Patacamaya

So as many of you know I have embarked on a new, exciting, and very intimidating journey. I was living in Vinto, Cochabamba since June 2014 but in January 2016 I moved seven hours away to a new assignment in El Alto, La Paz.

Why the change? Well, the Bolivian branch sent out a very motivating letter to all congregations in Bolivia last year about how much need there is in native languages and that if anybody has the circumstances to move to a location of more need and to learn another language to please write them back and they would give you further suggestions. So, I did and my recommendation was to move to the town of Patacamaya which is a big town (at 13,000ft) with no congregation and only one recently baptized, single sister who lives there.

Why exciting? Because it's so untouched. A whole town that has never been preached to. There is so much potential. Imagine the sister that lives there now. She is the only witness in her entire community. I'm so anxious to go and help her preach because, as of right now, she has been preaching by herself with an entire town to get to.  She has been doing so well and conducting Bible studies that she doesn't have time to attend to all of them.

Why intimidating? Well...... Did I mention that in Patacamaya they don't really speak Spanish? I am currently assigned to a congregation named Chijimarka Aymara which is the closest congregation, one hour away from Patacamaya. The Aymara language is compared in literature to Japanese and, yes, I would agree. It truly sounds like Japanese during the meetings. My current vocabulary is at about twenty words. But, honestly, the brothers and sisters have been so unbelievably encouraging and so excited to help me learn their language that it makes me excited and less nervous too.

I will be supporting, and eventually living in, Patacamaya. However, as a congregation we have two other isolated towns assigned to us and our territory goes all the way to the borders of Peru. There is still so much work to be done!

Here are some recent pictures since I've moved to El Alto.