Last Email *tear*

This is it... the last email! :(

you're so fine.jpg is my christmas present from our ex-mission leader Martin Moreno. :D

bishop.jpg is the bishop at our ward christmas party. Good guy.

www.thorderson.com/music/steven/nochebuena.WAV is our performance of La Nochebuena in our mission christmas conference (slightly modified, and with flute.)

We had our mission christmas fireside on friday. It was fun. Really great to see Wally and Monical again. :D We ended up pulling off Dad's arrangement of La Nochebuena, but we had to modify it. Hermana Enamorado played the flute, basically sight-read. She didn't want to play the harmony on the last verse or play in that weird key, so I had to work out a different modulation from Bb back down to G. I think it went alright (Bb/D, Cm, D7, G). Everyone loved it. I was pleased with the end result, considering that we had practiced it once for 5 minutes. A member from Maldonado lent us the flute, so we got it the day of the conference. Yay.

Afterwards we had our ward Christmas party, for which I made a meatloaf. It turned out looking weird. But we got there and it looked like the others, so I guess that's just how meatloaf looks. :P Lucìa went, she liked it. She isn't coming to church though because she has to help her mom in the feria on Sundays. So shoot.

Speaking of investigators, Claudia's kids went to church yesterday, but Claudia didn't because she went to visit her dad. The kids loved it though. We went to their house for the regularly scheduled lesson and Claudia said she wants to get baptized before I leave, but she thought I had a couple of months left. Nope, like two weeks. haha but then we had to tell her that she can't get baptized until she can keep the law of chastity (a guy is living with her). So she asked "so I have to get married?" we said that was one solution, and she said that she'll never get baptized then, because it isn't in her plans to get married. Then she asked "And if I were single? If he wasn't living with me?" We told her that would also be keeping the law of chastity and she would be able to be baptized. We reaffirmed that it was her decision and her decision only, and she said she'll let us know on Christmas. So that's that. We'll see what happens. I'm nervous, I think she's in a financial situation that she isn't going to want to break up with him. We'll see, I guess.

Alright, I think that's all the news.

Phone calls: I know it is going to mess up lunch and everything, but you need to call at noon. (5:00 our time). Elder Davies' parents will be calling at their noon (6:00 our time). The phone number is 011-598-2698-5244. If I do not get a phone call by 12:15, I'll call you at the house. But it would be better if you could call me. Elder Davies' parents have already had to call and they got through fine. They said it cost $75 for the 30 minute phone call... a calling card would be the best option by far. Or Google Voice or something.

Trip: everything is looking good. Just the Maldonado one needs work, I think I sent you the form again.

Well, that's all for this week. I'll see you next week, dad! hehe make sure to get another email off to the mission offices to finalize plans. I think they are going to pick you and Elder Wilde's parents up from the airport if necessary, so check to see what their plans are.

Love you all! Talk to you on Saturday!

Elder Thorderson's Report on his Mission Scheduled

I can't believe the time has finally come to an end, but we are soon to get Steven home again! He finishes his mission on December 28. On December 27, his dad will fly to Uruguay to meet him, tour the country, and safely deliver him to his mom on January 5th.

His Mission Report is scheduled for Sunday, January 9, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. He will be reporting to the Center Ward located at 868 N. Starcrest Dr. Salt Lake City, UT 84116 (building is located on the corner of 900 North and Starcrest Drive (about 1800 West)

Hey Family! (12/13/10)

Wow... two weeks.

Well we had an interesting week. We pulled a baptism out of nowhere, Agustina Balbi told us on wednesday that she wanted to get baptized before she went to Salto on vacation (this friday the 17th). So we baptized her saturday. She's super happy... it's weird. I don't really know what to think. But she made the decision all on her own. So huzzah.

Augustina's baptism

Lucìa is doing pretty good. We called her Friday to invite her to the baptism (she went) but she misunderstood when I invited her and she was like "I don't want to get baptized yet!" haha good times.

We are doing pretty well here in the area, not letting up on the reins. This Sunday Claudio's family came to church for all three hours, so that's a little miracle. They really liked it, Claudia loved the RS lesson.

Tina: here's a pic of a really old buoy on the beach. Thinking of you!

Well I love you all, not much else.

Counting down--NOT! (12/6/10)

Well we've got like one month left... I just looked at my watch and it says 12/06... that means less than one month. Wow.

We are doing pretty well here. Nothing out of the ordinary to report. Yesterday in church we counted 10 non-members. There may have been more, but we weren't able to confirm. 10 might be the most I have ever had on my mission. Claudia and her kids came (that was 3) and Lucas came again (Facundo Lavega's friend). Everybody else were new people. So that's good news. Lucìa couldn't come though. She had to help her mom work (she sells stuff at the weekly fair in Maldonado every friday and sunday morning).

Well we have our mission christmas fireside on the 17th. I talked to Sister Da Silva, and she says that each zone is going to be asked to provide a musical number. I plan on having Sister Lee (clarinet) and Sister Walton (singer) do La Nochebuena (thanks for the new music dad! we prefer the v2) representing their zone (Rocha) and see if I can talk my zone into doing Far Far Away. I'll have to work in the Sisters.

I told Elder Davies about Haloti - turns out Haloti was his hero when he was playing on the defensive line at Oregon. He's super jealous I got to play church ball with him, but just thinking about it brings back the back pain from getting boxed out by him. :P

Mom - I need a super good meat loaf recipe. I don't recall eating any meatloaf that I liked (hehe) but maybe you or Aunt Rebecca or Nanny have a good recipe. We have a ward activity and the price of admission is a meatloaf. So I'm going to give it a shot. No spicy allowed. I'll need the recipe for next week!

Hmmmm.... what else is there to report? I think that's it. No pictures today, didn't take any good ones this week. Sorry.

I'll look for Nativity scenes... but chances are slim I'll find anything, and if I do it'll be chinese. I'll need money to buy them too. The only iconic Uruguayan nativity I'd be able to find would be if everyone had light blue jerseys from the world cup (the baby Jesus wearing #10, of course).

Well, I love you all! Send me some pics of Tina playing ball this year! :D

Another Week! (11/30/10)

raul.jpg is Raul's baptism pic. Daniel baptized him. (Raul's the bald one. He's 43.)

plata.jpg is the family we ate thanksgiving with. Good people, and they signed up for Christmas lunch too.

pancakes.jpg is our thanksgiving meal.

painting.jpg is Raul, Elder Davies, Daniel and I painting the house this saturday. We still need to buy a door and bedside tables, but at least the hard part is done.

nadia.jpg is Nadia's baptism pic. The whole family showed. Good times.

Hey fam!

Not much to report this week [that's a lie, we just don't have a lot of time and a picture is worth a thousand words (and you're getting 5)].

So we had a baptism Saturday out of the blue. Yay! Raul got baptized. Nadia too, but that's a ward baptism.

We found an awesome girl named Lucìa. She's super cool, 13 years old and her mom is worried about her because she is having teen issues. But she isn't really. We had our first lesson with her Wednesday, then she came to Mutual Saturday and church Sunday. Then yesterday we visited her and my comp (Elder Vera, we had a companion exchange) put a baptismal date for the 8th of January. Maybe if she progresses well we can baptize her the 1st and Dad can see a baptism in Uruguay. How cool would that be? Haha

Not much else on my end. I rolled my ankle bad playing soccer today. :( I think the only time I have felt more pain is when I straddled the tree. But that was significantly more pain, so no worries. Our travel time tripled though because we are traveling "en el once" (on the eleven - like 11 - two legs! haha spanish joke.)

Pedro Dominguez is rocking as bishop. I am super excited to have him.

We did confirm that we are doing a missionary fireside, but I have not yet been given a green light to prepare music. But I'll get it.

Ummmm I think that's it for today. I look forward to hearing from you guys next week. Good to hear that Tina's playing Varsity and that the Utes beat BYU. Next year are they still going to play - just out of conference? How's Utah's BCS ranking? My comp is rubbing in the fact that Oregon is #1 (yeah, he's a fan). Good to hear that Thanksgiving turned out well too.

Dad - be thinking about something small/cheap like a picture or something that we could gift to the families we visit when you come. We'll be visiting no more than 60 families. :D

Love you all!!!

Hey Fam! (11/22/10)

here's a pic of my suit. Needless to say, I'll be taking it in to the dry cleaners. (it's mold)

Hey family!

How's everybody doing? We are doing pretty good here in El Pinar. We saw some miracles, some pitfalls. Let's start with the bad.

Elder Davies and I were sick this week - I was worse than he was. It was some sort of cold, runny nose, congestion, headache, the feeling you got run over by a bus... no fun at all. So there were a couple days we only worked half the day. I started getting better after a blessing from the bish, but it was like 5 days in all. Yuck. So because of that, our numbers took a hit. But we worked hard when we were working.

Miracle time.
We found Raul, the one who had a baptismal date for last Saturday. Did I tell you he disappeared? He found work or something and we weren't able to find him for two weeks, and he didn't come to church. So we were eating lunch with the bishop on Friday, and he gets a phone call from a recent convert Daniel who was fellowshipping Raul. He was like "Raul is at my house and he says he is getting baptized tomorrow. What do I tell him?" haha so we finished eating quickly and went to Daniel's house to have a charla with Raul. We moved the baptism to this Saturday and explained why (lack of lessons and church assistance, needs to be prepared). He was cool with it, so now he is working extra hard to get "prepared" for baptism. In our charlas, he volunteers for both prayers, he reads all the scriptures, he threw out his rosary, and the most common phrase he says is "if I'm going to be ready for next Saturday, I have to ______, right?" haha it's funny. He's a good guy. We told him that he has to be on time to church (he's always late) so he showed up half an hour early when the church wasn't even open. Haha good times.

We also had some people show up to church that we weren't expecting. One guy who was close to getting baptized a year or so ago, but didn't make it. He's the son-in-law of one of the coolest members of the ward (Cardozo who always calls me "jefe" haha) and husband of a pretty intensely inactive member. But they both showed up on Sunday with all the desire in the world. He came in a suit and a nice tie, they were smiling the whole time. After the meetings, they asked us for the lunch calendar so they could sign up to give us lunch. Super cool people. He is in an unstable work situation so he can't take the charlas right now, but he said the moment he gets it worked out he'll call us.

Hmmmm... What else is there to report?

Elder Davies is doing good. He was invited to the mission leadership conference next week (oooOOOooo) so he's trying to read the Book of Mormon before that. Good kid.

Oh, I met Hoefling's parents. Cool people. His mom is always smiling, his dad is just chill, absorbs everything. He had a Nikon D300 with an extended battery pack and like a 50-300 lens. Quite a monster. I got to use it to take a picture of them, I took one but couldn't get my finger off the trigger fast enough and it took another one (I guess it was on burst mode). They had me take another just in case, and sure enough, two pictures again. It was pretty cool.

Sorry, I didn't mean to talk so much about the camera. What I meant to say was that they had my package! They didn't leave it at the mission home, it was still in their car. Happy day! So thanks a lot! Turns out that Missionary Mall ordered the wrong style shoes, now I have two pairs of the exact same shoes. Haha but that's okay. I REALLY don't want to wait until Christmas to open the gifts. We'll see how long I can handle it.

Oh, on Friday (thanksgiving) we are going to have a thanksgiving meal with the Plata family (they are super cool). Their daughter can't cook very well, and she can really only cook one dish well. So for thanksgiving we are going to be having pancakes. Haha yay. Just thought you should know. At your thanksgiving meal, someone better say they are grateful for the food, because somewhere out in South America there is a missionary eating pancakes for thanksgiving. :D

Dad, here's a little bit more of our itinerary.
Wed 29th - visiting Florida. Hotel Florida.
Lunch: Milton y Doris, Dinner: Chivitos at Cafe del Centro.
Thurs 30th - visiting Trinidad. Hotel Florida.
Lunch: Flia Pedreira, Dinner: Carrito El Fape.
Fri 31st - visiting Maldonado. Hotel Maldonado (Punta del Este).
Lunch: TBD, Dinner: Asado with Flia Libonatti
Sat 1st - visiting El Pinar. Hotel Montevideo.
Lunch: TBD, Dinner: Flia Moreno.
Sun 2nd - visiting Libia, Las Piedras, Camino Carrasco. Hotel Montevideo.
Church in Libia (9 to 12), Lunch: Flia Tejera, Libia visits, Las Piedras Sacrament meeting (4:00?), Las Piedras visits, Camino Carrasco visits, Dinner: Pizza with Analia A.
Mon 3rd - visiting Salto. Hotel Salto.
Lunch: TBD, Dinner: TBD. (We'll see on this one, we can eat lunch on the way up, check out some cool sites, there are options.)
Tues 4th - visiting Montevideo. No hotel.
Lunch: Asado at the Puerto, Trunky shopping, Temple (session at 5:00), Dinner: Pizza at La Redonda, Fly home. (temple session ends at 6:30, dinner is close, we'd be at the airport at 8 at the latest. Is that early enough? If not we can do trunky shopping Monday morning, lunch in Deo, and not make as many stops on they way up to Salto.)

Those arrangements look awesome. Can't wait to try them out. Sister Da Silva is not sure if we are going to have enough time to set everything up in time. But we'll do something.

Got my SLCC app sent in, they admitted me as a non resident. http://www.slcc.edu/enrollmentservices/Residency.asp Looks like I have to fill out a stupid form. Yay.

Well that's it for today.

here we go! (11/16/10)

rain.jpg is cooking the burgers (it started to rain. haha)

asado.jpg is me and Elder Mendoza tending the fire to cook the burgers.

zone.jpg is the whole zone with our new cool shirts. Yay!

Hey fam!

Well here we are, change day! Turns out me and Davies are staying together, as expected. Everything is going good here, still struggling with Agustina, Claudio's fam is doing good, and Raul has disappeared. Huzzah.

We had a good FHE with the Balbi fam yesterday, I made an AWESOME apple cake. We watched "On the Way Home" - a super old church movie. It was pretty sweet. They are doing good. Sunday I did my first priesthood ordination, Oscar and Ignacio were conferred the priesthood, and Oscan asked me to do it. It was pretty scary... I didn't want to give him keys accidentally in spanish. haha

Not much to report this week, just a quick note to let you know I'm alive.

Tell Tina I'm super proud of her and look forward to schooling her one-on-one in bball. haha

Well time's up today. Love you all!

(MOM NOTE: New email sent later that day)

Haha I sent a short email because I had to take time out to resize photos and stuff - then i forgot to send the photos!

These are from the zone activity I told you about. It was alright, the sisters showed up late and we didn't get to play volleyball.

Love you all!

Say hi to Emily for me too, tell her that I am looking forward to seeing her!

Chugging Along! (11/8/10)

Birthday Present: Scripture Covers Back

Birthday Present: Scripture Covers Front

Hey fam!

Well I've been promising you guys a long email for a while now, so here it goes!

We had a pretty good week this week. Monday was P-Day, no zone activity so we were able to relax. Finally. We had a FHE with the Balbi fam, that was lots of fun. Tuesday we didn't have district meeting since Wednesday we had Zone Conference. That went well, we had a temple session with the pres and his wife. Then I splurged at the distribution center buying books for the 6 new members we have in the ward. Thursday we didn't have anything noteworthy... Friday a companion exchange with our DL. Elder Mendoza (the DL) worked here in El Pinar with me, and Elder Davies worked with Fajardo in his area. It was alright...Saturday we did service a large part of the day with Nicole Moreno and her family. It was good, we were ripping down trees. Before we got there, they were clearing the tops o the trees of branches so they would come down without doing any harm. Just as we got there, they pulled off a branch and it nudged the power line. Nothing bad happened... it was just a tap. But the neighbor came out and started a big fuss that he saw the line move, blah blah so he called the police about it because they were cutting trees not on their property (which they weren't, the base of the tree was inside the property line) so they ended up having to go to the police station to make a statement. It was a pretty exciting day.

Sunday was rough. Nobody came to church. Well... Lots of people came to church, I guess they heard that we have a new bishop and they decided to come to see. But nobody that we wanted to come - the Balbi fam, Raul, Soledad... it was pretty rough. We don't really know why either. Bah. But we finished off Sunday with a good charla with Claudio's family. Today we have a FHE as a zone, should be interesting. We are doing it in our church, definitely the nicest in the zone. I'll have pics next week.

Oh hey speaking of pics, I finally got my birthday present! I don't remember if I told you guys, but the guy that made the scripture covers made them too big (as if to fit spanish scriptures) so I had to send them back to him, along with my scriptures to get a good fit. Well I got them back Wednesday, they are basically awesome. Here are pics of the front and back. No other pictures for the week. Sorry.

Okay, back to the good email. Here is the area report.

Balbi is doing okay, I guess. We are having a FHE with them and the Puyol fam on Tuesday. The Puyol fam is awesome! :D I really don't know what is going on with Agustina. Puyol keeps telling me that we have the right to inspiration and we'll get it worked out, but I'm just lost. She says one thing with us, and her mom tells us differently, then she ends up doing something completely different. It is super frustrating. Elder Davies just has so much faith that she will get baptized in the future that he isn't too worried about it, I'm freaking out because I want her to get baptized NOW. It's hard loving the people so much that you want to take away their agency. (Wait... maybe that's what lucifer was thinking! Nah just kidding. Don't let anyone in the High Priests Group know I said that, it just might become doctrine! Haha) so yeah, that's a frustrating situation.

Raul is struggling. We can tell that there are some legal issues as far as the house he is buying - he is worried about getting kicked out because the landlord is changing the contract or something. But there's something else going on. But he didn't come to church Sunday either.

Claudio is a convert to the church, he was baptized when he was 12 and is now preparing for a mission. For some reason, his family has taken interest in the Gospel. So we are now teaching his mom, Claudia, his 8-year-old sister Micaela, and his mom's 9-year-old sister Romina. (Yes, I know that's called an aunt, but it sounds weird calling a 9-year-old his aunt!) They are pretty cool. Yesterday was our second charla with them, we watched the Restoration movie and Claudio gave her a Book of Mormon. She cried when we told her that Claudio wanted to gift her a new BoM, and she said that when she was watching the first vision she felt that it was true. So she (Claudia) and Romina accepted soft baptismal invitations ("Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?") but we didn't feel like it was the right time to put a date. Claudia said yes if she receives answers to her prayers. For Romina a simple "yes" was enough. So they are rocking.

We haven't seen Marcela again. She's the one that lived in Boston.

We've got a kid named Darío, he's pretty chill. He's like 20 years old, finishing up high school. He's really thinkative (man my English is terrible. Thinkative = pensativo) and has been through various religions. He's excited about the BoM mostly because it is a solid proof, which other churches don't have. We've only had one charla with him though, so we'll see how he does.

Other than that, we've just got contacts or references to go back to, so we are slowly progressing here.

Alright, that's the report.

Dad, I don't know if you have had any luck with the hotels, but I'm going to make a last minute change. Mon, Jan 3, get a hotel in Salto. It's a four hour drive out there, but that's 1) where we'll need to visit the Balbis and 2) some scenic stuff we can see up there. Everyone talks about Salto. That will be a good way to wind down the stay - We'll be up in Salto Monday (get there in the afternoon) look around, visit the Balbi fam, and stay the night, since we wouldn't be able to come back down to Deo in time. Then we come back down to Deo on Tuesday, do lunch and trunky shopping downtown, then temple and dinner, then to the airport. What do you think? I didn't really have anything planned for Monday anyways, so this will be good to fill up that hole.

Mom, my Student ID (well my SLCC acceptance letter) should be in a ziploc baggie that was in that mail sorter thing on the wall in the kitchen. It might have been moved to the safe. Or you guys put it in a box. But check with dad first because I don't think he would have packed away important papers in the storage unit.

Alright, say hi to Tina for me, and Corry if he calls again. I'm rooting for Tina in her basketball tryouts, good to hear she gave the big girls a run for their money! Oh also say hi to Uncle Sterling - it is his birthday Friday. :D

Well love you guys! Have a wonderful week!

2 months? Serious? (11/1/10)

Wow, time is flying, guys. How is it on your end?

Well the Balbi fam (part of them) got baptized Saturday. (pics included) It went well, but Agustina ended up staying dry. She decided not to show up for her baptismal interview... she came with her family, got to the street corner, and turned around and went back home. So we are pretty sad. But I guess that's okay, she'll get baptized eventually. We hope. The rest of the fam is super happy, but Silvina is kinda torn because she left Agustina behind. But the fam is doing good, we have an FHE with them tonight. I baptized all three of them (they asked me to) and I confirmed Silvina (she asked me to). Pretty fun stuff.

We FINALLY have a bishop! I'm not sure if I ever told you guys, but we haven't had a bishop for a year here in El Pinar, and yesterday we finally got one. He's the former EQ pres, Pedro Dominguez. We are all excited that we finally have priesthood keys in the ward. He's a good guy.

Ummmm not much to say in this email, we're just chugging along. We have Zone Conference on Wednesday - temple trip! :D My comp is struggling a bit with homesickness, but I'm working him. :D

Well send my love to all in the family. I'll try and have a better email next week, I promise.

Love you all!

Hey Fam! (10/25/10)

marraige.jpg is them getting married! After Silvina signed the paper.

witness.jpg is me signing the Balbi's wedding certificate as a witness.

Reading.jpg and BoM.jpg are new wallpapers, in the ever popular 16x9 format.

baptism.jpg is Soledad's baptism, with her boyfriend Fabricio (he baptized her), her mom Isabel, and her mom's boyfriend/roommate Cèsar. It was fun.

Hello all!

I tried uploading videos to box.net, but it wants us to pay to get more storage / bigger file upload size (both of the files are larger than 25 MB, the current file single file size cap). So... yeah. We made a movie for Aunt Rebecca's birthday (we made flan, haha). I hope she had a good birthday, make sure she gets my love.

So yeah... Balbi got married! They are super happy, we are confident they are all going to get baptized Saturday. We have a FHE this evening, it'll be fun.

Raul is doing good.

Well that's the quick update for the week, I'll swing by the cyber later on today to see if you guys happen to send me news... haha love you all!

Rockin' Along (10/18/10)

Well everything is going well in el pinar! the baptism went well, not a lot of people showed up, but it's alright. Soledad is super happy, just a huge smile on her face. Her boyfriend baptized her. Sorry about not sending a pic, i would send one but we are are at a different cyber and i forgot my camera / card reader. Whoops.

The Balbi fam is doing alright. the 13-year-old is still struggling, we aren't too sure what to do about her. She just really doesn't like being the center of attention, but if we don't ask her questions, we don't know what's up and can't help her get ready for baptism. So we'll see. The parents are doing awesome though, they're going to get married on Friday and hopefully baptized on the 30th. But Silvina (the mom) was like "I really want us to get baptized as a family" after we talked about the possibility of Agustina not getting baptized. That's good... but also bad because she doesn't want to get baptized if Agustina doesn't get baptized with them. Ignacio (the son) is super ready, and he isn't going to wait any longer. He's so excited to get wet. haha it's a good fam.

We also found a guy named Raul. He's from Rivera, a border city with Brazil. He has a funny accent, but my comp says he can understand Raul better than he can understand anyone else. He's a cool guy, he has had experience with the church already and loves it. He always refers to it as "our church" and "our doctrine". haha so yeah. He has a baptismal date for the 20th of November. He has come to church twice and came to the baptism saturday. so he's doing super good. My comp is excited, because it is his first new investigator and he already has a baptismal date. Huzzah.

Dad: (from Richard G. Scott)
Faith is a foundation building block of creation. I am confident that the Savior Jesus Christ uses faith in His capacity to act under the direction of Father in Heaven. The Master used it to create the most remote galaxies as well as to compose quarks, the smallest elements of matter we know of today. Yet, I have faith that there are yet smaller building blocks in the wonder of creation.

Pretty crazy about all my friends out in missions already! Kari in MO! and Chelsey going to Russia?!?! Which mission - not Chase's mission, is it? Weird! And Elise in Berlin, I think she studied German in high school, that's cool. And Hannah going to Luke's old mission. That's super weird! Chelsey -> Chase, Elise -> Devin Weixler, Hannah -> Luke, Brian Graham -> my next door neighbor mission. My mind is blown.

Dad:
Hotel plans have not changed. Not really any plans have changed. =D
Tue, Dec 28 - Montevideo Hotel (Dad arrive)
Wed, Dec 29 - Thu, Dec 30 - Florida Hotel (visiting Florida & Trinidad)
Fri, Dec 31 - Punta del Este Hotel (visiting Maldonado)
Sat, Jan 1 - Mon, Jan 3 - Montevideo Hotel (visiting El Pinar, Las Piedras, and Montevideo)
Tue, Jan 4 - No Hotel (visiting Montevideo - fly home)

Also, the primary song arrangement, there's not necessarily any rush, just don't forget. :D

Well what else do I have to ask? Ummm....
Oh I have to tell you about Elder Davies. He is a super stud. We are having so much fun! :D We are twinners for sure. We get along really well and we are working hard. We made pancakes yesterday. So we are doing well and I am so blessed to have him as a companion.

Well I will go ahead and sign off. Love you all, we're preaying for you!

-Elder T

PS yes I need Chelsey's address! :D

First Week! (10/11/10)

Hey fam!

Well things are all good in Zion. We have a baptism on Saturday! Soledad is going to be getting baptized. We're pretty pumped... she's a good girl and she's excited to get baptized. I don't have any reservations about it, she's strong and she's been coming to church for a long time already. So yeah.

Elder Davies is a stud. We're like two peas in a pod. We're doing really well together as companions and missionaries. We're just in a new investigator dry spell. But we should be finding a couple of golden references this week so it's all good. We contacted six references last week, but they all sucked. One of them got pretty mad at us - we've passed by like 40 times and he always tells us no. So I told him I wouldn't pass by again, but the next missionary probably will - but since I don't know who he is, I can't tell him not to. haha he got pretty ticked.

Ummm yeah Elder Davies is going to send out an email with a bunch of pictures, so I have to let you guys go to give him enough time. I sent Tina an e-card for her birthday. I loved it. :D

Aight, I hope you have a great week. Love you all!

Changes! (10/5/10)

Hey fam!

Well change day came and went, and I have a new comp. Like really, a NEW comp. I got an oro, just got to Uruguay this morning. His name is Dallen Davies from a ranch in Oregon (he says it is to the south, but there aren't any cities nearby as reference.) He's a cool cat, we are super excited to work together. Here's a photo. Also training this change are Elders Draper, Montgomery and Allen from the group (also Lira my MTC comp and Bonilla). So that's that.

Well Elder Luke had a hard time saying goodbye. He cried a few times... with the Balbi fam and Lucas' fam. Poor kid. But he's going to tear it up in Estaciòn (which is the neighbor branch of Asamblea Florida). The Balbi fam were all crying, they were sad to see him go, but expressed thanks for helping them get on the right path as a family, which really helped us see their progress towards baptism.

General Conference was AMAZING! Too bad you guys missed it... a ball tournament conference weekend in Utah?! lol out loud but it was really good. Quick overview: new temples in Lisbon, Grenada, Tijuana, Indianapolis, and Connecticut. Holland gave a long talk about gratitud. It was alright, not as ground shaking as his BoM talk last october. The Primary President talked about teaching young children the plan of salvation. Christofferson gave a killer talk on consecration. Uchtdorf talked about aviation as usual and about how you should slow down in turbulence, not speed up and try to get past. Hales gave a good talk about agency. Cook talked about philosophy and the role of religion in making the world a better place or something like that, I got a little lost. Bishòp Edgley talked about making the choice to have faith. Anderson talked about being true to the Savior. Elder Scott tossed in a string theory reference (I think), he talked about quarks and how they are the smallest discovered component of everything - but he knows there are things even smaller. STRINGS! (look up the talk when the text is released Thursday. gc.lds.org) hehe he talked about character and testimony. Sick talk. The Priesthood session was the best EVER. Nelson talked about missionary work. Elder Kearon (70) gave an awesome talk about choices and the healing power of Christ. Uchdorf dropped the pride cane based on Benson's 1989 pride talk. It was intense. Eyring talked about Priesthood power and the power of the Holy Ghost and how they amplify each other. Monson talked about the 3 R's of choice - right, responsibility, and results. He said it is easier to keep the commandments 100% of the time than 98% of the time. Then Sunday Eyring talked about faith enough to trust. AWESOME. Packer talked about agency. Oaks talked about how God communicates to us both through the priesthood line and the personal line. Monson talked about gratitude. Perry talked about the Aaronic priesthood, good talk for Corry. Bednar gave an alright talk, it wasn't as intense as usual. Talked about the Holy Ghost and how to get it. Elder Lawrence (70) gave a sick talk about raising teenagers. Elder Arnold (70, president of the area down here) gave an awesome talk about agency. Ballard talked about agency and addiction.

>> 3 months left...about 120 days!!!
How many days are in a month? Haha Elder Draper told me today (I'm not keeping count, he is) that we have 84 days left. That's the official count.

Dad, could you start looking at the primary song that starts "stars were gleaming?" We would like you to try an arrangement of that for a female voice and solo clarinet (1st verse vocal, clarinet verse, 2d verse vocal). We'll see what you can do. Oh, and can you make the song sound like Eric Clapton? (hehe that's a joke. love you!)

Well that's all for the week. Love you all (don't forget to look up the conference sessions on Thursday!)

Almost to Changes (9/27/10)

So here is a pic of the balbi fam in an FHE with the Puyol fam. Up top is (L > R) Oscar, Silvina, Agustina, Ignacio, and their friend Julia. Bottom is Elder Luke, me, Sister Puyol, Alain, and Brother Puyol. The Puyol fam has been helping us a ton with them.

Weird to think that today is our last pday before changes... we're pretty nervous to find out what is going to happen. We really want to stay together, we are doing super good work and are super excited. But we're pretty sure we're splitting. Elder Luke is pretty sad because he is pretty sure he's leaving his golden family. But we'll see what happens.

We had Youth Conference this weekend, all in all we had FIVE investigators attend! Agustina, Ignacio, and Julia, and a member's girlfriend Soledad that just started taking the charlas (she's been going to church for 2 months) and Lucas' brother Nicolas (but we aren't sure if he is going to end up getting baptized... he's pretty lost right now.) So it was SUPER successful and they had a pretty good time. It was good for Agustina and Julia to get acquainted with the other young women, that's their biggest issue right now (social, not spiritual doubts). Balbi is still doing good for their marraige the 22nd, the ward wants to plan a reception in the church. Huzzah!

Ummmm I got my temple recommend renewed today (we cleaned the temple as a zone). It was WEIRD hearing the questions in spanish, but I guess I answered OK.

I recorded a video for Sarah Jane's birthday, but it is too big for Google. So that sucks. Happy birthday SJ!

Let's see... Glad to hear disneyland went OK. I find it pretty funny that Emily's pooping habits get brought up in every other email... you might have to start her on the Mineral Oil (heh Corry) I look forward to Disneyworld next year. *cough*

I think that's it for the day. We are still doing really good and we need your prayers for Balbi! I'm going to send weenie a quick email.

Love you all!

Good Week (9/20/10)

Hey fam!

So we had a good week this week! We had two days taken out for the leadership seminar, and a P-day, so we were working like 3 and a half days. But we managed to find 5 new people this week. One of them is the girlfriend of a member that has been coming to church for a couple of months now, but we finally got her to commit to taking the charlas. So we're starting with her on wednesday. We could see her getting baptized next month, she just needs to learn the stuff and make some slight lifestyle changes. We also found a pretty sweet family (single mom with a 12-year-old kid that speaks english really well) that is really needing the gospel, the mom told us that she is needing God right now, that she's alejada from God and a little angry with Him. So we came to the rescue.

Balbi fam is doing great. We needed to order the birth certificates of the kids, get them approved, and now on tuesday we are going with them to get them signed up to get married, haha they have to get a date assigned to get married. When we checked, there were dates free for the 20th of October, which happens to be the mom's birthday. She said she'd like to get married that day and prepare to get baptized with her son the 30th of Oct. Which means that if the 13-year-old augustina gets on board, the four would get married the 30th, plus the member's girlfriend Soledad that month, and Lucas' brother Nicolas on the 9th... 6 baptisms next month! WOW! (Papi - creo que ahora llevo 15 bautismos o algo asì, no incluyendo los que enseñè pero se bautizaron despues que yo saliera del area.) We're going to have another FHE with Balbi on Wednesday (I'm making brownies). It seems that the FHE gets pushed back every week... something always goes wrong. haha

Oh, Lucas is 17 years old, he's a Priest. it's recommended that the men get the Aaronic Priesthood ASAP after their baptism.

Luke gets home this week?!?!?! Gosh time flies!

No, the smeltz machine is already home. I hear he has an iPad and is his ward mission leader.

Ummmm... we are going to make a cake on Saturday for Sarah Jane's birthday next Tuesday... could you send me SJ's email addy so I can send her a video next week?

Also, could you look through my important papers bag and see if my SLCC acceptance letter is in there that has my student ID number?

Alright, I think that's it for this week. I hope everyone is OK there, I'll be praying for Corry to get his situation figured out and that Tina gets invited to homecoming! :D

Love you all!

Long Time no see (9/15/10)

Lauriano and Romina baptism

Temple at the Leadership Conference

Lauriano and Romina baptism

Hey fam!

Well we had a good week. Pretty fun. First, some doubts to clear up.

The shoes I need replaced are the Hush Puppies. The Bjorns are fine. But if it still hasn't been ordered, don't worry about it. I don't want to take advantage of the warranty and stuff. It's all good.

There is a legend, an old wives tale, as it were, that the harder it rains and the wetter you get, the cuter your wife is going to be. It is a motivation to get us to work in the rain. True? We'll see. Not a trunky comment at all, just a little mission myth.

So good week, still have the same old investigators and are still looking for more. But the Balbi fam is doing great, only the son Ignacio could go to church, but he loved it and told his whole family about it when he got home. We got some of the paperwork we need to get them married (birth certificates for the kids) and we'll be going to the Registro Civil to see what the next step is. They are doing good and everybody but the 13 year old girl is diggin it. But she's 13, so we didn't really expect her to be in love with the idea. But she's working on it.

We baptized Lauriano and Romina on Saturday! Lucas their brother baptized them - he was baptized last month. It was a pretty good baptismal service, nothing outstanding, but it was good for the fam. We'll be baptizing the last two on the 25th, then they'll be a complete family! (us.jpg, fam.jpg)

We had the leadership seminar Monday and Tuesday. Here's a pic (temple.jpg) but it'll need some photoshop magic. It was pretty good, it was way too quick and it felt like we were rushing through. But we learned stuff and are going to get this area flying. Both me and Elder Luke went, which means we are either going to train or be a leader next change. Hmmm.... it'll be interesting.

Oh last week we had a visitor, Brother Gomez Paz, the Argentina MTC Coordinator (basically the MTC pres tells him what needs to get done, and Gomez Paz does it). He basically came to see the difference between MTC missionary work and mission missionary work. And to look at our spanish study habits (basically missionaries stop studying and learn VERY slowly after they get to the point of comfortably expressing what is in their head). It was pretty good, he just showed up with the ZLs and said that he was going to be with us for the afternoon. We took him to Balbi's house and put a baptismal date with Augustina's friend Julia. He had a really good experience and Pte Da Silva called me the next day to congratulate us for the work we are doing.

Oh, that reminds me... he also said that he liked my idea of doing a musical fireside in the stake and basically he is going to make it a multi-stake activity in Montevideo, and maybe do it in a couple of other zones in the interior and make it a big missionary thing. That's pretty intense. So Dad, I'll probably be having you do up an accompaniment for a song that we'll do a slideshow along with or something. We'll see. We're still on the surface of the planning stages.

Back to the subject, Hno Gomez Paz asked if I had been a DL/ZL, I told him yes, but not now. And he asked me if I had ever been assistant to the pres. HA! Of course not! He was like "Hmmm... weird, cause the president thinks really highly of you." Weird...

So... I think that's it for this week. Please be praying for the Balbi fam, that they can get married and baptized in October, and that we can find another prepared family.

Aight, love you all. Give a big hug to Tina and Emily for me!

Santa Rosa

So we had a big "temporada" come through - that would be translated as a "major storm system that comes every year and turns the streets to mud"... I think. It sucked. Here are some pictures.

An Umbrella (lasted 24 hours): $10.

umbrella2.jpg - Another: $10.

Three loads of wet laundry: $15.

Hot Chocolate: $2.

Knowing that the more it rains the cuter your wife gets: Priceless. Bring it on!

So... the Balbi fam came to church yesterday! Yay! And they brought a friend! They are doing pretty good, pretty scared for their first time in church. Haha during the sacrament - "If we haven't taken the communion can we take the sacrament?" Great people. We had a KILLER charla with them with a super-stud RM, he basically taught the whole time and committed the kids to get baptized the 30th of October and the parents to get married the 15th of November and baptized that weekend. So they're doing great.

Veronica's kids Lauriano and Romina are getting baptized Saturday, Nicolas and Nadia (who is 8 and technically a ward baptism) are getting baptized the 25th. They are doing well.

We are still looking for more people - we had an investigator stop investigating and another who is still super drunk. We'll see how they do.

Dad: Vamos a tener que hablar en español para poder practicar antes que vengas! Sì, el horario que tienes es correcto, en cuanto a hoteles, si te da la plata, quisiera quedarnos en el Conrad en Maldonado (Punta del Este) - èste es el hotel iconico (Iconic?) de Punta del Este. De hoteles de Montevideo, busca uno en el este de Montevideo, nos quedarà mas cerca. Tal vez puedes hablar con Analìa, ella sabrà. Josè Lavega es un miembro acà en El Pinar. Tiene una familia muy buena, creo que almorcemos con ellos cuando vengas. Y èl refiriò a la "tarjeta" de cumpleaños. Gracias por las fotos y firmas - intento no ponerme trunky! :P

What computer did mom get? That OS disc I made is for installing OSX on a PC... haha good thing it didn't work, it could have gone very wrong. :P Ah speaking of technology - the GPS doesn't work down here. I left it on top of the house for like an hour and it never got a single satellite (before it started raining, of course!) So... yeah. I'll just hang on to it for a little longer.

That's all folks! Love you all!

Alright, I think that's it for the week. We're going to go to El Bosque and party.

El Pinar--Woot! 8/30/10

Hey fam!

We are doing good here in El Pinar. It's an awesome area... We are really excited to be working here. We are working with a couple of families, so that's good. There's the Balbi family, they are what some would call "golden." They are a family of four, and they are all pretty stinkin interested. They always read, and three say that God is answering their prayers about the Book of Mormon (mom says she feels good, but is waiting for something a little more concrete). Today we're taking some time out of p-day to do an FHE with them and a STUD couple in the ward. We're going to talk about obedience (they didn't go to church yesterday). So that's all good. We're also teaching the family of a recent convert. He just got baptized saturday (the saturday before I got here) and his mom has been inactive for years, she's coming back now and the other 4 baptizable kids want to get baptized.

We've got some work to do here! :D

Well it turns out I am not a DL... the pres called 2 DLs when in reality there is just one district (the other district is all sister missionaries) so he ended up calling Elder Mendoza instead of me. It's all good... just gotta keep myself humble and not get frustrated. But the pres needed to call more younger leaders because like half of the current leaders are going to finish the mission before the end of the year, so he's trying to get some fresh blood in. So basically Elder Luke and I can just work and focus on our work and not have to worry too much about the rest of the district. :D

Oh, fyi, my pdays are back to Monday. So... yeah.

There is another young Analìa here that loves helping the missionaries, weird huh? Her name is Analìa Pratti, she lived in Raleigh, NC for 4 years and just got back like 8 months ago. We talk in English to her on the way to charlas. :D She's cool. I told her to expect a facebook friend request from my mom. haha

What else... Elder Luke is a stud. You can tell he gets the mission. His contacts are awesome and totally focused on the family. I'm definitely learning more from him than he is from me. :P

Oh - Micaela is getting married?!?! Man, my prospects are dropping like flies! Haha let's hope Chels is still around when I get back, otherwise I'll have to start fresh!

My comp wants me to drop the cane on you guys for going to Disneyland 4 months before I get home... he says you should have waited. haha I agree. :P

How's Corry doing? Any news? Good to hear Tina is learning from her struggles. Tell her that she should keep playing hard to get, because when big brother gets home she WILL be impossible to get! haha I look forward to it, but the fact that she'll have 3 months of dating without me there is killing me!!

All good on the trip? I'm still getting the details down, but nothing big has changed. This being my last area (probably) is actually nice because that means that we will be able to stay in Deo the four nights, like we had planned.

Alright, I think that's it. I hope you are happy with the long email. :D I love you all and you are in my prayers!

changes! (8/24/10)

New Companions: Elder Thorderson and Elder Luke

Vilma's baptism

Hey fam!

insert!! hey guys this is elder polera!!!! how are you guys doing? oh noooo!! hes back. later !!!

Sorry fam... had to take a picture with my new comp to send you. So... yeah. Elder Turtleneck is in the cyber with me. He really liked mom's "have to go help emily poop a brick." We're still laughing.

Well changes today - I am headed to El Pinar in the Este Rural zone. Search for Solymar, Uruguay in Google Maps, that's my area. I'm gonna be with Elder Luke. He's from 29 Palms, CA. In the middle of the desert. He is of Samoan descent (he almost hit me when I asked if he was Tongan. haha) and his fam is living right now in Logan. So he's a pretty cool kid, I'm excited. I'm getting assigned as a DL (again, I'm SOOO happy!) and Elder Luke is saying that the Pres sent me to him to teach him. I told him that his main job isn't to learn - it's probably to keep me focused until the end! :P Nah.... I'm doing good. Not trunky at all. (Elder Turtleneck says "Now that you aren't with Elder Polera." haha so true!)

Other than that, not much to report. We're all tranquilo here. Vilma got baptized, Elder Arnold had a SICK fireside with the investigators and recent converts. And I had a personal interview with him... pretty intimidating. DONT WORRY - I didn't get caught. (That's Elder Polera. What I meant to say was that I didn't do anything wrong.) He just wanted to interview a couple of the ZLs and I got picked.

Well here are a couple of pics - Elder Luke and me and Vilma's baptism.

Love you all!

Two Decades Gone???? (8/17/10)

pyk cake is the cake that Pablo and Katharine made for the Dìa del Niño... which happened to be the day after my birthday. We'll pretend it was a birthday cake.

daddy's boy is me in a bib that says "I'm of my dad" aka Daddy's Boy. Some of these dichos just don't translate over...

analia m is the lunch we had with Analìa Martinez and her fam - Elder Wagner, Elder Thorderson, Analìa, Juan Antonio, Analìa's mom, Daniela. It was fun.

analia m cake is the cake they made for us. I love those rocket candles. Maybe I could make a rocket out of like 50 of those - but they don't actually produce thrust.

analia a is another Analìa Arambillet creation.

Well... two decades down and like only 3 to go, the way I've been eating cake lately. :D Here are some pictures.


Well we had a good week this week, but the zone struggled. We had like 15 people lose their baptismal dates for this month, which means our achievable goal of 20 baptisms this month dropped to 4. We keep chugging along though!

I got the packages - thanks! I did get a little confused though - I got those in only 11 days. Was there another package on the way from a while ago that had boots and stuff? Still haven't gotten that one. I am definitely popular with my girl scout cookies though. :D Thanks a ton for everything, even the random blue socks. I love you guys so much!

Ummm Vilma is on track to get baptized saturday. She's strong and we had a FHE with her yesterday with Analìa M. and Daniela. She's definitely the strongest convert I have ever seen, we are super excited for her. She's super excited too. We talked a lot about how she passed up the opportunity to get baptized when she was like 19 and now it is her time, her chance. Pretty intense. And the fact that we found her after she asked us to bless her store... haha cool stuff.

Let's see... I changed travel plans a little bit. We'll go to Florida first and stay there, then Trinidad on Thursday. Easy little switch, but it will be better for travel. Thus we have two nights in FL, one in Punta del Este, and then the remainder in Deo.

Well there ya go. Pictures speak a thousand words... total word count of this email: 5,424. :D

Love you!

Hello Again! (8/10/10)

Hey fam!

Well we are doing pretty well here. Vilma's kid's birthday is the 28th so she won't be able to get baptized that day. (Her other kid's birthday is the 14th, how weird, huh?) So she asked if she could move her baptism to the 21st. Ummm.... YES! :D We've seen a really big change in her, we're excited to see her progress. She's doing really good and is pretty pumped for her baptism. We've got someone for the 2th (an old lady named Elida that read 300 pages in the book of mormon in a week and a half) but I'm not sure she'll make it this month. We'll see.

We have a conference with Elder Arnold next Wednesday - he's the new area president. We're pretty excited.

My comp decided we are doing a zone fast this week to get our zone goal of 20 baptisms this month. The day he chose? Saturday. Huzzah.

We had a high councilman come to our ward sunday, he said something that really hit me. He said that we shouldn't judge ever. He was talking specifically about humanitarian aid and the canned-food mormons that Pres Uchtdorf talked about. Then he said that "In the 5,000 people that Christ fed on the mount, he knew that some of them would later join in the cry of "crucify him". But he still fed them." WOW! I'm sure he got that from a GA talk, but I really liked it. Super true.

Dad: would you be up to staying until tuesday the 4th? That way we can do a family home evening on monday and go to the temple on tuesday. Also give us some leeway as far as visits and trunky shopping. I'm still confused about saturday as well... that's the day we'll go visit my last area, but I don't know which area that is yet. We'll just plan on booking a deo hotel for that night as well. The trinidad/florida hotel idea is good, I think that's the only instance it will work though. They're close enough that it would work (like an hour and a half in car).

Well I love you guys, TTYL!

Hey fam! (8/3/10)

Hey, so some fun stories from the last few weeks to start off. :D

Sunday, June 18, is Independence Day here in UY. Since it was a Sunday, we sang the Uruguay national anthem - which is pretty cool. Except the person who was supposed to bring the sing-along CD didn't show up. I made the mistake of saying that I play the piano and have sheet music for it, so we went and got the music and sang the anthem. I definitely butchered it. Our EQ pres plays the piano (not like me though) and he had to sit next to me pointing to the sheet music while played so I could follow the repeats and stuff. It is a super hard song and I didn't do it justice. Haha that was probably the most nervous I have ever been for a public performance, I was trembling after it ended.

I went like a month and a half with long fingernails (I didn't bite!) I was going to take a picture and send it to dad (he still owes me $10 from a deal we made that he would give me a dollar for each nail if I could grow them all out) but then they started to bug me and I couldn't take it anymore. So I'm back to short fingernails. :D

I think that's it. Hmmm... missionary work. Everything is good... we have a goal to get two baptisms this change. Vilma is one of them, she's going to get baptized the 28th. She's super set, and we are feeling good about her. President Da Silva came with us to the charla and it went really well. He also went with us to Pablo and Katharine, Pablo is an RM and is living with Katharine. In the end we committed them to get married so Katharine can get baptized. Huzzah. But they will probably end up getting married next month because of the ridiculously long time it takes to get people married here. But we'll see.


Dad, as far as the trip:
I have been looking at the options, and I think it will be best if we rent a car and stay in hotels in the areas we are visiting. That will also be better for siestas. More or less (because my 7th area is still a big question mark) we will be in Trinidad Wednesday, Florida Thursday, Maldonado Friday (for new years eve), my 7th area Saturday, Montevideo Sunday (including church in Las Piedras) and on Monday we'll just hang around Deo and do some trunky shopping. I'd like to get in a temple trip, but it is closed on Monday. :( That means we'll have a night in Trinidad, a night in Florida, a night in Maldonado/Punta del Este, 2 nights in Deo, and then the plane ride. Huzzah. I'm still working on the details of the visits and everything, but I've got food and travel pretty much figured out.

Other random stuff: still waiting for package. I am going to get scripture covers made, they are going to cost like $100. And my birthday is coming up, what do you want me to buy for me? Or should I wait till I get home to find the 78 red Mustang in the garage?

I think that is it for today. Love you all!

Hello! (7/27/10)

stud group.jpg is our group at this leadership conference - all of the gringos and like 5 of the latinos are leaders in the mission. We are super studs.

happy birthday.jpg is Elder Wagner's birthday cake (and Analìa A. - I heard dad talked to her on facebook?)

wow.jpg is what you get in the bottom of a glass bottle when you leave homemade maple syrup in it for 2 months.

wally.jpg is with Elder Wally in the cyber on change day. He's going to live with me up at USU now that I've talked him out of BYU. (Mom note: That's my boy!!)

Hey fam!

Quick email today, we've got a lot to do today. I'll have a SUPER good email next week, I've got lots to write about.

Dad - I'll have answers for ya next week - I was going to suggest that we head home tuesday, but if we have all day monday the plans change a bit. The easiest thing to do would be rent a car and stay in local hotels (instead of home base in Deo). I'll have options for you next week.

I should have been more clear on the PMG changes - it isn't a problem so much about using PMG or about what it SHOULD be, it is about effectively learning and applying what is inside. It is all pretty exciting.

Well I promise I'll have a good email next week. Love you all, thanks for the pictures!

Exciting Week! 7/19/10

Hey fam!

This is a really exciting week and a time of change and progress in the mission. We have recieved instructions from the first presidency as far as Preach My Gospel and the approach we use to teach it. Lots of missionaries get to the field with different levels of ability as far as teaching and focus - because the MTC focuses on the missionary discussions and not as much how to teach them. So the First Presidency has released a new study program to compliment (not replace) Preach My Gospel. There are 8 principles that this program focuses on to help us direct our studies and focus in on the real work. With this new program, missionaries will get to the field with a better understanding of what missionary work really is and not just how the teachers say it ideally is. When they get to the field, the mission will have been using the same approach and everybody will be on the same successful page. Right now, all of the Zone Leaders and District Leaders from the mission are in Carrasco doing a 3-day seminar for these 8 principles, and the seminar will be repeated every 2 months. It is pretty exciting to know that we are right in the middle of a BIG change. There are other small changes, like instead of zone conferences and interviews every month and a half, they take turns (aka once every three months) and Zone Leaders' Council is every month. They are really trying to get out of the "transfer cycle" way of thinking because months are the same all around the world, but the transfer cycles don't correspond across the missions. Pretty exciting.

Other than that we are pretty tranquilo. Analìa slept in yesterday because she had a huge headache. Wagner and I had an hour long companionship inventory to try and work out some of the kinks. I am super sick and threw up yesterday but we went out to work anyways and now I'm worse.


Dad -
If we go back Monday, that gives us time to make some visits and see some places. If you want to see more of UY, we'd have to stay longer. But I'm fine with Monday. Sad to know Mom won't be coming down, but we'll take some good pictures for her. :D Bring the D90.

>> From the information below, it looks like it would be best for me to arrive Tuesday (the flights arrive around 11:30am). I would just proceed directly to the hotel (just in time for a siesta) and wait to pick up Steven either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning after his final interview.
Agreed.
I think that's it. Good luck at work!

Well that's the news for the week. Give a big hug to Tina for me, I've been thinking about her this week. Keep goin' girlfriend!

-Elder Thorderson

Changes are here! (7/13/10)

Uruguay--Futbol Fever!

Gonzalez

Crimson Died (remember this plate from his days with Elder Cundick?!)

Baptism

...and we are staying together. We were pretty surprised. I am with Elder Wally here in the cyber and he gave me this picture of Crimson Died. :( He says he found it like that in the trash can in the Florida church. So that's pretty sad.

Ummm wow lots of questions to answer.

Good to hear that things are OK with Dad at work. Interesting title change... so where does he sit on the totem pole now? Tina sounds like she's doing awesome, I look forward to double-dating with her. :P Not really, Tina, don't think about it. And I'm sure that Princess Emily is giving you guys plenty of work! She is getting so big!

Pretty crazy here during the games, we had to schedule our weekly planning during the games so we weren't in the street - either that or schedule appointments with old lady investigators that don't want to watch the game.

Baptism was actually really awesome. It was super spiritual and Daniela gave a KILLER talk. Analìa is a super strong convert... she is going to tear it up. It was really hard for her to find her testimony but that means that it is going to be even harder for her to deny it in the future. She had her whole family come, they are really cool. I talked to her dad-in-law about the book of mormon and he seems excited about the whole thing.

Veronica is doing well. Some people love her and some hate her, so it is hard. She is just a little socially fried from all her drugs so she's a little awkward - But she loves the Gospel and wants to progress. We just need to get people to fellowship her.

Daniela is awesome, she's going to be such a good missionary. We ate lunch with her and Analìa on Sunday (because we can't eat with each of them alone).

Well I am getting bugged about time, so I'm going to go.

ETA on the package?

Dad, I don't know when you guys should get here, I don't know what the schedule is on my last day. Could you email the offices and ask them about when you should get here? I'm thinking we'll head back on Monday, I'd like to go to Church in my first area, that would be cool. :D I'll think about it today and come up with a more specific itinerary.