Floods

Last P Day it rained so much that there were

some floods in Rio Branco!

I love Bob A!!!

That totally made my day, and yes I aspire to be like him so I will be growing my beard out when I get home. Drill drama. I miss it, but not that much. Mags is a stud, and what?! Already looking for living in Provo! That is super weird. But yeah we need to get on that right when we find out where I'll be going. Justin looks cool, and a little drill will do him good. Mace is so lucky to be so close to her mission, it's going to be hard to say goodbye to Uruguay.

So Elder Perry is awesome. He has been progressing so much. We get along great. However, for our area this week has been kind of hard. Like I explained last week, the Mederos family was being difficult and having challanges. We honestly didn't know what to do, so we planned and studied and did all we could to prepare ourselves for lessons and to make sure that the spirit could be in those lessons to strenghten their faith. But nothing was working. They weren't coming through with commitments and didn't seem to want to listen to us. So on Saturday we were just straight up with them. We explained that we loved them and loved teaching them, but that we couldn't do everything for them. We then asked them if they wanted us to continue passing by and they said no. It was very difficult for both of us, but at the same time we both realized that we had done all that we could and that they had to make their own decisions.

On the bright side, Cristian and Maria went to church yesterday! They are doing really well. They did however feel a little embarrased to enter the church because they were in normal clothes, but we helped them to go inside and feel welcome. Unfortunately, it was really warm in the church and Maria started to feel sick because she is prego. They ended up leaving before sacrament meating, but they got to go to two classes. I hope that they liked it and felt comfortable there. We haven't talked to them but we are planning on talking to them today. But seriously Cristian is amazing. I think I explained a little bit last week, but he really has a way of recognizing the spirit. He told us that the last two Sundays they planned on going, but things just happened. He told us that they have felt a lot of opposition since they've started talking to us, but Cristian just says that it gives him all the more reason to keep listening and talking to us. Oh and they have the cutest little girls ever, I'll try to get some pics for next week.

Okay so I mentioned that the mission is making a lot of changes. Well the biggest change that we made is that we aren't asking the missionaries for their daily nor weekly key indicators. We are still putting goals and woking to reach those goals, but the leaders are not going to be asking for those numbers. I feel that before in our mission, a lot of missionaries worked for numbers, but with this new change we are striving to focus on real conversion. Conversion in all aspects of the work, in other words not just investigators, but recent converts and less active members as well. It is a really awesome time to be in the mission. Here I can literally see and feel that the Lord is hastening his work. (It totally just took me like 2 minutes to think of how to say apresurar in English) It's okay though, Elder Perrys English is still really good so he is helping me.

Every day is going by faster and faster, and every week I realize how little time I have left. I just don't want it to come to an end. I love the mission. Thanks for everything you guys do to support me. 

I love you all more than you will ever know!

Elder England

Some nasty whirlpools!  I think that there was so much

water that the sewage overflowed in the streets...yum

Cone time!

Maria

After playing basketball!  So fun!

Hey fam!

Wow it is getting warm here. So today we don't have much time to write. We are in Melo for a zone activity, and our bus leaves at four o'clock so I will only have like 20 minutes. But if we get back to Rio Branco with time, we might be able to finish our hour. But sounds like things are going great. The Utes are doing awesome. Don't worry, they'll rebound back. 

It is so hot here. We were playing basketball today, man it was soooo fun! It has been so long since Ive played a game of basketball. But I was sweating so bad that it bled through my shirt and made like a face on my chest and stomach. I definitely sweat more than any other missionary here. I'll send a pic. We then made some lunch with the zone, hot dogs and watermelon. We were actually going for "completos Chilenos", but there is a Chileno here and he said that it wasn't the same. I thought they were pretty good though. 

So the Mederos family. Uhhh... where to start. The Mederos family is that part member family that we found last week. Jose the dad, Susana the mom, and Maria, Micaela, Sythia, and Santiago. We visited them like the whole week and had some really great lessons. We gave Maria and Micaela copies of the Book of Mormon and within a day Micaela had read almost all of 1 Nephi. She is so awesome. Maria has been reading and praying everyday as well as Micaela, (she just hasn't read quite as much). The downside is that the family is very disfunctional. They are always yelling and seems to me that the two older girls don't get along too great with Jose. Yesterday was kind of a big bummer, because they didn't make it to church. The mom also doesn't feel that they are going to be ready to be baptised by the 24th, and I feel like that was a reason for why they didn't go to church. Obviously, they will not be baptised on the 24th anymore. But there is a lot of potential. We actually had a really good charla with them last night. We have been really trying to help them recognize the spirit and learn to be reverant so that the spirit can teach us in the lessons. We have got some work to do with them, but I have a good feeling about this new week. 

We also have another family that is super awesome!!! There names are Cristian and Maria. Yeah I know another Maria. I would confidently say that 90 percent of Uruguayan's are named Maria. But we found them at about the same time that we found the Mederos family. They didn't make it to church either, even though they had committed to going. But we also had a great lesson yesterday with them. They mentioned to us that they wanted to go this week and the past, but that things always come up. They also explained that since they started listening to us they have felt something trying to pull the family apart in the house, but then they also said that when we go there is a peaceful and calm spirit that comes. So we helped them to understand what what peace is and how they can have it always. 

I have really seen this past week how the adversary is working against us with our investigators. But the spìrit is too strong to deny.

I'll try and write in Rio Branco but I have to go now.

Love ya!

Elder England  

Sweaty smiley face :)

Very...very...Enjoy!

Intercambio action... we made brownies

Hello eveyone!!!

Sounds like everyone is doing great at home. Mags keep being awesome and leading the team. Soph and Bo what's up with ya'll? Mace I want pics. Kenna and Dalt I love you two, but I think it's time to have a baby. I can tell that mom wants it a lot. Could you imagine if you had twins like Taylor and Heather? That would be so wonderfully awesome. Dad I am glad to hear that you had a happy birthday, you deserved it. Sounds like the California house is coming along... but not until 2016? That's okay, the time is going so fast that it doesn't even matter. I actually like the idea of coming here in December. I just feel like we would be able to talk with more people and it would be more pleasant, even though it gets really warm. I'm sorry to hear about sister Oswald, I'll keep them in my prayers. And the Utes seem to be doing spectacular (I love saying spectacular in Spanish, the best)

So Elder Perry is doing great like always. We have really been seeing a lot of miracles. I don't know where to start. Okay so on Friday we had an intercambio with some Elders in my district. I was with Elder Petersen (from Idaho) and my comp was with Elder Sunday (from Nigeria). Elder Peretersen and Elder Sunday have actually been having some problems getting along and it has been quite difficult to help them. They seem to be doing better now. But on that intercambio, Elder Petersen and I were walking around our area, and we were looking for a less active family but couldn't find their house. The day looked kind of ugly and it seemed like a storm was coming. Well, while looking for the house a family outside of their house yelled at us saying that we were going to get wet in the rain. So we went up to them and started talking. Right when we asked them if they had talked with missionaries before the dad said that he was already Mormon. Then they invited us inside, and literally right when we walked inside it started pouring. We taught a great lesson. The family is really funny, they are an interesting bunch. But the family consists of the Jose (dad), Susana (mom), Maria (14), Micaela(12), Santiago(3-4), and Synthia(2-3). Maria and Micaela are Susana's kids but Jose is not their dad. Anyways, Susana and Jose are not married but we have already talked to them about the theme, and we invited them to talk and pray about it. On Sunday the whole family came to church. The parents said that they had talked and they want to get married. Oh and Jose is the only member, so we talked about baptism and invited Maria and Micaela to pray about whether they should be baptised, and they both expressed that it is somehting that they want to do. So we put a baptismal date with them both for the 24th. It was such an amazing miracle. And the best part of that day was that it stopped raining while in the charla, and after leaving we didn't get rained on at all.

Oh my gosh, on Saturday Elder Perry and I to had a lesson with Jose and Susanna's family and while we were talking a giant lizard comodo dragon type thing ran by the door. Everyone started freaking out, and we peeked our heads out the door just to see the freaky thing run away. It was crazy!!! Jose was going off about how they are super deadly and poisenous, but after we talked to a member that seems to be more educated that Jose, he said that they aren't poisenous at all. So no worries guys.

Also, we have been teaching a Brazilian girl named Eduarda. She is a good friend of Marcos, our awesome convert. She as well went to church and said that she enjoyed it a lot. ¨Very... very... enjoy¨ However, she is going to visit her father who lives in Brazil for like two weeks. The good thing is that we gave her O Livro De Mòrmon, which as a book of mormon in Portugues. She read everything from the beginning of the book up to the second chapter in Nefi in one day! She is awesome and should be baptised in February.

Things are going good. With the new year we have seen a lot of changes in the mission. But the changes seem very positive from my perspective.

I love you all more than you will ever know. Keep writing

Elder England

Pancake disaster!

Enzo at his baptism!  He is stud!

Hey Friends,

Happy Birthday old man!!! Corster you are thee best! Seriously dad thanks for always being such an amazing example for me. I love you so much. I can't wait to get home and talk about our missions together and go golfing and stuff. You´re my biggest hero, and like I said in my farewell talk, ¨All I've ever wanted was to be like you¨. Have an awesome day dad.

I love the Coffey's! Super jealous of the bowling night. But holy cow everyone looks so different!!! Chase is huge, and Mamoo and Drew just look super ugly... that's okay though, I still love ya boys.

So the Utes are doing amazing... as expected. Keep cheering em on for me! At least I know that I'll be home for football season.

Rio Branco is doing great! And so is Elder Perry. We are really getting along. He is going to be an awesome missionary. It was so funny, cause the first day we got to our area and went out to work it started pouring. We were just drenched from head to toe from the moment we left the house. But Elder Perry was so positive about it. It really showed me that he is here to work, and nothing is going to stop him from doing that. His Spanish is improving. He said that he studied French for 4 years hoping that he would go somewhere French speaking, but he is learning very quickly.

On Saturday we had a baptism. His name is Enzo. He is another awesome teenager. It is funny because his parents are super supportive and they live right next door to our bishop and have known him since he was little, but the parents are kind of vague. They are happy that their son is going down a good path, but they kind of seem to me that they have already lost interest in their spiritual well-being. We are going to help them though. Enzo is really funny though, he is kind of a shy kid. Even though he doesn't say it, I can tell that he loves going to church. Now we have a good handfull of youth in the ward, and going to church on Sunday doesn't feel like going to a "rest home" anymore.

We are just really excited to start working with all of the recent converts to find baptisms. Marcos is already inviting people to talk with us, he is a stud.

Oh my gosh I didn't tell you about when I tried to make pancakes with the pancake mix you gave me. So it was the day after Christmas, and I decided to make some pancakes for the gang. So I made one for Elder Vaatuitui and Elder Ramirez, then I went to make a another one. So I took the container and before pouring I thought that I would shake it a little, so I started shaking it up and down, but apparently the lid wasn't on all the way and pancake batter went all over my arm and shirt and all over the kitchen. Pretty much there was pancake everywhere except for in my stomach. I was actually pretty mad, and slightly depressed cause after I only had enough batter to make like one pancake. But I have a recipe to make pancakes from scatch. It's not as good, but whatevs.

So yeah things are going spectacularly well here. I love you all more than you will ever know!

Elder England

You can't see the pancake mix very well cause I had already

cleaned a lot of it off, but yeah.....

Just saw this hat in the store today, and thought you would appreciate it dad!

And no, my head has not gotten any bigger on my mission :/

I'm Not Going To Waste A Second

 My new "boy" Elder Perry!

Hey fam!!!

It was so nice to see you all on Christmas. I was literally the happiest person in the world that day. Thanks for all the comments... I really am loving it here. And guess what!!! I'm training!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Perry is my new campanion. He is from North Carolina, and he is pretty much the coolest missionary in our mission. Okay I don't know him super well yet, but yeah. 

So I am just writing you now because they had all the trainers go to the mission home on Tuesday morning and we were in meetings like all day and we got to go out proselyting for a little with the new missionaries. It was super weird though, because I had to travel alone from Rio Branco to Montevideo. I left at 3 in the morning on Tuesday to get to Montevideo on time. It went by pretty quick though because I just lsept the whole time. But it was so weird to be alone... like super weird. "Way, way freaky". 

So I don't have much more time to write, but this next change is going to be the best. It really hit me that I only have six months left, but I'm not going to waste a second. 

Thanks for all the support and love. I love you more than you'll ever know. Keep the pics comin.

PS Bennett looks super chill with his long hair. Grow it out while you can!

Love Elder England

I am so proud of my two boys -

Elder Cruz is happy to have a brother :) 

It's going to be an awesome transfer!