Week 78 White Christmas!!

So this last week was probably one of the best dang weeks i've ever had on my mission!!! I titled it "White Christmas" not because we had snow or baptisms here but I was able to go with my first convert in the mission to the temple on Saturday so that she could get her endownments!!!

It was literally the best Christmas I could have ever imagined! Even without my family and friends here...😞. But it was so great! So like I said last week I got transferred on Tuesday to Rocha, which is a department that is on the coast and it also touches Brazil (which is awesome because here we can find lots of stuff imported from Brazil like Monster energy drink cause they dont sell it here in Uruguay). The capital city (also called Rocha, which is where im at) isnt on the coast but its only an hour from Maldonado (where I started my mission). But I still dont even hardly know my area yet because last Friday we had the Mission Xmas Conference and we were gone the whole day and then on Saturday is when we went to the temple and again we were gone basically the whole day and then on Sunday was Xmas and we were mainly eating with members the entire time! It was so good but I got stuffed so freaking much! 

So yeah speaking of the temple trip we had to wake up so dang early on Saturday to get there in time. The session started at 12 but we wanted to be there at 11. And so to go to Montevideo from Rocha there were only like 2 buses in the morning, one at 5:50 and the other at 8:30 and we didnt want to take the risk of showing up late so we took the 5:50, which meant waking up at like 4 am 🤗. so much fun.......Im not a morning person btw, mom can testify to that.... But we got there like 2 hours early so we just went to the Church Distribution center and looked around and bought a couple things there and at the same time like a lot of the members from Maldonado showed up (about 25-30 members). It was soo weird seeing them all cause it had been a little over a year since I had last seen them. It was soo cool though! And they all remembered me and said that I used to be fatter and that I couldnt speak Spanish back then haha. The session was soo good though! I didnt know but not only was my convert Maria getting her endownments but also David Vas was too (he is a teenager that I knew from Maldonado who recently turned 18 and is going on a mission in Febuary to La Paz, Bolivia, and so he was also getting his endownments for the first time) and also a guy named Pablo (he is the brother-in-law of David and was getting sealed to his wife (David's sister) and they were also getting sealed to their son who is like 5 yr old). So it was super cooooool cause I knew all of them and it was so cool to be with them in the endownment session for the first time. It was so sick!!!!!

Yeah like this Xmas I did not miss you guys at all! haha. Not like last Xmas. This Xmas was just too good here in Uruguay. And yes I do have pictures!

1. Me and Elder Alvarez with Maria at the temple!!!

2. Me, Elder Alvarez, Maria, and her son Gonzalo and his wife (I forgot her name...)

3. Me, Elder Alvarez and David Vas (he's going on a mission to Bolivia in Febuary)

 

We just ate this today. Its chicken with mole (mole is a traditional sauce from Mexico, its like a spicy chocolate sauce). It was so dang good. It sounds weird eating chicken with spicy chocolate sauce but dang it was good!

just some pics I took at the xmas conference

1. Me and Elder Fairbanks and his cousin Brandon

2. Me with Elder Harper and Elder Ashman (just some mission buddies from the Florida zone)

3. Me with Elder Johnson (Ammon Takau's cousin)

 hehehe..

I love you guys sooo much!!!! Merry Christmas!!! 

-Elder Welker

Week 77 Goodbye Florida!!!

Well today will be my official last day here in Florida. My time here in this area has come to an end already 😥. A week ago I was wanting to leave and go to a new area because I had already been here for about 4 months and our area is tiny and so I wanted to get out but now that im leaving I dont really want to go! I spent most of the day yesterday and Saturday visiting members and investigators and saying goodbye to them and also packing my suitcases but now im really sad and im going to miss the members here sooo much and also the investigators. Its been sooo great here in Florida and though im sad to leave im excited to return here after the mission as soon as possible. 

So with that being said im going to be leaving and going to Rocha!!! Its on the coast and its really close to Maldonado (where I started my mission) and its gonna be awesome! Its the only other District in our mission (Florida being the other district here). If you dont know what a district is then lets just say its like a mini stake (and its under the direction of the mission president). Also Rocha is a zone compiled of only elders, the only zone in the mission that is an only elder zone (because there arent a lot of priesthood holders in Rocha), and we are only 10 elders in total over there. Im going to be with Elder Castañares from Cordoba, Argentina. I already know him so that makes it pretty cool. Its super weird though cause he has 2 more months in the mission than me and so he goes home in 4 months and we are both Senior companion. So yeah its really weird but I guess it'll be fun and that just puts less stress on our shoulders so we'll be able to work and just give it our all and have a good time. 

But yeah im really excited to go! I already know basically all of the other missionaries over there and im really good friends with a few of them so its gonna be a blast!!! I cant wait to send you guys pics. I already talked with Elder Soriano last night (he's from my group and he's in Chuy right now (which is in Rocha but on the border of Brazil)) and were totally gonna go to Brazil on one of our preparation days and go to a brazilian buffet. Its gonna be sick!!! 

Also Elder Fairbanks is staying here with Elder Guerra from Fortaleza, Brasil. Elder Guerra is such a cool guy, he was my zone leader back when I was in East Montevideo. He's only got 2 transfers left and so he's probably going to end the mission here in this area. Elder Fairbanks is excited and its gonna help him a ton! Elder Guerra was a zone leader for like an entire year and prior to that he trained Elder Holland so Elder Guerra is gonna help Elder Fairbanks so much and he's gonna learn a lot from him. 

Also this week im probably going to go to Maria's endownment session!!!! I have to call President Eddy to get permission (but i'll definitely get permission). Maria is my first convert from Maldonado. Elder Alvarez and I taught her and baptized her and so we both got invited to go to the temple with her and 20 others (family members and friends) and were gonna go this Saturday so she can receive her endownments. Its gonna be awesome!!!!!!

So yeah im really happy and im excited to get to talk to my family this Sunday on Skype for the 3rd time!!!!!!!!!!! I love you guys!!! Have a fantastic week!!!!!!!

1. Me with Flavia and Jose (were still working with them, I hope that the the future missionaries here will be able to baptize them

2. Us with Daniela and Brissa (Daniela lived in Utah for 12 years and wants Brissa to get baptized, I also hope that the future missionaries will be able to baptize them both)

ilumina el mundo

These pics are from a service we did last week with the sisters of Ferroviario and the elders of Sarandí Grande:

1. Elder Fairbanks with a yorkie at the service. (he's doing a good job getting over his fear of dogs)

2. This is Trueno (Flavia´s dog) I love this dog

3. Other of Trueno. gosh I love this dog

nother shot of Trueno, the white dog is Max and the gray one licking my face is Campana (also one of Flavia's dogs)

Yeah its hot here

Ive been dying here from the heat in Florida. I heard that Rocha is worse...

Normani Family

ASADO!!!

Asado with Nacho and his friend Bernardo (like the only two active Aaronic priesthood holders in our branch)

-Elder Welker

Week 76 Time wrapping up here in Florida!

Wow yeah so this might be a really short email this week. Everythings been kinda crazy here in Florida and there is literally nothing new or exciting to talk about this week. So basically all of our investigators have stopped progressing and its been pretty dang hard this past week. We dont know why but not a single person could meet with us this entire week! Its been so weird recently that we just havent been able to meet with anyone. Everybody has just been so busy here and it was frustrating because everybody cancelled with us and asked us to pass by next week. 

Yeah so there was literally nothing interesting this week. We did have a service with the other 2 elders on Saturday and we painted the back wall of this lady's house for her. It was fun but it was sooo hot! Its been soooo hot here recently!

But yeah im pretty sure that im on my last week here in Florida now. This Sunday we receive transfers so i'll tell you all where im going next Monday (or if im staying but not likely). To be honest I kind of do want to leave because our area here is soooo tiny and ive been walking the same streets and talking to the same people for the past 4 months and it would be nice to get a change. Even right before Xmas. So im kind of excited and I dont really care where I go. Im really hoping to get the chance to meet with all of our investigators this week so that I can say goodbye. Im gonna try to finish out my last week here good and leave a lot of things for Elder Fairbanks and his new comp to do. 

Juan is doing good though and hasnt missed a Sunday since his baptism and now he is going to be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood! He's doing great and i'll definitely miss him. 

Also to add to the boringness of this email I dont have any photos cause I forgot to ask Elder Alvarez to pass me the photos that we took this week (including the photos of the service). So i'll probably get em to you guys next week. 

Oh but I do have this one:

I found Toddy Black!!!!!! Ive been looking for these forever!!! 

Yeah sorry for the boring email guys! The next one will definitely be more interesting. 

Well have a great week guys! I cant wait to talk to some of you on Xmas when I do my Skype call!!!

-Elder Welker

Week 75 Final quarter of the mission

Well as you all may know I now only have 6 months left here on the mission! Not to say that I want to leave cause I love it here! But I do really miss my mom 😊. and the rest of my family and stuff, haha.  Yeah I got the email last week that told me when im going home and stuff and which airport im going to fly to. I'll be home on June 7!! Its crazy how fast time goes by here on the mission. I'll get to skype you guys in like 3 weeks and then next May i'll skype again and before I know it i'll be home!

But yeah im really excited to find out where my next area will be. We have transfers in two weeks and so i'll probably be leaving to a new area a week before Xmas. But yeah its gonna be the best last quarter of my mission! I want to finish out this last part of the mission the very best I can and try to enjoy this last strip of my mission as much as possible hopefully without you guys making me trunky 😝. But seriously its hard not to be trunky with so many people back home getting engaged! and telling me about the new movies coming out and how they were so good! Such things make missionaries trunky for they cannot have girlfriends or see movies (that arent of the church). 

Anyway so as far as things go here in Asamblea we kinda had a crappy week cause I got a bad blister on the bottom of my foot and I could barely walk for like 2 days cause it was causing intense pain (but im fine now thanks to the medical kit that my mom got me that had all the supplies I needed! Thanks mom!! Your the best! I hadnt actually opened up that kit until now but things like that come in handy) But also we werent able to meet with Flavia this week and she didnt come to church yesterday so were kinda worried about her!

However, we did have a huge miracle this week! We got a reference last week from a member in Montevideo and so we contacted the reference and met with her in the plaza here last Monday. Her name is Daniela and she has a daughter named Brissa. Daniela lived in Utah for 12 years and is not a member of the church and Brissa is 7 and is going to turn 8 in January. Daniela really likes our church and wants her daughter to get baptized in our church. Daniela's ex husband is a member along with her other two kids and she says that she wants her daughter Brissa to also get baptized in the church. On Friday we went to their house which is like 3 kilometers outside of the city. We asked our Elders quorum president to take us in his car and we drove all the way out there to this house in the countryside. The view was incredible! There is no one else that lives out there and its just a bunch of farmland and animals and you can see the whole city of Florida from there. Im gonna snag some photos and show you guys next week!!

But anyway were really hoping to have a better week this week and im gonna try to do the most I can in the short time I have left here in Florida! 

Anyways I hope you all have a good week! Take care love you guys!!

1. This is when you know you have a lot of time on the mission. And cause its hot here now and ive been sweating bullets! P.S. I did wash this shirt after taking this photo

-Elder Welker

Week 74 A Banana of Peaches!!!

Well this week was ok, I guess. Well, nothing too interesting but here you go:

Monday: Our branch president invited us to his family night and he was going to get a non member friend of his to go but it was raining a ton and so it ended up just being us with the branch presidents wife and their 2 daughters. But yeah it was good. I love being with our branch president the guy is a stud.

Tuesday: I got to go on an intercambio with Elder Vaca from Bolivia. It was ok, I guess, kind of. He's really good friends with my ex comp Elder Lopez and yeah lets just leave it at that... (but Elder Vaca does cook good and made some spicy Bolivian food (I havent had spicy food in soooo long!)

Wed: Basically all of our plans fell through and Elder Fairbanks and I proselyted the whole day basically and we didnt find anyone who was interested. Pretty awesome, right?? :)

Thursday: Same thing as wednesday except for the fact that we met with Janet in the evening (we're trying so hard to get her and Federico to get married but neither of them are very excited to do it). We celebrated Thanksgiving by buying 2 pizzas (1 was called the "German pizza" and the other the "Mexican pizza") About the most American style Thanksgiving you can get, right?

Friday: So again all of our plans fell through (yeah I dont know how it was possible, 3 days in a row haha). We again went out with a huge determination to find somebody, even just one person who would listen to us cause the past 2 days we found nobody. We knocked and we knocked and we knocked and then this last door, nothing. haha. We were out for like 2 hours talking with everybody and then I knocked this one door and this little kid came running to the window and was smiling and stuff and I was like "this is it! A family!" and then this older lady opened the door and was like "nah, nah I dont want anything" and I tried to talk to her to get to know her and I started explaining who we were and I started to tell her about our message and she slammed the door in my face as I was talking to her. Rude!! So we kept going and I was like "that lady was so rude! But I bet after a contact like that that the next person is going to listen to us", and the next person did!! So the next door we knocked this older guy opened the door and said "no, no, no I dont believe in God, let me get somebody who does". haha, so the guy told us to wait and then about 10 seconds later this younger woman of about 30 yr old named Gimena came outside and listened to us and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she was pretty cool and were going to see if we can meet with her again this week. Later at night we met with Juan Rodriguez! We talked about family history and temple work, and ate toast with blueberry jam!!! yay!

Saturday: We had a pretty good lesson with Flavia in the morning, she's doing really good but she was a little sick. Later, as with the past days, all of our lessons fell through again, hahaha...........huh. So we set out to find more people to teach. We knocked a ton of doors and after about an hour we had found nobody! Then we knocked this one door that had a blind dog and this old lady came out and said "I cant believe you guys made me get up and have to go outside just for this! What a waste of time!!!" (ohhh, im sorry.... I was just trying to bless your life with a message that will change your life). haha sorry some times it makes me mad haha. So we went knocking doors for another hour and nobody wanted to listen to us. We had an appointment set with Gloria (a recent convert) at 6 pm and it was 5:50 pm so we started making our way to her house knocking doors and talking with everybody and I told Elder Fairbanks "I am going to find 1 person before I go to Gloria's house" and so it was exactly 6 pm and we were 1 block away and I knocked this one house like 5 times and nobody came so I told Elder Fairbanks "ok, just 1 more door before we go to her house" so at the end of like 2 1/2 hours of proselyting we knocked 1 more door determined to find somebody. I saw this house with the door opened and I went and clapped the house (thats how they do it here) and I could see the figure of a man in the very back of the house and I could tell they were cleaning the house and washing the floor so I thought to myself "crap, theyre busy right now" but the guy walked out of the house and came to the gate and shook our hands and he let us in his house!!!!!!!!!! His name was Fabian and he was 34 yr old and he was married!!!! legally!!!!! And he had two sons and his wife it turns out is a less active and they live a block from the church!!!!!! Finally!!!!! He was super cool and we took down his phone number and we are going to try to meet with him again (he has a busy schedule so he couldnt give us a specific return date) but he was awesome and it was a huge miracle!!! (but then the lesson didnt go through with Gloria, of course........☺)

Sunday: Flavia couldnt come to church. She was sick and couldnt sleep all night. But its ok she's going to come next week for sure. She's awesome, she's totally getting baptized (once she gets married). Federico went to church (but he's not doing so well cause he likes the church and wants to get baptized but he's not sure if he wants to get married. Him and Janet arent very committed to getting married but they dont want to split up either. Uhhhhh..... Juan Rodriguez came to church and is doing good! He comes in a white shirt and tie now! In the afternoon Elder Fairbanks and I went on splits with our branch president and his brother in order to visit a bunch of people in a shorter amount of time. Our branch president doesnt want me to leave, haha. 

Anyways. Oh I almost forgot. On Saturday we went to buy fruit from a fruit stand and Elder Fairbanks instead of asking for a kilo of peaches he said "give me a banana of peaches" hahaha! I about died! The guy working the fruit stand had the most confused look on his face, haha. 

So yeah thats about it for the week. Well I hope you are all doing good! Have a good week!!

1. Yeah I dont know what this is. Elder Fairbanks was trying to draw a car and it turned into a smiley face

2. I took this while we were studying. Can you see my trunky calender? haha.

Week 73 Absolutely amazing, dopest week ever!!

Well this week was pretty dang good. It was actually a great fetching week to be honest. I mean, we had a baptism on Thursday and there aint nothing better than that I think, haha. 

So yeah the week basically went like dis:

Monday: Last lesson with Juan Rodriguez before his baptism. We just reviewed the baptismal interview questions with him. He gave us bread and liquid cheese called requesón (its sooo good, im addicted to this stuff)

Tuesday: We basically dropped Adrian (he was the investigator that cancelled his baptism the day it was supposed to happen like 2 months ago). He stopped progressing and doesnt keep his commitments anymore so were kinda done with him. At night we were with our branch mission leader preparing the program for Juan's baptism. 

Wed: We had a sick lesson with Mary (I told yall about her last week) and she is so cool! We taught her a lot about the restoration and all of her beliefs about God and everything are so similar to ours. She is really cool! Later at night Juan had his baptismal interview and passed!!

Thursday: We had a multi zone conference with the zones of Durazno, Las Piedras, and Norte. It was a really good conference and we told more about #lighttheworld / #iluminaelmundo. It was a great conference and im so excited for Xmas! Also the sister missionaries from my group are leaving at the end of this transfer!! Its soo crazy! One of them was at the conference and so she gave her testimony with the other two missionaries that are going home next month. It was just soo weird that in a month i'll have the time of a sister missionary who's finished the mission! After the conference we had the fill the baptismal font and get the church building ready for Juan's baptism, and clean the cultural hall where we were all eating after the conference so we were in the church the entire day on Thursday from morning til night. Juan's baptism was awesome!!!!!! He didnt have a white shirt and we didnt have clothes here big enough for him so I ran to our house (which is actually just next door) and I grabbed my biggest white shirt and he tried to put it on and it almost fit but his belly almost popped the buttons off so we had to ask a member from the branch to lend him his white shirt to get baptized in, haha. But 4 of our investigators went!!!! Flavia, her "future" husband (they arent married, for now) and their daughter Alena and also Diego went (he is the husband of a recent convert here named Gloria). The service was soooo good and the spirit was just soo strong and a lot of members went too which was soo great!!!

Friday: not much happened. We were super pumped and ready to go out and baptized the world and we were like "were gonna find like 20 new investigators today!". We found 0 but it didnt change our attitude haha. 

Saturday: We had a service project with Giovanna (one of the branch counselors) and we were helping this family to build the walls to this house they are trying to do. So I got to lay brick and cinderblocks and cement and we spent a few hours making walls and stuff. 

Sunday: Juan asked me to confirm him so I confirmed him in sacrament meeting. It was the first time ive ever done that and it was a huge honor to be able to do that for him. At the end of sacrament meeting I was surprised to see Maria (my first convert from Maldonado, my first area) standing there in the doorway to leave!!!!!!! I about cried cause I hadnt seen her in an entire year!! Turns out she was here Saturday night for a party and she knew Elder Alvarez was here in Florida so she decided to stop by before leaving to say hi to him. But she didnt know that we were both serving here in the same place and that our branches met in the same building and he told her that and she was like "no way!! Elder Welker is here too! Where???!!!!!" and so she waited for our sacrament meeting to end to say hi to me. It was such a cool experience and she is going to get endowed in a month and Elder Alvarez and I are going to go with her to the temple. 

It was such a great week!!!!! Im just sooo happy right now! Our investigators are all doing super well and we have 6 people that could potentially get baptized in a month or two (the only problem is getting them married because in about 2-3 weeks the place to get married at civily will be closed and we'll have to wait til February.

But everything is going fantastic here! Love you guys! Have a great week and a great Thanksgiving! 

-Elder Welker

Juan is really short but also a little chunky, haha.

-Elder Welker

Week 72 Second Multi Mission Conference!!!!

So on this past wednesday we had the multi mission conference with Bishop Davies! It was the second time on my mission that we had a conference with the West mission. It was cool and it was also our change day so we did changes after the conference was over. 

But yeah the conference was good and it was cool meeting another general authority. After the conference we went outside and we got lunch and out of nowhere it started to rain really hard and I was the only person there that had an umbrella out of like 170 missionaries because I always leave my umbrella on the side pocket of my backpack so I pulled it out to not get wet and like 10 sister missionaries came running at me like a swarm of bees to get under my umbrella to not get wet and so I just gave them the umbrella just to be nice and so I got wet in my suit like everybody else (not fun, I hate getting wet especially in my suit). 

Anyways its been fun living with Elder Alvarez again. We left the house a mess and so upon returning home with Elder Alvarez we decided to clean the house really nice and there were a ton of big cockroaches everywhere and so we took a bottle of Raid and bug spray and stuff and sprayed a ton underneath the kitchen sink and in like 3 minutes like 20 cockroaches came running out and we killed them all and within the past 5 days weve probably killed like 60 cockroaches that we living in our kitchen. Weve just been killing like 15 every night and then in the morning we'll find a few dead on the ground as well. So yeah its been a blast here!

Well Juan Rodriguez is getting baptized this Thursday! Hes going to tell us tonight who he wants to baptize him. Also Flavia came to church again on Sunday but she also brought her two kids and her husband and they all liked it. We were finally able to put a baptismal date with Flavia for basically the end of this yeah (which is fine because she has to get married anyways) but yeah she is doing fantastic and so is Federico (but we need to talk with his girlfriend about them two getting married or else Federico is never going to get baptized). 

Also the other day something awesome happened. I was walking in the street with Elder Fairbanks and we passed this house that had the front door opened and after passing the door a lady came out from behind us and called out to us as we were walking away and she said she wanted to talk with us so we turned around and went back. She was a middle aged woman named Mary and she started asking me questions about the church's family search website. She said that she had heard that our church had a database that included information on families and on marriages and things like that and she wanted to learn more because she wanted to know how she could use it. I began to explain to her about it and then I asked her if she was in any way religious. She replied "I have a very strong belief in God and I believe that He exists but I dont go to any church because I dont understand why there are like 700 different churches out there!" and so I told her that we could answer he question and so I left her a pamphlet on the Restoration and we scheduled to go back tomorrow on Tuesday. It was such a cool experience and I am hoping sooo bad that she is there tomorrow. 

But yeah its been a good week and its been flying by fast!! 

heres some pics:

1. Elder Hunt, Elder Alvarez, Elder Fairbanks and me eating pizza after killing cockroaches the night after getting home from the conference with Bishop Davies

2. My new agenda cover for this transfer! The side with the quote was from 1 of like 200 inspirational cards that my mom sent me like a year ago. I love you mom!! 

3. my group at the conference with Bishop Davies! We just took a pic with all of the americans and everyone was in the pic except for Elder Hemeyer and Elder Soriano because they had already gotten on the bus and we didnt have time to go get em

Week 71 "Que los dos se queden!"

Ok so this week is transfers again!!!! Its crazy how fast the time goes by now that I have so much more time in the mission. 

Well this past week was pretty awesome! We had a killer lesson with an investigator of ours named Flavia and on Sunday she came to church with her 8 year old daughter Elena. She is super awesome and I hope that we can put a date to get married and then baptized soon. Juan also came to church and if everything goes through good then Elder Fairbanks and I are going to have a baptism next week!!! Federico is also doing really good and he came to church also on Sunday and he is going to get baptized next month (but he also needs to get married and he doesnt have a date yet to do that). 

But anyways we had a pretty successful week and I am just soo glad that I am staying here another transfer!!! Elder Fairbanks is also staying another transfer with me (which was like 99.99999% certain because im training him). Elder Ward is leaving and Elder Alvarez is coming here to be with Elder Hunt!!!! Elder Alvarez was my second companion in the mission and now he is going to live in the same house with us!!! Im really excited and it'll be great having him and Elder Hunt as our ZL's. 

Well on Sunday morning we were having correlation with our Branch President, President Machado, and he asked me "Elder, when are transfers in the mission?" and I told him "we have transfers this wednesday actually" to which he replied "You both have to stay here!" (hence the title of this email) and then he told me "we havent had elders that the members got along with here in a long time, I really hope that you both stay here because we actually get things done here now and I really like you guys" and then he said "if one of you finds out that youre leaving im calling your mission president and requesting that you stay" and then before the end of correlation he asked me "Elder, can we do a family night at my house next Monday? I promise you that I will bring at least one person that is not a member". I have to admit it was pretty dang awesome and it felt really good knowing that the members and especially the Branch president trusted us and saw us as a blessing and not as a burden. 

Well thats it for this week. Crap, I just realized I didnt take any photos this past week. Well, I'll definitely have photos next week because tomorrow is a multi-mission conference with Elder Davies from the Presiding Bishopric and also because Elder Alvarez is coming here so i'll definitely have some photos! 

Well love you guys! Have a good week!!!

-Elder Welker

Weel 70 Ya soy Uruguayo

Ok so this past Wednesday I went to Montevideo to go take out my cedula uruguaya (which is just a document like how in the states we use our drivers licenses for everything, just without being able to drive). So anyway I am now Uruguayo and yeah thats about it...

But its cool cause now when I come back here to Uruguay it'll be a lot easier to enter the country cause I can just show that after getting off the plane. And I am planning on coming back here after the mission. 

Also got an update for you on Juan Rodriguez: yesterday at church he asked us if he could change his baptismal date from November 25 to November 17!! He told us that the 25 was going to be a complicated day and so im really glad cause now we dont have to wait as long!!! Also Federico is doing good and is progressing very well. He went to church for like the 7th time yesterday and is going to get baptized on December 2 if he gets everything worked out (he needs to get married before that day). But yeah everything is going awesome here! Elder Fairbanks is starting to conquer his fear of dogs🐕🐩 . We also had the oro conference on Friday which is just a conference for all of the greenie missionaries and their trainers. It was really good and it was fun telling stories to the new missionaries about past experiences in the field. 

Also something kinda crazy happened last monday. So I found out that Selene stopped going to church and I was kinda bummed. Actually I was really kinda depressed about it and I couldnt stop thinking about it so we went back to the house and I crashed on my bed and I just tried to sleep it off for a couple hours. After I woke up Elder Fairbanks and I went to the grocery store to get some things and to see if they had peanut butter (they were out...😥). 

But after getting home I set the things in the fridge and I just crashed on the couch when about 10 seconds later someone knocked on the door. I didnt want to get up so I told Elder Fairbanks to get the door and he looked through the peephole and said it was a guy who wanted to cut our grass. Someone had already come that morning asking if they could cut our grass so it pissed me off that another person came (especially since our grass wasnt even that bad). So as im walking over to the door im like about ready to hit somebody cause I just wanted to be left alone and upon angrily opening the door I saw a middle aged man who was nicely dressed (definitly not a guy who wanted to cut the grass, especially cause he didnt even have a weed whacker or anything like that). Well turns out his name was Federico and he is 40 years old and he got baptized 15 years ago in 2002. He said that about 2 months after getting baptized in 2002 he stopped going to church and lost all contact with the church and that he hadnt been to church in 15 years. He said that he saw us walking down the street with our groceries and that he had an impression that he needed to talk to us and that he needed to return to the church. Weve been helping him now this past week and we are trying to help him work out his problems that he has with is family so that he can come back to church.

This little miracle really helped me and it gave me so much hope knowing that Selene can still in her own due time come back to the church and also it strengthened my testimony and helped me remember that the Lord knows all things and that His timing is perfect and that He has a plan for each one of His children and that if we trust in Him everything will always turn out ok. 

Anyways this is everything for this week and I hope that you all are doing good and I cant wait to hear from all of you guys soon. Whenever you guys decide to write me i'll always be here on Mondays to get your emails. (except for next week cause its transfer week so it'll be on Tuesday 😊)

Love you guys have a good week! Chau!!

1. Viste? Ya soy uruguayo y sí tomo mate 😎

2. Intercambio with Elder Peterson in Sarandí Grande

Can't wait to see this movie when I get home!!!!

Inside San Cono! Can you see the American Flag??