Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home!

The gang at the airport!  SO exicted!

Missionary sighting!!!!

BEST hug after two years...

"Am I really home?"

Overjoyed!

Brothers back together again!

Grandma Ipsen

Another group shot - Now complete with 

Elder England!

Traveled home with Elder Tucker and Elder Leavit!

All who served in Montevideo Uruguay Mission!

Momma D met us for Breakfast!

SURPRISE!!!  Kenna and Dalt are having a baby!

Welcome Home!

Ahhh - Carpet!

These socks have put on some miles!

Home!

The Lord Is The One Who Has Molded Me

Mi Querida Familia,

It's finally here... my last email. It's gone by too fast.

I have felt very excited to finish strong and do all that I can to leave this area stronger than I found it. And I feel very great right now. I feel ready to apply everything that I have learned over these past two years. I have learned so much from my mission. It has helped me so much more than I ever imagined. I can honestly say that I don't feel like that eighteen year old kid that said goodbye to you guys in the Salt Lake airport two years ago. I know that God has guided me through my trials. It is so clear to me that here is where I had to serve. I know that the Lord is hastening his work, I have seen it, I have felt it, and I have lived it. 

I have felt an immense feeling of gratitude over the past couple of weeks. Most of all for everything that my Savior has done for me. The atonement has become a very personal part of my life and me. As I look back on all that I have done, I ask myself how? How did I do all this? I realize that I haven't done much. All I have done is make myself moldable. The Lord is the one who has molded me. All of the good that has come out of my service is directly related to our Father in heaven and Jesus Christ. 

I have been blessed to see many miracles. However, I believe that the biggest miracle that I have seen has been in me. God has helped me to change things in me that I often thought were impossible to change. I know that the Lord qualifies whom he calls. I know that God will ALWAYS bless those who obey him. It is interesting to me  that so many difficult changes in life have become so simple. Everything is given to us. All we have to do is trust and rely on the Lord and his atonement. 

I know that prayer is real. I have come to understand that prayer is a literal conversation with our Father. I have learned so much about Him. 

I will always remember the experiences that I have had here. I am always going to cherish the things that I have felt here. I was reading yesterday in Alma 26. I feel exactly the same as Ammon. I do have a great cause to rejoice! 

I have thought about the letter that you wrote me dad at the beginning of my mission. It really has been an adventure. It has been the most fulfilling adventure ever. 

I can't express how grateful I am to you for supporting me. You guys are the reason that I work hard. I only wanted others to be able to have a family like mine. To be able to feel the happiness that comes through living the gospel. 

I LOVE YOU ALL MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW! I am very excited to hug all of you on Friday... until then my wonderful family.

Elder England

Carolos' Baptism

Carolos' Baptism

Dear Familia - 

This week was amazing. It couldn't have been better! Carlos was baptised and his son and daughter went. It was a very special day. Elder Stewart came from Montevideo to see the baptism. We also had two zone conferences that went great and a zone activity

that was a success.  It was a great way to finish the mission! 

I was very excited for the interview with President Cook, but for lack of time he only did a short interview to renue my recommend and then said that we would be able to talk next week. But It has really been a great week, and I am very excited for my interview with Pres. I was able however to talk with Hermana Cook for a while and I thoroughly enjoyed it. She is hilarious. 

Elder England

The Lord Is Really Hastening His Wok

We went to the zoo! It was awesome - this is my friend

Elder Poulson, just taking a selfie with the lions!

(a lot like the zoo in Guatemala)

Hello my lovely family,

Holy cow I cannot believe that Mags is graduated. It is so weird to me. Haha you can definitely tell that you guys are in Utah though. In the pic of Maggie, mom and dad there is a kid in the back that has a shirt that says "Many are called few are chosen". You all look so great. Dad, the hair looks a little more gray, but it looks good. Like a George Clooney good. Wow it is so weird to me all the things that are happening. It's all really exciting though. 

Hey yeah I got your package. We are totally going to make the smores in a zone acivity today. So it's been awkwardly warm here. Usuaully I would be freezing my bum off at this time of year, but it's holding out. Hopefully it can hold out a little longer. 

This last week has been so amazing. Its been really busy, and we have another really busy week coming up. First things first, Carlos is awesome. He should be baptised this Saturday at 6 de la tarde. Elder Stewart the missionary that was here before me is going to come for the baptism, we are excited to see him. He is going to be such an amazing member. The ward is really excited for his baptism and are planning how to help him and Carmen continue strong. 

We had concilio on Friday... it was amazing. I don't know if I told you, but my friend Elder Gallacher is the new assistant and he and his companion are making a lot of changes. We were also able to go to the temple, and wow it was such an amazing session. I don't know if it was because we were with all the leaders in the mission and Pres. and Hna. Cook and Elder and Hna. Burnett, but it was such a spiritual session for me. I also saw like 4 different members that were working in the temple that are from past areas like Carrasco and Ferrocarril. That was super fun to see them. Seriously it was such a  great day, and we stayed in Montevideo in a little hotel thing that the church has for members that travel to go to the temple. We were making such a big deal about how clean everything was and especially about the water pressure in the hotel. It was the best shower that I have had in a long time. 

As far as this week, today we are having a zone activity. We are going to make pizzas and play volleyball. We actually started making the pizzas, I'm pretty much a pro. I'll send pics.

Then tomorrow Elder Martinez and I and the sister training leaders are giving a zone conference. Then on Friday we have a conference with Pres. and the assistants. Pres is going to be doing interviews as well that day. I'm really excited for this week. It is going to be an excellent week.

I am just really trying to stay focused. It is kind of hard sometimes, but we have so much to do that I don't think it'll be much of a problem. We are also working a lot with the stake. Last week we had a meeting with the stake president. He is such an amazing person. We are now going to be making specific goals with the stake leaders and with the consejo de barrio. It's so exciting seeing all of these changes in Uruguay. the Lord is really hastening his work here, and I feel so blessed to be a part of this.

I love you all more than you will ever know. Have a great week. Don't miss me too much!

Elder England

Coming home from concilio we got first class bus seats -

it was divine!

Just doin a litte cookin!  

Making Pizza - I'm pretty much a pro!

GO UTES!  

You Are Lucky When That Happens

Happy Birthday Grandma June!!! 

Hey friends! Okay mom, I will definitely do that on my last P-Day. It's a good thing that I have so much time left on my mission still ;) Thank you Kenna for the email. I kind of got a little emotional as I read. I really am going to miss the mission. This place is so special for me. It has helped me way more than I had ever imagined it could. You guys look amazing in the picture. I just want to hug you all to death. Mace I'm excited for you. Justin meets my standards... 1. Utah fan... Check! 

Congrats Bo for making the team. I'm excited to play soccer with you when I get home. Sounds like there will be more drill in the fam. It seems like it will never end. Just make sure Bo doesn't go back into his drill phase! Mags congrats for graduating seminary haha.

Wow it was an amazing week! We had two intercambios. The first one we went to work in Carmen. Carmen is a pueblito of about 1000 people. I think that it is the smallest area in our mission. There are literally more dogs than people, well now that I think of it I think that is generally the case everywhere in Uruguay. But I think you get the idea. Their chapel is a little house with a little shed out back that they made for the sacrament room. However, it may have been one of the most edifying intercambios that I have ever had. Elder Gomez the missionary that I worked with has been stiving so hard to consecrate himself, and we felt the effects of our efforts. They also had a baptism that day and we were able to interview their investigator and help with the preparations for the baptism. Lilian the lady that was baptized is probably now the strongest member in Carmen. She is amazing. She has been going to church for like 6 months now or more. The only thing was that she wasn't married. But she was married on Monday and baptized on Tuesday. It was a great day.

Carlos!!! He is going to be baptised on the 13th! It is going to be my last Saturday in Uruguay. It was very interesting the lesson where he accepted the invitation to be baptized. Before the lesson that we had on Wednesday with him and his wife Carmen, he still didn't feel sure about making the decision to be baptized. We planned a great lesson to share with them, and we could tell that the spirit was working hard in him. Near the end of the lesson I felt super strongly that we should invite him directly to be baptized on the 6th. I was a little hesitant, but I felt it so strongly and understood it so clearly that I needed to invite him. So I did and he said, ¨Um... I don't know. that day is going to be very busy, but what about the week after that?¨ Obviously we were stunned by the answer. We had invited him so many times and had always received the same answer. We are all very excited for him and his family. They both showed up early to church and Carlos went with a white shirt and tie. He is going to be such a great disciple!

We are also seeing a lot of improvement as far as the work with members. We are trying to set up a charla with the stake pres this week to talk about goals and plans for this next month. We also have concilio on Friday, and we are going to go to the temple as a concilio!!! We are very excited. Then next week we have two conferrences. One that we are going to give on Tuesday and another that pres and the assistants will be giving here in Durazno and doing interviews on Thurday next week. We have the schedule full:) 

I am enjoying every second that I have here in Uruguay. Oh haha yesterday we were in lunch and we were all laughing at something... I can't remember what it was but I was laughing so hard that some of the flan that I was eating fell out of my mouth. I totally stopped laughing and looked around to see if anyone saw, but then Elder Martinez just busted up laughing. Then everyone started laughing because yes everyone saw it. You probably had to be there, but it was pretty funny. Oh also the other day in a charla a bird out of no where pooped right on my arm. Apparently it means that you are lucky when that happens here in Latino America, but I didn't consider myself so lucky.

I love you all more than you will ever know! Have a great week.

Sorry but the computer won't let me download pics. You can wait a little

Elder England