Contemplating life´s great mysteries ....on a log
We are fishers of men all week, but on Mondays, we sometimes like to fish for... well, fish!
The one fish I caught and landed!
I am standing in Uruguay, and behind me is Brazil!
Making ham, cheese, and onions quesadillas for lunch. We made the tortillas ourselves because it`s way cheaper, but it took us over an hour to make them all.
At Gustavo´s mission call opening
Elder Fonseca injured his ankle on football night, so we had to carry him home on Saturday to his house. And it wasn`t close by.
¡Hola
hermanos y hermanas, amigos y amigas! ¡Es muy bueno otra vez hablar con
vosotros y deciros que ha pasado aca en Chuy!
Mom, thanks again for sending me those talks; they really have inspired me and helped me a ton. Troy Dunn kinda sounds and acts like Coleman, and I thought that was hilarious. And Ed Pinegar is absolutely fantastic! Thanks for the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf. That story of patience being rewarded is what I needed to hear. Uchtdorf always comes in clutch! :)
Pap! Our ward mission leader here, Gustavo, just got his call to serve in the Paraguay, Asunción Norte mission! And the obispo (bishop) here served in Paraguay as well! Reminds me a lot of home.
So I want to start off by telling y`all about my first P-Day last week, because I emailed in the morning. We actually went fishing by this stream/pond and had a blast! I only caught one fish, but had 3 hooked and lost the other two mid-air. Bummer! xD Also, pre-fishing, Elder Anderson brought in this frog for me to look at, and all of a sudden, it peed "like a frickin´ racehorse" all over my suitcase! However, since it was the waterproof one, we all ended up cracking up; I was rolling on the floor.
In the questions below, you`ll see a lot about some of our investigators that are just awesome, like Karen and Dennis & Vivianna. There`s also Nilida and Viktor. We haven`t talked with Viktor yet while I`ve been here, but Nilida has read the Book of Mormon before and feels strongly it is true. They need to get married before they can be baptized, but I have strong hopes for them. And Eduardo is progressing nicely as well. However, we`ve also had quite a few charlas fall through, and the majority of the people hear aren`t interested in changing their religion or going to a religion, period. Contacts are sometimes demoralizing in this way, but we just have to remember that "they that are persecuted for my name`s sake," shall receive blessings in His service. We need to continually press on!
One falling through instance: we promised last Sunday to bake a cake for Fernanda y Gloria, and yesterday we brought it all the way to their house, so excited to give them the cake and to talk with these sweet sisters; and THEY WEREN`T HOME! It was a huge disappointment, but we are going to try again next week with another fresh cake. (Yes, we did eat the one we had brought. It was too good not to.)
Oh yeah, yesterday in church I was able to introduce myself to the ward and bear my testimony in Spanish! Talk about nerve-wracking! However, it went very well and I received a few compliments on my testimony and on my Spanish. God is good! His Spirit and the gift of tongues are REAL!
Well, that´s all I´ve got for today! The Church is true, the Book is blue, Chuy is awesome, and I am still addicted to alfajors! (Seriously, I´ll see if I can bring you family home some; they are soo good! Life-changing!) ¡Os amo! ¡Guardad la fe! ¡Para siempre Dios estè con vos! ¡Ciao!
Mom, thanks again for sending me those talks; they really have inspired me and helped me a ton. Troy Dunn kinda sounds and acts like Coleman, and I thought that was hilarious. And Ed Pinegar is absolutely fantastic! Thanks for the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf. That story of patience being rewarded is what I needed to hear. Uchtdorf always comes in clutch! :)
Pap! Our ward mission leader here, Gustavo, just got his call to serve in the Paraguay, Asunción Norte mission! And the obispo (bishop) here served in Paraguay as well! Reminds me a lot of home.
So I want to start off by telling y`all about my first P-Day last week, because I emailed in the morning. We actually went fishing by this stream/pond and had a blast! I only caught one fish, but had 3 hooked and lost the other two mid-air. Bummer! xD Also, pre-fishing, Elder Anderson brought in this frog for me to look at, and all of a sudden, it peed "like a frickin´ racehorse" all over my suitcase! However, since it was the waterproof one, we all ended up cracking up; I was rolling on the floor.
In the questions below, you`ll see a lot about some of our investigators that are just awesome, like Karen and Dennis & Vivianna. There`s also Nilida and Viktor. We haven`t talked with Viktor yet while I`ve been here, but Nilida has read the Book of Mormon before and feels strongly it is true. They need to get married before they can be baptized, but I have strong hopes for them. And Eduardo is progressing nicely as well. However, we`ve also had quite a few charlas fall through, and the majority of the people hear aren`t interested in changing their religion or going to a religion, period. Contacts are sometimes demoralizing in this way, but we just have to remember that "they that are persecuted for my name`s sake," shall receive blessings in His service. We need to continually press on!
One falling through instance: we promised last Sunday to bake a cake for Fernanda y Gloria, and yesterday we brought it all the way to their house, so excited to give them the cake and to talk with these sweet sisters; and THEY WEREN`T HOME! It was a huge disappointment, but we are going to try again next week with another fresh cake. (Yes, we did eat the one we had brought. It was too good not to.)
Oh yeah, yesterday in church I was able to introduce myself to the ward and bear my testimony in Spanish! Talk about nerve-wracking! However, it went very well and I received a few compliments on my testimony and on my Spanish. God is good! His Spirit and the gift of tongues are REAL!
Well, that´s all I´ve got for today! The Church is true, the Book is blue, Chuy is awesome, and I am still addicted to alfajors! (Seriously, I´ll see if I can bring you family home some; they are soo good! Life-changing!) ¡Os amo! ¡Guardad la fe! ¡Para siempre Dios estè con vos! ¡Ciao!
Elder
Newman
Mom’s
Questions:
1. What is a normal
proselyting day’s schedule like?
Awake
at 6:30, breakfast at 7, Personal study at 8, comp study at 9, 12 semanas
(weeks) training at 10 (which will end once I`m done being an oro), proselyte
at 11, lunch at 12, language study at 2, proselyte from 3-9, personal time at
9, bed at 10:30
2. What is your p-day schedule
like? Are there any interesting things in Chuy to sightsee?
We
follow the same study schedule in the morning, and then we´ll email in the
morning and last P-day, we actually went fishing! But there are some fortresses
that Elder Adnerson says he wants to show me, so there`s that!
3. What are the people in Chuy
like?
You`ll
hear more in my audios, but they LOVE to talk
4. How long has Elder Anderson
been out? I didn’t see in your letter or hear in your audio file how long he
has been out.
8
months
5. Do you
have any investigators you want to tell us about?
Just
yesterday we had our first charla with Dennis, an Uruguayan, and Vivianna, a
Columbian. Dennis was baptized but almost never attended church and has been
less active for 23 years. Vivianna is Catholic but doesn`t really like or
believe in Catholicism. We taught the Restoration, and they both seemed
interested, and Vivianna REALLY interested. She wants to come to our church!
And they both have accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon and pray
about it. I am really excited for them and think that Vivianna will be a great
strength to Dennis with her enthusiasm, because he`s unopposed but not quite as
invested. Karen is an investigator we`ve picked back up after two months with
(I believe) a husband and child. She is rather quiet and doesn`t know much
about the gospel but LOVES the Book of Mormon and seems to believe everything.
She, I believe, is an elegido; now we just need to get her and her husband
together.
6. Do you get to watch General
Conference?
Yes!
There are two options: we can either watch it in our capilla (chapel) in
Spanish or go to this area three hours away called Treinta y Tres and watch it
English. We`re really hoping some more money comes Friday so
we can get bus tickets and go watch in English!
7. We saw an LDS church not
far from your house when we were looking for your house on Google earth. Is
this your church you attend?
Yup!
Dad’s Questions:
1. Have you had empanadas yet?
Nope,
I actually don`t know what those are
2. What kind of cool sodas?
Guarana
is FANTASTIC! Alos cool to note that in Chuy there is lots of Sprite,
especially for the Brazilians. I mean, LOTS
3. Can you still hammer as many push-ups as you could do in the MTC?
Haven`t
tried since then. Will give it another go later today or tomorrow morning
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