Christmas

Oh how sweet it was to hear my family this christmas dayª"  I was touched by your words of love and can÷t believe that a whole year has gone by without your warming hugs  There is a lot of work to do here in Uruguay but let me tell you, there is a lot of work to do in Arizona tooªªª  ;)  I had a great time chatting with you all and was blown away once again at the beauty of our family and home.  There are so many blessings that i took for granted.  I am humbled every time i remember what kind of life i lived before the mission.  Here, i am in a GREAT ward/area and yet i am STILL in humble circumstances.  I love my family and love the joy that comes from conversing with them.  It was great to see all the Instagram photos.  I was unable to download them because they are not JPG files.  If they are JPGs i can download them and look at them during the week on my little dvd player. :) for future reference.

Ju´st to give you a glimpse of what i am going through right now, in this instant... i am in a "Ciber" or public computer lab and i have a drop of sweat dropping of of my nose every 10 seconds, one dropping off of my elbow every 5 and my white shirt looks as if i have been dowsed with a hose!!! hah.  It is so stinking humid here that i sweat GALLONS of water everyday.  Oh well, we keep working anyways! ;)

Today we played basketball again and i tore up the court! helps when only 4 people on the court know how to play. ;) i`m not quite like lo` McKay!!! looks like he is doing quite well!  Hope to hear about his success.  Let me know if he is planing on going to college and where!  Mission updates if there are any. :)

All is well in Uruguay, just surviving the heat.  we had quite a turn out from the ward`s activity for the end of the year, almost 100people came to see the primary do a skit about the birth of Jesus and then we did an activity with the ward to show them the importance of working together.  We had a sunday FULL of blessings.  records in every aspect!  We had 102 people in church (Normal we are 80) we had 2 investigators (the two that we were not expecting to come to church) and 6 less actives!  WE just got a returned missionary that got home and he is super excited to help us.  I know that we are going to see GREAT blessings in this ward!

Love you all!!

Elder Reay

12-17-13

Otra foto de mi compañero y yo.  Tristes que vamos a cambiar áreas pero sabemos que los traslados vienen de Dios.

The last day with my companion.... hard thing to grasp but it had to happen! haha :)  Elder Macavilca and i had a great change together and we have both ended up BETTER missionaries and better men. :)  Some day you will all get to meet him!

This is called the Mastil in las piedras.  Outside the stake building.  we arrived early to a meeting and took some photos before we left for a huge tri-zone conference

The zone leaders just walked in to write their families.  One of them is going home tomorrow.  Super crazy to trry and understand the feelings he mush be experiencing

This ismy district!  We ROCK! :) haha

Having fun in a house full of latinos... now we will have a house full of GRINGOS!  everyone is leaving the district.  ALL the latinos left... the three gringos stayed.. :) my only chance is that hermana Coon and Hermana young train a latina so that i can practice my spanish! haha

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Sorry i forgot to tell you about changes last week!  haha. i got home and told my comp that you were going to kill me. :) just so you know, every six weeks it is going to be this way... haha.  I am so excited for CHRISTMAS!  quite sad that i am not going to be spending it with elder Macavilca, but my new comp is from my group!  Elder Parker.  He is from louisiana and has a THICK southern accent.  I will probably pick it up a little. ;)  I set up a Skype profile and sent the username and password to dad`s email so you guys can connect to one of your lap tops or something to make sure there aren`t any bugs.  We have a member here named Josè Fernandez Paz, he used Skype all the time and has his computer hooked up to a television screen.  Maybe i will ask him to connect with you one day this week.  If he does, i will tell him to do it at 10 o`clock here, i`m pretty sure that will be 5 o clock there.  he speaks little to no english,k but served in Mexico as well as his little sister.  They are a great family and it is a huge blessing that they are going to let us use their home.  He, (Jose) will connect with you and send you and instant message through SKYPE to let you know when were going to do it.  We are allowed to Skype the 24th or the 25th.  When my new comp gets here we will see what fits his parents better as well.  So if everything goes my way i think that we will be calling you the 24th but the time is depending on you guys.  We could also try to do it early christmas day.  So when you all wake up, we can talk! I like that idea, but we will see. ;)  I can`t wait to see you all!  We get one hour each. :) Presidents permission.

Ok... So here are some fun facts for you... this week i had one of the FUNNIEST experiences with the Spanish language.  When you are learning a new language,you learn rapidly how to make it look like you know what they are saying when in reality... you`re lost.  So this week i got a text from a member (the members that are going to let us use their house for Skype) and she asked me if we had gotten ahold of the "Pigs" for christmas... I had NO IDEA what she meant.  SO i asked my comp and he said, "she must just be messing with us, pigs are super expensive here." so i texted her back, trying to flip the joke back on her and said, "We heard that YOU were going to buy us one for the christmas season!" she said we must have confused her with the other Majo in our ward and so we left the "Joke" at that.  two days later (Yesterday) we were having lunch with them and Majo`s mom asked us AGAIN if we had gotten ahold of the pigs for christmas.  I looked around confused and they all looked at me, i said, "why do you keep asking me about the pigs??" and they said that they had been looking for pigs all week because WE had asked them to!  My companion and i looked at each other and said, "We didn’t ask you to look for PIGS!!! why on earth would we do that??!!"  Then we started looking though the conversation on her phone and come to find out... a week ago i had sent a text to Majo asking for LEAHONAS.... but i misspelled it and put LECHONAS which means pig here.... haha. we laughed so hard! they spent a WEEK looking around uruguay for cheep pigs.  haha.  They had COUNTLESS conversations about why on earth the elders would want pigs... especially because they are so stinking expensive!  We laughed so hard yesterday.  That will be an inside joke with this family for forever.

Here in Uruguay, NOBODY has ac.... instead, everyone buys those outdoor pools.  EVERYONE.  almost every house has one outside their home,and oh how i wanna hopp´on in one!  It is BLAZING hot here.  

We have a baptism this week!  Super excited! his name is Michael.  (My-cole) and WOW let me tell you he has progressed way faster than we expected.  He has schizophrenia but has medications that keep him normal and in a right state of mind.  When we teach him... you can feel his spirit reach out and touch you.  He has purchased a suit, white shirt, tie, a briefcase (For all the pamphlets and books we have given him) and he has come to every activity and church meeting since we met him.  THat includes, 2 activities of futbol, 2 sundays to all the reunions, 1 big family home evening held by the ward, and is currently helping us re-activate his neighbors!  He is a missionary at heart. :)  He will be baptized on the 21st as a christmas present to all of us. :)  

I love you all so much!!

Merry christmas!

SEE you in a week!

12-09-13

Nine years old?  Pa!!!!!! mi hermanito está creciendo cada vez mas rápido!  Feliz cumpleaños hermano.  Te quiero.  I can`t believe that there is less than one year left.... seriously. like it doesn`t enter in my brain. haha.  My whole mission I have had those little "Memories" moments when I remembered "What happened a year ago...” ha-ha.  Now, every time I share a story about something that happened a year ago, it will be missionary stories!  Ha-ha.  :)  I love being out here so stinking much.  There is just no way to describe it in English.  Saturday we had a zone conference where our stake president came and spoke... let me tell you, there is a LOT of work to be done here in Las Piedras but the Lord has called one Brilliant man to lead the bishops and branch presidents in our stake.  He helped each one of us break through in revelation for our own areas in HOW TO WORK WITH THE MEMBERS AND LEADERS!  Man it is so stinking important.  We had 3 investigators in church today.  Let me tell you.  I love missionary work.  It has been hard to have such and INCREDIBLY long time without progressing investigators or investigators in church.  But yesterday, we had legitimate progress as THREE non members showered and got ready yesterday to go to the chruch.  Today all three of them came to play Futbol with us and when we ended, they all wanted to know the next time we were going to come over to their house!  One’s name is Michol.  He is a super soccer player and schooled us all today, he understands doctrine as it is taught to him... without delay.  Haha.  So many of our investigators have HUGE barrios that impede their progress in accepting the Gospel, but Michol is ready, he is 21 years old, has a kid but is not married nor living with the mother, and is currently fighting a small case of skits-o-fren-i-ee-ah.  No idea how to spell that. haha. But when we are in the charlas, HE explains to his parents the doctrinal points that we have discussed and then his parents learn even more!  oh it is so beautiful... the other two investigators are Braulio and Nahuel.  Nahuel has some real learning disabilities.  We have had three lessons with him already and wow... things are moving slowly.  It is quite a blessing that his mother is able to teach him along side of us.  She is a less active that we have recently re-activated and she wants her son to get baptized so so bad.  But we have to make sure that he makes the division for himself and that he understands the doctrine.  Braulio is his Uncle... (the brother of Nahuel`s mom)  But they are both the same age. haha.  Kind of a "Westover family" ha-ha.  They both are 12 years old and super interested in futbol... like most kids their age. Ha-ha. but Broulio has a special ability to bring the WHOLE world with him. He is a very popular kid and when we have charlas with him, almost the whole neighborhood is in the house because he is there.  We are excited to see his desires to learn the gospel because we know that if he decides to be baptized, we will see many more young men make the decision.  

Can’t wait for our Christmas scype call!  This Christmas music is getting me super excited. :)  I love the Christmas season!

Thanks so much for the quote.  I have told many people something around those same lines because they always say, "if your church preaches so much about families and how important they are, what the heck are you doing on the other side of the world for? I mean you can’t even write them or call them save ONE day a week! What are you CRAZY?"  Interesting to see how powerful it can be to answer them telling them that i left my family and comforts of the Usa so i could stand in front of THEM, and teach THEM how to improve their lives.

Love you all.

Until next week, keep looking for miracles and find those less actives who need some help.

Love

Elder Reay

P.S.  Can’t remember if I told you or not, our church has been burnt down for almost two months now and we have our Sunday meetings in las piedras, the church has contracted a large buss for everyone to make it there.

12-1-13

P-day to celibrate the 14 baptisms that we had in our zone!  Our xone is used to getting around 7 or less per month.   Date is wrong in the camera...  This was today

We had three baptisms this week!   Super excited. :)  Wish you guys could see the happiness they had in their faces as they entered that very ICY water... haha. :) even though the hot water heater shut off the day before the baptism... It was a very successful service.  ;)  We are seeing some real promising work here in my area, there are about three hundred inactive members and even more that are not registered in our files.  Just yesterday we found two people that were baptized in Las Piedras and then moved to our ward without telling anyone.  It is quite hard working in small wards, makes me think about how small our ward must be now that they split us up.  How many active members are attending?  There is quite a lot of work to do.  We have this one less active named Ana Maria.  She is an EXTREME smoker, she has cut back significantly and STILL smokes 25 sigs a day.  She is the only member in her family but has such a beautiful testimony that it touches me.  Her husband reminds me a lot of Ronney our neighbor in his views of the church.  I am hopping that they will all be able to band together and help Ana Maria get to church again.  Her son is great. His name is Pablo and we are trying to teach him, he just plays futbol all day everyday so it is hard to get him to sit at the table when we show up for the charla.  

Yesterday was fast and Testimony meeting and let me tell you how amazing it was to have 90 people in church and see so many youth stand up and bear their simple testimonies, our recent converts also stood up and bore their testimonies, along with our powerhouse bishop.  Bishop Dos Santos is amazing and super focused on missionary work.  He is always talking to the members about the DESPERATE need to LOOK UP and sees how many beautiful missionary experiences there are around them.  Everyday our members pass by opportunities to share the gospel and it is all out of the lack of focus.  We are working on focusing our members more on missionary work, and boy what a task... Helping missionaries to focus on missionary work is a walk in the park! Even for those rebellious elders... But members have some CRAZY schedules, so it is proving difficult trying to teach them how to implement missionary work into their daily lives.  

I am the prelude piano player now in our ward, man I lose myself in the keys...  I wish I had more time to practice so I wasn’t playing the same three songs I’ve come up with this year.  Ha-ha.  

Sure was nice to see you all bundled up heading to the football game, next year i`ll be going with you. ;) haha.  I love flagstaff so much, can’t wait to live there and be back in the woods again. ;)  Let me know how things are going with my scholarship, it has me a little pre-occupied.  Thanks for all the photos.  That really does my heart good to see you all in your daily get to gethers. :)  Oh how wonderful it was to see Grandma’s living room so full of loved ones, to think that I have gone a whole year without setting foot in that room, without seeing all of your smiling faces. ;)  Just wish you could see the members here and how much they truly help us with our physical needs.  The Iturria family is amazing... when we come back to Uruguay, they are one of the first families on the list. :)  haha.  The mom reminds me so much of my little sister Chelsea, so full of love and ready to help everyone that comes her way.  She is defiantly my favorite member. :) I know I’m not supposed to have favorites.  But when they are so much like my family, you just Gotta love em. :)  I’ll try and send you a photo next week, as well as a photo of my comp and I in our cowboy hats walking down the dirt roads of 18 de mayo, sweating our butts off. :) Ha-ha.

I love you all so stinking much and don’t forget it!!!!

Love Elder Reay

P.s. Christmas is coming. :) get that Skype account good and ready. :)

11-25-13 1 full year complete. 1 full year to go!!!

The photo number 2 is our back yard.  We have a peach tree, grapes on the vine, haha. can`t wait for them to ripen up.  Should be around march... don`t know if i will be here that long.  It is heating up quick here..... man. i love the change in seasons and pretty much hate the thick of each... haha. freezing is no fun and burning just stinks. :)

What a week.  This is our service project that we did for a wonderful family in our ward.  we are building a little 10 by 10 brick room in their front yard so they can have whats called an "Almacen"  or in other words, a little store that they can sell things in.  Lots of families have them and it helps seeing as there is little income....

Well, there are many miracles happening here in 18 de mayo.  bBut there are lots of things to pray for if my companion and i want baptisms. :) we have a GREAT area, just need a little more help on the investigators as far as PROGRESS goes.  What happens here is that we find LOTS of people every day, we see miracles and we are super excited, BUT the down side is that not many of these miracles last... haha.  We are working on having more spiritual experiences so that we don`t have so many people fall through.  Specificity, in my area we have a lady named Bredinlda... she is an absolute miracle, she just needs to have more spiritual experiences on her own.  Both times we have taught her, she has shown INCREDIBLE potential, but between charlas, she loses almost everything she felt in the last charla because she has such a difficult life.  Please keep her in your prayers.  We also have Maria, Cristian, and Noelia.  Maria is the mother and she shows GREAT progress and desires to be baptized, she needs to stop smoking and needs to read the Book of Mormon for herself and PRAY about it.  She is going to set the example for her daughter and if she can do it, Cristian and Noelia are going to get baptized for sure.  Cristian and Noelia need to stop smoking as well, but that isn`t a huge problem with them i don’t think.  They do however need to get married.  They are such an amazing couple. So prepared by the Lord.  They just are missing the marriage part and they will be able to be baptized.  We have their baptismal dates for the 14th of dec.  Please keep them in your prayers.  Specifically that they will be able to come to church.  it has been almost 6 months since our area has seen a solid investigator come to church.  There hasn’t been a baptism in my district for 6 months either, so please keep everyone in your prayers.  I have our area, Me and Elder Macavilca; San Francisco. Elder Alvarez and Elder Vela; Progresso A. Hermana Herrera and Hermana Coon; Progresso B. Hermana Young and Hermana Chavez.... Please keep them in your prayers. :)  We need some help here in Uruguay and we know that the Lord is able to provide.  I have had an amazing week as far as the missionary work goes, we live in a fairly large area.  Thankfully it is not a big city like i was in last change. We have lots of ranch land and lots of poor homes.  The people here are ready to listen, just once. haha. :) we need a lot more second charlas if we are going to see more progress.

Mom, your story about seeing the hispanic family yesterday touched me deeply.  I love how in tune you are with the spirit and how ready you are to follow His promptings.  Maybe in the not so distant future, i will have an ipad with the capabilities of scyping them from here, being able to teach them in their native tongue. :)  O love to hear about the experiences you guys have as they give me even MORE strength to get out and find people here in Uruguay.

Know that you are all in my prayers and that i love each and every one of you with all i have.

Love you,

Elder Reay

11-18-13

What a wonderful week!

Can`t believe that another week has flown by. I am amazed at the power that comes through working hard and being absolutely obedient.  Thankfully there are lots of scriptures that tell us how God blesses those who are obedient.  I am enjoying the mission so much... i truly have no idea how to explain it!  haha. my companion and i lay in bed at night and just try to put things into words, but there is just no way.  I love my companion so much.  It is so amazing to be out here with him, working our tails off for the señor.  Elder Macavilca is such a choice elder and there is no doubt in my mind that God sent me here to learn something from him.  We spend the WHOLE day... EVERY day.... running from one amazing charla to the next, finding miracles on the way. ;) we are seriously BLOWN away at the way that the Lord is blessing us here in dies y ocho de mayo.  as we walk the dirt roads here, we talk about how incredible it is to be such effective tools in the lord`s hands.  There is no doubt that God has many people here waiting for our testimonies, waiting for edler Macavilca and elderReay to come and help them along the way.  There have been so many miracles here.  I wish i had more time to write in my jornal because there are just so many things taht are happening that i want to preserve for FOREVER.  I have never had another person like my companion.  He is so inspirational and full of love.  I get along with him better than i EVER did with anyone at school or work.  the relationship that elder macavilca and i have is strong, to the point that it is Godly.  There is only one that could have sent such a perfect companionship... that is God himself.  This morning as we had our closing prayer for companionship study, i invited my comp to pray in english... he is learning and knows pretty much only how to start and how to end.  In his prayer, he said only a few words in english and the rest of the prayer was in spanish.  some of the words that left his mouth in ENGLISH were: "Dear heavenly father...we thank thee... in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."  but... within his heartfelt prayer, his broken english touched my heart as he said, "I thank thee for my companion"........... it was simple. it was heartfelt.  It was heard by God himself.

I love this ward.  There are so many people ready to listen to the gospel.  We have this AMAZING family named the family Iturria.  the mom reminds me so much of you mother.  She is so dedicated to Christ.  SO dedicated to her calling, her family, her husband, everything.  She loves and just keeps loving. :)  I miss you mom.  Thankfuly there are alot of people praying for me and i have people like the hermana Iturria to help me though these times away from home.  I want you to know that God is watching over me.  He is showing me what kind of man i can become and then providing the means in order to accomplish it.  There is nothing that can get in my way. Not two years, niether cuss words, nor wind nor storm... I am strong in the arm of God.

I love being district leader... I feel so accomplished each day!  I lay my head down at night, thankful for each second that i spend with the elders and sisters in my district.  I have seriously lost myself in the work.  There is no time for home sick, there is no time for lonley, there is no time to spend pondering on the bad parts of the day.  I am verifying up till 10.30 every night helping my district resolve their problems and giving them the spiritual strength they need to fight another day.  I LOVE this work and all that it does for God`s children.  I learn something new every day. There are not words to describe the joy that comes from finding another lost sheep and seeing their eyes open as they see the steep cliff they had so carelessly wondered apon.  We show them the sure path back to the pastor and help them see the danger they are truely in.  My companion and i have talked over and over, anilyzing what our lives whould be like if we had not come on our missions... It is amazing what a change in viewcan do.  We can see what our lives are now and can only immagine what it would be like without these expiriences.

I know that this is God`s work and that this is where he wants me to be.  I know that he is watching over you all back home and that there are angels helping us along the way.  God helps those who are engaged in a good cause.  Don`t forget that i am the big brother, don`t forget that i love you all, don`t forget that sharing this gospel brings the most joy we could possibly imagine.

I love you all so much!

Elder Reay

11-11-13

Mom that truly touched my heart.  I sat here in Uruguay, reading the rich words of my mother.  There is nothing that has EVER compared to this moment here.  right now.  I am in a room smaller than my bedroom back home, sitting next to my comp. with 4 out of the 8 computers occupy.  I am blown away at how even in times like these, the spirit can hit me so hard.  Mom you do an amazing job with your calling as mother and i can only imagine how happy our father is for the service that you offer as a leader in His church.  Thank you so much for helping the Girls with this family.  Helping them by your example and showing them the best way to be missionaries.  You are amazing and thanks to you and the family, i am having members here that are ready to help and ready to share the gospel with their friends.

Here in 18 de Mayo, my companion and i started with our guns a FLAIILING!  we have EXPLODED this area.  Seriously.  This area was kinda written off as dead seen as it hasn’t seen a baptism since march of this year.  We have 5 converts and all of them were baptized in jan and feb.  I have been here for 3 full days and we have DONE SOME WORK! Elder Macavilca is amazing and works harder than any of my past companions... (Sorry elder Ponce, Gardenier, Ha, and Powell)  but here, he is 100% seriously!  He and i are so ready to work and obey.  There is so many things to tell you but ether is so LITTLE time do do so.  I feel the love of the savior again as i serve with everything that i have.  

When they told me that i was going to be district leader, i didn’t know how AMAZING it was going to be!  I have 4 hermanas and 4 elders (including me).  The hermanas are exploding as well, in the 3 full days that i have been here they have found over 15  new investigators EACH companionship!  Incredible.  You will be interested to know that there is an hermana Young in my district.  Go figure no?  haha.  Also, i have hermana Coon in my district.  Remember her? She is related to the Stockbridge`s.  haha.  She is amazing and working hard!  Her spanish is quite well, working on getting all that knowledge she has in her head out of her huge smile. haha.  I am impressed at the way the Lord has prepared me for this calling.  I am truly dedicated to the lord in this work.  Before being district leader, there was lots of down time after 9 30, haha. now i am on the phone and verifying basically up till 1030!  haha.  It amazes me that there is NO time here in the mission.  There seems to be just work. :)  but that`s how i like it.  There is so much to do and so much to expect, i can`t slow down a second because if i do, I^M TOAST!  hahaha.  I love being here with the wonderful people of Uruguay.  They are very humble and i love being able to help them with just a half hour charla in the street or a good sit down in their homes as we talk to them about this grand message that can help them so greatly.  

I can`t believe that there are so many things to do.  I felt overwhelmed in the offices with things to do on my schedule and now i seem to have sped up and ADDED much more.  haha.  I love this work and i love the gospel.  There just are no words to explain the mission... experiences that just can NOT be captured here in this life.  I was touched by your stories about the baptism and how wonderful it truly was. (But mom... you’ve got to do me a favor.  Don`t expect Chelsea or JJ to write me about their experiences. haha.  They always write me but almost never about what you tell me they will.  haha.)  I am so thankful that you have all had that experience and that you are able to feel a tid bit of the joy that comes from being a missionary full time.  I can totally feel your pain mom, Thankfully i have these two years to dedicate to the Lord and not juggle the craziness of life on top of it all. :)  Thanks for being such an amazing family and for always being there for me.

Los amo con todo mi corazon!

Con amor,
Elder Reay

Chou!

Service Project:

Email from Mission President

Here is the email we received from Logan's Mission President:

Subject: New Mission Assignment for Elder Reay

Dear Reay Family,

 

I am writing to inform you that Elder Reay has finished his service in the offices of our mission and will be leaving this Wednesday.  He has served wonderfully as a financier and district leader. 

 

He will be going to an area called “18 de Mayo” as a district leader.  His companion will be Elder Macavilca from Peru.  Your son will be a wonderful asset to his area, district, and zone.  We have no doubt that miracles will occur around him through his faithful service. 

 

Thank you for sharing your son with us.  He has been an incredible servant of Jesus Christ and will continue to be an influence for good upon the other missionaries around him.  He is truly becoming a man of God.  It is apparent that he has been raised very well.

 

Sincerely,

 

Elder Jorgensen

Secretario del Presidente Newsome

Uruguay Montevideo Misión

11-1-13

This is my leupold hat that Grandpa Richard gave me many years ago. :) (Makes me sound like some old fart huh?  but i love it!)

I wear it around the office when i can. :) nice little touch of home:

You guys spoiled me with photos this week!  :)  Loved every bit of it!  OK so wish i could give you a strait answer, but President is STILL undecided if i am leaving or not.  So, i can´t tell you where i am going or anything.  Changes are this wednesday so i hope that he makes up his mind soon!  haha.  I have my bags almost completely packed because i won´t have any time seeing as it is change week.  There are so many good things about being in the office, i wouldn´t mind staying another change... I´m just ready for CHANGE ya know?  So we will see.  My companion is running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to get every last detail outta me before i go, he could survive if i left but it would be pretty hard for him.  I hope that the President is going to take this to the lord.  So if you hear from me on saturday, I am still in the offices. :) Otherwise, pdays have changed to mondays.

We have been playing basketball almost everyday and i enjoy the feeling of winning. :) haha.  It is becoming quite an occurrence.. haha.  I find the feeling awfully similar to finding a new investigator..  There is a feeling that isn´t quite tangible in words, but the feeling of success is well worth the fight.  There is something about seeing the light of Christ´s illuminating words, work wonders in the lives of others.  I know that God has called me to the work and that there are much more people waiting to hear the gospel here in Uruguay.  There is nothing in this world that i would trade for the joy that comes from helping God in his grand work.  I have faith that God will put more people into my path and i have the desires necessary to find those who are not so easily placed into such a situation.  

I am SUPER excited to hear that we now have a NEW BISHOP!  Bishop Stockbridge!  Man i am just FILLED with a love for him and his family!  There are no words to describe the brief time that i spent with him.  I could tell he was good with the young men, and i knew that there would be something more coming from him.  It was such a blessing to have them move into our ward.  A young family that brought so much life and energy to the ward.  Our ward is small, and quite frankly needs some help.  Brandon Stockbridge is the one to count on.  He is called of God and i know that there is a reason for it.  It is sad that i am not able to be there to see the transition and feel of the warming testimonies, but the same thing has been happening here.  Just last month the reorganized our stake presidency and called the most AMAZING man i know in our ward.  His family is one of those "Model families" that i look at and just smile at the thought of having a family as happy as his.  He has brought much life to our dead ward, there is only room for improvement and that is what he plans to do.  i have seen him change things around and help the ward/stake prepare itself for growth.  In the next few weeks, our bishop is going to move out of the ward and our ward secretary just moved out. SO there will be some big changes here as well.  

It is so amazing to think that Brandon Stockbridge is the bishop i will return home to!  He is so young and exactly what the ward needs.  When i get home, i expect the ward attendance to bee pushing 200 and filled with young couples. :)  (The only excuse for not reaching 200 would be if they split the ward... then both wards should be 100. :)  )  

Happy to report that the insurance company got back to us and the other car was in the wrong and will be paying for all the damage.  So i feel a hundred times better about the crash. :)  haha.  

Ok, so here is just a little weird snippet that i am going to put into the email.  

     -There is this lady that works at the bank and she is what we call a "Super Snake" because she is super flirty with all the missionaries.  It is so funny to walk in and just see her like zone in on us.  haha.  Kinda weird but funny.  She always flirts with us and it is kinda the financier´s joke to have the new financier go to the bank for the first time and kinda be "Initiated" as a financier.  So the funny part is that she is now reading the book of mormon and asks us questions every time we walk into the bank.  Now she is STILL a snake, but it was funny to walk in one day and just answer a bunch of questions she had.  She was introduced to the Book of Mormon by the president of the west mission, he came in and gave her a book of mormon and now she is interested.  

      -Yesterday was elder Jorgensen´s birthdays and so we went to McDonalds as his birthday breakfast.  WHile we were there, elder Powell and i had THREE charlas with people in McDonalds.  The first was the worker who was helping/training the cashier.  She said hello in english and so i started talking to her in english.  That lead to her laughing and asking questions about missionaries.  I walked through the open door and explained to her the reason we come out on missions is because we know and hold true that families can live together after this life.  She was interested but had to get back to work.  We are working on getting her address sent to the missionaries of her ward.  Then almost immediately after that, a guy from spain had overheard us talking about the gospel, but since it was all in english, he asked us some questions to clarify what we believed.  So we had the same charla in SPANISH!  haha.  He was super closed to the idea of God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost being separate beings, and that really made it hard to teach him. We got our food and as we were walking to our table, ANOTHER man approached my companion and i and started asking us where we were from.  He is here with his wife and kids teaching rebellious kids.  He is originally from cali and speaks english so he jumped at the opportunity to talk with someone OUTSIDE of work in english.  We talked to him about the importance of families and how it is all because of Christ´s sacrifice.  He received it really well but you could tell he really just wanted to get to know us since we were from the states and really didn´t intend to strike up a religious conversation.  But he and his wife are going to go to church tomorrow in their ward.  They said they knew where a church was close to where they live, so we will see.  haha. I wrote down his name so i can keep an eye out on the weekly newsletter of all the baptisms to see if he and his family progress to be investigators.

Well.  I love you all so much!  Don´t you doubt it for a second!  Thanks for all your love and support.  Give the Stockbridges a big congratulations for me and keep our ward Growing.

Love,

Elder Reay

Birthday

Video from Science Museum

Well. :) Got some wonderful "Spoiled Birthday" moments this week.  No Birthday packages, but they should be getting here soon.  :)

Hermana Hill showed me the email she sent you and what you replied back.  I am so thankful for the blessings I have out her in Uruguay.  My birthday was more than I had anticipated.  I had all the COOLEST elders and Hermanas sing to me, all the zone leaders and Hermana training leaders.  They all spoiled me all day long. President and Hermana Newsome were quite nice and made sure I knew I was loved, elder and Hermana Hill cooked up some amazing cake and a meal fit for a king!  I am glad that my birthday fell on a leader’s conf.  Everyone there was trying their best to make it the best day possible.  :) My comp woke everyone up five minutes early and woke me up singing, (I had told him that’s what you guys do, so he made it happen. ha-ha) Things just went smoothly all day, no problems with the conf or with finances.  I got an email from my family, Grandpa and Grandma Richard, Joni, Mashayla, and a CCM instructor named Hermana Melerio.  He was a great guy.  Love him to death!  He remembered to email me for my birthday!  Super capo.  

Answer to some questions, Yes, McDonalds tastes just as good here if not BETTER!  :) Ha-ha. not to mention that they have dulce de leche that makes Milk Shakes a bijillion times better. :)  The next transfer day is November 6th.  That is the day I will PROBABLY be leaving the offices.  I had a meeting with president yesterday and he informed me that there is a possibility that I will be asked to stay an extra change because there just isn’t anybody that sticks out in the mission as a replacement.  He ensured me that he wants me out in the mission field just as much as I do and that for now the plan is to have me roll out in November, but he wants me to know that there is the possibility that I will be here for an extra change. :) So it is what it is. :)  I am currently working with the South America South Head of Finances to balance our mission budget, lots of graphs and analysis that I have to do, but I am learning a FULL!!!  President and I are excited to sit down together and have a short lesson on "Opportunity Costs" so that I can not only use it here in the mission, but also in my work after the mission.  He wants to teach me as much as possible.  After all he did run a multi-BILLION dollar company before coming out to serve with us.  I am excited to learn from him and take advantage of this time.

I am learning quickly how to be a district leader, there is lots to do.  I am now not ONLY in charge of my own prociliting area, I am called to help out with the other two in my district.  I help them with their companion problems, investigator problems, and just all around help them be better missionaries.  It is amazing to see the progress in them from the changes we have put in place.

I can’t wait to see the pictures of the cabin and the fun time you spend with the Grams.  Send lots of pictures.  I have plenty of time to download them and look at them later.  I want to see EVERYONE and as always, the classic "After a long ride" pictures. :)  I hope you guys enjoy the cool air, the fun rides, the family time spent together, and the all around happy times that come from one of my favorite places on earth. :)  Weird to think that when I leave Uruguay, it will be BURNING hot here, and when I land, it will be FREEZING cold there. :) Ha-ha.

I wrote a poem in the CCM and finished it the other day:

"Upon my Knees"

His hands were pierced with cold hard steal,

His eyes saw souls that did not feel,

His bright, warm heart they could not dim,

My hands now washed and clean through Him.

His back was whipped and laid in mud,

His garments rent and smeared in blood.

That through his pain, my sins washed white,

So I might bear my burdens light.

His fists clinched tight as pain pulsed though,

The bitter cup Christ drank for you.

His pleading prayer reached high above,

Upon my knees, I show MY love.

I am hoping to improve it little bit by little bit.

Thank you so much for your prayers and all your missionary work you are doing back home.  Sweet family of mine.  We played basketball a bunch today.  I played SUPER good!  Loved it!  

Love you all!

Love Elder Reay

Piano

Logan is learning to play the piano on his mission.  Here is a video he sent.  The end of the song cuts off and has some sound issues but it is neat that he is learning a new language and music.

Letter Today:

Well, what a crazy p day. :)  We started off cleaning the house... (Suppppppepr messy) After which, we came over and played basketball, junior companions verses senior companions. :)  Feels great to get some good exercise in. 

Ok, so this week was pretty darn full!!!!  I’ll share some of the more spiritual parts first:

Last night we had one of our less active members call us (once again).  She calls us about once a week and just blames US for her inactiveness.  Missionaries before us would ALWAYS visit her and try and get her to church, but even with YEARS of missionaries passing by her house, she remained inactive.  So elder Powell and I have stopped visiting her and had more members pass by her house throughout the week and the weekly call from her.  Last night she was quite angry, mainly because she knew what she was doing was wrong and couldn’t stand hearing us testify so directly and powerfully, she is an interesting lady... But anyways, last night was my companions turn to answer the phone with her (Yes we take turns with her.)  As the conversation progressed, my companion COMPLETELY filled with the spirit and out right told her that the words leaving his mouth weren’t his, rather the Lord Jesus Christ’s.  She was taken aback and it finally seemed to "Click" in her head that Christ wants her to come back to church.  It is so amazing to me that God has truly called us here to be His servants, His voice of warning, and His utile tools.  

This week, we have found quite a few new investigators!  You must all be praying really hard for me!!! :)  Thank you all for helping us...  Today I have three baptismal interviews to do, SUPER crazy to me.  I am the DISTRICT LEADER and can’t believe it.  I gave my first District Meeting yesterday.  I talked allot about the importance of bringing the spirit more into our charkas.  I am so thankful for all the inspiration that God has blessed me with this last week.  I have learned so much from the bible this last week, I really wanted to find some good scriptures to share with my district out of the bible and man did God ever bless me with the references we all needed to hear.  My favorite is probably one of mom’s favorites as well. Matt 19:29  WHAT A SCRIPTURE!!!!  I can’t wait for conference tomorrow!  We will all be watching at the same time.  Yesterday we also had a great charla with Pablo, He is a recent convert as well as our ward mission leader.  He is super spiritual, but has a problem with Bi-Polar so he is sometimes down in the dumps.

Just finished my three interviews with the baptisms :)  So I only had a half hour to write.  Sorry.  :)  It was SUPER awesome and I can’t believe how ready these people are to get baptized.  The Dad was completely eaten before meeting the missionaries.  He didn’t believe in God at ALL!  He now is committed to living the gospel, paying tithing, and all the rest of the blessings we have in the gospel.

09-28-13

Well, one more change under my belt, ;)  This last change was quite a success.  Elder Powell and I are still working on getting out in the field more. :)  It amazes me that even though we aren’t able to leave and yet the Lord sees it fit to put people in our way and prepare them for the reception of the Gospel.  

One of the COOLEST experiences happened last night!!!! We were leaving the mission home around 7:15PM and we got a phone call from the Pugmires.  (Senior Couple) and they informed us that Elder Pugmire is going down hill quickly.  He had a horrible back spasm the other day and had to make a trip to the doctors.  The doctors gave him some meds and he accidental overdosed and was quite loopy when we showed up.  He could hardly remember my name.  When we walked in the door, he was sitting at the computer trying to remember his password to his email.  He is a temple worker here in Uruguay as well as a missionary.  My companion was the one to anoint and I was privileged to give the blessing.  Now the interesting part is the following:  I had to give the blessing in English... The last English blessing I gave was in my own living room right before leaving for my mission.  That was only the SECOND blessing I have given in English in my LIFE.  The rest of the blessings I have given have been in Spanish.  The power I felt during the Blessing was incredible.  To know that God was present during that blessing overpowers me.  I am so thankful that I hold the priesthood and that I are able to serve the Lord in such a FULL capacity.

I am so happy to have received a letter from Grandpa Connolly.  I believe that is the first card I have ever gotten from him.  The rest of the cards have been written my grandma and signed by grandpa. :)  It was so sweet to hear his stories and feel his love for me.  I wish I would have spent some more time talking with him and just picking his brain about the stories he has.  Here on the mission I have really learned the importance of talking and understanding where people come from.  I have gotten to know so many of the people here in Uruguay and been able to get to know them on such a personal level.  I wish I had a much closer relationship with all my grandparents. Grandpa Connolly especially.

Oh how I feel the separation as strong as I sat studying on the 27th reading the little insert Chelsea wrote in my quad.  It amazes me that I have been gone for so long!  10 Months is so stinking long!  Josh Stewart has been out for 18 months already!!!!!!  My twentieth birthday is sneaking up on us, as well as my one year mark.  November will be here before you know it and we all know what comes after that don’t we??  CHRISTMAS!  Time has moved so quickly!  I honestly can’t believe that 10 months have flown by so fast.  I am just overwhelmed that there is so little time in what seemed to be a long two years.  I started my mission what seems like yesterday.  After Six companions, 10 months, two areas, two mission presidents, and a whole lotta work, I am now looking at the fast approaching events to come with hesitation as I wish to stay where I am and work harder and stronger to accomplish more with each moment I have.  Two years is nothing compared to the life time of service I signed up to when I passed through that sacred Veil?  I am so thankful for the experiences I have had thus far and am ecstatic to see what God has in store for me.

I love you all.

Elder Reay