Monday, August 26, 2013

This last week was a great week! Our zone here in Montevideo is doing awesome! We are super happy with the efforts that we are seeing by the missionaries and the miracles that we see and hear about each and every day.

Elder Teran and I had a blast this past p-day.  We played catch with the football for over an hour in front of our apartment complex.  Elder Teran actually throws the ball really well.  I was impressed.  I ran routes and we had a blast.  As we played, a ton of people started watching us.  Kind of awkward, but it was fun!  And yes, Dad, in answer to your question, I do understand him.  He has a different accent being from Mexico, but it's all the same to me.  He does use some words that I don´t understand, but I´m learning.  It's interesting because some of the people here in Uruguay don´t understand his words either, so that makes me feel better about my Spanish.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Well, my new companion, Elder Teran, is a stud! He´s super tall and is from Mexico. He loves sports and actually played American football in high school as a quarterback. Crazy stuff!  We get along great and we both really miss Mexican food, or better said "spicy things!" We´re going to make some Mexican food here one day, and he´s going to teach me.  This morning at 5 a.m. we got up early to play against the elders in the offices in a basketball game at the church.  It was loads of fun!  We were all talking trash (in English and in Spanish!) the whole time. We had a blast and it was definitely worth getting up early. I haven´t played basketball since the MTC days. That was like 19 months ago!  I played horrible! 

Monday, August 12, 2013

Well, this week I got to meet our new mission president, President Newsome, along with his wife and son! It was a lot of fun to meet him in person and get to know him better.  President Newsome is awesome and is really chill.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the following months in the mission.  As of right now, he is not making any changes with the mission.  The mission is doing AWESOME!  We have had a lot of baptisms and are seeing a lot of miracles. Vamo arriba!

I got to talk to Elder Barlow and Elder Hicks for a long time this past week.  Every time we talk to each other we´re always laughing and sharing stories. 

Monday, August 5, 2013

Today has been a lot of fun because Elder Briones and I played fútbol with the missionaries from our zone at the church.  We had a blast!  However, right now I'm super sore.  I also threw the football around with Elder Lacey.  He plays football at BYU and plays wide receiver.  It was a lot of fun. He's from New Mexico and is a super nice and humble kid.  We get along great and we actually will be doing an interchange tomorrow so that will be fun.

It's been a great week! Elder Briones and I have seen the hand of the Lord everyday this last week! A cool story from three days ago is we got a referral from the Minas missionaries (Vamo arriba Minas, it's my old area!).  They gave us a referral of a man that lives in our area.  He´s been going to the

Monday, July 29, 2013

I loved getting your last emails! Thanks, Cade, for taking the time to write me.  It sounds like everything is going good with football and NCAA 14!  Dad, I loved the photos you sent me of your mission! They made me laugh a ton and I loved the glasses that your companion was wearing.  Good times! 

You asked for the address of our church and our apartment.  The church where I go to is on the streets of Camino Carrasco and Cambay.  It's a new church and is really pretty.  Our apartment is located on Camino Carrasco and Yrigoyen!

Monday, July 22, 2013

It was great to hear from you guys! Its sounds like the beach was awesome and a lot of fun. I´m super excited to go to the beach with you guys next year. It's going to be a lot of fun! It feels like I haven´t been there for a long, long time.  I´m also excited to start hearing about football!  I love this time of year and can't wait to hear how everyone is playing.  Keep me posted!

Well Mom, in answer to some of your questions, we have two couple missionaries in our mission. They are both in their 70´s, I believe. One of the spouses speaks Spanish but the other three don´t speak any Spanish!.  It's super interesting because even though they don´t speak any Spanish they get around just fine and it's obvious that the Lord is blessing them and taking good care of them. They

Monday, July 15, 2013

Elder Briones and I had a great last week! It's been super fun being here in Camino Carrasco! I absolutely love it! This last week all the zone leaders had a meeting with President Armstrong and the assistants. It was awesome! Two missionary couples made us breakfast and lunch and it tasted amazing! I haven´t had a good, homemade American meal in a long time! We had biscuits and gravy and a lot of salad and fruit! At the meeting we also got to talk to our incoming president, President Newsome, and his wife through Skype! It was really cool to see him and hear his voice. He´s super excited to come here and will get here August 7.  At the meeting we also talked about our zones and how we are all doing and some goals that we each have.  After the meeting we went outside and got a photo of the temple. I´ll make sure to send it.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Well, my new area is AWESOME! I absolutely love it!  And yes, Mom, I have McDonalds in my area! I feel like I'm in the United States - it's super weird!  Our area is really, really big and sometimes overwhelming because it's hard to even know where to begin, but it's been great!  There is a ton of traffic and people in the streets.  This is a whole new lifestyle for this country elder from Noblia!  My zone is awesome and I have a bunch of cool elders that I get to work with, so it's been fun. 

It's been kind of weird being a zone leader because we´ve been doing stuff that I'm not used to doing. For example, our area is right next to the mission home so we work with the assistants to the mission

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

We had a great week here in Minas! It's been loads of fun with Elder Ipson.  He has me laughing all the time.  We also had a blast teaching this last week. 

Laura came to church on Sunday, but not her husband.  We love him to death, but he just wants to do the things we leave with him at his house to do.  Some of the members of the branch are going to stop by and visit him.  Also, Camilo and his wife came to church again!  They are awesome and have come to church like seven weeks in a row!  I love Camilo to death!  I got a photo and will try and send it.  However, right now the computer that I'm using is super old school and for some reason it can't read my camera.  I´ll try to figure it out!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

We received a memory card in the mail from Zach.  Here are a couple of random videos:

Destroying a brick wall:

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

These are the other pictures that Zach mentioned in his email yesterday:

Monday, June 24, 2013

Thanks for all the letters and emails!  I love hearing from each one of you.  It's good to know that you are all safe and sound and enjoying life! 

Well this last week has been crazy!  I honestly don´t know where to begin.  We had some great moments and some sad moments, but it's all good.  Life goes on!

We had a mission conference with President Armstrong and his family. It was basically them telling us thanks for everything and letting us know they are going to miss us tons.  It was kind of sad.  President Armstrong had a great message about how we need to keep moving on and working hard!  I saw Elder Hicks at the conference and got a photo with him.  I also got a photo with a missionary

Monday, June 17, 2013

Dad, ¡FELIZ DIA DEL PADRE! I hope you had a great Father´s Day! It's crazy to think that I´ll be with you next Father´s Day.  The time is flying by!  I´m definitely trying to take advantage of every second here in the mission.  It's been a great experience and something that I'll never forget.

We are actually going to do Laura´s baptism this Saturday!  Laura had some emergency work that she had to do and coudn´t get out of so we are going to do the baptism this Saturday!  We are super excited and she is too!  She gets along great with the branch and really wants to do all she can to follow Christ.

Monday, June 10, 2013

It was awesome getting your emails and to hear how everyone is doing.  Alex Farina is getting huge! That´s awesome that he´s playing baseball for the Dodgers' scout team.  He's a baller!  

I believe I fixed my camera.  I'm going to try and send some photos today that I´ve been trying to send.  They include one of me with the statue of Artigas, one with me, Hermana Elmont, and Hermana Asbell (we all went to Springville High School together), one of me raking some leaves with some members, and a photo of "La Mano" (I got a photo at the beach!)

This last week has been a great week, like always! We´re teaching some awesome families! I love Alicia and Camilo like none other and am having a blast watching them change their lives as they

Monday, June 3, 2013

Today was crazy! I had to go to Tres Cruces with Elder Ipson today.  It's been a long day, but I got to eat at McDonalds so it's all good!  I also had fun chillin' with some of the other elders that were there.

Hey, just to let you guys know, something something weird is going on with my camera.  It's not working all that well.  Give me this week to figure out what's going on and I'll tell you next week.  Sorry that I don't have any photos again.

It sounded like the wedding with Alyssa and Jordan went great!  I was glad to see some photos.  I also got an email from Michael Arredondo.  I sent him a quick email.  I'm going to send him a better email next week.  It was great to hear from him.  I loved his football photos.  Speaking of football,

Monday, May 27, 2013

I hope that Jordan and Alyssa have a great wedding on Friday.  I wish I was there to see it.  You'll have to tell them hi for me!

Me and Elder Ipson are getting along great!  He´s a great kid and really random.  He has me laughing all day.  His Spanish is getting really good!  We had a great last week and I had him talk a lot more than he was used to, but he did great and I think he learned a lot!  We have a great relationship and are having fun here in Minas!

We are teaching three families!  We are super excited and are seeing a ton of miracles here in Minas! One of the families that we are teaching is Camilo, Alicia, and their two kids.  Alicia had the two kids f

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

This last week has been a busy week, but loads of fun! A family that we found a week ago came to church again and they are doing awesome!  The husband is already a member.  He's living with this lady and they're not married, but we're going to help them get it figured out.  They´ve told us several times that they want to get married and keep going to church. They love the atmosphere and the things they have heard about families.  The lady really wants to get baptized!  We´re stoked!

My companion got a call last Saturday from the mission president and told he was going to be the new financier for the mission.  It's a great opportunity for him to serve and work in the mission home.  Elder Reay was super excited and caught a bus to the mission home after church on Sunday. 

Monday, May 6, 2013

I´m super excited for this Mother´s Day! I can´t believe we get to talk again through Skype! It feels like yesterday it was Christmas and we were talking.  So the plans for this Sunday is that I´ll be calling you at 7:00 P.M. here in Uruguay time. I think you guys are four hours behind me so it will be at 3:00 P.M. for you.  I´ll be calling you from the computadora using Skype from the house of our branch president. He has a nice set up so it should be a sweet experience.  We get 40 minutes to talk.  I wish we could talk longer, but 40 minutes is still an awesome amount of time!  As of right now those are the plans.  I can´t wait to see you guys and see how big Tyler and Cade have grown.

As I'm typing this at the computer cafe, it is funny because I´m sitting right next to Elder Wilkey (he´s from England) and he goes home the 22nd of this month.  He´s super excited to go home and is giggling like a little girl with every thing his family is telling him. It's getting really annoying.  :-)

Monday, April 29, 2013

Well, I can´t believe that the school year is about to end again for you guys.  It feels like it just began!  I also can´t believe that you guys are about to start up football again. I love this time of the year!

Well, here in Minas it's still really nice.  It's starting to get a little chilly, though.  Be ready for photos of me in my nice jacket!

Everything is going great here in Minas! We are working hard and building up a pool of investigators to teach. We have a couple of promising investigators, but one in particular is Cristina. She is awesome and came to church yesterday. We´re trying to help her with her addiction to smoking. She´s awesome!

Monday, April 22, 2013

It was great to hear from you! I had no idea about the terrorist attack in Boston. That is super sad, but I'm glad they caught the two guys.  Usually when something big happens in the United States we hear all about it, but to be honest I had no clue.  I hope everything is ok and that the people in Boston will know that everything will be ok and that they have a Father in Heaven that loves them very much.

Tyler looked really good in his tux.  [We sent Zach a picture of Tyler dressed up for Saturday's Prom.]  I can't believe he's going on these dates now.  He looks so much older in the photos.  The same with Cade.  He looks huge!  I also really like his red Springville sweatshirt.  Pretty sweet stuff!