December 26th, 2016 - Christmas Call Home

December 19th, 2016 - Just About Every Week with the Assistants

December 12th, 2016 - Memory Books (Libros de recuerdos)

Here in the mish it's really popular to have a book where other elders write and put a pic and what not. I made these for other elders this past week.

Here´s a phat schedule I made for this week...

November 28th, 2016 - Times Are Changing

Well we have 2 new secretaries now. Just so you know, here in the mission offices there's a secretary to the president (me - 2 months), records secretary (my comp Elder Decoud - a few weeks), materials secretary (Elder Palomar - 6 months), a financial secretary (Elder Cummings - few weeks), nurse (Sister Huber - whole mission), and the assistants (never more than 6 months - Elder Eduardo and Lara). It was Elder Cumming's 20th b-day this past week so we had a lil party in our house with papa john's pizza that showed up here in Bolivia for the first time about a year ago and has been way successful since then.

Elder Eduardo is taking the pic, I'm there in the back, Elder Palomar is there posing, and Elder Lara is up in the corner.

Anyway I'm just kickin it trying to help our dear mission president get adjusted to our mission and work a little better with us in the offices, trying to train and help the other secretaries, enjoying the fun activities and food that's here in the center of Santa Cruz, working with my companion through any difficulties, organizing the calendar for the whole mission, learning new stuff about Windows 10, computer shortcuts, Excel and Word, and being a secretary every day while balancing working in my area that's one of the toughest in the whole mission. We're headed into Bolivian summer which is not too fun but there's no other position in the mission that allows one to spend more time in an air conditioned room than the one that I have so I can't complain. I'm learning and growing with every day and loving mission life as always. Love and miss all you guys, always feel free to hit me up with your updates, things you want me to pray for, things you wanna talk to someone about, etc. :j

Love,

Elder Van Horne

November 21st, 2016 pt. II - Another Group of Cambios Behind Me

My dear family and friends,

Well I came to realize that I buy and take care of approximately 50 flights every time there's a week of transfers.... and those don't include all the other flights I take care of between transfers... so I could easily say that I've taken care of over 100 flights at this point... feeling quite a bit more confident.

Things were a little difficult this past week. I'm no longer in a trio. My companion is just Elder Decoud now and he's been pretty stressed this past week with everything that happened in the transfers so we have just been suffering through it. The missionary work gets pretty darn hard when things are stressful and you have to really rely on your companion when you're in the middle of a city. We have a lot of work to do for the week to come.

Here's part of my new room set up and my super short hair cut. :)

Part of my last area in Tarija.... actually really pretty place getting outside of the city part.

These guys show up every now and then. :)

and there's that classic wealthy poverty mix again...

The beautiful clouds that the humidity whip up.

November 21st, 2016 - Fotits Ejta

Here´s a few pics we took with a cam app on one of the computers here in the office to destress a little during the week of transfers. We take care of just about everything you can think of for 184 missionaries now that change areas in all of southeastern Bolivia during one week... so you can imagine it gets a little stressful.... so here's the secretary to the pres (me), Registries Secretary (I guess that's what it would be in English haha secretario de registros), and the 2 assistants to the president.... we're pretty good friends here in our international office: U.S., Ecuador; Brazil, and Argentina represented. :j

November 14th, 2016 - Street Performers

Here are some classic argentino or columbiano street performers I saw in Tarija.

November 7th, 2016 - Just a Lil' Somethin´for This Week

Probly the only husky I've seen in all of Bolivia. Poor guy is probably dying of heat every day haha.

We got some weights and a weight bench at our house for all the secretaries and the assistants to use.... needless to say.... even with every single weight plate tacked on.... it wasn't all too heavy haha

Some notes one of the assistants to the president from one of our whole office meetings. President mentioned that he knows that I show my love for him because I tried to help correct him in something. Wow I was nervous about how he would react to that in the last letter I wrote to him, but the Lord chasteneth those whom he loveth and I tried to help president show his love for us a little more by using the sandwich method: a compliment or something, the meat of the problem, and another something good or how you can help.

October 31, 2016 - Revelation and Reminiscence

I found a few quotes in Jesus the Christ that really inspired me this morning and have a lot to do with finding miracles and positively looking for the best around you:

"The human sense of the miraculous wanes as comprehension of the operative process increases.

To deny the actuality of miracles on the ground that, because we cannot comprehend the means, the reported results are fictitious, is to arrogate to the human mind the attribute of omniscience, by implying that what man cannot comprehend cannot be, and that therefore he is able to comprehend all that is.

To comprehend the works of Christ, one must know Him as the Son of God; to the man who has not yet learned to know, to the honest soul who would inquire after the Lord, the invitation is ready; let him “Come and see.”"

As you can see, Jesus the Christ can get a lil´complicated sometimes but it's basically saying that we tend to just see miracles as the phenomena in life that we can't understand. Once we start understanding the science behind whatever the event may be, it stops being a miracle. The modern day electricity and aviation would seem something of miracles to the people of just a few generations back. Likewise our children grow and come to lose their faith as they learn how the world works. No wonder we´re told we should be more like children. Look for the miracles around you every day.
This week I worked with the Lord to help one of my two companions, one Elder decided not to go home. He only has 6 months left in his mission. The Lord blessed us with 8 investigators at church, a lesson with a recent convert, one with a less active, 3 with a member, one received reference, one contacted, and four new investigators all in one day.... that Elder who wanted to go home in the morning thought it would be his last day in the mission and at the end of the day after so many miraculous lessons and experiences, remembered why he decided to go on a mission and has to decided to keep fighting.

Here are my only 3 pairs of shoes as of several months ago. All Bolivianized now.... yes with tires, imported new soles from Argentina, and small nails. One of the pairs is already exploding on one side again XD. I don't know if that means I'm working hard or that we shouldn't have bought so much used stuff on eBay for my mission haha.

Sometimes people reject us.... other times, when you're in Bolivia people put signs up after trying to visit them saying that they are highly Catholic and will respect us if we respect them. XD

Another reason why the mission is the best: the Lord will prepare at least one person especially prepared for you to find and help. Very often they'll love you so much that they'll throw a farewell party.... I can't promise that they'll be so cool as to buy you glasses made of straws though... I think that was just kind of my converts Dalsy and Edson.

This is how my old bishop in Tarija, Aeropuerto ward, baked his bread... don't think there´s a cooler way than a flamethrower.

October 24th, 2016 - Lil´Catchin´Up

Well folks it´s been a while since I've really written ya all haha. I´m really sorry about that. The adventures still continue here in Bolivia. I'm now in the center of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. If you take a look at google maps, you notice a nice arrangement of rings for those of you that are still new to the city life I've explained here. my new area is literally the southern half of the first and second rings. It's pretty difficult because the majority of the people are just here to visit the center or go shopping.

Here's a really cool little art project you can use to write little notes to people if you´d like. Cool lil' artsy thing our mission president´s wife showed us in a zone conference.

They aren´t so open to talking here in the center and knocking doors doesn't work as much either because most of the first floors are business or small stores and the people all live on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, floor etc. The Lord has luckily been very merciful with us because we´re received a lot of really good references from the members here.

Here´s a cool pic I snagged at the zoo a few weeks back.

I'm in a trio, or in other words I have two companions right now. On top of being the secretary to the president here, my companion is the financial secretary and the president trusts us to help out other missionaries so we were already in a trio a few weeks ago with an elder that had fell while running and needed to recoup because he had stitches in his knee. We helped him out to get pumped up about the work again, get healed up real quick and get a little more organized.

Here's I'm pretty sure the world's largest bird which is common to Bolivia... luckily just a scavenger or we'd probably be an endangered species: the condor. Although it may not seem this big in the pic I couldn't go up and stand right next to this guy. He stands like 4 and a half feet tall slouching and can have up to an 11 and a half foot wing span O.O

I took this pic on the way to the airport in the morning the other day.... I used to think the airport was really fun and exciting but now I thinking I'm going more bald just thinking about it.... I've already taken care of more than 30 successful flights and thousands of dollars of the church's money.

We´re now helping another elder that suffers from panic attacks which is quite a bit more difficult, he's a really good guy and wants to finish out the last 6 months of his mish, but proselyting really just kills him.

Here´s a big tortoise the son of my last house owner had.

Man, a lot has happened haha. I haven't had any other baptisms though since Dalsy and Edson back in May but that's all good.

Here's this crazy raccoon lookin' animal someone had as a pet I saw a while back. Forgot it's name.

Don't know if I told you all, but they've approved sunglasses and sombreros for several missions and our is one of them! :D

One of the last pics with the only Elder I've trained here in the mish (mi hijito) from Rancagua, Chile. Elder Flores on a bridge in Tarija. :)

We had a zone invasion of these way far out areas in my lat area in Tarija and we literally proselyted to people in like the middle of nowhere haha. Our Stake President wanted us to try proselyting there so we could open up a Family group in a less actives house pretty far from where our chapel is at to help reactivate a lot of the members out there.

In the pic above, the darker elder there is from Brazil and loves break dancing, he's one of my best friends and is with me almost every day now in the offices as the assistant to the president, the tall one with shady glasses is from Ujuy, Argentina, my other zone leader at the time in Tarija and I came back to Santa Cruz with him because he extended his mission and had to go home before the transfer and I had to be trained as the secretary, also a good friend. The last one is Elder Decoud, my companion now, we all came from the same zone, so I'm among friends here in the offices and loving it. Still miss Tarija though.... This is where the road ended.

Every once in a while professional chef members invite us to eat. :j sooooo sweeeeeet.

This is like a $150 sombrero from Colombia that you can fold in half and roll up to travel and take it out and it pops right back into shape. It's made of a highly woven fine material.... so I guess that makes it worth $150? I don't know you decide haha I just wanted a pic with the thing.

These were my first investigators in Tarija til they moved to Bermejo like 3 hours away, but they came back to visit me miraculously the only day I was given to say goodbye to everyone before I came here to Santa Cruz, they didn't know that was going to happen. They're the best. Brother Aramayo in the middle fell in a construction accident a long time ago and lost use of his legs.... he's slowly getting it back with physical therapy, his wife had circulation problems as a baby and now has one leg shorter than the other and permanently has to to use a cane and special shoe to walk but they were among the happiest of people I know. :) They helped pump us us to proselyte in the scorchin' sun every day in Tarija.

...and yes that truck has a giant Jesus Christ shepherd picture on the side. haha more next week, love you all!

October 24th, 2016 - Fotos

Here's our baptism from this past Saturday :) Juan Manuel Roda Gutierrez, 21 years old, and a religious fanatic... stole the book of Mormon from his brother to start reading it a couple months back :j

October 17th, 2016 - The Rich Poverty Mix

And yet another piece of evidence of the CRAZY mix of poverty and richness here in our area. This is one of our investigator´s houses that used to sell some sort of other merchandise before ?? haha and sells appliances now.

October 17th, 2016 - Secretary Life

Here´s my secretary trainer Elder Lozano to the left and our material secretary who helps us, Elder Palomar in the middle, and a member that is way crazy funny, Ricky after an all nighter in the airport taking care of 23 flights of missionaries going home after finishing their missions and 12 missionaries transferring to Tarija.... I bought all their flights, coordinated all their transportation and made all the calls necessary so everything was done punctually. :) I was luckily pumped with adrenaline in this moment.... if not I would have probably died from tiredness haha.... there we are waiting for our Cinnabon breakfast sandwiches. Had to give you all some updates before I turn 21 tomorrow ;)

October 17th, 2016 - Small Update :j

I was part of the first group in over 3 years of our mission´s history to go outside of the mission limits to visit a zoo in northern Santa Cruz 2 weeks ago.... here´s a native Bolivian jaguar and one of my custom zone t-shirts.

September 27th, 2016 - It's Been a While

I'll be trying to get some more pics out to you all here soon. I'm the new secretary to the president here so I'll be super busy but the upside is that I'll have beautiful internet speed from here on out for the next 6 months or so.

I'm grateful for the paved streets of my new area and the fact that I rarely have to shine my shoes, I'll have a position I've always wanted in the mission. I get to understand the behind the scenes of everything now and work one on one with the mission president. I have Santa Cruz's best missionaries working with me and living in the same house. I have a lot of potential to make a really big difference in the mission. I get to learn how to balance all my work more. I love the work. I get to learn how to work in a city now. I have AC again for the Bolivian summer time. My secretary trainer is the best. and much more.

My last companion, Elder Flores, was the best and I'll miss him tons and he will miss me.... we both left in tears, but everything has its time and place. I'll miss a new dessert every Monday from him haha but I'm sure sitting here in a chair at a desk for several months will fatten me up plenty.

We learned how to make mini missionary white shirts out of folding paper I'll sen pics here soon. The mission president's wife is a lot of fun and creative.

We can wear sunglasses and sombreros in our mission now! Dream come true haha. Love and miss you all, keep me updated.

Love,

Elder Van Horne

September 12th, 2016 - Update

Hello Friends and Family,

I had a few of you ask about my health, so here are a few updates. Stomachs been good...I threw up a few weeks back... that sucked.... some bad food we ate I'm sure, other than that I've been way good health wise. Gotta look up these spiny bushes and trees that are all over tarija.... they're called Churky and Paraíso in Spanish.... one stabbed me real deep in my right forearm during a service project a few weeks back and I think part of the spine stayed in my arm because there's a BB sized bump there now but it doesn't hurt.... I might go get a mini surgery.... I'll look into that today. My companion cooks mostly desserts from some recipes his mom gave him; no bake cookies, brownies, manjar (caramel) cookies, and something called sopapias today (fried bread of some sort). Haha Bolivia cuisine consists of rice, veggies, chicken or beef, grease, fat, hair, occasional bugs, eggs, french fries, potatoes, soup, fried bananas.... and that's about it .... they just mix it in different forms and give it different names. Almost no mosquitoes here in Tarija.... pretty scared about going to back to heat and mosquitoes possibly soon here. The mission gives us the best repellent and its in every house tons of bottles in the mish... almost no wildlife here in tarija its a desert.... dogs, chickens, cats, vultures, pigeons, some other occasional birds, parrots in ppls houses..... occasional lil' lizard. We're at pretty high elevation here almost 2000 meters above sea level I think. It's been pretty hot these last few days.... been here since March 8th... next transfer on October 5th I think. I recognize a lot of ppl in the street now, it's pretty sweet!

Love,

Elder Van Horne

September 5th, 2016 - It's Been a While :j

Wow I owe all of you a lot information haha sorry we've been changing places for Internet a lot and training and what not tends to make things a little hectic.

Our mission President Rodriguez is from Barcelona, Spain and is very by the book. He's way good and has kept a lot of the extra rules similar to what President Willard had so that's all good. I'm still kinda getting to know him. I think he has a bio on lds.org if you want to look into that.

I've worked a lot on not getting discouraged over the past while and have found a lot of joy in that. I've only had 5 baptisms in 14 months now so that's a little lower than the norm for our mish but we still baptize quite a bit here.

I've been here in Tarija for 6 months now and will have 7 months when I get transferred probably some time at the beginning of October.

I had to take 3 flights in one day a while back to pick up my newbie companion I've LOVED training. He's way cool and loving, from Rancagua Chile.

The weather is starting to warm up again but it snowed yesterday morning, classic Bolivia.

Got my hair cut way too short haha converts pets.