Happy Birthday Elder Swenson!

So emergency transfers, I am now with Elder Clark from Lehi Utah, he's been in Bolivia 12 days, I'm training him

I'm the foster dad, coming off the bench to train

I don't even know the area cause i had been in the area for 8 days when my comp left, i barrrrely know where our house is, and where our pensionista's house is

We have 2 investigators, one is an eternal investigator and the other is out of town for like a month, we gonna contact a ton

I don't want to complain about the area again but its a little hard, its ok tho were gonna crush it

Baptismal interviews are super fun

So i forgot to mention last week i was in the hospital staying the night with another elder so his comp could go home and rest, so i didn't go to church, and this week was stake conference (plus i was sick too we didn't even go to that) so now when we go to church this sunday it'll be 2 new elders, 2 whiteys haha, i don't even know the bishop or ward mission leader etc.

Thats all folks, wish me a happy birthday :)

Elder G

Transfers!

I'm in Quillacollo, central, the main plaza is my area, with Elder Sierra from Lima Peru

We hikin El Tunari next p day for my birthday :D

Went from Uyuni to Sucre, from 10 PM to 4:30 AM so i didn't really sleep that night, then flew here and got here Tuesday

But wait there's more 

There was a MASSIVE party for the virgin de urkupiña in my area, so i was in another area in Cocha for 2 days in a trio, being in a trio sucks

My area has 2 investigators, is very small, and all of the doors have been knocked a good couple of times, i don't want to complain but it will be a challenge again

Cool members tho, pensionista has a trumpet so i always throw down on that, and im teaching them how to play 

Other members give us free sillpancho like literally 5 nights a week

Another member is a dentist and gave me a free check up, she's going to fix my permanent retainer that broke, for free

Also set a record on Thursday, 4 strangers asked me for a pic with them cause im tall and here in bolivia im real freakishly tall

Great area to live in, kinda hard area to be a missionary in but its all good, I will send pics in a sec, love you all

Gar

The Perfect Investigator

Eating ice cream!

Early birthday cake smash

It was the great dust bowl with ridiculous winds for like 2 days so here's my hair after one of the days

Transfer! I'm a District Leader in Quillacollo, with Elder Siera from Peru. Quillacollo is in my old zone so i already know the area. Time to knock more doors :D

Since the members in Uyuni are the absolute best they had my birthday party a little early, and combined it for a farewell party. Im going to miss them a ton, its super sad leaving, especially from here cause its so far away and i wont be able to visit, thats the hardest part about a mission is leaving the area

Aight so imana tell yall about the best investigator I have ever met on the mish, she will be another one i'll miss a ton. Her name is Gabriela, we found her by accident, looking for her sister, we knock on the door and were like oh were missionaries blah blah blah looking for this person and she's like oh she's not here, but come in! She had a ton of questions about the bible, we helped her with those, and then we gave her a lesson one pamphlet, and in the back theres additional study, with questions and scriptures, and space to write answers, we came the next day and she had it perfectly filled out, after reading all the scriptures. She's like here check my answers idk if they're right, and were just like dang woman you are a saint, no one even reads the pamphlets. So we gave her a BoM, with a paper "questions of the soul" with 20 common questions about God/Jesus, and a chapter of the BoM that answers it, just so she could have it for reference, and we were joking around like watch her answer all these questions too, and she did it! in 2 days she read 13 of them and answered them on a separate piece of paper, and then proceeded to recite some of the stories perfectly, and also when we teach she takes like a page of notes and writes all the scriptures we share, she is amazing, so glad i got go meet her, she is an escojida, ill send pics when my comp baptizes her. Its such a breath of fresh air, we talk to people all day and the majority dontj really care too much, then we find her and holy cow she's teaching me more than i'm teaching her, i'll send a pic she's super awesome

So anyway yeah, i'll write yall from area number 3 of 5 next week

Chao

Keep on Keepin' on

Finally got a care package of copies of the book of mormon, we have 3 awesome investigators we needed to give them too and had to wait which sucked

Stars

Parade on independence day

This boy thinks he can take me down

Hai

I'm out of Uyuni in a week and actually pretty sad cause there's some awesome people ill miss and it's so far away I wont be able to come back and visit in the mish

Since I don't really have any cool stories I'll just start writing more about some of our investigators

Contacted a cool guy this week on his doorstep, we were talking to him and he told us about the deaths of some loved ones and so again we were like would you like to know where they are?/what they're doing? and he leaves his house, gets in his car, and tells us to get in, so we taught plan of salvation, he was super interested, tons of questions, we'll visit him again this week, I'll probably only have one more with him, his names Raul

Another super cool fam we visited them for the first time and they were super nice and friendly, after like 2 min with the dad and you feel like you're best friends, awesome guy, also interested with a ton of questions, and kept telling us how they respected us as missionaries and would love to be in our shoes, meeting people and sharing the gospel, so that was cool, Jose and Amanda, 2 more cool people

It's sometimes brutal but it's good to be a missionary

Yesterday was independance day in Bolivia, they did parades for seriously almost 2 days straight it was crazy they party hard

So I lost my bible and I was asking my pensionista where i could get one and how much it would be to buy one and she's like here, she gets up and brings me a bible and gives it to me and she's like this is my sister's bible, the one that passed away, take good care of it, and when you're back in the states send me a pic of you and the bible and i was like wow, maybe its a good thing i lost my bible now i have one with meaning, it was sweet

Also my comp is awesome, and so is obedience, we've been following the rules almost completely perfectly and its been a noticeable difference, they aren't there to make us suffer but to help us, I've been more prepared, less trunky, working harder, having more fun, and feeling better about the mish. We're 2 white people in a hard area, and a place where some people don't like Americans but we're doing very well, I wont have a baptism before I leave but my comp will probably baptise some people we found, so obedience, the comp, and Uyuni have been good, learned a lot, and now were professionals at knocking doors and contacting

Adios

Elder Swenson