On Wednesdays, We Wear Pink!

IF HERMANA BLANCO AND I MATCH CLOTHING ONE MORE TIME I'M GOING TO DIE.

 This kind of thing happens almost every single day...

 We both like to shop at "The Loft" so there's that...

Shout out to my sweet Grandparents I got a package from them THIS MORNING! I don't know what it is... but it smells like something Christmas.

Also. Shout out to ME BECAUSE TODAY IS MY COMPLEMES AND I HAVE OFFICIALLY BEEN OUT 2 MONTHS. Holla!

Literally almost nothing happened this week. Lots of disappointment, lots of walking. Lots of sweat, lots of dirt, lots of rain, lots of closed doors and a lot of praying.

Last P-day we went to a store that EVERYONE has been talking about!! We were hearing about it all last week. THE BIGGEST SHOP IN TARIJA.

Hermana Blanco and I were stoked to see what they had. Can I just say that it was about half the size of the Walgreen's in Kaysville. So..

that was fun. But I bought a Christmas Tree there! Hna. Blanco thinks I buy the weirdest stuff.. but that was important to me. Tis the Season.

 My Newly purchased little piece of Christmas!

Yesterday, after DAYS of disappointment, we knocked on a door and a deep voice yelled ´´WHAT DO YOU WANT´´ in.. Spanish. Obviously. I yelled back

´´QUEREMOS TRAER SU ALMA A CRISTO´´

Meaning.. ´´´We want to bring your soul unto Christ´´. He let us in.

And we had ourselves a wonderful lesson haha Just doing my job.

Yesterday.. to end off our awesome week, we knocked on another door and a man barged out SOOOO drunk. With a mouth FULL of Cocaine leaves.

He grabbed my arm with one had and had his other arm around my waist and started saying WHO KNOWS WHAT, spitting leaves all over my face. I wanted to DIE.

Hermana Blanco helped me PRY HIM OFF. And we politely explained that we would be back to.. help him... and he better be sober next time. We´ll see how that goes.

The Spanish is overwhelming. The disappointments are UNENDING. But I am sooo happy. I stay positive and I've laughed lots this week. Because sometimes.. There really isn't anything else you can do!

Plus.. All is well. The Church is True.

MUAH!

Hermana Cedeño

Me and Elder Bailey and Elder Wilkinson eating Saltenas.

 Some Little boys I met walking.  I gave them stickers because I AM the Sticker Queen!

 This is what most of the houses and walkways to the homes look like.

 Ahhh... Willey...He reminds me of Jonathan and he and I are best friends!  It makes me miss Jonathan even more!

 Mikella, She knows every member of my family by heart now and she loves to go through my picture book!

Coming home tired!

Shoutouts! Grandma and Grandpa.. I got a letter that was supposed to go to Provo! It made my week all the same. My family, I got my Christmas Package!! Tis the freakin' season, I love Christmas. And Brendan Smith.. Happy Birthday!

 Before we got on the plane to Tarija Sister Blanco was telling me about our home and where we lived and she told me we lived next to a Soccer Field.... Above is the soccer field....

 My Bishop's two boys... I love them!

 Some great advice from President Chandler...  Since there is more dogs here than air... I have come to appreciate this advice.  Sister Blanco has been bit, I have yet to be initiated.

 My Thanksgiving Letter from my Family!  Can't wait to open it!

 I found and purchased Chips Ahoy in honor of my Mom!

 I'm not sure what to say....  but I love it here!

 Thank you Sister Flint for my apron!  I wear it every single day!

 One Sunday... we were out of toilet paper and we had to go buy some.  On Sunday!!  We are so Disobedient but we weren't going without it!

 My Bishop's Family!  We have lunch with them every day!

 Yes Mom, these are my good shoes...  #bruises

OOOkay.

First off. Ive about had it with my bathroom. And the sink that I use to clean the bathroom, wash my dishes and do my laundry. I recently named our toilet Sheldon because he has a personality and he´s out to get me. Ive come to the conclusion that I wont be sincerely clean until I get home. In 2015. We dont talk about that.

I have an experience that I know will be a story I tell.. for the rest of my life:

Hna. Blanco and I are knocking doors. We show up to a house with a sweet 23 year old lady that has two sons and a sweet husband. She seemed so interested in our message and invited us in. She started talking about the church she is a part of and how she came to be a part of it. She told us how she wanted her children and husband to become closer to Christ. We told her a short sweet message and she was sooo happy to have us.

AND THIS IS WHERE IT STARTS...

We ask her if we can end with a prayer. Hna. Blanco says a prayer and we start to plan our next appointment. Suddenly, she says that she wants to pray! PERFECT. So she prays.. and interesting prayer. And after she starts saying that we are WRONG. That there is only ONE word of God - the Bible. That We pray wrong and asks if we will repeat after her.. and HNA BLANCO SAYS YES. So next thing I know, Hna Blanco is repeating this prayer asking Christ to forgive her of her sins.

I WAS DYING.

And when I opened my eyes to peek at Hna Blanco´s face, I saw that our ´´investigator´´ had her HANDS ON HNA BLANCOS FOREHEAD. I started laughing uncontrollably. I couldn't stop. I couldn't breathe.

When the prayer ended, our investigator asks me if I need a blessing next. Ive never stood up so fast in my life.

I say: ´´HNA BLANCO, AY, EL TIEMPO, ESTAMOS TARDE PARA UN OTRA CITA, LO SIENTO HERMANA´´ (Hermana Blanco, I think it's time to go, we are late for our next appointment, I'm sorry Sister.)

We just had to get out of there. I was laughing the rest of the day. AHH.

Situations like that are what I live for haha It was rough. But the worst parts of the day is at night having to walk down the main road where all the little restaurants and allll of the drunk men are coming out to greet us, or follow us for a block or two longer than necessary. Or when they ask if they can buy my hair..
I'm like..´´No, but would you like to come unto Christ?´´

Ive grown to love my investigators so much. These people are so important to me.  I can't even explain the love I feel for them. Friday morning, while Hna. Blanco and I were doing weekly planning I was about in tears. She was like.. ´´Hna, what is the problem??´´
I JUST FEEL LIKE THESE PEOPLES PROBLEMS AND TRIALS ARE SO ABOVE ANYTHING I CAN DO FOR THEM.

We had ourselves a talk and there is NO trial or duda (i dont know that in English...) that is above and beyond what this Gospel is capable of fixing. Sometimes I feel like all I have is a message. Like I'm only human, how can I, ME, NICOLE CEDENO, help someone who is addicted to drugs, someone who is so alone they don't believe in God, families with abusive husbands, people without jobs. WHAT CAN I DO?

Literally, I can only do my job. And literally, that´s all these people need. I spend so much time and energy into praying and talking to these people because, seriously, This Gospel can fix anything. Because its perfect, it applies to everyone. God loves ALL of his children. Wants us all to be happy.

Its only been a week in the mission, I've never worked so hard in my life. I'm mentally, physically and emotionally drained. And That's exactly how I want it.

I know this church is true with all of my heart, Ive never been so sure of anything in my life. Honestly, thank you all for your support. I'm so happy here!

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Cedeño

So blessed to LIVE there, So blessed to BE here

(Must have been an internet connection because I just received Nicole's email about 30 minutes ago from last Monday.  Here is her update from last week)

 AND THE THING IS IM ON MY MISSION. its fine.

First. Shout out to Carston Mellies, Lindsey Lomax, Ashlee Hatch, and Cameron Scottland. HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK. MUAH.

Literally, I have no IDEA where to start!! I can´t believe I'm in Bolivia. When we arrived in Santa Cruz, I met my mission President and his wife, I met my companion. Hermana Blanco who seriously rocks... all that jazz. I found out that my area is TARIJA. Its at the bottom of the Country, we can actually see Argentina from my house, its so great.

When Hermana Blanco and I saw the plane that was taking us from Santa Cruz to Tarija I was like..

´´our plane looks like a tube of toothpaste.´´

Definitely the sketchiest flight Ive ever been on. Luckily the shortest! The view of Tarija from the sky is unbelievable.. The homes don't really have roofs, clothes hanging from clotheslines everywhere, hundreds of little shops.. I fell in love with it immediately.

When I first arrived, we went straight to lunch! Our pensionisten is the Bishops wife. We go and eat lunch at her house errday. She has 3 sweet children.. well. 2 sweet children.. and Mikallela (mee-kai-ella). Mikallela is about 3 years old and she is seriously the most hilarious little girl ever. The 2 others are Pablo and Jose. They are alllways trying to tell me jokes.. but they usually end up being the ones laughing at me because every time they hit the punch line..

Me- ´´No entiendo´´ (I don't understand)

They think its hilarious. BUT. Ive never gotten more compliments in my life. People always tell me how good my spanish is even though I feel like the 4 year olds in Primary are more advanced than me. its fine.

Also MY HAIR. I think out of all the times in my whole life that people have touched my hair, more than half were in the past 4 days. These people just cant believe that hair is capable of such things. Unfortunately.. it is.

This is a fun story.. On Saturday we had our first zone meeting. Hermana Blanco and I decided to stop and buy SALTEÑAS on the way. They're like empanadas. But way better. Anyway.. we get on the bus with our salteñas and I didn't know these things were like.. messy. SO. No worries, my first bite went EVERYWHERE BUT MY MOUTH. Before my first zone meeting.
It was so cool meeting the other missionaries. And it was cool that the fist questions asked were..

Them- ´´¿Que paso con-- oohh... salteña?´´ (What happened with?--Ohhh... saltana?)

Me-´´No quiro hablando acerca de eso. adios elder.´´ (I don't want to talk about it.  Goodbye Elder)

Sunday was great. I love sacrament meeting! Today was the Primary Program and Hermana Blanco and I had been helping them practice singing all week, so it was so fun. Before the program started, I gathered them all together and told them..

´´Si ustedes cantan muy muy bien, tengo una surpresa para cada uno de ustedes, okay??´´ (If you sing very, very good, I have a surprise for each and every one of you, Okay??)

Except, claro que si, Mikallela says- ´´STICKERS!!!!´´ (Except of course yes, Mikallela says)

Yes, they all got stickers after the program, they did great haha

I have gotten to know all of the primary children really well. But not their parents.. not much has changed from Utah to Bolivia. But I love it! Yesterday, we were at a members house and two boys, Alex y Denniver were teaching me all sorts of words in spanish.. I later found out that they weren't real words. I dont know what they were teaching me, but It wasn't Spanish haha

I absolutely love it here. I cant thank my Father in Heaven ENOUGH. The people here.. literally have nothing. Ive never seen poverty like this. And yet, they have everything. Every time they here I'm from Salt Lake City its..

´´And have you SEEN the temple?? How tall is it?? Did you go inside?´´

What? How could I have never seen how PRIVLEDGED I AM. I am so ashamed to say to them that no.. i've never gone to the Salt Lake Temple. Why?? When I get home.. I'm going to take advantage of the little things. Of washers and dryers, of chapels with carpet, of CTR rings, of grass.. of the fact that I have so many opportunities that my eyes were never open to.

I've never loved this Gospel more than I do now. If that was all I had.. I would be happy.

"Seek not for riches, but seek ye first the kingdom of God´´

Because honestly, what is it that really matters?

Con todo mi Amor,

Hermana Cedeno