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!

Disqualified but 'Merica? (39th email)

Package from Elder 'Papa' Franklin--love 'Merica candy :-)

 

Elder Ivie the Baker...?

Uruguayan celebration after Uruguay soccer beat Italy 1-0--June 24, 2014  

OOOLA OPA!

Dearest familia how art thou? You know what, just found out TODAY from this random guy that 'Merica is still in it!! And we playin against Belgium or something like that? USA, USA, USA! Unfortunately I cant say the same for Uruguay :( boy was it a sad day here on Saturday. All of the Uruguayos are blaming it on the FIFA Organization and Brazil for kicking Suarez out for 4mths. I saw a replay of him biting that Italians shoulder, yes I saw a replay but it was just on somebody´s TV in fact on everybody´s TV I couldnt help it! Anyways so everybody here says they lost because of that, just because Suarez is toooo good! Now they hate Brazil and want them to go down soo bad. But really thats all that people talk about down here, interesting eh?! Anyways I GOT ANOTHER PACKAGE! I AM SO LOVED! Ha this time from Elder Papa Frankilin, I had no idea he was sending me one either! I love that Elder so much! He sent me a bunch of goodies from Merica, oh how glorious!

Alright continuing on, my week was a good one. We´ve still been seeing a lot of opposition lately, trying to keep our spirits and attitude high! Thats my goal for the week. We had an awesome charla(lesson) with D, L, and her friend that happened to be in the house A Tuesday. We had lots of plans set out for them this week but unfortunately they all fell and we couldnt really contact them during the week! Which all led up to them not coming to church this week. (Brace yourselves I´m not mad but this is all what happened this week) Then we found out that B was leaving to 33 for 2 weeks for vacations, as well as for J too! We talked to the J'meister on Saturday and he was just about getting ready to leave. He is still grounded apparently just not for vacation (school break). And that aint the worst, we also found out that his Mom rather have him get baptized in the Catholic church, not knowing why just cause I guess. Now J is sort of starting to doubt the answer he got from the Holy Ghost. Remember a couple emails ago I said he recieved his answer, and wanted to get baptized. Well he lost a little of that desire which is the icing on a sad little cake. :( But hey things will get better, I know it will! It may not be easy in the moment but thats all part of the mission experience. Dont worry about us, just keep those people in your prayers and we will work it all out these next couple weeks. :)

I was reading in the recent Liahona Momma! Oh yeah thanks so much Im so excited to get them every month now! Anways I found a talk, dont know if you guys read it. Its called ¨Heavenly Help for Our Mortal Journey¨ by Bishop Dean A. Davies. He talked about how he accompanied Elder Holland in a devotioal with all the LDS Cadets of the U.S. Air Force Academy. Elder Holland had been answering a few questions when he just threw a random question that a cadet asked to Bishop Davies. The question was ¨Does the Lord give us challenges that are intended to impede our progress?¨ Quite the interesting question isnt it, it caught my attention. Anyways then Bishop Davies goes on and tells a few stories to back up his point and in conclusion he answers the question and says ¨NO.¨ I love what he says here also ¨When we face test and trials, rather than feeling sorry for ourselves, let us ask these questions: ¨What can I learn from this experience and How will this experience strengthen me and help me prepare for the future?¨ Wow, I love this with all my heart. I know sometimes I look at trials or test in the negative way because they bring negative thoughts and feelings! But what I learned from this talk is if we just take a step back, and see how this situation is going to help me, and move forward with a positive outlook. We are going to find that it is easier to bear with the help of Lord and his yoke! :) I know this is true, the times when I receive a stronger testimony is when I have to rely on my Savior, Jesus Christ. And I learn to trust and lean on his strength and mercy! I know I will see miracles happen this week if I can do this better personally and as a companionship. Elder Ramirez and I are going to be doin some serious work this week! Helping the branch out, and hopefully see some miracle progress with some of our investigators! :)

Hope you all had a good time up at the Irvine´s cabin!! I LOVED THE PICS sooo much, it is sooo awesome to see your guys faces also! Haha but where were you Mom and Dad? Im sure it was a little bit more quiet this time without the real party not being there! ;) Ha love you guys! I totally downloaded the video and Im going to watch it right now thank you so so much ive been dying to watch it for months! AHH! Gracias! Its good to hear the the 6th ward is still pumpin out those missionaries. People that just graduated are probably heading out which makes me feel sooooo old! good gravy.

Anyways love you guys TOO much! :) Thanks for always braggin about me! Ha have an awesome week and dont party too much! Talk to you guys next week! :)

Les AMO, Elder Tyler Scott Ivie

VAMOS ARRIBA CELESTE! (the color not the cousin, still love you though Celeste)--38th email

Hoooola Familia!

Buenos dias from Uruguay! Pretty normal week in the mission but you guys will probably think its not so normal. Uruguay won this week!! Hey hey its about time, this place was hoppin and I´m in a little tiny town, I cant even imagine what happened in Montevideo! People were just yelling from their cars, honking their horns, doing whatever to support their country. We thought it would be a lot easier to work because people would have been super happy, willing to talk to us because they were filled with adrenaline but, it was exactly the opposite. Little hard in the work side but good for Uruguay that they won! Hey heard that USA won too!! Woot woot! But not sure about the Sunday game, im sure I will be finding that out from one of you guys today! Crossing fingers....

Umm so yeah lots of opposition this week, we had a little trouble gettin people to church this week. On Wednesday we passed by J's house and his mom answered the door and said J had been grounded and he wouldnt be ungrounded until he got his grades up! So that put a HUGE damper on everything because for one thing he is impossible to find, and now we couldnt even talk to him. We try explaining how coming to church will help him be more focused on his homework but she didnt really agree with that! So we really havent had a good sit down charla with him this whole week and he couldnt come to church yesterday! We are still trying to keep high spirits because he is so golden and ready for this step! He hurts when we have to push back his baptismal date and im sure it hurts for the Lord even more too. But oh well there always will be opposition. We are praying hard to get contact with him this week and get him back on track! Can I ask you guys to keep him in your prayers especially this week! Thanks so much :) Its been difficult with S and M because its just getting up and going to church which is holding them back! We had a good lesson with them on Sat. though. We kind of layed out everything they have to do to get baptized. There biggest task is to get married and in order to do that, S has to get divorced from her previous husband. We told them that all of this depends on them, that we cant force them to do anything but God really wants this for them and they have to find out for themselves! I felt the Spirit, and the love God has for both of them and their family! We gave them a picture of the Uruguay temple and they are so fascinated with it and kept saying ¨Que precious!¨ Like how pretty, how precious its awesome! We invited them to put that on their wall, and to put it in a place where they will always see it. To have that ultimate goal, to get sealed for eternity with their family! Oh how I hope they get there someday. With that lesson it struck me hard the importance of having a family sealed and united in the gospel for all eternity! I just couldnt stop talking about the happiness we have felt together, I know this is super cheesy but thanks for all the awesome memories fam! :) Anyways so we will see what happens with them this week!

We also found 2 old investigators this week named D and his daughter B. We had a couple charlas with them this week, and we got one today with them wish us luck! D is very hesitant to listen but his wife L and his daughter B both want to get baptized! Woot woot! We are going to plan a date tonight for B and probably talk about that L needs to get married first! Boy have my eyes been opened to the world where nobody wants to get married just live with each other! Utah really is a bubble....but I love it! Anyways yeah they are awesome I think they are going to let us come over Wednesday to watch the game with them! The Uruguay game, we can watch it, if we watch it with an investigator I believe so should be interesting never watched a full game with a bunch of Uruguayos! :)

Also lately Ive been thinking of how we can help this branch grow in other ways than baptism! This branch definitely needs some more unity in building the Lords kingdom! Always something we should be striving for! We are trying to think of different ways to excite them and want to leave with us or bring their friends to church. Because I remember before the mission I knew it was important to be involved in the missionary work but I didnt know really why it was important? Members are key to missionary work, if we got a member to go visit some of our investigators or even their friends that would be amazing! But im sure every returned missionry knows how hard this is but it can be done! Not sure how right now because never really tried it too much in my mission especially in a Branch but we are going to see miracles! Little by little I might not see it in my time here but I know it can and will happen! For example we had an activity with the some of the Young Adults from 33 on Saturday and boy did it turned out awesome! We had them get out, rescue and find some less actives and investigators with us to bring to the activity and hey we got a few! Some less actives came and got to talk to some of their old friends and see how fun the church really is! I think they had a good time and hope it sparked something back into their hearts! With this turn out I think we are going to be doing a lot more activities in the future and why not theres food everytime! ;)

Quick little scripture in Hebrews 5:8 it says ¨Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.¨ Interesting scripture to me because its talking about Christ and how it wasnt easy for him, of course it wasnt. And sometimes its hard to keep all the commandments because we got the influence of Satan too. We might suffer through pains or temptations but everytime we learn a lesson out of it! We always learn to be more obedient and dependent on the Lords guidance for help! It increases our patience, strength, and humility in our day to day lives. Quick and simple but sometimes not too easy for me, Ive been trying to get better at it though!

Yeah thats pretty much it sorry not too exciting of an email but I am doing better than ever, happy, healthy, and hearty! :) Love the mish, love you guys always! Are you guys really heading off to Disneyland? Jelly. Haha jk VAYENSE! Umm I do have one request is there anyway that you can send that #BecauseofHim video to me through email or something? I still havent seen it and I still want to see it sooo bad! But if you cant find a way then really dont worry about it, I will find a way! The weather is getting pretty chilly I got to admit! Its usually warmer outside than it is inside! I starting to pull out the gloves and beenies! I think the winter here is going to be just about the same as Utah maybe worse with the humidity. Its going to be crazy! Wow a crazy match though with ´Merica and Portugal! 28sec. left oh well at least its not a loss woot! Sounds like everything is going good there though! Hope you had fun at G camp Momma! You are the queen of G camp´s! Thanks for all the prayers guys, it helps me along every day. :) End of June.....thats freaking me out lets just not talk about it. Love you guys TOO MUCH! You guys just brag about me too much, im not that cool. Anyways chaoucito! 

LES AMO, Elder Tyler Scott Ivie

¡URUGUAY MONTEVIDEO MISSION!

La Mundial...ahhhh!!!! (37th email)

Hola linda familia,

Wow what a spiritual and awesome week for me personally! :) Boy has it been crazy here in Uruguay, even in the little town of Varela! I didnt see too much crazy stuff but boy they werent kidding about the silence. The game here started around 4pm, everybody was getting ready, buying their food, running around with Uruguay flags just like the Superbowl in the states! Then once it hit 4.................crickets..........dog bark.........and nothing. We basically were the only 2 people out in the streets! It was just us and our only friends were 3 dogs that followed us around. I know what you are thinking that is pretty sad eh?! All we could talk to was our 3 faithful followers it was pretty funny! And one of them almost past out because we walk so much and he was sooo fat! So yeah that wasnt a very easy day, the mission pres. said we could watch the game if we found an investigator to watch it with but, nobody wanted to watch it with us! :) We are left out hanging to dry, poor us eh?! But yeah unfortunately the game didnt work out into our favor but we still in it! When does USA play? Tomorrow or Wednesday right? We are going to destroy!!

Anyways we had a pretty good week, it was a hard work week because we had interviews with Pres. Cook on Wednesday, Multi-Mission Conference in Montevideo on Thursday, and Saturday the crazy game! But anyways it was a super spiritual week for me. I learned so much stuff from Pres. Cook in the interview he gave me some great advice, wow he is filled with the Spirit! He made me feel so happy and loved he really is called of God and is magnifying his calling to the max! I love him and his wife they are best! :) As I said we had a huge conference in Montevideo this week with our mission and the Uruguay West Mission. Elder Lynn J. Robbins from the Seventy came and talked with us which was amazing! Boy have we been blessed to have 2 General Authorites come in the past 2-3 weeks! I learned so much from him, and could really tell he is called as a special witness of Christ and is here to help improve us as missionaries! One thing I really loved was when he spoke about the Spirit and how the only way for us to get a testimony is by the Spirit and we dont get a testimony of the Spirit through the 5 senses! The only way to receive this testimony is through faith and action to the will of the Lord. He gave an example how Laman and Lemuel saw an angel and were commanded by God but never received a testimony. But they saw an angel? Thats the thing, seeing isnt believing! Its faith, and thats what our investigators need. They dont need visions, or to touch the gold plates to believe the Book of Mormon is true. We as missionaries need to invite this people to take a leap of faith, keep commitments, and receive the manifestations of the Holy Ghost for themselves. This is essential because with the Holy Ghost nobody can receive a full true conversion! Its crazy how essential it is, but anyways thats what I loved from the conference and want to be better at it! Also in my personal studies I read in Moses 1 about Moses' encounter with God then Satan! I learned so much about how temptations will always come especially when you just a had a super spiritual experience! But as Moses did we can cast Satan, because anything he does we can always overcome it! We have the Savior and His Gospel on our side and no adversary can beat that! Ha cheesy but it really helped and strengthened my testimony!

Unfortunately none of our investigators made it to church yesterday! The parents of B (S and M) committed to coming after Bruno's futbol game but bailed at the last minute! J the 14 year old that wants to get baptized was in the City of 33 for the game and missed his bus coming back! :) But we had a charla with him later in the day on Sunday and said he wanted to go and was still pumped to get baptized! Woohoo he is such a capo, he told us he might invite his huge extended family to his baptism which would be insane! But yeah so we are in for a big week with that big guy, so excited for that! He is just super hard to find, he is 14 but always so busy! Was I that busy when I was 14? I think I still was living in the backyard hunting for bugs and snakes hehe!

Yeah so that was basically my crazy week, sorry I was all over the place! Oh yeah I got a package from BIG ANNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS TIA!! YOU ARE AMAZING I had no idea you were sending one! I was soo pumped, Ive gotten so many packages this past couple weeks Im going to get fat again jk! Sounds like a great past week in good ol´ warm Highland! Have fun at Girls camp mom!  Soooo glad the Heat lost.....and GO USA!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for all the prayers, things are rollin here I love it here and cant wait for this upcoming week! :) Until next week I LOVE YOU ALL TOO MUCH! Have an awesome week and dont party too much without me...speaking of Disneyland?? What. When?

LES AMO, Elder Tyler Scott Ivie

Package Aunt Anna sent!  Love his humble abode :-)

Awww...LOVE!!

Sunset & farming community in Varela--June 2014