Valentines Day 2011

Way to go C!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And way to go A WOOOOOOOOOO JAPAN!!!!!!!!!
That is so exciting. my comp right now goes to byu-i. He loved it. He is Elder B, and he is awesome. We are way good friends, and he wants to work hard, so we should be great here. The only problem is that we might get along too well, but we made a goal to always have the light off at 1030 because with the light off we only make it like 5 minutes before we fall asleep. He is from Utah, and started the mission almost exactly a year after me, he is my first 2010 graduation companion. He has some work to do on his Spanish, but overall, I'm stoked. And I am a lot less stressed out.

We did a lot of meeting people this week. They had eight baptisms this last few weeks, so they ran out of investigators. We have a few ideas for working with members and doing activities, so I am not worried. Being back close to Montevideo its hard to find new people though. Sadly, we didn't find a single new investigator this week, a few potentials, but nobody solidly taking the lessons. But they did have one investigator named D, and he is awesome, he has come to church like 50 times, or at least thats what he said, and believes in everything, but he doesn't want to get baptized until after his divorce because his wife doesn't believe and sometimes he gets mad and says unchristianlike things to her. we want to work on that a bit.

I still have my guitar, its a little rough to move with, but its worth it. I have been working on some primary songs, they are simple and really fun and a good way to practice reading normal notes. But i haven't played that much lately, except for the time when my companion was sick.
There is this cool couple that work in the temple, the W's, they come to our ward every week, and they hold an English class once a week, Sister W said she would call you guys, I don't know if she has, but they are awesome. My companion was super sick yesterday and so was Sister W, so we had a brother go to stay with my comp in church and me and Elder W were companions at church. Then came the duties. I had to teach the investigators/new members class, bless the sacrament and introduce myself in sacrament meeting. The lesson was only three pages long in the manual, so I had to freestyle, but I think it went alright, it was about the Savior, so its not hard for a missionary to freestyle.

Peace
elder b

7 Feb 2011

hey fam,

Sorry, pday changed back to Monday this week. We still have changes tomorrow, but they gave us pday, woopee. I am out of san jose, goodbye loriders and cholos. i am going back into Montevideo. I am in the same zone as the office elders, but not the same district, but luckily I get to see them every week. I am a district leader over a 4 companionship district, but one of the companionships is the zls. One of the elders in the district is elder W, remember him from the CCM? My new comp is only in his second change, so its a continuation of no Spanish-fest. His name is elder B and I don´t know where the heck in the states he is from, probly utah. I also am in the same zone as president d. cool beans.

You like the blackeyed peas at the super bowl? They were pretty fun when I saw them live. I heard that the packers won, I loved the packers as a kid.

But anyways. this week actually turned out to be really good. There was no murders, and we got two people to go to church. We had good lessons, and we have a bunch of people with baptismal dates. I feel like the area is doing a lot better than when I got here and all we had was T.

We found some awesome new investigators this week, one is named Z and she lives right next to one other investigator, has lived there for 40 years and the missionaries have never talked to her. Its half a block from the church building. She accepted to get baptized on the 5th of march and she came to church. Her 20 year old daughter listens too, but she is super shy and might be afraid of us. That's what happens when you are two flipping attractive elders.

Well we´ll see how the new area goes, I am pretty stoked, they just had like 10 baptisms. But my comp is younger than elder h in the mission, so we might be lost for a while. pray hard. I fasted for C this week. poor kid has to get out now.

Well its late, have a great week i love you guys a ton.

31 Jan 2011

Hey. We had a pretty good week, we found 11 new investigators, which should be some kind of record for this area. But we were short on lessons with member and no one came to church :(. But whatevs, can´t win them all, or was it at all? Next week are changes, so I won´t write until Tuesday, I am thinking that I am gone, but there is also a chance they switch out my comp, that's what they did to the beaner(elder P) when he trained. As for my reading, I am in Exodus 5 or 6, but I am also reading Doctrine and Covenants and I am in section 40.

That is so cool that nopster is in band and that Ms. V is still there, I miss those days. Of course D would play flute, either flute or tuba, hahaha. C has an awesome schedule, you are a lucky dog to get C and S in the same day, I only got that when I visited debate class senior year. Although it is a bummer that she never got Kromillionaire, that would be the bomb. Sam has my sophomore pe teacher, and make sure he knows that the choir teacher is like a pro ultimate player. I am so jealous of dad and his gang, doing the stp, I wish I could be there. we have bikes right now but they are garbage, my front brake doesn´t even exist and the back one rubs when you want to go fast and doesn´t do anything when you want to stop. good thing i bought construction worker shoes, they make excellent brakes...

so this week we talked a lot with C. he is a guy who has come to church quite a few times already and had a few lessons. The only problem is that his work schedule is suuuuper hectic. We set a date to baptize him this Saturday, but he wasn´t able to come to church yesterday so we are moving it back a week. Quite the bummer, but at least he still wants to get baptized. Basically, we are going to do a rehaul of the area this week. our old investigators aren´t really progressing, So, we´ll have frank discussions with them, and see if they want to get it together, and start up with our new investigators, we have a lot of hope in a few of them. this could be a great week.

haha my comp bought these doctrine and covenants dvds at the distribution center and the guy that plays Heber C Kimball looks just like Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords, I don´t know if you remember that show, but its hard for me not to laugh, he even has the goofy big sideburns. haha there is a missionary that just got home this week who served in cuerna vaca mexico, him getting home makes me SO TRUNKY its ridiculous. we had lunch with his family today and he shared some grasshoppers with us, que rico.

hey is kessin putting in his papers soon? I hope he comes here, then I could train him, that would be tight.

well have a good week

love ya

elder b

24 January 2011

Good old Ms. V. I laughed my head off reading about the concert, but ps, I was never told that D was in band, what instrument does she play, does Ms. V remember little squirt elder b? does she call her her last name!!! when she talks to her? She has to stick with it so I can come visit her band class and see concerts. I assume that the dairy queen tradition is just something that has always happened, but we might have started it. haha I loved band concerts, she stopped us in the middle of a song once, and the tempest was my fave.

Pops you are so lucky to have gone to Reno. Did you go off of the rainbow box? Someday I have to conquer that beast to prove my manliness. I didn't realize that grandpa is 78 years old, that is up on the charts, I bet that there are not that many people out there that old. he has had the discount for a while now. my comp is telling me that I have to learn to ski so i can go to Alta, apparently its the best place in the US to ski, but no boarders allowed. we'll see.

C got rearended, rrrrggh. Dang, I have a feeling that dear old henry is not going to make it til October. Poor guy has been through the mill since I left. Just wait to bury him until I get home.

Well, this week. yeah. this week. hahaha this week was one for the ages. We are doing decently well with the members, like they want to help and we are using them, but I have learned something recently. You have to have people to teach in order to have lessons with members. We have started to challenge the members to share the gospel in different ways, but so far we have no visible results. They always have a person in mind, and they go, and wimp out. I guess we're going to have to take them by the hand and talk to the people. But we did find two people from a reference from the ward grandma the other day. We went over to the house right after she gave us the reference, had a cool lesson, and then set a day to go back. Then the second time we went gramma was gonna go with us, but she refused when we got to the house, because she has issues with the son and he was home. well guess what, the son is cooler than the mom, and more interested in the church. but we still love gramma.

N kinda lost his faith in quitting smoking, he smokes less, but still smokes. He said he won't come to church until he feels ready, and wants to know absolutely everything before his baptism. Basically, he is toast for now. I think he saw the light and then got scared of it. L was sick in bed all week and even had to go to the hospital, but she is doing better now. Wasn't able to go to church. but a guy named C went to church. The Hermanas had been teaching him, but he moved to our area. Today we have our first lesson with him, we are going to challenge him to baptism, we want to have it this Saturday. that would be awesome.

Well, I love you guys a ton, thank you for your emails. have a great week

elder b