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!