El Día de Reposo (A day of rest)

HEY.

Just a couple shoutouts.

First to Fernando Vargas. Because yesterday we ran into him and, if you remember right, I told you all that we made a little "bet" on Mothers day that if I cried, I owed him a hamburger. If I didn’t, he owed me one.

I also told you all that he never saw me cry. So it didn’t count. And yesterday he informed me that he read my blog. And that I owe him a hamburger.

Shoot.

Shout out for reading my blog, Hno. Vargas. I hate that you know English.

Also to Kylee Baires! She's been such a close friend of mine for so many years. I still remember sitting across from you at Zupas at our last lunch out. Kill me. We´re going to Zupas next year.

But Kylee is going on a mission.. TOMORROW. Freaking. She´s headed out to El Salvador  (I THINK, MOM, FIX IT IF I'M WRONG haha) and I'm so excited for her! I can't wait to speak Spanish with you :-)

And one more shout out to my Grandparents, Brent and Kathy. I got several letters from them on Thursday. 2 of them from before Conference. The thing is, that packages and letters for the missionaries here in Yacuiba just sit in the church offices in Santa Cruz for so long, and they take so much longer to get down here to us.

I really could've used those letters about 4 weeks ago… but thank you so much for writing me! And thanks to the Young Women that wrote me as well! You girls are the sweetest. I don’t know any of you right now… but I cant wait to meet you one day!!

And Shout out to Cameron Scott. Because I know he needs one right now. LB

 And to Lesa Keffeler and Rick Smith for the emails!  Thanks for taking the time to write to me!

This week.

It was actually way good. Hermana Villanueva and I are working really hard, we really are. We are seeing so many miracles and so many changes, we´re loving it. But we are also learning how to open up the hearts of our investigators and help them. But, really HELP THEM.  We've learned a lot about our investigators this week. One thing is that… "The day of rest" AKA: Sunday.. is a real problem.

Let me start with my friends, the guy from the Taxi, and his wife. We visited his wife the other day and she is.. amazing. She doesn’t know anything about the church yet and she was so willing to put aside everything to go to church. She IS willing. But her husband.. just isn’t. The thing is.. that they have a LOT of problems with money right now. And the whole time I knew this I just thought..

"I can help them… I can help them.."

But when I found out that they're actually 29,000 Bolivianos in debt (more than 4,000 dollars) I realized… I can't. But someone can. And they will only receive the help they need if they just put their faith in HIM, not sell for ONE SUNDAY, and come to church. I know that God is just WAITING to bless them. But how can he bless them if they are not obedient? I really want to help them… but I don’t have 4,000 dollars. I have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if this little family will just have enough faith, the Gospel is all they´ll ever need.

Another one of our investigators is Rome. Rome… is like our BFF haha

I love her dearly. And she has so many desires to be baptized. The problem? You guessed it.

SUNDAY.

Rome is in the Women’s league of fútbol (soccer) here in Yacuiba. And they play… every. Sunday.

On Wednesday, we went to visit her and we taught her about the Book of Mormon. She was really excited to get started reading it. We were just about to leave and we asked her if we could come back on … Sunday.

She says.. "Sunday? Why does it have to be Sunday? Cant it be Saturday?"

Hna. Villanueva: "No, we want to talk to you on Sunday. About something very important."

And then all of a sudden Rome realizes and says.. "Once, someone told me that Sunday.. was just for God. Is that true? I can"t play soccer on Sundays?"

And Hna. Villanueva slowly says... "What do you think?"

And Rome starts to cry. Like… real tears. Just cry and cry and Hna. Villanueva and I just look at each other because we have no idea what to say and then Rome looks at us and is still crying and through her thick sad voice says..

".. a que hora van a venir el Domingo?"  ("What time will you come on Sunday?")

Ugh. It BROKE my heart.

It´s like… when a mother punishes a child or tells her child "No".  Who does it hurt more? The mother, right? But she's just trying to protect her child.

That's exactly how I felt. We're just teaching the truth, but poor Rome was so sad. And still is. Keep her in your prayers, she's on a rough road to baptism. She's a huge example to me.

Anyway, that’s a little bit of whats going on.

Sorry, not much time this week on internet, the zone is going to play fútbol… and I'm invited.  :-)

P-Day playing soccer.

Love you all, thanks for the emails I got this week! You guys are amazing.

Love, Hermana Cedeño

 It's starting to get cold here.  It is about 37 degrees at night.

 We try to dress warm to sleep because it is so cold!

 I cried a little today after my shower, this is more than usual.

 I hope I still have hair when I come home....

 One of the Members cooking for us in his home.

Okay, so I decided I needed new shoes.

I brought all of these with me when I came on my mission.

I feel like they've served their purpose but it's time to move on.

 

 

 

 

 I bought what I thought were new shoes...

 I found out that day that they had been refurbished...

 and glued back together..... UGH!  I spent good money.

 Have a good day!

Heavenly Father Just Keeps Blessing Us!

Lots of pics at the bottom!  Finally!

Okay guys. I don't know what my problem is today.. but I'm way lazy and I don’t want to write a letter. But I have to. So here goes.

FIRST OFF.

Can I just give a late shoutout to Kara Hubbard. Her stinkin' dang birthday was on Friday and I didn’t give her a shoutout on Monday. Kills me.

She's been my bestest friend since third grade and I honestly have no idea who or where I'd be right now without the influence she's had in my life. She's worked miracles.  I can't wait to be driving to Happy Hour at Sonic, laughing about things that nobody else would think is funny, again. Great times.

 

Happy Birthday, love. Don’t get married while I'm gone.

I cant even begin to tell you all of the crazy things that happened this week. SO. MANY.

Hermana Villanueva and I came home with a crazy story every night.

Also, can I just say that I absolutely love Hermana Villanueva. We just get along so well and I haven't laughed so much in one week since I was in Tarija haha We are already so close and we have so much fun.

We've also been unbelievably obedient this week and we've seen so many miracles from it. We really had a need to find new investigators, people that want to listen to us and Heavenly Father just keeps blessing us.

First, I want to tell a story that I didn’t think would lead up to anything special, but It now has so much significance.

One night, during my last transfer with Hermana Ruiz, it was just raining so hard and we were so far from the house and we were just wet and we'd had a horrible day and I just wanted to take a taxi home, but I had 5 bolivianos, and taxis will rarely carry 2 people that distance for that little.

So I was trying to flag down a Taxi and nobody was stopping and finally, after I had already given up, a taxi pulled over right in front of us and the man leans out the window and says:

"Hey, Hermanitas, wait right here, I'll be right back!"

And we're like… "okay"

And he leaves and I look at Hermana Ruiz like.. "do you know him?" and she says no and we're just like.. okay.

So we waited.

And he came back and we got in, told him the address and then I'm like.. 

"Do I know you?"

And he says "No. But I know you you guys are."

And he starts to tell us this story about how his mom was such a faithful member and that he looked up to her so much. That he went to church one time about 10 years ago and he really liked it, but he never had the chance to be baptized. We wrote down his information and set a date to go visit him.

The craziest part… he didn’t make me pay.

I didn’t think that that would lead up to anything.. but Hna. Villanueva and I are teaching him and his wife and his cute 5 month old daughter.

He always talks about that night how he just felt something and how He'll never forget it. He always asks me about my family and he just soaks up the gospel like a sponge. They want to get married, but they don’t have the money for it.

And I wanted to pay for them to be married and I had it in mind.. but Hna. Villanueva and I soon realized that he was in deeper than we thought. He owes a lot of people money and that's so dangerous here. It made me sick when I found out because I've grown to have such a love for Him and his family. I want to help him so bad, I just don’t know how. Please keep him in your prayers. They're very special to me.

The next investigator we found is Romi.

I love her dearly.

She is 23 years old and she is like.. our best friend!  Haha!  She is so amazing. We had no Idea that she had already been attending the church until we asked her if she would come on Sunday and she said..

"… yeah. I go every Sunday. I was there last Sunday."

And soon we found out that she's better friends with all of the members in the branch then we are haha.  Crap!

She's awesome, but she really wants to be sure about her decision to be baptized, so she'

s decided not to accept a baptism date at this point. But I know she's going to progress fast.

Last night, we had a little Noche de Hogar with Presidente Tellez and his family. We watched the video "Only a Stonecutter" and the President was put to tears. He just started talking about how he wanted to fulfill his calling like the man in the video. That he wants to do everything he can to strengthen the Branch of Yacuiba. They've already all made a goal to make Yacuiba a Stake with wards by December rather than what it is now, a District with Branches.

And I know that this branch will succeed in doing so. They just have so much faith, our new presidency is amazing.  They have so many goals and are working so hard. It makes me want to magnify my calling as a missionary more and more and more.

I wish I could tell you all everything that happened this week, it was crazy. 

Pero Bonito.

Hasta Luegito, :-)

Hermana Cedeño

 

 P-day Jumping for the camera.

We climbed to the cross and the Elders Ditched us.

Me calling my Mom to schedule our Mommy Day call!

Calling my Family on Mother's Day.  I only cried when my Mom asked if I wanted a cookie and during family prayer.

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout....  Good thing it got run over...

Climbing to the cross on P-day.  It was shortly after this the Elders ditched us.... whatever

Hermana Eden, Hermana Villanueva, Hermana Cedeno