Some fun pictures.................sent January 27, 2014

                                            

literally the most beautiful sunset on earth

                          the view from my roof....how is it possible that i live her? it looks like a fairytale.

Tio Trucolo (left) and Uncle Espinozita (right) on their girly bikes. haha.

the names are what my kids will call them (or that`s what they tell me.) haha my Latino bros. We                            work really closely because we know it`s more effective to help the branch.  

i got these letters from the Elders in another area. They slept in our house the night before we got there. Elde rTeloma is from my mtc group....haha they kill me. 

                                                          SETTLE IN KIDS. Story time. 

Haha so on P Day last week, we come home already a little bit late, and find that the gate that leads to all of the apartments....the gate that is never ever EVER locked, so therefore we almost never have the keys for it with us....is locked.  But have no fear. I looked  at Hna Zumeta and said "Don`t worry, girlfriend. I`m American. I know what to do." So i climbed that sucker, got the keys                                           from the apartment, and let my comp in. `MERICA!

    Me with Marian`s son, Juanchi! First time I`ve seen anyone with a baseball  bat since I left                                                           home...of course i had to play with him.

soooo.....remember how i was going to grow my hair out? haha woops. 

care package from my mission angels! I won`t s ay their name and embarrass them, but their names start with L and J and rhyme with Millian and Lawn. Haha whaaaat. thank you so much, I LOVE YOU! 

we made mac and cheese! AMERICA

mY AMAZING companion! You guys, I love love love loooooooove Hna Zumeta. We have so much fun together, and the four of us with the Elders have a blast too! (e ven though the elders are suuuuper trunky about their girlfriends. hahaha) . I love her! Plus, bonus, turns out she gives awesome massages. (someone please tell my dearest Stacy to get herself prepared to give the massage of her life in 13 months. the mission turns us all into old people with back and feet problems)

excused the bad lighting and worse hair, but THIS IS THE BEAUTIFUL CHIVITO. (a chivito is a patty of meat, with ham, cheese, and an egg on top.  best food en el mundo.) 

                                                   UGLIEST DOG ON THIS PLANET.
        there are so many dogs here, and they mix with  e v e r y breed. This is a lab mixed with a                                                                   bassett hound....haha nast.

"we`re not driving all this way just so you can by one of those stupid ties with santa clause on it?" January 27, 2014

that quote mostly popped into my head because we did a LOT of pointless walking back and forth this week....due to some miscommunication with the Elders.  Haha bless their hearts. 

Hey hey hey, everybody ! 

How was everyone`s week? Guess what, I got a computer with a question  mark. Guess what else....I got a computer whose space butt on has random seizures. Soooo bare with me here .                                                                         

 This week was a lot of fun! It was harder as far as not seeing many of our investigators, but we have one goooooolden one so it`s okay! 

First off, on Wednesday we did Divisions with Hermana Simpson and Hermana Smith! Hermana Smith is President Smith`s daughter. She`s deciding  whether to go on a mission, so this change she`s bee n a mission ary with the nametag and all! They both came to our area, and Hermana Smith went with Hna Zumeta a nd Hna Simpson came with  me. Aaaand guess what you guys? Like, no one was home. Did they all say they would be ho me? Ye s, they did. But not one was home. Haha it `s cool, Hermana Simpson and I did a lot of contacting. And you guys, she`s incredible! Seriously. She`s been out 10 months. She has an incredible test imony and love for the people. With this one guy we contacted, he said "I`m not  interested. You don`t need a religion to speak to God." And almost closed the door. Then Hermana Simpson goes "you`re right." And he `s like "whaaaaa" haha and we end up talking to him for like half an hour and by the time we le ft he accepted the pamphlet  he had refused at the beginning and   said we could come back.  Just listen to people, peeps. They all have something to teach us, and this Gospel has something to teach them. But anyway, Hermana Simpson is quirky like I am and we were both pretty stoked to have somebody who recognized quotes from Lizzie McGuire from literally ten years ago haha.  She also enjoyed the fact that I called an Elder a turd the other day. She was like "I haven`t heard that in forever!".....so thanks Dad hahahahha you can tell I`m a Dolan. 

We also had an awesome family home evening that night with all four of us and a less active family in our ward. Her husband left for Guatemala for his job, so we just did a "girl`s night" with her and her daughters and talked about how we are daughters of God, and then gave her the commitment to go to church. Folks, this is a commitment that they haven`t accepted in months . And guess what....she accepted. ANd guess what else....SHE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY. I cannot describe the joy that comes when you see someone you love and care for walk into the chapel for the first time in who knows how long. Hermana power! What joy , and hopefully when her husband comes home, her example will bring him back too.  But it was a great day of divisions. I really learned a lot from Hermana Simpson and I love her and Hermana Smith so much!  

 Thursday we were helping the Elders move into their mansion....I mean house. But seriously you guys, their new house is so nice. Haha we`re not bitter or anything. So anywho, the Binghams, aka the best couple missionaries en el mundo, came up from Montevideo to help out and buy the rest of the furniture. Hermana Zumeta and I had to go to  head the Movie Night activity the four of us had planned, but then we get a call from the Elders around 8:45 that says "is the movie night almost done? we have an emergency. Come outside as soon as you can." So the movie night ends, and  we go outside to see our Elders (E Espinoza y E Trucolo),   the Elders from the other area, and the Binghams with big smiles on their faces! And the Binghams say "get in, we`re taking you to dinner!" And take us to the nicest restaurant in Centro, where we ate huuuuuge chivitos that tasted like heaven! You guys, I LOVE THE BINGHAMS.  It was the best! 

Remember Mariana, the woman we found when her little boy yelled "hola" to us like three weeks ago? We finally found her again when she was home on Saturday. SHe was straight up with us and said she likes to have us over because she likes us and we`re great with her son, but she`s not interested in finding out more about the church. That was a little bit of a bu mmer,  but at the same time, when she told us, I was totally calm. WE told her we would still pass by and b e her friends. I really thin k she will come in her time, but for now , we need to be just that....her friends.  She will come eventually! 

Maria, perfect little Maria , is still the same. WE`re praying really hard to  know what to do. All of the missionaries have always done the same things with her, and it`s never worked. We`re trying to find a different solution. 

Pretty much everyone else wasn`t home this week, which was also a bummer. 

  GUADALUPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I saved the best for last!   The 14 year old, Guadalupe (gwa -dah-loo-pay), is literally  a Golden Investigator! She comes to all of the activities, she told US she wants to come to church, and WENT, and she leaves for vacation for two weeks, and yesterday we were about to say "make sure you keep reading while you`re gone" but we didn`t even have to. She said "I`m for sure bringing this book with me  to read on the trip"  before we even said anything! I LOVE HER SO MUCH. My soul fills with joy every time I see her.  I told Hna Zumeta I don`t care if I have any baptisms the rest of my mission, if we can just get her there! Her mom is super great too. She says she`s not sure she believes in God, but told us "she`s my daughter, so I pray with her when she says her prayers." Guadalupe also told us she is going to start to come to the activities and maybe even church with her. Through Guadalupe `s example, her mom Cristina and little sister Luciana will eventually come to know , too! You guys, I cannot describe my love. She is literally p e r f e c t.  

So anywho , kind of a weird and crazy week, but I am so happy! It`s not about how many lessons you have or contacts or any of that. It`s about truly loving people, and loving God. And  you guys, I love the people here SO MUCH.  Everyday I just think to myself "I`m walking in Uruguay." And I remember how incredibly incredible my life is, how it`s going way too fast, and how my prayers at night are wayyy too long because of how much gratitude I have to my God for giving me all of it! And of course you guys! thank you so much for all the support! 

 Remember, the sun always rises. I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermana Dolan 

         Haha we`re so poor. Colonia is so expensive, so this is what our district does for our special district                                                                           lunch. poor kids.

                           

                                   Sunset in Colonia view from the roof of apartment

the rest is just a bonus..................January 20, 2014

Hey, hey, hey, my lovely familia y amigos! 

How is everybody this week! for some reason the question mark on this keyboard doesn`t function, y the caps lock for some letters tampoco. so, my bad. Maybe i`ll speak proper english again when I get home. Except for probably not....the other day I tried to give a prayer in English, and I literally could not find words for some things. Haha, what is happening. (again, no question mark.) 

so we had an AWESOME week! It was hard as far as there were some investigators that we couldn`t see at all this week because they weren`t ever home, but it was still AWESOME in other ways! 

soooo first off, the aduezo family. They have been recieving the missionaries since January or february. They are from Venezuela, and are super great, but very very philosophical and apparently have a tendency to get off topic. But we visited them for the first time this week, and A. it was the first time the husband has ever stayed the entire lesson, B., he told us he`s been reading the Book of Mormon, and C. They told us they wanted to go to church! They didn`t go on sunday, but the Elder who has been here for forever told us all of those things are huge. seriously, we didn`t even say anything about church. The husband brought it up on his own! They are super great, and we`re really excited about them. 

There`s also saul. saul is about 80 years old, and we found him contacting a couple of weeks ago. He is SO prepared, and SO open! We have to go a little bit more slowly with him because he doesn`t understand some things and his hearing is bad, but he is wonderful! When we taught him on friday, he said "is your church during the week" and we said "nope, only sunday mornings." and he said "oh, I always thought it was during the week! I`d really like to go then." Um, OKAY. He ended up getting really sick on saturday and couldn`t go, but he felt so bad when we went to see him on sunday afternoon. He kept apologizing and promising he`d be there next week. you guys, he is so wonderful! He knows nothing about anything religion, but that makes him so open and ready to learn! 

We also have Guadalupe. she`s 14, and she LOVES learning. about everything. We gave her a Book of Mormon with some passages to read, and she ate it up. Reading is one of her favorite things to do, and she told us she was excited for something else to read and learn about. We are hoping to teach her mom too, and her little sister. But she is so great! so open. 

We`re going to have to work really hard and be really patient with Maria. Remember her, the adorable old lady whose husband Miguel is a member. The people who have us over every friday. Well, she has tried a bunch of religions but still doesn`t know if there evenis a true church. It`s hard too because she says she believes Joseph smith is a prophet and everything else the missionaries have ever taught her, she just doesn`t know if this is THE church. But the stories of very close family members of mine remind me to never give up on anybody. I fell in love with Maria the first moment I met her. It broke my heart to have her be so stubborn on friday, but we aren`t going to give up! Miguel bore a beautiful testimony and said he knows she will figure it out, and I know so too. It will just be in the Lord`s time, and if I`m only here to help her in her journey, then that`s okay with me. 

WEDNESDAY. We had interviews with President. My first interview with him of the mission. Gaaaahhhh he is I N C R E D I B L E. and I love talking to him because he reminds me so much of my own dad. during our interview, he told me "i love your attitude. do you know why you were sent to colonia...it`s because colonia centro needs a change. there is no excitement, no joy in this branch. that`s why i called you here. i knew you could bring that change. you radiate the confidence that "today is the day", and you bolster my confidence." and he starts crying as he says this. kind of like my dad would. haha. the spirit was so prevelent. I told him thank you for saying those things, because I was still wondering a little bit why i was called myself. I shared with him some insecurities I was feeling. he said "i know why you`re here. so does the Lord. you are here to be obedient, and to prepare to testify to the people of uruguay, as well as to your future posterity, of things to come, our savior. the rest is just a bonus." THE REST IS JUST A BONUS. Be obedient, testify. Everything that comes is just a bonus! L I G H T B U L B. President is incredible. afterwards, he gave a really beautiful prayer and started crying. so of course i started crying. he then looked at me after the prayer and said "but you`ve gotta have faith, because Hermana dolan, you bolster my faith. When you leave, Uruguay will be better because you were here, and i hope to do the same...and you know what. I expect to, because I have the Lord."  and then he apologized for crying and i told him I liked it because it`s just like my dad. I LOVE HIM. He is so inspired, and he is changing Uruguay. 

SUNDAY!!!! you guys, we did the impossible. The average attendance of our branch is 27 people. This last sunday, we achieved something that has NEVER been achieved in this branch EVER in its HISTORY.....55 people! 55 souls that took the sacrament. GAHHHH! President smith was in another area in uruguay about an hour away, but when we called him and told him, he drove the hour to centro just to congratulate the four of us! MIRACLES. miracles, miracles. It`s so amazing to witness changes the Lord is making here, and to be a part of it! 

and then at the end of every wonderful day here in Colonia, the Lord gives us this firestricken sunset across the horizon of the river. sometimes, i just can`t believe how much love i feel from my Maker. 

Be obedient. Live every day. do the Lord`s will. THE REST IS JUST A BONUS! I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermana dolan 

Pictures from Colonia, Uruguay..............January 13, 2014

                                          Megan and her companion, Hermana Zumeta

                                             Hermana Simpson, the Hermana Trainer
                                                     

                                                         nothing like futbol and mate,  
                                                                

                                                           haha jk, mate isn`t allowed. 

                                                  p.s. my big time rush shirt. haha i`m 10.  

 
                                                               Megan's New Hat
                             

                                                             Welcome to Colonia!!!

Haha I am such a typical missionary. ALL OUR NEW THINGS GUYS! 

I AM IN LOVE..............January 13, 2014

Okay you guys, remember how I said last week that I wasn`t sure about Colonia? Okay maybe I didn`t. Maybe I only said it in my head. But PSYCH, I am so sure about Colonia! 

We have had a lot of little miracles. I`ll just talk about a few of them, as well as random tidbits:

1. On Tuesday, I talked to some English speakers! They were waiting for a tour bus in front of the place where we buy groceries. We walked passed and I didn`t even pay attention to the fact that they were speaking English. Hna Zumeta said "did you hear them? They were speaking English." But us and the other 6 missionaries kept walking. I said "Hermana! LET`S GO." So we went and like an idiot the first words I could think of to say to them were "excuse me....you`re speaking English." As if they didn`t know. Hahaha. Anyway, the woman was from New York and the man was from South Africa. I bore a brief testimony to them, which, by the way, is SO hard to do in English now. It was so rough. I will apologize in advance for my homecoming talk, because if this is what it`s like with 5 months, who know what the full 18 months is going to do to me. Anyway, the woman didn`t accept the card i gave her, but she was super nice. And the man did! So who knows. But it was cool. I heard there are a lot of English speakers here because of tourists, but they were my first experience. 

2. Wednesday! We`re trying to find a menos activos house and we look kind of lost...haaa like always. This guy asks us if we need help, and he points us to where we need to go. We thank him and keep walking, but then he says "wait! where are you two from?" And we starting talking about where we`re from and what we`re doing here, and talked about the message we share as missionaries. He was SO open. More open than anyone up until that point in Colonia. He gave us his number and address. Turns out he lives in the area of some other Elders in our Zone, but it was a good reference and we hope they get to teach him and his family! His name was Andres. 

3. Thursday! So let me explain how garbage day works here. People put their sacks of garbage on the side of the street, and on garbage day the truck goes up the street while 3 or 4 men run around grabbing the bags and throwing them in the truck. Well, we were stopping by our house on garbage day, and we walk past one of the garbage men. He first said "hola! como andan?" but we didn`t here. Then he said it again. Then all of the sacks of garbage in his hands spilled to the ground. We went to help him, even though he told us not to. Haha psych we`re missionaries bro, of course we`re going to help. But anywho, he talked to us for a good five minutes and made his coworkers get the rest of the garbage on the street. We gave him a pass along card, and asked if we could come by his house. He said yes and gave us his address...in the SAME area as those Elders haha. But if we can help them out, that`s okay. I told them to MAKE SURE THEY FIND HIM. Because he was so great! SO great! Our little miracle for the day. 

4. We are starting to get some investigators! Some are old from what the Elders had before we divided the area, but some are just contacts of some really open people who fell right into our laps! Holy crap boy scouts. Colonia is on its way! 

5. So there is this AMAZING member named Mary. She basically acts like a black woman, she`s got so much sass. I love it. She had referenced us to her neighbors and we had a couple of lessons with them, but the husband doesn`t believe in God and the wife has a lot of health problems. So one day in the street she asked us how it was going. We told her all of the problems, and she said "let`s go." So she stops by her house for her scriptures, we go to their house where at the door she says "let me talk," we sit down, and she just immediately goes into what the church is all about and her conversion story and how she believes that they can believe. It was just a half hour of crazy awesome Mary testimony. The Spirit was so strong. You guys! She is INCREDIBLE. I seriously walked out speechless. 

6. MIGUEL Y MARIA. You guys, I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THESE TWO PEOPLE. I cannot even explain to you. Miguel is a member and is sealed to his wife who passed away, and is now married to Maria who isn`t a member yet whose husband passed away. They are in their 80`s, and are the cutest people I have ever met in my life. They are just two big cups of sugar, seriously. I have already decided I am adopting them as my Uruguayan grandparents. They told us to make sure we leave every Friday at 7:30 free for them, just like they did with the hermanas who were here before. We are going to really focus on helping Maria get to baptism. Miguel has such a strong testimony, and she already has them! Hermana Zumeta told me after eating the most delicious chocolate cake at their house after the lesson, that I was just sitting there with a big dumb smile on my face while we were sitting at the table eating and talking to them. But I couldn`t help it! Afterwards, there was a big awesome rainstorm that we got to run home in, and I was just laughing like a bafoon. Haha. I literally fell asleep like three nights this week with a smile on my face. We don`t even have these grand miracles, but all of the little ones add up to so much joy! 

7. I am so enjoying teaching our Elders english! Haha. They are like our big brothers. The other night the poor guys missed their bus and had to walk home. So they call us and say "You won`t believe what just happened to us." and then while they`re walking home, they have me teach them English. hahaha. They are also picking up phrases that I say, like "oh my gosh!" and "for suresies!" and "wait wait wait wait wait....what?" (that`s what i say when I don`t understand them haha). But seriously, we`re probs going to do classes in English for the youth. I am so excited! Although I have no clue how I`ll do it....how do you start to teach someone English? Any counsel would be much appreciated. Haha you guys, our language is so great, but so weird. Also, side note: my three Latino missionaries think I`m nuts. My comp calls me "her crazy Gringa." Haha it`s coo´. 

8. We ate lunch at the Branch President`s house yesterday. He and his wife spent a month and a half in Utah a few years ago, so we had a whole conversation about it. First time EVER I could talk about my city with someone who knew what i was talking about! The 3 other missionaries were mesmerized while the wife explained temple square, and I just sat there thinking about how lucky I was that I LIVE there! I miss my sweet Salt Lake! 

9. I haven`t given ya`ll a good story of "Hermana Dolan and her silly Spanish" in awhile. Here it is! 

Okay, so Temple Square in Spanish is called "la manzana del templo." Manzana also means apple, and it is also not the word for square. Don`t ask me why it`s called that. But anywho, I assume it is the word for square. So I`m trying to explain something about a square to the other three misisonaries, and the whole time they think I`m talking about an apple. Then finally, I ask Hermana Zumeta "manzana is also square, isn`t it?" No. No it is not. Haha so I explained my logic to the three of them and they`re like "that....kind of makes sense that you would think that." Hahaha guys, pray for me. 

10. Have i mentioned I LOVE Colonia? Because I LOVE Colonia! It is definitely different, and the branch needs a LOT of work, but it is so beautiful, and there are some truly wonderful people here! I love opening an area, I love being able to work with 4 missionaries, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Hermana Zumeta! She and i have a lot of fun together and she is so sweet and so patient with her crazy gringa! I AM IN LOVE. So much joy! Tender mercies in every day, and little miracles too! Some seeds we`re planting with our gazillion contacts, but some seeds we finally get to harvest, and that`s why we`re here! 

Look for miracles in every day! I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermana Dolan 

Let`s go to the beach, beach.... January 6, 2014

You guys, literally every day the beach calls my name. 

But for realsies, I cannot even describe to you how incredibly b e a u t i f u l Colonia is. And want to know something cool? On of the beaches, you can look across the river/ocean and see the skyscrapers of Buenos Aires. ummm, what up Argentina! We went to this place called Ciudad Viejo (literally translates to "the old city") which is one of the famous parts of Uruguay. Guys, SO pretty. I want everybody to come to Uruguay and see how pretty it is, because I don`t think anybody realizes the beauty of it. But seriously! So pretty! 

Oh and by the way, H A P P Y N E W Y E A R E V E R Y B O D Y! 

I rang in the New Year at the house of some members in the other branch. It was me and my comp, our Elders, and the Elders of that ward. It was SUPPPES fun. Also, we had permission to stay out until 10:30 again (holla!) but we could not get a taxi for the life of us and it`s too far to walk. So we got home....later than I have ever gotten home or gone to bed in 4 months. Haha yikes. But for real, the family was super great and the fireworks of Uruguay did not disappoint! 

I also decided that I wanted to pick a word to focus on for the year. I did that last year, but this year needed to be super special because all of 2014 will be on my mission. The word I chose was L I G H T. Why? Because in the mission, I have started to see that everything is focused on this word. Light of Jesus Christ. Light of the Gospel. Light of the world. Light, light, light! I think of the word light, and what happens? My face LIGHTS up. Whenever I have felt that I am in darkness, the light of Jesus Christ takes away my shadows. I want to vanquish the shadows of others! I want to focus on that light myself. Notice the little miracles rather than look at that little shadow in the corner. 2014 is going to be BURSTING with light! 

As for Colonia....

There still isn`t a whole lot to report yet. Our branch has 35 people on Sunday. The average is normally 25, so already that`s good! WE´re still trying to visit the members and figure out who the menos activos are and find ourselves some investigators. It is a LOT of contacting. But Hermana Zumeta and I set some goals, and we believe we can achieve them. One: this change, we want two baptisms. Two: This change, we want to find and baptize a family. Three: two achieve this, we want an average of 10 contacts a day. In total, 300 CONTACTS PEOPLE. But we are determined to do it, and we know that as long as we work hard and do our best, even if the Lord doesn`t have it in His plans for us to achieve our goals, we can feel good about ourselves as instruments in the hand of the Lord. Already I have seen little miracles hear. We have talked to some really fantastic people who are the little gems in Colonia who are open to listen to us, and we have lessons set up with them for this week. We also have the tourist spot of Colonia. That`s a lot of people who don`t actually live here, but that`s a lot of seeds for us to plant as we share the Gospel...that LIGHT... with them! This is also the first time in the history of this branch that they have had 4 missionaries at a time, and couple missionaries are coming in a few weeks. That will be 6 missionaries! I get the feeling that the Lord and President have big things waiting for Colonia Centro! 

Anyway, this week was a lot of trying to get things going. Hopefully I`ll have more to report next week. But seriously you guys, Colonia is beautiful. And the great thing about talking to so many people is that my capacity to love is growing every day, as well as my capacity to trust and have faith in the Lord. Whatever He has in store for both me and the people here, I still don`t know, but we`re gonna hit the pavement, forget ourselves, and go to work! COLONIA IS A BEAUTIFUL PART OF THE LORD`S VINEYARD. I have already said that, but seriously, so beautiful. Beautiful in a way very distinct from Rivera. Every place in Uruguay is so unique. It`s amazing. 

Forget yourself, and give it all to Him! 

I love you all so much! Thank you so much for the support! Please keep writing, you don`t know how much it helps! I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermana Dolan