One Wek More, One Week Less (1/11/10)

Hey fam. Not too much to report on here. We did a huge companion interchange starting tuesday afternoon and ending thursday morning. Elder Sluder came here and Elder Fajardo went to Sarandí del Yí. It went okay... Elder Sluder has been really sick and we couldn't work too hard for fear of "accidents". But we had some good conversations and he is doing a lot better.

Torradefló is still progressing. The other dad we saw he dad smoking, but the bishop says he has goals and so we are hoping that he is working towards them. We are going to have a FHE tonight, and I am making brownies. And Eugenia's friend Martina is going to come (she has been going to YW and stuff) and we are officially going to start teaching her.

We also had Marcelo Mediza's son come to church today. He is 8 years old, but he was born with a different wife before Marcelo was a member, so he isn't a child of record. Convert baptism! Hehe I'm not sure if he'll be getting baptized this change, but we will see. We have a little bit more leeway with young kids... It is rare to see a real testimony in an 8 year old, and their activity is based on the activity of the parents. But it looks like Marcelo (who was inactive) is coming back for good, and I trust him.

We have a friend named Patricia. She's an employee of the cyber we always go to. We taught her once, and she was okay with it. But last week, her grandfather died, and it really hit her hard. So we taught her about the plan of salvation and she ate it up. It was a pretty good charla and I can see her progressing with just a little bit more interest.

Not too much to report on this week, a pretty quiet week.

Let's see... if you are still prepping a package, could you send me a couple of laundry bags and a few metal hangars? Love you!

Hope you have a good week, I'm waiting for news about Corry.

T-Dad, Who knows which week--I lost count! (1/4/10)

Sorry for not getting an email out last week. I hope you guys had a great New Years. I sure did - we watched the fireworks and discharged an airhorn for like 45 seconds and almost froze Elder Wally's hand off from the frozen can. :P

It was an alright week, work-wise. It was pretty hard with the holidays, but we worked hard. We did a companion exchange/baptismal interview on Wednesday. I went to Hospital Ward with a ZL Elder Sessions (who was in Las Piedras with me) and did an interview there. The lady I interviewed had 10 kids! And now one of them is getting baptized in a couple of weeks too. In the interview, I felt like she really gets it. It was a good experience. I have an exchange planned with Sarandí del Yí tomorrow, one of the missionaries is having some problems so he'll be coming here with me. Then I'll have another interview in Hospital Friday. Lots of travel, for sure (5 hrs round trip from Sarandí del Yí). But we're looking forward to it. Elder Fajardo also needs to get out of the area... He's starting to get a little cabin crazy, so to speak.

We are getting pumped for Zone Conference on the 20th - we'll be starting it out with a temple session with the President and his wife. It should be awesome - it has been like 6 months since I've been to the temple. Something like that. And I should also be getting that other package. Huzzah!

As far as the work here, I have come to the conclusion that there is a lot of work to be done with the less active members. The bishop has asked us (the two couples) to work with 6 endowed members who aren't coming. 4 of them have children that are of age and not baptized. So there is work to do. There's another family reactivating (oddly, the brother of a family we've recently started to work with) whose son wants to get baptized. Point for Trinidad II. Also, the Torradefló family (Eugenia) just got back from a vacation to Florida (UY). Today the dad Nacho was in a white shirt and tie, and a nice trimmed up haircut. It definitely shows that he is progressing and working towards the temple. There is a ward trip to the temple on the 30th, and I talked to them about going - the mom to get her endowments and Eugenia to do baptisms. They said they'd talk about it as a family... so I guess we'll see what happens. I think there's something going on though - it's the temple. We'll talk to them about it tonight in the FHE.

So funny story... Last sunday we were out doing contacts and we find this great mother/daughter couple. They just sat on the curb and started to talk to us like we had been friends all our life, so we just sat there in the street and chatted with them. They don't drink (in excess) nor smoke, and they have a really Mormon attitude about family life. So after talking for a while, she offered us water, and when we said yes she offered us a soda. Again we said yes and she offered us a cider (which in Spanish refers to any sparkling drink - just most are alcoholic). That's where it got dicey. We politely refused, and she assured us that it didn't have alcohol. So we accepted, and she brought out the most incredible sparkling dark strawberry cider I have ever tasted. The bottle said "Sidra Leve," and thus we drank. I had two cups. That night, I had the wierdest dream I think I have ever had in my entire life, and woke up with a pretty intense headache. About midday it hit me that maybe the word "leve" required more investigation. (stop laughing, dad) Turns out, it means "slight". Hmmm... So we headed to the store and hunted down a bottle. Sure enough - 4.5 grams/liter alcohol content. That's basically nothing, but it was enough! It was really good sparkling cider though. :D

(rest cut for family)

A Quick Note Before the Christmas Call--12/21/09

Quick note, because today isn't p-day (don't worry, pte authorized a few minutes to ping our parents). Just letting you know that because of p-day change and time zone, I'll be calling between 5:00 AM and 1:00 PM. It'll be closer to noon, though. I'll see if I can catch you guys before grandmapa get there... the pte is being a bit more strict about the 1 hour time limit (pte ashby said we could take as much time as we wanted since we are the ones paying for it. haha). I'll be pulling out another chunk of money to pay my part of the bill, it shouldn't be too much.

Love you all so much. Thanks for the pics, and save me the D70 (*cough* just in case *cough*)

So I need you guys to be thinking about something before I call, better to tell you now and have a good conversation the 25th than bring it up on the 25th and have an awkward moment / not good conversation. It looks like the mercy of the mission president has changed my group's release date to the 21st of December, 2010 so we are home for Christmas (instead of just missing it). So I need you guys to think about whether you would spend Christmas here with me or at home with me. :D We'll talk Friday.

Love you all!

Ch Ch Ch Changes... 12/15/09

Hey fam!

Changes have come and gone, and the results are... interesting. I am staying with Elder Fajardo here. I have been hearing a lot from dad about learning from adversity... And this is just another opportunity to do so. We have some problems... but here's another opportunity to grow.

That's the way I'm looking at it. As far as other changes, the Pte surprised everybody. Elder Belleau is leaving, even though he has less time in the area than Elder Wally. Both of the Hermanas from my district are leaving (*sad face*) and getting replaced by Elders. Two other sisters from the zone are also leaving. One of the Elders from my district stays in the zone, but gets bumped to ZL with an area change/whitewash. That means there are two whitewashes in the zone. That's really intense.

Let's see... The other changes were pretty normal.

This was a pretty quiet week. We had a wedding (EQ Pres w/ YW Pres), that was pretty fun. We are working really hard with Eugenia's dad, because he isn't going to church. We had a really powerful lesson about temples and he committed to going to church on Sunday to have an interview with the Bishop. Eugenia has been asking a lot about the temple, and Eugenia's mom is taking the temple prep classes. Now's the time to get him active. I thought that him not being able to baptize his daughter would hit him hard enough, but we've found another way in.

Anyways, he came, and I guess his interview went well. Oh, also, a guy named Hugo got his call Sunday too... He's headed to Paraguay Asunción Norte. I think that's where the other Elder Reed is, but I don't remember how long he has been out.

Christmas here is such a downer. I have yet to sing a Christmas song in Church, and I've seen so few decorations. But the plaza here in Trinidad has a tree, so that's cool

Let's see... There are some unresolved questions to answer. Our communist president, José "Pepe" Mujica takes office in March. But he is already buddying up with Chavez, who visited and promised Uruguay all the oil it needs for "100 years and more." Referring to the revolutionary militant group that Pepe commanded (which later landed him in prison, from which he escaped with a spoon and later granted amnesty) Chavez said "I would have liked to be part of the group you commanded."

Crazy, eh? We're in for an interesting 5 years.

As for the one year mark, it feels like it went pretty quick for me. I hope that means I'm working hard. But yes, the second year flies, according to the majority of other missionaries.

In the American School, we are mostly there just to talk with them so they can get some native interaction. We just talk, and if we hear something that doesn't make sense, we correct it. Some times we talk about specific things, like Thanksgiving, but usually it is like movies and girlfriends and the differences between Uruguay and the USA.

Recently we have been working really hard on grammar, because they have been preparing for the written test, which they took yesterday. They're a cool group of kids. But now we're done because school is out. Sadness extreme.

As far as the issues with the members, we're still struggling. But we're getting better. I, for one, am trying to learn from these experiences.

Like Dad said, they say things for a reason, even if they have a weird way of saying them. So vamos arriba.

So funny story... Last Thursday I lost my keys (they had fallen out of my pocket in an investigator's house). So we were locked out of the house. But the other Elders came and opened it up when they came for their study time. Then after study, they left before we did, but upon leaving locked the door - locking us in. Ridiculous! The landlady is out of town, and nobody else had keys. We called the investigator that we were visiting that morning, but she was working and hadn't noticed the keys. But we saw miracles, and the other Elders showed up like an hour and a half later, because Elder Belleau had forgotten something. So everything worked out.

PRAYER ALERT! I've told you that Hermana Alejo has been sick... last week she got some test results back and she shows TB-positive. So she's on a terrible treatment that makes her pains feel a little better, but makes her too nauseous to stand up. I'm not even sure if it is a treatment or just a preventative thing... but we are all pretty worried about her. Prayers would be appreciated.

So I'm not exactly sure what is coming in my Xmas packages, but here's a list of stuff I'd love for you to send with the next package, if it isn't in an incoming package. No hurry. :D I'd love: a Real Salt Lake jersey (soccer, in case you didn't know. Lol), a thing of Black Kiwi shoe polish, lovely Febreze, some taco seasoning, and boots. If you haven't by chance hunted down a CAP guy to take that bag of CAP supplies, there should be a pair of all leather boots (not the part leather part gortex) that are about my size. My boots are getting torn up, and I need something waterproof. Also, just FYI in case you get any weird ideas to send me stuff, be informed that my neck size had decreased to a comfortable 15 1/2, 16 if you want to be sure. But I've been losing some serious weight.

Well, I love you all. Elder Fajardo is going to get his face cleaned (for his zits) so I'm headed out. Merry christmas!

T-dad wk 5 ch 2

Hey fam!

Pretty exciting news I'm getting all at once. I'll be sending some prayers up the line for Dad. We'll talk about it more on Christmas. It only cost me like $20 (if I remember correctly). It is 25 cents a minute, so like 90 minutes would be $22. So it's probably cheaper just to have me call you guys.

It is quite awakening to hear that Dad is getting old... I'm sure it is shocking for him too. lol well at least a deviated septum isn't as bad as a deviated rectum, but I hope he's getting checked for that too. haha sorry dirty joke.

Let's see... today we had our last district meeting of the change. We just had a big zone meeting/testimony meeting. It was really great. I wish we had done that on the first district meeting, it was really powerful. Then we went to the Durazno zoo. Sorry I don't have my card reader with me, otherwise I would send you guys pictures. We are getting pumped for our christmas missionary conference. it is next friday, which means that if I stay here (prayers would be appreciated so I do) I'll have to travel down twice in a week. Thank heavens for a savings plan.

Really great to hear about all the upcoming missions. I expect to be getting addresses so I can send them a note. :D It is also good to hear about Corry. I'm glad he's getting ready to graduate and start a new life. Isn't the program like three months longer or something like that?

But I hope he does well at SLCC getting ready for a senior college / university.

Not too much to report as far as the work. Just trying to work with the ward a little bit more. I tried passing around lists in the auxilary organizations to get phone numbers and schedules of the members and stuff, but the bishop said that the missionaries have already asked for that info like 4 times already and we don't need to be overbearing with the members. So we still don't have the info we need. But... oh well. We have another wedding this week (Elders Quorum president with the YW president), so we aren't going to have many lessons anyways.

Well, I love you a ton, and I'm sorry for the lack of news today. P-day quickly comes to a close. Robert Reed is coming home next Wednesday, I'm going to see if he has room in his suitcase to pack a christmas package for you guys. Love you all!

PS Anna-Kaarina aka Ankka is a Finnish girl from American School. She's on a student exchange. She's way cool. So it is probably finnish spam. lol

T-dad wk 4 ch 2

With vargas is on the exchange we did in Sarandì del Yì.

With the American school teachers.

Signing the ties is a few students signing our ties. Huzzah!

The ties they gave us.

Baptism

Hey fam!

How's everyone doing? I was way busy last week. Monday: P-day. Tuesday: District Meeting and exchange in Centro. Wednesday: Baptismal interview and exchange extension (still in Centro). Thursday: Two parties (American School Thanksgiving and Marìa Eugenia`s wedding). Friday: Dentist in deo (finally finished!) and baptismal interviews/splits in Sarandì del Yì. Saturday: Teresita's baptism! Sunday: election of a communist president!

So... big events of the week. Tuesday after district meeting I did an exchange with Elder Bonilla... I worked with him in his area (Durazno Centro) and Elder Stilwell worked with Elder Fajardo here. Then we were going to do the interview Wednesday morning, but the candidate didn't get home from deo until the afternoon, so we had to extend the exchange.

We had plans to have the Elders from T-dad come to Durazno, wait like 10 minutes, then I'd go back with my comp to t-dad. But their bus got a flat tire on the highway, and they got to Durazno like 45 minutes late, thus missing the last bus to T-dad. Thus we extended the exchange even more, and we headed back home Thursday morning.

Thursday we had a few parties... yay! the first was Marìa Eugenia's wedding reception. It was way cool... she married a non-member... but we're going to start to work with him when his heart softens a little bit. Then we went to the American School for their end-of-year / Thanksgiving party. It was really fun, they had skits and songs and movies... all in English! Then they gifted us ties! But it was still really cool, and the kids who were graduating (10th grade because it is only a 4 year program) signed the ties. It was just so incredible and fun and lifting. Then we went to our correlation meeting.

We are seriously having some member problems in the ward... I'll be talking to pres da silva Tuesday about it to see what we can do and how we can handle it a bit better so that we can get work done.

Friday was a crazy day! We went to Deo really early in the morning, then we had to travel to Sarandì del Yì for some baptismal interviews. We got there early and did splits with the elders there. Then it started to rain. Hard. And all I had was my short sleeve shirt. Huzzah. So I did baptismal interviews completely soaked. Then we all slept on the floor with the two mattresses side by side... didn't sleep well at all. Then back to t-dad.

Tuesday we have District Meeting then Zone Conference. Should be interesting... we have three hours in the afternoon to have Zone Conference AND Interviews with the President. I don't know if I like it, but it's what the president says.

My district is doing great. We went up in all of the key indicators this week. Looking forward to another good week this week with less distractions and less sicknesses (Hermana Alejo has started a light treatment until the tests come back).

Pretty exciting HC call! What are your assignments as such? Any news on the 2nd counselor? Praying for a miracle! Oh yeah... I didn't get the call to play piano for Bednar. Kinda made me sad, because the piano player was a Sister from the other mission and (*pride caution*) wasn't as good as me. But it's alright. Still haven't found another missionary that plays the organ though.

Well, love you all! Shout out to the sibs, hope Corry likes his Thin Mint alfajores and that Tina doesn't go crazy not being able to play basketball!

T-dad wk 3 ch 2

Hey fam!

Another week without emails... not too much to talk about today though.

We had a fun mission conference with Elder Bednar. He told us not to talk about it in our email to our parents though... haha there are stories he doesn't want on the internet. :P But it was really incredible... he was really open with us and didn't beat around the bush. At the conference were Elder Bednar, Elder Snow from the Presidency of the 70, Elder Bowen of the Area Presidency, and Elder Echegaray (or something like that) an Area Seventy. And their wives. It was great - they all had stuff to say. They had translators (they sounded Argentine) so I didn't have to be whispering in my comp's ear the whole time.

He talked a lot about action by faith and about teaching and learning by the Spirit (because we aren't teachers).

Ummm district is chugging along. We went down a bit in our numbers, but I hope that's from being at the Bednar conference. We've got some good plans this week as a zone to bring us back up. We also (finally) are going to have a district meeting - the last two weeks it has just been the zone leaders talking to the whole zone. So we are looking at better results this week. Vamos arriba.

Turns out that the Del Balle family (the less actives that are trying to drop smoking) are actually not members. We are going to see how they progress and put a marriage/baptism goal for Christmas as well. We'll see where the Spirit takes us.

It looks like we need to head to Deo this week with my comp - dentist appt. But it should be his last, we just need to put a crown on.

We are STILL waiting for reimbursements... they are a week and a half late. Elder Belleau is the only one with money because his parents sent him like $60. So he's paying for everything right now. I was forced to pull out money on Thursday to buy bus tickets for the Bednar Conference- I was expecting not to have to because the financers promised reimbursements before the Conference. So I'm literally waiting for $250 of reimbursements, and we are also getting our giro in a week or so, another $150. Finally, an opportunity to start a savings plan.

Sorry about all the fluff... not really much to report on after the long email last week. Good news is that there are American School pictures coming your way. These are from the high school. We are also going to their Thanksgiving party to close out their school year... that should be fun. The parents are also going to be there... reference party!

Well... love you guys. Hope to hear from you next week.