Wishing a Merry Christmas

I´m so happy that I won´t have to hear any more questions about the end of the world.  My whole time in Bolivia, people have been asking us what the church says about the whole Mayan end of the world thing.  The number and frequency continued to escalate until it reached a maximum of about 80% of the people would ask us about this on the 20th and 21st.

In other news, our baptism this Saturday ended up not happening because the Dragon´s uncle came Thursday night and dragged an unhappy Dragon to Santa Cruz to live and work there for a couple of years.  Dragon didn´t want to go, but he apparently didn´t have much of a choice.  All that we can do now is give his address to the missionaries where he is so that they can baptize him.

We should be having a different baptism, however, this coming Saturday.  Eber Choque (the one person who actually listened to our invitation to go to the church when all we did was talk to him on his doorstep) now has received basically all of the lessons, has a strong testimony, and has gone to church 3 times.  Assuming that nothing crazy happens between now and Saturday, he will be getting  baptized this Saturday.

For Christmas we will be doing nothing special other than calling our families, but I am looking forward to that call.

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and
Until next time..

Elder Casdorph

A Bunch of Huasca

We had a conference my zone, which consists of 8 elders, and the president.  We were taught a bunch, given a bunch of huasca (which basically means verbal punishment, but I can´t remember a good way to say it in English, so huasca), and then we played some futbol with the president and he took us out to a nice dinner. In summary, it was a good conference.

In other news, Dragon Hitler Fernandez will be getting baptised this Saturday and then Elber Choque will be getting baptised the following saturday.  It´s crazy hot here, but I am thoroughly enjoying the opportunity that I have to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ here.

I hope that all is going well in this Christmas Season and bid all of you a Merry Christmas,

Elder Casdorph

Dragon Hitler, Bruce Lee, and Van Damme

Everything is going well here.  It´s super hot, but awesome. As demonstrated nicely by the fact that my new zone is on a futbol field and the old one is in a church, the new zone is a bit more fun.  There´s something much more fun and exciting about being out of the city of Santa Cruz.  This 22 of December, we will be having a baptism of a 19 year old investigator named Dragon Hitler.  Yes, his name is Dragon Hitler.  I don´t remember his last names, but his 2 first names are Dragon Hitler, and his brothers are Bruce Lee and Van Damme.  What his parents were smoking when they named their children I don´t know, but in this week Dragon received a testimony, he is going to church, and is progressing awesomely.

Other than my dominant reason for serving a mission, which is to help people to know the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I also wanted to have some of those crazy experiences and stories that returned missionaries always seem to have.  Yesterday, Yacuiba (my new area) delivered.  One of the atttched photos is my journal entry of this experience.

Today, I also experienced one of those crazy stories that missionaries always have.  We were talking to a guy who was a bit drunk and trying to set up an appointment to talk to him when he wouldn't be drunk.  He asked why we couldn't meet with him right then.  "Well, frankly sir, because you're drunk," we replied.  "yeah, I've been drinking, but I can still understand you.  Let's talk," he replied.  We explained to him that he might be able to understand us, but that in his drunken state, he wouldn't be able to feel the spirit.  As drunk people often tend to do, he started to get angry.  As his anger escalated, we realized that the conversation was going nowhere good, so we bascially said, "We'll talk to you later when you're sober," and started to walk away.  He followed us yelling some stuff.  We walked faster.  He matched our speed and continued yelling.  My companion started to job and I joined him.  The drunk continued to follow.  We started running and zigzagging through random streets and alleys to try to shake him.  We couldn't run very fast, however, because we also had with us our 51 year old ward missionary leader who was sick with a fever and couldn't run very well.  After darting down a few streets, we'd slow down thinking that we had lost our drunk pursuer.  A few seconds later, he'd appear shouting, "Amigos!"  Then we'd take flight again.  We did this 2 or 3 times before we finally lost him.

I hope everything is going well back in the States in this Christmas season, and if anybody wants to sent some emails to a heatstroked missionary in Bolivia, my email is Jack.Casdorph@myldsmail.net

Elder Casdorph

Infierno Verde

(not a picture from Jack... just Google)

Definitely the most interresting thing that happened this week was that I got transferred.  I am now serving in the city of Yacuiba (on the border of Bolivia and Argentina) with Elder Mallea (an Elder from La Paz, Bolivia with 6 months in the mission and basically my same size and build).

Yacuiba, also known as the infierno verde (green hell) is as it´s nickname suggests.  It has many small mountains (or large hills) covered in gorgeous trees and greenery.  It is also insanely hot.  Santa Cruz was super hot and humid, but here is even hotter and well, the humidity is the same as you can´t really have any more than 100%.

The people are a bit poorer than my other area and a tiny bit more open to recieve the gospel.  So far things are going great here. My companion and I get along very well, and we have been working crazy hard in these few days that we have together.  While I will miss being able to go to the air-conditioned supermarket and buy American products like BBQ sauce and peanut butter, I kinda like being farther away from civilization.

Next week I should be able to say more about the missionary work in Yacuiba, but until next time,

Elder Casdorph

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.