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