Week 40!!!

This week was good! It was actually a really normal week, but I enjoyed it a lot! The weeks are starting to fly by and I really don´t even remember what happened this week haha! I did have the chance to do some baptizing this week! The Sister missionaries that are in my  district had a couple of baptisms and for whatever reason their investigators wanted me to baptize them! It was good, I only had to do each one once so that is a plus and the water was pretty cold haha! 

The baptisms were great this week, but I also had the chance to complete one of my mission goals. When I came on the mission I realized really quickly the opportunity that I had now to share the Plan of Salvation with a lot of other people. Before the mission, I was kind of scared to share things like the plan that God has for us with other people. When I came on the mission I knew that this was my chance to help other people, who had just lost loved ones to understand that death is not the end and to help them feel comforted even in this difficult time. I was always too shy to do this before the mission, but this week I had the chance to teach a family who had just lost a grandmother the week before. I am so glad that I have the Gospel in my life and that I can share this message of joy, hope and peace with the people of Uruguay!

 

Hope all is well at home! Love yall!

 

Love,

Elder Cole

 

Parts from the family email:

 

Hey Ma!  Right now it is kinda warm but everyone says this next week should be really cold. We live like 10 blocks from the church. Our house should get fixed this next week haha. We have a few good people we are teaching they just haven`t really been coming to church so we can`t get a baptismal date to stick. We are working with a lot of youth that like to party all night Saturday and sleep Sunday morning, and we can`t get them to come to church so far. That is crazy that Brenton is going to EFY! Brook should like Europe - that's super cool! That is so great that school is finally out haha! 

This week was good! Kinda a normal week.... I did have the chance to baptize two people this week. The Sisters in my district had a baptism and during the interviews they asked me to do the baptizing so that was a really cool experience!

 

We also played basketball today with the other Latino missionaries haha! It has been a while since I have played basketball, but it was nice to be the one that knew how to play for once, because I can`t do anything in soccer against the Latinos haha!

 

We also went out to some train tracks today that are over some water and spent some time there. 

 

Hey Pa! The Spirit is so great and to be a missionary sometimes I forget that I am feeling the spirit almost all the time. If you want to learn Spanish, you just have to start speaking with people.... I think you can find a few people in Warden to talk to in Spanish haah!

 

That's rough about the jet ski.... but on the bright side, you have a year and a half to either fix it or buy a new one before I get home haha! Love ya Pa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 39

This week was pretty tough.... I guess I was feeling good after the success that we had last week with a baptism and everything and just got my expectations up too high. We have a lot of good people that we are visiting, but it just seemed like everything we tried to do was shut down by some kind of problem. One investigator had her grandma die, another was traveling, another was in the hospital with her aunt that tried to commit suicide. It was just a hard week for everyone here I guess haha! I am really looking forward to this next week because things can only go up from here! 

On a brighter note, I taught my first English class this week! Haha! We are trying to have more activities to invite people to come and get to know the church and so one of the things we are trying is an English class. I don´t know how great of a teacher I am, and I know that I don't speak English very correctly, but I know more than the Uruguayos, so it is ok! Haha!

 

We are also starting to do ward activities and the first one was this week. It went well I guess, seems like the members enjoyed it. Love y'all! Hope all is well at home and I hope you are enjoying the nice spring time weather!

Love,

Elder Cole

 

 

Parts from the family email (first few paragraphs are just answering questions):

 

Hey Ma! The people here are great. The weather is cold, but we just bundle up so it isn`t too bad. My companion has been in the church all his life, but was baptized at 12 because his family was inactive for a while, and then he went inactive again when he was like 15 and so he reactivated and went on a mission. He has seven siblings and his mom... his dad passed away when he was four.

 

No one really hates me cause I am American, but they just yell or get upset sometimes haha! We have warm showers here. The food has been pretty normal lately.... we did eat some like corn mush stuff that was just completely bland and had no flavor. 

We walked a lot this week and I am so tired. Not much else happened.... I taught my first English class haha!

 

We also organized with the bishop a Ward Family Home Evening, and it turned out really well! The bishop told me that when they change my area, they will have to do it over his dead body haha!

 

Also a few days ago the light in our study room went out so we have been studying in the dark because now it stays dark here until like 8:00. Our door lock also broke today so we are having to enter in the back. And black water started coming out of our faucets and toilet today.... Everything is just falling apart haha! But we are going to have someone come look and fix everything in about an hour so its all good! Love y'all!

Love,

Elder Cole


The pictures are of the big "obelisco" (I don`t know what it is in English) here!

 

Week 38

This week was good! We did a lot of running around! First, we had to go to a little town in the middle of nowhere to do a baptism interview for the sisters in my district, and so we were gone the whole day traveling and doing the interview. When we finished the interview, we had a cool experience! We couldn`t leave the town for a few hours after the interview, because there is only one bus company in that town and so we decided to do some contacting in the sisters´area. Most of the doors we knocked were people that didn´t want too much, but then just as we were walking back to the bus stop I told my companion that we were going to knock at this house on the corner because I had a good feeling about it. When we knocked on the door, an older lady invited us in right away. It was cold outside, so we didn´t argue haha! We ended up talking to her and her husband for a few minutes, and come to find out that her husband was bit by some spider and he has a black infection in his foot that has spread to his leg and he has had it for over three months.

In that moment I had the thought that we should give him a priesthood blessing of health. But I told myself that we had just met these people, and that it would be crazy to try to explain and then give a blessing five minutes after meeting someone. Then I had a scripture pop into my mind when Jesus tells his apostles to go and preach and to every house that recieves them, they should bless them, and bless the people. After I remembered that, I committed to give the blessing and we explained and then gave a priesthood blessing. I never would have thought I would give a blessing to someone that I had met maybe ten minutes before, but now I have! Haha! I just hope that during the blessing they could feel the Spirit and maybe this experience will help them accept the Gospel moving forward. I don`t know, I will probably never see them again!

We got home that night and 10:30 and then we were on a bus the next morning at 4:30 headed to Montevideo. Those days killed my comp and I haha! But overall this week was a really great week! Hope all is well at home!

 

Love,

Elder Cole

 

 

A bit from the family email, mostly answering my questions:

 

Hey Ma! This week was good! My companion is good, being a district leader is good.... my district is just my companion and I and four sister missionaries and so every time I call for something they like to talk hahaha! We make zone t-shirts and one time we used our nicknames, and in Las Piedras I was called the Zone`s pretty face hahah! It is the same apartment just a new angle.  That`s crazy that my call came a year ago! I forgot that I opened it June 3rd! You should see all the weird things that I have eaten on my mission, you would be proud ;) That is so cool that Nate finally got home! 

 

This week was good! We did a lot of running around! Then Saturday we had a baptism! Hugo Diaz got baptized! This is the first baptism in this ward in a year and a half and I am super grateful the Lord chose to work through me to help Hugo receive the Gospel! 

Love yall!

 

Elder Cole

 

 

This last picture photo credit goes to Brother Wankier again.

gordon-renee-in-uruguay.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

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