Mother's Day Skype!

Hello my lovely family,

It was so fun to see you guys yesterday. Thank you so much everyone that went! You guys help me a lot. 

Sorry I don't have much time to write. I decided to use my time to write some other people, cause I talked to ya'll yesterday but I love you all more than you will ever know.

See ya'll next week.

Elder England

Loved talking to Davis!!!! 

He is confident, gentle and focused on finishing his mission strong!

We LOVE him! 

Hoping to get a video put together of highlights soon!

I Am Grateful For Where I Am

Hello my friends!!! 

Oh my gosh we are going to see each other in less than a week. So we got changes!!! Elder Miles has not left yet. He will be leaving on Friday, but I will be going to my new area tomorrow! Yeah my new area!!! Okay I'll explain... I am going to a different ward here in Durazno with Elder Martinez the Elder from Colombia that was living with me. We are going to be the zone leaders here. I'm super excited!!! We get along really great and because we were living together we already know each other really well. It was super fun telling him the transfers while being with him. I took a video, but I don't think that I can send it. You'll just have to wait 6 weeks. But yes, Elder Miles and I talked to the assistants about putting sisters in one of the areas here in Durazno, because all of the sisters in our zone live outside the city in smaller cities. Well when we have conferences or transfers they have to stay with members over night because we are all Elders here. So we explained the situation and they said that they would think about it. So in the ward I am in now they are going to put sister leader trainers, and they will be living in the house that I am in now. I am going to move houses, but I will still be here in Durazno. Seriously all of the changes in the zone are great! I'm very excited for my last change. Elder Martinez was already in this area so we won't have to do a white wash. 

About skype, I think that we are going to do it at 6:30 here... which would be 3:30 there. I hope that we can figure it out, but if anything happens I'll try to contact you. 

Wow Spencer and John got their mission calls!!! That is so crazy for me. They seem so small to me. But I'm super excited for both of them. You guys are going to be amazing missionaries.

Thank you mom for setting everything up, I love you!!! and I can't wait to wish you a happy Mother's Day and wish Mags a happy B day. It's crazy that I'm skyping on Mags B day and I'll get home on Kenna's B day. You´re very welcome, for me making your birthdays so special. But they will be very special days for me too.

This week has been great! KAREN GOT BAPTISED!!! She is really amazing. It's going to be great for her to have sisters here in this area. In her baptism she gave such a great testimony. I didn't think she would get up and share her testimony because she is kind of shy, but she got up and shared a lot about how she has felt over the past month or so. President said that he felt good about her being baptiz ed. He said that he asked her multiple times if she was really willing to endure to the end, and she obviously responded yes. Her mom and aunt and some cousins went to the baptism, and it seemed that they enjoyed the service very much. Hopefully the sisters can get to work on helping her family.

YESSSS!!! I just looked on the mission newsletter which shows all the baptisms from the last week, and in Rio Branco it says Marcela and her son Nicolas. I wish I could have been there. But I'm so happy for her. 

We also had concilio last week. It was really great. Oh and we did divisions with the assistants. It was a pretty busy week. But in concilio we talked a lot about the work with members. We trying to change the mission so that we work more with members. The culture of the mission has definitely not been that of working with the members. But we are making plans to be able to do just that. 

We gave a zone conference yesterday to explain all the plans and goals that we made in concilio with the rest of the zone. It went really great. Elder Miles and I were talking a lot the other day about how much the mission has helped us have more confidence in public speaking or teaching in general. The mission has definitely blessed me in so many different ways. I was reading just this morning a talk from a year ago by Pres Uchtdorf. He was speaking about being grateful in every circumstance. As I read I felt the truthfulness of what he was saying. When I am grateful for where I am and the trials that I have, I am a lot happier and I simply enjoy everything more. 

It's hard to explain how happy I am. I'm not very good at expressing myself, but I hope you guys can see how much the mission has helped me. 

See you on the flip flop later!!!

Have a great week!

Elder England

I Was Reminded of My Baptism

Eating icecream!

Howdy folks!

The GT3 is awesome!!! This past week has been really great. It's kind of weird that Elder Miles goes home in like a week, but we are working really hard and seeing so many miracles. Thanks for the update on the old folks, I love hearing about them. I got an email from mamma D, she is so great. I am so blessed to have such wonderful grandparents. They will always be my heroes. Ben is back, that is so crazy. I'm sure he was an amazing missionary. It seems like it was just yesterday that he was teaching me to play basketball at Albion in 9th grade. 

Yes mom, that would be great if you could see what's going on with the U. But I want to pick my classes! I talk to my friends very little. However, I did hear that Brandon is AP I think that Marsh is as well. But I'm not sure. I dream of the day when I can hug all my friends and give them a good beso and talk about our missions together. That also applies to you guys as well. It's going to be so fun. Hey mothers day is coming up!!! HELLO SKYPE YOOOO! I need to write Preston and Matthew. I did wish mooj a happy b day in March, but I think that was the last time I talked to him. I'll try and write him today.

Mags and Moph keep moving forward. You're so close!!! I often think of those weird videos that you two sent me. It gives me much joy to know that you two are still psycho. I miss you both very much, but don't worry we´ll hang out lots when I get home. 

Guess what!!! Elder Perry just sent me an email saying that Marcela is going to be baptised this Saturday in Rio Branco. YEEEESSSS!!! That makes me so happy. I'll send some pics today, I have my cam and I have the chord. As I think of my past areas I realize just how much I love all these people. Oh get this! We were talking to a man at his front door on like Wednesday when I heard behind me a man yelling ELDER! ELDER! So I turned around and it was a member from Florida. I just about screamed HERMANO COMO ESTA? The guy that we were talking to probably thought that I was crazy, but it was so amazing to see him after so much time. He was in his car stopped in the middle of the road, but he just said hey how are you? It was nice to see you... and then he drove off. I have no idea how he recognized me from behind. It was weird too, because I didn't feel like I got to know him very well. I definitely wouldn't have expected him to remember me. I love these people so much and I seriously can't wait for you guys to meet them.

Speaking of meeting people, we had an activity where we watched Meet The Mormons. Karen went. I think that it was an amazing experience for her to see the life of the missionary mom and how her life completely changed. Elder Miles and I were talking about how it must have given her a lot of hope. Karen will have her interview with president this Wednesday. I think that everything will go great, and if it does, she will be able to be baptised on Saturday. She is so amazing. She is kind of shy. It was super funny, she showed like five minutes late to church and she felt bad so she didn't want to enter and interrupt the Relief Society class so she was waiting outside the class. Well we saw her and started talking to her. She was then like no I don't want to interrupt, but we were like nope sorry and just opened the door and said hi everyone Karen is here. She said after that she loved the classes. Oh and she showed up a little late because she was at a birthday party all night. Literally all night! I don't understand hispanics at all. First of all, literally everyone is invited to the parties even if you don't know the person. Also they start the parties at like 10 at night and they are there ALL night. I don't think that Karen slept at all. It's ridiculous, but she definitely understands the importance of going to church that's for sure.

Our mission has been changing a lot over the past 6 months. Oh the conference with Elder Oaks was amazing!!! Geez there are so many things to talk about I just keep remembering how great this week was. I totally saw Elder Devashrayee and some of the other missionaries from the other mission that I met in the MTC. I also was talking to Elder Smart (Parker Smart who went to Brighton with me) for like the whole trip down to Montevideo. It was really fun. 

So the changes have a lot to do with seeing real results or eternal fruits, not just baptizing and then having those people fall off the map. Our retention went up again this week for the zone. We are now at about 40% in Durazno. We are very excited about that. But I definitely can tell that my vision is being highered. I don't know if that makes sense, but I think you understand. And I think that because of our rightous desires to see real results the Lord is blessing us. We have been able to find some really great and prepared people this past week. We will see how they progress.

Also a cool experience from this week. On Thursday we got a call from Pres. Cook. Right as I answered the phone I could tell that something was wrong... it scared me so bad! He then explained to us that the sister of one of the missionaries in our zone had died in an accident. He told us that he was going to call the missionary right then, but that we should try and give this sister missionary a blessing. So we stopped everything and went and caught a bus miraculously that took us to where this sister was. I called the sister when we got to Trinidad and they said that they had a charla then, but would call us after. So we said okay we'll wait for your call. Then we went looking for the church. We found the church so easily which was interesting because neither of us had been to Trinidad before. Also the charla that the sisters were going to have fell through. So they came to the church and we were able to give her a blessing. It was such a spiritual day for me. And as we were traveling back on the bus I felt the spirit so strongly. I was literally as if I was wrapped in the spirit like a blanket. I then for some reason was reminded of my baptism. I remembered that Kenna had made Porter and me a blanket... I assume she was refering to the spirit when she gave us the blankets but it was so interesting to me how well I remembered that. I then started thinking of memories that I had when I was really little. It was weird how specifically I remembered some things.

Anyways we have to travel to Trinidad today and the bus leaves like now. 

I love you all more than you will ever know!

Elder England

We wore our Super Hero Socks to the Zone activity

- Thx mom

Me and my comp! I can't believe he goes home

in one more week!

We All Have Been Given Much, So Much Is Required

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful padres!

I love you two very very much and hope you have a swell day. Thank you so much for every single email that you have sent me, it really helps. I don't know how many times I have just busted out laughing while reading your emails. I think that you both have gotten 10 times more funny since I left. I think it's because I miss you both a lot. But your examples motivate me to give it my all. That is all I have seen you two do, is give it your all. You've given everything for us and for the gospel. Every day and literally everything that happens to me makes me realize how very blessed I am to have you as parents. We have all been given much, so much is required. Keep being the best parents ever!

I got the sock package!!! WE LOVE THE SOCKS! and we are all wearing them to our zone activity today. Yeah we are pretty cool cats, thanks to Care Bear. They were asking me yesterday for your email mom to thank you because they are so grateful, but I think that they are all too busy writing their own families right now. But they are very grateful and so am I.

Mom you need to get to work so that when I get home you can teach me about family history work. I want to get into it when I get home. Bo, sounds like you're doing awesome. Soph and Mags keep it up, and finish the school year strong... if you don't you'll regret it. Something that the mission has changed in me is just a desire to learn. I realized that I went to school with the goal of getting good grades no mas, but I wish I would have done it with a desire to learn. I also think I'm going to read a lot more when I get home... but we´ll see. I might be busy golfing or doing other stuff. But really so many of my desires have changed. It's like in The Fourth Missionary when he says that we should put all our desires and wants in a box and leave it at home, then when we get home we might find out that we don't want some of those things anymore. But don't worry, the box is still closed.

This week was pretty good. The zone kind of dropped a little. A lot of the investigators that we had, had problems and their baptisms are going to be pushed back. But we are trying a lot more to work with members. Also our retention in the zone went up. We were at like 20-25 percent last week, but this week we were at like 35%. I'll send you guys a newsletter that we do each week for the zone. It shows the baptisms we are going to have in the next three weeks and then we always have zone plans. They are just things that we focus on every week.

Karen is doing good. I'll explain a little more next week, we acutally have to go right now because we have a zone activity with all the missionaries and we have to prepare it. But Karen has to have an interview with Pres. Cook due to some past transgressions. So if she passes that (which I honestly believe she will) there will be no problem, she will be baptised. We don't know if Pres. can do it this week, but if he does she will be baptised on Saturday. 

I love you all very much!!! Oh no! I forgot my camera chord :( but I am taking more pics!

Love you all more than you will ever know,

Elder England

I Got To Go

Hello my wonderful friends,

California looks super fun. It's actually stayed pretty warm here so far, so I'm not too jealous. Mom's face looks hilarious. You're a good sport mom. Those pickles though!!! Sorry to hear about your grandma Dalt. I'll be praying for you guys. 

So Elder Hatch and Elder Ochoa both emailed me talking about their visit. Okay sorry I can't think very straight cause I have to go to the bathroom but the bathroom here is broken so I'm just going to hold it, so this email might be kinda weird.

To answer your question mom, everyone knows about the talk "The Fourth Missionary" and they actually gave me a copy of it when I got here. But they are just putting a big focus on consecrating ourselves. 

We have an investigator named Karen who went to church yesterday!!! Also another investigator named Lilian. Karen is so awesome and has a baptismal date for the 25th. She is only 19 years old and has a little girl named Jazmine who is like 2 years old. She is really smart though, and understands the importance of the family and the mistakes that she has made. She said she really liked the stake conference that we had yesterday, even though we were sitting at the way back and she took her daughter and was watching her the whole time. She is great. Lilian is a former investigator, but she is really awesome as well. She is like 60 years old. I actually met her for the first time in church. We had tried going by several times but she wasn't home, also while I was on an intercambio Elder Miles went with a different missionary to her house. But we had a lesson with her last night, so I got to know her a little better. She is great, and actually has a big testimony, she just has problems with leaving her Catholic roots. She feels like she is betraying her family. But we had a very spiritual lesson last night and she committed to pray about being baptised. She has already gone to church for a long time actually and knows a lot. She just needs to pray about everything. We will see with her. 

I feel great here. Elder Miles is working really hard which helps me a lot. He is actually a really big car guy. It's fun. 

The zone is doing pretty good, we have amazing missionaries here in Durazno. Oh we have an open house in our church this Saturday, so that'll be fun. We have been handing out invitations like crazy. 

Okay I think it's getting to the point where I got to go. I love you very much. Have a great week. Sorry for the short email!

Elder England

I Am Loving It Here In Durazno

Conference fun!

Elder Miles my comp is the one on the right!

What the heck are they doing there!

Haha it was super weird to see pictures of Ian and Luke at our house. Ugh... they told you the Lorax story. That's okay, I'm not ashamed of it. It sounded super fun though. I really love those guys, and look up to them a lot.

This week was really busy wow. But it was absolutely great. Concilio was so amazing. Elder Miles said that it was the best concilio that he has been too since he has been a zone leader. It was very spiritual and uplifting. They focused a lot on being the fourth missionary and consecrating ourselves every day. On Friday we had a zone conference, and Elder Miles and I taught to the zone everything that they taught us in concilio. I felt really great about the conference, and all the comments I heard about the conference were very positive. During the conference we had all the missionaries write things on a paper that are holding them back from being the fourth missionary. Then we read about the story of the people of Ammon and how they buried their weapons of war. Then after comparing the story to us, we pulled out a trash can and invited all the missionaries to rip up the paper with the things holding them back and throw it away promising to bury those things and never take them out. It was awesome. 

Conference was amazing. I loved the priesthood session. I missed being with dad during that session, but next conference we will be able to go together. I loved Uchtdorfs talks. We actually weren't able to watch the last session on Sunday. It was such a bummer. For one, one of our investigators Karen (a 19 year old girl) showed up for the last session and was excited to watch. However, right as the conference started and Elder Eyring stood to direct, the conference just stopped. After waiting for like 45 minutes for the members to try and fix it, they told us that they weren't going to be able to get it back on. They were saying it was a problem with the satelite signal or something, I don't know. But Karen was really patient in waiting, I was just bummed that she couldn't hear anything. We did watch conference live though. It wasn't in our church, but in the stake center. It's not to far from our building though. This next week we will be there again for stake conference. Hopefully all the missionaries can make plans and arrangements to get their investigators to the conference. 

I am loving it here in Durazno. Elder Martinez, one of the missionaries that I live with, and I always are shooting each other with the nerf guns you sent us. It is such a blessing to live with the missionaries that I'm living with. When everyone has a sincere desire to be obedient and focused it makes everything a lot easier.

The ward is really awesome. This week I should be able to get to know the members a little better. But I feel very comfortable here. 

I remember a year ago going to a stake conference in Durazno with Elder Hatch. It seems like that was yesterday. The time is going by so fast. Just don't get too trunky guys.

I love you all more than you will ever know.

Elder England 

We Have Our Hands Full

Hello!!!!

The trip sounded amazing. I love the pics. That's too bad uncle Todd running his new car off the track. But it sounded pretty fun. Darn I just saw that Elder Perry sent me an email rubbing the loss in my face. I'm very pleased with what the UTES did though. 

So I love Durazno and Elder Miles. We are about 3-4 hours from Montevideo, whereas Rio Branco was a good 6 hours out. Durazno is really pretty though. There are trees lining every street in the city. It's pretty nice cause it gives a lot of shade. My house is nice too, and I love the missionaries in my house. So Elder Miles is from Colorado Springs, Colorado. I don't think that that is Macy's mission. But something interesting about Elder Miles is that he is a convert of about 3 years. He is in his last change, so next change I will have a new comp. He is a really hard worker though. We already get along great and are super excited to work hard and be examples for the zone. We have 20 missionaries in total in Durazno and 3 district leaders. I feel great about our leaders and about the next month. 

Wow we have so many things coming up. So this week we have something called concilio. It is where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders go to Montevideo and have a council about the mission. We have that tomorrow. Then we have general conference. Then the week after we have stake conference in the Durazno stake. Then the week after that we are doing a big open house in our church. The Burnetts (senior missionaries from Sandy Utah) travel the mission doing open houses in all the churches, and we have one planned in our ward for the 18th. Then we are having a conference with one of the twelve apostles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They didn't tell us who it is going to be. But we will have that conference in Montevideo on the 21st of April. It is going to go by really fast! But we will definitely have our hands full. 

I really like the area. The ward is also a lot stronger and more organized than Rio Branco. I think it is mainly because it is larger and in a bigger city. Usually the zone leaders are in the stake centers, but we aren't. But the stake center is here in Durazno pretty close. We don't have anyone super firm for right now, but we do have potential. Over the past couple days I have mainly gotten to know a lot of the members. They all seem very excited to be a part of the open house and to invite friends to general conference. 

I haven't heard much about Rio Branco since I left, but I am going to write Elder Perry to find out what is going on there and how Marcela is doing. 

I got the Easter packages, and I love them. Thank you!!! Elder Martinez one of the elders in my house and I are always shooting each other with the nerf guns. It's pretty great. 

Oh and get this... we have air conditioning in our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that it is like one of the two houses in the whole mission that have it. But it is wonderful. The mission has helped me a lot to recognize all the blessing that before I so easily took for granted. Be grateful for air conditioning. But it is acutally cooling off a little, so I don't think that we will be using it for very long.

Anyways I love you all very much, more than you will ever know!

Elder England

also my camera is dead... sorry no pics