Fifth Baptism!

This is Louis A. — an awesome dude.

A vehicle I can fit in!

Our District: to my left is Elder Daveys from Draper. 

Contacting in a super poor area and literally out of nowhere we stumbled upon a super nice golf course haha super random, it looked like a country club or something cause there was a nice pool by the nice club house. Also weird cause it was like abandoned, NO one was there, the club house was pretty much empty, and no one was on the course but it was in perfect condition. We finally found the caretakers house on the edge of the course, she told us we could walk the course whenever to see how it is, and to play is 50 Bs per person, ALL DAY :D so one of these p days were literally gonna golf like 50 holes, and pretty much have it to ourselves. Also gave her a pamphlet and are gonna start teaching her, maybe shell give us free golf lol

Other than that, b day party at ward mission leaders house, for his wife, got to see some nice Bolivian dance moves haha they eat, then move the tables out of the way and turn up the music, pretty fun night

Baptism! Louis Alvares, had been investigating the church for about a year, suuuper awesome guy. Way diligent in his studying, always talks to us about what he just read in the BoM, or D and C, or Liahona or whatever, he has such a strong spirit with him and is just a great guy, also has been asking us lots of questions about how the mission is cause he wants to serve! 

Staying in Sipe Sipe with my comp for another transfer :D More greatness to proceed

Elder Swenson

The Zelda Trail

First Imana explain some of the pics:

• At an eating appointment my comp just took a random pic of this Indian guy who was the dad and made it black and white and for whatever reason I thought it was funny 
• We were walking down the street and noticed this little trail in between two houses and we took the trail and it led us into like a whole new world haha a part wed never been in, lots of green and farms and the occasional house, super beautiful. and since me and my comp are very professional and educated we call it the zelda trail lol, there's no other way to describe it, so when we made appointments with people we put like "Zelda trail, white door" to remember where to come back
• Random kids on the street stopped us and asked for a pic, we don't even know them 
• Investigators had an adorable puppy so we took a million pics 
• That was a real car, not a toy car 
• Authentic NBA gear sold in the Mercado Sipe Sipe 

So we contacted a fam, and our first lesson the lady was super super nice, and was like Ill make food next time you come back, so that pic is from when we came back, only second visit and we ate and yeah were already homies, awesome fam, gave us food yesterday too. Most the zones average like 8 to 10 baptisms each month and our zone of 18 missionaries had 3 last month and 2 were ours from sipe sipe so we be puttin the team on the back tho. 

One of our investigators is this super good guy named Simon, he walked to church yesterday but on crutches cause he broke his leg pretty bad, it was a good 8 or so blocks in the mud cause it had just rained the night before. Also what was super awesome is we have a great Branch and everyone came up and introduced themselves, and talked to him, made him feel comfortable, became his friend, etc. cause it was his first time coming to church It was sweet I had stomach ameobas just 2 months ago, and found out today I have parasites now :D 

Have a good week all!

Finding Happiness!

We contacted a lady this week and got a return appointment, and she told us her name was Felicidad, so we went back when we had an appointment and of course someone else came to the door so we were forced to be like "Hey, ummm, we're looking for happiness" and he smirked and told us she lived next door (there wasn't a next door) so now we always joke that we still haven't found happiness, and we need happiness in our lives. 

Some of the natives didnt know that the card game uno was still called uno in the states, so trying to show off their English they were like, "We play one?" And we were all like what the heck, they're like "one, we play one, jugemos one" "Ohhhhhhh, it's still called uno." Pretty mind blowing.

My comp is a beast, lessons are way more chill cause he gets the investigators to do the talking

A week ago we saw this super nice house with a nice field and giant trees that covered the field in shade and we were like we need to get to know this guy, and actually as we were passing he was leaving and talked to us and just introduced himself (cause we teach his neighbor, in a much much more humble house) and he was super nice, and did it in English cause he lived in Spain for a few years and learned English so it was weird to actually speak my language for once (it was the first time I met someone who knew English) and so anyyyways this week we taught his neighbor and as we were leaving he talked to us again and was like hey I love what you guys do, God and Jesus is everything for me, I think its great you.re meeting with my neighbor, next time you.re talking with her feel free to stop by and let us treat you to something. So blessings from heaven, we saw a nice house and a week later were friends with the guy that lives there. 

Got to play trumpet!!! Super fun, went to a members house and he had his friend bring a trumpet, my comp was on guitar, and the member on drums, and played a few songs it was actually suuuper legit, sounded way good well hafta record a video or something next time we go, although since I hadn't played trumpet in forever my lips got tired in like 15 min from playing and couldn't do much after.

Taught this dude who is starting a business selling some random nutrition supplement, and he saw that I was white and from the states and just went off on how we could collaborate and spread his business to America, etc. etc. and then he asked his wife to go get a sample for us and I was terrified we were either gonna get drugged and robbed, or have diarrhea for a month, thankfully it was just the plant part, not the finished drink, or pill or whatever it is I don't even know. 

Last story, two investigators we have named Julio and the other, Wilver. Julio has been friends with missionaries for literally decades (he is our ward mission leaders cousin) but not a member, never wanted anything with the church. The other day we went to our pensionista's daughter's smoothie place and got some shakes, and he came and talked to her cause they're friends, and we ended up all talking and eventually it turned to religion and he told us about his son who had died 3 years earlier and we were able to share some good scriptures that helped him, and that talked about vicarious work for the dead, and he said he wanted to start meeting with us which is dope. Wilver, the other investigator, always comes to the church Thursday nights to play soccer, knows all the members, not a member himself, denied Elders for years, and for whatever reason he wanted to start meeting with us now.

Good week.

Chao

Elder Swenson

References are Clutch

The hanging body is what they apparently do to robbers so it's to scare them away

I sometimes say Holla to people instead of Hola cause holla is sort've a greeting in English and theres some that legit think my Spanish is that bad...

Anyways pretty good week, they're starting to go by fast now and P day is already here and Im not really sure what to write about lol.

Everyone here buys second hand American clothes and the other day this guy was proudly reppin a buttoned up Cub Scout shirt/ uniform, representing troop 159 all the way in Sipe Sipe Bolivia it was sweet.

Been here 4 months and still it does not cease to amaze me how much privacy is NOT a thing here lol, something happenned this week and after my comp was like I need the sacrament right now and I firmly agreed, I can't really go into any more detail and still be a worthy missionary sorry.

So some days we spend 2 or 3 hours knocking doors, and no one will really be home or want to talk or anything, so we don't get too much done even though were working hard, buuuut we got a reference from a family thats not even members yet, they led us to this house (cause theres not really street addresses here) and we went around back and the whoooole family was there, Grandma and Grandpa, their 4 or 5 kids, and a trillion grand kids. We were able to contact them all and introduce ourselves and get a return appointment, so in 20 minutes we did what it normally takes much longer to do, so moral of the story, references are clutch, help out the missionaries.

See y'all in 18 months 22 days (I'm not trunky just decided to figure out the time left today).

Elder Swenson