Craziest week of my LIFE! (Week 35)

Family!

Greetings from beautiful TARIJA, Bolivia! If you get some free time, I invite you to google it. Its SUPER PRETTY and the people are awesome. But well get to that in a second...

So the last few days in Trompillo were so difficult. I knew I would be leaving so we bought icecream from the fast food restaurant, we bought Pizza, and I pigged out on Pan and chocolate. It was hard. But something awesome that I was able to do was teach a missionary lesson in ENGLISH! No joke! We found a guy who said HEY! I WANT TO LEARN ENGLISH! and I said HEY! I WANT TO TEACH THE GOSPEL! So I taught him in English. His family is super awesome and I think theyll get baptized one day. Super awesome.

So lets fast forward to where I am now! I am in a Ward called Tabladita and my zone is called Guadalquivir. No joke. I had no idea how to spell it for the first few days, too. Im not training, but its like Im opening an area. The area was just redivided so the sisters would have more area to work with, and they took all of our investigators. I am Senior companion, which basically means I get to be in charge of the cell phone and where we go and what we do. The problem? Our area is HUGE!! No joke. Its ALL hills and it even goes to a few pueblos. My companions name is Elder Zavaleta, hes from Peru and has about 10 months in the mission! Hes SUPER awesome. Like we both get lost together, but we teach so well. I know that once we get to know our area and can find where these people live, we will be SO awesome!

Oh! So while at the airport waiting for my flight, I DEFINITELY ate Cinnabon! and fresh out of the oven? I was in HEAVEN! Ahhh the wordly life. And then when I got to my area, I got a burger from a place called KRUSTY BURGER! All Simpsonified. No joke. Anyway, my area is like St George put in Provo. Its all hills, but with like no one walking outside their house. No joke. They all work outside of the area because its super hard to find work in Tarija. We have dogs who follow us and its pretty crazy because theyll walk with us and well have to throw rocks at the other dogs who try to attack them because the dogs here in Tarija are VERY territorial. Not like Ill get bitten, but I definitely carry rocks with me.

Im definitely in what I call a building ward. I am going to get a plan going so that these members are strengthened. I know that I was put here for a reason and these people LOVE ME! They love my name, too! Every time I got to know someone and told them my name was Elder RISUEÑO, they thought it was a joke. So I have been keeping my smile going and going and going. There was a member who even bore his testimony yesterday and in front of EVERYONE said, ¨I know Elder Risueño has been sent here to baptize my father. He has the faith and the love to do it and I know he will be able to help my dad go to the waters of baptism.¨ Yeah, it was crazy! But lets see what I can do!

I tried to fast Saturday and part of Sunday and it just got me SUPER SICK. Like we didnt teach anyone yesterday because I was super groggy and at like 7 when we were lost, I was like WERE GOING HOMe. And I slept like 12 hours. Lesson learned: Ill never fast again. I almost went to the hospital again.

To finish off I just want to share with you one story: So we went to visit an investigator, and he wasnt home so we went to visit his parents in the same house. They shared with us the stresses they were passing through and I said: LETS SING A HYMN! So we did. And I want to share with you one verse of what we sang:

So long thy pow'r hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on o'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till the night is gone. and with the morn those angel faces smile, which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!

I promise you all that the Lord has been present in each of our lives and will lead us through whatever trial we must pass through. He will be our light when we are in the darkness. But we must be in the darkness to have a need for His Light. And once we are led through the darkness, we will find the angels waiting for us. Thank you dad for teaching me that lesson just 7 months ago as I started the mission. It was something I will never forget.

I know that we can be the angels while we are passing through our own trials. That is the way to overcome trials.

I love you all and Ill talk to you next week!

For a dollar!
Elder Risueño

Sin Virguenza! (Week 34)

Happy Monday!! Wow. This week has been crazy. I’m not going to lie, it’s been hard! But God always has something for me to learn so that I can share with y’all, so let’s be patient and see how much LOVE God has for us!

So let’s start out with some things that’ll make you smile:

So you know that I eat A TON right? So we are fed lunch by a member each day, but dinner is on our own. But my comp and I don’t find much work from the hours of 2 till 5 because people nap, so we usually work during our dinner hour. So sometimes during the day, well stop by members so we can use safe bathrooms and just get some juice, and the members know I eat a lot so now they’re feeding us some food! Well knock on the door and talk and then the member may ask, Elder Risueño, ¿tiene hambre? My answer: CLARO! Of course.  And then they feed us a bit. Of course, My big toe and I are super grateful and its awesome. Well, my comp just laughs and says SIN VIRGUENZA! Which means WITHOUT SHAME! because I am honest about my hunger. That may contribute to the reason I’ve gained like 20 lbs here. Oops.

I also went to the SWAP MEET! Holla! My poor shirts are being trampled by the heat here because they get dried by the humidity so I took out 25 bucks and went with a goal to get some good bargains! and I DID! Ahh it felt so good! 3 shirts for 4 bucks each and a pair of shorts for 10 bucks? Thank you parents for teaching me well. That’s right! And I hope you enjoy the pictures of the shirts. They’re super fun. 

So we also had a conference with a 70 this week... more on that later... but President said that EVERYTHING changes this week. The new Assistant to him? a missionary with 8 months in the mission who has only trained a new missionary. President is going off of pùre revelation! it doesn’t matter WHERE we serve, it matters HOW we serve! So who knows? Maybe next week I’ll be Zone Leader! (For those of you who don’t understand this jargon, consult my dad. THANKS!)

So the work this week? Oh guys. It was a chocolate week. Which means ROUGH. Monday night we found our only investigator close to a baptismal date super drunk. I cried. It was hard. The next morning? We went to another investigator who told us she didn’t want to talk to us anymore. I cried. It was hard. The same thing happened to another. GAHHH. But I wasn’t about to give up on God! HECK NO! So Wednesday morning, I got on my knees, turned on some hymns and prayed and offered my whole soul to God. I was confused. We had nothing. And I just asked what HE would have me do. As I was praying, the words to a hymn just struck me to the core:

I need thee ev'ry hour,

Most holy One.

Oh, make me thine indeed,

Thou blessed Son!

As I pondered upon these words, I wondered what it meant to made into God wants me to be made. What does it mean that I have to do? Be humble, have confidence in Him, to be patient, and more things. I kept thinking about this and it reminded me of my old job as a swim instructor. Every 2 weeks I would have new kids arrive to teach and they would be SO EXCITED to swim. Even if they didn’t know anything, they wanted to be like ME! So we would talk and then it would be time for them to go out one on one with me. That’s when problems came. Some would cry, or tense up, or just not trust me. I would have my hands on their arms to SHOW THEM the motions, but if they were tense, nothing would work. Sometimes it would require an effort on my part to sing to them, to counsel, but more importantly to love them. Once they saw that love, they would calm down and repeat the motions I had shown them as I, in essence, acted for their hands. 

As I thought about that, my life changed as a missionary. I realized that I had become one of those children who was tense and didn’t understand what God was doing and I hadn’t trusted Him totally. I realized that maybe it didn’t matter how many had rejected me, but if I was willing to find the one whom HE had prepared for me. I continued to realize that the hymn mentioned above isn’t about our Heavenly Father, but our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one who suffered for us. He is the one who felt our pains, our burdens, and took them upon us so that we could come to him. Once my swim students got to a point of knowing a bit, I let them swim into my arms. I was always ahead of them ready to come to me. Even when they didn’t have their goggles on and couldn’t see, I never left them. I loved them. 

As I have come to realize that this week, I have come to change my entire perspective of my life as a missionary. I feel like my lessons have become out of much more love than I have ever given these Bolivians. I just want them to feel the love their Savior has for them. A member of the Quorum of the 70 visited us and said that we have brought 8,000 members back to activity in the past few months. Missionaries in 5 countries have helped them remember of the love God has had for them and will have for them. He taught of how we can receive personal revelation as missionaries and the attributes we must work to possess to deliver this message. It’s a continuous process. I testify of that.

After that conference, my companion and I GOT TO WORK! We found families to teach and were so happy. While none of them went to church, we still looked forward. As I walked to church without investigators, yet again, I envisioned God moving my arms and just whispering to me that it’ll all be okay. I sure hope this helps you all this week. I know that the Lord is willing to send me through trials so that you all can be uplifted. I love each of you. We may not email back and forth, but I assure that you that this work I do is with you all in mind. I continue to sing to the blind, to love them; to sing to the handicapped, to love them. And I hope that my emails sing to you.

I wish to close with this thought by Neal A Maxwell:

God does not begin by asking about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability.

I love ya’ll! Now let’s get to work and show these people some smiles!

For a dollar. :) 

Elder Risueño

PABLO GOT BAPTIZEDDDDD!!!!!! (Week 33)

FAMILY!

I dont know how many thousands of you were praying for Pablo, but he got baptized! Im not kidding how much of a miracle it was. Ready? so before someone gets baptized they need an interview... the Zone Leaders said it needed to be at 7 on the DOT so they could book it to their lesson. This was the day before teh baptism. So we told Pablo at 630 he needed to be home. He studies from 2pm till 6 so he said hed be there... so we waited and waited and waited and waited and NOTHING. 7:15 and we were freaking. I prayed and teared up a bit and was frustrated and called a member who said he wasnt home so we couldnt go in his taxi. Well, I kind of said, OH WELL WE WANTED YOU TO ACCOMPANY US TO A LESSON! and he said hed do his best and we ended the call. So a few minutes later we walked to the main avenue and the MEMBER SHOWED UP! So after I had invited him to go with us he dropped EVERYTHING to wait for us to show up at his house. Recent convert from heaven. No joke. So we looked and drove and looked and nothing! so last resort we made one last circle for Pablo and my companion saw him walking with his friends like NOTHING! ahhh so we patiently called him and took him to the interview and he was baptized the next day! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!! But yeah, thanks guys. And thanks, God. Such a miracle.

So the work and life here in Bolivia! Ready for another story? So we had interviews this week and President spoke of how grateful he is for my attitude! What? So I guess my weekly letters with LOVE YOU and happiness really animate him for the week. Long story short people: It doesnt matter how hard your life is, just try to make people smile. It was such a great reminder that we can change the world one smile at a time. We also spoke to our Mission Presidents wife as a companionship and she was grateful that we were missionaries who caused no worries. I realized, THATS LOVE! Maybe being a drama queen to my parents WASNT the best idea as a teenager. Whatever, they love me. 

Oh! so the micros are CRAZY and they are like indiana jones standing up and moving from the back of the car to the front and I always yell ME VOY when I fall. I definitely squished two ladies when I flew. And Im not ashamed of this because they all know Im gringo. ME VOY! (It means Im going!) 

So investigators wise, its been a bit hard. Elder Chura and I lost all of our investigators with a baptismal date due to lack of motivation, they moved, or just didnt want to talk to us. The work of salvation that we do states that its all about the members and no more door knocking. But we tried door knocking and everyone knows us and has no want to talk to us! What? OH NO! Thats so not possible. So we will go forth. Last night I was meditaing on my bed and was like, God, what can I do? Im worthy! Im ready to work. What more do you want? 

It was then, that I realized that at that point I was content with where I was. I didnt see a need for me to change. But we always need to. If we are not consistently trying to change some small part of our lives, then our lives have no purpose. Thats my personal goal this week that I invite you to do this week, too. To find something small that you can work on to show God that you will be a little better this week. That you want to grow closer to Him so that He can grow closer to you.

The great Ralph Waldo Emerson taught the following:

What you are is Gods gift to you; what you do to yourself is your gift to God.

It is my hope that we can give God a little bit more of who we are. At the intervew I had with President he told me that I needed to say goodbye to this ward because I am going to a new area. Immediately after, he told my companion to help me prepare to train this next transfer. Well, here comes life. I still have another week to give more to God before I am put to train one of his precious new missionaries. For

May our prayers echo this hymn, Lead me into life eternal:

Father, all my heart I give thee;

All my service shall be thine.

Guide me as I search in weakness;

Let thy loving light be mine.

Hear me as I pray in meekness;

Let my strength be as thy day.

Give me faith, the greater knowledge;

Father, bless me as I pray. 

For a dollar,

Elder Risueño

Miss me yet?! (Week 32)

Hey there family!

Holy goodness, has it been two weeks? Well, it sure has! I love you all so much and I am so grateful to be here in Bolivia. No joke, Im sitting in an internet cafe right next to a street called Santos DuMont which is inside the segund ring of Santa Cruz. My life is crazy... If you think the highways of California are crazy, imagine living in circles, literally!

So anyway, special shoutouts to the people sending me AWESOME pacakges and such. Just so yall know I got them... Ashley and BREMMERS! I about cried when I saw my Valentines package and the package for Elder Vallejo. He was SO HAPPY and it made me proud of my family. Mom and dad, the chocolate package was just opened and given some love... Along with the package of necessities! SOCKS! Thank you Bremmers for socks, too! Thanks brits, ashley, meagan, and Bro Schenck for your letters and books and such! Oh the mission. Its crazy and full of happiness.

So Carnaval here in Santa Cruz is CRAZY! We didnt get to go out, but we saw people spraying each other with paint guns, I even got hit a bit on my shirt. :( and they do some unholy things, but mostly water balloons and paint each other! I think Ashley Bremmer would love it. Hahaha

My companion and I celebrated DAds birthday during then too! We bought RED ROBBINesque burgers. Mom and dad went out to eat for my birthday, so I called in some burgers. SO GOOD! I did tear up a bit because its been so long.

My health! Its so much better. I gave up soy milk, Im totally hooked on fruits and chocolate. Im not eating as much bread as I want, but Im not as tired either! Who knew that after 19.5 years of life I would learn how to exercise and eat right?! Thats what happens when McDonalds isnt too close hahaha...

So we did have so many miracles this week! AHHH I am so grateful for the Lord. Pablo, a youth weve been teaching, is hoping to be baptized THIS SATURDAY!!! He hasnt talked to his dad, and his mom said shes cool with it, but his dad is the one were waiting on. I so hope DAds birthday will include a baptism...

I forgot! A few weeks ago we got 3 people who were inactive, to be officially ACTIVE! And this past week we visited 2 of them, and one is working for the other and repairing relationships with his wife! Oh the joys of seeing peoples faces as they see the blessings of the gospel. My companion and I are definitely struggling to find people to teach, and we are praying so much, but we are also trusting in the Lord. You have no idea how amazing it is to see the Lord guide you to people and to teach them and give them the chance to accept the gospel. THATS THE POINT! I dont pray that the Lord will guide me to baptisms, I pray that he will guide me to people just so theyll have the chance to accept our message.

So you ready for what I did this past Carnaval? well, President gave us study time and we were given about 6 hours of free time or what not. He also gave us a challenge to memorize THE LIVING CHRIST. Granted, I dont remember ever reading it in English, but I decided to memorize it! Why not? Im an actor! And so my companion and I did. And you guys, I cant adequately express my love for this prophetic declaration.. Mom, if you can put the link here, that would be great. The Living Christ Memorizing in full this testimony has changed my mission. It has made me realize the importance of Jesus Christ in my life and in the lives of others. My companion and I frequently quote the words in our lessons to help these people understand that praying to know the Book of Mormon is true doesnt just tell them that our church is true... It gives them another witness that Jesus loves all his children. That he talks to us TODAY and will not forget us. This memorization will forever bring me closer to God. I love my Savior. I love my Heavenly Father.

President George Q. Cannon said: “No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character. He is an unchangeable being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come. We have found that God. We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments”

My dear family, that is my testimony. That our Heavenly Father loves us. He will forever be with us and help us. We are working with 2 couples... One couple wants to get married, another on the brink of divorce. One is an investigator, the other Less Actives. BOTH have kids. I testify that my work here is for a reason. That the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the cement of my religion and my belief. That without the Atonement, and a knowledge of Gods love, my life would be of no worth.

This week I invite you to read the Living Christ, personally, and ponder upon its meanings. It was written by a prophet and 12 apostles, the same organization that Christ himself had when we was on the Earth. After you have done those two things, I invite you to pray to your Heavenly Father and ask him if he truly has prophets on the Earth. I promise you that if you are humble, and truly seeking for an answer, you shall find it. That is my objective as a missionary. Im not perfect. But I am willing to learn each day. And for this, the Lord can work through me.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose

I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I'll never, no never, I'll never, no never,

I'll never, no never, no never forsake!

(How firm a foundation, hymn 85)

For a dollar!

Elder Risueño

P.S. Dont forget my dads birthday is the 15th! Love ya pops!