Week 37

This week was really great! I went to Montevideo again this week to pick up my new companion, and so that took most of the day. My new companion is Elder Barrios from Cartajena Colombia! He is super cool, and I don´t really feel like I am trying him at all because he pretty much knows as much as I do right now! Haha! 

It has been super chill here in Treinta y Tres, and we are starting to see some really good progress with some investigators! 

Also I finally got to eat Capybara! Which is basically a giant rodent haha! It was actually pretty good, just SUPER fatty! Sorry the email is short this week. Hope all is well at home! I am loving it here! Love yall! 

Love,

 Elder Cole

Pictures

1. My "son" and I

2.Capybara

3.Capybara

Parts from the family email:

Hey Ma! We are having a lot of investigators that we hope we can push to get baptized! We should have a couple of baptisms over the next few weeks! 

This week has been good! I had to make another trip to Montevideo to pick of my new companion but he is super cool! His name is Elder Barrios from Cartajena Colombia! He is way more prepared for the mission than I was haha! I really am not training him at all! I mean, I guess it helps that he is speaking his native language too! I am also learning a ton from him and enjoying the chance I have to teach him some of the little tricks that we don`t learn in the MTC. 

I have also learned a ton as a new district leader. I am doing way more than I was last change, because before I was just worried about my area; now it's my area, my new comp, and the four sister missionaries in my district! But it has been great! Haha! 

This week we had Stake Conference and President Eddy was there! It is always great to see and hear from him! Anyways all is well here! I love it and I hope to keep seeing the miracles in the work! Love yall! I am praying for ya! 

Love Elder Cole

PS I also got to eat Capybara!!!!! Finally! It is illegal to hunt here so I just had to find someone that does it and try some with them! It is good, but SUPER fatty! 

Photo Credit: Brother Wankier

(I stole this picture from his blog: https://gordon-renee-in-uruguay.blogspot.com)

Week 36

This week was really good! We had a chance to spend some time as a zone at our bishop's house, and we ate chorizos and got to do the zip-line that he has! It was a nice way to get to know the other missionaries and the bishop a little bit more too!  

We also had the chance to go to a special conference in Montevideo this week! We had to leave at like four in the morning and were on a bus for four hours there and four hours back, but it was a great conference! We got to not only learn from our mission president, President Eddy, but also Elder Packer from the Area Presidency! It was so great to meet him and to hear him speak! I got to feel the spirit so strongly and learned a ton! I also had some thoughts during the conference about specific people whom I am teaching right now, and I know that it was the Spirit guiding me to know what I can do now to help them accept the Gospel and feel the love God has for them! Also during the conference I got to see a ton of my mission friends that I haven`t seen in a while and a few of my old companions! It was so cool to talk to them and just see how their mission is going! 

I also got news this week from President Eddy that I will have the opportunity to train a new missionary starting tomorrow! I am super excited and I look forward to this new opportunity to grow and to help serve the Lord! Love y'all! Hope all is well at home!

Love,

Elder Cole

Parts from the family email:

Hey Ma love you guys!  This next change I will be Senior companion because I will be training a brand new missionary! It is going to be super cool and kinda hard, but I am looking forward to it! I am also being made district leader so I am going to have to learn to do a lot of new things all at once! I don`t know who my companion is or where he is from until tomorrow when I go to Montevideo to pick him up! 

We have had a little rain but nothing bad and the house stays good. The weather is nice, just a little cold sometime, but really good, like October.

   

Tell Brayden I said congrats! 

This week has been good. I am just really excited to finally get the chance to be a leader in the mission and to get to train a new missionary! It is like a really big honor to train another missionary and every missionary wants to train at least once before the end of his mission! I will give you an update on him next week haha! Love y,all!

Love,

Elder Cole

Week 35

This week was pretty normal.... I hit eight months in the mission a few days ago... I did get to talk to my family yesterday, so that was really great! It is probably the fastest 40 minutes of my whole mission haha!

Other than that not much happened this week.... A really big dog bit my companion on the butt! It was a super crazy dog, and I just happened to luck out enough that it went for him!

We have also started playing soccer with the Uruguayans a couple times a week, so that we get to know people and have the chance to build relations with the people here. I have realized that I am awful at soccer hahah! I actually hang in there better than I thought I would with these guys! Soccer is just the way of life here, everyone plays!

 

We did have a conference with President Eddy this week! It was really great and it really helps me feel more excited for the mission work every time we get to have him teach us! He showed us some of the changes that have happened in the last nine months since he has been here, and it is incredible the changes in the mission we have seen! It was also a great opportunity for me to think about the missionary that I have become of the last eight months! I have come a loooooonng way, haha! But I hope that I can keep growing and becoming better, both as a missionary and as a person in general!

 

The mission is a great experience, and I am enjoying it as much as I can! Love y'all! Sorry I don´t have some great story from this week. Hope all is well at home and that you are enjoying the sunshine! 

 

Love,

Elder Cole

 

 

The few are of a river that is behind the bishop's house. Then there are some pictures of me and another Elder on top of some old brick ruins... It doesn`t look like it, but they were like 10 feet tall and I had to set the camera timer and run and climb before the picture took hahaha

 

 

 

 

Week 34

Hey guys, sorry I didn`t email last week, I ran out of time! This week was good! I had the chance to get to know a few of the members here better and we even taught them to make pancakes! It was great, because here the people eat things that just lack flavor and they loved pancakes!

It was also my companion`s birthday, and so we had to celebrate some how.... We finally decided that we were going to cook and eat steaks and mashed potatoes! It actually turned out really well, and it will probably be the only time I ever eat a steak in this country, we had to get a specialized cut of meat because they don`t cut meat like steaks here. 

 

I also found out some great news a couple of weeks ago! I have been keeping in touch with my last companion in my last area just to see how everyone was doing, and he told me that one of the guys I had met and taught for the last 4 months was going to be baptized!!! Of course I couldn`t go and be there, because I am just too far away right now, but it was such great news to hear that he made the decision to be baptized!

 

It is just such an honor to be here and to teach the Gospel! I am so glad that for these next two years, the Lord can use me to help other people change their lives and feel the power of the Gospel! 

Love y'all! Hope all is well at home!

Love,

Elder Cole

 

 

 

A little from the family email:
 

Hey Ma! We have been working with a few different people, but more or less we have just been trying to find people to teach... only now are we starting to teach most of the day. Yeah, the lady that sent the video is the bishop's daughter and her family. We are going to Skype this week from their house.

It is going to be so weird to see all the family after the mission cause I am sure all the little cousins will be way grown up! We only have one hour to email ya, and I try to write everyone I can even if it is only a little. 

Love y'all!

Love,

Elder Cole

 

 

 

Week 33

No group email this week so here is a little from the family email:

We taught that family again this week and it went really well, but we didn´t get a chance to talk to the guy that lives far away again.  P days we usually play soccer with other missionaries, but today we just deep cleaned our house.

The area looks more or less like home when you are in the middle of nowhere... like just kinda sage brush and dry grass.

It is getting cold, but the sleeping bag I have keeps me warm for right now at least.

The food is the same and the language.... sometimes we run into someone from Brazil that only speaks Portuguese. But it sounds similar to Spanish, so I can kinda understand some of it haha!

 

If we can Skype at like 1:00 your time on Mother´s day that would be best because that means it would be like 6:00 here and so we can´t go too much later... This week was good! We had some really good days and some kinda long days, but overall it went well! I will just write about it in my group email. Love y'all!

 

Love,

Elder Cole