Maldonado week 5 From Elder Polera

(See Maldonado Week 5 From Steven for an explanation of this email!)

Hey,

Sorry for emailing so late. like a day late, all the cybers were closed yesterday because Mujica was put into office yesterday. So everything was closed for the most part. Next week we will email on Tuesday because it is change week. How about tell Elder Thorderson's mom since we know you guys email each other a bunch.

Earthquake....So, no we didn't feel anything here. Which is okay by me. Apparently though an unrelated accident occured in Bolivia or somewhere, a mudslide killed two Sister Missionaries. We don't have details or confirmation, but i think we will find out soon.

So yeah Hillary Clinton came here and apparently some people were talking to the other missionaries about it and asking why our president didn't come here instead. Just kinda funny to me that they don't completely realize their scope in the world.

I'm doing fine. It is weird to think this change is almost over. We don't know how long we are going to be in an area. All we know is that we are here for 6 weeks which is a change and we might be here 1 change or 6. With the same companion or 6. Nothing is really certain other than the 6 week increments. I think we will both stay here though. But we will find out on Sunday.

As far as talking with mission president and our situation here, we are kinda just seeing what happens and are focusing on finding a house. We think we found an apartment and are waiting to hear from the secretaries. It is a little expensive but in a good location for us. And Hermana DaSilva told us that she preferred houses of two so this would split us from the other guys.

So yesterday we went to La Cruz. E' Thorderson, Moffit and Painter our ZLs and the Hermanas from Piriapolis. So we left a little late and miss the first bus. And we couldnt find another until later. So we waited for the ZLs at the station and went on that bus and finally got to Piriapolis and met with the Hermanas. Bueno. But because of Mujica, all city buses in the country were either not running or only every once in a while. So we had to wait a few hours for the next bus. So we looked for a cyber to email everyone, but everything was closed. So the others decided we should eat lunch and then get the bus. Well, we waited for the bus and after a while it kinda meandered on in, late. Okay, finally, we are going to the hill. We all pay and are on our way. Then we get to our stop and get off when the bus driver gets this idea in his head that one of the ZLs gyped him. So we had to sort that out. Finally we were all ready to go. We walk to the foot of the hill, go through a sweet tunnel thing and then head up the hill. Well, it is pretty dificil. Now would be a good time for me to describe one of the hermanas. She is about 3'9¨ and is not in the best of shape. And the first part of the trail is an old riverbed complete with huge rocks. About 3 feet tall. So we get a fifth of the way when this hermana wants to stop and not go anymore because she is way outta her league. Okay, thats all fine, so we keep going and the Hermanas call the ZL a couple minutes later and say wait for them they are coming up. Well, they make it to the quarter mark and the little hermana just can't go farther. Then she sits down and starts throwing up. Oh boy...So Elder Thorderson and Elder Painter decide to go down with the hermanas and wait for me and Elder Moffit to finish the climb and stuff. So we take all the cameras and take a bunch of pics and stuff. So out of 6 people, only two conqueored the hill that day. Kinda like survivor or something. It was pretty funny on the way up and down because since we were taking pics with the others cameras, we took some goofy pics of us on them and stuff.

And on the way down we got stuck behind this group so i decided to cut on a cutback. It was a 6 or 7 foot drop to a ledge and then a couple more to the trail. So I take the drop and Elder Moffit didn't really pay attention and was running behind me and followed right off the edge. (i dont think the thing moms used to say about "if your friend jumped off a cliff would you?" worked on him as a kid.) I landed fine but he wasn't really expecting it and kinda slid/ rolled down the thing. Pretty funny. We got back down in one piece eventually (surprising because we were doing all sorts of acrobatics for pictures and stuff like jumping off big rocks to other ones unnecessarily.) and met up with the others, showed some pics and headed for home.

......i need a breather after that. But Elder T promised his mom 4000 words would be in my email. I think i may just have to include some pics since they are worth a thousand words a piece.

Well i love you guys and will cya latr.

(FROM ELDER POLERA'S MOM):

Amanda,

You have a very sweet son! I was impressed that he & Elder Painter stayed with the sick Hermana while the other two went on to the top.

Maldonado Week 5 (3/02/10)

Hey fam!

I'm sorry I couldn't get an email to you yesterday... Pepe Mujica assumed office (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ijsp5qbIheQhLFHPqN5KU8Zzm2OQD9E630N81) so all of the cybers were closed because of the holiday. So we got special permission to write you guys today.

A picture is worth a thousand words... So I am sending four pictures and Elder Polera is going to write 4,000 words. You can send the pictures to Janine, and she'll send you the letter. :P

We went to the cross this p-day... E' Polera and I, the ZLs Elder Moffit and Elder Painter, and Sister Thompson and Sister Guerrero.

hike.jpg is us on the hike. :D

punta is a view of Maldonado from the cross. Kinda far away.

santababy is a pic of Polera and I in a family home evening.

trailblazers is Elder Painter and Polera. These arrows are how the trail is marked... just a dried up river bed. Lots of fun to hike.

Well, I'm sure you'll here from Elder Polera's mom! haha I love you guys a bunch!

A Funny story from Steven's Companion

Elder Polera's mother sent the following message to me yesterday. For those of you who know Steven well, you will know that he is TERRIFIED of dogs! Hates them. And he has mentioned to us before how almost everyone in Uruguay has dogs--and they are NOT well-behaved. So, picture Steven and his dog phobia when you read the following...

I know Cody is really enjoying serving with Steven. I am so grateful that he has such a good companion. I thought I would share what he said last week below.

Take care,

Janine Polera

Last week he said: So Thorderson and I are getting along just fine. We work together really well and can get stuff done. He speaks spanish really well and knows his stuff.

Crazy story:

Right now we are just contacting people all the time trying to find new investigators. So we contacted this house with this old guy. He invited us to sit on his porch to talk which stank to high heaven and there were so many flies. Well he has like 6 dogs and they start wandering over and start laying under our chairs and stuff. He yells at them to leave and then says he will back in a second. He comes out with a stiff rubber hose thing about 2.5 feet long and rushes towards us. I thought he was about to hit me for a second. Then he starts whaling on these dogs and yelling like he is possessed or something. The dogs start to scatter and Elder Thorderson is already out of his chair off the porch. I'm about to jump up and out of this crazy chaos when one of the dogs runs into another that is kinda angry. Suddenly there is a dog fight on my feet. So now I'm stuck in my seat and can't go anywhere and E' T' is just stuck watching. Holy cow, just crazy...Needless to say we kinda wrapped it up quick and left.

MOM NOTE: Can you just picture Steven FLYING off the front porch with those dogs scattering everywhere?! I just laugh out loud thinking about it!

Maldonado Week 4 (2/22/10)

Hey fam!

Elder Montgomery pointed out today that in 10 months I will be home (if you don't come down and get me). That's like two hands... weird not having to use my toes anymore. That really doesn't leave me a lot of time... and yes it has flown for me too.

Elder Cundick is getting married??? That boy is so funny! I have been talking a lot about him with Elder Painter, my ZL who met Cundick when they were in Las Piedras together. I really was blessed to be his comp... I got some really awesome companions on my mission...and the cherry on top of it all is Elder Polera. Trunky as a monkey. :P

Well we had a couple of really good lessons with the Libonatti fam and they promised they would come to church. But it rained - which apparently means church is cancelled. Our church attendance halved, and the Libonatti fam didn't come. Neither did Valentina Barroso, which means no investigators in church, no baptismal dates. But the other elders had one in church, and she has a baptismal date for the 6th of March. Huzzah!

We are also trying to figure out a new division of the two areas in the ward... the other elder's area just isn't seeing progress we were hoping for and they don't have a lot of members to help them, so the Bishop wants us to change the areas up. But he proposed a split that gives one companionship a huge area that would take an hour to walk across and the other companionship would get a couple of neighborhoods comprised of maybe 40 blocks. We have Zone Conference and Interviews on Wednesday, so I'm going to talk to the Pres a little bit about it.

Not too much else to report here, just about to head home and make some sloppy joes. :D Oh - there is a family that has given us all nicknames. There's Elder "Como" (Elder Montgomery says "como" about every other word - it is the spanish equivalent of "like", and it drives us nuts!), Elder "Turtleneck" (Polera in spanish means a turtleneck sweater) and Elder "Speak-too-much" (yours truly). :D They are a really cool couple and they always give us a bag of chocolate milk or drinkable yogurt or something when we go over. And she makes really good pizza. :D

Oh - dad - found out that the bishops brother has the same birthday as you. Day, month, year. He also served a 18-month mission, but in Uruguay. You should look him up - his daughter is pretty cute. She was there when we ate lunch with the bish yesterday.

Let's see... in my next package (or in the current one if you haven't sent it) could you toss in some measuring spoons?

Well, nothing else to say, just waiting for zone conference! Pres Da Silva is such a stud!

Maldonado Week 3 (2/15/10)

Hey fam!

So good news! The church made a contract with Google, so our new MyLDSMail is powered by google! As a result of the change, my email has been changed to steven.thorderson@myldsmail.net. Huzzah!

Well we are pretty much rocking it. We are still working with incomplete families, but we have three now... that's three definite baptisms this change. There is also a pretty golden investigator we found on an exchange with the zone leaders. Karina lives next door to a member (also Karina) that she has known since they were kids. She's pretty much a member... she has a garden, she handmade an oven (wood oven, basically a mound of muddy horse poop) and is really nice. She's recently divorced and her 12 year old son lives with her. They have a really good relationship as mother/son. She was really acceptive when we taught her about Joseph Smith and read most of the pamphlet. We went back (Elder Polera and I) and we gave her a Book of Mormon. We really focused on the blessings of the Book of Mormon (Jeffery R. Holland never bore testimony of the veracity of the BoM without testifying of the peace it brings to the soul. :D ) and when Elder Polera was bearing his humble testimony she cried. It was a really powerful lesson. She promised to read 3 Nephi 11 as soon as we left - we are kinda hoping that she is done with 3 Nephi by the time we visit her Wednesday. Really awesome lady.

We have a pretty awesome family home evening planned for tonight - with the Libonatti family. Valentina is 9 and wants to get baptized. The other two daughters go to church, but the mom, dad, and son are inactive. But we are going to have a good lesson with them. We think that she is going to get baptized on the 27th. We might have to push it back to the 6th depending on how dedicated the dad is. We'll see.

Well, that's all for now. Love you all!

Maldonado Week 2

Hey fam!

Well pretty normal week this week. We are looking for some new investigators... we are currently working with some incomplete families, but I'm getting bored of teaching little kids. We are trying to work some more with members... it is a really complicated time because the whole world comes here for vacations, and all of Maldonado works for the businesses that house or feed said tourists. We call it the "temporada" and it is a really hard time to work. But we are just doing our part and looking for the people that are ready now.

We're also looking for a house... our house is tiny and doesn't really work for 4 elders. We aren't really sure what we are going to do... if we are going to move together to a bigger house or if the other two are going to find a smaller house in their area. We are still kinda searching for options... it is just complicated because of all the people moving to Maldonado.

We are getting lunches. I'm the one who has to organize it, and it is all pretty crazy. But we are getting fed (and pretty well) but it involves a lot of last minute searches. It really is just a hard time to be here... we don't even have ward council or PEC, and our ward mission leader is trying to do a boot camp for the ward missionaries (how to pray, how to bear testimony, how to give a talk) and insists that we don't use them - we have RMs to use that aren't ward missionaries.

"El cerebro de mi compañero se le explotò... no tienes papel higenico?" haha that was hilarious! The family is from Columbia, so I have fun using all the little saying I know like "how's the camel" and ending every sentence with "ready?"

Well I am praying for Corry... I hope that he continues doing well in rehab and takes advantage of it. I look forward to hearing about the evaluation results.

Elder Polera is a capo. He speaks Spanish just as well as you should after 2 months in a Spanish-speaking country. ("thanks, Elder," he says) but he speaks a lot better than he thinks he does. Every once in a while I surprise him. "Well, Sister Gonzalez, Elder Polera would like to share a scripture with you!" I think I have received more death threats from Polera than I ever did from Elder Wally. haha but he is doing really well and we continue to progress. (PS Polera is apparently Italian).

Not any funny stories from me this week. I'm thinking I should write all the spiritual stuff and Elder Polera will write the funny stuff and our moms can share and you'll end up with everything. :D

Oh, mom... I need some favors from you. I need a couple of recipes. I need a no-bake cookie recipe that has oatmeal in it (maybe Clint has a good one) and I need a waffle recipe that doesn't use buttermilk (because there isn't buttermilk here). But we have a waffle maker in the house - huzzah! I also need Sarah Dial's address so I can send her a quick letter telling her I knew she couldn't make it until 25 years old! :D

Well I love you all! Say hi to Grandmapa for me, I'm praying for them!

Maldonado Week 1

Hey fam! (you are probably getting old of that salutation! lol)

Glad to hear everybody is alive. I have been a little sick here too... I have some cold goo and have had a pretty nasty sinus headache for a few days. 800mg of ibuprofen didn't fix it - thanks for the extra little bottle. Turns out they do have ibuprofen here too, and it is pretty stinkin cheap. So I'm good on pain meds. I think Elder Montgomery passed

it to me. Oh yeah - Elder Montgomery is in my house - he's one of the ones that came down with me on the same plane. The big one from Cedar City. Attaching photo of us four - Elder Polera and I, and Elder Villafuerte (Peru) and Montgomery. Huzzah.

Maldonado is a cool place, as far as places are concerned. They had a lot of success last change, but I got here and it looks like we really only have one investigator (but they haven't visited him for a couple of weeks). So we have a lot of work to do... back to the part-families list. But I am really excited to work here. We have a really special

ward and some members who are really willing to help us out. I have been put in charge of setting up lunches, which was supposed to be easy. But after all was said and done Sunday, we only had 7 lunches scheduled. So I get to run up the phone bill (yes, we get it here) to figure out lunches. Ugh. I might have to change some stuffaround because it was a 2 elder area, but now there are four in the ward, and some of the old stuff isn't going to work - like assigned lunch days. We'll figure it out though.

I wish I had some more to report... this is a huge area! Look up Maldonado on Google Maps... our area goes from downtown Maldonado all the way to Punta Ballena. Where Lussich starts until past Punta Ballena. We aren't exactly sure how far the ward actually extends... Nobody knows. Just huge.

Well I'll have news for you next week. Love you all!

MOM NOTE: This is more from Elder Polera's mom. Evidently, he had more to say than Steven! LOL!

I don't know if your son wrote to you about this incident but I thought it was so funny that you might like to read it. Cody wrote from his perspective:

Other funny story, we were out doing contacts when all of a sudden my nose started bleeding. So im on the side of the road trying to stop my nose from leaking out my brain, and im trying to find some tissue that i forgot in my other pair of pants. All i could find was the extra cloth for repairs in the back pocket. So i had to roll it up and jam it in my nose to stop the blood. Than we had to do a contact so i could get some tissue. Talk about the most awkward contact ever. Elder Thorderson starts the contact by saying "my comp´s brain exploded, do you have toilet paper?" So funny, except i was bleeding like crazy. Ends up the guy and his family had gone to church and stuff before and we might go back out to teach them. Funny how that works out. If we get a baptism out of this, it would be quite the story.

I thought your son first words to their contact was hilarious. I laughed out loud.