Two more baptisms!

Folding up pretzel style to travel in the trufis 

Killin' it with the new comp, the funniest person ever — holy cow. His jokes are funny and then he tells them in his broken English which makes it even funnier. Also he is very relaxed and we're having a good time, which makes it easier to work harder, he also serenades me every night with his guitar.

They completely changed the Missionary schedule! Well not really but pretty much P Days are longer now  Also we get to pick when we do our studying, instead of studying 3 hrs straight and working 9 hrs straight, we can come back whenever and take a break to study, so now pretty much we do our studying when it's a million degrees during the day and no ones home anyway, also only 4 key indicators now as opposed to the 9.

Did a FHE sort've thing and my comp and a member jammed out, and we found out the member has a friend who has 2 trumpets! :D So next time I will be able to join, and play a trumpet for the first time in 5 months. 

Shrek was on at an investigators house and I was a criminal and watched for a bit and realized how great of a movie it is, you should all go watch Shrek for me because I can't.

Stake conference was yesterday, and one of the speakers had all the missionaries stand up and then he told us how thankful he was and how we'll be blessed and all these things, etc. and that was super awesome, it helped a lot. The cool members/investigators/friends from the mission make it all worth it by far.

Our investigators are:

Noemi: super, super nice and friendly, mom was a member, only issue is active in the Catholic church

Luis: baptismal date for his birthday in February, super cool guy, even came to Stake Conference this Sunday which is like a 30 min drive

Beatriz: awesome investigator, had all the lessons, wants to be baptised but needs to be married first

Jennifer: Aunt and Uncle and cousins are members, have been teaching her and will invite her to baptism some day

Aaand yeah I will let the pics do the rest of the talking, have a good week all!

A note from Mom's letter: The most meaningful thing of being in Bolivia is meeting all the awesome people, there are some great members who know how to have fun and be happy despite having much in terms of money, and my thoughts change a lot haha theres lots of ups and downs in missions, some days its hard and you wonder why you’re there and yeah but then something good happens you meet with a good investigator or member or something and it makes it all the better, like we had a family night and my comp played guitar and a member played drums and we found out after his friend has two trumpets!! So I will be able to join in next time which is sweet.

Faith like Nephi

New companion Elder Araya from Chile

The lovely Payacollo area

My new comp is super awesome, we're very similar despite being a little different physically lol and growing up in separate continents. He's super cleanly so we deep cleaned everything and have kept it that way and it's honestly the best, also super rich so buys good food, can play the guitar suuuper well and knows like every song so I have been enjoying lots of music. Also really relaxed and chill but works hard, and hilarious, so yeah life's good. 

Not a whole lot this week, we had a baptism, I will send pics next week, I only have my comps camera today. 

We're reading the book of mormon with some investigators, two 11 and 12 year old girls. We split up and talk about what they read. We read about Nephi when he built the ship and I told her how we can learn from Nephi's example about having faith, etc. and then at the end IDK why I was like pardon my Spanish and she was like it's ok, you're learning a lot. You just need to have faith like Nephi and the Lord will help you, and I was like ahh ye, taught her so good she taught me :)

I sent a pic of my comp and the kid we baptized, the kid bought a cool new hat the other day, he has no Idea what it means haha.

Also the pic of a llama is like Bolivia in one picture, farm land and a llama, just needs a Cholita 

Aaand thats pretty much it, have a good week all!

Love Elder G

New Companion

Elder Arya from Chile

The Payacolla Area

It was a crazy week this week because it was my comp's last week. Super trunky being in the mission home with him and all the other people going home, talking about what they're gonna do when they get home. 

Although it was a little sad his last day of work which was Friday, saying goodbye to everyone and walking the dirt roads of Sipe Sipe, knowing it was his last few hours of missionary work. 

Thankfully he didn't get too trunky and we still worked, we tracted in Payacollo which is in our area but we never went to, it was super fun because everything was new and uncontacted. Sipe Sipe was getting a little boring, also Payacollo is more farm so it's a better view, I am gonna leave no work to do in Payacollo for the next elders.

Took dope pics this week in Payacollo, Parotani, Alvaroa, and from a hill in Sipe Sipe, the pics in the email are from Payacollo, next week I'll send the others.

Been chillin' with another gringo, Elder Hancock because both our comps are going home and their last days were Friday and we technically don't get our new comps till tomorrow, nice to speak some English with him.

My new comp trained my friend from the MTC from my group, super chill guy, Chilean, way short, forgot his name haha.

Anyways that was the week, I'll have a cooler email next week lol, have a good week all!

Shihtzu Stare Down and Good-bye Elder Rivera!

Switching coats—no one will notice!

Temple :D Our district

​When you spend your hat money on a pizza instead

It's my comps last P day—he's super trunky and it's contagious, but it's all good I will see ya'll in less than 20 months.

We went to his ex pensionista and ate with her and her fam, the coolest people ever no joke, super nice and funny, they speak clearly so I can understand, and one of their kids should be a stand up comedian he's hilarious lol, also she told me the mission goes by fast which it's definitely speeding up a little at this point.

Houses are short here so I can almost like see on some of the roofs, and there are dogs everywhere, including on the roofs, so I had a pretty epic stare down with an 8 lb shih tzu this week cause we were eye level.

Some people are literally professional talkers, they do not shut up, so if we ever need to take a break we can just schedule an appointment with them and chill for an hour haha, and they will no joke talk the whole entire time I don't know how it's possible, just ask one question to get them started and it's over.

We went to the temple this week, super awesome, made me feel like I was at home (In two different ways).

Family night with the Sisters in Vinto, wasn't paying super good attention and I knew that we were gonna eat so when they asked me to pray to start the lesson for family night I thought it was for food so yeah...

A random barber in a barber shop asked for a picture with me on his phone, he came up to about my plaque which is a strong 150 centimeters in height.

That's pretty much it, we'll do cooler stuff next week for a better email lol, have a good week all!

Elder G

Here's looking to 2017 — Unique ways to get investigators

So the Plaza Sipe Sipe has 2 hamburger stands that sell at night, on two different corners, an orange and a purple one. I ate the orange one, completely fine and digested it like a boss so I got some confidence and the next time we went back he was busy so we tried the purple hamburger shack, and there's a reason she doesn't have any customers haha. It was comin' out both ends in the middle of the night :D 

Lol other than that, pretty chill week, now that New Years is over it's kinda boring cause not really any holiday or anything to look forward too, (Other than P day of course) 

New Year's was sweet though, they go crazy here, bars on every block full of people. It's hilarious — we contacted so many drunk people, well they contact us actually. We'll walk down the road and a drunk guy will stumble out of the bar and then inevitably notice me cause I stick out here, and then run over and like measure himself on my arm and then say some random quechua or Spanish something and by that point 7 other dudes stumble over and then yeah, we have tons of appointments now lol it'll be nice to see if they're so enthusiastic when they're sober. 

On New Year's Eve we went to a Ward Christmas party in Vinto with the sisters cause after they wanted us to bless their house and them. Sort've lame cause no one danced, and missionaries can't dance so it was awkward, we went to one here in Sipe Sipe and a tonnn of people showed up and actually danced, it's awesome a lot of investigators came, and they brought their friends, and their friends friends who don't even know what a Mormon is, and just had a good time. Anyway after the party we blessed the house and then went to our house, ate 12 grapes at midnight and slept.

Aaaaan thats pretty much it, have a good week all!

Gar