Arica: The Gospel Blesses Families

Hey Everyone!

This week was another week in the life of a missionary!

Some fun things that happened this week:

We found bags of goldfish SUUUPER cheap in Líder, the Wal-Martish store where we do all of our shopping. Let's just say if we have a zombie apocalypse, we're good for a couple of weeks.

We've been practicing all sorts of magic with some members. Not the black arts stuff, more slight of hand and cool card tricks!

We went to part of the Birthday Party of one of the members here. It's a tradition that the birthdayee has to take a bite of the cake without using their hands. Something that happens alot is that the birthdayee goes in for a bite and will have their head shoved in the cake! Fun Stuff!

Now on to some progress that we've been having:

We've been working alot with different families. I have a strong testimony that the gospel brings happiness into families! If we live the gospel in our homes, I know that we will have more love and happiness in our homes! We're working with a mother and her son who has aspergers. They've been coming to church for a while now, and the difference is amazing! The son has been calmer and more social; he even is getting along great with one of the young men in our ward!

We've also been working alot with the less active members in our ward. We have a ward of about 400 members, but only about 80 regularly attend church. A lot of the less active members, even the ones who haven't come to church in 15 years, still have a strong testimony of The Book of Mormon and of the church. They've just fallen a little bit of the path. We're working hard right now to get the members excited about befriending and helping them come back to church!

And now for a spiritual thought:

In the mission field, something that I'm learning alot, is how to be humble. I've been called to serve the Lord but I have to remember that I've been called to teach by the spirit. Sometimes I lose my focus and teach from myself. I have to focus on letting the spirit do the teaching. There is nothing I can teach without the spirit. To steal a scripture from an e-mail from my cousin, Elder Kenison "yea, acknowledge your unworthiness before God at all times."  (Alma 38:14)

I know that the church is true, and if we search diligently, we can find and strengthen our testimonies of Jesus and his Gospel.

Love you all!Elder Walker

Arica: Birthday in the Field - What better place to be?

Hey Everyone!

This e-mail is being sent to you by the new, the improved, the one year older, ELDER WALKER!!!!

I had my official birthday party in the mission! Which involved waking up like normal, getting handed a slice of cake, then proceeding to study. WOOT!!!! SO EXCITING!!!

I did end up getting a really good birthday present though! One of our recent converts, Andrew from Maryland, recieved the Aaronic priesthood! He's really motivated to follow firm in the faith and I've been learning tons from him. He is dilligently attending church even though it's in a language that he doesn't understand (albeit he has me whispering a somewhat butchered translation) and wants to keep progressing forward! We were teaching a lesson with him and we talked about prayer. I, just asking one of the regular questions asked, "How are your prayers? Are you praying every morning and every night?" He just gave me a wierd look and said, "We shouldn't only pray when we get up and when we go to bed, we should be praying in every moment! I'm praying when I'm out in the field working. Many times I'll just take a quick moment and say a prayer during the day." It's amazing to be able to see the progress of recent converts and be able to take part in such a marvelous work!

Quick Scripture-- Mosiah 26: 29-30

29 Therefore I say unto you, Go; and whosoever transgresseth against me, him shall ye judge according to the sins which he has committed; and if he confess his sins before thee and me, and repenteth in the sincerity of his heart, him shall ye forgive, and I will forgive him also.

 30 Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.

It doesn't matter what we've done, who we are, or who we have been; The Lord is here with us. I have gained a stronger testimony here in the mission that if we will accept the help of the Lord, we can recieve true happiness. The mission isn't always easy. There are many times when I feel more than a little frustrated, but when I kneel down and offer a sincere, heartfelt prayer, I always can recieve peace.

I love all of you guys! The best birthday present anyone could give me is to further the work back at home! Invite a friend to church and look for opportunities to give the missionaries back there some work!

Stay Frosty,

Elder Walker

Arica: Staying Put in Arica

Saludas del Ciudad del Eterna Primavera!

This week was crazy but was an awesome week at the same time! We just had transfers, and I'll be staying in Arica with Elder Sepúlveda for another six weeks!

Highlights

The sister missionaries were taken out of our ward this week. They've been having some problems with some guys that have been harassing them, so President Dalton took them out. This means that we're going to have to take over their sector while maintaining ours. This means A LOT more walking. We're also going to have to manage our time really well as we take over the investigators of the sisters. This cambio is going to be one that involves a lot of humility and faith in the Lord!

We've been seeing a lot of progress with some of the families that we're working with. This cambio we're expecting to see many baptisms, and we're super optimistic! 

This p-day we played a little bit of guitar at the house of one of the members! He has a sick Gibson and was playing tons of cool riffs for us! Turns out, I can still pick out one or two things, haha!

Spiritual Thought

In all of our lives we're going to have the opportunity to teach. One of the greatest examples of teaching is the missionary Ammon in the Book of Mormon. One of my favorite passages of scripture is when he is teaching to King Limhi. One of the things that Ammon does to start teaching is that he starts to question King Limhi. In Alma 18:24 he starts to ask Lamoni questions. Specifically he asks if Limhi Believes in God. Limhi responds that he doesn't know who God is. 

What many people would do here is proceed to explain about Heavenly Father. Ammon though, being a good teacher, and led by the spirit, asks another question! The key to good teaching, I'm finding out, is asking inspired questions. 

I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is a true book and that through it we can recieve TONS of wisdom and be blessed in many ways!

Love you guys!

Elder Walker

Arica: Short message & Random Pictures

Arica District

Hey guys! Not a lot of time this week but things are going great! We're working really hard right now on getting the members energized and getting people to come to church more consistently! We've been having powerful lessons and are going to see some more baptisms real soon!

Love you all!

Elder Walker

Andrew baptized last week

Arica: Life is Good

Cuanto tiempo no vemos!

Sorry for the Lack of an e-mail last week, but I'm back again this week stronger than ever!

Highlights:

Baptism!

This past Saturday we had the baptism of Andrew! He's from Maryland, and it's amazing that he came to Chile and found the gospel here! He honestly has so much faith that the Lord will provide for him it often leaves me awestruck! We taught him the lessons in English, which was an amazing learning experience for both me and my companion!

I've been translating for him at church and have also gained a renewed testimony of the Gift of Tongues! After the baptism the Bishop was giving a welcoming speech to Andrew, and I was translating. The words were just flowing through me, and it was amazing! I was honestly just a mouthpiece for the Holy Spirit, who was translating and speaking through me! It was honestly miraculous and I can't even explain how cool it was!

This week a Deacon from our ward has been helping us out a lot! His name is Nefi (Like Nephi, but in Spanish) and he's been playing with Aaron, who is part of an investigator family. While he was playing with Aaron, he suggested that they take break from playing Call of Duty and read some verses from the Book of Mormon! Aaron accepted and they read the Book of Mormon together! Even more awesome, Aaron and his mom came to church and are super motivated right now!

Some other stuff:

My companion is learning English and I'm having alot of fun teaching him English phrases that include, but are not limited to: Are you pickin' up what I'm throwin' down? (his favorite), pimpin' , and yo dawg, wassup?

It's finally cooled off in Arica! It's now only warm and humid, no longer hot and humid.

We ate at a Subway today!

Spiritual Thought-- Alma 7: 17

 17  Sí, en verdad, en verdad os digo que si todos los hombres hubieran sido, y fueran y pudieran siempre ser como Moroni, he aquí, los poderes mismos del infierno se habrían sacudido para siempre; sí, el diablo jamás tendría poder sobre el corazón de los hijos de los hombres.

Basically Just be Like Moroni and you're all good!

Love you all! Keep going hard in whatever it is you're doing!

Elder Walker

p.s. Special Shoutout to Maria Luz, who is dilligently reading these posts!

Arica: Teaching an American

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty miraculous! I'm not sure if I told about one of our investigators, so sorry if I repeat anything, but here is the story, we'll take it way back to when I was in the MTC!

When I was in the MTC something pretty sad happened, I lost my English Book of Mormon! I was devestated! It was a gift from my Grandma and had my name etched in it and everything! I prayed to find it, looked everywhere, checked the lost and found every day for a couple weeks, but to no avail. I was more than a little frustrated and wondered why this would happen. Grudgingly, I went to the MTC store and bought the only English Book of Mormon they had, one with the blue cover, like the kind that the missionaries normally give out.

A couple of months passed. I didn't really think much more of this. I started to read the Book of M
ormon a lot more in Spanish, which I now do exclusively. A couple of weeks ago we got a reference from some other Elders in our city. We went to contact this reference and were surprised to find out that it was a gringo named Andrew, who spoke little Spanish. We started to talk with him and he was eager to listen. So we set an appointment for the following day.

When we were in our apartment preparing for the day, I remembered that Book of Mormon. Here in Chile, it's a little bit difficult to get ahold of English Book of Mormon's. We gave this Book of Mormon, which I had by miracle and by the Hand of the Lord, to Andrew. Andrew has been reading it daily and told us that he has gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the Church! His baptism is scheduled for the 16th of this month!

The Lord works in mysterious ways. But he has a plan for all of us! We just need to be patient and he will reveal it!

Stay strong in prayer and read the Scriptures daily!

Love you all!

Elder Walker

Arica: New Comp & Teaching in English

Hey Everyone!

This week was a week full of changes! The biggest change was that my first companion, Elder Aleluya, left for Calama and was replaced by Elder Sepulveda! Elder Sepulveda is awesome and I am continuing to learn tons in the mission! Elder Sepulveda is from Chile from a city called Temuco. He's super energetic and we're working alot right now on motivating the members to do missionary work!

Another change that we had is that they started to do a renovation of our chapel. It's fomé (Bogus) because we now have to walk almost a half hour to church and it starts at 3 in the afternoon. The walk isn't that bad but we lose some proselyting time during some of the key hours of the afternoon.

One of the most interesting things that happened this week is that we started to teach a man from Maryland! He only speaks a little bit of Spanish so we're teaching him in English! It's a little bit wierd but He's accepting everything, reading the Book of Mormon, and wants to be baptized!

Some Chilean Stuff: We've been eating alot of fresh bread here. It's super cheap and we can buy it fresh from literally so many places.We can buy a round for about 25 american cents. Super Cheap.

Spiritual Thought: 1 John 4:18

I'm pretty sure I've shared this scripture before but it's one of my favorites. With this scripture I leave a challenge. I challenge anyone who reads this to have perfect love for  your friends and family and share the gospel! You can change a life and have an eternal impact!

Love you all tons!

Elder Walker

Arica: PICTURES & New Companion

Hey Everybody!

This week was crazy! I'm officially done with training (not done learning though!) and I said goodbye to my papito! He got on a bus this morning to Calama and we said our goodbyes; Somewhat sad, but also super exciting. The baptism this week unfortunately fell through. It was hard for my comp because the next day we got a call saying that he was going to Calama. My new companion is named Elder Sepulvera and is from Chile! I haven't met him yet but I'm super excited! Another Eldder from our pension, Elder Swett, also left this week for Vallenar. It's super sad t see two elders that have had such a big impact in my life go, but to quote my ninth grade English teacher, Mr. Reeves "Variety is the spice of life!"

It's hard to believe that I already have 4 and a half months out in the mission. In the mission you blink and it's already gone! I'm working hard to change who I am to become the best missionary possible out here! One of the greatest things about the atonement is the power that we have to fall on our knees, repent, then stand right back up again and have more strength than before.

--Spiritual Thought--

Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave a talk in Santiago to the missionaries of Chile. We watched it by broadcast. One of the things he talked about was the meaning of "asking with a sincere heart and real intent". Our main purpose as missionaries is to invite people to come to Christ. We invite them to read the Book of Mormon, to come to church, and to ask God if these things are true. They need to have this real intent though. Elder Oaks talked in great detail about this and many other things. The thing that stood out to me though, is the word COMMITMENT. When we have real intent, if we recieve an answer to our prayers, we will act on that answer. For our investigators, that action is often baptism. If we don't have this commitment to act though, why would we recieve an answer? What good would it do us? When Lehi recieved a DREAM in the Book of Mormon, he had the commitment to act on that prompting. He had the commitment to recieve grand answers. It's that kind of commitment to the Lord that I am trying to develop on my mission and that we all should strive to develop in our lives.

--Some Chilean Stuff--

I'm like super addicted to empanadas. I think I have a problem. No, but seriously, the empanadas here are super delicious. Every empanada comes with half a hard boiled egg inside, lots of delicious meat and sauce inside, and an aceituna (It's an olive, but with the pit still inside and WAAAAAAY more potent). We can buy them fairly cheap here, and I can't describe how much better they are than a dollar burger at some fast food joint in the U.S. THEY ARE SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!

Love you all!

Stay Frosty,

Elder Walker

Arica: Last Week of Training

Qué honda!

This week flew by super fast!

So I'm going to open up by saying that yes my toe is fine and no one should be worrying about it. I'm walking normal again, well as normal as I used to. I still trip a lot, especially when going up stairs, but that's irrelevant.

This week we had companion exchanges with the district leader. I packed up some things and went for a day to his sector. It was super cool because for exercise in the morning we went running on the beach. His sector also is the center of the town so there is tons of activity and there are many wierd things going on all the time. When I got back I found out that while I was gone, one of our investigators took the initiative to be baptized!!!!!! Super exciting! We're preparing here and her son for their baptism this Saturday!

There is a scripture in Hebrews 4 that talks about the word of the lord being sharper than the sword. I use this when I'm talking with investigators about the importance of coming to church. When we put ourselves in the church, we are changing, or maintaining our desires. Goals are the key to life, that's also what I'm learning.

Other than that, for P-day today we rented some bikes and rode them along a trail by the beach to some caves. It was super cool! I'm super sunburned though. Like SUUUUPER sunburned. 

Oh, before I forget the most important part of this week, THIS IS MY LAST WEEK OF TRAINING!!!!!!!

Yeah, that's about all for this week!

Stay Frosty,

Elder Walker

Arica: First (hopefully only) Visit to a Hospital

Hey Everybody! This week with Elder Walker we'll be finding more about hospitals in Chile and what not to do with your feet!

No but really. So my toe had been having a little bit of trouble, the nail was ingrown you see. I called to the mission nurse and asked if I could take some anti biotics for the minor infection. She said I had to first send her a picture. Long story short, she may have freaked out a little bit at the picture and sent me to the hospital. So here's what happened.

We went on Wednesday to the clinic and worked for a couple hours trying to get all the insurance stuff figured out. We met with the doctor and he set an appointment for the following day. 

We arrived Thursday and they have me remove ALL OF MY CLOTHES . I then had to put on the typical surgery gear. It looked like I was going to have my appendix removed or something. I went into a wheelchair and was wheeled into the sanitary zone and literally layed down on an operating table. The doctor shot some anesthasia into my foot and began to cut. I hate needles. Nuff said. He then stitched up my toe, during which I learned that you can stictch through the toenail! Who knew?

We had two days sitting in the pension. If I didn't have my guitar I would have gone crazy. Today we went back and he took the stitches out. Let's just say that my career as a foot model probably won't take off anytime soon, haha....ha....ha.....

While I was in the operating room my companion found some golden investigators though! The Lord works in mysterious (and sometimes foot model career killing) ways!

We watched conference this week too! All the missionaries from our stake joined up at the conference center. They even had a gringo room where all of us from the U.S. got to watch in English! 

Things super awesome from conference:

• 'I can teach you to dance, but you have to hear the music' -- This was probably my favorite talk from conference. It used many references to music.
• Elder Bednar quoted my favorite scripture when he said 'Perfect love casteth out fear'.
• The father of one of my friends, Elder Sitati, spoke in the last session.
• I learned that I need to get married. Like every talk told me that. Especially the morning session Saturday.
• Elder Holland started to talk about st. george and I couldn't even contain my excitement.

I love you all so much! Read your scriptures!

Elder Walker

Arica: Earthquake, Floods and Baptism

Hey Everybody! Greetings from the mission under the sea!

No but seriously, this week was suuuuuuper crazy! I'm gonna give you guys the story from my point of view, I'm sure that you've seen what's going on in the news.

THE STORY:

We were teaching a family home evening with some members in our ward (last monday). It was super awesome! It happened to be Hermano Diaz's birthday, so we were just eating cake and minding our own business. All of a sudden, the lights went out. We went outside of the house and all the lights in the entire city were out! We got a call from Elders Swett and Giadach (our zone leaders)  telling us to immediately return to our pension. Hermano Diaz gave us and the Hermanas that work in our ward a ride back to our pensions. We then sat around for a couple hours in our pension because it was only 8:30 and we don't go to bed until 11:30 in our mission. We peered out the window into the black abyss that was Arica for a couple hours. You could see sirens in different parts of the city. That's one of the cool parts about our apartment, we're on the fourth floor and can see forever. There was also a fire in part of the town.

The next day we found out that it had been flooding in the south and that's why we had lost power. We didn't really know the extent of what was going on. This day we didn't have any cell service but we had power.

The following day we found out the extent of the things that were going on. Apparently rivers had just taken out cities in our mission. One of the cities to get hit the worst was the city of Cheñaral, which pretty much doesn't exist any more. The significance of this is that my companion spent his first six months in the mission in Cheñaral and is super worried for all the people that he knew there.

We spent a greater part of the week worrying for the missionaries and wondering what was going to happen in the mission. We finally got a call from the president (through our zone leaders) telling us that all the missionaries were fine and that there wouldn't be any huge changes in the mission. Other that that, we haven't really had ANYTHING happen in Arica. Wait, I take that back. We had a 6.4 earthquake in the middle of the night. I slept through it...haha...not sure if that's a good thing.....

Now onto the more important part! The part where we had a baptism! 

His name is Pedro Choque! The hermanas found him in the street and started talking with him! About a month and a half later he got baptized! We were super stressed because we had to teach the lessons very basically and were worried that he wouldn't be able to remember them. He passed the interview and everything went through without a problem! He was super excited after the baptism and says that he wants to keep progressing forward!

Here's a scripture about baptism taht I like -- Mosiah 5:8-10

Love and miss you all so much!

Stay Frosty,

Elder Walker

Arica: First Zone Conference

This week for P-day we went to a museum of mummies! The mummies of chinchorro are some of the oldest in the world! 8000 BC! It was super cool and the museum also had the progress of civilization from then until now of arica!

This week we had conferencia de zona also. President Dalton, his wife, and the assistants to the president led us in activities that will help us to become better missionaries in everything that we do!

Other than that, not a whole lot happened this week. Spanish is progressing and I'm learning tons!

Elder Walker 

Arica: Highs and Lows

Hey Everybody! Que Honda en Los Estados Unidos?

This week was full of ups and downs. In the mission life there really are the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. 

Some things that happened this week:

• We had a baptism planned for last week but our investigator, Humberto, ended up moving out of our ward boundaries. Sad because we didn't get to baptize him but I know the missionaries in the other ward will do a good job as well.
• We had a Family Home Evening with one of our investigator families and the Father said that he knew that the church was true %100 percent! We're working with them on baptism. The hard part is lots of people think that baptism is a huge deal and that they have to be near perfect to be baptized. So we're working right now on that.
• I got really sick Sunday. Like to the point where I was throwing up. Not fun. We had to go back to the pension. The cool thing though, is that my companion and I shared stories with each other between my trips to the bathroom. I feel like grew as a companionship, so count your blessings right?
• This week for P-day we went down to the port. Sometimes I forget that we live so close to the ocean. We took some cool pictures....but I forgot to bring my memory card to the ciber....so next week I'll send them.
• We have 4 baptisms planned for the 28th of this month! My companion and I are working super hard to prepare the people, so keep us in your prayers!
• There are tons of people here with Arsenal jerseys. The first time I saw one, I said something like "yeah! go arsenal!" Then I saw like three more the same day. Turns out, people here are crazy here for Alexis Sanchez

Spiritual Thought: Alma 7:11-12

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Christ really knows each and every one of us. It's amazing the changes that a person can make in their life if they just humble themselves before Christ and accept the atonement! I'm learning so well on the mission that I have so many weaknesses and that I can be made strong through Christ! I know that there is no way that I could do everything that I need to here without the power of Christ's atonement!

Love and miss you all!

Stay Frosty,

Elder Walker

Arica: FINALLY got a picture!

Elders Walker, Aleluya, and Mendez

This week was super crazy! We literally had tons of appointments and taught so many lessons!

Some things that happened this week:

• We had companion exchanges with the District Leader and his companion this week. It was SUPER wierd because it was the first time since arriving in the mission that I was speaking in English. The language is coming along super quick and I feel super blessed with the gift of tongues.
• We have so many appointments in the nights that we often will do splits with different people in the ward. This time I went with Miguel Angel. Miguel is probably the most charasmatic person I have ever met. For his job he does magic at the semaforos, which means he will wait for the cars to stop at a stoplight, do a trick, and then people will give him some money. When we were contacting people in the street and would walk up to the people, he would just start talking to them so casually that they were super friendly with us and talked pretty openly with us. It was a pretty cool experience.
• We have three baptisms this month!

Some other random thoughts:

It's finally cooling off here in Arica. This week school started back up again as well, so we can't take the priests from the ward with us as much. This is a bummer because alot of them are super spiritual and have been helping us out alot.

We're still looking for a mamita for our food. Right now we kind of take turns cooking for the four of us in our pension. I really don't mind though because we can cook what we like and it's not super difficult.

When we were having intercambios Elder Goff (lidèr de distrito) apparently while we were all sleeping planted Ley de Castidad pamphlets all over our apartment. He covered the floor in our living room. It was pretty funny, we walked out and he started saying "Oooooh Santa Claus de Castidad! Feliz Navidad de Castidad!"

I met my Abuelo (grandpa) this week when we were exchanging missionaries. In the photo, I'm on the left (yep, that's me) My companion, Elder Aleluya (mi papito) in the middle, and his papito, Elder Mendez, on the right.

Things are going super well in Arica! Miss all of you and keep it real!

Elder Walker

Arica: Line Upon Line...

Esta semana fue super bakan, enserio!

The language is coming along super awesome! I can almost understand everything that is being said. Now I just have to work on talking, which is alot harder. 

Some cool things that happened this week:

• We had the wedding of Pedro and Claudia! In reality they were already married in the courthouse but we had a ceremony in the chapel where the bishop talked and they gave each other the rings. It was super awesome and it's amazing the changes that I can see in them!
• We are working right now with the parents of a kid in our ward. He wants to be baptized but his parents are against it. We're teaching some of the lessons to him and I can see that he has such a desire!
• We had two new investigators just show up to church today, out of nowhere! One of them is named Vitali and is Italian! Talking with him is super interesting because sometimes I think I can understand him better than my companion. While we were visiting with him he showed us some bibles that he has that are in Italian and Latin and are from the 1800s. Super old and way cool! They looked like they belonged in museums.
• I shared my testimony in testimony meeting. It was still pretty intense sharing it in another language, but waaaay better than a month ago. We're working alot right now with getting the members energized and excited about mission work. For everyone back in the states, do more to help the missionaries!
• This week for P-day we went to Centro, which is basically just tons and tons of street vendors and little stores. We talked with one of the artisans while he made us some sick key chains. While we were in Centro eating lunch I saw Elder Joos, my companion from the CCM. We both freaked out and ran to talk to each other. It's super cool that we are in the same mission and the same city. He said he's doing well and it sounds like we're having pretty much the same experience here.

Spiritual Thought-- 

2nd Nephi 4:34

34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his 
trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or 

maketh flesh his arm.

I've been learning alot here in the mission that I can't "put my trust in the arm of flesh." When we're teaching lessons I could use all the intellectual prowess in the world and still not be able to convert the person I am teaching. It's only through the spirit that you can really teach them and instill in them a desire to understand and live the gospel.

Slice of Chilean life--

We get around our sector completely by walking, but when we need to get somewhere else, we have three options. 

1. We can blow alot of money and take a ride in a taxi. Usually we don't do this. The only time I've ever done this is when we first got to Arica at like 4 in the morning and didn't want to walk through the streets.
2. We can take the bus. Here they are called Micros (Meekrows for all us gringos who can't speak spanish). They are pretty much the same as buses in the US. They aren't super crazy like some of the stories I've heard from my friends in Latin America.
3. We can take a collectivo. This is what we usually do. Collectivos are much more common than the bus. They have a route that they follow, and as far as I can tell, are just black sedans with a sign on top. You hop in the collectivo, hand the driver some change, and then are off. The collectivo will fill all of it's seats, so we always get to awkwardly squeeze in the back.

Love everyone in the States and hope you guys are doing well!

Bronzeando mas cada dia,

Elder Walker