2/25/09...In a Weird Mood Today...

Well, Steven was in quite the mood when he typed his email this week--not good, not bad, just weird! Of course, all that know and love Steven know all about those weird moods! LOL! Here's what he has to say this week:

I'm sorry to hear that Larry Miller died. I'm sure the jazz will go on losing without him. :P Speaking of which, how about that Utes v Crimson Tide game? Thanks for telling me! hehe Sounds like Haloti gave a great talk too. I hope it impressed you well. Luck to Ali, I'm sure he has done some great things and deserves this award. (MOM NOTE: Ali Sayed-Sarwar, a former student of mine, just won the Utah Youth of the Year award yesterday!)

Good job working on meaningful prayers. It is something we are working on too, to better know the needs of our investigators. I am hardly surprised to hear that the kids are still all motivated by stickers. I have some great stickers on my agendas, just you wait and see!

I hope Corry lands this job at the Golf Course. And Tina - why haven't the parents met your non-boyfriend yet? I didn't know he was from Spain, he probably wouldn't have understood the Spanish I told you to say anyways... it's country-Spanish, not "pure" spanish. And remember that the Elders in the ward are here to work, not for the girls!

Mom, don't have too much fun at the beach, if you get to go! I'm pretty sure I won't get to see the beach here for a couple of years, I have heard very few stories about missionaries who have. And budget cuts... what is up with that? Gotta love a red state... but I am glad to hear that you have some good allies on the board. And I am very surprised the car is clean... be sure to put a sticker on the board! Good luck with Dell! I think you get the Americans, I'm not sure though anymore. (MOM NOTE: I'm headed to San Diego for a school board conference and my new Dell laptop sucks!)

Looking forward to getting the addresses. It won't take as long as a package because it doesn't spend as much time in customs, but I still have to wait a little bit before I get it. If you really want to send me stuff in my next package, you could send medical tape, a spiral-bound spanish hymnbook, Warm Vanilla Creme hand lotion from Bath and Body Works, and/or a Portuguese learning book for dummies. Also, I would love the address(es) of the Barrios family's family here in UY. (MOM NOTE: Anyone else laughing about a missionary in Uruguay asking for Warm Vanilla Creme hand lotion from Bath and Body Works?! LOL!)

I'm surviving. I'm still not done at the doctor... I still have a stitch in my toe that I'm hoping they'll take out Friday. They are afraid that I have an infection, but they aren't sure because my doctor has been on vacation for Carnaval. But I'm surviving.

My area is great, and we have maybe three baptisms I hope to do in this change. We're struggling a bit with the investigators that we have, but we are going to go out and find more! Elder Duggins from Sacramento is my new companion. I told him that dad was born and raised in Davis, and he said "too bad." Maybe there's some bad blood here? We had a conference with Elder Jensen from the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder Zivic from the 1st Quorum of 70, in the area presidency. it was great, I'll tell you all about it next week, along with some pictures.

Well that's all for now. Say hi to everyone for me!

2/23/09

Today is transfer day, so we probably won't get an email until Wednesday. We'll update when we get a new email!

Email from Steven 2/16/09

MOM NOTE: Steven was writing from the Mission Home so it's a nice long email this week! 

Thank Lucia for me. I didn't know you guys would freak out and go spreading the word! I am fine, it was just an ingrown toenail. "uña encarnada" But I did go to the Hospital Britànico for my Operation. My doctor was Luis Praderi, he's a capo. He speaks pretty good English, but we bounced back and forth between spanish and english. The operation went well. I had my foot numbed, and i wanted to watch but praderi told me I couldn't. So I laid there and stared at the ceiling and told one of the nurses about the church. Good times.

Oh, another funny story... We did some service last last saturday - the 7th - helping the bishop build a roof. Everything is just cement and bricks... no drywall or wood or anything. So we filled in a wood frame with cement to make the roof. I hope I explained that ok. But I was filling up buckets with the cement mix. I went to open a new bag of mix, and the brick I was kneeling on collapsed under me right as the bag opened, so I fell face first into the big pile of cement mix. I came out with cement all over me - I think I am still blowing cement out of my nose!

I am loving my zone. I did a companion exchange on Thursday with one of the leaders, Elder McKell. He is great and I love working with him. Elder Blake is a stud too. Our zone is really strong, even if we don't win at Palabras de Vida. Transfer day is Wednesday the 25th. We have a couple of General Authorities coming from the Seventy (Jensen and Zivic) to speak to us that day, really looking forward to that. ANd looking forward to seeing the Elders I flew here with, they're still in the CCM! Zone conference is usually the 2nd or 3rd week of the change, so I'm hoping I get my package in the beginning of march. (MOM NOTE: Good grief! How long do packages take?! I sent his first package a month ago!!)

I would love to get the list of areas Crystal served in - like the wards and stuff, and if there is anyone she wants me to check in on.

Tina - tell your boyfriend "¡No me besès vos hasta que yo tenga dieciseis años!" (MOM NOTE: Even though we normally edit out the family stuff, I had to leave this in for a special socially crippling moment!)

Good to hear dad is sooooo close to getting his MBA done. ¡Suerte! ¡Èxito! But sorry about the transformer... I hope it all comes together. And how did IKEA go? I'm sending this email to randy@thorderson.com... I tried forwarding the picture to your work address, but it rejected the .eml attachment. So I'm sending everything to your thorderson.com address por la duda, I hope that's okay.

Did you receive and forward my written letters? For my next package - I might want my compression bag for the coldness, but I don't know how easy that would be to send. Also, airheads would be soooo awesome - two years worth of airheads that I could eat in two weeks! :P

Could you pass some questions along to Chortney for me? 1) We know from Latter-day Revelation that John the Beloved will tarry in the flesh until the 2nd coming. But Peter, James, and John appeared to confer the Melcezidek Priesthood on Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey. So was he there in the flesh? 2) In the CCM, we had it pretty pounded into our head that Jehovah did all of the creating - except for man, which was done by Elohim himself. The Temple made it sound like Jehovah did it, or I could be translating it wrong since the sessions are in Spanish. Clarification please? 3) Peter, James, and John said they had money suffecient (sic) for their needs. Did they need money? Was money an issue with 2 people on the earth? (MOM NOTE: Dad's mantra has always been "Chortney Reusch is the smartest person I know." Guess something sunk in...)

I have a challenge for you for the next couple of months. I hope you are feeding the missionaries like I challenged you to do. We have a sister in the ward who live alone next door to her brother. Every Monday, she sings a hymn alone, reads the scriptures alone, and says a prayer alone. She has Family Home Evening without a family! I think you guys should try and do Family Home Evening more regularly - She said she does it because a prophet said to. Joseph Smith said "This is my motto: if God tells you to do something, just do it." Can we do the same?

Well that's all for now! Don't worry about writing so much that I won't have time to read it, you know how fast I read... and I thrive on the news from the fam! Oh - since changes are on Wednesday, we don't have P-Day Monday, so don't freak out if I don't email you until Wednesday next week!

Love you all!

Update on Steven

OOPS! I forgot to post this last week! Steven has a friend in Uruguay (who also served in that mission) who read about Steven's surgery and lack of details. This is what she said:

When i read that Elder Thorderson was going to have a Surgery, my fiance called Presidente Ashby´s home.
We did that because we guess how hard it is to a mother heard that and have no idea what is going on.
I have been trough 5 surgerys in less than 7 months and i saw how sad my mom was. That was the reason we decided to call.
But luckily i have great news for you and your family.

As you supoused he is having trouble with a toenail,so is nothing big.
Hna Asbhy saided is notinhg really important, so no worries.
Also i tell you that all the missionaries goes to the best private Hospital in Uruguay, "The British Hospital"and there are a lot of doctors that speaks English there.

This is the hospital link just if you want to have a look.
http://www.hospitalbritanico.com.uy/ (you can choose the language).

Please do not feel this as an intromition, it was not our intention.
Thanks for pray for me, this have been the more difficult months in my life, but my faith is stronger and i know i will survive!!

We are in touch, dont worry Elder Thorderson is fine.

Lucía

A quick email from Steven with a photo

Today, we received an email from Steven. It was mostly family stuff, but he did give us one little tidbit..

i am literally out of time, i'm at the sucky cyber again and their stupid cookie policy killed by novell session and lost my email. So i am still alive, for now. Not sure if I'll be able to send an email next week, i'm going in for surgery. :D I'll explain more later.

Mom note: WHAT??!! "I'm going in for surgery..."?! We are hoping it's something like an ingrown toenail, but let me tell you, when he gets home he is in some serious hurt! You can't drop a bomb like that, then walk away! 

Have a good week all. Steven asks that we pray for an Uruguayan friend of his--Lucia Rodrigues Ferrar0--who has Hodgkins. And I guess we ought to pray for Steven, who is having surgery for some unknown ailment!! :-)

Ah, on to the photos. This is his zone at their zone conference last week. The photo was taken in front of the Montevideo Temple. I've cropped a close-up of Steven from it. 

February 3rd email--a day late!

I had given up hope for an email from Steven this week. But, I was pleasantly surprised when we got on yesterday. It's just a quickie, but has personality! 

Mom,

Sorry to hear you are having problems with your computers. It is just because I am not there, I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem if I were. You sure do send a lot of packages, man. haha don't worry about sending stuff for cookies - i don't have an oven. haha we make banana bread in the microwave though, it is way good.

I have had lots of opportunties to play the piano, both here and the CCM. No worries. Zone Conference was good... I love our mission president. We are getting pumped up for march madness, a month of insane proselyting and baptism. hehe and elder reed isn't in my zone, but i got to see him when i got here at tres cruces. He looks way different.

Congrats to sister hoskins, tell her hi for me and i'm sure she'll do great. (Mom note: Tiffany Hoskins received her mission call to Seattle, Washington--Spanish Speaking)

It is hot down here. And I'm in the Barrio Obelisco, which is just outside of the Centro of Las Piedras. The missionaries in Canelones are great... I just love Elder Belleau. It is pretty hot right now, so most everyone sits outside. And all the families are home because it is summer break in school. Què suerte, ¿eh?

Well since I was struggling with this keyboard (we had to go to a different cyber today) i have to end the email. Sorry about the lack of exclamation points. lol out loud.

Mom note: Have a great week everyone, and DON'T FORGET TO FEED THE MISSIONARIES!!