8/20/12

It´s nice to be baptising again. I think we are finding some really solid future leaders of the ward here. Mirtha was baptized saturday night, along with Jenny. I´ll tell you more about that later. Nicolas was made a teacher yesterday. His mom and dad are getting married soon and baptized soon after!

We have a recent convert in our ward named Maria. She is 57 and basicaly the best missionary in the mission. She gets more people in church every week than we do and we are in the streets 10 hours a day trying to beat her! haha..did you just understand that? YOU, yes, im talking to YOU can be a better missionaries than the missionaries just by inviting friends to check out your church. Its nothing awkward or wierd, just pretend its like inviting someone to eat dinner or have a BBQ! The worse they can do is say no and thank you for inviting. Ok but anyways...Maria is a capa and helping us out a lot, and Melani, her grandaughter is getting baptized this weekend.

Wednesday we had zone conference. It was my first conference as ZL and I think my comp and I did a real good job. We were in charge of a 45 minute presentation. We used a powerpoint and some videos and basically just pumped everyone up whole bunch then brought it down low and taught them to testify of Christ in every lesson. We also talked about not wasting time with sheep who will listen but wont follow the shephards voice. Or, dropping investigators who are "escuchadores" (listeners) but not willing to keep the commandments. That happens a lot because the people here are very nice. We had a member make shephard´s pie to go along with the whole Shephard thing. Then the APs hosted a ping pong tournament in the spirit of the olympics. Jake, if youre reading this, Elder Marmol, that stake presidents son from your mission in spain won! haha 

It rained all day everyday this week, that was fun. The chapel got flooded. Nicolas and his mom were one of the first ones to go clean it up!

One rainy night, we were at Marias house about to start a lesson and her friend came out with a fork with two pieces of meat on it. It looked pretty good. It was liver...I wish they would have told me that after we ate it haha..after eating that delicious spongyness, we watched finding faith in christ. It was like the 100th time Ive seen it but the spirit was really strong in that room. Melany, Maria, Juan, Elder Pace and I were all a little teary-eyed. That made the liver so worth it haha

Saturday was the big day. We decided to have the baptism in the stake center because there was a stake primary birthday party for the primary organization, and Jenny and most of all the ward leadership was there anyways. Dang it was crazy up in der!! imagine 300 crazy hyper uruguayitos, 4 jumpies, 2 trampolines, cake, cotton candy machines, balloons and clowns, oh man it was THE PARTY! haha President Heaton and his wife came to our baptism and President Heaton was like "now THIS is a party!" I told him it would be great idea for zone conference for when Elder Oaks comes in October! haha We started an hour late just cuz of all the craziness. It was too loud for the sacredness of the ceremony. But it was perfect. Sister Heaton brought a hair dryer for mirtha and homemade donuts for all of us. She had fun giving President elbows in the ribs to keep him awake. Poor guy is probably the busiest person I know. they just dont rest from being awesome. he already got my BYU ecclestastical edorsement done by the way. Elder Pace and I sang a duet, "more holiness give me" or "mas santidad dame" Which went really well. Mirtha was baptized first. As I brought her up out of the water she kept her eyes closed and looked like she was having a really special experience for a couple seconds. After what seemed like 3 minutes she said "ta" and we walked her up the stairs. Jenny´s baptism went really well too. It was funny, Mirtha thought that her testimony was a prayer, so she had her eyes closed and was talking to Heavenly Father but wow was it powerful. She just thanked him for leading her to His church and for sending angels to her house in the perfect moment she needed them. As she walked back down to her seat, she held her hands over her heart like if it was burning and looked so happy. 

Sunday, the confirmations and sacrament meeting were unforgetable. I confirmed Jenny and Elder Pace confirmed Mirtha. During the talks 3 little girls were sitting next to Elder Pace and begging him to draw for them. They asked him to draw spongebob, squidword, mr krabs, patrick, sandy and everyone. OH MY GOSH I was sweating and crying so hard! the drawings were so funnny and just becasue I couldnt laugh out loud all the energy came out through sweat and tears, which just made me laugh harder. Oh man you just had to be there and see those drawings. Maybe that was innapropriate, idk, but we were both in a laughy mood, and for the closing prayer a little old sister got up and lightly whishpered the whole thing. We couldnt hear her and we were on the front row. An older and bastante larger guy (recent convert) behind us said very loudly "NO SE ESCUCHA NADA!" Me and Elder Pace tried so hard to keep it in, oh man it was hilarious. He was looking around like are you kidding me? At the end of the prayer she opened her eyes and my comp almost yelled AMEN! hahaha oh man...

good week. Still no news on the mail strike. thanks for making me all trunky with all the wedding stuff!! hahaha ;)

August 13, 2012

Well let me just tell you about another awesome week in the coolest mission on erff!!

The other day we were at the Suarez family`s house and their super cute little 6 year old daughter got a new "gringa" doll. She asked me KELLIS!! COMO SE LLAMA TU HERMANA? I told her caity was my sisters name and she was like...OK! ASI LE VOY A PONER SU NOMBRE! =D haha 

We saw a couple minutes of the USA-Argentina basketball game this week...dang I forgot how fun it was to watch Basketball

We had a couple baptismal interviews this week. All 3 passed! Nicolas was baptized on Saturday. It was a really nice baptism and I gotta admit, it was really nice having a solid ward mission leader and ward missionaries. They had EVERYTHING all ready. The water was nice and warm, Nicolas had washed and ironed baptismal clothes, the talks and musical number and prelude was all assigned. There was a movie to watch before the service and while nico was changing. The only thing we did was show up and enjoy. We did set up a little table for investigators to take pamphlets and stuff. He called me Saturday night and said that he was sorry for being to embarrassed to get up and give his testimony after the ordinance, but that he really did feel something very strong during his baptism. On Sunday he came to church with real nice suit and tie. I was so impressed! He always came in jeans, and we hadnt talked about that to him yet...oops..but he is just the MAN and figured it out. He will be ordained a teacher pretty soon. 

Mirtha and Jenny will be baptized this Saturday. I wish I had time to tell you everything about them, they are so awesome! 

This Sunday the Montevideo Temple President and his wife came to our wards meetings. It was cool talking to some Americans...They have the coolest story of how they met at BYU! He also gave a really inspiring talk about how to better take advantage of our temple visit. He has served as a mission president in Ecuador and a MTC president in Columbia. I learned a lot! 

One new thing my comp and I decided to start doing is sing on the buses. People sing on the buses all the time to make a little cash, and so we decided that why couldnt we do it to spread the gospel!? ITS THE COOLEST THING EVER!! you just stand up, say a lil somethin somethin about the church, sing one of your favorite hymns and everyone loves it and then they all clap for you and we give the whole bus a pass-along card and then they try to offer you money and you´re just like no its cool!! haha could life get any better!? I SUBMIT THAT IT CANNOT! haha brian regan.

alright..well..this week is gonna be super legit. We have zone conference and 2 baptisms so hasta luego mi quierida familia!

-- 
Elder Daniel Kellis
La Mision Uruguay Montevideo Oeste
Enrique Martinez 1167
Montevideo Uruguay CP 11.800