Unos Simples Testimonios

This week, I saw how it is that a few simple testimonies could really make a difference in somebody. In the second visit that we had with a young, single mother named Helen, we somehow managed to bring 3 different young adult members with us to the lesson (normally, we are extatic if 1 member goes with us) which was especially suprising because it´s cold here right now, and when it´s cold, the people here don´t leave their houses, sometimes not even to go to work or school.  These 3 valliant members walked about 10 blocks with us, and 2 of them completly soaked their shoes and feet in cold puddles of muddy rainwater.

We arrived at the appointment, and asked Helen if she had prayed to know if our message is true or not.  She started to tell us that she didn´t pray nor did she intend to do so, because she was catholic and had every inention of being Catholic the rest of her life because she was raised catholic and was rather content with catholicism. She told us that she was only listening to us because a good friend of hers had asked her to listen and that she thought that many of the things we taught were wierd and against her upbringing.

We decided to make use of the 3 members that were with us, as well as the other 2 members that rent a couple of rooms in the same house as Helen and had given us the referral to teach Helen.  We asked them to share their testimonies because 4 of the 5 were converts in the church and 2 of the 5 were returned missionaries.  They shared their testimonies and we almost didn´t even talk.

"Will you pray to know if our message is true?" we asked.

"Si"

"Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptised by someone who has the priesthood authority of God?"

"Si" she replied, "because I want to have the same change in my life that they had."

"We will be having a baptismal service June 21st. Will you prepare yourself to be baptised on that day?"

"Si"


At first she didn´t even want to thing about the possibility of our message being true, but thanks to a few simple testimonies from a few faithful members, she decided to accept getting baptized June 21st without the missionaries saying hardly anything.

Please share your testimony with somebody.  It will make a difference.

Elder Casdorph

Machetazos

I honestly don´t know what to write about any more.  The missionary work is going fantastically in my new area. We don´t have many investigators, but I feel like we are really helping a lot of less.active members and other members.  The whole missionary thing is pretty much the same as it has been for these last 22 months, so I thought I´d talk about something a bit different today, el carpir.

"Carpir" is a word used in the eastern part of Bolivia which basically means "to mow the lawn by hand".  There hardly aren´t such things as lawnmowers and weedeaters here, so the work is done with machetes and a tool similar to a hoe which is called "azadón".  In my time in Bolivia, I have become an expert carpidor.  We had a service project Saturday where 3 other Elders and I went to carpir a lawn.  The other 3 Elders are really new misionaries and never have carpido before.  I felt pretty awesome as they all asked me to show them how to cut the lawn with a machete. As I started to show them with my "hard-aquired machete skills" I stated to cut away at a bunch of tall weeds.  About 1'0 seconds later, my machete struck something hard and I heard "Pssssssssst" and found that I had taken a big chunk out of their water-line which was now spraying water everywhere.  We had to shut of the water in all their house, and then in addition to mowing ther lawn with machetes (which is no easy task) we had to fix their water line.  The family felt very thankful, even though I broke their water line and they went to church yesterday.

Cupesi y Cartagena

I got transfered this week.  I am now in Cupesí, which is in like the 8th to 10th ring on the East side of Santa Cruz (as shown in the map, Cupesí is the blue thing with a little church inside of it.

My new companion is Elder Garcia.  He´s from Cartagena Colombia (the same city and even the same ward as Elder Jaime, one of my companions like 8 months ago).  The area is fantastic and my new companion is awesome.  He´s the only member in his family and was baptized only 2 years ago because he had to wait to turn 18 to get baptized because his parents didn´t give him permission.  I´ll let you know next week  more about the new area.

Elder Casdorph