit Yolanda's lip and was just being a bad bad parrot and laughing the whole time. We had to punish it to this pole and it couldn't come down. hahaha

- I started wearing my wicked awesome hiking sandals again now that it's not raining everyday and I forgot to put sun screen on my feet and my poor toes got FRIED. Like they were so burnt they were like purple. I'm going to get SKIN CANCER.

- We were visiting with a new investigator for the first time and she was making us like this coconut drink thing and when she was done she had the coconut pieces and just said "watch what I'm going to do" and then she just started putting coconut in her hair and we just staring at her DYING. People here are so funny!

- We almost had to give a talk on Sunday, but then it got pushed to next week which is great 'cause President decided to come to our ward this week and I probably would have said something dumb and got sent home or something.

There are just so many weird things that happen out here and I wish I could just share them all, but there's just not enough time! And my emails are just everywhere! But I just want you all to know that I am doing great and loving it out here! Sure it's hard - there are days when we don't visit anyone and we just walk around in the hot sun allll dayyyy long, there are days when people reject us, laugh at us, or are just super creepy. But it's all worth it!! The people that I have met here have changed my life and I just love them all so much! We're working with a lot of less actives and it's such a great experience to see that light return into their eyes and, with our investigators, watch their faith grow and watch that light touch them for the first time. It's truly incredible and worth all the hardships. I hope you all know that you are all SO LOVED and I hope that you all have a great week! Thank you for all of your emails! Keep me up on all the crazy stuff at home! Love youuuuuuuuuuu

Hermana Higham

It got suuuupeeerr rainy!

We had to poncho it up.

Selfie with the dinosaur bush.

Cute little family that fed us!

Our cute little Juana!

There's a Hole in My Boot

Well hello there! Yes, there is a hole in my rainboot! And with all this rain my left foot has been sooooooo pruny! haha. Anyways... This week was crazy and full of a whole bunch of funny random things! So first of all, me and hermana Newbold are still companions so that's a good time! We're hoping we stay here till christmas together, but we'll see what happens! She's great and we're working hard to bring so many people unto christ!

First of all, let me just catch you up with Marilyn. She's still amazing, she's still reading, her prayers are still amazing and she sounds like she's preaching when she says them, BUT SHE JUST WON'T COME TO CHURCH. Like just come to church! Every week she's always just so excited, but then something happens and she always has an excuse. And the baby daddy keeps coming back into her life and she admitted that he is just a huge temptation for her so we just need to get him out of her life and she will be golden. She's so great and has such a great testimony! We had a missionary activity in the ward on Thursday and it was like these scenarios on how you can share the gospel and she got up and bore her testimony to our fake investigator and it was awesome! She's going to make a golden member, she's just gotta go to church and realize how important it is! Pray for her!

But, on the other hand, we have this amazing new investigator! Her name is Beatrice, she's 22, and she has a 2 year old, but don't worry, the father is married so we don't have to worry about that! Yaya! haha.  We've only met with her once and she is just so ready! She came to church with us yesterday for the whole 3 hours and was so interested! It was kind of too good to be true! She is the sweetest thing ever and we are excited to get to know her more and bring her unto Christ!

Also, funny story. So once upon a time we were on the search for a less active named Gabriela Añez. Well, we found the house where the Anez family lives, but there was not a Gabriela. But there was a Gabriela across the street . But then we went back to the house another day and they told us that Gabriela Anez lived two houses down. So we went and asked for a Gabriela and they were a little confused at first, but went and got someone and a woman came out so we figured out it was her so we got an appointment with her. WELLLL when we went to go visit with her we found out 2 things. 1. Her name was not Gabriela Anez and 2. She wasn't a member. hahahahahahaahhaaha we were DYING. But now we have a wonderful investigator named Silvia Anez and we are very excited to start teaching her. hahahahahahaha.

Now here is an update with our friend in the chair. He still sits there every day and we indeed pass by and talk to him everyday haha. His name is Alberto (I got his autograph), and he has read like every pamphlet that we've given him haha. One day this week we passed by to visit him and he said "I won't be able to accept any more things from you" and we asked why and he said that the Jehovas Witnesses said that he wasn't allowed to anymore..... uh.. hahahaha. But then we talked to him and he accepted the book of mormon that we gave him so I don't think they scared him too much hahahaha. He's a hoot though. One time when we passed by he was reading the word of wisdom pamphlet, turns to the page with all the fruits and vegetables, points to the picture of broccoli and says "What is this.... broccoli... hahahahahaha'" and then he just laughed for a good while about broccoli hahaha. What a character. We told the elders to go visit that crazy Alberto. hahaha

We also have this less active and she is just the cutest thing in the entire world! She is 83 years old and for a while we were unsure if she was actually a member but yes, she is. She has no teeth, she's just soooo old, and she's just the cutest thing ever! She can't come to church cause she's just so old and fragile, but we just love visiting her! Yesterday we asked if we could end with a prayer and she said "Can't you guys just stay till tomorrow?!"and then she just laughed for like 5 minutes with her no teeth it was so cute! And she just waves at us at the door when we walk away and my heart just melts every time!! I want to keep this woman forever!!! haha. 

Other random facts:

- Hermana Newbold fell the other day when we were walking. That's twice now. She's so clumsy.

- I've walked out of the bathroom TWICE now with my skirt tucked into my G's. So embarrassing. 

- There are now 3 missionaries in our ward that are from Utah and only 1 Latino. This will be a partayyy

-I GOT THE PACKAGE AND THESE CHEETOS ARE TO DIE FOR SEND MORE WHEN YOU SEND ANOTHER PACKAGE. SEND LIKE  20 BAGS. THANK YOU YOU HAVE SAVED MY LIFE. 

That's pretty much it! I am now going to end with a nice thought about gratitude. If you guys have the chance, go read the talk by Dieter F Uchtdorf, April 2014 talk called grateful in any circumstances. Here is a thought I just loved from it! "How much life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God there is rain?" Because thanksgiving is coming up, I encourage you all to look for the things you are grateful for and be grateful in your circumstances, no matter what they may be! Thank you all for your love and support! Keep me updated on all of your crazy lives! Have a wonderful week!

With love

Hermana Higham

Our feet after a long day of work.

Our pensionista hermana dearly explaining how to get somewhere with food.

Partyin In The Olive Trees

Hello everyone! So time is definitely flying, I can´t believe it´s almost November! It feels like just yesterday it was May, but then at the same time it feels like 5 years ago, time is sure weird!

Anyways, so this week was pretty great! It's pretty great having a gringa companion and we´re hoping it isn't just a week thing and we´re hoping we don't get transferred on Wednesday haha. We've been working really hard trying to get this area up and running! It's been hard and we haven't had very much success, but we know that if we keep working hard we're going to see so many miracles in this area! There is so much potential and all this area needs is love and work.

First of all, Marilyn is still my favorite person ever but she's also super frustrating! She knows everything we could ever teach her, she's reading her scriptures, she's praying, she has this spirit about her and she continues to change her life, but she just wont come to church! She has the hardest time coming and its just like AHHH it's not that far! And it was raining yesterday and apparently that's an excuse for everyone not to come to church. Silly Bolivians and their excuses. "It was too hot so I couldn't go. It was too cold so I couldn't go. It was raining so I couldn't go" it's a good thing it doesn't snow here or they would never leave their houses hahaha. Gotta love these Bolivians. Anyways, so we're still working towards baptism with her, but we're trying to help her understand the importance of church. Pray for her!

We also have this other investigator (i don't know if I've told you about her) but her name is Pimpi... well, her real name is Ida but she goes by Pimpi.... hahahahaha. She's like this forty... fifty year old woman that just cooks all day long and makes the most DELICIOUS bread ever. It's so good so we're constantly passing by to "check up on her" and buy bread hahaha. She's great though and is super sweet. We see lots of potential in her and hope she progresses! Also, when we went to go teach her our little doggy friend (HE'S SO CUTE) was following us and followed us right into Pimpis house and she kicked him out and it was just so sad. I just want to keep him and love him he's so precious! haha.

That's pretty much it for investigators. This past week we've been looking for the millions of less actives in our area. We have so many it is insane!! So we've been looking for a lot of them. It's just hard because they don't really have addresses here. It's like "street simon bolivar" so its like WOW lets knock on every door haha. Sometimes we get lucky and they say the street name and the color of their house. "street 2, yellow house. blue door" and then their will be like 5 yellow houses hahaha. So fun. looking for houses is a struggle but we've found a lot of less actives so thats good!

One of them that we met with was a lady named Janet Russell and that lesson was the funniest weirdest thing of my life. While we were trying to be spiritual and ask her why she isn't coming to church, her son was like dancing behind her, he had this monkey puppet( the kind on strings) and was putting that on her head, he was licking his moms hair and curling it, and all the while she's just acting like nothing is happening. And then near the end of the lesson she whips out english on us! That happened a lot to us this past week! In church people were just whipping out all the English that they knew on us and it was really funny. Ah. English.

Oooo! So fun story! So we were walking down this one street one day and there was this old man just sitting in a chair reading and we said hi and he said 'ARE YOU THE MORMONS' in his raspy voice so we went and talked to him and wow he is so hard to understand hahaha. We gave him a pamphlet of the restoration to read and tried to get his address but we could understand him because he has like 2 teeth so then we asked if he had a phone number and he said "I have 2 bibles" hahahaha. So he's fun. He just sits on his chair every day and we just give him a new pamphlet everyday to read haha. We're going to invite him to church and if he comes we're going to tell them to go teach that man in that chair. haha.

That's pretty much it for the week! It's been pretty great and we're working hard to find those people that are ready to hear about this gospel! Oooo one more thing! So once upon a time we didn't have anyone to feed us again on Sunday cause our pensionista went out of town so in relief society they stood up there and asked "Who can feed the missionaries today." And the response was horrifying. No one said a word for about 2 minutes. And then they just ended with a prayer. It was so awkward hahahahaha. So invitation for the week or month or whatever, FEED THE MISSIONARIES! Anyways, that is all.

I love you all and I hope that life is going well for you! Keep me updated on your crazy lives! Have a wonderful week and always remember that you are LOVED.

With love,

Hermana Higham

Blessed in Los Olivos

Hello everyone! So first of all, I just want to say that this week has been the craziest week ever and so much has change and WAAH. So long story short, there were some things going on in the mission so for five days I was on an exchange with Hermana Wilson which was amazing! She is so cute and I consider her my adopted companion for sure! We were in her area for a majority of the time and in my area for one day. And boy are we able to testify of the gift of tongues!! She has one less transfer than I do so the Spanish thing is a little rough but we were able to teach powerful lessons and understand all that people were telling us. Except one of her investigators was asking us really weird questions about anti christs and stuff so we were just kinda like uhhhhh we´ll answer these questions tomorrow haha it was a weird time. But it was awesome just being able to be with a gringa! She had a baptism in her area this past Saturday so that was fun to go to! It was beautiful being able to watch someone come unto Christ through their first covenant with God. He was weeping throughout his whole baptism and it was so precious! Also, we had this broadcast thing for church this past week and Elder Anderson spoke and I´m not going to lie, it was pretty funny watching him trying to say his talk in Spanish... he had a french accent and it was pretty funny. And then I remember when I first started this whole Spanish journey and how I probably still sound so gringa hahaha. At least I´m not learning like Korean or something or I would be toastttt. hahahaha.

Anyways, so some fun news. Last night I got a new companion! And you are never going to guess who it is! It's.... (drum roll please...) ... HERMANA NEWBOLD!! She's from my mtc group and I love her to death!! She's from South Jordan Utah, went to Bingham, is 23, and is just the cutest thing ever. I'm so excited to work hard with her and get my area up and going! It has so much potential and I'm so glad that I get to stay! Transfers aren't until next Monday so we're hoping this isn't just a week thing and that we get to stay with each other for a transfer haha. I AM SO BLESSED IT'S INSANE!!

That's pretty much it for the week and I want to end with a GRAND lesson that I learned this past week. And this lesson is to LOVE EVERYONE AROUND YOU. Whether it's people you pass in the grocery store or people that you are really close to, LOVE THEM. Express your love for them as much as you can. Everyone is going through a trial of some sort and everyone needs help through these trials, so show them how much you love and care about them. Serve them!  I read a quote this week that changed my life

"I have wept in the night

for the shortness of sight

that to somebody's need made me blind;

but i never have yet

felt a tinge of regret

for being a little to kind"

LOVE EVERYONE. BE KIND. SERVE. That is the advice that i have for all of you! I love you all with all of my heart! I hope you all know how much worth you have and how precious you are in the eyes of God! He loves you! I love you! I hope you all have a wonderful week! I know i will! Love you all and talk to you so soon!

With love

Hermana Higham

The cool dinosaur plant!

Hermana Newbold and I. We are cute!

¡Tengo gozo en mi alma hoy!

HOLA AMIGOS!

So I would just like to start out and say that WOW this week was something else! First of all, Marilyn cannot be baptized this next Saturday because she didn't come to church on Sunday. NOOO. And on Saturday when we met with her we could just see that she wasn't quite ready yet and needs a little more time. As soon as we put a date with her we could see that satan was working really hard on her and she started to fall. But we're hoping to help her back up this week! And in a way it's kind of a blessing that she isn't being baptized on Saturday because on Sunday we found out that it's going to be some sort of transmission this next Sunday so she wouldn't have been able to receive the holy ghost for a whole week and that could have been bad so I guess in a way it is a blessing. But I know without a doubt that she is going to be baptized. She is amazing and has such a great desire to follow Christ. I just love her with all of my heart and I may or may not have told her to come visit me next November when I get home. She said she's going to pray about it hahahaha. Love her.

Also, some other fun news, I LOST MY VOICE. Try shouting the gospel from the rooftops with a lost voice! It was super hard and I may not have talked much and just smiled at people, but my voice is slowly coming back and still feels like there are knives in there, but I'll be back to shouting the truthfulness of the gospel in no time! I'm just oh so grateful that I brought my yummy cough drops from home because the ones here are EW. Haha

This past week we had a conference with president and Hermana Willard and WOW I know I say this a lot but they are amazing! We focused on the talk by Uchtdorf in the General Womens Sesssion and it was amazing! If you haven't read it I highly encourage you to do so! We all came out of there edified and this past week I have been looking for sunshine instead of rain (it's just a metaphor, I want it to rain it's so hot here haha). One quote that I absolutely love from that is "As you walk along your own bright path of discipleship, I pray that faith will fortify every footstep along your way; that hope will open your eyes to the glories Heavenly Father has in store for you; and that love for God and all His children will fill your hearts."

Also, funny story, so once upon a time we got a text message during church from our Pensionista saying that there was an accident at home and wouldn't be able to make us lunch. First of all, we were freaking out because she didn't say what kind of accident. Second of all, I thought I was going to starve because I only had one apple and one small package of cookies in the apartment that had to last me till we went shopping. Words cannot describe the worry. But then the bishop came to our rescue and was able to feed us (I think the elders were left to eat at their houses. hahahaha us hermanas are spoiled) and then I realized how extremely GRATEFUL I am for our Pensionistas and how I will never complain about the mountain of rice ever again! You never realize what you have until its gone. hahaha

That's pretty much it for the week! We're still trying to find those that are prepared to receive this beautiful message of the restored gospel! I'm not going to lie, it's hard out here. There are ups and downs and at times it seems like there are more downs. But I know that I am not out here alone. I know that I have heavenly father on my right side and my savior on my left lifting me up and helping me with this work. This isn't my work, this is His work, and never have I ever felt His love for me more fully than I have out here in the mission. I hope you all know that you are LOVED and have so much worth in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. HE LOVES YOU. And he is always there to help you and lift you up, all you have to do is come unto him. I love you all and I hope you have the best week ever! Stay safe! And eat lots of Chickfila for me!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Higham

Milagros En Los Olivos

Woooowowwowowwww what a week! So first of all, I have some fun news that I just can´t wait to tell you guys. MARILYN IS GETTING BAPTIZED!! What a miracle!! When we visited her last week during our lesson she was just talking away about how wonderful God is and just said "When am I going to be a member? November?" Our jaws dropped to the floor and I wish I could've seen our faces cause we were both is shock. And then I said "Why not the 24 of October?" And she was like 'YA' And we got really excited and celebrated with cake (because it was her birthday haha). So yayyy! She's so great and you can genuinely see the change in her. She had no desires to leave her house and party with her friends, she's living the Word of Wisdom, she got mad at us when we taught the law of chastity, but she got over it and is living it, and she wants to be more modest! She's great and also one of the funniest people I have ever met and I could not be more excited to help her make this covenant with the Lord.

We have some other investigators named Marcos and Carmen (we aren't sure if they are married...) but they are great! He has a lot of doubts about the Book of Mormon and reeeeaallly likes his bible! But I see a lot of potential in Carmen! She's always so attentive and receptive to everything so we're hoping to visit her more! It was funny though, someone had given Marcos a flyer and it was for a different church, but all of the pictures on the flyer were pictures from our church. Hahahaha they just take pictures off the internet down here and use them. I can't tell you how many times I've seen Zac Efron's face on a poster outside of a hair salon. hahaha

So once upon a time I had an intercambio with Hermana Wilson and she is awesome! But also, she has one transfer less than I do so we were always completely relying on the spirit and the gift of tongues hahaha there was only a few times we could not figure out what the people were saying, but it's because they were talking about something completely random so we're good haha. But it was super fun, she's super great and it was good to talk english for a while!

So funny story of the week, you guys probably wont think it's funny, but I'm going to tell you anyways. So close to where Marilyn lives there is this oh so super cute dog that is always just so happy! First to explain things here they have like a basket waaayy off the ground that they put their bags of garbage in so the dogs don't get it). Anyways, so we were walking past and someone had put our poor homeless doggy friend in the basket. So after laughing we took him out, gave him love, and went on our way. Then we walked past later that day and someone had put him in there again! Haha so we took him out again. I can't tell you how many times we've found the poor thing in the garbage. He's just so sweet and just sits there with his sad doggy eyes hahaha. I'm going to try to convince my president to let me keep him, we'll see how that goes hahaha.

Also, another fun thing. I had wet cement dropped on me hahaha that was a fun shower that day trying to get cement out of my hair hahaha. Oh Bolivia.

Well that's pretty much it for the day! Things are going great and I'm starting to love this crazy area. I hope you are all doing well and I love you all so much!! Have a wonderful week and I will talk to you all so soon!

With love

Hermana Higham

This is the cute dog that we found in the garbage basket

This is Marilyn (middle)

Marilyn is so great!

Hi

Holllllllllaaaaa. Sooo first of all WHAT EVEN WAS THIS PAST WEEK I FELT LIKE IT WAS LIKE TWO SECONDS LONG! And I can't even really remember all that even happened, but I'm going to try to remember! First of all, this past weeks weather has been the biggest blessing! It has been cloudy and rainy and COOL and I can actually not be as gross all the time, it's great! The only problem is walking through mud and puddles all day, but I'll take it for the weather! It's been wonderful!

Here's some random Bolivia facts for ya:

- so I saw a dog giving birth the other day and I have never been so traumatized in my life. And we were knocking on a door waiting for someone to answer and the dog decided to lay right next to us. Wow. it was so fun! hahhaha

-you would not believe how many random shoes there are in the streets. Like every 5 steps I feel like, there is a shoe just laying there. I haven't quite firgured it out quite yet WHY, but it's just... weird hahaha

-So there a bunch of litle store type things (like a snack shack kinda) and usually when people want something and the person isn't there they knock or say SENORA. Well, we were walking past one and there was a small child yelling Senora, but with like an echo effect and I could not stop laughing! "senora....enora.... nora...ora..." for like five minutes straight. Definitely made me smile after a long day of walking haha!

-we were in a micro the other day and man was that thing PACKED. I was literally hanging out the door holding on for dear life, it was pretty crazy but also really hilarious, especially when other people tried to squish on. There is no such thing as personal space here. hahaha

So let me get you up to date on Marilyn, so this past week we were a little worried that she was going to get back with her ex boyfriend and we did not want that! So we were like AHHH what do we do! BUT a miracle happened! We went over to her house one night and she was just SO sad, apparently her boy had said some mean things to her so we gave her lots and comfort and helped her realize that there is someone out there that will treat her with respect and will help her stay close to her savior. And she even said through her tears "I hurt, but I know that He knows the pain that I am going through, so that is helping me through it" WOW. She is awesome!!! She still hasn't accepted a day for baptism BUT we're hoping she does tonight! She's amazing! And is still teaching me words in Portuguese haha. 

Aaaand thats prettyy much it as investigators go, we haven't been able to find the other investigators we had before I got here. And its rough, not going to lie. We've been working really hard to find others to teach, but its not really working out. BUT I haven't lost faith! I feel like the Lord is working on me right now to make me worthy of the miracles and blessings that await us in this area! And I have very high hopes for this week and know that something great is going to happen! 

Also, General Conference was amazing!! Wow!! And I'm so grateful that they let us watch it in English!! They put all of us gringas in a little room with a tv so we could actually understand what was going on. It was amazing! And I definitely did not want it to end! If you didn't have the chance to watch it I definitely encourage you to do so! Those men are called of God and I know without a doubt they are representatives of Jesus Christ. And I definitely learned a lot about what I need to change, and that I need to ponderize a word every week. I'm stil laughing about that word.  Ponderize. haha.

Anyways, thats pretty much it for the week! I love you and and I hope that you are all doing well!! Have a wonderful week and always remember how much I love you all!

"As we extend our hands and hearts towards others in christlike love, something wonderful happens to us. Our own spirits become healed, more refined, and more receptive to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit." Dieter F. Uchtdorf

With love,

Hermana Higham

One Week Down In Los Olivos

Well hello there! I would just like you all to know that I have survived my first week in los olivos! And wow, is it soooo different than Tarija! First of all, the weather is soooo different and it is SO HOT! Like I thought I understood hot before I came here, but NOPE. I have never been so sweaty in my entire life and no matter how many times I shower, I am never clean! I'm always super sweaty and then in the beginning of the week it was sooo windy and all of our roads are dirt/sand so the dirt would just stick to me and at the end of the day it looked like I had either got home from the beach or a really long softball tournament. Lets just say that cold showers at night are my best friend haha. Luckily we have been so blessed with overcast skies and cooler weather these past few days, I am truly counting my blessings! Also, there are no mountains here so that was a big change from Tarija! Buuuut you are never going to believe how spoiled I am! Ready? So where I live they have security guards that guard the entrance to our building, we have an elevator, AND THEY HAVE WASHERS FOR US TO USE!!! I WANTED TO CRY I WAS SO HAPPY!! My clothes are finally going to be clean and I don't have to spend countless hours trying to hand wash them! ah! I am so blessed it's insane! So yeah, I'm being spoiled here so you don't have to worry about me! Also, they have grocery stores here. Also, my pensionista is amazing, she doesn't give us a mountain of food so I don't feel like I'm going to die after eating lunch every day! I might lose all the weight I gained in my other areas hahaha. Although I miss Tarija and Paraiso like crazy, I am definitely counting my blessings!!!

So this past week was pretty great and I'm still trying to figure out this confusing area haha. But it has been good! We have one investigator who is a hoot, but sometimes I just want to slap her because she's so frustrating hahaha (don't worry, I won't actually slap her hahaha) She's 18 and just had a baby a few months ago. She has struggled with drugs and has problems with her boyfriend, but even just in the week that I've been here we can see the change happening within her. She so great!! And she really likes to practice her English with me and we sometimes pray in Spanish with her... and sometimes she practices her Portuguese by praying with it hahah. So it's a whole mix of 3 languages whenever we go, she's a hoot! Maybe by the end of this area I'll know some Portuguese too. Her boyfriend also knows a few phrases in English and when we saw him the other day he said "y'all take care now ya hear. Peace out" and it made me feel so uncomfortable it was insane hahaha. But Marilyn is great and we're praying that she keeps progressing and doesn't move in with her boyfriend haha.

We also have another investigator named Daniela and she is also great! We only ever teach her in her doorway which can be a struggle, but she's great and we GOT HER TO PRAY LAST NIGHT! She started to pray and then stated to say "I can't do this" but me and Hermana Nahuel just kept our eyes closed and kept our heads bowed and finally she started to pray again and it was beautiful! And after she teared up a little bit and she said "I feel weird. But it's a good weird feeling". IT WAS AWESOME! We're hoping she progresses, the Jehovas Witneses have been visiting her to soooo... those silly Jehovas Witnesses haha.

That's pretty much it for investigators! We had a rough week trying to find people in there houses and we don't have very many people to teach which is hard. And a majority of our ward went to Cochabamba to the temple this past week so I still don't really know the ward, but with time I know I will grow to love them as much as I love my peeps in Paraiso haha. But it's great here. Hermana Nahuel is really nice and pretty much the prettiest person I have ever seen in my life. She will be dying in December so if I'm lucky, I might be killing her off. It's kind of fun to kill off missionaries because they leave behind things so it's pretty much like Christmas haha. But she's great and I'm glad to have her! Except I miss Hermana Arave soooo much (I hope you're reading this Hermana) hahaha. I hope you are enjoying your time with your family and that you gave my mom a big hug at your homecoming! Don't get married too fast, ya hear? hahaha

That's pretty much it for the week here in good ol Bolivia! I hope you are all having a great time in the good ol USA and are getting super excited for general conference this next week! I'M SO EXCITED!!

Here's a nice quote for the week by Neil L. Anderson

"We have taken His name upon us, and each week as we partake of the sacrament, we pledge that we will remember Him and keep His commandments. We are far from perfect, but we are not casual in our faith. We believe in Him. We worship Him. We follow Him. We deeply love Him. His cause is the greatest cause in all the world"

Love you all and have a fabulous week!

With love

Hermana Higham