October 15, 2012

Sounds like you had a fun fall break! Do you have any awesome stuff like that planned for when I get back? Oregon? =D I really love hearing from you. Thank you for always being so good at writing me. There are lots of missionaries that don´t have that privelege.

Changes were kinda fun. I really like the new missionaries in our zone. 2 of them just started the mission. Elder Silva from Brasil and Elder Nelson from St. George, UT. They, along with the other new missionaries are really young, excited, focused missionaries. We had our zone meeting this week. It was pretty stressful becasue we hadn´t even prepared anything with all the transfers and stuff going on. The night before, Elder Navarro got a little sick. It went really well though. We had some fun activities and I got good responses. 

The ward here is so awesome. Sunday was such a good fast and testimony meeting! Probably the best in my whole mission!

The weather is starting to change...its getting pretty hot. I think I got a sunburn. We were helping a older couple fix some problems with their antenna on the top of their roof and I got a nice sunburn line from my flip flops and then a little red on my neck. You can imagine how white my feet are after 2 years as a missionary! haha

Uhmmm...Im trying to figure out what would be cool to bring home as souveneirs...Haven´t found anything AWESOME yet but still looking. I dont have too much time to be trunky which is nice. 

Im dead from playing soccer...so I think Im going to go relax at home for a little...I love you guys a bunch! sorry for the lame letter.

October 9, 2012

Alright so guess what! Im being sent to the Mexico Puebla Mission for my last change! haha nah just kidding. I will be staying here for my last transfer here in Cerro with Elder Navarro. Yes Mom, Please send my umbrella...Susana, convert in Rivera made me promise I would send her a US umbrella (the ones here are all imported from China and break super easily) So I will probably just send it to her. She even paid me months ago for it. Thanks for the last package! ahead of time...haha dont let any empty space in there! If theres boxes, take the stuff out of the boxes to fill it up more! =D I am just going to copy my letter this week from my daily journal entries if thats cool...

Monday October 1st 2012

At our zone activity today I felt like there was some contention going on. A missionary from a different zone came over and just poisened everybody. The rebelious missionaries were all heated with all the obedient missionaries and when we made teams for soccer some how the teams turned out rebels vs. obedients.I will let you guess which team I was on ;) So this little rivaly started. For the rest of the day there was dirty looks and contention. Im just worried about the work.I dont want us to be unworthy of any blessings! Today, honestly I was so ready to go home. Im starting to enjoy the teaching and proselyting time on pdays a lot more than the free-time part of p-day. We had another lesson with Pablo. It was such a fulfilling feeling to see himunderstand the atonement of Christ. As he nodded his head and vocally agreed as we watcheda video from the Old Testament DVD collection "Sacrifice and the Sacrament" his wife came to tears of joy. HE UNDERSTANDS! I love these kinds of lessons. We also taught Mirtha´s neighbor, Brian. His mom was really worried about his behavior and Mirtha told her about the missionaries. We read through the 10 commandments and Brian (13) cried as we read "Honor thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long upon the Earth" I was expecting a little more of a behavior-improvement baby-sitting time opportunity, but he is a really humble, good kid. Hes marking up his scriptures like crazy!

Tuesday October 2 2012

Tuesdays can get pretty busy with all the errands and responsibilities of a ZL. The last district meeting of the transfer went really well. A missionary in the zone lost his mission VISA card, so we had to go downtown to the offices and deliver that to him. The best part of the day was our lessons. We visited a referral of Hna. Suarez. She was basically ran over by a huge cargo truck. Its amazing how little damage was done (just broke her pelvis and fractured her femur) no big deal right? She had been way humbled by that and wants the gospel for her children. We also unintentionally ran into Shirley and decided to drop by again later. We met her brother and had an incredible lesson. The message REALLY seemed to touch Victor. We were 50 minutes late to our next lesson though. I hate that! Its so hard to help EVERYONE and be on time. You just cant do it. There are so many people who want our visits and there is just no time. 

Wednesday October 3 2012

CONCILIO!! I love first Wednesdays! We talked a lot today about retention, working with Less Actives and Converts. Lunch was AMAZING. LASAÑA!!! but the real kind! here they just kind of make these crepes and layer them with ham, cheese, and sauce. Not the same. Our lesson tonight with Brian was awesome. (for me at least) we watched Finding Faith in Christ. I cried the whole way through thinking about Juan Diego (my blind buddy we met on the city bus (July 14) I knew I had the priesthood, I knew I had the power and authority of Christ to heal, but would my faith be enough to heal a blind man?? I would sure hope so! There is also God´s will...but anyways. The other day I studied the Atonement like crazy and the video hit me a little harder today. Volleyball with the ward was WAY fun tonight!

Thursday October 4 2012

Im sitting on my bed right now listening to Elder de Hoyos playing an incredible song on the guitar. He plays so good! Today was just great. My companion and I are getting a long really great. Elder Navarro is actually a really fun guy. We visited a referal today from Hna. Suarez.(She is the best ward missionary in the WORLD!) It was really cool. We just knocked on the door and in the most sincere way possible we just asked how she was doing. She said "good" then we asked without saying any words "are you sure" and she said "mas o menos" She then said "do you guys want to come in?" =D yes please!!! we talked about being a missionary, showed us pictures of our family, then asked about hers. She brought us to the kitchen table and gave us some yogurt and sandwhiches. SCORE! and poured her soul out to us. Turns out her son is in drugs and has gone insane. He tipped the fridge over on top of her. She doesnt want to tell his Dad the truth because she is scared he´ll beat him up real bad. Sad stuff. Modern day secret combinations...definately drug cartels..its messing up stuff so bad!

Friday October 5 2012

One more day till conference! I ate cow tongue today! my comp is in a bad mood because we had a bad lesson. These two 20yr olds were more flirting than listening..but i respect him for fasting today for a companionship in the zone. 

Saturday October 6 2012

CONFERNENCE! YES! RAIN! we went to the feria to get stuff to make torta de puero. It was my first time making it. I like it a lot! I think I did good. I hate getting late to conference! Especially the opening session because the announce cool stuff. today president Monson announced that young men can serve at age 18 and women at 19. WOAH! Also a temple in Tuscon! During the two sessions I did a baptismal Interview and had to tell her no. Ive been praying for the spirit to help me decide becasue the Elders had told me a couple days before that she smoked on Wednesday. She came into the interview with her stomach hanging out and a peircing in her eyebrow, and Elder X was sure that she was ready. After the interview I think Elder X was a little upset with me but we talked it out. During Elder Oaks talk, at the closing of the afternoon sesson we a had a fun problem. We couldn´t find Elder X for a while. His companion didnt know where he was. I missed all of Oaks talk going around with 4 other Elders looking for him. We finally found him in a dark storage closet with a young woman. We don´t know what happened dont need to know but I had to call President and make him take time from his confernece afternoon and interrupt all his transfer preparations to come do an emergency interview for an Elder in my zone. He was NOT happy.. Never a dull day in the mission!

Sunday October 7 2012

After the crazy situation last night, we were super stressed out today, yet conference was still awesome. We were super strict about staying together with companions and conversating (I think thats a word Pres. Bush made up) with SNAKES! Its a bad habit here in our mission. 90% of the time before/after church meetings ALL the missionaries are "talking" to all the young women 15-25. I was running around trying to break it up but the snakes were faster that I was so I called for an evacuation. "All missionaries come with me!" We hung out in the nursery room until a couple minutes before the afternoon session started. Like always, Elder Holland literally shook every soul within the sound of his voice. I thought a lot about the investigators, put myself in their shoes as we listened. After every confernece I feel my conviction of this church and its organization flame like loco.

Monday October 8 2012

IM STAYING WITH NAVARRO IN CERRO FOR MY LAST CHANGE! I figured it would happen but was a little worried President would send me as a rescue comp for Elder X. I made him a chocolate cake saturday night. Sunday morning I guess he was pretty discouraged and still in bed around noon. I called him and got him excited about conference and Cake. Im glad I could help him get up and moving. He must be real messed up. Anyways, presdient had mentioned to me he was going to put an Elder with him that was finishing the mission this transfer. We got to watch priesthood session this morning.I liked it a lot. Check out this poem I wrote to Shirley in a hymn book I gave her.

Nos gusta la música a usted y a mi,

El Creador la hizo con mucho amor.

Muchas veces el Espíritu mas fuerte sentí

mientras cantando del Salvador.

Está tocando con una nueva orquesta

mas queda el gran director.

Yo se que no hay mejor que esta

porque es la elegida del Señor.

The gospel makes me so happy! The zone had some fun changes this transfer. Im super excited. We had a couple rough hours today in the rain when everything was falling through. We just kept going and the rest of the night was awesome. We had a sweet lesson with Pablo tonight. He is finally understanding the simple pure doctorine. I even learn so much in our lessons with him. His heart has softened so much its the coolest thing.

Tuesday October 9 2012

Im sitting in the Montevideo Temple right now very grateful for the house of the Lord. Its beautiful and peaceful. We got up early this morning and got on the 5am bus to Carrasco fot the 8am session. It was full of missionaries! I learned a lot about the covenants we make and who advances to each kingdom after making and keeping certain covenants. After the session, I was the last to leave the Celestial Room. I love it in there. I went over some scriptures that I remembered from Conference. Later we did 175 baptisms in the baptistry. I baptized so much my arm was DEAD! I did quite a few in Spanish and luckily the Temple President was working at the desk, so I asked if I could do a couple in english. It was really special. The couselor of the temple presidency gave a little devotional for the 5 of us before starting. (desk worker, 2 witnesses, my comp and I) He read in Doctorine and Covenants how the faithful Elders after leaving this Earth are sent to work in the Spirit World. He reminded us how excited we get when we have baptisms and asked if we had ever thought how excited and happy the missionaires on the other side are today for what was about to happen. I felt their joy, and imagined Grandpa Kellis and Moore all young, with white shirts and ties and nametags standing there super excited. It was just awesome!! haha I decided one of my new date ideas is go do baptisms.

I love you guys a whole BUNCH!! 

October 1, 2012

Hey hey hey!

Dad, you asked about general conference. It is live here, but due to the time difference we start at 1pm. the second session starts at 5 and the priesthood session at 9pm! The missionaries can´t be out that late so we all get together Sunday morning and watch the recorded version. I CANT WAIT FOR CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom, I was one out of the 5 missionaries that had the blessing to be interviewed by Elder Viñas. It was interesting reading all my friends and cousin´s letters, sounds like the 70s have been visiting lots of missions. 

Well, this was quite a week! I am reading the book of mormon in 60 days, and I am a couple pages behind but MAN! I am so addicted to the Book of Mormon! Its so good!

Saturday we had a stake service project. It was way fun! We had about 80 volunteers there and we did some WORK! we were all there from like 8am-5pm and the project wasnt done. What we did was basically completely re-landscape a special school for disabled children. It was cool to see how no matter what stake you are in, the young men will ALWAYS start a paint fight with the young women. The stake presidency will be the men who work the hardest out of all the priesthood. The women will pass around food. The mormon culture is so fun! haha Dad, I want to thank you for always setting the awesome example. I remember many times after ward/stake activities when us kids were pretty rushed to get out of there and go home, but you always made sure we didn´t leave until all the chapel was clean and that everything was taken care of. You saw the bigger picture than we did. Maybe you didnt realize but you were leaving a huge example for us for the rest of our lives. At about 1pm everyone was hungry and started heading out. I was helping the stake president level some bricks and overheard him talking to his couselor pretty worried that they werent going to get the huge job done. My comp and the other 2 missionaries from our ward were pretty ready to go. I was determined to stay until the stake president went home but we had a baptismal interview to get to at 7:30. But anyways, thank you dad. Im sure they appreciated our help.

I have a bunch of pictures but I forgot my camera.

Sunday was such an awesome day at church! The stake presidency came for fun and they all took a couple minutes in sacrament meeting. The four of us missionaries taught 5th sunday priesthood/releif society. Each Elder took 8 minutes to teach and demonstrate a stage of missionary work. (The members part of conversion) My stage was finding investigators for the missionaries to teach. I love teaching!

Well...There is so much more to tell but you will just have to read my journal when I get home. Im at page 300.

If you are really planning on sending a last package. I would just say peanut butter and like a whole bunch of halloween candy to share with latin companions and members. Im only 7 weeks from being home so its not like im desperate for a package either. 

Everyday I get closer I am so much more ready to be home and so broken to have to leave!

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

September 17, 2012

Ok Im feeling way better today and im sorry about the lame letter last week. We were just in a huge hurry. When we got home that day I just crashed onto my bed. I tried getting up to take medicine and get ready for our lesson but I just got dizzy and felt like death. So we tried calling some hermanos to come do splits because we had a really important lesson but nobody could come. I just slept until the next morning. I feel great now though! I hate being sick on the mission. It makes it about 10 times worse. That was the first time since I was with my trainer in february 2011 that I wasnt feeling good enough to be able to go out and work. 

The week went by way fast! Our zone meeting went so good! The zone loved it! I made choclate chip cookies for the whole zone and put a bunch of salt in 3 of them. When the missionaries who took those cookies started to eat them up in front of everybody one of them had to run to the bathroom and spit it out. We explained that you can put your suit on and go out and work just like all the other missionaries but if you aren´t obedient, even just a little bit, you won´t have the same results. Then we wrote a fake letter from each of their parents saying that their parents had gone innactive and that they needed help. It hit some missionaries really hard. We challenged them to realize that there are mothers and fathers of people out there that need to be helped spiritually as well. They need their angles to arrive at their front door to be invited to the awesomest place on earth! CHURCH! 

We did exchanges with a couple Elders in our zone. I had the opportunity to stay in my area with Elder Muñoz from Puebla Mexico. He is probably the most humble, loving, and just pure and awesome missionary I have ever met. I just felt like I was in the temple all day just working along side him haha He is in his 3rd transfer.

Sunday we arrived at stake conference expecting a normal stake conference. We were wrong. They sustained the elders in each ward and guess what! A brother raised his hand super high saying that he was OPPOSED! it was super intense! Then, a member of the stake presidency took him out and they talked. I had never seen that before! Then the pulled the projector screen down and we had a live broadcast from SLC! Neil A. Anderson, Linda Reevs (or something like that) and Walter F. Gonzalez talked straight to the Uruguayos in SPANISH! It was sweet hearing them speak spanish! I was a little dissapointed when President Monson stood to speak and the traslatotion voice-over came on, but he was lookin dang good in a GREY SUIT! 

After lunch in Elder Navarro´s old ward on sunday we were walking back to a bus stop to get back to our area and we saw a bike thrown in the little sewer-canal-black-nastiness that run down both sides of all the dirt roads. As we got closer we realized that it wasnt just a bike, but that a man had fallen down into it. He was all black, smelly, half-unconcious and all twisted up in his bike. It was so sad! My comp and I pulled him out, his face, the whole right side of his body and his hands were wet and black. His hair looked like he put sewer gel in it. He was probably drunk, but he looked at us like the blind man looks at his daughter for the first time in Finding Faith in Christ. It was an experience that I´ll never forget, especially the feeling afterwards. There is no greater joy than pullling someone out of a pit. My comp got his white shirt and purple paisley tie all black, but we got to a members to wash off. As i walked away I felt so grateful to be trusted by Heavely Father to be placed there at that moment to help him. I wonder how long he was down there.

Well, thats our week! Wednesday we have a sector-conference with Elder Viñas of the Seventy. I got your package as well! THANK YOU!! 

-- 

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

September 10, 2012

I have a crazy headache and hardly any time. I had a bunch of assignments from the APs to get done on the computer today and don´t really have any time but things are going real well! We decided to temporarliy change the name of our zone to "Los Angeles" because we going to live our purpose so well that we will be sent as answers to prayers of the people in our areas.

 

This week we had concilio. It was awesome becasue we got to eat some amazing food. I learned more in that day that I ever did as a leader. It had to do with Satans plan to force us to do the right and Christ´s plan to help, love, and guide us but give us the final decision on each of our choices. We were taught how Christ would lead a zone, or for that matter anything.

 

The church is starting a new meeting for missionaries at least here in South America where we are putting together a zone conference without the president each month after concilio where we can bring what we learned into our zone better. It takes the place of district meeting and is a lot shorter. Im excited for tomorrow we prepared some awesome stuff!!

 

Im super jealous you were all in Hawaii!!! Hope you had fun! I heard the new Iphone 5 comes out this week. How is Mitt romney looking?

 

I got a little sick this weekend. Its been ruff on me. Today we went to like a lame version of a state fair thing and I was in the sun all day.

 

Guess what! I get to be one of the 24 out of 400 missinaries (from both missions) that were asked to sing for when Elder Oaks comes! That will be great! Cant wait for general conference!

September 3, 2012

Buenas tardes para todos que estan por alla!

Let me tell you about our exciting week! I took Elder Pace to his new house close to the Cerro Stake Center Tuesday night, then brought the Elder he replaced to the Bus Terminal downtown in Montevideo, spent the night with the misisonaries in that area. Bad idea. haha They threw a matress on the floor for the 4 of us and we each slept halfway on it, I drew you a nice little drawing there for a visual aid. I directed traffic for the morning and headed back home. My comp, Elder Navarro arrived in Cerro from just one ward over on Wednesday morning. Before he could unpack we were already back into the busy full-time missionary life. We had a meeting with our new district leaders and got them real excited about this transfer. We set them really high goals and I was impressed last night to see how well they responded! We found out Thursday that Cerro was the most successful zone in the mission. Its such a blessing to be here and be a part of all the excitement in missionary work!

Elder Navarro is a funny guy. He loves giving hugs to all the missionaries and basically squeezing them into 2 pieces. I literally run away when he starts trying to hug me haha. I feel bad becasue here it is totally normal the moment you meet someone to just straight out tell them DANG YOU ARE FAT!! haha
I think that bothers him a lot and it makes him feel self-concious. But he is a great leader and even though can be kinda wierd sometimes is just super fun to be around. Im teaching him to stop taking his calling as ZL as something like a status or a reward or a very important requirement to be able to get married to some girl from the states but an opportunity to serve and be an example. haha

The Ward Missionaries through me a birthday party this week. We have a family in the ward that is just super missionary enthusiastic. The oldest daughter just got back from a mini-mission in Tacuarambó. The father is the stake mission head on the high council and the mom and daughter are ward missionaries. Hermana Suarez does a great job of adopting us as her kids and making us feel loved and at home. She does such a good job of teaching the gospel principles class!! They have some wierd traditions here for birthdays! haha like pulling your ear lobes as hard as you possibly can! haha not fun at all!! But the coolest part was that Elder Rios, my companion from here in Montevideo when I was in Artigas came out to the party. We´ve kinda kept in contact and he was serving in this ward at a time. He baptized Maria when he was here. She was LOCA to see him and to actually be able to hug him! Maria just kept thanking me so much for having a birthday haha

Well, thanks for all the love and prayers. If you send anything, send it through fed ex or DHL. letters included.

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 ;)