Ben's Missionary Letters

  This is my last week as a missionary and there has been a lot of mixed emotions. It's gotta be one of the hardest goodbyes of my life leaving Trinidad. The members and converts I've come to know are all amazing friends for life and I'm truly going to miss working closely with them to invite others to Christ. I've learned so much in my time here in Trinidad and in the mission overall. We ended on a high note with the baptism of Walter Ramos on Saturday. Walter made huge life changes to prepare for his baptism. Before he lived a worldly life full of vices and he admitted at this time he had no plan to go to any church. But after recent trials he truly felt "humbled to the dust". That's when his sister Yuly, refered us to help him. We started teaching him how to find happiness in Christ Atonement and how he could come to know Christ though the Book of Mormon. He studied dillegently looking for answer and guidance and slowly over time started to leave behind...

  Saturday was easily one of the best days of my mission. It was just straight baptisms from the start of the day to the end.  Our first baptism the day was Amaiza Ovale. She was a reference from Isela the mom of the Coimbra family. Isela had taught her to pray and read her the Book of Mormon. She had been begging Isela to introduce her to the missionaries and take her to church. We went to visit her and she was so excited to meet with us, go to church and be baptized. She was one of the most positive people I had met, despite her difficult life in the past. She comes from a village North of Trinidad called Santa Ana de Yacuma which is pretty infamous for drug trafficking and witchcraft practice, not and ideal place to grow up. At 16, she was forced into a marriage and taken to La Paz against her will. Finally, she made it away from the bad relationships and moved to Santa Cruz. She suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed on her left side and found her way to Trinidad with h...

  Este... buenas a todos Hope everyone had a great week. We sure did down here in Trinidad. We were supposed to fly down to Santa Cruz but that was post poned until next week because Elder Pino, a member of the area presidency, is coming to visit our mission. He spoke in the most recent general conference about "Christlike customs" and putting chili powder on coconuts.  We still made a little trip though, maybe not by plane but by boat this time. We went out with two other Elders to visit a town called San Ignacio de Moxos. Getting there was half the fun. It was a bumpy car ride down a muddy jungle road in a minivan going way to fast for the road conditions. He was blasting cumbia music for the whole 2 hour ride which quickly got irritating. There were two river crossings. There first was by a small town completely built on stilts. There was a network of makeshift boardwalks connecting the slanted wooded houses, perched over the flooded marsh. The car descended down a steep d...

  Buenos tardes a todos  Transfers happened and I happy to say I'm staying in my area, Moxos, with my same companion. We have big goals for this transfer since we're sticking together we wanna match our goal of 8 baptisms.  As well almost the whole zone was the same which is good because we had such a great last transfer. We set a high goal for baptism but I'm confident there's lots people that need to be saved. That's why our new zone motto is "Vision de Salvar" or "vision to save". The best new was that the last brother in la famila Coimbra was baptized! He decided after talking to our branch president at an activity. He also asked our branch president to baptize him which was a sweet and spiritual moment. Unfortunately Isela still can be baptized due to the same issues but she's staying firm in her faith and helps all her boys keep their covenants and have priesthood, temple trips ans missions in their goals.  Anouther cool experience was ...

 This last week was the happiest and saddest week of my mission. Also probably the craziest.  I'll start with the happy. All five of the boys in the Familia Coimbra were baptized on Saturday!! It such a happy and spiritual day. Each of the boys were excited for baptism, Victor (19) and Boris (17) had studied diligently in the Book of Mormon and prayed to receive a strengthened testimony of the restored gospel. Alexander (14) was first up to share his testimony after the baptism. And Alvero (9) and Ramon (8) raced to the font after having changed into their oversized baptisimal clothes. We said a prayer before with the whole family and each brother congratulated and hugged one anouther as they climbed out of the font. It was a great day for everyone. Now the sad part. Their mom, Isela, was supposed to be baptized alongside them but she could not and it's a long story why. In the morning of the day before the baptism we get a call from our elders quorum president. He told us he ...

  Had an awesome week. Me and my comp have really dialed in to the missionary work here and we got a lot of big thing coming up. The biggest is that la familia Coimbra has committed to baptism this weekend! There a big family but each and every member  has truly found a testimony of the restored gospel and a love for Jesus Christ. The older boys, Boris Jesus and Victor prayed and thought a lot about the decision. I'm actually very proud and impressed by their efforts to find an answer from God. They studied diligently in the Book of Mormon, had lots of questions for us and most importantly took their doubts and question to the Lord. Finally this last Sunday they gave a firm answer that they want to be baptized. I know their efforts will be rewarded with a firm testimony and commitment to the gospel. I'm glad they took the time to truly know for themselves that the gospel is true. Pray for la famila Coimbra. We also had a very special experience at zone conference. President ca...

  Long email but probably the most interesting weeks yet: Transfer came and they were pretty wild for me. For Christmas all the missionaries in the Beni department went to a city called Trinidad and the whole time I felt like I'd be back for some reason.  I had been I Guyaramerin for a while so I assumed I'd be going back to Santa Cruz. I was shocked however when the news came that I was going to Trinidad for my mext transfer! I could not have been more excited. It was still hard to say goodbye to my friends in Guayaramerin. I feel of all my áreas up until now, I've connected the best to the people there. Had so.e sweet yeah hard goodbyes. One was with the family of Hermana Claribel. We helped her grandaughter get baptized and helped her set goals to go to the temple. We visited for the last time and thank me and my comp for helping her family. That meant a lot to me because the night before I read a promise in my Patriartical blessing that said that is I worked diligently ...

  For the Christmas multizona we all flew down to Trinidad, another city here in Beni. It was a crazy trip because there wasn't enough space for us to all stay in the other Elders houses, so a lot of us ended up sleeping in the church. It was one of the few chapels around here the had pews instead of the plastic primary chairs. It was definitely more comfortable that the floor in the other elderes house. It was fun getting to know another town though, we got lost a few time on the motorcycles on the way to the church so we go to know Trini pretty well. Definitely would love to serve there. The actually Christmas multizona was pretty great. As we sang hymns and read the Christmas story, it was a good moment of reflection and pondering on the coming of the Lord. As we read the name "Jesus" I thought about the meaning of his name, "God among us". It's amazing that the one true God decended among us in such a humble way. As Alma 7 teaches us he came to walk with...

  Buenos tardes a todos. I hope everyone is enjoying the World cup, because here on the border with Brazil that's all everyone can talk about.  There was big planes for this last week, involving MLC, a visit from a Seventy , and trips to Santa Cruz and Trinidad but it all got canceled probably due to the month long political strikes going on. But transfers still happened. My companion left as he was going home and my new comp arrived. He arrived a bit after transfer when there were finally flights out to Guayaramerin from Santa cruz but they all made it. My new companion is Elder Zamudio and he's my first companion whose not from Bolivia, he's from Uruguay! He served in Urugauy for most of his mission but made it to Bolivia around 14 months in. It's been fun to hear all about another country, the similarities and differences between here and there. He's also going home in 12 weeks so now most of my companions have reaches there last month while with me. Maybe theres...

 Today I want to share some experices we had this last week that truly were miracles. They felt straight out of the scriptures or stories from pioneers. I'll share three that stood out. The first happen with Hermana Isabel that's we've been teaching for some time. She has the purest testimony of the restauration and has a desire to be baptized. She an older woman with health problem, she in and out of the hospital so it's hard for her progress. She also been blind for years due to these health issues. After one of our teachings with her she asked for a blessing of healing. When I gave the blessing I felt a strong spiritual impression to bless her that she would recover her sight. It was a big promise but I felt confident that it came from the Lord. We explained that she would be healed according to her faith. I prayed later that night the what was promised in the blessing would come to pass. The next day we walked by her house, she called us over and said "elderes ...

 I feel bad for not writing for so long but so much has happened in the last three week I really don't know where to start. I don't really like doing list email but I really don't know how else to cover everything that happen so here we go - flew back to Santa Cruz for Mission Leardership concilio and it actually really went well - a general authority, elder Bercero came to concilio and gave an awesome talk and really help us figure out how to help the mission use technology better ( also check out his gen con talk call Poor Little Ones) - went straight from the airport to lead a stake mission training, it was improvised but still super spiritual - ate torta de peta, turtle egg kiche, which was surprisingly good - went to the jungle to go fishing, river monster style - survived an absolute tropical downpour in the smallest wooden shack I've ever seen - had a small conversation in Portuguese with some Brazilians, takes me back to my first transfer learning Spanish jaja -...