"Let Me make of you all that you can be"

Hola Familia!!!!

Thank you everyone for the emails!  I loved them, and I have really missed you guys this week! Wow I loved the pics of Mace, and I love reading her emails. It really does help me so much knowing that Mace is doing the same thing that I am doing! It gives me strength to do everything and anything. This week has been pretty hard for me, I've really tried hard to try and stay focused and try to understand the conversation, but a lot of the time I just can't. It's hard to tell if my Spanish is increasing, obviously it is but I just wish I could explain to people what is in my head in Spanish. Thank you dad for that email, and for all the good advice I really needed it. I've realized that if I don't try to talk then my Spanish won't increase. I'm just going to try to be always engaged and try to say stuff even if I don't know what the heck is going on. I also need to use my time more wisely in studying the language. 

Anyways one thing that I love love love about my day is personal study... oh and waking up at 6:30 and working out. Haha just kidding but seriously I'm going to be huge when I get home. Anyways back to personal study, it is so awesome to have an hour set apart every day for studying. Before the mission that just didn't happen. But it has been such a blessing. A couple days ago I read "The Fourth Missionary", and wow it was a lot different reading it now than before, a lot more meaningful! One thing I loved in it says, The United States Army says "Be all that you can be". But neither the army nor you knows all that you can be. The Lord says "Let me make of you all that you can be." I love this, it reminds me of the quote from my talk, "Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." The fourth missionary is an awesome talk, I'm so glad that I brought it. Oh and Ti Voglio Bene has helped me a lot too! Oh that reminds me can you send me a copy of my talk? The address is "Mision Uruguay Montevideo, Dalmiro Costa 4635 Montevideo, Uruguay. And that address is the same for both letters and packages - for the packages just write missionary supplies on it. 

Okay to tell you about Florida, so far I really really like it. It is super low key and the people are really nice and receptive for the most part. The food is actually pretty good, we eat lunch at a members house almost everyday and I have liked all of the food so far. Oh we got that food that Britton made for us at home, it was way good and way better than Britton's... haha just kidding it really tasted the same! Oh and we get bread almost everynight from a member, well it's actually like crescents and stuff like that ooooooohh, everytime I get discouraged I just think - okay make it to the end of the day then you can have some cresents! All my food from home is gone now - I just ate the last of my ritz crackers today, and Elder Marroquin made pancakes this morning - they were pretty darn good and I was way happy that I had some peanut butter to put on them. The weather is not the greatest, actaully it stinks - it is freezing cold and I feel like it is colder inside than out, good thing I have my huge jacket and my gigantic boots ;) 

About Juan Pablo (haha not the bachelor Juan Pablo), he is doing awesome! He came to church yesterday with us and is going to get baptized this Sunday if everything works out. I am so happy for him. He is such an awesome little kid, no one else in his family wants to listen to us. It is going to be hard though, because Juan is the youngest and he has an older brother and sister, and his dad is taking care of them by himself. I'm afraid that once he gets baptized and we leave he Isn't going to be very active, I just wish that his family especially his dad could see how much this gospel could help him. Hopefully through Juan the family might be open to the church. But everything is awesome with him, none of our other investigators are really progressing so we are trying to focus in and try to help them progress. Hopefully we have a good week, I'm feeling like we will.

Well "I miss you like the flower misses the sun" - A Knights Tale

I love you all more than you will ever know :)

Elder England

I'm in Uruguay!

Elder Devashira and me in front of temple together! 

Finally a familiar face in the MTC  

Elder Hicks and me in Uruguary!

Hola Familia!

I'm in Uruguay! Wow that is still weird to say! My companion is...  Elder Marroquin!!! He is from Mexico, and does not speak any English!!! Oh and we are living with two other elders who are also latinos and also do not speak any English, yeah it's a little hard sometimes. This is so nice to actually talk to someone in English!:) We are in Florida, Uruguay and I love it already. The people are so nice and welcoming, a million times better than where we went proselyting in the mtc. Anyways it was pretty hard to say goodbye to my district in the mtc I really loved them, but I know that they are doing the same thing right now. 

These first couple days have been pretty rough, I thought my Spanish was just mildly horrible when I left the mtc but I have soon realized that it is soooooo bad. It's hard for me to say stuff while we are talking to people, because Elder Marroquin is so good at it I'm scared that if I say something it will mess it all up. Especially the first couple days I didn't really talk like at all, but I'm trying to talk more and more cause I know that's how I'll get better. On Sunday we met a bunch of members, there are actually a lot of members, and they had us introduce ourselves in front of everyone and bare our testimonies. I dont think anyone could understand me cause I was like half crying cause I was bearing my testimony and then I was trying to think of words and conjugate them in my head, It's so hard not being able to express things that I want to express, especially to people that we talk to on the street. 

Anyways okay my mind is all over the place, um my companion is an awesome missionary, I was praying for a trainer that would push me and that obeyed all the rules and Elder Marroquin does exctly that. He is awesome, but also a little weird. He is like super dooper spiritual which I guess is good, but sometimes he just comes off weird. Also he loves to sing hymns, all day long! haha but I sing along with him. Oh haha and when we got to our apartment he pulled out a shoe box that had a cake in it, but hey it was pretty darn good. And he also calls me his son and he wanted me to ask you guys if he could adopt me. 

Yesterday I had a pretty cool experience, we were walking around looking for some references that we had gotten, and we couldn't find any of them. And we just ended up walking around asking people and we weren't having any success with anyone. So I just said a prayer in my head, just a simple prayer that we would be able to help someone or that we would be able to find someone to share our message with. And after that we walked down this one street and saw Juan Pablo who is this ten year old kid that wants to be baptized, we had talked to him and his family a couple days before and he was the only one that was really interested. We actually got a reference to go talk to Juan from the sister missionaries who had gone there and talked to them before. Anyways we had a good talk with Juan and he says that he wants to get baptzed, I'll let you know how all that goes next week... but then after that we kept walking and I saw these ladies in this one house so I told my companion we should go talk to them, well they said no right away so we just went to a different door that was like ten doors away, and no answer. But, as we were knocking a lady from the previous house walked up and said that that was her house. Oh and her husband walked up right then too. So we talked to them for a while, and they actually seemed pretty interested. So that was a cool experience. I'm sure that I'll have a bunch more to tell you next week. 

I have gotten a little homesick sometimes, especially cause I can't talk to anyone in English. But it help`s me to think about Macy, and I think a lot about how if dad and Dalton did this and loved it so much, then I can do this! I wish I could just fast forward until I could just understand and be able to actually talk to people in Spanish. But I know that that will come.

I have learned so much while being out here, mostly about myself actually! It's like the scripture, I think it's Matthew 10:39 but it says "who ever will lose his life for my sake the same shall find his life" or somehting like that. It is so true, by pushing myself I can see my strengths and weaknesses so clearly. I think the biggest thing is staying focused mentally for me, cause if I'm not putting everything I have into trying to understand what people are saying, I don't understand anything and my mind starts to wonder. But I can also see my strengths and I can also feel the spirit in a much stronger way out here, it's fantastic.

So there is an update of what is going on! It's so fun to read about everything that is going on. Keep it coming! Wow school is starting already that was a quick summer, I'm sorry!!! Oh I didn't get any packages or anything:( I'll figure the mail thing out and tell you next week but I think that you have the address right, you just have to write missionary supplies on the packages and then customs will usually let it through.

I miss you all!

I love you more than you will ever know!

Love,

Elder England

Elder Tucker and Me

(He is the one in the airport when I was leaving that was singing :)

My mission boundaries!

My new companion Elder Marroquin

He Arrived With Excitiement And Enthusiasm to get to work!

Dear England Family,

Tuesday we went to the airport in Montevideo, Uruguay, to pick up Elder England and welcome him into our mission.  He arrived full of excitement and enthusiasm to get to work. We have spent the day getting to know him, and we recognized that he will be a great asset to us here in the mission.  We know that he will bless the lives of many wonderful people.

Wednesday was transfer day and after meeting with his trainer, he headed off to his first area so that he could start ¨[bringing] to pass the immortality and eternal life of man¨.

We are now sending you a photo that we took with him.  As you can see, he is extremely excited and ready to start.  We are so excited to have your son with us and hope that you receive this photo with excitement and pride in all that your son has done to prepare himself for the opportunity that he now has to serve the Lord for the next two years.

 Love,

 The Newsomes

I Leave Tomorrow Morning

I leave tomorrow morning bright and early at 4 for the airport! They are letting us write short emails to let you know when we are leaving. Wow those six weeks went by so fast. It is going to be so hard to say goodbye to my district, they have been my family for these six weeks.

We had a testimony meeting last night and everyone was crying! But we have each others emails and we can see each other after the mission. Plus from seeing how fast these six weeks went, I know that these two years are going to fly by! I'm so excited to get to Uruguay and meet my new companion, I'll let you know all about everything! 

Mom and Dad I hope you're having an awesome trip. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ill see you on the flip flop lata,

Elder England

I LEAVE on Tuesday!

Hello Family!!!

I got Dear Elders!!!!!!!!! I finally got 12 of them last week after I had emailed you guys. I looooooove them. I got them from a lot of people, but I won't go through every one so thank you to everyone that sent one. Booyeah I'm so looking forward to those packages you sent hopefully they'll be there. I LEAVE on Tuesday! It's crazy, I feel like I just got here, but then again I think about it and it feels like I've been here for forever. But I am so excited to get to Uruguay. There is an elder that is from Montevideo and he says that it is totally wicked!

This last week has been pretty good, some highs and some lows. Proselyting was not the greatest, we forced a Book Of Mormon on this one kid and gave out a handful of pamphlets but I just didn't feel like we had any success. It was kind of a down day for me. And it was even harder because Friday night I had prayed really hard that I would be able to have a meaningful experience. Anyways I later realized that I was just thinking about myself. I wanted to have a spiritual experience just so that I could have that experience, when I should be thinking of helping others and sharing the gospel with others. I also think that there was a little friction between me and Elder Patton still. He will constantly just get into moods where I feel like he just hates me. Oh when we were proselyting we saw a soccer field and there were all these little kids playing in like a rec soccer league and it reminded me so much of Bo! (It's awesome to hear that he is stepping up and being the man by pushing the cart at the grocery store and going home teaching) I miss hanging out with my little dude! I always tell everyone that I have a little brother  that is adopted from Guatemala.

Okay so about Elder Patton and I, It's been up and down. We have awesome days and lessons together then he just like randomly stops talking to me and I feel like I'm doing something wrong but he wont talk to me. Anyways a couple days ago, our teacher told our whole district to go around and tell our comps one thing that our companions do really well, and then one thing that they could work on. Haha and guess what Elder Patton said about me... he said that I make my bed really well. I didn't realize that but apparently I make my bed really well, a little weird but okay. Then I told everyone that Elder Patton is really hardworking, and his spanish is really good... and I meant everything that I said, he is really hardworking.  Then I asked him what I could work on and he said nothing. Then I was like come on I know there are a bunch of things that I can work on just tell me one thing. And he still didn't say anything. I was getting so annoyed!!! So I just started saying stuff that I could work on, and then just said to him I think that a good goal for you would be to express and just talk about how everything is going to me. I said that we can't have a friction between us or else the spirit won't be there. And still nothing, we had like 20 minutes to talk about all of this togethter and I think that Elder Patton said a total of ten words to me. And that was at the very end of the day, and I even tried after that meeting to talk to him and straight up to his face said Patton what is going?! And he just said nothing, so I just went to bed! Well the next day we wake up and he gets ready way fast, and just stands there waiting for me and usually we would have had like 20 more minutes so I was just taking my time cause we aren't suppossed to go down to breakfast early. Anyways he then says like five minutes later that he has a district leaders meeting, and that we have to go earlier. So I felt kinda bad cause I was purposely going slow, so I just said sorry man I didn't know, if you would have told me I wouold have hurried. And I think that that kind of knocked some sense into him. Later that day he put a note on my desk that said sorry I've been such a jerk lately. and I told him that it's totally fine I just need him to talk to me. Well I don't know why he wouldn't talk still but things are great now. Elder Patton really isn't that weird he is a normal kid, I just didn't get why he wouldn't talk to me. Okay sorry about all that, I just had to vent a little. But things are great between us now.

I had another super spiritual Sunday!!! I went up and bore a simple testimony, or tried to because I was crying! Then Elder Devashrayee got up right after me and briefly mentioned how it was really nice having someone here that he knew and that it helped him a lot. I was like crying the whole meeting but that made me cry twice as hard. I don't know what is up with me fasting and crying, but when I fast I just start balling! I've learned to just accept the tears now instead of fight them, I'll actually be honest I'ts kinda nice to have a good cry every once in a while. Anyways the whole day was filled with little spiritual experiences. Every class that I went to was focused on me and my needs! I felt like that whole day was focused on me.

Anyways I'm running out of time, I'm not sure if I get to call or what and I'll let you know about mailing and all that stuff when I get to Uruguay. Thanks again for the Dear Elders and the letters that you wrote before I love it all, "Every little thing however small..." (Theres a little Wicked for ya. Oh these girls started singing Wicked songs the other day and it reminded me sooooooo much of alll you guys).

I love you all more than you will ever know, have a great week oh and I think that my P- day might be Monday so I might not get to write you for a while, I guess we will just see.

Love,

Elder England

Holy Cow - I've been out for a month now!

Hola Familia!!!

 

Holy cow I've been out for Thanks for all the emails, I don't know if I'll have time to write everyone back individually maybe I'll have more time when I get to Uruguay.

 

PROSELYTING! This week proselyting was awesome, we gave out another 3 Book Of Mormons! (oh and no It's not right outside the mtc, they bus us all out like an hour away from here and then just tell us to "get" and and come back to that spot in like 4 hours) Yeah It's kinda nuts, there are some pretty sketchy parts in some of the areas; but we had another great Saturday. I think it was a lot better than the week before. Even though I didn't really understand anything anyone was saying both times. Anyways we talked to this lady named Nelly and she was so nice! She said that she had like four sons and that her husband had passed away like ten years ago. and she said that she was christian but not catholic so that was perfect. Well we talked to her for a while and then gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet and a Book Of Mormon! She actually seemed really interested in reading both of them. I reeeeeeeaaaaaally hope that she reads them and that other missionaries can find her. Then we found another lady named Stelia, she had died red hair and looked a little crazy but she was really nice and we gave her a Book Of Mormon too... and get this, we went by her house a little later and saw her reading it on her balcony. BOOYEAH! I was so happy when I saw that! Oh yeah and then while we were proselyting Elder Patton and I found an ice cream shop so we went and got some ice cream with some pesos that we traded one of the latino Elders for. It was so good, and we got kinder buenos! They reminded me of you guys so much. there are little things that remind me of you guys everyday, It's a little hard... but for the most part they just make me happy, and remind me of how loving and suportive you all are!

 

Sunday was awesome, like always! First of all I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting, in Spanish! It actually went okay cause I had written it all out before hand. And then we had a bunch of classes with President Openshaw, he is a scripture genius. I don't know if I've told you this but my mind is blown everytime he teaches! Well during all of this Elder Patton started to get in kind of a bad mood, and he wouldn't really talk to me. Well during personal time we were just listening to music in our room, just jammin to Sons Of Provo haha kidding I was listening to just some really calm music and I just felt extremely peaceful! and then Elder Patton asked if he could talk to me so we went to a room with no one in it and the first thing he said was "Can you give me a blessing". I don't know if he could tell but I was shocked! He is our district leader and I just wasn't expecting that and he wouldn't even talk to me like that whole day. So first I was like okay why do you want to get a blessing, and he just explained how he was worried about his family and he has been having some doubts, and I just tried to reasure him that this was the right place to be and that I've noticed that when we are proselyting that it just all seems to come so easy for him, and it does! Well I gave him a blessing after that and it was really cool. I was expecting to be like taken over by the spirit and words would just come out of my mouth, but it wasn't that distinct. So the blessing was really simple, I just hope that it will help him! It seemed to help, but yesterday he seems to be mad at me again. And I didn't do anything, except for make fun of him like everyday about him going to BYU and that he only eats bread and ketchup every meal. No but seriously I don't know why he is mad at me, and he won't talk to me about it. Anyways I'm just going to have an intervention with him today, or maybe I'll just hug him like every 5 minutes to bug him. I'll let you know how it goes;)

 

Well we had another group of latinos come and go already! I didn't feel as close with this group, except for our roomates they were awesome. We always seem to get the coolest roomates. They were Elder Santos who was from brazil and spoke portuguese and Elder Alvarez from Chile. They were awesome and way funny, I'm gonna miss them. But we got our new roomates just yesterday, two Peruvians. they seem pretty cool. Man it's gonna be hard to say goodbye to my district. I feel like I have know them for so long!  Most of them are going to Paraguay so I wont see a lot of them after these two weeks. I guess I'll just have to make it a good two weeks.

 

Something funny... let me think... Oh these elders were wrestling last night and one of them smacked their head on the ground and got a concussion, apparently he was like out cold for a couple minutes. It's pretty funny, anyways president found out so now all the elders have to go to our devotional 15 minutes early. We are all going to die! haha but I didn't do anything so I'm good. Oh and a couple nights ago, some kids in the middle of the night climbed in the ceiling cause they have those ceiling tiles like Kenna and Dalt have, and they went and poured water on some kids. It's hilarious, and pres doesn't know about that or some kids would really get in trouble but It's pretty hilarious!!!!!!!!

 

Well they said we can't send pictures anymore, not sure why but once I get to Uruguay I'll send pics. And dear elders, yeah still haven't gotten any of those - it stinks! Anyways I'll talk to you in another week. Oh the food is pretty good, we get three meals so I don't get very hungry but Elder Patton is really picky so he doesn't eat like anything. Stinks for him. I love you all more than you'll ever know! Have a great week:)

 

Love,

Elder England