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