Salar de Uyuni!

After a plane ride to Sucre, 4 hours to Potosi, and 4 more to Uyuni we're here!

The city is at 12,000 ft so i feel like I'm old and fat trying to exercise.

I didn't know the giant salt flats were that big of a deal, there's tourists here from everywhere, tons of europeans, asians, and some natives, it's great cause i get to speak some english :D 

I learned the true meaning of the middle of nowhere, apart from the city, the next closest would be 4 hours away, it was a bus ride through the andies mountains pretty cool.

The only thing that sucks is not really a lot of investigators and comp is trunky and doesn't want to work :D great combo

Pres of mission came to work with us which is kinda nerve racking having him observe all your appointments so i was prayin and all went well.

Have a good week yall

Elder G

Mountains aren't just funny. They're HILL-areas.

This is the fam, my comp told them i was leaving so they had us over for dinner to say goodbye to me super awesome

Me and this girl have the exact same birthdays, 10 years apart so were homies

looking at this pic and realizing my cholita friends could just wear my pants and it would pretty much cover everything

Overlooking the valley with a beautiful sweat stain from my backpack

This is the opening to the cave where the incans sacrificed animals

Dope Incan ruins

Some weeks i have like nothing to email and some weeks like way to much, this week i have a ton, it'll be long, read it tho. 

Walking down the street the other day and a lady called out from her house she needed us to go buy some things for her cause she's super old and cant walk well, after we bought her stuff she talked to us forever, poor lady lives alone and cant get out much, probably super lonely, it was an awesome talk tho cause she's starting to lose it lol she told us the president of bolivia came over to her house the other day for lunch, and she could not believe that i WASN'T Bolivian lol, sweet lady

Saturday night went to an investigators house and she hooked it up with chuño which is basically my favorite food, they're super nice they made us dinner then after we just talked and enjoyed each other's company, we didn't teach or anything, it was sad cause they were all asking when i'll come back and Idk if/when i'll be able to.

Its super sad leaving an area, you become friends with all the awesome members/investigators, and get comfortable and it feels like home, just in time to leave to another area, the people are super dope, they all loved me when i got here even tho i couldn't understand or talk to them lol, they will be missed for sure, thank heavens for fb to keep in touch with them

When i got here i wanted to hike the mountain in our area, this was 6 months ago, and today, the last day we possibly could, we finally went lol, suuuuper good view of all of the valley and then some, and there are incan ruins at the top, like houses and a sacrificial cave and other things, went with a super good friend /eternal investigator, hes like 5 ft tall he was our mountain guide sherpa, he's super cool and a good friend to us. Its a decently brutal hike tho, theres no switchbacks its just straight up the mountain which is nice cause you get it done faster its just hard, buuut there was a cholita (who is actually the mom of one of the members, we didn't talk to her tho cause she doesnt speak spanish) who started behind us, and beat us to the top of the mountain lolll, a 4ft, 60 year old woman is more of a man than me, she didnt even walk on the trail she just walked up the dang mountain, cause shes got crops up there to take care of, dont ask me why they were planted sooo dang high haha, its like her mountain tho cause her ancestors were the ones that used to live there

also made bread at an investigators bread factory it was awesome, everything was super old fashioned, and they baked all the bread in a giannnt brick oven thats legit the size of a room, just the ceiling is like 2 ft high, and to heat up the brick oven he props up this flamethrower that shoots inside of it, for like 40 min then they bake all the bread, he makes 1500 rolls a day, you cant see in the pic but the other end of the room is just stacked with tons of giant bags of wheat and yeast and stuff, also smelled really good.

My next area is Uyuni! Super far away, and isolated, I thought Sipe Sipe was isolated, that was a sike. Were the only elders in that whole region of bolivia, so were our own district, and zone meeting is once every 3 weeks instead of every week cause its like a suuuuper long train ride, but for zone conference we get to go to Potosi so i'll get to know that city too. Also our zone is the whole southern part of the mission which is southern bolivia and the top of argentina so ill be able to go to argentina! My comp told me they have a bunch of good/new flavors and brands of yerba mate in argentina so i'm actually buying a carry on bag today so i can fill it up with yerba on the way back, buuut apart from that the area apparently sucks lol everyone jokes its where president sends you to punish you if you've been bad, cause it's super hot in the day, super freezing at night, hard to find people to teach cause they're all tourists, other than the salt flats it's super ugly haha, and since its a tourist place everything is super expensive, but im excited to see how i survive in a hard area. And also the branch is like 10 people, so yeah thats Uyuni, and my new comp is another Chilean, seems cool, 

aaaand yeah thats the week! Talk to yall next week from Uyuni

Elder G

Conference is the Best!

We went to the temple, and there was a protest in the middle of the freeway so I thought I'd join

Moved houses this week, forgot to take pics its super dope has a fire place.

Went to our ward mission leaders birthday party and they showed us a bunch of pics/videos and it was awesome cause the branch here in the church is like family, it was just like old family videos but with the whole branch they all hang out all the time.

I suggest y'all read the book of mormon, super good and inspirational, after reading about Alma tearing it up on his mission it motivated me for mine.

General conference!!!! Saturday was awesome, after the first session we went with some other elders/ members/ investigators and got 2 GIANT pizzas, then proceeded to mercilessly devour them, after the second session we went to one of the Elders places and sat around sippin yerba mate and talking about the mission/our future wives, then priesthood session.

Sunday we just watched the sessions and after the last one I was super pumped to go work, after hearing about all the talks about missionary work I got to go out and do it right away. Conference is the best, I dont think its possible to watch all the sessions on conference weekend and not be inspired, or not want to be a better person, or not have a stronger testimony.

I'll send pics later when I am on again, email me.

Elder G

Missions are Worth the Hard Work

Comp's birthday!

Got free food, thought I'd send the pic home cause I can't instagram it

Met an investigator 9 days ago and she's been to church twice and is progressing super fast, she'll be baptised before i leave Sipe Sipe at this rate, owns a giant lecheria so always hooks it up with like chocolate milk or ice cream.

Church is awesome, always puts me in a good mood, tons of good members.

A different investigator that also came yesterday shared an interesting comment lol we were going around sharing our favorite scriptures and we get to him and no joke he's like yeah i found this good quote from Marilyn Manson, and the quote was something along the lines of "satanism is not about worship of the devil, but more about expressing who you are and believing what you want to believe, not what others want you to believe" and he was dead serious, no one knew what to say super awkward.

On a side note, Conference this week! Super pumped.

All is good here, there are a looooot of ups and downs in a mission, sometimes I feel pregnant or something cause I will be frustrated or mad and it'll be a million degrees and we'll have nothing to do but contact for 4 hours but then we'll meet someone super cool or teach a good lesson or something then I'll be happy again lol, missions are definitely worth it tho.

Have a good week all

Elder G

If You're Sad, You're Thinking Only of Yourself

Sitting on an old crappy bridge

Found this friend on my bed 

Drunk guy jumping to be my height

Double rainbow all the way

My comp's b-day

Forgot a funny story from last week, during Sacrament in good ol Tres Cruces Bolivia, someone was up at the little podium thing and in the middle of her testimony this dude just swings open the door (right by the podium) and was either in a really great mood or just no quite sober haha and heys like ayyyyyyyy and waves to everyone, and it's custom in Bolivia to greet everyone when  you walk into the room and so he just started shaking everyones hand, me and my comp couldnt handle it and just burst out dying in laughter, it was great!

Listened to a super good conference talk from Gordon B. Hinckley this week, I don't remember exactly what it was about but there was a good quote, he said something like "If you're sad or unhappy its only because you're thinking of yourself" which may sound sort've obvious or cliche but it's super true and helped a lot. 

Met an investigator Saturday night, invited her to church the next morning, we stopped by Sunday morning and she shut down her whole store and walked with us to church, barely knew us 12 hours.

Comps b-day today, turning 24, flippin old

More greatness to come

Elder G 

13,000 ft. in the Andes Mountains

The church in Tres Cruces is smaller than most American living rooms

We went to a place called Tres Cruces, it's in our area because our area is the farthest from the city so there's no border going away from Cochabamba, it's about an hour from Sipe Sipe and a dope drive cause it's through the Andes mountains and there's some awesome views. The pic I sent doesn't do justice, it's just mountain peaks everywhere. Tres Cruces is by one of the mountain peaks, at over 13,000 feet, and that white house in the pic is the church where they meet. We came and dropped off clothes and food, and toys that were supposed to be Christmas presents lol everything is behind schedule in Bolivia. Super cool little community, the amazing thing is they are way happy and chill.

Also we're homies with the caretaker of the golf course now so she invited us over to play soccer on the course lol not even golf, which is the group pic with all of us on the grass.

Haven't had running water in the house for 4 days now which makes no sense cause i'ts been raining super hard all week.

Splits with Zone Leader who is from the states, super cool dude, also super trunky haha he goes home in under 100 days and talked all day about his future wife.

There's a super awesome lady who is the mom of our most recent baptism (she's already a member) her name is Mariah T. and she's just awesome, the other day she called us in the morning to see if we had time to visit her and we were like ye, we go to her house and she just served us lunch, and talked to us about the gospel, and then told us how awesome we are even tho we did nothing haha, she's very nice and sweet and humble, and has such a strong testimony. The church has been there for her in super tough times and yeah she's just an example. My comp read a scripture to her cause it went along with what we were talking about and she just started quoting it haha she's legit.

I finish 6 months tomorrow, we're gonna party, see yall soon.

Elder G

Sipe Sipe is a Good Area

To give you an idea of how much of a bro my comp is: He was listening and playing along on guitar to what sounded just like John Denver but I realized it was in Spanish, it was like Latin John Denver, so I asked him if he had heard of John Denver and he just looked at me and started playing and we sang John Denver it was adorable.

• Taught this lady and she wrote down what we taught her so she could teach her brother in law
• Hiked up to an old abandoned church

Fun night at a members house they had a barbecue and we just hung out, it tasted good but all dinner was was chicken hearts and potatoes haha sort've interesting but it was good, they had super good peanut butter soup/sauce thing to go with it, good night.

We're friends with the caretaker of the golf course now, she invited us to play soccer on the course lol not even golf.

Had an investigator come to some appointments with us, he's not a member yet and he's already helping with the work, super cool guy.

Different investigator also told us how amazing the church was and how she wishes she would've known about the church earlier, and says she wants to serve a mission.

Sipe Sipe is a good area.