Tranqueras Uruguay - April 24th 2012

Hi All,

As for elder Larson, we worked great together. He's a very focused missionary and he's taught me a lot about prayer this last change.  But........... I'm going to MonteVideo to be Elder Dickson companion before he leaves for home.  Elder Larson is going to stay here and train. It's colder in 'deo than up here.   Yup yup yup, I'm outta Rivera and on to the bustling city to help Elder Dickson finish his last change. I don't know a lot about him but I'll let you know what I think in about 6 days.


For the sake of time, I'll just brielfly summarize our week. This last Saturday Keila Fabiana Suarez Luz got baptized. The service was great. I was really nervous but things went really well. Her mom and younger sister who have been investigating with her came to watch. Her older sister Marcia who very recently started investigating came and her older sister Lucia who hasn't been investigating at all came too.

Sunday, was stake conference. They all went to that as well and Marcia said she really liked it.  I heard something that I really liked and so I'ma pass it on. "Hate is not the opposite of love. Pride is." For what is love, but the pushing aside of your wants and needs for that of another. What is pride, but the placing of yourself before all others. Let us be lovers, not people of pride.

Like I said, I don't have a lot of time, but know that I'm so happy and doing well.


My thought of the week. Mosiah 3.19

 19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.


Chau chau,

Elder Andy

Tranqueras Uruguay - April 16th 2012

Hi All,

Weather wise, it rained all day Tuesday. The storm started at like 4 am in the morning and it was just cold enough that I could wear my trench coat without the thermal lining and only just be a little bit hot. That's tolerable. That said, I was told by a member that I looked like a secret agent and that if I was a little darker, like Will Smith from "Men in Black". I don't see it but hey! I don't mind getting told I look deadly. Same day, a fit of insanity overcame me and I sang in the streets. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!?! I've taken to singing lately, a cross between Spanish and English hymns and any snatches of songs I can remember from home. Think there is sunshine in my soul today crossed with blacken the cursed sun.

Wednesday, we had a great noche de hogar (Family Home Evening) with a couple members and Ricardo, who got baptized on Saturday. More on that later. Anyway, great lesson. We taught the word of wisdom and he said he'd stop drinking coffee. Then they all started saying how great of elders we are and that we're the best ever and this and that and the other and it was really amazing.

Seriously. It's not us. We're just out here trying our best to help the All Powerful Creator with His work. It's not us. Really it's not. Anyway, we were a 20 minute walk from home and got out of the lesson at 9:20 pm  ..............................................We ran. Hard. Our investigator thought it was funny and ran with us. We made it home at 9:29 pm. Gotta be obedient. The next day, Ricardo told us how great he thought it was that we are that worried about the rules. People are always watching.

Friday, our district leader bussed in with his companion at 7:30 in the morning. We got Ricardo and they had a baptismal interview while Elder Larson and I made pancakes and omlettes. That was a lot of fun. He passed the interview by the way.

Saturday, BAPTISM. 'Nuff said. K maybe I'll explain some more. It was great. We had 4 investigators show up and Elder Larson and I sang "I love to look for rainbows". The branch president baptized him which is wonderful. That afternoon, we went and picked up lunch from a member and got to the branch house at 1 pm and started filling the font. We were in and out of the building for the rest of the day, teaching lessons and cleaning. The font has a few small leaks. That was exciting to find out. Anyway, everything went well.

We had 25 people show up and Ricardo was very very happy with the way things turned out. So was I.  Afterward, we emptied the font with 2 buckets. Bout a half hour of solid bailing. Cleaned the floor, set up the chairs and home by 9:15.

 Sunday, we had lunch with an investigating family, a first for me and my companion. Their 14 year old daughter is getting baptized this saturday. Their 12 year old is unsure. The mom has to get married. After weeks of work, the husband has said yea what the heck let's do it. Now they just have to get birth certificates for their 7 kids and they'll get married sometime soon. The dad is starting to like us and their 16  year old who barely comes out when we're over, asked to listen to us today. Wish us luck.

Today we went to a sisters house and cleaned her  yard for about an hour and a half. Afterward, we ate with her. Then we went to the branch building, swept the floors, pulled the font back out and patched it. Now I'm here, writing you.

I recently finished the Book of Mormon, this morning to be precise, again. I'm so thankful for this book in my life. I get to teach from it everyday and there is so much to be learned from it. I tried that Mormon guy on his promise yesterday and the Lord told me I already know it's true. It's true. I already know that it's true but it's okay to ask for a reassurance every single day. That way, we're working out our spiritual muscles each day. I've been really grumpy in the mornings lately and I don't know why. I talked to the Lord about it and he said that I had to serve my companion and choose to be happy. Happiness is a choice. Even in the gospel we face rough days, even when everything is going alright. You have to take an active part in how you feel.

2 Corinthians 4:5-9
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
 8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

We preach Jesus Christ not the gospel of mankind! We are persecuted but never forsaken! Rise and fight. Bare your teeth and rain the brutal fury of salvation upon their heads. With the blade in our hands we are quick and deadly, light shining from every orafice. The fierce warriors called upon by our Savior to crush the foe beneath our heel. On my dear friends, to triumph, bathed in the blood of our enemy. On, to salvation and the eternities, striking on the left and right, clearing the path for those that follow. We are troubled on every side, but we the vessels of light lead the way. Falter not, the way is steep now. Look high, to the peak! There, in His majesty, he stands with arms out stretched. Cleave your foe with each blow. Perplexed, but not in despair! Rise up and fight! To arms for the cause of Christ!

Chau chau!

Elder Andy

Tranqueras Uruguay - April 9th 2012

Hi All,

I''m doing well. I actually cannot believe how well things are going. Looks like your hopes and dreams have been fulfilled ;D Things with our investigators are.......................................I'll tell you about that in a sec.

I just finished watching priesthood session and earlier today we set up the baptismal font in the capilla (Chapel). Yes. That does mean we are having a baptism. It's this saturday. More on that to follow.

My week, very quickly. Yesterday, 5 investigators in church and a family that has been inactive my entire time here came. Looks like they squared their grudges away. I hope so. Saturday we went to that inactive families house and met up with representatives with the stake and our branch. Ricardo also came with us. That said, at 8:00 am we started building another room onto their house for them. By 3:00 pm it was done. Construction in South America is a new thing by itself not to mention the fact that I was taking instructions in very rapid portunol. Turns out I don't know normal Spanish. Just gospel Spanish as of right now...I didn't lose any fingers and I'm all  here so looks like it went well.

Thursday, the service that we did saturday was originally planned to happen. Well it started pouring at 4 am in the morning. And there was a brutal lightning and thunder storm from then until 430 am. Fun to watch from my bed.  It poured until about 7 am. We left at 7:30 for the service and got to their house at 8:20 am. Wellllll they canceled it. So we turned around and  walked back home. There was a road bike race that started in the center of town which was fun to see as we made our way home.

Easter was pretty tranquilo but I've been asked more than once this last week if we can eat beef on friday. I told them to go ahead and chow down.


Sunday here was actually  not fast sunday for us. Looks like Pascua (Easter) is still big enough to hold off fast sunday. THAT'S a depressing thought. Time to go root out more tradition, falsehoods and superstition I guess...Not tooooo much of that down here but I've encountered more than a couple instances. Mostly in the older members. Comes from their catholic roots.



Monday, we had tacos in a bag. That was a lot of fun actually. Basically it's taco stuff and you dump it in a bag of Doritos and eat it all. It was actually really really good. Meal idea i think. Okay, on to investigators.

Silvana still really needs to get marreid. We had a charla (lesson) with her husband yesterday but he still isn't jiving with it. Rather frustrating. We may just end up baptizing the 2 daughters and helping the mom to stay active even though she's not baptized. We'll see what happens. They went to conference and really enjoyed it and they also came to chruch this last week. We praying for miracles with them. Ricardo is a stud. He has absolute desires to follow Jesus Christ. He also came to church this last week and is ready to get baptized. He's goin under this Saturday! I'm so stoked. He very much wants to change his life and be the best person that he can be. I'll tell you more about all this next week hey? Other than that, we've got some others in the works. We'll see how they develop in the weeks to come.
 
And my Spanish is........yea. It works. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it isn't. I still really struggle with Portuguese. Portuñol comes sometimes. I'm not too worried about it. I can survive on what I have and it gets better all the time. I'd say people understand me about 80 percent of the time. I'm okay with that.

Elder Andy

Tranqueras Uruguay - April 2nd 2012

Hi All,

How quick things change.  It's been COOOOLD here in the mornings and at night. I need to find a proselyting jacket or something because it's still too warm for my trench coat and my sweater has no sleeves...That said the days are still pretty warm it's just freezing in the mornings!

General Conference. We came to Riviera on Saturday to watch.  What an experience with the theory of relativity it was! Before the mission the rest hymn used to be the sign that I only had to hold on a little longer. Saturday and Sunday I felt like they had just stopped singing when the rest hymn started up again.  At home, it was like 2 weeks crammed into 2 hours each time. On the mission I swear each session was only 20 minutes long. I feel cheated... Not to mention the ulcer I recently acquired on Sunday. We bused home Saturday night from Rivera so that we could make sure 4 of our investigators made it on the branch bus for the Sunday sessions. Yes, we did watch both sessions on Saturday but we booked it home Saturday night so we missed priesthood session Sunday morning because our branch bus left at 12 and the elders in rivera watched priesthood Sunday morning. Anyway, so we ran around like madmen making sure our investigators made it on the bus which they did. Then we got to the conference and it was all great. Between sessions our branch went to go eat the lunch they brought in the plaza. Well there are 2 plazas in Rivera and turns out the branch decided that they would split. One of our investigators went to one, 3 to another. We went and taught a lesson with the three and then looked for the other. We met them en route and they said they didn't know where he was. So we called him and asked him to meet us at the obelisk. And we waited. And waited. And called him 15 minutes later asking where he was and he said he was coming. And 5 minutes before the second session started we got a text saying that our investigator was back at the church....nice. I wasn't worried at all. I just need to go talk to the doctor about the stress induced gaping hole that's in my stomach lining. (I'm kidding about the ulcer by the way. )

Our investigators really liked the sessions and I have great hope for them. One of them has to get married and El Juez is closed for all of holy week so we might have to wait til the 21st to baptize them. Her daughter will probably wait for her. The last investigator really wants to get baptized and he has fecha (date) for the 14th and we found him on Wednesday, had a second lesson with him Thursday morning and he made it to conference. We'll see what happens with ricardo.

 Conference itself was spectacular. I loved President Eyrings talk and Elder Christofferson's was amazing as well. Not to mention Elder Cooks! Right on man, right on. I'm so stoked for the May ensign! It's gonna be great to read all of it again.

Love
Elder Andy