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!