Un-BOLIVIA-ble Adventures: When the Road is Rough Ahead and You're Miles and Miles From Your Nice Warm Bed

Email from Monday, August 24, 2015

Hey there best family ever,

Special shout out to Steph for sending me a boatload of pics of the munchkins today and making me the happiest aunt/sister/missionary on the earth today!

This week was probably the worst week of my mission, number wise, as in, I literally cried on the phone last night reporting my numbers because they were so low and our district leader didn't even have any suggestions for us. He just said "I'll..uh...well...I'll be praying for you guys.." I was humbled a lot. The saddest part is that we worked so hard this week. We had set appointments almost ever half hour every single day and we confirmed them all in the morning and then we'd go and they just wouldn´t be there... It was pretty discouraging and the pain in our feet and legs is a testament that we worked and walked and talked to everyone and then the Lord just had other miracles in store for us.

My companion is seriously incredible. She's just used to keeping a lot of stuff inside so that's been a bit of an issue this week in trying to gain that unity that we need but she's improved so much already. I just keep sharing with her and loving her and we're already awesome friends. She lived in Ecuador for 3 months at an orphanage and then for the Make-A-Wish foundation and she's just full of love for these people. We're already planning how we're going to travel the world together and just change the world one country at a time. We're focusing on Bolivia right now though. :)

Speaking of #justBoliviathings, this week we didn't have light in our apartment for 4 days and we did all our planning by candlelight. It was all thanks to some faulty connection that the owner did to give the elders hot water when they lived here but turns out it's like suuuper dangerous and the member family that lives next door came over and the husband fixed it all up for us so we have light but no hot water. But it's all good.

Also, yesterday, we were walking and these teenage boys comes up and asks "excuse me, do you speak Russian?" and I literally laughed and was like "no, do you?" and he seriously does. He lives in a Russian Orthodox colony outside of town, sorta like Amish, I imagine and he told us all about it and he wants to learn about the gospel. IT was seriously my favorite contact since the time I found a French family and I got to talk to them in English and invite them to find the missionaries in France. So many cool people here in Bolivia. :)

Anyway, I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Gauger