Nuevo Compañero

I´ve got a new companion now, his name is Elder Jaime (hi-may) and is from Colombia.  He was in the Cochabamba, Bolivia mission, but with the mission split, the Santa Cruz mission also aquired the city of Tarija and all of the missionaries that were there.

All is going quite well here other that it rains a ton and it got cold again.  I am happy that I get to keep working in my same area, but with a different companion, and I hope that the 2 of us can really help the people here to know the gospel, and change their lives for the better as the result.

Elder Casdorph

Nuevo Presidente y Bowling

We´ve had a new president for about 2 weeks now, but I didn´t have any time last week to write about him.  His name is President Willard and is from Arizona.  He´s fairly young about 40-44 ish.  He and his wife learned to speak Spanish in their missions, but have forgotten a lot and are re-learning to speak fluently.  He has worked in church education as a seminary and institute teacher and comes with all of the awesome dorkiness associated with being a seminary teacher.  We had a zone meeting with him to get to know him a bit and ask some questions.  One elder asked him what were his favorite sports.  He said that he really liked basketball and soccer and that he also had a bit of a passion for ultimate frisbee.  When he said that, I couldn't help but raise a fist of pride in the air in the name of frisbee.  I´m pretty sure that he remembers me now as that one goofy missionary that likes frisbee way too much, but that´s alright because his last words to me as I shook his hand goodbye were, "¿frisbee algún día, no?" (frisbee someday, right?).

Another plus of the new president was that he gave us permission to go bowling as a zone (for some reason that I don´t understand, President Calderón told us that we couldn´t go bowling because it was too dangerous).  I was wondering what a Bolivian bowling center would be like, but as we entered the doors, to my surprise, I found myself in a "Cosmic Bowling" exactly the same as all of the Cosmic Bowlings in America.  The music was American, the bowling machines were in English, the bowling shoes were in American sizes, and the bathroom sign said "men".  I felt like I had somehow entered a portal back to the States.  I was able to enjoy a nice game of bowling, and even though I was bowling through my legs, behind the back, and left handed, I was able to finish in 2nd place with a grand score of 70 (Latinos don´t know how to bowl, especially because it was the first time for most of them).  To add to the American-ness, after bowling we went to Burger King (the only American fast food restaurant in the mission other than Subway).

Here are the pictures of our baptisms 2 weeks ago.  Their names are Victoria and Florencia Guzman and Eliana Machuca.

 [Note from the editor: Jack did not include any explanation for this picture.  Please enjoy a frog in a bowl...?]

Elder Casdorph

Se Habla "Registro" en Ingles

Last week I couldn´t write because we had to go back to the house to get a couple of registro bautismales (sorry... I don´t remember how to say registro in English, but some baptismal forms)  that we forgot, and we forfeited our internet time.  Catching up on the writing that I had to do last week, I'm out of time today as well, but [Andrea] can put some of that stuff that I wrote to [her], especially about the 4th of July, in the blog.

[Excerpt from Jack's letter to me]

Concerning the Fourth of July, I tried my best to celebrate it.  I decided to be as American as I could, eating a double-cheeseburger for breakfast, singing the National Anthem in the shower, etc.  I even suggested that in our zone meeting we could sing a Hymn in the English Hymnbook (number 340) but I got rejected.  There´s a strong possibility that I will be at home for the next 4th of July because the cycle of transfers got messed up with the mission split and everyone is going home 3 weeks earlier than the original plan.

-- Elder Casdorph

Happy Birthday!

This week went pretty well.  It was super cold, as low as 9 degrees Celcius, and rained the whole week.  We were able to get the permision for the twins´ baptism and also got their mom to come to church this week.  Things are going great and we will be having 3 baptisms this Saturday.

Sorry, I´m out of time, but it send pics and stories next week.

Elder Casdorph

[ A note from the editor: It is Elder Casdorph's birthday today.  I'm certain he would love to hear from each of you, and his mission rules have recently changed to allow him to email anyone he wants to.  You can reach him at

jack.casdorph@myldsmail.net

Thanks!  -- Andrea ]

Las Gemelas

We are teaching a couple of twin 12 year old girls who are the daughters of an inactive member.  It´s been tough because although they have an impressive gospel knowedge and want to go to the church and the activities, one of them wanted to get baptized and the other, no.  We had trouble finding out why, especially because ther mom, who turned away from the church because whe didn´t want to give up drinking, wasn´t helping us either.  After trying many times to talk to her mom and getting rejected, we found her raking the grass and offered to help.  She told us "no."  After trying unsuccessfully to talk to her about her daughters or help her rake, we turned around dismayed and started to walk away.

"Elders!" she yelled.

"Yeah?"

"Do you really want to help me?"

"Yeah, of course" we replied.

"I couldn´t sleep last night, I was so worried about all the things I have to get done.  Here, take the rake and I´ll go get another one"

We helped her rake the grass and she still didn´t want to talk, but asked us to help her with some other chores.  We then moved a pile of wood in her yard and found an killed a rat that was in her shed.  After 2 hours of helping her she opened up.

"I want my daughters to get baptized," she told us.  "I want them to get baptized, but I want it to be the both of them, not just one.  Florencia wants to get baptized, but Victoria´s brother told her that if she gets baptized her dad (who lives in the US) will stop sending her money."

We were able to talk to Victoria, and she´s now going to talk to her dad, who we hope won´t have a problem with her baptism.  It was amazing, however how much raking some grass and killing a rat really helped her mom - who came to church yesterday for the first time after years of inactivity.

If you really want to help somebody and don´t know how, go to their house and rake their grass.  He´ll open up and start to help himself.

Elder Casdorph

Nuevas reglas

They changed the rules about who we as missionaries are allowed to write. Before we could only write immediate family members, but now we can write friends, girlfriends, even friends in other missions.  It´s crazy now to hear from all of them and what missions they are in or hear that they are now married.

Things are going great here and I will now officially stay in the Bolivia Santa Cruz mission and not go the Santa Cruz North Mission when the mission splits.  It will be tough to be separated from my friends who are now in the North mission, but, I´ll get to meet some new missionaries that were part of the Cochabamba mission, but will now be part of Santa Cruz.

It´s crazy to thing that pretty soon I will have 1 year in the mission, time is flying so fast.  Anyway, there´s not much to write, but all is going well here.

Elder Casdorph

Nada

Sorry to all of those who were waiting anxiosly for my mission experiences this week, but I used almost all of my time in internet writing to other people or worrying about other things.

I will tell you that we had a baptism on Saturday and we are hoping to have 2 more possibly this Saturday or the next.  I´ll send pics next week.

Elder  Casdorph