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. :)