It Was So Perfect

Yeah Mace is sups jelly of my shirt!

 Me and Elder Ochoa in front of the Temple

Hola!!!

Wow everyone is speaking in church, except me! At least for the moment I'm not. But It's probably because our fam is so awesome. Oh I got the package!!! and I took my better judgement on this one and didn't wait until my Birthday to open it:) But I loved it! The photo book is awesome, just like Mace said I am always looking through it. And the bowling shirt... I think the other Elders were a little scared of how excited I was to get a bowling shirt, but it's stinking awesome! haha So I was just thinking to myself when I was looking through the book, and I was thinking "Ya know I kinda wish that my fam wasn't so awesome cause then I wouldn't miss them so much". But I guess I'll just have to live with being away from you guys for now. Hey I just got another package right now, and it's from Claire Dieterle! haha I haven't opened it yet, but Thank You Very Much Claire - you are the best!

Okay so we were going to have Lucias baptism this week, but it just didn't happen :( She came to church on Sunday and was super ready to get baptised and everything. But I think when we announced her baptism in sacrament it kind of freaked her out. Anyways I talked to her on the phone Sunday night and tried to explain everything and make her feel comfortable and ready, and I thought after that call that it was all going to be great so I set up a lesson for the next evening. Well she is super busy with her job right now, and ended up canceling that lesson. So then we set a lesson up for the nest day, but the next day she ended up canceling on us again, and that happened EVERY day until today! We have talked to her on the phone; I think every single day, but haven't actually seen her in person since Sunday. The thing is that she says she is super stressed with work, and i think she was a little stressed about this too, and she has been super busy this whole week. So that was really hard, and now we are just trying to set something up so we can talk to her in person. But I know that she is going to get baptized, I just hope that we can help her to do it this next week, cause she is totally ready!

So other than Lucia we actually have a couple other solid investigators. One is Lucas who is this 20 year old kid, (I think he is 20), but he is super awesome!!! I was actually on divisions when Elder Ochoa and another Elder found him, but we have actually had two awesome lessons with him. And guess what! So in the first lesson we invited him to pray and read, and so he did and in the second lesson he told us, ¨I dont know if you guys are going to believe me, but I prayed last night and just felt good! Like it was just a happiness that I felt right after I prayed!¨ Elder Ochoa and I just looked at each other and almost started laughing cause it was so perfect. Turns out Lucas has a relative who is LDS and he had been wanting to learn more about us, and then the Elders found him on the street. I really am so grateful for the opportunity that they had to find him, he is a steller kid and I know that all of this is going to change his life. So I'll let you guys know how he is doing next week.

But yeah that's pretty much it, we are actually thinking/trying to work with the members more here so I'll let you know about that next week too. Oh the assistants are Elder Hatch from Chandler, Arizona and Elder Cutler from Draper, Utah - they are awesome guys and I love living with them. But yeah that's what's up down here in Carrasco.

Well have a great week, love you all more than you will ever know!

Elder England

The temple was awesome!!!!!!!

And I made some yummy french toast with bacon :)

I Think It Is Going So Fast Because I Am Enjoying It So Much

Hola fam,

Darn I hate opening up my letters up to bad news. So sorry to hear Trudy Budge passed away! But it made me super happy to hear that the Budges looked really good, they really are such an awesome family. I have always admired their kindness, they are awesome examples! 

Wow this week flew by - I really can't believe it. I think it is going so fast because I am enjoying it so much. I really am just loving it here. It's different, but I really like it here. Okay so to answer your questions, yes we are living in a house of 4 with the APs but they are traveling a lot, so it's kind of a house of two for like half of the week. But I am getting along great with Elder Ochoa still. To tell you a little more about him, he has a year in the mission and is our District Leader here. Our district is us, the AP's and a companionship of sister trainers. And we are all actually in the same ward, which is kind of cool. Anyways our ward is pretty big, probably the biggest in Uruguay in the member attendance. However, a good portion of the ward are temple missionaries, cause our church is right next to the temple, cool beans right? Oh and guess what? We are going to the temple on Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited to go and see the new video. But the thing is that this Thusday is going to be my P day for this next week, so you have to write before then ;)

So yeah, oh and I got two of my Birthday packages! Thanks so much, I love getting packages :) (Although they were a little random with the Slim Jims haha!) And I got our Christmas card just the other day, I liked it a lot but man I looked super white (I'm just a little darker now :) 

So about Lucia, oh man where do I start... So I think I explained about how she loves the Bible and how she has a bunch of doubts and needs a specific answer to each one and she loves to talk and get off topic. Anyways so last Saturday we had a lesson with her and we were talking a lot about the restoration and the Book Of Mormon, anyways the member that we brought said something like the Bible is false because of all the translations and stuff being taken out and put in, (which is technically correct but Lucia took it badly and ended not coming to church on Sunday because she had these doubts). Well so we went and had a lesson with her on Thursday and I think we got the situation taken care of, we just explained everything more clearly and also explained about Joseph Smith translation a little.  I was on divisions yesterday but Elder Ochoa and one of the zone leaders went and had a good lesson and Lucia decided that she is going to get baptized in a week. She is totally ready, she just needs to realize it herself and "doubt her doubts rather than doubt her faith". I have seen the adversary trying to work against us in all that we do. It seems that everything has just been kind of difficult with trying to get Lucia to baptism, but we just need to pray and hope and do all we can to help her and I know that she will get there.

So there is the update, and because I was on divisions yesterday I didn't have my camera and I came right here so I don't have my camera, sorry

Anyways have an awesome week! I love you guys more than you will ever know!

Love,

Elder England

Things Are Going Pretty Darn Good

Hey Hey Hey!

So back to reality, we moved out of the mission home:( haha yeah we moved out of the mission home and into our apartment on Monday. We are like right across the street from the beach, but you actually can't see anything from our house, kind of lame. But yeah this area is super nice, and really different. A lot of the people have big fences in front of their houses with super security systems so it's kind of hard to get in. I haven't really taken any pictures of our area here yet cause it's been really rainy for the past couple days, but i'll show you the area next week.

So for now Elder Ochoa who is from Thatcher, Arizona, and I are trying to get to know all the members. We have a list of all the members, some former investigators, and some referals that we have been passing by and checking off. Oh my it's kind of really annoying, but literally like every time we are looking for a house it seems to be that it always skips the number of the house that we are looking for. Seriously it is like the only number on the whole street that isn't there, the dumb people just skipped the number for some reason. Sometimes I feel like the Uruguayan's just pick whatever number they want, and put it up on their house. Or we were saying that maybe they all know that these certain numbers don't exist cause they skipped them, and then when we ask them their address they just tell us that number to mess with us. Either way it kinda really makes me mad. But I feel like things are going pretty darn good, ¨gracias a la virgen¨. We are starting to meet a lot of the members, and I feel like we are starting to gain the trust of some of them. And things with Elder Ochoa and I are great, we get along really well so I'm super relieved about that.

Oh and the Elders that were in our area before, the secretaries, were teaching this lady and had put a baptismal date for the 15th of this month. We have had two charlas with her and in the last lesson we had, we talked a lot about the Book Of Mormon and she actually told us that she knows that the book is true! So we were like SWEET! yeah she is totally getting baptized on the 15th. Her name is Lucia, she is a widow and is like 50 years old and is super into the Bible. Apparently the story of how they found her was that the sister missionaries in our ward were getting ice cream or something one day and so was Lucia and when they left Lucia started following them and like chased them down and told them that she wants them to go to her house. So it was actually more like she found the missionaries than the missionaries found her. But yeah she is super awesome, a little weird, but super awesome. She always asks like super weird profound questions that don't really have anything to do with what we are teaching, and also she really likes to talk... a lot! So it's kind of hard to stay on topic, but she is definitely going to get baptized on the 15th. 

So sounds like it was an awesome week! I'm super jealous of the Cali trip with all the cars, and yeah I found Grandpa egging Todd on really funny! The thing is I could totally see that, he is crazy awesome! Lots of drill! And also Molly's and Luke's baptisms! Sounds like it was a fantastic week!

Well l love you all more than you will ever know, have an awesome week!

Elder England

My P Day Is On Saturday's Now

Hey!!!!!!!!!! Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Turns out my P day is on Saturday's now, so that's cool. So we are actually serving in President's ward, except we are without a president right now. There is like an area seventy that is serving as President until President Cook gets here in like March. Yeah and the president that is serving here right now lives here, so he just goes home at night and we have the whole mission home to us four. Also the Newsome's left a whole bunch of food that they said we could eat, so yeah it's been reeeeaaaallly nice, and yeah it was like all American food. The showers are so awesome here too, and ¨the toilets are ginormous!¨

Okay so yeah Carrasco is probably the wealthiest part of all Uruguay, we are like right on the beach. Actually our house is like on the beach:) Elder Ochoa and I are living with the assistants of the mission in a new house, okay well not new but there weren't missionaries in the house before so new for us. Yesterday we spent the whole day moving everything into the house, and from Wednesday until now we have been staying in the mission home. It is so nice!!! But by Monday we should be in our new house ready to go. I'm so excited!

So Elder Ochoa and I haven't had much time to work in our area this week, but yeah we went out on Thursday and walked almost all of our area trying to find members from this ward directory that is like 10 years old. Turned out like every single one had moved :( But we have met our ward mission leader and our bishop, and I am feeling that we have a lot of potencial to find people to baptize. The thing is here, you need to work with the members. So that is where we are at right now, just trying to get to know the members and work with the leaders of our ward. But like I said last week I'm just ready to get out there and go to work. Elder Ochoa and I get along really well thankfully, and I really think that we can do a lot together.

So we haven't really unpacked yet, soo I don't have my camera and camera cord with me so I guess you'll just have to wait another week sorry:) 

So yeah anyways stay sweet, and just know that I love you all more than you will ever know!

Have an awesone week,

Elder England