Loved the Appetizer

I just got home from the YW broadcast. It was more than "just what the doctor ordered", it was just what Linda Urmston needed. If you have access to the BYU station watch it! I love General Conference and just trying to suck all the information and spirit in all at the same time. I take notes and then when I read them later I feel such great peace as the same emotions wash over me once again. Get ready for the full course meal next weekend as we get 4 sessions (5 for the men in addition to a fun dinner out with the guys) I love that the gospel grounds me as I tend to get out of control at times. I eat it up twice a year. I am so grateful to our church leaders who live their lives so that they can imapact mine.

Changed City/Changed Companion

oh hey whats up so i got changed. well actually i got special changed. every 6 weeks we have changes and normalmente youre in an area for 3 or 4 changes so i was way pumped working with elder Amaya in Ciudad Del Este 3 just tearing it up putting feachas left and right. and out of no where i got special changed. And i was sitting in Mcdonalds across from Elder Robertson my old zone leader and he is talking with the AP about who has special changes anywhere he asked elder Robertson if he would be able to tell everyone and he said yeah one of them is sitting right in front of me and then i knew i was leaving and i started to cry, k well i really wanted to but i manned up and took it. anyways tuesday i visited most of the members and all of my investigadores, which also took a lot of strength to not cry cause i really wanted to stay for their baptisms which are this saturday and the following. But its not my call it the Lords, and its kinda hard slash stupid to argue with him, So we got on a bus at 1 in the morning to Asuncion (6 hour bus ride) where they told me i was going to San Ignacio which is a 5 hour bus ride in the other direction. So after a quick trip with Elder Najac to the hospital and discovering that he has staff. D-sgusting!!! he and i left San Igancio, So now i have a new zone, new area, and a new comp, elder Lizondro, from Panama. Once again and to look up where the heck my comp lives. thinking about taking a Geagrophy class when i get home cause i dont know where anything is. anyways he has the same time as me in the mission, so were co-comps, and still pretty new which i think is good cause were both not burnt out and were just pumped to be here. We are also the 1st and 2nd counselors in the Branch Presidence, and im still trying to figure out what that means. so far i have noticed that we work a lot with the president and the members which is good cause they get excited about missionary work and we almost always have someone from the branch to acompañarnos in lessons. The branch has less then 5 years so its pretty new. were having a lot of success. we found a family, Familia Ramirez, that just moved in last week and they are way excited about having the gospel in their lifes, and so am i. they want to get baptized so if they can make it to church next week and to Gerneral Conference they will get baptized that following week.Si!!!!! So lifes going great fields white and ready to harvest. and im loving every minute here. im so pumped for kyle, write me more kyle about what mission what mtc your going to cosas asi. when we get back we can speak spanish to each other its going to be sick!!!! write me. k love you all thanks for all your letters and prayers. the church is true and the book is blue. ps trying to write the sisters this week get excited. jaja pss mom found shoes but got changed and didnt but them ill look around here and see what i can do and ill get back to you

MOW (new one for me) Miracle of the Week

Yo what up¿!?
hows life going fam? todo bom? (that would be the extent of my portuguese) well didnt hear any news on masons game. but im guessing loss since there wasnt a blackberry message for me. tranquilo theres always swimming homie. thanks mom for the letters from brad, and thanks grandma and Grandpa for your update. I love hearing how other missionaries are doing its crazy how different our missions are but at the same time exactly the same. We find joy in the same things and get excited over the same experiences and are all working for the same purpose. so this weekend we finished our carnival work. FINALMENTE!!!!!
Its a lot bigger of a deal in Brazil but since we are pretty close to them everyone in Ciudad Del Este makes a big deal about it too. It basically just another reason to drink for them, but now they just dance in the streets and have water fights. the water fights are hilarious, drive by water ballooning and buckets of water being thrown from roof tops definitely bring back a lot of memories. Favorite one i say was these two kids about 8 years old no mas, were on top of this roof and when people would walk by they would just destroy them with water balloons but they were so big it took them both to carry it to the edge, this one girl caught one to the face and i almost peed my pants. Not very missionary like but it was hilarious. wish i had a pic for ya. But the drunk dancing i could have passed on. anyways its over and we should start having a little bit easier time finding people in thier houses instead of in the streets. but enough of that...
lets see.... bueno i got a MOW for yea (miracle of the week) so we have lunch with the Obregons every thursday, and Hma hermana as in sister has like 30 years in this ward so she pretty much knows everyone and hooks it up with golden referencias. (ps if you read this your a committed to giving a reference to the missionaries this week. Do it they will love you and God will bless you) I know I now need to give a reference! Anyways she said that there is a family that lives just around the corner that hasnt been to church in like 7 years but she has never been able to talk to the mom cause she works in Argentina and only comes back one day every other week, if that. So we decided to go anyways and she wasnt there. but her neighbor said she would be home this sunday. so we came back this past sunday and she was there. Yeah!! So we talked for awhile, blah blah blah why havent you been to church. She has work all the time. we told she should go when she is in town. She said i know i think about it every Sunday. She said she wants to start going again with her son as well. Then she said, my son hasnt been baptized i would like you guys to teach him the lessons and take him to church when im not here, she then said that she wanted us to baptize him. oh of course our response was Claro que si.No idea what that means thinking a big fat YES then we put a date taught a lesson made an appointment and hes getting baptized the 7th of Abril. pretty killer right. Sometimes i dont understand why we are so blessed. But i am definitely not complaining. Pretty positive that it is through all of your prayers. well gotta roll. love you all keep reading your scriptures. i want a picture of two boys with your scripture scholar awards at the end of the year or im taking back all my clothes. I will do it!! k love you

Too cute

This mom misses her son in Paraguay

week... a lot‏


Yo What UP!!!!!!!! Hows life in mother land. The Heart of South America is just dandy. Worked really hard this week and im really excited about going home when i finish this to take a nap. first of all id like to give my shout outs to my peeps, thanks uncle Michael for the update on the fam, could have guessed that kauner and taumage (wow his name is hard to spell) are tearing up every team in the city. And I don’t think im going to be able to make the bass lake trip this year, but ill run it by the prez and let you know. Thanks Ashlee for the letter let me know when you get your Olympic Trial Invite. Oh I also received my package it was killer. Most of the smart missionaries wait till they get home to open their packages. But I was to excited and opened it in front of everyone, luckily I still managed to save about half my candy so its all good. Dang the wedding looked amazing and so did Courtney. Sorry I missed it sis but I think you understand. I noticed mason is still sportin the mop killer homie. I saw that pic of the whole fam at the beach and kinda miss mine. But I think the mop dome days are done for me. tambien thank you Nicole for the Talia updates hope she doesn’t have any serious ear problems im praying for her. Bueno I think I got everyone credit ill try to get some personal letters out this month if I can find some time. Meanwhile write me more please thanks. So one cool story from this week happened on Sunday, most everything good happens on Sundays. Anyways we had about 15 investigators that we had been visiting for a solid three weeks now half of which have been coming to church. So Sunday morning we went by their house to make sure they were getting ready to go. But it was a little cloudy and like I told you Paraguayans don’t like the rain very much. So no one wanted to go because of the clouds or cause of work or other bogus excuses. So Elder Amaya and I took a lonely walk to church sin investigadores. Which was kinda a bummer cause we worked pretty hard this week and usually when you work hard the Lord blesses you with success. So we got to church sat down in the chapel trying to think of someone else we could go try and get, and about 2 minutes later a man walked in and asked us were the class was we told him where it was without thinking about asking him his name or who he was or anything. When he left my comp asked who that was I said I don’t know he said we should find out and I said ok. So we walk in the hall and he was talking with the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. After talking for a little bit we discovered that about a year ago the missionaries invited him to church. And he said he had been feeling like he needs to change his life so he woke up and felt like he should come to church. So he came!!! ¿Loco no? Anyways were going to teach him tomorrow night and ask if he wants to get baptized. Numero 2 about half way through the sacrament meeting this kid that works with the 1st counselor in the bishopric walked in to the chapel that we invited to come to church last week. We are also going to visit him tomorrow. It’s amazing to me the way the Lord blesses us sometimes. It also strengthened my testimony that if we work hard and do the things that we are supposed to the Lord will bless us, Si o Si. Sometimes in ways that we don’t expect or ways that we didn’t really have in mind. Well gotta roll out but thank you for your letters and your support. I feel your prayers everyday. Keep praying for my Spanish please I still have a lot more to learn. Alright this kid next to me is listening to tupac and its too much of a temptation to listen so for realzies -Im bouncing love you all, good luck tonight mason tear the roof of those D1 punks. Throw an elbow for me. ps last month we had 144 baptisms. goal for this month is 200 which is a lot. my comp and i are doing all we can to help. ill keep you posted. love you all and i love being a missionary. The Church is true and the book is blue.
Okay so yesterday before his letter came I was looking at pictures of Leo Carrillo and getting sooooooo excited to go to the beach and then the tears just came and wouldn't stop as I realized that my cute boy Jordan would not be at the beach throwing the football, scavengering for food, stealing quarters from the van for showers, eating 20 donuts around the campfire, getting shushed by the ranger when we ar still laughing after 10 o'clock curfew, eating all the leftovers in the cooler, skating in the street, playing with every kid on the beach, etc. - don't get me wrong, I love that he is serving the Lord, I love that he is growing as a son of Heavenly Father and I love reading his letters and hearing how great he his doing but DANG a mom can miss her boy so very bad- he is just an all around great guy and I know the saints in Paraguay love him but here at 9306 Southwick we love him more!

Missionary Monday

Italics aded by mom!!!Que en el mundo!!!!! (favorite phrase in the MTC) so much happened this week i dont even know where to start. 1st im glad to hear you finally got your package that bites that the games dont work i hope you figure it out. (Yes, our missionay bought pirate wii games that don't work) todovia i have not received you package but puede ser next week. well biggest news is i got a new comp se llama elder Amaya. For the past two changes he has been Branch President in Encarnacion. He is from El Salvador he has like a 6 months left in his mission and says he wants to tear them up. Gotta be top 5 coolest kids in the world. he reminds me a lot of Mikey Noonchester. (Look at the photo)-no photo was included so just imagine that he looks like Mikey Noonchester But this elder knows how to work so were about to move some serious weight this month. we have 4 investigadores with fechas right now so that’s way exciting. And 3 more that i love teaching and were are going to put fechas with this week. So if everything goes perfect, which it will because yo tengo Fe, we will have 7 baptisms this month. Im psyhed. ill keep you posted. Well this week we also had a meeting with all the missionaries from the mission and it was probably the best meeting i have ever been to in my life. I think the lat 20 meetings he has been to have been the best meetings of his life. Amazing what attitiude has to do with our feelings about meetings.We got to hear from Elder Audukuites (pretty sure there isn’t that many u´s.. whatever) who gave a talk in conference about how his dad read the book of Mormon and it changed his life. i remember that talk being way powerful and he spoke with that same power with us. basically he told us if we are not baptizing then were sinners, and we dont have faith. Ouch… but he did in such a way to modivate everyone, especially me. he did practices and was pretending to be an investigator and had missionaries come up and try and get inside his house. It was hilarious every shut down he used were ones that I have heard before and hear almost everyday. So now every time I hear a- otro dia or maybe next week, it just reminds me of him and I just laugh. but it was way good I also got to give the closing pray and after all my buddies from the MTC were like Elder Urmston your Spanish you know how to speak spanish. Which was a good confidence booster cause I still think its crappy. But learning everyday and my new comp is the bomb at Guarani so im going to learn a lot more of that this change as well. Pero gotta roll we going to help Presidente Martinez build his house. early this week we moved 2500 bricks. Just my comp and I, president, his son in law, and his Grandma who is 84 years old and was tearing it up. She was carrying like 5 bricks at the same time and I was carrying like 6 I felt like a wuss so I started carrying 8 and she moved up to 7 so I had to move up to 10 and almost killed myself. I was dead after and just sat down and she went and cooked us lunch and brought us drinks, still having a bunch of energy so I looked like a little girl. But what ever she’s a stud. But for reals gotta go love you all let me know how the game goes mason, No mercy. PS Good job Logan 1st place in IM holla at cho boy. Probably not going to beat my record but you can still try. PS got your letter grandma and grandpa still don’t know how to send a letter to austrailla but ill figure it out this week. PSS Signed my get legal papers on Friday in Asuncion so… im legal. (not sure what he means by legal but will let you know when I know)