At Conference Time, At Conference Tiiiiiiiimmmeee!

Email from Monday, March 30, 2015

Oh yes. It´s aaaalllmost time for one of my favorite weekends of the year!! I can´t wait! All the English missionaries get to watch it together in English and we all bring snacks. It´s going to be the best!

but anyway...Buenos Dias!

This week rocked. :) It was election day in Bolivia on Sunday so yep, I got to spend the day locked up again but this time it was just until 6! We didn´t even have church, it was so sad. But we did have an awesome hour by hour study schedule! :) The election day rules are super strict here, no one can reunite (I don´t think that´s the best word to use but I literally have no idea what English word works here so thus we see that my English skills are experiencing atrophy) and you can´t even drive or ride in a car to get to the polling place, you have to walk. So strange but that´s Bolivia for ya. It was so cool when we went out last night because it was so calm and beautiful. It was what every Sunday would be like if everyone kept the Sabbath Day holy, it was awesome! We saw so many cute families spending time together and just resting from their daily labors.

One awesome thing that happened this week was that I got letters from the Davis Family and the Gibson Family! Thanks for those! When I read what Bro. Davis wrote, it pretty much changed my life. He said that whenever Dad talks about me and shares my experiences, he just lights up. And that made me so happy because really profoundly, I just felt like my parents were so proud of me and how I always want to live my life so that they can be proud and excited to talk about their daughter. And then I thought to myself if I am living my life so that my Heavenly Father can light up when He talks about me. I really hope so. I really hope that when He talks to my investigators through the spirit, that He says "This is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well-pleased, hear her!" That thought just lifts my little heart right to cloud nine. This week I did a lot of evaluating to make sure that everything I'm doing is to glorify my Father in Heaven and just make Him proud. :)

 

This week we had interviews with President Willard and I´m pretty sure he´s the greatest. He just has so much faith in me that it´s so inspiring. I always feel so renewed after I talk to him. I left our interview truly feeling like there was sunshine in my soul and I just wanted it to warm up everyone around me. Also because it got SO COLD! It happened so fast too! I also have approximately zero winter clothes so I ended up wearing 2 pairs of tights, leggings, 3 slips, 2 shirts, 1 sweater, 1 rain jacket, a scarf, and gloves. I was so cold! Today we´re gonna go and get a few things at the American clothes market so don´t worry about me, Mom! I have always had one more layer than everyone else and I´m taking good care of myself and drinking hot cocoa every night just like you always do. :)

In place of #justBoliviathings this week, I am going to share with you a very....special....experience I had that will probably leave you with a busted gut because yesterday when we were out, we ran into a lady who recently returned to church and her little girl looks up at me and says "wow she is so tall. She´s like a MONSTER!" and so, knowing that you can never argue with the honesty of young children, I was standing there with quite the bruised ego and feeling a little down on myself when...just then, a dog comes up and PEES ON ME. I kid you not. This is my real life, folks. A DOG WALKED UP, LIFTED HIS LEG, AND PEED ALL OVER MY SKIRT. Yep. #jengaugerprobs

Anyway, I love you all. Hope you enjoy your urine-free skirts this week and the insulation in your houses. I´m gonna keep laughing through it all! :)

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Gauger

 

When things get tough, just remember a dog peed on me. 

Baptism

Bolivian birthday bash!