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