Barefoot Soccer and Bolivian Santa

Nothing much to report this week, things are going decently with the new companion and we´re teaching and knocking on doors and doing the missionary stuff.  This Wednesday was the Census for all of Bolivia and apparently here, it´s against the law to leave your house in the morning on census day.  The missionaries were all told that we couldn´t leave our house for the whole day.  We studied, we slept, washed clothes and slept.  At about sixish, the Census had been over for a long time, and the majority of the people were out playing in the streets.  Right outside of our house was a group of members playing soccer in the street.  Wanting to play, my companion and I agreed that the portion of street was directly in front of our house, so by going into the street we weren´t technically leaving our house.  I got to play soccer barefoot in the street just like a little latino boy and it was a blast.

It´s weird to think that we are in the Christmas season as there is no sign of snow, Christmas lights, and few Christmas trees.  In fact, the most common Christmassy thing that I see are posters of Santa in a red-striped swimming suit drinking a pepsi.

Until Next Time
Elder Casdorph

Emergency Companion Exchange

I have a new companion. His name is Elder Vasquez and is from Santiago, Chile. He is the only member of the church in his family.  He´s a chubby fellow who looks kinda like Gabriel Iglesias and apparently enjoys field hockey.

I found out that he was to be my companion Monday night, just as p-day was ending and we were about to out and proselyte.  We got a call that there was to be an emergency companion exchange and Elder Garcia was to be ready to leave in an hour.  To be honest I wasn´t too happy and neither was Elder Garcia.

Those of you who know me well, know that I am terrible with both names and directions and well...being in a foreign country speaking a different language doesn´t really make it any easier.  Also, because my new companion is new to the area it´s my job to teach him who people are and where they live.  To make a long story short, we got lost a bunch this week because I couldn´t remember well where people lived or how to get there.  I was feeling pretty darn crappy, especially after one instance of looking for an investigator´s house (that I should know where it is) for about an hour and a half and not finding it.  I prayed...a lot. Now things are going better, and we´re working better.

Elder Casdorph

Four Months

Things are going well here.  I can communicate and even joke with people now.  It´s difficult, but I can usually do it. Also, the family that I live with wants to try to do a Thanksgiving dinner.  It won´t be the same, because here they don´t have some of the essential elements such as gravy or my family, but the fact that they want to try is nice.

We have not found any baptismal records for Elsa (our investigator who on the day of her baptism informed us that she was already a member) so we are either going to baptize her again or for the first time at an undetermined time during this week. Ismael (our investigator who asked to borrow a white shirt and tie to go to church, but still hasn´t worn them) will also be baptized this week on Saturday.

There is not much to report here this week other that the hotness of Santa Cruz continues to get hotter as we are entering into the summer season.  Next week, I should be able to include pictures of a smiling Ismael and Elsa dressed in white, and ready to enter the waters of baptism.

-Elder Casdorph

p.s. I officially have 4 months in the mission now as of today.