Christmas finally arrives, and Green Grass just like at Home

We were not able to send anything to him for Christmas as it was told that most of the packages are gone through and it is really expensive to the missionary to pick them up after the taxes.  But, there is a patient who comes to my office who is from Bolivia and her sister was going to Bolivia for Christmas and we mailed a package to Florida and they would take the package to him.  We were so excited to know that we could send him a better Ipod that he wanted with a screen, letters from the ward, his grandpa’s caramels, homemade cookies and just love from home.  However, it was over three weeks and we had not heard anything from him and was wondering what had happened to the package.  Come to find out, this sweet sister mailed it his area and with the help of Stetson and Facebook he was able to get the package at a much better time that was best for him.  I am certain and know that Heavenly Father is very much aware of him and knows what is best and hears our prayers.  Even when praying for a Christmas box.  We are so grateful this got to him and he was so happy!  The picture says it best!

Yeah the package was dope! Loved it the letters and the smooth peanut butter cause that is not here

Really pray for my comp please, the guy is really hard and its his way or no way kinda hard
but all good here love ya!
Here are some funny things he forgot in his first initial email; totally worth sharing with y’all!
The peanut butter is way dope and I love smooth peanut butter with Oreos GRACIAS
And the package in general was awesome!
And thanks a ton for the music! Joseph and the multicolored coat is awesome

One thing that is really funny is in the penision where I eat lunch we don´t eat with a table, you know how when you go to parties you have your plate with one hand and eat with the other that is what I have done for the last 4 months ha-ha, but at parties its like ice-cream and pizza, with me its everything chicken, pasta, hot soup kind of funny and I wanted to share that,

so my comp is a punk you all know so one day we were going to bed and I asked if he set the alarm and he did I then checked it and he didn´t so I got in on and went to bed, but during the night he turned it back off! But come 6:30 in the morning I woke up! Automatically! Ha-ha he then rolled out of bed at like 9 and he was so baffled, pretty funny

and then one other thing is he listens to a lot of really bad music like it’s all English that swears and talks about bad stuff so we were studying in the afternoon once and after like the 4th swear word I look at him and ask if we can listen to something that would maybe invite the spirit, he was so ticked he took the DVD player and his music and left to the room ha-ha freakin punk

Lunes- last week was really dope we had out zone activity and what we did was do a BBQ with our whole zone we ate tons of chicken and it was really cool to just talk with everyone and just sit back and get some chicken wings ha-ha!

Martes- I don´t know if you guys have seen the news down here in Bolivia but Evo (President of Bolivia) is making a lot of crazy laws here in Bolivia and people are not liking it, so there were some more road blocks and barricades here but its all good we just could not work again, kinda lame when we have these days cause we just study and call to cancel lessons with people

Miércoles- i got the package! yeah way awesome i got pics

Jueves- one thing that has really helped this transfer is the missionaries next to my area E. Burrows y E. Fisher he hurt his leg and can´t walk so they call us up every now and then which is really nice to go and help them in their area, we did that for about 3 hours today and it was really nice

Viernes- we were contacting in this one area and we kinda got a little lost from the main roads and we were walking on some dirt roads and we found some llamas! super chala! we took some pics and then talked with these three little kids ha-ha way fun. and then we found this one really cool gal who talked to the missionaries once but she moved and could not find them,.. and there we were!  So she was way stocked to talk to us.

Sábado- we got this one way dope guy that we have been teaching for a while he is the one who wants to wait to get married for like 3 more months, so he has all the lessons comes to church every week but just wants to wait to get married super frustrating but he is really cool so I guess it’s ok, but I won´t be here to see it which is really lame.

Domingo- we went to a bbq with our pension today and it was way dope! It was like in the area that was so so so green! And in a house that had grass! Like real grass!  Also got cool pics of that.

Yeah the transfer is almost about up and I´m really excited I think I’ll leave this area but I don´t know, like I said last week this six weeks are just kinda a trial, but it’s all good I’m almost out of it love you guys all is well down here!


love  y’all
--
- Elder Clayton
Bolivia Cochabamba

 Finally getting  his Christmas box!  And look at that smile!

So green!!!

Another Week in Cochabamba and being an Obedient Missionary even when it's not Easy

This week seems to be a harder one, but he is hanging in there and understanding the importance of being a good and obedient missionary.  He mentions that he sent a few pictures, but we didn't get them; so hopefully next week.  Even though some days are hard, his smile shines through in his writing.  Enjoy...

Monday- Fútbol and Basketball we just balled out last week and had a good time with all the missionaries here and after had a cool family night with a kid who is waiting for his call soon.

Martes- my comp had more ¨problems¨ with his back today so we had plans today for four lessons but my comp and i went to the pension and he was complaining about his back again, where he then went to explain him problems to her and she then insisted for him to lay down and rest.... he slept for FIVE HOURS! five fetching hours in the pension! we missed every lesson and i had to cancel them all! but the day before we were playing soccer! the day before! lets just say the day of Monday is a miracle day for my comp...

Wednesday-We have this one gal that we have been teaching for a while and its freaking hard because her Spanish is not that good ha ha, but her Spanish is not good because her first language was quechua! ha ha ha but we had a lesson with a interpreter so pretty much a gringo, to a Bolivian, to a quechua Bolivian! ha ha oh Bolivia!

Jueves-I went on splits with our Zone Leaders the other day which was really nice to get away for a bit but one thing that sucks is the zone leaders are always doing something so they don´t have much time to teach so this was like my full day of just knocking the doors ha ha but it was awesome to have a day with another gringo,

Friday Sabado- I was really sick these two days, not sure what happened but just like the flu or something so I just slept all day  we made it to all our lessons but i slept and rested in all the other time.

Sunday- Elder Fisher hurt his ankle last week don´t know if I said something about it but his comp and area are really close to me so a lot of the time he calls me and we go over and help him out with his area because fisher can´t walk for a while so I have him every now and then which is way nice he is the Elder burrows from Utah way awesome guy and way good missionary!

Yup that's the life of young thug in Elder Clayton here, just keep grinding and all is well this comp is a hard one but its all good love ya!

i sent a few photos on my drive and one is a really chala video..



--
- Elder Clayton
Bolivia Cochabamba

Just Surviving...

Yeah know how I said that the days are long but the weeks are really short, that is only true if you are working but with this new comp that I have the days are just as long as the weeks. This transfer has been really hard but I’m over the hill now just have three more weeks. But one thing that is good about this is I have learned a lot about what kind of missionary that I want to be! 

Tuesday-One really big bummer is we have this one guy that his whole family are members, his name is Jonas and he have been teaching him for like 4 weeks and we had a date for his marriage next week so we asked him if he was ready and he goes yes but we were talking and we want another date.. we were a little nervous and he then says the new date... the 12th of April! FOUR months away! so we were really bummed and just said yeah that’s cool but we won’t be here probably.. but it’s all good they have lived together for over 15 years have 5 kids together.. Why not wait! ha-ha all good

Wednesday- We had this lesson planned with this one gal that lives in this little pueblo kind of, and trufis don´t reach her house!  She described where she lived by the color of trees!  And what kind of a road it was to walk on ha-ha! fetching Bolivia, but after a solid 45 minutes we found her, she was way cool and so grateful to talk to us and seemed really interested 

Thursday- I had a day in another area and it was with a new missionary for the first time here I had more time than my companion, but it was by only 6 weeks ha-ha, but one thing that was really hard was their person that feeds them for lunch is not a member and she works in the street, one of the mission rules is don’t eat from the street, but if whatever it was all good and we taught almost 5 lessons in one day that was really sweet! 

Friday- one way awesome thing that happened this week was about three months ago we had this one gal about to be baptized but she moved to Santa Cruz.. BUT she came back! We had a lesson with her today! So awesome and I think that she will be baptized soon, way awesome! 

Saturday- Elder Fisher here rolled his ankle really bad this week and he can´t walk for 10 to 15 days! So Elder Burrows a way cool guy here needed my help with some lessons so I went and did a small split with him for the day! He is way dope and we were together for like 4 to 5 hours and after which it was this other elders birthday and here they throw eggs at you and flour so we smashed eggs on this one Latinos head.. It was a good day!

Sunday- Or Sunday got switched to 8 o’clock which is way awesome, and we had 10 investigators in the church today!  So awesome and after we and a lesson with this little kids about the restoration and he asked if he could have a book of Mormon and then asked if we could read with him! Way awesome we try and give those books to everyone but most people don´t want them, but when people ask for them, it’s awesome! 

Yeah life is hard here but just gotta keep grinding!  All is well! Love you all and I love the mission!  todas partes, mas o menos! 

-- 

​1.me with a dude from Paraguay ​

- Elder Clayton 

Bolivia Cochabamba 

New Year's Eve, Moving Missionaries and a Roasting...

Sorry I didn´t have time to write yesterday we had an activity in the chapel and we had investigators there! So we decided to internet today because of that sorry for the trouble 

Monday- ¡SKYPE!

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday- because of the holidays it was really hard to find people and to teach lessons, a lot of people were canceling on us and were not home which blows, but I think it’s just this week and this next week will be better, the weekend we had a lot of things that were going on but the week not much. 

Saturday- We have some missionaries in another area that called us over to help them move we came over to their house where they live in a two floor apartment and we took all their stuff down and moved to their new house and one floor is hard enough with desks fridges books beds but their new house was in an apartment building on the SIXTH floor! Each floor had 16 steps to the next level 6 levels and I took 13 trips!  Ha ha ha let’s just say I was just dead the next day we didn´t get home until almost 12 because of this ¨service¨fetch..  and next day  Sunday I was so dead.

Sunday- We had a really cool lesson with this 13 year old kid and he knew his bible like a 70 year old preacher! We asked him what a profeta was and he just went off on Moses and how he showed us the scripture in Amos 3.7! ha-ha way fun to talk to people who know the Bible really well!  After which we went back to our house ate somefood with a member and watched the fireworks on the roof of our house.  It was way awesome!  We can see like all of Cochabamba from our house!

Monday-​ yesterday we had that activity in the church which was really fun and everyone had a really good time, really good turnout but the funniest thing was in the night we had a last minute family home evening with our person who feeds us, and she does not like my comp because he is probably the only missionary that does not eat all the food at lunch.  Just to give you all a back ground if you don´t eat all your food it’s a huge insult down here!   HUGE! and I’m out where a lot of the people here have nothing so it’s even worse, but he won’t eat this thing called cuneo it taste like dirt but it’s like a tradition here, and he won´t eat it  So this family home evening our pension showed the scripture Mosiah 2´17 about serving  others serves God and how eating all the food is hard but we have to do it, and then she just straight up ROASTED my companion for like 20 minutes! ha-ha I was just dying and it was probably  my favorite lesson we have had  together.

​Yeah this week was really hard but the New Year and Skype was way awesome!

Love you all and hope you keep grinding up there!  ALL IS WELL down here!  Love you guys!

 My comp from the MTC and my old comp, are now comps ha-ha 

just chillin

-- 

- Elder Clayton 

Bolivia Cochabamba 

Christmas Phone Call

We were blessed to have several hours on our phone call to Caleb.  He looked so good and sounded even better.  He is happy and doing well; which is all we can ask for.  We are already looking forward to and counting down the days until Mother's Day!