Happy Homecoming!

Kari is home and doing well. It's wonderful to have her here!

She will be speaking to the YA's this Sunday, Oct. 16th 1:00 pm

and to her home ward on Oct. 23rd 9:00 am

The address is 27976 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo Ca. 92691

la paz 28 - sept 19 "chau"

HOLA FAMILIA!

Esta carta la voy a escribir en español para que aprendan. Jajaja! Naaaa. Mentira. Voy a seguir en Ingles para que no sufran tanto. This is my last, so I better make it good right? This is so weird. I always felt like the missionaries at the end of their missions knew everything and I feel soooo not like that. I have learned a ton, I have grown a lot personally I feel at least, and for that I am grateful. But I still have so much more to learn! Life is just one big journey.

One thing I think the mission has really taught me is how much I really love my Savior, and appreciate all that He has done and still does for all of us. I feel like I have learned just a little bit more about Him while trying to be His representative; trying to say and do what He himself would say and do if He were here. It’s not easy…the Savior’s life was not easy, but He never complained.

Well this week here in “the Peace” was interesting. We are working a lot with Patricia Golly….she is a heavy smoker…but she is smoking a LOT less…before it was 60-80 cigarettes a day…and now it’s 10-20 a day. She is so funny…last night we had an activity at the church, and she came. And I went to go to the bathroom, and I open the door and there is all this cigarette smoke, but there isn’t anyone in the bathroom. The other day she had a box of cigarettes and we told her she couldn’t smoke anymore after she finished that package. And I took the package when she wasn’t looking and marked it with a pen. Then later we returned that evening to check up on her, and she told us she had smoked only that box. So I asked her to see the box. The box had no marking on it, and I told her that she was lying, that this was a different box. And she denied and denied, and then finally gave in and told us. Oh Patricia….so this has been quite the adventure. Her boyfriend is a recent convert, and he has been helping her a lot too. She keeps telling me how much she is going to miss me when I am gone and how she is going to write to me when she quits smoking for good.

So I have my final interview with President tomorrow. That will be good, he always has good things to say. The package was fun. Thanks for sending that mom. The church is true, the book is blue, so yabba dabba doo! Welp, I gotta go. See you guys on Wednesday!

Love, hermana amundsen

la paz 27 - sept 12

Hollllllaaaaaaa.

Wow. 2 weeks. I only have one more letter after this. This week was a tough week. A few thing happened. Let’s see. We went by a mom and a daughter that we have taught, and the daughter came out and flat out rejected the Book of Mormon, saying that they didn’t even have interest in it. We bore our testimonies and invited her to really pray, but she doesn’t even want to. That was tough, I felt like I had to defend the Book of Mormon, because I love it so much and know how much it has blessed my life. It hurt to think that someone could reject it without even giving it a chance.

Then Saturday Sonia was supposed to have her baptism interview. The elders came down from another town to do it. And as we are waiting for the bus to go to Sonia’s house, she sends us a text message saying to forgive her, but she is just not ready for baptism yet. A few minutes later we tried calling her, and her mom answered…sonia had already left. The mom told us that they didn’t want us to come by anymore to teach them. (we had been teaching the whole family for 2 months) so that was a major blow. That one really hurt. I cried and felt like a failure.

Saturday and Sunday morning all my thoughts were, “what did I do wrong?” “why am I here if i’m not helping anyone?” and all that other stuff. I grabbed my scriptures and sat on my bed and decided to say a prayer. After the prayer I opened my scriptures to wherever and began to read Mosiah 2; King Benjamin’s address. Verse 17…

“and behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”

I don’t know how many times I have read this scripture…I even have it memorized…but Sunday morning it was the answer to my prayer. I remembered a story that President Eyring had once told about his father. They had been pulling weeds for hours, and his father had been pulling weeds in a place where they had already sprayed to kill the weeds. And when they told Pres. Eyring’s dad that he had been pulling weeds where they were already going to die, Pres. Eyring’s dad began to laugh. And Pres. Eyring said “dad, how can you laugh, all your hours of work are wasted!” and Pres. Eyring’s father responded, “I wasn’t doing it for the weeds.” I realized that my efforts were not wasted, like Pres. Eyring’s father…I was in the service of my God. And I felt that Heavenly Father was telling me that.

We need to pay better attention the scriptures…It’s God’s way of talking to us. When we need to talk to God, we pray…but when God wants to talk to us, He uses the scriptures…they are His words.

Welp folks. That’s it til next week. I love you guys a lot! Thanks for the letters.

Love, kari

la paz 26 - sept 5

HOLA

Sounds like a pretty hectic week. Good thing it’s a holiday, so that you guys can slow down just a bit. So marie and rick moved again!? So where are they now? And mom, I’m sure your lesson went well…I think that’s funny that you get more nervous to teach then you do to give a talk, I think I am the opposite.

And dad you are totally right about the spirit. This week was a good one. Our Sonia is progressing. She came to church yesterday, and it was fast and testimony meeting like you guys. Well, the spirit was really strong as the members bore their testimonies, and Sonia was in tears, I was too. She totally knows it’s true. She says she feels good whenever she is with us or at the church, and then when she is out she kinda loses that drive. Her family is kinda sorta supporting her. They always receive us well, and some of the kids are starting to ask some really good questions, but the parents are a little slower. And Sonia wants more than anything to have her family more united and have family prayer and things.

Something that really hit me this week was the importance of families. We have been studying the atonement as a mission, and the other day I was reading a talk called “the atonement” by Russell M. Nelson, and it hit me how key the family is. The earth was created so that the family could have a place to live…Adam and Eve fell so that they could have a family…and Christ died so that we can return to live with God and our families. We cannot inherit eternal life without our families. The temple is so key…it seals us together and helps us return to God and to become like him. This is why Satan works soooo hard to destroy the family, because it is soooo important. He has us believe that living together and not getting married is ok, that you can have relationships with your own gender, and all the other stuff because he knows that when we fall into these traps we cannot reach our potential to become like God.

The other day we were out with Perla, who is a member here…and we were out knocking doors. So, my turn. I clap my hands and out comes a lady and a couple dogs. She walks across the front lawn to the gate where we were. As we are chatting she opens the gate to let the dogs out. All the sudden I feel something warm on heels and look down to see one of the dogs walking away from me. I though maybe it had licked me. No. it had peed on me!!!! Well, I was in the middle of a conversation, so I couldn’t do anything. My comp was holding back a burst of laughter and Perla hadn’t even seen. Finally the lady leaves (didn’t want anything). And I pulled off my shoes and started to clean up a bit. Luckily it had hit mostly my shoes and only parts of my heels….and a little of my dress! We laughed sooo hard! We just kept working, we were far from home and I figured it wasn’t too bad. If you don’t get bit by a dog on your mission you get peed on. I’d rather get peed on I guess. The good thing was that the next house we knocked we found some way rad people! So hopefully we’ll get them going on the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life!

Enjoy the braces chicas! That’s about it. Thanks for your prayers and your love. I love you guys! I have the best family in the world!

kari

la paz 25 - aug 29

Hello.

well. thanks for the letters and the info. Keep those legs tan jodes. That’s sweet that sara is married. I’m sure a lot more weddings happened while I was gone that I didn’t even hear about. That’s so cool mom that you get to help out so much with the missionary work. Hopefully the weather is still hot when I get back….this whole double winter thing is not my favorite. But it was actually super nice here this week.

The zone conference was fun. Everyone kept saying…”oh my gosh! Hna. Amundsen, you’re dying aren’t you!!?” so that was kinda weird to hear. But the conference was really good. I learned a lot.

I realized something this week. I am loving more. I really feel my love growing for my companion and for the members. I’ve been praying a lot for that, and I feel like Heavenly Father is really answering my prayers and blessing me. Like the other day my comp was really upset with a member. And so I was able to remain calm, and the Lord really guided my steps until I could calm her down. (This was Sunday morning). And on our way to church I put my arm around her and said “hey, you’re going to be ok.” And then later, we saw that member and she was like “¡hug me hug me hug me!! It helped when you hugged me!” so I just laughed and gave her another hug. But when I showed her love, that’s when she was really able to relax.

Also…Sonia is going to be baptized the 17^th of sept. But she didn’t come to church on Sunday, and we don’t know why. They didn’t answer the phone. But we have a cita with them tonight, so we’ll see what’s up. The mom, Delia, doesn’t like it when we invite them to come to church and to be baptized…she wants to take her own time and listen, but without commitments, she doesn’t want to promise anything. So we have to be kinda careful that we don’t wear out our welcome too. But hopefully everything will go well these next few weeks.

That’s all for now. We got our English class back! So we are now teaching again. Have a good week you guys. I love you!!!

hna. amundsen

la paz 24 - aug 22

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhola

This week was a gooood week. We have been teaching the flia. Siano since july, they are a family of 9; 7 kids and the 2 parents. Well, Sonia, who is 18 years old started to show a little more interest in what we’ve been teaching. And this week she and her brother Jose came to church!!!! We were so stoked! But that’s not even the best part.

So we are sitting in Gospel Principles class and towards the end Sonia was asked a question, something like “what do you think?” and there was suddenly a silence in the room. Sonia began to cry, and couldn’t talk. And Sergio (another investigator that was there) was like, “I know this might be kinda weird, but I get the impression that Sonia will be like them one day (pointing at me and my comp), I didn’t want to say it at first, but that’s how I feel.” I couldn’t believe it…that same thought had come me the other day when we had been teaching Sonia and her family, but I just figured I was getting overly excited. And then later my comp told me she had thought the same thing.

When Sonia could finally speak she said that she just feels like everything we have been talking about is for her, “cada punto” she said, (every point) was something that she needed to hear. Do you guys realize how good I felt at this moment? Sonia and Jose couldn’t stay for sacrament meeting this week, but next week they said for sure. We have another cita with them on Wednesday…so we’ll see how it goes!!!

It was so funny, because after class we were talking to Sonia about when we could come by, and my comp thought we were talking about her baptism, and my comp says “¡podemos hacerlo ahora!” which is, “we can do it right now!” and so I had to explain to my comp that we were seeing when we could come by. Hahahaha. She was just so dang excited! Like the elder in the Best Two Years. That was my companion yesterday. “we just think you look great in white” type of thing. Later when she came to her senses she asked me, “why didn’t you just slap me or something?”

So anyways…I also gave a talk on Sunday. I talked about testimonies, and shared a bunch of stories from my life. But this talk I really felt the spirit working through me. I felt like this was the topic Heavenly Father wanted me to talk about. But I invited the members to pray regarding their own testimonies and then pray for opportunities to be able to share it with others. And I shared some of my experiences of sharing the gospel. But it is so important that we really do share our testimonies with others. READ D&C 60:2!!!!! We as members have a great responsibility, and it doesn’t matter if they accept everything we say, just share a bit with them. Like Elder Uchtdorf said…when people ask how was your weekend…skip over the normal stuff and talk about something a youth speaker might have said in church, or something you learned from church. SOMETHING! Like, mom and dad, you could totally talk about how Sarah gave her first talk in church and how she spoke about virtue! DONE! Simple. Just do it.

We also had a funny ecperience on Saturday. We as missionaries started teaching an English class every sat….well…there is a member that lived in the US and she speaks English, and I guess even used to teach English. So she shows up and says that she will be teaching the class. Well, she has a very strong personality so we didn’t resist too much….but we weren’t very happy. Our students weren’t too happy either. It was an interesting experience. But that’s all for now.

We have a zone conference tomorrow in Parana. So I am excited for that! I love you guys! Thanks for your letters and for your prayers!

Love kari

la paz 23 - aug 15 "the last stretch"

Hola familia.

So transfers. No change. I am staying here with my same companion, and I am ok with it. So ya, President called me on Friday, and told me he wanted to come and talk to my comp and I. So Sunday he came, and he interviewed me. I wasn’t sure why he had wanted to come, but he later told me. That interview helped me out a lot. He just listened to me, and mostly comforted me. He is really loving. He told us what would be happening for transfers and wanted to know my reaction and how I would be for this last stretch of my mission, and what I thought about it.

While he was interviewing my comp I got a chance to talk to Hna. Giuliani. That was also fun for me. She is really great. I expressed to her some of my fears, and she told me 2 things that I really love. She told me “sometimes you have to make your own rainbows.” And its true. We decide.

She then told me that an airplane can still fly during a storm. She said there is a place in the storm called the “eye of the storm,” and it lies in the center. And if a pilot finds himself in a storm, he has to find the eye, and fly there. She said to me “fly in the eye of the storm”….when everything is crazy and hectic all around, find that eye, and that’s where you gotta go.

But this week was a good week. I felt really pumped and ready to work…and then I got sick. Haha. I woke up Wednesday all congested, and then thurs was a little worse. We still worked, but Thursday after walking for a while my head started hurting and I felt really weak, so I asked my comp if we could sit down for a second. We were right next to the river, so we sat down on a bench next to a man that seemed to be working. I had seen this man quite a few times and had wanted to talk to him, but I never had the chance, I just knew him from a distance. Soon enough he started talking to us. “This is great!” and it was. We shared the message of the restoration with him and left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon. (he said he loves to read, so I was super stoked to give it to him!). He doesn’t live here in La Paz, he just comes here to work often. He has long curly brown hair…I think that’s what made him stand out to me from before. But he was super grateful to us. I was able to bear my testimony to him. I told him that I didn’t have any doubts about what we had shared with him. And he kinda paused and looked at me. “you don’t have any doubts?” he asked. “None” I told him. That seemed to surprise him.

But it just made me think, that maybe the reason that I was sick was just so that we could talk to Dario that day. God works in mysterious ways. But I LOVE the gospel. I LOVE my savior Jesus Christ, and I know that this is HIS church, that it is the only church directed by HIM. The one and only. I feel so blessed to have this knowledge.

This is my last transfer…it’s kinda weird thinking about that. Mom, I laughed about the story of Julie’s birthday celebration. She would pull something like that. Oh ya…and last night we totally had a hail storm, it was gnarly. Our roof is metal…and so it was super duper loud in our pench. Haha! Try sleeping with that! It wasn’t even cold, so it was super weird. Anyway. I gotta go. Time is out! I love you guys. Ttthankss for the letters!

Love kari

la paz 23 - aug 8

hi fam.

So this was one of the craziest weeks of my misión, if not the craziest. On the bright side...i finally got the liahona with the conference talks from april!!! And that has been saving my life. I love this scripture in Romans 8:35, 37....”Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

Lets see...we are teaching a lady name Patricia....she smokes a TON. She is 56 yrs old, but her boyfriend just got baptized and he wants her to stop smoking...she is super funny, not because she tells jokes, but just because she is super intoxicated and is super honest. She loves it when we come over, but always tells us she isn’t going to “transform” or be baptized. But then other days she says she wants to be baptized. She is making progress, slowly, but she is progresing. She is Catholic, and the other day she pulled out her Bible and started looking for where it teaches us that we should pray to Mary. She just sat there, opened up to a random page and began to silently search...then after about 5 minutes she gives up and says, “well it’s in there, you just have to look for it.” But she came to church for like 20 minutes, then left. And she has come to 2 baptisms and loved it. She is interesting, she actually knows a lot about the life of Jesus Christ and the apostles.

We have transfers next week. I think i will be staying here for my last transfer. I could be wrong, that is just how i feel. But we’ll see. I’m ready for a change, any change will be good. Thanks for the pics. I love you guys!!!!!!

kari

la paz 22 - aug 1

la paz 21 - july 25

Hola….

This week went by pretty fast too. Thanks for the pics and for the letters. i can’t believe mom keeps running into her cousins randomly.

So we had interviews with President on Wednesday…it was the longest interview i’ve had on the mission. It was my fault though….i don’t know how he did it, but I just opened up and told him everything that had been happening recently here on the mission. And I just sat there and cried. Great way to start off with the new president right? But he was super good, and we talked about a lot of things…including going home. I’m good to go home in September…he talked about getting you guys the flight plans soon so you know when i’m coming. Which is kinda sorta crazy to think about!

This week we were super stoked, because this family that we are teaching were going to come to church. We made the plans to go and pick them up. Then comes Sunday, and we are running all over the place, and we get to their house, and they aren’t there. Their neighbor came out and said that they had all gone to el campo…like out in the fields to visit family or something. NOOOO. I think I am just used to it now. And the other peeps we invited didn’t come either, when they said they would.

But the good news this week....we are going to Parana tomorrow for a leadership training meeting! And then I get to go work in Santa Elena on Wednesday….and then a rumor has been going around that my mini comp…hna. Calderon, from Rosario, is coming to visit on sat!!! which would be so awesomely amazing. I miss her.

Oh maaaann. Why aren’t people just more receptive to the gospel! Like, it’s only the most amazing thing ever! I was reading in Ether today about how wicked the people were...God kept sending them prophets and they didn’t listen!! Why don’t people just listen! And then they had this great giant battle…where all of them died…¡¡que iniquidad!! All because they just didn’t want to obey God. I guess I’m not the only missionary to be rejected by the people. But lets hope this story doesn’t have the same ending.

Oh and another drunk fell in love with me yesterday. We were walking in the street, and we saw him and knew right away he was drunk…so we said hi and kept walking. He made a coment like “que bonita!” and then started calling after me “rubia! Venga!” so I turned to my comp…”let’s go talk to him” and as I am walking toward him “venga! Y tu amiga tambien!” so we chatted with him. He said he is going to come to church on Sunday with us. He asked me like 5 times if I would be at church. And told me how he was going to clean up. I told him he better not drink or smoke anymore. But he kept saying “que Hermosa!” my comp just laughed and laughed about it later.

Well. That’s about it. Oh…tandy shields should be getting back from her mission here real soon. Do you guys know anything about it? I guess you guys will be getting my flight plans soon. I won’t get them for a while though. Love you guys a ton!

hna. amundsen

la paz 20 - july 18

HEY FAMILY.

This week went by super fast for me. Thanks for your letters. And ya, don’t worry mom, i got to read your letter today...it wasn’t your fault. So i had no idea that sara thornburg was engaged! To whom? and yes, Breana needs to write to me. (i need to write to her too). That’s sweet that you got to go bowling in the Wilk...it seemed like it was always under construction when i was there. And the 2nd part of Harry Potter already came out!!? Dang. I’m good, i can wait...

Well, today we are together as a zone because we all reached our contact goals for the week. So we are going to do something fun. And Dad, you won’t believe it, but we actually had a few really hot days this week....kinda weird. I was dying one afternoon cuz i left wearing a long sleeve shirt and brought my down jacket with me...i don’t know what i was thinking! But it was just super humid.

But ya, mom you were right about my president. I felt very spiritually fed. I miss that sometimes...it’s great to do the teaching and helping others, but it is nice to take a break once in a while and really listen to someone who is inspired and to feel the spirit teach me like that. We have interviews with President on Friday, so that should be fun! I always loved interviews with President Villalba, he always seemed to be right on with the things i needed to hear. So we’ll see how President Giuliani does it.

This week was good. We found a family of 10. And so far so good. We are hoping that they will progress!! We also did divisions this week with the other hermanas in Santa Elena (the little town close by). So that was fun. I stayed here and worked here in La Paz with Hna. Miranda, who is from Cordoba, Argentina. She is way rad. We had a lot of fun. We had a cita with this guy, and we had to walk down this one long dirt road...where nobody lives. And it had just rained the night before, so it was all mud. So it took us forever to get to the guys house. We laughed like the entire way too, because this mud is ridiculous! It just keeps accumulating on your shoes. So i would get a good 6 inch mud platform on my shoes and then i would try and kick some of it off. But it was a slow walk, because my shoes would stick in the mud, and my foot would slip out of my shoe if i walked normally. And occasionally my foot would go right under the mud so that my entire foot was convered. Ohhh.

And then when we arrived to the little neighborhood where the guy lived, we couldn’t even find him. So we just contacted the houses there. There was no one outside, and the first house was this little shack, and there were the insides of some dead animal hanging in the tree. It was like we were in the middle of some scary movie. And when we clapped, all the dogs from the neighborhood came running towards us. Well, i’m stuck in the mud dang it! Luckily they didn’t do anything. They just barked at us, as usual. But it always scares me. i think i hate dogs now.

We had these 2 guys come to church...i think they were a little drunk, the both of them. And i had to give a talk....the branch president always tells me... Have something prepared just incase someone falls through. So i didn’t know i was giving a talk until the person conducting said it. That was fun.

Well. I’m still here in La Paz. I’m hitting my 15 months here this week. I feel pretty accomplished. All is well. Have a good week. Send me pics from EFY and Utah if you took some. I love you guys!

Todo mi amor,

hna amundsen

la paz 19 - july 11

Sooooooo. what’s up family.

We have a new president. And he and his wife are soooo rad! I love them. They both just seem super humble and full of love. They are all smiles, and seem really cool. We had the conference on Friday, and their talks made me reflect a lot. They talked a lot about charity, and I just felt this love from them.

So afterwards I was talking with the hna. Giuliani, and president came up and was like “hna. Amundsen, we heard about you a while ago.” It turns out that Doug McAffee was visiting their ward in Pales Verdes when they announced their mission call, and told them that I was here. So that made me feel good. But I had a good talk with them. I guess they’ve been in the states for 39 years, and are super excited to be back in their country and to be with us. They are both converts to the church and shared a little bit about their stories. And Hna. Giuliani is way cuter in real life than she is in her photo. And Pres. Giuliani is actually shorter than I thought. But I’m super stoked to have them here.

Well. Not much new this week. We didn’t work a ton because I was sick mon and tues and then we had the conference. We got to go to Parana on thurs and stay with some other hermanas. So that was fun. And the conference was just fun. OH! And on Wednesday night we got letters. And I got letters from Court, Clare, Sarah, Luke, Mindy and bro. Greiner!!! It was like Christmas, but better. It made me feel so loved. I LOVE YOU GUYS! I laughed a ton at some of the things they said.

This week I have been thinking a lot about charity, the pure love of Christ…because when we have charity it drives us to do things we normally wouldn’t do. And I realized that I don’t have it. Sad right!? I know! So I was thinking how I should probably work on that. I mean, charity is the main force that drove our Heavenly Father to even create us, this earth, and to send us a savior. It’s what made Jesus Christ willing to atone for our sins. It’s pretty important.

Anyway. That’s all for now. I’m going to work on being more loving now. LOVE YOU GUYS!

hna. amundsen

la paz 18 - july 5

hola.

Thanks for the pics again. They are the BEST! So ya. I’m still here in La Paz….i will be here for atleast 6 months in total …if not more. But ya…We are finding more people…but they just don’t really progress…we have a few potentials, so we will see.

Soooo…remember that guy that we met in the mud that told us to go past his wife (Lorena)? Well, the other day we were heading over to her house to go and teach her again, and we found her on the way and she just started crying. It turns out the government had taken her kids that morning and she was on her way to go see them. But it seemed awfully suspicious to me. I already knew that Lorena couldn’t read or count…but she said that the kids were in the house with a lock put on the outside of the house (she was at her sister’s house), and that the police went and broke it down and took the kids. So we went with Lorena to go and see the kids. They were in a nursery. And the kids looked good. They had bathed them and put clean clothes and shoes on them. And Lorena was content to be with them. But the littlest, the baby of 7 months was not there…she was in another building.

But, through some connections that we have, we were able to find out why they had taken the kids… It turns out that Lorena and her husband are alcoholics. And on the weekend she locks her kids in the house alone and goes out to the clubs, and gets really drunk. And when Juan (her husband) is there, they go out together. The baby of 7 months weighed 4 kilos…which is a little more than 16 pounds.

So we decided maybe we can help them to turn their lives around. They won’t have the kids for about 3 months. So the other day we went to go visit Lorena. And their house is at the back of a circle of little houses all together…her sister lives in front (Beatrice). And as we approached this little circle of houses we saw her sister outside with a big bottle of alcohol…empty. My comp says, “oh no, they are all alcoholics, what are we going to do!?” and here comes Beatrice (the drunken woman). “I wanna talk to you!” to us. So she comes over…yes, very drunk. “Tell me why they took my sisters kids!” and she begins to cry.

I don’t think I will ever forget this moment. How this drunken woman clung to me, crying, pleading us to help her sister. At one point she told us it was our fault. “FORGIVE ME!” she said “But I believe this is your fault…because when the girls with the long skirts came, this happened!” and I was like …oh no…not again. Please not again…and we explained to her that it wasn’t our fault. The she says “OH. FORGIVE ME! I am catholic, but if you help my sister…I am with you!” So we tried to comfort her and I told her that she shouldn’t be drinking because it just makes the situation worse.

But anyway. That was one of our adventures for the week. Oh, and I am sick again. Yesterday we worked half day. But I feel better today. Oh and the conference on Friday….its half the mission….the other half go on thurs. but I am way excited to be able to see some people :)

all my love

hermana amundsen

la paz 17 - june 27

Hey family,

LOVED the pics!! It looks like it was fun. Sorry i couldn’t be there with you Jules! But i thought about you, and even told me comp...”my sister is graduating today!”

Well as you know, i’m struggling here on the mission. But i am grateful for the trails because they make me really evaluate myself. It just sucks sometimes too. This week was tough. It rained a bunch, so not a ton of people were out in the street. So i sang songs as we walked. “Hermana Amundsen sang as she walked and walked and walked and walked AND...walked!. “ We also knocked doors.

We contacted this one guy in the street. Or mud i should say. And he was super nice! He was leaving because he works out in the fields (and leaves for days at a time), but he told us to go by his house and that he wanted to go to church with us. So we started teaching his wife. She is super sweet. They are pretty poor. But i hope they will be able to progress. We invited them to church, but Lorena (the wife) didn’t want to go without her husband. I get the feeling she doesn’t go out very much, and is a little scared to do it.

Also, our one investigator, Veronica...we haven’t been able to find her this week. We’ve passed by and she hasn’t been home, and then the one time she was home she couldn’t attend to us. I hope she isn’t trying to hide from us. Her daughter said she wants to talk to us. So i hope she was telling the truth.

But anyways. We have transfers next week. But i already know that i am staying here with my comp because of the new traning program. But i think that means we will be writing on Tuesday. We also have a conference coming up in about a 1 ½ weeks to meet our new mission president. I am excited!! Welp. That’s all for now. A little shorter today. See you later guys!

All my love.

hermana amundsen

la paz 16 - june 20

Hey hey hey.

¡¡HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!! Too bad we can’t call on fathers day too. And i enjoyed your letter, it wasn’t dumb. Hope you had a good day. Sorry you were sick, i know that’s not fun. I love you a lot! Jules…good luck with graduation tomorrow. I want to see lots of pics next week!

So again. Lots of contacting. We are having a lot of trouble finding people that actually want to learn and progress. It is quite hard sometimes. This is just part of the work.

So we found out some interesting information. We are teaching Veronica Melgarejo, she is pretty cool. She is 27, she has 5 kids, and is Ivan’s aunt. (Ivan is the little 11 year old that we baptized) . Well, we were teaching her neighbors…the flia. Melgarejo right…and we haven’t seen the flia. Melgarejo for some time now because they have been hiding from us. Veronica has got the inside scoop. It turns out that a couple of the older girls started getting into some trouble…not sure if it was with drugs or boys or the both…but it all started happening after they started taking the missionary lessons. So naturally they have put the blame on us, and think it’s because of us that they are having problems. And then it doesn’t help that their dad is spreading lies about us. He says that we are here to destroy families, and that the Book of Mormon is all part of that as well. So they don’t even want to talk to us. Yesterday we were coming up the street, and they were outside their house, and when they saw us they all went inside. It just hurts to hear stuff like that, and to see that they avoid us like the plague.

Then there is Silvia, the mom of Ivan, and sister of Veronica. Silvia and her husband have been on bad terms recently (Ivan’s parents)...they too started having problems about the time that Ivan started taking the missionary lessons and was baptized. So Silvia as well put the blame on us. She told Veronica to burn the Book of Mormon. But Veronica has seen changes in her life, and loves reading the Book of Mormon and told her sister that. She also told Silvia to let Ivan go to church again and let him listen to us because he likes it. She says Ivan is always sad now. I guess his mom told him it was his fault they were having problems in the family. Poor kid.

We even saw Ivan in the street the other day with his older sister Erika. I ran up to him, I haven’t seen him for a while, so I was super stoked! Erika said that Ivan has been getting bad grades in school, and so his parents told him he couldn’t go to church until he raises his grades. We know what is really going on, and they have used that as an excuse in the past. But it makes me sooo sad to see this happening here. People are saying good things are bad and bad things are good, just like the scriptures say.

So here we go. We are looking for new investigators. But they haven’t been easy to find. Sometimes I wonder what I am doing here, because I don’t feel like I am making a difference. The people we found last week don’t want to have us over either…so we keep contacting and keep looking for new people to teach. Am i doing something wrong?

anyways. i love you guys a ton!!

love, hna. amundsen