Rivera Uruguay - November 28th 2011

Hi All,

I little translations. Alfajores are chocolate cookie pastrie things. And bolsas are bags. Generally when i say that, i mean our mail bag. And recuerdos are souvenirs and apargatos are these boss lounging shoes!!!

 I realized that Thanksgiving did pass and it blew my mind. I completely forgot about it and so we really didn't do much about it. It also helps that we're freakin busy all the time so i really don't have time to think about what i miss. Its starting to get really hot and fairly humid all the time. I'm getting tan too haha.  I'm on the Lords errand and I'm not doing anything stupid which means he wont let anything bad happen to me.

I did splits this last Tuesday and Wednesday with our District Leader. It was rather uneventful except i did get clothes-lined by a clothes line. I was walking so it wasn't too bad but i found it rather humorous. This last p-day night, I walked out the door without a tie on and so I had to go get one and then my comp realized two blocks later that he was wearing apargatos! We figured we'd go with it so we walked the half hour of campo to our appointment and after we got out it was pouring. Needless to say his feet were just a bit wet and we both got soaked. :) Apargatos are a type of moccasins

This last friday we were getting a reference from a member and i watched these two youths walk into an almacen a house behind us. (we were in the street) about a minute later i heard a sound like a fire cracker so i turned around. Out run the two dudes, and the shop owners wife comes out screaming. They start sprinting their guts out and luckily a cop was on the street we were on. He bummed a ride off a moto and they took off after him. This is very lucky because there are almost no police in our area. They ended up catching the guys and the gun shot only grazed the shop owners side. Saddest part is, one of they robbers was a recent convert....

Today, we played soccer for a couple hours and then we went to this taco joint and i passed because they were 33 pesos a pop and they were pretty small so i went to the line later with Elder Johnson, Elder Mullen, Elder Heaps, Elder Killpack and Elder Mcdaniel and my comp and i snagged 4 panchos, or hot dogs, for 24 pesos. My comp and I are going vegetarian, unless members give us meat. It's really not a diet choice, just that it's a ton cheaper to live off of rice, eggs, oatmeal and fruit and veggies which the last two are reimbursable plus we've been working out so we'll see what happens hey?

On the lessons, we found this great kid named Nikolas this last week and this sweet older lady named America.  Elder Johnson has started handing off parts of the lessons to me and I kind of have to just go with it if I don't know it that well.  But the lord blesses me with most of the words I need and my Spanish gets so much better every single day which is rather convenient.

Well that-s all for now. We say good bye for the time being so that we can have the joy of another hello. I'm on a journey, as real and as frightening as you can imagine. The pain and suffering are real, but so is the joy. I fight monsters every day. Sometimes their mine, sometimes they belong to others but all the same they are as terrible and destructive as the orcs of fantasty. Each day I rise, to battle. But the difference is, I rise clothed in the armor of God, weilding the swift and terrible blade of the almighty God, riding forth to bring salvation. If I might quote a dear friend, Peregrin Took, "For Frodo." Yet on this day, I paraphrase. "For Christ", and for salvation. I'm a soldier in the army of the Lord, and I'm here to fight the great destroyer. Until next time,

Elder Andy

¡Chau!