Yacuiba is killing Hermana Cedeno

Shout. Outs.

To the Achievement day Girls in my ward!! They're learning about missionary work, the best work there is. Sometimes it's so hard. But I actually JUST figured out this week, that every time the thought "this is too hard" pops into my brain, I'm thinking about ME.

When really.. who should I be thinking about? CHRIST.

That's all missionary work is. The pure love of Christ. Turning outwards instead of inwards. Thank you cute girls for your hard work and all that you do. Continue being examples to those around you. Always remember to turn outwards to others. And when things are hard, remember... Jesus loves you. xoxo

Also. Tuesday was Earth Day. So… yay Earth. Haha

The 29^th of this month is my friend Rachel Boaz's birthday. She´s serving in Washington State right now and loving it! HBD, Rach.

The 3^rd of May is McKinley´s birthday! My sweet little cousin – 9 years old! I can´t believe it´s already been a year since I spoke at her baptism. Happy Birthday, kin! 

 

 

This week was rough. Lets start with the good.

Monday was good.

We had a zone activity for p-day. I like zone activities here in Yaquiba because there are only 14 missionaries here, rather than the 40 there were in Tarija. So we do fun stuff. We went to the church, the only place in this country that there's an "All-American-Oven" and we made baked goods. And finger painted.

Hard-core Relief Society and Primary all in one. We had fun :-)

And after that… the week just went down hill.

That night, Monday night, we went and visited a less Active family, la Familia Tangara. The parents have gone to the temple and everything, they were so strong in the church! And something happened between the wife and another member in the ward and she said that she "will never go back".

It was like a punch in the face.

The worst part?

So many generations of strong members will be lost. The familia Tangara consists of 10 children.. all under the age of 15. The cutest kids EVER. They need the gospel so bad, and the whole family KNOWS that the Gospel is true. But the smallest things are keeping them from living what they know.

Okay. Right now, I'm going to tell you all a story.

It's about this girl named Hermana Cedeño. And she has gigantic hair.

And her life was fine with her gigantic hair. Until one day, Heavenly Father sent her to Yacuiba. Where the water is completely… horrible.

So Hermana Cedeño showers. She showers every day. And washes her hair. Every day. With this water.

Then. Hermana Cedeño's hair starts to fall out. By the freaking handful.

And then she starts to cry. And she goes and talks to the other sisters that live with her, with a handful of hair. Her hair. Crying.

So then, Hermana Lopez says "Oh. My. Gosh. It's okay, don’t cry, I'm going to fix it. It's fine."

And Hermana Lopez sits Hermana Cedeño down, pulls out scissors and hair oils from this heavenly place called "The United States of America" and goes to work.

And now Hermana Cedeño doesn't have hair. Because we had to cut it off. 

And she's way ugly. Because Yacuiba freaking hates her.

So there's that fun story.

Someone send me something. A 911 hair emergency package.

"PROJECT: SAVE THE FRO"

Wednesday night, I went to sleep… feeling so sick. Just so sick. And I woke up several times throughout the night because my stomach hurt so bad. At about 4:00 in the morning… I was running to the bathroom. And I threw up the rest of that day. A lot. I don’t think I've ever been so violently sick, in my whole life actually. It was hard.

The whole day I just laid in bed and dreamed of things like… Mickey Mouse.. and the Tower of Terror… and Swimming Pools… because my family was in Disneyland that day. AH.

Anyway, all of you sisters that email me that are on their way to Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission.. You pray to your Heavenly Father that he never sends you to Yacuiba. Because Yacuibia kills North Americans.

Anyway. Back to Missionary Work.

On Tuesday we had a Conference with Presidente y Hermana Willard. It was one that I really needed. Like I said in my Shoutout at the beginning of my email, Ive figured out that every time I get sad… it´s because I'm thinking about me. Just me.

The "poor me", "why me" kind of stuff.   It's the natural man. I mean, it's not WRONG to think about me. All Thursday I was thinking about me! I was so so sad! But after thinking about "me" for some time, it takes a second to shove the right thoughts back into my head.

"HIM"

This isn't my area, this isn't my branch, these aren't my members, these aren't my investigators, this isn't my mission.

WHO'S ARE THEY?

I'll tell ya whose they are. They're HIS.

All of this stuff here.. is His. God's. None of this belongs to me! And I really want to work on keeping that in mind in every moment until the end of my mission.

This week… was rough. Hermana Ruiz gave our District Leader the "weekly numbers" this week.. and she started crying. A lot. Because this week… the numbers just didn’t show the work we really did. And that was hard.

We lost a lot this week.

For example... all of our investigators.   I've heard that missionaries got doors slammed in their faces... but I had no idea that it literally happened. 

DOOR AFTER DOOR AFTER DOOR AFTER DOOR.

zero investigators.

zero help from members.

zero baptism dates.

zero. zero. ZERO.

But it's okay.

I know Heavenly Father has a plan for this Area. I don't know what it is and I don't know what I have to do to get the Area to that point, but I know it´s coming in some way or another.

In February, my Aunt Monica sent me a little quote book and this is the quote I read today:

"The Simple Secret is this:

Put your trust in the Lord, do your best,

Then leave the rest to Him."

-Joseph B. Wirthlin

And we´ll just leave it at that.

Love you all!

Xoxo

Hermana Cedeño