3rd Cambio. 3rd Area. 3rd Companion

Wowowowowwwwww the mission is just all sorts of surprises! So first off I just thought I would let you know that I have been transferred AGAIN and I am now in Santa Cruz. QUE EN EL MUNDO!! Our flight was at 8:30 this morning and it was the worst thing of my life haha. I just want an area longer than 6 weeks, thats all I want! I was like 500 percent sure that I was going to stay in Paraiso because Hermana Arave was leaving, but I guess not! My new companion is Hermana Nahuel from Chile and she is great! Santa cruz is sooo different from Tarija, it's so hot, humid, and the wind here is insane! It picks up the dirt and the dirt just flies into your skin and its probably the most painful thing ever haha. This will definitely be an adventure!

So let me tell you about this past week. On Tuesday I went on an intercambio with Hermana Cabana and it was great except for no one was in their house BUT it was still great and I learned a lot from her! Then on Friday morning we got a call from president saying that we wanted us to go with the other Hermanas in Paraiso and we really didn't know why, but we did it anyways, so I went with Hermana Morrocco for a few hours on Friday which was good! But then this past week we were frantically trying to find a house and on Saturday we received a phone call that we only needed to look for a house for 2 Hermanas soooo then it made sense- they were shutting down one of the areas. So words cannot express the anxiety knowing that 2 of us would stay and one of us would go, and I did not think it was going to be me, but here I am hahaha. Crazy how that works right? It was funny, everyone was saying goodbye to Hermana Arave yesterday and then to me it was like "see you next week". So sad. I've decided that I'm not going to get attached to people just in case I get switched again haha. I'm just hoping and praying that the other Hermanas treat my investigators well!

Let me just tell you about Lucinda. So we only had one visit with her this week and I wasn't there, it was Hermana Arave and Romero and remember how she didn't want to be baptized till May, yeah well they got her to accept this Saturday and I was freaking the freak out. I was so shocked! And a little nervous cause we still had a bunch of lessons to teach her and I was still unsure that she has a true testimony. She doesn't read or pray so I was so nervous! But we were going to try to visit her everyday to make sure she was ready buuuuut she left somewhere and we don't know when she's coming back soooo I'm not sure that baptism is going to be happening this week haha. But she's great. And her dog is just as scary as ever. We had another horrifying experience with it! The gate was closed and the dog was behind it so we thought we were safe, then all of a sudden the wind blows so hard that the gate comes open and out runs killer Jack and I literally saw my life flash before my eyes hahaha. But I survived so it's all good.

This last week was just really weird. Lots of intercambios, lots of not wanting Hermana Arave to leave me, lots of bug bites, and lots of stress about the house and the area. It was pretty crazy. But now I'm just in Santa Cruz and don't have to worry about all that anymore so thats always a blessing!

So hey have you guys ever heard of the red balloon? There's one in Sandy... anyways, so I met the dad of the owner of red balloon. He lives here in Bolivia and he is probably the coolest person ever! So if you have the chance to go there, let me know what it's like hahaha. Also, you guys should go to Hermana Arave's homecoming this Sunday! She's awesome!

I don't have a cool quote for you guys this week, my notebook is somewhere in my frantically packed luggage that I have yet to unpack. So just pretend that I just told you a way cool quote and inspired you to change your life.

Anyways, this keyboard is really hard to type on so I'm going to call this good. I love you all so very much and hope you all have a wonderful week!!

With love,

Hermana Higham

WOWOWOWOW

Hola everyone! Seems like just yesterday I was just sitting in this internet place emailing you like yesterday but it’s fine! My area is really close to the airport so sometimes theres just this loud noise and you think I would get used to it since I’ve been here for like a month but I guess not, I still mess up typing when it happens hahaha. Anyways, this week was great! Me and my companion still a little rough hahaha we are still trying to stay healthy, my stomach is getting better though but then my companion got a cold and is about to lose her voice haha so we’re hoping this week we’ll have a successful week of not being sick. It’s been a struggle haha.



So something fun that happened this week is that is pretty fun, so President Uceda from the seventy came and we had a conference from him like all day on Saturday which was incredible! He is awesome and we all left so inspired and uplifted and it was amazing, I wish you all could have been there! But one thing that I absolutely loved was how he was talking to us about our personal study of the scriptures. He said that us as members of the church just go through the motions of reading our scriptures and we don’t really study them, so he encouraged us to really dive into the scriptures and to find the hidden secrets that are in there. It was awesome! So I encourage you all to do the same, really get into the scriptures! And when you do, you will find and get so much more out of it! It was awesome! We also weren’t able to eat with our pensionista that day so we made tacos and may I just say they were some pretty awesome tacos so that made the day even better! Haha.



So yesterday we had an AMAZING visit with Blanca, she is incredible! First of all, we were actually able to sit down and talk with her instead of standing there in her tienda haha. It was so great! And not only that, apparently her parents had investigated the church like 40 years ago and SHE HAD THEIR OLD BOOK OF MORMON AND HYMN BOOK!! It was awesome, they are so old and so cool! So that was awesome! And she was telling us yesterday how her parents didn’t keep going with the church because the missionaries pushed them too hard to get baptized and so they don’t really like missionaries and they keep trying to get her away from us, but she is awesome and refuses to! She told us how she knows how serious baptism and how she needs to take it seriously and she really wants to know when the Lord wants her to be baptized so she’s going to pray about it, she’s awesome! She also told us how she can see such a great change in her life  and how she just feels different after we’ve been teaching her, it’s amazing! She’s amazing! Her testimony is so strong! And she’s giving us references and says that if we ever need someone to come to us with appointments to call her, she’s awesome!



We also had a meeting with Lucinda, she’s also very awesome but wayyy hard. We’re having a hard time helping her understand everything. She comes to church every week, but we think it’s just because she comes with the old lady she works for and lives with. We’re trying hard to help her understand more but she just doesn’t get it. So this week we’re really going to get to her heart and see why she lets us come and why she comes to church. Also, she says she wants to be baptized, but not until next may haha. So we’re hoping to help her develop her testimony and help her come to her Savior.



Soooo we had another activity this week and it was such a great turnout! We had over 100 people there!!! And so many members brought their friends, it was so great! I’ve loved seeing the numbers going up every week and seeing our ward get more animated about missionary work! It was a night of desserts and we shared a short message then everyone just ate desserts that other people brought, it was awesome!! We’re hoping our talent show goes super well this week and that we get a bunch of references (our members cant come in unless they bring a non member friend or have a reference for us, it'll be awesome hahaha). There are a lot of random things people are planning to do, lots of singing… lots of acting (hahahaha) and just a lot of primary dances so we’ll see how it goes, I’ll let you know hahaha.



Oh so fun story. So our landlord has been so hard to work with and hasn’t told us how much we owe for our apartment for a while and it’s just a mess and so our elders were talking to him and they told him that we’re looking for a new house and that we’ll be out by October 1. Soooo that was some fun news to find out that we’re moving and now we’re frantically trying to find a house and it’s so stressful theres like NOTHING and the one we did find is being looked at by other people and the other one only has one bathroom for all us 4 hermanas hahaha so that could be fun. So that was a fun stressor for the week. Hope we find a house and if not I might be buying a tent and living on the street! Hahahahaha also my companion is leaving me soon and I don't know how I feel about it. hahaha



That’s pretty much it for the day but I’d love to end with a quote that I absolutely LOVED this past week: “I marvel to think that the Son of God would condescend to save us, as imperfect, impure, mistake-prone, and ungrateful as we often are. I have tried to understand the Savior’s Atonement with my finite mind, and the only explanation I can come up with is this: God loves us deeply, perfectly, and everlastingly. I cannot even begin to estimate “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height… [of] the love of Christ.”President Dieter F Uchtdorf



He loves us so much! No matter who we are, what we have done, or where we are at, he loves us more than we can comprehend and he continually has his hands outstretched towards us. I hope you all know how loved you are and that you all have SO MUCH worth. I love you all so much! Thank you for all your love and support! You are all amazing and I hope lives are going well for you in the good ol’ US! Have a wonderful week and I’ll talk to you all so soon! And BE SAFE!



With love



Hermana Higham

A Week Full Of Surprises

Well hello all you lovely people! So this week was definitely different than a lot of other weeks here out in good ol' Bolivia!! First of all, the weather here is absolutely unpredictable. The beginning of the week was SOO hot and we were constantly sweating, which was super gross. Then halfway through the week it took a 180 turn and it was way cold and I had to pull my coats and winter clothes out again. Oh Bolivia. Haha. Also, fun story, so pretty much us 3 gringas in our house were sick. From Thursday to Saturday we were suuuper sick and yesterday we were still on our way to recovery. We thought we had food poisoning, but we're still not sure but it was brutal hahaha. We were bedridden on Thursday and Friday and we could only leave for a few hours on Saturday. It's been rough! And what really stinks is that we missed our fun activity we planned in the church on Thursday and we had to put the elders in charge of it which was pretty horrifying because, well, elders. Haha just kidding, they did great and we heard that we had over 80 people there and there were a lot of non member friends there! These activities are working and we're getting so many new people to teach! It's great! Our acitivity this week is going to rock the socks off of everybody, we're having a night of desserts where people are going to bring treats and the winner of the best dessert gets a prize, so we're pretty excited about that one haha! Another bummer of being sick is that we missed our interviews with president... ha... it's fine, I've only been waiting my whole mission to hear some personal and inspiring words from him. But he was able to come over and give us blessings which I am so grateful for! He and Hermana Willard are the best in the world! Can't wait for my interview with him in 3 months! Haha. But don't worry mom, I am feeling a lot better today!! 

Another crazy thing happened, they took Hermana Dolbin from us this morning! She had an emergency transfer and a few people were all switched around this morning so now there are no longer 3 gringas in our house. I knew it was too good to be true, I guess we were just having a little too much fun! I just don't know what I'm going to do when people don't randomly get taken out of my life in the middle of a transfer! Haha the mission life is just always so full of surprises! But hey, I guess that's what keeps things exciting right?

We weren't able to meet with a lot of people this week because of the illness, but it was still a great week none the less! We had an amazing conference with President and Hermana Willard about Light and it was beautiful. I always leave those conferences feeling so edified and wonderful! The gospel is just so wonderful and I want to shout it from the rooftops! 

So this week, I have really grown closer to my savior Jesus Christ. Through this super fun and exciting sickness, I have come to learn a little bit more about the atonement of Jesus Christ. Here is a fun quote that I was able to come across this week in my studies:

"There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of weakness we may cry out, 'no one knows what it is like. no one understands.'But the son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens."

-David Bednar

He knows exactly what each and every one of us are going through at each moment of every day. He knows our pains, our weaknesses, our sufferings, but he also knows our joys. He is the only person who knows you perfectly and knows exactly how you feel. I love my savior with all of my heart and I am eternally grateful for his atoning sacrifice and love. He lives!!

I hope you all are having a wonderful life! I am loving life down here in Bolivia and wouldn't want to be anywhere else! Thank you for all your love and support! Have a wonderful week!! Love you all!

Hermana Higham

So once upon a time we had a family home evening with some members and the man says “would you like to meet my grandfather Juan?” and of course I was like WHOA yeah I do he’s probably like 140 years old!! Well…. Then he walks in with this box… and.. well… I met juan…. Hahaha it was one of the funniest things that has happened that’s for sure. Oh Bolivia!

We said goodbye to Hermana Dolbin

Another Week In Paraiso

Hola familia! Como estan? Aaaaaaaand that's about it folks, you'd think that after being in Bolivia for a while now that I would start to learn more Spanish, but nope. Hahahaha chiste I know more Spanish than that, I just sound really really gringa when I talk hahahaha but people get a good laugh when I talk so at least I'm making people happy right? haha. So this last week was pretty great! Lots of work that's for sure! And its starting to get SO HOT. Like this is only spring here I don't know what I'm going to do when summer hits! I'm just really grateful that I'm not in Santa Cruz right now cause I would definitely be dying in the heat hahaha. But this week was awesome even though its hot! I literally have the best companion in the world and we are constantly having a party while doing the Lords work. Like she makes missionary work super fun and I'm so grateful to have her as a companion! She's awesome! And she understands me when I'm having medical problems. It's great and I don't want her to leave me in like 3 weeks, I'm probably going to die. haha. Anyways. 

Soooo good news! We had 3 investigators come to church this past week and they are AWESOME! Lucinda is just golden, but also still really timid and shy, but we're hoping to have her open up to us with time haha. She's awesome! This past week she was asking about baptism and was telling us how she wants to wait til next year to be baptized, but I think with more and more time she's liking the idea of being baptized sooner! The only problem is that she doesn't really have a true testimony herself, she just wants to get baptized cause that's what people do. So we're trying to help her understand why baptism is important and help her develop her faith more. But she's awesome! She's reading and praying! Which is awesome! It's hard to get her to read because she doesn't really know Spanish so it's hard for her to understand... and they don't really have a Ketchawa BOM....like they do, but we don't have them to give her sooo... haha. But we're working with her and we're slowly helping her learn about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. But she is awesome and absolutely adorable! But we're still scared to death of her dog, it almost killed my companion the other day so now we have to protect ourselves with large sticks and rocks hahaha. But cool experience! The other day we prayed before turning the corner to her house and we prayed that the dog wouldn't open his mouth and that we would be safe and when we saw the dog it didn't even try to bite us and then it would randomly run away! It was great!!! Prayer is amazing and this church is so true! Also, I hate that dog. hahaha

Blanca is also doing really great! She has such a strong testimony and is just absorbing everything we're throwing at her! You can just see the change in her and see that she has this new light about her. It's awesome, she's so cute! We only got to see her once this past week because she had lots of tests for her college but this week we're hoping to see her more, she is great!

We also got this new investigator last week! We stole her from the elders... hahaha... apparently she kept having really bad nightmares the nights that the elders would come sooooo she didn't want them to come anymore, but she lets us come! So yay! Haha she's awesome though! It was pretty freaky though, we went to their house and they were just telling us how all of them were having nightmares and how they would hear things at night and how they think their house is haunted... so that was really fun. So we're going to talk to bishop and see what we can do for them cause that's pretty freaky. But she's awesome and we're hoping she progresses! 

Soooo I'm about to tell you something really fun. So once upon a time we had a zone meeting about talking to the bishop and figuring out how to work with him to see how we can get more references and so we did and we had this idea about having activities to get the members excited about missionary work and having activities that they could invite their friends and family too. We're having a competition to see which group (relief society, yw, ym, etc) can bring the most references by the end of the month and whoever does were buying them a pizza and ice cream party hahaha. Anyways, so last night was like the kick off of the activity and it was a family home evening and it was PERFECT. We had been studying light for our conference coming up and I had read a quote that said "a candle that lights another loses no light itself" so we based our activity off of that! We were in the chapel and we had all the lights turned off and we got some recent converts to share their testimony about how others shared the gospel with them and when they did they had a flashlight and kept it on as the next person talked. We had others that wanted to share as well get up and by the end of the activity there were so many lights lit and it was just so spiritual and so wonderful! it turned out perfect and so many people are so willing to bring their friends to the next activity. So our whole ward is just so excited to share the light of the gospel now! And it was a great turnout! We had 60 people there which never happens! The bishop got up at the end and bore his testimony about how others shared the gospel with him and how this activity was an answer to his prayers because of things that had been happening in the ward. It was INCREDIBLE. There were some members who had brought non member friends and at the end they all wanted us to come visit them! It was great and turned out way better than we thought! It was just another testimony builder that this gospel is so true! The spirit was so strong and the people who came could see the importance of sharing the light of the gospel. We are hoping these next activities bring us more success in our ward and we can help others come unto the light of the gospel.

This week was really so great! So much success has come out of this past week and this gospel is just so true! I love being a missionary with all of my heart and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I love and miss you all so please keep writing me! I love hearing from you! Have a wonderful week and remember to share the light of the gospel.

With love

Hermana Higham

We planned an awesome family night.

We just really love ice cream!

We are adorable

Selfie game is so strong

We love taking selfies together

We are amazing cooks