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

Jan 5th, Transfers

This week we had transfers! I stayed in the area, Carmen 3. My companion Elder Keck is in montero right now. I got a new companion and he is latino! His name is Elder Castro. Im going to be speaking only in spanish now! Its going to be really hard but Im going to learn a lot more spanish now! If I ever didnt know how to say something in spanish, I could always tell my companion in english and they would be able to help me out. I think itll be good for me though. He is from Colombia. I cant send pictures home of him this week but hopefully I can next week. 

This week has been really crazy. Because of New Years, it was really hard to find people again. People go crazy for New Years here. There were so many drunk people out and every drunk person just loves talking to missionaries. For New Years we went over to Ivan and Paolas house for a churrasco. It was really good and we had a nice talk. 

This week we also had 2 lessons with Jose Feliciano. He returned from his trip and we finally were able to meet with him. We taught him part of the plan of salvation and the word of wisdom. He told us he really liked the word of wisdom and he doesnt have any problems with it. He is preparing a lot to be baptized too. We set a date for the 24th, I think he will be able to make it. 

We have a lot planned to do this week. We are going ot try and have a lot of family home evening with people and have some lessons planned where I am going to teach the person english and then we are going to teach a lesson.

Thats about all that happened this week

Elder Britt

Dec 29th. Christmas!

This week went really well. 

On Tuesday we had a dinner with all of the Elders. It was really nice being able to talk with all of the Elders who were in Montero. They also gave us the Devotional and Él es la Dádiva as presents. 

Christmas day went really well. In the morning, all of the Elders and sister went caroling to some of our investigatores in the area. After we had a really big lunch with the family Espada. After we went and skyped with our family in the family Paravicinis house. And thats all we did Christmas day. 

We havent been able to visit a lot of our investigatores. We did meet with Ivan and Paula. He is getting a lot better with the word of wisdom and is becoming really close to baptism. We set his baptism for the 24th of January. We are going to have a Noche Blanca where everybody in the area tries to prepar their investigators to be baptized in one day. Its just going to be a really big baptism service. Hopefully Ivan, Paula, and Jose will be ready by then. 

Elder Britt

Ill send a lot of photos of Christmas next week. I forgot the thing to send pictures. 

Dec 22nd, Feliz Navidad

This week has been pretty good.

On Wednesday I got sick, again. It wasnt anything to serious but we couldnt work that day. I think I just ate some bad chicken.

Yesterday was a really good day for the mission. We all got together in the second ring of Santa Cruz and went to a park a sung. Each zone sung a different song and it was really good. We sang O Little Town of Bethlehem and Come Thou Fount. Then as a mission we sung O Holy Night. It was really fun and it was a big success. There was a really good turn out for it. Im not sure if our investigators were there but we did see a lot of people from our ward and I think our less actives went. I didnt even feel like it was Christmas until we went to that park and saw all the lights and all the Christmas activities going on. Sadly my camera died so I didnt get any good pictures of it. 

This week has been really dificult to meet with people in our area. All of our investigators are either traveling or just really busy. Jose Feliciano went some where up north and wont be returning till next week. Hes been progressing really well, we just need to get him to start coming to church. 

We really havent been able to do much work this week because of Christmas. We have had so many visits set and then they either arent there or they call us 30 minutes before and cancel. I think we will be going over to Ivans on Christmas to share a message about Christmas with his family. I also think we will be visiting a lot of members this week and ask them for refrences. Also, tomorrow we are getting together as mission and going to a buffet and eating a lot of super good foor. After, we are going to go watch the Christmas devotional in a chapel. Its going to be really fun!

Im super excited to call home this week, its going to be so great!

Thats about all this week, 

Elder Britt