Monday, September 3, 2012

All is well here in San Francisco. I´m absolutely loving it here! The members are awesome and we have some great investigators. With Elder Peña we basically speak Spanish the whole time.  He likes to practice his English, so every once in a while we´ll talk in English but mostly we talk in Spanish. I´m learning a lot with him.

Yesterday was Fast Sunday and Elder Peña and I had a really cool experience with our recent converts Flavia, Ana and Luis.  All three bore their testimonies at church and you could feel the spirit so strong as they bore it. Ana was crying at the pulpit saying how greatful she was for the gospel and the plan of salvation. I can´t remember if I told you but two weeks before the baptism of Ana and

Monday, August 27, 2012

We had the baptism of Ana and Louis!  It was awesome!  They both are in their fifties and are totally converted.  Elder Peña did the baptism and then I ended up giving a five minute talk about the Holy Ghost because the person that was supposed to give the talk was sick (I found out 10 minutes before I had to give the talk!). It was an awesome baptism and the spirit was there!

I absolutely love this ward.  There are a ton of members and they feed us everyday.  We have so much food in our refrigerator that it's ridiculous!  I've been gaining weight and I'm pretty sure it's bad weight!  Elder Peña and I run every morning, so it's been good.  We're trying to get back in shape.  He kills me when we run.  He loves running long distances and hills!  He ran cross-country at a college in Chile.  Elder Peña and I have been getting along great.  We are always laughing and having

Monday, August 20, 2012

This week has been a crazy and stressful week!  So much has happened!  We had a baptism of a 17 year old girl named Flavia Noelia Fernandez Carbonel and also taught quite a few different awesome families.  The baptism was great and the spirit was there.  Our mission president, President Armstrong, actually attended the baptism.  I also got some time with him and we chatted a while about him and the mission.  He's a great guy and he's doing a fantastic job as the mission president.  The reason why President Armstrong attended the baptism was because the sister of Flavia lives in the U.S. and she called President Armstrong and talked to him about how important this baptism is for her sister.  So, President Armstrong thought it would be nice to bring his family to the baptism.  He also brought a really good cake that we all ate.  It was awesome!  I performed the baptism on Saturday and really enjoyed it!

Monday, August 13, 2012

This week has been crazy!  It's been a lot of fun moving areas.  I´m with 3 great elders (Elder Peña, Elder Vorwaller, and Elder Huff). We've been having a lot fun getting to know each other.  I'm basically on the outskirts of Las Piedras.  It's all city here (no beach).  I´m in a pretty poor area again, so it's been really humbling, but I love the area to death.  It's a ton different than Noblia, but I like it. At church yesterday we had about 90 people! Crazy!  The bishop asked me and the other elders to get up in front at the pulpit and introduce ourselves.  As I was introducing myself I told them how nervous I was to talk in front of them because in my last area we had about 14 people in church every week.  They all laughed.  The bishop here is a stud!  He has a sense of humor and is always messing with us - I love it.  I need to get a picture of him and send it to you.

Monday, August 6, 2012

I'm doing awesome and it sounds like everything back at home is great!  Anyway, some big news.  We got change calls last night.  I'm leaving Noblia - kind of a bitter sweet moment.  I'm going to San Francisco in Canelones.  It's close to Montevideo, but on the outskirts.  It sounds like another small town again, but it will be fun.  I will be living in a four missionary house so it should be a blast.  My new companion will be Elder Peña.  He is Chilean.  I will only be speaking Spanish with him, so it will be fun.  The other two missionaries in my house are an American and another Latino.  Anyway, I'm super excited and nervous.  I'll be making the fun seven hour bus ride tomorrow.  Nothing really new has happend besides that - just the same old in Noblia.

This past week I went on a split to Rio Branco.  It's a bigger city and I had a lot of fun.  I got a cool

Monday, July 30, 2012

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!

Monday, June 25, 2012

This last week has been awesome!  We had our three baptisms with Michel, Patrick, and Douglas! Elder Erwin and I and the Noblia Branch were all super excited!  I baptized Michel and confirmed him at church yesterday.  It was a great experience and the whole time Michel had a huge smile on his face - it was awesome!  I was stressing about the baptism because I had to remember Michel's full name ... "Galdino Michel Antunez Tabarez."  Everyone here has like 4 to 5 names, it's crazy!

Anyway, it went really well and the spirit was definitely there.  One more thing - the baptism totally reminded me of my baptism because the water heater was broken.  The water was FREEZING!  I was super impressed with the boys because they had smiles the whole time.  The branch president and I

Monday, June 18, 2012

Everything is going great in Noblia, like always!  I played soccer with the teenagers last Monday.  Once again, they made me look really stupid but I love playing soccer with them and they definitely love making fun of me so it all works out! 

We have a baptism planned for this Saturday with three kids, Patrick (13), Douglas (11), and Michelle (9) (all boys).  They will be my first baptisms and I'm pumped!  They are the coolest and smartest kids ever.  I'll make sure to send you a photo of them next week!  The area has been really, really tough.  The last change when I went to go pick up Elder Erwin, other missionaries were asking me where my area was.  I told them Noblia and they all just looked at me and apologized for being in

Monday, June 11, 2012

Dang! I´m super bummed about the photos.  Just this past week my other memory card got damaged and I lost all those photos and videos, too.  I'll have to buy some bubble wrap or something.  Anyway, I'll make sure to try and take more photos.

[Zach's dad:  Zach sent home a memory card full of pictures and videos, but the envelope arrived this past week, torn and without the memory card.  The letter came in a plastic bag with an apology from a sorting facility of the U.S. postal service.]

So this week has been another great week! We´ve been teaching the Rodriguez family and three other boys (Patrick, Douglas, Michell) and it's been going great!  They love us to death and they are

Monday, June 4, 2012

Well, it's been another great week in Uruguay!  I'm having a blast with Elder Erwin in Noblia.  We are finding a lot of people who are interested and having many lessons. I absolutely love the mission! It's been awesome!

Last week after I wrote you guys from Tres Cruces, me and Elder Erwin had the opportunity to go to McDonalds!  It was the best thing ever!  McDonalds here seems like a super nice restaurant so it is really weird; however, it tastes the same.  I also got the package from Alex Sisk this last week! You´ll have to tell him that I love the tie and that I think his tie idea is great - I want to do it!  I´m sending a picture of me wearing the tie.

Monday, May 28, 2012

It's been another awesome week in Uruguay!  I'm actually in Montevideo writing you today.  We took a bus at 12:30 in the morning and got here at 5:30 in the morning.  I feel like I've done this drive one too many times.  I had to come to Montevideo again for a medical thing.  I guess all new people in the country have to get a physical exam, so that's why I'm here.  I'll be heading back to Noblia by bus around 2:00 p.m., so we´ll have another nice trip back.  I'm starting to get used to the drive!  I'm writing you from Tres Cruces.  I'm in a huge bus station!  It's like an airport but for busses - it's crazy!

Well, this week we've had some great lessons.  We taught a ton of people and things are going great. I absolutely love the mission!  It's been so awesome!  This week Elder Erwin and I planned a soccer activity with the youth of Noblia at the church. We had a great turn out! We had about 25 kids there all

Monday, May 21, 2012

Well, my new companion is Elder Erwin.  He is the funniest guy I've ever met.  He is a complete opposite of Elder Jackson.  He is way into drama, acting, and singing, but he likes sports, too.  He is almost 6'5" and pretty skinny.  All the people here in Noblia really like him and get along with him great!

The bus trip back from Montevideo was a lot quicker this time.  It didn't seem that bad because I knew what I was doing and when we made quick stops for snacks I actually knew what was good to eat (and knew what I was eating).  When I went down to Montevideo with Elder Jackson we went to his favorite area and talked with some of his converts.  They love him so much and gave us a ton of food!  We also went to his favorite restaurant where this guy made these really, really good calzones.  It was awesome!  After that we went to the church by the mission home and that's where I met Elder Erwin.  I'll send a photo so you can see him.

Monday, May 14, 2012

[Zach's dad:  For Mother's Day we were able to talk to Zach by Skype for over thirty minutes.  Technology in this day and age is amazing.  Although half a world away, Zach sounded and felt like he was in the room next door.  His enthusiasm about life and missionary work is contagious.  Zach followed up yesterday's call with an email today.  Here are some excerpts.]

It was the best thing ever to talk to and see you guys yesterday! I love Skype and I thought it worked great!  I could hear and see you guys perfect!  I'm sorry it was so short.  Another missionary had just got to the house we were at.  He was supposed to talk to his family an hour before, but I guess Skype wasn't working at the house where he was.  So he came to the house we were at to jump on and quickly talk to his family.  It was super hard to say goodbye, but I was glad we were able to talk.  I

Monday, May 7, 2012

All is well here in Uruguay!  It's been a crazy week but I'm starting to get used to it.  I'm pretty sure every week is gonna be crazy for the next two years.  

For Mother's Day, I have awesome news!  We are going to go to Melo on Sunday night and do Skype from a member's home!  I'm super excited to do it!  I will get on the computer and talk to you at 6:30 p.m. Uruguay time (3:30 p.m. Utah time).

I haven't received any of the other packages besides the one you sent me for Easter.  I have gotten some letters and I'm trying to write back.  It's just super hard as we are constantly busy!  It's crazy!