"I had an encounter with cows.."

March 16, 2015

Hola everyone!

This has been a great week! I'm now able to understand so much Spanish is crazy! I am able to talk a lot more and connect with people and even joke around! Everyone has been telling me how great my Spanish is now, so that’s awesome. The only trouble I have is understanding my pention. Haha! She loves to take advantage this and make fun of me... but its okay I guess, I probably deserve it. Haha! She says after I can understand more and after my mission she is going on facebook and is going to tell me all the funny stuff I said wrong and stuff like that so that will be fun. 

This is a good week. Monday we went to Riberalta zone and played them in soccer. Later that night we met with a contact we had and this guy loves missionaries! His name is Miguel. He said he has taken the lessons before with elders and he is super excited for us to teach him! Tuesday we were having a great day we got in 5 lessons. 

We had lunch with Hermano Osman who is a investigator with a baptism date. It was funny because Elder Zuniga is from Chile and Bolivia hates Chile so he always gets crap from people. Osman was showing us his military papers and Elder Zuniga read a part and shakes his head and hands it to me and told me to read it. It was talking about how Chile stole their sea when Chile’s story is that it was free land and they won the war. Haha! 

Wednesday, we taught Miguel the restoration and we were bearing testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he stops us and says guys I know its true...so we were thinking, “why aren't you baptized?” We then invited him to get baptized and he said he wants to but only if his whole family does. So it looks like we have to work with his wife now. 

Thursday, we taught the guy with the addictions and he hasn't had any progress so we taught about how strengthening your spiritual strength will give him the power to over come the addictions and he showed up to church and participated in the lessons, it was great! That day we were walking and a soccer ball came over a wall and hit a wasp nest! As soon as I saw all the wasps come out, I started running and my companions didn't see it and they were saying, “What is Elder Harding doing now?” Soon the wasps were swarming and they were right behind me! Haha! Luckily, no one got stung! 

Friday I had an encounter with cows, so I had to take pictures with them. They had a rope on them and lets just say I came away with a bad rope burn, but thats alright. 

We taught a hermano who is suspended and we talked about the priesthood and have a date for him to be ready to get the priesthood again and all he has to do is have a couple meetings. I’m excited for him. 

Saturday I got a phone call that my new companion is finally here! His name is Elder Gallardo and he's from Argentina! He is super cool! He finishes his mission in a month and a half so I'm with another elder finishing up his mission. Sunday was a good day we had a noche de hogar with a family who invited a ton of friends and we had 28 people there! That is more than half the people in church! Haha! We taught about the Armor of God!

Love, 

Elder Harding

 Elder Harding or Bolivian Vaquero?