Dec 15th, No Subject

This week was an average week out here. We werent able to meet with the family Pastrana this week. If we talk to the wife, she always says, oh we are super busy, some other day and she always rejects us. If we talk to the husband, he always lets us in and loves to talk. Its really hard to talk to the husband, so thats why we could visit them. We have a visit with them tomorrow so Im looking forward to that. 

Jose Feliciano is doing really good though. He wasnt able to go to church though, he was in Montero yesterday. He is becoming really active in the ward and I think hes enjoying it a lot. He has made a lot of friends in the ward and they are always inviting him to go play soccer and things like that. Hes been progressing a lot and accepted his baptism date for the 3rd of January.

Ivan and Paula are doing really good too. Ivan went to church yesterday and told us he loved it. He told us he was still struggling leaving the coca and that he really hasnt progressed in that. We are trying to visit him everyday to make sure hes not doing that and hopefully that will help him. 

Not much has happened this week besides that. We have been doing a lot of contacting this past week. We have these cards for Él es la Dádiva and we have gotten a lot of contacts with that.

Well thats about all thats happen.

Elder Britt

Dec 8th, No Subject

This week went pretty well! We had a lot of good lessons this week with our investigators. We couldnt meet with Ivan and Paula this week. They had a lot of problems that kept getting in the way, like one of their kids had to go to the hospital and things like that. He loves reading the gospel principle book though. He pretty much read it in one week. We should be visiting him Tuesday.

We also met with the family Pastrana. Marcelo met with sister missionaries about 5 years ago and learned a lot about the church then but then they moved and lost contact with them. During that time he gained a testimony of the church and was ready for baptism. The only thing is his wife is reallllly catholic. He told us that he wont get baptized without his wife and kid getting baptized with him. It is super hard to meet with his wife though. Hopefully we can figure out what to do to help her.

Also we had a really good lesson with Jose Feliciano. He told us that he gained a testimony of Jose Smith (I dont know why they call Joseph Smith Jose Smith but then they call Joseph F. Smith, Joseph F. Smith, I dont know, its weird) and a testimony of the Book of Mormon. He said he would go to church the next day but he didnt go. We went to visit him and he said he was afraid they were going to call him and infront of everybody and he would have to talk. He did go to the Christmas Devotional last night. We couldnt stay but we took him there and had a member sit with him. I think he liked it a lot.

There is also going to be a big activity the 23rd of December. The South mission and North are going to get together in the Center of Santa Cruz in a place called Plaza Principal and we are going to sing. Its going to be a super fun time. Today we are having a multi zone activity. We are going to get together and play soccer.

Thats all that happened this week. Love you guys.

Elder Britt

Dec 1st, Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving out here is super boring. I saw a turkey so thats how I celebrated (but I see those everyday). This week was a little difficult meeting with our investigators again. Everybody was super busy.

We did have some funny lessons though. We went to visit a less active family called Portocarrero. We were going to share them a message about Christmas and invite them to share with their friends about Christ. We told them about how our message would be about Christmas. He went off for like 10 minutes about how he hates Christmas and how families just are together for that time but arent like that the rest of the year. Then my comps just like, well, we are out of time and left. It was about a 10 minute visit.  

We saw a lot of progression in Ivan and Paula. We were expecting him to come to church yesterday, but he didnt. Im pretty sure he will come next week. He loves reading the gospel principles. He reads a chapter everyday and loves learning more about the gospel. I really think going to church last week helped his testimony a lot. He started tearing up when he started talking about the hymns. Hes really progressed a lot. I think hes getting pretty close to baptism. 

This week we have been doing a lot of street contacting. We have been handing out a lot of cards that says El es la dádiva or He is the gift. I think we will get a few good investigatores doing that!

Love, 

Elder Britt 

Nov 24th, Progression.

This week was really good!

This week we were able to meet with all of our investigators and we also started teaching some old investigators again. With Ivan and Paula, we went and taught them with a member this week. The member is a convert and had problems with the word of wisdom when he was first getting taught. He shared his experiences and his testimony of the word of wisdom. I really think it helped him understand the importance of it and I think he will start living it. 

We also met with the family Pastraña two times this week. They are really intrested and are understanding all the lessons pretty well. The only thing is, the wife doesn´t really want to change being a catholic. I think with time though she will come around. She told us the we are always welcome in her home but she really believes being catholic is for her. 

Its still really hard to get out investigators to come to church though. Nobody really wants to go. Yesterday, we went over to Ivan and Paulas house to try and get them to go. He told us that he would be leaving in an hour. Church was about to start and we were waiting outside for him. Then he finally came! He really enjoyed it a lot. He told us he understood the importance of going and he would be going every week. We also had a recent convert come to church too. Those were the only people who came to church yesterday. 

I cant really think of too much else that has happened. This week we have a lot of visit with our investigators planned. We are also planning to do a noche de hogar on wednesday. Also my comp and I want to do an english class. There are a lot of people who really want to learn english here. So many people just come up to me and try and speak english. I think that it would be nice and people could bring their friends to it. I think we are going to do that later this month though. 

Love Elder Britt

Nov 17th, New Investigators!

This week we had a total of 4 new investigatores! It is pretty difficult to find people to teach because almost every person says they are catholic and they arent interested. But this week we visited with a lot of members asking for refrences for people we could teach. This one member said she had 4 families that she wanted to go and visit. When we went to church yesterday she said that one of the families wanted us to come at 3 that afternoon. We went over and visited the family with Hermana Itureli. They have taking lessons in the past and know a little bit about the church which is good. While we were there Hermana Itureli gave a really strong testimony which really got them excited to learn more. We should be going to visit the family again this Thursday.

This week we also had a show of talents. We invited all of our investigatores to come and they all said that they would, but none showed up. A lot of members showed up and other Elders investigatores showed up too. It was a really good night and everybody had a lot of fun. Elder Keck can play the violin really well, I think he is going to join a symphony when he gets back.

Our other investigatores arent really progressing that much. It was really hard to meet with them this week. We would always set up appointments to go visit them and then that morning they would cancel or they just wouldnt be at there house. We did stop by Hermano Ivans house and he was chewing coca still. We have commited him to living the word of wisdom about 5 times now but he still struggles with it. I think we are going to try and work on getting his faith stronger so he will act and live the word of wisdom.

We couldnt meet with any of our other investigators this week. With Jose, we had about 5 times we were suppose to meet with him but he canceled every single time. Then with Christian and Leonardo we have to have a member come with us to the visit because they are under 18. We have had a lot of members scheduled to come with us but they have canceled everytime.

Hopefully this next week we can meet a lot with our investigatores. Im really excited to meet with our new investigatores too, they seem really interested.

Love Elder Britt

My camera isnt working with this computer so Ill have to send pictures home next week of the show of talents

Nov 10th, La Guardia

This week has gone by really quickly. Im learning the area still and all the members but this ward is a lot better than the ward in Montero. In Montero only 40 people attended every week but yesterday 220 people attended. The bishop helps out a lot and so do the members. Its really easy to find members to go on visits with, we can usually get 2 or 3 lessons a day with a member. 

We have a lot of really good investigators in this area. Ivan and Paula are really interested but Paula is the only one that goes to church. Ivan told us that he hates talking to other people especially at church so its going to be hard to get them to go. We have also been working with him on the Word of Wisdom. Everybody is addicted to coca leaves and its really hard to get them to quit. He said he would start quiting little by little though, so thats good. He always loves our visits though. I think when we fix these 2 things he will get baptized. Then there is Christan and Leo Solice. They are 15 and 9. They are a part member family. They have taken all the lessons but are still waiting for an answer. I think we might have to end up dropping them soon. They never read or go to church like they say they will. I think if they dont attend church next week we will end up dropping them. Those are all of our investigators that we have taught a lot. We are still looking a lot for other people to teach.

So Monday night we we were walking down the street at night and there was this guy who yelled at us, ELDERS, and whenever people do that they are usually just drunk, but we ended up just going and talking to him. He told us that he was a member and wanted us to visit with him right then. He lives in an unfinished house on the second floor. When we got in there there was a ton of writings on the wall, it was really weird. I felt really uncomfortable there. He told us that he was working on the house and that is was his coworker that wrote that, so that made me feel a little better. He said he was only living there because he lives really far away and was only working on the house. I think we are going to go back and teach him sometime this week. 

This Friday will be a talent show for the Elders. My comp is going to play the Violin. I have no clue what Im going to do for it though. Ill just have to figure something out. Itll be a good time and Im looking forward to it. Thats about all thats happened this week. Time is going by so quickly! Ive been out about 4 months and It feels like I left yesterday. Things out here have been going really good though, Ive learned a ton and Im loving it.

Elder Britt

These are some scripture cases that a guy made me in the area. They are made for tiger, anoconda, and alligator. 

The picture is of the family Gusman. She had her baby about 3 days ago. We went over to visit her to see how she was doing and everything going fine for her. The baby and her are both healthy so thats good. 

Nov 3rd. Emergency Transfer

Tuesdayt night we had to go to Santa Cruz because of my companions knee. We did a lot of walking that day and because his knee is bad it was hurting him really badly. We tried going to a clinic in Montero but nobody would help us so we had to go to Santa Cruz. We went at about 8 at night so we had to spend the night at the assistants house. While we were there I was told that I was getting transfered to La Guardia, it´s the outskirts of Santa Cruz. I couldn´t go back to the house so my zone leaders went to the house to pack all of my stuff for me and they brought it to Santa Cruz for me. They did forget some of my stuff but I should be getting that stuff this week. This area has a lot more jungle and dirt roads than my last area. My area is really big too. We have about 4 neighbor hoods in our area and we have to take buses pretty much everywhere. My new comp is still from North America, Elder Keck, he is from Northern Utah. I´m kinda looking forward to when I get a Latino Companion because then it will be spanish all the time. I am living in a house with 7 other Elders, its really crazy. Its nice though because every morning we get to play soccer for our exercise because there are some many Elders livnig here. This area is really good though. We have a lot of investigators and a lot of support from the ward members. I dont know a lot of the people here but Im still learning. There are a few people from my group in the MTC here so it was really nice being able to talk to them and catch up. One of the investigators we have though is named Ivan. We are trying to get him to come to church but he doesn´t want to. He has a fear of talking to new people. But his wife is coming to church and she loves it. We are also working with him to try and stop chewing coca leaves. It´s a really big problem down here and its hard to get people to stop. 

Not much has happened since that. Next week I´ll be able to tell you more about this area and whats going on. I really like it here and my new comp is really good. We are going to be really busy teaching this week.

Love Elder Britt

Oct 27th. No Subject

This week we had some really good experiences. On Friday night we went to go visit with some less actives to try and get them coming back to church but they werent there, so we went to the house right next to them to just contact. They said that they had been taught by the missionaries before and the guy wanted to get baptized but his wife didn´t want to. But he didnt get baptized because he didnt want to get baptized alone. But when we went back he said that he was ready to be baptized and so was the wife. We should be meeting with them more this week and we will find out more about them this week. 

This week the president came and visited our house, it was pretty weird. We were doing our personal study then he called us and asked if he could come and visit us during out companionship study. He knew that we were struggling in our area because of some stuff that was going on and he helped us out a lot.  He taught us a lot about how to teach better and it was really nice. 

Every Sunday night we have a ward family home evening. After the meeting we went with some ward members to go visit Lidea Ferrel. She has been super sick these past few weeks. When we visited her this past week she said that her body was hurting so much. She had her foot amputated a while back and it got infected really badly and they were going to have to amputate more. When we went last night, we knew she was going to die. She couldnt move or talk anymore. It was really sad. This morning we went back to her house and she passed away. She was the only member in her family so we had a really good opportunity to share Alma 36 with there family and teach them where she is now. I also shared a scripture about the resurection and how she will recieve a perfect body. Their family was super happy, it was a good experience. 

Thats about all that happened this week.

Love,

Elder Britt

Oct 20th. Sick Week Again

This week my comp and I didnt´t work that much, my comp was pretty sick. On Wednesday, we spent the entire day in Santa Cruz because my comp is having problems with his knees. He needs to have a surgery on his knee sometime soon, luckily it is only a super small surgery. But there a 3 things that could happen because of his knee. He gets emergency transfered and I get a new comp, I get transfered with him, or we both get transfered closer to Santa Cruz, or we just finish this cambio and then he will get transfered to Santa Cruz. 

Thursday was an interesting day though. I had an intercambio with Elder Wertz. He´s in my group and we were in the MTC at the same time. It was a fun day. The lessons were a little hard though. He´s still struggling with his spanish and so I did most of the talking. The lessons were pretty tough but we did a good job. 

During the intercambio my comp got really sick and went to the hospital. He just got some pills and that was about it. We couldn´t work Friday and Saturday because he was sick. When you cant work, it´s the most boring time. All I did was sleep and read, thats about all you can do. But on Sunday we were able to work again and it was really nice. 

Thats about all that happened this week since we weren´t able to work a lot. I think this week will be a lot better and we will get a lot of lessons in. 

Love,

Elder Britt

Oct 13th. Sick This Week

Not a lot happened this week. Monday I was feeling really sick so after pday my comp and I just stayed in the house. Tuesday I was feeling a little bit better so we went out and worked that day and we gave a lot of blessings that day and worked hard. Then Wednesday we had service and during that I started feeling really sick again so we had to stay home that day too. I get sick here so much that I have earned a new nickname that all the latino Elders call me, vomit boy. Pretty much I get sick here nonstop. Hopefully my stomach will start adjusting. Im feeling a lot better but my comp is sick today so I dont know if we will be able to work today. Sunday was elections here and the entire town was dead. We couldnt leave our houseSaturday night and all of Sunday It was so boring. Somedays I just think, I dont really want to work today. The days where I dont work are the most boring days and go by so slowly. When we are able to work, time goes by so much faster. I hope that this next week will just be a normal week where we get to work a lot.

Right now we have about 3 really good investigators who are progressing really fast. Here, it is really hard to teach the Sabbath Day because everybody here has to work and its really hard to get people not to work. Also marriage is super hard to get people to do. It cost about 200 pesos to get married and about 7000 to get divorced so nobody here wants to get married. The last thing that is pretty hard to teach is the word of wisdom. Everybody here just drinks all the time, all day and ll night. Also, they are all addicted to these leaves called coca leaves. I think its what they make cocain out of but I´m not sure.

Other than that its been a pretty boring week. I´m looking forward to this week, hopefully we will get to work a lot more.

Love, 

Elder Britt

This is how we did the sacrament when we got stuck in for elections. They canceled all the meetings so we just had to do it at our house. It was slightly weird doing it at our house but thats fine.

Oct. 6th. Crazy People Here

I wrought a little bit about this guy, Daniel Sanchez, but I cant really remember what I wrought about him. But this guy is so crazy. We went to visit him this week and he said to us in english, With all respect Elders dont return. So we just left him alone for a few days and he called us and apologized and we set up a visit with him. When we went to that visit he told us a story that happened to him recently. He went to go visit his fathers tomb to put flowers there or do something. While he was there he saw a picture of this girl on her tomb. Im not sure how but he said a few moments later he went to the spirit prision and met that girl. He said they talked and then they ended up having sex, in spirit prision... Hes a super good guy but he just needs a lot of help. We mainly visit him to try and help the family. 

This past Tuesday, President had a big breakfast for all the Elders that are new and their trainers. It was really fun to see all my friends from the MTC and hear all the stories and hear how their spanish is doing. The food there was AMAZING. We had pancakes with really good syrup. I liked the food here for about one week then I got super sick of it. Its just rice everyday, for every meal. 

So when I went to go get my shot Thursday, they called us and told us that we needed to go back in, after we had already returned to Montero. Turns out they gave me the wrong shot. I dont know what they gave me the first time. 

This week we have to stay in the house sunday. There are elections here that day and it gets pretty crazy here.

Thats about all this week, Im looking forward to this week. 

Love,

Elder Britt

The first picture is Daniel Sanchez.

The second is our last district meeting since transfers are this week. The guy to the right is one of my really good friends here. His mission ends tomorrow, its really sad. 

Sept 29th. Hospital Again

This week was I had to go to the hospital again, but not because I was sick. Wednesday, I was on an intercambio with Elder Tudela. We were walking to go meet with a less active member. While we were walking, there was this car parked on the sidewalk. So I had to walk really close to this gate while I was trying to get around the car. While I was doing that a dog bit me through the fence. Luckily it was a pretty small bite. We talked to the owners to see if the dogs were vaccinated. He said that only 1 of his 3 dogs were, so just to be safe, Im getting the rabies vaccine. The vaccine isn´t here in montero so we had to go to Santa Cruz the next day. They told me that I had to get 4 more shots throughout the next month. I hate going to Santa Cruz because it pretty much just takes up all your time for that day and you get no work done. The first month of the field has been rough, getting salmonella, then losing my wallet, then getting bit by a dog. But I still love it out here.

This week was also really good though, I had my first baptism. My comp and I went to the church really early in the morning to fill up the baptismal font and when we got their it was super dirty and full of water. When we opened the drain, it didn't work. So we spent the next 3 hours draining it with buckets and mops and cleaning it. Then when we turned on the water to fill it up, we realized why it was so dirty, because the water filling it up was super dirty. All of our hard work went to waste. But everything else went really well. A good amount of people showed up for Henry Prado baptism.

Right now we have 3 investigator who are really interested. We should be meeting more with them this week, Ill let you know how they go. 

I saw my first monkey yesterday when I went to Santa Cruz for my vaccine. I didn't get that good of a picture, when I tried to take another it was gone. But it jumped down from a tree and stole somebodies banana and jumped back into the tree, it was really funny.

The picture of the dirt road is how about 75% of our area is. Just dirt roads with little houses on the side of the road.

Sept 22nd. First Baptism This Week

This week has been super good. I should be having my first baptism this week. His name is Henry Prado. Hes from a part member family and is a super good kid. Im really excited for it. 

The weather here has been super bad. It was raining for about 3 days straight. When its raining nobody wants to meet with us.  All the streets have been flooded and its made working really hard. About half the roads in our area are dirt roads so we couldnt really work in that area. 

There is a less active guy here that we are trying to help, I love him so much but hes super crazy. He is the brother of the bishop. We were visiting with him and he was telling us a lot of crazy stuff. He told me that he wanted to leave his wife and asked me what he should do. The MTC did not prepare me at all for this. I just said, Im not sure but I think my comp could help you. After the visit my comp told me some other things about him. He told me that he pulled a knife on his wife a few weeks ago. Hes super crazy but a really funny guy. 

Last night we met with a new convert. While we were visisting with him his brother came to visit him and we were able to teach him too. He was really inrested in the gospel and wanted to know more. We are teaching his cousin also and he told us that he wanted  to get baptized. His whole family is really interested.

This week wasnt super exciting, just a lot of teaching, an average week.

Love

Elder Britt

The last photo was after we went to a funeral. It was a pretty sad time.

Sept 15. Sick This Week

This past week was pretty rough for me. I couldn't work Sunday through Tuesday. I got salmonella and it was super rough. I just had to take some antibiotics and some other pills. Im all better now though but those 3 days were super long and boring. When you cant work, time just goes by so slowley. When you're working hard, time flies. Then I lost my wallet Thursday morning. So tomorrow we are going to go to Santa Cruz and the President said he can give me all the money I lost so that is really good. 

This week was pretty exciting after I was feeling better. I went on my first intercambios. Im not sure what it is in english but I went out with Elder Cardonas Wednesday and then with Elder Dorado Thursday. Both days went pretty well. Elder Dorado was getting pretty sad in the afternoon though cause we were having a really hard time trying to meet with members and we couldnt find anybody to contact. But at night it was a lot better cause we found a ton of people to teach. 

The work in Bolivia is going really well. We have about 3 baptisms coming up if everything goes right. We should have one on the 27th, and then some in october. We invited an investigator to pray about Joseph Smith and the next day he told us he wanted to be baptized cause he had recieved his answer. 

Oh last night we were walking to family home evening and we had to walk through this huge party to get there. It was crazy. My comp told me that all the people from cochabamba were here and so they had a big party. All I could smell was beer for about 20 minutes and there were sooooo many drunk people. It was kinda funny just watching them try and walk and not be able to. 

Anyways this week is going to be a lot better since I'm not sick.

Love Elder Britt 

The first one we were at a members house for lunch and the second one is me, my comp, Elder Dorado and Elder nehues. We were on the back of the truck trying to get back to Montero after our activity.

Sept 8th. This Place is Crazy

The people here are nuts. A few days ago we were teaching a guy, turns out hes a pimp and is pimping out his own niece. Then when we were teaching another person, her kid starts crying, so while im teaching the importance of the sacrament she just starts breast feeding her child, it was a super tough lesson after that. 

Last night was pretty rough for me, my stomach is having a hard time adjusting here. We stayed home yesterday because I was feeling super sick but at about 6 I started feeling better so we went out. About 5 minutes into walking to a house, I started throwing up, so we went to a members house that was close by and my comp and him gave me a blessing. Then I just went out and started teaching more. We taught the family Choque that night. They are a super good family interested in the gospel. We taught about the Joseph Smith and they understood everything. I thought I was going to die during that lesson because I felt super sick but its fine.

On Wednesday we decided to go and do some service in the morning for a member. On the way back we were stopped by police asking us for our passports. Of course the first time they ask for it I didnt have it. Because we were out doing service I decided not to bring my bag which has the copy of my passport, luckily my comp had his. So they were wanting to take us to santa cruz for some reason. Then my comp said that we were going to call our lawyer and right when he said that they left us alone. Everybody here tries to take advantage of us. It gets pretty annoying. Whenever I take a mototaxi some where, they always try and overcharge me. I have to pretty much yell at them that I know the price and Im not paying them more and then they leave me alone.

Love Elder Britt

Also, thats the showerhead here, if I touch it while Im taking a shower or any metal, I get shocked... But at least I have hot water.

Sept 1st. BOLIVIA

I love it here. every day is so great. Its so much better than the MTC. It is super super hot here, and its supposed to get even hotter, so im looking forward to that. Nothing crazy has happened. I have seen some pretty cool animals though. I saw a perisoso, i think thats what it is in spanish, its a sloth. I took some pictures of it but my camera isnt working so hopefully next week itll work. 

This is area is pretty crazy. For our transportation we get to ride on mototaxis. so my comp and i just hop on seperate motos and just drive to where we need. its only like 50 cents too, its super cheap. 

The members here are different. Theres one person who has 8 kids from 5 different fathers. Chastity is a big problem here. We also are teaching this guy who all he does it take care of his wife. She cant move or talk and so we told him that she will recieve a perfect body. He got super excited. Teaching people is super fun. This area is mainly just reactivating people though. Right now we are only teaching less active families. When we teach though, its pretty much only my companion, i can kind of understand what theyre are saying but im always about 30 seconds behind and by then ¨they have already moved on. my comp is teaching me a ton of spanish. whenever we are walking to a house he is always teaching me spanish, ill know the whole language in no time. 

I dont have that much time to write because our time to write today was 10:00 to 11:15 and we couldnt find a place with any open computers so my time was limited. right now we are going to go play soccer and basket ball as a district. Ill be able to see 2 of my friends from the MTC, Elder wertz and elder teahan, my old companion. 

oh one last thing, there are a loooot of girls called snakes here, pretty much they just come up and  flirt with you and stuff, its kinda weird. I love everything else here.

Love Elder Britt

Aug 22nd. One Month Out

It seems crazy that I have been gone for 1 month. It seems like yesterday I was just leaving home and getting set apart. The time here is going very very fast. Im pretty sure itll go even faster. 

So latino companions are interesting. I like my companion. He talks extremely quiet and super fast. I didnt know what he was saying for about 5 days. It was pretty rough for me. Ive gotten a lot better at understanding him though. The hardest part of spanish for me is just understanding what the natives say. It just sounds like the slur all their words together. I can the president just fine. Other latinos are pretty rought to have as companions sometimes though. My friend, Elder willes, said that all his companion does is tell him how bad of a missionary he is so I guess im pretty lucky. 

Oh so last time I forgot to write about my thumb. I jammed it really badly playing volleyball. The bruise spread to the palm of my hand and it has been swollen for about 2 weeks now and hasnt gotten any better. There is a doctor coming tonight to the CCM to look at it. Ill have to tell you how it goes.

We went proselyting yesterday. We got a total of 6 contacts. We would just wait outside a grocrey store and wait for people to be carrying a lot of stuff then we would off to go and help. As we walked we would just talk about the gospel to them and stuff, it worked pretty well. 

So I was talking to a latino who is from Santa Cruz Bolivia. He scared the crap out of me. HE told us about all the insects and animals down there. So pretty much mosquitoes are everywhere down there, which was I was already expecting. Then there are giant spiders and he said he would wake up and they would be crawling on him some mornings. Cockroaches bite down there and if you get bitten, youre going to get sick. There are a lot of monkies down there and they will just come up to you and steal stuff out of your pockets. There are giant anaconda snakes down there. Its going to be a super scary place but Im ready to leave. I only have 3 more days here. I leave monday night. Im ready to go.

Love Elder Britt

Aug 13th. First Proselyting.

Proselyting was pretty tough. I was actually able to go 2 times this week. On Tuesday we usually go to the temple but it was closed for cleaning so we went out proselyting again. Friday was extremely hard for proselyting. We couldn't get anybody to stop and talk to us, they would all just say they were too busy or just completely ignore me. The very first person we went up too gave us their contact info so that was pretty nice. So many people said that they were catholic and didn't really want to change, which is what I figured would happen here. While we were out though there was this little kid bleeding a lot, he got hit in the head with a soccer ball and his nose was bleeding everywhere. My companion and I was able to help him out and get him to stop bleeding and we were able to clean him up. We were also walking in this area and there were just army people carrying around AK-47s. We decided to get out of there pretty quickly. I think it was also tough because we were both a little scared to go up to people and talk to them in spanish. I could not understand a single thing when they would talk though, they spoke extremely fast and just slurred their words together. We got a total of 4 peoples contact information though. Yesterday when we went, we were a lot better. We were able to talk to a lot more people and it seemed like a lot more people were intrested but we only got 2 peoples contact info. I had a really good time with both experinces, I cant wait to do it in bolivia.

Monday night all the Elders who got here 2 weeks before I did left. It was a pretty sad night, I became pretty good friends with a lot of the Elders in that group and a lot of people were crying. Im going to stay in contact with a few of the Elders.

Yesterday, I was able to go on tour of this place in Columbia. It's called the Cathedral of Salt. The miners built it because they wanted to pray that they would be safe or something like that, I couldn't understand a lot of it because it was in spanish. They hold church there one week out of the year. It was huge and an aweomse experince. I can't get my camera to work on this computer so I'll have to try next week to try and share them.

Thats pretty much been the only exciting thing here. Oh I also am getting a new companion for the last 2 weeks at the MTC, I get a latino companion. Im pretty sure he is going to hate me because I do not know enough spanish to talk to him at all.

Love Elder Britt

August 5th. Exciting Week

This is not my usually time for email, but the MTC is so packed that there is not enough time for people to email on pday so they are having elders spread out and we have tonight. 

On friday I am going to leave the walls of the MTC to go proselyting to the people of columbia. I dont know how Im going to do it. I dont know enough spanish to talk to the people and I can never understand what natives say because the speak extremely fast. It will be a good time though and will help me a lot when I go out into the field. Im looking forward to it. 

So the first night with the new latinos in our room was pretty exciting. So Elder Godoy asked if we had a book of mormon in english that he could read, so i just grabbed mine and gave him it to read. Then about few minutes later he gave me so money and said something, I thought he was trying to buy my Book of Mormon. I started freaking out because I had no clue how I was going to get it back speaking spanish to him and not be rude. So I went to another guys room and got Elder Stucki, he has been here 2 more weeks than I have, to translate and tell him that I need my scriptures back. IT turns out he was just giving me money to remember him by. So I just gave him some american money to make it a fair trade. 

Wednesday night we had a pretty cool experince. There was an elder in my room who was sick and couldnt was having a hard time learning the language while being sick. So he asked us to give him a blessing. So I was able to participate in giving somebody a blessing and I thought it was really aweomse. 

The hardest part of the MTC by fare is staying awake in all the classes. I get plenty of sleep but these classes are so boring someimtes. It is tought just sitting there for 10 hours a day having spanish lecture and doing that every day. It is impossible to stay awake when the president gives talks. We had a meeting with him and it was only supposed to be an hour but it ended up being 3 hours, he never finishes anything on time, and I thought I was going to die. It was torture.

So we have fake investigadores, I cant remember how to spell it in english anymore, I can only remember it in spanish, that are really teachers. The guy made it pretty obvious that we need to teach him the word of wisdom soon because after every time we would talk to him he would say that he was going to drink beer. I thought it was awesome how I was actually able to talk to him in spanish and teach him about the word of wisdom, in spanish. Some days I am really good with spanish and others I am just horrible. 

We also do this thing called CRE. Its where we go into a room and we teach and investigador and they record the whole thing and after you are done teaching you go and watch it and they give you pointers on how to be a better teacher. So during this we decided to teach him about the book of mormon. We were going great and we just and we were going to go to Moroni 10 5. I gave him my book of mormon to follow along as my companion read it. I wasnt even close to Moroni 10, I was in Mormon 6. I died laughing, it probably doesnt sound that funny, you needed to be there to understand how funny it was. 

I have really enjoed have the latinos in our room. Its really fun being  able to talk to the in spanish, they also have some pretty good stories too. There is one whos the only member in his family and when he left his family was extremely dissapointed in him. I think its really awesome how people are willing to go on missions even though they have all of that stuff going on at home. I dont understand how they think some of the time. Like there was one time I was going to shower and I couldnt find my towel so I asked them if they knew what happened to it. They said that they used my towel, I have no idea why the decided to do that, their towels were literally right on their bed. Oh well though, I still like having them in my room.

Well thats all that I have for this week. I have been having a really good time here and Im really happy. Elder Godderidge said that days go extrememly slow but the weeks go very fast. I cannot agree with him more. I havent had any problems with the food really except on saturday. I hated the food on saturday for breakfast and lunch and so I didnt really eat much. Then that night we were fasting till sunday afternoon, so I struggled a little bit then. 

Ill be sure to let you know how Friday goes.

Love Elder Britt

July 29th. Best Pday

Today will probaby be my favorite day of the MTC, we went to the temple in the morning, after I finish my email I'm going to play volleybally for 3 hours, then finish out by watching a devotional. 

Not much has happened since the in the last four days since I have written, since i have been here for 2 weeks they changed my room and are puting my with latinos so I speak spanish more. So today we spent an hour changing rooms this morning. All the latinos stay for 2 weeks and then go to their mission since they all know spanish already. So they came around to everybodys room saying goodbye. A few of them were taking ties from rooms, it was pretty funny but they didnt get any of my ties. All the new latinos will be getting here tonight, so Im not sure who my new roomates are. There will be 4 north americans and two latinos. Im really good friends with the 3 other elders in my rooms so itll be a good time. 

Sundays are my favorite day here, I call it english sunday because non of the teachers come into work because its sunday, so we just sit around and watch devotionals from 130 till about 830. At 8:30 the President of the MTC gives us a super indepth lesson on the MTC, its mind blowing. 

Last night we decided to do some studying outside, this lady came up and started talking to us through the gate. Im not sure what she was saying at all, I think she was homeless and wanted some help. I only understood about 3 words, I still have a lot more to learn. 

Thats about the only thing that has happened in the past four days. My next Pday is in 10 days so hopefully Ill have more to tell. Ive been having a really good time. Time has been going super fast already, its going to start going even faster when I get to Bolivia.

Love Elder Britt

oh and this city is crazy, on the way to the temple I saw a guy pooping on the side walk, people are weird here. Oh and I also got sick this past week, it was just a little cold, but disease spreads through here like crazy. I was sick for about four days, it wasnt bad at all. 

The first picture is an elder who I am really good friends with. My companion is the one who is at the temple with me.