Elder Parry is "Speaking in Church" on Feb. 26th Sunday!

Thank you for reading Elder Parry's blog. He will be speaking in church next Sunday, Feb. 26th at 1:00 pm. Directions follow or call us if you need more information: 801-572-7466.

Desert Sage Ward and Parry's Home after Sacrament Mtg., Desert Sage Ward: 14550 S. Juniper Crest and Parry's Home: 14624 S. Desert Sage Drive

Elder Bryan Parry will be speaking in church at 1:00. Please come over for refreshments after Sacrament Mtg. Directions to the church: Take Bangerter west from I-15 to 13400 S, turn W. on 13400 S to McDonald's (50th W). Turn left (South) and stay on this road until you reach the top of the hill. The church is one block past the 4 way stop on the left. Parry's House: We live right across the street from the church. We live South of the church in the Juniper Pt. neighborhood. Turn in on Alpine View and take a quick right on Desert Sage. Our address is 14624 S. Desert Sage Drive. 801-572-7466.

Final Mission Email Feb. 20, 2012

Hey all,

I assume everyone's waiting for the epic 创final email of elder parry创 but I honestly don't know what to say. My mission is ending and it went really well. This last week has been really awesome. Really really hot, but awesome. I'm excited for the snow and all that good stuff. I'll see you all on Thursday and I can tell you more about what's going on.

I'll be figuring out some good stuff for the country report. I've already got the clothes and such to show off, so I'll be looking at coins and other stuff to show. It'll be really cool.

I kinda just wanted to take advantage of the fact that these emails/blogs are being recorded to share my testimony.

In all my life, I've felt that the church was true and that God lives and I heard the stories my whole life of the prophets and the miracles that we read in the scriptures. I always...believed the stories, but I didn't have real...faith in their promises yet. I had the sensation that they were true, but didn't know what they had to do with me. When I was in high school. I really dedicated myself to find out if the Book of Mormon was true and have a firm testimony and in several occasions, I felt spiritual confirmations that it was true. I did a lot of stuff in the church. Going on Sundays, mutual night, firesides, campouts, efy, etc. and that helped strengthen me, made it so I didn't fall (too hard), but not until I got to the mission did I learn what the importance of all that was. Why do young men's leaders care if young men go to mutual? Why do people go to efy? Why do sunday school teachers work so hard to get their kids into the class instead of the couch in the foyer? They're questions that many people ask themselves, but I got to the mission and I figured it out. All we do in the church is to help us get home. They're tools the Lord has provided to help us through this mortal probation. I know the church and its organization is perfect. The men and women who are called to run it are inspired of God to know how to best help the people under their care. I've learned a lot about goals. God helps us progress toward eternal life by setting shorter stepping stone goals--baptism, recieving the priesthood, going on a mission, etc. When we get committed to achieve these goals, the Lord blesses us and while we're in the pursuit of these smaller goals, we realize looking back that we got a little closer to achieving the ``work and glory`` of God to achieve 创immortality and eternal life创 I know now, through study, prayer, and application at least a little bit of the how and why of the gospel and my testimony has increased in size and power. Now I'm excited to get home and keep working in the Lord's work and apply all the things I learned here in Uruguay.

Love you! See you on Thursday!










--
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Elder Parry with mine own hand, which is the token in every email: so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

February 13, 2012 with Elder Baxter in Melo

Hey all,

So, this is it. The penultimate email of my mission. I can't believe
I'm almost there. It's so weird. People are constantly asking how I
feel. Do you want to go home? Are you nervous? Are you happy with how
the mission has gone? Yes. To all of the above. I've been really
really happy lately. The work's going really well. Rene got baptized
on Saturday and confirmed yesterday. Fernanda also got confirmed
yesterday. So we're now all up to date on our confirmations. We've
been finding tons of people that have all accepted baptismal dates.
Unfortunately, they're all for the 25th of February and the 3rd of
March...so I won't be here, but I know I'm leaving the area in good
shape for the new elder who comes in. At least I'll get to see a
sealing the 25th. We have a goal in the mission to have a baptism
every week. When I get home I'll have to see if we can help some
people get baptized too.

The weather's pretty nice. Just a little hot. I've now started wearing
the wide-brimmed gaucho hat I bought as a souvenir. It's nice and
cool. Upper 40's is sounding pretty nice though, since right now we're
lower 30's celsius. Kinda sad I won't get to come home to snow. Oh
well. I'll have to just go snowboarding to see it.

I haven't gotten my trunky packet yet. The offices are really slow
these days. It's impossible to get anything sent up here to Melo. We
don't even get copies of the Book of Mormon, Restoration Pamphlets, or
Baptismal records to create membership accounts, which we need. We
know it's not lost, but usually they don't send a box the week before
change day, so we don't know if it's coming or if they'll just give it
to me next tuesday. OH well. Either way, I'll be coming home. I don't
think it's that big of a deal. I'm thinking of calling Elder Pike to
ask him about details so I can start packing today.

Sounds good for the release time and sacrament meeting talks and such.
Sounds like a really busy week I have ahead of me. Fwa! I don't know
about the whole ward thing. I'd like to start out with you guys I
think. Maybe switch over to the singles ward once I'm a little more
normal and integrated into normal Utahn society. I'm still gonna have
a lot of countryside Uruguayan customs, like saying "Ohhhpa.." instead
of "hey" If I go to a singles ward right away, I don't have a chance
of getting married. If the bishop asks (or reads this blog) let him
know I'm willing to help out in any calling.

It'll be really exciting to see what happens when I get home. I'm
gonna have to do some serious adjusting. Just a heads up to anyone
reading this. If you talk to me when I get back, you might not
understand me very well. If I say "Cualquier cosa" or "Yo que se" just
don't worry about it. I say them a lot and don't know how to say
cualquier cosa in english.

Hey all,

It rained! It finally cooled down! It feels really good these days and
it's been a really good week.

We had an investigator come to church a couple weeks ago, Rene(e) but
didn't come last week and we've only taught her once outside of church
and she came yesterday. It was a miracle. She has some serious desires
to get baptized. She kept saying that she needs to get out of the
house she's renting because it's got a lot of problems, including
neighbors who make fun of her for being religious, but she said she
wouldn't be able to make any positive change in her life unless she
was baptized first. It's really cool teaching her. She has a lot of
faith. yesterday after church we taught her the word of wisdom and she
told us that she smokes. When we challenged her to quit, she accepted
really fast and said she'd quit immediately. When we called her last
night to verify the lesson for tomorrow, she said she hadn't smoked
and said she's just completely done with smoking forever. It's so
awesome.

Anyways, sounds like things are going pretty well at home. In the
mission we have a big focus in planning about 3 weeks ahead,
anticipating changes in the ward or with our investigators.
Now....that 3 week planning has a lot to do with what I hear on Monday
morning rather than what happens during the week. Every Thursday we
have weekly planning session and get ready for the next week (Monday
to Sunday). I have one more planning session that I'm planning for my
area and then one where I'm basically planning my first week home.
haha. It's getting pretty close.

We had zone conference this week in 33 and it was awesome. I got to
see President Dutra, my first branch president and he couldn't believe
I'm almost going home. I gave my valiant testimony in the conference.
Elder Pike and Elder Taylor gave their testimonies with me too since
they're in 33. It was a really nice, spiritual experience. Pike and
Taylor also recieved what is called ```The Trunky Packet`` which is a
packet of papers that explains the luggage limitations for the flight
along with the flight plans and some papers to fill out to plan out
life as an RM (Finding work, education, wife, etc.) Mine didn't come
for some reason, so I'm gonna be asking the offices today to figure
out what happened and what I should do.


Questions and answers:
Anything special about zone conference since it's my last one? Just
the testimony. Every zone conference is somebody's last zone
conference, so it's usually just the valiant testimony.
What happens in the last week? I don't know real well....since that's
in the trunky packet, but I have an idea. Monday is p-day like normal,
here in melo. Packing and saying goodbye and such. Tuesday is change
day. Me and my comp are in charge of the trip again, rent the bus,
pick everyone up, and such. Wednesday is kind of a free day that we
can visit people. Since I was only in one area in Montevideo, I'm
gonna go there. We don't have much time. I'm probably gonna be with
Elder Gardner, since he was in an area close by. I'm gonna visit
Martha and Heber probably. I don't know who else I would visit there.
It's a pretty complicated area and I think we only have part of
tuesday and maybe wednesday morning to visit. Then we go to the temple
with President Da Silva and that night we have Family Home Evening
with all who are going home and President and his wife in the mission
home. Then that night we go to the airport and we leave. You have all
the flight plans. We go straight from Carrasco in Montevideo to Miami,
then Dallas, then Salt Lake City.

So yeah. That's about it. Life's going good. My comp and I are getting
along. The area's doing well. The zone's looking good, and most
importantly, I'm finishing strong.

Talk to you next week!






--
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The
Lord be with you all. The salutation of Elder Parry with mine own
hand, which is the token in every email: so I write. The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.










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Hey all,

It rained! It finally cooled down! It feels really good these days and
it's been a really good week.

We had an investigator come to church a couple weeks ago, Rene(e) but
didn't come last week and we've only taught her once outside of church
and she came yesterday. It was a miracle. She has some serious desires
to get baptized. She kept saying that she needs to get out of the
house she's renting because it's got a lot of problems, including
neighbors who make fun of her for being religious, but she said she
wouldn't be able to make any positive change in her life unless she
was baptized first. It's really cool teaching her. She has a lot of
faith. yesterday after church we taught her the word of wisdom and she
told us that she smokes. When we challenged her to quit, she accepted
really fast and said she'd quit immediately. When we called her last
night to verify the lesson for tomorrow, she said she hadn't smoked
and said she's just completely done with smoking forever. It's so
awesome.

Anyways, sounds like things are going pretty well at home. In the
mission we have a big focus in planning about 3 weeks ahead,
anticipating changes in the ward or with our investigators.
Now....that 3 week planning has a lot to do with what I hear on Monday
morning rather than what happens during the week. Every Thursday we
have weekly planning session and get ready for the next week (Monday
to Sunday). I have one more planning session that I'm planning for my
area and then one where I'm basically planning my first week home.
haha. It's getting pretty close.

We had zone conference this week in 33 and it was awesome. I got to
see President Dutra, my first branch president and he couldn't believe
I'm almost going home. I gave my valiant testimony in the conference.
Elder Pike and Elder Taylor gave their testimonies with me too since
they're in 33. It was a really nice, spiritual experience. Pike and
Taylor also recieved what is called ```The Trunky Packet`` which is a
packet of papers that explains the luggage limitations for the flight
along with the flight plans and some papers to fill out to plan out
life as an RM (Finding work, education, wife, etc.) Mine didn't come
for some reason, so I'm gonna be asking the offices today to figure
out what happened and what I should do.


Questions and answers:
Anything special about zone conference since it's my last one? Just
the testimony. Every zone conference is somebody's last zone
conference, so it's usually just the valiant testimony.
What happens in the last week? I don't know real well....since that's
in the trunky packet, but I have an idea. Monday is p-day like normal,
here in melo. Packing and saying goodbye and such. Tuesday is change
day. Me and my comp are in charge of the trip again, rent the bus,
pick everyone up, and such. Wednesday is kind of a free day that we
can visit people. Since I was only in one area in Montevideo, I'm
gonna go there. We don't have much time. I'm probably gonna be with
Elder Gardner, since he was in an area close by. I'm gonna visit
Martha and Heber probably. I don't know who else I would visit there.
It's a pretty complicated area and I think we only have part of
tuesday and maybe wednesday morning to visit. Then we go to the temple
with President Da Silva and that night we have Family Home Evening
with all who are going home and President and his wife in the mission
home. Then that night we go to the airport and we leave. You have all
the flight plans. We go straight from Carrasco in Montevideo to Miami,
then Dallas, then Salt Lake City.

So yeah. That's about it. Life's going good. My comp and I are getting
along. The area's doing well. The zone's looking good, and most
importantly, I'm finishing strong.

Talk to you next week!































C

Jan. 30, 2012 in Melo with Elder Baxter

Hey all,

Another good week. Lots of heat. I finally gave in yesterday and put on a hat. I've been using lots of sunscreen (SPF 90+) but it got to the point yesterday that I really felt like I needed to have some shade on my head. This is the heat we had last year at Christmas time. Summer's just a little behind schedule this year, which is nice. The worst part of summer is toward the end, so I'll get to miss that. Rather, I won't be here for the heat...I won't miss it.

We've been having some rough times with our investigators who don't go to church. We have a lot of people to teach and it's being really good, but they just don't go to church. Melo just has a really laid back atmosphere and everyone says, ´´I'll definitely go to church. That sounds great!´´ and they don't go. It can get frustrating. Yesterday the only investigator we had in church was Mario, the deaf-mute...´´husband´´ of a member. They're not technically married, just living together. Mario legally can't get married because his parents declared him insane when he was little. He's now in legal battles to get his legal rights. But the Sister is seeing some progress. She doesn't have all of her membership rights (disfellowshipped?) because of the situation but she's really active and wants to fix things. She took the decision the other day to split up with Mario if they couldn't get the marriage thing figured out. The minute she was praying and said she was willing to do whatever it took to get her rights back, a Seventy called her and told her that her paperwork were being transfered to Salt Lake to be reviewed. There's a really good chance she can get her rights back and this Seventy is a lawyer, and he can figure out how to get them married. It's been really cool seeing all this happen. It was a big testimony to me that God hears prayers. Sister Julia told us that she prayed for hours thanking God, even though she didn't understand most of what the Seventy told her. She just knew it was good and that God had answered her prayers. It was awesome.

Anyways, things are pretty tranquilo around here. Tomorrow, I've got Zone Leader council for February which I love. It's probably my favorite part of being a Zone Leader. We have really good discussions there and learn a lot. It's just 24 Zone leaders, the assistents and President and Sister Da Silva. Then Sister Da Silva makes us lunch and it's always really good. So yeah...vamos Arriba! 12 hours on a bus round trip! It's all worth it.

In other news, all the missionaries and members are starting to realize how close I am to going home. People are asking what I'm gonna leave them and sell them and stuff like that. There's an RM in our ward who holds up his fingers every week to let me know how many weeks I have left. It's really funny. It's getting close. I'm getting pretty excited, but there's so much stuff to do here, it's hard to even think about that stuff. It's weird that people are already committed to going to my homecoming. I can't even get an investigator to come to church if they commit to go on Saturday night, let alone 19 committed 4 weeks before. Utah is a very different place than Melo.

Anyways, I don't know if there's much else to tell. Talk to you next week! Much Love!

Dear Readers of this blog: You are all invited to Bryan's "talking in church" on Feb. 26th at 1:00 pm. Directions later! Thanks for reading-Joyce


--

Jan. 23 in Melo with Elder B

Hey all,

I don't really know what to tell you. I'm super tired. It was a really
good week, but my body is just pleading for rest. Luckily, today is
p-day, so I'm gonna finally get some rest. This week was pretty
normal, except for one thing: I finally got to go to Rio Branco!

Now that Rio Branco is its own district, Elder Gomez is a district
leader out there and I got to do an intercambio with him. We went
looking for my old investigators to see if they had some luck with
them. The ward is doing a lot better now than it was when I was there.
Example: I had quite a few young men and women investigators, but
there were no other young men or young women. Now that they do,
there's a lot better chance they can get those people i was teaching
to church and get them baptized. It was a really fun day. I got to see
some old places and old faces. The missionaries now live upstairs from
where we lived before. The picture of me with the green door is our
old house and now they live right above it. The sign that says Rio
Branco is at the old almost abandoned train station. After I left, I
saw Elder Powell had taken a picture there and I always regretted not
thinking of it. Then we were cutting through there on Friday and I
remembered and I got the pi鐃ure. It was a really great day. Nice to
get a break from my area.

Everything's going well here. We're getting a lot better relationship
with the leaders of our ward. (Still not much lunch, but oh well.
haha) Elder Baxter came in with tons of excitement and is starting to
realize how hard it is to work with our ward, but we're still seeing
lots of good changes. We gave talks yesterday and it was really good.

We were kinda down yesterday because no one that we invited went to
church, but all of a sudden a woman walked into the church with her 2
little kids and she looked lost. I asked her what 创barrio(Ward or
Neighborhood)创 she was from and she said from Barrio Arpi, which is
not a ward, it's a neighborhood, so I knew she wasn't a member. We
directed her to relief society and then in the second hour for sunday
school, we taught the first lesson to her and she was really
receptive. Apparently she'd gone to the same church for years, but was
frustrated because they teach and give sermons, but will never answer
her questions she has about God. She was invited to church by a member
and she came. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted for the
11 of February. It's...really really weird that we're setting
baptismal fechas (dates) for February.

I feel really old. 1 month from today I'll be in Utah, which, because
of the heat we have right now, is sounding like a really good place to
be. I've heard it's not really that cold there though. Is that true?
Is there really no snow? Elder Burnett from Springville said he had
heard that.


Alright, questions and answers:
I don't think it's 130 degrees. That sounds kinda ridiculous. The
hottest I've heard people say is 40 celsius which
is....calculating....104. I would believe that. Maaybe up in Rivera it
could be hotter, just because it's farther north.
I don't see a need to change the homecoming date. You know my schedule
better than I do. I honestly don't really know when the vacation is
either.

Anyways, not much else to tell. I'm taking advantage of my last month
in the mission. We're gonna get a lot of people baptized in the zone
and I'm gonna endure to the end. That's what it's all about, right?






--
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The
Lord be with you all. The salutation of Elder Parry with mine own
hand, which is the token in every email: so I write. The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.





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Pictures Of Melo with Elder Parry and Baxter

Another good week. Hectic, but good. Got my new comp and we're working
a full(it makes sense in spanish). Elder Baxter has tons of animo. He
sometimes starts contacts with ´´Hey! Have you been baptized?!´´ It's
really different. He loves contacts. This is my first (and last) comp
that loves contacts. We're really excited for some good stuff
happening in our area. Our bishop is starting to warm up to us, which
is nice. We also finally got Fernanda, the sister of Lucas baptized.
Unfortunately, they went out of town again and couldn't get confirmed.
Next week hopefully!

Also, Elder Baxter does know Elder Bush. I don't know if they knew
eachother before the mission, but they for sure do now. Zone Leaders
are the closest knit group in the mission. At this point, I honestly
only know people within my own zone, my old comps and the other zone
leaders. There are so many new missionaries in the mission, that I
don't seem to know any one anymore. Oh well. So it is.

Yeah, we had the visit from the Manleys. That was really fun. This is
the second time this has happened to me in this area. We had the
Sesines about a month ago. It's fun getting random updates and hearing
about what the mission was like 20-30 years ago. I love it.

So sounds like everything went well on the homefront with change day
too. That's awesome. Hope it keeps going up.

Wow, it's weird seeing the flight plans. I don't know if I like it. 5
weeks is starting to feel like not very much anymore. I just started
my final missionary planner today, so...pretty crazy.

I don't really know what else to tell. I'm doing well. Change day
travelling was fun. I got to learn some more about efy and the
interview and stuff, so I'm pretty excited.

Hope everyone has a nice week and I'll talk to y´alls next week!

Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you. We've been running every other day. We
go next door to the church and run laps around the field. It's really
fun, even though Elder Baxter is a lot faster than me. Before Elder
Moffitt, I'd never had a faster comp, so Elder Baxter is only my
second (and last) comp that's faster than me.


--
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The
Lord be with you all. The salutation of Elder Parry with mine own
hand, which is the token in every email: so I write. The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Jan. 9, 2012 Melo with Elder B Bryan is now a "Valiente"

Hey all,

Wow! Sounds like big news on the home front! New Ward! New Calling!
That's so cool!
On my mission, I've gotten a huge testimony of callings and have
learned that the most important thing to remember about a calling is
that it's not given to us because we're ready for it, but to make us
ready for it. I've felt that a lot in a lot of situations on my
mission, but the Lord shapes the back to support the weight it lifts
(I'm sure Dad's already told you that one...since he told it to me
last week haha!) I'm really excited for you. It'll be a really good
experience. Definitely a calling that will push you. A little
different that ward librarian, I guess. That's awesome though. Just
remember all the callings and assignments you've had in the past and
think of what you've learned in those situations and why you got those
assignments before your current one. What do you need to apply from
the Library in the Relief Society? I've had to think about that stuff
a lot. What did I learn while training that I need to apply as Zone
Leader? What did I learn from living with 2 trunky columbians that I
need to apply to help 2 Hondureños that have devil worshippers next
door? Alright...that one's a little harder to apply, but you know what
I mean. And don't worry. I didn't laugh. I know you can do it, ma.
You'll be an awesome leader. There's a really good talk about
leadership and teaching others by Pres. Eyring in the Priesthood
session of this last conference that applies in every situation. It's
really good. Also, I think there's a reason Dad got that paper from
choir this week. There's some words of wisdom there. Other Elder Parry
advice: Read the manual and rely on the spirit. You'll be in my
prayers.

So, yeah, things are still going well here in Melo. A little more
quiet than last month, but vamos arriba. We have change day tomorrow,
so I get to make the long trip to Montevideo with everyone and then
come on back here with my new comp. Elder Moffitt is going to
Montevideo to stay and possibly finish the mission. My new comp is
Elder Baxter, who is really cool and is from Furth (Ferth?) Idaho, the
rival town/high school of Shelley, Idaho where Bush is from. It'll be
awesome. He's a cross country runner, so I'll probably get to lose a
little more weight before I get home! Fun fact: He also kinda looks
like Buster Baxter from Arthur. It's gonna be awesome. I'm gonna miss
Elder Moffitt. He's been a really good comp and really good friend.
He's now gonna be the Zone Leader of the Assistents.

Other news: I Will Be Valiant. (I think that's what the primary song's
called in english) Anyways. I'm in my last change and I'm going out
fighting. We've got a really good zone. A few coming back from my zone
in Durazno, including Elder Dinkel that I lived with. He's so great.
So yeah, I'm really excited. It'll be a really good last change.

Anyways, not much else new. Lucas still couldn't get confirmed yet and
his sister Fernanda went out of town, so she couldn't get baptized
yet, but she will. She's awesome. The summer vacation is kinda killing
us right now. Everyone disappears and goes to the countryside or to
Montevideo or 33 or the beach or whatever. But they're all gone. They
say it's worse getting more into January, so we'll see what happens.
But remember it's 10% the things that happen to us(I'd say it's
actually less than 10%) and 90% how we react to it. We were created to
act, not to be acted upon.

Have a nice week. Talk to you on the flip side.

Happy birthday Grandma! I've been thinking today of what a great influence you have had on me!

Jan. 2, 2012 with Elder M in Melo

Hey all,

Happy New Years! Hope 2011 was awesome for everyone. It sure was for
me. Me, Elder Moffitt, and Elder Burnett are all realizing that 2011
was our full year as missionaries, and it's now over. To tell the
truth, I got pretty trunky on New Year's Eve. I only have 7 weeks
left. That's nothing. I just opened a letter from my trainer Elder
Erickson today and he's getting married on February 18. This always
happens to me. People just go and get married while I'm on my
mission...and on February 18. So yeah, that made me kinda trunky too.
I'm now at the point in the mission where he was when he left me in 33
to go to his final change. Hey, if his address happens to be on his
facebook, could you send it to me. I've wanted to write him for a
while, but have lost his address.

For New Years, we didn't do much. Well....we actually did tons...just
not celebrating. On Friday we had the baptism of Fernanda planned and
went by in the morning to make sure everything was good and that she
had the permission from her mom (Foster mother) and when we got there,
her brother who had already received the lessons, had already gone to
church, and already knew a lot about the church, told us that he was
ready to get baptized too with his sister. So we started preparing the
baptism of both of them and were super excited. When the time for the
baptismal interview came, only Lucas, the brother came. Fernanda
couldn't because her mom sent her to take another little brother to
soccer practice...yeah. Anyways, Lucas got baptized on Friday. We just
planned on waiting a week for Fernanda because they told us she was
out of town, but we passed by on Saturday at about 7:30 and found her.
She told us she still wanted to get baptized, so we started rushing
around trying to find Elder Burnett because he's our district leader
and he has to do the interview. We finally got it arranged for another
elder to come do the interview. By then, it was already about 8:30 and
we have to be in the house at 9:30 so we were gonna do the interview
and the baptismal service in less than an hour with no help from the
ward....which we usually don't have anyways. We rushed to Fernanda's
house to find her for the interview, but then she told us that she
couldn't. It was kind of a let down, but she's gonna get baptized this
week probably. So yeah. That was our new years. We went and bought
some Lechon...pig? Pork? and heated it up in the oven and ate that.
Then we just sorta sat/laid around until midnight because we knew we
wouldn't have been able to sleep anyways because of the fireworks.
That's awesome that big fireworks are now allowed up there in Utah. I
bet it was awesome seeing that from the window. The new house looks
really awesome. Are we kinda on a corner or a...bend...thing?

Wow, sounds like Grandpa's gonna be living in luxury. That's awesome.
That'll be a lot more tranquilo(still don't know how to say tranquilo
in english. Tranquil doesn't sounds
quite right.) for him.

So yeah. Here comes Valiant change. I probably am staying here. I
already trained, so I'm probably not training again. Also, I'm a
pretty new Zone Leader, so I'll probably just stay as Zone Leader and
finish the mission stressed out of my mind here in Melo. We led the
mission in baptisms this month. We tied with 33, so I'm pretty happy.
33 might be a stake before I leave and that's what I've wanted to see
since I was there. Things are looking really good down here, but I'm
looking forward to seeing what it's like up there with our stake
rearrangement and such. That'll be cool because then I'm not gonna be
the only new guy in the ward.

Anyways, time's up. Have a nice week. Have a happy new year and I'll
talk to you next week!


--
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The
Lord be with you all. The salutation of Elder Parry with mine own
hand, which is the token in every email: so I write. The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Dec. 26, 2011 with Elder M in Melo

Hey all!

Long time, no see! (not really!) but yeah. After my call, I thought I
would have nothing to talk about in this email, but our Christmas eve
ended up being really fun. We had dinner with Bishop Rodriguez's
family and we ate lamb(one of the few big Christmas traditions here),
which was really good and we stayed out until 10:30. Then when we got
home, we did an in-house christmas exchange with the other elders. I
got a grabby arm/hand thing which was cool. Then we broke open some
glowsticks that my comp had and splattered the paint on our Christmas
tree. That was crazy. Then we climbed up on the roof of our apartment
building to watch fireworks at midnight, since we didn't have a real
curfew to go to bed. Then when we came in, we watched Mr. Krueger´s
Christmas that Elder Burnett payed the guy at the cyber to download
and put on a dvd for us. It was a really nice way to end the day. It
reminded me a lot of back home when we'd watch that in mutual or at
home.

Christmas day was pretty uneventful. Shisel that got baptized on
Friday didn't go to church because she was at her dad's house and so
she couldn't get confirmed, which was a bummer. We made ourselves a
good lunch of Chorizo....a type of sausage, I guess. It was really
really good. Then we went out and worked. At the last hour of the day,
we got together with the other elders and caroled for a little bit,
but everyone thought it was really weird because carolling doesn't
really exist here.

Questions and answers:
Other person from Alta? It was Hermana Watkins who happened to be in
the cyber at the same time as us.
How are me and eler moffitt getting along? Really well.
Will I be a valiente at changes? Yes. My final change is about to arrive.
Have I seen the hand in the sand? No. It's in Maldonado and almost
only hermanas go there. Before, we were allowed to go visit if we were
close, but not anymore...And I'm not close at all, so I'll probably
never see it.
Travel to Montevideo? Not till next week for zone leader council.

So yeah, I'm trying to get some pictures on, but they're not working.
I don't know why.
Nope. Might have just figured it out!

One is a picture I took back in Rio Branco when it was really cold and
our front door had a merry christmas thing, so I was wearing my
Russian hat and took a picture in front of it. Happy Christmas! One
picture is Shisel's baptism with her mom and little sister and friend
Fernanda who is probably gonna get baptized this week...and Rodolfo,
counselor in the bishopric who is crazy and baptized Shisel. One
picture is me with my grabbo arm. Thanks Elder Burnett! Also, don't
worry. We aren't usually just on mattresses on the ground. We have
beds. We just happened to have a sleepover that night in the living
room, so we just have mattresses. Aaannnddd...the last one if you can
see it is our Christmas tree covered in glowpaint.

Dec. 19, 2011 with Elder M in Melo

hey all!

Happy Christmas! Hope everything's good up in the north country. I
hear there's no snow. Is that true? That's really weird because it's
not very hot down here either. It's been pretty nice. Kinda humid, but
not as bad as last year.

We've had a really good week. Shisel went to church with her formerly
inactive mom, so we're pretty excited about that. Also, some members
brought a friend to church, so she'll probably get baptized here
pretty soon!

Wow, sounds like the Family christmas party is gonna be pretty
awesome. Christmas down here is looking kinda bleak. Usually members
are fighting over who gets to invite the missionaries over for
Christmas, but we haven't heard from anyone in our ward. We might end
up doing a party with some missionaries. Our ward is good, but...not
great. I hate to be negative, but they aren't that helpful. I love
them, but...yeah. Anyways, Christmas will still be really good. It was
last year, even thougha we didn't have much to do. Christmas is just
awesome, even though it's not beginning to look much like Christmas at
all.

I'd love to go to Jayna's sealing! I've never been to a live sealing!
Cool! Also, yes! I'm totally fine with getting my homecoming talk on
the 26th and getting it out of the way!

I'm gonna send real quick to check for your answer on the skype call

December 12, 2011 in Melo with Elder M

Hey all!

Another awesome week in the mission. It was pretty normal, nothing special, but...I'm a missionary, and there's no such thing as a bad week. Everything's going pretty well. Shisel went to church this week, which was really hard for her. (Part-member family, inactive) but she went with her aunt and it was awesome.

This wednesday we have our Christmas conference as a mission. It's awesome because it's the only time that we do stuff as an entire mission. Each zone prepares a musical number. We're probably doing an arrangement/translation of O Come, O Come Emmanuel that I did, so that'll be really exciting. It's really fun seeing all of the mission, including those that go home soon. (Thornton is leaving early, I heard, so he can start classes or something) and elders Powell and Young that were all in the MTC with me, so it'll be really fun. I loved the christmas conference last year. Everything's a little more tranquilo. We just got the assignment today to read Jacob 5 before Wednesday. Fwa. That's some heavy reading for one hour of personal study. haha. IT'll be awesome.

Wow, I can't believe Lon and Will are already coming home for Christmas. That's cool. Yes, I would report to the High Council in the old stake and give a talk in the 25th ward. Speaking of neighborhoods, I found out Elder Robertson from my zone is from Herriman. Wooh.



Yeah, later is better for the Skype probably. As fas as I know, we need to be home at 8 on the 25th, just like every other Sunday. I'm not sure. They'll tell us on Wednesday. We have church 11-12 so after that.





What's Juniper Point? Is that our what our neighborhood's called? Weird.


So yeah, i don't have much to....wait..Yes I do! I heard that Heber and Martha got sealed on Friday! I was super excited. The missionary that's in that area called us and let me know. I was so happy. I had heard that they weren't doing so well...activity-wise, but they made it! If they can go to the temple, anyone can! For those who don't remember them, they're the old couple that the husband can't walk because of a stroke and can't use his left side. Oh man, it's so exciting. I love them so much. Also, I heard from Vanessa from 33. She had had some problems and went inactive, so she never answered my letter, but now she's active and she wrote me. It's so amazing seeing fruits of the work now. Also in 33, I heard from Elder Heywood(Elder Draper's oro who took my place there and who just returned there as a zone leader) about a guy I reactivated and his wife that I prepared for baptism. Francisco, the husband is going to be the new patriarch when 33 becomes a stake. Sussel is in the District relief society presidency soon to be the Stake relief society presidency. It's so amazing hearing all this. That's all my big news for this week. My retention of my converts is actually a lot better than I thought, which makes me really happy!

Anyways, times about up! Have a nice week!

December 5, 2011 with Elder M in Melo

Hey all,

Sounds like everyone had a good week. Keep it up. We have had an amazing week. Casiano, his wife Fernanda, and their son Ramiro got baptized yesterday. It was a miracle. Casiano finally took the decision to make a sacrifice and not wait until the end of shearing season to come in and get baptized. Pictures next week...hopefully with pictures from the next baptism. We're trying to have a White Christmas year with plenty of baptism all month `round. We had a really exciting month in November as a mission. 150 people got baptized and confirmed. That's about 30 more than have ever been baptized in a month in our mission.



Before I forget: Recipe ideas...not much. Empanadas de Carne are really good. I don't have a recipe, but they're pretty easy, i'm sure there's a recipe online. They're also good with shredded ham and cheese instead of meat. With the sopapillas (Tortas Fritas down here) put dulce de leche on them instead of the usual honey and stuff. It's amazing with Dulce de Leche. Also, if you ever think of making hamburgers, put a fried egg on the patty- it's delicious. Um...Alfajor....I don't really know of a way to make them other than how we made them before I left. I'd do that with dulce de leche(sensing a trend?) in the middle and put a chocolate covering on them. That's how they are here. The kind with out the covering are kinda weird and they put coconut all around the edge. I don't know what an Ojo de Dios is. I'm curious. Activities....the big activity for Christmas here is eating asado (kinda barbecue), playing soccer, and drinking mate and I don't think any of you would like mate very much. The difference is that it's hot out here.

I don't really know why Elder Alldredge isn't psyched to be in Fraile Muerto. They're exploding the area. They already have baptisms planned for next week. and are finding tons of people to teach. The only thing scary about Fraile Muerto is that there's a little beach on a river that's pretty popular (imagine that place we always have to stop on the way up to logan...the first dam?) and there are lots of....jovencitas, but I think it's no problem unless the missionaries want it to be a problem.




Re: Christmas. No one even seems to know Christmas is close. You've all started with some serious Christmas celebration. The church is barely starting to announce the activities. We didn't see the First presidency devotional. Didn't even know about it. It's kinda depressing. In montevideo, at least there were big sales and stuff at the stores. Here...nothing. It's really tranquilo.


The heat isn't too bad because there's plenty of wind these days, but I can tell it's gonna extra bad here in Melo. that's what everyone says at least.
Enjoy your Christmas and remember the reason for the season!
--

Nov. 28, 2011 with Elder M in Melo

Hey all!

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope it was turkeytastic for all you guys! We had a good day...just like every other day. We didn't end up doing anything to celebrate. We didn't remember it until the day of. It doesn't exist at all down here...and there's no turkey. It's getting really hot down here, so...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Uruguay and nothing like Christmas in Utah. haha

Sounds like you all had a fun week though with Emily and Nathan visiting. That sounds like lots of fun. Hope Christmas is as good as Thanksgiving was for you. (And I hope my Christmas is better than my Thanksgiving haha:)

Christmas will be good though. I'll still be with Elder Moffitt here in Melo, so at least I'm with a Utahn. Elder Alldredge and Elder Ladron de Guevara are getting whitewashed (leaving their area at the same time) so we'll be getting 2 new housemates, Elder Burnett and Elder Vera and we don'tknow them, so that'll be a good new experience.

In other news, for Christmas, we'll be checking out Skype at our bishop's house next p-day to make sure it works. If possible, could you send me my Skype sign-on information? If not, it's no big deal, I'll just make a new account. Oh, just remembered. They did tell us that we need to limit the call to 40 minutes, because that's what it says in the mission manual. Thought i'd let you know now so I don't forget.


Wow. I was starting to wonder when Lon was coming home. That's so crazy that he's already getting home next week. Also, I'd heard that Alex was getting home at the end of December. That's cool though. Congratulations, Valientes...er...valiants. I don'tknow if that term is used in other missions. Here, it means a missionary in his last change of the mission. Example: The elders who were one group ahead of me in the MTC are now Valiants starting tomorrow and I will be a Valiant next change. Wow. Time is still going really fast. Working hard and being focussed really pays off.

Anyways, that's about all I have to say this week. Here's to another good one! Love you all. Have fun!

Nov. 20, 2011 with Elder M in Melo, Uruguay

Hey all,

Another good week. A little crazy like always, but really good. The work's going well. We're learning a lot about reaching goals and going the extra mile.

Sounds like everything's going pretty well at home, in spite of some sickness and such. Hope everything keeps going up. (It's a mission phrase, I don't know if it's used at home. ``Go up``) But yeah. Hope all is well there.

I have to confess something, mom and dad. I cheated on my christmas box. Yesterday, our lunch appointment failed and so did the lunch appointment of the other elders in our house, so we were all searching the house (including the emergency food storage) to find lunch and I remembered my Christmas box. So I started opening a little ahead of schedule (okay, a lot ahead of schedule) and found myself a nice lunch. Chef Boyardee Raviolis! Whooo! So yeah. I cheated and opened almost everything. I'm saving a little bit to open at the end, but even still, all the stuff you sent should still last me till Christmas...if not longer. I'm now good on all my razor stuff, etc. until the end of my mission. Thanks for everything!


Yes, Elder Moffitt is the grandson of Jack and Val Moffitt. That's a really cool connection. I've actually heard a few stories about them.

That's awesome hearing about the ward. Lately, Elder Moffitt and I have been missing Utah wards that work really well. Our bishopric is being kinda hard to work with and home teaching down here in Uruguay doesn't really exist...well, it does, but there's hundreds of inactive members and 1 companionship that actually does visits...and it's the elder's quorum president and a counselor in the bishopric...which doesn't really make sense, since one is an elder and one is a high priest, but oh well. We do what we can with what we have.

My ankle is a lot better. I took a couple Ibuprofens a couple days and it stopped hurting, so that's nice. I don't know what happened to my first-aid kit I started with. I have parts of it and my roommates have helped plenty. That's kinda how it is on the mission. I do have my eyedrop kit with the instructions. I'm a lot better with my eyes now. I'm giving my contacts a break though. I've been using my glasses a lot more these weeks. I assume that'll help.

That Disneyland trip is sounding more and more awesome. I'm super excited! (Do I use ``Super`` more than I used to? Did I say it before? Maybe it doesn't show up as much in email, but my comp and I say it a lot.) That's super cool...super bad...super sad...super awesome...stuff like that.

Change week is coming up. My comp has 3 changes in Melo and I'm his 3rd comp here, so it's possible that he leaves. He has a year and a half in the mission and we're having a great time.

Well, have a good week. Talk to y'all next week!

November 14, 2011 with Elder M in Melo, Uruguay

Hey all!



Another great week. A few disappointments with people getting to church, but it was a really good enjoyable week. We did an intercambio and I worked with Elder Alldredge and it was a really good experience. We played soccer on monday and I sprained my ankle, so I've been hobbling around Melo a little bit this week. I'm okay though (Don't email Hermana Da Silva. haha)



Questions and Answers:

Did you get your washer? We did get our washer to the house. It's not installed yet though. We send our shirts and socks and stuff to a laundry place to get it done. They wash it in a day or two and charge 90 pesos(a little over 4 bucks.) Then we have an hermana in the ward that helps us with the rest.

Any luck on the Christmas package? Yep. It arrived. Way too early. I think I'll be adjusting the opening schedule a little bit if that's alright. Every 2 or 3 days one present. Waiting til the 7th is gonna drive me crazy.




Anyways, sounds like everything's going on really well up there at home. Lots of fun stuff happening. Building up to Christmas time, baby showers, homecoming talks and such. Confession: More and more, when I have cool experience my mind just thinks, ´´that'd be cool to talk about in my homecoming talk.´´ Don't worry though. I'm not trunky. I'm fighting it.



One really cool experience we had was that last Sunday we found a couple high school kids, Yoani and Jonathan that were really interested in listening. When we went back, they weren't there, but we ran into one of them in the street and he told us that he read the folleto (Pamphlet?) and really liked it. When we tried again another day, they couldn't talk very long, but they invited 3 of their friends over to listen and a couple seemed interested.



Another cool experience was yesterday. We went to the hospital looking for Casiano's family because his mother is in the hospital. It occurred to us to go visit them and we just went, not knowing beforehand what we were to do. We didn't even know her name, but we went. As we were wandering freely around the halls of the hospital, compeletely lost, a lady came up to us and told us that her mother was hours away from dying and she wanted us to come in and say a prayer with their whole family. We said a prayer and started talking about the plan of salvation with them. Lots of them showed interes and we got some phone numbers to call them. Then we found out that the daughter that invited us was an investigator from another area and she told us that she would show the plan of salvation folleto to her family and talk about it, so we're gonna see if we can see from fruits from that. It was a really espiritual experience.


So yeah, that's my week. Here's to another one. Hope you all have good experiences too. Love ya.

--

November 7 with Elder M in Melo

Hey all,



It's been a really awesome week and a really hectic week, but awesome nonetheless. We did get to go to the temple and it was amazing. It was such a nice experience. The temple is about to close for a few weeks, so the people finishing their mission this change won't be able to go their last day, but we went and then had a really good zone conference. We came and worked in our area here in melo on thursday and went back friday for Zone Leader Council, which was also really awesome. I feel really included in the mission now. It's really nice being a leader, because we're the first to hear about stuff directly from President Da Silva.



Ooh! Before I forget. An announcement we got in Zone Conference was that for our Christmas call, we can use Skype and do a video chat. That's really exciting. We're still working out the details because Christmas is on a Sunday and we can't go to the cyber on the Sabbath Day. We're gonna have to find some member with a decent internet connection and a webcam, but we'll figure it out. If we can't, we might consider asking permission to do it on Christmas Eve. We'll see there. So yeah, I'm super excited because I'll get to see the new house. Also...I think Skype gives the option of doing a conference call, so if there are people that can't get to the house on christmas, we can still do Skype all together. I'm gonna need to know my skype account information probably. It should be on my laptop still. If not, I can guess it pretty well.



Other new announcement is that we get washing machines in all the houses! Wooh! I had one in my last house so I've been missing it these last couple months. It'll be a hassle for a while because we have to make sure everyone gets their machines in their houses and installed. Oh well. Worth the pain. (Direct translation. I don't think that makes sense in english.)



So yeah. That's my week. Zone Leading is going well. It's exciting. My area is doing pretty well. Casiano's family didn't go to church because they had some problems, but we're gonna be working extra hard with them to get them baptized. Satan is working pretty hard, but we're gonna work harder.



I did get the halloween pictures. They were awesome! Did you get my pictures last week?



Sounds like there's lots of good stuff happening at home. Keep it up! Do your home and visiting teaching! Go the temple as often as you can! (Which temple district are we now? Oquirrh Mountain?) Share the gospel! Fulfil your callings! Read the scriptures every day! Say your prayers! Help out someone in need! Enjoy the snow, while I'm here dying of heat!



Have a good week, everyone!

Halloween 2011 with Elder M in Melo

Hey all,



Well, it's been a really good week. I'm loving my life right now, but yesterday was kinda hard on us. Casiano, Fernanda, and Ramiro were supposed to get baptized yesterday, but Casiano got called to work out in campaña (country...farm stuff) shearing sheep and he couldn't come in to town unless it rained and the sheep got wet. We found out about this on Saturday afternoon and started fasting and praying for rain so Casiano could come to church and get baptized. No rain though. Guess this wasn't the week for Casiano's family. We're trying for this Saturday though.



My comp is still awesome and we get along really well. I'm getting used to being Zone Leader. This week is gonna be interesting. We're going to the temple on Wednesday and travelling with the elders from 33. We're in charge of the trip, so that'll be kinda stressful, but i'm super excited. I miss the temple so much. Also Friday is Zone Leader Council, so I'll be in Montevideo for 2 days this week, which is kinda hard, but such is life.



Sounds like everything is going well up there. Keep up the good work.



I'm sending pictures today...finally. THe first is of us crossing the bridge out to a neighborhood, Lopez Benitez, that's about 4 kilometers from the city. Long walk. The second is of me by a tank at the military base in that neighborhood. The third is on the way back from the neighborhood. Melo and Rio Branco are both on this sign and they are both my cities. Acegua is another city that doesn't have missionaries right now. The fourth picture is elder Ladron de Guevara's birthday party. (Left to right=Elder Moffitt, Elder Ladron de Guevara, Elder Alldredge)



So yeah. Life is good. I'm being very blessed and working hard. Talk to you next week!



Love, Elder Parry

Elder Parry's Address

Elder Bryan Parry
Misión Uruguay Montevideo
Dalmiro Costa 4635 Bis
C.P. 11400 Malvín
Montevideo
Uruguay

His e-mail address is "urumontemission@gmail.com" Make sure to put "Elder Bryan Joseph Parry" in the title line.

Oct. 24, 2011 with Elder Moffitt in Melo

Hey all,



It's been a really good week. A very welcome change. It's really nice being back here in Melo where I'm already familiar with a lot of stuff (the house, a few members, the cyber, etc.) and I'm with an awesome comp, Elder Moffitt. He's amazing. We're getting along really well, despite the universitarian rivalry haha. We're gonna have some baptisms this weekend if everything goes according to plan. We're really excited for this change.



My roommates are Elder Alldredge(California) and Elder Ladròn de Guevara(Jewish French mother/Peruvian father, born in France, lives in Canada) and they're awesome. Elder Ladron de Guevara is our district leader and is doing a really good job. They both have about 8 months in the mission.



Questions and Answers:

Do I have to go to Montevideo a lot now? Yeah. We have ´´Zone Concilio (Council?)´´ once a month along with all the other stuff I had to do as District Leader, like leader training meetings and such.

How far am I from Montevideo? Depends. Usually about 7 hoursish. I pass through 33 to get there, so that's cool. On the way up here, I ran into a couple of members I knew from there. That was cool.

How many missionaries are in the zone? 16.

Rio Branco is in my zone? Yes. There are two elders out there now and the ward is doing really well. There's no district leader there, so i might not be able to do interchanges to go visit like I thought, but it's nice to be close and to see how they're doing.



Wow. I can't believe my flight plans are already there. That's crazy. I don't know how I feel about that. I'm getting to the point in my mission where I don't like saying how long I've been here because people say, ''Wow, you're basically done!'' and I don't like that. I've started saying things like...I have over a year, or...i have a little more time than my comp. I really don't like saying I have 20 months. I did in my talk yesterday(In my new ward, we speak once a month), but from now on, I'll probably just stick to ´´Over a year´´



I got the letters from Crescent View 25th today. Thanks everyone for your support!



Hope everything keeps going well for you guys. Have a nice halloween. Enjoy fall while it lasts and enjoy the snow when it comes. It's raining here and afterwards it's gonna get really hot probably, so yeah..haha. that'll be fun.



Have fun!

Hey all,

I'm gonna just let you know now, so you don't have to wait, what happened in the change call.

I'm moving. Back to Melo. Rio Branco is in the same Zone, so I'll be able to go visit there on interchange days. My new comp is Elder Moffitt. I kinda know him. He's from Utah and every time someone hears about a missionary being comps with him, they always say, ´´I'm so jealous. Elder Moffitt is awesome.´´ so I'm really excited. He was with Elder Spilsbury for a little bit too, so that'll be exciting to hear how he's doing.

The other big news is that I'm going to be a Zone Leader. President Da Silva called me Saturday night to let me know and to congratulate me. I'm really excited. I was getting to the point where I thought my time had passed and that I wasn't gonna be a Zone Leader, but I am. And in an awesome area that I already am familiar with. I already have slept in my new house several nights. The difference now is that I'm going to have a bed instead of sleeping on the couch or on a mattress on the floor.

So yeah. This week has been great. We had stake conference this weekend with a visit from Elder Ruben Spitale from Argentina and he's hilarious. He talked about raising kids and said, ''Parents always say when their kids are small that they are so cute that they just want to eat them up....and then when the kids get older, they regret not having eaten them when they were little.'' So yeah. It was a really good conference. Pres and Sister Da Silva spoke too and it was really good.

In other news, I did get the pizza. The Pedrozo family mentioned last week that we were going to get a surprise from the United States on Saturday. We wondered all week what it could be. Pamphlets from Church HQ? Copies of the Book of Mormon? A car? Then Brother Pedrozo called saturday and asked if we could recieve the surprise in the moment and I said yes. And then we got the pizza a little while later with a note that it was from the ''Perry Family, United States'' It was really funny. We were really excited...but we were fasting. So we ate it yesterday and a little today for breakfast. It's really funny because last night Bro Pedrozo called and asked about it and was really excited because they made special arrangements to find pepperoni because mom said I liked it. But the pepperoni here is basically salami. Still good, but not the same. I usually put bacon on my pizza here. So that was a really fun experience. And payment...I doubt we'll be able to figure out a way to pay him. He's really rich and likes giving stuff away. I wouldn't worry about it. He really does treat us like another of his sons.

So yeah. I had a lot to say today, but just the half an hour, so I've got to go. I'm animated to hear about Disneyland! That'll be a nice welcome! haha.

Have a nice week!

Oct. 10, 2011 with Elder A in Durazno

Hey all!

To start off, before I forget, I'd like to answer a few questions that I recieved from the Aurora Vista Ward primary:
Do I like serving a mission? I love it. It's the best decision I ever made so far. So all of you should start thinking and planning for a mission. You'll love it!
How many people have I baptized? I have taught 22 people and helped get them ready for baptism. (Not quite a hundred fifty, but I'm really pleased at the opportunities I've had to witness the changes in these people`s lives.
What city am I in? For now, I'm in Durazno, but I might move next week to another city.
Do I rent an apartment? Yes. I live there with my companion and 2 other missionaries.
What sports do they play here? Soccer. And nothing else.
Do they have technology? Yes. Almost as much as we have up there in Utah. They're a few years behind, but they have cell phones and computers and everything.
How's it going? It's going pretty well.
What is the most slimy, yucky thing that I have eaten? Cazuela de Mondongo. It's a soup made of cow stomach. It's really not bad, but lots of people don't like it. And it's very slimy.
Is Uruguay a good place to go on a mission? It's the best place to go on a mission. I highly recommend it.
How long will I be back? I'll be back in a little over 4 months. I'm excited to come meet all of you that wrote to me.
Is it hard being away from my family? Sometimes it can be hard. I miss them a lot, but it's easy because I know they want me to be here and they know what I'm doing.
How is it in Madagascar? I don't know. I've never been there. I hear Elder LeStarge is there. You could ask him.
Am I learning any languages? Yes. I'm learning Spanish. I like it a lot. I'm also learning a little bit of portuguese. But the most important language to learn is how to pray and understand the spirit when Heavenly Father answers our prayers.
Do I like Halo? Not really. I only played a little bit before the mission and now I don't play any videogames.
Am I having fun? Yes.
Did I see a friend? Yes. Lots of friends.

Thanks for all your letters, kids! I loved reading them! Good Luck on the primary program!

This has been a good week. Maria got baptized on Saturday and due to a last minute change of plans, her husband didn't feel ready to baptize her, so she asked me to do the baptism. It was a really nice experience. Lots of people went to the baptismal service. Something weird about the baptism was that everyone was congratulating me. I've never had that before. It was nice that people were recognizing the work i put in to help Maria, but I really didn't do that much. She was preparing herself on her own for months and finally was ready. We just arranged the service and reviewed the lessons that she already knew by memory.

Magdalena didn't go to church or the baptismal service. We invited her to the baptism and she said she'd go, but didn't. Then she didn't go to church, but there's a chance she doesn't really know the schedule since it's changed every week since she's started with general conference and such.

Yes, this week is change week. It is likely that I leave. I have 3 changes here and I've only had 4 changes once in Treinta y Tres, so it's not very likely that I stay. I'd love to stay, but if I do, that means I only get 2 changes in my final area and I wouldn't like that very much.

That convert of Elder Bush is probably not anyone I know. His first convert was in Montevideo and he and I didn't have any baptisms together.

Sounds like I missed the fall leaf tour. It actually kinda sounds fun now. Really calm, tranquilo relaxation anyways..something I don't get very often.




In other news, all is well with my comp, my area, my ward, my house, my roommates, and such. I'm recovered from my sickness. My allergies still kinda bug me, but it's no big deal.

I'm happy, healthy, and safe. Have a nice week all.

And remember: The building up of Zion is a process as much as it is a destination. Let's get building!
--
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Elder Parry with mine own hand, which is the token in every email: so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Oct. 3, 2011 with Elder A in Durazno

HELLO!!!

I absolutely loved conference. Conference is one of my favorite things nowadays. It's just time to listen and learn and figure out what to change about your life. And this one was especially fantastic.

Favorite talks: Matthew Richardson: Are those REAL missionaries? (He was my efy session director once) and Elder Yamashita talking about missionaries. (That's weird that my favorite talks were about missionary work, huh? haha)
Favorite funny quote: We love ya, Bob --Pres. Monson to Elder Robert D. Hales
Favorite story: Elder Devn Cornish's story about finding a praying to find a quarter on his way home from work so he could buy fried chicken.

Anyways, it's been a good week. I'm feeling a lot better. I didn't end up getting the nebulizer, but I'm fine. I'm not even needing my inhaler anymore. I still have allergy symptoms sometimes, but that's easy to control, especially since I now have 3 different types of allergy meds (Zyrtec that I brought with me, Allegra that the nurse told me to get, and Singulair which I use at night). So yeah. That trial is passed.

I'm still tired (see picture attached), but for other reasons. Saturday night, we didn't get home until 11:30 because of Priesthood session that ended at 11. Then we had the time change and lost another hour of sleep. Shortest night of my whole mission. But yeah. That's why we have P-day, right? I'm excited to rest today.

Re: the work. It's going well. Magdalena is doing awesome. She feels serious desires to make changes in her life, including ones that we haven't taught her yet. She has already put in practice some plans to get herself baptized. She wants to be a member so bad, but thinks it'll take forever to make the changes necessary, but we helped her see that her desire to be baptized isn't just her desire, it's His and He will help in any way possible. She went to the last session of conference yesterday, but left before we could talk to her. Also, exciting about conference: One of the families that we challenged to bring someone to conference brought their grandson Matias and he now wants to listen to us. Maria and Oscar went too, and Maria is getting baptized this week if all goes according to plan. Also, and investigator with a baptismal date just moved into our area and she went to conference with her boyfriend who is a recent convert from Centro ward. So yeah. Everything's going pretty well. We're excited for all the people who are progressing towards baptism.




Questions and answers:
Yes, I read Pickles before the mission and really like it. That's cool that he served here.
Yes, CityDeals existed before I left. I don't know much about them, but I know they existed.
Yes, I would love to go to Disneyland!

Sept. 26, 2011 with Elder A in Durazno

Hey all,



Hope all is well at home. Things are pretty much the same this week for me, except for the fact that i've been really sick. It's been a pretty hard week.




I hardly slept for 3 nights. The pollen is really really bad here in Durazno, so I've had some really bad spring allergies...which in turn triggered my asthma. I started using my allergy meds that I brought with me, but didn't seem to help. The inhaler helped, but it didn't solve the problem because it doesn't let me sleep. I called the mission nurse and she told me to buy a different allergy medication to see if it helped. It didn't make much difference. I still couldn't sleep. I was kinda going crazy. I kept in contact with the mission nurse she called the Area doctor and they came up with other medication that is for both allergies and asthma (Singulair) and I went to buy it. It does help a lot. Also, I've been boiling water on the stove and inhaling the steam. The doctor told me I could put the equivalent of Vick's Vap.O.Rub in the water and it would help. Then it hit me....There's Vick's here? So I went and bought that and I've been sleeping a lot better. Last night I didn't get much sleep, but it's a lot better than it was. So yeah. That's my story. But no, no sign of parasites. I've never heard of a missionary in this mission with a parasite. I heard of a really bad infection once, but that was because an elder went in barefoot to clean out a nasty baptismal font that hadn't been used in forever and he had a cut on his foot. Supposedly, he was in really bad shape, but that was several months ago.




Other news. Magdalena didn't go to church this week, which was pretty disappointing, but we did have a nice miracle at church. There's a former investigator and her husband(member) who showed up at church. She hadn't gotten baptized yet only because she and her 创husband创 weren't married, but she's been to church tons, loves it, and they got married this week. A counselor in the stake presidency introduced us yesterday and we basically decided right then and there that she could get baptized this weekend between sessions of conference. It's always nice have a little baptism fall out of heaven--one of those tender mercies of the Lord.




Tomorrow we're having a special training meeting from Pres. Da Silva about working with members and we're pretty excited for it. It's something I've been trying to do here, but haven't really figured out how to do it yet. But here we go. Vamos Arriba! It's all pretty excitng stuff. I think I've mentioned it before, but it's called Level 3 of the missionary work. Level 1 is if we just work as missionaries to find and baptize people. Level 2 is when the members help us by giving references and accompanying us to lessons. Level 3 is called 创Missionaries helping members创 so we're learning how to teach and train members instead of bothering them about references. It's really just a change of attitude and how we relate with members.




So yeah. that's my life--recovering from asthma, working with members, and trying to figure out how to get my comp to talk more.




Have a nice week. Do your home and visiting teaching and fulfill your callings everyone!

--
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Elder Parry with mine own hand, which is the token in every email: so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Sept. 19, 2011 with Elder A in Durazno, Uruguay

Hey all,

Wow, sounds like lots of good stuff going on at home! Thanks for the update on everything. It's nice to know what's going on.

Wow, sounds like everyone's getting big on the technology up there. Everyone-s skyping all the time, I-pads, and such. I saw the equivalent of a Best Buy flyer here and it said they had TVs in 3-d. Is that true or did I misunderstand? Also, I saw a floppy disc at lunch yesterday. It was really weird and it got a conversation going about the future of technology and they said someday we would have all these things and I think they just described everything that the I-pad has, based on what newer missionaries have told me. And I thought: yeah, the i-pad has all that, but no one has them. Now I find out that the Wilsons have one. I realize now how out of it I am.

Glad to hear on all the spiritual progress up there in the family and friends. Thanks for sharing your missionary experiences.

Things are still good here with my comp and everything. We got an investigator to church, which we haven-t had in a couple weeks, so that was exciting. Her name is Magdalena, like Mary Magdalene. She told us she couldn-t stay all 3 hours and she-d have to leave early and I was kinda disappointed because she was gonna miss sacrament meeting, but she must have liked the classes, because she stayed the whole time. It was really good. We-re gonna get her baptized ASAP.

I did see Elder Dame at change day for a few seconds, but didn-t talk much with him.

Sept. 12, 2011 with Elder A in Durazno

Hey all,



Wow, sounds like life is pretty interesting there. That's awesome. Lots of changes and lots of good stuff going on. Same here. Change day went well. My new comp is Elder Ascencio from El Salvador, and is the one that I was thinking of. He is really really quiet, just like I remembered, but he's really cool and we get along really well. It's a nice break after Lopez who talked and talked and talked and talked and made it hard to get out of lessons and visits with members. It's kinda weird talking most of the charlas. I haven't done that since Elder Spilsbury when I was with him the first time. So yeah. Life is still peachy here in Durazno. It's cool living with Elder Powell and his oro, Elder Aguilar from Paraguay. Aguilar is having a hard time adjusting to the mission and elder Powell. It's a really funny companionship because they're so different.




Anyways, yeah. 9-11 has been kind of a big deal down here. Mostly people tell us that Discoverychannel and National Geographic are passing a lot of stuff about it. Other than that, there's not too much sign of it. But yeah.




I just put some pictures to upload. First is our district from last change Lopez, McLellan(ZL), Young (ZL), Parry (DL), Sister Parker, and Sister Campos (who is now at home in Chile.) The district this change is about the same as last change, but change out Campos for Sister Múnera and change out Lopez for Elder Ascencio. Second is of me and Carlos on change day. He finished his mini-mission and is now back here in Durazno with us. Bonus fact: I know all the people in the background too:(L-R) Elders Simpson, Gurr, Banegas, Peña, Ojeda, McLellan, and Padilla. Third is of me and Ascencio the night of the open house of the new chapel in Durazno (Not our chapel, the other one). Fourth is me in front of a barraca (Hardware Store?) that arranged the lights in their window like the Uruguaya flag. Wooh!




FWAA! Nate's going already! Wow. That makes me feel old. He's two years behind me in school and he's starting the mission. That means...I'm almost at 2 years in the mission. Congratulations Nate!




Well, I don't know what else to say. I look forward to getting those letters from the Primary of the...shoot. I forgot the name of the ward. Aurora Vista Ward? Something like that?




Anyways, hope y'all have a good week and enjoy the good life.




P.s. Missionary challenge: Everyone who reads this letter should try to talk to one person who isn't a member about the gospel during the week.

August 5, 2011 Changes in Durazno

Hey all,



Another good week, as always. It's been hard dealing with the Colombians, but they had a baptism and we helped them do the baptismal service. I played the piano...kinda. I played the opening hymn(Come Follow Me) on my own and the rest were the ghost piano. I just played the rhythm. Still it was a lot better since I knew how to play and count and stuff.




I guess you're all wondering what happened with the change call. I'm staying here in Durazno, like I thought. Elder Lopez is going to Montevideo, the poor kid. My new comp is Elder Ascencio, and if it's the Ascencio that I know, he's from El Salvador and he's really, really, really quiet. I went on a 20 minute bus ride with him once and he didn't say a word. So yeah, that's my new life. I'm excited though. Elder Powell and his oro are doing a whitewash in place of the Colombians that are going home this week. Powell has 6 weeks more than me and I know him from the MTC. He's awesome. He's probably one of my biggest heroes in the mission, so it'll be nice. Hopefully, they'll be in my district. I don't know yet. I am still District Leader. Another nice change is that we won't have to listen to the Colombians' techno and Brazilian pop music anymore. Wooh!




So yeah, I don't think I have much else to tell. We're going down to Montevideo tomorrow morning to do changes and see everyone and have the leadership meeting. I got my haircut today and it might be my penultimate haircut of the mission if I do it right. It's really short.




Well, here we go with another week. Hope you have a good one. Love ya. Chaucito!

Hey all,



Yep, everything's going well here. We're finishing off this change strong. Change day is next Tuesday. Most likely, Elder Lopez leaves the area and I get a new comp. It's....somewhat possible that I leave, and it's very unlikely that we both stay or both leave.




It's been a good week. We had David's baptism and it was awesome. The whole ward is just so excited. Usually when I'm in an area and I have so many baptisms, the ward starts complaining that we're just baptizing whoever we can find, but the ward is doing a really good job at retaining the converts and they're really happy.




Yeah, I gave a sacrament meeting talk on Sunday. It went really well, especially since I prepared it in half an hour before church started because the bishop asked to me to give it while we were eating lunch with him that same day.




Already had the trunky call. It was the day after you gave me the information the other time. I hardly needed any information. I think they only needed the stake name and our address.




We have had some nasty rain this week, but not that much. I'm thinking rain week is gonna be extra light this year. It's supposed to be in August and it was last year, so..it might be done for since there isn't time for more rain.




Have a nice week!

Bryan




P.s. the pictures are kinda obvious. One is David's baptism. He was baptized by his friend Martin from the Hospital Ward...er...barrio hospital. It's not actually a ward in the hospital it's a normal ward that is named Hospital. The second picture is me with a little lamb. I almost fulfilled Elder Draper's fondest dream to take a picture with a lamb on his shoulders. I didn't have the guts though. I thought it might pee on my suit if I picked it up. He is however chewing on my finger. Fun fact: Apparently lambs don't have teeth.