Tranqueras Uruguay - January 16th 2012

Hello All,

Where on earth do I begin....I'm in Tranqueras with my new trainer/senior companion, Elder Ulysses Velazquez. Tranqueras is about an hour bus ride away from Rivera and it's in the middle of no where. The town literally shuts down from the hours of 1 to about 4 and sometimes from noon til 5. That's all about the area for now. I have to keep things in order or I will lose track of what everything I want to tell you.

Elder Velazques is from Spokane Washington and has been a member of the church for just over 2 years. He's completed a year at BYU-I and was studying to be a youth preacher for an evangelist church when he started taking the lessons from the missionaries his senior year. He has been out for 8 months and is in his 4th change. He knows the Bible like the back of his hand and has an absolute hunger to learn more of the Book of Mormon. I remind you that I have been out for 4 months and am in the middle of my 2nd change. A situation such as this is rare at best, unheard of at the very least. That being said, VAMOS ARRIBA!

Coming into the area was interesting. About a half hour out I asked if there was a lot of lumber production in the area. You remember in books when they talk about forests appearing as oceans of rolling green? I saw that. Tranqueras is a small island of barely functioning civilization in a calm but deep sea of foilage.


The new area is tough. Lots of problems.  A lot of the people are very judgmental and we're working mostly on revitalizing the branch. Without their help, it's going to be impossible to get any work done in this area. The mission is stressing working with members so we're trying our best with that. The problem is, there are only 12 active members in our ward even though there are 300 members on record, and roughly 30 other churches out here, all with more attendance each week than ours. Without a strong ward, the work here is going to die. That is our task. I level my sword and wage war. Elder V and i mean business. We've come home exhausted each night this week, happy with how we've done. We're seeing a little bit of progress in some of the menos activos (less actives). I'll keep you posted on all of that.


I truly love elder Velazquez. I'm going to learn so much from him. He aches to follow the savior and we try our very hardest  to be the best missionaries we can be each day. He has such a testimony of Jesus Christ. I don't even know if i can describe the power his testimony holds. It's astounding. My spanish gets a little bit better everyday. I'm speaking a lot more out here that in was in Rivera so we'll see if that helps. Elder V is still learning so it makes it fun when neither of us know the word we're looking for.   The members really seem to like us and we leave a lot of people smiling so that makes me very happy.

I currently live in a place I've dubbed the spider house, a reference to the legend of zelda. The catch phrase in the house is, Elder we're gonna need the mata'todo (Kill all) and a lighter. Because the mata todo doesn't work on these ones. They're too big. I've currently killed about 3 that were as big as the palm of my hand. You have to burn them because the bug killer doesn't work on them. Needless to say, we keep on our toes. It's getting to be kind of funny  now and I'm a lot less....fearful of spiders.

I don't know if i've told you this yet, but its HOT. This last week was actually okay, because it rained for a couple days and the clouds stuck around for a couple days but it was hot at 10:30 this morning which means we're right back into the devils armpit.

I have actually been drinking a decent amount of milk and yogurt. I try and keep myself eating healthy down here. It's hard but it's certainly possible.

We laugh a lot every day and some days come close to crying during studies. We continue to learn so much from each other and from the Spirit. And we yo-yo. His girlfriend sent him 2 yo yo's in a package and so we have a lot of fun with that. We tried out a lancheria today. Type of a diner. It was decent. We just look for ways to have fun and new things to do out here. I just think this is what missionary work is really like. We pray often, and are constantly seeking to do the Lord's will and have a great time while doing so. We see the hand of the Lord so much in our travels. Yesterday, we contacted for about 2 hours. Everything we had fell through and so when that happens, we try and find menos activos (less actives), inactivos (inactives) or go find new investigators so that we're not wasting time.

We ask for references if we ever visit members. So anyway, last night, we knocked 30 doors. 4 answered. It was a rough night, but we keep up good spirits because we have faith that the Lord will watch over us for doing his work. This morning, we left at 10 to get some work in before p-day. We found a great family. The Lord sometimes pays us back immediately, some times we have to wait. We visitied a lot of menos activos this week and committed them to all go to church. None of them showed up but we ended up going to get two of them. This is one of those things were we're just going to have to wait. We have faith that the Lords will will come about in this area as we apply ourselves to the utmost of our abilities.

President passed by our house Tuesday morning so that we could interveiw with him. He's interviewing all of the mission currently. We don't have zone conference  this month. Anyways, he said that this is a very tough area. Elder V has not been taught how to train. I'm still very new. This area is in need of a swift kick in the butt. And 2 newbies got the assignment. I know that as we apply ourselves, we can do it. President testified of how he knows he receives counsel from the Lord when it comes to making changes. I know he does.

Elder V and I just mesh.  It feels like elder V and I have known each other for a long long time. He says the same about me. He wants to be such a good missionary and each day we strive to be the very best we can be. I come home so tired every night. If I sit down i start falling asleep. We are putting our all into this work. He and I learn to love the Lord a little bit more each day. We learn to love and respect the people a little bit more each day. We're always learning what works and what doesn't. We have to be flexible if we are to follow the Lord's plan for us. If i might quote my companion, "It doesn't have to be glorious to have purpose." Tranqueras is by no means glorious.

The importance of daily scripture study is immeasurable. I marvel at the fact that some days it can take anywhere from 2 minutes to an hour to study a pair of verses, depending on what the Lord has prepared for me to learn that morning. My testimony grows each day of the Book of Mormon. I too echo the testimony of Joseph Smith, Jr. No book will draw us closer to our loving Heavenly Father than that book. It is the key to everything that we profess to be. We can learn so much from it's pages, for it was written to edify, sanctify and rectify our lives. Each of the prophets received divine revelation when they recorded their words and as such, each word was placed in the book of Mormon for a very specific and divinely guided reason. It trurly is another testament of the life and works of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We can learn of his words and his will for us. The sanctity of this book is astounding. Cleave to it with every fiber of your being. Think on it's words. Trust in it¡s counsel. Ask your Eternal God, every day of your life, if it is true. You will always receive an answer. I pray that we never lose sight of this.

Chau for now
Elder Simpson