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