alright here i go haha just so you know i am using a spanish keyboard so i will not be using anything that has to do with grammer. So my companionis Elder Huanc, yes it sounds like wanka the candy bar. he is so cool he is from peru and does not speak any english. people talk so fast here you would not even believe it some i can understand and others i canot we do have two baptismal dates and we usually have about 5 appointments each day and contact lots ofpeople every day. oneinvestigatorthati am very excited to meet with is jean bapist he is from haiti and is dying to learn more about the gospel. it is so crazy to me how many people do not have the gospel in there lives there is so much spiritual hunger here. also, i have had the opportunity of annoitning the oil for two blesssings of health within the first two odays boy was that scary ha. my area is just outside santo domingo it is caled mi hogar and there are not many active members here only like 30 which is not that bad but there are close to 50 inactive or more it is so sad that people stop their conversion process and become inactive i think it is mostly because people do not understand that faith is an action we have to do something to be faithful and do it right. <like praying reading scriptures and especialy attending church to partake of the sacrament. i got to present myself to the ward and bare my testimony and just as excpected, i cried, but it was mostly for one purpose. I was testifying of the truthfulness of forever families and the spirit bore witness to me very powerfuly that the words which i was saying are true. how amazing is it that i can be with my family for eternity. I canno lie I miss you al so much I miss goine to church with you eating dinner together praying together and doing things with you and sometimes i even get jealous of the people here that they get to be with their families right now. but then i have to recognize that i can be with the ones i love forever and the people here canot have that blessing in their lives unless i first share with them the truthfulness of eternal families so they can know the way through which they can also be sealed with their families. It is sad to think that for some the time they have with their family is only temporary. I amso grateful that i have parents that have raised me in the way that i can help others come unto christ and also return with honor to my father in heaven and live with my family forever. tell brittan to keep me updated on wrestling and life in general as wel as brittan and brea i love you guyus! oh also my house has electricity sometimes and our sink was realy fun to clean today ha that is all i wil say about that. i am eating pretty well but i want some recipies! if you could please send me some i can almost get a hold of anything, i wil probably send more pictures next time i dont havew much time to write today because we couldnt find a computer to use. i am really excited to serve the lord and iknow that our heavenly father wil bless our family and the wones i love the more faithfuly i serve. love you mom dad baya brea and brittan familias pueden ser eterna les quiero! Elder Bell also people cant pronounce my name kinda funny haha
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Saturday, November 17, 2012
November 15, 2012 MTC DR
Praying for you dad and Brittan I love your guts and don't forget it. I hope you
and mom have been praying together.Our companionship prayer really helps me
throught the week and comforts me! You should definately keep me really well
informed on how wrestling is going! Tell Brea to Email me I want to talk to her!
and Baylin too I love heaing from them! I hope Brittan will tell me about how
wrestling is going also!
November 15, 2012 MTC DR
Also, I went through the temple in
Spanish today. Suprisingly I understood everything even though it is all in
vosotros haha. I think I may have made a mistake in judgement last night ;too. I
have been playing Futbol with the latinos and last night I told them that us
greengos would play them in futbol and they took it as a challenge so now we are
playin five on five in the parking lot againts really good mexican players that
want to make us look silly! :) wooohoooo
(I promise mom I won't get competitive
and get hurt ;)) I hope I can get more pictures for you when I am out in the
mission field I am having trouble downloading pictures with this computer. Well
I think that is all for now Love you Mom and dad ( Baylin Brittan and Brea too!)
keep writing me please your letters brighten my day! :)
November 15, 2012 DR MTC
I leave the mtc next
tuesday! :) I won't have another p-day till the monday of the 26th so I can't
email until then. So, here are the interesting things that have happened this
week!
We went on exchanges in the mission field last friday and are going again
tomorrow my exchange companion's name is elder perschon he is from Spanish Fork
Utah. We didn't have many appointment s with people because he works in the
mission office, but we got to go tracting alot! I absolutely loved tracting it
felt really good and I understood what was going on and for the most part I
understood all of our contacts in the street. At one point a policeman stopped
traffic to cross the road and chase us down because he wanted to talk with us.
It was kind of intimidating because we didn't know what he wanted at first, but
we ended up getting to talk with him about priesthood authority and he wanted to
know what we think about resurrection and The spiritual world. He told us that
he read the corin?( the holy book muhamad wrote) and he really wanted to know
what we thought of muslims and if we believed in prophets what we think of
muhamad. That is what brought up priesthood authority and Joseph Smith. He
already had a book of Mormon and said that is hat he wants to read now that he
finished the Corin. He explained to us that he really loves to read and we
agreed with him that El Libro De Mormon is a very good next option :) ha. Also
we had an appointment with a woman named Ulda. Her family basically has nothing
they live in an abondoned building that is falling apart and had three chairs
which they brought outside for us to sit on. Ulda and her husband Domingo had
plans to get baptized a couple months ago, however Ulda doesn't have a birth
certificate, and she does not have money to buy a birth certificate, and without
that she cannot be legally married. An interesting thing was how happy she was
even though it seemed as if she has nothing she was just working washing clothes
and peeling potatoes and smiling while she worked. Also, she has read to fourth
nephi in the Book of Mormon in about a month which is pretty impressive. She
says it makes her feel good and happy and helps her in her life. I am interested
to see if she has been keeping commitments with Elder perschon tomorrow like
praying on her own and with her family. I got to share a message with her about
family prayer and how it blesses us from 3 nephi chpt 18: verses 19- 12 last
week and she promised she would pray with her family. I really miss family
prayer. Well, we do have family prayer at the MTC, but it is a little bit
different when it is 55 missionaries and I can't even remember everyone's name.
Oh I got Christmas care pakages from Elder and sis. Bell and also The Excell
Family yesterday :) Don't worry I had my companion open them and take out any
candy that could melt and then he closed the rest of the stuff back up with duct
tape so I could open them on Christmas. I think the addresses I gave you for the
mission office are alot faster than the ones adressed to the Mtc because that
stuff only took a week. I love you guys!Tthink about you often! Here is the
scripturee I want to share this week Helamen 10:4-6 I like looking at the
things I have to do to be blessed and how the Lord can bless me if I do those
things in these verses. Love, Elder Bell
Monday, November 12, 2012
November 7, 2012 DR MTC
Love you dad, I think about you often please continue to keep me updated.. I hope you recognize how much you have helped me to become the person I am now. Love you so much. Tell Brittan Brea and Bay that I miss them and look forward to being with my best friends in eternity and in two years. Love, Elder Travis Brennan Bell
November 7, 2012 DR MTC
I was really disappointed that Obabma won,. but my companion almost died.. It is a little bit frustrating when people think the world will end because of something like that. I have heard that marijuana is now legal in a lot of states is that true?
My week has gone pretty well I have been able to communicate with the ten district leaders and my use of Espanol has definately gotten better. Sometimes I have found that the only thing that can help me is prayer. For example, I had alot of questions this last fast sunday and my head was fuzzy and I wanted some guidance as to how I should study and I recieved all my answers as I faithfully fasted. Usually my answers either come through a prompting of the spirit or through guidance from my leaders. What's crazy is my leaders don't know what I am thinking or what exactly I have been praying about all week, but the spirit guides them to help all of us missionaries. One cool experience this week was that two elders were really struggling getting along one with another and only one had been teaching in lessons and not letting the other one speak. Their district leaders told us about this and the situation was getting really bad, in fact, one elder broke down crying in frustration because he couldn't teach in the middle of a lesson. When we got to speak with the leaders of that district I was able to speak spanish really well and bear a testimonyof the power of companionship prayer. Companionship prayer is what holds my comapanionship together throughout the week It is such a blessing and keeps peace between me and my companion and helps us so that we can help each other. there are a few scripures about the light of Christ that I read this week and really helped me. They are 3 Nephi 18: 16 d and c 67:13 3 nephi 27:27 . I know that I can be a light for others so that they can go unto Christ with the Spirit and the key to all of us having the light or spirit of Christ is Mosiah 3:19 The Holy Ghost is what helps us be like Christ. Actually it literally is Christ Strength and we can come unto Christ or be like him if we use it appropritely. My Question for you is ( because questions are how we learn and are converted if we act to find the answer) how do we Appropriately and worthly use the holy Ghost there are a few things , but the primary verse of scripture which helped me in this process is D&C 82:10. I love all of you and enjoy the letters so much I pray for you and think of you often please keep writing me and telling me how your lives are going!
love, Elder Bell
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Not that much has changed for me because of hurricane sandy. However we did learn something pretty cool from our teachers this week. The people in the Dominican Republic have noticed that every since the temple was made here in 2000, hurricanes come to approach the DR and turn left and hit haiti.... kind of stinks for Haiti but God really doesn't want to ruin his temples I guess.. which is totally understandable :).
Today 40 latinos arrive and my companion and I are the Assitants to the MTC President so all of their questions will be directed toward us. Let's hope that my Spanish is sufficient haha. there is 1 from Guatemala, one from Honduras, 3 from chile, ten from mexico, 1 from columbia and the rest are from the DR. and four sisters from the DR and one from Honduras. Here is my adresses for when I am in the field:
Letters: Santo Domingo East Mission
SDQ 4102
2250 NW !!4th Ave-Unit 1A
Miami, FL 33172-3652
Packages: Santo Domingo East Mission
AP 000914
8532 NW 66th St.
Miami, FL 33166
I sent some letters this week that you should all be getting t soon I hope :) I enjoyed hearing from Brittan and Bay :) thank you Baylin :). We don't get alot of time to type..., but that's ok we get to go to the temple right after this :). Mom I got your letter and I have the same ;companion I had in provo I can't remember if I anwered that or not. I want to talk with Braelin Yearsely and Josh Hansen if you could please get me their email :) Love you thank you for everything!
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