la paz 5 - april 4

Hola. Que tal.

Bueno, esta semana…ayer era un día loco. So remember how I was talking about Ivan…well, we decided that we would baptize him during the conference on Sunday. Here in La Paz we don’t have a church building right now because they are reconstructing it, and so we have gone to a little town called Santa Elena the last 2 weeks for our meetings. We all meet up at the church building, get on a bus and all go over together. This means that we don’t have our own baptismal font right now…..hmmm… so we decided that since we would be in Santa Elena on Sunday, that we could just do the baptism in between the sessions.

We prepared everything. Ivan passed his interview, we got the parents signatures, we bought him a tie, the baptismal clothes are in a bag…we talked to him sat night and he was ready. Ivan usually comes to church the Flia. Ortiz, and we had attempted calling the Flia. Ortiz like 5 times to check and make sure they were going to bring Ivan, but we couldn’t get a hold of them. So we just figured that they would bring him like they always do because they knew that he was getting baptized.

So Saturday night we end planning…we have a list of people we are going to go by. We say the prayer to end planning. And I looked up at my comp...”we need to go by the flia. Ortiz tomorrow, just to make sure everything is alright. My comp said she felt the same. so we had a change of plans…so Sunday morning…we go running out to their house…literally running because we don’t have very much time before the bus leaves. We get to their house, Hna. Ortiz is there….”I’m not going” she says. And nobody else in their family either. Snap!!! So then we take off running to Ivan’s house. He is sitting outside with his parents. “I can’t go today!” he says as we approach the house. And lifts up his shirt. He's all cut up. Turns out he had a bicycle accident last night. Oh man. “we can do it next week” he says….”ya, we’ll have to do it next week.” I respond.

Such a bummer. But we didn’t have time to think too much about it. We took of running again. This time to Micaela’s house. We promised we would pick her up to go the conference…along with the Flia. Gamarra (less actives and recent converts). We made it to the church at the time the bus was scheduled to leave. Hopped on. Allll sweaty and gross. We had been running for a little over an hour….

But the conference was soooooo gooood. We got to watch it in English!!! But we only saw the Sunday sessions….it went by too fast. I loved every second of it! That’s cool you guys went to utah. Sounds like you guys had a blast. Grandpa’s birthday is coming up…he’s going to be 97 right?

Well this week we had some really spiritual moments….we taught a lesson to a girl the other day and we paused to ask her how she felt. “good” she said. We waited….and she continued. “I felt this sensation….i don’t know how to describe it.” I love when the spirit works through us and testifies of the truth, because that is what converts.

My time is out. I love you guys a ton. We have transfers next week. So I will write tues. I’m sure I’ll stay here. Mom, can you do me a favor….let me know what size shoe everyone wears, but in european sizes (kris too)????please, because I want to buy “alpargatas” for everyone (those are the toms shoes!)

Thanks for your letters.

Love, hna. Amundsen