Elder Ivie Chillin' On the Mission: 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