July 6, 2015

Welcome to Bolivia, Welcome to Bolivia, We've Been Waiting For You!

 Her companion/trainer from Honduras 
 District with their teacher just before leaving the CCM




What a week! Let me start in chronological order to make you wait even longer to hear about Bolivia!


On my last Saturday at the CCM, I got hit in the face with a soccer ball. hahahaha Then while running I tripped out of bounds and fell into the net. So I stopped playing because I thought it was probably Heavenly Father telling me it was time to stop.  No major damage! Only a little scrape on my hand. 

We left Peru at 6 am and were in the airport waiting to get through for at least 3.5 hours.  Paid for our other bag (which we will be reimbursed for) then headed off JUST IN TIME to catch the bus to the plane. (weird) We arrived and it was raining! A nice welcome since there was never rain in Peru! there were SO MANY ELDERS there to greet us. And some spoke English! yay! haha They took our bags and then we got on a really nice bus to go to the mission office and Presidente's extremely nice apartment! On the way there they were explaining things in Spanish then English. The American Elder yelled "Gringos!  Try to understand this and said (in Spanish) that we were going to eat pizza. and the entire bus was screaming. hahahahha We had pizza at the Willard's apartment and took pictures. Then did some paperwork at the mission office and had interviews. Then we went to dinner! THEN we all went to stay in a hotel! Surprisingly nice! I was in a room with Hermana Q. and we had a fun time! :) 

The next morning we did immigration things and fingerprints. Then we went to the church, got our trainers, had lunch, had some training, then left! I am in Tarija! Hermanas can go to Santa Cruz or Tarija! And here I am! We flew from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba to Tarija and arrived around 11 pm. And I got a nice reminder of my motion sickness days. It was a lovely time of trying not to throw up. hahahaha

My trainer is Hermana R. from Honduras. She speaks little English so this is a fun time of miscommunication.  My Spanish is improving! The first day someone asked my name and I said Hermana Park and they said Oh sorry. I don't speak English. hahahahahahha! At least in my ward and district there is another North American elder! So I'm not the only one! 

Church was a whole new experience. There were stray dogs lying around. Just listening. hahaha Then they made me bear my testimony and it was so good that someone asked me after if I was from Ohio or Alaska... Idaho. I said Idaho. haha It was pretty easy to fast seeing that..THERE IS NO DINNER HERE. a light breakfast, then we go to our lady (I forgot the name for it..) and she makes us lunch, every day. She is the Bishop's wife. We eat lunch with their family. I don't do a whole lotta talking. haha when they talk to me its very loud and slow! Yesterday they pulled up that Mormon Message called "Reclaimed" because it talks about Idaho Falls. They asked if that's were I was from and I said yes! Thats Idaho! Then they showed the lovely Idaho Falls temple! Very fun! They give me SO MUCH RICE. I'm glad the in the health meeting at the CCM they said don't feel bad about not eating all the food because they are paid by the church to serve you. Whew! Because picture an entire plate full of white rice. Sorry Adam. I think you will forever beat me at our steak eating contest! haha! 

Oh and ya know, I've never been to a ward council, but I think this one here takes the cake. Lots of slurred, fast Spanish. A dog sleeping across 2 people's laps. The bishopric all drives motorcycles. hahah Glad the English speaking Elder was there because he translated 2 things for me. 1. The 1st counselor yelled "Let's go burn his house down!" haha the second "Lets have Hermana Park and the Elder hand out money next week because they're {Americans}," hahahahahahahahahaha where even am I? haha

It's been a good week! EXTREMELY cold though! It's probably only like 40 or 50 but just being outside all day makes it pretty chilly. They weren't kidding when they call this winter! haha I'm sure Ill miss this once summer comes! I love you all! 

Love, Hermana Park!

No comments:

Post a Comment