More of Us: Bolivia!

So, I decided that it was finally time to give you guys the recap all about my trip to Bolivia. I’ve told you all bits and pieces and I will certainly answer more questions about miscellaneous parts of the trip but for now this is just a nice overview for you all to know what I was up to for almost three weeks.

We flew into La Paz (the capital city) on Thursday, June 12 at about 7 AM. We were all pretty exhausted but I slept a lot on the flight to be prepared for the day. After taking way too long at Bolivian customs (filling out forms promising we’re not terrorists, etc.) we were picked up by our tour guides in La Paz and taken to the hostel where we were going to stay in La Paz. We got to the hostel, dropped off our stuff, then took a 2-3 hour bus drive (my timing is a little shaky in hindsight sorry) up to Copacabana, a little touristy town on the shore of Lake Titicaca. We then took a boat out to an island, Isla del Sol on the middle of the lake and hiked up to a hostel where we spent the night.

This hostel was by far the most ghetto accommodations I have ever been in. It wasn’t terrible; it had electricity but beyond that it was extremely primitive. The water for the hostel was brought up daily by mule, making it frigid and utterly insufficient. I think the whole place ran out of water for showers after like 5 people had taken a thirty second hypothermia-inducing-ice shower.

The view on that island was BEAUTIFUL though. We were so lucky to have a full moon that night, and when you’re on the highest lake in elevation in the world you feel like the moon is right next to you. The kids got some amazing pictures, I’ll upload them once the kids send them to me.

We hiked across the entire island the next day (beautiful hike, about 2 hours long) and skipped stones on this absolutely breathtaking beach. Then we drove back to La Paz for the evening and did some souvenir shopping the next day. I really love La Paz, it is a cool city. So packed, way too much for me to live in but fun to visit. The altitude is really killer though, I think it’s something like 14,000 feet elevation (I don’t have wifi as I’m typing so I can’t verify). A ton of people got altitude sickness, I was feeling pretty good though.

So Saturday night we flew into Santa Cruz, where we were to spend the majority of the expedition. That evening we were picked up by Brigam Barrientos, one of the greatest men I have ever met. He’s 30, the first counselor in the stake presidency, and our local coordinator down there. That means he arranges the obtaining of supplies, dinners, pretty much helping out with anything to make the trip leaders’ lives easier. He was such an amazing guy. Definitely a spiritual giant, but more of an Ohio style one. Like he cared so much about the gospel and wanted to share it, but he was also a normal person. You felt like you could connect with him as friends. I don’t know if I’m explaining this adequately, I’m just trying to say that there are some church leaders that don’t seem like human beings. Brigam is truly a great friend.

We went to church the next day and had some of the greatest talks I have ever heard. One man talked about the restoration and it was so powerful. I hadn’t heard the First Vision told in Spanish since my mission. As I listened to this man testify of the prophet and the gospel I was truly overcome with the spirit. I can testify with all of my heart that Joseph Smith truly did see God the Father and Jesus Christ. It’s miraculous yet undeniable to me.

After church we went on visits to less actives in the ward to invite them to a fireside that our kids were putting on. They ended up getting 17 less active kids to the fireside! Such a great missionary opportunity for the kids. One of the girls in our group was not feeling so hot and didn’t really want to go to the visits or the fireside but we convinced her to last minute. She ended up going and absolutely loving it!

So the next day we finally started work on the school. It is in the countryside just out of the city; a super impoverished area. We were attaching a room onto a school that other HEFY groups in the past had built. We worked at the school every day from 9 to 4 and the kids finished the majority of the foundation by the end of the trip. The next groups mainly just have to do brick laying now.

Every evening we did different activities with the ward to help reactivate the less actives. We had a game night, sports night, dance, talent show, so many amazing things. 10 of the less active kids came to church our second Sunday too! The ward was so appreciative and our kids’ testimonies grew in countless ways.

Then our second weekend we all flew to Cochabamba to go to the temple. I had a layover with two kids and the mom that was on the trip so I just emailed Jack and skyped Mom and Dad and Charlotte. The temple is absolutely gorgeous though. The town it is in is super hilly and just has a wonderful setup overall. They also have a giant Christ statue like the one in Rio. They say it’s bigger than that one (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been to Rio). It’s fun though, when you’re at the temple you can see the Christ statue and it just makes me think about how wonderful He is. Truly our Saviour.

Overall this was truly one of the best experiences of my life. I would love to tell you guys about every single kid and how much I love them. I love these kids so much and want to help them for the rest of their lives. It was an amazing experience; I wouldn’t trade it for anything.