Don't really know what week it is. But who cares URUGUAY!! (9th email)

Another week down fam! Wow time is really speeding up here. What a week its been. Its been a weird one, we didn't have too much success this week. Elder Castro got sick a few days, lost 3 baptism dates because the people moved, and lots of people bailed on their appointments. But hey missionary work isn't always perfect right? I've learned that missionary work does come with rough times but we aren't giving up! We got killer plans this next week for the Lords children! J But hey on the upside my Espanol is improving a lot. I´m getting better at reading and understanding people more. Definitely not perfectly or even close to perfect. But this week I really focused on the conversations and the words sort of just separate so its easier to understand what they're talking about. I've been memorizing lessons and phrases to expand my vocab and its been going pretty good! Oh yeah also we are getting a new house!!!! Haha the house we have now is "turible kenny".  Don't really know when we are moving but probably a couple weeks when  they finish the paperwork and stuff. Much nicer home and closer a la capilla thank goodness!

                Still no package unfortunately it sure takes a decade to get to Uruguay! I got a letter from the Tinchers and Morgan this week and that took like a little under a month to get here so hopefully here soon! By the way Dad thanks for the great email last week as usual! To answer some of your questions. The baptism went so good. Jonathan is an awesome kid, he lives with a family that kind of adopted him. He lives there on the weekends and most of the family is baptized and attends church which is a really good support for him! The call over Christmas cant wait!!! Haha but still focused on the work, just really excited to see you guys! I don't know too many details but I believe its over Skype. That's all I know, I will let you  guys all know when I know more. We only cover 1 ward here in Durazno. There used to be 2 wards that the missionaries covered before I came but apparently they combined them! So yeah we have a pretty big area we cover. YOU SOLD MY CAR!!!! TOO SICK! And to Randy Smith too! So yeah maybe its wasn't goodbye after all. Well maybe not but I hope Skyler likes it. It won't be as cool because it doesn't got the Packer apparel all over it! Haha thanks again Dad!

                Alright my spiritual thought I had this week! Really relyed on the scripture I mentioned last week in Alma 26. It helped me immensely this week to submit my will to His and rely on not only my strength but His. And boy did I see miracles happen this week. My Spanish has grown so much this week and that is quite the miracle to me! Also something that was incredibly special to me was another Elder Holland talk, don't know the name but it's where he talks about Loving the Savior. He bases his talk off John 21 where the Savior asks Peter ¨lovest thou me?¨ 3 times! Also in John 14:15, Ïf ye love me, keep my commandments.¨It reminds me to NEVER EVER lose sight of my love for the Savior. I know there is nothing I can do to fully repay him for the Atonement. But I will love him no matter what. As Jesus said in John 21, ¨feed my sheep¨. If I love him I will feed his sheep. I will serve a mission not for myself but for Him. That's something sort of tough for me. To not selfishly think of myself but to do serve my God because I love Him and his children. Definitely something I'm going to focus on this week.

                Thanks for the amazing email as usual! Love Pdays they cheer me up so much when I get to hear from everyone! Thanks for the support on the language! I need all I can get. Momma you should learn Spanish!! It really is a beautiful language and it could be really useful because like everyone speaks Spanish in America now! Haha we could totes chat it up when I get home! I challenge YOU! Haha thanks for the gratitude quote. I need to try to be show more gratitude, even if there is no thanksgiving here! I need show gratitude year around. Especially to the Lord and my amazing family!  I've been so blessed to have the gospel in my life and the knowledge that families can be together forever.  I think the Lord blessed me with those things so I could share them with the people of Uruguay! I'm so blessed to have this amazing opportunity to share the Lords wonderful message with the people of Uruguay! J I think that is the coolest thing. Yes I got Levi's email, he looks like he is doing soooo good! He stands out, hahaha. What a stud, thanks for sending  that. What else....ohhhh TOMMY GRAHAM! ATTA BOY! Soo happy for him. I cant believe Kali Lynn is already heading out!  I'm so old.  I wish all the luck to her! Ohhh momma you take care of me tooo well. I haven't even received my other 2 packages and you are sending a Christmas Package!! Haha thanks momma you are amazing! The address for the packages are definitely right, don't worry about the dot the addresses are the same! No need to worry. Oh Alexis I LOVE HER SO MUCH! I'm going to write to her this week because she is pretty neat!  I'm glad she is carrying on my phrases! Someone has to do it haha! SPORTS!! Ehhh mediocre week BYU esta bien, is Notre Dame even that good this year? YES THE UTES GOOO DOWN AGAIN!! Tooo goood! Eric Mika!! What a stud hopefully the injury isn't too serious. They are gonna be good this year. And when everyone gets back from their missions, unstoppable! Too sick! MY BOYS porque?!?!?!?! They are really living on the edge. They need to keep Flynn in! He is a stud. Good luck to my boys this Thursday! Ahh thanksgiving football...nothing better. Well maybe my family and the gospel but that's it. REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really would like to see Uruguay challenge them! I'm a soooo proud of them! Mega quality!!!!

                Well I've run out of time, I love you all so so very much! Enjoy Thanksgiving, stuff yourselves just for me! To the best family in the world, Chao! MUCHO AMO!

Also could you send some Forever stamps in the next package or letter or something because I was stupid and didn't bring more with me, sorry.

Love your son, Elder Ivie

Week 1 technically in Durazno down! BOOYAH! (8th email)

Oh my goodness family what a week. Its actually gone by super fast! Sorry for my breakdown last week, it was a crazy first couple days. However it still is super crazy here everyday. My faith in God, Jesus Christ, and the góspel in general usually grows every week but, this week my faith has grown immensely. I have really learned to rely on the Lord for strength and humble myself before him like it says in Alma 26:12. I also read this week in Alma 8 where it talks about Alma when he preached the gospel to the city of Ammonihah. Read it! Its amazing, I think it sort of parallels Joseph Smiths First Vision experience. I likened these stories to myself in learning Espanol. Because its a mega trial for me right now. Ive learned this is just a big trial of my faith. That ¨my afflictions will be but a small momento…then if I endure it well…then I will triumph over this challenge.¨Kinda sounds sort of cheesy but it gives me hope that I can learn Espanol through faith and obedience to the Lord. So yeah thats basically my spiritual thought for this week. Im doing great here! Im usually happy all the time and I know the Lord blesses everyday!

                Oh my goodness first off the food this week just magically got amazing! On Thurs. I think we walked like a half hour to the Bishops house. We live in the city of Durazno and he lives in another town in Durazno that is quite the walk. Durazno really reminds me of Provo but its newer looking, way less mormons and no Lindsay and Communal Ñ)  Anyways we went to their house for lunch and goodness was it worth it. French fries, fish, pollo, soda, helado, the works! So worth the walk yeah no point to that story. Oh yeah and yesterday we got churizo and carne asada for the first time!!!! This family is amazing there is nothing like freshly barbequed beef and sausage. People said it was amazing but boy they sure werent kidding. Hardly anything can compete with this well, at least in Uruguay that is. Mom your cooking is easily gold compared to this! Nothing can beat the teriyaki chicken and pork! Boy do I miss your cooking though mom. But hey at least Im eating pretty good stuff here. The members feed us well down here. And like every meal has arroz (rice) in it, I thought I ate a lot of rice at home but hey its muy bien! Oh yeah and dulce de leche crepes, to die for! Anyways this week was good but not great. None of our investigators came to church this week which was bummer. And lots of appointments fell through this week. But its ok me and Elder Castro are keeping a positive attitude. Next when did you send the packages because I still havent gotten them as of today. Hopefully I get it this week, Im pretty anxious to get it obviously! Lots of people ask if I have a photo of you guys and I dont have one! And I want to show them that I have the best family in the world! JHere is the mail package address to the misión home that they gave us, I believe its the right one but just check.  I knew you would give in! Its about time Christmas is just around the corner!! Sometimes I forget that its actually November because of no snow! Its insane sooner than we know it CHRISTMAS TIME! ITS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! And I get the best present in the whole wide world! So excited to talk to you guys but for now Im the Lords and its my job to fulfill his work in Uruguay! Tell thanks to Grandma and that I love her so very much. I appreciate the support and the prayers from her and you guys every week! MY BOYS!!!!!!! Oh my goodness I dont even want to talk about them but thanks for filling me in SO glad they got Flynn back BOOYAH! How does Tolzien play? What a tragedy it sounds like the rest of our teams are doing amazing! Keep it up hope Utah goes down these next couple weeks!! Haha too good and what the GOO REAL!! I wish I had a jersey to wear it loud and proud here in URUGUAY! They could probably beat Uruguay! Thanks so much for the amazing emails every week its so good to know that everybody is doing great! I know the Lord is blessing all of us so what more can I ask for? Have an amazing Thanksgiving week? Right? Maybe i dont know sorry I didnt have too many stories this week. Hopefully I will get better at writing someday. Love you all!! J Paz!

Arriving in Uruguay!!! That is soooo sweet!!! (7th email)

Hello from URUGUAY!!!

                Familia!!!! Its been so long since I last talk to you guys well it sure seems that way! So much has happened back at home! Why am I not surprised that you guys ended up going to the game!! I am SOOO glad you went! I'm pretty jelly I gotta admit but one of these days I will hopefully make it to one! I knew the badgers would win no matter what but BYU kept it close cheers to them! That must of been such an amazing game! I don't think i've watched game and wanted both teams to win. It must of brought  back so many memories of your alma mater momma! Was it kinda of similar to the Packer game? You guys decided to go so quickly! I cant believe you pulled it off! You guys stayed till Saturday right? OH HEATHER!!!  TELL HER MUCHOS CONGRATS from me! That is amazing. Owen Misseldine a very classy name!  Have fun with the kids this week. Its so good to have all the family support thanks so much everybody.  Miss them all but hey i'm in the most important work times do get tough and I struggle a lot but I know this is what I need and want to do for you guys. Myself. And the people of Uruguay!  Go REAL TOO! They are too sick! I love futbol now keep me updated. I would like to see them play like Uruguay. Did USA make it to the FIFA world cup?

 

First off i'm going to tell you about a experience I had the last week in the CCM. We went Proselyting out in Buenos Aires for the last time last week. It was the nicest area we have been in yet. There were some pretty big homes. Well for Argentina. Not like Alpine homes, haha those are mansions! But me and my comp. Had a neat experience I wanted to share. So we were just tracting some houses and we came across this house that had like 2 dogs out just laying on the ground. And once they saw us they started yappin like crazy! They were so loud and me and my comp. Were like oh my not again. Basically every house has a couple dogs, there are more dogs than people. Its insane anyways, so at first we were just like ehh nevermind its just one house. We just didn't want to deal with the dogs. So we started walking away and we got the impression to go back to that house. So then we went back and what do you know more DOGS STARTED POPPIN OUT OF THE WINDOWS! But of course there is like a gate between the dogs and us. We are like are you joking but we rang the doorbell anyways. There we easily like 10 dogs out going crazy and no one came outside. We weren't going to give up so, my comp. Rang the bell one last time and lo and behold some nice mid late 40´s lady came out. She told the dogs to be quiet and listened to us!! She was all excited to hear the message we had and she wanted to hear more! So we got her name and number and now the better speaking Spanish missionaries are going to go out and hopefully convert her. So hey it might of sounded like a cheesy story but I gained such a strong afirmation and testimony that we get blessed when we listen to promptings of the Holy Spirit.

                Now to URUGUAY! Wow what a MEGA crazy week its been. We got all packed up on Monday and that was crazy enough as it is. Then on Tuesday morning literally bright and early at 3:30am I got up to catch the bus to the airport. Our plane left at like 7ish, and it was basically only a half hour flight. Mega quick!  We then went through customs, Passport, baggage, and all that good stuff. The Mission Pres. and his wife were there to pick us up! There are soooo nice. Apparently the Armstrongs got released so instead it the Newsomes. They are from Florida are the some of nicest people I have ever met. I like them a lot. Then we went to the misión home where we had breakfast, meetings, free time, and other stuff. I got to go walk the temple grounds because the temple is literally right next to the misión home! Super pretty temple, I love how its built out of granite. Anyways then we had some free time, I took a nice long nap! Then they threw us out with the other missionaries in the area by the misión home to go proselyting and such! So scary! Goodness we went to go teach a guy that was a recent convert to the church. I taught him a Little principle about our purpose here on the earth but I don't think it made sense. But hey I tried and it was the first day. His testimony was so strong and humble though. It was quite the interesting experience. Then we got to stay the night in the Hotel by the misión home that is run by the church. Super nice hotel!! The next morning we went to the doctors office and just had the check up stuff done. Apparently I got sort of higher blood pressure not terrible though. So a Little interesting, we will see where it goes from here. I really think its because I was sittin, and eating all day in the CCM (besides Physical Activity) that made it so high. So hope it goes down here in the field with all the walking and Im trying to eat less and better. Don't be worried im fine J I feel great! Then after that I got my NEW companion!! His name is……Elder Castro he is from Columbia and he knows a little english! He has been trying to learn on his misión, and it isn't bad. He is like perfect because I can sort of communicate a Little bit through english but it still forces me to speak in Spanish because its obviously easier for him to understand. Then we got on the bus and headed for my new AREA! It is like 5 hours away from Montevideo. Its like Central Uruguay. The area is called Durazno, it means peaches in english. But there are not peaches everywhere unfortunately. So yeah it took all day but i'm finally here. The place we are staying at is pretty gross. Well compared to our house its mega nasty. There is fungus on the wall, stuff falls from the walls and ceiling occasionally , and the toilet doesn't flush on its own. We have to pour wáter into it when we got to forcé it to flush. But hey I got to count my blessings, we have a washing machine, beds, and hot wáter! Me and Elder Castro are living with another companionship, Elder Martin from New Zealand, and Elder Ence from Idaho! Thank goodness english speakers! Ha they are awesome and pretty cool. Wow what a crazy hard adventure the misión field is. I got to admit I've gotten super frustrated with myself this week because I don't know the language hardly at all. The language they taught me in the CCM was not their language, its góspel language. Which is good but when they ask me a question i'm usually like uhhhhh huh? And Elder Castro has to translate for me. The Uruguayans are probably like who is this White mormon boy from America. I literally don't understand anything, they are sooo fast, and I can only pick out like 1 or 2 words out of the sentence if that. This has been the biggest challenge I've had to face in my entire life. Being frustrated was definitely not the approach I should took on this challenge. I always way to hard on myself all the time. I've definitely learned a new Word in english that I fully didn't understand to much until now, patience. I know if i'm obedient and diligent the His work, I do know he will bless me. I unfortunately had to learn that the hard way. But making my will, His will has been the biggest blessing to me on the misión. A really important concept I learned this week is if I do all that I can in my power the Lord will make up for the rest. Like the story of the 2,000 Stripling Warriors in Alma 57, or in D&C 123:17. If I face my challenge with the language and study I know the Lord will bless me with the gift of tongues. The amazing thing is I've already seen that in the misión field.  I still struggle immensely with Spanish but when its my turn to say something the helps me say it even if it doesn't make sense sometimes. So yeah this week has been super hard for me but I know it will get better. Thanks so much for your prayers I feel them everyday! Love you guys! Oh yeah the good things this week we got a BAPTISM!! Nbd. Haha well I didnt really even know the kid until the baptism day but I know him now! His name is Jonathan, he is a funny kid. He is apart of a big part member family so maybe we can get more investigators soon! We have about 7 investigators as of right now, and hopefully we can teach them all lessons this week. Also futbol is obviously crazy down here. The rivalry here in Uruguay are the teams Nacional and Penarol. Its like a BYU Utah rivalry but probably crazier because its the whole country. I'm a Nacional fan because their colors are USA colors! Never seen them play but they got cool colors. Pretty often we just hear fireworks go off in the middle of the day, its pretty sweet. People weren't kidding soccer is basically their religión! Anyways sorry I probably missed something but not much time to write emails. I only get to write emails on P-day. Anyways love you all as always! Wish me luck this next week, i'm gonna need it! Have a great week, keep it real.