Elder Edholm -- week 19

No letter from Andrew today, but we did have a nice chat with him. He is doing well and really likes his new companion. The baptism that was scheduled for last Saturday fell through. He said it's 100 degrees outside and 100 degrees in his apartment. He didn't tell anyone but his companion that it was his birthday yesterday so not a lot of birthday wishes except the one he read via email today. We aren't sending packages because it's so expensive and right now I'm not sure the mail system in the country is up and running. Here's some pictures I snapped as he was talking with us.

Elder Edholm -- week 18

I got a new companion this week! Elder Hansen! A new companion every transfer so far! He is from Bountiful Utah, he played football and is the oldest of 4 kids. He has been in Tarija for the past 11 months. So this last week I have been leading the area, so it has been a little stressful. We were supposed to have a baptism last Saturday, but the husband of our investigator told her that more people need to know and that there has to be a big lunch before, so she changed it to this Saturday. We went to the Christ statue here and it was super cool, walked up Kung Fu panda stairs to get up to it. I have pictures. That is all for this week.

Elder Edholm

View from the top

SELFIE!

Elder Edholm -- week 17

Lots of pictures this week!  The president of Bolivia has resigned and most of the people are very happy. The country is now under martial law and hopefully that means no more violence, even though many of the roads are still closed. Andrew's area continues to be pretty calm and all the missionaries in his mission are safe. Here is his letter:

So this week has been super cool! I had my first baptism last Saturday! Gabriela Alfaro! At gave a short talk about baptism. I didn't know I was going to give it until a minute before I had to go up. So I hurried and prepared somethings. I read in Matthew 3:13-17 and then in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 11:25,26. I think I did really well for not having any time to prepare it! I thought my Spanish wasn't good enough, but it was! We have another baptism planned for this Saturday! So my companion is leaving this transfer, so this will be my 3rd transfer and my 3rd companion! Kind of nervous because I will have to show my new comp the area and the people we are teaching. And Something cool, the Bolivian president stepped down yesterday, so they were over a hundred motorcycles in the streets honking, and cars and semi's honking too. Everyone had Bolivia Flags and were celebrating in the streets. It was pretty cool!

The power went out in Bolivia, but a half mile away is Argentina and they had power, so that is why you can see lights. Taken from Andy's apartment. 

This is the house of some of the people Andy is teaching.

Andy bought a hammock

Hammock

Andy's hot plate where he makes eggs and pancakes. 

He bought fruit loops!

Mate (herbal drink)

Christmas tree Andy bought from the Chinese man

Elder Edholm -- week 16

So a lot has happened in the last two weeks. So starting off, two Tuesdays ago, we got a call from the assistants to the president to take off our name tags and go straight home. So we went home and we were inside all that week. So that was really boring. But then that Saturday we were able to go out in normal clothes but we had to be in by 6. Then on Sunday they said to go to church in normal clothes again and also Monday. Then last Tuesday we got a call from the President of the mission and he said that if all the missionaries in Bermejo agreed, we could wear church clothes and our name tags again, and everyone did, so we started wearing them again, but still had to be in by 6. the missionaries in other parts of the mission still can´t wear church clothes or name tags. So yeah that is where we are right now. Something awesome, we had 6 people come to church with us yesterday, and they are all progressing! One is for sure going to get baptized this week! Her name is Gabby. The other three will get baptized by the end of this month! Their names are Fernando, Limber, and Janina. We are just having troubles finding new people to teach. So that is a little sad. Something kind of weird, we found this young Chinese guy here named Tony, and started talking to him in Spanish, and he is here selling stuff, so we went to his shop and he had a ton of Christmas stuff! We bought a three foot tall Christmas tree, lights, ornaments, and bow for the top from him! Pretty cool. Also there is grapefruit soda here, and it is really good. That is really the only thing that is going on here. I also bought another poro for mate. (Not sure what that last sentence means, but I'm excited he wrote this week!)

The start of wrestling and basketball

Peter is wrestling for the middle school and so far has a winning record of 4 wins and 3 losses.

Pardon the blurry pictures!

Lucy is playing basketball at the middle school as well and had her first game this last week against Buffalo which they won.

She's number 14

Eric will also be wrestling for the high school, but practice doesn't start for a couple more weeks.