kicked in the chest, hand in the gate, bit in the ankle....................September 29, 2014 Rivera, Uruguay

Heyyy you guys! I hope everybody has had a great week! 

In case you are wondering about my caption, haha what a week it has been folks.

So there`s this little boy named Gael who`s 3. I`ve gotta say he`s probably the closest thing to a little brother I`ve got here. Haha he reminds me a lot of Jackson. He just says the funniest things. Well, Gael cries over alllmost everything. So we were playing soccer with the little kids, and I wasn`t on Gael`s team, but he was telling me to pass him the ball. So when I didn`t, he came over and hit me. So I very gently grabbed him and told him not to do that. And he hit me again. So I told him one more time, and he just gave me a good kick in the chest. Haha ANOTHER mission first. So funny though, I took him to his dad to tell him, and Daniel jokingly goes "Gael, violence is not the answer! Now wait until we go home and I can wrap you up in duct tape." Haha what? People kill me. 

I got bit in the ankle by the dog of a house we contacted. That`s pretty typical missionary life here in Uruguay. 

Annnnd last but not least, I was trying to help open the big iron gate in front of our church that slides open. A member was on the other side, and she slid the gate without noticing that my hand was RIGHT smack dab in between the big iron gate and the brick wall. Yeah man. She felt SUPER bad. But calm down you guys (mom), I got to finally use the skills I learned at Girl`s Camp and I put myself a beautiful ace bandage. And that`s the Lord`s work. Pictures to come. 

Soooo we had a really good lesson with Norma last week, where she accepted a baptismal date. But then when we went back Norma wasn`t there, but Maribel was, and said that Norma says she needs more time and feels like she needs to learn more. Well, my sister-in-law who just went through the temple and got sealed to my brother is my living proof of never giving up on anybody, and not pressuring them either. So we`ll be right here to keep guiding Norma and helping her to make the decision that will lead her to eternal happiness with her daughter. So keep her in your prayers! 

I finished the Book of Mormon this week! My first time in Spanish. It`s so cool how the Gospel is so 100% true in every language. Read the Book of Mormon every day! I`ll be honest, I didn`t before my mission. But it is here where I have gained a living testimony of this amazing miraculous book that brings so much joy and peace and counsel and truly changes lives. And I am never going back! 

Honestly, other than that, not a super eventful week! Good things in every day, as always. It`s a week that before might have gotten me down, but I`ve learned that as long as we`re being obedient, seeking the Lord, and loving the people, we`re doing our job. I intend on going home with for sure one convert and that`ll be me. And I`ve still got loads of time--the rest of my mission and the rest of my life--to keep the conversion rolling. 

I love you, I love you, I love you all! Have a great week! 

Hermana Dolan 

August 2013, Megan's brother and his recently baptized new wife at their wedding. Mackenzie was on her mission in Japan, and was the stand up photo. Fast forward one year, and Megan is the stand up photo in Justin and Amanda's sealing pictures., September 26, 2014

Meet Jorge This is Jorge, he`s been a member for about 2 years now. He only has one leg. He is awesome.

Service project on Saturday! I forgot to mention that my two favorite companions are now COMPANIONS! Yeah, divisions are gonna be rad. Hna Zumeta, Paris, and Leiva! Sept. 20, 2014

Service project on Saturday at Elementary School September 20, 2014 Rivera, Uruguay

¨Eternity is too long!¨ September 22, 2014

Hey everybody! I hope everybody had a great week! I know I sure did! 

So the first really great part was on Tuesday. President Smith has made a HUGE emphasis on us always making sure we are working with members. Our mission even has it`s own Key Indicator in addition to all the rest, which are "Hours with Members." He`s not just interested in how many lessons with have with investigators with a member. He also wants to know how much time we`re actually with them contacting, visiting less active members, etc. So anyway, the week before in district meeting we talked about also making sure that we`re working with the leaders in our ward. The bishop, the ward mission leader, heads of the organizations, and the ward missionaries. So we decided we were going to do better with that last week. 

We started out going out with one of the ward missionaries who we had never gone out with before, Mirta Cal. She first went with us to Vovo, which was really good because Mirta is also an older lady who has been a member for a long time. Vovo spilled a lot of really deep questions about the eternities and things like that that she had never talked about before because she didn`t want to "scare our young minds" haha, but she told all of them with Mirta there. One of the best parts was when the subject came around to temples. Mirta told her "you need to go to the temple and seal yourself with your husband!¨ (Vovo´s husband passed away awhile ago). And so Vovo goes "Yeah, here`s the thing. I don`t want to.¨ And Mirta said ¨why is that¨and Vovo yells ¨Because eternity is TOOO long to be with a man!¨ Hahaha we all seriously died laughing. Haha I know it`s kind of sad what she said, but so hilarious. I love that crazy old woman. 

We invited both Mirta and Carmen Cascallares, the other ward missionary, to a lesson with Norma, Maribel`s mom. We started teaching about the Book of Mormon. It ended up being a longer lesson because both Carmen and Mirta like to talk haha, but it was I N C R E D I B L E. The Spirit was so strong, and we just knew that Norma felt it. Carmen and Mirta testified over and over again about the Book of Mormon. I heard Carmen say at least 3 times ¨this is a book that changes lives.¨And it is SO true. I can`t imagine that lesson without the two of them there. They were perfectly comprehending but also direct with Norma. Norma`s husband passed away a long time ago, when he was only 29, and she never got remarried. Mirta brought up the opportunity to be an eternal family, and how she needed to be able to go to the temple to be with her husband and with Maribel. Maribel was relatively quiet during the lesson, but then towards the end said "I just wanted to thank the four of you for saying to my mom what I`ve felt the past two weeks I`ve needed to come and be direct and say to her--that I need her. I need her with me at church, and I need her and dad with me in the eternities.¨ Carmen also siad ¨You know i have always tried to fulfill my calling and I pray every day for the Lord to help me find missionary opportunities. And I never understood until today why the past few weeks, I kept seeing Maribel`s face.¨  She cried. We cried. Norma cried. And she said she would pray about a date for baptism. I seriously love them so much. I feel the truth and power of the Book of Mormon, and I especially have a testimony of the importance of the members and missionaries working together. The members have SO much power, because they see things that us missionaries just can`t see. These Uruguayos have so much faith. More faith than I ever saw in my whole life. And the ones here in Rivera have such a fire and desire to share the Gospel. 

Also, so we live in a pension behind a member`s house. She rents out 4 or 5 little places there in the back and we live in one of them. The other day as we were leaving, she stopped us and told us she had talked to one of the people who lives back there, and that she wants to listen to us. So we set up an appointment for last night, and it was amazing! We taught the Restoration of the Gospel, and she was just so open and receptive and hungry to learn. She said she had always seen us talking to Luz Cal (the member) and we looked friendly and that`s why she had been given the desire to listen to us. She really seems so prepared. Her name is Annie. And the best part? I saw in the directory last night that her name is Annie R. Yeah, shout out to my best friend who gets home from her mish next week! Your mission lives on here in Uruguay haha. So please pray for Annie! 

The Lord is teaching me so much every day. It`s amazing what a rollercoaster even every day in the mission is. I constantly feel more and more how much more I am learning from the people here than what I am teaching them. And how much the Lord is teaching me. About the people, about the Gospel, about the Spirit, and about myself. I love this Gospel, I love the Savior, and I know He lives. This is HIS Gospel, it is HIS work, and I know that it is true. and I am so glad I still have more precious time to learn even more about Him in this special little corner of the universe. I am more and more determined to use every day to do so. I`ve still got a heck of a lot to learn! 

I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermana Dolan 

Single Mom.............September 15, 2014

Hey hey hey, kiddos! 

So since I`m a "mom" now, in the mission we say that the companion that came right before the trainee is the dad. (in the case of elderes, the trainer is the dad and the previous companion is the mom.) In other words....Hermana Barrios is the dad. And she went to Cerro in Montevideo, leaving me alone to raise this child all by my lonesome. Unbelievable. Haha we had some good last few days together though! Her last night, we did a ward talent show. It was super last minute and Thursday or Friday the Elders told us about it and told us we had to do an act. But we were like "haaaa we have no talents." But then we thought about it, and thought about it, and said "Heck yes we do: we`re freaking funny." So in the end, we were the "presenters" of the talent show. We dressed up as the ugliest nerds you will ever set your eyes on, the kind that would probably make our families SUPER proud, and in between all the other acts, we told jokes. In the voice of nerds. We were a hit! One little girl in the ward now just starts laughing every time she sees me because she remembers me as the crazy nerd....or at least we can pretend that`s why she laughs. 

Haha okay so I know you`re all wondering. 

My daughter is...... Hermana Leiva! From..... Chile! 

I so called it that it would be a Chilena. I got to go to Montevideo to pick her up. I love the way we do it here: all of us go to Montevideo. The trainers have breakfast and a little bit of training and scripture study with President Smith. Then, they put all the newbies in a line in front of the temple with their backs to the temple, and tell them to close their eyes. Us trainers walk up behind them, sing the first verse of "Called to Serve", and then the APs yell for them to turn around and meet their trainers! Maybe I already explained that when I met Hermana Goode....which by the way, seems like forever ago. 

Hermana Leiva is really great! She is more quiet, but she`s opening up more every day and I know she will as she meets more people and starts to get the hand of things. She is really sweet and has a got a lot of desire to be obedient and work hard. We`re going to have fun and learn a lot together! 

This time around at the temple was one of the best! At the end of the session in the Celestial Room, I took advantage of having President Smith right there and asked him a bunch of questions. So many things are so much clearer now! All I have to say is I L O V E the temple and I know my Savior lives. I seriously want with all my heart for everyone everyone EVERYONE to be able to go to the temple. It`s the purest peace we will find in this life, and the surest way to eternal happiness in the life to come! 

So we`ve got some good potential investigators. The surest one is Norma, the mom of Maribel the one who cut my hair when I first got here. Norma has come the past 4 Sundays and went to the ward talent show last week! She is progressing super well. It`s amazing. The Lord really does prepare the hearts of his children in His time; Maribel has been a member for a LONG time and her mom has always lived with her, and yet Norma never really listened to the missionaries before! Please please please pray for Norma, we are planning for the next few weeks for her baptism. 

There`s also Bruno and Nancy. Like most young couples in Uruguay....they`re not married. But unlike most young couples.....they want to get married. Bruno is the son of a family here in our ward and he has been struggling with some things. But Nancy is a rock and they both made it to church on Sunday. 

We`ve got some good potentials and during weekly planning we made plans to visit a bunch of people who we found in the area book....we could use your prayers :)

I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermana Dolan 

Vovo.........

​This is "Vovo", my Uruguayan grandma. She is blind. She always, without fail, has coke and food for us whenever we go over. She`s also Belen and Valentina`s grandma. Haha last week when we were there, Belen, Valentina, and their little brother played a game to see how many clothes pins they could get on vovo before she noticed. Hahahaha love her. 

Riveraaaaaaa! District as it was for last change which ended September 9, 2014

Hold on boys and girls, yours truly is going into labor! September 9, 2014

Heeeeeey kids! Soooo there are changes this week. The ZLs had said that everybody would be getting their changes on Sunday after church, but then when some people started to get their calls early, we started to get pretty ansy. I went to bed all hyper. And then five minutes after lights out, the phone rings and I look and it`s President. Ahhhh man. Well, he didn`t waste any time. Right after answering the phone, he says "well Hermana Dolan, you`re going to train this change."

I`M GONNA BE A "MOM"!!!!!

Rock. And. ROLL. This was seriously such a surprise; Pres. had told me before that I probably wasn`t going to train yet. You guys, think about it....I am training my daughter around the same time of year that I was trained, in the EXACT same zone. Crazy! I am SO stoked! I leave for Montevideo tonight to go meet her and pick her up, so I`ll have details next year on who it is! Gringa or Latina¿ Vamos a ver!

There are also some crazy things happening in the mission. The zones are starting to get so big, that President is splitting THREE of them in half. Rivera, Colonia, and a zone in Montevideo are all splitting because they have more than 30 missionaries. The Lord is hastening his work!

So this was an AWESOME week! The best miracle happened last Wednesday. We were going to contact a reference when we realized it was just barely past the limit of our area. But there was a woman outside her house, so we decided to go talk to her for a little while. She wasn`t really very interested, but she was nice. So as we started to walk away, a woman from the other side of the street whistled to us and called us over and said "come in." Um, DON`T MIND IF WE DO. So we met her and her husband, and they told us that she`s been a member for foreeeever but inactive for years, and years ago when they lived in Montevideo her husband was all set to get baptized but then they had to move to Rivera and they just stopped going to church. They even went to another church for awhile, but knew there that it just wasn`t the true church. And her husband wants to get baptized!! And they want to be an eternal family! They are seriously a miracle. We asked her how she knew we were across the street to come outside and call us over, and she looked at me and said "I heard you talking and noticed your gringo accent and thought it just had to be the missionaries. We`ve been waiting for you." My gringo accent came in handy! Haha. Alberto is a policeman in Montevideo and so he comes and goes so that complicates things a little bit, but either way he retires at the end of the year! So pray for them!

Thursday we had divisions! And guess who was my companion for a day. Hermana ZUMETA. We were comps again, and it was so great! Our flow is still totally there. We had a really good afternoon togther, including teaching the Restoration to Diomar and Alberto and seeing their eyes just glow as they heard the truth again. Man oh man, I love this Gospel.

I am so excited to train here! Rivera is the promised land. I can`t even believe how blessed I feel every time I come home every day. Time is flying! Another change came and went! Man oh man.

The church is true and I love you! I love you, I love you!

Hermana Dolan 

Motorcycle "Sitting" Thinking of my Daddy and his motorcycle................Rivera, Uruguay

Surprise!......................September 1, 2014

How is errbody? Errbody good? I hope so. Thanks for all of the support back home. I sure feel your love and it`s what makes everything worth it.

I completed a YEAR this last week. One. Whole. Year. I can`t believe how different today-me is from one-year-ago me. How great is the Lord? I sent a text to Elder Degn from my MTC group who is serving in my zone to tell him happy one year, and he responded "you too Hermana Dolan! Just SIX MONTHS LEFT, you old lady!" Funny Elder. Sooo funny. But really, I`m not going home. So it`s okay. Mwahaha.

Another greeeeattt week! So let`s just get right to the point:

Margot got baptized!!

We went to her right after our PDay ended, and turns out she won`t be moving for awhile. So we gave her fecha right away for Saturday! And somehow, miraculously, only because God is awesome, it all came together and she was baptized on Saturday and received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday!

I love seeing the way the Gospel truly changes people, and it`s so fun to watch those changes. Margot is a pretty "rough around the edges" type of person, but even in just the past few weeks we have seen a real change in her. She`s happier, she laughs more. And her 5 year old grandson Angelo who she looks after before was the worst behaved child ever. But now, he sits down and listens to the lessons. He`s always asking to sing a hymn. He knows now to fold his arms and close his eyes for the prayer.  Margot has a heart of gold. How great it was to make it to this day after so much time!

Something beautiful happened at her baptism too when everyone was bearing their testimonies. There`s a 16 year old autistic boy named Nico who got baptized back in February with his mom. He doesn`t really talk much beyond saying the prayer whenever we have lessons with them at their house. But when someone finished bearing their testimony, Nico got up and went to the front. None of us really knew what he was going to say. But with the sweetness of an angel and the power of thunder, he said "Brothers and sisters, I want to testify to you that this church is true, and that`s why I come to church on Sunday with my mom. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." It was so beautiful. We were all bawling. Such a sweet, simple testimony, truly from the heart of one of the Lord`s purest children.

I don`t know how the Gospel could NOT be true with all of the amazing miracles that happen here every day. Good thing it is the truest thing there ever was.

This change has FLOWN! I can`t believe it, next week are already changes.So I`ll be online on Tuesday, not Monday. The church is true and I love you!.....I love you, I love you!

Hermana Dolan 

the big 1er........................August 26, 2014

Hey kiddos! How was everyone´s week? Mine was pretty darn swell. I mean duh, I´m in Uruguay. So they changed our PDay because yesterday was the big Uruguay Independence Day. I´m glad one of the moms figured out what was going on, because we all figured our parents were probably panicking a little bit. Cool your jets, loved ones. I´m here. :)

I complete a year in the mission in two days. A YEARRRRRR. It just can´t be. I feel like I still have so much to learn, and so little time to learn it! Man oh man. 

For Independence Day since all of the kiddos were out of school, our ward had a sports activity in the afternoon. SO MANY PEOPLE CAME. It was awesome. And it was the first time that we didn´t play soccer the whole day. Latinos scare me when they play soccer....haha they´'re too good. And then when someone finally has mercy on me and passes me the ball, i mess up. And then they never pass again. Maybe that´s why I´m known amongst the youth in my ward as "the gringa." haha. Point is, we played basketball and volleyball too. Nice change. Apart from that, we were able to find some really great new investigators! One of them is a girl named Luciana. She´s only 17, but I thought she was like 23 haha. She is really cool. She told us her story, and just recently she had been pregnant but lost the two babies. And now they told her she´ll never be able to have kids. :( But she has a lot of faith. She said "God has a plan for all of us, even if we can´t understand it sometimes." Rockstar. She actually lives in another ward, but we have to see what we can do because there are only Elders in the ward and she said she´d rather be taught by hermanas. So we´ll see. But she´s great! 

Cintia had a date for the 6 but looks like it´ll be the 13th or 20th. She managed to find a job last week, and at least minute on Sunday they called her in to work, so she couldn´t go to church. But normally she doesn´t work, so it´s just time, that´s all! Also, Margot is not sure whether she´s moving or not. Haha Margooooooot you´re killin us! So we´ll just keep helping her prepare, whether it be here or in her new ward. 

This last weekend was stake conference. On Saturday we were at the adult meeting (more or less "there"....mostly me and my companion were chasing around Margot´s tornado grandson Angelo and trying to keep him under control. And the next day everybody told us "we enjoyed watching you two running behind that 3 year old. Haaaa only us.) But anyway, we were at the adult meeting when we saw that a member in our ward tried to call us. So we sent him a message asking if he needed something, and he said "i need you to come to my house right now, i have a friend here who needs a lesson." DON´T HAVE TO TELL US TWICE. So we went running to his house, and he had a friend there named Andres. He used to live here but now lives in Brazil. Yeah guys, I am getting really good practice on the Portugese up here. Haha pretty legit....nah not really, mostly Daniel had to translate for us what Andres was saying.. So anyway, Daniel (the member), tells us "This is Andres. He´s got some addictions and he really wants to get away from them but feels like he can´t. He feels really alone and like there´s nothing he can do. He´s tried other religions, but none of them have helped him. So I told him the Gospel can help, and he said he may as well try." So we immediately went in teaching him the message of the Restoration. About halfway through the lesson, he said "I feel something different that I´ve never felt before. It´s making me feel like crying. It feels good." It is one of the strongest times I have ever felt the Spirit ever in my life. My comp and I were both silently just begging for the Spirit the whole lesson. I especially felt it as I recited the First Vision. Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Christ, I feel it in my bones. 

Stake Conference was a multi stake one between Uruguay and Paraguay by satellite. There were several authorities who spoke, specifically Elder Bednar. He is a capo! He talked about repentance. It was amazing. What an amazing gift repentance is, as long as we do it with a pure heart and real intent. 

Andres gave a really amazing prayer at the end, and then afterwards, he said "for the first time, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I see a way out." Man! Unfortunately, he was just here visiting, but he has plans to move back in the next couple months. Hopefully I´m still here when he does. I love the way the Spirit touches people. This is a Gospel of hope. As Andres said, it´s a Gospel of LIGHT. Of hope. I love it! I love this Gospel! 

One year of true heartache, pure joy, and an exceptional amount of personal growth. I love this stinkin´mission! 

I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermana Dolan