August 22, 2011 with Elder Lopez in Durazno

Hey all,

Another great week. I feel really good about where I am in the mission. Year and a half, I love my area, we're having baptisms, good comp, and....yo que sé(What do I know?=I don't know) I'm just happy.

Big news: Carlos, who got baptized a few weeks ago is now.....on a mission. Sorta. They called him to be a Corto Plazo(short-term) missionary. He's now serving in Montevideo for 3-4 months. We're really excited for him. They called him on thursday from the offices and he left friday morning. He's gonna have more time as a full time missionary than as a member. The ward really helped him out. The bishopric got together to find him a suit coat, shoes, preach my gospel, and the bible. He still doesn't even have a triple combination. It was so awesome helping him get ready to go. Me and Lopez felt like we were sending our kid off on a mission. He was so nervous...as well I would have been in his situation. He's still in second nephi. It's awesome though. Every new convert needs 3 things: A responsability, a friend, and to be nourished by the good word of God. What better place than the mission for all three. Lots of Responsability. Lots of friends. Lots of study time and a guarantee to be in the chapel every week, no matter what. So yeah. Carlos is doing really well.

Margarita, who was going to get baptized, but didn't...is still learning. She wants to get baptized, but she needs to take it really slow. She's gotten a testimony that she needs to get baptized, but she doesn't really understand it yet.

David, who was a new we were referred to last week is flying. He'd already gone to the capilla with friends from the other ward and now he's gone 2 more times with us. He understands everything amazingly. When he went to church the first time before we even knew him, he decided that he had to quit smoking and when we met him, he had already quit and has been off cigarettes about 15 days now. He loves the church and is super excited to get baptized this Saturday. We taught the word of wisdom and tithing in the same charla and he told us that paying tithing would be easy because he's saving so much money by not smoking. He's just incredible. He studies in-depth the pamphlets we leave him. I've never seen an investigator so amazing.

In other news, we're making some big changes in the mission...maybe not huge changes, but it's cool what we're trying to do. We're trying to, instead of always be asking references from the members and convincing them to help us do the missionary work, teach them how to do it. So I also invite you all at home to be member missionaries, even if you think you can't or you don't know anyone.


House: It is kinda hard being the only gringo, but it's good. Yeah, we always speak spanish, unless Camargo wants to practice his english. He's the only one who knows any english and he's not very fluent. Actually...he's really fluent, but...only in slang.

So yeah. That's my life. Our bishop(See picture of Carlos's baptism) is really great. They had a training meeting in Montevideo this last week and he's really excited to work with us. He asked me to give a talk on Sunday. That is, on Sunday, he asked me to give a talk on Sunday. So I prepared it in half an hour and it went well. It's so nice to have a good bishop who's excited about everything. He gave us a good plug for the baptismal service in sacrament meeting and now we're just giving out tons of assignments so lots of members will go. It's all very exciting.

So yeah. Have a nice week.