Elder Newman's Mission Adventures in Uruguay: ¡Cinnamon cake and 2 hour charlas!

After a long night of flights, Jackson arrived Tuesday, Sept. 13th at the mission home, tired but excited and ready to get to work. Here are some pictures the mission sent us the day he arrived:

All of the missionaries that arrived on Sept. 13, 2016

President and Sister Eddy with Elder Newman

Elder Holland and Elder Newman

Elder Newman with his trainer, Elder Anderson

After six days in Uruguay, here is the letter we received from Elder Newman.

Greetings from Uruguay! Crazy to think I`ve almost been a full week here in the field! It is sooo different than the MTC but I love it here! There is a powerful Spirit in this mission!

Time to tell y`all about my area! I am currently serving in Chuy, which is an area on the east coast that actually is part Uruguay, part Brazil! A lot of our members and investigators actually live in Brazil, so I have been as far as 2 miles into Brazil!

Some customs of the Uruguayas: Their biggest meal here is lunch. The whole country has siesta about 2 PM, and we stop proselyting at this time and do language study until about 3. They have this thing called Mate: It is this special cup that holds this special plant called erva ("chairvah"), a kind of grass that you mix with water. Everyone here drinks it with these mate cups and in all sorts of crazy ways: carrying their child in one arm, mate in the other; walking down the streets, on their motorcycles using only their hips to keep the bike upright. It`s a pretty funny sight to see. We as missionaries are only allowed to have mate in our houses, but I have not and have no plans to. They also do cheek kisses here, and the missionaries are only permitted to do it with the dudes. Hasn`t happened to me yet. Their Spanish is really funky: the letter y that is not alone or at the end of a word makes the "sh" sound, as does the double l (ll). Their consonants are really soft if even existent, and they talk really fast and love to talk a ton. An average charla (appointment or more technically "chat") lasts between 1-2 hours here rather than under 40 minutes. Most people here believe in God and are either Catholic or don`t have a religion, and there are some atheists too.

I currently live in a house on the Uruguayan side at 316 Leonardo Oliviera with my trainer, Elder Anderson, and Elder Fonseca and Elder Saeteros. You`ll be introduced to them in my audio recording, but it is a blast living with them! Elder Fonseca has been out for a year and a half is an amazing missionary but also one of the biggest cheeseballs I`ve ever met. He is training Elder Saeteros who has a month left of training. Chuy is split up into A and B, and I have B and they have A. Elder Anderson is absolutely awesome: he is way spiritual and an incredible missionary but also is not a robot; way chill, way funny as well.

Some cool/funny/crazy experiences here:

-We had a 2 hour Bible Bash on Friday! These people met us while we were tracting (which is rare here, normally we end up just giving out pamphlets) and we started to teach them. Marcelo and Claudia were their names and they were former Catholics who believe very strongly in the Bible. We would show them instances in both the BoM and the Bible how the two go together, and they (Marcelo mainly; Claudia listened more and was better) would continue to argue about how the Bible refuted this and that and yadayadayada. And not only did they fight with us, they frequently had verbal spats among themselves as well. It was nuts, especially since I had very little clue what was happening. However at the end, Elder Anderson had been arguing over how the Old Church had a prophet (Jesus Christ at the time), 12 apostles, and the priesthood, and how there could only be one true church who had these things; and finally, in a non-yelling but firm and powerful voice, he declared that we had these things today and that, consequentially, Christ`s Church of old was on the Earth today. A prominent silence filled the room, quickly followed by the Spirit, for that had been Claudia`s main concern. We both were able to bear powerful testimonies of the Book of Mormon and of the restored Church, and we invited them to read it and "try the word of God." We`ll see what happens!

-Yesterday we visited some less actives to see how they were doing. They are an old mother and mature daughter named Gloria and Fernanda, and the mother Gloria is blind. They are INCREDIBLE! We started out just seeing if there was anything we could do to help them, and we just started to chat. They commented on how good my Spanish was for 4 days in the field and were very impressed. (So that`s good!) Somewhere along the way we got talking and reminiscing about 80´s and 90´s music, and they know quite a bit! (Oh yeah, there`s a LOT of music popular in the States that`s played in South America. I mean a LOT.) Whenever either of the sisters or my companion didn`t recognize an artist we`d mention, I`d sing a quick excerpt, and most of the time they`d be like, "Ah, ¡sí! ¡Yo sé ahora!" Really fun. Finally I shared Moses 6:34 as a scriptural thought of how Christ always walks with us through trials or sunshine, and they proceeded to tell me of an experience where their non-member daughter /sister had tried to kill them multiple times and sometimes through other people too. (I didn´t get this until afterwards when E' Anderson explained.) What I did get was that for a small time they accused God for not being there, but through prayer and faith, they came to realize that He was always there, much like the story of the pairs of footsteps in the sand. We had come to edify and strengthen these sisters, but I was truly edified tenfold in return. And through the power of the Spirit, I was accurately able to tell the story of how Seminary Council had chosen this scripture last year and why it was my favorite. Such a sweet, tender experience, and we will be bringing them a cake next week.

-Speaking of cakes, I am learning how to bake! E' Anderson is a master cook and has this cake with cinnamon in it as well as this rich cream/sauce that we put on top of it that is one of the best desserts I have ever had, if not THE best. Incredible! (Mom, I`ll try to send you the recipe next week) Yesterday we made one and I was able to put in some ingredients and mix and stir quite a bit! WAY fun!

Well, I`m out of time, but just wanted to let you know that everything here is awesome and I am loving Chuy in Uruguay! Can`t wait to tell you more next week! ¡Ciao!

Dad’s Questions:

1. How was your first discussion in the field? How much were you able to understand/participate?

It was absolutely CRAZY! I went on splits my first day with Elder Saeteros, and we got invited in by this ancient Evanglist lady who proceeded to talk and talk and talk some more. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and since Elder Saeteros knows no English, I couldn`t get much explanation. However, I was able to share the 1st Vision, so I still participated!

2. What are the most interesting foods you have had so far?

Yesterday I had cow intestine! It was actually pretty steller! Also, Elder Anderson and I have baked this cinnamon cake and made this thick cream to go on top, and it is FANTASTIC. I`ll send you the recipe sometime, Mom.

3. How is the foot?

Great. No complaints

Mom’s Questions:

1. What is your companion’s name and where is he from?

Elder Anderson! He is from Leesburg, Virginia

2. Can you understand the people? Can you speak to them?

I can speak to them alright, but understanding is a WHOLE different animal! In the beginning I understood just about nothing; now I can get the general gist of conversations, and Elder Anderson clears up what I didn`t catch

3. What is your ward/branch like?

There`s about 600 members in our ward and about 72 that attend regularly. Everyone is so sweet and patient with my Spanish struggles

4. What is your apartment like?

We have an actual house! And by Chuy standards, it`s pretty decent! (I`ll send you pics) However, it gets REALLY cold at night and in the morning because it`s made out of concrete, and so far I`ve seen 2 cockroaches, a slug, and a spider in our house, which by Uruguayan standards is supposed to be really good. Not pleasant

5. How’s the food? Are you getting enough to eat?

Wonderful, and yes! The members here LOVE to serve you food, especially lunch, and our leaders and president have advised us to do it as much as possible, because it blesses their lives (and ours too) for them to serve us food.

6. How’s the weather this time of year?

We are currently in primavera (spring) so there are days where it is fantastic weather and I can just go white short-sleeved shirts, and others where only my overcoat will keep me warm. And it`s about as bipolar here as Utah, except even more so, because due to the humidity, the cold penetrates your whole body and I hear that in the summer you`ll be sweating constantly. So there`s that!

7. If I send you music, is it best to send a CD or should I send a thumb drive with the songs on it? (I bought some music for you for your birthday and wanted to send it off this week, but wasn’t sure if you had a cd player in your apartment or if you just have your mp3 player.)

Probably in email attachments, and then I can download it onto my MP3 player.

At the mission home/temple grounds with my trainer, Elder Anderson

Elder Fonseca y Elder Saeteros tuvieron un bienvenidos amable para mi :)

The wind was so bad the night we got here that it destroyed part of our fence! Oh well.

Our kitchen!

Our bathroom/washer

Living room/study room for Elderes A (Fonseca y Saeteros). The clothes on a line are drying because we have no dryers out here

Bedroom

Exterior of our house

Here they have these cookie things called an alfajor (alfahor, like Korihor) that are so freaking good! A few versions of them also have crazy amounts of trans fat (like 8 grams worth). Here in Uruguay, it`s almost guaranteed you´ll get fat due to these and the meals from members: my trainer was 150 when he got here and worked out every day, and now he´s 180. So now I work out for damage control: abs and pushups until I can start running again

This is the centre of the city on a road called Avenida Brasil/Uruguay. On the right side of the road is Uruguay, and on the left is Brazil, and the walking thingy in the middle is considered a dead/neutral zone. We get most of our groceries in Brazil and other stuff like materials and alfajors in Uruguay

A horse outside our house. Not unusual at all

Cemetaries here are big courtyards fenced off, and the graves are literally big drawers that you place the bodies in. Not kidding. And if you´re rich enough, you can place them in special houses