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Saludos de UY (6/15/10)

YUM!

Shoes

Shoes

C is for Cookie!

Hey fam!

Well I'll make this quick because I've got pictures on the way. :D They are pretty self explanatory. Mom, if you typed out your talk, I would love a copy of it... I'm kinda worried to know what you said to them to make them cry! :P I'm sure you did great. How did the graduation talk go over? I'm super excited for Corry, he looks good in black (w/o a tie... baby steps). How are the other ward missionaries? I would absolutely love some mission addresses for the missionaries that we know (from the ward, the old neighborhood, etc) so I can zip them some letters while I still can. It's always great to get letters from other missionaries. Speaking of which, I saw some missionaries from the other mission when we went to BK, and they said that Brian Graham has a picture of him with me. I'm not sure what it is, but I hear that he is doing good. Still in Montevideo, I guess. Poor kid.

Hmmmm... I hope dad is doing good on his business trips. I look forward to a full report next week.

We had a good week this week - we really saw some miracles. Analìa came to church again, which is good because she didn't have an incredible experience last time. But the fact that she is going to church and acting shows that she at least has a particle of faith and a desire to believe (Alma 32:27). So that's going good. We have another FHE with her this week in the other Analia's house. And there's a girl Veronica that is just rocking it, we found her Wednesday and she went to church the next sunday... she went again and is super excited to get baptized on the 10th. We have 2 FHEs planned with her this week - is that OK? We are super excited for her and her progress.

Well I think that's all the quick news for the week. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

First Week with Wagner (6/8/10)

Hey fam!

It was my first week with Elder Wagner. It was honestly pretty good. We started working out in the dangerous neighborhood (in the mission we call it a red zone) and we're having some real success. We found a girl on Wednesday and had a couple of charlas with her, and then her and her son came last Sunday. Her parents are planning on coming too this Sunday. So that's going to be pretty cool. Found some really good people out there. Had a charla with Analìa yesterday too, it was a really good charla. Really spiritual. She is struggling and was in a depressive slump. So we had a really good charla with her and we know she felt the spirit. We just talked about prayer and how important it is. We applied prayer to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I think it helped her a lot. We have another charla with her tomorrow and then a family home evening in the Valle family's house. It should be really good. SHe didn't come to church sunday because she slept in again - I forgot to call her. We just need to buy her an alarm.

We are making a BUNCH of cookies today for the members. It should help us get our confidence back.

We are going to have a great week this week - our zone averages 35 lessons a week with a member present, but in the zone leader's council we talked about how much we need to improve our work with the members. So, we put a goal of 70 this week, and we're convinced we're going to get it. Vamos arriba!

Well send my regards to Corry. I'm proud he's graduating and taking baby steps forward. How is his relation with the family? I hope Tina is doing good too and that she's getting caught back up in school after the FL trip.

Mom - talk looks good. Nice and short... planning on a little improv, or is it supposed to be short? I don't think I'm a super good judge, since I've been speaking spanish for a while. "Dreams require stretching and growing outside of oneself, a commitment to greatness, and passion." I couldn't tell where the dividing points of the thought are - are they 3 items? Or four? Just weird for me. It could sound perfect to you, just make sure you pause at the right parts. "Your vision, your dreams are the promise of what you will one day become." Your visions and your dreams? Your visions and dreams? Your dreams? And I had to read about the peninsula a couple of times to grasp what you were trying to say. But I like it, don't get discouraged. Haha. (MOM NOTE: writing a graduation speech and asked for his input.)

Ummmm I'm proud of you mom for fixing your computer! And as far as you guys coming down to get me - I would love for both of you to come, but you might want to consider renting a car, because public transportation with 3 would be a little awkward (seats are in pairs).

Well I think that's all for today. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Changes! (6/1/10) with VIDEO!

Hey fam!

Well changes are here, and Elder Belleau is headed. Elder Wagner is coming here with me, and he seems like a tranquilo guy. Elder Belleau is headed to Maldonado 3 with Elder Daniels as a ZL.

We had a birthday party for mom with Analia and Analia and Maria Luisa. The blond is the daughter of the old one, and the brunette is our investigator Analia. And me and Belleau, who burned his finger lighting the "candle." It was fun, Analia went to church on Sunday but didn't really feel anything different. Came back "feeling empty," she said. We're working on it.

In regards to your vacation in December, the first thing you need to do is email 2019507@ldschurch.org which is the mission email. They'll work stuff out with you and then get you in contact with Missionary Travel. I think. I would honestly love it if both of you come down. Knowing that money isn't a problem... haha my dad is so cool.

Well Hna Harold dies today. That's a sign that I'm getting close. But I've got time.

I'm headed to Ciudad Vieja again today to pick up my camera. Then I'll start sending you pictures again. And BK for the win!

Ummm I think that's it for today. I'm sorry if the movie didn't get to you, WinSCP isn't connecting with SFTP, just FTP which crashes often. :( But happy birthday mom, I love you, and you look great for being only 35 years old.

Love,

Elder Thorderson

VIDEO: Happy Birthday Mom!

Fun Week (5/25/10)

Hey so little miracle that just happened - the guy who runs the cyber just gave me back a memory card that I left last week that has all my photos from Maldonado. So I'm pretty happy I got that back.

Pretty interesting that mom is STUCK in Florida, is it really that bad? Dad can't just mail mom her passport or something? Birth certificate? That sucks big time. I hope it all works out. Enjoy it while you can, mom!

We've got a pretty fun week planned, with some good lessons. Both of the district leaders in the zone have baptisms this week, so we have to go do a couple of baptismal interviews. It's about time... I do miss that from being a District Leader. Then we have a couple of visits to do on Friday. I figure my mom's birthday is a great excuse to get great food from the members ("hey, it's my mom's birthday on friday. Do you want to throw a little party for her?") so you should be getting a few birthday videos up on the FTP next week.

Ummm we have tought Analìa a couple of times (I told you about her May 4) and she is super-awesome. Definite baptism. We just gave her a book of mormon, she'll read it and get an answer quick. Oh, question for your input. As missionaries, we leave the invitation (commitment) to read part of the Book of Mormon (usually 3 Nephi 11) and pray about it. True Book of Mormon = True Joseph Smith = True Church (see introduction to the BoM). I say that the most crucial thing to do is invite the investigator to read and pray about the book of mormon. But some missionaries (my comp included) have the habit to teach the first lesson without the book of mormon and invite the investigator to read and pray about the pamphlet and Joseph Smith. So it is a subject of discussion with my comp and I - I think the invitation to read and pray about the BoM is the most important invitation we can make - other missionaries say it is okay to just have them pray about Joseph Smith and they'll get their answer. I'm not surprised that very few investigators have received an answer to their prayers about the pamphlet.

So we are seeing some serious growth in the area - we have taught lessons to 30 people in this month, and like 10 are currently "investigators." It is pretty exciting, considering there were 3 investigators when I got here. Vamos arriba.

Well that's all for now. I look forward to hearing from you again and I'm praying that you get everything resolved. Good luck in Starcrest, dad. Yes, I got the money OK, I have to pull it out in increments because of ATM limitations.

Love you all!

-Elder Thorderson

P.S. My release date has once again been changed to the 28th of December instead of the 21st. Talk amongst yourselves.

Almost to Changes (5/18/10)

Hey fam!

I hope you are having fun. I had a wall against forehead moment - High Council talk with an iPad? gosh.... my dad... roll up to church in a red prius reading his scriptures on his iPad. Also hope mom and tina are having fun in FL - sounds like too much fun, really. Does Tina deserve that?

Well it'll be a quick one today, we are going to make pancakes with a cool family in the ward. Huzzah. But we are doing good. We had our Zone Conference last Friday. Everything went pretty well. We had a member cook pasta for 30 people at the last minute, it was way good. I'm going to make him some chess cake - could you send me the recipe again, mom? :D

Nacional is playing Peñarol right now, we are winning 1 - 0. (nacional, that is). Huzzah!

Ummmm other than that all is well. Analìa says hi again, we had an FHE last night with her because we had NOTHING else to do.

Sorry it is so short, but I love you guys. I'll have a better p-day next week and will have a nice long letter for ya. Maybe some pictures.

Hugs all around!