June 20th, Last P-day

Well this is going to be my last email as a missionary. It's been a good week for us. There was a few problems in the baptisms we were going to have this past week but they will still be getting baptized with my comp and his future companion. Pretty much the ward just wants me to go and visit them and stay the whole day with them eating food. They are a very loving ward. It makes me sad to leave them. 

But I am so grateful for this time that I have had to be in Bolivia to be a missionary and to help all of these people. I'm excited to go back and be with all of my family and friends again but I'm honestly sad to leave behind the missionary life and to leave behind all of the people that I knew here. But everything that has happened to me in these past 2 years has helped me to be a better person. More than anything I have felt that I have come closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. I have loved being able to teach all of these people here, even if they didn't accept the messages I shared with them. 

I will have today and tomorrow to keep working and then I'll be going to the offices and just be hanging out there waiting until I go home. Not sure what I'm going to do until that day.

But that's about all for this week.

Elder Britt

Like always, the computer doesn't work to send pictures. I'll be sure to send you guys some for next Monday. 

June 13th, No Subject

So this week was a great week for us. One of the 2 marriages and baptisms fell through. I didn't feel like they were as prepared as they should be and so we moved the date to the middle of July. Hopefully with a little bit more time the Almeida family can be a little more prepared. 

But Luis and Lizet are still going strong for their marriage and baptism. They want to have a big party for their marriage but the thing is is that they don't really have the money to do it. They said they would try and get some money and have a party but if not the members will do something small for them. 

Other than that we are just going to keep working like normal. This will be my last week of full work which for me is crazy to think about. But we are just going to visit people normally and we are going to keep looking for new people to teach.

But not too much has happened. 

Elder Britt

Like always this computer can't send pictures so I'll send some next week. 

June 6th, 2 Marriages

So this week was really good for us. More than anything there was three big things that happened with our investigators this week.

First, Luis and Lizet are still really excited about their marriage and their baptism. They are going to be married on the June 17th and baptized June 18th. It was supposed to be this week be they didn't get money that they were waiting for so they had to do it for that date. But Lizet was so worried about it that she decided to fast so that everything would be alright. They are going to do it no matter what.

Second, is with the Almeida family. They are also trying to get married for June 18th and baptized the same day. But they don't really have the money to pay for it. They had a baby that was born a few weeks ago and have had to pay a lot for that. So they talked about it in ward council and the ward decided that we are going to do a service for them to get the money. We are going to make something that's called cuñape and sell them and all the money that we get is going to be for the marriage. So hopefully this Saturday we will have all the money we need and they will be able to get married next week and baptized.

Third, we found an investigator a few weeks ago that we have been teaching a bit and he has been reading a lot of the Book of Mormon. He read in 1 Nephi 14 about that there are only 2 churches. The church of Christ and the church of the devil. He said that he went to the catholic church because one of his family members died and he said he felt really weird and did not like being there at all. He couldn't go to church yesterday but he said that he is going to go to church next week no matter what to see how he feels there.

There's a lot of good stuff going on in our area. We have a lot of work to do.

Elder Britt

We've been also finding a lot of nice parrots in our area. It was biting my button on my shirt and felt really weird.

Also we found a cool souvenir in Trinidad. 

May 30th, No Subject

This week was pretty good for us. We had a lot of weird stuff happen and some funny stories. I guess I'll start off with the funny story. So we were contacting looking for some less actives that the ward wanted us to find and we found this guy who let us into his house. He told us a lot of weird things but I think one of the weirdest things he told us was that Joseph Smith didn't die and is alive in a castle in France. I told him how he died and he was like, well we know that Christ died because that happened 2,000 years ago but we don't know that Joseph Smith died because that only happened 200 years ago. That's usually how visits go when we find people contacting. I thought it was funny because he was trying the entire time to convince us that. 

But the good things that happened was we had a great activity in the ward that we planned called Calle 7. It's a game show here like wipeout but just a little poorer. But there was a ton of people there. There was more people there than there is at church on Sunday. We just did small games like tug of war, 3 legged races, and the water balloon tosses. But it was good because we had some investigators go that we have been trying to help go to church on Sundays. Normally if they go to activity during the week, it's more likely that they go to church on Sunday. But it was really rough controlling all of the little kids. There was a few times that ALL the kids were chasing me because I had a bag of suckers. They were impossible to control but in the end everybody had a good time. 

Right now we are planning a marriage which is going really well. They both are very excited for their marriage and for their baptism. The people in our area are progressing pretty well.

But that's about all for this week,

Elder Britt

May 23rd, No Subject

This week was a good week for us. We had a great zone conference with President Zambrano. There were a lot of missionaries there who are finishing soon so he pretty much focused a lot on working until the end of your mission. It was a great conference.

The investigators that we have right now are progressing really well. There are a few who are really excited to get married and baptized. There are we few that we have to encourage still. But we are doing what we can to help them

This week I had a good experience teaching family history. The lady we were teaching was so happy to hear that her dad will be able to accept the gospel on the other side. She said that she could never say goodbye to her father and she felt like this is something that will help her out a lot.

Something funny that happened this week. We were in the house last night planning an activity we are going to do this Saturday and a huge bat flew in the house and all the missionaries in my house started screaming. An elder grabbed a bat and took it out. 

But that's about all this week. We have a cool activity on Thursday which im looking forward to.

That's about all this week,

Elder Britt

These are all of the pictures I've been wanting to send. I don't have time to explain all of them though....

May 16th, No Subject

This week was full of a lot of good stuff. We have been working with all of the people that are preparing to be baptized this transfer. We have been working a lot with Lizet and Luis trying to get them ready for their marriage on June 10th and their baptism June 11th. They are both really excited for the marriage and its going to happen for sure now. It took a long time to get them excited for it but it looks like they are going to do it. 

Also this week we had a really great activity. A lot of members went and even a few investigators. There is a lady from Japan in our ward that the other elders are teaching. They put together an activity to teach the members about Japan's culture and their food. They told us that the unicycle is a huge sport over there and their son is a national champion that did a 54 kilometer race on a unicycle in like 1 hour and 10 minutes which was crazy. The kid did a cool demonstration. They even brought like 10 unicycles and all the members were trying to ride it. It was a great activity because all of the members and investigators were mixing together really well. 

But everything is going good in our area. We still having a lot of good lessons with our investigators and the members are helping us out a ton in our area. What we are doing in our zone is we made new limits in our area and we are working in an area where we can walk 15 minutes to get from one side of our area to the other side. It's nice because it cuts down on walking time and we can talk to more people. The only time we leave is if we have an important visit. The area we made is where the majority of members are. Our goal is to try and contact that area this transfer. 

But that's about all this week. 

Elder Britt

I have a ton of good pictures but every computer that I use doesn't work. I'll try and send them next week.

May 9th, Last Transfer

So this is the week of transfers and I will be starting my last
transfer. I don't know if ill be staying here in Trinidad or if I'm
going but Id say there's a 90% chance I stay here in this area.

The people that are progressing the best in our area is the Almeida
family. They are progressing really well and will most likely make it
to there new baptism date which in June 11th. They have a few doubts
and have think a few things but we are going to visit them with the
bishop to try and help the understand everything and be ready for
their baptism.

This week we will be trying to visit a lot of members and trying to
get references and hopefully get some new investigators that are good.
Its pretty hard finding good investigators in our area. Knocking doors
doesn't really work because the majority of the people let us in
because they like hearing the "word of God" but then never progress.
We are trying different things to find prepared investigators.

I really liked this message from Elder Craig A. Cardon, "Our Heavenly
Father knows what we are facing, that we all sin and “come short of
the glory of God” again and again. He sent His Son, who “knoweth the
weakness of man and how to succor them who are tempted.” His Son
teaches us to “pray always that [we] enter not into temptation.” We
are told to “cry unto [God] for mercy; for he is mighty to save.” The
Savior commands us to repent and to forgive. And although repentance
is not easy, as we strive with all our hearts to obey His gospel, He
gives this promise: “Verily I say unto you, notwithstanding [your]
sins, my bowels are filled with compassion towards [you]. I will not
utterly cast [you] off; and in the day of wrath I will remember
mercy.” The Savior wants to forgive."

That's about it for this week,
Elder Britt

I had some good pictures this week but this computer is messed up. Ill
have to send them next week.