Week 5

Dearly Belove Friends and Family,

This week was a pretty normal seven day period. We mostly just worked hard trying to find new investigators. Actually there were a number of instances where we were lead to run into people we needed to run into just at the right time. A lot of times it was people who have had the missionaries over before and are perhaps more prepared now and want us to come by and chat. A couple of days ago this kid about our age actually pulled up in front of us on his bike and asked us for folletos (pamphlets). That was pretty crazy because no one ever asks to talk with us so i pulled out a handful and told him to have as many as he wants. We actually ended up walking by his house later and we had a chat. His name is Emiliano and he got hit by a motorcycle about a year ago and is really grateful to God to be alive. He wants us to come back so that is cool.

For thanks giving we were going to have asado with this family but that fell so we went to the elderes house in El Pinar and made chorizo tacos with southwest seasoning. Because I am a Missionary writing an Email I guess I am obligated to write an unbearably cheesy, totally cringe worthy list of things i am grateful for.

Alfahores

Dulce de Leche

The hot water tank in our shower

Dogs that don't bark at us

People who are interested in our message

The Fam back home

All of the miracles I get to see

The Miraculous change the Atonement makes in peoples live.

Also I figured out how to do thïs. Christensen out.

1 They have the same green parrots here as in Mexico

2 the Saur I found. His name is Ronnie

3 The sum total of our Christmas decor

4 Elder Slimming making us his farewell asado

Week four email

Hey everybody,

More good news because our investigator Victor got baptized this week. Victor is a very gracious 74 year old Chileno. He is a doctor and a writer and is just super cool and smart. His story is that one day a few months ago Elder Bravo and Elder Slimming were on intercambios and they knocked on his door, and they are both Chilenos  so Victor fest like he should let them in. Anyway he read the Book of Mormon and gained a strong testimony of it and the restoration and the gospel but he didn't want to get baptized yet because he is old and wanted to be sure. So they just kept teaching him the lessons and he would always take really detailed notes and have good questions from his personal study. Sometimes he would even call us with questions. So me and Elder Lockhart were there and we were teaching him about the fast beecause fast sundya was coming up, and he said he wanted to fast to be able to understand more about the gospel. So we did the fast with him and Elder Lockhart recieved some revelation about what to do. We went back and taught the last required lesson which was diezmo, and then Elder Lockhart said " you know we fasted with you the other day and we feel like the best way for you to understand more is to be baptized and recieve the gift of the Holy Spirit" Victor basically said " your right lets do it on the 19th". And the rest was history. We need to find some more good investigators though.

Also Elder Rasband Came this week. We had a big conference with him and Elder Christensen of the 70 and both missions were there. He is very warm and friendly in person and he had everyone shake his hand. He also gave a really good talk and I could feel the presence of the spirit in the room when he spoke.

That was pretty much my week.

1: swallow

2:us and victor

3:The endangered Uruguayo house eagle

4:stuffed squash. 'Nuff said

week three email

¡Howdy Folks!

Well, I had my firsst baptism this week! It was for our investigator Saya (the y makes a "shh" sound so it is like sasha). Her story is that a few months ago she started living with her aunts family who are really strong members of our ward. She started going to church with them and she realized that she wanted her life to be like that. She started taking the missionary lessons and over time she has developed a really strong testimony of the restoration. Her baptism was on Saturday and her cousin Andy baptized her. He is a real capo because he has a super strong testimony and comes to lessons and stuff with us. it was really great to see someone make this step in their life to follow Christ. Pretty cool stuff.

I also went to a wedding this week. It was for Richard and Hermana Concepción. They were a couple in our ward who were living together so Elder Lockhart and his old companion Elder Bravo went and dropped some cane on them and convinced them to get married so we were kind of obligated to go. Uruguaya weddings are pretty low key. If you are getting married you just go to a government office, your friends and family come wearing whatever they feel like, some witnesses sign a form, a judge or something comes out and says some legal stuff in spanish, you trade rings, then you walk outside and everybody chucks rice at you, and then you leave. Then a ton of doves come and eat the rice. I think that was only the second wedding I have ever been to.

I bought a bag of ultrapastuerized milk this week. That was a mistake. Definitely the worst tasting thing I have had so far which is a good thing and a bad thing. I also had canelones which are condensed cream of broccoli soup wrapped in crepes with creme cheese and tomato sauce on top. Pretty interesting. And that was pretty much my week. Kind of flew by.

Oh, also one day we were trying to unlock the gate to leave, but we couldn't because it was hot and the metal had expanded, so Elder Lockhart jumped the eight foot fence, and I tried to follow but I am not very flexible so when I landed I tripped and fell in the grass.

1: Saya and Andy

2: for preparation day last week we wnet to the Elders house in El Pinar and made breakfast burritos from scratch.

3:A couple of these giant doves they have here like twice the size of a pidgeon.

4: my piture of milk in a bag.

Week two

Exalted Friends and Brethren,

Well This week has gone by really fast, becasue everyday we work hard. It means I sleep great though. We got a cool new investigator this week. It was monday and Halloween, and there are some little kids that go trick or treating here, but nobody puts up decorations or anything. So we thought we would take advantage of people opening their doors and do a little tracting. The first door we clapped at this young guy came out and we told him who we were, and then it came out that we were both Americans, and he started talking to us in perfect english. His name is Joaquin and he spent the last year traveling through southeast asia, and somehow he learned english doing it. We asked him if we could come in and he was like "yeah sure guys" so we went in and talked to him and his dad for a bit, and then we asked if we could share a message. He asked if we would give it in english, so I got to share the restoration in English!!! It was really great becasue I could actually participate effectivley and follow the spirit and stuff. I had been hoping that I would be able to share the Gospel with someone in english on my mission but i never thought that it would be in the first week. We went back on wednesday and by the time we got there his mom had baked us straight up american style choclate chip cookies. You really do see blessings on the mission. We also randomly ran into his sister doing street contacts. We are totally getting that family baptized.

We also found some other cool people like this guy named walter who has talked to missionaries before. This thing happend saturday night where we were walking in the street and this guy walked up to us and he was like come with me. So we followed him and he was totally intoxicated and I was worried he was going to fall into the ditch on the side of the road. He was like i served a mission for the evangelical mormons. And we were like where, And he said Europe, and we were like, what country and he said, chile. we got to his house and then he yelled at us like TALK TO MY SON! And then he left the room and we were like, what is going on? and his son was like oh he has just been drinking, so then he came back and he was like I could hurt if I wanted, which was super funny because he was like a good foot shorter than us and chubby and drunk and not very muscular, so we said we have to go and he was like " ok by freinds take care", and then we gave besos and left. So that was a good life experience.

Some other things about Uruguay. They have fireflies here just like back home which is great. All of the cigarrete boxes have pictures of premies and lip cancer and things which is good because it makes our job easier. There was and elder who lived in our house who had a thermometer and proved that when it is cold our house is actually colder inside and when it is hot our house is actually hotter. Sometimes I have to teak a break and stand outside for a minute to get back to a normal temperature. I have a lo of pictures form the beach this week because we went fishing with the zone leaders, but don't get the Idea that my area is super beach oriented because it really doesn't feel that waya at all

 Me and elder Lockhart

A grebe or a gannet or something. 

A picture of the temple that a little girl in or ward drew for us.

A very cool key ring

Me with a sea lion jawbone I found

Zona de Costa Fotos:

First Email from the field

Happy Halloween!

First of all I would just like to say that Uruguay is amazing, and I love it here. Second of all Is an account of the past week. We got on the plane in Mexico and got on our way. All of the airline personel would occasionaly make comments about us missionaries and the church. I think that they thought that we couldn't understand what they were saying, which is true, but more than they thought. We got to santiago just as the sun was rising. It was really spectacular looking out over the andes mountains as they were beeing sillouetted from behind and a green glow came through the fog. We changed planes and I got to Montevideo with all of my stuff, except thet somebody tooke the handle covers that I had put on my checked luggage. I am not really sure what they would want with those. President Eddy, my mission president, is really great. They took us all back to the mission home and fed us a lot of food, and we spent the night in the mission home.

The next day I met my trainer and went to my area. My traners name is Elder Lockhart. He is from Huntington Beach California, where he liked to surf. My Area is called Lomas de Solymar. Thats is like saying hills o' sun n' sea. We are right on the coast so I got to look at the beach the first day. It is pretty cool because you can see the ships coming in to Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. I also saw a dead sea lion, which is by far the biggest dead thing I have ever seen on the beach.

The ward here is great. Everbody is friendly and helpful. I bore my testimony in church yesterday. It was allright. I can't really understand what anybody is saying because the accent here is different, but I get a little better everyday. We have a bunch of investigators, one of whom has a baptismal date in a couple of weeks, and some others who are really interested and have strong testimonies but just want to take it slow before they get baptized. We have a lot of work to do every day.

The weather here is interesting. One day it is humid and breezy, like a kiss from the air. The next day it is just ridiculously umbrella breaking windy, and the other days just warm and sunny. The food is spectacular. It is like a bunch of sweet grandmothers from the south, great Britain, Germany, and Italy all got together to cook a giant lunch for their grandchildren.

Unfortunately that is all I have time to tell today so Chau!

Elder Christensen

1: A tiny Chilean mountain. Others were bigger but I couldn't get a picture

2: Elder Lockhart in our house.

3: Our House

4:I believe this is an Inca dove. Which experts can't agree on if it is the same species as the mourning dove

5: Our chapel