Broken Spanish, but with Conviction; will you be "babtized?"

It was so awesome getting his email this week as it was really the first one as a missionary in Bolivia.  You will see how he is already learning, growing and learning Spanish as he is immersed in it.  We continue to pray for the gift of tongues he was promised, and as you will witness, prayers are answered.

Enjoy...

Oh man so much has happened in these past 10 days its so nuts! I woke up Monday morning in Provo at 3:00 and then I arrived in Cochabamba Tuesday afternoon haha I met with the Mission president and he seems like a really nice guy, he was really nice and I had to have a translator in our meeting together, after that we stayed in the AP´s house and ordered some pizza that had corn on it haha it was actually really good.  It was fun to talk to them and they were really nice.   One was from Columbia and the other from California.  After that night we woke up Wednesday morning and headed to the church where I met my new Companion his name is Elder Azolas, straight from Chile he speaks very little English.. lets just say these past few days have been really confusing. But its dope because he is teaching me Spanish and I am teaching him English! Also the CCM has taught me nothing, I have learned more Spanish in 6 days here than six weeks in the CCM! haha our area is in Cochabamba and we are in the Lindo Ward, the members are really nice and they help us out a ton. I live only a block away and it’s a really nice building. I don´t have any pics but I will try next week. So after our Zone meeting we head to our area and we walk inside I don´t even open my bags and we are out the door to teach a lesson.. She is a 20 year old gal who has had 1 or 2 lessons with missionaries and my comp wanted me to ask her to be babtized!! MY FIRST LESSONS, FIRST REAL INVESTIGATOR so I probably said like two words this whole time and at the end of the lesson he looks at me and I knew it was my time to shine so in my broken Spanish ¨ will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be babtized with someone holding the authority of the priesthood?¨with a tear in her eye she said yes!!! hahaha I was freaking out! Her babtizim is this Saturday and I´m frekin pumped, she came to all of conference general too so she is awesome! 

The streets in this place make no sense it honestly a maze the addresses we have for investigadors are frekin maps! hand drawn! haha, the taxis that we take are called trufis and its like a van that fits 8 in America but they can fit 15 here. now imagine driving down a road packed full of people going 50 and there are speed bumps every 100 feet its narly. 

Dogs, fetching perros, I hate perros so much, I knew there was gonna be alot of dogs here but holy freak! so many dogs and they are all mean and gross and just the worst I started counting how many I saw yesterday and I stopped counting after 40. But I learned this trick where you bend down to grab a rock just faking it and they will run away.. every time its really useful. we had this appointment last night where we were gonna go teach a less active family and we started knocking on their door when like 5 dogs came out of nowhere and we just barking and growling at us! me and my comp were really nervous because it was dark and they were big dogs, I closed my eyes and just said a prayer that this family will open the door and before I even ended they opened it and the dogs ran, awesome experience. 

Saw the statue of Christ that was really dope did you know it’s actually larger than the one in Brazil? true story. 

Hey that’s about it from me, I have lots more to share but I don´t have much time love you all thanks for your prayers! all is well down here

What Cochabamba looks like and feels like in five words.

A Really Poor Saint George.

​

- Elder Clayton 

Bolivia Cochabamba 

​- Elder Azolas, our Savior and me

- Frekin Perros 

Letter to Stetson as they communicated back and forth:

This was today we had burger king in a really nice mall, the kid on the left is from San Pedro, middle is my comp and right he is from peru they are all in my zone. 

 This is over seeing Cochabamba at the statue of Christ, its so big 

Hola!!!

Que bacan!! (how cool on Chili) that is How Elder Azolas would say it. 

What a cool letter bud. Love it. I told you about the perros !! You can always fake them out by picking up a rock. 

They say you don’t have to be scared of the barking dog but of the silent dog. So watch out! And stay safe. I kicked a few dogs, and I am sure you will too. Hey congrats on the baptism!! You are there to find those people that are simply waiting for the invitation to be baptized. 

Love you man, you sound great. 

To me as he replied to my email:

I liked all those pictures hope you enjoyed General Conference, I watched it in Spanish and have the sesions I understood everyword and I got alot out of it but then others the translaters were from like cuba and they spoke so fast I couldn´t understand a word haha. Love you and thanks for everything! Try to not to get cold up there, its pretty warm right now and It feels really nice! talk to you soon. 

-- 

- Elder Clayton 

Bolivia Cochabamba

Stetson Google'd his apartment address;  this is what it came up with.