the mission is full of surprises.........................October 20, 2014

Hey folks! How is everybody? i hope everybody had a great week! 

So I`ll just get to the point, which are changes! So as you know, I`m training Hermana Leiva. So that obviously means that we are staying another change together. Right? Right? WRONG. President called and said "Hermana Dolan, I really hope you can feel the Spirit in this, but I have just really felt like Hermana Leiva is needed somewhere else right now." So, my hija is leaving me!!!!! We were seriously so shocked! She`s going to Salto. Ah, man, what! This change FLEW with her. I learned so much from her and we seriously had such a good time and really grew together. I am going to miss her, but I have definitely learned that the Lord knows what He`s doing, so if President says that he feels like she`s needed someone else, it`s because the Lord needs her in Salto. 

So you won`t believe the name of my next companion....Hermana Barrios. Haha there are only TWO Hermana Barrios in the whole mission and both of them will be my companions. Except this one is from Guatemala! She just finished her training, so I`m comp number 2 for the third time! Rock and roll. I haven`t met her, but her trainer is Hermana Baca, so that automatically means she must be awesome. 

On Wednesday we did Divisions! Which means, we did divisions with Zumeta and Paris! Which means I got to be comps with each of them for a few hours. It was awesome. Even though pretty much all of the lessons planned fell through, it was still a blast. Hermana Paris and I were together all afternoon and the one on one time was really great. 

On Saturday we had another ward talent show. I sang "The Scientist" by Coldplay with Valentina while the bishop`s daughter played the piano. They asked me SUPER last minute so it was just mas o menos, but it`s alright. Haha and for those of you who speak Spanish, the Elders made up their own version of "Bailando" by Enrique Iglesias, called "Predicando." We had to help them with it with throwing props and things like that. It was legit, and I died laughing. Sunday was Hermana Leiva`s last Sunday, and also Elder McRae`s. Elder McRae was here in Rivera for 8 months. It was definitely an emotional sacrament meeting for everybody. They are both REALLY great missionaries. I loved being able to be Hermana Leiva`s first mom, and I really enjoyed sharing a ward with Elder McRae and Neilson, and I learned a lot from them. I love the friends made in the mission, it`s one of my favorite parts. 

So anyway....that`s about it for this week. NORMA CAME TO CHURCH. First time we had seen her in a while because her daughter was in Montevideo. Perfect timing for Hermana Leiva! Keep her in your prayers. 

So anywho, I hope everybody has a great week. I`ll let you know all about how things go with my new comp! 

I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermana Dolan 

English room at conference!

slumber party in the living room.................

slumber parties, family history, and tender mercies................October 13, 2014

Hey folks! I hope everybody had a great week! This week flew. Seriously, the weeks just fly and fly. For example, last Wednesday was the one year anniversary of two things: the day my sister got home from her mission, and the day I arrived in Uruguay. WHAT THE HECK. I feel like I blink and it`s Monday again. Next week is already changes again! i can`t believe it. 

So this was a good week! They`re all good weeks, let`s be honest. With super bipolar Uruguayan spring weather, but it`s alright. So on Tuesday, the uncle of the bishop got baptized, who the elders were teaching. It was SUCH a beautiful baptism! I love love love baptisms because I love seeing the change in countenances. The bishop`s uncle, for example, was atheist before. And now he`s completely changed. He was so excited and happy. Now a year from now he and his wife, who was inactive for a long time, will be able to become an eternal family. And you know how it started? A couple of months ago, the bishop`s father died. He talked to the two of them about a plan that God has for us. And then? He just invited them to church. THAT`S IT. They went to church that first time, cried when we sang "families can be together forever" and never missed a Sunday after. All because he invited them, that`s all it took to change their life. So, invite everybody to church! Or think of one of those talks in conference that made you think of a friend or loved one, and invite him over to watch it. You won`t be sorry and neither will they! 

Remember Annie? She moved last week to Montevideo :( But we just happened to be home when she was about to live, so we wrote our testimonies in a Book of Mormon and gave it to her, promising her that it will bring peace to her life. She thanked us and hugged us and said she would look for the church in Montevideo. Obviously it`s said that as missionaries we "plant" a lot of seeds, but Annie is one that I just really FELT, and I am grateful that the Lord put her in our path, even though it was for such a short time. 

Now to explain the subject line:

Slumber parties:

We are getting new furniture in our apartment (holla!) and when the family that took our old furniture came to take it on saturday, our landlady decided to take advantage of there being no furniture, and had her son repaint. So we slept on our mattresses with ALL of our other stuff in the other room two nights in a row. So we ate popcorn and probably drank too much Coke. But it was fun. Pics to come!

Family history:

President Smith is making a HUGE new focus on family history. In fact, in a couple of months we are all going to go to the temple in Montevideo to do all of the temple work for one of our ancestors! It is going to be awesome. We also had an activity for family history in our ward on Saturday, which was our ward mission leader`s idea. To help everyone gather names before the next temple trip in December. I wish I had gotten more into family history before! But I am definitely going to take advantage of getting more into it these last 6 months before going home. It`s a big promise in my patriarchal blessing that I`ll experience the Spirit of Elijah in my life. It`s a pretty rockin`blessing that i should definitely take more advantage of. 

Tender mercies! 

Two things:

Brian and Angela are going to the temple for the very first time this month and they are going to do baptisms for Brian`s grandparents! Gahhh. Please keep them in your prayers to be able to get sealed in March! They`re amazing. 

Anybody remember Andres? I wrote about him last change. He was a guy who a member had called us saying "I want you to come teach somebody right now in my house." And we went and taught one of the most powerful lessons on the Restoration I`ve ever experienced. But then....he went back to Brazil, where he lived. But he had said that he wanted to move back here. Well I`ve been thinking about him lately, so just yesterday i asked Daniel "hey, do you know how Andres is doing?" And he said "he`s moving back today or tomorrow!" And five minutes later, Andres showed up! And we`ll see him today to mark a day to visit him. Just when we`ve really been in need of investigators. Keep Andres in your prayers. He has a big desire to change, and with the Lord he totally can! 

The Lord is always full of such great tender mercies. They`re in every single day, we just have to keep our eyes open and look for them. 

Yo sè que esta es la iglesia verdadera. Sè que Jesucristo vive. Èl es mi Salvador y mi Redentor. Sè que las familias pueden ser eternas. ¡Que bendecida que soy por tener a la mia para siempre! Sè que el Libro de Mormòn ES la palabra y el poder de Dios. Es un libro que realmente cambia vidas tal como ha cambiado la mia. Mi misiòn me ha cambiado de adentro por afuera. No puedo creer la person que yo era, pero màs estoy tan agradacida por la gracia del Señor y por la person que ahora yo SOY. Amo este Evangelio, amo esta obra, amo a mi Salvador. Sè sin ninguna duda que Èl vive y nos ama. En el nombre de Jesucristo, si, el Hijo de Dios, Amen. 

I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermanita Dolan 

P.S. Wanna hear something stinking cool? Part of the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission is now one city in Brazil (now part of the stake in Artigas), and a part of ARGENTINA!!! (now a part of the stake in Paysandu.) The Lord is truly hastening His work in my favorite little part of the universe! 

Belen and Valentina, the loves of my life...Vale (left, 15) and Belen (right, 14) are my best friends! We went to the plaza in between the two sessions of conference on Saturday for some churros. I love them.

Save it for a Rainy Day

X-Ray of Megan's hand

As you can see, it was a rough week........October 6, 2014

Haha no not really! But by the photos it sure looks like it, no? Haha Wednesday was an adventure. 

So guys, remember my hand that got slammed in a gate? Well, it kind of sort was really swelled up and I couldn`t bend my pinky without it killing. But, typical me....didn`t want to go to the doctor. Until like five people, including my comp, convinced me to. So on wednesday, we decided to visit the member who lives in front of us in the hospital. Which is on the other side of Rivera. So we took a taxi, but when we got there, they told us she had left in the morning. SWEET. Which, by the way, this woman is 85 years old, had an operation where they removed FOUR cysts, and she had the operation the night before and they released her the next morning. Which makes me understand now all of the rumors about the doctors in Rivera....haha pray that i never get sick here. So anyway, we were like "well crap, but at least i can get my hand checked out while we`re here." Sike, we had to go to the other hospital that´s back in our area. But we weren`t about to spend money on a taxi again, so we walked. Did we know where we were? You bet your bottom dollar that we didn`t. But between my companion who remembers landmarks and me who remembers street names, after much time, and crossing about 4 other companionship`s areas, we made it back. 

So then we had to get my hand checked out. Uruguayan hospitals aren`t the most efficient places on earth, so we got directed back and forth to about five different places. And they took an x ray of my hand. And ladies and gents, I have.....nothing wrong. Haha but they gave me some pain meds and cream for the inflammation, and now I have a cool x ray of my hand, so we got something out of that. 

And then the next day my comp fell down in a super hilariously embarrassing way. Not as bad as it looks, it`s just that she had nylons on. Just so everyone is aware, Hna Leiva is secretly hilarious. To everyone else she`s quiet, but once she opens up she turns into a sassy black woman, just Chilena version. We laugh all the time. 

We also met a super cool investigator named Jakaline. She was a reference from the other hermanas. She had been taught for awhile by the hermanas there, then disappeared for a couple months, then last week sent them a message apologizing saying that her son had passed away, and that she had moved to our area and still wanted us to go teach her. So we went on wednesday, and that woman is rockin! She never stopped reading the Book of Mormon or praying. She immediately walked in and sat down and told us she knows this church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is the path she needs to be on. Holy cow! Only typical Uruguayan problem is....she`s not married and living with someone. But we`ll work on that! The testimony is the foundation. So pray for Jakaline! 

Remember Raul? So he`s kind of always been on the side because he really just ALWAYS forgets to go to church. It`s just his old man-ness, he forgets. So we put a big not on his wall with the hour of church last week. We were going to with a member to pick him up, but when we called, his son told us he had already left. So we waited and waited, and he didn`t show up. When we went to see him the next day, he told us he had went, and gotten almost all the way to church, but then said to himself "if there`s no power, there`s not going to be church, how silly am I!" (the power was out the last Sunday). But the progress here is that he REMEMBERED, folks. Big step. So, we`re still working on Raul! Keep him in your prayers. 

WHO ELSE LOVED CONFERENCE. To answer your questions, we do get to watch it here with everyone else in the stake center. They even have an english room for all the gringo missionaries. Except we were SUPER stoked for the two speakers who gave their talks in Spanish. So we ran to the other room to hear those in Spanish instead of listening to the english translator. Also, WHO LOVED ELDER ROBBINS TALK. He is such a boss. He`s the one who came to Uruguay in June where both of the missions all went to Montevideo to hear him speak. "Which way do you face?" 

There were two things that stuck out a lot to me that were really focused on: strengthening the home, and sustaining the prophet. Both things that are getting really attacked these days. All I can say is that families are forever, and I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I love him so much. All of us missionaries talked about how we`re a little sad to see how old all of the brethren are getting. We grew up with all of them. They are truly called of God to lead our church. 

Also, loved Elder Bednar`s. I hope everyone is having the desire to go out and share ALL of their ointment and bandaids with EVERYBODY! And I hope that those who aren`t members are recognizing how it can heal their spiritual wounds. 

Conference goes by way too fast! I love it, it`s a missionary holiday!