Viva Potosi!!

MAMASITA! I´m on top of the world! So you´ll never guess where I am.... POTOSI: Yup. We got our new companions last Thursday. I was talking with all of my friends, and was all... Yeah, I wanna go to Potosi way bad, but not during the winter. Bahahaha BIENVENIDOS POTOSI! My trainer (my mama) is so amazing. She is perfect for me. Her name is Hna Torres from Peru. She only has 3 weeks left before she goes home! So I´ll have two trainers. Interestante.  This internet is wayyyyyy slow.

I´m gonna do bullet points so I can go faster....
- My house is pretty ghetto.
- I washed my own clothes today!
- There is dog poop all over the street.
- It is normal to see a dead dog.
- We got to hike a mountain for P-day! Look up Cerro Rico on the internet. We took a bus halfway up with 30 missionaries... We lost two coming back down...
- The first photo is my comp.
- I miss the CCM and all of my friends... I had bad withdrawals the first couple days bc I became so close to them.

- I hardly ever know what’s going on... I just follow my trainer.

- An elder asked me today how long I had been out bc my spanish. I told him 5 days, and he was surprised at how good my spanish was. BOOYAH.
- I don’t think I´ll get to write everyone today. Please forward my email to everyone, and could you send it to Steph as well?
- It is absolutely FREEZING here. I sleep with leggings, wool socks, sweats, a long sleeve t-shirt, my Oregon hoodie, 5 comforters, and cling to one of those hot water bottles. It’s all good.
- This experience is so humbling. So many people have very little. It kills me. Their houses are so tiny.
- My pensionista is the best. She is teaching me Quechua and I´m teaching her English. She makes good food. It is mostly rice. Oh... and no cuenos (dont know how to spell that) yet.... Her family is THE BEST. I love her kids so much. We talk about movies and music and play chess.
- The kids here are amazing. They are the sweetest things ever. I love talking to them more than anyone else.
- Cholitas are everywhere.
- My zone is so cool. We had so much fun today hiking Cerro Rico.
- I got to go to the Cochabamba temple the night before I left! It is beautiful. I may not get to go back for 6 months. They say that once you are sent to Potosi, you stay in Potosi.
- Dad, I´m in the Andes right now! How crazy is that???
- Kayla! How are you? Is it summer yet???
- Kyle! How is being home!? Are you bored yet????
- My spanish is slowly progressing. I get most frustrated when I have something that I want to say, but I cannot say it in Spanish.
- Sorry my letters are always so scatterbrained. I get so excited to write you guys that my thoughts become loco.
- Mom! I love and miss you!
- Can you send me another SD card? I need one.

Mamasita! I am doing great. I have moments where I want to break down and cry, but they go away fast. I am freezing here, but it will all be okay. The worst part is washing my face at night. The water is FREEZING. Our shower is decent. It is pretty warm. I love it here. It is the craziest place that I have ever seen. Please send your package to the mission office. Look up the address online. And they say it shouldn’t weigh more than 4 pounds. Look up pictures of Potosi! I am in an area called San Martin.  Hills upon hills upon hills. And the air is super thin. President thanks me over and over again for being born in a high elevation  because  not very many hermanas can start  here because it is so hard. Don’t worry about me. I will be okay. Don’t send candy or food. I have plenty of food here. Send more wool socks.  And maybe another pair of thick leggings. They call leggings here cholita panties. HAHAHA Oh! Send me another long sleeve shirt. I am going to try to find some boots here.
You wanna know what’s so funny? My favorite thing that I brought with me?? Those stupid forty dollar freaking tights. Side note... all the missionaries here say freaking and fetch about a million times a day. Hahahaha
Oh! We got to see snow today! My favorite thing was having snowball fights with latinos who have never seen snow. So hilarious.
Did I tell you the crazy story about my journey to Bolivia???
We left the CCM at 7 pm last Monday. I was so sad. I cried, I´ll admit it. It was hard. We had a flight to La Paz that didn’t land until about 2 am. I thought of Grandma and Dad and Kirk the whole time I was in La Paz. Our next flight to Cochabamba didn’t leave until 7 am that Tuesday, so the church paid for us to have this weird hotel thingy in the airport. Everyone in my group was sick, so I let them all sleep while I watched their luggage with E. Noriega and Hma Webb. Those two are my best buds. We finally made it to Cochabamba at 8 am, and went right to the mission home, which is crazy nice. We had interviews and helped Hma Dyer out with some things, and finally got to go to the hotel and sleep at 5 pm. I went over 24 hours without sleep. Loco. It was so fun though. I had a blast with E. Noriega and Hna Webb.
Hm... What else can I tell you guys? Right now we pretty much teach less active members. We are teaching two young girls tonight who are less active. They are so cute. They love asking me about the states. I am also teaching some of the members English. It is fun.
How is everyone? I always have so much to say that I never get to read your letters. Dang gina....
My comp thought it was so weird that I didn’t know how to wash clothes by hand. She is so sweet and helped me. This really is a third world country and I sometimes have crazy culture shock. It is loco.
Please don’t forget to write Steph for me! I feel bad that I never get to write her.
Hey, so you should look up how high potosi is. No one can ever tell me, and I am curious.
Mom... I dont think you´d like Potosi. At all. I laugh every time I am in a crazy situation, because I think about how you would react.
I haven’t eaten all day. We haven’t had any time. I am STARVING. Oh geez. I have about 10 more minutes to write. What do you want to know? There are these crazy Bolivians next to me speaking very loud spanish while they play World of Warcraft. BAHAHA
I am doing good. I really was struggling my first days here. I was cold. I didnt understand anything. I am in this crazy place.  And I didn’t know everyone. And I really missed my friends. I was so surprised at how close I got to all of them.
But the past two days have been good. I am adjusting.  I am really learning how to remain positive in crappy situations.
OH! Did I tell you that I had to give a talk in spanish my last Sunday at the CCM? It was wild.
My house. It is pretty big. The kitchen is ghetto. We only use it to heat water. I have to go outside to get to my kitchen and my bathroom. We had to move our desks into our room because we were so cold while we were studying. We have a little space heater in there. The doors are all so much shorter than me. I have to duck through every one. It is safe mama. We have to pass through 5 doors, two of which require a key, to get to our house. So dont worry. The shower has such terrible water pressure. I makes me think of that Seinfeld episode.
Everyone just stares at me because I am so different than them. My companion laughs every time.
I have so many pictures that I want to send you and I can never choose which one. I wish you could just be here and see it! The mission has a huge learning curve... and sometimes it really stresses me out. I cannot wait until I am no longer new. I hate not being able to speak to others because everyone here is amazing. Okay, this is my last email. I love you!!! I’ll write next week if I dont freeze to death!