Allergic to Bolivia

Hola from Bolivia!!!!

 

Can you believe that I am actually here? I surely can´t. You won´t even believe how absolutely EVERYTHING here is different. The food, the smells, the people, the weather, everything. I am working hard to get used to it and to love everything about it. As of right now the best part is the people. They are so loving and are always willing to stop and talk with you.

 

My compañera es Hermana Mariobo. She is from Bolivia and got reassigned here when she couldn´t get a visa. She has 10 months in the mission and her height is probably about 4 foot 9. I am not kidding. She is SO short!! I am the only new person in my zone which is a little hard. Everyone knows what they are doing and I am struggling with the language and being a missionary. It is good though. I am learning a lot and trying my best to be a good missionary. Someday I will speak spanish and will be able to do a little bit better.

 

Have I eaten any weird foods? Oh yes I have eaten weird things. Wednesdaynight was my first night here and we ate with the pensionista. We also eat with two other Elders. They decided to be funny and gave me cow stomach and chunyos (freeze dried potatoes) my first night. They had a camera hidden to watch my recation. It was absolutely terrible but I was able to keep a straight polite face. The elders were disappointed. they thought I would cry. Guess they don´t know who they are messing with! They are really nice though. At least I got both of those out of the way and can say that I have tried them!

 

Sorry this email isn´t long today and I will try and write more next week! I wish you all better health than I have been enjoying and love you all a ton!

 

Your Bolivian Missionary

 

Hermana Morey

And She's Arrived!!

Mom!!!! Apparently I don't get to call now that I am here in Bolivia!
We are all really sad about that because we wanted to talk with our
families. Also, we were surprised and left last night at 10:30 landed
in La Paz at 2:30am had a 5 hour layover and then flew here.
Presidente y Hermana Dyer are really nice. I already love it here!
Hopefully the 8 of us don't stay sick for long. I hope you are doing
well. I love you so much! You might be able to check Sister Dyer's
blog for pictures. Also, I don't look great because I haven't slept!
Until next Monday! (I get my companion tomorrow...!!!)

Hermana Morey

Last week in the MTC!

Oh my goodness what a rollercoaster of a week it has been!!!

My companion's name is Hermana Pérez. She is from Peru and is tall for a Latina and very skinny! She doen't speak much English so I have had a ton of practice on my Spanish. She is really nice and also has a great sense of humor so we get along really well! We are always laughing and joking around but we also work really well as a companionship. For some reason all of the Latinos think that I am hilarious.... I mean, I am... but my Spanish jokes are completely dumb  but they laugh so hard and ask me to keep telling them. Everyone seems to know my name and I don't know half of theirs! I hear my jokes around the hall and it is really fun to make them laugh. One of their favorite jokes of mine is "me gusta su cabaza!" That really just means I like your head. They think it is the funniest thing on the planet! 

If everything works out well I will be leaving for Bolivia on Monday night! Fingers crossed... I will leave at around 1:30 am and will fly to Bolivia. I am really excited to get there because I will admit that I am getting tired of being in the MTC. It will be nice to be able to go out and help people feel the love of the Savior. I know that it will be hard, but I will be outside and talking to people. 

This week has been a struggle but I am doing my best and am excited to get out to Bolivia and serve!!! I hope you all had a wonderful week. I am sorry this letter isn't very long! Loves!!

Hermana Morey

(Note from Meredith: sorry about the sideways picture, I need to fix the way she sends them to me so I can rotate them). 

Proselitisimo and a Sunburn

Hola mi familia y amigos!! 

Well hello there! I feel like so many things have happend since the last time I wrote so I will try my best to tell you everything! I am sorry my emails are always jumbled but my mind works that way!!

On Saturday morning we went Proselitismo. We drove to a random part of Bogota and when we got out we looked at the teachers for instructions and they just laughed at us and said "Adios!!!!" How scary is that?!?! I actually had a really hard time with it. I could understand most of what everyone was saying but I couldn't respond!!!! I felt like I couldn't help them in the way I needed to because I don't speak Spanish...  I was so frustrated. Other people were talking about the wonderful conversations they had and I had pretty much the same conversation will all of my contacts! It helped me realize that I really need to work on speaking the language. I did have to stop myself and tell myself that I am doing really well! I have only been here for 4 weeks and I could understand what they were saying! That is pretty amazing. We ended up getting 11 contacts 3 others who soudned really interested in attending church. I really hope that things work out for them!!

On Sunday my district sang in Sacrament meeting!  We sand Ye Elders of Isreal in Spanish and it was a really cool experience! Just picture 14 North Americans singing that song in Spanish. It was really powerful and I am glad that I got to be a part of it. They asked for a couple of us to plan a song fornext Sunday so I may be doing it again!! I am excited and I love singing in Spanish.

On Sundays we have Deep Doctrine with Presidente Dyer. He teaches us about the Plan of Salvation in amazing depth and answers all of our deep questions as best as he can. It is the most amazing part of the whole week!! The only bad part is that he gets excited and sometimes talks until10:30pm... Sunday nights we don't get a lot of sleep! It is amazing though and it is so fun to read about the deep doctrine in the scriptures and then discuss it. 

Today we went to the temple which was amazing as usual! I love going! It was just the 18 North Americans that are here so it was nice and small. After that my district went touring!!! It was such a cool experience. We went to a Gold museum and looked at a lot of Gold artifacts that they have found here. Then we went up a Gondola to the top of a mountain and saw a Catholic church and amazing scenery. It has been a crazy busy day!! After I finish writing we will just watch 17 Miracles and then go to bed. Oh! Today while we were outside it poured. Litterally. I have never seen such large raindrops in my life!! Good thing I had my umbrella!

Tomorrow I get my Latina Companion!! I am sorry to say that I am extremely nervous. Chances are she won't speak any English. This will help me a lot with Spanish though! Practice makes perfect after all. I learned this evening that my companion is coming from Peru!!! I am so excited! The Peruvians are the second easiest people to understand in South America!! Wish me luck this week because it is going to be really hard.

I love you all so much! I hope you are all doing well. Remember that the church is true and that the Lord will help you with everything!!! 

Love your Bolivian Missionary,

Hermana Clarissa Morey

One Direction?!?

Hola!!!!

Oh my goodness what a crazy past couple of weeks it has been! I can't believe that I have been here for almost a month but I feel like I have been here for 3 years already! I am getting slightly bored of the CCM but there are always things that help me keep my interest. 

Last Friday we had a visiting General Authority! He is the Area Authority and he came to speak with us. It was funny because he is from Utah but speaks amazing Spanish! We all got to go up and shake his hand which was cool. I loved hearing himi speak because when he said something important he would repeat it in English so that we could understand it! (His name is Elder Wadell) he spoke a lot about how we are the "upgrade verson"' of the missionaries. It was reallty cool!!!

Also, that night we heard a large group of people cheering and we couldn't figure out why. Our teacher explained to us that some American singing group was perfoming at the concert place five blocks away. We asked who the group was and he said ONE DIRECTION!!!! Oh my goodness can you believe it?!?! The concert was so loud that we were able to here them singing "What makes you beautiful" live!! All of the Latinos were freaking out!!! We were too because we couldn't believe that we were sitting in the CCM in Bogota Colombia listening to One Direction while we studied El Libro De Mormon! That was a cool once in a lifetime experience.

My companion is the absolute best!!! Last Saturday I got the worst Migrane that I have ever had in my entire life. I thought someone had shot me in the head and I couldn't focus on anything. I started to cry it hurt so badly. Presidente y Hermana Dyer were at a Stake Conference so my teacher told me to go to bed. (It was 7 at night) Hna Rhoton took really good care of me and even though she was allowed to leave me alone she stayed until I had fallen asleep. The next day my head wasn't feeling any better so I asked for a blessing. One of the Elders in my district got to give it to me. It was honestly one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. He mentioned things that there was no possible way he could have known I was worrying/thinking about. It testified to me that Blessings don't come from the person giving it but from the Lord. I was also able to feel the Lord's love for me. It was the most amazing feeling! After that I felt so much better. I have a very strong testimony of Preisthood blessings! They are amazing! Even my companion was saying how amazing it was!!

Random thing... but sometimes the food we get for dinner has ants crawling inside of them. That is always fun to discover! Everyone kind of looks at them and tries to decide what to do and we laugh and laugh! Also, we had watermelon the other day!! It was amazing!!! Unfortunately I didn't realize that something had pinapple in it but it turned out okay!!! The food here is all really good except for the Spaghetti! Honestly I can't even force myself to eat that one. I try but it is gross. They have these weird noodles and sauce and... yeah! But for the most part we love everything!!

For our service project this week we sanded down bedthings. That sounds confusing. We sleep in bunkbeds and on the wood above the bottom bunk that holds up the top bed people have written their names and their missions. We had to take those all outside and sand them all off!! It was pretty hard but it was really fun! We had health masks on to protect our lungs from the wood dust and we all looked really funny. 

I got my first contact!!! I was excercising with Hnas Evens and Giles when we said hello to two ladies walking past. They stopped and talked to us for a little bit and we shared a short message about Eternal Families and they said they wanted to hear more! Bam! Missionary at work! Tomorrow we are going out to the streets to contact for a couple hours! Wish me luck... My Spanish is only decent at best! I m nervous but really excited. It will help a ton! 

I finished the Book of Mormon in 3 weeks! It is the fastest I have ever read it and it was amazing. I absolutely love that book and now that I am reading it in Spanish I am excited to be able to gain a testimony of it in Spanish!!

I got the Dear Elder letters!! I was really sorry to hear about the passing of Rhyse. His family is in my prayers. He didn't have an easy life and I know that he is in a better place now. Thank you so much for all who wrote me!!! I will try to respond the best I can. Also, I would just send the letters to Bolivia now because it takes a while to get here and I would like to get them!!!

I am about to get a Latina Companion. Help!!! I am really excited and nervous. I am sad to be leaving my district but am glad that I will still be able to see them around. We had a big party today for our last p-day together! We played investigador, investigador, y misionero. (Duck duck goode where the missinary chases the investigator) it was so fun. Best p-day ever!!!

We have weird bugs here. End of story. I do not like them!!!

I am loving it here in Colombia and am excited to leave for Bolivia in two weeks! Also, for those of you that haven't heard, For the first time in history missionaries get to skype home for Mother's day in the CCM! I am litterally the first group to get to do it! I am so excited!!! I love you all so much! Thank you for everything. I hope you have had amazing weeks and will talk to you again on Tuesday!!! Loves from Colombia!!!

Your Bolivian Missionera

Hermana Clarissa Morey