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