Excerpts

Excerpts from Zach's letters:

Monday, April 23, 2012

So it's been another amazing week!  I love the mission!  I'm meeting a ton of cool and amazing people everyday!

So today for P-day me and Elder Jackson (who is from Ogden, Utah) helped some missionaries move out of their house to an apartment.  After that we went and looked for some supplies for our house.

Just this last week we got an oven, washing machine, and a whiteboard for our house.  Our house is brand-new so it didn't have anything in it.  We've been slowly buying things for the last couple of weeks.  It's been a pain, but it's all good!  One of the pictures I'm sending is how we got the washer, oven and whiteboard to the house.  It's pretty funny, I thought.  Good ol' Jorge and his bike!  He's a

stud!  But anyway, typically on our P-day we go to this bigger town next to Noblia called Melo.  It's about an hour bus ride.  We hook up with Elder Griffin and Elder Burnett (both of whom I know from Springville - crazy!), hang out, and get things that we need for the week.  We also walk around and check out souvenirs at the stores.  This is Elder Jackson's last area so he wants to get some things before he goes home.

I can describe Uruguay in two words ... maté and futból!  The people here constantly have a mug filled with this disgusting looking grass stuff and fill it with water and drink it.  Everyone does that here.  Kids are always playing soccer in the fields and when we proselyte everyone's TV is always on the same channel (some soccer channel kinda like Sports Center).  In Uruguay there is a professional soccer league and everyone always talks about it.  The two main teams are Penarol and Nacíonal. Everyone always asks us who we cheer for.  I just say Nacional because they have the same colors as the United States.  A ton of the kids here either wear a Forlan jersey or a Suarez jersey.  Those two Uruguay soccer players are heroes here to the kids.  I haven't played soccer with any of the kids yet, but this week we plan on having a little game Saturday night with the branch and friends of the branch, so it should be fun.  I'm nervous because some of these little kids are amazing!

Noblía has been awesome! It's been hard, however.  We don't have many members going to church and church never starts on time, but we're trying to change that.  This last Sunday we had some investigators come to church so it was really cool!  The members were excited.

It's been really sad in Noblía because it's basically a little farming town.  Many people we talk to can't even read so it's hard to ask them to read the scriptures.  We have to read with them most of the time and explain things really, really simply. 

At night here it is amazing! You see so many stars.  It's really beautiful!  And Dad, at night there are a ton of fireflies.  It reminds me of when we went back East together and when we saw those fireflies in New York.  Good times!

Well, everything is going great and I'm healthy!  I haven't had to eat any more dog so I'm just excited about that!  So, don't worry about me!

I love you guys a ton and I can´t wait to here from you!  I just got a letter today.  It looks like it was sent on April 2.  I haven't got any of the packages yet, but I'm sure they will arrive soon!

Tell everyone hi for me!

[Zach's dad:  Zach mentioned several pictures, but this is the only picture that was attached to the email.  Depending on what the meat is, it doesn't look too bad.]