Mountains with snow, more specifically.
Why? Because snow means cold, and never in mi vida did I think I would say this, but....I really miss cold weather. Mostly because I have never experienced weather this HOT. And it`s not even technically Summer until Saturday. Everyone says January is worse. Hahaaaaaa cool. But hey, you gain weight in Rivera then sweat it off, eh? Probably not, let`s face it. But we`ve eaten lots of asado and we`ve been drinking a lot of juice and water, so that`s good.
Okay so anywho, that is for sure enough about the weather. How was everybody`s week? Good I hope. Can we believe next week is ALREADY Christmas? How did that happen? So ready to talk to the fam, not gonna lie. Although I just want everyone to remember that you give away your beauty when you decide to serve a mission. Soooo...don`t judge.
Aight so this week wasn`t super eventful, it really wasn`t. Maybe that`s because we were only in our area for, like, four days, and one of them was Sunday. Buuuut it was still good!
On Wednesday, we went back to Montevideo. (I know, total of 24 hours of bus travel when combined with our trip to Deo on Monday. I am so blessed with the ability to sleep on long road trips! :)) We went to Montevideo to hear from a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Gonzalez. He`s in charge of Uruguay, and he and his wife are actually both from Uruguay! Pretty cool. We met with four other zones. That was pretty cool! (shout out to mah home girl Hermana Sorenson. It was good to see you. We`ll be comps someday.) Elder Gonzalez and is wife are INCREDIBLE. His wife talked about the story of Christ`s birth. She talked about how we are like the angels, bearing tidings to the shepherds in the field. She told us that there are people waiting, lingering, just as the shepherds are, and it is our blessing and responsibility to appear to them and make them know of Jesus Christ! Elder Gonzalez answered a lot of questions about common problems we run into in uruguay. My favorite part was when he bore his testimony. It wasn´t a long testimony. All he said was "all I need to say is this: I know that Jesus Christ lives." and finished. But when he said that one simple sentence, with tears in his eyes, you could hear a pin drop in that room! And that`s the most important testimony to bear. I know that Jesus Christ lives. If you know that, you can work miracles.
Carol was literally MIA all last week. Sol and Erika both finished school last week (their summer vacation is now), and so they were gone all the time at the gazillion parties that the schools have here. Literally, every night is a party. Music is rumbling ALL through the night. But she was at church on Sunday, and we`re going to keep working with her as best we can! With Carol, you just can`t push too hard or she`ll back away. So we`re just trying to be there for her and encourage her and pray for her. She already knows what she needs to do. It`s just a matter of when, and I have full faith in her!
We taught the Sunday school lesson along with the Elders yesterday. We want more references and help from the members, and we especially want them to have the desire to take up Elder Ballard`s invitation to invite someone to church before Christmas. The lesson. was. AWESOME! The Elders talked about the 3 Nephites and how their desire was to share the Gospel, and that`s an even greater desire than wanting eternal life. Then Hermana Goode and I came in and talked about how we know sometimes there is fear of sharing the Gospel, but we shouldn`t have fear. Then, I told the watered down version of my Grandma`s conversion story. I cried, and naturally, all the women in the room cried. That`s why Elders and Hermanas work well together, folks. The Elders bring in the doctrine and drop cane, and then BAM, sisters bring in the tears. But seriously, I have no clue how I managed to tell that story in understandable Spanish...well, actually I do have a clue. It was Heavenly Father, and His amazing gift of tongues! i am experiencing it every day. His hand is in literally e v e r y t h i n g.
One point I want to tell you guys about the lesson and my grandma`s story: SO much of who I am, of my family is, of what we know about this Gospel, is thanks to one family who took in my grandma and her four children. Who showed them kindness and Christlike love. Thanks to them, and their courage, and love, I am serving as a missionary in Uruguay. Thanks to them, generations of lives have been changed. You never know where you have influence! Have faith in the Lord, and share the Gospel. You can change lives! I`ve seen it!
We have a lot of big plans for this week, and some fun service projects planned for Christmas, which I`ll write about next week once we`ve already done them!
I am so thankful for this time of year. The words "I`m dreaming of a white Christmas" have never applied in my life before until now, but it doesn`t matter. The Savior is what matters. Being on the mission this time of year is truly incredible, and I feel lucky to know that I get not one but TWO Christmas here.
I love you, I love you, I love you!
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