my family rocks!

Shout outs :-)

So…. Yesterday was Fathers Day. And I have THE best dad Ever. So shout out to mi Colombianito Papito Juanito. Te quiero Muchisisimo.

ALSO. To my very good friend, Lanae Smith. Yesterday was her Birthday and she's on her mission serving in Argentina. I know she's just killin' it out there. Love you, Nay.

AND.

To my family…

Last Monday, I got a few nice little letters and a little package from my Aunt Stacie.

When I got home, I immediately opened my little package and found a CD!! And I was like "YES MORE MUSIC, STACIE HAS WAY GOOD TASTE IN MUSIC." And I get all the sisters together and we are so excited because we are so tired of all our music and we ran and put the CD on and laid on Hermana Eden's bed in our dresses staring at the ceiling.. and then I hear guitar. And we get even MORE excited like… this is gonna be so good.

AND THEN… I hear my Dad. Singing.

"HOLA… Niiicooole…. Dis is you Daad…." and I'm like "AH!!! THIS IS MY DAD!! MY FAMILY ROCKS, THIS IS MY DAD!!"

And all the sisters are like "…what?" haha and my dad sings this ridiculous song.. and he starts speaking in Spanish and my companion says "YOUR DAD IS SOOOO COLOMBIANO!!!"

and I hear these little messages from my whole family.. and the other sisters slowly trickled out of the room but I just laid on the bed and cried and laughed with my family. It was better than Mothers Day. Because I just felt like I was there. And everyone was just so… themselves.

My favorite part was when they sang "Love at Home".. because they just sang it so terribly and I couldn’t help but just laugh and laugh and laugh. Ugh. Thank you so much for putting that together. It meant so much to me, nobody's ever done something so sweet for me. Thank you Thank you THANK YOU.

Now to the week… (as if that didn’t make me trunky… ha.)

This week was actually so great. The first two days of the week we did intercambios with the other Hermanas and I met lots of new people in their area. And I felt like I learned a lot from the other sisters. I never want to do intercambios at first, but I'm always glad it happened by the end of the day. I learned a lot and I really want to improve in everything. In my Spanish, in following the spirit, in staying focused on the work all day. In everything. There's always a way to improve.

We are working soo hard with our investigators. They all have different needs, but we are really helping them to open up more and realize the importance of baptism. We just need to get to their HEARTS.

For example, last night, we were with Rome again. And we taught her about the whole Plan of Salvation. And THAT  was what she needed. And she opened up so much more. She told us that she has a testimony and that knows that it wont make a difference in her if she gets baptized tomorrow or in a year. So she picked her baptismal date.. FINALLY!

The 12 of July. Mark your calenders, people.

I've just really had my eyes opened this transfer. I really hope that I can keep EVERYTHING I've learned in the past 6 weeks with me for the rest of my mission. Bueno, for the rest of my life.

Cambios are this Wednesday, and it will just break my heart of they pull me out of my area now. But the Lord knows what's best, so we'll see where I am next time I write.

I never thought I would make the relationships I've made here. I loooove my people. I love the investigators. I never thought I would grow to have such a love for Yacuiba. I hated it when I got here haha. But I love it now. I really do. I hope I don’t get sent off too soon.

Also. A couple more shoutouts..

I got emails (GREAT EMAILS) from:

Jenny Flint

Ann Flint

Jocelyn Discuillo

And Ben Hunsaker

Julie Sargent

You guys are the best :-) Love you, love you, and I'll write you all back next week, okay? no worries! 

Love, Hermana Cedeño

 My Hair is still falling out but I am still cutting it too.  I feel like I've cut off all the bad hair now.... :-)

Change

SHOUTOUTS.

HOLY. Guys, I got my package from the Activity Day girls in my Ward last week, and I didn't even wait to get home to open it. And all the other missionaries were soooo jealous ;)

Thank you so much for all my treats and my pictures! And all of your letters were so sweet, seriously. I read them over and over again. Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I loved it seriously!!  It was the BEST!!!

And to all of you that asked… yes. I still have hair.  However, during personal study, i take my scissors and while i read the scriptures, I just cut my hair haha and now it's way short after doing that for a week straight and I kept all the hair I cut because people always ask me if before I leave I can give them a curl... hahahha so its wayyyy short now but it feels healthier and I don't really care anymore what I look like.

Also… Today I hit 8 months on the mission. 10 Left. Can you believe I've been gone 8 whole months? Me neither.

But wow, this week was a week of CHANGE.

My companion, Hermana Villanueva, is the Sister Training leader her in Yacuiba, so we had to fly up to Santa Cruz to a meeting she had. She went to sleep in the nice hotel.. and I was sent to do splits with other sisters. And I actually loved it! I learned so much.

But I did realize that I actually love being far away from Santa Cruz. It was really weird because I didn’t know anyone up there! I have only met the missionaries that are OUT of the city. Like in Tarija or in Yacuiba. But I like it like this. I'm not excited to head up to Santa Cruz when it's my turn. I love being out here too much. Even if it is killing my physically.

Then on Tuesday, we had a conference with Presidente Willard. It just made me want to be better. I just want to change. I'm still thinking so much about me during the mission and I just want to figure out how I can give EVERYTHING to the Lord. I love my mission so much and I really want to make sure that the little time I have here is being used the way it should be. But the only way to do that is by making my will in line with His.

Hermana Villanueva really put what we learned in practice and honestly... NOTHING worked out the way we planned this week.. it went so much better. Almost nothing that we planned in our agendas went the way we wanted it to… but so many miracles happened and they were things that needed to happen.

Next week COULD BE our last week together and it just kills me!! I hope we are together one more transfer, but you never know. So we are really trying to finish this transfer off strong this week. We love our investigators and we are really trying to help them with everything they need.

Please pray for the people I'm teaching. They're very special to me.  This weekend, on Saturday, we had a huge activity with the branch! The Missionaries planned it and it was a huge success and we met so many new people. We had a "Movie Theater" in the Church with popcorn and soda and everything. We watched "The Testaments" and by the end everyone was wiping tears.

 It was the best.

Making popcorn was a pain in the bum for Hna. Villanueva and I because you have to make it in pots, but it was worth it. Even when the Elders burst into the kitchen every 15 minutes like...

"WE´RE OUT OF POPCORN.. AGAIN."

Elders, it's time to learn the rule of the mission. If you want something done around here, you gotta do it yourself.

Love you all, saludos a todos. Especially the USA. MUAH.

-Hermana Cedeño

Truckin´ Along...

Crap guys. My letters are getting boring... I'll do better next week.

Shoutouts!

Are you kidding?

I just got my package from the Achievement Day girls!!! I haven't opened it yet, but I’m so excited. Thank you guys so much, I can't even tell you how much that means to me :-)

Also. We had some birthdays yesterday.

First, Jessica Merrill. Happy Birthday to my Drill Coach at Layton High. Shoot, girl. Nobody here sticks their finger in my hair when we take pictures. I miss laughing with you at all my "Curly Hair Problems". 

Seriously the best. I love you dearly. Tell your new team that Nicole says "LB".

And Elder Nigil Bailey because his birthday was ALSO yesterday. And He was my BFF when I started this whole thing. The poor kid has been in the same area since he started his mission. That's rough. Bailey… I'll pray for ya.

Okay.

So this week wasn't TOO exciting. We played fútbol last Monday and it was a blast. My zone is great, I love it. But after, Hermana Villanueva and I were walking around doing our shopping for the week... and I went down.

About.. 2 years ago, I think it was.. I hurt my ankle in dance. And it just happens over and over and over.. and it happened again. UGH!!

I just twisted it, and we hobbled to the house.. and we were in the clinic. Luckily, I didn’t hurt it as bad as I have in the past. So we just got a wrap on it, I received a couple of shots, and I was in the house until Thursday. 

Rough.

But Thursday, we started working super hard. We had to visit all of the people that we didn’t get to during our time in the house. It was great, and we got a lot done.

Tomorrow, my companion hits 11 months in the mission. And this morning I was thinking… "WOW. I'm never gonna have 11 freaking months."

But actually… I'm going to have 8 months next Monday. I can't believe I haven't stepped on American Ground in almost 8 months! Time seriously does fly. I can't believe how much I've changed and how much I've learned in just 8 short months.

I've really grown to love this gospel with all of my heart. Hermana Villanueva and I are teaching a lot of Return Missionaries. And sometimes that confuses me so much, because I picture them in their white shirts.. with their name tags.. and I just don’t understand how, after having an experience like this, you could lose yourself.

But there is opposition in all things. The adversary is always there. So I've made a promise to myself that I will never leave my faith. I'll never fall short of what God wants me to be. Because I've not only seen the difference between "having the gospel" and "not having the gospel" on my mission, but I've experienced it in my own life.

Amo este Evangelio con todo lo que tengo. Nunca pensé que mi misión me iba a cambiar asi. He aprendido muchísimo, y no puedo imaginar vivir sin este experiencia. Estoy muy agradecida por todo lo que he aprendido y también todas las personas que he conocido aquí en Bolivia. Bolivia siempre tendrá un lugar bien especial en mi corazón. Ni sé como expresar todo lo que quisiera expresar. Pero, amo la misión. Amo este Evangelio. Estoy muy agradecida por todo lo que me ha dado Padre Celestial. Sé que Él nos ama y que nos cuida. Sé que si pongamos nuestra voluntad en línea con lo de Él, vamos a poder seguir adelante.

(Translation)

(I love this gospel with all I have. I never thought my mission was going to change me so much. I've learned a lot, and I can not imagine living without this experience. I am grateful for everything I've learned and all the people I've met here in Bolivia. Bolivia will always have a very special place in my heart. I don't know how to express what I want to say. But I love the mission. I love this gospel. I am very grateful for all that Heavenly Father has given me. I know that He loves us and cares for us. I know that if we put our will in line with His, we will be able to move forward.)

 The cute family our ward helped plan their wedding got baptized. 

 It was a beautiful baptism.

 We are so happy for this family.

Love you all so much :-)

-Hermana Cedeño

By the way,I blew dried my hair yesterday and burnt it. So it literally fell into dust. that sounds way stupid.. but in church, i touched a curl and it literally just fell apart... like.. dust. it was crazy.  It also smells like a campfire...