Tierra Amarilla

New residence in Tierra Amarilla

Sept 19,2016

Hello everyone!!

I finally made it to my new area and am just starting to get back into the groove of things after that super long bus ride from Arica. A little bit about this town is that it is super small and super rural. Like when people think about small South American villages, that is just about where I am right now. It is a huge change from what I am used to. Up until this town, I have always been inside of big cities. But here there are still a decent amount of people and just about everyone knows each other. The town is surrounded by 3 different mines. While I was talking with some miners that work in them, they told me that there is city of tunnels underneath the town. In the church, there were only 20 people that went, and my companion says that is pretty normal here. The house that we live in is like back in the middle of nowhere, but the cool part is that it is surrounded by green!

Yesterday and today were huge Chilean holidays. Its like their independence day or our 4th of July. So it was very hard to find people to teach, and today everything is closed. Today we are in the church building to write everyone.  I'm going to keep this short so that my companion can have a turn to write his people too.

Hope this finds everyone well.  

Love y'all,

Elder Brayton

Making friends!

 The following are short notes we received prior to the transfer and just after he arrived.

From Arica:

This morning I am traveling from Arica to Copiapó, more specifically the town/area called Tierra Amarilla. I just saw it on a map yesterday and it looks like a single tiny road running through the desert. But I have heard a lot of good things about the town. I'm looking forward to getting there but in about an hour from now I have to get on a bus and I will be on that bus for the next 18 hours..... But on the bright side I am traveling with other missionaries, one who is a really good friend of mine. I know basically nothing about my new companion except that he only has about 6 months in the mission. 

Also one very new thing for me is that I am a district leader now. I'm not really sure how to explain what that is but I know that I am kind of responsible for the other missionaries around me and that I have to teach and help them out whenever they need it. I am really excited for those new responsibilities that are coming but a little nervous at the same time. 

I will be on the bus for the next 18 hours and I will try to write again tomorrow if I can but it looks like the town that I am going to is super small so I will see about that.

From Tierra Amarilla: 

 It was super long the bus ride, 18 hours. I'm really tired but I'm hanging in there. I am here in my sector with my companion, Elder Gali. He is from Hawaii and super chill. He has just one transfer less than I do in the mission. My district, is all gringos. Out of all of the other missionaries I have the most time in the mission somehow. For the first time in my mission I feel like an old guy. The town here is awesome from what I have seen so far but it is extremely small. It reminds me of Nauvoo because both only have one main road going through town.

 

Hoping to Help

 

 

Elder Jiminez, Chrysler, Elder Brayton

Hey everyone!

I did not have any time last week to write anything for real and I apologize about that. Today I have set apart a ton of time to hopefully respond and tell y'all about all the cool stuff happening down here in Chile. So last Monday the bishop of the church here and the ward mission leader took out us 4 missionaries of this ward out to eat at a really fancy restaurant. They treated us to some of the best sushi that I have ever eaten, granted that I only started liking sushi last year. But still it was delicious!! We have been having some crazy success in the ward these past two or three months. Between getting people to come back to church and helping them re-grow their testimonies of Jesus Christ and inviting brand new people to church for the very first time to experience it, there are a ton more people coming to church each Sunday. Between the time I got here to this week 

(which might be my last week here) we have seen more than 50 more people in the church!! And when the bishop pointed that out to me we were jumping around happy like little girls( he is like 6ft 5!) That's why I couldn't write anything last week. 

Oh and something else that happened last week, Sunday night when the zone leaders called us to see how are week went there was and earthquake! So let me explain before my mom freaks out too much. It was the tiniest tremor ever. Right after I asked the family that I live with to look it up online and it was a 4.7 that happened 40 km away and 120 km underground. It was seriously nothing but I got really exited about it because I have been waiting my entire mission to experience one.

So fast forward to almost a week later to Saturday, Chrysler finally got baptized and it was amazing! First of all I just want to say how much I appreciate him and his attitude towards everything. He showed up like an hour early just with as much energy as a man his age could have and then some. And then at about 15 mins before the baptism started he was very antsy and started to call EVERYONE, when in reality people here don't show up to and event until they are a least 15 mins late. But the actual service went extremely well. I got to share a talk about faith and repentance, Elder Jimenez got to baptize his first person ever, and the sobrino {nephew} (quien se bautizó hace 4 meses) {who was baptized 4 months ago} shared his testimony. I think the best part about everything was at the end Chrysler's best friend from a while back(who is now in the stake presidency) shared some thoughts and it was just amazing. The whole day Saturday was extremely busy but extremely rewarding. As we were walking back to the house Elder Jimenez told me that feeling the spirit this much makes you super tired. Yesterday was the fast and testimony of church so anyone could go up and share their testimony. I was thinking that it would be cool if Chrysler went up to do that, but something amazing happened. Chrysler's dad went up and shared a powerful testimony about faith. Keep in mind that he has never been to this church before, isn't even a member, but he was still up there!

And lastly today was a pretty normal p day, except for the fact that I lost my name tag at the beach while we were playing flag football. I also lost the Zip Chip ( its like a small frisky) so that is kind of a bummer. Then I got a hair cut and that was it! This may be my last week here in Arica but I will find out for sure Friday and y'all will find out Monday if I don't write, but I'll still get to send something Tuesday! I think its Labor day today in the states so everyone have a happy and safe Labor day! Do something awesome for me!!!! 

Love to everyone!

P.S. I had like a companion exchange last week with the zone leader and I realized just how bad my English has gotten, like it is super choppy and not grammatically correct and for whatever reason I now speak English with a super strong southern drawl. 

Elder Brayton

 

 

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!