T-minus 363 days!

T-minus 363 days until the Rioja Family will go to the Cochabamba temple and be sealed for time and all eternity(=

Hello Everyone!

I hope all is going well and hope that everyone is remembering to wear a smile even when the goings get tough!  I sure have put this tactic to work this week, and I have a testimony of it!  (=

To put it simply, being a missionary rocks!  (=  

This Sunday something really cool happened!  Javier, a 12 year old young man I baptized two weeks ago passed the sacrament for the first time!  One week ago he received the Aaronic priesthood, and this Sunday he came early in a white shirt and tie (he saved up and bought the shirt and tie special to pass the sacrament) and passed the sacrament like an old pro!  It was a really proud moment for me, I love that kid!  =D  Its so cool to see the people in whom I was blessed to help to enter into the covenant of baptism now receive callings, the priesthood, etc.  So awesome!

Saturday the Rioja family was baptized, along with a kid named Miguel Angel who we have been teaching for quite some time!  This was such a miracle and blessing to be a part of.  I have been working with the Rioja family since Christmas time, and helped them to get married earlier this month!  They are a young family that has a burning desire to grow in the gospel and nurture their children in the Church.  What makes me the most happy is the fact that they already have a strong desire to go to the temple and be sealed on February 22, 2015!  They understand the importance of the family, and they are very happy to become an eternal family(=  

I love the gospel, I love families, and I love to see the rich joy the gospel brings to the Family.  I have a strong testimony that through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ we can be cleansed and make beautiful covenants that bring happiness in this life, and promise joy and happiness for all eternity!  =D

Due to Carnivales (a 3 day holiday they have here that turns Santa Cruz into Sodom and Gomorrah) I won't be able to leave the house for three days, and one of the days falls on our next pday.  So I will write you all again in two weeks!  

I love you!

Élder Bender

                                                      Baptism of Rioja Family and Miguel

I am a Daddy!

Hello everyone!  (=

I hope everyone is doing fantastic!  Because I sure am living it up and having the time of my life!  This week we had transfers and my companion Élder Oliart left the area, and I was called to train a brand new missionary here in Samaría!  I am so glad that I was able to stay in Samaría, the work here is going great.  My ¨Hijo¨ (new Companion) is Élder Peñarnada.  He is awesome!  Such a great guy!  He is from Columbia and is 19 years old.  My favorite quality that he has is that he has a burning desire to WORK!  This is literally the best gift I could every receive!  A companion who has the same desire as I do to use every minute of the Lord's time WORKING HARD! 

With this change in companions I already am seeing even MORE blessings and miracles come as both me AND my companion are 100% obedient and focused on working.  Élder Peñaranda is awesome, I am so grateful for him and I love the kid!  

The Lord really has blessed me this week as I have had ALL of the responsibilities on my shoulders.  I have been able to balance everything without problems and without stress!  It's been really enjoyable(=  

I prayed that the Lord would help me know how to love my companion, and to help me to help him love the Work.  The Lord has answered my prayers, and I have been blessed with a great sense of peace as I have taken on this new role.  It is fantastic(=

My love for the Savior has grown even stronger this week!  I was teaching a family the Plan of Salvation earlier this week and as I came to testify of the power that comes with knowing that families can be together forever, I was overcome with the Spirit and brought to tears.  I am so, so, SO thankful for my Savior, because of his sacrifice and love for us I know that our family will be together forever.  I feel forever indebted to my Savior, and I look forward to the day in which I can give him a big hug and thank him for all that he has done!  (=

I love you all so much!

Élder Bender

 My old zone!  I love these guys!  With these transfers our area (Samaria) got switched from the zone La Merced to the zone Nuevo Mundo

The "Gringo" Samaritan

February 10, 2014
Here in Samaría the people take pride in calling themselves ¨Samarítanas¨ or Samaritans.  I figured I could call myself the ¨Gringo¨ Samaritan because I'm the one blonde hair, blue eyed guy running around here!

Last Monday for PDAY we played an epic game of fútbol it was WAY FUN!  We played Gringos vs. Latinos, and we WON!  Honestly I have no idea how, they are way better than us, but we had so much team spirit and were going nuts screaming after each goal that I give all the credit to how energetic we were.  It rocked! (=

The weather here has been a lot different than it was when I first got here.  It hasn't been deathly hot, and we have been getting tons of rain.  With the rain comes many miles of hiking in rubber rain boots, and more mosquitoes than I thought was possible! I have learned a good repellent application technique now and I can keep them away pretty well now too.(=

We had some complications with the marriage papers with the Riojas Family, so their baptism got postponed.  However Saturday we baptized four of the Torrez kids, a family we have worked this transfer to reactivate, and it worked!  And we also taught the kids and grand-kids and now the whole family is active, happy members!(=  They are making plans to go to the temple as a family.(=

Also we baptized Javier Lopez Paco, he is a super stud (he's the older boy in the photo). He is 12 years old and a champion with an epic testimony of the Book of Mormon and cannot wait to be a missionary! (=  It blows my mind how even these young kids get so excited about reading the Book of Mormon and get such strong testimonies of the Restored Gospel.

After the Baptism we had a stake level activity with all the missionaries in the stake (two whole zones) invited their investigators and recent converts to come.  President Willard came and gave an EPIC talk and the spirit was just so strong!  He had all of the missionaries stand up and recite ¨My Purpose¨ and it was just epic to stand their in front of all of our investigators and say that our purpose is to help them develop faith, be baptized, and be active in the gospel and endure to the end!  It was super cool.  Then with all the missionaries we all sang ¨The Army of Helaman¨ and it was eipc!(=  We finished it all up with a really good enchilada dinner and it was a fantastic Saturday! (=

I love you all! 

Élder Bender

Baptism of Torrez kids and Javier!

                                                 Elder Bender and Elder Oliart and Pensionista

Matricky!

February 3, 2014

Hello all!  (=

I had a really crazy experience on Saturday morning.  We went to go teach a lady named Viviana, and we read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with her and all was well, the spirit was there and everything was good.  But then in the end of the lesson she said ¨I want to share something with you guys that I haven´t shared with anyone...¨  She then went on to tell us that when she was a teenager (shes like mid 30´s now) she played with a Wijie board and talked with a demon spirit.  She said that ever since that day she felt that someone is watching her and following her always.  

As she shared this story with us I immediately felt a dark cold feeling with us there in the lesson.   It was super scary and really weird.  We then gave her a Priesthood blessing and the Spirit came back stronger than ever before and she felt it!  It was super strong and just a really heavy, good moment.  We promised her that she will be protected as she prays and reads the Book of Mormon.  The power of the adversary is real, but it is weak compared to the power of the Spirit.

This week we were super blessed to have the marriage of the Rioja Family!  They are such a special family.  They are going to be baptized on Saturday, and they are excited to go to the Temple in Cochabamba and be sealed for Time and all Eternity in Feburary of 2015!  The Gospel blesses families.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is centered in the family, and I feel so blessed to have been able to teach and help this family taste the fruits that the gospel brings.  They are happier now than ever before, and this family really has a lot of potential to grown and strengthen the Church here Bolivia.  They are the Golden Family! (=

Thank you everyone for all of your prayers and support(=

I love you all! (=

-Élder Bender

Snakes! Yikes!

January 27, 2014

Hello everyone!

This has been another fantastic week as one of 90,000 of the Lords full time servants!  (=

This week I have encountered more snakes while walking around than any other week so far!  We found this super rare crazy part snake part eel thing in the middle of the road while walking to a lesson.  I thought it was dead so I tossed a rock by it and it freaked out!  I scared me and my companion so much!  It's like part dragon!  haha  Look at the picture!  

On Saturday we baptized young Carlos!  This kid is the most influential powerful little niño in all of Samaría!  He is the the leader of the clan of kids here in the neighborhood.  He is only 9 years old, but all of the kids listen to him!  Even the 14 and 15 year old kids!  Every Sunday morning he rounds up all his amigos and they go to church together.  It was a pleasure to be able to teach him, and then see him share what he learned with his little friends.  Our Branch President said ¨Carlos has great potential as a future leader in the church!¨  He's one charismatic little niño!  

I am very happy to be hear laboring in the vineyard of the Lord.  I have seen and felt His hand work through me time and time again!  I would be nothing and would do nothing without his help and his Spirit.  I know that we are all children of the Father and that he listens and answers our prayers!

I love you all!

Élder Bender

             We found the scariest snake I have every seen!  Its like part eel part snake!  IT freaked me out!

Carlos is a stud!  Such a mini prophet like leader!  And now he's clean and pure!

Stuck in the mud!

                                                  Our front yard was a lake from all of the rain!

                                                                         Me and Cows!

Our branch President

MotoTaxi's, Menonites and Miracles!

January 20, 2014

Hello All!  =)

This has been another action packed week!  I am overwhelmed with gratitude and humbled by the many ways in which I have seen the hand of the Lord this week.

Random fruits!  This week we changed our pensionista (And it is SOO much better!) and she has introduced me to a new fruit!  It's called Ambiba.  It closely resembles a dead snake, and and a sand-papery outside, and a super sweet inside!  I sent some photos of it=)  Also I sent some photos of the Achachiru that I had written about before too.

Also this week things got a little complicated when we were trying to meet a family in whom we had a lesson with, and we got a bit lost!  So we ended up needing to take a MotoTaxi to get to where we needed to be.  Needless to say it was AWESOME!  The sketchiest, fastest, and most epic way to travel in Bolivia!  The driver, my companion, and I all crammed on one MotoTaxi and I was on the back holding on for dear life!  I was smiling and laughing the entire time, it was awesome=)

This week we had a multi-zone conference with President Willard.  It was AMAZING!  I learned SOOO much and took tons of notes.  My companion and I have been trying to apply the things we learned in the conference, and ALREADY we are seeing improvements in how effective we are as missionaries.  I LOVE searching for ways to improve, and I love seeing the Lord help me as I do my part, he makes up the rest.  A quote I really loved that President shared goes something like this in English ¨Choose the right, because it is right, because your heart loves the right, and in this you will overcome all things¨  --Joseph F. Smith 

Family!  I would like for all of you guys to memorize this quote tonight for family night, and recite it each family night!  I firmly believe that as we maintain this attitude we will overcome all troubles that pass in life(=

A few days before Christmas one of the most faithful members of our Branch was kicked out of her house by some gang members and she and her husband evacuated to Cochabamba for about a month.  They came back last Sunday, and this past Saturday we got together and helped them build their new house!  Maria Rocha is her name, and she is the most upbeat, happy, faithful person ever!  She has no home, but is always smiling and looking to serve others!  It felt really good to help her build her new home, my companion and I put in work digging a huge pit for their bathroom (outhouse).   In like 40 minutes we dug a 12ft. 12ft. hole about 8 ft. deep!  It was epic!  

Also this week we did some service for the Ayala Family.  They are a family that is going to get married and baptized, and have extreme faith!  However they are extremely poor.  They often don't have food to eat, and they are doing all they can to get some money together to pay for their identification papers they need to be married.  On Saturday night finally Pedro got paid for some work he had done (and finally he could buy the papers he need to be married).  Also because his family was starving, he left his house at 10:30 at night to go buy chicken for them to eat.  On his return trip he was jumped by some gang members and beaten to a near death state with a shovel. They stole his food, and the little money he had.  His girlfriend found him early that morning lying in his own blood in the street.  Sunday morning we went to pick them up to come to church with us and when we found him like this, his face and neck and back were all purple and bloody and swollen and he has to have a towel over his head to keep the flies from laying eggs in his open wounds.  The gashes are gnarly, they say he is lucky to still be alive.  Instantly when I saw him and heard the story my eyes flooded with tears, for I have come to love this man with all I have.  This man literally works like a dog to feed his family of 6 children, he wants to follow God with all he has, he never thinks of himself, always of his family, and yet he was cruelly beaten and robbed.  He expressed to us his worries that because he is so weak now he will not be able to work for his family.  We gave him a priesthood blessing and are working with the branch to give his family the help they need.  This truly is a test of his faith, but I am 100% sure that this man and his family will overcome this challenge, that they will be married, baptized, and in the near future go and be sealed as an eternal family in the House of the Lord.

Today, we went as a zone to Paurito.  It is a Menonite Colony that is actually in my Area!  But it's like a 30 minute trufy ride from where we live.  It was so FUN!  Our zone is awesome!  We goof around and make everything fun.  The Menonite Colony is like a whole different world out in the middle of nowhere!  There are 3000 Menonites, and they are all from German descent.  They speak German amongst themselves, and resemble Amish people in every way except they use motor power tractors to farm.  I bought a half kilo of cheese there for less than a dollar, and it's super good!  (There's a photo of me taking a big ol' bite out of it!)  They dress like Amish people, and they are really strict about things.  They always marry within their own colony.  However they are the nicest people!  We just showed up and they invited us on a horse drawn carriage tour around their colony.  It is super cool how they are self sustained in everything that they do.  They were really interested in us Americans, they had never seen Americans before!  They were awesome, it was a once in a life time experience for sure!

We have witnessed another great miracle!  This week Ismael gave permission for his son Marco to be baptized.  Marco is such a strong young man with a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon.  On Saturday he was baptized, and the entire ride in the Micro to go to the stake center he was asking me questions about being a missionary and he expressed to me that he really wants to be a missionary in the next few years!  =)  Even a greater miracle, is the change we have seen in his father, Ismael.  He has had his heart softened, and we are hoping that as we continue to visit their family this will eventually bring their whole family into the fold, so they can be baptized and then be sealed as a family for time and all eternity in the Temple.  I have great faith that they will make it there!  I am excited to continue to see the miracles, and to see it happen=)

As you can see in the photos, both Marco (14) and Jonas (11) were baptized on Saturday.  Both are extremely powerful young men who I have no doubt will grow to be great missionaries and leaders in the church.  Their testimonies are pure and profound.  I feel blessed to have had the experience to teach them, seeing their growth and change, and to raise my arm to the square right there in waist deep water(=

I love you all!  Thanks for all of the prayers!

Élder Bender

                                                      Baptism of Marco and Jonas

                                                           Elder Bender, Jonas and Marco

                                                                              Ambiba fruit

                                                                     Achachiru fruit

                                                             

                                                    Visiting the Menonite Colony with my zone!

                                                                         Cheese!

                                                                          My Zone

Acts 1:8

January 13, 2014

Hola mi queridos Hermanos y Hermanas!

Another fantastic week of working in the most choice part of the Lord's Vinyard! I have seen so many Miracles here in Samaría, I never want to leave! It is like Disneyland for Missionaries - The Happiest, Hottest, and Dustiest place on Earth! =) The best part is that we have big plans to cool off in the Baptismal font this month!

I have been having fun learning by trial and error to cook some of the native foods here. This week I cooked Fritos! After a few tries they turned out pretty darn delicious! Like the real deal! Fritos are like a bisquit type thing you eat with hot chocolate. It consists of egg, salt, and flour, and you quick fry it to perfection!

One treat we have been blessed to experience here is one day we went to teach my good friend Marco! We asked him how his Book Of Mormon reading is going, and he plesantly surprised us by showing that he has read more than 200 pages already. He is one spiritual giant of a 14 year old! We asked him if he has had the opportunity to pray and ask God if the Book is true. He told us that he has prayed and asked 5 times, and every time God has responed saying YES!

One miracle in specific I want to expound on is the story of Adelia y Celso:

Adelia Ticona was a referral from Roxana Ticona, a Sister who we baptized last month. We have taught her for about a month now, and she slowly but surely has come to accept the Book Of Mormon and started to read it. She has very strong roots with the Bible, and it was hard to help her even open the Book of Mormon. (The Book of Mormon is another Testament of Jesus Christ in addition to the Bible)

A challenge that we knew we would have to face down the road of her conversion is that she isn´t married yet, and is living with her Boyfriend and their 4 children. He works a lot, and we had never met him, and we were under the impression that he didn´t want anything to do with us. However, on Saturday the Lord blessed us with a grand miracle! We met, and taught the Boyfriend, Hno. Celso! We taught him the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon and he ate it up! The Spirit was so strong while we taught and testified. He truly seems to be a man of Gold! We invited them to come to church on Sunday, and they came and loved it! Hno. Celso really seems to be extremely preapared by God to recieve this message. I have great hope that he will grow in his testimony and in the near future they will be married and baptized! =)

The Lord's hand is ever so prevelant here in Samaría, and daily I am seeing Christ's promise to his Apostles in Acts 1:8 being fulfilled quite literally through my faithful service and reliance on the Spirit.

Thanks to everyone for the continued support and prayers! I love you all and I am one very happy, sweaty, and dusty servant of the Lord! =) Things couldn´t be better! The Gospel is True!

Élder Bender