Animos

Dear Family,

July 4. What a pleasant day... I did nothing. I know you read the news about what was going on here in Bolivia. Well, they made all the 创Gringos创 stay home :(. I told them I was Bolivian, but they didn磘 believe me. It wasn磘 even bad at all here in Sucre, maybe La Paz and Santa Cruz were a little extreme but nothing happened here. So I spent the day washing clothes and pretending I was lighting off fireworks.

Well, we are working 10X better with members than before, and there磗 still alot of room for improvement. We visited a lot of active member families this week and alot of them bore their testimony on missionary work and how they磖e grateful for the missionaries (oh you磖e welcome). The church is a bit different here than in Henderson or Utah. The missionaries usually do most of the work. Now we磖e getting them excited to work. It磗 a blessing to have sister missionaries here in the ward too. They are helping us and the ward get organized with the work, activities, etc. I even spoke with the stake presidency for the first time and the high council about missionary work, it is apparently one of my duties. They are now excited too to work with us.

One thing we are focusing on in the mission is creating new ideas on how to find people. New, out of the ordinary ideas, ya know mixing it up. I will list some of my ideas that we will put it action in the coming weeks.
-Here the people are very catholic and have their virgins, saints, etc. So when they say, ''sorry, I磎 catholic'' I going to say, ''Well I got a message about the virgin Mar韆'' and then I will read Alma 7 or maybe 1 Nephi 11.

-Go to institutes and ask who磗 not a member and wants to get baptized. I heard that their are a ton of people that go there. Jackpot$$$

-Wait by elementary schools to contact people. There, you will see fathers going to pick up there kids. Families.

-Soccer championship... for the primary. Again, their parents are obliged to go.

-Pass along cards of the baptism of Jesus. Ask the people if they had recieved a baptism just like Jesus Christ. They磍l usually say no for being catholic. Then I will ask why not, Christ set the example.

-Another card idea. But this time with the 10 principles that were in Christ磗 church in the olden days. And if they can find a church with exactly those things. There磗 only one. Yep, you guessed, La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias.

-Shine people磗 shoes for free and then contact them.

-and there磗 more.

I don磘 know if you guys are feeling the same strong feeling for missionary work as I磎 feeling. This same spirit is filling the whole world. Have you ''caught the wave'' as Elder Russel M. Nelson puts it. I just wish my new companion would feel the same and tag along. He磗 kinda lazy and even has a year in the mission. With opr without him, I磎 on this wave. Maybe you guys ask, you need to go to his level. But I say unto you, it磗 not necessary to pull down the strong to bring up the weak.

D&C 84:33. If we magnify our calling we磍l have a renovation of our body. That磗 how I磎 feeling. If you would look at me, I probably look tired. But I have more energies than ever. If you look at all the apostles, like Jeffery R. Holland, they look exhausted but I bet they feel as young as ever. Sometimes we need to climb so high up in the mountains that we don磘 hear the world shouting ''Come down!''

-Elder Walker

''To be a great champion, you must believe you are the best. If you磖e not, pretend you are.'' -Muhammad Ali