Week 80

​This week was a great one! We worked really hard this week and I was kind of dying here at the end haha! We have been putting in some extra effort because Rocha has been really hard for missionary work, and we decided that we needed to do something new to overcome all the opposition here. We have started getting up a little early and doing all our studies back-to-back in the morning so that we have about 12 full hours of proselyting time during the day. We do take a little time for lunch, but then we get right back to it! The first few  days were REALLY hard haha! I was really fighting getting up, but now it hasn`t been too bad and we are seeing some great blessings! I feel like I felt my first few weeks in the mission, tired, hungry, and a little sick, but it will all be worth it if we can really start to help the people here! Haha! We are really hoping to see some success in these next few weeks! 

This week we had two conferences with President Eddy! It was awesome! One was in Montevideo and the other was in Maldonado so I got to go back and see my old area! It was great to learn from President Eddy and see some old friends in the mission!

We also worked super hard this week inviting people to come to church and it just so happened to dump rain all Sunday morning...  It seems like everyday of the week is crystal clear until Sunday and then the heavens dump on us.  We had taught two youth aged kids this week and we taught them the song "Nephi`s Courage". So when we called them Sunday morning to see if they would still let us walk them to church even though it was raining they said, "I will go and I will do!" They are super cool youth and understand the Book of Mormon incredibly well! It was a great testimony builder to see these two young kids walk to church in the rain when some of our other investigators saw it as an excuse to stay home! I hope we can all have the faith of Diogo and Belén, so that when we are tempted to shy away from keeping the commandments or doing what we know is right we can say, "I will go and do!"

Love y'all!

Elder Cole    

​​Video: Me feeding the Capybara

1. A live Capybara

2./3. Walking in the rain to church! 

Week 79

This week was a good one!  I have had the chance to work with Elder Hemeyer for a few days now and he is really cool! We have been working hard and have seen lot of miracles! 

Yesterday was probably the worst day of the week, but we survived it. It rained a downpour from 7:00 Am until 9:00 Pm. We had to leave a 8:30 to go pick up a guy (named Emanuel) for church and the streets were just rivers! We tried calling Emanuel to see if he was willing to go to church anyway with the rain and he didn`t answer... We had to go get him, we told him we would swing by his house. With in 3 minutes of the 30 minute walk we were drenched from head to toe and my suit was completely wet. When we made it to Emanuel`s house he didn`t answer and we just had to go to church without him. Just crossing the streets we had to walk through water halfway up our calves haha! When we made it to church we were soaked and cold, but we had done all we could to help the investigators go to church. The Lord blessed us for our efforts and a less active member family came back to church!  It was great! The rest of the day we spent walking in the streets without much success.... haha!

We also had a great experience when we found Emanual! We were working like normal and a lesson fell through so we had some time to just start knocking doors. At first we had little success, but then we felt impressed to knock another door at the end of the road  When we knocked it a really big, strong guy came out and invited us in. He is huge!! And he is only 19! It was awesome! My whole time here in Rocha I have been trying to find younger people to teach and baptize because most of the branch are just little old ladies (there`s nothing wrong with that, but we need some younger blood or the whole branch will disappear in 10 years). Emanuel had already talked to missionaries before, but they just stopped visiting him and he seems super ready to accept the Gospel!  The Lord has also helped us find several families recently too!

The mission is going great! Its been a lot of fun! I`m loving it here!

Love y'all!

Elder Cole

Week 78

This week was a good one! Yesterday we found out that my companion will be getting transferred and I will be staying here in Rocha with a new companion, Elder Hemeyer! I have talked to him before and he seems like a great missionary, he`s from Arizona. 

This week we also found some women who have been waiting for the Gospel! We have been trying to work more with the church members, so that they will help us find and teach their friends. This last week we planned to visit a friend of the Relief Society President in our branch. She was going to come with us, and it was going to be great. She just told us to make sure to contact her before-hand and make sure she could still come. When the day arrived, we messaged the sister and asked her if we could still go with her to visit her friends, she didn`t respond. As the day went on we tried calling her several times and the phone had been turned off. We decided to go to the meeting spot at the time we had decided on and wait for the sister. After 15 minutes we decided that it would be better to go and contact the friend anyway even though we wouldn`t be able to go with the member. It was incredible! When we knocked the door, the Relief Society President was already inside talking to her friends about the Gospel and about the missionaries! We were able to meet two wonderful women who have really gone through a lot. Both have lost their husbands and one also lost a son. As we talked to them I could see that they had been waiting for a message like the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for a long time! Sadly we weren`t able to go into the home because there were only women inside, and as missionaries we have to have another grown man with us in order to go into a home with women.  It was probably the hardest moment in my mission, when I had to decided whether or not to obey the rules! HAha! I could just see that they needed our message so much and that it would bring them so much peace and hope. Another day we will be going by very soon and I know that they will finally find the healing and peace they have been looking for!

Love y'all!

Elder Cole

Week 77

This week was a great bounce back from the last week we had! Things seemed to go a little smoother and we were really able to see the Lord guiding us! We found so many great people this week that really need the Gospel in their lives! We were walking one day and we decided to talk to a younger girl about our age. It turns out that she had talked to the missionaries years ago, has gone to church and even went to a few baptisms! She was super nice and we were able to share a little bit with her! Then we invited her to pray before we let and in her prayer she thanked God for the help He gave her after the hard week she had last week. We have no idea what happened last week, but I know the Lord sent us this week to help her overcome whatever it is that she is going through! 

We also found a young kid that had gone to church years ago in a place called Rivera, on the other side of Uruguay and he is ready to start coming to church again and get baptized! We also ran into a young single mom and she was really open to having us teach her and her kids! She has gone through a lot as a single mom, but knows that God loves her and has helped her! 

It is great here in Uruguay! Right now we got hit with a bunch of super hot days, but it should be getting colder here pretty soon! Love y'all!

Elder Cole

Parts from the family email:

Hey Ma! This week was good. We haven´t gotten bit in a while so I think we got them all haha! I can´t believe Brook got in to BYU haha! Transfers are next week and I will most likely be staying. Elder Anampa has been here longer than I have. That is awesome that you guys went to the baptism! I never really thought about it before the mission, but it is important that there are people at baptisms because it helps the convert feel loved and creates a nice connection between us and them! Sounds like a great experience!  This week was good! We bounced back from last week and it really tired me out. This week I was pretty dead every morning haha! 

LOve ya!

Week 76

This week was a rough one. We had a lot to do and just didn´t have enough time to do it. One of the glimmers of light we saw this week was when we were able to go to  the baptism of Carla! The missionaries have been teaching her for over three years! It was incredible to be one of the missionaries here to teach her right now. Just to watch her progress from the day that I showed up in Rocha and started teaching her, until now is a huge testimony that the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives! She is So happy and was so excited for her baptism! I could feel the confirmation that her baptism was a special one and although it took countless missionaries and over three years, she was finally a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and has taken that first step to live with our Father in Heaven again! 

This week I also learned some helpful life skills! Here in Rocha there are not very many members of the church, and so I have had to really develop my cooking skills quickly haha! It has gone well so far! It definitely isn´t like my mom´s cooking, but it hasn´t killed me yet haha! We have also been fighting some kind of bug in the house. We just feel things biting us all the time and everyday we find new bug bites... At first we thought it was bed bugs. So I washed all my bedding and sprayed poison all over.... Now we think its fleas. So we have been spaying poison on everything we own. We actually don´t know what is going on, but something has been eating us alive this week. 

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

Elder Cole

Parts from the family email:

This week was good ma! ....Actually it was a terrible week hahaha! We got rejected an unusual amount of times this week. Usually we get rejected quite a bit, but this week EVERYONE rejected us.  Even some of our better investigators just started avoiding us and stopped answering their phones.  Its fine, I learned some things and it just showed me some of my weaknesses. Overall I am doing well, I feel good, just didn´t quite have the success we expected.

I really understand now when you and dad would get upset with the messy house or a lot of dirty dishes! I have been having the same thoughts go through my mind that I used to hear from you guys! Only these aren´t my kids, just three other 20 year old men that have to wait for me to clean up for them! Hahaha! Love ya Ma!

Week 75

This week was a great one! We worked really hard and saw the Lord bless us! It was an incredible feeling to be used by the Lord to help other people this week! After a day of knocking doors and stopping lots of people in the streets, we found a nice little old man named Artigas, whose wife passed away just three months ago. He has taken it really hard and has lived feeling a little lost these last three months. We were able to share with him the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help him understand that as he lives the commandments, the Lord will bless him with comfort now and an eternity with his wife later. I am really excited for him to continue growing closer to our Heavenly Father! 

We also met, this week, a very humble woman named Mariana and she has great desires to follow Christ. She is looking for the strength and direction she needs to make some life changes and be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ. Mariana has a homosexual orientation, but has felt the Spirit touch her life and is now searching for the help she needs to follow Christ and keep all of His commandments. As we spoke to her and got to know her, I felt a deep love for her, that I am sure was the Lord allowing me to feel, just a small part of what He feels for her. Mariana has lived a tough life, but I know that the Lord has just been waiting for her to seek the way to follow Him. I have no doubt that the Lord will be by her side through all she needs to be baptized. 

This week was a week that was truly incredible! I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that He suffered and died for me, for you, for each one of us and that as we do all we can to follow Him, He will make our efforts greater than they are. I could not do this work without His constant support. I know that He will make us greater tomorrow, than we are today, if we allow Him to take a part in our lives. 

I hope that you all have a wonderful week. I will be praying for you, I always am. 

Love,

Elder Cole

Week 74

This week was definitely better than the last one haha! We really saw a lot of little miracles this week, and we learned that some of the "bad" things that we have been going through were actually hidden blessings, we just didn`t understand why until now! We also spent a lot of time in meetings this last week and it was good, but nothing beats just hitting the streets and working! We worked extra hard with the time we did have and felt the Lord bless us! 

One of the blessings came because we were able to really go by the Spirit! We had some extra time, so we decided to try knocking some doors in a neighborhood we hadn`t entered before. At first we were just rejected several times, but after a while we felt the impression to knock one more house before we went to a scheduled lesson (which we were already running late for). We ended up finding a lady that had just gone through some kind of cancer treatment and we really sick. It wasn`t the best lesson ever, but we were at the right place at the right time, just when the Lord needed us to! It was great to talk to her and share this message of hope and strength, even in the most difficult of situations! 

We also helped an older guy in our branch clip the wings of his ducks. It was fun! We had to run around and grab the ducks and then he would clip the wings. It was great during it all, but when we finished, we realized we were covered in poop and duck blood haha! It was not a very pleasant smell... 

We also cooked an Uruguayo BBQ on a grate over a bon-fire!  A nice lady from the branch invited us over for lunch and then put us in change of the fire. It was our first time cooking that way, but it turned out pretty well and the member was impressed! Haha! (I don`t have any pictures because for right now my camera is a little broke)...

Hope all is well in the States! Uruguay is doing great! It is starting to get a little colder so my days of getting sunburned are numbered haha! Love y'all!

Love,

Elder Cole