¡Feliz día del pavo!

Hey everybody,

Well I am writing on thursday today because it is thanksgiving so president Eddy had us change our p day so we could do thanksgiving things. Elder Bazaes is kind of confused about why but I think he is happy to celebrate anywho. So yeah this morning we went and played flag football at the american school with The Eddy family, and the President and office elders from the other mission. I think it was the first time I have ever played an actual game of football of anysort, but it was pretty fun even though I'm not very good at sportsball. Sorry Dad. Then at 1:30 we are going to eat a traditional thanksgiving dinner with that same people. It will even include a real actual pavo. That is crazy because most people here have never eaten pavo because you can only get it in the tienda inglesa, which is like a fancy super market of imported products, and I think pavo sells at like 50 dollars a bird, which if I remember right is over thirty dollars more expensive than in the states. But I am most excited for the pie and cranny berry relish. I miss pie. And cran berry relish. But especially sweet potatoes.

So we are also super excited about our area. This week we found a cute little old couple named María and Alberto who are very special because they were super excited to receive us, they actually understood what we taught, and they agreed to be baptized. We are going back today and they said they were going to make us a cake, so I hope I have room. We also found a kid named mateo to teach who is really interested in religion, and a young family composed of Nicolás and Kati, and their tiny baby Morena. They also agreed to be baptized, and we are feeling super excited because even though we have limited time to proselyte we are finding a ton of people to teach which is great, because we didn't have very many. Although I feel like we could find a lot more if we would go into the sketchy parts of our area, because we have been staying almost entirely in the nicer part that is closer to where we live. So we will see what happens.

Scripture of the week: Alma 34: 37-41

Portuguese phrase of the week: O sagrádo espírito de Deus é meu constante companhero

1) I found a box of Das Buch Mormon in the depository so I am happy.

2) This is me and my plush pet Bobby the bactrian camel

Week Two Offices

Hey Everybody how's it going?

Well yeah so I have just been here doing some stuff trying to get used to being in the mission Offices. So here is how it works. Basically we leave the house at ten like normal and walk over to the offices, which is a tiny complex pegged on to the local church building. While there I spend my time ingresing the many many baptismal registries we receive through emails or hard copies into the churches sistem. I also organize mail. All of the Christmas packages started coming in so it is getting crazy. Then there is a bunch of other stuff I am supposed to do that I am not really sure what it is yet or how to do it or how to use a computer. And yeah. Then we leave every day at five to go proselyte. So we share the Malvín ward with the financiers, and they proselyte in the geographical area of Malvín sur which a bunch of wealthy homes and beach front condominiums south of the avenida Italia, and we proselyte in the area of Malvín norte which is mostly a bunch of cantegrillas and low income apartments. So we don't usually leave with anything more than books, but is more interesting that way.

But some cool things have been going on in our area, like we recently were able to start teaching a woman named carolina. She has been coming to church for the last five weeks with her suegra but we weren't able to teach her until this week. She is very interested in learning more about the gospel, and she is super sensitive to the spirit and says she has seen a ton of changes in her life and the way she feels ever since she started coming to church.

Also we met a guy yesterday named Ricardo who was very drunk and also very convinced that people with type A blood our descended from chimpanzees and people with type B blood are descended from gorillas. But he had a copy of El Libro de Mormón from the 80's which was cool.

Then we also have to do Mission chores sometimes. Like on monday all six of the office elders went over the the apartment of the wankiers, who are a senior missionary couple that just went home, and move everything out so that the apartment could be closed on. What happened is that it was a large seventh story apartment full of stuff from years of missionary couples living there, and we had to get everything down this tiny little old timey elevator into the tiny little basement parking garage, and make trips back and forth to the offices using only the tiny little trailer hooked up to the mission van. So we were there from six until midnight. But it was all okay because we got to call for midnight pizza afterwards.

I think one of my favorite things about uruguay is that there are just horses everywhere, even right in the middle of the city. Every patch of grass usually has a little horse tied to it. People use them to pull carts for collecting recycleables. I think that is one of the things that helps me not to feel super claustrophobic after so many months of living in Montevideo.

Well Thanks for listening guys, see you on thursday.

Accidentally made up word of the week: Engripación- Por Diego nuestro investigador

Quote of the week: It's getting hot, Christmas must be close- Elder Manzanares ( He was being completely serious)

1) Elder Newman has a different bag of yerba for the five days of the week.

2) This is the office building.

Week one malvín [from November 6, 2017]

Hey everbody,

so I just finished leaving my old area. It was pretty sad. Also I got called to be one of the mission secretaries, which basically means that I am a glorified mailman except that I always thought that mail personal were pretty cool. We are in the week of changes so it is really crazy especially since we have this member of the presiding bishopric coming on wednesday to give a conference to both of the missions. Apparently he served in uruguay hace añares. So I am just sitting here in the mission offices trying to be useful and mostly just being really confused. But that is how I have felt for most of my life anyway so it is okay. SO I will let y'all know more on saturday which is my pday from now on.

1) The Hoage family plus Mijael. They are super cool. Vamos arriba peñarol

2) My menos activos freinds Favian and Teresa

3)My knew Companion Elder Manzanares. You might think that he is a latino because of his name but he is actually a gringo from Utah who had a spanish granpa. He is pretty cool

week one offices

Hey everybody,

So I am here in the offices typing an email. It is pretty great. Yeah so what happened is that on sunday they picked me up on sunday and then on monday we had to pack our bags to go stay in the hostal by the temple and then spent the next few days picking up and processing new missionaries, getting rid of old ones and getting everybody changed to their new areas. It was actually pretty weird and crazy this time, because, Elder Davies from the presiding bishoprik came to speak to both of the missions on the same day as changes. It was also sad becasue we sent some of my best friends on the mission home, like Elder Palomino and Elder Espínola. And I havn't been able to fo to my proselyting area yet so that is kind of killing me. And In my old Area Elder Souza from Brazil land took my place, so now Elder Helske is going to be forced to speak only spanish or Portuguese, which makes me really really happy.

So yeah see you next week.

1) The assistants, Elder Mecham from Brigham city Utah, and Elder Estouco from Matto Grosso

2) The Financial Secretaries, Elder BazaesfromlosangelesChile and Elder Newman from Pleasant Grove Utah.