Monday, November 24, 2014

WEEK 12 -- PACKAGES, 50 YEARS OF THE CHURCH IN BOLIVIA!

Week 12  goes like this

Teaching, Celebration for 50 years of the Church in Bolivia
And Packages!


Thursday, November 20th, we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Church in Bolivia.  The Missionaries sang 4 songs: Llamados a Servir (Called to Serve), Soy un hijo de Dios (I Am A Child of God), Amad a otros (As I Have Loved You), and Te Damos Señor nuestras gracias ( We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet).


We sang, and then we left. The missionaries didn´t watch the Celebration. But I am serving as a missionary during this historic time. So how neat is that.


I got my first package from home. CANDY from Los Estados, and New tie, and a Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission Pin.  Living the Bolivian Dream.


Taught a lot of lessons. But that is normal.  Twenty lessons this week, and planning on more the next.


Scriptures for the week: 
Isaiah 12 and 2 Nephi 22

And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee:  though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.

Behold, God is my salvation:  I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song:  he also is become my salvation.

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.

Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things:  this is known in all the earth.

Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion:  for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.



These two chapters are the exact same.  Jacob is quoting Isaiah about what he says. I like the most in verse 2 where it says God is our salvation.  All is important, and if we acknowledge God in our lives, we will change for the good.


Question: What would you do if the Savior lived in your house? What would you do differently? What would you do the same? How would you feel?


Have a Good Week
Hasta Luego


Elder Tracy

Monday, November 17, 2014

WEEK TEN -- BOLIVA, BOLIVIA, BOLIVIA!

I messed up my counting. This is really Week 10.

This week was rewarding. We had Conferences with my Mission President, President Willard.  I watched a Bolivian midget punch a horse in the jaw, and we celebrated the rescue and baptism of the Familia Alpire.

So every transfer, The Zones (Groups of Missionaries that serve together) in Santa Cruz have a conference with President Willard. We went to the Cañoto and had meetings and ate some food.  Afterwards we went and worked.  That is when I saw a Bolivian midget punch a horse in the jaw.  The horse got a little too close to this midget woman, and she just destroyed this horse. Because the horse had chains on its feet, it couldn´t do anything or get away. 


Thursday, we went to a restaurant with the Familia Alpire to celebrate their rescue and upcoming baptisms. I will be sending pictures later.

Familia Alpire

Saturday, we baptized the two hijos (children) of this family.  I think I am starting to understand how Heavenly Father feels when we do what is right.  I felt so happy and good that day. Sunday, Grandpa Alpire, who is the Stake Patriarch in Beni, confirmed both of them. That day was a really good day.

Familia Alpire 

Scripture for the Week: 
Book Of Mormon
Omni 1:26

And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.  Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth, ye will be saved.



My work as a  Missionary is centered around this scripture.  I read it a couple of days ago and I felt it was perfect to share. As we take the name of Christ on ourselves and we live the way he lived, we begin to cultivate those qualities that we would like to have.  This week, I´m going to try and work on my Charity for other people.  Because I need to love unconditionally like Christ did.


And I challenge you to pick a quality you need to work on and really try to obtain that attribute. Email Me!


Elder Tracy

11/17/2014 -- WEEK ELEVEN -- TRUNKY

WEEK ELEVEN

This week wasn´t the very best week. It was hard to find and to teach.  We had to drop some investigators because they weren´t keeping their commitments.


My sister, Hermana Emily Tracy, finished her mission in Santa Rosa, California last Tuesday.  I haven´t seen her for over 1 1/2 years, and I´m not going to see her until July of 2016.  So in total, I won´t see her for 3 years. That made this week harder.  But I know that I´m supposed to be here and I know everything is going to be okay.

This week in Bolivia: I saw my First Drag Queen, Ate Cow Heart, and My Companion and I got Sick!

Yesterday we were on our way to Lunch in the Micro (which is like the City bus, but grosser) and I looked out the window, and I thought I saw a Woman in revealing clothes.  It turns out that it was a Dude. I was pleasantly suprised. I learned that there are weird people everywhere!

Friday, I ate some Churrasco (Bolivian Roasted Meat, but they call it BBQ).  I also got to throw my own cow heart on the fire pit. It was funny, because I held a heart in my hand, lol.


Yesterday, Elder Gutierrez and I got chilled because we sleep with a fan running. Well, we are both really sick right now.  So, What can you do? 



And the Church is exactly the same down here in Bolivia. I love it!!  There are the people who can´t control their children, screaming kids and babies, people playing on their phones, and people leave right after Sacrament Meeting.


Scripture for this week: 
Alma 29:1-2

O, that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.



This is the mindset that all missionaries should have and how I feel right now.  I just want to help everybody.  But it is hard for me when people don't want help.  But if you prepare now, we can all be ´´Trumps´´ of God.

¡Que tenga una buena semana!

Elder Tracy

Monday, November 3, 2014

NOVEMBER 3, 2014 -- WEEK NINE IN BOLIVIA

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

This week wasn't as super exciting as before. We just did a lot of walking, talking, teaching, preaching, and working like missionaries do.

Last P- Day (Preparation Day), we played some volleyball games.  And I talked to more Gringos.

This is Last P-day with my Friend Elder Jarvis. We were in the trunk area of a taxi.


Every two or three days, we go to visit a sick member of the church.  His name is Fabio Suarez.  He has been sick with Embolia, which is a virus that causes Paralysis. When we first visited him in my first cambio (exchange), Fabio could barely move.  But know that with help He can now walk. It is a blessing from God.

We rescued the Familia Alpire. ¡They are now Miembros Activos!  And Hermano Alex shared his testimony yesterday. He said he was grateful for all the Elders, the Ward, and what his new family have done for him. ¡ESTOY TAN ANIMAAAAAAAAADO! (I'm so animated/happy.)

Oh!  And yesterday we were working.   A Woman asked us to buy beer for her. We didn't but we said we had something better than Beer. Then we gave her a Word of Wisdom Pamphlet.  We are funny. JAJAJAJAJAJAJAAJAJJAJAJAJA (Ha Ha Ha)

TWENTY lessions this week.  People have been lying to us a lot for the past couple of days, and I don´t like it. But what can you do.


Scripture for the Week: 

3 Nephi 5:13

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

I would like to thank my older brother, Lonnie, for showing me this scripture.  It is our job as missionaries and members to be real disciples of Christ.  But the question is:  "What are we doing to prepare to meet God?"  I would like to get some answers to this question from all of you.



 Please email me back at jonathan.tracy@myldsmail.net

Have a good week everyone!

Elder Tracy






A little additional fun information from Jon's Email home today:

This is my Scripture case. Its made of Alligator, Ostrich, Iguana and Cow.  Its pretty cool. (It was made by a local guy that Jon's talked about in a previous post.) 










It does say Mission of Miracles. That's the ´´Official´´ Name of the Mission, Because they Have The North Mission, and Mission of Miracles.

We walked everywhere this week. We walk everywhere everyday.  But tomorrow we are going to have a Mission Conference in the Canoto Stake Center. That is the Stake in the First Ring of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Here´s a picture of the Chapel.

                                Canoto Stake Center



I asked Jonathan to describe his typical day.



My Normal day...
There really isn't any normal day in this Mission mom.
But my Usual Schedule is this.  We wake up, and then we pray as Companionship.  After that, Personal Prayers. Then we get ready for the day.  At 8, we pray and have personal study.  At 9 we have Companionship study and Plan for the Day. At 10, we study Idioma, or Language. 11, 1st 12v weeks.

And from then on, we go to our Pensionista, and then we go to work. We usually have 7 or 8 appointments everyday.  But they fall through a lot.

Connor has almost got more converts that I do.
I have Hermana Hortencia Choque, and the Family Alpire. We rescued the Alpires, and they are a  family of 5.

So I say I have 6 converts.

I asked Jonathan to tell me about where he is emailing me from and how much does it cost to use the computer and the Internet.

I´m in a Internet cafe and to use the computer for an hour and a half  it costs me 4 bolivianos, or 50 cents  . 

And tell Connor that People in Bolivia are Addicted to Warcraft 3 and League of Legends, and Dota.  They Have different Servers for Different Countries.  But I thought it was funny.  And most people go to the Internet Cafe to play. If you have Internet at your house here, You are pretty well off.


Hey.  I have to go.  Love you mom.  Talk to you in a week!