Elder England: "I'll Be Home For Christmas, If Only In My Dreams"

The dogs in Rio Branco are pretty cute,

So cute - I could kiss em...

Hey punks!

Okay for skype we are going to do it at 3:30ish here, which would be like 10:30ish there. Hopefully that works okay for you guys. I can't believe a whole year has past since I skyped you in Hawaii. I'm super excited.

Haha I totally remember the Burnetts taking that picture. They are such an awesome couple. They also made a video of the christmas conference if you want to watch I think they put it on youtube as ¨Christmas Devotional Montevideo 2014¨

Things are just going great here. Thank you everyone for the letters and emails, they help a lot.

So all of the five people that were baptised while I was here were in church yesterday. It was a really good day. The Barreto's are so awesome, they give us food like everyday because we live right next to them. Here in Uruguay the retention of new converts is not a strong point, but we are really working to keep these people going strong. Marcos and Anthony also talked with the bishop yesterday and they are going to be receiving the priesthood next week. Now the ward will have two deacons to pass the sacrament... success.

The mission conference was an adventure. First of all we had district meetings in Melo on Tuesday, and we had to travel an hour and a half for that. Then we decided to stay there and do divisions with other missionaries instead of going back to Rio Branco because the bus that took us to Montevideo left from Melo. So that day I worked with Elder Leavitt, one of the zone leaders. He is such an amazing missionary and I have seriously looked up to him since day one in the Salt Lake airport. Then we slept over at their house on Tuesday and left for Montevideo at like 3 in the morning the next day. It is about a six hour bus ride... super fun. Actually the bus ride back was pretty fun. We were playing snaps the whole time. "Snaps is the name of the game, the name of the game is snaps". I think that you guys taught me that from some chick flick, but I knew it and Elder Vaatuitui knew it as well. Everyone else was freaking out though. It took them a good 2 hours to figure it out.

The Christmas conference was a very spiritual experience for me. I really felt grateful for the great opportunity that I have to be serving at this time of year. The music was great, I imagine it was something like the piano guys... maybe not quite as professional but it was wonderful. I have been thinking a lot of dad always saying that he is jealous of the blessing I have to serve during Christmas. The bishop in our ward actually shared yesterday in sacrament meeting that christmas in the mission is different. There is just nothing like it. So I am ready to enjoy this week to the fullest.

I hope all of you back at home have a very Merry Christmas. Just know that ¨I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams ;)¨

I will see you guys on the flip flop later... I mean Thursday.

Love,

Elder England