I can’t believe how fast the days are starting to go by. This week I've felt like every two seconds I was going to bed again and then waking up to start a new day. It’s crazy. Hello last six months? We had a couple special events this week. Last Monday was really fun. We went to Punta Del Este and everything is starting to pick up over there for the summer. It was fun. We saw a walrus and seals right up at the harbor. There was also a fish market. I loved every second of it, even though my face looks disgusting in the picture. I LOVE FISH AND SEAFOOD. We didn’t get anything because we weren’t going straight home, but we are going again. They had octopus, shrimp, halibut and everything in between. It was awesome.
... at the fish market
Then we had our Christmas conference, but guess what? You already knew that, didn’t you. It was so fun to get with everyone again. I can’t even tell you. Then we got a surprise gift from President and Hermana Da Silva: letters from mom and dad. You should have seen how many tears there were in that room of 200 missionaries. So crazy! It was really good though. They also gave us cookies and little candy gift bags. But that doesn’t really matter. It was mostly just a zone conference so we didn’t do too much Christmas stuff but it was fun. Then we got right back to work. Honestly, there isn’t much time to focus on Christmas and such. We have just been working. I don’t know what we’ll do on the actual day. We’ve heard from other member return missionaries that they get the day off and get to watch Disney movies. That definitely will not be the case here. The member we are supposed to be eating with is dropping our dinner off at our house so we can eat alone. We shall see. Hermana Laursen and I just want to go around caroling and then if people listen to us, we will teach. Sounds kinda like the CCM Christmas last year. Fun times... ha
President and Hermana Da Silva
Good friends, Good times!Luciano and Shantal are doing great. They will be baptized this Friday if all is still well. They have progressed a lot. He went to a youth dance with the other kids in the ward and loved it. Shantal takes notes on everything we leave her to read and then will re-teach it to us the next day when we come back. We watched the Joseph Smith movie with them and they loved it. They come to church on their own and it’s all good. We have tried inviting their mom, but she doesn’t want anything to do with it. Their whole family will be coming to the baptism and confirmation though. That’s rare here. And they are inviting friends.
We still need two more baptisms for this month. Our leaders have seriously been calling and talking for a couple hours every night about how we are going to reach this goal. It’s sooo draining. We decided to focus on the couple of people who come often to church, but are not baptized (like incomplete families). We had a few challenges in our way though, like parents not allowing them to get baptized. But this whole week that’s what we have been working on. We tried contacting a girl we worked with before. We gained the trust of her grandpa and he said she could be baptized and then when we went to teach her, she said no. What? We were so confused but... we tried talking. She doesn’t want to give up insulting and hitting. Strange, right? We tried teaching her the blessings of the gospel but she wouldn’t have any of it. She would just start testing, singing or throwing herself on the table and say she was bored. When we asked her questions, she just shrugged at everything. I said, "You just want to be difficult right now, don’t you?" She laughed and shrugged again. So, we are done with that. We can’t make her do anything. We tried a little boy named Gonzalo whose family is all members except him and his siblings who are too young to be baptized. His mom is against the church, but his dad is working overtime to help his family. It’s a sad situation. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would think about it. It’s the first time he hasn’t freaked out at the word baptism, since his mom said he has his agency and can decide, but it’s too soon. Ugh. So frustrating. We will see him and see what answer he got through prayer. Also, a girl named Diahna who is the Rodriguez family’s niece. She has been living with them to help take care of their kids because with the crazy summer they have both started working full time. We have tried asking her before what she thinks of the gospel, but she never really answers or talks to us. She has already come to numerous activities and heard lots while we have taught the Rodriguez family. We finally cracked her open and found her need. She is 20 and has a four year old daughter with some sort of disease. Her daughter can’t talk, walk, or eat. It’s so sad. She has to be here working to pay for her medication while her daughter is about 8 hours away. These circumstances are really not that uncommon here. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome. We invited her to church yesterday and also to pray. She came to church and then told us she prayed. We asked if she received an answer. She said she knew the Plan of Salvation was true. She said something so weird happened but she didn’t know how to explain it. She said it was like she was floating in clouds, she just felt so happy. Yeah. Tonight we are going to try and put a fecha with her to get baptized. So awesome. She’s great. We will see what happens. It’s so cool to see the different ways Heavenly Father answers prayers and the ways he speaks to his children.
Yuri is still so great. We love him. He blessed the Sacrament yesterday and gave a talk. He is going to baptize Shantal and Luciano on Friday if he can get work off. Yes! He told us next year during his time off he is going to go to all the temples in South America. He’s so great.
I just read a talk from the conference Ensign. I had several questions from conference time and all of them were answered except for one. It turns out patience IS a virtue. In the priesthood session of conference it was answered. It was an answer to prayers. I loved it. It summed up the whole mission. Please read it!!! "The Opportunity of a Lifetime." If you don’t want to go on a mission before you read it, you will afterwards. A mission honestly can’t be explained. It’s impossible, but this talk sums up all my unspoken feelings. I have been thinking and reviewing the mission again, as I do with the milestones I hit. I love it here. It’s so RIDICULOUSLY hard, but I wouldn’t change this decision if my life depended on it. I’m so grateful for a Heavenly Father who let me know this was what I was supposed to be doing and for encouraging family and friends who helped me get here. I love my Savior. May we all think about him a little bit more this holiday season. I love you all so much. Love, Ash
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