Tuesday, July 10, 2012

May 30, 2012

Todo bien, gente?!

The first week of the transfer was a really busy one. With meetings
por aca y por alla and with transfers and trips to small cities to try
to get people married faster, it flew by really fast.

Elder Kohl arrived Wednesday morning, and we got right to work. He was
impressed with our investigator pool and with the less busy lifestyle
outside of Montevideo. The investigators all miss Elder Nuñez a lot.
He was always super friendly with the families we are teaching. He
loved to make the phone calls at night and make people laugh. Elder
Kohl is a quieter guy. Im not sure if he is shy, or doesnt understand
too much or if he just feels new in the area. Its a big fast change
whenever you change companions in the mission. They are always so
different from the one before.

Thursday we had our District meeting (they are usually on Tuesdays but
we had transfers and P-day on Tuesday) My district this transfer has
all new missionaries. They changed my district completely. I now have
the Hermanas, and 2 other Elder companionships. That was fun. I got
your package grandma thanks so much! I love those pens! Thursday night
we were getting ready to travel to the court house out of town and
needed to take out birth certificates. We called Magdalena to see if
we could come pick up all 6 ID cards of the whole family, but she was
working and wouldnt back until 5:45. The Intedencia closes at 6. And
we had to have them before Friday because thats the only day the judge
is in the office. Well we waited outside her house until she got
there, and ran to the hospital 3 blocks away where there are always
taxis hangin out to take people who cant walk back home. We got to the
intedencia at 5:55 and the door said that it closed at at 6:45. Oh ok
cool. The process was pretty ridiculous. There isnt a single computer
in the whole intendencia. Sounds like I had a similar experience to
Elder Warne`s in Brasil. So you give them the birthdate and the name
and they go looking through big long shelfs of hugemongous books
sorted by date and county looking page by page for the birth
certificate. When they find it, they make a fotocopy and it only lasts
for 1 month and they charge you 50 pesos each one. ($2.50 US) It was
funny cuz we were waiting while they looked for all six books and this
guy came behind us. He was watching the TV and one of the secretary
ladies came and turned off the tv because they were getting ready to
close. He immediately started yelling HEY WHAT THE ·$%&?! TURN THAT
BACK ON I WAS WATCHING!! then the lady yelled back even louder SHUT UP
YOU IGNORANT &%$@!!!! They started saying a bunch of stuff that I
didnt understand. Well eventually we got our partidas de nacimiento
and went back to Magdalenas to joke like we hadnt got there in time.

Friday we spent the whole day in Tranqueras. Its a small town of
10,000. We went with Magdalena to take out her wedding date. I brought
UNO and PHASE 10 thinking that it was gonna be a long day waiting for
the bus late in the afternoon to return to Rivera but it ended up
being a huge mess. The Judge said that since she didn't live there she
couldn't get married. but then we were like "are you sure because your
boss (boss/friend of a member) sent us here and even gave us the bus
schedule. He wouldnt budge. We went to a phone calling booth and
called back to Rivera to the members house. The member`s daughter was
on facebook chatting with the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency
in Tranqueras. He came immediately to chill with us all day. The
member also called her boss and they told us to say we were on his
errand that it was ok. So we went back to the Judge`s office and he
said he didnt care. Well Magdalena is determined that she is gonna get
married and fast and she also has family in Tranqueras. She said well
then ill just move here for a day, will you marry me then!? He said
yes if we got a "Constancia Notorial" which is a piece of paper that
you get from a scribe saying you officially live there. It only costs
500 pesos ($25 US) OK cool. So we asked everybody where a scribe
lived, walked a ways and told the scribe that the judge said we could
lie about our address to get her married. The third time we went back
to the judge with the pretty piece of paper with a bunch of seals and
stamps on it and he explained that we still couldnt take out a date
because the groom wasnt there. I kept thinking about the story of
Nephi and the last time he went to get the brass plates. hahaha oh man
this guy was a punk. Salto was so much easier to get a marriage done.
Turns out we have to announce it in the newspaper as well, just in
case someone is opposed to the marriage. So, we are going to go back
on wednesday. this wedding is getting expensive, but I know it will be
worth it. They are super poor. They dont even have a roof over their
kitchen.

Saturday was Elena`s 10th birthday (Magdalenas daughter) We got there
at about 7 and they didnt have any money to buy anything to celebrate.
She and her sister had gone to visit their grandma down the street and
so we hid in the kitchen and when they got home we popped out and sang
"que los cumpla feliz" fun memories!

I love you guys! Thanks for all your prayers and letters. The mission
is the best! How`s that one family tyler baptized?

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