9 Months! (&20 years)

Elder Brayton with one of many birthday cakes.

This week was a great week for me because I turned 20!!!! And also my 9 months in the mission which is a little less exciting for me. But the ward here is so awesome, they gave me so much food over the weekend! I was so grateful to all the families that invited us over for a party! At the end of this week we ended up not having a baptism, Gustavo, who was going to get baptized got swamped at the university and just could never make it home before 11pm. But now we have that to look forward to this next week.

Also I don´t know if I have mentioned this or not, but last week we found one of the coolest guys I have ever meet. His name is Chrysler and he has experienced some stuff in his life and not very good stuff. I don´t want to get into a lot of details,  but basically he has done a lot of things and made a lot of mistakes and had a really bad accident recently. He realizes that and also is looking to make a change! So we have been going by his house this passed week and he is so ready to learn and to make changes in his life. It is amazing to me to see how humble he is after everything that has happened to him.

That's it!! I hope everyone has a good week, and thanks so much for the birthday wishes!!!

Love,

Elder Brayton

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Elder Brayton, We love you!

 

 

 

USA! USA!

Alfonzo se bautizó! (Alfonzo is baptized!)

Elder Brayton and Alfonzo in white along with Alfonzo's family.

This week was so great, I got to have my second baptism in this sector. And the best part for me was that Alfonzo asked me if I would do the baptism!! That was really special. I had the opportunity to meet his family and teach them. That was awesome too! We found them like 3 months ago and have been working with them ever since. It was also a relief to see some results for all the work that that we have been doing here. I have loved being in this sector for as long as I have been here because I have gotten to see a huge change in the members of this area. Now, they are starting to get really into the missionary work. Now we are starting to find some amazing new people that, I believe, are ready to be taught and receive the gospel!

Love,

Elder Brayton 

 

In a separate email that Elder Brayton sent us today, he told us that he was sick last week. Please keep him in your prayers. Specifically his safety and health.

 

We Are Loving It Here!

This week!!! I am not sure what it was about this week if all of our hard work is starting to pay off or if we found like a really good groove or what. But we are seeing the fruits of our labors this week! This Saturday Alfonzo is going to get baptized. Alfonzo is 9 years old and all of his brothers and his dad are members of the church but haven't been in years and years and years. Or they were not going when we found them. But now the brother is passing the sacrament every Sunday and his older brother is starting to think about going on a mission!! And his mom, who is not a member of the church, is starting to receive the lessons and is showing a lot of interest in the church. But Alfonzo passed his interview yesterday and now we are planning the baptism for this Saturday!!

 

Also we got a new ward mission leader in the ward this past week and he is awesome!!! I'm positive that we are going to have a lot more success with this guy, his name is Gonzalo.

Everyone stay great!!

 

 

(Is it just me or are these emails getting shorter and shorter! Beau)

Nos Quedamos! (We Stayed!)

On Top of the World!

Picture of Pacific Ocean Taken from the Morro de Arica

August, 1, 2016

We Stayed! Neither me or my companion left this cambio (transfer), which is a relief for the both of us because we are having a blast here in this sector. We are both getting ready to have a really successful time these next couple of weeks. We are planning to have a couple of baptisms and keep helping the ward here grow and retain everyone. I have seen huge growth since I got here. When I arrived there was an average of like 120 people in the church every Sunday.  A couple of times this past month we have seen the attendance up in the 150´s and 160´s which is HUGE for ward in Chile! The bishop has mentioned a couple of times that they might need to build another building out in Lluta (pronounced Utah) which is one of the other towns that we have to work in. That would be extremely exiting to be able to see that.  That is just a little extra motivation for me to work as had as I can!! 

Also my companion from the MTC, Elder Eager, is going to be training this transfer and I'm really excited for him because we are both in Arica and are both trainers. 

Other than that nothing else is pressing here. We are going to get a new sister missionary in our ward, and there was a prediction for an earthquake in Arica this past weekend but nothing happened. I don't think that you can really predict those..... welp anyways everyone have a great and safe week, 

Love Everyone!  

Elder Brayton 

 

Leading the Charge!

The Christ of La Concordia denotes the signature of the 1929 agreement between Peru and Chile. The statue weighs 15 tons and is 10 meters high.

Work Hard, Baptize Converts!

Chefs in the kitchen!

July 25, 2016

So here is how the mission works, you don`t enjoy the work unless you are giving your 110%. This week here in Zapahuira, we started the week knowing that we had to play catch up because the week before my companion got super sick. So this week we went hard in our area and we had one of the most successful weeks of my mission I think! We found a TON, we taught even more, and what`s more important is that we have been helping a lot of our investigators get ready for their baptisms. Yáll better believe that all of the baptismal dates that I have been setting this week are going to be for August 20!! I'm all set to hopefully have a baptism the same day as my birthday!

A lot of people have been asking how I like being a trainer. To be 100% honest, it's not what I expected at all. For every missionary in the world that is starting the mission, there is a 12 week program to help them basically learn how to be a missionary in the mission field. Whenever I had to do it my first time in the mission when I was getting trained I wasn't a huge fan of it. But now that I am a trainer, I love it! I am pretty sure that I am learning more than Elder Jimenez right now. And Elder Jimenez thinks I'm a little crazy with the stuff that I do but we get along great! I am praying this week that we will stay together because this next week there are transfers. So I hope that this time next week we will still be together. But that's it from this side of the world. Everyone stay good!

Love yall!!

Elder Brayton

Fútbol fun!