February 21

whats poppin!!

So Uruguay has just been getting better and better every week! This week was way cool and we had lots of crazy stuff goin on!

I had exchanges twice this week, on Tuesday with Elder Taylor in my area, and on Thursday with Elder Haviland in his area, both days were super sweet! it was cool to work outside of my area for a day, and I learned a lot from both of them. Both nights we stayed up past midnight just talking about life and the mission and stuff, it was way fun. They are both capos! (studs)

So we did a lot of service this week. Elder Haviland and I did service at thier Bishops house, and Elder Inostroza and I helped the parents of a single sister in our ward build their house! That was way fun. We stopped and helped people doing yardwork in the streets twice this week as well. Needless to say, Ive got 10 blisters between my 2 hands! haha The tools here are pretty hopeless. They are like a branch of a tree with a piece of metal on the end. I found it easier to just use my hands.

I gave my first Spanish Prieshood blessing on Saturday! It was an awesome experience. Elder Inostroza knew that I didn`t know how, but he volunteered me to do it, after he did the annointing. I am thankful for his faith in me. He gives me confidence when I think I can`t do things, and helps me grow as a missionary. I was like uhh I dont know how Elder! You have to use command form in spanish, and you use the informal (tu) conjugations of verbs. We only use (Usted) as missionaries except for prayers so I definately had to rely on the help of the gifts of the spirit to help me out. I was able to do the blessing and the spirit was definately there! It was an amazing experience to recieve not only priesthood blessing inspiration but spanish at the same time!

Our awesome bishop and his wife had thier first baby on saturday!! They are the coolest little shorties family ever and I cant wait to go stop by and see the baby! It was an interesting sunday this week. The Bishop was in the hospital, the 1st counselor was in Montevideo for work trip, there isnt a 2nd counselor, so the Elders Quorum president led sacrament meeting! I had never seen that before! It was a great meeting though! Elder Inostroza and I did a musical number. "Señor Te Necesito" I Need Thee Every Hour. It turned out a LOT better than the talent show, and I got so many compliments, more about the spirit in the meeting that came than the talents of my voice. Elder Inostroza is a capo on the piano! But the most interesting part about sunday meetings was that the other ward had a baptism on Saturday night and something went wrong after they all left with the baptismal font, and the whole church was flooded! It was a little miracle that the whole building was wet (family history center computers were short circuted, lots of papers and books got ruined, there was water everywhere!) but the chapel was completely dry. So what we did was...ok so we start sacrament meeting at 8:30. the other ward starts sunday school at 9. So we just had our Sacrament meeting and the other ward all helped clean the chapel, then when we got out, we all helped clean and they had their sacrament meeting. It was way fun! We rolled up our pants, and rocked the flip flops and everyone even the little kids were all helping! It was an awesome thing to see the members all pitching in to help clean thier building. My favorite part was running and sliding down the hall with my squeegee pushing water out the backdoor. There is NO carpet here in South America. Only in the sacrament rooms and the bishops offices. So in the Bishops offices the 6 Elders put a bunch of rags on the floor. then we would jump around and dance and stuff, then ring out the raggs and do it again! We did that for quite about and hour and a half! it was pretty funny at first, then it got old. but we had lots of fun. We filled 2 whole buckets in one bishops office!

Dad- I didnt get the pictures but Im sure I will get them tomorrow in District Mtg. I have been getting the cousin emails and I love hearing from them! Thanks for forwarding them! About the Debit Card. I already went in and changed my address from BYU to Arizona. So There shouldnt be a problem there. Thats wierd though! The paycheck from ultra star. I payed tithing on everything up until that paycheck. So if you already payed some tithing for me, take it away from that check. There is a 6 month rule where if you dont deposit or cash the check it goes invalid after 6 months from the printing date. So hurry! Thanks for your help!

The language is coming MOm! Really it just depends on the day, the person, and what they are talking about! I understand everything in a lesson cuz thats what they taught me in the MTC, but all the other stuff just talking in the streets is a lot harder to understand. The church and the gospel definately has its own vocabulary. The wierdest thing is when you explain what a word means to them in thier language and you have only known their language for a couple months haha.

well i better get going. I love you all so much and thanks for your awesome letters and prayers and everything! I find out if im staying in Artigas next monday night so that should be exciting!

Love,

Elder Kellis