"It was a crazy week!"

My companion and I with the mission secretaries.

February 22, 2016

Hola!! 

What an interesting week I have had! I almost didn't teach at all.... So what has been going on is that the mission wants to get rid of the lawyer they use for immigration and they plan on having the secretary of the President do it. So the secretary came down to Trinidad to take care of immigration and I asked him if he need help with anything because he has never been to Trinidad. He told me, “No he’s got it.” Then he gets here and had no plan and no idea what to do. Haha! He had 8 missionaries from Riberalta here with him. So we had to run and go take care of everything- get the hotel, plan their breakfast and lunch, transportation, and at night send them out with our zone to go work. It was a crazy week. Once we finally got them taken care of and sent home to Riberalta, and we were waiting for another group from Guayaramerin to come. Then the  secretary got a call and the presidency of the area said we all had to go back to where our own areas are and go on lockdown for three days again.... So what going on here is the people are voting if their president Evo Morales can run for office again. He is already serving four terms and he wants to change the constitution so he can serve a fifth term. The people were going nuts in La Paz and people were even killed. So every missionary in Bolivia went on lock down for three days except my comp and I and the secretary. Haha, we had a bunch of stuff to do for the offices. We had to do our finances for the zone money and later we had to send off the secretary in the airplane. But the first thing we did on the first day of lockdown was to send off the guys from Riberalta to get them back home. So it was a week of running around taking care of things. Haha, but it was all good and fun! 

Elder Harding

"I will die trying if I have to"

Elder Jesus baptism

Pabla's baptism

Me with Elder Jesus

February 15, 2016

Hola!

This week was super good! We were locked up in the house for 3 days and it was nice to rest but it got boring real fast after the first day! Haha, but it was alright, I'm just happy to go work again!! 

In my branch we had 2 baptisms this Saturday. The hermanas had one and we had one! Elder Jesus was baptized!! It was such a super spiritual experience. After we preformed the baptism he started crying and thanked us for everything and for helping him find his new changed life! 

Now the baptism of the hermanas is a funny but scary story haha... So they baptized Pabla who is 83 years old! Elder Olson our district leader was going to perform the baptism. He gets in the water and Pabla took a while to finally get all the way in. She physically couldn’t bend her knees so we went to look for a chair. Poor lady can barely walk...so we were looking for a chair to use and everyone come looking for me and said Elder Harding! You have to go change into your baptism clothes!! I just so happened to have mine with me because our baptism was a couple hours later so I got changed and Elder Olson and I both had to try to baptize her at the same time in the chair.. so the first attempt failed... and she gets super tired fast so we had to wait until she rested a good while. Then she tells us "Elders you have to do it fast my heart can’t take it... but I will be baptized!” “I will die trying if I have too, I know the Lord will help me!" So Elder Olson and I were telling her, “no no hermana you’re going to get baptized and you’re going to live, just rest and calm down... haha Then, the second time we just lifted up the chair and tilted it back and dunked her in real fast!! And it worked!!! She was super happy after and was smiling the whole rest of the day! And Sunday too!! After we had to carry her out of the fount in the chair up and down the stairs! Haha, we were worn out after and for Elder Jesus’s baptism, I was already wet.. haha! It was a fun experience. 

This Sunday we aren't leaving to work again. We have to stay in the house because the people are voting to see if their president can run again. 

But not to worry, everything is going super good here in Trinidad Bolivia! 

Elder Harding

"He is ready to be baptized!"

February 6, 2016

Hola everyone! 

So, these past couple of weeks have been super good weeks. We have been working really hard teaching Elder Jesus. He is ready to be baptized! We will be baptizing him Saturday the 13th of February!! He’s super excited for his baptism! 

We don't have much progress with the divorcement for familia Suarez, but they are still super active and come to church every week! Our branch president wants to give them a little assignment so they will feel like they are apart of the church which will be super good for them! 

And with Jose Luis a menos activo who is a return missionary, we have him coming back to church and we are almost done teaching the lessons and we will have another rescate (rescue) which is when a less active becomes active. I don't know if they call it rescue in English or not. He is super cool, we just need to give him a calling to help him out a bit. 

So I've started teaching English classes this week and it was successful! Haha! We had pretty much every youth in my branch show up! And some from other wards! It was a lot of fun too. Those kids are so funny! We also do a noche de obra misional. this is where people bring friends and we watch a small video and then play games and have fun. The purpose is for the non members to get to know people in the branch and for the branch to strengthen. 

This week we went to santa cruz to have the leadership council and it was a lot of fun. The house we slept in had like 14 elders there. Haha! At this meeting the president talked a lot and very strictly about obedience in the mission and how its not only about what you do and what you shouldn't do, It’s about the person you are and can be.

Elder Harding

"Museo"

February 1, 2016

"Everyone bonded super well"

After destroying a house 

My first time in President's house. It was so cool!!

January 11, 2016

Hola familia y amigos!!

So this week has been a super good week!! We went to Santa Cruz for a leadership meeting and it was super fast. Haha! We had to fly out literally right after the meeting! It was a super good meeting and we mostly talked about making sure we are teaching the people and not just the lessons. We talked quite a bit about teaching clearly about true repentance and how if we teach this repentance, the people will feel the change in their hearts and baptism will be a result and  not to worry about numbers. The numbers aren't just numbers, they are people we need to be focused on. 

In my area we have a new investigator who has been coming to church with a friend. His name is Elder Jesus. Haha! Yes, his first name is Elder, last name Jesus. He is looking for a way to completely change his life because he said he has felt a lot of pain in his life. He expressed how coming to church has already started to make him feel and see this change happening in his life. He has been prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel and he is feeling so much happier now! And he has a friend in the church! 

So we had a hot dog party with the priesthood because the branch has been super weak with the priesthood holders. This activity was super cool! Everyone that came had their guitars and were playing and singing and eating hot dogs, haha! Everyone bonded super well. After, they sang hymns and shared a message! Now they want to do more activities every month! Next, they will be doing a sport activity! We were so happy we finally got an activity going! We have been pushing it for so long and finally everyone got excited and helped out! 

Things are going really well here in Trinidad. I think this year is the year this branch will change into a ward!! 

-Elder Harding

"Moto Taxi's"

January 4, 2016

Feliz Navidad!!!

December 28, 2015

Feliz Navidad??

Selfie stick shot

Christmas Caroling in the town square of Trinidad 

Nativity

Elders leaving town after immigration

This bull was grunting at us while we ate lunch.

Cochabamba from the air.

Trinidad from the air

I found a friend

Eco Jet

"When it rains, no one leaves their house"

My best friend Elder Teahan left Trinidad.

Another good friend, Elder Knotts leaves Trinidad.

December7, 2015

Hola! 

So its been a little difficult 2 weeks! Last Sunday we had a down pour. When it rains here, no one leaves their house. So we get to church soaking wet and no one is there. We combined our branch with the another ward, central. And I think total we had 20 people there! And of those 20, 6 were from our branch. But then this week was super hot! And of course, we didn't have rain until Sunday, but even with the rain we had more people come than the week before! Combined again with our branch and central we had 50! That was better, haha! Progress.

This week we haven’t been able to find Alvaro (mr bolivia)... I'm pretty bummed about that but we will keep looking. On the bright side Joe is doing really well and is super excited for us to pass by! He didn’t come to church because of the rain, haha, but I have a feeling he will real soon! He is always waiting for us to pass by and teach him. He's working on his goal to start a new life! 

We also have a recent convert named Raul who is 82 years old. haha! He is the funniest guy I've met! He is super hard to teach because he doesn't understand completely. I think we have taught him the resurrection like 6 times, haha. But he’s super awesome. I love talking to him.

Elder Harding

"We have 3 new investigators!"

Hump day!!! Keeping tradition with the ceremonial burning of the white shirt.

November 23, 1015

Hola! 

This week was super cool! We have 3 new investigators. Ignasio,  Alvaro (mr bolivia) and Joe. Ignasio is a cool guy. He’s a little different and funny, haha, and he has friends in a different ward so he familiar with us and he is super excited to listen to us. Alvaro is Mr Bolivia. And yes, we found him! He is super cool and is very focused on family which is awesome because we teach a lot about families! He is very open and honest with us. He has expressed difficulties he’s had in his life and he has a lot of faith, so I think he will like the message we have for him. Then we are teaching Joe. Yeah, his name is American but only because his dad was obsessed with an old cowboy show called Billy and Joe or something like that. Haha! He is very out going and funny! He also helped us get to our next appointment with his motorcycle!  

This week we’ve also been visiting a lot of less active priesthood holders and trying to strengthen the branch to help it grow. 

I also had a fishing dream this week:( I dreamed we were in Mexico and I caught a huge dorado hahaha!!!

Elder Harding  

"It was a happy ending:)"

My companion and I with President

A place that Presidente took us to eat.

I fished this eel out of the sewer in front of my house.

November 9, 2015

Hola! 

This week was awesome!! First we went to Santa Cruz to have our meeting and it was awesome! Presidente said something that I liked… he asked how is our study? Are we reading or studying? He said in the mission we need to be studying for topics. It was great, he taught everyone the more effective way to study. We were in the offices all day and after our interviews president took us and the zone leaders from Guayaramerin out to KFC! I didn’t know Bolivia had all these places!! 

We got back to our area to work and we were going to visit a new investigator with a member reference. During the ride on the motorcycles, my companion got a bug in his eye and it wouldn’t come out!! But, luckily this new investigator was a doctor! So he saved my comp and his eye and we had a great lesson after! It was a happy ending:) haha! In Bolivia right now it is mango season. I come home with bags full of mangos everyday. We pick them as we are walking!  They are everywhere! Oh, and we got to pass over Cochabamba on the flight home. I couldn’t find the temple or the Jesus Christ statue from the air... but it was awesome sight. 

Elder Harding

"I have to get used to new responsibility"

My comp (on my right) the greengos from Guayaramerin,they are so cool and Martino who I lived with in Guayaramerin.

Everyone leaving after immigration.

November 2, 2015

Hola!

So this week was another crazy busy week without working much... I really miss teaching and a normal routine!! Haha, it’s alright, I just have to get used to the new responsibility. I’ve been helping the missionaries from Riberalta and Guayaramerin with immigration! It’s been crazy, but we have been taking care of them. We’ve had them around for a few days but they left and are finally back to their areas. So this week we have been trying get to know our area a little better because we still don’t know everyone. We are now getting help from our branch council and we have lots of referrals from the members which is great because we have lots of work waiting for us! Today we fly to Santa Cruz for the leadership council and will be there until Thursday... we are always so busy!! But it’ll be fun. My new companion is awesome, I love his desires to work and teach. He is super funny too! We are always joking around and joking around with the people here so our relationships with the families we have are super good and strong. We are working a lot with the priesthood menos activos and activando them and working from references with them and expanding our work from that. We are pretty much starting our area over and starting fresh, I love it and I’m super excited to see the progress!!

Elder Harding

"I have a new companion"

Alligator in a park 

My district before changes

October 26, 2015

Hola! 

So, this week was pretty busy with cambios. Yes, we had combios! I have a new companion. His name is Elder Villalobos from Colombia! He is super cool and he is from my group or my zone so I already knew him! But honestly, this week has been very crazy. We spent a good 2 whole days in the airport sending and receiving missionaries the combios! We lost a lot of time to work but we had a meeting with the stake president and we found out what has to be done to change our branch to a ward. So we will be working very hard to help this branch become a ward! We are working with our branch president and things are looking good! Not much else has happened this week because of combios things were crazy and it kept us so busy. We are going to dig in this next week and work on the new goal we have to change the branch to a ward! I’m pretty excited to get to work this week!

Elder Harding

"Crazy good soccer game"

October 19, 2015

Hola!

This week was pretty fun and interesting! It started with a crazy

good soccer game latinos vs greengos, haha! Greengos won like 15-9! Haha!

That was pretty fun to play and funny. 

So we also had a service project to move parts of a motorcycle outside and as we were finishing the family decided they wanted to move the pig pen. We needed someone to get in the pen with the pig and tie it up and hold it so it wouldn't run off. Of course I was the one who jumped in there and lassoed it up and held it as everyone else moved the pig pen. Haha! My ears hurt from the pig squealing so loud!! But I didn’t mind, it was pretty fun! 

So we had intercambios and I got to work with Elder Santos. That day we busted out six lessons one after another! it was awesome! Oh, and the hermanas had a baptism for a girl named Silvia and she chose me to baptize her! So I had her baptism on Friday and it was a really good session. Her parents who aren't members, showed up and her uncle or dad I don’t know which expressed how happy he was for all the support of the branch to help her get baptized.

It was a pretty good week, I was happy with all the lessons and teaching we had!

Elder Harding

"Sister missionaries baked me a cake"

October 12, 2015

Hola!!!

This week was pretty crazy and fun! So to start, we were supposed to fly to Santa Cruz to have a conference with President and the other zone leaders but the airport was closed so we joined in with skype, like a conference call, haha, but it was a terrible connection. We did the best we could and I think we understood most of it. So the point of the conference is we have to go back and teach what we learned to our zone. At the end of the conference call, the President told us, “Oh by the way, I'm going to be in Trinidad tomorrow!” And so he sat in during our reunion de zona as we taught what he talked about in the conference that we had on a bad Skype connection! Haha! To out surprise, it went really well! Monday the sister missionaries baked me a cake for my birthday and that made me pretty happy! I have a lot of pictures to send but I'm at an internet shop that has viruses so I am not going to connect my camera. So next week! It’s been super cold here and everyone is shocked. They say this never happens. Haha, I’m dying because my warm clothes are in Santa Cruz! I had to barrow a jacket from our branch mission leader! Oh, we have a branch mission leader now! He is awesome! He is recently married and his wife is a convert. We are super close with their family.

Elder Harding

"Conference was powerful"

October 5, 2015

Hola! 

So my birthday was pretty cool with conference this weekend! We watched it in the stake center and we got it in English!! We had a fat greengo party and everyone brought something to eat to share, it was awesome! I have pics but I forgot my camera today.... Conference was powerful. I liked the talk about mothers a lot, haha! It made me think of you mom, and how grateful I am for how you raised me and took care of me. After that talk, Elder Knotts and I looked at each other and said, “Crap, I miss my mom!” at the same time! Haha, I miss you mom. 

We had a lot of investigators come to almost all the sessions!! Which is almost impossible,butit was great! Haha! We have some really good investigators. And to answer the question for dad and Kevin, we had about 50 in the priesthood session. It was a good turn out. It’s amazing, this week passed by so fast! I don’t have my notes from this last week so I can’t remember what I wanted to write haha, sorry. I’ll do better next week!!

Elder Harding

"He was Mr Bolivia!"

These are old planes that crashed in Trinidad. They just pull them out of the way and leave them here in this airplane graveyard. They are on air force property and we got permission to explore them from the mechanics who let us through. 

September 28, 2015

Hola!!! 

This week had its ups and downs but mostly ups. It was a good week. The downs were I got sick because someone gave us bad water. I went to the clinic and my tests came out clean but I took the medicine they gave me anyway and I'm all good now! I have to go back and take more tests to make sure I am still in the clear. Then, after I started feeling better, my companion fell ill, he had the same thing! Hahaha! It was a rough week but we are good now! 

I'm pretty stoked about a new investigator I have. We contacted him in this rich neighborhood and we got talking and this dude is freaking jacked!! He's huge!! Then, I found out he was Mr. Bolivia!!! Haha! So he and I got to talking about the gym and all that good stuff. Haha, it was awesome! I was so happy to talk about working out and all that with him. We passed by his house again and he was leaving with his family to go to the park. He is also always working and then spends time at the gym. But he was super happy to see us and talk with us more so we will be passing by every Sunday because it is his only day free. We also have another really good family and they are all ready for baptism! But..... we are waiting for the fetchin lawyers.... one dropped the family and the other one wants more money and the family doesn't have the money... The lady investigator needs to get a divorce from her old husband who she doesn’t have any connection with anymore and doesn’t have kids with him so it should be a quick divorce but we need to find a better lawyer for her. 

So this was my week. it was pretty solid. And outside of the teaching, we are always running around because we are doing stuff for the zone! Haha! It’s crazy to be zone leader!

Elder Harding

The difference between a city and a country missionary's badge.

"I am now in Trinidad"

Leaving Guayaramerin on combios.

We are building sofas for service.

This is the first Ford F150 I've seen since I've been here!

September 14, 2015

Hola!

So this week was interesting. Yes, I finally had combios after 9 months in my first area! I am now in Trinidad as the zone leader! I’m pretty nervous to be the zone leader... but oh well, I will just have to work hard! This week I haven’t worked too much because I have been running around doing things for the zone. I am so lost here in Trinidad, haha! I don’t know where anything is! I had the opportunity to meet my branch and I bore my testimony on Sunday. The branch is big and strong and we have good leaders who help us work so I’m excited to get to work with them more! My companion is Elder Velasquez. He is from Argentina! haha! He is a cool guy he is super goofy which is good because i don't like serious haha! 

Elder Harding