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