Elder Ivie Chillin' On the Mission: 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