Tranqueras Uruguay - March 26 2012

Hi All,

Things are going well. It's a bit rainy but it really stopped raining this morning at about 9 am. I woke up at 6:25 am and could hear the rain on the roof, not the worst ever though. I have no idea when it started because I've gotten pretty good at sleeping through noise. I sleep on buses all the time now, and fall asleep to the sounds of dogs howling and motos screaming past. You get used to it.

Silvana Camila and Keila are doing fine. They sent us a text at 7:00 am in the morning on Sunday saying that they couldn't come, probably because it was a little brisk. Okay it was cold but still. We passed by and they came out ready to go which was an absolute miracle. So we had 3 in church again and they went to the full three hours this time. They branch was really nice because we've been really working to get some members involved with this family so everyone was talking to them. Hopefully we can get them to General Conference. The branch takes a bus that the church pays for so really we just need someone to go get them and they'll be there for both sessions of conference on Sunday. As for other lessons, we have two other very promising investigators named Paloma and Yaneli. Yes, that does say paloma. I just think it's easy to remember but she doesn't seem to fond of it. Means dove. Nice girl really. Yaneli is about 25 and has three kids and her oldest daughter Belen, 10, is a recent convert. Hopefully we can get her and Silvana married to the guys they're living with.

...Also, Yaneli fed us Molito. Or.....better known as armadillo. It was interesting......nuff said.

Thursday we had interviews with president at the stake center in Rivera. He's really excited for us and has a lot of confidience in this area. It's really starting to turn around so I hope we can see some success soon. I love meeting with president. I can feel his love as soon as I see him and I know he's called of god to guide and direct us as the missionaries in the Lords work.

Friday, I had my best door contact ever. I understood everything the lady said, made a nice connection with her and we left her happier than when we'd knocked. I was rather pleased. On Saturday we were at a members house and they brought out 2 glasses of coke. They went back inside to grab summat and elder Larson says, elder Simpson I hate coke. So....I pounded mine and then swapped him glasses just as the member came back out. I then had the problem of finishing off what looked like my untouched glass of coke. Bottoms up hey?

We went to a widows house and weeded her garden for about an hour and a half which was fun. I realized I miss growing type things. I really miss good grass that actually looks like a lawn not crab grass that gets cut with a weed wacker. It's been pleasent this last week weather wise. Not too bloody hot during the days and brisk at night and in the mornings. Looks like winter is coming. Then I can tell you which I hate worse. Sweating to death or freezing to death. In relation to the month of march, I think I could probably tell you that it was hot....and rained a couple times....that's about all I can remember.

Elder Andy

Tranqueras Uruguay - March 19th 2012

Elder Larson is from Bullhead City, Arizona. We are doing great together, partially owing to the fact that we were in the same classroom together 9 hours a day for 9 weeks in the MTC. We've been doing a lot of teaching, a lot of cleaning, a lot of walking and a lot of sleeping.  I let you know about the Hand of God in my life in a little bit.

Elder Larson and I are rockin the St patties ties.

I'll refrain from telling you anything too gross but I'm almost positive I've grown alien life forms in some dishes in this house....and the missionaries there have a CAR?!? What on earth is that?? I only see motos and cheap excuses for cars most times down here although I did see a very nice BMW the other day. It sent me into cardiac arrest. We don't even have bikes, which would be very very nice in this area... Oh well. They probably couldn't handle it down here. They send the hardend criminals to south america and africa. We need to be broken and shattered so that we can become good people again. But they'll never break me. Never.

Things are never too difficult with the Lord on our side. Or rather with us on the Lords side. I love the work and I love every single person I see. I knelt in prayer the other day and i was praying about the area. I remembered that quote you sent about the Lord not tolerating us but rather loving us unconditionally. I'm not here to tolerate the people of Uruguay nor these two years. Rather I'm here to love every one and use my time as the Savior would.

Changes were really hard.  I really love Elder V like a brother. I miss him a ton and i struggled the first few days of this last week. That said, through prayer and turning to the scriptures, I'm doing much better now. I know that this is the Lord's will for me and even though I'll probably never have a companion like him again, I'm doing what I need to be doing. I can help each of my companions and learn from each of them. I just have to keep my eyes open, as well as my heart.

We sent Elder V off at 4 in the morning, not my favorite thing in the world. Elder Larson came in at 10 from artigas and he and i went to the terminal and talked about the area for a couple hours til the bus came. After that it was pretty routine. Friday we  had dinner with a member and got out at 9:20 pm. It was a 15 minute walk home. SO we ran. and got chased by dogs. But out ran them. and made it home at 9:29 pm. I don't think we'll be doing that again. I don't know why but the dogs here really don't like Elder Larson because we never had problems with dogs before....I hope they don't eat him....

The branch had about 18 members this last sunday, yesterday, and we had 3 investigators come to church. That's the first time I've ever had that in my mission. I'm a little bit excited about this. The spanish is good. He speaks really well and we do our studies in spanish and speak a fair amount of it in the streets so hopefully I'll see a deal of improvement soon.

Alright, so like I said, we had three in church on sunday! It's a mom named Silvana and her daughters Camila and Keila. I was super excited that they came. We went to go look for them at about 10:30 and the mom wasn't home so we waited for a couple minutes and she came home and said she wanted to come! So we all went to church. Well on the way there, we saw a dead cat...that was rotting...and half eaten... and then Camila's front tire on her bike blew out. I'm really glad they're not too superstitious. We missed the sacrament because we showed up 10 minutes late and it was the loudest roudiest sacrament meeting I've ever sat through. Afterward, Silvana said she really liked it and that she could feel something very powerful during it. Hopefully we can get them to the full block next time. They have fecha for abril 7. I'm praying for a miracle...

Todays metal scripture, Luke 24:5, Why seek ye the living among the dead? (Followed by screaming guitar solo and ridiculously fast drumming.)

I see more than I like to of people refusing to let the Savior in. As representatives of Jesus Christ we knock. They turn us away and instead of being mad or irrate, I feel terrible that this might have been their shot at eternal salvation and they're too busy watchin tv to let the Lord into their lives. I too am thankful for the knowledge of the eternities that i have. Jesus Christ is the guiding star for us the wayward travelers on this bleak and restless ocean. If we neglect the guiding light in our life we too may follow the fate of the sailors in the peom by Robert Louis Stevenson. "With a sudden plunge on the sullen swell, three fathoms deep on the road to hell." That sudden plunge may come at any moment but if we are following the guiding star in our life, the deck will be illuminated and we will be able to cling to the iron rod and life giving salvation.

Until Next week
Elder Andrew

Tranqueras Uruguay - March 12th 2012

So right off the bat, I'll fill you in on my changes. Elder V is heading out to Salto to be with Elder Minter, who is one change below me. I knew him in the MTC. He's good peoples. I'm staying here in Tranqueras and Elder Larson from my MTC group is coming to join me. We're going to be proselyting companions which means that neither one of is senior companion nor junior companion.

Weather wise, it's been HOT this last week. The locals say it's not natural for it to stay hot this long. This week has been a rough one with the heat and humidity. A good week though. It hasn't rained since I last emailed but it looks like it's going to try and rain again today. The coolest thing i saw this week.... A sheep answered a door we answered. We figured the person was a bit sheepish and decided to transfigure before answering the door. My favorite thing about my companion is that he is my best friend, because we are both focused on this work, we receive a great love for one another.

This is my week. Monday this last week, The barber used a straight razor to shave the edges of my hair. So cool! I'm going to learn how to shave with a straight razor when I get home. Tuesday I went on divisions with the companion of our district leader, Elder Peterson. Elder Shaw went with elder V back to our area. Elder Peterson has been out for the same time as elder V but his Spanish isn't quite as good.

Elder Peterson and I visited a lot of people while I was there. That said, I did a fair amount of the teaching. He didn't really seem to take the lead in some of the lessons and so i just decided to even though I didn't know the people or the area. He's a really good missionary and I really enjoyed my time with him. I spent tuesday afternoon in his area, all of Wednesday as well and we got up at 5:30 pm to catch the 6:30 pm bus home so he could grab his companion and head back.

While I was there, we got caught in this freak rain storm. Funny thing is, we had just knocked a door with a overhang above the porch. The lady completely shut us down and we turned around and it started to pour. Soooooo we did what any good missionary would do. We camped out on her porch for the next 40 minutes because we didn't have umbrellas and we didn't have a fix lesson until 50 minutes later. So, we camped out and made it to the next lesson on time, and dry.

While we were there this little chubby kid was running and strutting around trying to impress this girl who had to be 11. He comes up shirtless, jumps across the 2 foot ditch in front of us, lands like spider man and asks if we're from the states. We tell him yes and he says that his older brother studies english. "I don't study though. I go to the gym. That's why my arms are so huge. Are you guys Jesus men? I know God is a fountain of power. Wanna know how? I read the Bible." He did stuff like this for the entire time we were there. I couldn't stop laughing for the next hour. Check it out. I work out. BAHAHAHA

Wednesday we climbed up this hill that overlooks all of rivera. Half of it is in brazil and there is a marker at the top.  Thursday was my 6 MONTH MARK!!! I cannot believe I've already been gone that long. I feel like I just left for the MTC... To celebrate, I ate the snickers bar and opened my peanut butter. For lunch we had chicken fried steaks, I made french fries and we drank pepsi. It was wonderful. I burned a tie.

That night we went out to go have a lesson. We got there and their front door was open and the house was empty. Guess they just didn't like the missionaries. :) We have no idea where they moved to. Hopefully some other missionaries can find them some day.

Sunday, Elder V's fan cord exploded. I borrowed some electrical tape from a member and put it back together because the last tape had just gotten old and the cords touched and shorted. That was fun. I used real electrical tape this time instead of plumbing tape which is what was used last time. Some peoples kids....

After church we took the sacrament around to a widow who cannot make the walk to church. She says we can bring it if we like but she doesn't want to distract from the work of the Lord. Silly lady. I don't think she recognizes that she's part of the flock that we tend. :) Well... That's about all for what happened this week. I hope that's a better description of what my life is like. We walk a ton. A ton a ton a ton.

Ya know...We're starting to have a lot of people ask us if the world is really going to end. We tell them that not even the angels know. Yet, with a lot of the members out here struggling, Elder Velazquez helped me realize something. He said, "Our world ends when we break our covenants with God." The gravity of that sentence is staggering. I would that no man would ever be a covenant breaker but rather that we all be covenant keepers. I'm sure there is some general conference talk or other that speaks of this. I would only say, let us not end the world early. Let us live worthy to the end.

Elder Andrew

Tranqueras Uruguay - March 5th 2012

Time moves far too quickly out here. I try and do everything that I can each day so that I can go to bed without regrets. I think that's about how it should be. 

There was a road bike race out here sunday morning. Elder V didn't know a lot of what was going on so I explained as best as I could from what I could tell. That mostly consisted of the fact that they were warming up by going up and down the main street at a fairly relaxed pace and I also explained the chase vehicle. Other than that I don't know what happened because we went inside and started church. 

One of the funniest things I saw this week was a bunch of little kids pulling up clumps of weeds and throwing them at each other for fun. They actually get flying pretty far. I had the farthest throw. :D It rained most of this last week as well and so things were pretty damp until midafternoon yesterday. Since then, it's back to absurd heat. No humidity though, thankfully.

Hey sewing stuff is becoming one of my specialties! I mended a sock last week as well as a shirt. I've already mended a couple buttons on pants and so i'm doing pretty well. I can also tie a tie 3 different ways. Hay que aprender.

The family of 11 dropped us. They were doing great. Then Sunday rolled around, and 9 was just too darn early for them. They went out dancing the night before. Yet, she still wanted to attend a church and they went to Dios Es Amor (God is Love) that night. She liked their animation and it's a lot closer than our church. She, the mom being the she I'm referring to, said that they're happy with this for now and we're welcome to pass by whenever we like but they're going to stick with this church for now. Bit of a crushing blow really. We must stride on, for we never plod. 

Cynthia is your average 18 year old mom really. She stood us up on Sunday as well, both for chuch and for a lesson later. We'll see what happens with her. We've not yet had the chance to meet with Guarasilva as of late but we're supposed to be meeting again with her soon. 

Now, when it comes to finding someone new, the Lord gave us a tender mercy today. We're having a bit of a rough go with the area, and we put up really bad numbers last week. That said, we decided to go out and do things differently this morning. This last week in the mornings, we'd been trying to get in touch with old investigators or good contacts but nothing good really came of it. So we decided to burn the area this week, because it's possible that E'V leaves this next Tuesday. We have transfers on the 13th and we want to make sure that whoever stays here has a pool of investigators to draw from. So we went out knocking and street contacting. Lo and behold, at 11:15, 15 minutes before quitting time, we found Marta. She's currently visiting from Florida, a department in the eastern half of the country, because her mom is in critical condition.   She says every day is tense and she's not sure if she's atheist or not. She has trouble believing there is a God when she see's all that's going on in her life. We had a wonderful discussion with her about how her Father in Heaven loves her and wants to hear from her. She's never prayed before and so we taught her about that and carried on our way. With a step much lighter than before, the work carries on.

My advice for today comes from E'V. We have to seek the beauty in the fire. Though it burns at times, there is constant motion and absolutely so much energy transfer in a single flame. The transformation may be like that of lighting, roaring and instant. It brings us to a screaming realization of our standing with the God of the Eternities. Perhaps the trial may be that of a slow burn, much like a luau, except we're the ones that are on the spit. God turns and turns and turns the spit until we're just the way he wants us to be. Granted, we can chose to accept these changes. Also, we're not a bunch of pigs that are about to be eaten....Also, in the mornings, I like to think of who got me here. It helps me stumble out of bed. So many people gave so much to make it possible for me to preach the gospel. Both in recent family and friends and in ancestors can I find my motivation. Most of all, Jesus Christ made it possible for me to be here. Let us not waste this time.

Elder Ender 

"I am the Revenger of Blood." (Numbers 35)

Is that too much epicness or what?!?!