A week of weird foods and FUN adventures! (43rd email)

Hooola Familia!

Good afternoon this time, we switched up pday a little bit and played some good ol' futbol in 33 this morning! :) How is my favorite peeps in the world doing? Are you guys burning over there because we are freezing here! The weather right now is just but the same as if we were in Utah in the middle of winter just without snow obvi! Its just about the same now but whats killin is the humidity really does effect the cold so its harder to bundle up unlike we normally would do in Utah. But hey im chillin im used to the cold, it hasnt been hard to get accustomed to. On the other hand my comp. Is dying everyday! He has never experienced cold like this , and especially for 6hrs. A day in the street. I feel so bad but he'll get used to it, he just needs to take it like a man!

Anyways it was a good week, I got lots of pics for you guys! It was quite the eventful random week in Varela if I do say so myself! I ate some interesting food with one of the members here, a thing called Morcilla de sangre (blood sausage), Chicharro (basically pig fat), and the grande winner of them all Locro (cow feet)!! Haha I got a picture of me eating the cow feet, it was quite the interesting texture I might say but it was pretty darn good. Super rich, probably couldnt eat it every day but I would eat it again! Ha love tryin new foods, i'll have to cook some of these great Uruguay dishes for you guys when I get back! :)

Another week bites the dust here in Varela, we had 18 people in church yesterday which was super money! Our attendance is getting up there, we've been focusing a lot on rescuing a lot of the less actives hoping to increase our investigator pool through them and obviously to get them back to church! Hno. J went again, which makes him a full time active member now! He is a stud, we are seeing miracles with him! For like 3-4 years straight he has been sick, stuck on meds trying to find a way out. The Lord has been blessing him with better health and the ability to get up every morning to go to church! Lately he's been going on a few visits with us to less actives, and he fed us lunch! I love seeing these kind of changes people make that will change their lives! :) L and B are some tough chickens. They love to listen to us and learn more but have the hardest time getting up and going to church even for one hour! We will have to see what we can do for them this week. However we had an awesome charla with them on Wednesday, they both had questions which totally shows they were paying attention. B just has the doubt if the church is true, and L would love to be baptized but the endure to the end part scares her! We explained that they had to pray on their own and time and ask God themselves! Ahh the spirit was so strong and I really saw a difference in B that night, the feeling like she is close and could get baptized soon! Just the need to get them to church!

A fun thing we did this week was we went to check out the dam here in Varela. I thought it was going to be tiny but its pretty big for a little town like this. I'm sending some photos of it so check em out! I think in the summer it gets super popular because there were like picnic tables and a little beach-play area. Pretty fun, but super ghetto at the same time!

Personally its been a good week for me, lots of spiritual experiences. This week I had the impression to go back in my journal to a entry I wrote during Heritage Tours over a year ago!!! Whoa that blows my mind!! But anyways I opened up to a random page, I started reading and it happened to be one of the most spiritual/hard parts of the tour, I am very certain that turning to that page was no coincidence! I was strengthened, I knew what I needed to do better after reading that. The feelings that I was having then were exactly the feelings I was having last week! I know the Lord in his merciful ways sent the Spirit to guide me to that post. I am so grateful for the experiences I had on that trip, it really was like a mini-mish! :) Thanks Mom and Dad, who would of thunk that keeping a journal of your spiritual experiences would help you further on in your life! Haha I definitely didnt think of it at the time. LOVE YOU MOMMA AND DAD OH DAD :)

Lumps I hope you are enjoying your new job at the MEGA RICO 5 star restaurant, I am telling everyone here that my sis. is famous and cooks amazing! If they are looking for a wife when they get back from the mish! Hehe I got your back Linds, or maybe you are just finding a billion skier babes that you cant even have time for all of them! Alexis are you getting pumped for school again?!?! Awwww yeah! Say goodbye to minecraft. Momma and Dad hope you guys are taking it chill during fam. month! What have you been up to?! 

Alright thanks for everything fam, you are the best and thanks for all the boasting about me every week, you guys make me feel too good about myself! :) I LOVE YOU guys and momma I will think what I want for christmas in these next couple weeks. But I dont know what a missionary needs other than his FAM! Haha cheesy, love you guys enjoy the pics! CHAU!

Les amo, Elder Tyler Scott Ivie

Branch in Varela!  July 2014

Outskirts of Varela

Dam in Varela

Oh no....

Much better, Elder Guix is here!  haha!

Love that smile & face!

Chicharro, (pig fat)...um...

Locro, (cow's feet)--interesting texture but not too bad!

Dam in Varela--beautiful site!

Change in Changes! (42nd email)

Dearest Beloved Family,

What a superb week its been in the fine town of Varela! Its been quite elementary if I do say so myself. Ok no mas woot woot its really been a good week though! As you guys know this past week was change week, and Elder Ramirez bounced and I stayed. But the funnny thing is I lied to you guys about everything. Haha ok first off I didnt mean to lie, my District Leader told me everything wrong about changes. My comp. Is actually Elder Guix (not Elder Hicks) from Guatemala (so definitely not a Gringo in fact he knows like no english). Also I AM NOT SENIOR COMP. I was getting excited but probably a little nervous so yeah this change should help me a lot, especially on the Spanish side of things! Me and Elder Guix get along good, we can communicate good, and we laugh all the time! He is very passive, small little man but a good missionary. He's got 20mths. In the mish, he spent 9mths. In Guatemala waiting for his Visa to Uruguay. Interesting enough he arrived in the Uruguay the same day I did, and we slept in the same room for a night! The thing is I remember there were other Elders with us but it didnt come to mind that it was Elder Guix when I met him this week. Kinda a funny, probably because I couldnt even speak a word of Spanish so I didnt even try talking to him! Ha small world eh?! The cool thing is, before he arrived I prayed for a Latino comp. So I could practice my Spanish more, and he delivered! Pretty darn excited for this new change here in Varela.

We are already seeing miracles and the work is picking up again! Unfortunately again we couldnt get any investigators in church which was a mega bummer! BUT wait for it.......we had 22 people in church yesterday with 5 less actives!!!! The most we´ve ever had (well at least for me). Booyah J came again and is planning on getting the Melchizedek Priesthood soon, he went on splits with us yesterday and offered us lunch on Wednesday! Woot he is awesome and is the miracle we needed here in Varela. Also yesterday the Stake Pres. Of 33 came and visited Varela which was amazing! That man is such a stud and I could feel how tuned he is with the spirit. And coincidently enough, he talked to us about the Spirit and how we need it in EVERY MOMENT of our lives. And its by the small things we do like scripture study, prayer, and service that affect our spirituality and testimonies. I like what he said here, he said something like this, ¨During the week we do these small things to maintain our spirituality, and around Saturday we have it but not as great in abundance. That is why we come to church, to take the sacrament, to take the Lords name upon us and have the Spirit to be with us.¨ I didnt know something like that but it was super spiritual. I just love talking about the Spirit, I could talk about it for days!

Sorry I dont have much to say this week, it was just a happy week. Besides the mom of one of our investigators yelling at us and telling us to leave her alone. Oh yeah and a less active slammed a door on us too but thats what keeps the mission interesting eh?!

The picture is of a service project me and my comp. Did for a member on Sat. I dont know how to control myself, I got mud all over my face and clothes but it was a blast! (like the shirt) It was so good to hear from everyone this week! Momma I proud of you too, I just love you toooo much! No Elder Massey didnt stay in Lascano he is in 33 now! Thats where the zone leaders area is. Linly  I AM CERTAIN you will miss Communal, I sure will miss my Farm Burger, but I cant wait to taste some of this 5 star grub, luv ya lumps! Alexis you are a big girl now, you better go on California Screamin', sit tight and enjoy you ride 5,4,3,2,1...................And Daddio thanks for your emails every week, you are a mega stud and what you shared last week is what I needed and what this area needs! I am certain we will be using this talk to motivate the members more in the near future. :) LOVE YOU ALL! Have an super chill week, dont party too much! Say ¨bye¨ to the Misseldines for me, LOVE YOU ALL! CHAU!

Les amo, Elder Tyler Scott Ivie

Obelisk in 33

Stake Center in 33

Last day with Elder Ramirez July 2014

Service Project in Varela July 19, 2014

Working in the trenches!

Working with new companion, Elder Guix 

No idea how I got mud ALL over the place?  Sweet shirt!

Interesting...in Trente de Tres?

What happens with Varela? (41st email)

Bon jia!

Ahi esta quite the week we had here in Varela not too much different but there were definitely a few little changes in the Zone as well as here in Varela.....oooopa well to start off remember Elder Massey, well obviously he is the biggest stud and now he is the new Zone Leader here in 33!!!! Soo happy for him, he is going to be amazing and super glad to stick around with him for a little longer! Here in Varela its going to change a little drum roll please............Elder Ramirez is going to the zone Duranzo where I used to be, his comp. is a gringo again hehe! And for me well dont be too surprised im staying here for another change in Varela!! Woot woot, its time to do work. And you will never guess who my comp. is, well of course you wont because I dont even know him. But guess what? I got another gringo comp. Haha 4/5 comps. have been gringo! Awesome eh, his name is Elder Hicks I will give more info about him next week! But the biggest thing that shocked me, still freaking out about is I will be Senior Comp. this change!  Am I even old enough to be Senior Comp?? Its freaking me out, super excited but not going to lie pretty nervous. Just a little bit more responsibility on my hands! I get to lead the area and everything that happens, its on my shoulders! Woof wish me luck, but I super excited it will force me to speak more, helping my spanish and confidence grow which is what I need! :) Not sure quite yet, but I think I will be going to Montevideo to pick up my new comp. with Elder Ramirez. But yeah other than that not too much haha!

It was a good day at church this week, both me and Elder Ramirez spoke on ¨Missionary Work¨ and it went awesome! I felt the spirit and hope we gave the members a little bit of excitement to help us! We got good comments on our talks so hey at least they were paying attention. We unfortunately didnt get any investigators in church this week. We invited that family, M N, L, and B but they all said it would be hard because of Fathers Day! (Oh yeah Daddio not sure if it was Fathers Day in the states too but if it was I love you sooo much why do you have to be such a stud? Sorry I have no sense of time here in the mission, im sure you know how that goes!) Anyways so they all ended up not coming but we did have some success on the less active end! Woot helped a grandson of one of members, B come back. That was awesome to see a youngin' in the church because there isnt that many! We also helped a man named J come back to the church. He stopped going because he couldnt get up every Sunday to go to church because of the medication he was taking. And recently he´s been having some doubts about Joseph Smith these past couple weeks! We had a couple lessons with him these past couple weeks and what I´ve seen from this experience is bible bashing really will never work. One lesson we had with him was just bible bashing, arguing fest which ended up going nowhere. However this week we visited him on Friday and helped to teach his doubts by bearing our testimonies. We had a nice conversation, the Spirit was there and on Sunday he said to me that we helped him to take away his doubts. Thats why its so important to have the Spirit as missionaries, we arent the ones taking away the doubts, we are the instruments to which the Spirit can testify through us! He also said that he has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday now, and knows that Joseph Smith was really a true prophet. That book is so key and everyday my testimony grows through personal study from it as well as experiences like the one I had with J! :) Oh yeah when he came to church, he dressed up in a white shirt and tie (he hates ties) and passed the sacrament! What a stud muffin!

I was reading in D&C 75:2-5 this week where it talks about as members of the church we cant be idle and burdened down. We need to lift our voices and share this message with everybody we know! For me personally I have heard this a billion times and dont get me wrong is the one of the most important things to God. But what really struck me was verse 5, as it says ¨ye shall be laden with many sheaves, crowned with honor,....and eternal life.¨ In this context sheaves means some sort of type of a reward. And how huge is this promise from the Lord?! Normally in the scriptures it says that we will be laden with trials, and afflictions which is very true as we all know. But in this case if we share the gospel with our friends we will be ¨laden¨ with countless blessings and ultimately eternal life!! Doesn´t this scripture make you want to be laden with blessings/rewards from God! Ha I loved that lesson and hopefully I keep my end of the promise more often like I should! :)

Sort of a gross story the fummigators came here on Thursday to figure out what the weird smell was in the church this past week. And what they found were a few dead rats with fur, blood, and feces all in the cupboards! Ha super nast they must of killed each other but they cleaned it all out so we be chillin now!

Sounded like quite the week for you guys too! I cant believe Linly is done with Communal too :( Dont you forget that farm burger recipe! But SHE IS GOING TO A 5 STAR RESTAURANT instead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What?!?!? I didnt know that, we definitely need to go to that one when I get back fo sho!! :) The Elmers came over?!?!?! Awww yeah just like the good ol days, thanks for the photo Daddio they are the best! And you better believe I still got game, bring it DUDE! Thanks for all the quotes momma I jotted them all down, you always know what to say, and those quotes were just what I needed to hear for this week! Love U all soooo much, have a SICK week and wow Papa Franklin is coming up on a year?!?! INSANE! Anyways chaucito, loves and kisses!

LES AMO, Elder Tyler Scott Ivie

Oh 'Merica--(40th email)

Hello Family!

Good Morning from Uruguay! How you guys doin its time to wake up! :) What a week its been, me and Elder Ramirez had our own little party for the 4^th of July, ´MERICA!! Probably one of the worst knock off american lunches ever but it was pretty darn good from being across the world. We had hamburgers, fries, coke, and fried Oreos! It was soooo good I will send you guys pictures. I hope your 4^th of July was just as dandy as mine, what did you guys do?

Anyways a few things happened this week, we had a Zone Conf. on Friday, the last one of the change paaaa! It was a small one but I learned a whole bunch just like always! I learned how to make our contacts in the street better and all led by the Spirit. Because if we have the Spirit with us we are always going to find a need or problem that person has! Which is so cool, because sometimes we just teach/share our message but not apply it to what they would be interested in! I´ve been working on that this week and its been awesome! I also had an interchange with my district leader Elder Maldonado in Central of 33. He. Is. Such. A. Capo., he is a latino from Chile and what made me happy right off the bat was I knew a lot more Spanish that I thought I did! That was a bonus but we had an awesome day of work, he taught me how to be more happy and involve the person and your companion more! When he did that, I could just feel the love for the investigators and that he cared what I had to say too! I learned a lot from him that day and now I am bursting with excitement!! Ha cheesy. Oh yeah and we also had an activity that day too. (I will send pics for that too) Their ward in Central does an activity every day during the week, usually they are small but this one on Friday was huge!! Ahh it was so fun, and we as the missionaries had the spiritual part so we taught parts of lesson 1 and 2 to 60 people. I got admit I was pretty nervous, not too good in crowds especially in a different language! But it went good, I had E´ Maldonado to back me up! Hopefully it helped the non'members find some interest in talking with the missionaries in the future! After that had a bunch of youth do some ¨spanish¨ sign-language dancing thing which was cool, and they gave us a bunch of food to go which was a mega'bonus!! :) I think I just realized how awesome people can be when they are all united in one purpose. I felt the love the members had for each other and the people that were visiting! I realized how much more successful when the missionaries work with members to find those people that are ready. Thats what we really want to start doing here in Varela. Have activities, get the few members here to bring their friend, members and non-members back to church! When I read Elder (Papa) Franklins emails, it sounds like they have a bunch of success when they use their creativity and finding other ways to teach seeing that they cant go contacting in Florida! Now its just me rambling on but I can promise you we are going to be on top of this from now on! Woot sounds fun eh?!

Wow we´ve seen a bunch of progress and miracles in our investigators this week! We had 4 say that they were coming for sure but none showed up. Ohhh agency, we dont really know what happened. L said she was coming but at the last minute right before sacrament she said she had some personal problems to take care of. We found out that M. N., the woman that is basically ready to be baptized, has a little smoking problem and thats the only thing that would impede her from getting baptized. Which is a score because we thought it was a bunch of other things! She said she was coming to church yesterday, she invited herself for petes sake! Obviously she didnt come but hey we know what to do this week. And the last 2 people was a reference from M, they are super poor but said have talked with the missionaries before and would love to pick right up! They aren´t married though so we will have to work on that with them but, they are a good potential this upcoming week. :) So basically we got another a big week ahead of us, its the last week of the change so that means next p'day is tuesday as you guys probably already know! Time is crazy flying, I think Elder Ramirez might be out of here but we´ll see.

It was super sad to hear the my boys, well my ´Merica boys lost this week. But hey we made it as far as Uruguay so that was a plus! Woot maybe next time! Where is the next FIFA? How is the heat going for ya? It sounds like its killing you momma good gravy! Maybe I like the cold now, jk but goodnight it rained a lot this week and on Saturday it poured ALLLLL DAY!!!!! I was soaked all day and boy it wasnt fun I can tell you that, I am sups grumpster when I get wet, but hey the fun of the mish gotta love it eh! Im doing perfect physically :) The Lord has blessed me immensely with good health, we are eating fruits like everyday now when we have down time and they are suuuper good and cheap! But we did have to splurge on the 4th of July I gotta be honest! But yeah doing good Momma dont worry! I hope you are doing good Dad. Dont work too hard, its impossible you cant work harder than me! Linds and Alexis do what you do! You guys are babes and l love you toooo much! :) Thanks everybody, have an awesome scorcher week! LOVE YOU

les amo, Elder Tyler Scott Ivie

Activity where members bring friends & non-members to have fun & meet the missionaries

Elder Ivie is sure loving the look of that cake!!  Watch out!

4th of July celebration with Elder Ramirez--hamburgers, fries, Coca-Cola and...

fried Oreos!

Elder Ivie says fried oreos are soooo good!!  Gotta try 'em!