Eating Adventures and More Birthday Celebration

Second birthday - I'm people's height when sitting

  

A weird llamma store

Day of the pedestrian, no cars on the road this is a super busy street usually, its a cool holiday everyones just outside hangin out

With Elder Clark

Ate a goat brain this week

Since we have to contact a ton we have this game where i'll tell my comp a word and he has to somehow incorporate it into the contact, and then he'll do the same for me its actually pretty fun, a way to make contacting all day a little better

Were finding good people tho! found a good fam, the mom is interested, the dad is atheist lol we start the lesson and he's just like this happy old man who always looks like he's kinda smiling and he raises his hand is just like, "Why don't we talk about something else? :)" and then just smiles at me haha, (we had just gotten talking about like their whole fam and a bunch of other stuff for like 40 min so i was like ok were gonna talk about this for just a second) i think he liked the lesson tho, 

I love church on the mission, i also love members they're the freakin best

The pensionista's niece was born and they asked us to write down a bunch of American names so I just wrote like my family and a bunch of people i knew, they ended up picking Baylee, my comps girlfriend´s name

Also I love training, my comp is great and wants to work hard. I also love listening to his spanish hahaha, if you mess up a little on the conjugation it has a different meaning, like he just walks up to this dude chillin in the plaza, looks him dead in the eye and is like " ¿Creo en Dios? Do I believe in God?¨ and then the other day he was asking a kid if he had friends that were members of the church and before he said the last part the little kid just answers like uhh, yes? Do you have friends? Yes. It was great haha 

Love my comp, and the mish, and all of you

Elder Swenson

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

Read Alma 26

Comp had his b day this week which was basically mine too cause we got free cake at a church activity and then later at a church activity

We never contact tourists cause they obviously dont live here but we contacted a french girl and almost everyone says yes if you ask them if they believe in God, theyll even get like offended a little like of course i believe in God, who doesnt? and so we asked her and shes like nope and we had no idea what to say lol that never happens, and we asked her what she was reading and it was some feminist book and i was like this is a whole different mission, im used to contacting different types of people

Alma 26, super good missionary chapter

Were working hard and are maybe going to have some baptisms but like right after leave cause im out of here in 2 weeks

Not too much from this week, lots of contacting, lots of teaching,

Gar

The Dog Whisperer

Just call me the Dog Whisperer...

Sucre -- the white city

Elder Stevens bigger than me for a sec

Walkin down the street the other day and these two random dudes stopped us and invited us in their house then whipped out these little guitars and started playing and singing for us, it was interesting, then they're like "ok your turn" no idea what to do, comp pulled out his hymnbook and we dueted like champs, took pics after

Went on splits with the zone leaders, they're cool, kinda trunky cause one goes home in 3 weeks

FHE with Elvis and Blanca, the coolest ppl ever, if I could bring 10 ppl home with me after my mish they would be 2

Accidentally totally hit on this girl our age trying to contact her the other day, we were talking and were like oh what was your name? and she's like Lydia, but my comp didn't hear her so he's like "what was that? ¿Linda?" (which in spanish means beautiful or pretty) and she laughed and he realized like right after what he said and after the contact we died laughing, had to have been there, i gave him crap like her mouth said lydia but her eyes said linda (or beautiful)

Good bye

Elder Swenson