August 22

Hey Everyone!

My new companion and I had a pretty awesome week this week. We got back into a good work schedule, found lots of investigators, and went broke. haha

So Wednesday after 5 taxis, and 4 buses, Elder Garcia and I arrived into the little town of Cardona. It was quite the shock for him. He had no idea we were the branch conselors, that we were hours away from any other missionaries, and that the members dont feed us here. he was like "wait!, do we have to do interviews!? D=" hahaha it was awesome. He has come to love it here real fast though. Turns out I was wrong. he is from Honduras. He is a 22 year old convert, joined the church 3 years ago. He has quite the past! I guess its pretty dangerous where he is from, lots of drug salesman, shoot-outs stuff like that. His mom is half paralyzed from being shot in the head. His whole Dad´s side of the family is drug dealers, and his whole mom´s side are doctors. After his mom´s accident about 6 years ago, his dad starting drinking and getting into crazy stuff but was blessed by a heavely visit from two young men one day. Now he´s got a son on a mission, and one more coming up in a year. Its quite an awesome story! He is a great worker, and has a special testimony. He is straight up and not afraid to bear powerfully testimony. He´s the man.

Sadly, la Hermana Eva passed away this week. It was a sad news for the branch, since she was the pioneer of Cardona.

Jorge was put in the hospital for a couple days, just to get out of the freezing weather and to get a shower and some good food. Heath Care is universal here so a worried neighbor called in for hiim. the people here are so loving to the poor and needy. Its incredible. We visited one of Jorge´s neighboors who has a pretty huge nice house. She said she cooks him a soup everyday and brings him bread and stuff. I would say that that is just what any Uruguayo would do. Makes me think alot about what I would do if my neighbor didnt have food or clothes. We visited him on Saturday and he said to tell the branch hi, and to bring him a pair of clean clothes from his house. We took his old jacket and shirt home to wash them for him. I rinsed that bad boy like 15 times in a bucket and the water never came out clear. 30 times, yes. It did. haha.

We had pretty poca gente in sacrament meeting this week, so we just gathered in a little classroom, used the little table as the sacrament table and stayed nice and warm in that little room. It was a special experience.

We are thinking about doing an ASADO with some members for my birthday! Im excited!

We had a baptism this week! One of the kids (which make up half the congregation) who has been coming as long as I have been here has never been baptized. So that was special for thier family and Elder Garcia. He came from the center of downtown Montevideo so their wasnt much baptisms.

Well, I better get going. Ive learned so much this week. Hope you guys are all doing awesome!

Love,

Thanks for sending all your love and letters and prayers down this way!
-- Elder Daniel Kellis La Mision Montevideo Oeste
Enrique Martinez 1167
Montevideo Uruguay CP 11.800

Queridos amigos,

Si, la verdad is que esta semana fue buenisima!! y si, tuvimos cuatro bautismos! We spent the whole week getting ready for an awesome and perfect baptism. I have seen a lot of failures on the mission. (not having clothes, nobody from the bishopbric notified, incomplete paperwork, cold water, all kinds of stuff) So we planned out every little detail with our ward mission leader and he did all the planning. haha chiste. we dont have one. pero igual, it was a very happy and rewarding week. We had lots of bumps in the road but Sunday was an incredible spiritual and COLD day.

Tuesday we had our last lesson. We talked about the word of wisdom and turns out one of them (12 years old) had a tiny little drinking problem. His Dad always offers it to him during soccer games and his mom runs an "almancen" (basically a little tiny grocery store that they have on every corner) They also use them as their huge pantry since its right in their living room. So there is always free access to the alcohol. The poor kid just doesnt have the same story that nephi had haha I nephi having been born of goodly parents....its a sad thing isnt it. That was a big surprise. But we went over to his house the next day and had a talk with him and his family about it. He was ready to go for Sunday!

Wednesday we had a good day getting paperwork done, printing off invitations, and assigning talks and inviting all the inactive members to the baptism. It was great to sit down with thier families and get to know them. We are hoping to attack them next haha ok not attack but pretty much. One of my other favorite parts of wendesday was helping Jorge clean his house and get it ready to install a new roof. He lives in an old burt down house with lots of holes in the roof. I guess there is a law here that if you enter into a abondoned house and noone kicks you out in 3 months its yours. But the rainy days just destroy the poor guy.

Every thursday night we have a meeting with President Stephens and Juan. Kinda like a Branch Council, but its the night that he does interviews and we clean the chapel and stuff. We also planned the service and the luncheon for after. We tested the water heater and got the font set up. Its a portable one, like a baptismal-font-in-a-box type thing. haha

Friday we went shopping for all the food and delivered more invitations. Got safety pins in case the clothes were too big for the "gudises" Those came in handy real well! And now I look like a high school wrestler with a bunch of safety pins pinned onto the shoulder straps of my backpack haha

Saturday we visited all of our investigators and invited them, picked up our huge bakery orders, made cookies, and stopped by all thier houses to make sure they were all good for Sunday. Turns out the parents of one of them decided to go out of town. The daughter was like wait im getting baptised! so they decided maybe she could stay with her God-parents. Well her God parents are catholic and did NOT like that idea, especially of having the responsiblity of taking her to our church in the morning. They also convinced her that it would be way better to have her get baptized with them in thier church. Aghghghghg...bummer....So we are gonna see if we can get that worked out.

Sunday was awesome. We got up early to go start the water going. Church was great and everything went smoothly. It pays to plan well! We had one of the entire families come and they really liked it! So we are excited to start working with them. Brian (curly hair is solid and wants to serve a mission! He is always the first one to church on Sundays out of the whole branch! He is a neighbor of ours and has always liked talking to the missionaries and stuff. His family is the family that came...He got a haircut for his baptism and everything! haha.

It was my first time ever performing a baptism and so it was a really special experience for me. We were asked by President Heaton to do the confirmations right after the baptism, (its the 31st so I think he wanted them to count for the month of July) haha. We had a luncheon as a branch after and it was just an awesome day for Cardona. Dad, I love your example of always staying after all the ward activities and cleaning up. It was really cool to see the whole branch jump in and help get the sandwhiches and hot dogs ready and clean up afterwards. It was a long day. After getting tithing done, and doing some visits with President Stephens at the hospital we didnt get home till about 4. We went and visited Hermana Eva. She is the first member in Cardona. Such a sweet lady! It was really humbling to see president Stephens kneel down and hold her hand. The first time he has ever met her. He just talked to her with so much love. It was a really tender moment. She cant really talk but you could see the gratitute in her eyes.

Well I better get going but you guys are awesome, the church is true, and awesome, and Im loving the mission! I cant believe its august already.

Tyler you are a such a beast at life. Bringing girls to church and #1!! haha thats whats up bro!!! keep it up and be a good boy this year and take care of your sister for me! I know you will a way better bigger brother than I was when you were a freshman ;) dont throw her in the dumpster like i did to you ;)

I forgot if there was anything else cool to reply about but I love your letters so much!

Im pretty sure the post service is on strike again...but not too sure. The hospital had a sign on it this week saying "national strike Thursday 28th" yikes! Well..I guess we´ll all just plan on not having any emergencies! haha...ohh boy..

well