Hey fam! (8/3/10)

Hey, so some fun stories from the last few weeks to start off. :D

Sunday, June 18, is Independence Day here in UY. Since it was a Sunday, we sang the Uruguay national anthem - which is pretty cool. Except the person who was supposed to bring the sing-along CD didn't show up. I made the mistake of saying that I play the piano and have sheet music for it, so we went and got the music and sang the anthem. I definitely butchered it. Our EQ pres plays the piano (not like me though) and he had to sit next to me pointing to the sheet music while played so I could follow the repeats and stuff. It is a super hard song and I didn't do it justice. Haha that was probably the most nervous I have ever been for a public performance, I was trembling after it ended.

I went like a month and a half with long fingernails (I didn't bite!) I was going to take a picture and send it to dad (he still owes me $10 from a deal we made that he would give me a dollar for each nail if I could grow them all out) but then they started to bug me and I couldn't take it anymore. So I'm back to short fingernails. :D

I think that's it. Hmmm... missionary work. Everything is good... we have a goal to get two baptisms this change. Vilma is one of them, she's going to get baptized the 28th. She's super set, and we are feeling good about her. President Da Silva came with us to the charla and it went really well. He also went with us to Pablo and Katharine, Pablo is an RM and is living with Katharine. In the end we committed them to get married so Katharine can get baptized. Huzzah. But they will probably end up getting married next month because of the ridiculously long time it takes to get people married here. But we'll see.


Dad, as far as the trip:
I have been looking at the options, and I think it will be best if we rent a car and stay in hotels in the areas we are visiting. That will also be better for siestas. More or less (because my 7th area is still a big question mark) we will be in Trinidad Wednesday, Florida Thursday, Maldonado Friday (for new years eve), my 7th area Saturday, Montevideo Sunday (including church in Las Piedras) and on Monday we'll just hang around Deo and do some trunky shopping. I'd like to get in a temple trip, but it is closed on Monday. :( That means we'll have a night in Trinidad, a night in Florida, a night in Maldonado/Punta del Este, 2 nights in Deo, and then the plane ride. Huzzah. I'm still working on the details of the visits and everything, but I've got food and travel pretty much figured out.

Other random stuff: still waiting for package. I am going to get scripture covers made, they are going to cost like $100. And my birthday is coming up, what do you want me to buy for me? Or should I wait till I get home to find the 78 red Mustang in the garage?

I think that is it for today. Love you all!

Hello! (7/27/10)

stud group.jpg is our group at this leadership conference - all of the gringos and like 5 of the latinos are leaders in the mission. We are super studs.

happy birthday.jpg is Elder Wagner's birthday cake (and Analìa A. - I heard dad talked to her on facebook?)

wow.jpg is what you get in the bottom of a glass bottle when you leave homemade maple syrup in it for 2 months.

wally.jpg is with Elder Wally in the cyber on change day. He's going to live with me up at USU now that I've talked him out of BYU. (Mom note: That's my boy!!)

Hey fam!

Quick email today, we've got a lot to do today. I'll have a SUPER good email next week, I've got lots to write about.

Dad - I'll have answers for ya next week - I was going to suggest that we head home tuesday, but if we have all day monday the plans change a bit. The easiest thing to do would be rent a car and stay in local hotels (instead of home base in Deo). I'll have options for you next week.

I should have been more clear on the PMG changes - it isn't a problem so much about using PMG or about what it SHOULD be, it is about effectively learning and applying what is inside. It is all pretty exciting.

Well I promise I'll have a good email next week. Love you all, thanks for the pictures!

Exciting Week! 7/19/10

Hey fam!

This is a really exciting week and a time of change and progress in the mission. We have recieved instructions from the first presidency as far as Preach My Gospel and the approach we use to teach it. Lots of missionaries get to the field with different levels of ability as far as teaching and focus - because the MTC focuses on the missionary discussions and not as much how to teach them. So the First Presidency has released a new study program to compliment (not replace) Preach My Gospel. There are 8 principles that this program focuses on to help us direct our studies and focus in on the real work. With this new program, missionaries will get to the field with a better understanding of what missionary work really is and not just how the teachers say it ideally is. When they get to the field, the mission will have been using the same approach and everybody will be on the same successful page. Right now, all of the Zone Leaders and District Leaders from the mission are in Carrasco doing a 3-day seminar for these 8 principles, and the seminar will be repeated every 2 months. It is pretty exciting to know that we are right in the middle of a BIG change. There are other small changes, like instead of zone conferences and interviews every month and a half, they take turns (aka once every three months) and Zone Leaders' Council is every month. They are really trying to get out of the "transfer cycle" way of thinking because months are the same all around the world, but the transfer cycles don't correspond across the missions. Pretty exciting.

Other than that we are pretty tranquilo. Analìa slept in yesterday because she had a huge headache. Wagner and I had an hour long companionship inventory to try and work out some of the kinks. I am super sick and threw up yesterday but we went out to work anyways and now I'm worse.


Dad -
If we go back Monday, that gives us time to make some visits and see some places. If you want to see more of UY, we'd have to stay longer. But I'm fine with Monday. Sad to know Mom won't be coming down, but we'll take some good pictures for her. :D Bring the D90.

>> From the information below, it looks like it would be best for me to arrive Tuesday (the flights arrive around 11:30am). I would just proceed directly to the hotel (just in time for a siesta) and wait to pick up Steven either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning after his final interview.
Agreed.
I think that's it. Good luck at work!

Well that's the news for the week. Give a big hug to Tina for me, I've been thinking about her this week. Keep goin' girlfriend!

-Elder Thorderson

Changes are here! (7/13/10)

Uruguay--Futbol Fever!

Gonzalez

Crimson Died (remember this plate from his days with Elder Cundick?!)

Baptism

...and we are staying together. We were pretty surprised. I am with Elder Wally here in the cyber and he gave me this picture of Crimson Died. :( He says he found it like that in the trash can in the Florida church. So that's pretty sad.

Ummm wow lots of questions to answer.

Good to hear that things are OK with Dad at work. Interesting title change... so where does he sit on the totem pole now? Tina sounds like she's doing awesome, I look forward to double-dating with her. :P Not really, Tina, don't think about it. And I'm sure that Princess Emily is giving you guys plenty of work! She is getting so big!

Pretty crazy here during the games, we had to schedule our weekly planning during the games so we weren't in the street - either that or schedule appointments with old lady investigators that don't want to watch the game.

Baptism was actually really awesome. It was super spiritual and Daniela gave a KILLER talk. Analìa is a super strong convert... she is going to tear it up. It was really hard for her to find her testimony but that means that it is going to be even harder for her to deny it in the future. She had her whole family come, they are really cool. I talked to her dad-in-law about the book of mormon and he seems excited about the whole thing.

Veronica is doing well. Some people love her and some hate her, so it is hard. She is just a little socially fried from all her drugs so she's a little awkward - But she loves the Gospel and wants to progress. We just need to get people to fellowship her.

Daniela is awesome, she's going to be such a good missionary. We ate lunch with her and Analìa on Sunday (because we can't eat with each of them alone).

Well I am getting bugged about time, so I'm going to go.

ETA on the package?

Dad, I don't know when you guys should get here, I don't know what the schedule is on my last day. Could you email the offices and ask them about when you should get here? I'm thinking we'll head back on Monday, I'd like to go to Church in my first area, that would be cool. :D I'll think about it today and come up with a more specific itinerary.

Ignore this post

trying AGAIN to get facebook to import notes...

Almost to Changes! 7/6/10

Hey fam!

Well here we are just chugging along. Analìa is in fact getting baptized on Saturday. We had a family home evening with her yesterday with the Stake President and talked about tithing. That's the last of the big commandments, and she's committed to all of them. So we are on track. We found Veronica, things are weird. I don't like visiting her in her house, it just feels really weird. She and her mom are always fighting over stupid things. But Daniela (the recent convert that is saving us right now) has scooped her up and is helping her get back into the gospel.

Well fun day today... I need to get a haircut but everything is closed. I almost wasn't able to email you guys. But in the mall today, I found a group of 40 youth from Maldonado II who went to the temple today. So I sat with them for a bit and hung out. It was super cool to see them again, really uplifting.

I think Uruguay lost today?

I'm really not feeling good as of late, so I'll sign off. Oh, I got my "trunky call" yesterday, that's when Elder Fry calls and asks me what airport I'm going home to and who my stake president is. Huzzah.

Well sorry it's a short weird email, I'll try and have a better one next week.

Hey Fam! 6/29/10

Hey fam!

All is good here in Camino Carrasco! We had lots of success, after a really hard week. Lots of miracles.

Analìa is getting baptized! We had a charla with her last night and she told us she had decided to get baptized. She decided on the 10th of July (next saturday!!!) so we are super excited. We took her to a baptism on saturday (a combined baptism of two wards, it was awesome) and she seemed to like it, but didn't like the mirror above the water and said that for a variety of reasons she just wanted to think about the baptism. We were introducing her to EVERYONE saying that she was getting baptized on the 10th, but she was always like "ummm... i don't know..." it was pretty awkward. Sunday she came to church, but seemed to just be there, not really participating too much. I taught a KILLER gospel principles class about Christ (Lesson 3?) and it was really good. Our recent convert Daniela (who has been helping out A TON with Analìa) was crying and everything. But she didn't make up her mind about baptism or anything. So last night we take her to Daniela's house for a charla and she says she wants to get baptized next week! We are super excited. We could tell that she really received an answer and that she realized the necessity of the church. It was a really spiritual charla and are really excited for

There's an investigator Veronica that disappeared from the face of the earth - mom said she was in maldonado and that she doesn't have a cell phone. Well turns out she wasn't in maldonado, the mom said she's been home the whole time and that she relapsed into drugs. So we went this morning to her house to wake her up and chat with her (so we knew she'd be home) and we actually had a really weird charla. Turns out she wasn't in Maldonado, but she isn't doing drugs. And she does have a cell phone, she's been wanting to call us but her mom wouldn't give her the phone number. She hasn't been going to church because her mom locks her in the house so she can't leave and says that we just want to baptize her in our cult. So Veronica is getting ready to move out of the house today because she can't put up with it anymore. I don't blame her. But she is going out to the street and doesn't know where she's going. And she's leaving her 6 year old kid with her mom while she looks for a place to live and work and stuff. So we told her to just hold on while we help her find a place to live and work and take it easy. It's a super complicated situation and we're really frustrated with the mom. We'll see what happens with her.

All in all a week full of miracles and the hand of the Lord. We were super excited for everything that happened and hope to see more miracles as we continue putting in our part.

I hope you all are OK. Still haven't heard anything about Corry. And any news on that package I've been waiting for since January? And Dad, you need to email the mission to get stuff figured out because they are about to start the process of getting me home. (Oh yeah, 18 months down!) You should have the email addy already.