De Oro - Of Gold & Riding to Church in a Car

Whats up Fam? -  I just wanted to start out this letter by telling a really cool story that happened this week.  So it was I think Wednesday and we were knocking some doors when we came to this really big house in the middle of nowhere. so we knocked it. and out comes a dude maybe 50 years old and his wife, they invite us in and we share a message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, they loved it and the Book of Mormon.  They had a few questions about the Sabbath day and the Word of Wisdom we told them and showed some scriptures, and they were amazed when the wife looked at us and says. you know I have lots of friends with lots of other religions and I have lots of doubts. I prayed yesterday, to find the way of Christ. and here you are. The spirit was so strong! It just filled the room, We told them this is the spirit testifying to you that our message is true. We ended in a prayer and told them we will get you guys for church.  Sunday came and we were knocking their door again to get them but nobody answered we started walking away when they come around the corner in their car! and said they went almost 20 minutes early (better than our bishopric) to church and then remembered that we would come get them, so they came back, and picked us up! first time I went to church in a car sense I was home! It was awesome. but they loved church and we have another lesson with them this week!

Also I got my package! That was so awesome this dude calls me up on night at like 6 and says hello I'm looking for Mr. Clayton, well I'm Elder Clayton but I can answer to that too. ha ha we met with him and he gave it to me! Now I'm stoked with Reese's and a new chess board, I've played my comp a few times and he's never really played before so it's kinda easy. so I made it easier and I play without my Queen... I still win.  It's fun and he really likes playing ha ha

Some of the photos that I sent in are of my comp and I in this pueblo called Parotaní it's super country just dirt roads and it's really like Betanzos and we found a cool bridge about 40 feet in the air and crossed it, also it was my Pensionistas birthday! and we ate some more cake! This is now my fourth Birthday party here we eat a lot of cake in this house haha, I don't mind. Yeah all is good here no complaints love y'all.  Take care and all is well!

-Elder Clayton
Cochabamba Bolivia

 New Companion

Just Workin....and Smiley Faced Shoes!

Hey whats up fam?  We got some new transfers here and my comp is leaving to head to Potosi and I'll be getting my new comp E. Brieño from Peru, he has like 9 months in the mission or so, I know him a little but he;s kinda famous cause he has had problems with all his comps.. and five emergency transfers, I'm really nervous but hope I can just get along with the guy, but it's all good tengo fe  (I have faith - translated)

We have been teaching this one dude named Juan Carlos for a few weeks ago and now and being vacations we haven't seen him for like two weeks but we finally got to talk to him this week again and he is still really excited about the church and we are going to get him a baptismal date this week! he is really cool just kinda quiet is all. But we will get him some homies and he will be golden!

One thing that was way cool this week is I went on on a split with a Elder Rugel from Ecuador and we got up and went to this little pueblo in the morning my comp never wants to go there so I go when I can in splits and we went and just knocked some doors and contacted for a few hours and we found this one girl started talking to her told her we were misionaros and the church of JCoLDS and after like 10 minutes of talking she goes well actually I have a church [the Mormons[thats what she said! I started laughing and said we are the Mormons and she showed us her BoM she was a member! ha ha just visiting this pueblo for the weekend ha ha super funny and told  her it was nice to meet  her but way funny contact.

If you have ever looked up my map here, in Sipe Sipe it's almost as big as all of Cocha not kidding and there is a little place called tres cruzes where lives a family of 6 who are members but live almost 2 hours from the nearest church so they have the ordenanza (ordinance) en there house to take the sacrament so we went with a member and he took us there we shared a message with them and they were so humble! they have a house maybe as big as our kitchen and it;s just full of bunk beds they were so happy we came and it was really fun to talk with them I wanna go there one Sunday and take the sacrament with them but it will be hard, they don't speak Spanish.. I think my whole mission will be like this just Quechua every where I go!

This week and every second Saturday of the month we go to the temple with our ward! It's awesome cause if we get investigadors to go we can go too, so we got three people there and shared a message about the temples that we have, it was way awesome the spirit is so strong and we didn't even go in! Something that is really hard here is we almost never go to the temple, the missionaries last time I went was maybe in February to do a session but it's all good I'll go a ton when I get home! and I'll take all you guys too!

Something that I've started is in my studies I'm studying 30 minutes of the Book of Mormon and then reading the New Testament for 30 minutes I'm now in Mark 10 and I love it the life of the Savior is so awesome, He was perfect and just wanted to help others and that is just what God wants for each of us is try to be like Him, follow Him. Try our best to do what is right and help others whenever we can. Rey de Reys (King of Kings -translation)

  Elder Rugel and I; he's dope

 This is the house I was talking about and a fun hat I got to wear

 The work and la felicidad (the happiness, translation)

- Elder Clayton
Bolivia Cochabamba

Vacaciones y copa mundial - Vacations & World Cup

Hey whats up fam! Another week has gone by and it was a pretty hard one. So as you know the World Cup is right now and I'm in South America where, everyone is watching it; like everyone. You can walk down a street and every store has the game on ha ha so its been fun but really hard to find more people to teach and to make it harder this week and the next one there is no school so it's even harder cause everyone is on vacation and visiting other areas with there family, so I don't really have much to report except for a lot of contacting and trying to find people in any way that we can!

But I do have some funny stories.  So one day in the morning I was making Mate, because I love mate and I was heating up the water and I heard a huge bang! like a firework or something so I turned around and I look at the plug in the wall and its just a huge flame! like two feet high just in the wall where I plugged in the water heater so it's just a huge flame and i'm blowing it out with my mouth ha ha but luckily this flame knocked the power out, so the flame went out too it was really funny but my comp was really mad cause he was showering and the hot water for the shower turned off but whatever haha our Dueño fixed us up and he thought my story was funny but it's all good the power works and our house is fine.

So one thing that is really hard here is we have kinda a spider problem here. Last week I killed a spider that was about three inches in diameter and when I first saw it I though it was a mouse! Well I found another one this week and it was about the same size I threw my tag by it to show the size but this one is smaller! but when I killed it (cause my comp is too scared, both times) it made a huge like crunch like stepping on cereal! it was so nasty I hate Spiders.

Another photo that I put in my drive is me with Abarkas these are a type of shoe that everyone has here! like everyone, haha they are made from tires and are way heavy people use them for everything, making cement, working in the field or what ever they want haha and I had to get some they cost about 6 dollars so I felt fine about it.

Something that is really hard here in Sipe Sipe is working with the members they are all really cool and help us a lot but we try and meet with them too and visit them but there are only about 40 max members here so its kinda hard to find time to help them all, but I'm working hard on that and finding time for all of them, we had some lessons with members this week which was really dope and I love teaching members and its perfect for asking for references! but I love the work here and the ward, I hope I stay here for a while. But life is good my interview with President was really good and he told me my comp will leave this cambio (transfer) so I'm  happy for that.  I love you guys.  All is well!

I had photos of all the things I just talked about but i think my memory just got another virus on it, so I'll try and send them but I've been working on it for like 15 minutes and I can't figure it out, but I can retake them.

Love you guys.  Sorry, go look at the folder with E.Baros en Betanzos I put a photo of me and my Pensionista and her mom, they are the nicest people I have ever met and I love them so much.  Real bummer I only have one photo of them but it's better than nothing! (I didn't get any photos; so hopefully next week)


--
- Elder Clayton
Bolivia Cochabamba

Feliz Cumpleaños Elder Clayton

It was his birthday last Sunday and I am always so worried that for some reason they won't get a cake or something, but as always; He is so aware of His missionaries and they celebrated with a wonderful cake and song.  I will try and include it, but if not you can find it on Facebook or Instagram.  I am grateful prayers are answered.  We were also blessed to have a sister going to Bolivia and took a package with her.  We are hoping that he was able to get that this week.  The package had Hostess cupcakes, candles, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, notes from home, and a chess set.  Hopefully, tomorrow's email will let us know if it arrived.  Enjoy; he is loving this area and he is doing well.

Whats up gang just got on this week was pretty chill we had a good week and a good time here working in Sipe Sipe, my mission presidente said that my comp will leave this transfer and i'm really excited to see him my new comp is en two weeks but all is good here we are working hard with our members which is really fun to get and know everyone! 

This week I had a dope intercambio with a Elder Chapman from Idaho we are from the same group so it was a good day we found a new investigador contacting where we teach the importance of the gospel of Christ and focused on baptism she was really interested and had tons of questions. We have another lesson with her coming up and I'm really excited to talk to her again. But after that E. Chapman and I decided to head over to this pueblo in our area called Parotani where tons of members live so we went over there which was really fun and super country we found out that we are only like a bus ride from the mission La paz haha and when we were there we found some of those Santa Cruz cows they have a hump on their back, like a camel!  Super cool and like way rare we took some pics and petted them while talking to their owner it was a really good day and after we had a lesson at night so we didn't end our split until the next day in the morning, so two nights! It was way awesome.  haha 

My Bishop here has been gone for almost four weeks until he came back this week which is really nice but something sad is in all my areas my bishop has not been there for the first weeks I'm there. For example in Lindo my bishop was gone for the first 12 weeks in America and still was gone a lot for the other 12 weeks I was there. In Betanzos my bishop was in Argentina for 4 weeks cause of health issues then in Sucre for almost three other weeks and then my bishop here, just got back from Santa Cruz after 4 weeks too!  So I have been blessed with the gift of waiting for a good bishop, which they are all good; just not here. 

Well as you know yesterday was a new month, and that means a new day. another year. ha ha even tho it was my birthday.  Just want to say that I love you all and thank you guys for all you do for me and helping me out so much and keeping me updated on life!  Love you guys and pray for you always, hope all is well and love you guys a ton! 

1. Santa cruz cows i got a video para yall too! the video is to help Bridger with his fears (Bridger is afraid of all cows, I will try and add it to the blog) elderclaytoninbolivia.blogspot.com

2. they made me a cake with the La Paz flag, cause I was making fun of La Paz once and they told me I have no heart for La Paz but then I said I love it so I told them to put it on my cake, so they did ha ha

We had a little party for him at the Hewitson's with all our friends from the "hood" to wish him a great b-day since it was his actual day.  We all love him and it was fun to celebrate it with him, kind of.

-- 

- Elder Clayton

Bolivia Cochabamba 

Service is a Lot Harder in Bolivia

What’s up fam? Another week has gone here in Sipe Sipe and I am loving it more and more here.  This place is perfect and I’m having a lot of fun here working with all the members and finding new people to teach everyday! 

On Saturday we had some service with this guy in my ward who called us to help him out and I was really excited cause I love service but this service was so rough we were making concrete, and how you did it was you had like eight buckets where you throw four buckets of dirt and then four buckets of rocks, and half a bag of cement, Bolivia but it was so hard, I had to do the rocks and it was so tiring I would throw the rocks into the mixer where it made all the cement and it was that for like 4 hours! I was so tired and I could barely pick up the buckets to throw them in at the end, the service here in Bolivia is not shoveling driveways or raking the yard it’s hard work! 

So on Friday  my usual English class which is fun but not really haha.  I was teaching them how to use verbs and like talk more and this one kid was just super distracting so I was pointing and the word book and having everyone repeat it, and after like 6 times I point at the kid and ask him what his name is and he responds with ¨book¨ the whole class just died!  it was really funny and I felt really witty haha but all in all good class. 

On Sunday it was really cool we had this activity in the church where we got all the members to go around and visit some membros that are less active, and it worked really well, they had to lock the doors so no one would leave... but it was awesome but the best part was they split us up so I went with our first councilor and my comp went with our secretary it was a really good few hours haha. and we talked to like 4 families and they were all really cool and I’m gonna try and visit them in the week too so that will be dope! The ward here is so awesome and they want to work with us too. it’s awesome! 

Yeah that’s just about it here for highlights I’m trying to work as hard as I can and be as obedient  as I can! Love ya guys and pray for you often! Make sure to cheer for Bolivia in the world cup! 😀 all is well! 

-- 

- Elder Clayton 

Bolivia Cochabamba