Transfer!

Hey Family!

Well sure enough, I got transferred! Only two changes in one area is pretty quick, but here we go. My new companion is Elder Godoy from Buenos Aires. That's right, a Latino comp! I'm pretty scared... he's got a pretty rough accent, but I'll catch on soon enough. I'm sure I'll have Spanish down really well by the end of this change, though! He is a Zone Leader, so I am looking forward to a lot of late nights waiting for phone calls and everything. From everything I hear, he's a stud (acá se dice "capo"). I am headed to Florida, an area called Asamblea. It's in the city, but it stretches out into the campo, if I understand right.

Update on Las Piedras - everything was going well when I left. We found a golden family (Barrios) and took them to the General Conference. He can't stop talking about how awesome it was, and he is going to stop smoking and drinking and watching this televangelist. So I'm pretty sure that Elder Duggins is going to baptize them this change. Sergio (Jessica's boyfriend) is going well, Dugg is going to put a baptismal date with him the next visit. Still haven't heard from John and Stephanie. Lorena came to church (she has inactive parents so it has been a while) and the mom is going to start home teaching. Hopefully the family will reactivate and Lorena will want to get baptized, because the last baptismal date we set, she rejected and said she didn't want to get baptized.

Wasn't conference awesome?? I heard a lot about adversity, and a lot about temples. I also loved Jeffery R. Holland's talk about Christ and Easter and stuff. And the new Apostle, Elder Anderson, looks like a stud too. For those who were there, President Uchtdorf's Priesthood Session talk was incredible! I love Nehemiah 6:3 now. My favorite quote is from M. Russell Ballard: "You cannot do a Google search to get a testimony and you can't text message faith." lol out loud! Other good quotes: "The Gospel is the way of Discipleship" from President Uchtdorf's Sunday talk, and "Unfortunately, the time of the full-time missionaries is spent finding people instead of teaching them," and "We must open our mouths and testify. We must warn our neighbors," both from L. Tom Perry's Sunday talk. Finally, from Kevin W. Pearson, "If we desire more faith, we must be more obedient." I'm just waiting for the Ensign to come!

I love you all, and am still waiting for letters! *cough* Loved the pictures of Em!!

3/30/09 Another Week

(Mom note: first part of the letter was in Spanish to Dad. This is what follows)

Good to hear that Elder Barrett is back home and safe, with a mexican accent and all! I'm worried that I'll give a talk in the mount ensign ward and nobody will understand me with this thick uruguayo (prounounced oo - doo - GAI - show) accent. hehe

If you want to send a couple of short sleeve white shirts with sister mckell, that would be okay. Patricia lost one, so I'm down to three. 16 1/2, Van Heusen. :D

What's the name of the student in Colon? I would probably have to send it to her via another missionary, because I probably couldn't go there on p-day w/out permission from the pres. But yeah it is in the zone, part of another area, we think. Maybe La Paz?

I got the packages, three in one day! There are Elders here who go months without seeing packages, and I got three in one day! Haha take it easy, some of the other elders probably hate me right now! We don't really have fried chicken here, the closest thing is milanesa. But the other two elders tried some of the Wingers sauce on bacon pizza, and loved it. We'll put anything on bacon pizza. That reminds me... we gave ranch dressing to one of the sisters in our ward (patricia) and she said it was so good she would eat it with saltine crackers! lol out loud!

I'm still waiting for answers from chortney, ask him also to quote his source about the holy ghost being a jesus-in-training.

John and Stephanie aren't taking the lessons right now... they have started studying and don't have time to meet with us too much. We have started teaching the boyfriend of a member, it is going well. We found a family and I think they are going to get baptized. They are looking hard for the truth and are being obedient as well as they know, but don't know where to find it. Their name is the Barrios family. Still waiting for the Barrios family's family's address. Man, I am waiting for a lot from you guys!

I got letters from Chelsey and Luke through pouch (the PO box) and they were only postmarked two weeks before I got them. So I'll retract the DearElder thing, looks like real letters are just as fast. :D

You won't get a letter until wednesday next week... change day. :D Just FYI.

March 23 email

Sorry we fell behind in blog posting! I've had problems getting them to show up on Facebook, so I ended up changing some settings! Now there are duplicates on FB, but hopefully they'll start importing again.

This week's letter from Steven was a little sad! He ended up at the cyber WAY early and our emails hadn't been sent yet. I sent mine just a few minutes after he sent his, so he did get mine, he just couldn't respond! So, we will never again wait until email day to type up those emails!! 

From Steven:

...and no letter? I see how it is....

Well I need to make it short anyways, we're going to make invitations for the General Conference to give to members, less actives, and investigators.

Everything is going well, they changed the schedule for church from evening to morning and it killed us because nobody came! So we are hoping for more people to come next week so we can put some baptismal dates and baptize some peeps here in guay!

I'm sending Corry a letter, I hope he likes it. Maybe he'll write me back, unlike my parents....

Love you all,

Lonely in Las Piedras

March 16th email and a new way to send letters

Hey Family,

Thanks for the Emily pics! She is sooo adorable! If this USB port on the computer worked, I would totally put them on my FOB and print them out! Fa... Yeah, Elder Tobey's family came out... don't tell Aunt Rebecca that Elder Tobey's aunt got to come to Uruguay with the rest of the fam! They took a cruise from California around the cape and to Bs. As. They told me to tell you that is definitely the way to go... sure is expensive though! Maybe you can fly down and we'll take a cruise back. ;-) Yes, I was wearing a sandal, but I am wearing two shoes now! It is pretty nasty though, and I have a pretty bad ingrown toenail on my other foot now. Dr. Praderi said I have a predisposition. lol out loud Hermana Ashby told me that she doesn't care about predispositions. haha Good to hear the studio is coming along. I can't wait to play with the new DP (DP6?). I'm sure that Mac is screamin too! Good story about Brigham Young Jr, I'll keep that one in mind when I am teaching inactive people (If you don't come to church, you might miss your chance to be prophet!).

We talked about plans during our Zone Conference, we are working on a ward mission plan right now. Oh, I got the second package, I'm still waiting for the others! You can take it easy with the packages... remember that you are sending me a bunch of stuff but I still only have three suitcases! haha but in my next package, you need to send me Cinnamon Bears for Hermana Ashby, Febreze for my stinky pants, Peanut Butter M&Ms, and nifty tabs for my scriptures... like the Post-It tabs that are different colors and see through and you use them to mark an important spot in a contract or something. ¿Entendiste? (MOM NOTE: I only send food and things he asks for! I'm not going crazy!!)

Yeah, my spanish is bastante bien (good enough). I'm understanding the Uruguayos well enough, I am just trying to get better at talking. I've got a lot of people helping me out though. And I'm rocking the accent. hehe I need the address of the Barrios family's family here in Uruguay.

I am going to change my mind about letters... unless there are really people who really want to write me, tell everyone to use DearElder.com. It is so much quicker just because of the way the pouch works. Send everything else to the Mission Office (6350 Horacio Quiroga blah blah). Facebook, however, is definitely against the rules (in the white bible, even).

I played soccer this morning for Hermana Clark's birthday, so I am way tired and typing slower, so I just ran out of time. Say hi to Devin Thorpe, Brother Rass4mussen (it's a silent 4), Lucia (Me alegro que ella está mucho mejor!) and Micaela. :D Love you all!

Mom Note: go to www.dearelder.com for instructions for sending letters through them. Basically, you just type in your letter, tell them who to send it to, and click "send". Doesn't cost a thing and is quick and easy! So unless you want to send a handwritten letter, use this service!

A Message from a missionary mom

Amanda,

My name is Louise Tobey and I recently returned from picking my son KC up from his mission.  While there we went to church in Las Piedras and had the opportunity to meet many members and also the current missionaries in that area.  So if I'm correct I met your son.  (I'm not so good remembering names but this missionary had just had an ingrown toenail fixed and is from the SLC area)  He looked great and enjoyed visiting in English.  He has the happy missionary glow and told us he's enjoying his mission so far.  He played the piano beautifully for sacrament meeting.  Also we got to meet the Ashby's and they are simply fabulous.  Our sons are very blessed to have such a wonderful couple caring for them.  Best wishes to your family.

MOM NOTE: Wasn't that sweet of her to email me? Happy day!

Chugging Along 3/9/09

Hey fam,

No, I shouldn't have problems opening up attachments here, send me photos! As soon as I get a cable, I will send some your way. But I was using Elder Faber's, but now he's gone. I heard the big mail strike was back in December, but they have strikes pretty much every day. So don't worry about it, it is normal. Two packages should be fine.

Good to hear that West High finally won something... I'm so proud! :P And Corry has a job, good to hear. I can't wait to hear how his first week went!

Waiting for pics of Dad's graduation already, even though it is a couple of months away. I'm sure Dad can't wait either! Sorry the ESLC is feeling the pinch of Holly's baby... I hope it all works out though! And how is our baby doing? She sounds SOOO cute! I talk about her all the time here!

Call the Sandstroms for me and send them my love, I hope Jessa is all better!

My companion got Carolina wet Saturday, so that's my first baptism in the area! John and Stephanie came to church, so that's one step closer to baptism. But they still need to get married, quit smoking, and keep their appointments! It seems like we can find them at any hour of any day, except for our appointments! Fa... I'm not sure if I told you about the Borges family. It has been 11 years since they came to church, and they just showed up out of the blue 3 weeks ago! So now we are teaching the two kids, 11 and 15 years old who aren't baptized, and I am hoping they can still come to church, because the 11 year old plays soccer every saturday, but they just changed the schedule to sunday evenings, right during church! Soccer is huge here, huge enough to keep them from coming to church!

Yup, my MTC buddies made it here in one piece! Elder Bennett is in my Zone, companions with Elder McKell, one of our zone leaders. They are just tearing it up! I'm hoping to see more of them in our zone conference tomorrow, which is all of Canelones, Florida, and Durazno.

MOM NOTE: He finished the letter in Spanish for Dad, but I haven't had time to translate it to see if it needs to be here. If it is not personal, I'll publish to the blog later!

A New Email and a Bad Dad! LOL!

Here is Steven's email for the week. Note the reference to the Warm Vanilla Hand Cream. We've really given him grief on this! 

Ok my toe - i had a really bad ingrown toenail. it was all infected and nasty and hurt like a bugger. So I had to take antibiotics (yes all of them) to get the infection down. Then they took out the half of the nail that was infected and stitched me back up. I just got the stitch out Friday, but I have to wear a sandal on the foot so that a shoe doesn't irritate the toe.

Elder Duggins is great. He is really gutsy though, he'll just walk onto people's lawns and interrupt their conversations and stuff. 0.o No, Elder Faber left for Camino Carrasco, so he isn't in the house anymore. I am planning to send him the calendar as soon as I get it, though!

For the prayer list, here are some of our investigators. Carolina Lema is getting baptized Saturday, if we can teach her everything soon! We just started last week, but it is a long story. Her whole family (except for her) stopped going to church when the mom passed away, so it is kinda half convert baptism half ward baptism. Santiago Guarteche is the grandson of the patriarch, but he needs to come to church so we can baptize him! He knows everything else though. John and Stephanie have a real desire to be baptized and join the fold, but they need to get married and stop smoking first. And finally Richard Godoy needs to come to church! He lives kinda far away, but we taught him everything there is to teach, and did the baptismal questions, and he told us flat out that he is ready and willing to be baptized! But he isn't coming to church, so we can't baptize him. MOM NOTE: Feel free to add these investigators to your prayer lists as well...

The hand lotion is for Patricia, not me!!! Gosh mom...

Yup I'm playing the piano every week for sacrament meeting, and for baptizmal services and just about everything else. They haven't had a good piano player for like 4 changes, so they are grateful to have me! Yeah, I'm doing a little bit of cooking, but we're getting taken care of pretty well by the members.

So yeah, not much news this week except for Carolina's baptism, and not much to talk about since dad didn't email me! I am sorry this email is kinda short, I used a lot of my time writing an email to dad in spanish chastizing him for not email me! Congrats on landing the job, Corry! Don't have too much fun playing golf all day!

Love you all!