Dec. 28th, No Subject

So this week we saw a lot of progression in one of the less active
families we are teaching and in the branch.

So first off with the family we are teaching. We have been teaching
the Gonzales family ever since I got to this area. They have always
been really nice with us and always accept us. Right now they have a
daughter that is serving in Colombia and they were able to talk with
them for Christmas. I think that whatever she told her family really
motivated them to start going to church again. They told us that there
goal is to go to the temple with their daughter when she gets back in
a year. We had a small lesson with them yesterday and the brother
asked us if we could fast with him this week. We are going to work
really hard with them to help them to go back to church and hopefully
this fast goes well with him this next week.

So yesterday we had a really good branch council too. So when we first
got here we would ask people to come with us for a visit or to visit
somebody specifically. It would almost always fall through. But now
the leaders are starting to complete with their asignments and are
starting to get excited about the work out here. We also have a family
that is also going through a lot of problems, the Chuquimia family.
One of them suggested that we could do a fast for them to help them.

It made me really happy to see the progession this past week. The work
out here in Riberalta is going well!

Elder Britt

To explain a little about the pictures.

The first one I finally got to hold a monkey. It was really hard to
get it but I finally got its trust and could hold it.

The second is one of my favorite members, Mario. He always takes us
places in his moto. We just have to find another mototaxi and he takes
us places. Thats how we get around out here.

The third is were we sang for Christmas eve. All of the zone sang.

And the last few are some animals of the members here. They liked to
climb up on my back and should and in one of the pictures one started
biting my ear. They are really cool!

Dec. 21st, Christmas

So time has passed by really quickly this week. On Tuesday my comp had
to travel to a city in Bolivia called Trinidad. He had to go do
some paper work of his passport and so that left me in a trio with the
other 2 elders from my branch. It was nice because I was able to visit
with some of the members from the other area. But I couldn't work in my
area for about 3 days.

This week was full of activities in the branch and district. We
had 2 talent shows, one for the branch and one for the district. We
had to perform something in the two of them. In both of them, we sang a
hymn and in the district talent show we did a short skit. Both
of them went pretty well and some of our less actives went.

We have been working a lot with the Ribas family. We are trying
really hard to reactivate the wife and set a baptism date for the
husband. They both like learning about the gospel but they just need to
go to church every week. We are working a lot with the branch
president here. We have been visiting a lot of the less actives with
him and the people we usually visit with him go to church the next
week. We have also been having meetings every Tuesday night, its almost
like a second branch meeting. As missionaries, we help the leaders know
what they need to do, how to visit other members and help them with
the questions they have. Right now the leaders are having a little bit
of problems so we have decided to help the leaders and that will help
us strengthen the branch and that will allow us to help more less
actives and new investigators.

This week should be really good. Some of the members have already
invited us over to do things with them for Christmas. It always amazes
me to see how little some of the members have and how much they are
willing to give us. The members here are amazing.

That's about all that happened this week!

Elder Britt

Dec. 14th, Mini CCM

So last week a huge storm came through and knocked out all of the
internet in Riberalta so we weren't able to write. I was able to talk
to my mom for only 5 minutes. The internet just barely got fixed today
so I can finally write!

But this week was really good for us in Riberalta! The biggest thing
we did was an activity for everybody in the district and we did a mini
MTC. We invited everybody from 16-24 to go and we tried to help them
get excited to go on the mission. My comp and I taught a class on
personal studies and we taught them a lot about the mission. They even
did some practice contacts and they contact really well! At the end of
the activity we did a small skit. It was pretty much a day as a
missionary but we tried to make it funny. Everybody chose me in my
zone to be an old guy as if he was remembering his mission. It was a
pretty fun activity and hopefully we will see more missionaries going
out from our district.

We also had an activity for saturday, where each orginization was
going to prepare a dance from Riberalta and was going to show it in
the activity. But somehow word got around that it was canceled and
nobody went. So we are going to try and do that activity again this
friday.

We have been doing a lot of finding and we will keep doing that
because almost everybody has left Riberalta. They all went to
something called la safra and it's where they go and collect almonds. I
think almost all of the almonds in the world come from Riberalta
becuase literally almost every person here works in some way or
another with almonds. So we have lost a lot of the people we were
visiting because of that. they won't be getting back until March.

Love you guys,
Elder Britt

Dec. 7th, No Letter

We did not receive a letter from Elder Britt today.  Late in the afternoon, we received a phone call from him and was able to speak for five minutes.  There was a huge storm that came through the day before and knocked out the Internet.  He was not able to write.  He said everything is going well and he's doing fine.  It was so great to hear his voice!  We are looking forward to talking with him again on Christmas.

Nov. 30th, Washing Motos!

So this week was really good for us. We were able to start visiting
with some new less activies and part member families we found. Some of
them even went to church yesterday. Hopefully we will be able to see
some more progess with them this week!

The big thing that we did this week was we had a big service project.
We were washing everybodies motos for free. I was in charge of yelling
at the people that we were washing free. It was actually pretty fun. I
lost my voice by the end of it. I was yelling for about 2 hours. But
thanks to the service we got a total of 50 refrences for all of
Riberalta and 6 refrences for our area. We havent had time to contact
them this week but we are going to do it this week. We also have
gotten some good refrences this past week with people who are really
interested in the gospel so we are going to make sure to contact all
of these people this week.

But this week we planned to do an activity. On saturday, each
organization is going to prepare a dance from bolivia. I have to dance
in the activity. We are going to do a dance called El Torito. Pretty
much, theres one person dressed up as a bull and everybody else dances
around the bull and whips it lightly. Knowing the branch Im in, they
are probably going to choose me to be the bull, so that should be fun.

Right now there are a lot of less actives we are teaching that are
going through a ton of problems, we are doing our best to help them.
They are problems that a normal person would never have to go through.
I really hope that I will be capable to help them with my comp.

But thats about all that has happened this week!

Love you guys,
Elder Britt

Nov. 23rd, No Subject

So this week was a normal week for us. We were able to find a new
family that has some potential to progress. They have a lot of
problems in their family but are willing to do anything to fix the
problems that they have. That was the reason why they were willing to
visit with us. When we invited them to pray at the end of the lesson,
they did it without saying, oh the next time, or I want to hear your
comp pray.  They just learned and did it. I think it was one of the
first times that's ever happened in the mission.

So this week we visited the Ribas family a lot. We are working really
hard to get the sister active and her husband baptized. They both are
really excited to keep learning and going to church. They have 2 young
kids who are special. That was a thing that was stopping them from
going to church earlier. But we told them just to bring their kids and
everything would be alright. They went to church and about 2 months of
teaching them. Hopefully we can get them to keep going.

Not too much has happened. We are planning a new activity to do 
dances of Riberalta. The branch is making us do a dance too. We have
to do one called el torito. It should be fun!

Elder Britt

Nov. 16th, No Subject

So this week was good for us. We had a lot of good lessons with some
of our less actives. Right now one of them are passing through some
big problems. One of the sisters has cancer and she doesn't know where
to get the money for her treatment. We are trying to help her so she
will be alright. The lessons we have with her are very powerful but
also very sad.

Right now we don't have any investigators that are progressing really.
We lost contact of Jimmy. He was living with the pinto family but I
guess the pinto family kicked him out or he got mad at them and left.
So we were hoping that he would still go to church yesterday but he
didn't show up. We don't have a way to contact him right now. We are
hoping that we can find a way to get in contact with him. Right now we
are really focusing on a part member family, the Ribas family. Angel
is 26 and his wife, estafania is 22. The biggest problems we are
facing with them is that they haven't gone to church yet. They always
tell us that something came up and they couldn't go. They
told us for next week that they want us to pass by right when church
is starting and make them go. Hopefully we can get them to go this
next Sunday. We usually pass by in the morning to remind them but our
church starts at 3 in the afternoon and normally something happens in
that time.

This past Saturday we had a really good activity. We watched the
testaments in our chapel and all of the organization made some sweets.
We were able to have some new investigators go and some less actives
go. It was a successful activity. Right now we are planning 3 more
activities. Our branch is progressing pretty well.

Well that's about all for this week.
Elder Britt

The people here ALWAYS shove you face in cakes.

Nov. 9th, District Conference

So this week was really good. The president and his wife came to
Riberalta this past week for our District Conference. It was a really
good conference and he talked very strongly and clearly to the members
here. He only talked about the 10 commandments but it was very
powerful. A lot of the members liked it a lot even though it was very
direct. He mainly talked about the problems with having other gods
above God and not keeping the Sabbath day holy. He told us personally
that if the members here understood the importance of keeping the
Sabbath day holy, Riberalta would be a stake and not a district.

But we had a really good multizone conference with him. It was just
Riberalta and Guayaramarin. He pretty much just told us that we always
need to be excited to work and always have a good attitude to help the
members. It was a short conference and then he took us to go eat a
really good lunch.

We also have a new person with a baptism date. Jimmy told us that he
wanted to get baptized. He said that in his church, somebody lost the
tithing and because of that he wants to leave them and join our
church. He said he really likes the Book of Mormon and really wants to
join the church. My only fear is that he will find a problem like that
in the future and leave the church. We are going to have to make sure
that he is ready to be baptized and the he has a strong testimony.

Also this week I ate some crocodile. It was actually pretty good. The
people here like to give you food and lie to you and then tell you
what they actually gave you when you are done eating. When they gave
us the food they told us that it was just fish but when we finished
they told us what it really was. It has happened to me many times
before and I've eaten heart and liver without knowing. But everything
weird that I've eaten here was pretty good.

But that's about all for this week!
Elder Britt

Nov. 2nd, No Subject

So this week was really good here in Riberalta. This past weekend we
had a baptism and it went really well. Everything went pretty smooth
for a baptism. But the next day for her confirmation, she didn't show
up for church. My comp and I were pretty nervous. She showed up as
they were doing the closing prayer for the sacrament meeting. Luckily
our president gave us permission to confirm her in Sunday School. But
she is going to be a great convert. She's only 12 but she comes to
church every week by herself. She told us that she really likes the
the things she learns in church and the Young women's organization is
visiting her a lot. We are trying to activate the rest of her family
but the parents are very busy.

This week we really just focused on her baptism but we also did some
other things. We have been planning a lot of activities for the
branch. Every week we have at least one activity. I've pretty much ran
out of ideas but we are going to keep having one every week. People

are really willing to come to the activities when there is free food.
This next week we are going to have a night of postres. Its going to
be a good activity. When there are activities in this branch, the
attendance in church goes up.

Two of our investigators that we were teaching just disappeared, so we
have been trying to figure out what happened with them. One just left
to Santa Cruz and we don't know if he will come back and the other we
have no clue what happened with him. We are just going to do a lot of
contacting now and try to find some people who will progress.

That's about all that happened this week.
Elder Britt

Oct. 26th, No Subject

This week was really good.

So for this week I was in a trio a lot. My comp got his transfer on
Monday, which came really early, and my new comp didn't get here until
Friday. It was pretty hard to find flights this week. But I wasn't able
to focus too much in my area because I had to go and help the other
elders in their area.

My comp now is Elder Fernandez. Hes from Ecuador. Now i have had a
total of 12 companions in the mission. I've only had my comps for 1
transfer and then they go or I leave. Its pretty rough. But my new
comp is really cool. Hopefully we will be together longer than one
transfer.

So this week we had a lot of good things happen. We had a really good
activity on Thursday and a decent amount of people went. But on
Saturday we had a night of Majadito, which is a plate from Bolivia.
Its pretty much just rice, chicken, egg, fried banana, and sometime
olives and raisins. Its actually pretty good. But a lot of people went
and had a good time. We are going to try and have a lot more
activities because when there are activities in a branch, the people
come to church. When a branch doesn't have activities, the people don't
come to church on Sunday. So we need to keep planning activities and
try and be creative with them.

But on Sunday there was a conference between Bolivia and Peru. Elder
Anderson talked from Utah in Spanish. I will admit his Spanish sounded
very gringo haha. But he speaks Spanish really well. It was a good
conference and a lot of people from the church liked it. I think they
are going to start doing conferences like that every 6 months or every
year.

So we have a baptism planned this Saturday. La Hermana Noelia Garcia
is going to get baptized. Hopefully everything will go alright. She
said that she wanted me to baptize he so that will be exciting too.

I'm glad that I got my new comp out and this week we will be able to
work hard in my area.

Love you all,
Elder Britt

Also, my camera got a virus so I cant send pictures this week...

Oct. 19th, No Subject

This week was a pretty good week. We were extremely busy. The biggest
thing that happened was a child died in one of the less active
families we are teaching, the Maniguari family. It was really sudden
that this kid died. He was only one. It was extremely sad for me to
see the eyes of this mother. I will never forget how sad she was. We
are trying very hard to help her feel better and to teach the entire
family the plan of salvation.

Then in church I had a pretty hard experience. Right now we are
teaching Jimmy and it turns out hes pretty much a "Preacher" for
another church. He went to church a lot yesterday and they jsut talked
about temples. Inbetween meetings I explained a little about temples
and he just straight up told me, I dont believe in temples, the bible
says we just need to pray in our room to God and thats all I need to
do to get closer to God. I find it intresting though that he went to
church and Ill have to see if he progresses. At the end of the meeting
he pulled me into a room and asked me some personal advice. He told me
the night before had drunk beer and that in 2 hours he had to give a
talk in his church about avoiding sins. It was a really weird
experience for me to try and concil him. In the end he liked what I
said and was going to apply it. He is living with some less actives
right now and is helping them a lot with some problems they are
having, which is good for us.

Our other investigators havent really progressed too much this past
week. Mainly we couldnt find them and teach them. Hopefully this week
we will be able to find them. Also transfer are tomorrow night. I
think that Ill stay here though. I find it crazy that Ive already been
in Riberalta for a transfer.

Thats about all.
Elder Britt

Oct. 12th, No Subject

So this week was really good. We put 2 more baptism dates so now we
have 3 people who are preparing for baptism. The first is Jasir. He
pretty much came to us prepared. He has a friend in the church,
Joselo. He has gone to church many time with Joselo and went to the
general conference with him. He already believes that the Book of
Mormon is true, the church is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and
that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet today. We just have to get him a
little more prepared and he will be ready. We put his date for October
31st. Our other is Angel Ribas. He is 25 and his wife is a member less
active. They have 2 kids with Down Syndrome. He really want to learn
more and know if the book of Mormon is true. He told us he would get
baptized November 7th if he felt like he was ready so we just have to
teach him. He believes in the book of Mormon. So he is progressing
really well. The last is Noelia Gonazles. She is 12 and her family is
a little less active. She usually comes to church by herself and is a
really good.

We have had a lot of good contacts this week too. We have found a new
investigator, Jimmy, who is very interesting. He is really looking for
the truth. He talks with a lot of pastors and doesn't know what church
is true. I think he has some problems with Joseph Smith and with the
Book of Mormon but we will convert him! We have found a lot of other
good investigators who we think will progress.

There's a lot of good things happening in our area.

That's about all for this week.

Elder Britt

Oct. 5th, Conference!

So this week was really good. We were able to watch all of the session of the general confrence and half of the priesthood session. I watched the Saturday session in spanish and the Sunday session in english. All of the session were really great and I loved each one of them. I learned a lot of each talk. I especially liked the talk from President Eyring and the talk that talked about "ponderizing" the scriptures. The thing that was weird was they would quote a scripture and I knew where almost all the scriptures were at. I could never have done that before the mission.

But we were able to work this week normally. I finally got over all of my sicknesses. We are still trying to find a lot of investigators. When we got to the area there was only 1 investigator who was 12. But now we are at about 10 investigators who we are teaching regularly.

Things are going really well here in Riberalta. Weve entered the rainy season here. At least it wont be so hot here!

Elder Britt

Sept. 28th, Dengue and Kidney Stones

So this week was a pretty boring week. My comp and I both got sick this week. On Monday we were going to leave to work after p-day and my comp told me he felt pretty sick and hurt. So we went to the hospital and they told him he had kidney stones. They told him he had to rest until Thursday. So on Tuesday I went on exchanges with my district leader so that we could go to some of our visit we had planned. But on Wednesday I stayed in the house with my comp. Thursday we went out and worked normally. We had a good activity that night and a lot of members went. We had some new investigators go. We played a game and then I shared a message about putting on the armor of God.

But that night I started feeling really sick and then went to the hospital on Friday. They did a blood exam and told me that I had dengue. Its a horrible sickness that's from mosquitoes. Pretty much I just layed in bed Friday until Sunday looking at the wall because I couldn't move. Dengue just makes your entire body hurt and you don't really want to move. My arms just felt so heavy that I couldn't lift them.  I went to church on Sunday but it was hard to be there for 3 hours with it. I'm still a little sick with it. Only my arms and chest hurt now so Ill be able to work tonight!

It was a pretty boring week to just be in the house. I really hope that we will be able to work hard this week. I had a lot of time to study though which was nice.

Elder Britt

Sept. 21st, Calor!

This week has been going really well. We have had some really good new investigators. We opened this area and there was only 1 investigator in the entire area. But this area we were able to visit with 3 new families we found and we have planned this week to visit with another 3. We can tell that there are some people we have found that will progress really well. One of them is the Justiniano family. They were really glad that we could find them and the wife told us after our second visit with them that she was really grateful we found them.

Also yesterday at church a new person came up to us and told us he wanted to get baptized. He said he met with the missionaries once a while ago and he wants us to go visit him. We are going to visit him on Tuesday and we are going to see how it goes.

But our area seems like it is just less active. When we contact street literally every other house is less actives. It seems like missionaries get here and just baptized everybody, they were active for awhile and then just became less active. The work here really is just reactivating people.

The work here is going really well. We are going to rescue some people.

Jacob 4:10 - "Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand." I found this in my person study this morning and I liked it a lot. It made me think a lot.

Elder Britt

At about 5 here people start burning their trash and leaves so everyday when we leave after dinner, its just extremely smokey.

Sept. 14th, Transferred, Opening Area, Finishing Training

So I got a crazy transfer. I'm in a city called Riber alta. THIS PLACE IS CRAZY. I love it a ton though. I've really enjoyed this place since Friday. It was really hard saying goodbye to my last area. My zone leaders told me I was going to get transferred on Tuesday and that my flight was going to leave Thursday morning. I had an entire day to say good bye to all of the people there. It was really sad and I'm going to miss them a lot. My flight took about 2 hours to go from the city to Riber Alta. Its really far from the city. This place is like a different world. There is soooo much red dirt every where. Every day when I get to the house my shoes are covered in red dirt and also my shirt is just filthy. All the elders placks out here are red from all the dirt. That's probably what going to happen to my plack. Ill send a picture of it when it gets to that point. My comp is elder Huallpa. Hes from Peru. I'm finishing the training of him. Hes already been out 1 transfer but training last for 2 so I'm doing the last transfer for him. I'm also opening an area out here. There is pretty much nothing in our area book. There is only 1 investigator and about 6 less actives in the book. There really only is one less active but another elder showed us a lot of other less actives that weren't in the area book. So far we know about 20. All we do is pretty much visit less actives but I'm going to start looking for some investigators. Oh its also SUPER HOT out here. I do not stop sweating. I also could only bring one suitcase so I had to leave some of my stuff in the city in the assistant's house. I'm pretty sure that suitcase is going to get destroyed with mold when I get back to the city. There is so much mold in Bolivia. I brought all of my crappy stuff out here to get destroyed.

So far we have been teaching a lot of less actives. That's pretty much the work out here. A lot of the people say that they will go to church and they are going no matter what but then don't come. We try and pass by all of them but they just don't go. We found one less active called Richard Heredia. He is a really good guy. We are going to get him to go out on the mission. Hes 22 and we had a really good lesson with him. We had a member come with us for that lesson and at the end of the lesson he asked if he could come with us to the lessons. He already wants to help visit other people.

We also found the Pinto family. We have already visited with them 2 times in the 3 days that I've worked here. They're very worried about their kids. They have started to have a lot of problems with the word of wisdom. We are going to visit with their kids on Saturday to help them out.

I really love it out here in Riber Alta. There's so much work to do out here and so many people to help. Its great being out here. I've only been here for a little time so we haven't done too much but we have already gotten the confidence of a lot of people. Its going to be a good transfer out here.

Elder Britt

 

Sept. 7th, Rest

So this week has been a lot of time in the house studying. I got sick on Tuesday and just rested for one day and then my comp got sick on Saturday so we have just been resting a lot. I feel pretty restless being in the house for so long but Ive just been studaying a lot. I dont know if we are going to be able to work a lot at the start of this next week. My comp is still pretty sick so we will have to see. 

I was able to go on an exchange this past week to one of my old areas with Elder Fuentes. It was so nice to see everybody from my old area. I was really happy to visit the Guzman family. We made some food with them and had a really good time. When my comp was on the exchange they found some new investigators that we are going to visit this week. He said that they were really good so Im pretty excited to visit them.

Thats about all that has happened this week. We didnt do too much due to sicknesses. 

Elder Britt

Pic 1. So our area is just like a big farm. I see sooooo many cows, pigs, and chickens everyday. 

Pic 2. That the Guzman family. I love that family. 

Pic 3. That was a HUGE spider we found in the house when we woke up one morning. It was a lot bigger than my hand. It was giant. 

Aug. 31st, Activities!

So this week was pretty good. We have been talking a lot in ward concil about doing activities so this week we had 2 good activities that we are going to be doing every week. What we are doing is a night of brotherhood. I think thats what it is in english. We pretty much just play some games at the church and then we give a spiritual thought. We had about 20 people come for the first week of doing and everybody said that they had a really good time and are going to be coming back next week. We are hoping that more people will invite their friends and we can get some new investigators through this activity. We also started teaching an english class every saturday night. There are a lot of people that want to learn english here so we started a class. Not to many people came for the first class but we are going to keep working hard to get people to go. But we really hope that with these 2 activities we can get more of the members here active and our investigators can become friends with the members here but we are going to see how they go.

This week we found two less active families in our area. The Torrico family and the Zuñaga family. The torrico family are really excited to come back to church but the problem they have is that the work all night everyday taking the feathers out of chickens. Sunday morning they are very tired from working all night so we are going to see how we can help this family. Then the Zuñaga family arent as excited to go back to church. They are very shy people and dont like talking to people. Its going to be hard to get them to go back but we are going to do our best

We did drop some of our investigators this past week. We were really sad to drop Alexander. We asked him if he still wanted us to visit with him and he told us not too much but we should come back in a month so hopefully he will be ready for us in a week. But we are visiting with 2 new families that we found these past few weeks. the gamboa family and el hermano acenciano. They have potential to progress. We havent really been able to find any investigators in our area that progress but we are really hoping these 2 families will start to progress. 

Thats about all thats been happening this week. We are going to keep contacting all the houses in our area.

Elder Britt

Aug. 24th, Contacting

So this week has been pretty rough finding people to teach. There was a few days that we couldn't get a single person and did A LOT of walking. We have dedicated a ton of time to contacting. We are dedicating about 3-5 hours a day just to contacting. Its been pretty hard to get new people to teach. We don't get a lot of referrals from the members here and so we are pretty much alone trying to find new people.

We decided that we are going to try and visit a lot of the members and recent converts. We are going to try and get them really strong so that they will be able to help us. Honestly if we find somebody new the branch isn't strong enough to keep those new people. We are just trying to make sure that all the other members are strong to retain all the other people.

We did have another good lesson with the Polanco family. They are still destroyed from what happened to there daughter. We watched a Mormon message with them about the guy who got in a car crash with a drunk driver and his wife and 2 children died. They were really able to see that when they pray they receive the help they need. Almost every time we teach, they always just end up crying very hard. They tell us a lot that we are helping them a lot. Its really nice being able to visit and help this family. 

That's about all that happened this week. We are just going to keep knocking doors trying to find new people to teach out here. 

Elder Britt 

These are some pictures of activities that we did in the past 2 weeks here. The last one in my favorite member out here. His name is Luis Miguel. He doesn't live in our area but he is a really good member. 

Aug. 17th, No Subject

So this week was really good. We have been working really hard to find new investigatores and We have been able to find a few.

This week we had a really good lesson with the Polanco family. It seems like every transfer we find somebody who is just going through an extremely hard problem. The sister told us that her daughter was studying in a city really far away from Santa Cruz and was studying music. She told us that this one boy did something really bad to her. She told us this boy raped her daughter and now she was pregnant. It was an extremely hard lesson for us to think of way we could help this woman with this problem. We felt like everything we said wouldnt be enough to help her. But as I was thinking of things we could share, a really good thought came to my head. I shared with her John 3:16. That God sent his Son to the earth, a place really far away from His home. There Christ was doing everything perfect but the people chose to beat Him, spit on Him, and in the end kill Him. Its the same thing that was happening with her and her daughter. That she was really far away from her and that this other person chose to do something really bad to her daughter. We taught her that God knows exactly what she was going through because he went through something like that. It was a really good lesson and I was so thankful for the chance that my comp and I had to help her. With that lesson we had we were able to help her have more intrest in learning about the gospel and going to church. She told us that just being there helped her out so much. It was a really good lesson. We are going to go back on Wednesday to see how she is doing. 

We are also trying really hard to help some recent converts in our area, the Sangary family. We are trying so hard to get Eduardo Sangary, the father, so stop drinking. We have seen some progress with him but we are trying really hard to help.

Thats about all this week. We are going to keep looking really hard for new investigatores. 

Elder Britt

Aug. 10th, Contacts!

So this week was really good. We pretty much have just been doing contacts this week. We have been doing hours of contacting. We havent seen to much progress but we did get a few new investigatores this week.

This week we finally set a date for the Galarsa family. We set it for september 5th. They are pretty far from being ready so we have about a month to get them ready for that date. They like learning from us and like us visiting them but they dont really want to go to church so thats what we need to focus on. But they are progressing pretty well. 

This week we were really focusing on the Sangary family. The father has a problem with drinking beer. We have been trying to do everything to get him to stop but hes still struggling with him. We are trying to pass by everyday to see how he is. Sometime his wife will tell us that hes out drinking and so we go look for him and try and take him to his house to get him to stop drinking. Its really sad to see how sad the entire family is when he drinks. We are trying to get him to stop 100%. He told us that he really wants to stop but just cant so we are trying to help him with that. 

Not too much happened this week. We are going to keep searching EVERYWHERE for new investigatores. We are trying to come up with some new methods to contact.

Love you guys, 

Elder Britt

Aug. 3rd, Funeral

So this week we had our transfers. Like I already knew my comp was going to be Elder Mell and I was going to stay in El Torno. Hes a really good guy from Arizona. He has about 8 months in the mission and we are working really hard out here in el Torno. Hes a really good guy and its really really nice to have a white guy as a companion now. We get along really well and teach together really well.

So this week we had a weird experience. So we were walking by a plaza on friday and a member told us that another member had died. It turns out this member killed himself because of a girl and was only 20 years old. So it was a really big suprise for the family and all of his friends. So this member told us that we need to go. The only people in this family who are members are the mom and his brother. When we showed up, their family was very angry. They were not happy at all the we were there. So we just kept going because we wanted to help this mom and brother. We felt like we were going to have to say something when we were walking to the last part of the funeral. We really didnt want to say anything because we werent really welcomed and pretty much everybody there was really catholic. So we tried to stay in the back and not be noticed. When we got there, the mom saw that we were there and called us up to the front. She wanted us to offer a prayer. I looked at my comp and he just told me, you got this one. So I had to offer a prayer and I felt like a did a really bad job. There was about 50-60 people there so I was pretty nervous and I felt like I did a bad job on the prayer. After the prayer we pretty much just waited for a second a left. I felt happy we were there to help the mom and his brother feel better. Later on sunday was fast and testimony meeting. She spoke and said that she was so happy that we were there to help here and said that the prayer I offered was really beautiful and helped her out a lot. Shes going through so many problems right now. I was just really glad that I could be there to help here with this problem shes having.

Sunday night we had a family home evening with her and a lot of the branch members went to help her. It was a very spiritual family home evening.

Thats really about the only thing that happened this week. It was a pretty good week and we are going to work hard this week!

Elder Britt

July 27th, !Fiesta en El Torno!

So this week we lost 2 of our investigators in Angostura this week. Guiesa, who was our really good investigator, moved to find work. She had to start working because of everything that was happening with her husband so we were also really sad to lose her. She was progressing really well and progressing and she moved. So we passed the reference to the other elders where she lives and we hope that they are going to visit her. She was pretty much ready for baptism. Our other investigator in Angostura this week passed away. It was really sad. He was extremely sick. We showed up to visit them on Saturday and we got there and realized they were having a funeral service there. We decided not to stay because there was so many family members there. 

This week we have been teaching a lot about families. There has been 2 converts that we are still working with. Last night we taught them about the Family proclamation. We pretty much just said, what goals do you have for your family? What do you want for your daughters when they are older? Do you think your family is happy? Then we just started to read it. It was a really good lesson and they realized how important the gospel is in their families.

So the last thing that happened this week was we found out or transfers already but the transfer day is on Thursday. So I'm going to stay in el torno this transfer. That means I'm going to have 7 months and a half in one area. Its crazy. Ill have over a year in the same zone. My comp is going to be elder mell. Hes a white guy who has about 6 months in the mission. I'm pretty happy that I'm going to stay!

That's about all that happened this week!

Love,

Elder Britt 

July 20th, Vacations

So this week, a lot of people were on vacations. It was pretty hard to find people to teach but we still had a decent amout of lessons and helped a lot of people.

So last night we had a really sad lesson but also a really good lesson. We had a lesson with our new investigator from Angostura. About 2 weeks ago her husband left to go to work and never came home. This week he send her a lot of bad messages and pictures and pretty much just said dont talk to me and dont look for me. He left her and her 2 daughters that are 12 and 3. She has been extremely said but told us that everything that she learned in the church and from us has really been helping her. She told us that when she gets really sad and feels like crying that she starts to pray and feels a lot better. Last night we taught her about adversities. She is progressing really well. She also told us that she is looking for work now that her husband left her and she found a job but they told her that she had to work sunday morning. She told them that she couldnt work at there because she wants to go to church. She has only gone 2 times and already loves going to church. She also asked us last night what she needs to do to be baptized. She has really likes the gospel.

This week we also taught some old investigatores, the Galarsa family. They like us teaching them and love to hear the "word of God" but they arent really that excited to come to church. We visit them about 3 times a week. We are really going to try and help them to start coming to church this next week. 

Other than that it was a pretty normal week. This week we should be visiting more people now that everybody is coming back from vacations. 

Thats about all that happened this week!

Love,

Elder Britt

July 13th, The Pope!

So this week we had a lot of things happen that made it so we couldnt work. First off, the Pope came and everybody almost died here. Almost everybody asked us if we were going to see him. He came on Thursday but we werent able to work wednesday and thursday. Then last night we were walking to a visit that we had on the other side of our area and all the lights went out. The lights were out from 7 until 9. Our zone leaders just told us to go home because it was dangerous and even if we did find somebody to teach we just would have been talking to them in darkness. But with all of the things that happened this week, we had a really good week and a lot of lessons. We found a lot of old investigatores this week and started teaching them again. Yesterday 4 of our investigatores came to church which is a ton for this area. We also had a lot of help from one member this week. His name is Hermano Domingo. In english it would be Brother Sunday. Hes a really good member here. Hes about the only person in our branch that will come with us to visit our investigatores. He is always willing to come with us, pretty much every day, 6 untill 9. He really helped us this week and we had a lot of good lessons with him.

So this week we had a few hard lessons. We had some more lessons with the Polanco family. He asked us a lot of questions this week again but I was able to answer a lot of them. Then we had another lesson with la hermana Gaisa. Shes our new investigator that lives in Angostura. Her husband recently left her. Or thats what she thinks. He was suppose to come home from work about a week ago and he didnt come home and she said that he blocked her number in his cellphone. So from all of that she thinks that he left her. It was a really hard lesson. I was just thinking the entire time what I could share with her to help her. I shared 1 nephi 18. I just thought about a confrence talk that talked about being grateful and that being grateful will help us with all of our problems that we have. I shared with her verses 15 and 16 how nephi was about to die while he was on the boat traveling here but he still praised God. I think we were able to help her a lot. She came to church the next day and looked pretty happy. 

This week went really well. This week we already have a lot of visits planned so I think this week will be good!

Elder Britt

Also I tried to start cooking this week a bit. I bought some meat and cooked it. It tasted pretty good actually. I thought you would be pretty proud. Also I started cooking pancakes for breakfast and they were really bad at first but I can cook them pretty well!.

July 6th, COLD

So this week has been extremely cold. This letter is pretty hard to type because my hands are so cold. We have had a little bit of problem with the cold. We usually go to somebodies door and then they answer and ask us, why are you guys out in the cold?? Go to your house its freezing outside! You guys can come back when its not so cold! So we have had a few people reject us because its been so cold and rainy. This week should be the same weather so hopefully it will can find a few people to teach this week.

My comp is really good. He has about 6 months in the mission but is really quite. He doesnt talk that much in the lesson or in the streets. I pretty much do all the talking in the lessons now which is alright but it was a little weird in the beginning. But the lessons we have with him are really good.

This week we had a lot of interesting lessons. We started teaching a new family this week called the Polanco family. I feel like hes really testing what I know as a missionary. He always asks me the weirdest questions and ive been able to answer almost all of them. He asks me question like, lets say im in a place where there isnt your church, should I just go to a Jehovas Witness or should I just stay at home? He always just pulls out the weirdest questions but Ive been able to answer all of them! Pretty much our lessons are we teach one simple doctrine and then he asks us about 5 random questions that kind of relate to that doctrine. We teach another doctrine and then more questions. He told us that he agrees with everything that we have taughten him but he has so many more questions for us. He told us that we would come to church this next sunday. He told us that the only thing he doesnt like about out church is that we dont have a pastor that just teaches from the bible and that the member give the messages. He thinks its a little different but can get use to it. I think he might be able to progress pretty well even though he has so many doubts. 

This week we have also been visiting a recent convert a lot. They have a lot of problems with the family and money problems. They told us that the father owes money to about 4 different banks and they are a really poor family. They also have a lot of problems in their family and they dont really get a long. It was really weird teaching them. Pretty much I just shared a lot of stories with them that Ive read from the confrences about families that have applied the gospel in their family and it has helped them a ton. The first night that they visited them, everybody was really mad with each other and pretty much everybody was fighting, especially the husband and wife. The next day we went back to visit and everybody was a lot happier and we had a really good visit. The wife in the end asked for forgiveness for everythings and they were all really happy. They told us that they would all start reading and praying together. It was a really good lesson.

Overall this week we didnt have to many lessons but I felt like we helped a lot of people this week. It was a pretty good week. 

Elder Britt