To Brittan (Monday after State)

Wow britt i am so happy for you! :) sounds like you sucked it up that is awesome and i knew you would do something incedible this weekend i have been waiting all day to read your email! I hope you dont forget how you felt this tournament and the things you have learned from wrestling this year try and apply them in your life :)
I wish i could be there supporting you I was really hoping you could use those scriptures to help you and i am so glad you love seminary and reading scriptures that is impressive :)
 so who won your weightthe post falls kid? or a sepian twin? ah doesnt matter haha i am just so glad you came out and finished third like a man it is a very hard thing to do and i was suprised i handled it so well last year. The only reason i think i handled it that way was because God was guiding me to learn what i needed to. I hope someday i can talk with you more about that love you britt so much keep living up this part of your life but first of all remember how special and loved you are. Remember how much you love your sisters and parents, and take advantage of this time with them because once your mission comes it is time to be a grown up and I have recently realized that I will never have the life I knew before again love you brother dont forget it! :) Elder Bell

February 25, 2013

How are you teaching emmie to do that?  (I told him I am teaching Emmie to say I Love You)  haha sounds interesting.. yeah don\'t even worry I looked for brittan"s email first I have been anxious this weekend to see how he did and sounds like he didnt disappoint! I am very excited for him

So this week has been really good really we are working very hard but I am having a hard time finding a flow with my comp and sometimes i feel like he is grumpy but that might be3 cuz he doesnt talk much. Something I have noticed is he has 18 months and I dont think he likes that I can speak spanish better than him and the thing is we arent supposed to compare ourselves to other missionaries so it kinda bugs me that it bugs him. I feel like my spanish isnt progressing because he doesnt like to speak it with me ha but i take an hour after lunch to read out loud and study in spanish so I dont lose it. Even though it would be nice to sleep.. we dont really have any baptismal dates right now but we are planning on putting a bunch  because we did work last week. the main problem here is that people dont get married they do something called free union which is basically just moving in kind of frustrating it really stops the progress of lots of investigators.

I got the package :) but havent had time to practice piano.. it was really awesome this week that our ward members gave us around ten references that is always nice to have ward suppot i appreciate it alot i am feeling kind of frustrated that i havent been able to write letters to you guys i dont know what is going on time just starts flying by and i have a hard time fitting my studying and exercise and letter writing in. I am hoping i can at least send a few pics here though in the next few weeks.

Oh it really made me mad yesterday a member told us that one of our references would never progress and said that he doubted that she even wanted to talk to us. That is the opposite of faith and we have to have3 faith that people can change or they wont. he even tried to argue with me when i said she needs support and we should try not to think negative because that is the oppostie of faith i just had to walk away after that because i started to feel all gross inside. tomorrow i am going to try to make habichuelas con dulce ha should be interesting i make weird food down here  but usually just make rice and boil some bagged beans and try to thing of different ways to flavor them..

A chapter in d and c that i have really liked lately is 42 when it talks about that we cant teach without the spirit because really we teach to invite others and ourselves to change and we cant change without the holy ghost. I think you should read recognizing the spirit and some of the scriptures in preach my gospel as a family love you mom have a fun week at state :) Elder Bell

2/18/2013 -To Brittan and the team

Dad let the team know <i am praying for them! tell them to not focus on individual wrestlers but to stick to what they are good at and be confident! <i dream about basically two things...ok maybe three my family my investigators and wrestling almost everynight I love that sport and it is so much more than a competition it is a test and really what matters if you can step of the wrestling mat feeling like there was not one thing that you could have tried or one time that you hesitated to do what you are there to do, and what we wrestle for is to test our limits so I guess just tell everyone of them to relax and have fun and realize they will remember very clearly the experiences that are happening for a very long time. This part is for brittan so have him read ittell him that it is time for him to let go of anything that happened to him and go get what he deserves at state also tell him to pray and read the scriptures the night before out loud to himself especially if he is nervous read dand c 122 and also psalms 118:24 I love you Brittan I know that this wek is a big week but I also know that you are basically in the spot a was in as a freshman which is the most memorable year of my wrestle life state your freshman year is so fun you have no pressure so don`t let anyone make you feel like you do be an example for the team and have good sportsmanship and stay composed also i can give you the point of view of the ranked wrestlers in your weight i havebeen the top seed in the state and was overconfident and got upset and I have been the two seed and I was timid , but wow basically right now you are the fourth seed at your part in the bracket just turn it lose and wrestle you way brother have so much fun and not matter what start ever match with a clean slate like it is your first match of the tournament and you are fresh for every match. I love you so much I have been where you are and trust me you will look back on this as the funnest thing you have ever done. Tear it up boys! Elder, Bell

February 18, 2013

The Miami adress works very well and the dear elders but I am lucky if they bring me the mail out here we actually have to just pick up our mail every time we go to the capital that is two hours plus away from here so I take longer to send mail now.
So today for pday we played soccer in a big stadiumand i got sun burnt for the first time and i am very out of shape haha i ran so much and now i am just dead.
So the bishop in this ward in a beast he is so focused on getting us references but the goal for baptisms this year is a little crazy i hope i can stay here and be part of completing it.It is 69 baptisms this year... kinda loco but we had six investigators come to church that we found this week so that is good.
Oh and the monday before I had to leave for my transfer was terible I got my first migrane in the missionfield and it was bad but my comp gave me a blessing which made me cry i didnt know why I was crying though because the crying caused me to throw up I slept for an hour5 and then I was completely fine.
My area is huge got to be at least 200 miles of area that it covers dont laugh if that sounds way off I am just guessing. Also it is weird that you brought my window being opened up and I am sure you thought of that for the same reason I did yesterday but I was reading about lorenzo snow and recognizing times where promptings of the spirit helped me and that experience came to my mind.

More about my area so it is la romana my comp has a year and a half and  Ispeak spansih better than him I think he know more vocab but he talks with a weird accent and wont talk spanish with me in the house I am hoping that doesnt slow down my learning too much. I bought a sweet camera for like 70 dollars last week just got to buy a charger for the battery.whooo so running out of things to say it is hard to think sometimes but I am working on some letters for you guys love you so much! HFave a great week! Love Elder Bell

January 11, 2013 - 1st Transfer

So transfers....I am going to the country! like where they farm and everything here it is almost as far east as our mission goes the name of my new zone is La Romana and my new comp will be Elder Bullen. All I know about him is that he is from the U.S. I think he has about a year in the mission.. somethin that kind of is hard for me is I am leaving two families with baptismal dates that have gone to church and three other people. My companion and I really thought we were just going to stay together because we are doning so well , but I am out of here! After we got the call for transfers me and Elder Huanca just sat there and stared at each other for a good half an hour. caught us by surprise because the mission president had sent cards to all the trainers I guess to ask if the missionary they were training is preapared to train and Elder Huanca put yes. I guess he was almost certain I was gonna train and they call the new trainer before five a clock sunday and they didn't call us. But they called us at ten a clock at night and told me my tranfer. Wow. I am really going to miss our investigators they are like a second family and I love seeing the changes in their lives and in their countenances. My spanish is pretty good now my comp tells me I speak better than Elders that have been here a year.. I love you mom thank you for emailing me I am always praying for you all tell my bro and sisters I love them! Love, Elder Bell

Feb. 4, 2013

Really haven't baptized anyone haha we had five baptismal dates for this week and every single one fell through.. it hurts really bad and sometimes I wonder if I am doing something wrong. But I also know that Father in heaven is forming the person that I will be for eternity and there must be something I need to learn from these brief and momentary roadblocks.I have also, noticed that the investigatores that have the spirit in their homes and really a different countenance and are more happy are those that are reading the book of mormon and praying with there children. :) We had a great week besides the baptisms that fell through we taught more than 55 lessons this week and have 33 new investigators. The stressful thing is finding members to visit with us and finding new people and following up on the3 commitments of investigators and doing it all in spanish ha I speak well but sometimes my head is fuzzy and doesn't have quite as many scriptures memorized in spanish to help me.

So don't worry about the camera then I will find one to buy :)
Also Elder Huanca got his package and me too and we really liked it he got so excited I think he even cried a little bit.  Wow so we did have a miracle with one contact tonight we had one minute to find a contact and were rounging the corner to go home but a door to a house was open we said hello to the woman inside and said we have a message for your family. She immediately let us in and said she had been waiting for somebody that night, but didn't know who it was and that her son and daughter need Christ in their lives and she wants us to keeping visiting with here family because she knows God sent us and we are the people she was waiting for.

 I love you and dad very much I also love my brother and sisters! and sleeping! But every time I close my eyes I swear it is the morning five minutes later haha! :) crazy Love you very much! Elder Bell