Email 12 Dec 2011

Well we got some service in this last week, we got to help another family with their moving, it was lots of fun! Then we got to play soccer with some wards, it´s actually been awhile since i´ve played and I´m sore now, but it was lots of fun! I was also supposed to talk in church yesterday but the first speaker took 20 min instead of 7...... so they had to cut me... sad day. I bought a Uruguay sweater that I´ve wanted for awhile now, so I know for sure that the card works :) This is the last week before my last change begins! Wow! That´s really strange! Ya, we did get an iron from santa! Too bad we don´t have an ironing board or other surface to use it on! I´ve been starting so see some christmas trees here now, it´s that time of year! Our tree is up too! it´s only about a foot tall, but it´s up! :) And actually, that´s about all it from my end as well. The photos are of us trying to catch fish with a bucket and a stick! Our gangster photo! a view of the bay, and a surprise package from Grandma Snelson! I´m writing her a letter, but you can give her a thanks from me as well! :) I hope everything is well! Luv ya tons!

Email 5 Dec 2011

My eye is a whole lot better! And the weather is still nice and hot and humid! This last week was actually pretty cool because I had my last zone conference!!! It was really wierd! I got to give my farewell testimony! and it was really cool because it was actually in the same church building where I gave my first one! and my last 4 companions were all there! It was really cool to see them all again and see how they´re doing in their missions! And as you can tell from the photo, SANTA was at the conference! He gave us an iron! wow! It was actually really cool, I thought I´d never make it to that day, but now it came too fast! Also, something really cool that happened this last week! For the last couple weeks an Australian family has been vacationing here! and they´ve been asisting our ward, they´re all members and don´t speak spanish at all! So it was fun for us to chat with them and get to know them! They even invited us over for dinner! It was my first dinner in English I think Ive had in the whole mission, it was really wierd talking in English the whole time! And then we shared a scripture with them, the first time I´d done that in the mission in a year and ten months! And I´d always heard that the Spirit is more powerful in your own language, but now I actually felt it, just passing the scriptures around with this family, everyone reading in english (even though they had cool australian accents) it really hit me hard and I loved it, it reminded me of FHE back home! A little bit of a trunky moment! Really cool! The daughter spoke english, had a cool accent, and she´s a DRAMA GEEK like me!!! I haven´t found that here in Uruguay! Cool stuff! But, alas.... she´s gone and I don´t even know here name! But it was a fun experience, and Elder Goeckeritz just liked being able to understand everyone, but he´s learning really fast despite the fact. Awesome, thanks for sending the package! I hope Ezequiel and Evalin progress more too! And we found a really cool kid named Leonardo this last week too, the only problem is that his grandma is a die-hard catholic and just blabbed the whole time, so one of us would talk with her to distract her while the other could chat with Leonardo, he even told his grandma to please give us a chance. Really cool kid. We are also teaching a few people english now... and that´s about it! Thanks so much for the email! I luv ya tons and all the support I appreciate a lot! Have a good week! The other photos are the Australians (McGown family) and another shot from Thanksgiving! Que disfruten!

Email 28 Nov 2011

We actually are feeling better! And then I got a stye in my eye! (see photo) it´s really quite annoying! I´m going on day 4 with it, but it´s getting better luckily, it irritates me though, especially now with the sun! It´s so hot now!!!! The last 2 days have been pretty humid and we are sweating! Sleeping without covers and a fan blowing the whole night! Fun Fun! That´s cool that you´re reaching out to those families, it all starts with the example! We´re trying to get our ward members to get going, but it´s taking a lot more effort than I thought! Our Thanksgiving was with a smaller crew too! well.... 2 as a matter of fact! We ate good (see photo) but it was just me and my comp! Oh well, last thanksgiving in the Guay! And we also have zone conference this next week! MY LAST ONE!!!! It´s pretty intense! The full impact has not yet hit me.....2 months left! This last week, besides the heat, was pretty good! We found a few more people! Had a good lesson with a new couple we´re teaching, Ezequiel and Evalin, they´re trying to get married, and then we´ll see if we can get them in the water! :) They´ve had a lot of trials within the last few years, I think they´re ready! We´ll see what the Spirit can do! Happy Birthday to Josh!!!! Wahooooo! And yay for family pics! I really like getting photos! Girls are still growing fast! yikes! Tell Dad to get better! Just cause I get sick, doesn´t mean he can! JaJa! (that´s spanish for HaHa!) Well that´s about it for this last week! Oh, we did go to a ward get together last night for 3 families that are moving, or have moved from the ward! Herman Paola and her fam were one! Sad day, but we visited her! She´s doing fine in her new house! Thanks for everything! Luv ya tons! Chau!

Email 21 Nov 2011

Hola! ¿Cómo anda? I hope you´re all doing just great! and hopefully better than me, at least physically. These last couple of days have really kicked mine and my companion´s bottoms with health. It all started saturday morning, I woke up just horrible, my stomache had a nuclear bomb dropped in it or something. Constantly I flet like I was going to throw up, but didn´t thank goodness. Then started the diarrea! and then aches and I felt really hot and sweaty! It was not good, I actually took a nap for awhile and my comp studdied more... then we pretty much had to stay home and find things useful to do there cause I couldn´t leave, we did make it to a couple appointments, but I felt bad cause in each one I had to use the bathroom for awhile. When night-time rolled around, my comp started feeling the same symptoms and he went to the bathroom probably 9 times during the night, and you can imagine that we were both just dead for church the next day, just feeling exauhsted and yucky! But we survived church thankfully, but no investigators came.... not that great of a way to end the week. Luckily today we´re feeling better, at least we hope we continue like this. Anyhow, sadly enough, that´s the biggest news we have for this last week. We´ve been trying so many things to find people, but it´s still been difficult. and our health situation didn´t help, but this week we´ll find some more! I´m glad that there´s a lot of work in the studio, that´s good stuff! A few of our investigators/ less active members that we have helped out have been able to get better jobs and are more happy lately, their starting to see the blessings of the Lord more in their lives. Here Thanksgiving is called Dia De Gracias! but no one celebrates it, they just have the name! We´ll try to find something fun to do, or at least something good to eat that day! The photos are of one of the many cakes we had on our birthdays! a photo of us helping Hermana Paola move (notice what it says in the background, and that wasn´t even planned!) and a funny picture of us with Maite and Aurora! Thanks a lot for the email and the love and support! Luv ya tons! Keep up the good work!

31 Oct 2011 Email

Oh ya, the pictures! that´s our new project we did in our house, we also have one of temples! A picture from Hermana Paola´s birthday party! Fishing with Pat! Decorations! and the baptism! Wow.....First of all, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! I expect to see everyones costumes! Secondly, this last week really was a week full of blessings! Starting off, I did get my package! Thanks a ton! I already ate the oat-meal and some of the cereal! And the decor is up (see photos) and I´m waiting now for my B-day in order to open up the wrapped (in special spiderman wrapping paper) items! Then.... WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (see photo) Silvia is now baptised! It went really well! I had the privilege to baptise her! The water was warm! It was awesome! We had a decent turn-out! It was also my kid´s first baptism! Nice stuff! The best part was after we had finished changing the mission leader asked Silvia if she wanted to give her testimony, being a timid girl she said no, but to finish off the night he gave time to the members to bare a quick testimony and guess who got up at the very end?.... Silvia! and I liked the other testimonies a lot, but her´s hit me hard. It is the greatest feeling for a missionary to really be able to see that a convert is truly converted and knows.... it was a great experience! The next day she got confirmed! And they asked Elder Goeckeritz to do it! He was freaking out so bad! He was so nervous! I think he gave her a head massage! But he did just fine! Also his first confirmation! It is really cool actually for me to be able to have these experiences with my kid as a trainer, he also annointed an Hermana for a blessing yesterday! Also, I don´t know if I´ve mentioned the Sarubbi family in any of my emails, they´re a less active family that used to be really active, really good family! The grandma, mom, and her two kids. Something happened in the church and they stopped coming at the beginning of the year. The missionaries have always visited them because they are really cool but they just haven´t been able to get them to church. In my whole 4 months here we´ve been visiting them still every now and then to try and build up their spirits! The last lesson we had with them just ended up bad, lots of shouting and tears, and anger towards the ward at least from the grandma, we were really sad and just didn´t know what to do, we left a conference talk, "Two lines of communication" by Elder Oaks, and they hadn´t read it... to my surprise, when we were taking Maite to primary sunday, the 2 Sarubbi kids came running in the room! My first thought was ´What are you doing here?´ then I had one of those duh moments, if they were there then the mom and grandma must be down stairs! We hurried down and sure enough! They were in there sitting with the members! And I don´t think I´ve had a bigger smile on my face in my whole life when I waved to them in there! The mom then told me afterwards that she couldn´t stop thinking about us the whole week and that she´d read the talk and something must have touched her and gave her the strength to go! She said they´re going to go every week now! Those are amazing words to hear. It truly has been a blessed week! We´re preparing for 2 more baptisms this saturday if all goes well! And we are really excited! I haven´t been so happy in such a long time! It´s amazing! The district is doing really good too and if all the planned baptisms go through this weekend we´ll have 6 baptisms in the district! That would be the best birthday present for me and even for my comp. Anyhow! Glad to hear that Abigail is such a great baby! I can´t wait to be able to see her in person... well I can wait.. about three months more :) Thanks for writing me! I hope you have a great Halloween! It´s my favorite holliday so party it up!!! Luv ya tons! Chau!