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

July 29th. Best Pday

Today will probaby be my favorite day of the MTC, we went to the temple in the morning, after I finish my email I'm going to play volleybally for 3 hours, then finish out by watching a devotional. 

Not much has happened since the in the last four days since I have written, since i have been here for 2 weeks they changed my room and are puting my with latinos so I speak spanish more. So today we spent an hour changing rooms this morning. All the latinos stay for 2 weeks and then go to their mission since they all know spanish already. So they came around to everybodys room saying goodbye. A few of them were taking ties from rooms, it was pretty funny but they didnt get any of my ties. All the new latinos will be getting here tonight, so Im not sure who my new roomates are. There will be 4 north americans and two latinos. Im really good friends with the 3 other elders in my rooms so itll be a good time. 

Sundays are my favorite day here, I call it english sunday because non of the teachers come into work because its sunday, so we just sit around and watch devotionals from 130 till about 830. At 8:30 the President of the MTC gives us a super indepth lesson on the MTC, its mind blowing. 

Last night we decided to do some studying outside, this lady came up and started talking to us through the gate. Im not sure what she was saying at all, I think she was homeless and wanted some help. I only understood about 3 words, I still have a lot more to learn. 

Thats about the only thing that has happened in the past four days. My next Pday is in 10 days so hopefully Ill have more to tell. Ive been having a really good time. Time has been going super fast already, its going to start going even faster when I get to Bolivia.

Love Elder Britt

oh and this city is crazy, on the way to the temple I saw a guy pooping on the side walk, people are weird here. Oh and I also got sick this past week, it was just a little cold, but disease spreads through here like crazy. I was sick for about four days, it wasnt bad at all. 

The first picture is an elder who I am really good friends with. My companion is the one who is at the temple with me.

Group Picture!

July 25th. First Pday :D

Email to Jessica:
Ive been having a really good time here. I havent been homesick at all, I dont even have time for it. All my times is just going to learning spanish. I have made some pretty good friends here. My first companion is Elder Teahan, we get along really well and he is a good first companion. He is from up north, I think draper. All of my spanish classes are going really well. I can already have conversations with the native Elders. They are really funny when we sing hymns, they will just sing as loudly as they can and tehy dont really care if they are in tune or not. The food here is actually really good. I have no clue what I am eating half of the time but it is pretty good. My favorite is a fruit called grenadine, Im not really sure how to spell it but it looks like fish eggs and its really slimey. They call it the fruit from the tree of life.
On wednesday we went to the temple and I struggled, luckily I had headphones for about half of the time but when we went to a new room they didnt work anymore. So I had no clue what was going on and I was just trying to remember what they were saying from first time I went. When I went to the veil part of the temple I had no clue what the temple worker was saying. I would just make a sound that sounded like what he said and they said it was fine. I wasn't even saying any words. But I made it through that.
So wednesday night, we were having a good time and just messing around and there was this elder who was trying to jump onto the top bunk. He has done it a couple times before and cracked it so instead of letting him do that again. I just pushed him and he grabbed the post to the bed and ripped the post out of the frame. So at around midnight, everybody in our room was trying to put this bed back together was we could all go to sleep, it was really funny. Oh and I am sleeping under the bed that that top bunk, so i might die. Just kidding, it is in there pretty well.
Another story story, on July 20th, I think, it was Columbias independence day. All the elders were eating lunch and it sounded like a bomb went of and the whole MTC was shaking, I was terrified. All the lations just start laughing and saying, look at all the North Americans, like it was just a normal thing for them. What they later told me was that it was a jet flying by for it. That jet must have been flying extremeley low to the ground.
The days here have been pretty much all exactly the same and I just want to be in bolivia already. They started out extremely slow but now they are flying by but they are all bluring together. Everyday is pretty much the same, wake up, breakfast, spanish class, lunch, spanish class, a little bit of volleyball, more spanish, dinner, and then finish out the day with spanish. It can be pretty tough at times but I'm still happy. I don't have that many stories right now because I'm pretty much in class nonstop, but hopefully when I leave I will have more to tell. Love you, bye.

July 17th. Elder Britt Has Arrived

Email to Jessica:
 I am in columbia.I have 5 minutes to email. My flight from new york was supposed to be 4 hours and it was 10 hours. We circled in the air for 3 hours when we got there and then we ran out of fuel and so we flew to Pitsburg to refuel. Once we got there we waited an hour and then flew back to New York. Then we spent the night in new york cause we missed our flight. When we got our flights all the elders were on one flight and I had to fly by myself to Columbia. Luckily I made it safely. Gotta go to spanish class. Love you. bye. Hopefully i will be able to email you more. my journey took a total of 36 hours instead of just 12. I miss you, just saying, but its so awesome here. I am really looking forward to the next two years.