Just livin the Dream - and LOTS of Pics!

Tuesday- This day we our transfer weekly liders council, it was really cool, our mission psdt, gives us a class and it was really awesome he shared the section of DC 110 and how we have the keys of this ultimo despensacion and who gave these keys to Joseph Smith, Super rad, and on Thursday E. Angulo and I shared the class with the zone. it was rad.. Did you guys ever know how perfect this church is? Like its so perfect, everything we teach and everything we have and how we have it! All has reason and explanation, with the scriptures o just modern revelacion, me alegre mucho!

Wednesday. I went on splits with E. Schulz, who is my DL we had a really cool day, he made pancakes and I cooked up some scrabbled eggs. super rad it was a fun day with him, and he had four lessons that day and everyone was home, four were people with a baptismal date and a family that will have one soon, but it was a great day and the work is really awesome here in Colcapirhua.

Friday TEMPLO! Got to go to the temple today which was way awesome and a huge blessing! The session was awesome, and  a lot of fun with the zone, got some pics a bajo, and after the session we had a lesson with the familia Mendoza that we have been teaching for a few weeks now, they are amazing and are gonna get baptized next week! so I'm stoked for that!

Saturday in the morning we had four back to back to back to back citas in the church, that was fun we had the investigators come to us! jajaja just kidding but it was awesome, and really fun to see how different people are and it shows how everyone has different needs in the church and how you really need to watch for those signs of the spirit to know what to teach. and in the night we had a baptism!! yup! the familia Maldonado they are a less active family and we are getting them back in the church and what's the best way to help them than to baptize their daughter!

Well that was our week, we might have another baptism this next week if things go well, but we will see, I put like two weeks worth of photos on my drive and I'll just explain them here.
Most are us at the temple, us waiting in the clinic for like 2 hours just to cut my stitches in 2 seconds, my face jaja. deep frying Oreos, and a huge plate of food!

Well love y'all.  Have a good week, All is well here!
--
- Elder Clayton
Bolivia Cochabamba

Oficies, Clinic, & Intercambios

This week was just full of the most random stuff, like we had to do splits with the assistants and with the elders in the offices of the mission, and the clinic and just a ton of stuff.. Also the stitches were in and have been taken out in a week. Bolivia has somewhat good doctors! Who knew? 

Wednesday was super weird.  We want to the offices to do our money for the zone, after that went to the clinic to get my eye looked at and when we finished went  up to the fourth and fifth floor where there were two Sisters from our zone who had stayed the night, one has parasite, (all good now) and the other not sure. But had to go  home. Kind of  a bummer.  But she needs to get better and than she can come back out again. 

Thursday I was with a E. Martinez from Paraguay!  He is the assistant and is way dope we drank some mate, and had a really busy day planned, when Psdt calls us and says, we need to go to the airport and watch the sister go home, and take another sister to the airport. Totally changed the day... kinda a bummer but it was a good day with him, he is a dude that speaks, Spanish, guaraní, and a little bit of English. 

Saturday was really.. a day... 

So here in the zone we have 2 of the 4 elders that work in the offices. so we did a split with them this week, I was with E. Stevens, from Pleasant Grove Utah. We had  good time together, he is really chill, but when you are in a room with three dudes on the computer and I can't do anything, cause they just do all the work themselves and I can't really do anything.. it's really boring... like really boring.. but we had a good time.  jajaja 

Well that was the week from E. Clayton here in  Cochabamba Bolivia, we are having a good time here and having a lot of success, we have two baptisms this week so I'm excited for that. All is well here!  Love y'all!

Elder Clayton

Cochabamba Bolivia

Lots of Teaching, loving his area... oh, and seven stitches!

Well this week was pretty dang awesome we had a ton of success this week which was rad E. Angulo and I are workin really hard and working with all the members to get a ton of references, the thing that is really rad here is cause the zls have been here for so long like 8 years! and the ward loves us, they are so ready to work and they are working with us which is way awesome cause sometimes there are not the best missionaries and they lose the confidence in the Elders but not here. anyways...

Tuesday we had another lesson with the Fam. Maldonado, we are getting her ready to get baptized next week and helping their fam to get more active in the church.  They are way rad and love talking to us, in the night we had a lesson with a family called Chocavilka jaja, so they have a daughter who has been looking at the church for almost a year, but is not baptized but wants to be! So we talked to her mom and she's way rad, and gave permission, and asked if we can come back Thursday to talk to her whole family... YES!  so we set a come back on Thursday where we taught Lesson 2 (plan de salvación) with the whole fam!  It was awesome and they loved it, they told us to come back on Saturday again and that time we taught lesson 1 (La Resturacion) with the whole fam again! Super awesome they loved it and wanted to come to church with us, and they CAME! and now church is two hours, the ward is amazing, you can't ask for anything else jaja! when the meetings ended the dad asked two questions:

1. How long do you need to be here until you get baptized?

2. How is everyone so nice here? 

They are awesome!! we gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon and set another come back cita for Wednesday! This is the familia Chocavilka. 

Ok So that just about the whole week, on Wednesday we had to to a split with some Elders in our zone cause they are not having the "best" relationship. so we went with them and tried to help them out to get along and have a good spirit to work with them, in the. Area... It was a hard day. with them. but I got to hold a bunny, that was fun. 

We have a really cool reference named Dilan he has 19 years and loves hearing about churches and is looking for the true one, so we gave him L1 and asked him if he had any questions.. He gave us the whole lesson one again but in his words. from Prophets, the church of Christ, the whole story of Joseph Smith, and how we have the Book of Mormon. like perfect I'm not kidding it was awesome the dude has a spirit with him and wants to learn, 

Flia. Mendoza A WAY AWESOME FAM  so we are teaching the mom and dad, but their three kids are members! They want to be baptized!   We set the goal of the ninth of February and they are way excited we taught them Lesson 1 and 2 this week and are getting really excited, and their kids are helping them out a ton! 

Like a ton of success RN, its a good time here jaja, well I got nothing else OH yeah. 

I was playing basketball today when I went for a still on a E. Clark and as he spun we hit heads together and it cut my eyebrow open.. jaja started gushing blood and ended up going to the clinic to get seven stitches in my eyebrow.. kinda blows but I'm good I think I'm gonna have a mad gnarly scar but I guess it will help me remember the mission jaja. Yeah that's about it love y'all! and all is well acá!

Member gave us cinnamon rolls.. ( No puedo escribir en ingles, va disculpar) translated:  

I can not write in English, will apologize ha-ha

my eye jaja

waiting for the doctor to come cause we had to wait 2 hours! so we went to TGIF, worth it.  

-- 

- Elder Clayton

Bolivia Cochabamba


Here's several pictures that I took from his Google drive... I love these so much!

Then on Wednesday one of the members randomly sent this picture to Stetson's Facebook messenger to say, Caleb is eating chicken and wanted to say "hi" and also I think to show us that his eye was healing quite nicely.  You can hardly even tell that he has stitches.  Prayers are very much heard and answered.

Un hombre con mucho experiencia - A Man with a lot of Experience

Whats up fam?  Well it has been my first week here in Colcapirhua with my new comp E. Angulo,, he is from Quito Ecuador, super dope this is his 5th cambio here in Colcapirhua and my first jaja, so he has a lot of experience, I joke with him and tell him he's a man with a lot of experiences and it's gotten to the members and the other missionaries, but we are having a good time together and is helping me a ton and teaching me the whole zone. Freak zone leader blows. ok now with the week...

Wednesday we had a cita with a less active family here who are from Colombia and are all members but when we were talking with them they told us that their daughter is not a member of the church! so we started to teach her and now she has a date for baptism and we are gonna prepare the fam so there dad can baptize her! They are really fun and we have another cita with them this week. and we might cook some food with them, they said something Colombian.

Friday was our weekly district meeting, which was chill it was really weird cause I have had 5 transfers in the same zone, like 8 months and I'm gone now.. super wild it was really weird starting new again, I know just about everybody but all new, E. Dalton is in my zone again so that is fun, and his comp is the DL so we will be doing some splits I hope, I'm excited for that.

Sunday, Another really cool cita we had is a mom and dad about 40 years, maybe younger they have 5 kids and 3 of them are members, they are way awesome and have been coming to church for a few weeks, and on Sunday we had an awesome lesson about baptism with them and got them really excited, we put a date for them, in Febrero, so we will be working hard with them! and getting them pumped and another familia eternal!

We had a really chill week getting to know a few members and knowing the zone and area a little more. I hope you guys are all doing good and had a happy new year! love ya guys and hope you know all is well here!

also I forgot my camera, and  I didn't even take photos this week..

--
- Elder Clayton
Bolivia Cochabamba

Bautismo y nuevo cambio - Baptism and New Change

Well this week was pretty rad! We had the baptism go through all good! Douglas (the ear toucher) has been baptized and has been confirmed a member of the Church of Christ. He was so nervous and got so scared when he came to the church, he was walking in circles and walking all over, just so nervous to be baptized when it got time to go the the font I went with him and as we entered I said, "ready?" and he said yup! vamos! jaja I think he got nervous just cause there was a lot of people there, but he was ready. Baptism was good, even if the water was cold, and brown... what else could you ask for!

On Friday I went on splits with E. Dalton! my homie, It was the last week of the transfer and I told him we might not get to do a split, but we made it happen, it was a really fun day, we had service in the morning with Luis who got baptized two weeks ago, went to lunch than after that headed to Sipe Sipe cause E. Fisher and his comp had a couple of baptisms this week, that was fun, I really love that place sipe sipe "el paraiso" But it was really fun cause we had a interview in Parotani a little village like 30 minutes from sipe, and it was E. Fisher, E. Dalton and I all in the trufi, super fun! I never thought back in the MTC days that we would all be together again like that, it was rad. We also saw a monkey.

It was awesome talking to you guys on Christmas, hope everyone had a good one and are excited for 2019! Next time I talk to you guys will be next year! lol never gets old... well that;s about all I got for you guys this week..

OH YEAH. I have a transfer so my comp has finished his training and I'll be leaving him to take over the area solo. I will be headed to the zone Blanco Galindo, zone leader, with E. Angulo from Ecuador, he;s way rad and he was my Zl when I was in Sipe, so I'm excited to be with him again and be his comp.  I'll also be killing him, should be fun. Well love you guys, have a good week, and a happy new year, all is well here!

FOTOS y mas la drive

El Bautismo

The flia. Torrez, they way dope, and made us Jerkey

--
- Elder Clayton
Bolivia Cochabamba

Iluminaelmundo - Light up the World

This week we had quiet a few service projects, we were kept really busy in our basketball shorts from painting, moving houses, and cutting trees with machetes and cleaning streets up. Also Feliz Navidad!

Wednesday I went on splits with an E. Gudiño, He is from Argentina and has been in the same zone since my first day on the mission, we are always together jaja, so we went on splits today which was really fun we did some service where we had to sand paper a room cause it was just black, with marks and stains, from the wall to the ceiling everything, and than paint the ceiling jaja, These members call the missionaries do to the weirdest things, but we did it and got super dirty, ended the day with a NDH where we watched the new light the world video, it's way awesome, and really got me pumped for Christmas. Here in the mission doesn't really feel like Christmas, and I think its cause it's so hot here, but that video got me excited for Christmas and helped me see the importance of Christmas. 

Thursday we had our Christmas  conference and it was a ton of fun.  We sang some songs as a zone and the other zones had songs and little acts, it was fun cause its just a chill time to go and hang out with the missionaries here in Cocha. 

Friday was awesome! I went on another split with E. Fisher, from NSL!  We had another one this cambio it was way rad we taught some awesome lessons and I gave two baptism interviews while I was there, which was really awesome because the two people I interviewed I found! We taught them a few lessons and even went to the temple but they had plans to leave and went to Tupiza, for almost 4 months, but than they came back! And Fisher ended up teaching them and there baptism was this week, it was awesome to see them accept the invitation to be baptized, we had a really good time together and it was fun to go back to SIPE SIPE with E. Fisher.

Saturday was more service where we helped our pension with a plan to clean the street where she lived, we invited all her neighbors to come and help with us... no body came jaja but we cleanedthem streets up good and than ate some scones jaja that was worth it! 

Sunday only one hour church, and than service where we helped a family move and than cut all there grass, like grass maybe 2 feet high! and some trees, I need to buy me a machete cause those things can do everything, they are by far the best tool, for.. for.. everything!

Well that was my week, so far also we have been teaching a 18 year old kid who is called Douglas he is really awesome and loves the church and has a date to be baptized next week! So pray that everything goes will with him! love ya fam hope all is well in your life and all is good have a good week! I'm excited to talk to you.. MAÑANA!

-- 

- Elder Clayton

Bolivia Cochabamba 

Surprise Baptism!

This week was way fast!  I feel like weeks are just going by like crazy, and I don't know how but we had another good week and a surprising baptism, too.  But, I'll  talk about it later in the letter. 

Tuesday I had a split with an Elder from Washington this week who will be ending the mission soon, it was kinda sad because this Elder was just so done with the mission and so ready to go home, but he still has four weeks left! You gotta work, what about enduring to the end!  I got there and we were contacting like crazy and I was just trying to help them get citas and get a change of heart in these last four weeks that he has, I think I helped him out a little, but it actually motivated me that I cant waste a second of the mission these 2 years are not mine but to the Lord.  I'm on the Lord's time. 

Thursday we had a lesson with a investigator we have been teaching for about three weeks now, she really likes the book of Mormon and the pamphlets we leave but she just won't come to church.  We had a lesson with her today but it was cut short cause our 1st councilor said he needed my baptism clothes, in that second (could not have called before, maybe last night, or a week or something) so we had to leave and set a return date, and run to the house get my ropa (clothing) and than go to the church to give him my clothes and he baptized his 8 year old son.  (I'm still waiting on my clothes and tie... )

Friday weirdest day ever jaja so we started the morning out normal got all our studies in and than ate lunch but at 4:00 we had a n invite to go to our pensions anniversary, that was fun and we ate some really good chicken from the oven.  After that 6:00 another party from our ward mission leader and it was a small Christmas party we than ate some steak and potatoes, and to end the night sad thing a member of the ward passed away Friday morning.  He was really sick and has been sick for more than a year passed away in the morning so at around 7:30 we went to there house to sit with the family and ask if they needed anything, which they did a white tie! which I totally had and wanted to give it to them but the councilor had it! So Elder Dalton gave his, it was a really weird Friday we ate 3 and a half plates of food in one afternoon, I felt like I was in the states...

Saturday ok so here is the baptism! So I didn't talk about it last week cause he didn't come to church and I thought it would be best to wait a week, however we talked with him on Wednesday and he wanted to be baptized this Saturday si o si, so we started talking to our leaders and they said it was ok so we did the interview and the baptism the same day! Super nuts!  Really busy day but he than got confirmed yesterday a really surprise baptism.  I knew he would get baptized but I thought this week... but it's all good his name is Luis and was a reference from Sacaba, that was fun and my Hijo got to baptize him!

Well that was about it this week I got some more fotos on my drive, so go check those out and I'll throw some on here too! love ya guys I'm stoked for the 25!!  Love y'all oh esta todo bien! (everything is alright)

  BAPTISM OF LUIS

 The green and yellow water for the baptizm,  yes it was cold too

We ate some chicken hearts, well actually we ate 6 pounds of chicken hearts.. they were really good, I felt just like home cutting them up!

-- 

- Elder Clayton

Bolivia Cochabamba