Things are looking up.

Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Hotel Canciller - Tuesday Jan. 18th -  2:32 pm

So on Monday Luis, our manager, picked us up and took us to the Santa Cruz Employment Center and gave us a tour of the place. While there, we were told about a dangerous guy who comes in and sits on the tables in the Center and then leaves after an hour or so. Apparently he had threatened the center in La Paz with a gun and demanded $20,000 from the church. His bishop had to talk him our of it but then decided to send him on a mission. He only lasted 3 months on the mission field. That was interesting to hear. After meeting with  the employees at the center, we went apartment hunting and asked different residential buildings in the area if they were renting apartments. We didn't have any luck. We felt like Mary and Joseph. We returned to the hotel in the afternoon and took a much needed nap. My brain was EXHAUSTED. At about four o' clock in the afternoon, Luis came again to pick us up and took us to see a possible apartment. It was...alright. It lacked some essential things and it was in a sketchy area. That sucked. Are there no apartments in Santa Cruz??? We came back to the hotel AGAIN and we began to study our material for Tuesday's workshop. We ordered dinner, which took forever to come and we crashed at about 10pm.

Today was different. Maybe it's because we got tired of complaining and decided to just work, but things started to look up. Elder Davila (sp?) of the Seventy came to the Employment Center to give a devotional and I was called to give the closing prayer out of the blue. I'd never been so nervous in my life. Giving a prayer in front of a Seventies Authority? In Spanish?? But it went well. After the devotional, Ashley and I sat in the main room and went through our material while getting to know some of the people who were going to attend our workshop later that morning. Even though we started the workshop late (because Elder Davila had a meeting with some people in our workshop room), we made good time and we didn't SCREW up! All the people in our workshop are pretty much awesome so I hope that we get to know them better this week and we'll pray for them so that we know how to help them and how word things so they can understand. I'm so excited for this week and can't wait to serve the people attending our workshops. AND we have an APARTMENT yet! We haven't seen it yet, but Luis just signed the contract today and we move in tomorrow. It's got a washer AND a microwave. So we're pretty much set. I'm now off to take a nap, I will update about the rest of today perhaps tonight or tomorrow.

-Cristina

ps. There aren't any McDonalds here, FUN FACT. But there are sloths in the city, apparently.