Really Awesome Week

Zone activity at the beach!

Loved it!

Hey yal!!!

Oh man we just went to the beach for a zone activity to play some frisbie and soccer. I was soooooo tempted to jump in the water, because it is getting really warm. But wahooooooo the Utes pull out the win!!!!!!!!! Sounds like MORP was awesome. Mags send some pics! I bet it was super fun with Chubba. 

Hey thanks with all the BYU info everyone, I'll talk with Pres. but I'm sure that I can write something up on P-Days. Just let me know details ¨asap as possible¨- the office. 

Happy birthday Grand-dad!!!!!!!! 95 big ones! I don't know how many times I tell people that I have a grandpa that is 94, now 95, years old. They are always astonished. I have realized that my expectations have been raised big time as to how healthy people should be in their 80's and 90's because grand-dad is so amazingly healthy. I love you gramps, you have always been a hero in my eyes. I am so grateful for the family which you have raised, we have all been blessed by your wonderful life. 

Mace, you are the best. Tear it up in Foco. Last month!!!... sorry but I know you wont' run out of steam. Just like that talk that you sent me said from Elder Holland, ¨Head up and run to the tape!¨ - ¨Start strong, finish stronger!¨

So this week was really awesome!!! We had two, yes TWO, investigators in church. That hasn't happened in Lomas since I got here. Carlos and Blanca were the investigators that went. Seriously Carlos is so awesome! His mom dropped him off and he went in and went to young mens before we even got there. We however were a little late because we went and walked with Blanca. I love Blanca!!! Okay Blanca is a 92 year old blind woman. We found her this last week, and we had a couple charlas and invited her to church and offered to go with her. Well when we went to go pick her up she was sitting at the door ready to go. She is so funny! The situation is kind of sad with her. She is living with her daughter right now, but her daughter is from Spain and his going back to Spain to be with her husband and kids in a couple of weeks so they are looking for someone to watch over Blanca because they don't have enough money to take Blanca with. Also Blanca told us that she lived in the house that she is living in now with her husband, but he passed away like a year ago or so. When we showed up with her at church ALL the members were talking to her and helping her get from place to place. She is the sweetest lady I have ever met.

And Carlos... he is a stud. We haven't had many charlas with him, but we had a family home evening that we set up with his member friend´s family (the Martinez family). It was great. First the dad of the family had prepared a little something from the primary manual, because he is a primary teacher... but the youngest person there was Mario Martinez who is 14. It was pretty funny though, he was doing some silly games and relating them to life and stuff. It was kind of super random. But  after he turned the time to us and we taught a little about the restoration and showed the restoration movie that is like 20 minutes long. It was a really great lesson, and when we invited Carlos to go to church his answer was just a straight ¨yes¨... okay ¨sí¨ was what he actually said but whatevs. If things go as planned he should be baptised on the 8th. We have talked to his mom, not a lot, but a little. She said that she was maybe going to go to church with him but it was elections here in Uruguay and everyone was obligated to vote yesterday. It was quite a challenge in trying to get investigators to church. We acutally did pretty good, but the district was struggling a little. Seriously I have an awesome district, probably because I have four sisters. The sister missionaries are always so willing to go out and get things done... and they do get things done. To answer your question dad about district meetings, I give them on Tuesday's. That is if we don't have a zone conference or multizone conference with President. It's usually about 3 district meetings per month. Speaking of, I have to prepare mine for tomorrow. Iv'e realized that my procrastination hasn't gotten much better in the aspect of preparing district meetings. I'm trying, that's all I can say:)

As far as the work with members in our ward, our mission leader and us have planned a missionary work activity for the ward this Friday. We set up a guest speaker who just got back from being a mission Pres. in Peru. The idea is that the members can invite someone to go with them. We even made invitations, not to brag or anything but I think that Hallmark would totally hire us if they saw our invitations. I'll let you guys know how things go with that.

I love you all more than you will ever know! Have an awesome week.

Love,
Elder England

Elder Brown and me...

Loving the beach!

Miracle On The Bus

The lush land in Uruguay!

I'm in there somewhere - 

Hola de Uruguay!!!

What have you guys turned into? My family before the mission would have never just stopped and gone to the Stratosphere. I love you crazy people! ¨And that is a crazy lady...¨ Well done Mags ;) I'm super jealous about the track event, it sounded awesome. And booyah UTES! I can't go to the Y when the Utes are doing so good. No but I think I thought of going to BYU mainly for the environment. As far as what I would study I was thinking business. However, I have no idea what I would do career wise. I wish I could just stay on the mission forever and not think about school. 

For Christmas I need like I said socks, and something great would be sunscreen especially face sunscreen... and not the face gluestick things. Yes I have gotten all of the packages that you sent, and I loved every single one... great job on "While You Were Serving II". As far as food goes I like whatever, but I really like Cliff granola bars and Bugles always make me happy. I will love whatever you send :) I love you!!!

Mace is going to Fort Collins!!! I can't believe they are putting two greenies together to take over her area! However, the new missionaries that have come to our mission have been really awesome! I can tell that missionaries are coming to the mission very perpared to work. Like Macy said if they have the spirit then they can get things done. Love you Mace, you are the absolute best!

This week has been about the same as far as Elder Browns animo. I can't remember how to say animo in English, I think it's excitement or like energy. I feel like my patience is really being tried here. But get this!!!! So I think it was Tuesday some of the sisters in my district (yes I'm still DL) told me that the stake presidency is trying to do visits to less active members in all the wards in the stake, and what they do is someone from the stake goes with a ward leader such as the elders quorum presidency and then there is a missionary as well... Well since this ward has sisters, they wanted a pair of elders to accompany them. So the sisters called me and said all this and said that they would be meeting in the mall at 7:30. So Elder Brown and I went to do divisions at the mall, but it turns out that it was the next day and after calling like four different people they finally told us that there was a misunderstanding and that it was the next day. So we caught a bus back to our area. While on the bus, standing in the aisle because of how crowded it was, I realized that a kid was looking at me. And after like 5 seconds of solid eye contact I realized that it was Carlos! Carlos is a friend of some members in our ward. When I was with Elder Lizaraso we had a lesson with him and were trying to set up a family home evening with Carlos in the house of his member friend, but we never could set it up and the members thought that he wasn't very interested so nothing happened. But we ended up talking for a little and we got off the same stop and he said that we could go by another day. We have a lesson set up in the members house on Wednesday! It was so awesome, and I know that we went to the mall just so that we could take that bus and talk with Carlos! He told us that he wouldn't be able to make it to church yesterday, but he said that the next week he would go. Such an awesome miracle.

We also this last week have found a man named Pedro Muñoz. He is a really humble guy and is actually struggling with drugs because not too long ago he broke up with his wife and he now can't see her nor his 9 year old daughter. We have had a couple of lessons and he is really accepting. From the moment that we found him on the street I just felt a great desire to help him. Mace is so right when she says that when you share the gospel with people you just start loving them, and you grow with them. We have helped him to set goals and we will be verifying hopefully everyday with him. 

You guys are awesome!!! Have an awesome week. I love you all way more than you will ever know!

Sorry I don't have time to send pics, but I will next week.

Elder England

I Am Here To Serve The Lord

We did a service project...we were building a house!

It was super fun!

Hey pals!!!!

WHOOO Utes are ranked 20th! So reading all the emails and hearing your guy´s opinions I think that I want to try and apply to the Y. Mom I would love you forever if you could look into that. Thanks for all the emails. Dalt don't worry I'll always be a U fan. If I ended up going to the Y I would totally wear my Max Hall hates me shirt... Utah Pride! But in all seriousness I want to try and get into the Y. I think the reason that I didn't apply before the mission was that I was scared I wouldn't get in, but now I don't really care. I mean, If I get in awesome and if not then ¨I will take my talents South Beach¨ -Lebron... and by South Beach I mean the U. But seriously thanks for all the advise, I love you guys sooooo much. 

Oh my it is so weird to me that Mace is going home next month... AHHHH!!!! She is the bomb diggity. Mags you should serve, It'll change your life forever! Dad and I agree...It is so weird that you are a senior! Soph what's up wif you? Bo thanks for the email last week... haha yeah I think you are going to owe me 20 bucks. Dalt good luck in Seattle.

Elder Brown has been sick this whole last week with a cold and a cough. It has been really hard for him, and he hasn't had much of a desire to serve. He really is sick and I feel bad that I can't do anything about it, other than push him to give it his all. He has his highs and his lows, but there isn't really a middle ground. I think he might die before the change is over because of how much I'm pushing him. When we get home after planning he goes and lays on his bed and he is out in like 10 seconds. Haha I woke him up five minutes before we had to be in bed to make sure that he had brushed his teeth and everything and he asked what time is it and I said 25 he asked 9:25? and I was like no 10:25. After planning he passed out for like two hours. I love the kid, but if Elder Brown were an animal he would probably be a sloth. However, he has been getting a lot better as far as talking with people in the street.

Andres and his family are the same as they were last week. We set up charlas with him but they always cancel for some reason, and he said that his son and mother who is a less active member were probably going to go to church but they didn't show up. We also found a couple of investigators that had told us that they were going to come to church but not one got there.

After church I was thinking just about the past couple months and I realized something. I am here to serve the Lord. If I can help others while serving, then I will help them. If the Lord allows me to be a part of the conversion of another, then I will be forever grateful.I am here to serve the Lord and to be an instrument in his hands. Whether he uses me to plant the seeds or help the plants grow, I will serve Him... I think that I am just really good at planting seeds so that's what we are doing ;)

A family in our ward told us that they have a referal for us and that she wants to go to church! They acutally invited her to go yesterday and she didn't end up going, but hopefully we can contact her and help her to get to ¨know the mormons¨. I want to see the movie so bad. Elder Brown and I were laughing because we saw in a Liahona that it has a part about a mission mom, and we just imagined them filming our moms. Love you mom!!

I'm excited for this week, we have a multizone conference tomorrow in Montevideo that should be good. I don't know if Presdient has got around to reading Ti Voglio Bene, but I'm going to try and see tomorrow. 

I love you all more than you will ever know. Keep on moving on!

Elder England

Conference and Poop Tanks

They have all the Holloween stuff out...Elder Brown didn't want to

put a mask on (party pooper!) haha but right after I took

this picture some guy in the store got mad at me and said

that you can't try masks on! But hey, I got the pic :) 

Hey fam!

First of all Happy B-Day Dalt!!! I hope it was a magical day. Too bad I wasn't there to smoke you guys at Fast Carts. Congrats Taylor and Heather, Reece and Ruby are super cute. Mom thanks for the letter, the email from Mo´s neice was really funny, and I felt I could relate in a lot of aspects. Elder Brown and I always talk about "The Best Two Years" or "The RM"... okay he talks about it because I've only seen each of those movies like twice. But from what I remember they are way more funny now. The UTES won!!! I get quite a few comments from a lot of missionaries just because I'm a Utah fan, but we´ll see what they say after this weeks win. Oh also Elder Hatch one of the assistants that has already gone home has been writing me, and he always told me that I should go to BYU. I wrote him a little about what I was thinking of doing, and he told me no don't go home and go to the U then transfer. Just go right when you get home, it's so much better. Haha I still don't know what I want to do. 

Anyways, as you guys already know it's Tuesday and we got transfers last night!!! I´m staying here in Lomas de Solymar with Elder Brown! I had mixed emotions about transfers, (before we heard where we were going). I led myself to believe that I was going to leave, and I'm not sure why I did that. I think I might have been actually hoping to leave. The thing is that I realized that I haven't seen much success here, despite our efforts and therefore thought it would be better to get transferred to a ¨better¨ area. Conference humbled me a lot! Whenever transfers come I always say to myself (in my head) "I will go where you want me to go Lord". And this last week I was trying to say that in my head, but for some reason my heart wasn't saying that. I think it was the lazy, selfish and prideful side of me that made me want to just leave this area and go to one where I could have success. However, by Monday morning I had a feeling that Elder Brown and I were going to stay here together. I finally accepted in my heart that whatever happens happens and where ever the Lord needs me he needs me there... to help those who are needing help. As of now, I am very excited to stay here! I have already thought of things that I am going to change in the way we work, so that we might see more success. 

Conference was seriously amazing, like mom said to me, It went by so quick. I couldn't get enough of it. I really liked the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf as well dad. It might have been that talk that most humbled me. And I don't know if you guys knew, but one of the Elders that spoke in Spansih is from Uruguay!!! His name is Eduardo Gavarret. All of the members here were so proud after to have heard not only a talk in their native language, but a talk by one of their own. All of us missionaries that were listening in English ran into the other room in the church to listen to his talk in Spanish and it was way better in Spanish. 

The set up for conference was however not as great as conference itself. This could maybe be put in Macy's list of funny things about her Spanish branch. They show conference in two buildings in the stake, and ours just happened to be one of them, even though it is the smallest building in the stake. Well we had given our key to the zone leaders so we figured we wouldn't go over until like 15 minutes before. So we got there 15 minutes before the conference was supposed to start, and there were about 8 missionaries and a handfull of members waiting outside the gates trying to get in. Apparently one of the bishops who was in charge of setting everything up had trusted in his counselors to fulfill the responsibility. But both of these counselors apparently left to go visit family mambers out of town that day. Luckily they got there five minutes before, but we had to set up everything and we ended up missing Pres Monson's intro and the first part of Elder Packers talk. But conference was amazing after that.

Andres and his family are doing good. They were not however able to make it to conference:( We had committed a good handful of investigators to come, but not one of them came. But we did get quite a few less active members to come, I think it was like 10. I'm praying that they can follow the counsel that they heard and go to church next Sunday.

Random stuff from the week: We had to call a truck this week to come suck out all our poop. The plumbing system here is kind of ridiculous. All they do is dig a whole and put a big tank in the ground. Then when you flush the toilet the remains go into this tank. Well we realized that the toilet wasn't flushing very well, and so Elder Brown said that the tank is probably full... Sure enough it was!! We went outside took the lid off the tank and there was all my poop just floating there almost spilling out into the lawn. I got a video of them sucking it all out. Then we asked them where they dumped it, and they said oh we just go past the next city out into this open field and dump it... hmm no wonder Uruguay smells so good:) Haha no it doesn't smell bad... usually. But every once in a while you get some good whifs of something dying. But our poop tank is now empty.

I'm really excited for this transfer! I know that this is where I am supposed to be, my service in Lomas is needed.

Have an awesome week.

I love you more than you will ever know!

Elder England

I Can't Wait A Whole Week

Elder Brown and me :)

Hey Guys! 

Happy B Day Soph dog!!! I seriously was going to say that last week, but being the horrible person that I am I forgot. However, I hope you had an awesome day. I think I told about everyone yesterday that it was your birthday. Soph you seriously make me so happy, and I can't not laugh when I think about you or look at a picture cause you are just so funny. But mom said that you have grown up the most out of anyone, and I totally agree. It scares me to see my little sister getting so big, but I just want you to know Soph that I love you.

The Europe trip looked amazing!! You two love birds. I like the green pants dad... ¨You look good dude... What?¨ Darn the Utes lost to Washington State. I had actually heard that they beat Michigan so I was all stoked to see how they did this week. It's okay though, UCLA here we come. About college I'm not sure. I definitely need to look for more spiritual guidance. But I was thinking about going to the U and then if I wanted to go to BYU I could maybe try and transfer. But I'm going to be thinking. I'll let you know what I'm thinking. 

Holy cow Macy's emails are so long! How does she have time to write so much. I think she is just better at putting her thoughts into words. But Mace I am really grateful for the blessing that we have had to serve together, it's always a strength to me to know that my sister is out there working hard too.

On Monday Andres sent us a message saying that he couldn't have the lesson and that he was sorry. He then said that they could do it next Monday, and I was like noooooooooooo! I can't wait a whole week! So we called him and set up a charla for the next day (Tuesday). We went by and it turned out that he was the only one home, but we had an awesome charla with Andres. We taught the restoration, and seriously he understood everything perfectly. Elder Brown and I have realized that if we really try and focus on explaining the cycle of God calling a prophet to start a dispensation but that with time the people reject the prophet's and the people fall into a state of apostasy thus forming a need for a restoration or the need for God to call another prophet, it's a lot easier to teach the part about the first vision and the last restoration through Joseph Smith. Anyways it was a killer lesson, and we have another lesson tonight. He said on Tuesday that the only day that the whole family is together is Monday... justo family home evening night:) Unfortunatley he told us that he was not gong to be able to go to church yesterday, but hopefully he will be able to come to conference. Speaking of conference... I'M SO EXCITED! But yeah Andres is really awesome and we went by during the week after Tuesday and he said that he had been praying and that he felt good about what we had taught. Great miracle!!!

Other than Andres and his family there hasn't been much progression with investigators. And as far as Elder Brown's progression I feel it has slowed down. He has been kind of discouraged lately... especially yesterday because it was raining all day and we were drenched. But I was loving it. Like all the streets here flooded and so we were walking in water up to our shins on some streets. But I'm really going to try to help him this week to try and have a more positive attitude. He really is an awesome guy, I just want him to be more awesome. I feel that he is living below his potential. But it's going to be a good week!

Oh the temple was absolutely amazing! Tuesday was a wonderful day, one of the best I've had in the mission. Elder Brown, Elder Ochoa, and I listened to the session in English... so much more powerful. My interview with President Cook went really well. He is such a loving guy. He asked how I was doing with regards to Dean's death, and I told him all about the funeral. He said he would like to read dad's talk. I also invited him to read "Ti Voglio Bene", and he gladly accepted. When we were eating lunch he actually ran and scanned every single page onto his computer so that he could give me my copy back. But he told me that he could see how much our family supports mission service. He said "I can feel the love that a father has for his son when I receive a call from a father asking me to check on his son". (Thanks Dad!) Thanks for all the love and support. I constantly feel that I am the person most blessed in the world... because I am!

I love you more than you will ever know. Have an awesome week!

Elder England

Things Are Going Good Here

We did some service!  This missionary is from guatemala, He said he

lives by Tikal, the city with all the old Mayan ruins.

And he told me that there is a way cool song called

"Soy De Zacapa". You guys should look it up.

Hey happy campers!!!

How are things? The trip sounds awesome!!! You have to send some pictures next week. I'm super jealous about the Porche plant and the Mercedes museum, but I still remember the Ferrari tour museum. Homecoming week? Mag's what's going on with that? Have you been asked? Soph how's middle school going? Bo how's soccer? Kenna Dalt when are you going to have a baby? I mean you've already been married for like 4 years, and hey I've got like 9 months left so...;) 

Things are going good here. We started focusing more on less active members and incomplete families this week rather than former investigators, and we have been seeing a little more success. We actually found a family!!! We haven't had much contact with them. Okay, here is what happened... We had found this one guy named Andres and he was really cool and told us that his mom was a member and that she lives behind his house. Anyways we went by last monday after p day and he said yeah we aren't going to be home much until next Monday... ugh. So we are going to pass by today. Also we really want to help Yonny and Florencia progress, and help them to get married. The problem with them is that Yonny is working even more than he usually was cause he is helping his sister with her work, and this week is vacations here and Florencia says that she is not going to be home all week. But hey there are two families that we are looking to help. In addition, we are trying to work with the families of the recent converts in our ward because almost all of them have family members who are not members. But that is the plan there. We haven't been having too much success in helping our investigators get to church, but it's all going to change. 

So I just realized that I have almost already been here with Elder Brown for a month... wow. Time flies when you're having fun. And I am seeing a lot of progress with Elder Brown's confidence! We had a good talk in our inventario de compañeros in our weekly planning, and since then we have had more unity and are just happier to work hard and give it our all.

Hey guess what we are going to the temple tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! We are going to have interviews with President as well. It's going to be a good day. 

I love you all more than you will ever know!!! Have fun on the trip Corster and Care bear. Have a great week everybody.

Elder England

Last week we went to the beach and a cool house

shaped like an eagle. It was super fun.

A Lot Of Effort, With Little Results

More UTE signs!

Hola!

I wish I could have been there for the funeral, but it sounds like it was an amazing program. I'm excited to get it and read dad's talk. I've been thinking a lot about Dean and the Coffey's this week. Pres. Cook called me when I was on the bus going back to our house. It was good to get a call from him, and he said that he sent me a email but I have yet to read it. Although I'm sad that I'm not there to help, I hope my prayers do help. Although I frequently think of his passing, those thoughts and feelings make me want to work even harder.

I loved reading Macy's email from last week. I don't understand how she does it. How she is so positive, and how she works so hard. Every single week she has amazing stories of how she is being an instrument in the Lord's hands. Colorado sure is lucky. 

This week has been a little tough. A lot of effort, with little results. Well results when referring to people to teach. I feel I have learned a lot this week personally... a lot about patience. We spent a lot of the week in the street doing contacts. We had a long list of former investigators that we had split up into different groups according to where there live. So we were looking for addresses practically the whole week... and Uruguayan addresses are not the best. Not to mention that a good portion of the names on the list were from over a few years ago. Mace was mentioning that some Elders didn't keep the area book very up to date... that is a big problem here in Uruguay. 

I have been thinking a lot lately. Thinking about how at this time in my mission I feel that I am working harder and more efficiently than I have before, yet we aren't really seeing much success. With the focus of finding families, I have been praying to find a family to teach and help. Well during the week I thought that I had recieved the answer to my prayer multiple times. At the beginning of the week we ate lunch with a really nice family in our ward, and the wife of the family told us that she had a referencia that she wanted to give us. So we decided that she was going to write her testimony in a Book of Mormon and then she was going to send a message to this family saying that she was sending a gift to her with some friends. So we gave her a Book of Mormon to write in and then planned to go by the next day, well when she sent the message the family sent a message back saying, ¨Oh thank you but for now no. We don't want to learn more."  I strongly believe that we are only passing through a small trial of our faith... and patience... before we can recieve or see miracles. I know that there is a family here somewhere, we just have to keep looking for them. I'll tell you guys next week about how we found them;) cause we are going to find a family this week.

I love you all more than you will ever know! Especially you Coffey family!

Have an awesome week. Keep moving forward.

Elder England