¿Qué Tal, Bolivia?: Cambioooooooos

I bet you are all wondering where in the world will I be TOMORROW?!

ANY GUESSES???????

COCHABAMABA.

Yup. Por fin, I will be in the place that I was actually called to serve. I will say, when I got the call yesterday, I was really sad. I really didn’t want to go to Cochabamba. I am going to miss Potosi more than anything. I have heard that Cochabamba is a completely different mission. And I will be right in the center of the city. I am going from a hipster, little town of Potosi to the big city! I have heard that missionaries have culture shock! I am nervous.....

BUT I have learned something from this experience. I have learned to put my whole trust in Heavenly Father. I know that I am supposed to go to Las Cuadras for a reason (that is what my next area is called...). I am excited to see what Heavenly Father has in store for me, but I will miss Potosi more than you can imagine.

The cool thing is that my new comp is a latina, so I will finally be able to progress more in my spanish! Her name is Hermana Nieve. I think that she is from Peru. Lets just hope that she likes to run.... hahahaha

So yeah.... yesterday was kind of hard. I was pretty sad, but I am trying to have a positive attitude.

Anyways.... HOW WAS YOUR HALLOWEEN???????? What did you guys do???????? I was on intercambios for my halloween, but I came back for dinner, and my pension decorated her house with ghosts and pumpkins. It was so sweet. She knows that it is my favorite holiday. She made her awesome pineapple pie, and also made this stuff called chanitline that I LOVE. It was a fun day.

I HAVE TO TELL YOU GUYS ABOUT TODOS SANTOS. It is so crazy here. So the people here in Potosi celebrate Todo Santos like crazy, more than any other place in Bolivia. It is fun. So they spend all week making these things they call masitas, which basically are little cakes and cookies. Then, Saturday and Sunday, they set up these shrines in their house for people who have recently died in their family. Then, they open their doors and invite anyone from off the street to come in. The people have to say a prayer infront of the shrine, and then the owner of the house gives them these masitas. So people just go from house to house, collecting these masitas! They had BAGFULLS of these things. It was like trick or treating, except everyone was doing it! It was hilarious to see these adults walking around with giant bags of cookies.

So the hard thing was that NO ONE WAS IN THEIR HOUSE. So we walked around in vain trying to find people to teach. Then, we decided to make a game out of it. We decided to contact everyone that had a big bag of cookies and ask then what they were doing. We, being white, obviously wouldn’t know! Our goal was to see how many people would invite us to have some of their cookies. Hahahaha Because when we asked, they always invited us to have some! By the end of the day, we ended up with a huge bag of these cookies (that aren’t very good) just by contacting people. It was hilarious.

The other bad thing about Todos Santos is that now, because everyone has these gross masitas, during every single appointment, they invite us to eat some. And you get real sick of these nasty cookies fast. Hahahahah But it was funny.

What else is new????

- OH! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEITH AND GRANDMA AND BARRY!!!!!! I dont remember the exact dates of Grandmas and Barrys, but I know that Keith´s is the 7th! WOW YOU ARE SO OLD! How old are you going to be, Keith???????? What are you guys going to do????

- It is getting so hot here in Potosi. And my comp just says that it is worse in Cochabamba. I am probably going to DIE. I am so used to being cold all the time hahahaha

- I had to say goodbye to all my converts yesterday. It was hard.

- We are still teaching the jovenes during sunday school. It is so fun!

I cannot think of what else happened this week. I had intercambios during Halloween, so I was with another sister in her area. The THIS IS HALLOWEEN song was stuck in my head all day.

I hope that you are all doing great! I miss you guys so much! Next time I write, I will be in Cochabamba! LOVE

HERMANA ROUTSONG