Elder Brandon Mitchell

July 12, 2010

Hi everyone,

Well I guess I should say something.  I just happened to get changed on Friday.  Yup I am no longer in Catarama but I just so happen to be in the biggest city in all of Ecuador.  Guayaquil.  Seriously, it is huge.  Our sector is just a bunch of hills so it is a bit tiring sometimes.  But what is really cool is that from the tops of the hill you can just look on forever and not see an end to Guayaquil.  It is seriously huge.  And a big change.  The taxis here are really expensive.  We paid four dollars and fifty cents for two people when Elder Flores and I came to Guayaquil.  That is two to two and a half hours in a bus.  A taxi ride here is for 10 or 15 minutes is 4 dollars.  Basically I don’t think we will be taking any taxis here.  So Elder Flores even though he had more time in Catarama got stuck there.  I am here in Gallegos Laras in Prosperinas with Elder Diaz from Argentina.  He has 15 months here but the sad thing is that he has had a ton a bad companions.  I am going to change that.  He has told me just a little bit of what his companions did and it is really sad.  So yeah I hope it will be a good change for him.  Oh and he has had a pretty sad life.  Many things have happened to him.  One thing really cool is that he can speak a bit of English so I am going to speak a lot to him so that he learns.

Well as for me here. I am all good.  It is a bit weird without Elder Flores but that is fine.  Life continues on.  We got along really well.  And we were going to baptize Carlos and Jessica Saturday.  I don’t know what has happened with that.  But I know when Jessica found out that I had to leave she started crying because she wanted me to baptize her.

I am sorry about the short emails and the lack of funny stories.  But when I got here everything was different and funny.  So there were a lot of funny stories but now it is all the same but I will do better on writing funny things.

Elder Mitchell

June 21, 2010

Hello there,

It is me again.  I was starting to wonder if this stuff will ever end.  I don´t know if you have seen the Joseph Smith movie that is like two hours, you can watch it I think in the church history center or something like that, but anyway in the movie Joseph Smith´s wife (I can´t seem to remember her name at the moment) asked him Do you ever think that the Lord asks too much of us?  I wonder if we ask ourselves that in times like this.  Does the Lord not have mercy? Does he not see our suffering?  When will he free us from our trials?  The prophet Joseph Smith passed through tremendous trials and one time he asked the Lord Where art thou?  Then our loving kind savior responded that he is there and is only doing this because he loves him and wants the best for him.  It is much like a loving mother who makes her children receives vaccinations because she knows that much later it will help them out.  That a little suffering and pain that the shots cause now will prevent much worse things that could happen much later and will help them have many happy and healthy years.  The Lord does not expect too much of us.  He only expects obedience.  The Lord sees our suffering and he has mercy on us.  If only we could see and feel the fullness of his love for us we would do anything that he asks of us.  And He blesses us for our obedience and will continue to bless us throughout the eternities.  I know this is true.  I would be there in a second if I could but the Lord has asked me to be here as you all pass though these trials.  I know that because I am here you all receive more blessings than if I was there.  Every day that passes I can see the blessings of the only true gospel in my life and can realize more and more that all we have to be is obedient.  The Lord loves us, he only makes us suffer so we can be stronger, he only gives us pain so we can be patient and he only gives us trials so we can prove faithful to his him.  Let us be obedient. Let us do a little better.  And Let us love the lord a little more.  If only we could imagine the blessings he has waiting for us.  There is a saying that I have always liked.  Don’t give up what you want most for want you want in the moment.  Let´s not give up our celestial mansions, rewards and glories for the little pain and suffering we have now.  In Spanish there is a phrase vale la pena which means that it was worth it.  But it literally translates (I think) It is worth the punishment or suffering.  In the MTC my District leader told me a quote by a catholic bishop.  It says that we should not pray that our tasks be made easier.  Rather that we should pray that we should be made up to the task.  Then in the end the miracle will not be that the task gets done, rather that through our tasks and trial we have been made stronger. Let’s be strong in our trials and let us plead from the Lord for strength to raise and be able to overcome our trials.

Have a great week.

This gospel is the great and marvelous work of the lord. I know it and you all know it.

Elder Mitchell

June 14, 2010

Hi everyone,

As for me I am doing pretty good.  Just working as usual.  I have to say that time passes super fast.  Our investigators are progressing and we are having a little more success.  I might have to end up paying for this divorce because the family basically has no money.  That will be 30 dollars or so.  But that is fine.  But he is always a little unpredictable and in any moment something can upset him and then he doesn’t what to do anything.  I just hope I don’t get this divorce done for them and then he doesn’t want to get married or something.  As for Maria the teenage girl who wants to get baptized we are going to work hard so that she can get permission this week to get baptized the next week.

Oh Elder Quinde wrote me and told me that some of my converts from Bahia are still super strong.  One wants to go on a mission.  He also said that a few investigators were going to get baptized that I was teaching there.  That made me happy.

Elder Mitchell

June 7, 2010

Hi there everyone,

It looks like the computer is going to be mean as usual and it is not going to allow me to send photos.

As for the work it has been a tough week.  I just hope that we can help the investigators.  But one thing that I have learned from this is the important of the law of chastity and that none of this would have happened if they would have been obeying the laws of God.  I was reminded yesterday of how a kite needs to be held down by a string for its own good.  If not it would not be able to fly.  The same thing applies with the commandments.  They help us fly higher in our lives.

It is summer winter and is a little cooler.  I was actually really cold the other night when it was 75 degrees.

Elder Mitchell

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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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