Well, the Olympics have started so everyone here has the games on. Uruguay
didn't have that many athletes go, but they did have their soccer team, so
everyone is really excited. However, they lost yesterday to some no name team
from Africa! A lot of tears were shed because of the loss. I'm not even kidding
- people were crying in the streets. Uruguay takes a lot of pride in their
soccer, so when they lose it's like the end of the world. How is the U.S. doing? You'll have to let me know.
Anyway, Noblia has been great! We have been teaching various families and
have also been spending a lot of time trying to reactivate less active members. We have quite a bit here, but they are all offended so they won't go to church. It's really frustrating, but our efforts have been working.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Zach's dad: Along with the pictures I posted yesterday, here are a couple of videos that we got from Zach.
Middle of Nowhere
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Zach's dad: We got a letter from Zach in the mail that included several pictures. I thought I would post a couple of them.
Cleaning the baptismal font
Monday, July 23, 2012
This last week was another great week! Elder Erwin
and I were crazy busy! This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to meet my new mission president, President
Armstrong, and his family. His 22 year old son and 16 year old daughter are
living with them in the mission home. The son just got back from a
mission in Houston, Texas (Spanish speaking). He's planning on going to BYU in a
couple of weeks. President Armstrong is a STUD! I love him to death! He's more relaxed than President Da Silva, but still very serious about
being a mission president. When I had my interview with President Armstrong the first thing he said
to me was Craig Christiansen says hi. It was funny. I told him how you
guys know Craig and he loved it. We then talked about BYU football and
basketball for the next five minutes in English! It was weird doing an
interview with the mission president in English and talking about BYU sports. It was
awesome and made my day. Anyway, he's a stud and is going to be an awesome
mission president!
Monday, July 16, 2012
This week was another great week! I got to be a
companion with Elder Griffin's companion (Elder Villar) for the day. We exchanged for just 24
hours. Elder Villar is a big stud and
is from Chile. He's super nice and outgoing. He's really funny and we had an
awesome day! He doesn't know any English so I had to use my Spanish all day
with him. It was great practice for my Spanish and by the end of the day we
were both exhausted and ready for bed!
Yesterday was Fathers Day here in Uruguay. It was
interesting because our branch president canceled all meetings besides
sacrament meeting since it was Fathers Day - and then he didn't even show up
to church! Elder Erwin and I had to conduct sacrament meeting and
basically do everything for the branch. I've had a lot of interesting
opportunities with this small branch here in Noblia and have learned a lot about how to run the church. I
also gave a blessing this last week to a lady in the ward. It was a cool
experience and everything went well. It's funny to think that I'm doing all
these things in Spanish because I don't know how to do any of it in English! Anyway, it was a great week!
Monday, July 9, 2012
I'm doing awesome here in Noblia. I'm glad you got my
photos. I wish I could have
taken more of Noblia. We're not really supposed to take pictures when we're out in
public because they don´t want us to look like tourists.
I haven't talked to our new mission president yet. He
should be coming up here to Melo in about two weeks for interviews, so I´ll meet
him then. He sounds like a great guy.
Well, this week has been awesome. It has been kind of tough
lately to find people to teach. I can honestly say I´ve have talked to everyone
in Noblia and have knocked every house like 3 times. But it is all good. There are people out there ready to hear the gospel.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Life has been good in Noblia! I've gained some weight since
I've been here, I believe. I weigh 71 kilos, whatever that is! I'm pretty sure it's all fat.
This week was
kinda interesting with the whole changes thing (missionary transfers) so I actually stayed here in the
district Cerro Largo and worked with another elder, Elder Liddle (he is from
England, kinda of crazy!) and we went to his area. His area is called Fraile
Muerto ("Dead Priest"). It's a town a little bit bigger than Noblia. I spent
all day there Tuesday with him and went tracting. I don't know what is up with
me and small areas but that's basically been my mission thus far. It's been interesting and I've learned a lot!