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

Dec 15th, No Subject

This week was an average week out here. We werent able to meet with the family Pastrana this week. If we talk to the wife, she always says, oh we are super busy, some other day and she always rejects us. If we talk to the husband, he always lets us in and loves to talk. Its really hard to talk to the husband, so thats why we could visit them. We have a visit with them tomorrow so Im looking forward to that. 

Jose Feliciano is doing really good though. He wasnt able to go to church though, he was in Montero yesterday. He is becoming really active in the ward and I think hes enjoying it a lot. He has made a lot of friends in the ward and they are always inviting him to go play soccer and things like that. Hes been progressing a lot and accepted his baptism date for the 3rd of January.

Ivan and Paula are doing really good too. Ivan went to church yesterday and told us he loved it. He told us he was still struggling leaving the coca and that he really hasnt progressed in that. We are trying to visit him everyday to make sure hes not doing that and hopefully that will help him. 

Not much has happened this week besides that. We have been doing a lot of contacting this past week. We have these cards for Él es la Dádiva and we have gotten a lot of contacts with that.

Well thats about all thats happen.

Elder Britt

Dec 8th, No Subject

This week went pretty well! We had a lot of good lessons this week with our investigators. We couldnt meet with Ivan and Paula this week. They had a lot of problems that kept getting in the way, like one of their kids had to go to the hospital and things like that. He loves reading the gospel principle book though. He pretty much read it in one week. We should be visiting him Tuesday.

We also met with the family Pastrana. Marcelo met with sister missionaries about 5 years ago and learned a lot about the church then but then they moved and lost contact with them. During that time he gained a testimony of the church and was ready for baptism. The only thing is his wife is reallllly catholic. He told us that he wont get baptized without his wife and kid getting baptized with him. It is super hard to meet with his wife though. Hopefully we can figure out what to do to help her.

Also we had a really good lesson with Jose Feliciano. He told us that he gained a testimony of Jose Smith (I dont know why they call Joseph Smith Jose Smith but then they call Joseph F. Smith, Joseph F. Smith, I dont know, its weird) and a testimony of the Book of Mormon. He said he would go to church the next day but he didnt go. We went to visit him and he said he was afraid they were going to call him and infront of everybody and he would have to talk. He did go to the Christmas Devotional last night. We couldnt stay but we took him there and had a member sit with him. I think he liked it a lot.

There is also going to be a big activity the 23rd of December. The South mission and North are going to get together in the Center of Santa Cruz in a place called Plaza Principal and we are going to sing. Its going to be a super fun time. Today we are having a multi zone activity. We are going to get together and play soccer.

Thats all that happened this week. Love you guys.

Elder Britt

Dec 1st, Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving out here is super boring. I saw a turkey so thats how I celebrated (but I see those everyday). This week was a little difficult meeting with our investigators again. Everybody was super busy.

We did have some funny lessons though. We went to visit a less active family called Portocarrero. We were going to share them a message about Christmas and invite them to share with their friends about Christ. We told them about how our message would be about Christmas. He went off for like 10 minutes about how he hates Christmas and how families just are together for that time but arent like that the rest of the year. Then my comps just like, well, we are out of time and left. It was about a 10 minute visit.  

We saw a lot of progression in Ivan and Paula. We were expecting him to come to church yesterday, but he didnt. Im pretty sure he will come next week. He loves reading the gospel principles. He reads a chapter everyday and loves learning more about the gospel. I really think going to church last week helped his testimony a lot. He started tearing up when he started talking about the hymns. Hes really progressed a lot. I think hes getting pretty close to baptism. 

This week we have been doing a lot of street contacting. We have been handing out a lot of cards that says El es la dádiva or He is the gift. I think we will get a few good investigatores doing that!

Love, 

Elder Britt 

Nov 24th, Progression.

This week was really good!

This week we were able to meet with all of our investigators and we also started teaching some old investigators again. With Ivan and Paula, we went and taught them with a member this week. The member is a convert and had problems with the word of wisdom when he was first getting taught. He shared his experiences and his testimony of the word of wisdom. I really think it helped him understand the importance of it and I think he will start living it. 

We also met with the family Pastraña two times this week. They are really intrested and are understanding all the lessons pretty well. The only thing is, the wife doesn´t really want to change being a catholic. I think with time though she will come around. She told us the we are always welcome in her home but she really believes being catholic is for her. 

Its still really hard to get out investigators to come to church though. Nobody really wants to go. Yesterday, we went over to Ivan and Paulas house to try and get them to go. He told us that he would be leaving in an hour. Church was about to start and we were waiting outside for him. Then he finally came! He really enjoyed it a lot. He told us he understood the importance of going and he would be going every week. We also had a recent convert come to church too. Those were the only people who came to church yesterday. 

I cant really think of too much else that has happened. This week we have a lot of visit with our investigators planned. We are also planning to do a noche de hogar on wednesday. Also my comp and I want to do an english class. There are a lot of people who really want to learn english here. So many people just come up to me and try and speak english. I think that it would be nice and people could bring their friends to it. I think we are going to do that later this month though. 

Love Elder Britt