April 23, 2012

Hey Guys,

 

Things here have been good. Miguel was baptized which was really good! It was a close call and I was really scared he wasn´t going to get baptized. Our Ward mission leader wanted to take care of everything so we let him. Our lesson we had with a investigator got out late and when we showed up to the church 15 minutes before the baptism only a couple of people were there. Our Leader not being one of them and the font only had two feet of water in it. We left to go pick up Miguel and when we got to his house he told us he didn´t want to get baptized anymore because someone told him something. He wouldn´t tell us what it was. We talked to him for a bit then he said alright he'd go. When we got to the church again the other Elders had a fireman line with buckets from the bathroom to the font filling it with water. He was baptized in a little over 3 feet of water. After the baptism he told us that, that morning some kids on the soccer field called him Mormon and he didn´t like that. It is interesting how the adversary works. He had never been call Mormon before but the day of his baptism it happens. Thankfully he was prepared and was baptized anyway.  He is a good kid and we are now working with his brother who doesn´t have a ton of interest but really likes to talk to us. His mother has a lot of confidence in the missionaries because Elder Fonseca and Tyree gave her a blessing when she couldn´t breath due to smoking and after the blessing she was fine. She is going to take a lot more time but I think she is a future investigator. Diego has fecha for the 5 but he said his parents don´t like the idea so we have to talk to them this week. 

Not much else has changed here except CHANGES again. Wow how time flies. Well My comp is leaving for Deo again and my new comp is Elder Garcia de Honduras. I haven´t met him yet but I hear he is super Trucho. He is also really fat and my area is strait hills which he will probably hate. So this might be a long two changes. My ZL told me to just stick hard to the rules and don't let up, Tell him from the beginning that I want to work hard this change and want to be obedient. Elder Fonseca said I need to be careful, if he gets really mad at me or if I tell President on him he is going to tell all the other truchos in the mission about how much of a chupamedia I am. That was kind of sad to hear that. That as a missionary this should even be a problem. That there is pressure not to follow the rules, is really sad. Anyway vamos a ver que pasa.

 

Oh yea I need to tell you that I got Grandmas letter so you should tell her that. Also I heard David Archuleta is serving a mission. We were all hoping he would get called here and that someone was going to be his dad. Then we heard he was called to Chile. Does Elizabeth know anything? Pic one is of Migeul the shorter one and Andres a joven here. Oh yea there is a pic of the youth here in an ensign conference edition kind of cool. Pic 2 a hamburger I ate a couple hours ago. I have really learned to like food here. Onions not yet but, this had egg, ham, tomato, french fries, corn, three different sauces and I don´t remember what else, really good! Pic 3 my district plus Elder Nygarrd a ZL. Lopez, Nygarrd, Sanabria, Me, My comp, Duke and Muelstien. I feel like this pick captures the personalities of everyone. And one last story I know mom will love. I was in a lesson with Miguel and his mom when she stops me mid sentence and says wait. She was looking a my feet, I was thinking to myself yea my shoes are kind of dirty but then this spider crawls out from under my chair it was big. It really wasn´t a big deal until she stepped on it because when she did that it crushed the eggs sack on its back or something and baby spiders by the hundreds went every where right at my feet. Fun! I have a lot of spider stories, on my face, hands the works but anyway fun stuff here on the mission. Can´t wait to talk to you in a couple weeks. Choa Choa. 

Love 

Elder Wray   

April 16, 2012

Hey Guys

This week was pretty good we didn´t feel like we were having much success but at the end of the week things came together. We have a baptism this weekend which is good. We have been working with Miguel since before I got here and he is now ready. He is really smart and understands a lot. The ward is really behind him we have had a couple young men in the lessons and he seems to fit in. Sadly our golden family coulndn´t come to church again because the mom was in the hospital but I think the ward sent someone to check on them. We lost one investigator because his dad says he isn´t old enough to get baptized. We can still teach him and he can still go to church with his grandma but he can´t get baptized. The dad says he doesn´t want him to confuse school with church. It is a bolazo no mas. We are going to work a little more with the family to find out what the doubt of the dad is. 

Elder Fonseca is doing well, but he keeps telling me if he dies(goes home) here he doesn´t know how well he will finish kind of scares me if I am still his comp. But guess what changes are next week. I can´t believe it has almost already been another 6 weeks, what happened.  Hey sorry I forgot to say happy birthday last week but "Happy birthday Mom". I can´t believe I will be 20 in two weeks. What the heck that is so old! I also have my stuff to vote but I don't know anyone on the ballot for Idaho. I dont´ know when we get the presidential but you will have to fill me in on that. Also you are going to have to call me again in a few weeks so start thinking about how you are going to do that. Do you know what happened to Nick Richards? I think he got home last February but I am not sure. The rest of this letter will probably just be random. Like tell Elizabeth good job I am sad I missed it. Also their is this family in this ward that is hilarious. They have two boys, that are 7 and 5. Every time I go to there house I feel like I am watching funny home videos. This kid talks with his body and light saber noises more then words it is great. His Spanish is horrible but it is a lot of fun to watch them. Elder Fonseca taught me a couple magic tricks that I did for them. Oh and I had my first talk in the field yesterday. It was horrible! I wrote it like a month ago and when I got up I wasn´t feeling like it was what I should say. I should have just put it to the side and talked about something else but I didn´t and it wasn´t what I wanted. But what ever, first one.

I have had some interesting thoughts running through my head as a missionary. I really wish I had magnified my calling when I was at home. As a missionary you see things from the out side kind of. This isn´t your ward but you visit everyone and so there is a lot of gossip that you hear and you see that things don´t work well when people don't do their calling. And there are times when I think man I can´t wait till I get home so I can do that calling right and everything will work and the ward will grow and we will have a lot of success. Then I always have to tell myself -Hey what are you saying, you are a missionary, there isn't any other call I could have to help build up the church. My life is to build the church right now. Don´t worry about what so and so is doing over there I just have to do my job... Sorry I got distracted by an Elder just found out his sister is getting married and I lost my train of thought. But needless to say I need to work on humility.

Not much else is new I don´t if anything special will happen next change Elder Fonseca keeps telling me he is my last senior comp I really hope it is not true. I don't feel like I am ready. But then I do divisions and I am senior comp and I do fine, Spanish just worries me some days. Sorry I can´t add pictures today the computer isn´t working well. Oh almost forgot, I have had bed bugs for the past 2 weeks. This morning I had 16 bites on just one of my thighs. But I get a new bed out of it I have to buy it after this. But don´t worry it could be worse. One elder came to the mission really skinny then bought the wrong medicine for a medical reason he has had since birth, killed his metabolism and now is really fat. So I will take my new bed! Anyway that's about it.

Love you 

Elder Wray

April 9, 2012

(Just to let you know I was told by a friend that April 2nds letter didn't copy the end of his letter.  I have fixed it. Go back and read the end. It's the best part!)

Hey Guys,

Yes, I got your package like 2 weeks ago I just forgot to tell you. And I am not babysitting anyone just helping him out. And she didn´t overdose she has low blood pressure and she was suppose to take the pills at lunch but forgot. As for the liquor, yea there is no reason for that. But don´t worry I am doing fine. The weather here is killer. It is freezing in the morning and super hot during the day my body is all messed up. But things have been really good here. Our area is starting to work. We have had a lot of help from members in our lessons. We are teaching the son of a menos activio who lives 2 houses down from one of his best friends who is an active member and is helping us out a lot. We also are teaching a family of 7 who are really good and really open. The mother likes to ask question which is really good. The members are helping out a lot with them too, the only problem is that they work a lot and live kind of out of town and only have one moto. But one of the members bore a strong testimony of the importance of church attendance and they looked like they were going to go but at the last minute they sadly didn´t. But they are really good and we have a lot of hope they will progress.

Things with Elder Fonseca are improving also. Yesterday he told me he wants me to do whatever it takes to get him out of bed on time. He is a good missionary and a good teacher he just needs a little help. Hey, things I want in my next package whenever that is are, A zip drive, airborne, benadryl and a small book of fotos (photos). Photos of the family, Mountains, friends, í don´t know whatever. But I am like the only missionary without fotos. Also this week I  got a letter form sister Martin, that was nice it is my second one. But you can tell her there is a faster way then Dear Elder. I was told it takes a month for dear Elder but if you Email letters toUrugoest@gmail.com I will get it in by next Tuesday. Put that on the blog to. You just can´t send pics or forwards. I also got one from Preston. He is doing good. But he told me the that Aviation is not in the engineering department anymore but in the ag department, super dumb maybe he doesn´t understand and that our classes are just in the new ag building but I don´t know. 

This week I did divisions with the ZL which was a lot of fun! I pretty much died though. It was the first time I used a bike in the mission. In the city traffic was crazy and I thought I was going to get hit by a car but then we went out to a norther town, 10 km out of t-bo. It sucked! It is super pretty but there are some big hills and haha I am just out of shape. It's a lot like the palouse. Hills, pine trees and fields, super pretty! Anyway my thighes were dead the next day especially. I was thinking of you mom a lot that day. Also we are trying to move, so we called the senior couple about it. They arrived in the mission on Thursday or Friday, she speaks great Spanish, him nothing. Anyway the hermana told me if your house is anything like ours you will move. I just laughed to myself and thought welcome to Uruguay. Their house is probably really nice and we are the first missionaries they have talked to so they have no idea. Oh yea, Pic one is of a horse we found in our forest. Two is a common site in our yard. Instead of dog poop we have horse and cow. I tried to get a pic of a 12 year old kid herding about 25 horses down the street but I didn´t have time. Oh guess what, our house has a pull up bar which I have been using, I'm now up to 15. I feel like that's pretty good. And oh yea we got cell phones which is super nice it makes everything so much better. Anyway that is about it for now. Suerte esta semana. Les Amo. 

Love

Elder Wray  

April 2, 2012

Hey Guys, 

This week was alright till conference. We couldn´t get anyone to go, everyone we went to look for in a taxi fell through. That is the biggest problem in our area right now. We haven´t been able to help our investigators understand the importance of going to church. This week we are going to really focus on that with them. Other then that we helped a recent convert go to conference, it was the first time he has been to church in probably 6 or 7 months. Elder Fonseca is improving he hasn´t slept after lunch since last Friday but the colder it gets in the morning the longer he sleeps in. He is pushing 7:30-7:40 it doesn´t effect my studies but I am not really sure if it is my responsibility to make him get up or not. He has also started pushing other rules like what time we get home or how effective or comp study is. Just little things I can prevent if I keep tract of our time. He doesn´t really think that some of the rules are that important he told me how with Elder Tyree if they ran home one night they could make it but if they walked they wouldn´t. He didn´t run because he didn´t care. It is just something little but his attitude kind of bugs me, I hope he doesn´t get worse. I will see if I can help him out more this week. Today starts Semana Santa or holy week. Every cyber cafe was closed except this one and we had to wait 25 minutes for a computer. I got kind of sick a few days ago, just a cold. I blame Elder Fonseca. He got sick 5 days ago the next day was really hot and every member that gave us water only gave us one glass to share which happen a lot.  And now I am sick which kind of made conference a bummer. Between the first to sessions we had to get a map for our area and stuff so we didn´t talk to anyone plus our area is like 5 km from the stake center.  It was in English by the way. Holland was really good! On Sunday break Eolder Fonseca said we were going to do divisions and do contacts. I got paired with Elder Duke from the group below me and Elder Mulstien who got here 2 weeks ago. So I was senior comp. Who knows why we did a trio but whatever, after about an hour Elder Mulstien said we could stop by his house and grab some cake on the way back to the church. When we got there all are comps were there eating cake. I should have known. They are all Latino, which dosen´t really mean anything except`t they have a rep for being lazy and the fact that Elder Duke and my comp are a little trucho doesn´t help. We watched priesthood this morning. It was in Spanish and horrible. They have to fit a lot more words in a small space of time it was so fast that and being sick and that it was at 7 in the morning means I got little out of it. I guess I will just have to wait and read it. What else this week, Oh yea I tasted liquor and a member passed out while we were in her house. First the Liquor. He is an investigator and he always gives us something to drink. I watched him pull some juice out of the fridge but it looked like it was going to be only enough for one glass. A few minutes later he came back with 2 cups and said this one is for you two and the other is for us, his amigo and him. Each cup had about half and inch of beverage in it. At that moment I knew something was up. His friend then said I can't drink alcohol. His reply: its alright this doesn´t have alcohol. I was like alright but still kind of hesitant and put the glass to my lips. The second it hit my lips I knew I shouldn´t drink it spit it back in the cup and put it back down. It burned and tasted horrible. After about ten minutes he asked us why we weren´t drinking.  All it is is liquor!  We were like which has alcohol. He didn´t believe us and pulled out the bottle which said 30 % alcohol. "Oh it isn´t that much your much, your alright he said". Crazy guy he is like 76!     
Second, we met a menos activio on her way home from centro and she invited us over because she just got the results of whether she or her husband get the house in the divorce. After reading it it said nothing on who got what she was a little upset.  We tried to comfort her.  She smokes a lot, she went into the kitchen and we see her put some pills in her mouth and then take a drink. I was thinking to myself I hope those are save. Then boom she hits the floor. We tried to wake her up then put her in her bed she was still breathing fine so I elevated her feet and Elder Fonseca called the Bishop and another member they were just like I don't know what to do call the police. Good Luck!  Thanks members!  We called the police then gave her a blessing.  She then woke up after a few minutes and moves to the couch.   She should have just stayed there but didn't want to.  The police showed up and asked her to go to the hospital by this time she was crying.  She finally said yes and when she stood up she passed out again.  So they picked her up and threw her in the police car and told us to get in and we took off.  It was like that movie with Tom Cruise where the girl passes out all the time.  The siren was going and at every corner she would fall on me or my comp.  We got to the hospital, dropped her off, talked to the nurse for about 5 minutes then the police brought us back.  It was so crazy!  We talked to the Bishop again, he seemed indifferent and unwilling to help.  We finally found a member that went to visit her.  Anyway that is about it for now hopefully the next week is more tranquil.  As for the next package maybe some ties, peanut butter and a hockey puck.  I had something else but I forgot.  Anyway Tengo que irme. Disfruten de la semana. Choa, Choa.
Love Elder Wray