7 December 2009

A handwritten letter from Tylan:

Dear Familia!
My email failed today, so you get a legit letter haha :) I hope it gets there by my next email, they say sometimes it gets there by Saturday :)

This week was phenomenal! I'm baptizing Elena on Sat!!! My first :) So stoked!! Usually we want members to actually do the baptism so converts have that 'connection' with someone that's here to stay, but theres a stake activity the same day and we won't ask anyone to stay. It should be great though.

We were worried when we came and found a nearly empty area book since there hadn't been hardly no success here, but this field is so white. With this kind of success in the hardest area, I sure can't imagine what it will be like in Salto (that zone has about a third of the baptisms in the whole mission)!! I don't relaly want to leave here, though. It's really such a funny place, we've gotten to know the locals pretty well :) Carlos is who we buy bread and candy from; there's the local hippie with a blonde fro, leather bandana and red leather pants singing as he walks around; the 40 year old downs guy that walks around all day every day picking flowers, etc... It's something from a sitcom!

Anyways, here's a little list of a few of our progressing investigators:

Elena, 73, taking care of a full household, living in one small room together. Has nothing and she makes us tortas frites (Uruguayan specialty). Grandsons Pablo (12) and Cristoffer (14) were baptized 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 months ago. Elena is going to be baptized Saturday, 12th.

Maria, 75, Elena's sister! New investigator. Had baptismal date the 26th of Dec. but lost it because they must attend church 3 times and she has to take care of her (their) super old and senile older brother and can't leave him for church. We have to find a way :)

Maria, 23, a REALLY REALLY pretty (haha) girl who got a BofM from Juan Ramon (3 year convert/seminary teacher/ward mission leader) and loved what she saw. She has 2 kids and isn't married, lives with her mom to take care of them since she's a nurse and works a lot. Her mom is nuts and flirts with us. She had a baptismal date of the 26th but lost it for another week because she got in a fight with her mom and couldn't go to church.

Nelida y Carmen, upper 60s, low 70's... sisters both widowed, happiest women in the world, slightly crazy in a funny good way. They love the feeling of the spirit and really want that always so they asked us to be baptized haha. Carmen will be the 26th, but Nelida not for another week because she'll still be visiting someone in Argentina then. They talk forever.

Susannah, upper 40's, 50's maybe, Milagro (11), and Salvador (8) are a really close family. Susannah was an investigator 8 yrs ago, but since lost interest. Now, Milagro is especially interested. They are all incredibly intelligent and ask TONS of questions, good solid ones, especially about what they read. They are all still unsure about baptism but are studying and praying hard to gain a testimony. Hopefully they will all be baptized on the 26th, we'll see!

Well, those are a few of our investigators :) Such good people. The ward has tons of wonderful people too, even though there is presently no bishopric. Before it was dissolved officially, the man who was the second counselor (a 23 yr old RM de Ogden) is conducting meetings and taking care of things. We have most lunches with members and sometimes they do our laundry too. When its as cool as the last few days though and we don't sweat, I pretty much wear the same shirt and pants for 4-5 days to minimize haha :)

There are lots of dogs though not nearly as many as on the streets in Argentina. The ones I see every day I have named. Some are friends, some are foes. If the mean ones come at you, when you bend down to pick up a rock they turn tail and run shrieking haha. It's funny but sad too.

If you want to see where I live, the closest major crossstreets are Millan y Molinas de Raffo in Barrio Sayago of Montevideo. Dad could probably figure it out on google earth. It's about 10 kilom from downtown, capital I mean, mas o menos.

Estamos teniendo muchissimo exito de acuerdo de obedienca y fe y sus oraciones. Por favor, sigan orando para nosotros y todos los misioneros en nuestro barrio y en todo el mundo. Tambien, provean un luger donde los misioneros pueden traer investigadores. Necesitamos la ayuda de los miembros mas que pueden comprender! Gracias por todos!

Love,
Elder Magnusson

PS: Write Obama and tell him get milk in bags. It's so good and could solve a lot of problems!