Noche blanca y Reinaldo

As I wrote last week, we are planning a noche blanca (night of a whole lot of baptisms) for the 16th of November.  We have the potential of baptizing 25 people (in the 4 branches in Bermejo) and 6 of those 25 baptisms will be my companion and I´s investigators.  We have the potential of doing it, but it will require a ton of work, prayers and miracles.

One of the fantastic investigators that will be getting baptized that day is Reinaldo.  I´m sorry, I don´t have much time to write about him, so I copied and pasted what I wrote about him to my mission president.  Sorry, it´s in Spanish, but I hope that google translate does the story justice.

Tuvimos muchos milagros con todos de nuestros investigadores éste semana.  Uno de esos es Reinaldo Orado, un investigador en nuestra área que tuvo un gran milagro éste semana. Él es el "esposo" de una menos activa en nuestra rama que recién vine desde el campo de Santa Cruz y quiere cambiarse y ser mejor padre. Sábado le enseñamos la Doctrina de Cristo y invitamos a bautismo para el 23. Él acceptó y estaba tan animado a bautizarse que pidió que adelantamos la fecha! 

Él dijo, "Oigan, hermanos. Ya estoy 9 meses sin alcohol, y estoy haciendo muchos cambios para estar mas con mi familia y voy a ir con ellos cada Domingo a la iglesia. Siento que debo bautizarme y quiero esto "nuevo comienzo" el mas pronto posible. Me dijieron que iba a ver muchos bautismos el 16. Depende de ustedes, yo no sé, pero ¿creen ustedes que yo puedo estar listo el 16?"

Sintiendo tan felices, le dijimos que si. Le di un folleto de la ley de castidad para leer antes de la próxima cita.

Ayer en la iglesia nos dijo, "Oigan hermanos, yo estaba leyendo el librito que me dieron, como yo quiero bautizarme no, como les dijo y allí dijo que para bautizarme tengo que estar casado, y yo no estoy casado."

Luego el habló con el presidente de rama y le dijo que quería casarse y bautizarse.

Estamos super-felices para él y para todos.

The Google Translate / Andrea-edited version:

We had many miracles with all of our investigators this week. One of those is Reinaldo Orado, an investigator in our area that had a great miracle this week. He is the "husband " of a less active in our branch that just came from the area of ​​Santa Cruz and wants to change and be a better father. Saturday we taught the doctrine of Christ and invited him to baptism for the 23rd. He was so animated [that after he accepted and asked how] to be baptized, we advanced the date!

He said, "Hey, brothers, [for 9] months I [have had] no alcohol, and am making many changes to be more with my family, and I will go with them to church every Sunday. [I am excited] to be baptized, and I want this "new start " soon as possible. I was [already] going to see many baptisms on the 16th. [It] depends on you; I do not know, but do you think that I can be ready the 16th?"

Feeling so happy, we said yes . I gave him a brochure of the law of chastity to read before the next appointment.

Yesterday at church said , "Hey brother, I was reading the book I got, as I want to be baptized now, as I said, and there [it said] that to be baptized [I have] to be married, and I'm not married."

Then he spoke with the branch president and said he wanted to marry and be baptized. 

We're super happy for him and for everything.

I´ll let you all know more about the noche blanca next week.  We are gonna go to Santa Cruz Monday and Tuesday, so I won´t get the chance to write home until Wednesday, but at that point, all of the baptisms for the 16th should be in the bag.  I hope all is going well back in the states and hope to hear from you guys too.

Elder Casdorph

ps. we´re making t-shirts for the noche blanca, and attatched is the design that my companion and I made.

Noche Blancazo

In the zone of Bermejo (by the way I´m zone leader now), we are planning a noche blanco (white night), which is a day when a whole ton of people get baptized, for November 16.  We have been trying to excite the zone for a few weeks to search and teach like crazy to prepare people to be baptized the 16th.  Right now, we have more that 20 people with baptismal dates to be baptized the 16th.  In the 3 months before I arrived in Bermejo, only 1 person got baptized, September was 5 people, and October was 4 people.  Now we´re talking 20 people...in the same day.  All of the members and missionaries are super-pumped for the 16th and my companion and I as the zone leaders have promised that if we have more that 20 baptisms that day, we will call the mission president and beg him to come to Bermejo to preside the baptismal service.

I´ll let you all know next week if we´re gonna have the 20 that we´re hoping for.

Elder Casdorph

El mismo Bermejo

Very little to report here.  Everything is pretty much the same here in Bermejo.  Everything is going great between Elder Brasher and I.  Many of our investigators stopped progressing, so in this week, we were starting over finding new people and knocking a TON of doors.  It is interesting because my companion and I actually really like knocking doors.  Elder Brasher has a special rock that he uses to knock the doors that he has carried around with him for like 10 months now.  I also have my own toca-puerta(doorknocker) that is a rusty, old bolt that I have been carrying aroung in my pocket every day for a couple of months.  We have found some great, new investigators in this week, and we will see how things go with them.

It´s hot here now. Really hot. And they say that it´s only gonna get hotter.  There is honestly very little to report here, especially because my computer keeps randomly turning off every 8 minutes, but I promise an awesome email full of exciting stories next week.

Elder Casdorph

El Gran Cambio a la Rama Bolivar

The exchanges came (exchanges? I´m pretty sure thats how you say cambios in English) and I got...changed?...transferred? I´m sorry.  My English is severely suffering, but the point of the story is that I am now serving in a new area and with a new companion.  I am still in Bermejo, but now in a different area.  In the house where I was living there are 2 companionships or 2 areas.  I got changed from one of these areas to the other, so my big transfer just meant moving all of my stuff across the hall.  I still live in the same house as my old companion, so I still get to ask him how things are going with Fernando, the branch, and our investigators.

My new area is Bolivar 1 (the old one was 1 de Mayo 1), and my new companion is Elder Brasher from Oklahoma.  This is my first time in the whole mission being with a gringo companion and what makes it even better is that we are from the same group and were in the same district in the MTC in Lima, Peru.  It´s cool to see how much we have both progressed after leaving the MTC.  We get along great and all is going just fine.

When I went to church on Sunday, a ton of the members told me, "you look just like the Elder that is in the other branch!" and I enjoyed responding, "I am the elder that was in the other branch."  Anyways, there are a lot of new things with being in a new area, but at the same time, I´m still living in the same house, so everything feels pretty much the same.

Elder Casdorph

Fernando Mercado

Today, I wanted to write about our recent convert, Fernando Mercado. He´s such an interesting person, that it will be impossible to convey who he really is with just words and pictures, but those are the only means that I have to describe him so they will have to suffice.

When we found Fernando, he seemed like just a long-haired guy without a job who lived with his mom.  He lacked social skills, such as eye contact and bathing regularly.  The first time we talked to him, he didn´t even want to talk to us, but we sensed something special about him, so after 20 minutes of talking to him through the window, we persuaded him to accept that we could come beck the next day at 3 in the afternoon. We returned the next day, and after some more persuading, he accepted us into his house.

He entered into his room a few minutes and then came out with an old Book of Mormon in his hand.  He showed it to us and we found out that he had read the whole book and marked his favorite parts with blue highlighter.

He told us that a few years ago the missionaries had visited his sister and given her the Book of Mormon.  A year ago Fernando (who told us that he was never really the religious type) decided to read a bible that someone else had given to his grandpa many years ago.  The person who had given this Bible to his grandpa had written something in the cover about finding the true religion and that when he read that, he felt a strong desire to find the true religion or true church.

He started reading, and really liked what he read, so he kept reading until he read the WHOLE thing.  He said that at the end, he read something that Moroni wrote that told him that he had to pray to know if it was true.  I assume that he was referring to Moroni 10:3-5 which says:

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

He said that he prayed and that the holy ghost testified to him that it was true.

That whole experience with the book of Mormon happened BEFORE we even knew him.

Despite having a testimony, Fernando had a great deal of mountains to cross before getting baptized.  At first, he didn´t want to go to church because he didn´t feel worthy. Later, he didn´t want to go to the activities because of his basic fear of crowds and people. Later, he didn´t want to get baptized because he didn´t feel fully repented.  During this month, I have seen Fernando change.  In such a short time, he went from a shy, antisocial, long-haired kid - to the guy with one of the most beautiful testimonies of the Book of Mormon that I have ever heard, but didn´t want to go to church - to the young man who thought that he wasn´t worthy to participate in the atonement of Jesus Christ - the guy that a day before his baptism randomly decided that it would be a good idea to go with the missionaries and get a haircut - the shy kid who didn´t want to leave the bathroom in his baptismal clothing because he was too shy - the new convert who despite his shyness, decided on his own to bear un hermoso testimonio (beautiful testimony) in the baptismal service - the recent convert who went to all 5 sessions of General Conference and has now been interviewed to receive the Aaronic Priesthood.

Two weeks ago, he wouldn´t even look us in the eye when he shook our hands.  Now he goes with us on missionary visits, jokes with the investigators, greets everyone with some-sort of goofy secret handshake, and shares his powerful testimony fearlessly with everybody that we talk to.

I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to know and teach Fernando, and I anxiously await the day when I get to hear about his mission call.

-Elder Casdorph

Bermejo Part 2

I would like to tell you all a bit more about Bermejo.  Bermejo was formerly part of the mission Cochabamba, Bolivia, but is now part of the Santa Cruz mission due to the mission split in Santa Cruz.  This is the first transfer cycle in which missionaries from the Santa Cruz mission have entered into Bermejo, so the majority of the missionaries here are from the Cochabamba mission.  The Cochabamba mission was extremely loose in regards to following the mission rules, so many of the missionaries have a lot of trouble with obeying the rules and as their district leader, I will be helping them to obey better.

We have an investigator who is a member referral.  When we talked to him for the first time, he told us that he had a Book of Mormon, he read it all, and that he knew that it is true.  He wants to get baptized, but he didn´t want to come to church because he had a bad experience with a member at church.  After teaching him 2 or 3 times, he asked us, "I have to go to church, don´t I".  "Yeah, yeah you do," I replied.  He came to church yesterday and stayed for the whole 3 hours and is excited to get baptized the 28th of September.

In other news, Bermejo is hot...really hot.  Spring is just barely starting and I´m already dying of heat.  I don't think I´ll ever think of Utah summer as hot ever again because I´m pretty sure that the peak of summer in Utah is like the winter here.

Elder Casdorph

Bermejo

I received the call Wednesday at 9:30 pm that I was getting transferred to Bermejo, Tarija, Bolivia and that I had to be ready at Thursdsay 4:00 am to go to the airport. I arrived at the airport at 5:30 am, checked my bags, and departed for Cochabamba at 6:30 am. After a layover in Cochabamba, we took off again headed for Tarija we arrived in Tarija at 9 am where they dispatched us to the bus terminal to take a trufi (a van that´s something in-between a taxi and a bus) to Bermejo.  At the terminal, they told us that it would be impossible to go to Bermejo because the road to Bermejo was blocked off by some protesters and that we would have to wait until the protests stopped.  I went to eat lunch with another elder who was waiting for his companion to arrive from Santa Cruz and then returned to the terminal where we waited until 6:30 pm when we received news that the protests had ended.  After the 3 hour trufi ride, I arrived in Bermejo at 9:30 at night.  I met my companion, we planned for the next day and I prepared a tiny bit for the district meeting the following day (by the way I got called as a district leader a month and a half ago).

I´ll let you all know more about Bermejo next week, but basically it´s a smallish town on the Argentinian border that´s a lot like Yacuiba.  It´s the hottest part of the Bolivia, Santa Cruz mission and one of the top 3 hottest places in all of Bolivia (possibly the hottest, depending on who you ask).  It´s extremely dusty (as you can see in the pics) and the air usually had a thick haze of dust that almost looks like fog.  It was formerly part of the Cochabamba mission and as such, more than half of the missionaries are from the Cochabamba mission as well.  I´ll let you all know more next week, but I´ll tell you right now that it´s really hot and it´s only going to get hotter (as hot as 50 degrees celcius).

Until Next Time,
Elder

Casdorph