Week 23 - March 22, 2014

Sat Mar 15. Today was great. super relaxed. We woke up and took Elder Mandujano and Elder Bossa to President so they could drive up to Artigas and then Rivera. We had personal study, and then Elder Woods fell asleep again and didnt get out of bed until after comp study so I studied with E Averett and E Lamb. We went to plaza independencia and then a souveneir store. We drove to the mall to eat Burger King. It was really suprisingly good. We emailed and then lounged for a while. At about 4 Elder Burton, who served here a while ago, came to the offices with his parents. We took them on a bit of a tour of the area and our apartment, and then they took us out for pizza! It was AMAZING pizza! Then we came home and we had our weekly planning!

Sun MAr 16. Today was pretty good. We went to church early to have a meeting with bishop. It went well. After the meeting, we made baptisimal invitations and went to church. I was super depressed because Joaquin and the Priggionis showed up without Ursula. The 2nd hour, I asked Joaquin where Ursula was, but he told me she was at church! A couple seconds later, she came down the stairs. I felt like it was homecoming or prom as the girl was walking down the stairs and then we sang HALLELUJAH! That means we will have a baptism Saturday! Church was alright after that with two very long talks. WE had lunch with Hermana Da Silva. The food was pretty good but she is a bit health crazy so it was all organic and what not. We gave her a blessing after lunch because she asked us. We had language study and then companionship inventory after that. Luckily, we arent clashing TOO much so it wasnt bad ;) Then we went to the mission home to take Audrey to the airport. We sat and talked for a while and then went to the airport with Audrey, Starla, Jerry, and Hermana Smith. On the way, they told us about Elder Arbon being the next AP in place of Elder Gesch. I am pumped to meet him! The airport went well! No problems at all and the Smiths are fun to be around! We went to the offices after that and finished baptisimal records. After we went home, we got invited to go eat with the Binghams, so we happily did!

Mon Mar 17. I did numbers today and it was the best so far! We went to 3Cruces and gave the oros their passports to sign residency. We grabbed lunch at Subway. We went to pick up plaques and then we had to go back to 3C to buy tickets. After hanging out and helping the APs, Elder Arbon and Elder Bossa, we had our comp study. Our lesson with Ursula was about the Law of Chastity. It went very well. We brough Joaquin and her YW president, FLorencia. Then we asked ursula who she wanted to have baptize her! After a couple minutes of thinking and asking, she decided Joaquin! I was super excited about it!!! As much as I would love to do it, I think it is better to have a member do it! Then we had the bolsa run after the lesson. It went very smooth and quick. We then had to take a missionary to Carrasco so we got home late once again.

Tues Mar 18. Today was slow. We had normal studies, then the tower Antel with the financers. We took the APs to their area, and then had lunch. It was a GREAT meal with Hermano Cancela. He cooks really really well. Then we had the district meeting. After the meeting, I did baptisimal records until mutual. We played soccer and volleyball at mutual and it was super fun!

Wed Mar 19. Today was AMAZINGGGG. We had studies, and I have decided to try STRICTLY spanish studies now. Its hard but I am learning a lot! After the studies, we went to Presidents house for a change meeting. At first we had a song and prayer, then President told us we were going to have a 10 min spiritual chat about what we learned from Zone Conferences. It  was an amazing conversation. President said it was one of the most spiritual conversations he has ever been in. It ended up being two hours. A lot of our thoughts were about the Plan of Salvation, repentance, and being better. It really was a GREAT GREAT talk. It ended up about 2 hours instead of 10 minutes. After that, we had taco salad and soup for lunch. It was amazing. We had a huge about of food. Then President asked us to come eat ice cream and sit down in the family room. We talked, laughed, and told jokes for a good hour. I loved it and I wont forget that experience in the mission home today. All of us had a powerful chat, good uplifting correction and evaluations, and then all shared funny stories with President. President Smith is a great guy. I learn a lot from him and really admire him and how he thinks. After that, we ran to the church offices, and then went to our lesson with Ursula. She took out all her ear piercings yesterday. We just went over the baptisimal interview questions and touched a couple points that we could improve. After that, I did registros, went to disco, then bed!

Thur Mar 20. Today was pretty great. WE had our own personal studies. I read PME the whole time and it was great. Then we went to the offices to load the CVC stuff for the Hatch couple. After that, Elder Averett and I embarked on our adventure through montevideo together. Neither of us have driven a lot so it was a good learning experience. We did well though. We bought tickets at 3C, went to the bank, got bolsas. Then I waited for changes and worked on registros, new missionary papers, and organized the mail room all day. We had a great lesson with Ursula about enduring to the end. She even cried, for the first time. Then we went to pass around baptisimal invitations to a lot of people. We stopped to talk to Julie, who speaks fluent english. It was really weird to talk to a Uruguayan in English but it was really cool. She lived in South Carolina for 7 years. After talking to her, we went to the Melo and Cal houses and asked them to come to the baptism. We still dont have changes!

Friday Mar 21. Today we got changes! We had studies, then got packages from the aduana and correo Uruguayo. After that, we checked out the changes. We had lunch with a less active family. They gave us chorizo sandwiches. We worked on changes until 7 when we had correlation. We had our baptisimal interview for Ursula. E Moffatt, our District Leader, said she is super prepared and will be a GREAT convert. I really do feel like she is super prepared and ready! We did more changes after that, and went home!