Elder Edholm -- week 15

There has been a lot of political unrest in Bolivia this last week. The election went badly and there have been riots and shootings. All missionaries in the country of Bolivia have been instructed to stay inside. The mission president contacted all of the missionaries and they are all safe. The area Andrew is in has been very calm as it is far away from the bigger cities. The missionaries were allowed to go out for a few hours today to call home and to buy food to last through this upcoming week. The mission president has been sending the parents emails to update us on the situation and he is erring on the side of caution, making sure the missionary's safety is top priority.

Because of this situation the baptism they had planned for Saturday was not able to happen, which was a big disappointment.

Andrew is getting a little tired of staying indoors, but he says he's never been more organized!  They study a lot, watch the two movies they have-The First Vision and The Restoration of the Priesthood- over and over again, clean their apartment and cook pancakes and eggs for themselves. The mission president asked the parents of the missionaries to include the people of Bolivia as part of their fast this next fast Sunday.

Andrew is doing well amidst all of this. He told me he really likes being a missionary and loves the work. He seems settled into the routine and is enjoying serving the Lord. His only complaint being he misses just drinking a glass of water. He mostly drinks Coke. He may send some pictures later today, if so I'll post them here.

Elder Edholm -- week 14

This last week was the elections, so we couldn't leave our house one Sunday. Also something that is interesting, people get clowns for little kids birthday parties here. 

My companion has a super high motor, he is also in a hurry to share the gospel to everyone we meet. We have been doing that, but we haven´t been finding a ton of new people to teach, which is kinda sad. 

My Spanish is getting a little better, and I try talking more when we talk to people about the gospel, and also in lessons, so I get out of my comfort zone a little bit and try to talk more. Lots of the super old ladies here really do not like white people and are scared of them, so sometimes when we walk by them or try to shake their hands they don´t say anything and timidly shake our hands or even refuse to. 

I really miss clean drinking water and furniture. Sometimes i just want a cold glass of water or something else to sit on than just one plastic chair, but it´s OK. Something new about the culture that I found out is that they they think you will get sick if you sleep with the fan on at night, or have it on in church, kinda funny. 

Anyways, we are hoping for a baptism this Saturday, so I hope it works out!

Elder Edholm

The End of the Cross Country Season

The Worland Warriors are Conference Champions!  State is next week in Star Valley. Eric is JV so won't be going. Here is a boatload of pictures of Eric running, I love to watch my children run!

Elder Edholm -- week 13

*We got an actual email written to us this week, so here is what he said. Some of the information I reported last week*

So I got emergency transferred like a week and a half ago, so I am now in Bermejo, which is the southest part of all of Bolivia, so that is cool! I flew from Santa Cruz to Tarija, then took a three hour car ride to get here! Bermejo is super cool, but way different! I can see Argentina from my house. It gets so hot here, I literally almost died, and it is only going to get hotter. It rained pretty hard yesterday and is still sprinkling still today so it is alot cooler today, thank goodness. My companion´s name is Elder Mabeus, He is super good at baseball, he is going to BYU after to play. There are four small branches here, and four sets of missionaries. We live in a house-ish type thing that is three stories. We live on the third floor and other members live on the first and second floor. Spanish is coming along okay, hearing the different accent here I think helped me alot, so that is good. Some things in Spanish still confuse the crap out of me, so I still got super far to go. I am super grateful for time to study the scriptures, that is the thing that helps my Spanish the most! Something that I really appreciate is the Word of Wisdom, we are teaching this 18 year old kid that is struggling with drinking and doing drugs, but really wants to become better, so we have been really focusing on that this week. I hope I haven´t repeated anything.

Elder Edholm

Elder Edholm -- week 12

Emergency transfer happened. He is now in Bermejo which is in the very far south end of the mission. It's like a mini San Francisco and is right by the river. It's on the border of Argentina. His new companion is Elder Mabeus and he is from Las Vegas and plays baseball at BYU. He gave us lots of pictures this time. Some of his first area and some of his new area of Bermejo.

First area on the outskirts of Santa Cruz:

Outside his apartment

Study area inside his apartment

Kitchen

Here are the pictures of his new area, Bermejo:

Kitchen

Bedroom

Study area

Yerba mate cbse. An herbal tea drink that they drink

This is where he washes his clothes. In his last area they had someone do their laundry, now he has to do his own.

This is where he hangs his clothes to dry

The city

Outside the apartment

The Elder's serving in Bermejo: Elder Whitmer, Elder May, Elder Berg, Elder Tyra, Elder Edholm, and Elder Mabeus (his companion)