Dearth
Monday, July 4, 2011 6:35 AM
Dear family,
Here I am once again. The fact that I am writing to you means that I am alive. It`s been very cold here lately...temperatures below freezing. It averages about 58 degrees inside the house. It`s wonderful. So I`m currently in Montevideo because my comp has to go to the dentist for something, and the only dentist approved for missionaries is here in Montevideo.
As far as the work goes, we have stuff to do. We`ve been finding more and more people to teach. We`ve got a couple of good potentials right now (that one married couple has more or less disappeared). We`re finding more and more part-member families to teach too which is good.. Anyways, there was a new chapel recently built for our ward, and we moved in yesterday. It`s really nice and all the members were super happy. The chapels here are all of nice quality.
As far as needing anything, I`m doing good. I`m pretty much surviving with what I have.
Have a great 4th of July and a good week. Hope Mom travels safely.
Love always,
DJ
DJ with his new washer
Piedra Alta, Uruguay
Ramon's Baptism
DJ and new Companion Elder Craynor
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Week 76
Monday, June 27, 2011 8:04 AM
Bubbles and Giraffes.
Dear family,
I`m freezing. The (proto)planet Pluto let us borrow its weather so we`re consequently all icecubes. It`s gotten really cold lately. Our house is one of the best in the mission about not letting cold in and stuff and we woke up to it being 53 degrees inside today. Woo hoo! Other than that, we`ve had periodic rain, but not too much. I stay pretty dry with all my gear. That rainjacket was the best 50 dollars ever spent. Oh okay so I was going to mention the shoes. Don`t send them to me yet. I`ve been trying to calculate. I may actually be able to get through with what I have. The newest pair I have right now is holding up well. I don`t walk nearly as fast with these shorter comps so I`m not destroying them as fast. When I was with Dinkel, that was an anomaly because we spedwalk everywhere to just destroy the area. (that’s a good thing) Consequently I destroyed the shoes. Moral of the story...hold off on sending more shoes. I`ll keep you posted.
So Ana`s baptism was really good, but the confirmation was even better. I baptized her. PS. Since I`m a noob and we kind of rushed out the house today I totally forgot to grab the pictures to send. Sorry. I got to participate in the confirmation (the bishop confirmed her). It was super powerful. I felt like a little conduit of power from God to her. She got really emotional during the confirmation. It was super good.
In other area news, we found a good family last week that will hopefully progress. We had a good first lesson and they were both really attentive and he said that he`d love to go to church, only that nobody had ever invited him before. Sadly, they are probably not married, but we`ll see. We`ll also be teaching his sister and her family because she lives next door, loves listening to the missionaries, and was very very close to being baptized a few years back but it didn`t happen. Good stuff.
I received letter 75 and 2 from Grandma. Strangely one of those from Grandma also did not have a postmark. I don`t understand the postal service.
To answer questions...my comp uses a messenger service to communicate with his family on pdays. He gets the same mission allowance, sent to him through my account. We`ll have interviews in this change in July, but zone conference probably won`t be until the end of August or so.
That`s cool that Mom is going to NY. I had no idea. Sounds giggly. Give Nana a hug from me. :) PS...I think I have grown while out here. I`m not entirely sure, but I kind of think so.
Hope you all have a great week. Don`t die.
Love,
DJ
Bubbles and Giraffes.
Dear family,
I`m freezing. The (proto)planet Pluto let us borrow its weather so we`re consequently all icecubes. It`s gotten really cold lately. Our house is one of the best in the mission about not letting cold in and stuff and we woke up to it being 53 degrees inside today. Woo hoo! Other than that, we`ve had periodic rain, but not too much. I stay pretty dry with all my gear. That rainjacket was the best 50 dollars ever spent. Oh okay so I was going to mention the shoes. Don`t send them to me yet. I`ve been trying to calculate. I may actually be able to get through with what I have. The newest pair I have right now is holding up well. I don`t walk nearly as fast with these shorter comps so I`m not destroying them as fast. When I was with Dinkel, that was an anomaly because we spedwalk everywhere to just destroy the area. (that’s a good thing) Consequently I destroyed the shoes. Moral of the story...hold off on sending more shoes. I`ll keep you posted.
So Ana`s baptism was really good, but the confirmation was even better. I baptized her. PS. Since I`m a noob and we kind of rushed out the house today I totally forgot to grab the pictures to send. Sorry. I got to participate in the confirmation (the bishop confirmed her). It was super powerful. I felt like a little conduit of power from God to her. She got really emotional during the confirmation. It was super good.
In other area news, we found a good family last week that will hopefully progress. We had a good first lesson and they were both really attentive and he said that he`d love to go to church, only that nobody had ever invited him before. Sadly, they are probably not married, but we`ll see. We`ll also be teaching his sister and her family because she lives next door, loves listening to the missionaries, and was very very close to being baptized a few years back but it didn`t happen. Good stuff.
I received letter 75 and 2 from Grandma. Strangely one of those from Grandma also did not have a postmark. I don`t understand the postal service.
To answer questions...my comp uses a messenger service to communicate with his family on pdays. He gets the same mission allowance, sent to him through my account. We`ll have interviews in this change in July, but zone conference probably won`t be until the end of August or so.
That`s cool that Mom is going to NY. I had no idea. Sounds giggly. Give Nana a hug from me. :) PS...I think I have grown while out here. I`m not entirely sure, but I kind of think so.
Hope you all have a great week. Don`t die.
Love,
DJ
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Week 75
Loves and Bananas Monday, June 21, 2011 8:09 AM
WOO! I have pictures to attach today. Woo!!!
Dearest family of mine.
Well how was your week. I got to see the pictures of the quilts. That`s pretty awesome. I’m glad everything went well for you guys. The Relief Society quilt looks pretty cuddly. :D So life continues here in Uruguay. Somebody gave us a big bucket of fail for weather. We haven`t seen appreciable blue sky since last Tuesday I think. Thursday it poured and Saturday night it poured, with other random showers elsewhere. On Thursday, I think I had a tiny patch on my clothing that wasn`t wet. Anyways, because the humidity is about 342% right now, nothing dries....ever. Our house smells terrible and things don`t dry. I think I just mentioned that, but it is important enough to mention it again. It perplexes me beyond reason. Last night we once again were comfortable with just long sleeve white shirts on. I keep imagining going out in December back home with just a white shirt and then I get frostbite just from thinking about it. It`s bizarre.
Yes, Ana is getting baptized this week. It should be great. I`m hoping for a small country of people to show up. :) So my comp is pretty solid. He has a really good drive to work and he`s not afraid to talk to people. So that`s awesome. And he`s funny. (I`ve included a picture of him). He just turned 19 last Thursday. He`s from Atlantida which is about half an hour out of Montevideo or so. He`s been a member for 8 years now, and his family members are also members, but inactive. He`s already sent in his papers (he`s already an elder) and will be receiving his call shortly.
Quick update on pictures...last week we made sub sandwiches (all for less than 5 dollars) and the week before we made tacos. So you`ll see pictures of that. And then I included a cool picture of clouds, and a picture of the postmarkless letter. :)
As far as the Latino missionaries that were with me the first 3 weeks, I met them in the MTC but haven`t seen them again out here, but I think that`s because there are maybe only 2 (if that). The Latinos who were with me for the last 3 weeks and came with me to the country are more plentiful and I’ve been in zones with a handful of them.
PS...I don`t know what a quilt writer is...or why they would write for the Daily Sentinel.
Good news...tomorrow is the Solstice. HOORAY! the days will start getting longer again. I`m sick and tired of it getting dark at 6. People down here are completely governed by daylight. It makes work harder.
Well I really don`t have much to share for today. It`s really interesting playing the piano down here because strangely entire congregations have learned songs wrong. In other words, they have all developed these little things in songs that make it kind of hard to play to sometimes (or they`ll just sing whatever they feel like). For instance, they all sing the last couple measures of True to the Faith hymn about 85 times faster than the rest of the song. :) It`s an experience to be sure.
Well have a great week. Love you all lots. What day does school start on in August? And when does winter break start? They are questions I have. Give me answers or I`ll shoot a duck. :)
Love always,
DJ
WOO! I have pictures to attach today. Woo!!!
Dearest family of mine.
Well how was your week. I got to see the pictures of the quilts. That`s pretty awesome. I’m glad everything went well for you guys. The Relief Society quilt looks pretty cuddly. :D So life continues here in Uruguay. Somebody gave us a big bucket of fail for weather. We haven`t seen appreciable blue sky since last Tuesday I think. Thursday it poured and Saturday night it poured, with other random showers elsewhere. On Thursday, I think I had a tiny patch on my clothing that wasn`t wet. Anyways, because the humidity is about 342% right now, nothing dries....ever. Our house smells terrible and things don`t dry. I think I just mentioned that, but it is important enough to mention it again. It perplexes me beyond reason. Last night we once again were comfortable with just long sleeve white shirts on. I keep imagining going out in December back home with just a white shirt and then I get frostbite just from thinking about it. It`s bizarre.
Yes, Ana is getting baptized this week. It should be great. I`m hoping for a small country of people to show up. :) So my comp is pretty solid. He has a really good drive to work and he`s not afraid to talk to people. So that`s awesome. And he`s funny. (I`ve included a picture of him). He just turned 19 last Thursday. He`s from Atlantida which is about half an hour out of Montevideo or so. He`s been a member for 8 years now, and his family members are also members, but inactive. He`s already sent in his papers (he`s already an elder) and will be receiving his call shortly.
Quick update on pictures...last week we made sub sandwiches (all for less than 5 dollars) and the week before we made tacos. So you`ll see pictures of that. And then I included a cool picture of clouds, and a picture of the postmarkless letter. :)
As far as the Latino missionaries that were with me the first 3 weeks, I met them in the MTC but haven`t seen them again out here, but I think that`s because there are maybe only 2 (if that). The Latinos who were with me for the last 3 weeks and came with me to the country are more plentiful and I’ve been in zones with a handful of them.
PS...I don`t know what a quilt writer is...or why they would write for the Daily Sentinel.
Good news...tomorrow is the Solstice. HOORAY! the days will start getting longer again. I`m sick and tired of it getting dark at 6. People down here are completely governed by daylight. It makes work harder.
Well I really don`t have much to share for today. It`s really interesting playing the piano down here because strangely entire congregations have learned songs wrong. In other words, they have all developed these little things in songs that make it kind of hard to play to sometimes (or they`ll just sing whatever they feel like). For instance, they all sing the last couple measures of True to the Faith hymn about 85 times faster than the rest of the song. :) It`s an experience to be sure.
Well have a great week. Love you all lots. What day does school start on in August? And when does winter break start? They are questions I have. Give me answers or I`ll shoot a duck. :)
Love always,
DJ
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Week 74
Changes
Monday, June 13, 2011 7:35 AM
Dear family,
This past week was fairly solid. We have our one investigator, Ana, that is flying. She basically doesn`t even need us to teach her. The Lord already prepared her. It also helps that her brother is a bishop of the other ward. She`s getting baptized on June 25th. She`s super excited. I`ll be here because I`m not going anywhere, but my comp is leaving tomorrow. My new companion is unknown at the moment because I have what is called a corto plazo in Spanish. That translates more or less to short term. Basically, when the number of missionaries is odd or some other weird funky thing is happening, they get Uruguayan members (of missionary age) to be mini-missionaries for a change (or two very occasionally). Thus my new comp is some Uruguayan dude that I don´t know yet. I don`t really know what to think about that assignment. Basically I`m happy with whatever as long as I can work, but we`ll see how it all pans out. I`m optimistic. We`re still working diligently here in our area. Things are improving, but they still have a long way to go. I also found out that the kid that Elder Whitaker trained is now going to be training. That means he is a stud because I only know one other missionary who trained his 3rd change (right after being trained) and he has now been a zone leader for 7 changes. So the work is flying over there in Prosperidad.
You may recall that last week I mentioned we were going to have a conference with Elder Bradley D. Foster of the Quorum of Seventy. We did last Friday. It was really good. He`s actually a really different guy than I was expecting, but totally cool. Really funny and he shared some great things. He made a comment that I had actually made about a year ago. He said that missions are really for the missionaries because the Lord could (if he wanted to) convert people in a way that is much easier and faster, but he chooses to use missionaries. Turns out that when all is said and done the missionaries are the ones who are most blessed.
I got letter 73 this week. And yes I get Grandma`s letters at about the same rate. I`m always grateful for the news from home. I realize that I pretty much don`t know anything about life back home so any little news is good news. :)
Our weather here is terribly bizarre. It`s obviously been getting chillier (since this is the equivalent of December for us) but we have these periodic warm days. For instance, last night we went out and worked in just our white shirts and weren`t cold at all. I can`t imagine going outside in just a white shirt in December in Colorado and not turning into an icicle, but maybe my memory is failing me. So, life is good. We think part of the weather pattern may be from the volcanic eruption in Chile recently, but it was like this last year too. This country just has weird weather I think.
So Brother Burton is still the YM president then? Good stuff.
Oh yeah, we got the conference issue of the magazine this past week. I read the whole thing in 2 days. It is awesome. Conference is like Christmas for us missionaries. We`re weird. What do you expect. Elder Scott`s talk is amazing in the sense that it really isn`t a talk, but more a reminiscence time. He still manages to convey his point and now temple marriages have probably skyrocketed. So yeah. Read them and treasure them. They`ll do us good.
One of the sister missionaries serving from the ward here got back this last week from Chile. She gave her homecoming talk yesterday and spoke for only 8 minutes. I was bummed. Rest assured I`ll be speaking longer than 8 minutes when I get home (but that may mostly be because I`ll have to search my brain for all of the gospel words in English.) That`s my story. The end. And no I don`t have time to tell it again. :)
Well. I think that is the amazing fun interesting out-of-this-world news for this week. Hope you have enjoyed it. I love you all. My family is amazing. Yay! Have a great week. You`ll never again live this week in your life so make the most out of it. Giggles.
Love Always,
DJ
Monday, June 13, 2011 7:35 AM
Dear family,
This past week was fairly solid. We have our one investigator, Ana, that is flying. She basically doesn`t even need us to teach her. The Lord already prepared her. It also helps that her brother is a bishop of the other ward. She`s getting baptized on June 25th. She`s super excited. I`ll be here because I`m not going anywhere, but my comp is leaving tomorrow. My new companion is unknown at the moment because I have what is called a corto plazo in Spanish. That translates more or less to short term. Basically, when the number of missionaries is odd or some other weird funky thing is happening, they get Uruguayan members (of missionary age) to be mini-missionaries for a change (or two very occasionally). Thus my new comp is some Uruguayan dude that I don´t know yet. I don`t really know what to think about that assignment. Basically I`m happy with whatever as long as I can work, but we`ll see how it all pans out. I`m optimistic. We`re still working diligently here in our area. Things are improving, but they still have a long way to go. I also found out that the kid that Elder Whitaker trained is now going to be training. That means he is a stud because I only know one other missionary who trained his 3rd change (right after being trained) and he has now been a zone leader for 7 changes. So the work is flying over there in Prosperidad.
You may recall that last week I mentioned we were going to have a conference with Elder Bradley D. Foster of the Quorum of Seventy. We did last Friday. It was really good. He`s actually a really different guy than I was expecting, but totally cool. Really funny and he shared some great things. He made a comment that I had actually made about a year ago. He said that missions are really for the missionaries because the Lord could (if he wanted to) convert people in a way that is much easier and faster, but he chooses to use missionaries. Turns out that when all is said and done the missionaries are the ones who are most blessed.
I got letter 73 this week. And yes I get Grandma`s letters at about the same rate. I`m always grateful for the news from home. I realize that I pretty much don`t know anything about life back home so any little news is good news. :)
Our weather here is terribly bizarre. It`s obviously been getting chillier (since this is the equivalent of December for us) but we have these periodic warm days. For instance, last night we went out and worked in just our white shirts and weren`t cold at all. I can`t imagine going outside in just a white shirt in December in Colorado and not turning into an icicle, but maybe my memory is failing me. So, life is good. We think part of the weather pattern may be from the volcanic eruption in Chile recently, but it was like this last year too. This country just has weird weather I think.
So Brother Burton is still the YM president then? Good stuff.
Oh yeah, we got the conference issue of the magazine this past week. I read the whole thing in 2 days. It is awesome. Conference is like Christmas for us missionaries. We`re weird. What do you expect. Elder Scott`s talk is amazing in the sense that it really isn`t a talk, but more a reminiscence time. He still manages to convey his point and now temple marriages have probably skyrocketed. So yeah. Read them and treasure them. They`ll do us good.
One of the sister missionaries serving from the ward here got back this last week from Chile. She gave her homecoming talk yesterday and spoke for only 8 minutes. I was bummed. Rest assured I`ll be speaking longer than 8 minutes when I get home (but that may mostly be because I`ll have to search my brain for all of the gospel words in English.) That`s my story. The end. And no I don`t have time to tell it again. :)
Well. I think that is the amazing fun interesting out-of-this-world news for this week. Hope you have enjoyed it. I love you all. My family is amazing. Yay! Have a great week. You`ll never again live this week in your life so make the most out of it. Giggles.
Love Always,
DJ
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Week 73
WOOOOOO!
Monday, June 6, 2011 8:00 AM
You`ll notice that the subject line of this letter conveys excitement and happiness. This is because stuff is happening! WOO!
Dear Family,
Welcome to another day in life on earth. Hooray for probationary times. As kind of a random sidenote, the plan of salvation is really nice. Good stuff. So yeah, like I said, stuff is happening. We had 3...I repeat 3...investigators in church yesterday. Um, the family that we found is currently on hold because we went by to have our lesson but they were busy. However, we have another investigator named Rosario who is the sister of a really good member in our ward. She has been investigating for at least as long as my comp has been in this area. Anyways, she`s way cool. We had companion exchanges on Friday so I wasn`t here in this area. My comp and the other missionary went to visit her and invited her to church (like we`ve done millions of times before and she`s never showed up) so you can imagine our surprise and joy when she showed up halfway through. We`re going back to visit her tonight so we`ll see what happens. The other huge miracle this week is Ana. She is the sister of the bishop of the other ward in our building. She was a reference at the end of April from our ward missionary. We went that same day to visit with her and had a good lesson and whatnot. We had scheduled another lesson, but when we went back, she wasn`t there because things had gotten complicated. We passed by various times trying to find her, but never could and she didn`t answer her phone. Well, this last Tuesday, the Zone Leaders said that they had had a Family Home Evening with their bishop and the bishop`s sister had been there. They communicated to us that she was waiting for us and that she wanted to get baptized. So we called her right away and went Wednesday and then again Saturday. Woo! And then she went to church yesterday with our ward missionary and loved it. She has a baptismal date for the 25th of this month. We`re stoked. The third person was the son of a less active who was actually brought to church by the bishop and his family. It was actually a reference that they had passed us last week and we were going to go this week to visit the family. HOORAY! The most wonderful part is that our ward handled it well. They were friendly and everything (most of the ward actually knows Rosario and Ana anyways) and we had a really good testimony meeting....probably one of the best I`ve seen here in Uruguay. YAY!
Aside from those miracles we saw various other miracles that have to do with us finding more people to teach. It`s good stuff. Changes are next week so it`ll be interesting to see what happens. The Lord is blessing us. He saw our work.
I received letters 71 and 72. The interesting thing is that letter 71 was not postmarked at all. i.e. I could use the stamp again if I wanted. I`m still confused on how it got across the oceans. The package has not arrived, but I suspect that I`ll get it this Friday because we have a tri-zone conference with Elder Bradley D. Foster of the Seventy. They usually bring packages to those types of things. But yeah, that should be a good conference too. I`m excited.
Oh, so Cy moved. Poo. I sent him a letter about 3 weeks ago. Chances are that he will never see it. Oots. Tell him to write or I`ll beat him senseless in 7 months. Speaking of which, I hit 17 months today in the mission. Woo!
You guys always thought I got my luck from dad...I actually got it from Nana. :D
Ok. So that`s pretty much my week in a nutshell. It kind of flew by I think. I hope I haven`t left out any wonderful details. Well I hope you guys have a great week. Happy D-Day. I don`t think there are any important holidays this week. Oh well. Is Velvet better? Loves to all! Sauce.
Love,
DJ
PS: It`s freezing here now. But don`t worry. I`ll survive.
PPS: Is this an abnormally short email? At least it has positive happy stuff in it. Giggles.
Monday, June 6, 2011 8:00 AM
You`ll notice that the subject line of this letter conveys excitement and happiness. This is because stuff is happening! WOO!
Dear Family,
Welcome to another day in life on earth. Hooray for probationary times. As kind of a random sidenote, the plan of salvation is really nice. Good stuff. So yeah, like I said, stuff is happening. We had 3...I repeat 3...investigators in church yesterday. Um, the family that we found is currently on hold because we went by to have our lesson but they were busy. However, we have another investigator named Rosario who is the sister of a really good member in our ward. She has been investigating for at least as long as my comp has been in this area. Anyways, she`s way cool. We had companion exchanges on Friday so I wasn`t here in this area. My comp and the other missionary went to visit her and invited her to church (like we`ve done millions of times before and she`s never showed up) so you can imagine our surprise and joy when she showed up halfway through. We`re going back to visit her tonight so we`ll see what happens. The other huge miracle this week is Ana. She is the sister of the bishop of the other ward in our building. She was a reference at the end of April from our ward missionary. We went that same day to visit with her and had a good lesson and whatnot. We had scheduled another lesson, but when we went back, she wasn`t there because things had gotten complicated. We passed by various times trying to find her, but never could and she didn`t answer her phone. Well, this last Tuesday, the Zone Leaders said that they had had a Family Home Evening with their bishop and the bishop`s sister had been there. They communicated to us that she was waiting for us and that she wanted to get baptized. So we called her right away and went Wednesday and then again Saturday. Woo! And then she went to church yesterday with our ward missionary and loved it. She has a baptismal date for the 25th of this month. We`re stoked. The third person was the son of a less active who was actually brought to church by the bishop and his family. It was actually a reference that they had passed us last week and we were going to go this week to visit the family. HOORAY! The most wonderful part is that our ward handled it well. They were friendly and everything (most of the ward actually knows Rosario and Ana anyways) and we had a really good testimony meeting....probably one of the best I`ve seen here in Uruguay. YAY!
Aside from those miracles we saw various other miracles that have to do with us finding more people to teach. It`s good stuff. Changes are next week so it`ll be interesting to see what happens. The Lord is blessing us. He saw our work.
I received letters 71 and 72. The interesting thing is that letter 71 was not postmarked at all. i.e. I could use the stamp again if I wanted. I`m still confused on how it got across the oceans. The package has not arrived, but I suspect that I`ll get it this Friday because we have a tri-zone conference with Elder Bradley D. Foster of the Seventy. They usually bring packages to those types of things. But yeah, that should be a good conference too. I`m excited.
Oh, so Cy moved. Poo. I sent him a letter about 3 weeks ago. Chances are that he will never see it. Oots. Tell him to write or I`ll beat him senseless in 7 months. Speaking of which, I hit 17 months today in the mission. Woo!
You guys always thought I got my luck from dad...I actually got it from Nana. :D
Ok. So that`s pretty much my week in a nutshell. It kind of flew by I think. I hope I haven`t left out any wonderful details. Well I hope you guys have a great week. Happy D-Day. I don`t think there are any important holidays this week. Oh well. Is Velvet better? Loves to all! Sauce.
Love,
DJ
PS: It`s freezing here now. But don`t worry. I`ll survive.
PPS: Is this an abnormally short email? At least it has positive happy stuff in it. Giggles.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Week 72
Hi family
Monday, May 30, 2011 9:36 AM
Hello family,
Well it has been a week since I last wrote. That`s a nice picture of the garden. Hopefully it’ll work for you guys.
Well, this last week went well (to be read better than the previous week). At least we were able to find some more people to teach. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And they are all pretty great too. We found this older couple who are super awesome. And get this.....they don`t drink. don`t smoke. and THEY ARE MARRIED. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We`ve only had one lesson but I`m excited already. Giggles.
Yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on preparing ourselves to receive personal revelation. It went well and people complimented me on it.
So I received the music. Thanks a ton. But I haven`t gotten anything else because the mail is now even more crazy than usual. I think they`re changing things around or something. So yeah. I`ll keep you guys posted. At this rate, you`ll have to stop writing to me on my birthday. Hee hee.
As far as the whole weather thing, we got a little rain last week and it`s definitely starting to get colder, but I`m holding up pretty well. I don`t have a particularly hard time with cold weather anyways. I have noticed, though, that I have a huge craving for Christmas right now (like from home). Because what happened...last June and July when it was winter here I didn`t need Christmas because I just had had it 6 months prior. Then when Christmas actually happened, my brain didn`t register it at all because of the lack of decorations and dearth of cold weather. In fact I sweated my face off. So now my brain sees it getting cold again and as far as it`s concerned, it`s been 17 months since I`ve had Christmas and it wants one. Sad times.
Well that`s cool about Scott`s internship, but I don`t really understand what ¨computer vision research for deception detection¨ means. Um...my font just changed arbitrarily. What.. Whatever. Cool for him. And yes Holly had communicated to me that she was going to be in London. Fun times.
Oh yeah, so the lady the zone leaders were teaching got baptized on Saturday. We went. It was super good. She`s changed a lot since I first met her. I`ll copy the little thing that they publish in our newsletter so Patrick can try to translate it.
Historia de Conversión de
Hilda Gutiérrez
Ella es una mujer de 52 años, vive sola, y era muy evangélica, a tal grado que estaba organizando una iglesia en su casa, cuando era el momento de orar, ella lloraba y gritaba, al paso del tiempo y ayuda de los miembros comenzó a comprender lo que es la doctrina de Cristo, entendió de que existía una manera más pacífica para adorar a Dios, le invitamos a la capilla, ella fue y llevaba su ropa bautismal, al cabo de 7 semanas, tras muchas charlas de explicarle de la paz y tranquilidad que esto requería aprendió y supo por ella misma la veracidad de este evangelio, llegó el dia de su bautismo, con muchas pruebas y desafíos, su único acompañante (un perro) se perdió, ella dijo: “son pruebas”, con la ayuda de la oración, ella se pudo bautizar!! Y apareció su perro!! Ella es feliz, y tiene un testimonio de este único y hermoso evangelio verdadero.
Elder Llamín
Elder Erickson
Hospital
The zone leaders are Elder Llamin and Elder Erickson in the area of Hospital. Oh good, my font changed back. Yay!
Well, I don`t have a lot more to report. We`re still going strong here, trying to learn as much as possible. I`m really grateful for the chance to be out here. It`s good stuff. Um, so enjoy moving into June. Bt the way, Cy`s birthday is Tuesday if you happen to see him. Oh I guess that would be tomorrow. So yeah.
Have a wonderful week. Don`t eat bugs.
Love always,
DJ
Monday, May 30, 2011 9:36 AM
Hello family,
Well it has been a week since I last wrote. That`s a nice picture of the garden. Hopefully it’ll work for you guys.
Well, this last week went well (to be read better than the previous week). At least we were able to find some more people to teach. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And they are all pretty great too. We found this older couple who are super awesome. And get this.....they don`t drink. don`t smoke. and THEY ARE MARRIED. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We`ve only had one lesson but I`m excited already. Giggles.
Yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on preparing ourselves to receive personal revelation. It went well and people complimented me on it.
So I received the music. Thanks a ton. But I haven`t gotten anything else because the mail is now even more crazy than usual. I think they`re changing things around or something. So yeah. I`ll keep you guys posted. At this rate, you`ll have to stop writing to me on my birthday. Hee hee.
As far as the whole weather thing, we got a little rain last week and it`s definitely starting to get colder, but I`m holding up pretty well. I don`t have a particularly hard time with cold weather anyways. I have noticed, though, that I have a huge craving for Christmas right now (like from home). Because what happened...last June and July when it was winter here I didn`t need Christmas because I just had had it 6 months prior. Then when Christmas actually happened, my brain didn`t register it at all because of the lack of decorations and dearth of cold weather. In fact I sweated my face off. So now my brain sees it getting cold again and as far as it`s concerned, it`s been 17 months since I`ve had Christmas and it wants one. Sad times.
Well that`s cool about Scott`s internship, but I don`t really understand what ¨computer vision research for deception detection¨ means. Um...my font just changed arbitrarily. What.. Whatever. Cool for him. And yes Holly had communicated to me that she was going to be in London. Fun times.
Oh yeah, so the lady the zone leaders were teaching got baptized on Saturday. We went. It was super good. She`s changed a lot since I first met her. I`ll copy the little thing that they publish in our newsletter so Patrick can try to translate it.
Historia de Conversión de
Hilda Gutiérrez
Ella es una mujer de 52 años, vive sola, y era muy evangélica, a tal grado que estaba organizando una iglesia en su casa, cuando era el momento de orar, ella lloraba y gritaba, al paso del tiempo y ayuda de los miembros comenzó a comprender lo que es la doctrina de Cristo, entendió de que existía una manera más pacífica para adorar a Dios, le invitamos a la capilla, ella fue y llevaba su ropa bautismal, al cabo de 7 semanas, tras muchas charlas de explicarle de la paz y tranquilidad que esto requería aprendió y supo por ella misma la veracidad de este evangelio, llegó el dia de su bautismo, con muchas pruebas y desafíos, su único acompañante (un perro) se perdió, ella dijo: “son pruebas”, con la ayuda de la oración, ella se pudo bautizar!! Y apareció su perro!! Ella es feliz, y tiene un testimonio de este único y hermoso evangelio verdadero.
Elder Llamín
Elder Erickson
Hospital
The zone leaders are Elder Llamin and Elder Erickson in the area of Hospital. Oh good, my font changed back. Yay!
Well, I don`t have a lot more to report. We`re still going strong here, trying to learn as much as possible. I`m really grateful for the chance to be out here. It`s good stuff. Um, so enjoy moving into June. Bt the way, Cy`s birthday is Tuesday if you happen to see him. Oh I guess that would be tomorrow. So yeah.
Have a wonderful week. Don`t eat bugs.
Love always,
DJ
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Week 71
May 23, 2011
Woo! We`re still here which means that the world didn`t end on May 21, 2011 like they thought it would. PS: I don`t know if that was a big deal up where you guys live, but people down here were freaking out because some evangelical said the world was going to end on Sunday. Looks like he was wrong.
So Hi,
I am currently sitting in a room typing on a computer. Please take the time to visualize this in your mind. *pause* You may be done visualizing now. Life continues in the same rhythm as it`s been...sadly. But on the plus side, we had a really awesome stake conference yesterday. I think it`s the best one I`ve ever been too, and it really helped me as well, because quite frankly this whole business of working and working and working without anything happening is kind of depressing. There were some really good talks and whatnot, so I was pleased.
We were at district meeting last week and afterwards we were cooking lunch. And my comp wanted to make "tuco" which is the version of spaghetti sauce here with hotdogs. All I could think of was Mark`s story from college and so I refused to let him put the hotdogs in under penalty of being beaten by Nana. :) We just put vegetables instead.
I really do love missionary work. Stake conference yesterday really helped me to realize how much I love it and how important it is.
What is Scott doing for the homeland security? Better question...what is his major/career choice?
Well, ok, basically. This was the news for today (see subject line for date). Hope it was interesting and well-received. You may slap me like a redheaded stepchild when I get home for not sending pictures. Have a wonderful week in this last week of school. Woo hoo! Now Chris will be an upperclassmen. Yay!
Take care of yourselves. I love you (honey) bunches (of oats).
Love Always,
DJ
Hey...wanna buy a sundial?
Monday, May 23, 2011 7:50 AM
I think my emails must be fairly interesting to read. At least you can hear my personality. The end.
ps...4 cool points to whoever guesses the movie the quote comes from in the subject line.
Woo! We`re still here which means that the world didn`t end on May 21, 2011 like they thought it would. PS: I don`t know if that was a big deal up where you guys live, but people down here were freaking out because some evangelical said the world was going to end on Sunday. Looks like he was wrong.
So Hi,
I am currently sitting in a room typing on a computer. Please take the time to visualize this in your mind. *pause* You may be done visualizing now. Life continues in the same rhythm as it`s been...sadly. But on the plus side, we had a really awesome stake conference yesterday. I think it`s the best one I`ve ever been too, and it really helped me as well, because quite frankly this whole business of working and working and working without anything happening is kind of depressing. There were some really good talks and whatnot, so I was pleased.
We were at district meeting last week and afterwards we were cooking lunch. And my comp wanted to make "tuco" which is the version of spaghetti sauce here with hotdogs. All I could think of was Mark`s story from college and so I refused to let him put the hotdogs in under penalty of being beaten by Nana. :) We just put vegetables instead.
I really do love missionary work. Stake conference yesterday really helped me to realize how much I love it and how important it is.
What is Scott doing for the homeland security? Better question...what is his major/career choice?
Well, ok, basically. This was the news for today (see subject line for date). Hope it was interesting and well-received. You may slap me like a redheaded stepchild when I get home for not sending pictures. Have a wonderful week in this last week of school. Woo hoo! Now Chris will be an upperclassmen. Yay!
Take care of yourselves. I love you (honey) bunches (of oats).
Love Always,
DJ
Hey...wanna buy a sundial?
Monday, May 23, 2011 7:50 AM
I think my emails must be fairly interesting to read. At least you can hear my personality. The end.
ps...4 cool points to whoever guesses the movie the quote comes from in the subject line.
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