Day 339 Happy Halloween

First off, we got a letter from his companion's family this week. They live in the Canary Islands and in the letter they talked about the pictures and videos that they have seen of Brad. We continue to get nothing. So I had to rub that in a little. He asked for memories this week and apparently we all have the same ones. But the Timmy the tooth one is hilarious. We had a video when the kids were little and it was about this tooth that was animated. Anyways, the kids loved it. It was one of those videos that got played over and over and over. Well, I happened to have a pair of white sweats and so Brad puts them on and pulls them up over his shoulders and sings the song. So that is that memory. The Arthur memory is a funny childhood one also. Whenever we heard this made up song that went "I love Arthur, I love Arthur" We knew that Brad was in the bathroom and he would be there for a while.




first of all mom. i cant do jack diddly with my camera right now just take pictures and stuff. haha but its ok. its easier to send picturse and videos with a memory card when your family lives not on the other side of the world haha ....... just sayin. anyways ive been trying to work on it but when you dont have the luxuries of the places to print off pictures its hard because i wouldnt get any emails sent if i sent pictures through email its too hard. ok moving on.


SANTIAGO GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it was a really special experience and super powerful and pretty much everyone that had doubts about it after was like i want this and so now there are people that are more open to the gospel. haha its funny how things like that work but some people (members) are still having their doubrts which is frustrating i mean its liek you ahve seen all of these miracles in your life why are you trying to hide it?!?! or you were such a good missionary back in your day you brag about it so much why dont you help us?? but its jsut the trials of the work.

on sunday we had an area 70 come to a branch conference and he was talking about the promsie of a stake with this district and how the members just need to get into shape. haha it was funny. but it was good and super spiritual. we loved it and had a blast!

and if that isnt enough news to take in im leaving Valdepeñas. i leave on wednesday at 1145 and i wont get to my new area til thursday morning. haha lots of travelling. so you might be thinking why is he trav elling all day where could he be going? well im going to a ward in Cartagena its on the beach and im pretty excited im just really scared and nervous because i have been called as the district leader. :/ but i know that through my example and the examples i have and wit hthe lord it will be possible. we are exctied for it all an d people have already started crying for me to leave the members and investigators but its part of the process just accept all the invitations on facebook haha.

as for that thats about all the news that we have right now we are pretty excited over here its about time for a little bit of change life is going really well we conquered challenges in valdepenas and got the rama to a beytter place than it was. Just keep being who you guys are and .. p,.s. i like the creativity in the stories hahaha they were ALL about the timmy the tooth arthur an d the window with kenny hahahhaha super funny yes but hahaha thank you. anyways we are going to play som soccer and then have district meeting and then its pretty much packing and peacing out of this joint. the church is true and im almost outta here!!!!!!

Day 332

haha ok so just so that you know. we have water again. but now the water heater isnt working or something. we dont know but all i know is that the showers are like the coldest i have ever had in my life!!!! haha but we are showering so everyone who was worried about our hygiene ... no need to stress haha. We.. have a baptism this friday!!!! Santiago asked me to do it and he asked Tripi to do the confirmation. so we are pretty excited Valdepeñas FINALLY has stuff comin their way we also have 2 more that will be coming up after in november so thats really nice. ummm. im trying to think of whats been going on, that i am able to say haha they say not to be negative in emails and stuff so there obviously isnt things that i can say about how some people dont understand how to support when people want to get baptized haha. its jsut one of those things but no need to stress its happening and the only person that will stop it on earth is santi in his interview tomorrow but we arent worried. ummm life is going good. we are happy its the last week of the transfer so next email will be news about if there are changes or not. we are expecting changes, so just in case if you have stuff to send to me send it to the mission office so i can still get it.

Everyone sounds healthy and happy from what i hear which is really good, im glad everyone is enjoying the vacations and the times together tell everyone i say hi and that i miss them and then i will be back sooner than later hahaha. its amazing how time is flying by right now. it doesnt feel like it should be practically november already. and just thinking back on the last year since this process started its just craziness. haha ok well its rainging and its cold here. which means jackets and stuff to cover up the white shirts and ties which means the contacts are going to become better, that people wont avoid us intentionally as much anymore because we wont be as recognized. its more of the "cameflouge season" where we mix in a little more with our surroundings.

ok so this is what we are going to do everyone send me an email for next week about your favorite memory with me. just to mix things up haha alright love you all keep it up with all the good work and keep smiling!

Day 325

Santiago is still going strong he is doing really well there are just some challenges like always when there is a baptism. No need to worry!!!!!! but we dont have water in all of Valdapeñas haha i dont want it to sound like a joke but i think its kind of funny no one can shower but i have never seen so many people getting water ourt of the fountains in front of the cathedral of the catholic church here. might be some of the few times they actually go to church. But if it gets to the extent that we need to get water to wash up ill take some pictures. i think its funny as well cause my mentality is CAMPING!!! haha and Elder triana has only gone like 2 days on a real camping adventure. i just think of all the stuff i did. with the youth and stuff some of my favorite times was when we didnt have very much haha it just brings the creativity out. haha but no need to worry if it gets really bad we have the church and stuff we can get taken care of i dont even know what happened i think a water line broke or something.. when we get into details with people i cant understand the terminoligy and triana cant translate it into english haha. its been quite a fun adventure with all of that with him.

Anyways im trying to think, we played soccer with the jovenes on saturday. its a rare activity around here because people live so far away but they think of the typical missionary and dont think of a good soccer player. haha well we showed them up we owned them and they were really impressed and it was really a lot of fun, anyways
like i said life is really good im living things up and doing things i never really imagined i would be doing at my age. its pretty cool.

side note. Elder triana´s step dad is from england and he wants to write you guys so i gave him our address so you should be expecting something this week. love you all and keep on being who you are!

Day 325

Santiago is still going strong he is doing really well there are just some challenges like always when there is a baptism. No need to worry!!!!!! but we dont have water in all of Valdapeñas haha i dont want it to sound like a joke but i think its kind of funny no one can shower but i have never seen so many people getting water ourt of the fountains in front of the cathedral of the catholic church here. might be some of the few times they actually go to church. But if it gets to the extent that we need to get water to wash up ill take some pictures. i think its funny as well cause my mentality is CAMPING!!! haha and Elder triana has only gone like 2 days on a real camping adventure. i just think of all the stuff i did. with the youth and stuff some of my favorite times was when we didnt have very much haha it just brings the creativity out. haha but no need to worry if it gets really bad we have the church and stuff we can get taken care of i dont even know what happened i think a water line broke or something.. when we get into details with people i cant understand the terminoligy and triana cant translate it into english haha. its been quite a fun adventure with all of that with him.

Anyways im trying to think, we played soccer with the jovenes on saturday. its a rare activity around here because people live so far away but they think of the typical missionary and dont think of a good soccer player. haha well we showed them up we owned them and they were really impressed and it was really a lot of fun, anyways
like i said life is really good im living things up and doing things i never really imagined i would be doing at my age. its pretty cool.

side note. Elder triana´s step dad is from england and he wants to write you guys so i gave him our address so you should be expecting something this week. love you all and keep on being who you are!

Day 318

i just want to say that nothing can stop us but ourselves. kind of like what dad was saying in his email that the people make the decisions harder than they need to be. president clegg was telling us in our bullitin this week that God doesnt use magic to save us just our obedience to his commandments. how true that is. how true that is. ok ok ok . so lets talk about this week. We had a greatweek we focused on finding people.so we hit the streets a lot. we had an amazing week pepole listened alittle bit. not quite as much to the actual lessons but we got a lot of call backs. so that was fun to see. from the people that emailed me everyone sounds happy which is really good. haha im so glad time is just cruising right now we basically have no time to even write in our journals. but dont stress i still havent missed a day! ballin! ok so im trying to put off the miracle story that happened this week. so ill start just because i can. ummmmm. i came to valdepeñas in may. you dont see elders stay in an area longer than 6months which means come nov 2 im 90% sure im out of here. i havent seen a baptism here at all. in fact the elder i was with when i got here hadnt either. its just a really hard area. well i wasnt expecting one. yesterday there is this kid that we have been teaching who at an activity that we FINALLY were able to get done and planned and carried out this kid name santiago who we have been focusing on the last 3 months came up to us and said im still teaching you on thursday right? (we are trying new things our investigators teach us hahahaha) we said yes and he said ok i have a suprise for you. haha we were just thinking he was going to show us how to make some more colombian food or something we didntthink to much of it. but 10 minutes later hermana clegg (not the presidents wife) came and called me and elder triana we went to one of the classrooms and started talking and she turned to santi and asked ... well what do you think? and he said i want to get baptized on the 28th of october. WHAT?!?! haha it was SO CRAZY! and then he went and told all of the members of the branch. haha it was SO INSANE. we were all basically crying. so many fasts and so many prayers are being answered. haha. and the happiness it brings to bring someone to christ is like nothing i have ever felt in my life. we also had another kid 21 years old who accepted a date as well but he is still super not sure with it. we will see how that one goes but both are possible i know for sure santi but alberto can do it. haha anyways i dont think i have ever worked this hard in my life. haha im doing things that i never imagined i would do in my life. but when you learn to have the desire to do something and the faith increases its amazing what you can do. you guys are all amazing and i miss you lots and lots but we are almost at the hump. and im livin my last month as a teenager!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha elder triana is laughing at me because im just so young. he is my favorite. but we are going to make some delicious food (dont worry when i come home ill cook for a month the food is amazing!)
the church is true im doing great so stop worryin. send some love. i miss it haha and remember who you are! :D love you!!!!

Day 311

We completed successfully 10 months in the mission.
Conference was super spiritual and i loved it all i learned the most in the sunday morning session and i just felt the testimonies of all of the speakers and how firm and bold they were in all that they did. how powerful! we aredoing really well here this week our focus will be on finding people ... that means lots of contacts.... but i am really excited for it. things are moving in the right direction. im super tired. but life is really good. this is always the fastest hour of the week. which is probably annoying because i want it to be the slowest cause it feels like i jsut have so much to say! we learned this week that Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. that was a pretty profound thing. also that its kind of fun to do the impossible. just to everyone who thinks you cant do it. just going out and proving them wrong. The members are gaining a testimony of missionary work here and its not easy but if they get this testimony the work will seriously just explode here in valdepeñas. Im excited for all the temples!!! and i love that they are going to put a temple right there in provo again.

there is only one place that success comes before work and it is in the dictionary... in conference there were a lot of talks about how we need to do our part. keep the commandments, service, prayer and repentenance. something that President clegg says to us alot is if there is something that you need to change. just fix it. its SO MUCH EASIER TO DO IT NOW! ummm. Triana and i are excited for this week. it probably will be a long week but we are already half way through this transfer which means about 3 weeks more and i feel like im leaving but of course we dont know that yet. anyways. you are all in my prayers you are all doing wonder ful things and im so grateful for everyone! keep smiling and keep working!