Transfers 5/20/09

Most of today's letter was personal stuff for the family, but here's what's leftover!

Hey fam!

I'm sending an email off to Tina next week (I ran out of time today).

Can't wait to see pics of the new and improved parents! 20 pounds... that's a lot for two weeks! I'll come back and teach you how to play soccer, a fool! hehe is mom still chugging along with the school board? I'm sure it is going great for her and she's doing a lot for the district. I brag about her all the time (but it is hard to explain the concept to the uruguayos...).

Yeah, I heard about that poet. (For more information, read about it HERE.) I was in a member's house watching the news and it was just a video feed of his funeral. It was pretty sad. But I don't really know who he is, so I'm not that torn up about it. hehe at the member's house, Elder Godoy told me a really funny joke. Uruguay is just a rebel state of Brazil inhabited by 3 million argentines. haha i really liked it and one of the members got kinda angry.

Cambios are here, Elder Godoy is headed off to Camino Carrasco, and he is going to be comps with my daddy, Elder Faber! I was so excited when I heard! I'm sure they'll do great together. They're the zone leaders of the offices, so they get to drop the cane on the assistants to the pres! My new companion is Elder Cundick from Salt Lake. His parents are or were in MoTab. He plays piano really well, I hear, so I'm excited. Last change he was a traveling assistant to the president, so I know he's a stud.

Let's see... I am a 16 1/2. That was in the email I sent. ;-) Other than that, just candy! And mashed potatoes and gravy, just like every other package. haha Elder Fowler and I ate that the other night, it was pretty good. But I have to buy milk to make the potatoes.

I'm sending some pictures, DSCN1137 is a wallpaper for your 16:9 computers of your favorite missionary. There's a place in Piedra Alta (one of the other areas in Florida) that's way gorgeous. IMG_1152 is our championship soccer team. We played our championship game in our zone, Elders vs Elders, and we won. It was a pretty close game, I scored 3 goals and played a pretty mean goalie. RSCN1059 is my English class. It is going pretty well. We learned the gerund that day. MOM NOTE: Holy Hannah! First I hear he's exercising every day, now I hear he not only played on the championship soccer team, but he scored 3 goals! This from the kid who took PE online!!!

Well my time is up, I hope the pictures made up for the short email. I love you all!

Piedra Alta

Soccer Champions (Can you guess which one is Steven? Look at the clothes!)

English Class

Immigrations--Ugh! 5/11/09

Hey fam.

Immigration papers all done... just had to sign something. That's right... all of my P-day gone for one signature. Ugh.

For the blog - spelling corrections - chivito and ensalada rusia. Also, here's how the mission layout works. There is one mission, and in the mission there are 11 zones, which are usually stakes or districts (district in this sense means big area with lots of branches that doesn't have enough priesthood holders to be a stake). In each zone, there are usually one or two districts (district in this sense means a group of areas within the zone usually located close to each other). Then there are usually three or four areas in each district. For example, I am in the area Asamblea which is in the Florida 1 district in the zone Florida in the Uruguay Montevideo Mission. For Zone Conference (rather poorly named) we have three or four zones all meet together so that the President can do all of the zone conferences in one week instead of three weeks. So our Zone Conference happens in Florida and the zones of Florida, Durazno, and Las Piedras (Florida, Peach, and The Pebbles) all come.

Ok, I think that's it for the blog. Not much new to report, since we just talked yesterday - lol out loud. thanks for the pictures, I loved the emily pic! Elder Elder who is sitting behind me loved it too, and when he saw the picture of dad he was like "the pope!". It was funny, for me at least.

It was great to talk to you guys, I didn't realize we'd be talking that long! But it was good because now I am ready to get out and work even harder!

No pictures today, I was rushed out of the house and didn't grab the card reader. Maybe I'll get them sent off later today... we'll see.

Well I'm off to grab some McD's while I'm here in Tres Cruces. Ciao!

Mother's Day Call! 5/10/09

Yeah! We spoke to Steven on the phone tonight! I had questions prepared (to avoid dead time) and took notes of his answers. I'm posting them below!

**How many members in your ward/branch? 80

**What is the town like? Pretty awesome. In the last 5 weeks we’ve had 2 baptisms. There are 4 branches in Florida. In the town there are about 50,000 people. There are poor areas in his zone, but not in his area. The country is poor (el campo). 

**What’s the worst thing about Uruguay. The Dogs!! Everybody has dogs! They bark and chase you and you’re surrounded by them. 

**How hot is it? Getting into cooler weather. At night it’s cool, but the days are still around 85 degrees, plus humidity.

**How is your companion? How long has he been out? 13 months, from Buenos Aires. They had an argument today because his companion said that it was a sin to be gay and Steven said, “No, unchastity is a sin, not being gay.” They had an argument over it and Steven walked away. I was proud of him! 

**What is your schedule during the weekdays? Work out in the morning. (Which totally makes the family LOL! This from the kid who took PE online in High School!) Leave the house at about 10, then lunch at noon. Uruguayans take a siesta until around 4 or 5. So, they are always waking people up to teach them!

**How is the food? Really good. Food is bland, not spicy. Milanesa is good.

**(Mom note: when Steven was at home, he wouldn’t eat with a metal fork because he didn’t like the feel of it on his teeth. We all laughed about what he would do on his mission!) So Tina asked: “Do you eat with plastic forks?” Steven’s response: “Shut up!”

**What is the best food you've eaten? Downtown Café in Florida. Chivito (steak on bread—sandwich with steak, lettuce, tomato, fried eggs, covered with grease.) It’s to die for.

**What is the weirdest food you've eaten? “Ensalada Rusia” It’s a popular salad. Russian salad. Rice, potatoes, carrots, peas, sometimes corn, all mixed with mayo.

**How many dinner appts do you get? Always have people wanting to feed them. They always have dinner appointments.

**(From Corry) Have you ever dreamed in Spanish? “Yeah, but I don’t understand them!”

**What do you usually eat for breakfast? Nothing.

**How far away is the Mission Office? 1 ½ hours

**How many in your District? Where are they from? 12 in zone. 6 in district.

**How often do you have Zone Conference? Every 6 weeks. Districts in the Zone are Las Piedras, Duraznos, Florida.

**What do you usually do on P-day? Sleep…LOL. soccer at the church. Go to the cyber.

**Are you teaching English classes? Did those books come in handy?  Yes. (Then he asked a bunch of questions about teaching English and told me a little about his class.)

**How many investigators? A Couple. They are going out to find this week with some other missionaries. There’s Anita. They found a family. Out by the Hippodrome. They started teaching the family and now they’re teaching the whole extended family.

**The zone leader got on the phone and told us that Steven was a wonderful missionary and they loved him.

We talked for about 1 ½-2 hours. It was fantastic. I didn’t even cry during the call. I got verklempt during the goodbyes, but I held it in really well! He sounds terrific. His Spanish is wonderful, his accent almost perfect. He sounds well and happy.

I can’t wait until Christmas!

phone calls!!! w00t! 5/4/09

Hey Fam and Friends.

Sending picture of our baptism saturday. She's a lifer. We have another one saturday. Go team Godoy!

The baptism was pretty awesome. so was the confirmation. Nilda invited tons of people to come to the baptism, so we got four new investigators and six references to pass onto other elders (because the rest live in Montevideo). We are still working on Anita... she just needs to come to church so we can put a baptismal date. We don't really know why she doesn't come, she just doesn't. Little things keep her from coming.

Oh, the Sunday call. We are really disorganized in the house, and nobody really knows what we are going to do. I'll call you sometime after church. haha just don't take a nap. :P

It would be cool if you could put the pictures back on the card and send it back, that way I have them all and look at them on the camera.

I read a article in the August 2008 Liahona called Love, Limits and Latitude. It is worth checking out. While I am not yet a child-rearer, I can appreciate the advise given therein. And remember, as Elder Jensen and Gonzalez taught (presidents of the 70), "Teaching doctrine changes behavior better than teaching behavior changes behavior." Whoa, I bet that just blew your mind.

Dad, a mi compañero le gustarìa leer algunas historias de tu misiòn, como el araña pac-man, cosas asì. Yo tambièn. jeje y puedes poner una buzòn de e-mail elder@thorderson.com? Màs fàcil por los miembros que no pueden escribir (o pronunciar) steven. jeje pero me alegro mucho al escuchar que tus estudios ya terminaron (por fin!). Espero que podìas caminar con un "cap and gown". jaja bueno, escuchè que mi tarjeta del banco no va a llegar por un tiempo màs, y tengo que ir por Montevideo hoy con mi compañero, entonces tenìa sacar màs plata para sostenerme por tres semanas mas. Estoy seguro que no voy a retirar mas, no te preocupes. 

I love you all bunches and have to go to montevideo now, sorry the email is a little short. Ciao!

 

Asamblea week 3 (April 27th)

First things first, Hermana Ashby said I'm the best brown-noser ever and pointed it out in front of three zones in Zone Conference! Haha but she sends her regards and her thanks, and said she is going to send you an email. But we only have her for like two more months! Then they go home! :(  (MOM NOTE: Steven had me get Cinnamon Bears for Sister Ashby. I sent them out with a missionary mom who went to Uruguay to pick up her son--so they were nice and fresh!)  Good to hear you got my memory card and stuff. Be sure to forward all those letters to everyone! Also, once you get the pictures copied, can you send the card back? haha I just realized that I don't have any pictures from my mission now! :D And Sarah finally stopped by, good to hear she got her hands on that letter. As for the recipe, things kinda changed and I need the recipe for tomorrow. So I found a pretty good one on allrecipes.com that looks sweet. Vamos arriba. But we can’t go to the temple this change (it is complicated) so we’ll try to go next change.

And what’s up with these tech problems, mom? You know that Dad is a computer guy, he can probably help (a little bit. hehe).

I OWE $1000 in taxes? Dang it... oh yeah, that reminds me. I went to the ATM to pull out like $30 to pay for this breakfast stuff. But it wouldn’t take the pin, so it ate my card. So I went to check my mission card, and it turned out that I had put my mission card in in the first place, so it ate the mission card. So I pulled out like $90 ($U 2000) to hold me over until I can get a replacement mission card. Idiot. (Mom note: Good to see Steven is still as flakey as he was before he left! Some things don't change!)

Say hi to Kendra, Bro Rasmussen (with the letter) and Micaela. I’m waiting for her letter to get her address to write her!

The work is going well. We have district conference (like stake conference, except the district) the 9th, so we can’t baptize Nilda then. So we bumped her up, and we are going to baptize her with Celina on the 2nd. We’re going to try to put fechas with Anita and a new kid named Julio who is progressing a fool! (a fool is a dicho that means like really good or really fast. like a fool.) Speaking of Spanish, this branch is really having a hard time prounouncing my name. One brother just gave up, and he calls me Elder “Tarde llegaste, john” which is actually pretty close if you say it fast in the right accent. Dad will laugh, at least. 

Miss you all on this 4 month mark, keep sending me pictures (everyone, not just my parents!!) :D

April 20--Asamblea Week 2

Hey fam!

First, saludos a Lucia. I'm glad the scan came back clean, it is surely an answer to our prayers! I'm sure she'll be back up and running in no time!

Packages... what was in the Easter package? I might have gotten it already... but the Zone Conference is tomorrow and I'll get stuff there. Sending the SD cards will be quicker just in the package, I get your packages within a month (the first four at least) but I am still waiting for the snail mail with the addresses. Yeah, I can always use more candy, we may or may not have eaten all of it already. *cough* 

Em is SO CUTE! man...

Mom, I need a huge favor. I'll put some white space in here so you see it.

 

I am going to cook breakfast for the zone (12 people) before we go to the temple week 5. The problem is that I need to make pancakes without buttermilk and eat it without syrup. Luckily we can get our hands on bacon. But do you have any recipies for me that I can make these pancakes and some sort of sauce or something for on top?

 

This zone is pretty awesome. We are getting some people ready for baptism, two are going to get baptized on the 9th and hopefully two more on the 16th. Vamos arriba. Celina didn't come to church, so we had to bump her date back to the 9th (from the 2nd) with Nilda. Nilda cried in church yesterday because she felt the spirit so strong. The topic was the second coming and I wanted to fall asleep I was so bored! But I'm glad she felt something and I'm sure she is a "lifer". We haven't been able to catch up with Patricia, she said she would come to church but didn't. We also found the son of an investigator. He told us all about bad stuff that was going on with his work and his family and stuff and asked us to pray for him. Elder Godoy read Mosiah 3:41 or something like that that talks about the state of neverending happiness for the people who keep the commandments of God. Then Elder Godoy asked "are you in a state of neverending happiness right now?" and the guy, without thinking, said "no, of course not." so we invited him to start taking the lessons and he is really excited to learn more and find that peace that he is so sorely lacking. I don't think we'll baptize him this change, but definitely the next. OH! and yesterday, a missionary named Elder Correa baptized his dad in the area next to ours called Estaciòn. The baptismal service was the best ever, and wow. It's a story for the Ensign, for sure.

Well that is it for this week. Saludos a todos, hope you get my letters soon for distribution. I'm going to try sending some letters through the pouch and see what is quicker. Vamos a ver.

April 23--Asamblea week 1

Mom Note: It was my turn to be the evil parent and not get the email sent on time! So, poor Elder Thorderson didn't get an email from mom...No need to beat me up about it--I already did! 

Hey fam!

First half-week down. Things are going pretty well with Elder Godoy! He is awesome and we are going to tear this branch up! Last week, he and his old companion Elder Correa found a lady named Celina who had already been taught by the missionaries (a lot), got a testimony, then moved and lost contact with the missionaries. So we taught her once, and she came to church yesterday. She just accepted a baptismal date of the 2nd of May, and I think she'll follow through! We also went and visited a friend of one of the sisters in our ward, and tought her for an hour and a half! She (Nilda) had a ton of questions, but the day after we taught her for the first time, she came to church! I am sure she is going to get baptized too. We are planning on setting a date of the 9th of May, but we have to teach her some more because she is a little old and has studied all sorts of religions, so we need to make sure she's all straightened out and has a testimony before we get her wet. We also have Tony and Patricia. We found Patricia first, and tought her the first lesson. She read the pamphlet we left her, and when we came back for the next visit, she had a friend to listen to us too, and she said that when she was reading the pamphlet she felt an incredible peace. So we taught the friend, and she is interested too because a lot of bad stuff has happened to her, and then Saturday we went by and found Patricia's husband Tony and tought him. They are progressing pretty rapidly. They live out in an area that is rarely visted by Elders, but I think it is a very fruitful vineyard out there!

Let's see... stuff for my next package... Lots of American candy, lots of chocolate. Whoppers, Milk Duds, and Gobstoppers. Gobstoppers you can find here, they are just pretty expensive. And send a soft case for a keyboard.

I'm kinda running out of things to talk about while I wait for your email... I guess this Las Vegas trip is just too fun to talk to your son that is in Uruguay! Well my time is out waiting for your email, so I'll talk to you all next week I guess. I sent a piece of mail to the fam for redistribution, along with the SD card from all my CCM and Las Piedras pictures, and a picture of my CCM group.

I think I am going to buy the keyboard... I haven't made up my mind though, but if a lot of money disappears, don't be surprised, I guess.

Love you all and I am looking forward to a very big letter next Monday!