A Quick Note Before the Christmas Call--12/21/09

Quick note, because today isn't p-day (don't worry, pte authorized a few minutes to ping our parents). Just letting you know that because of p-day change and time zone, I'll be calling between 5:00 AM and 1:00 PM. It'll be closer to noon, though. I'll see if I can catch you guys before grandmapa get there... the pte is being a bit more strict about the 1 hour time limit (pte ashby said we could take as much time as we wanted since we are the ones paying for it. haha). I'll be pulling out another chunk of money to pay my part of the bill, it shouldn't be too much.

Love you all so much. Thanks for the pics, and save me the D70 (*cough* just in case *cough*)

So I need you guys to be thinking about something before I call, better to tell you now and have a good conversation the 25th than bring it up on the 25th and have an awkward moment / not good conversation. It looks like the mercy of the mission president has changed my group's release date to the 21st of December, 2010 so we are home for Christmas (instead of just missing it). So I need you guys to think about whether you would spend Christmas here with me or at home with me. :D We'll talk Friday.

Love you all!

Ch Ch Ch Changes... 12/15/09

Hey fam!

Changes have come and gone, and the results are... interesting. I am staying with Elder Fajardo here. I have been hearing a lot from dad about learning from adversity... And this is just another opportunity to do so. We have some problems... but here's another opportunity to grow.

That's the way I'm looking at it. As far as other changes, the Pte surprised everybody. Elder Belleau is leaving, even though he has less time in the area than Elder Wally. Both of the Hermanas from my district are leaving (*sad face*) and getting replaced by Elders. Two other sisters from the zone are also leaving. One of the Elders from my district stays in the zone, but gets bumped to ZL with an area change/whitewash. That means there are two whitewashes in the zone. That's really intense.

Let's see... The other changes were pretty normal.

This was a pretty quiet week. We had a wedding (EQ Pres w/ YW Pres), that was pretty fun. We are working really hard with Eugenia's dad, because he isn't going to church. We had a really powerful lesson about temples and he committed to going to church on Sunday to have an interview with the Bishop. Eugenia has been asking a lot about the temple, and Eugenia's mom is taking the temple prep classes. Now's the time to get him active. I thought that him not being able to baptize his daughter would hit him hard enough, but we've found another way in.

Anyways, he came, and I guess his interview went well. Oh, also, a guy named Hugo got his call Sunday too... He's headed to Paraguay Asunción Norte. I think that's where the other Elder Reed is, but I don't remember how long he has been out.

Christmas here is such a downer. I have yet to sing a Christmas song in Church, and I've seen so few decorations. But the plaza here in Trinidad has a tree, so that's cool

Let's see... There are some unresolved questions to answer. Our communist president, José "Pepe" Mujica takes office in March. But he is already buddying up with Chavez, who visited and promised Uruguay all the oil it needs for "100 years and more." Referring to the revolutionary militant group that Pepe commanded (which later landed him in prison, from which he escaped with a spoon and later granted amnesty) Chavez said "I would have liked to be part of the group you commanded."

Crazy, eh? We're in for an interesting 5 years.

As for the one year mark, it feels like it went pretty quick for me. I hope that means I'm working hard. But yes, the second year flies, according to the majority of other missionaries.

In the American School, we are mostly there just to talk with them so they can get some native interaction. We just talk, and if we hear something that doesn't make sense, we correct it. Some times we talk about specific things, like Thanksgiving, but usually it is like movies and girlfriends and the differences between Uruguay and the USA.

Recently we have been working really hard on grammar, because they have been preparing for the written test, which they took yesterday. They're a cool group of kids. But now we're done because school is out. Sadness extreme.

As far as the issues with the members, we're still struggling. But we're getting better. I, for one, am trying to learn from these experiences.

Like Dad said, they say things for a reason, even if they have a weird way of saying them. So vamos arriba.

So funny story... Last Thursday I lost my keys (they had fallen out of my pocket in an investigator's house). So we were locked out of the house. But the other Elders came and opened it up when they came for their study time. Then after study, they left before we did, but upon leaving locked the door - locking us in. Ridiculous! The landlady is out of town, and nobody else had keys. We called the investigator that we were visiting that morning, but she was working and hadn't noticed the keys. But we saw miracles, and the other Elders showed up like an hour and a half later, because Elder Belleau had forgotten something. So everything worked out.

PRAYER ALERT! I've told you that Hermana Alejo has been sick... last week she got some test results back and she shows TB-positive. So she's on a terrible treatment that makes her pains feel a little better, but makes her too nauseous to stand up. I'm not even sure if it is a treatment or just a preventative thing... but we are all pretty worried about her. Prayers would be appreciated.

So I'm not exactly sure what is coming in my Xmas packages, but here's a list of stuff I'd love for you to send with the next package, if it isn't in an incoming package. No hurry. :D I'd love: a Real Salt Lake jersey (soccer, in case you didn't know. Lol), a thing of Black Kiwi shoe polish, lovely Febreze, some taco seasoning, and boots. If you haven't by chance hunted down a CAP guy to take that bag of CAP supplies, there should be a pair of all leather boots (not the part leather part gortex) that are about my size. My boots are getting torn up, and I need something waterproof. Also, just FYI in case you get any weird ideas to send me stuff, be informed that my neck size had decreased to a comfortable 15 1/2, 16 if you want to be sure. But I've been losing some serious weight.

Well, I love you all. Elder Fajardo is going to get his face cleaned (for his zits) so I'm headed out. Merry christmas!

T-dad wk 5 ch 2

Hey fam!

Pretty exciting news I'm getting all at once. I'll be sending some prayers up the line for Dad. We'll talk about it more on Christmas. It only cost me like $20 (if I remember correctly). It is 25 cents a minute, so like 90 minutes would be $22. So it's probably cheaper just to have me call you guys.

It is quite awakening to hear that Dad is getting old... I'm sure it is shocking for him too. lol well at least a deviated septum isn't as bad as a deviated rectum, but I hope he's getting checked for that too. haha sorry dirty joke.

Let's see... today we had our last district meeting of the change. We just had a big zone meeting/testimony meeting. It was really great. I wish we had done that on the first district meeting, it was really powerful. Then we went to the Durazno zoo. Sorry I don't have my card reader with me, otherwise I would send you guys pictures. We are getting pumped for our christmas missionary conference. it is next friday, which means that if I stay here (prayers would be appreciated so I do) I'll have to travel down twice in a week. Thank heavens for a savings plan.

Really great to hear about all the upcoming missions. I expect to be getting addresses so I can send them a note. :D It is also good to hear about Corry. I'm glad he's getting ready to graduate and start a new life. Isn't the program like three months longer or something like that?

But I hope he does well at SLCC getting ready for a senior college / university.

Not too much to report as far as the work. Just trying to work with the ward a little bit more. I tried passing around lists in the auxilary organizations to get phone numbers and schedules of the members and stuff, but the bishop said that the missionaries have already asked for that info like 4 times already and we don't need to be overbearing with the members. So we still don't have the info we need. But... oh well. We have another wedding this week (Elders Quorum president with the YW president), so we aren't going to have many lessons anyways.

Well, I love you a ton, and I'm sorry for the lack of news today. P-day quickly comes to a close. Robert Reed is coming home next Wednesday, I'm going to see if he has room in his suitcase to pack a christmas package for you guys. Love you all!

PS Anna-Kaarina aka Ankka is a Finnish girl from American School. She's on a student exchange. She's way cool. So it is probably finnish spam. lol

T-dad wk 4 ch 2

With vargas is on the exchange we did in Sarandì del Yì.

With the American school teachers.

Signing the ties is a few students signing our ties. Huzzah!

The ties they gave us.

Baptism

Hey fam!

How's everyone doing? I was way busy last week. Monday: P-day. Tuesday: District Meeting and exchange in Centro. Wednesday: Baptismal interview and exchange extension (still in Centro). Thursday: Two parties (American School Thanksgiving and Marìa Eugenia`s wedding). Friday: Dentist in deo (finally finished!) and baptismal interviews/splits in Sarandì del Yì. Saturday: Teresita's baptism! Sunday: election of a communist president!

So... big events of the week. Tuesday after district meeting I did an exchange with Elder Bonilla... I worked with him in his area (Durazno Centro) and Elder Stilwell worked with Elder Fajardo here. Then we were going to do the interview Wednesday morning, but the candidate didn't get home from deo until the afternoon, so we had to extend the exchange.

We had plans to have the Elders from T-dad come to Durazno, wait like 10 minutes, then I'd go back with my comp to t-dad. But their bus got a flat tire on the highway, and they got to Durazno like 45 minutes late, thus missing the last bus to T-dad. Thus we extended the exchange even more, and we headed back home Thursday morning.

Thursday we had a few parties... yay! the first was Marìa Eugenia's wedding reception. It was way cool... she married a non-member... but we're going to start to work with him when his heart softens a little bit. Then we went to the American School for their end-of-year / Thanksgiving party. It was really fun, they had skits and songs and movies... all in English! Then they gifted us ties! But it was still really cool, and the kids who were graduating (10th grade because it is only a 4 year program) signed the ties. It was just so incredible and fun and lifting. Then we went to our correlation meeting.

We are seriously having some member problems in the ward... I'll be talking to pres da silva Tuesday about it to see what we can do and how we can handle it a bit better so that we can get work done.

Friday was a crazy day! We went to Deo really early in the morning, then we had to travel to Sarandì del Yì for some baptismal interviews. We got there early and did splits with the elders there. Then it started to rain. Hard. And all I had was my short sleeve shirt. Huzzah. So I did baptismal interviews completely soaked. Then we all slept on the floor with the two mattresses side by side... didn't sleep well at all. Then back to t-dad.

Tuesday we have District Meeting then Zone Conference. Should be interesting... we have three hours in the afternoon to have Zone Conference AND Interviews with the President. I don't know if I like it, but it's what the president says.

My district is doing great. We went up in all of the key indicators this week. Looking forward to another good week this week with less distractions and less sicknesses (Hermana Alejo has started a light treatment until the tests come back).

Pretty exciting HC call! What are your assignments as such? Any news on the 2nd counselor? Praying for a miracle! Oh yeah... I didn't get the call to play piano for Bednar. Kinda made me sad, because the piano player was a Sister from the other mission and (*pride caution*) wasn't as good as me. But it's alright. Still haven't found another missionary that plays the organ though.

Well, love you all! Shout out to the sibs, hope Corry likes his Thin Mint alfajores and that Tina doesn't go crazy not being able to play basketball!

T-dad wk 3 ch 2

Hey fam!

Another week without emails... not too much to talk about today though.

We had a fun mission conference with Elder Bednar. He told us not to talk about it in our email to our parents though... haha there are stories he doesn't want on the internet. :P But it was really incredible... he was really open with us and didn't beat around the bush. At the conference were Elder Bednar, Elder Snow from the Presidency of the 70, Elder Bowen of the Area Presidency, and Elder Echegaray (or something like that) an Area Seventy. And their wives. It was great - they all had stuff to say. They had translators (they sounded Argentine) so I didn't have to be whispering in my comp's ear the whole time.

He talked a lot about action by faith and about teaching and learning by the Spirit (because we aren't teachers).

Ummm district is chugging along. We went down a bit in our numbers, but I hope that's from being at the Bednar conference. We've got some good plans this week as a zone to bring us back up. We also (finally) are going to have a district meeting - the last two weeks it has just been the zone leaders talking to the whole zone. So we are looking at better results this week. Vamos arriba.

Turns out that the Del Balle family (the less actives that are trying to drop smoking) are actually not members. We are going to see how they progress and put a marriage/baptism goal for Christmas as well. We'll see where the Spirit takes us.

It looks like we need to head to Deo this week with my comp - dentist appt. But it should be his last, we just need to put a crown on.

We are STILL waiting for reimbursements... they are a week and a half late. Elder Belleau is the only one with money because his parents sent him like $60. So he's paying for everything right now. I was forced to pull out money on Thursday to buy bus tickets for the Bednar Conference- I was expecting not to have to because the financers promised reimbursements before the Conference. So I'm literally waiting for $250 of reimbursements, and we are also getting our giro in a week or so, another $150. Finally, an opportunity to start a savings plan.

Sorry about all the fluff... not really much to report on after the long email last week. Good news is that there are American School pictures coming your way. These are from the high school. We are also going to their Thanksgiving party to close out their school year... that should be fun. The parents are also going to be there... reference party!

Well... love you guys. Hope to hear from you next week.

Trinidad Week 2 Change 2 (11/16/09)

No email from my parents this week, I guess both of them writing last week wore them out. :P

We had an OK week. Our district is struggling, but that's because Hermana Alejo and I are both sick, so we are in and out of the house.

But we did good, and we're excited to work this week. Elder Fajardo and I didn't hit a lot of the weekly goals that we had put, so we have taken the difference and added it to this week's goals, and we are ready to work to achieve the heightened goals. We have put a plan to be 100% obedient... we have really been slacking. We are going to wake up on time and do exercises, hold a faithful study session, including companionship study, and return to home on time (9:00) to be able to have a good planning session. Then in bed at 10:30. We're excited (well I am, I know he isn't) and I can't wait to see the miracles as a result.

As Elder Bowen taught us a few months ago, Faith + Work + Obedience = Miracles.

Not too many updates this week, we are excited to head to Montevideo this Friday and be taught by Elder Bednar. Or, rather, learn from him through the Spirit (that's one of the things he asked us to study before the mission conference.

http://lds.org/library/display/0,4945,5344-1-2783-5,00.html is the link to one of his CES addresses "Seek Learning by Faith" and it is incredible. Hence, we are excited to learn from him by faith. That's also why we're being totally obedient this week - to be worthy of the Spirit on Friday. As Elder Lawrence Corbridge taught in the 2008 October General Conference, everything depends on that. (Listen to his talk "The Way", it is also incredible.)

I am sending a package of letters, waiting to hear if you got the alfajores OK. Some of the letters are from Elder Belleau to forward - he sends his love and his thanks. We figured we'd save on postage.

Still waiting for reimbursements to get here... ever since dad dropped the cane on me for using too much money, I have been avoiding the ATM, almost to the point of hiding my personal debit card from myself. This Friday I have to do some traveling to conduct some baptismal interviews- I should have money by then. Oh - my watch band also broke, so I have to buy a new strap that doesn't go right with the watch (because it was like a contoured band, but this is just a normal flat band. Yuck. Pero es lo que hay.) And one of my glasses pads like disintegrated so I have to buy new pads.

Well I'll tell you guys that we are working pretty hard with a less active couple who are having some problems. They were baptized about two years ago, and in order to do so they stopped smoking. About 6 months after baptism, the husband took a bad fall (he's about 60) and fractured his neck as it hit one of his bed posts. After all of the medical stuff and his now invalidity (the state of being invalid?) they have stopped coming to church. We have found them again, and they want to stop smoking. The husband smokes a little, but the wife smokes a pack a day.

So we have put very specific goals for her, and she is going to be clean from smoking by Christmas. We're as excited as she is. We are also working out transportation so they can come to church (because he can't really walk). Vamos arriba.

Monday we have a FHE with a part member family - the husband (aka boyfriend) is from Cuba and has some serious trouble getting his immigration papers done, so he can't legally get married here. But we are reactivating the family and helping him get a good testimony so they can start seeing miracles, get married, and get sealed in the temple.

Eugenia is still doing great... we had a great discussion yesterday during Sacrament Meeting. She was like "Do you think that I have changed since getting baptized?" I answered in the affirmative, and she told me that she realized that she has changed, and that she wants to keep changing. Today in the sacrament meeting, she was taking notes and looking up all the scriptures and marking them - which is usually something I only do for General and Stake Conferences! lol out loud.

She's awesome and I look forward to seeing her progress.

Well I hope you liked the lengthy email - I had lots of time to write it since I didn't have to read anything. ;-) But I still love you all! :D

Saludos a Matt Long for me! Also to Weenie and Corry - I hope they like their alfajores. GET GOOD GRADES!

Trinidad Week 1 Change 2 (11/9/09)

Well my first week as DL wasn't too bad. Got all the calls done, although a few times we got them in late. It's rough with Elder Belleau and I in the same house, especially because he interrupts every phone call with "HERMANA ALEJO! WoooOOOoooOOoo!" or "YEAH! ORO POWER! WooOOOooOOoo!" lol. My missionaries are SO awesome. I have two greenies (oros) in my district, and they are just flying with their trainers. They are actually inspiring me to work harder. We are all getting pumped for the upcoming mission conference with Elder Bednar. The other mish will be there too, and I'll get to see Brian Graham! Woohoo! I'm secretly hoping I get assigned to play the piano/organ... but I'm keeping my mouth shut and letting the assignments be made with the Spirit. :D

I am doing great here. We're working with a few families, they are great. Really my first time teaching families and not just investigators. One of them we found this week, he's one of the dentists here and has filled out a lot of papers for future missionaries! They're really great and I can see them getting baptized this change.

Thanks for keeping up on my account, Dad. I had NO idea I was getting charged just to look at the card - that is pretty ridiculous. I'll be more careful about checking it, especially now that I know what is where. I had a pretty rough change - we needed to get study desks because they STILL haven't come after six weeks and the mission didn't want us to wait anymore. The financers are making process improvements, so we should be getting reimbursements quicker, which means less dependence on foreign funds.

Sorry I don't have much more to report. Nor do I have any fun new pictures to send you guys. So... I love you all and I hope you keep rockin it RP style! And here's a shout-out to my home-dizzle Weenie! :D

OH! I sent a box. Inside, there are four alfajores and a box of alfajores. The loose ones are for you guys - Surprise Negros for the big people and the white chocolate one for Em. The box is for Corry. If you decide to rob him of an alfajor, that's fine too. They are mint and taste incredibly like Thin Mint girl scout cookies.

So... I love you all (again) and hope you have a great week!

Transfers--Staying in Trinidad 11/3/09

Hey fam!

Changes today. sorry about that... it got randomly changed from Wed to Tues. But I'm glad you got an email to me anyways (even dad, whoa!) Here's the news... us four all stay together in T-dad. That's really weird, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Elder Maxson, the District Leader, dies today, (MOM NOTE--not really DIES, but finishes his mission!) so I have been called to take his spot as DL. Elder Belleau, after redistricting (good luck with that, mom, btw) is also going to be a District Leader this change. That means that we'll be sharing the phone every night making phone calls. I have the Sisters from Villa Carmen, the Elders in Barrio Centro, and the Elders in Sarandì del Yì in my district. That means a LOT of travel for exchanges, baptismal interviews, etc. But we're ready for the challenge. :D We're excited for the new change. We did a change plan on Sunday, and have set some pretty high goals that we know we can reach if we work just a little bit harder. We've got some good investigators that we are working with, but we just need to keep finding to keep the investigator pool fresh.

Don't worry about the Ward because we're going to have a constant flow of RMs to keep it alive (Matt B., Chase, me, Gerg, Scott, Matt L., Kevin). :D I'm sure the Lord will keep it alive, because there are still people to convert in Utah. So get Tina back to work (whether converting or reactivating - it's all part of the missionary work!) Sorry the letter is a little short today, I had to write Tina a letter before she got angry at me. :D Pray for us this change (me and my comp and me and Elder Belleau).

Love you all a bunch!

(Email edited for Family stuff and gossip! :D) Photos in the mail yesterday, so I'll be posting them this week!

Trinidad Week 5 (10/27/09

(yes, that's right--no letter last week...This week's letter trimmed as much was family stuff)

Hey Fam!

How you all doing? I need to make it kinda quick, but just know I love you all!

Awesome to hear you talked with Elder Cundick. He's such a cool guy! Good to hear that his GF is headed on a mission... it will teach that guy some patience! LOL out loud... just kidding. :D

Area is doing good. We've found some pretty awesome people. Although we are getting close to changes (next week, so you won't get an email until Wednesday!), I don't think we're going to get changed. The President is really hinting towards keeping companions together longer, so I am really not thinking he'll kick one of us out after having been here only one change. If anyone goes, it will be Elder Wally, Elder Belleau's companion. :( As far as the package... I think I have dropped enough hints since my last package. Winger's sauce, inspirational music CDs, a new car, etc.

Saludos to the OLD Aunt Rebecca! I saw her birthday on my calendar this week and thought "man that's old. Half a century!!" hehe but I still love her. Show her a picture if she doesn't remember who I am. :P

Everything is cruising here. We are going to some American Schools here in T-dad. We've talked to 6th, 8th, and 10th graders, and we're going back to teach more. It is so much fun. But Elder Belleau (the oldest one here mission-wise) is having problems speaking English.

Hope everything else is going well! You guys are the coolest!

Trinidad Week 3 (10/12/09)

Hey fam!

Good to hear about dad's scuba experience... although I thought that due to his ear he couldn't scuba?? lol but I hope Tina had a good one. Happy birthday weenie!

Interesting that the Hawks are headed to Switzerland... but I'm sure they'll have fun. Good to hear Robert made it all the way. :D Just waiting to hear about matt and scott's calls... I'm still way excited for Scotty!

Here are some photos. Eugenia and her fam. The baptism went pretty well. Just a really daring piano player, but it went well. Elder Wally baptised her. Then the next day, yours truly confirmed her. It was actually a really spiritual experience. I was scared out of my mind, but when it was time to actually do it, the Spirit took over. I guess that back in my sub-conscious, I speak Spanish really well. :D So... yeah. We're still looking for some people to get baptized in this change... we've put a goal of six baptisms and I think we can do it. We just have a bunch of people that are waiting to be found, this area is great.

Comp doing ok (Elder Fajardo, fyi dad.) He's still struggling a bit, but I'm working him and keeping him distracted. :D He's learning patience, as are we. But we are flying and had a great week. We have set goals for every week of the change, and we feel they were guided by the Spirit. We have set a goal to say a morning prayer together every morning this week to help our relationship and get us the Spirit to start off the day. The President has really been focusing on that, and we are doing our part to be worthy of and listen to his promptings. So that's going to help us out in this week, and we're going to have some miracles. Not many other people to tell you about, we are just getting ready to find some oros this week.

We're also going to go talk to some English schools here - I did an intercambio in San Ramon when I was in Florida, and we went to an English school and just talked with the students... they asked us questions and we answered and vice versa. We're going to try it here and hope we get some good references. But we always go when the offices are closed... and today is some sort of holiday, and tomorrow we will be in Durazno for the Zone Conferences.

Oh... mission changes. Zone Conferences are now just our zone alone (not with other zones) and afterwards we have the interviews instead of on a separate day. We are allowed to listen to any music, as long as it is inspirational. So if you guys want to send me some music, I'd love it. No TOTO though... :(

That's the week... love you all!

Trinidad Week 2 (10/05/09)

That's Elder Wally and I. Yay for Winger's sauce. We're down to about half the bottle. It won't last another five week. *cough cough*

photographer - me taking an apparently hard photo. Yes, that's my new camera. Yes, it's the same. I really like it.

fab four - Wally, Belleau, me, and Fajardo. We share the city.

besos - Elder Belleau and me. MySpace photo. :D

Hey Fam!

Sad to hear it is raining there... it is POURING here! It is pretty bad... we're all wet. We were planning on heading to Durazno for a district activity (playing soccer on the river's beach) but it got postponed. Here in T-dad it is really wet. Good thing we can stay inside today (p-day!) Haha loved the story about Emily's butt being stuck. I'm glad she's learning how to talk and stuff. Hard to miss it, but I'm sure you guys are having fun with it.

Sad to hear about the Flores family. Let me know where they end up, I'll make sure missionaries get there. But UY is awesome, they're just missing out on fast food.

Sorry to hear about mom's Risk impediment, although it does sound like a pretty involved game. Corry always wanted to get that version, I just didn't want to spend the money. LOL are you guys taking care of the games I left behind?

Well all in all the house move went well. We are finally sleeping on mattresses. We were sleeping on the floor, but we got mattresses after a couple of days, along with a new big fridge and a dresser. Still waiting on beds, whiteboards, and tables. So we do our planning in our room sitting on our mattresses, and study in the front room without tables. We would buy the stuff and get reimbursed, but they dropped our monthly pay by $60 (we are now getting about $150) and yeah. So we're stretching our money to get food and pay bills (we didn't get a phone bill for the last two months, so we have to figure that out.)

We got the baptism of Eugenia approved for this Saturday (the 10th). It's Tina's b-day present. lol (oh, sorry for not sending a birthday note to Sarah Jane! I hope she doesn't hate me...) But we are all ready to go... the bishop still needs an interview with her dad. He came to the Sunday AM session of conference just to talk with the Bishop, but the bish didn't come. So... yeah. We'll see what happens, but it is very likely that I will be baptising her (she asked that I do it if her dad can't.) She's way excited. After she had said her Joseph Smith prayer, I asked her if the church was true, and she said that it is. I asked her if she was sure... "100%" was her answer. It was a great moment and it was a spirit-filled lesson. We need to teach all the big commandments (chastity, word of wisdom, etc) this week, but she's 12 so she probably doesn't have any problems with any of that and the lessons should fly. We're all excited for her.

This week we had to go to Deo, and then we had conference, so it honestly wasn't a great week number wise. But we had a few members' friends come to the conference, so we have some good plans this week to find some new people and get more baptisms this change. Let's just hope it isn't raining tomorrow, yeah?

Ward mission leader is still frustrating us. He's doing his best, so we just kinda have to take it where it hurts. But he's a good help and we're glad we have a LDM that really wants to work. And he has to help us get lunch every week. Yay.

Well, love you all!

Trinidad Week 1 (09/28/09)

Hey fam!

Rough week to start off the change... Got up to Trinidad at like 9:30 Wednesday night, then we had to run a bunch of errands the next day to get the house partly furnished for 4 missionaries (house keys, kitchen stuff) and then we ran out of money. Meeting with the Ward Mission Leader... or the ward missionary leader. He's a detective in the police department here. More stories about him throughout the email. The next day we got to know our investigator (technically we have others but we don't know them/they don't want to know us), and she's the bomb. Her name is Eugenia, and she was living in Florida (I actually think I had met her there on an intercambio) with her mom. But now she's here with her dad and her stepmom, and she's flying. She wants to get baptized, but the bishop (also police) wants us to reactivate the dad first so that he can baptize her. But he's working in Pando and won't be here for another two weeks, then he'll have to have an interview with the bishop and then we'll have to wait longer... but nah. We feel that she needs to get baptized the 24th of October (next week is conference, then fast sunday, then stake conference, then her baptism. the bishop doesn't think we should do a baptismal service when people are fasting. /sigh) and we can't wait any longer after that. She has never prayed about Joseph Smith though, so we made her pray about him and to see if our church has the authority to baptize her (as opposed to her next door neighbor, for example). When she came to church sunday, she said that she prayed and felt good and really wanted to read. So she read for like an hour, then stopped because her TV show was on. :P Later on in the day, we had PEC (*snore*). Saturday there was a HUGE rock concert here, so there was like nobody home and we could hear rock music all throughout the city. We had lunch with the stake patriarch, and we invited their inactive daughter and granddaughter to come to church. It went well.

Sunday we went to church after lunch (at 3 o'clock!). The other elders had to walk like 7 kilometers (do the math, I'm too lazy) out on the highway to get to lunch because Elder Wally's chain broke on his bike. Church went well, we went with Eugenia and her mom. And the granddaughter of the patriarch came for all the meetings, and their daughter came for sacrament meeting. It was way awesome. Then afterwards, the ward missionary leader had a one hour meeting with us to tell us that we shouldn't walk 7 km to get to lunch, that we should call him to give us a ride.

Area's awesome... just doing a lot of contacts trying to find people to teach. I love the "interior" here (interior = not montevideo) because the people are so chill. Apparently, there's a guy that teaches his kids out of the gospel principles book that isn't a member, we're going to go find him today and baptize him al toque.

Thanks for the pic, mom! Love the U tie... really worried about the Y hat hanging on the bannister! Tina's all grown up... and lovin' dad's new frames! lol I have that same tie that Brother Faber has. Yay Tienda Inglesa. :) (Mom Note: You can see the photo in the previous post)

Well, handing the comp to my comp. (heh) Friday we're headed down to 'Deo (if we get money) to keep working on his root canal. w00t.

Well, love you all!

P.S. I found a Robert Hawk here - Elder Wally. He's Elder Belleau's comp. He's pretty wacky... but at least he's ready for the apparently quick approaching zombie invasion. lol (Said in all love and friendship for Elder Hawk!)

Meeting with another of Steven's companions!

Yesterday we met Steven's trainer, Elder Faber. Elder Faber lives in West Jordan and was Steven's first companion. Steven loved Elder Faber and he taught Steven so much about being a good missionary. It was great to meet him. The poor guy had been home for just one day when he had to speak in Church. He kept forgetting the English words for things. That's how I hope Steven comes home--having immersed himself so deeply into the culture and language that English becomes his second language.

Change Day! 09/23/09

Hey fam!

Quick email today... things are rather complicated here. Change day today. I thought I'd be staying with Elder Ferman... as mom said maybe I haven't learned everything I neaded to learn, or maybe I was proud enough to think that he hadn't learned everything he needed to learn from me, but we ended up getting changed. I'm headed to the city of Trinidad, in the department of Flores, but it is part of the Durazno stake. It was pretty hard to say goodbye to the families in Libia, but I'm excited to get to Trinidad. My companion, Elder Fajardo (see photo) and I will be opening the area, there is a ward there and today they are splitting the ward into two areas (two sets of missionaries) and my comp and I will be taking one of the areas. Neither of us has even seen Trinidad, so we're pretty hosed here. We're trying to work out tickets and luggage and mattresses and everything, it is really a mess. And I am the senior comp, and I think the district leader. We aren't really sure because nobody told anybody that I was going to be district leader, but as they were handing out the training packets to the new district leaders, there was a folder with my name on it. So we aren't really sure if I am going to be one or not. We'll work it out.

I'll be living in the same house as Elder Belleau (he was in the MTC with me and also in Las Piedras my first couple of changes). We're really excited - even though I don't know where the house is. :P My new comp is Colombiano, he was born in 33 (mission-wise). Vamos arriba. Pray for us!

Not much other news than that. I'll send a better email Monday, but right now I have to go with my comp to get a molar taken out. We'll get to our area tonight at like 10:00.

Quick news - our ward mission leader's wife (of Libia) had a baby Sunday. His name is Matías.

Love you all! Glad to hear that Corry is really progressing, and that you named the dog Sir Duke (as I begin singing Stevie Wonder).

Libia Week 5 change 2 (9/14/09)

Hey fam!

Sorry about the lack of email last week... it got complicated again. But it is good to hear from you both - twice! What a pleasant surprise! Thanks for the pic of Elder Cundick! He is such a capo! We had another musical fireside this last friday. Elder Erickson sang and I played and sang a bit. Unfortunately, we are without pics/movies/sound bytes (elder ferman was too busy flirting to press the record button on my camera). But it went really well... President Da Silva and his wife came and addressed the congregation - it was really spiritual and there were plenty of tears. :D Things are going pretty well here in Libia, we're just working to get references from the members to find some quality investigators. I hope to have better

news for you next week in regards to our investigators progress. Reysa did introduce us to another friend... we're going to find her this week. And a guy named Gabriel has been taking his 9-year-old next door neighbor to church, and he loves it, so we'll be talking to his parents this week too.

We have Zone Conference on Wednesday with Elder Bowen (Area President, 70), it should be awesome. Pulling out a bit more money to buy a bible (that just came out).

Still waiting for a picture of the poodle (I'm so ashamed dad...) (MOM NOTE: Dad swore we would never own a dog...the house of girls changed his mind...)

(I'd love to tell you who is in the photo, but Steven didn't tell us! I think the guy on the far left is his companion, Elder Furman.)

Elder Cundick Homecoming

Today the family went to Elder Cundick's homecoming. Elder Cundick was a favorite companion of Steven's. You may remember his from the BYU shirt burning, or the U platter they found in Uruguay, the piano-playing companion...Steven wanted us to go to his homecoming and meet him, so we were happy to do so.

He told us that Steven was "such a great missionary" and he loved being his companion. It was nice to hear from the "other side" of the companionship and know that it was just as good from his side of things.

Here's a photo of us with Elder Cundick.

Libia Week 2 change 2 (8/31/09)

Hey fam!

Sorry about not getting a letter out last week. It was a way complicated P-Day.

Big news from last week... emergency change. Elder Casco went to Maldonado Centro (look up Punta del Este - that's where he is) and Elder Fermàn is now with me here in Libia. I knew that staying together with Elder Casco was too good to be true... But me and Elder Ferman were in the MTC together as well, so we know each other.

That's so awesome to hear about Zach! (MOM NOTE: Zachary Diamond is going to Budapest Hungary on his mission) Way wierd though... I thought he was still like 14 years old! lol and Kimm is married? whoa...

Investigator update! Jonathan doesn't want to get married until he finds a job and a house, but doesn't really have the willpower to look for a job nor a house. So we're idling with him. Laura is a new investigator... she's a friend of Reysa Castro and went to our ward birthday party, then to church the next day. She's flying, but she got sick (i think she passed it on to me) and is in bed rest for a few days, hampering our teaching. We'll be giving her a blessing today. Manuel went to a baptism saturday up in Belloni. Didn't come to church though. We'll see what happens with him, we're thinking either miracle or death. Romina hasn't progressed at all. She has a Lucas 14 coming her way. Iris and Mabel are really hard to find, but they are learning well but don't want to wake up to come to church because Iris usually goes out dancing Saturday night. Angel (a less active member who is Mr. Webb's twin here in Guay - it is so weird! I'll send you a pic... he does the chin stroke and the faces and everything) wants his non-member wife and son to take the lessons. He promised to come to church but didn't. We'll see what happens with him. Those are the big investigators, there are others that are in idle mode.

I got a letter from Carolyn (thanks!) and it looks like Brian Graham is in the West mission (aka the other mission here in Guay that isn't as cool as my mission)! How cool is that?

Still waiting for the package... we have interviews on Friday so I should have it then. Also still waiting for a word on the pics getting up on the FTP. I looked around a little today and didn't see anything.

FYI: campo = field (like country), campamento = camp, equipo = team, partido = game (like a game of baseball), cancha = field (like baseball field). I think that's the critical vocab.

Pictures coming next week... going for the camera today!

You can email Elder Thorderson now...

There is now a special email address urumontemission@gmail.com that works much like dearelder.com in that anyone can write to their missionary to this address, using the missionary's name in the subject line, and elders in the mission office will print the emails off and will send it off to your missionary.

Friends and family are all welcome to use this email address. Please be sure to put Elder Steven Thorderson in the subject line so they know who to send it to. Although it makes it easier for you to contact Steven, he will still have to rely on the postal service to get mail back to you. But, you should get letters sooner/more often since there won't be such a lag time both ways!

I hope you'll take advantage of this EASY way to write to Steven. These kids sacrifice so much to serve the people in Uruguay and it takes so little to make them happy! (and email here and there from friends and a package filled with candy and mashed potato flakes from mom is really all he needs!)

Libia Week 1, change 2 (8/17/09)

(MOM NOTE: Just got notice today that his birthday package emerged from the black hole and is being delivered to the mission home today! A bit late, but he'll get his peanut butter, mashed potato flakes and gracy, University of Utah paraphernalia, birthday cake (uncooked--duh!), and long johns for Elder Casco, along with other misc goodies!)

Elders Casco and Thorderson

ouch.jpg - Elder Smeltzer (such a stud) and I playing some incredibly difficult chords. You have no idea.

Hey fam!

Wow... 20 years old. This decade, I'll have a college degree, a house, a wife, and maybe a kid or too. Whoa, that just blew your mind.

Haven't heard anything about this email thing, I'll give the secretaries a call and find out for sure. But I would say go for it, it looks like a legit address. That would be SO much quicker than DearElder or pouch.

Saludos a Caitlin, Lt Mugridge, Q, Julie Ikeda, Chesty, Aaron A., Jody, Peter Jin, Cousin Kristen, Samantha Behl, Uncle Henry, Cousin Kaliela (thank heaven for copy/paste), Aunt Jill, Jennifer Theissen, Sirui (prounounced SEE-roo), and MarySue. Thanks for the birthday wishes! Oh, and thank dad for the birthday wishes too. Oh no, wait... he didn't wish me a happy birthday....(Mom note: In Dad's defense, it was a pretty crazy week for us!)

This week was pretty exciting. Friday for my birthday, we started out with Lunch with Oliva Verdes. She's from Spain and made some awesome chicken milanesas. Then we went to Elida's house and had a little fiesta with Elida, Celeste, Elida's brother Angel and his wife Julia, Elida's son Marcelo, and later Washington and Marcos Tejera. I got a box of chocolates. They were really good. Then we taught a couple of lessons, had some chocolate cake with the Echevarrìa family, then we went to Valenti's house. We were supposed to have asado, but apparently it was too late in the day so we just ate a ton of alfajorcitos. Then I finished out the day with an exciting Welfare Committee meeting. I almost fell asleep. :P Then Saturday we did service with Miguel Benitez and his fam, they just moved in. We helped clean out their backyard. Then a couple of lessons, then a party in the church for Mariana Tejera because she graduated from high school. It was really a combined party, because they sang me happy birthday. Someone brought Karaoke, and a 73-year-old lady totally rocked out some Kumbia. It was pretty sweet. A couple more lessons, and then we played soccer with some investigators. Now I'm insanely sore and can barely walk. lol out loud. It was a pretty exciting week. Friday, we got a call from the Pres and his wife wishing me a happy birthday. It was pretty awesome. The Tejera fam also called me (at 11:30 PM!!!) to wish me a happy birthday too. All in all, a birthday well spent away from home.

Sister Echevarrìa and her cake. Yum!

trunky.jpg - IHOP... who would have known?

Ummm... not much else to report. Brother Benitez was just called to be our Ward Mission Leader. We're stoked to start working with him, we have a correlation meeting with him tomorrow. We didn't have any investigators in church sunday... we went to three people to get them and bring them to church, two slept in (because it was raining) and the other didn't have clothes to go to church in the rain. But we're excited to work this week and keep helping our investigators to progress and get to church!

Well two Sundays and my camera hasn't showed up... and since it's my birthday... :D

Libia Week 6 and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER THORDERSON!

Just a quick mom note! Today is Steven's 20th birthday! We sure miss him but are sure he's having a most fabulous birthday in Uruguay! I know he'd love to hear from you! Let me know if you need an address to send him a letter!

Hey fam!

They lost my package? LOL out loud! First time the package doesn't get here within three weeks! But we're still waiting with bated breath (bated?)! But apparently it is still going to be cold for a while... we get mixed opinions. It's hot today, I'm just in my long sleeve shirt. Casco is in short sleeves. (MOM NOTE: The post office in SLC lost Steven's birthday package. We had them do a search and they finally found it and sent it off a few days ago! All the worry about the Uruguayan Postal Service and it's the US one that loses the package!)

Transfers... looks like we're staying together! We're way surprised, but we know that it is what the Lord wants and we're ready to keep working hard(er)! Elder Smeltzer is leaving the zone (sad face) but he's headed to Asamblea, my old area (happy face)! Elder Andersen is coming to the zone (we got to UY together). Montgomery is staying here in Pando, and his companion is going to be Elder Coyago (who has been in every zone of mine since the beginning of time). Pretty interesting, but no big surprises.

Luke has GAINED 20 pounds? He's a little chubster now... lol that's really funny. Can't wait to hear updates on Greg once he hits Hawaii. Has Matt started working on his papers yet? Or is he waiting for his heart to be better?

Elder Faber would love to see you at his homecoming! He's such a stud.

Papi... acà se dice campamentos... campo significa field y estoy seguro que ella va a jugar softball en un campo, pero como parte de un campamento. Quizàs es diferente en Guatemalteco. Y tambien no se dirìa que un programa se chupa. Esto es malo. Mama me dijo que es màs dificil trabajar con Corporate que Elpitha... pobresito! jeje precios para pagar - pero por lo menos tienes un trabajo!

Just so you don't think I forgot... Happy Anniversary Sunday!

Hmmmm... there's a brother in our ward that wants a recipe for cooking Turkey. I told him to put it in the oven and cook it, but he thinks it is more complicated. Next package... if you can find a three ring binder that has the rings 3.25" apart, that would be awesome, but don't look to hard because it really isn't too important.

Well I was going to pull out money, but I decided to look for a camera first... with import taxes and IVA, the same camera I have is like $300. If you really wanted to transfer me $300 for a birthday present, I wouldn't complain.

Quick one today, I'll send a better one Monday with more updates. Love you all!

Libia, Final Week

Hey fam!

Sorry for the late email! We went to the temple today so our P-Day got bumped from Monday. Also, next week's email will come on Wednesday, because changes are next week! We're pretty sure that Elder Casco is going to head... it would be way unexpected if President Da Silva kept us together another change. The area is doing pretty well... we have had some struggles but we just keep going! Lucìa Borges is a struggle... she says that she doesn't feel ready, but we know she is. But her sisters, instead of helping her, are like resisting us and telling us not to pressure her into getting baptized... we had a great lesson yesterday with her, but then her sisters showed up and we didn't end up committing her. Romina is starting to work Sundays, so she can't come to church. We're praying for a miracle. But Manuel is really progressing. He fasted for the first time in his life with us this Sunday, for all 24 hours! He made hamburgers and french fries for his kids, and ordered a pizza for his wife, and didn't eat or drink! He feels really good and says he could get his answer in "a few days or weeks." At least he's starting to talk about time. He's still having problems with wine, we're going to have a good talk about it today. We are still looking... we have 5 people that are ready to be found, we just can't find them! Iris and Mabel are former investigators that moved and lost contact with the elders. They say they want to start the lessons again, but Mabel (who is Iris' mom) was recently admitted to the hospital for complications of diabetes... so we're still working on them. Diego and two of his non-member friends play soccer with Belloni, and we're going to start teaching them. He's really excited to learn, but every time we go to his house after setting up an appointment, his mom tells us that he left to go play soccer! lol and there's also "Gordo"'s girlfriend "Toti" who wants to listen to us, but wants to clear up a few doubts with Gordo's sister.

Questions... I was looking at my genealogical record (wow it is a miracle if i spelled that right), and are we missing some of dad's side's information? Because it looks like I have 3 great-grandparents still living. Also, was dad a preemie, or was he a honeymoon baby? And who introduced the gospel into each family (mom's fam, dad's fam)? When did Dad's side of the family come to the US?

Do you guys think you could toss up the pictures from my farewell luncheon to the FTP site? The ones you took in the living room. That would be awesome. Thank's for the pics of the fam... but I would love a picture of my skinny parents!

Well, here's just an update on your almost 20-year-old son!

What I've lost:

- 20 pounds, 5 inches from the waist (so skinny!)

- The desire to stay up late

- 2 ties

- Camera (got taken out of my backpack during church! argh... I'm pulling out a bit of money to buy a new camera... Just like $80, and I've got my emergency fund)

What I've gained:

- The ability to make sacred temple covenants in Spanish

- The desire to go to bed early

- Legs of steel

- 7 ties

- A stronger testimony of the restored Gospel.

Also, for the next packet, could you guys send a couple of white shirts my way? There's a brother in our ward who doesn't go because he doesn't have a white shirt, and he's big and says they don't make shirts his size. (he's honestly pretty big. I wish I could be more specific), and has a neck of 23 inches. You guys are the bomb! Also, if they sell a little book of the scripture study helps (index, topical guide) separate from the scriptures, I'd love a copy of that! There isn't a spanish equivalent (just a type of dictionary that doesn't list every word nor every occurrence) and I don't really want to tear apart my quad.

I love you all and am so excited to hear about your progress! Saludos a todos!

Libia Week 4 (7/27/09)

Weirdly ordered train of thought, hope you can follow it.

Anne Ashworth is the bomb! Saludos to both for me. I'm glad Greg's getting pumped. He'll love it, but will find that it isn't a walk in the park! Especially in the summer. heh

I hope you guys have fun at bear lake with the canoes and all. I wish I canoed more often... never really did until THAB. And that was some extreme canoeing. Be sure to take some photos for me! I was going to send a pic your way too, but I don't have any new ones. Next week.

Nope, not sick anymore. Just a little bit of a runny nose, but that's just because it is so cold that my snot glands have gone numb and can't hold it in. This last week was terrible. It got down to -6 degrees celsius with wind of 100 km/h. Ridiculous. It is so cold down here, it snowed in Buenos Aires. It's never snowed in Bs.As. And apparently it snowed here in Maldonado too, but I don't have a credible source for that. Definitely missing out on the cul de sac of fire, especially now that you have illegal fireworks! (and sun)

Good to hear Corry is progressing. I hope he keeps going, I'm planning to fast for him (again) Sunday if you guys want to join me.

Ummm business cards, I want my home address, phone number (001-801-..... am i getting 680-2916 back or what? i don't even know), elder@thorderson.com, my name, Dec 2008-Dec 2010, a little pic... wicked photoshop skills... :P lo que sea.

Yesterday we discovered a whole new part of our area... we have three neighborhoods in our area, Flor de Maroñas (where we live), Jardines del Hipodromo (where the Danubio Stadium is), and Villa Española (where there's no members nor investigators). Elder Casco, in his 2 months here, has never been to Villa Española, but we are hurting to find new people so we headed out there. It was like doing a whitewash. We had no idea where we were or where we were going... there are five apartment buildings of 10 stories each, 6 people on each floor, that's like 300 people. But to get into the buildings, we have to ring the doorbell and talk to the speaker. YUCK! Poco a poco, but I hate it.

We had a slightly better week this week, looking forward to a much better week this week! Pray that we can find Iris and Mabel and Lucìa's friend Victoria this week!

Love you all!

Libia Week 3 (7/20/09)

Hey fam!

Some lady just walked into the cyber who is in a different stake. She said "saludos a las familias", so just letting you know she says hi.

Yeah, I'm feeling much better. Working hard as ever! So I have Jeff Brock, Brian Jensen, Aaron Karr... anyone else in Brasil? Greg's headed off soon! There's a letter for him coming... hope it gets there! Iit's awesome to hear that Scott's getting ready for his mission! I wrote Micaela back, should also be coming. Saludos to Bro. Rassmussen and Obispo Organista. Did he serve here? Wicked!!

I'm glad to hear Tina loved EFY. Definitely an awesome experience, even better up in Logan! I look forward to her email! Let's hope she stays angelic (*cough*) in Highland!

We had Zone Conference Wednesday. I got to see my daddy (Elder Faber). He's starting to smell like dead elder...heads home in September. He's one of the Zone Leaders in Norte. I also got to see Elder Martindale (Elder Casco's dad), Elder Belleau and Elder Rostaing (in the MTC with me) and the President and his wife. Pte Da Silva is such a capo! He is letting us take an hour a day to study the language. But I'm using my hour to help out Elder Casco with his English program, so my spanish isn't getting much attention. But poco a poco... haha Hermana Da Silva totally dropped the cane on all the sick people. She said (translated) "I'm sure that if you studied the Missionary Health Guide like Preach My Gospel says, there wouldn't be as many sick people that can't work."

Lol out loud! Elder Faber gave the musical number for the Zone Conference. There's someone in his zone that plays the Ukelele, so he totally rocked Love at Home singing along to a uke. Elder Casco has a recording.

We celebrated my birthday in zone conference. I got brownies made by the Hermana. They had nuts in them, but still pretty good.

We've started to teach another girl named Lucìa. Lucìa Schmit - lol! She's 12 years old and way ditsy. Her grandma was baptized when she was 9 and hasn't been back to church since. We knocked their door and we're teaching them a full! Lucìa wants to come to church, but hasn't yet. The grandma wanted to too, but got stuck taking care of the grandkids. Lucìa wants to bring her best friend to church next week too! So we're going to go with Carolina and Mariana Dos Santos (who are her age, and awesome member missionaries) to pick them up Sunday and take them to church. We went to teach her with the Dos Santos girls, but her grandma wasn't there. So she got embarrassed (because she didn't want to answer questions wrong) so she went up to her room and wouldn't come down and talk with us. One of her cousins said she was crying because she was so embarrassed (I think embarrassed is the right translation of verguenza...). But we went back the next day and had an awesome lesson with her. We're going to start teaching her friend Victoria and her together. She's a golden investigator (when she talks with us! haha)

We also had a pretty interesting lesson with an investigator named Manuel. He's been taking the lessons for 4 months and isn't really progressing. Comes to church every now and then, and won't take a baptismal date. So we went with the 1st counselor in the bishopric (got back from his mish 3 years ago) to try and resolve the doubt - the root of the problem. It pretty much comes down to a lack of faith - he's taking the charlas and reading the book of mormon because "he has sympathy for us (because we come here and leave our families and stuff) and doesn't want to lie to us, or tell us that he hasn't read the book of mormon." Pretty fun charla. We'll see what happens with him.

We had a zone activity last P-day. It was alright. I mostly just played the piano. The 14th ward building has a Clavinova, and I'm with Elder Smeltzer in the zone (finally!) so we rocked it out. We had like a two-hour four-hands jam session. SO MUCH FUN! Elder Smeltzer is the bomb. He's a little methodic, but we play a mean four-hands. He does some interesting chord substitutions when I want to do other chord substitutions, so we end up playing a lot of Δ7b9#11 chords, or lo que sea. Haha dad just laughed, I'm sure.

Thanks for the package! Thank Denise for me. Mike and Ikes are awesome - one of those things you don't know you'll miss until you don't have them. But it is SO humid that they stick together after a couple of days. Loving the pens... they write sooo smooth!

Can you find out a little more about package restrictions into the US? I found out that I can /send/ alfajores without a problem (just lots of money), but the Correo says that I shouldn't send it because the US has lactose import restrictions, and alfajores have milk in them. So the USPS will get it and won't send it on to you guys. So they say.

Look forward to hearing from you! Love you all and I'm praying for you!

Photos, Photos, Photos...

I just uploaded about 300 photos to Elder Thorderson's fan page. Go check them out! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elder-Steven-Matthew-Thorderson/44913571878?ref=ts

Libia Week 2 (7/13/09)

Hey fam!

We honestly had a pretty bad week last week. I'm sick as a dog with this cold, and it hit me hard this last week. The doctor told me to stay in bed for two days... but there was work to do so we went out in the evening to work those days. So numbers are down. No investigators came to church Sunday. lol Lucia didn't come because last week the Bishop read a letter from the Area Presidency asking that sick people don't come to church because of the Influenza A problem in Argentina. So Lucia didn't come because she's sick. lol at least now we know that she has a testimony of the church leadership! Haha our investigators are a mess... Lucia is sick and can't come to church. Romina's boyfriend's brother got hit by a car riding his moto, so we can't have lessons with her. Manuel wants to keep learning and know everything before he gets baptized... we'll be meeting with him Tuesday with the Bishop to help him find his answer (because he felt the Spirit, just didn't recognize it). The Rodriguez family is awesome, but the dad just started to work days and evenings delivering pizza, so hard to have lessons with them too. But the work is progressing and we're looking forward to finding more people this week!

We had a mission conference last Friday with the new president. He is a stud. Really soft spoken, but full of one-liners, and thus way funny. He says that his focus for the mission in these three years will be to help the missionaries be more sensitive to the whisperings of the Spirit. I'm really excited to learn from him! He says his wife is really direct, really blunt... I'm frankly afraid to talk to her. lol but they're awesome. Only downside to their fam is that two of their kids are down at BYU... too bad, huh?

I made an incredible discovery the other day. I went to make toast (because my diet the last week has been rice and toast) and had the bread all buttered and ready to go. But then Elder Casco asked me for help making french toast, so I showed him the right egg/milk ratio. But then I had french toast mix to use, so I dipped my buttered bread in the eggs and made french toast. INCREDIBLE! Try it, you'll like it.

Birthday package: you could send me some maple extract, because there isn't any here, and Vanilla syrup isn't as good. Also, look for the best deal on an 8 GB flash drive... probably one of those black ones that slides... I've misplaced mine. Luckily, there wasn't anything important on it. I'm devising ways to not lose it.

Pack of letters on the way, and I think I'm all caught up. Mykin needs an address, Aunt Dalene and Uncle Fred need an address verification, Greg is hand delivery. Tina and Corry both get letters this round, I'll get some alfajores over to corry.

Thanks SO MUCH for my priesthood line of authority! I've been studying my patriarchal blessing in my spare time too while I've been out sick... wow! (Try cross-referencing your blessing with the scriptures. Way cool.)

Loved the pictures - Tina looked miserable and I can't wait to hear how Emily reacts to Bear Lake! (Mom note: sent photo of Tina with Swine Flu and Emily reacting to nature, i.e. a bug--she HATES them!)

Libia Week 1 Officially (7/6/09)

"Elders" Thorderson and Casco--Fo Sho

Hey fam!

Short email today, short on time because we slept in.

Things are going good in Libia. We had a baptism Friday. We're planning on two more the end of the month, then 3 at the beginning of August. We are just working so hard on finding people - especially with references. Lucia is right - it's a huge area with plenty of people and plenty of untouched doors. But we're moving forward and I am sure I can leave an impression here.

Great news from Florida! Fabiana is officially getting married the 20th of August, and is getting baptized the 22nd! Thanks for your prayers! We're still waiting to see what happens with Patricia and Tony.

There's a handwritten letter on the way to Tina - I just don't have time to write her an email. Sorry! But she'll like the letter, we talk about all the same stuff. :P I'll be sending another one next week. And there are more letters on the way this week for forwarding. And more next week. I hate playing catchup!

Elder Casco would love some long-johns, particularly the bottoms. He doesn't have anything but his pants, and he's definitely jealous in this weather! That's all he asked for. All I want for my birthday is Peanut Butter. haha and a priesthood line of authority from Dad.

Congrats on your pimp certificate. Errr... PMP. I know you deserve it... "it's hard out here for a PMP". hehe but a trip to Guatemala would be awesome! I was talking to Elder Casco about learning Kek'chi with ya, he says it's a great idea. Next time Craig talks to you about Guay, take down some names! I'd love to catch up with some of these people! (Mom Note: Evidently, he didn't read mom's email, because I sent him names! sigh...)

I'm sending along some pictures. One is of Sofia's baptism. It was so awesome! It went really well, and her non-member mom came (who we almost had to maim to get her to let Sofia be baptized). We're now teaching Lucia (the 11-year-old in blue). The morochos are friends of the family, and we're working with them too! Vamos arriba!

Oh, mom, look up Cleon Skousen. Way cool stuff he talks about, you'll love listening to it. He's really fun too.

Love you all!

Libia Week 1 (6/29/09)

Hey fam:

The area is great. It's struggling a little bit, but I'm ready to give it my best to pick it back up and get some killer baptisms! It isn't in the "heart" of downtown - it's kinda a Salt Lake/West Jordan relationship. But the people here are pretty cool... not too many successful contacts but the members are great and we're going to be using them as much as we can. The area is like the Estadio area, and Flor de Maroñas. It's a pretty big area. And a tiny little house. It's two rooms... a bathroom/kitchen and a bedroom/study area. yuck.

We've got a few investigators, but not a lot. We're definitely going to be doing some looking this week. We've got Sofia, who was supposed to get baptized with her two sisters Friday, but her mom wouldn't let her. So we're going to talk to the mom tomorrow. Pray for us. lol we also have Romina, the girlfriend of a member. She's progressing pretty good and we're praying about a baptism date for her. There's Lucia, Sofia's sister, who went to church for the first time on sunday and loved it. We just found Fernando and Jimena, who lived in Virginia for 7 years and are loving the gospel. We have just taught them once, but they read and understood the pamphlet and are going to read 3 Nephi 11. Their daughter has some Friend magazines in english. Vamos arriba.

We're going to meet President Ernesto Da Silva friday in a mission-wide conference. Don't know much about him. He looks more gringo than President Ashby, and speaks english really well. Two kids studying down at BYU. Looks like a cool guy.

Yeah, I'd love it in the Ensign (Conference Issue), but send it in the next package and just send this one! lol Lovin the new mattism. (Mom note: Mattism=Matt Long quote from church. This week's is "This is like a firefly in a bug zapper. It's both electifying and enlightening.") I'm not sure they'd understand it here, but I'll try using it. I gave my testimony in the sacrament meeting sunday. They loved it, and the Bishop is pretty good at saying my name. :P Hello to Devin and Dayton Thorpe, Florence and Jessica Behl (actually all the Behl’s), Micaela, Sam Stokes, Denise Smith and Nanny.

I've got some letters coming home, and another one coming next week, then I should be caught up on letters. SD card coming this week, keep an eye out. Don't forget to send some fresh ones... I had to buy one in the bus station this week so I could send you this one (hence $20 missing).

If you're doing fireworks on the 4th, shoot one up for Patricia, it is her birthday on the 4th. Also, we could use some prayers for the missionary's families in Honduras, looks like there was a pretty nasty military coup and the president was kicked out to Costa Rica. His buddy Hugo Chavez picked him up so he is in Venezuela right now. Elder Casco is Hondureño, so we're praying in our house. The other Hondureños that we know (aka from our group) are Elders Bueso, Henriquez, Bonilla, Bermudez, Sosa, and Fermàn.

Love you guys!