Here are some photos of Kaitee and her first companion, Hermana Mejia.

This week was crazy. Me and Hermana Mejia were convinced that she was going to stay and we were going to have another transfer... To the point that when our district leader called... We thought he was lying. But we packed up her stuff and Hermana Mejia left. She's in Pirai, which is another part of Santa Cruz. She's training another gringa, this'll be her third. She's going to finish training her (her new daughter already has a transfer of being trained) but at the same time she's going to be a sister leader... with an hermana in another companionship. I'm unsure how that works.... But my "mom" is awesome.

My new companion is Hermana Llerena and... We're both new. She has 6 months in the mission and she is such a hard worker. I have never worked harder in my life than I have this past week.

The day she got here every plan we had fell through... We had a lesson planned with an investigator whose name is Hermana Yanet, but only her dad and husband were home. "She'll be back in like a half hour!"

So we were sitting on a bench waiting for her to come back and I say to Hermana Llerena:

"I have a confession to make."

"What?"

"Contacting really scares me still."

"Yeah, okay, we're going to practice. I'll contact this one, you'll contact the next."

Later that day she told me that contacting scares her too. She just did it because she knew she had to.

So anyway, we're both scared, but we're working. We're contacting so much, and I think my spanish has gotten a lot better this week. That's what happens when you have to talk to strangers in a foreign language, I guess.

But we're contacting a ton, finding a lot of new investigators... And she's really easy to get along with, so that's good. I miss Hermana Mejia like crazy, but she stayed in the city, so I'll be seeing her. :)

Anyway, I'll let you know the status next week of the new investigators we found! We have high goals and high hopes! :)

I love you guys! Have a great week!

Hey, I don't have a lot of time, so this one is going to be a little short.

Monday night the power went out and so we couldn't sleep with church
music as we usually do.... But as a result, I talked in my sleep....
IN SPANISH. I said "It's really hard to be a missionary.... but even
harder when it rains!"

I also complained that I couldn't rest on my P-Day. In my sleep.

Speaking the words of my heart, I guess.

Also this week we went to immigrations. We go to immigrations every
three months, because our visas only last that long and then we have
to extend it after that. Yeah, we were there for 8 hours. It was like
a Bolivian DMV.

I can't speak English or Spanish... This week we were in a district
meeting and another sister missionary was like "Hey, do you like
Reeses? My family sent me some, but I don't like them."

I've been craving Reeses since I got here, so I got way excited and
said "Usted have Reeses??"

.... I don't know what language I speak these days.

Transfers are this week! I find out tomorrow if me and Hermana Mejia
are going to stay together or if something is going to change, and
then Wednesday morning everything changes. This transfer is going to
be nuts. They're changing a ton of areas and taking hermanas
completely from some areas, adding them to others where there weren't
hermanas before... We're nervous. But ready to do the Lord's work
wherever He puts us.

I love you all and hope you have a great week! :)

-Hermana Hall

Here's my weekly update :)

New Years was pretty nuts. New Years here just pretty much means
parties. But people keep their Christmas lights on and there are SO
many fireworks... Super low in the sky, sketchy fireworks. At midnight
me and Hermana Mejia got up and watched them and the whole sky was lit
up... It was so cool. We also figured out that we lived in 2015 longer
than you guys! I lived three hours and one year later than my family!

The Morales family made us dinner and it was so good. So stinkin'
good. We also passed by Hermana Julie's house (my pensionista) and she
gave us these sparkly headband things that said "Feliz 2015." That's
going to be a pretty cool souvenier, especially since 2015 is the year
where I'm going to be a missionary all year!

But when we got home there was a party in the house behind ours...
They started playing music at 10.30 and when we woke up at 6:30....
they were still playing music. When they party in Bolivia, they party.
But then we left to go to our zone conference, and there was no one in
the streets. It was eerie. Everyone was late to the meeting because
they couldn't find a taxi, much less a micro (bus). So New Years was
nuts.

Hey, thank Julie Lewis and Doris Barton for me! Doris sent me a letter
and Julie had all of the activity day girls write me. They're so cute.
Also tell Granny B thank you thank you thank you for the Christmas
package. It was awesome.

Oh, funny story! We live above a family and our landlord has a
daughter nicknamed "Chichita." She's super cute and way funny...

Well, sometimes the Zone Leaders have to come to the apartment... And
before I got here one of the ZLs came and she pretty much fell in love
with him. And she was always joking around with Hermana Mejia like
"Where's my gringo?"

One day she was kidding with us about how she doesn't like Latinos and
how she wants a gringo... Hermana Mejia told her that the Elder she
had a crush on went home... And I was like "Hey, my brother's
single... and he knows Spanish!"

And now she calls me her "cuñadita," or "sister-in-law." So tell
Dustin if he's ever in South America... He's got a date.

That was pretty much my week. This is the last week before transfers!
They call us in the night a week from tomorrow! I'm pretty much
freaking out... But God provides a way for you to do whatever He asks
of you!.

Okay, so this week me and Hermana Mejia..... BOUGHT A CHRISTMAS TREE.
It is small, but it is cute. And... I don´t know what I´m going to do
with it after Christmas, exactly. BUT, you only live once. There were
smaller that I could´ve bought, but... Ya know.... I like Christmas.
It´s about hip-height, with blue, green, yellow, and red lights, and
blue and red ornaments. It also has Santa and candy cane ornaments. IT
IS SO CUTE. We also bought little Christmas tablecloths for our tiny
desks, and we´re going to buy a little bit of garland for the front
patio thing... And we´re leaving it until two days before cambios or
so (which are January 14th) because... We like Christmas.

Every night we say our prayers and stuff 10 minutes early and have our
"ten minutes of Christmas" where we just turn off the lights and look
at our Christmas tree. And then after that, we turn it off (so
reluctantly) and go to bed.

We like Christmas.

This week on Tuesday we had a lesson with a less-active member that
we´ve been trying to get in contact with since I got here, but never
was home. Her name is Leonice. She´s a little bit older than me, and
she´s in college studying English. She´s really busy and hard to find.
But last week she called us out of the blue like "Hey, can we have a
lesson?"

Uhm, yes.

So we had our lesson with her on Tuesday, like a week later, and we
talked about the Holy Ghost. She was a little distant at first, but we
felt the spirit really strongly in our lesson.... We asked her if she
had an experience with the Holy Ghost. And she told us that she felt
the Spirit when she called us. That she didn´t want to, but felt that
she needed to. And then she said "I need to meet with you guys
(ustedes). I need to listen to you. I miss the chuch, I miss the
activities. Relationships in the church are different than outside.
There´s more trust."

And it was so awesome. The spirit was so strong. And when we left,
Hermana Mejia was like "She was not the same in there as she was
before. Before she showed no interest in what we were saying. She´d
listen, but she didn´t care. She was so different back there."

SO POWERFUL.

Anyway... I think that´s it from me this week. Just getting excited
for Christmas! I hope everything's good at home in the cold and snow,
because everything is pretty great here in the heat and rain. ;)

It´s raining a lot.
Christmas is way different. Turns out it´s a lot like New Years. You
wait until midnight and then you open presents and dance and party for
like four hours. It´s crazy. But yeah! There´s decorations and we´re
singing Christmas songs and it´s a ton of fun.

It´s very hot. And humid. It just gets hotter and more humid every day
until it rains, then it´s better for a couple of days, and then it
starts getting hotter a little bit more every day again. But I kind of
like it. I´m getting a nice tan. You shoulds see my feet, cutest tan
lines ever