Elder Tate Barazoto : December 2017

December 18, 2017

Well fam still cant believe Christmas is a week away... pretty wack. But super excited to be able to call my family. Well in my other area we had been working with a teenager of 18 anos and my ex comp just told me he got baptized, so that was a super awesome email to get. In our area here has been a little weird. Some of our really good investigators that we had we havent been able to get in contact with them this whole week so hopefully this week thats coming we have some good news about them! So this week was full of getting chased by a drunk car in his car, being asked to cut the fingernails of babies, appointments falling, and getting lectured by drunk people how we dont follow Jesus. Some pretty funny experiences honestly haha. Alma 26:¨Now when our hearts were depressed we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites (Bolivianos) and bear with patience thy afflictions, and I will give unto you success.¨

I love that scipture because when we feel like we have done everything in our power to, for example, preach the gospel, The Lord will carry us even farther! Well love and miss you all fam! Write me as a Christmas present!

December 25, 2017

Well fam first have a merry chistmas! A pretty boring Christmas here, but I had some presents from home to open so that made it better haha. Well honestly do´t got much to say except that it rained a ton and a lot of appointments fell through. But we got a ton of referrals from members this week, so those should be some promising investigators. But everythings going good, I completed a year in the mission so thats about the wildest thing that happened haha. Well miss and love you fam! Hope everyone can think a little more about the true purpose of christmas, the reason for the season our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

Pictures: 1,2-view from the top of the church building, 3-christmas eve with some members, 4- christmas morning haha

December 11, 2107

Well fam a pretty normal week out here in Tarija, Bolivia. Its been like 70 degrees all week but it feels super cold because ive been so accostumed to the heat. But this week was pretty sweet because we were able to work a ton with members and recieve referals. We are working with some really good people right now in the area. There is one girl thats been to church 3 times in a row that we´ve only been able to teach once called Jimena. She´s super awesome and prepared for the gospel so we should have some good news soon with her. Elder Bogges and I get along really well so its pretty fun. Im his first gringo companion in his mission, he has had 5 latino companions. We did some service on a farm this week and we drove out suppper far and just like fed and watered cows it was pretty fun. They just like let their cattle run free and hope they can find them, not the best system. Its still been pretty cold out here, im not used to it. So honestly dont got to much to report. During the Christmas season everyone just feels the Christmas spirit and its been sweet because alot of the people we found this week were expressing desires to change and follow Jesus Christ. So this week I have been studying a ton about the Spirit and how important it is that we always listen to spirit when teaching investigators. If we are tune with with spirit and we follow its promptings our words will be as if they were from God himself, pretty cool to think about that. The challenge is recognizing it and then acting on it. Well fam Im pretty happy out here in mission field which is weird to think sometimes because its pretty hard at times. But I wouldnt trade this learning experience for anything. Love and miss you all!

Exchange with an elder, some family cooked and madddd barbeque.

some wild donkeys

-a pretty sweet pic of my area

December 4, 2017

Hows it going everyone. So first my area here, like you are going to see, is super dope, there is a fairly rich part more by the city but then there are some other parts that are suppper far from the city that are prettydope. There are also some tiny villages like an hour fom where we live that are like straight in the jungle that we might be visiting soon. But our area is super awesome and the members here are super ready to help also. My comp and I get along super good, and he`s teaching me the guitar so thats super dope. They had elections yesterday and apparently its fairly dangerous so we couldnt leave and there wasnt church in all of Bolivia and the people cant use cars, it was a weirdly silent day. We just rested, studied, and played the guitar haha. The people in Tarija, the city im in right now, talk super funny, they like sing when they talk is pretty funny to listen to them. Well as Christmas gets closer and closer its impossible to not be thinking about Jesus Christ. I am super grateful for this opportunity I have to be his represantative and preach his gospel! Its blessed my life and thats why Im here, to give them the chance to follow Jesus Christ and be immensely blessed! So in my area we are branch, we arent a ward. I havent been to church yet, but my comp said theres only like 60 people that attend. They dont have a chapel here its just a house they rent out, i forgot to take a picture tho, but Im super stoked to be here in this area to invite everyone to come unto Christ. I was reading a talk by an ex-missionary and something he said really stuck out to me. "I fear no man." "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." 3 nephi 5:13

Love and miss you all!!

Pictures:1,2,3-flying into tarija