Elder Brandon Mitchell

May 31, 2010

Hi everyone,

How are you all doing? I am fine. Yes it was a bit shocking to hear about Lynn and everything that happened. I am really sorry that it happened and I was pretty sad Monday when I found out. But now I am fine. Just think about how awesome it is that we have the gospel in our lives when there are so many other people that don´t have it. Anyways I hope everyone is doing well.

As for here we have had quite a week. A ton of things have happened. Basically it all has to do with this couple that we are trying to get baptized. They have a ton of problems. Not like alcohol or smoking or anything like that. More of just marriage problems (although they aren’t married.) We also found out that the lawyer that Jessica hired is totally corrupt and just wants money. He said that the divorce was going to be done Wednesday and then Wednesday we talked to him and he said that the judge he had talked to needs a some sort of form or something and that will cost $60 (a lot of money here). So then Jessica talked with the judge because we thought that this wasn’t right. The judge told her that he didn´t need anything and it shouldn’t cost her a thing to finish the divorce. But yeah that and marriage problems have been what we have been working on a lot this week. Elder Flores is still here. And that is good because he is a really good missionary.

That is just about it for me. Oh I forgot to say that we had a baptism on Saturday. Jessica’s niece whose mom is a member but doesn’t live with her daughter and her dad died. She lives with her grandparents who are members. Oh and this week we should have another baptism but it is not a convert baptism meaning that it is the child of members and she is still 8. But I guess she chose me to baptize her.

Wow it is hot,

Elder Mitchell

May 24, 2010

Hi everyone,

How are you all doing? As for Catarama we are doing well. Still teaching a lot and helping people out. This week I ate a bit of turtle as well as held a turtle. Turtle is actually pretty good. The only problem is that with every bite I imagine a turtle standing in front of me. It makes it a bit difficult to eat. I just don’t think that turtle is food or should be food. But you know what they bite and are angry little guys. Also my companion got bite by a small monkey type thing at an investigators house. It is actually their pet. I wasn´t there because we were on a split but apparently he put the monkey (it is called a cuchumbo) on his shoulders and one of the investigators pulled his tail and then it bit him in his hand. It got inflamed a bit and such but he is fine. I guess the monkey was vaccinated so he should be fine. Some member saw that his hand was inflamed and told him that if you rub a frog on the inflammation it helps. I think that it crazy and so does my companion. But they did it anyway.

Oh we also went to the countryside today to help an investigator harvest some oranges (25 for one dollar, dirt cheap huh) platanos and fish. I don´t really know what happened because I forgot to ask but after we got there we left. But it is crazy in the countryside. There are literally thousands of mosquitoes. As you walk there is about 50 chasing you and if you stop they start to bite you. I really don’t know how people live there.

As for investigators here it is going well. We should have 4 or so baptisms in 2 or 3 weeks. We are having a good time but Elder Flores thinks that he is going to leave this week or next week. But he only has two changes here so I think he is fine.

Other than that all is well.

With still a few mosquitoes chasing me,

Elder Mitchell

May 17, 2010

Hi everyone,

How is it going? I am doing really good. Forgive me that I haven’t sent photos but I will try to work on that.

I had a really cool experience this week. I wrote it in the letter to the president in Spanish and I am too lazy to rewrite it so here it is in Spanish. Use Google or Dad.

Durante esta semana tuvimos algunas buenas experiencia.

Un día encontramos una familia muy buena. Una cita falló entonces nos fuimos a la casa de una referencia que habiamos contactada pero la cita con ellos falló en la semana pasada. Tocamos la puerta y nos contestó y despues entramos. Allí supimos que ella estaba a punto bañarse pero algo pasó y ella demoró un poco pero suficiente que nos escuchó y nos contestó. Luego despues de enseñar la restauracion con ella y su esposa ella empezó a llorar y nos dijo que estaba esperandonos y que ella necisita este evangelio en su vida. En esta momento el espiritu llenó el cuarto y fue muy bien. Estoy agradicido por este momento y por ser un intrusmento en las manos del señor.

It was a really cool experience. Apparently Elder Flores has had that happen to him once before but not to that level. I guess it is the normal missionary finding people story but yeah. It is still cool. We have also found a few other people that are really awesome and are great investigators.

Today we went to a banana field (Dale) with Carlos and Jessica. Carlos works there as a worker that assembles boxes. Yeah I tried it out too. It is fun but I think it would only be fun for a half hour or so. They do it so weird but it works and is effective. He assembles like a thousand boxes every day. I also have never seen so many bananas. There is literally thousands and thousands there. Oh the stick of bananas finally got ripe and I think I ate a good thirty or so bananas this week.

No baptisms yet but we could have three this week or the next week and a few more the next. I don´t know if I have ever told you but we teach a ton of lessons here. This week I think we taught 32 lessons which is the best I have ever done. We are working hard and improving the sector a lot.

The internet cafe is just like any other one that you would find in the U.S. But one thing that is interesting about this city is there isn´t any stoplights or stop signs. Don’t worry I am still alive. JK It is crazy but they can get along here without them. You just have to be really attentive. I am looking forward to winter because they say that there are no mosquitoes in winter and it is not as hot. Speaking of heat one night it was 95 degrees when we went to bed and then the power went out so we didn´t have fans. It was alright though. This area is cool too but it is also different that Bahia. It is actually a smaller town. Here we can’t eat seafood so with lunch we always eat chicken. But yeah it is all good.

With the thought of I wonder what the record is for number of bananas eaten in a week,

Elder Mitchell

May 13, 2010

Hi there everyone,

It was great to talk to you yesterday. I have a great time. But something that amazed me is that the 40 minutes past by so fast. After I couldn´t remember what we even talked about for 40 minutes. I mean yes I did know what we talked about but I couldn´t believe that it lasted for 40 minutes. We put on a little activity at the church Saturday night for all the moms. Basically it was just a talent show type of thing so that all the moms could have fun. It was pretty good. I recorded a few things on my camera so if I have time someday I will send you them. We just did a skit where the missionaries were camping outside, one in a tent and the other in a hammock. People come and beat up the missionary in the hammock (Elder Flores) because they know we are Mormons but don´t do anything to me because I am inside a tent. The next night they do the same. The third night Elder Flores says that we have to switch because he knows that the people are going to come again and that it is my turn to get beat up. Well the people come again and say hey we have already beaten up the guy that sleeps on the hammock two times (at this point I am sleeping on the hammock and Elder Flores in the tent). Then they say let´s beat up the guy in the tent this time. And so they start beating up Elder Flores and yeah that is it. It was pretty funny. We had a good time.

That is pretty much it for this week. I am going to try to send pictures but the computer is really slow so don´t count on it.

Oh yeah you all want to hear something funny. Elder Flores ran out of money talking to his family so I was like hey you can use this card I have. So after dialing the number like ten times (by the way the numbers work that you send me dad) we got it to work but after dialing his home phone it said that calls to that area are not permitted. So I guess that AT&T has something against Peru.

Elder Mitchell

May 3,2010

Hi,

Well I just started thinking about it and I am pretty sure that not much happened this week. The banana branch that we have in the house is still completely green and thus we haven´t made banana bread.

I also don´t know if I told you but there is like a Mississippi River in the middle of our sector. It is pretty cool. But here in Catarama and Ricaurte the city across the river, I don´t think that drainage systems exist. So water just has to evaporate to go away. As a result there is always standing water in certain places. Well last night it rained really hard for hours. I think that you could qualify this as Florida rain. Within 5 minutes the streets began to fill up with water. So we went to the house and picked up the umbrellas and then put on boots…yes boots. You know those rubber ones that we use when the street floods. Yeah those ones. We took pictures and it was pretty fun. The awesome thing about wearing boots is that it really doesn´t matter if there is a foot of water you can just smile and march on forward. It was pretty awesome. And this morning we left and the river had overflowed and a ton of the streets were just flowing with water. Once again I had a good time. But this time I enjoyed the view from the back seat in a mototaxi.

Welcome to Los Ríos.

There is one Elder here that is new. Right from the factory (the members here call Utah the factory). It is really interesting to listen to him speak Spanish because he can hardly speak and he makes a ton of mistakes. But the funny thing is that I can understand exactly what he is trying to say because I was once like him. It is weird to think that 6 months ago I didn´t speak Spanish. It is just crazy to think of what I have learned.

Oh something funny is that yes everyone knows that I was sick. Want to hear something crazy? We got in a taxi the other day and you want to know what the taxi driver said to me. Hey are you feeling better? What do you mean? I asked him. Oh I saw you the other day throwing up. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Even taxi drivers know that I was sick.

That is about all.

Love you all.

With cars, motorcycles and canoes in the streets,

Elder Mitchell

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April 26, 2010

Hello,

How are things going? So I have been pretty good more or less. I have been enjoying Catarama this week. I am still pretty much completely lost when we are walking around, but that just comes with time. We had a baptism Tuesday which was pretty good. A teenager who is 16 years old. We also are going to have two baptisms this Saturday. Hopefully. The problem is that they have got to do a bunch of things before they can get baptized. Carlos has to get new identification because he just turned 18 but he thinks that since he was born in Duran, a good three hours away, he will have to go there to get it. Jessica has to get her voting verification card because here in Ecuador you are required to vote and if you don´t vote you have to pay money. Well she never has voted so she owes 32 dollars which is a good amount here in Ecuador. And she is still waiting on her divorce papers to come but they should be here soon. After they get all that done they will have to get married. But it is really cool because they both really want to get baptized. Oh and by the way Carlos is 18 and Jessica is 31 or 32. Crazy huh. But that is how it is here in Ecuador. Age just doesn´t matter.

So I have found out that here in Catarama there are a bunch of Banana Fields. And guess who owns them. Dale. As a matter of fact I have never seen so many banana trees in my entire life ( not like that is saying much because I have never seen banana trees in my life until I got to Ecuador). It basically looks like a grain field but just full of trees. There are several members and investigators here that work there. One member brought a banana branch from the fields to his home and gave it to us. It is really heavy. We thought that there was about 50 bananas on it but if we counted right there are about 94. They are still really green but with time they will be ripen. I don´t know how much it would be to buy 90 banana in the US but here it is like 4 dollars. So anyway we have somewhere around 90 bananas hanging in the house waiting to be eaten. By the way send me the recipe for banana bread because we are going to make it if we can find all the ingredients.

So I do have one other story for you all. Yesterday was my first Sunday here right. So we went to church and it was super hot because the power was out and thus there wasn´t air conditioning. I was sweating so bad that sweat was dripping down my face and falling to the floor. My whole body was aching too and I had a stomach ache. I was like I just can´t take this anymore so we left the sacrament meeting to go get a drink of water. I still didn´t feel very good at all. So after this a few members realized that I didn´t feel very good and came to see what was happening. Well By the end of sacrament meeting I think that every member knew that I was sick. So we left to go to the house which is like three blocks away. When I was about a half block away I started to throw up. It was really bad. Not fun at all. Well as it turns out I just had a flu, at least I think that was what it was. But I had to stay in the house with a member and my companion went to visit people with another member. Apparently every member he talked too was like how is your companion, what happened to him? And he would respond “Did you see that throw up outside the church? Yeah that was his.” So I think that is how I will be known from now on. The missionary that threw up on his first day. Today I feel a little better but I know I still am sick. But yeah everything is all good. Don´t worry too much.

With a bit of vomit still stuck on my shoes,

Elder Mitchell

April 19, 2010

Well Hello Everyone,

Thanks for all the Happy Birthday wishes. I did have a good birthday. But it was also really busy because I had to pack my bags. Yup, it is true I finally got transferred. I am now in Catarama I think I really can´t remember what it is called) in the Providence of Los Rios. I am with Elder Flores from Peru. He is 22 years old and has 9 months in the mission. I have really only been in this sector a good 3 hours now and I am pretty sure that it is a lot different than Bahia. For example there are only two places to use the internet and when we went there the internet was down so we had to come to Ventanas to use the internet. It is just us two there. Oh by the way I don’t know if you care but Elder Quinde is going to train in Bahia.

So as for my birthday. I suspected the change and Elder Walke called Saturday night to let me know. So Sunday we took a lot of pictures and ate a cake. It was a little interesting because there hasn´t been water in Bahia for 3 weeks or so. This is because something associated with the water system broke. So we were fine for a good two weeks because we have a water tank but that was all used up this week (again we turned to carrying water from the church). And as it turns out you can´t wash your clothes without water so all of my clothes were dirty. So finally the water turned on Saturday and we dropped off the clothes to get cleaned. But the lady only washed the pants and the socks leaving me with basically nothing clean to wear. But anyway we spent an hour or so looking for the clothes because we didn´t know where they were or where she had taken them. Then we ate the last lunch with the Pazmiños. They gave me a birthday card as well as Elder Quinde. And then we went to another member’s house to eat cake. After that we left to Portoviejo. And now I´m here.

Yeah well that is about it. I was definitely sad to leave because it was like my home (no offense) and I basically learned Spanish there. But I am excited to work here and learn new things.

I´ll send pictures of the Birthday party (if you can call it that) next week because all my stuff including my cables to my camera are still packed away.

With a bit of bus-lag,

Elder Mitchell

April 12, 2010

Hi everyone,

How is it going? I have had a good week. It is weird time goes by so fast and at the end of the week I wonder what we did. So this week we finally baptized the Villacis. They are really cool. Fernando Villacis is sharing the gospel and inviting all of his friends to church. Something that is funny is that they live in a small neighborhood called Reales Tamarindos. In this neighborhood there are maybe 25 houses. Almost everyone is family and a bunch of them are already members. It is really cool because the one that aren´t member we are teaching and so if all goes well we could basically convert the entire neighborhood.

So I baptized Fernando and Elder Quinde baptized Pilar Villacis. It was a bit interesting because Pilar is pretty tall and Elder Quinde is a bit short so he told me afterwards that he had a hard time lifting her up after the baptism. I had to baptize Fernando (by the way he has 5 names) three times because the first time his foot of all things slipped up and out of the water and the second time I forgot to say y. But yeah don´t worry he is now a baptized member of the church.

I went on an interchange in Portoviejo on Friday so that the district leader Elder Capcha could come here and interview the Villacis´ daughter. There I guess the people like white people a lot more because everyone I went the people wanted me to say things in English. I actually had to pray two times in English during lessons. I also like to joke with people about where I am from. I will say to them that I am from Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile… whatever country and sometimes they believe me. One teenage girl didn´t believe that I am from the United States. She thought that I was from Ecuador. I don´t know why. But I have found out that people don´t think that I am from the US because I am not super tall.

We have a lot of investigators and a lot of baptisms planned. I just don’t know if I will be around to see them through. I would be really sad to leave Bahia as well as Elder Quinde. He is really cool and we work really hard and are obedient and as a result are having a lot of success.

I really don´t have anything else to say. I don´t know. I felt the spirit a lot this week and saw it influence a bunch of people. I have been wondering if I can feel the spirit more just because I am a missionary or if anyone can feel it like this. I think that all you have to do is open your heart to receive it and then search for its direction in your lives.

Hoping for either suddenly cheesecake or pudding cake,

Elder Mitchell

April 5, 2010

Hi everyone,

How is it going?  I am good and well.  Just to point out something I have only fainted two times in my life.  I don’t think that qualifies me as a fainter.

So this week was full of travels.  We had interviews this week in Manta on Monday, zone conference on Tuesday in Manta as well, and General Conference Saturday and Sunday.  We also went to Pedernales one day too.  So in all we traveled 5 days of the week.

But yeah, how was conference?  I thought it was great.  Really I don´t understand why I didn´t like it very much before.  I really didn´t want it to end.  There was a ton of really good talks.  The one Elder Ballard gave about mothers and daughters, the first one (I can´t remember who gave it) about the priesthood, the talk by Elder Oak about faith in priesthood blessings in the Priesthood Session.  Those are the ones that stuck out to me.  In all I thought that the focus was on the family, priesthood, and Christ.  It was really awesome.  I certainly felt the spirit and the testimonies of modern prophets and apostles.  They really are prophets, seers and revelators.  What a great blessing in our lives.

So we watched it in Portoviejo and actually we got to watch every session, but the Sunday Morning in English.  There were four of us missionaries from the U.S. and so we watched it in English. It is a ton better because you don’t have to listen to a translator as fun as that is.  But still I could understand everything in Spanish.

Oh a bit of bad news.  I have seemed to have tragically lost my precious CTR ring.  I am a bit sad because I believe it fell out of my pocket in a taxi.  I put it in my pocket when I washed my hands, but forgot to put it back on.  But fortunately someone else is going to find a really awesome CTR ring that doesn´t fit them and that they don´t understand what it stands for because one they don’t speak English and two they aren´t familiar with Choose the Right.  But oh well.  If you want you can send me one in the next package.  But, don’t worry about it.

No baptisms this week because of General Conference, but we should have 2 or 3 this week.  One story is that we found one of our investigators drunk on the floor in his apartment.  He had left the keys in the lock and the door was open.  It was really sad to see what alcohol can do to anyone.  He begged us to help him.  Imagine a grown man crying because of an addiction.  I almost cried too.  We left taking a bottle of his alcohol and threw it away.  Later the same day we found out that a member has been smoking and drinking since her baptism two years ago.  With her we took her cigarettes away, but she too cries because she is a bad example to her kids.  How sad.  Follow the commandments.  They are there to help us.  To protect us.  In General Conference Elder Holland said the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.  Don´t take that first step.  Flee from anything that distracts you from or takes you away from obedience to the commandments and the gospel.  Another said that a distraction need not be evil to be successful.  Don’t let it happen to you.  It causes so much pain and suffering.  “O be wise; what can I say more?”  -Jacob 6:12 “Consider the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God” -Mosiah 2:41

The gospel is great and I love you all,

Elder Mitchell

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March 29, 2010

Hey everyone,

How is it going? This week has been pretty interesting. A lot of things happened. Remember how I said that I was sick last week. Well let’s just say that that ended up being a bit of an understatement. Right after we finished emailing we went to eat lunch in a member’s restaurant. The food was pretty good. Soup, rice, fish and gordo de mani which is almost the same thing as peanut butter that sometimes they serve plain. Oh and pineapple juice. It was really good. Anyway, while I was eating my headache got worse and I got a really bad stomach ache and felt like I was going to throw up. So I told Elder Quinde that I didn’t feel good, that I wasn’t going to finish my food and that he could eat it if he would like. So I closed my eyes and tried to ride out the illness. Well, the next thing I remember is Elder Quinde yelling ELDER MITCHELL, ELDER MITCHELL ¿ESTA BIEN? I just said that I didn’t feel good at all. But, what I didn’t know is that I had actually fainted. I guess I had fainted and Elder Quinde saw me fainted with my head fallen over the back of the chair and thought that I was stretching. After a few more seconds he looked at me again and saw me in the same position and started yelling. So yeah. I was fine, but still we were across the street from the health center so we went there and the doctor said that I might have had Dengue which is a dangerous illness you get from mosquitoes and told me that I had to stay in the house for three days. Yeah, so I stayed in the house until Thursday. It was pretty boring but yeah. I was a little sick the first day with a fever of 101 but after that I was fine. I am pretty sure that I didn’t have Dengue, but I don’t know for sure. Anyway I am fine now.

So this week we had 4 baptisms planned, but two of them fell through. The two that we did were in Pedernales. We baptized two girls and even better it was in the ocean. So yeah I have some pretty cool photos. I baptized one and Elder Quinde baptized one. But I will tell you what it is really hard to baptism in the ocean because of the waves. You have to baptize really fast and time it really well or the waves come and knock you over. For example, you can be half way through the prayer and whaaammm a wave comes and knocks you both over. That happened several times and you just have to restart. But you want to know what is funny? Elder Quinde after his baptism dived in and out of the water a few times. I didn’t because we are not supposed to and for good reason. You want to know what happened? Eler Quinde lost his name tag. haha. Punishment for disobedience. No, but seriously he lost his name tag in the ocean. So yeah I made fun of him a little bit for that.

The other two baptisms that we had fell through, but we are going to do them this week.

A picture to come.

With my name tag securely attached,

Elder Mitchell

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