HEY FAMILY IN NEW YORK!!!
Well here I am in Minas. It`s awesome here. I love it. It`s really different from Toledo because it is way more city like and there are mountains...more or less. There are hills but in Uruguay they are mountains and it`s nice. It actually reminds me of the little towns we used to drive through in like New England or wherever. Just little shops and stuff...no highrises or anythign like that. So yeah, really pretty. There are 4 elders and 2 sisters in this area. One of the sisters here is from my group in the MTC which is fun. Good times.
My comp is pretty cool. His name is Elder Sluder...I think I mentioned that. He does want to work which is good although last week was pretty crazy. The ward mission leader here doesn`t plan baptisms so we had to plan our baptism last week which added a lot to our schedule. But we did have a baptism...a 20 year old girl who lives with the patriarch here (he baptized her). So that`s my second baptism and the second one that I really didn`t do anything for...oh well, as long as they stay active.
So right now, I`m in a trio. I don`t know if you heard, but apparently every mission in the world is changing, i.e. preach my gospel is changing or something. As such, every zone and district leader is now in Montevideo for a 3 day conference. So my comp who is district leader left yesterday solo to go to Montevideo and now the three of us are working both areas as a trio for a few days. He should be back Thursday. Anyways, some huge change is obviously happening, should be interesting and I think zone conferences are now changing to once every two changes instead of once every change. I don`t know if and how that might affect packages.
Speaking of packages, we just got a box today from the mission office (Minas is so far away from our zone...i.e. 2 hours...that we get our own box of mail and stuff directly from the mission office. and I received two packages filled with socks and I don't know what else. I haven`t opened it yet, but I`m incredibly amazed. I saw that they were postmarked the 8th of July. It is now the 19th and I already have the packages along with a ton of mail, letters 26,27,28, various letters from Grandma, Bishop, Bernie...um yeah, it`s awesome. I haven`t received mail for about 3 weeks now so this is make up time.
Ok, I`m attempting to attach 2 pictures to this email. The first is of our golden investigators in Toledo. As soon as he gets divorced and they get married, they`ll be baptized. They`re more firm than some members. They are numbers 3 and 4 counting from the left. The brother on the far left is a member and their neighbor. He went to almost every lesson with us. :) and Elder Nomani is doing who knows what. The second picture is of a less active family in the ward in Toledo, they are awesome. They are only inactive because some of the members made some very unfriendly remarks to them that kind of drove them away. But the family is amazing. She also has a son who is 10 and taking the picture. The daughters are 6 and 4 and the third picture that I decided to put on is of me. enjoy. :) hopefully I`ll get some pictures of Minas on there next time.
So the work here in Minas is alright. I`ve heard it`s pretty hard, but it`s not too bad. and I was misinformed...the members feed us almost every day. Good stuff. Right now we have this golden family that we are teaching. young guy and his soon to be wife. They have a little daughter. Their only obstacle was getting married (because she didn`t really want to) but we think they`ll get baptized now because they seem to have the desire to get married. We`ll see. Other than that, there were some things I had to adapt to in this area that are different than Toledo, but it`s not been too bad. I`m enjoying it...and it`s my first time moving to a new area so that`s cool too. I`m trying to put into practice the different things that I`ve learned.
Tell Holly to write to me.
Glad you guys are enjoying Rochester. I think that Nana should get the letter I sent her while you guys are there. I assume you are going to Sea Breeze? Um, when do you leave to go back home?
Well I`m doing pretty good. It`s raining right now, but with my boot things, I`m good, not too much to worry about. Oh I am a tiny bit sick...congestion and sore throat, but not enough to keep me from working. The house here in Minas is sweet. We`re up on the second floor and we can go out on the roof and chill and we have a fire place which is sweet because it is cold here. We`re higher up in elevation. Minas is pretty rich overall. It`s amazing to see the difference because Toledo was very poor (overall). So that was a pretty big switch too.
Anyways, I gotta go. Send love to the family. Tell Bernie thanks for the email even though I haven`t read it yet. Travel safely...I don't know when you are leaving. Peace to puppies and banana peppers.
Love always,
DJ
DJ with his new washer
Piedra Alta, Uruguay
Ramon's Baptism
DJ and new Companion Elder Craynor
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Week 27
word
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 7:18 AM
Family family family,
Hello all. Well the big news this week is that I`m getting transferred. I`m going to Minas. I don`t really know where it is, but I think it is northeast of Montevideo and should be easy to find based on the city name. Supposedly, it`s a really cool place and my new comp is Elder Sluder. He seems pretty cool too. Should be a good change. The only thing I`m not looking forward to is that the members don`t really feed us there. :(
Anyways, life is good. It`s pretty sad and hard to leave an area. Those people were my family everyday for 4 months. Elder Nomani and I printed off some pictures of us and signed them, giving them to some of our closer families to remember us. It`s hard. The end of the mission is going to suck booty booty.
I think you guys are leaving on Thursday if I remember correctly. That`s fun. Have a good time with the family...and say hi to all obviously.
Well Uruguay ended up getting 4th place overall in the world cup. It`s awesome. Too bad they couldn`t have pulled out better but top 4 ain`t too bad. I`m going to try and get a flag and a jersey once they go down in price. Right now jerseys are going for about 2000 pesos. Seeing as it`s about 20 pesos to the dollar and we get only 3000 to live on each month, you can see that they are a bit steep.
Anyhoo, cool beans about the apricots. Hopefully they won`t all disappear or anything. That would be sad.
Well, I don`t really have much to report this week. I`m kind of excited to be moving areas. I`m in the same district as the sister who was with me in the MTC. That`ll be fun too. Um...wow this email is really kinda tiny.
Oh yeah, I managed to get everything packed but I have a load of stuff already. I have my 3 suitcases...a duffel bag I bought yesterday...a backpack...and an extra plastic bag that has my pillow and a blanket. Crazy. Thank goodness there are no weight limits in the mission.
Anyhoo that`s all for now I think...sorry for the small content. Thanks for the letters. Oh hey no mail this week because of changes. but I forgot to tell you that I got letter 25 last week. Yep that`s all. Have a great week and a great trip.
Love always,
DJ
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 7:18 AM
Family family family,
Hello all. Well the big news this week is that I`m getting transferred. I`m going to Minas. I don`t really know where it is, but I think it is northeast of Montevideo and should be easy to find based on the city name. Supposedly, it`s a really cool place and my new comp is Elder Sluder. He seems pretty cool too. Should be a good change. The only thing I`m not looking forward to is that the members don`t really feed us there. :(
Anyways, life is good. It`s pretty sad and hard to leave an area. Those people were my family everyday for 4 months. Elder Nomani and I printed off some pictures of us and signed them, giving them to some of our closer families to remember us. It`s hard. The end of the mission is going to suck booty booty.
I think you guys are leaving on Thursday if I remember correctly. That`s fun. Have a good time with the family...and say hi to all obviously.
Well Uruguay ended up getting 4th place overall in the world cup. It`s awesome. Too bad they couldn`t have pulled out better but top 4 ain`t too bad. I`m going to try and get a flag and a jersey once they go down in price. Right now jerseys are going for about 2000 pesos. Seeing as it`s about 20 pesos to the dollar and we get only 3000 to live on each month, you can see that they are a bit steep.
Anyhoo, cool beans about the apricots. Hopefully they won`t all disappear or anything. That would be sad.
Well, I don`t really have much to report this week. I`m kind of excited to be moving areas. I`m in the same district as the sister who was with me in the MTC. That`ll be fun too. Um...wow this email is really kinda tiny.
Oh yeah, I managed to get everything packed but I have a load of stuff already. I have my 3 suitcases...a duffel bag I bought yesterday...a backpack...and an extra plastic bag that has my pillow and a blanket. Crazy. Thank goodness there are no weight limits in the mission.
Anyhoo that`s all for now I think...sorry for the small content. Thanks for the letters. Oh hey no mail this week because of changes. but I forgot to tell you that I got letter 25 last week. Yep that`s all. Have a great week and a great trip.
Love always,
DJ
Monday, July 5, 2010
Week 26
goober pie
Monday, July 5, 2010 12:31 PM
Well hello family of mine!
This past week was a bit interesting as I was sick until Thursday. I got kind of better on Tuesday and was able to work and everything but Wednesday wasn’t good. We ended up only working from 10 to 12 at which point we were forced to come home and I crashed for the rest of the afternoon. I also purchased some medicine, so between the prayers and the medicine and the sleep, I was able to get over the sickness and I`ve been fine since.
Oh, before I forget, happy birthday to Nana. I`m going to try and get a letter out to her today.
Yes, I was able to see Grandpa in his apartment last week, but I didn`t/couldn`t print it off. That`s ok. I don`t know what I would have done with it anyway.
Oh, I`ve got a good Uruguay story for Dad...he`ll love it as it has to do with planning. Anyhoo, traffic here is the fritz. There is this one intersection by where we have district meeting. The intersection is one of two pretty busy streets. One street has stop signs but it is very busy so traffic gets built up a lot. The other street which is busier, though, has something very useful for regulating traffic control....wait for it....speed bumps. HAHAHAHAHA! They use the speed bumps to slow down the traffic so that the cross traffic can go! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Gotta love Uruguay.
You know what one of my pet peeves is....lack of punctuality. For example, Sundays we are pretty much always late for church or if we have a meeting, we`re late for the meeting. Only by like 1-5 minutes but it still bugs me. Good story.
So I play piano in sacrament meeting and people here don`t really know how to sing. Consequently, it sometimes causes problems. For instance, we sing “Because I have been given much” about once every two weeks and people don`t know how to sing that song. I spend half the time trying to figure out where they are at in the song because they just really sing willy nilly. It drives me bonkers. oh well, South Americans aren`t known for their abilities to sing. :)
So yeah, Uruguay made it to the quarter finals. People here are nuts...by nuts I mean crazy excited. Uruguay hasn`t even made it to a world cup for like 12 years and the last time they went they lost in the first round. Consequently, everybody is beserk here. Word. The other night, we were at the church cleaning when it went into the penalities (you know where they take turns shooting goals <---- I almost typed girls here. heehee) and we took a break, took one of the girls MP3 players and there were 7 of us guys huddled around on the ground outside listening to the radio coming through the two headphones. When we ended up winning in the penalties, we, as well as the entire country of Uruguay, exploded. For the next several hours, we saw and heard people shouting, honking horns, and doing whatever. They play tomorrow. Should be crazy again. I`m trying to find a jersey or souvenir of sorts because this is epic. they play against the Netherlands. and then Germany and Spain play on Wednesday. the championship game is Sunday. So by next week, you`ll know where it all went down. And yes I realize that you don`t follow it...you and the rest of America.
The emails are fine. I read fast and type fast so I have plenty of time to write.
Oh also, next week is transfers...again...so I won`t be writing until Tuesday, probably earlier in the morning. We`ll see. More than likely, I`ll be leaving the area....ugh I hate moving.
The weather here has been strangely bizarre too. Or so it seems. It`s been very humid and warm. We`ve been walking around in short sleeve shirts the past couple of days. Supposedly it`s going to get colder again here soon. Either way, it`s kind of weird. Maybe we took some of your warm weather. I don’t know.
Well, not much more to report for this week. Keep on keeping on over there in those States of yours. Thanks for everything you guys do. I appreciate it, but you already know that. Say hi to all for me. Rawr.
Love Always,
DJ
Monday, July 5, 2010 12:31 PM
Well hello family of mine!
This past week was a bit interesting as I was sick until Thursday. I got kind of better on Tuesday and was able to work and everything but Wednesday wasn’t good. We ended up only working from 10 to 12 at which point we were forced to come home and I crashed for the rest of the afternoon. I also purchased some medicine, so between the prayers and the medicine and the sleep, I was able to get over the sickness and I`ve been fine since.
Oh, before I forget, happy birthday to Nana. I`m going to try and get a letter out to her today.
Yes, I was able to see Grandpa in his apartment last week, but I didn`t/couldn`t print it off. That`s ok. I don`t know what I would have done with it anyway.
Oh, I`ve got a good Uruguay story for Dad...he`ll love it as it has to do with planning. Anyhoo, traffic here is the fritz. There is this one intersection by where we have district meeting. The intersection is one of two pretty busy streets. One street has stop signs but it is very busy so traffic gets built up a lot. The other street which is busier, though, has something very useful for regulating traffic control....wait for it....speed bumps. HAHAHAHAHA! They use the speed bumps to slow down the traffic so that the cross traffic can go! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Gotta love Uruguay.
You know what one of my pet peeves is....lack of punctuality. For example, Sundays we are pretty much always late for church or if we have a meeting, we`re late for the meeting. Only by like 1-5 minutes but it still bugs me. Good story.
So I play piano in sacrament meeting and people here don`t really know how to sing. Consequently, it sometimes causes problems. For instance, we sing “Because I have been given much” about once every two weeks and people don`t know how to sing that song. I spend half the time trying to figure out where they are at in the song because they just really sing willy nilly. It drives me bonkers. oh well, South Americans aren`t known for their abilities to sing. :)
So yeah, Uruguay made it to the quarter finals. People here are nuts...by nuts I mean crazy excited. Uruguay hasn`t even made it to a world cup for like 12 years and the last time they went they lost in the first round. Consequently, everybody is beserk here. Word. The other night, we were at the church cleaning when it went into the penalities (you know where they take turns shooting goals <---- I almost typed girls here. heehee) and we took a break, took one of the girls MP3 players and there were 7 of us guys huddled around on the ground outside listening to the radio coming through the two headphones. When we ended up winning in the penalties, we, as well as the entire country of Uruguay, exploded. For the next several hours, we saw and heard people shouting, honking horns, and doing whatever. They play tomorrow. Should be crazy again. I`m trying to find a jersey or souvenir of sorts because this is epic. they play against the Netherlands. and then Germany and Spain play on Wednesday. the championship game is Sunday. So by next week, you`ll know where it all went down. And yes I realize that you don`t follow it...you and the rest of America.
The emails are fine. I read fast and type fast so I have plenty of time to write.
Oh also, next week is transfers...again...so I won`t be writing until Tuesday, probably earlier in the morning. We`ll see. More than likely, I`ll be leaving the area....ugh I hate moving.
The weather here has been strangely bizarre too. Or so it seems. It`s been very humid and warm. We`ve been walking around in short sleeve shirts the past couple of days. Supposedly it`s going to get colder again here soon. Either way, it`s kind of weird. Maybe we took some of your warm weather. I don’t know.
Well, not much more to report for this week. Keep on keeping on over there in those States of yours. Thanks for everything you guys do. I appreciate it, but you already know that. Say hi to all for me. Rawr.
Love Always,
DJ
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