15 December 2025

Hello all! My name is Battraw, Elder Battraw. Sometimes here, sometimes there, always "in between jobs." As the title may suggest, I'm slowly shriveling away into a sarcastic cadaver of my formal self. The other day, I fell down a hill and made Minecraft skeleton noises. That didn't hurt quite as much as when a 5'3" Peruvian lady called me skinny though. I've since resolved to eat more, because boy have I lost a lot of weight. Besides that, the week was good! We celebrated the same 5'3" Peruvian lady's birthday, and had a farewell party for Elder Sousa, doppleganger of Miles Morales. There was a baptism in Miles Morales's area as well. And our friend that fell off the face of the planet a week ago has returned and has a baptismal date again! Let's go! We also visited little towns in our area along the mountains and walked a lot! There was also a wild, angry bull that got loose and put itself on the path back to home. We tried going around, when it suddenly decided that the grass where we needed to go looked pretty good and moved there. So we ran back to the trail and started ninja sneaking along the path. The bull was maybe fifteen feet away from the path, just down a slight slope munching on grass with its head down. Elder Saccatuma headed in front, safely passing in a hunkered stance. I was moving past the bull when Elder Saccatuma yelled, "MOO!" and we took off sprinting. Fortunately we didn't get clapped by the bull and made it safely back. There has been great progress in The Swoley Bible! I'm hoping to finish it sometime in the next 16 months. Speaking of which, yesterday was my 8 month mark in the mission. Very cool. Time is going by pretty quick! And Christmas is pretty exciting. The main plaza here is decked out with tons of lights and decorations. All of the schools are having their end-of-year parties as well, which is very nostalgic. It is really cool, though. The mission has already been an amazing adventure. During the first week, I couldn't imagine I would even make it to 3 months, yet here we are. It sure does suck sometimes, but the good moments and people make up for the bad. I thought a lot about all of the awesome friends and experiences I've had while out here, and I can't wait to have more. Signing off, Elder Battraw