Week 49

This week was a great one! Maldonado is waaaaaaayyyyyyy different than Treinta y Tres! Our area is really small and there are a ton of people! I am excited to see what we can do to find people that really want to listen to us.... we get rejected a lot here haha! It is alright!  Elder Lockhart is a great companion and we work well together. It has been a ton of work here, but I know we will be blessed for the effort and faith that we have! I am excited to keep working here and getting to know the people! I don´t have too much to say because I was just trying to remember where I was all week haha! Love y'all!

 

Love,

Elder Cole

 

Parts from the family email:

 

Hey Ma! Sounds like fair went well! That is so cool that you all had so much to do at the camper! Tell  Hallie that that is awesome that she got reserve grand champion for her sewing! With all the sewing I am doing with my clothes, I might be almost as good as her! Haha!

 

I am sure glad that I came on the mission! I wouldn't trade this experience for anything! The area is good, small. It is pretty rainy and colder than Treinta y Tres, but it isn´t too bad. My companion has been here three months already. He´s cool.

 

The area is kinda a tough area and so I am really excited and determined to see progress. No the Doritos were fine. My umbrella is doing well. Yeah there was 20 new missionaries this change and President has been doing a ton. I have heard that sometimes after changes the assistants fall asleep at their desks because it just kills them. 

 

This week was good! Elder Lockhart works really hard and we are trying to do all we can to see some progress in our area! There have been a few baptisms here in the last few weeks, but right now the area is kinda dead... We are looking to change that! Being a Zone Leader is´nt too much more work, but I still need to get the hang of it haha! Maldonado is super cool, but everyone here is too busy to talk to us and they are pretty well off so they don´t think they need the gospel. I guess we just need to find the right people. 

 

Love yall!

 

Love,

Elder Cole

Week 48

This week was super cool! We had the chance to work with one of our Zone Leaders almost everyday because his companion ended his mission and left a few days early so he would make it home in time to study. It was cool to learn from another missionary that is finishing up his mission and knows just about as much as we can about the mission work!  

This week we also had changes and I was pretty sure that I was leaving. Last night we found out that I will be headed to a city called Maldonado! It seems like a super cool place and it is about as modern as it gets here in Uruguay so it will be a big change from here in Treinta y Tres haha! I will be companions with Elder Lockheart... but I don`t remember where he is from, but he`s American haha! I am super excited to get to know more of Uruguay and I look forward to finding the people that the Lord has prepared for me to find! 

Not much happened this week, but I had moments when I was just amazed at this opportunity to serve a mission and preach the Gospel of Jesus Cristo! I really love it here and I can`t believe that it has been 11 months already! It kind of blows my mind how fast the time has gone! Hope all is well with you guys! I love ya`ll! You are always in my prayers!

Love,

Elder Cole

Parts from the family email:

Hey Ma! I won`t have a return date until I have about 16 months in the mission and at about 18 months they buy my plane tickets and have my fight plans, but they don`t send them to me, they will send them to your email. 

Haha! I hope you get that car running! The paint looks good. 

Sounds like loading pigs was like it is every year haha! I don`t really miss loading pigs and running around yelling at each other hahah! But I will miss fair a little. Let me know how it all goes! Glad that all the pigs ended up working out haha! 

I got my box, don`t worry.... It was just a pain because the Doritos exploded inside and everything was covered in cheese dust! Hahaha! But it all washed out! 

That's cool about Kammie`s baby! I am going to meet a ton of new little people when I get home in a year! 

This week was good! I was almost 100% certain that I was leaving Treinta y Tres this change because I have been here a while. I am being sent to Maldonado as a Zone Leader. It is the most modern part in Uruguay and everyone says that it is super great! I am really excited! From everything I have heard it sounds like a super cool place, but kinda hard to get baptisms.... we`ll see. I am really pumped to go there! My companion is Elder Lockheart. He is from California I think... I don`t know much about him.... I have really loved it here, but I am ready to leave Treinta y Tres and meet new people! 

Love ya Ma and Pa! This week was great and I really love the mission! Love y'all!

Week 47

No Group email this week...but I will add a picture  I stole from another missionary's blog and add a little from the family email. The last paragraph is the best because before his mission, Trace would do any housework willingly except dishes. He is slightly a germaphobe and he would literally tear up while doing dishes because he was so grossed out by other people's food. Here is his email:

That's really sad about Debby.... Hope she at least feels at peace these last few days.... let her know I love her! That`s crazy that Canada is doing so bad! Usually we just here about the fires in Washington, California, and Colorado. 

Sounds rough to have pigs this year.... You will have to send me pictures because this will be the first time in about 7 years that I haven`t been at the Grant County fair! Haha! You should charge people to come to our camper because with the air hockey table it is like a fair game now! ;) Brenton should bring his projector and show movies on the side of the trailers too! 

I hope dad and Brenton get the car running! I miss racing sometimes.... all the other missionaries think I am super redneck and crazy when I talk about racing hahah! 

My comp is great! We are doing well together. 

Yeah I couldn`t really think really straight when I saw Mariah because I was kinda dumb struck that we ran into each other in a city of 1.5 million people! Haha! 

That`s awesome that I have a new cousin! There will be so many new family members when I get home haha! 

This week was great! We worked hard and the days are flying by! I can`t believe that I am going to hit 11 months here in a couple days! I really love it here! The week was pretty normal but we had a lot of success and things are really looking up here! 

Today I had to cut my hair because it was getting too long and we ended up finding a barber shop that is run by two gay guys from the Netherlands. They speak worse Spanish than I do! But they cut my hair pretty well and we were able to talk a little about the church, so we will send the other missionaries to them! 

We are really seeing a lot of miracles happening here and I can`t explain the miracles because they are super small and almost seem normal, but then I think about my day at night and I realize just how much the Lord is doing in my life! 

Last night some other missionaries came over and slept at our house and we cooked and ate something. This morning when they left we had a ton of dishes to wash and I washed. every. single. one. By hand! Because we don`t have a dishwasher! I realized then just how far I have come in the last 10.5 months hahah! Love yall! Hope all is well at home! 

Love,

Elder Cole

Photo credit to Elder Vanderlinden :) 

They were to find a piece of gum out a pile of flour and see who could blow the first bubble.