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!