Week 24

This week was really great! I am really enjoying my mission and the chance I have to get to know new people. 

This week we had transfers!  And I will be staying in my area for another six weeks! I feel like I have been in Las Piedras forever! I am basically a part of the ward now haha! But after this next transfer I will have been in my first area for six months! It's kinda crazy to think about, but I am enjoying the time I have here! 

My companion also got transferred to be in the mission offices, so I am living with the Zone Leaders here until my new companion shows up tomorrow. He`s from Utah. 

This week I also had the chance to watch my first horse race in person! We live super close to the track and this week we had some free time during lunch, so we were able to watch the horse races for a little while! It was actually really cool! 

We also had the chance to go to the temple in Uruguay today! Usually we only go every six months but we got special permission to go with our ward and it was actually a really great experience to share with the members of our ward! 

These last few weeks have been a blur, and I actually don`t remember much about what happened this week! Haha! My mission is flying by... I still have a lot more left, but I kinda feel like I just got here! I love it here. I love the people here. And I love my opportunity to share the Gospel with the people here! Love ya`ll! I hope all is well with you guys and I`ll see ya in a little less than two years ;)  

Love,

Elder Cole

Parts from the family email:

Yeah that`s Elder Rodriguez from Peru and we swapped ties. They like to do that here I guess.

Rodrigo asked me the day of the baptism to baptize him. I tried talking him into using a member, but he was really persistent and it was a really great experience! We have had a baptism every week for the past three weeks and we have another one this Saturday... and another one planned in four weeks. The work is crazy here right now! I have baptized more people in my first six months than some missionaries here baptize in their whole mission, so I am actually really blessed with the area and companions I have! 

I think I have started dreaming in Spanish. 

This week was transfers and my companion got transferred! He was here for only six weeks! He got a call from Pres. Eddy right before our baptism this week, and the next day he left for the mission offices because he is a secretary now! That's really cool, but I am without a companion until tomorrow so I am living with the Zone Leaders! It also meant that I would be staying in Las Piedras for six more weeks! I love it here and the people are great! But after this transfer I will have six months in my first area and I was kinda hoping to get to know more of Uruguay and more missionaries.  But I will have another companion. Elder Sarkady from Utah. 

We had a baptism for a woman who is 87 years old. We baptized her together, Elder Ucañan and I, because we didn`t want to hurt her. It was good! 

We went to the temple today! Usually we can only go to the temple every six months, but today was P-day and our ward went to the temple so Pres. Eddy gave us permission to go to! It was really great! My first time inside the temple in Uruguay! We did baptisms for the dead and that was cool too cause usually the missionaries only do endowments! I am excited for this transfer and I know this is where I am needed! Love ya`ll! Love,

Elder Cole

Week 23

This week was good! .... this week was hot! We are just running all over the place. We helped the Zone Leaders in their area this week, and that was actually really good! It was nice to be outside my area for a day! Haha! 

We also got to teach some street thugs about the Book of Mormon because they liked my accent and just wanted to make fun of the way I talk haha! 

We tried to talk to an investigator and she didn`t have time. But before we left, we were talking to her brother and his friends while they were smoking in the street and they wanted to have  a lesson, so we stuck around and we ended up giving away three Book of Mormons. And the investigator that didn`t have time, joined us and asked some good questions. I guess my American accent is good for something haha! 

We also had a talent show in our ward and we decided to act too. It ended up really well and even in church, people were talking a little bit about our act. 

I was a little sick this week, but its all good. I`m still alive. Hope all is going well at home! The life here is good! I just can`t wait for winter!  

Love,

Elder Cole

Parts from the family email (again, the beginning is answers to our questions):

No, I don`t think the snakes are poisonous here. Yeah, all the pasta has a meat sauce and so its really good! Mostly I just take pictures of the baptisms because our area is just houses, nothing cool. I have been trying to send pictures, but these computers don´t work well with my camera cord but I`ll try again today. 

They have fast food, but we don`t eat at them. There are food trucks too, but I`ve only eaten once at a food truck. The water in Las Piedras is clean... I think.... but other parts of Uruguay it`s brown haha! 

The investigators are doing good! Everyone thinks I`ll leave Las Piedras this next transfer, but we`ll see... 

That`s great about boys basketball! 

People here love to ask me about Donald Trump and it's always awkward cause really I have no idea what is happening in the US... Really I`d rather teach the law of chastity than talk about Trump with Latinos haha! I`ll pray for Natalie. 

This week we had a baptism. He`s a nine year old kid. He`s pretty cool.... he just has a hard time with my accent so its always kinda a pain to teach him haha! 

I was a little sick this week. I woke up  with a migraine and a fever. But we went to work like normal. It was one of the worst days of my mission. I just felt awful and I couldn't think clearly. But I lived. That night in the house I was just a mess. My companion made me take my temperature and it was 101.8. So we decided to call Hermana Eddy and make sure that I was going to be ok haha. I`ve been slowly getting better, just glad I have ibuprofen. Haha! 

 Baptism of Rodrigo

We can have 2 activities every change now in each zone so we can just get together and play games, sports, eat. Its pretty nice to get to know the other missionaries more.

Week 22

This week was good! We had a conference with the Mission President this week and it was really good! I really learned a lot from him and the other missionaries.   We talked a lot about the importance of the ward members in our work as missionaries. I feel kinda bad because before my mission I never really helped the missionaries. But now I am really learning just how important and hard it is to find people to help us. As missionaries we can do most of the work it takes to teach, convert and baptize someone into the church; but what we  can´t do is stay with them in the ward and help them. 

Right now we are seeing some of the new members in our ward start to pull away from the church.  Being a new member of the church means that these people change their lives in some degree, and it has to be a little uncomfortable to be a new member of the church. Without a whole lot of friends in the church, it´s too easy to just go back to their lives before. 

This week we had one of the new members in the ward tell us that he is having problems and won´t be coming to church in a while, he just "needs space." Really this is one of the saddest things I have seen in my mission. I have seen people change their lives and enjoy the blessings of the true church of Jesus Christ, and now, when these people need the church the most to help them through the hard times in their lives, they feel like it will be easier to pretend they aren´t members and work through it themselves. It's kinda hard to accept sometimes that everyone gets to chose their own path. But I am learning that I can´t choose for them, but I can let them know that God loves them and that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, there isn´t a challenge in this world we cannot overcome! 

Love all! Hope you´re still enjoying winter.... it´s almost over Haha!  

Love,

Elder Cole

Parts from the family email (much of it he is answering questions we asked him about the culture, food, and nature):

That´s crazy you are still getting snow! The weather is changing here. It's still hot but some days are getting cooler.

In Uruguay they eat a lot of bread and pasta. It's all pretty good. I did eat small intestine the other day and I didn´t like it, but it wasn´t bad I could eat it again... 

 There aren´t a whole lot of crazy animals.... Tons of frogs and snakes. There are a billion dogs in Uruguay! It feels like every house has at least two dogs and there are always a ton of dogs that live in the street! Wherever we go people know that the missionaries are there cause every dog in the neighborhood starts barking. Haha!

One custom is kinda interesting.... every 29 of a month, the people eat a special type of Italian pasta called niokies (or something). But it´s a ton of work to make, so usually this is one of the days we don´t have lunch with members! Haha! 

The teaching is good! Elder Ucañán and I work really well together. Most of the time I kinda forget I´m speaking Spanish so that´s nice, but sometimes I have to really think about the grammar when I want to say something and the grammar is tricky. Also my accent is awful haha! I hope I can figure out how to sound like a Latino! HAhah! 

We aren´t doing much today cause it´s down pouring. Glad the fundraiser for Cody went well! Keep me updated on basketball! Its nice to hear that they are doing so well, usually Connell beats us and Zillah whoops our butts! haha! 

This week we had another baptism. His name is Rodrigo and he´s a pretty big guy! We are hoping that through him, his parents will reactivate in the church and his sister will get baptized! 

We had a conference with President Eddy this week! It was good! I really like our mission president. I talked to him about what I could do to gain more support from members. 

This week we had our second Family Home Evening as a ward.... And no one showed up.... We had like 22 people, but 15 were YW that we convinced to stay after a meeting they had. Of the other seven people, four were a less active family that we were hoping to introduce to the ward. It was kinda frustrating cause we feel like we are just wasting our time preparing this activity and taking two hours out of our work to host it and no one from the ward is making an effort to support us. My frustration was worse when the next day we had the baptism with a family of inactive members and their kids who aren´t members. It would have been super great to see the ward support them and help them feel welcome to return to church, but we had two families and one other member there to support them. I´m kinda frustrated in what I can do to get the members support, because we can baptize people every week, but if the members don´t build a connection with them, these new members will leave the church and be worse off than before baptism. We are actually seeing this happen with three of our new members right now. But I´ll figure it out! Hahaha! The work is good and I am really enjoying being here!

 Great to hear that Grandma Cox is doing well! Let her know I love her! Love ya´ll!

Love,

Elder Cole

Week 21

This week was good! Uruguay fútbol beat Brasil and Argentina!

Not much more super interesting happened this week.... I got hit by my first rock that someone threw! Haha! My companion wanted to go confront them, but I talked him out of it! Haha!

We are doing a lot of teaching right now, and we are really starting to find the people that are prepared to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week for some reason I was thinking a lot about prayer. Prayer is one of the first things that we teach people when we talk to them, and its something crazy simple that even children can do it. But this week I realized just how important prayer is for me personally.  As a missionary, I pray a ton everyday and sometimes my prayers are kinda the same, and I just say them because I need to before I can eat haha! But every night before I sleep, I really have the chance to pray! And it's really something that I have come to love to do.  Just to talk to my Heavenly Father about the things in my life! I just feel so close to my Father in Heaven when I really pray! I know that He listens, and I have seen, and felt the answers to my prayers in my own life and in the lives of those around me! 

I hope ya´ll have a great week! Hope all is going well at home! Love ya´ll!

Love,

Elder Cole

 

 

 

A little bit from the family email:

 

That stinks that the Patriots won again.  I love hearing what's going on at home! If I think about it too much, I get kinda homesick so I only think about you guys while I´m praying and then I don´t have a problem! Haha!  

 

The weather has been weird... hot and sunny and then rainy and cold in the same day. It´s starting to get cold here in the nights.

 

You could pray for Lucia. Lucia is another investigator. She is the sister of Rodrigo. She has epilepsy and she takes meds every morning that make her feel sick. Because of this, she can´t go to church and can´t get baptized.... we are actually fasting right now that she will have the strength to start going to church. Thanks!

 

This week was normal. We are teaching a lot of good people and working hard. Rodrigo will be baptized this week.  We are really starting to find those few people in our area that are prepared for the gospel and I´m pretty excited.... I'll be kinda disappointed if I leave Las Piedras this transfer, because we have some really good people that we hope to see baptized within the next three months.

 

Our schedule changed and I´m getting a little more sleep, so I´m doing a lot better. Thanks for the food in the box! It is great.... I haven´t finished it yet because I don´t want to eat all of it too fast haha! Love yall!

 

Love,

Elder Cole

Week 20

This week was good.... normal.... We are just working like usual and talking to as many people as we can.

We had Elder Stevensen, one of the Twelve Apostles, visit Uruguay and talk to all the leader missionaries. My companion got to go and meet him, but I stayed in Las Piedras with another missionary. I was kinda jealous haha! But it was all good and it was nice to work with an elder that was in the CCM with me.

We also had a world-wide broadcast from the church for missionaries.  We got to learn from some leaders of the church and they made a few changes to missionary work worldwide. Mostly it´s just paperwork and our schedule, but its a big change for us! Also, my companion and I forgot about the broadcast and we were about an hour late. But the other missionaries were late too so we only missed the first 15 minutes!  Also, since all other missionaries in the world were either sleeping or watching the broadcast, my companion and I were the only missionaries in the whole world walking the streets for about an hour haha!

We met a lot of really good people this week and I am really excited for the opportunity I have to meet these people and teach them the Gospel. Everyday is super long, but the weeks fly by! I can´t even remember what week I am on in my mission! I just think about one day, one person, at a time. I am learning a ton on my mission; and I get to meet a ton of people. I don´t think there is anything like being a missionary, and I am going to enjoy every day that I have. It's been hard, but its been worth it! Hope all is well at home! Sounds like the snow is finally melting! Love y'all!

 

Love,

Elder Cole

Parts from the family email:
 

Hey Ma!  We have one ward that we are in and its a pretty big ward for Uruguay. We have right around 100 people every week... usually more. Rodrigo is good he´ll be baptized the 11th of February. We have a lot of good investigators, its just the challenge of getting them to church.

I got my box! Thanks! I really needed a lot of that stuff! And the food is nice! My companion is from Trujillo. It's north of Lima.  My companion is good and we get along well.

 

Nothing interesting is really happening... We are just working like usual. We had a worldwide broadcast from the church this week and they announced that some things in the missions are going to change. The only thing really significant is that we get two more hours on P-day now! The other things are all changes with the records we have to keep. 

Everything is really good around here, just work like usual. Sorry my week was kinda boring. Love y'all!
 

Love,

Elder Cole