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 

My area here in Rivera :)

We went back to Tropicana, the best buffet ever. Man I had missed this place!