march 14th

Yeah! Those are pictures!! haha

whats up errybody!

Sounds like the world is going crazy! Artigas definately is as calm as ever! Theyre still all just chillin out in front of thier little houses sippin on mate! haha

So yesterday stake conference was so awesome! It was cool because the District from Quaraì Brazil came as well. It was so cool to see the stake center full!! Usually there are only 40-50 people on sunday. It was almost motivating to see the chapel that full! One of my favorite parts was the music. The primary from the stake sang "Yo se que me ama el señor" or I know that my savior loves me. It was so cute! It gave me lots of memories from teaching primary in Copper Canyon ward. The missionaries all sang a special number as prelude. We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the melody of Come Thou Fount. It was so powerful and I could barely sing! To look over a huge chapel and think about that morning that started all of this, I knew the words I was singing were true. The spirit of missionary work hit me like a brick as I sang in a different language in a different country. Its awesome to see how the church is growing around the world. I wish I could see more countries and sing in more languages!

The temple president and our mission president came to the conference, so we had a lot of time with our mission president. We had interviews on saturday and on sunday we had a zone conference. It was way sweet! We talked about the power of the book of mormon in conversion and how to help investigators keep commitments. Then after our conference, president offered to go proselyting for the rest of the night with a companionship, and guess who got that opportunity!? yeah. President and his wife came with me and elder inostroza! It was way awesome! they are still learning spanish but they bore such strong awesome testimonies and really helped our lessons! It was funny to see the looks on people's faces as we drove around in the really poor neighboorhood in our suits and President Heaton`s spaceship car.

We have seen miracles this week! I havent had one investigator get a testimony of the book of mormon my whole mission. Its not that God isnt answering them or anything. Nobody has done the steps you gotta do! Read, Ponder, and Pray. This week, we had 3 investigators receive an answer about the Book of Mormon! We were walking down the street on Saturday and saw one of our investigators reading the BOM, we were surprised and asked her how it was going. She had read 3 chapters more than we had assigned her! She read the restoration pamphlet and loved the Joseph Smith story. She is 17, her name is Ana. The coolest part is that in our first lesson she had explained that she wasnt a fan of religion at all. Now she wants to get baptized! We are excited for her. It will be a while because she needs to get married, but we are way excited! Our other investigator, Daniel =D, is a huge fan of music. He is also a huge fan of religion and the bible. We knocked his door last week and taught him the first lesson as his extra stud cute 2 year old son played tackle Elder Kellis for an hour! haha He let us in immediately, offered us water. It was an awesome first lesson. Saturday we went back and he had read, pondered and recieved and answer! Elder Inostroza have left so many houses this week just looking at eachother and raising our eyebrows as if to say WOAH! miracle or what!?

Im excited you are sending the BYU shirts! OH yeah! I got that tie finally! That pink one! haha thanks mom! you went back and bought it didn't you!

Is iPhone on verizon yet? Keep me updated on BYU and Japan and all that stuff! Dont forget to read you scriptures every day! and give grandma a huge hug for me! Tell tyler to ask the missionaries when he can go teach a lesson with them. Seriously. Go do it. You better! Tyler are you applying for colleges and stuff yet?

Love you all!

Elder Kellis

March 2, 2011

Man!!! Sounds like you guys all had a crazy eventful week!! Thats awesome that BYU is beasting it! And Neil A. Anderson is coming to Surprise! Thats so sick!! I definately wouldnt recommend beans. haha Mom you are the funniest

So the weather has been getting much much better! Its still a little hot in the afternoonish but man the mornings and the nights are perfect. This week it felt like conference weekend everymorning, like when you get up and its a little windy, a little cold outside, and all you can think about is church stuff, and Mormon Tabernacle Choir is playing. Its the best!

I haven´t gotten any packages yet, but this week was a little complicated because there are transfers and people are moving all over the place. Im sure I will get them at our District meeting on Thursday. Oh! so yeah! I got the call from the Zone leaders and Im staying in Artigas with Elder Inostroza! Its gonna be sweet. Im excited for this next transfer.

Dad, we find investigators by mostly referrals. The first few weeks we did about 20-30 street contacts/door knocking contacts. The new focus church wide is that the members find and the missionaries teach. (check out the last Ensign talk by President Eyring ¨How Great Shall be Your Joy¨ We realized that we could be doing this a lot better. We prayed and talked to our ward leaders about the biggest deepest question ever. HOW!? And we figured some ideas out, and have been really praying for more opportunities to work with members. The results were awesome! We dont even really do contacts anymore. We have about 15 referalls a week from Members, Investigators, Non-Members. It is so much more effective!

Its summer here so usually we dont see any of the night time. YET. We get to the house at about 9ish and its usually just getting dark. But from what I can tell, and have heard, the city really comes alive at night. Because they sleep from 1-4or5ish in the afternoon. Its crazy! everything is closed! It makes proseliting really hard. But they dont really go to bed until 10-12ish. They used to have companionship7language studies during the SIESTA but the misisonaries were just taking naps too. So they got rid of that.

We walk everywhere. The only time I have been on a bus was in Montevideo. Taxis only on the way to district meetings or if we are doing companion exchanges. Taxis are way cheap here in Artigas, but feet are cheaper.

We havent had a chance to visit a hospital, but that sounds like an awesome idea! We dont have one in our area,, so we wont be able to.

This week I had another opportunity to give a blessing. It was to the first member from Artigas! She is super old and I think she had a fever. It is going around down here. We only had 33 members in church this week =/. She is a funny old lady. She wants to marry President Packer, and she has shaken hands with 4 prophets! She had me cracking up real hard.

Ok so the money thing. It works like this. We each get 150dollars each month for everything. Including the water and electric bills, activities, food, haircuts, pday activities. I think I just need to budget better cuz that seems like it should be enough.

I got your email Dad, but the pictures didnt show up. That picture that Caity sent me worked just fine. Idk. Maybe you´ll just have to print them. Try putting them on the page of the email somehow instead of attachments.

Thats crazy that Aaron is leaving in 2 weeks! time goes by so fast on the mission! I cant believe i`ve been out for 3 and a half months already!

Its interesting all that is going on in the world right now! I hadnt heard any of that! Keep me updated mom! So Elder Inostroza always asks in our nightly companionship prayer that the places in the world be opened up to the work. I thought that was interesting. I was reading in the Ensign from a general conferenceabout two years ago, and President Monson was giving the opening remarks/welcome. He promised that if the saints would pray for the areas of the world to accept missionaries that miracles would be seen and that we would see missionaries in these countries. Its amazing to see the reality of a prophet on the earth today! It truly amazes me, and I am so grateful for a modern day prophet! I am so excited to see the church spread and even more excited to be a part of it!

Love,

Elder Kellis

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

Week 4 in Uruguay!

Hey errybuddy!

My mind has been on money a lot today. They give us each an amount of money each month to spend on food, haircuts, ect. Its extremely low, so its really hard to budget. I think I am going to learn a lot more than just spiritual lessons on my mission. Budgeting is really difficult. Any suggestions? I dont plan on spending too much money on my mission. I just want to get a cheap soccer jersey, stuff like that.

This week was way sweet! We got to go to Salto for a zone conference. It was about a 2-3 hour drive. We got up at 3am, so I actually slept on the way which was a miracle with the crazy bumpy highways and negative 2 inches of leg room. We learned a lot in the zone conference about focusing our teaching on the Atonement. It was a great conference. There is a tradition that all the greenies have to bear their testimony in Spanish and all the Elders in their last change do as well. You can definately see a difference in each of the two distinct categories but both have really special testimonies.

Every Friday the 6 missionaries in the 3 wards of our building have a missionary activity. This week was a talent show and "Torta" competition. Torta is cake! haha So yeah. I baked a cake from scratch! It wasnt too bad! I used that nesquick that I brought! haha. it didnt win the competition thats for sure. We had a great turn out. Me and Elder Inostroza had to make up for the lack of our ward and fill in 2 slots for the show. One of them we did a skit. I have it on video so you'll see it some day. But its basically me desperate for paper. We go through a bunch of different paper things, like our daily planners, our pamphlets, our scriptures, a binder of music that someone else had used, and then finally elder pulls out toilet paper and I ran off the stage through the crowd and to the bathroom. Our second talent was a special musical number in the chapel. He played and I sang "Yo se que vive mi Señor" IT was funny cuz their was a interlude and I started singing and realized I was singing during an interlude so I like morphed it into an awkward humm and smiled really huge. Then the fans in the chapel blew off the sheet music so I sang ocapella for a little. It was awesome. Oh south america. Hahaha

I ate a fried egg this week. Just sayin.

HAha story for Bishop Klippel. My companion and I were laying in bed going to sleep and he says, "I love you, man" in his broken English. I smiled and awkwardly said "you too man" and immediately thought of Bishop Klippel and his story of his comp.

The rain isnt always that bad. we asked them and they said that was the first time their house had ever been flooded. Theyve only lived their for 3 years though. It rained 7 days in a row though this week! Not straight 24/7 rain, but at least for a couple minutes every day.

The other morning we were doing our excersises running and these dogs started running with us like they always do. They didnt run behind us though. they ran like right in front of us sideways. I was like what the heck is wrong with you? Well i accidentaly stepped on its paw and it started crying. I was kinda in a frustrated mood that morning so I just kept running.

SO remember when I lost my nametag in that crazy storm!? Well. I prayed really hard that night that I would be able to find it. Well we looked and it wasnt there. Elder Inostroza said that it was probably floating in the river in Brazil. I didnt believe him. I had prayed so faithfully like all those cute primary kids stories! haha. So we looked again. It was nowhere to be found. So then I prayed that someone would find it and see Missionaries walking down the street and give it to them or something. Well after about a week of faithfully waiting. Yesterday one of our appointments fell through. Elder Inostroza randomly decided to go to this members house, which we try not to do unless its super hot or we need a bathroom break or we are planning a FHE or something. But we went in and she was super relief society presidenty like tablecloth huge smile loving mormon "sister perfect" She brough out a tray with a tablecloth and two cups of soda and two wrapped chocolates for each of us. Then she saw my nametag and almost had a heart attack. She said she had something for me and came back with my nametag! I was super happy and thankful for that little tender mercy.

Well thank you everybody for all your prayers and love and letters and everything you do for me!

Until next time!

Elder Kellis

Hey Hey

Happy February Everyone! I cant believe how fast time has gone!

I only have 15 minutes so ill get straight to it...

MAIL INFORMATION
Pouch- safer (its a pouch with all the church mail from the states to Uruguay) , cheaper (1 stamp) , but slower (2 weeks)
Uruguay Montevideo West Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0150
Direct Mail- Quicker (5-7 days) more expensive (3 stamps or 98 cents)
La Mision Uruguay Montevideo Oeste
Enrique Martinez 1167
Montevideo, Uruguay C.P. 11.800
Packages
No more than 4 pounds each and dont put the worth as more than 50 dollars. If either of these are not followed it will take up to 4 months.
Email
Urugoest@gmail.com
this is the best way to just send me a letter or something. Its easy. just put "Elder Daniel Kellis" on the subject line, and write away!

Caity! hows the blog coming? are you updating it? =) I loved you email and your pictures! You are the best missionaries little sister ever! I love you! I hope you feel better soon!
Hahaha theres a little latino kid next to me playing video games. hes all into it and stuff.

Alright so some quick stories.
We were walking and saw this super crazy eye crossed high off his mind smoking guy with raggedy clothes and a huge gross but awesome smile. We were just like hey whats up man! you should stop smoking!!! he was like OK!!!! =D and threw his cigarette into the street and started hugging us. It was awesome. I cant wait to watch that instant replay in heaven.

There was a CRAZZZYY like hurricane status rain storm this week. We were in the house when it started, and decided to leave during the middle of it. The streets were like rivers. There was like a 6inch constant flow of water throghout the whole streets. We happened to be close to the bishops house so we chilled there. As the sun finally came out about 1 hour later (after I lost one of my nametags and had soaked shoes and everything) we left. I felt like we should go to a recent convert family. But Elder Inostroza is a very i dont know how to put it. He is very good at being senior companion. So I didnt say anything. Luckily I think he might have had some kind of similar inspiration because about an hour later he said lets go to Rider and Maira´s so we did. Their house had been flooded. They were trying to get water out of their house. They have little to nothing already. Their little refrigerator and little clothes washer had gotten wet and broke. The water was up to about a foot and a half in thier two little tiny bedrooms. The 2 daughters have to share a twin size bed. Their room was the worst. Their little TV had been filled with water. Well anyways. We spent the rest of the day helping them. I have a little thing I wrote that I would like to send when I get the chance. Its about the faithful saints in South America.

I had divisions on Tuesday with Elder Oakey. He´s a stud and is going home in 3 weeks. We had an awesome and successful day, I learned alot from him and it was so nice to talk in English!!!!!

The food is so great!! We have lunch with the zone twice a week. after district meetings on tuesdays and on Pdays on mondays. On all the other days the members feed us lunch. Lunch is the main meal here. So we eat A LOT. So far I havent eaten anything to crazy. The sisters are awesome cooks here! Lots of fried breaded meat, rice, and my favorite drink ever now GUARANA!!!! THey also make this declicious bread its basically banana bread without banana in it that we put carmel stuff on.

The weather has been fresher this week.

Thanks for all your prayers and love!! Thanks for your letters each of you! Mom thank you for sharing all that you shared. I love hearing all about how your doing.

Today I had a haircut and the Hermana asked that I ask if you could send a BYU shirt. Ill have to tell you more about that when I have time too. Shes the best. She washes our clothes and makes our food and stuff.

IM CRAVING AMERICAN CANDY!! hahaa

GOOOO BYU!!!! thats so awesome!!!

AC-.the chapel has like 40 fans in the chapel and each room has like 4 fans. It gets REALLY hot when there arent fans on. about 1 in 30 houses have AC here, i dont know how they do it. =P

I dont use the sleeping bag, but I think for exchanges it will be nice.

Health is great, I drink 2 liters of water each day, plus the water the members give us.

Today was way fun, Ill have to send you my SD card sometime soon with a bunch of pictures.

Love you lots!!
have an awesome week!

-Elder Kellis

Hey Guess what! Im leaving tomorrow!!

We eat breakfast at 4:45 and leave at 5:15!

I chose a scripture for my plaque thing. I had a really awesome experience choosing it. I was reading through my Book of Mormon in the Missionary chapters of the end of Mosiah and the first half of Alma. I found a couple that caught my eye, one of them was Alma 26:12. I read it and loved it and saw some footnotes and thought I would check them out. I then bounced over to Alma Chapter 29 verse 9 which is a little similar. Then I noticed that it was the famous "Oh that I were an angel Chapter." I read it from the top and instantly felt my whole soul burn. It was powerfull, a feeling that I have only gotten a few times while reading the Book of Mormon. The same way I felt when I first received my witness of its truthfulness. So I want to choose verses 1,2, and 9 of Alma 29.

They might be a little long so here is what I would like to fit on there if we could:

1. "Oh that I were an angel, and could have the wish of my heart that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the Earth.

2. Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, that they should come unto our God.

9. And this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentence; and this is my joy."

Already this scripture has changed my mission. Just this Saturday we were walking and we walked passed a woman and her 2 kids on the street who seemed to be a little busy, she was on the phone and her kids were being a little crazy. I instantly remembered the words of that scripture and imagined my face on a plaque next to them. I thought of what Alma would do. I thought of how if that scripture was next to my name I better live up to it. So I told Elder Hales, "We need to turn around and talk to her" and we did.

I can´t wait to do this everyday. I can´t wait to get up in Sacrament meeting in my new ward and make a complete awesome fool of myself but bear powerful testimony to that ward, for I already love them, I already have a burning love and testimony to share. I can see them in the pews, playing the pianos, the kids singing in the primary room. I am so blessed to have this opportunity, and I pray that I can be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. The greatest joy I have ever felt.

-Elder Kellis

ps. Pday should be Monday from now on. Not quite sure.

Love you all so much. Thanks for your prayers, especially this week!

Week 6

Hey Guess what! its 2011!

Only 1 more year till the world ends!! haha we keep joking that we are going to have a bunch of success as missionaries cuz everyone is going to be freaking out about the world ending.

This week has been way quick and way awesome! It was Sister Kappels birthday (she is in our district) this week, so I asked her to lead the opening hymn for our class, and instead of all of us singing the hymn we started singing her ¨YOUVE HAD A BIRTHDAY SHOUT HOORAY! it was way funny, and then we sang the Spanish version. She just sat down and turned really red. It was awesome.

So each district has two teachers in the MTC here. One in the Morning and One in the afternoon. Well its awesome because our teachers are dating eachother. So we always tease them about what the other one said during the other class and stuff. They are so cute though. They´ve been dating for 6 months.

So during Actividad Fisica the other day I threw my arm out from throwing footballs too much and too hard. It hurt so bad. I couldn´t NOT feel the pain. So I just suffered for an hour and then I put ice on it and listened to the Primary CD that they sent me and Elder Klippel. It made me smile so big in my hour of deathness and then made me cry. My arm felt better after the ice. I didnt know ice was that powerful. =P

Thanks for all the candy! I gave a snickers to the cook, and he said that he would give me extra french fries and chicken tonight! Also, the skittles were delicious. and fun. To throw up through the fan blades and back down into my mouth. Except usually Elder Hales and I would get hit in the face really hard.

So there´s new Elders here again! crazy how fast time has gone by. We leave for Uruguay in 12 days! At first we were bummed because Elder Hales and I didn´t have ANY roomates. Which is important because we gotta practice our Spanish with them, plus theyre fun to have around. We love em =) But I got the hook ups with President and we got another latino companionship in there with us, and 2 empty beds. Im tempted to make a queen size bunk bed. But Im not sure how they will like that. One is a Latino fluent speaker from Texas the other El Salvador. They are way cool!

We learned a lot this week, Spanish and teaching skills of course, but guess what else! HOW TO SEW AND LEAD MUSIC! its way funny walking by classrooms and seeing 12 Elders ALL leading the music in a Districto.

The saddest part of the week: During Proseltismo, we talked to a man at a bus stop who was probably the most solid guy we´ve talked to. He loved what we had to say and answered questions before we were done saying them. He was loving and humble and just golden. Then the bus came and we tried to get all of his information down but he had to go. It was so hard. It was like a movie, slow motion. We were looking at him, and He was looking at us, until the bus drove out of sight down the road. I think Heavenly Father feels the same way, when his children decide to go down a different path. He probably keeps his loving eye on us as long as he can. I love being close to the Savior, being able to feel how he would feel. We sat down on a dirty sidewalk and talked to a man this week, dirty and sweaty for about an hour. He expressed his wish to be more like us. "always on the way" to God. He explained how drugs and other things were keeping that goal from him. I didnt care that he smoked, that he was dirty, that my had got his sweat on it when i shook it, I just loved him. So much. I know that Chist feels the same way. In fact he would probably wash them for us. I love having these opportunities. One more, then I gotta go =( but We talked to a man who had moved here from Italy. He was the sweetest guy I have ever met. As soon as we saw him on the street he smiled and started walking towards us. We taught him of Christ, and showed him the introduction of the book of mormon. He read the end and it talks about preparing us for the second coming. He looked at us with wide eyes and asked He´s coming again?? then he started to look sad. He looked at us, tears swelling and said softly, "But the people? The people? they´re going to kill him again!" I was taken back by the love this man had for his Savior. It´s cool when people who have never really been a part of a church can be a spiritual example to me. I really felt the love that God and my Savior have for us this week. It was so hard to leave that last area in Ituzango II.

Love you all and wish you an awesome new year!!

Con Amor,

-Elder Kellis