Feb 23rd, More Elders!

On Wednesday we recieved more elders in el torno. Our area is sooo big. You can take a bus for 1 hour and 30 minutes and still be in our area. They are going to help us out soo much! Now we have only half of the area we had before. 

Yesterday we had a really cool experience. Yesterday at about 4 the assistants (I cant remember how to spell that anymore) and they told us that we need to call president. We called him and he told us he wanted to come with us to all of our visit from 4 until 6. It was a really awesome. He helped us out A LOT. We have a lot of people that have had some really big problems and he was able to help them out a lot. We visited one person who was really sad because she was ready to be baptized but she legally has 2 husband and cant divorce her other husband because she doesnt have money. He was able to help her out so much, it was really cool. We also visited a recent convert that recent found out she had cancer. She has been really depressed and he was able to help her out a lot. I learned a lot from yesterday.

That was about all that happened this week though. We were stuck in the house until wednesday. I was able to read all of the book of mormon in spanish in 3 days though. It was a good experience. I also grew an awesome mustache during those 3 days. We also made tacos. When we were buying food I just thought, how would my mom make them and bought some stuff and made it. They tasted really good and Im surprised I didnt get sick.

Elder Britt

Also that is a picture of our chapel. Its really small. Its just a room on the second floor of a building. 35 people went to church yesterday and in priesthood it was 4 elders and 4 members. We have a lot of work to do here. Also thats the clock in the church. Its a picture of a Nicolas Cage movie. I thought it was really funny.

Also the picture of the mountain the the background is Angostura. Its about 40 minutes from our house but its really beautiful there.

Feb 14th, Cambios and Carnaval!

These week I got transfered!

Right now Im serving in El Torno, or Al Torno, Im not sure which one it is. Im still in the same zone of la guardia. Im serving with Elder Gonzalez. He was in the same district before. This cambio he finished his training so Im his second companion in the field. He only has 3 months out here. He is from Santiago, Chile. Hes really cool and Im going to spend the next 4 days with him stuck in the house so we are going to get to know each other really well. El torno is a really cool zone. Im in the area that is the closest to cochabamba. Theres actually mountains there which I like a lot. Its a really cool area. Starting out in a new area is really hard though. Every person is so sad when they see me. They all say, I miss elder olson so much. Its rought sometimes. 

Also we basically arent going to work at all this week. It is carnaval and everybody is going to be drunk and throwing paint at each other. We arent allow to leave to do anything. We arent even allowed to go to church tomorrow. We have to read all of the book of mormon so that going to be fun.

This zone, a lot of people are really close to baptism but they have other problems. One of them is Dayana. Shes 15 but she doesnt have permission to be batpized. Her father wont let her but her mother is completely fine with it. Hopefully Ill be able to help them out. Also is another joven, I cant remember a good word for that, young man or teenager that is 16 years old. He says he wants to get baptized but just wants to know more. Hes a really good investigator. We also have another recent convert that we are going to need to help a lot. We visited them last night and the father was drunk. It was really sad. Their marriage is pretty close to divorce. I still dont know the area and all the people yet. Im going to start learning a lot more Wednesday when we can work. 

Thats was about all that happened this week though. It was a pretty big week and a big change. But the favorite thing about my house in El Torno is that we actually have air conditioning. I havent felt an air conditioned room in 7 months. It is soooo nice. It really expensive to use so we only use it for 1 hour at night after we plan for the next day. It is so nice. Also, the person who makes us lunch and dinner cooks really well. She made us crepes last night.

Elder Britt

Also yesterday I was stung in the neck by a wasp. I called Sister Zambrano and she told me I had to go to the hospital so that was fun. 

Feb 9th, No Subject

This week we had a really cool experience with Silvio.

He hasnt been able to work for a long time because he crashed on his moto and cant work. Money has been really hard for him and hasnt had a lot. He had a debt with a bank and he decided to pay it. The only thing is, he didnt have enough money to buy food after that. When he got back to his house after paying the bank he and his wife decided to pray for help. 30 minutes later he recieved a call from his friend telling him that he had some money to give him because he lended him some money a long time back. He had completely forgotten about it. The Lord really answered his prayer. He was able to get the money from his friend and have money to buy food for his family. He has been progressing a lot and is almost ready for baptism. 

That was a really good experience for us.

Thats about all I have to share this week.

Elder Britt

Also this week I learned how to make empanadas. It was really fun. Also I showed up to a house and that guy told me, I really like your tie, want to trade. So I traded ties with him, it was really funny. 

Feb 2nd, No Subject

This week a lot of things happened.

Right now Im pretty much in a trio. An Elder finished his mission 2 weeks before tranfers so his companion has been coming with us for the past week. I like having only 2 people in companionships. Lessons are really complicated with 3 elders. 

This week we saw a lot of progress with silvio. He has been doing really good with the word of wisdom. We gave him a blessing about 2 weeks ago and he said ever since that blessing he hasnt had any desire to smoke. He is doing really well. He even went to church yesterday. He told us he wasnt going to be able to but he showed up. Right now, we are teaching him out of a book of 12 steps to quit addictive substances. He has been doing really well with it. 

This week we also have had a lot of support with the members in our area. We have had a lot of young men coming with us for visits all day. The days that we have somebody with us, we had like 6 visit. When we dont have somebody with us we usually have about 2 or 3. For some reason when we have somebody with us, the work is a lot easier.

This week we also found 2 new people to visit. One is a menos activo. Her name is Gabriela. She became less active because of the things her friends were saying about the temples. She still has a testimony which is good. I think she will become active again really quickly. We also found a woman named Elsa. Shes about 60 and lives with her family. We are trying to meet with her whole family. We have a visit to meet with all of them Tuesday. Elsa has made a lot of progress in the 1 week that we have been visiting her.

Thats about all that happened this week. 

Elder Britt

The food is called an arepa. Its just flour, cheese, water, and salt. And then you fry it. My comp taught me how to make it.

We also had a noche de hogar this past week with el torno. That family is really cool.

Also some elder from our area had a baptism saturday. Im pretty good friends with their investigator. Hes a cool guy. 

Jan 26th, No Subject

Hey everyone!

This week we had a lot of good things happen and some bad things. The bad thing that happened was that our baptism for Silvio fell through

We went to visit silvio ochoas house to visit him and prepare him more for his baptism. When we went there to visit him, all of his family was there, even his wife. We have never had a visit with the wife before. Usually if the wife is home, she will reject us. I dont know what happened this time, but she let us in and we talked for a bit. That day she asked us if we were allowed to drink Coca Cola. She thought it was against the word of wisdom. So we decided to teach the word of wisdom to all of his family. We had taught the word of wisdom before to Silvio, he told us that he didnt have any problem with it. This time when we taught it, he told us he had a problem with smoking. That lesson was a little bit sad but also a miracle. Now we are able to teach his whole family and they can progress as a family.

We also met with Jose Feliciano a little bit. Its really hard to meet with him. He always cancels our visits with him. We were able to visit with him and talk about his desires about learning the gospel. He still wants to continue 

I dont remember if I have told you guys. But our area doubled in size a few weeks ago. We have been really busy trying to meet with our new investigators, less acitves, and recent converts. We are going to be going with a member wednesday to show us the area.

This week should be really busy!

Love 

Elder Britt

Jan 19th, No Subject

This week was really good and went by super fast.

We have had a lot of progress with Silvio Ochoa these past 2 weeks. Ever since we asked him to play us some songs on his guitar hes been a lot more open. I think he really likes sharing his talent with us. Almost every time we visit him now, he plays a song for us. He went to stake confrence yesterday and loved it a lot. Our mission president and a general authority talked. It was a really good meeting and Im super glad he went to it. We are going to try and have his baptism this week, the 24 of January. Hopefully nothing will happen to stop his baptism. 

Also this week we had a Noche de hogar with the family Negrete. Jose Feliciano went to it too. We watched the video about John Tanner and talked about how we have to make sacrificies. It was a really good lessons. I think he liked it a lot. We just have a really big problem where he doesnt want to go to church. Hes really good friends with all the young men and young single adults in the ward. He is always at the church during the week playing soccer. But when its sunday he isnt there. We are going to have to drag him to church one day. 

Thats all that happened this week. Hopefully we can get Silvio ready for Saturday!

Elder Britt

The little kid is the son of the familia guzman. He loves playing in dirt.

With the last picture, we were over at a members house and they kept on telling me, "get on it! get on it!" so I just gave up and got on the horse. They loved it. 

Jan 12th, No Subject

This week was really good. We had some really good lessons with out investigators. We were meeting with one, his name is Silverio ochoa. He has progressed a ton. He decided to read a random chapter in the book of mormon in 2 nefi 32. It read everything that we had planned to talk about. He also told us that he thought he had to quit his job because he worked with music. Some churches here believe that you cant dance or play music and he thought our church was one of them. He was willing to quit his job and find a new one. Hes been progressing a lot.

I dont have a lot of time to finish this email but I sent a lot pictures!

Elder Britt