Awesome Christmas Skype Call Home and Other Great Things!

Baptisms, Family skype call home for Christmas, and zone activities! This was such a great week for me.

FINALLY HAD THE BAPTISM FOR LA FAMILIA SALVATIERRA!!!!!!
Luis and Sofia Salvatierra! After 2 years we finally had their baptism! So excited for them!

Had a zone activity on friday and we sang hymns and talked to people about why we celebrate Christmas and all that good stuff.

Had 3 dinners yesterday for Christmas Eve with members and I'm ready to dang near explode.  My Skype call home to family was the best Christmas present ever and I loved seeing and talking to Mom, Dad, Cayla, and Kolleen

In the words of my amigo Elder Cope, "I got a humpty dumpty haircut" and life is going well here in Bolivia.

Bolivians light off fireworks at midnight for Christmas so basically its New Years part 1....nice

Good food, Good people, Life is chillin here in South America.

Elder Connor Ryan deCocq
*******************************

Here are my Journals from this week:

Boom, Boom, Bautista!

Good week this week!!!!! We had some really awesome miracles as always! Had a baptism for Carlos Gil and 3 more baptisms for this coming week. I don't like to type a whole lot but I have pictures so yah. Also got sick this week and I lost 7 pounds!!!! Solid Viva Bolivia!  See my journal entries below for more details from my week

Bro Gil is now a member of the church!  What an amazing baptism

"There's got to more to the Bible. It can't just end like that.  God loves His children. So why would He cut off his teachings and communication with/for them?  What happened from then until now?  There has to be more"  ~ Bro Gil

(Yes....there most certainly is more)

Awesome dinner at Bro Gil's casa

I failed :(

My journal entries:

Storms, Progression, & Loving the People of Bolivia

This week was wild folks. Buckle up.

One: Went to a birthday party for like 30 mins for one of our investigators. Waler turned 5 and had his spider man birthday party of course.

Made some spaghetti which turned out bomb but not sure if it was the spaghetti or something else but I had maddddddddddd "stomach problems" the next day.  Note.....my life has been a lie.  I found out that Salsa just means 'sauce' in spanish.  Chips and Sauce, por favor..... :(

We have some pretty wild storms here too which are cool to watch. The weather is Bipolar but the Lord blesses us when we need a break from the heat.

We have 3 baptisms for this upcoming week and I am super excited for all of them! All amazing people and all have strong testimonies of the gospel!!!

** As always, more details in my journal entries....see them below

VIDEO NOTE:  I have two videos attached below, but they do not render in the emails that get sent out.  If you are reading this via email, click here to view my blog entry itself and see the videos

Chau and Love,

Elder Connor deCocq

Journals:

Three Months on the Mission Already

** Dad note - no pictures this week other than journal entries because of computer issues in doiwnloading from his camera. Hopefully more next week!

I'm already 1/8th of the way into my mission!

So this week was pretty good as always.   Lots of rain sweat and hard work! Computer is not letting me add pictures so sorry gonna have to wait until next week for them.

Had a really awesome experience with the gift of tongues during one our lessons and I know it is because of Faith and being "digno"to have the compantçionship of the holy ghost with me.

First week of the new intercambio is going great and I'm excited to see what next week brings. Good lessons, good food and great people. Santa Cruz de los milagros.

Way more info in my journal entries below.  I'll have more pics next week

Elder Connor Ryan deCocq

My 1st Transfer is down.....No Longer the Newb.

OOOOOOHHHHHH Man is Bolivia full of surprises every week!

(I promise I am not as fat as my pictures make it seem. I am
actually losing weight)

Had my first zone conference on Wednesday and that was really good! It was my first transfer and we lost some elders and gained some.  I'll be here for at least one more transfer. We have a new greenie this week, but I haven't met him yet.  Also got to see my old MTC buddies (Minus a few)

We may be moving to a new casa so we went and checked out some options.  If it happens, it will likely be in December sometime.  I also got to speak to my Mission President for the first time after meeting him when I arrived in Bolivia.

One of the best parts of the week....and investigator here has a pet monkey named Crispy.  Here are a couple of pics, but check out the videos I sent over **

Elder Estarita and I helped one of our familes that was struggling with some bills.  We didn't do much, but we know that what we did do was a blessing for them and for us.  They have done so much for us and giving back was the least we could do and it made our hearts ache to see them struggling over what seemed to us to be small issues, but they weren't to them.  My mission call didn't say, "Called To Preach and Convert", it said, "Called To Serve".

This week had its ups and downs and I had to get myself out of being discouraged at one point because of canceled appointments, etc.  Prayer and a visit to a small tienda for a treat helped get me back on track.

We got to bless the home of one of our favorite families this week too.  It was very spiritual and made their day and our day too.

We also taught a woman this week wearing a "Kalvin Klain" shirt hahahahahaha. Love it.

Finished our first transfer with 3 baptisms and I met many amazing families! Still in the same area for this transfer and I am super excited to see what these next 6 weeks have in store.
The food continues to be amazing as always.

New Planners for the next transfer!

Part of a letter from Dad about his conversion....All the
letters from home help me a lot

 

 

Best investigator question yet...."Did we come from monkeys?"

Read my journal entires below for more weekly details.

Ciao and love to everyone,

Elder Connor deCocq

** Dad Note:  I included some videos from Elder deCocq, but they don't link in the email notifications that are sent out from the blog  Click on this link to see the videos directly on the blog

 My journal entradas:

Close to the End of My First Transfer....Time is Flying!

Holy cow time just flies here I can´t believe it´s almost the end of my first transfer. Time for a weekly recap:

Cookin' eggs, boi!

Learning to cook eggs better.
Lots of new investigators and people who are loving learning about the gospel. The people here are all super amazing.
The food here is amazing because we were blessed with the best pension chef in the world.

Had our final district meeting for this transfer and of course I'm the most unphotogenic person on the planet but here are some pictures from that experience hahahaha.

Finally got to teach an English lesson and I had 3 people...score!  I wish it had been more, but zero showed up last week, so ya...

But yeah life here is muy chevere and I am digging every second of it. At times it is hard but if there is one thing I have learned in these first 5 weeks here is that with Faith in the Lord, True faith, anything is possible. And I mean anything.

Oh yeah, we may be changing casas.  This one is getting smaller all the time.  We are going to look at new ones this week.

That´s all for this week. Check out my journal entries here for more details on my weekly adventures as well.

Challenge:  If everyone in the world treated one another with even a fraction of how we are served here as missionaries by these people, this world would be so much more amazing.  I challenge all of you to go out and there this week and wholeheartedly give service to someone else, no matter how small a gesture.  Make someone's day brighter.

Chau and Love,
Elder Connor Ryan deCocq

My Weekly Journal Entradas:

   

A 'Not Feeling So Well' Estarita

Quality gym equipment, endorsed by the
International Weightlifting Association and OSHA.
 "La necesidad es la madre de la invencion"