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