Elder Brandon Sehestedt: Goodbye August

Not sure how August disappeared so fast, but it did, and we have officially made it to September! Time is flying, and next month I bag one year! Crazy.

This week was pretty good. Elder Chacon and I went on a hunt for old investigators that other missionaries taught years back (we record everything in teaching records so other missionaries can find those people in the future). We were fortunate to find an investigator that was basically waiting for us to show up. Her name is Alejandra, and she visited with the missionaries two years ago. She was going to get baptized, but her Dad didn't give her permission, cuz she was only 16. But, two years later, she doesn't need permission and can choose for herself. So we taught her a little bit, and asked if she hand any questions. She said, "Ya, two years ago I was going to get baptized but my dad didn't let me. But now I'm 18, and I want to get baptized, would that be possible?" Hmmm.... I think we can help hahaha. But that was just a super cool experience. She is the first investigator I've taught that asked us about baptism before we even talked about it haha. Just goes to show that no effort is wasted in the mission. The other missionaries planted the seed, and two years later other missionaries see the fruit of their work. So it's cool to think about all the people we talk to, and maybe we just plant all the seeds, and down the road they will be able to be baptized.

Yesterday, it was Pedestrian Day here in Bolivia, so there were absolutely zero cars, buses, taxis, etc. Only walking was allowed haha. And we live about 35-40 minutes away from the chapel here, and the meeting starts at 8 am. So we had to leave bright and early! But the good thing about Pedestrian Day is that there are tons of people in the street. So the 6 of us missionaries here in Rosedal set up a little mission booth in the street, and with some help from the ward we went out and contacted a ton of people. We had tons of Pamphlets about the Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, Word of Wisdom, tons of Books of Mormon, etc. It was pretty cool, and we talked to a lot of people, so hopefully we will be able to find all of the houses with the addresses they gave us haha. That's one of the bad things here, at least in my area, the streets don't have names and the houses don't have numbers. So people will tell you, "I live two blocks up from the Police building, take a right and go three blocks more, and the color of my door is red." haha those are the addresses we work with here, so that's an added challenge: Not just finding people, but finding their houses!

In other news me and Chacon are Uno addicts haha. Almost every night we play before bed, and I'm still champ, undefeated in fact! Adding up all the hands we've played this week, I win 92-61 haha. Chacon got sick this week too, so we played a lot that day too since he was bed ridden.

To add to the winning streak I have, we went paintballing today as a zone, and that was crazy fun!! Never been paintballing before in my life, but all of my video game experience kicked in and I laid waste haha. Our team went undeafted, 3-0. But when I get home, paintballing is a hobby that I'm picking up, its amazing! At the end, me and Van Horn had a Mexican Standoff, where we loaded up with 20 rounds, stood back to back, took five steps opposite directions, turned around and opened fire. The first two rounds I shot off were headshots, and the majority of the rest were dead center chest shots haha, He only hit me a couple times in the leg and in the stomach, so he got wrecked haha, but it was mega fun.

Think that wraps it up for this week! This cambio is already over! This Sunday we will find out if we have changes! But I don't think so, I think me and Chacon will stay together. We'll have to wait and see what happens, could be interesting! Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Sehestedt

Here's how the milk comes here in Bolivia, in little plastic bags haha. Still good though, and I've become a cereal monster lately. Me and Chacon buy the giant bags of cereal here for breakfast.