¿Qué Tal, Bolivia?: Feliz Cumpleanos, Mama

MAMA! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How was your day? What did you do? Cuentame su día! I hope you ate salted caramel ice cream for me. I´ll have to read your letters, but first I want to tell you about my week. So we worked hard this week. I honestly don´t really remember much of what happened during the week. We had a lot of lessons, and even had some members come with us on visits. They were two cute little teenagers in our ward. One of them reminds me exactly of Tiffani. It is crazy.

Most of our week, we spent getting Vanesa ready for her baptism this Saturday. We spent a lot of time with her this week, and she seemed so ready to be baptized. Saturday came, and we came to get her for her baptism that night. But something was wrong. She was different. She said that she was nervous and scared. My comp and I started to get a weird feeling. But we talked with her, decided to move forward with her baptism. She had lots of different reasons for being afraid.... the water, going up in front of everyone, wearing a dress, etc.

So we are sitting there in her baptismal service, and I start to feel so so bad. Like the worst feeling in my entire life. We were surrounded by all these people, and I was supposed to feel so happy. I had been looking forward to this day for a long time. But I wanted to cry. I didn´t feel the Spirit at all. So I said a little prayer, asking Heavenly Father to please help us stop this if it wasn´t His will.

She was about to be baptized, and I pulled her aside and asked her one more time if this is what she really wanted. She said with tears in her eyes no. My heart broke. She changed and went home. My companion and I sat in the gym and cried. I felt like a terrible missionary, and I didn´t know what we did wrong. She was so ready before, and we really don´t know what happened.... so so terrible.

We visited her that night, but said nothing of the baptism. We are going to keep visiting her, and we pray every day to know how to help her.

So yeah, Saturday was the hardest day that I have ever had here. I really wanted to go home. It made me so sad to see someone who I love so much reject something so good.

But I have learned something from this experience. Heavenly Father has a plan for everyone. This plan is specific, and only He knows it. Vanesa was not baptized Saturday because it was not the will of the Lord. But she will be baptized, because Heavenly Father loves her. We just have to be patient and have faith in the plan and timing of the Lord.

Yup....So that was pretty much most of my week. Other than that, we just have been working hard.

Our pension is out of town, so her sister is cooking for us until Sunday. Oh boy, does she serve us a ton of food! I almost die every time. It is like a mountain of rice! It is good food! Just a lot! We don´t even eat dinner because we are always so full.

Hmm.... what else can I tell you guys? OH! I am trying to learn Quechua!

Ñoká muña kuyqui canta!

I wrote that on your sign. It means I love you in quechua. We meet people every day that only speak quechua. It is frustrating, because they are always so dang nice and I want to help them! That little girl in the hat in my picture speaks quechua and spanish, so she teaches me some words. She is so cute. She sang us a song in Quechua the other day. It is so beautiful! You should look it up on youtube people speaking quechua. It is awesome.

OH MY LANTA! I almost forgot to tell you guys. On Thursday, it SNOWED HERE! Granted, it was for about 2 minutes, but it was snowing in South America! It was the craziest thing ever. I was happy. There was not enough snow to stick, so no pictures, but there was snow. I promise.

Oh, and mama! Apparently, your packages are in Cochabamba, and some sisters are bringing them to me today! I hope.... So I guess the address you have is correct! The mail here is just so dang slow.... I AM SO EXCITED! I hope they bring them today.

Nothing else really to report. I taught my first Sunday School lesson in Spanish. It was actually pretty fun. My español is getting better. I am definitely feeling more comfortable. It is cool. I had one dream in spanish, and I was so excited.

How is everyone there? I hope you all had a great week! I am going to send this letter off, and read yours.

Ñoká muña kuyqui canta!

I LOVE YOU!

Sister Routsong