Silent Night

Moroni was in danger.



I counted 27 fireworks displays at one time.





The Senior Couples watching fireworks from the roof of the hostel near the temple We are in the background. The couple in front are Elder and Sister Goates.








Fireworks by the Montevideo Temple

This picture was taken from the roof of the hostel. There is a parking lot, a two-story brick chapel, and then the temple. The other buildings on the right are the senior missionaries apartments (not ours), the mission homes, and the church offices, including the distribution center for Uruguay. It takes up an entire city block with a tall fence around it, like the one around the Idaho Falls Temple.

Betty's Birthday

The young volunteers in our office got up early on my birthday and decorated the office. We had gone to an outdoor training the day before and everyone was really tired, so for them to get up the next day was amazing. They would have rather slept. They blew up about 30 balloons and put them up in the classroom where we teach the workshop. We were going to have a training that day in there. They made a cute sign on the whiteboard,saying "Hermana Heath, Feliz Cumpleanos." They told us to come at 10:00 and not be early that day, as we usually get to the office about 20 minutes before we need to be there.
When we got there, everyone was milling around the office as if nothing was happening. The assistant manager, Veronica, called me into her office, and had me do something. Everyone else gathered into the classroom. We were the last ones to come in. When I opened the door, they all said, Feliz Cumpleanos! (I don't have a tilde on this computer for the n.) What a fun surprise!
















They had a chocolate cake with caramel (dulce de leche) filling and decorations. It looked really delicious. Then they put a "candle" on it and lit it. This is what happened!


The people in the background are: Florencia, Veronica, Daniel Collato (Our Manager/ Bishop.) My expression pretty much says it all. It was amazing! I thought we might get in trouble for lighting fireworks in the building, but there are no codes here like in the States. YIPPEE!!! FIREWORKS ON THE BIRTHDAY CAKE!


We all took a picture together in front of the birthday sign. There are better pictures but this is the only one I could get so far. Hopefully, I can get another one this week. It was an amazing birthday. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers and Facebook wishes. They all came true!!

Relief Society Christmas in Uruguay

We had a Relief Society Christmas Luncheon one Saturday (Nov. 20.) Here are some pictures from that day. We all drew names ahead of time, and had a gift exchange from our Secret Sister. After everyone opened their anonymous gift, they went one by one, showed the gift they had received, and the secret giver revealed herself. It was fun. We had a spirit of sisterhood and anticipation for the Christmas season.


The tables were set with the food when we got there. We had a broccoli torta, which is a thick quiche. We also had empanadas which are round pastries with meat filling folded in half and sealed. Yum! There was a roll of some sort, kind of like an egg roll with meat and vegetables inside.


After we had eaten most of the delicious food on our plates, Julia Bengochea, a new convert, came around with pizza with a yummy, thick crust, and a large rolled sandwich with tuna salad in it. The bread was slightly sweet, so the sweet, salty thing kept me wanting more. Yum! The problem was, we were full by then. Everyone ate anyway. Then, of course, we had a big cake (postre) for dessert. I thought I would pop from eating so much!

I got these pictures from the sister missionaries that live in our ward. They took pictures of our investigators. Actually, their investigators, but we have been visiting them and fellowshipping them.

This is Grizelda. She is the mother of a 16-year-old who got baptized the third week we were here. She is SO nice! She works as a server at the Spanish Embassy. The sisters are Sister Casebolt from Farmington, UT, and Sister Gardner from Taylorsville, UT. They are hard workers who have 3 people getting ready to be baptized.

This is Alicia Torres, who was less-active, but came to church once to try our ward out. Everyone is so friendly, she kept coming back.










Yolanda was playing the piano for two of the sisters singing around the piano. I don't know the name of the gal on the left, but Blanca is in the middle. She is outgoing, friendly , and loves music. She tells me all about what she is thinking and what's happening in her life. I catch about 30% of what she is saying, but that is enough to know how to respond. She is a good friend.







This is a better picture of Yolanda. She lives close to us, and she is the one who plays the piano for Sac. Mtg. and Relief Society every week. Her hands are arthritic, but she plays just fine. She is always complementary to me.



We had a special musical number. The sisters sang "Angels we Have Heard on High."

















The bishop came a little later and he took a group picture. The man is the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric. He was putting his tie back on.

Thanksgiving in Uruguay

Jerry and I have much to be grateful for. We have each other for one thing. I have often thought about how hard it would be to be here without him. I feel for the young missionaries. Because we are together, life seems much more normal. We have 37 years of common memories and life experiences to keep us from getting too homesick.

The church here is also very similar. The talks are about gospel subjects and the lessons are well prepared. I am always impressed with the members here. Our ward has about 60 people who attend every week, but the bishop has a goal of 90. Actually, we have that many active members, but their attendance isn´t consistent. It´s the same everywhere.

We have been having missionaries to dinner, and for Thanksgiving, we had the Hermanas from our ward to dinner at 8:15. After I invited them, I realized I had never made any of the food we eat at Thanksgiving here in Uruguay. We didn´t have a potato peeler, potato masher, wire whip, or a pie plate. Turkeys here are very small (9 lbs. or so) and the one I saw in the freezer case was $50 US! We decided that chicken was going to work just fine. But I hadn´t roasted a chicken either. They don´t have Stovetop stuffing mix, canned pumpkin or canned yams. SO, I started figuring out how to make Thanksgiving dinner here.

I checked at several supermarkets and sundry stores looking for the utensils and pans I would need. There are no stores like Walmart where you can get everything you need in one place, which isn´t all bad. I kind of like that, but it does make it more complicated when trying to find different things. I found everything I needed between three stores.

I checked the internet for the recipes I needed. At the supermarket, I found fresh potatoes, sweet potatoes, short skinny celery with lots of leaves, sage, flour, sugar, but not shortening or lard, brown sugar, cloves, ground ginger, or poultry seasoning. I didn´t want to try cooking one of the fresh pumpkins I saw there. It was half green and I wasn´t sure if it was orange inside or not, so I decided to make a carrot pie instead, like my mom does. Thank you, Mom, and also for teaching me how to make stuffing from scratch.

The night before (after work, and going shopping for the ingredients)I cooked and blended the carrots (there is a blender in our apartment), baked the sweet potatoes and cut them up, and toasted and diced the bread for the stuffing. On Thanksgiving Day, we went to work as usual. We could have taken the whole day, but we were short volunteers, and it would have left the office short-handed. I left work an hour early, and went to the local store and got a fresh chicken (5 lb. or more), whipping cream, pie plate, etc. I rode the bus home and started on dinner.

I put the chicken in the oven with the carrot pie (I used butter instead of shortening for the crust.) Next I put the potatoes on to boil, and started to sautee the celery, onions, and garlic in butter for the stuffing. I made the glaze for the sweet potatoes out of white sugar and butter, hoping it would carmelize. I poured it over the sweet potatoes and baked them in a hot oven (200 C.) after the chicken was done. The sauce caramelized in the oven and the yellow yams turned more orange. Yes!


The chicken turned out just like a small turkey. It was beautiful! The potatoes and gravy were delicious! Jerry said the stuffing was the best he´d ever had. The pie turned out and I served it with whipped cream that was whipped with a wire whisk in a coffee mug.



Jerry is holding the fork with his left hand while he carves with his right. The Hermanas are happy to celebrate their productive day with American food!


Hermana Casebolt and Hermana Gardner were so exited when they came. They had found 6 new investigators that day! They had looked up former contacts to give them one last chance. One the way to the last contact, they had talked to a woman sweeping the sidewalk in front of her store. The lady was very receptive about the Joseph Smith story, the Priesthood being restored, and everything! What a wonderful thing to eat dinner together and hear about the amazing work they were doing! We have been truly blessed!

As for me, I felt very blessed to be able to serve a dinner to guests where EVERYTHING I had made was an experiment. That was a little scary, but it worked out. I think someone was praying extra hard for the Hermanas to have a good Thanksgiving and I was an instrument in the Lord´s hands to make it happen. Your prayers in our behalf were felt because I truly felt guided. (Don´t laugh--it was hard.)

My Spanish is getting better. Today was a good day. I explained in fairly good Spanish (with conjugated verbs) to one of the darling young women volunteers, how to make a list of the people who have resumes here. I showed her how to cut and paste with the keyboard, and how to evaluate the resumes to see if any important information was missing. She understood me and was excited to do something that the whole office was working on. I prayed for the gift of tongues this morning, and was happy when I realized that the Lord was answering my prayer. He is truly there for us and for everyone who asks. I know we are being especially blessed because of our calling, however, the Lord will bless you in your righteous efforts also. No task is too small for the Lord. He is there for us.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was making telephone calls to check on job placements, I came across an unusual name. Everyone here uses two last names, one of them being the mother´s maiden name, and one of the names for this young woman was Pacharoti. I had baptized two girls, teenagers, in the city of Rivera in 1970, and had always wondered whether they managed to stay active. When I asked this young woman whether they could possibly be relatives, she told me that they were her aunts. She also told me that they had married good LDS men, and had been sealed in the temple. They had raised righteous families, 8 children between the two, had sent out 5 missionaries, and that every one of the children had been married in the temple. I am reminded that we are not always aware of the results of our work in the church. The words of a hymn came to my mind. "My voice shall echo the message sweet, I´ll say what you want me to say.¨ Our voices do echo, down the long years, and who can predict what can happen if we say what he wants us to say.

Our work goes well, but as soon as we master one set of skills, it seems we have to begin learning another. We did complete the teaching of the 12 hour career workshop for the first time this week. We survived it, but we do need to improve, and I think that the, (mostly self-inflicted), pressure to improve at our jobs is one of the most difficult parts of the mission for us. It is also, perhaps, the most rewarding part of the mission.

We have had significant luck with encouraging inactive people and then having them show up at church. Whether the changes are permanent we can´t know, but it is surprising how important a little bit of attention can be. Often all we have offered is a phone call or a kind word.

The only unusual thing that happened this week, was that I had the chance, on Saturday evening, to run in a 10 kilometer race in Montevideo.

There were 7000 runners, cheering crowds, lovely weather, and a beautiful course.
It is almost impossible to describe just how many runners there were, but if you go to werunmontevideo.com they have some amazing pictures, which

This is my Bishop, (also my boss), and his son. I know it is a bad idea to beat your boss, but I beat them both, running it in 61 minutes, my best 10k ever.
After the race, Betty and I walked home on one of the prettiest spring nights of the year.
The two buildings with bright lights in back of us are, believe it or not, the towers of the World Trade Center of Montevideo

What a great weekend we had. It began with our taking the bus to the and attending the wedding of two of our young friends. It was our first wedding in Uruguay, and the first time we had heard the ceremony performed in Spanish. The couple just shined, and we were very grateful to be invited. That evening at 7PM, they performed the temple wedding, which was wonderful, and later we went to the wedding reception. It was held about 50 yards away in the neighboring chapel.
There was good food, (excellent hors dourves that I had never tasted before), music, (they had a DJ9, and dancing. When the bride and groom entered,they played the beginning of ¨From This Moment¨, but then immediately shifted into the Blue Danube Waltz, (see 2001, A Space Odyssey), and the bride and groom waltzed.
Then the parents waltzed with them, then everybody began to waltz. And...I mean....they could all really dance. Whether old, medium or young, They were good!! Later on, as they played faster music, it became apparent that almost everyone there was skilled in swing dancing. We were, and are, a bit baffled. Do they teach it in school here?
Anyway, we did some unimpressive dancing of our own, but spent more time holding the baby of a young couple who really enjoyed the chance to trip the light fantastic, almost as much as we enjoyed holding the baby. When we left, at 10:30, the party was still going strong.

The next day the other senior missionaries had invited us for a Tex-Mex dinner at the mission housing near the temple. We all really miss Mexican food here, and some of the ladies here had the Tex-Mex cooking skills, and figured out where to get the ingredients. Wow!! It was amazing! They say they will try for Chinese next time.

Today was stake conference, and it was being held across town in an area we weren´t too familiar with. We figured we would catch our regular bus to the city center, and then see if we could find one that was going our way. However, as we were standing in our regular place, wondering where the bus was, we noticed that they were blocking the road. It turns out there was a race scheduled, and we need to find another bus. As we began to walk up the road, a car stopped beside us. An older gentleman leaned out and asked, ¨Where are you going?¨ We told him we were headed to church, some distance away. He said, ¨Get in! I will take you!¨ We, of course, politely tried to turn him down, but he was insistent, and we got in the car. We weren´t even very clear in our minds about where the church was, but he took us across town, stopped twice to ask directions of passers by, and there we were. We thanked him and he drove away. It wasn´t until later that I figured out that he was one of the three Nephites.

It turned out to be a special stake conference for the 26 stakes of Uruguay and Paraguay, broadcast from Salt Lake, with Elder Ballard and Elder Packer, among others, speaking to us in excellent Spanish.

On the way home, (no Nephite waiting for us this time), we grabbed a bus that we hoped would lead downtown. Instead it took us.....right to the hospital where our friend Myrna, the stroke victim, was staying. We got off, looked at eachother, and decided we were supposed to be at the hospital. We had a good visit, and then found the proper bus and headed home. I guess you could say that we felt abundantly blessed all weekend.

The Christmas decorations went up in the stores this week, immediately after Halloween. It is going to be a lot of Christmas to deal with, since there is no Thanksgiving to break it up. Today, Nov 2, all of the banks are closed, as El Dia de los Muertos, (the Day of the Dead), is a national holiday. Sure enough, even though we are at work, it is kind of dead today.

This week we began teaching the 12 hour workshop by ourselves for the first time. Betty taught one of the sections, and did quite well. I am very proud of her.


I apologize in advance for the light-minded moment, but....the Giants have won the World series!!!!! This, of course, is a sign that the Millenium really is coming soon.

We are going to our first temple wedding in Uruguay tonight. One of the girls who has worked with us in the office as a volunteer is marrying her returned missionary at 7 pm, and then they are having the reception at the chapel next door. We attended the legal wedding this morning, as everyone in Uruguay must first be married by a judge. Odd as that might seem, it was quite nice. The judge talked about the importance that the government of Uruguay placed on marriage; that it was a thing that strengthened the community and the family. We found that refreshing. She then asked the groom first, whether he would take the bride, reversing the normal order. They both seemed so young to us, but as it turns out, he is 26 and she is 23. It was fun, and we hope to have pictures of the bride and groom for next week.

We went to the symphony last night at the oldest theatre in America, the Teatro Solis. It is a magnificent structure, and acoustically it is a marvel. The highlight of the night for me was Rimsy-Korsakov´s wonderful symphony ¨Sherezade¨, based on the 1001 Arabian nights. It is my newest favorite piece of music. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and now Rimsy Korsakov make me believe that Russian composers are the best.

This is the interior of the theatre, looking toward the back.

These are just a couple more examples of our Uruguayan food. Notice the thick crust on the pizza. They don´t make it any other way, and although I enjoy it, I don´t eat it often, because it is just too hard to get it through the lapband. I had thought about loosening the band before I left, because I knew that the less processed Uruguayan food might be a problem for me. I left it alone, and it probably has been a blessing, because I already would have gained 50 lbs, and as it is, I am only up about ten.

Uruguay is most famous for its meat. This parilla gives you an idea of what is available here. It isn´t much cheaper than the states, but it is very tasty, and there is a greater variety in the types of meat that are consumed. If you look closely, you will see that they use the whole cow.

Speaking of food, I need to tell you a funny story. We laughed so at our 3 year old granddaughter Libby when I told her that she was the only girl that I adore, and she said, "I not a door....anymore!¨ We now sympathize with her. In church this week, one of our friends had a son who was receiving the priesthood. Betty sat with the mother, at the beginning of the priesthood meeting, for the ordination, and the mother said, ¨Gracias por su apollo" (Thanks for your support). What Betty heard was "Gracias por su pollo¨, (Thanks for the chicken). She sat there for several minutes trying to remember giving the lady a chicken. Betty is not a door...anymore.

I had hoped that this photo would be clearer, but perhaps you can click on it and enlarge it. This view of the Plaza de Independencia actually shows where we work. The building on the far left is the Radisson Victoria Plaza Hotel, where Bush stayed on his visit here. To its right are two white buildings, and our building is the second. It is called the Plaza Mayor.

We would love to give you a list of Wilford Woodrufflike missionary experiences every week, but our work, while satisfying, doesn´t usually involve moving mountains, or leaping tall buildings at a single bound. We come to work every morning, try to be of help to the people, do some visiting, and then come home and sleep very well. We are given greater responsibilities week by week, and we are developing the new skills to accomplish them, and perhaps, at our age, that is the real miracle. The trick is not just doing what the Lord commands, but having faith that He will prepare the way, and He does.

A few final points:

1. One of our good friends down here, Mirna Orgambide, who I was able to baptize 40 years ago this Christmas, had a stroke. Mirna has been a less active member, but is one of the best people we know. She is 68, but we think her prospects for recovery are good, and we have been visiting the hospital all week. Shoot a prayer her way for us, if you would.

2. We are going back to Teatro Solis in December for the Opera/Ballet of La Traviata. If all of this sounds overly cultured for us, it is. However, our favorite activity, going to plays, doesn´t work due to language difficulties, so we are somewhat limited to music and dance. The audiences here are highly cultured, and we have had to learn to watch them, to know when we are allowed to applaud. There was no whistling, and no one yelling ¨woo woo woo.¨ In other words....there were no other Idahoans in the theatre.

3. I had a young, unemployed man, a frequent visitor to the office, who had begun to misbehave in here. After some thought, I decided that if the Lord had wanted somewhat to be polite to everybody who came here....he would have sent somebody polite to this mission. End of problem.

4. Betty is not annoying me near as much as she did at the beginning of our mission. She is making real progress.

5. ¨The gift of the Holy Spirit....quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them by the gift of wisdom to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty, of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It develops and invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, invigorates, and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being.¨ Parley P. Pratt. Key to Theology, pp 96, 97.

Spring has arrived here, as you can see by the young leaves on the trees. I am not sure where Betty took this picture, but Montevideo is a city of apartment dwellers, and this is a reasonably upper middle class building.



All of the buildings in our part of town have doormen to provide 24 hour security. One of our games is to see if we can get out of the front door of the building before the doorman opens it for us. We don´t often win. Of course, upon the advice of every Uruguayan we know, we also lock the doors of our apartment at all times. It is quite a change from the Moreland days, when we had no idea where our house keys were, and would leave for weeks with the house unlocked.



The bus system here is so impressive. There are few places in this city of 2 million, in which you are not within a couple of blocks of a bus stop. Once you begin to learn the bus numbers, and where they go, you can easily make your way around the city. Each bus ride costs about 85 cents, although for $1.15 you can buy a two hour pass, which helps if you want to make a quick trip to the mall, or the grocery store and back. Mass transit in the states, (unless you are a dedicated bus taker like Heidi), usually means driving your car somewhere, parking it, and then catching your train or bus. Here a bus is always close by. A car might save you time, but the system makes it unnecessary. If the US ever has to get serious about energy conservation, Montevideo would be an excellent model for a mid-sized city to emulate.

We work in a very nice office with some fine people. Here with us, in these two pictures, are Daniel, soon to be a missionary, and Florencia, who is just 18. They are among several unpaid volunteers who help us 4-8 hours a week, as receptionists and aides in the office. Part of our work is to train and supervise the volunteers. As in any situation with volunteers, some of them are not always totally dependable, and sometimes don´t show up, in which case we need to handle everything that comes through the door on our own.

Much of our work involves helping people prepare to find jobs, or to improve their jobs. We help them to enroll in our labor database. We help them develop resumes which they, (and we), can send to prospective employers. We also enroll them in ldsjobs.org; a site upon which the church is beginning to put great emphasis, and for which I recommend you all sign up and develop your profile. We teach career workshops, for which Betty and I are taking increased responsibility. We also teach workshops, less frequently, to help people develop their own businesses. With younger people, we try to help them find courses of study, in both vocational and university areas, and we try to help them find financing. We are also involved with the perpetual education fund, although Betty and I have had no assignments in that area yet.

Betty has made herself an expert in the receptionist area. She handles telephone calls, and helps direct people to the resources they are looking for. Jerry spends more time helping people develop resumes and enroll themselves on the ldsjobs site. He also spends a great deal of time making telephone calls to find out whether people have found employment, or to remind them to come in and finish the work they have begun. He, of course, will be teaching the majority of the 12 hour workshops, although Betty is working on learning some sections that she might be able to teach, even though her Spanish is more limited. We are on the bus around 8, and don´t get home until after 6. We come home tired, but it is a good kind of tired. Neither of us have suffered from insomnia here. We sleep very well!

Betty chooses the pictures, and since she hates the idea of McDonalds being outside the US, I am surprised that it is here. Still, the McDonalds here are somewhat classier than at home. They all have a separate section called a McCafe, which serves fancy pastries. Still, on principle, we never go there. The food here is good, but very different, and we do find that we miss things that we could get in the states. I would love to go to a Chinese buffet, or to Jaliscos, but nothing like that really exists, other than a couple of fast-food imitations in the mall. The steak and seafood here is very good, but I haven´t been as as impressed by the pasta. They do candy and pastries, (things I try to avoid), quite well too. Turkey is not to be found. Actually, I guess that is technically not true, because mom saw a 12 lb turkey in the Disco, (supermarket), but the price was $50. So Thanksgiving would be an economic problem for us, if they celebrated it, but they don´t. For us, it is just another workday.

This is the outside of Montevideo Shopping, which along with Punta Carretas Shopping and Portones Shopping, make up the three major malls in Montevideo. All of them are quite large, fancy, and expensive, even by US standards. In fact, most things in Montevideo are more expensive than in the US. This is a bit baffling in a place where $600 a month is a pretty standard income for full time work, and $1200 a month would be considered a very high salary. Only about 6% of Uruguayans make more than that, but that would be about 200,000 people; enough, I suppose, to support the malls. The only thing that actually seems cheaper here is housing, but we can testify that most of the dwellings here are very modest, with no central heating, and deserve to be cheaper. We are somewhat in awe of how well the people make do with so little money.


These two twin building are the World Trade Center. Yes, really! They are not as tall, but probably much safer. They are very attractive and are located right next to Montevideo Shopping.

Betty´s camera broke, which has been part of the reason for our late publication of this blog. If we choose to replace it, it will cost at least double here, as it would cost in the states. Electronic imports are heavily taxed. As a matter of fact, everything here is hit with a minimum 22% sales tax, which is simply included in the price. This, as in Canada and most of the rest of the world, funds their health care system and a few other sundry things.

Betty and I are working with new members and old investigators. If the investigators don´t seem to be quickly headed for baptism, the full-time missionaries have to drop them and look for someone else. We, however, are not in such a hurry, and we are friendshipping some of the investigators who still won´t commit to baptism, but who are still attending church. We are trying to limit ourselves, however, in how many people we visit during the week. Our days are already full, and when we overdo it at night, we start to burn out. I am of the opinion that senior missionaries would get a lot more done if they could make a special exemption during the mission, and let us drink coffee; but nobody listens to me.

Ten final observations:

1. One of our new baptisms, 16 year old Matias, was ordained to the priesthood today.

2. We had a wonderful family night, (on a Friday), with the (inactive and unmarried) family of the same boy. We do think they have potential to clean things up and get themselves worthy of the temple.

3. One of our wonderful volunteers, Sabrina, is getting married in the temple Friday.

4. On the bus to church today, (Yes, we are making people work on the sabbath), a beautiful, well-dressed couple, with two little boys, boarded our bus. We didn´t know them, but they looked Mormon, and they got off at our stop. It turned out that they have just moved into the ward, and that he was/is the bishop in his old ward. They look to be in their late twenties. It was wonderful to meet them.

5. We see our lovely Nibia, my 76 year old baptism from my first mission, every week or two. She is doing well, and her son Ernesto is coming from the states to visit in February.

6. Being mugged on our trip to London was difficult, but what was really heartbreaking was that no one cared enough to send us any money to help!!

7. I have figured out that the office is only about 3.5 miles from home, and I am planning to start putting Betty on the bus, and then walking home. It isn´t much extra exercise, but it will help.

8. Betty figured out a way to make lasagna, and although it was really different, it was good.

9. We have learned that when you are cutting open a bag of milk, it is best to start at the bottom, because otherwise it will spray you in the face.

10. The temple is an hour away by bus, but definitely worth the trip!

It is funny to look back on all the jokes about whether dad would obey the mission rules. The Lord easily solved that problem by putting us in a calling where there really aren´t many mission rules. Of course, we work during the day, as we have throughout our lives, and increasingly, by choice, we are teaching new member discussions and getting acquainted with investigators in the evenings. Other than those expected tasks, however, we are quite free to live our lives. Our mission president has little, (actually almost zero), contact with us. We live, work, and attend church in the other mission, and have actually become much better acquainted with the other mission president, President Heaton, but he is not our ecclesiastical leader.

Actually, I did meet with the President Da Silva today to renew my temple recommend, and I asked him, (I know. It doesn´t sound like something I would do. ) if we should check with him if we ever decided to leave town for the weekend to do some sightseeing. He said not to bother, and that he had confidence that we could take care of ourselves. Hmmm...

So...we are in a situation where there isn´t much to rebel against...which, for me, is quite a disappointment.

There is a fairly big group of senior missionaries who work at the temple and the mission offices, which are on the other side of town. We barely know them, however, and it is doubtful that we will ever know them very well. Our mission is very different. They live and work all week in a somewhat fortified block of buildings near the temple, which they seldom leave, (and I think that would drive me crazy). We work in an office, but we are out and about in the city every day, meeting interesting people and having new experiences. Betty and I both agree that we were placed in a situation that perfectly fits our personalities, and that plays to our strengths.

This is one of the many vegetable stands in the market we go to on Saturdays. We get our fresh food here. It is where the harp and maraca players were in the last blog.

Jerry was missing Ranch Dressing. Daniel Collato (our boss) took him to Ingles--a store that caters to Americans. He couldn´t find ranch dressing, but he found some Bleu Cheese dressing. This small bottle was $5.oo U.S. It´s precious!

We visited the Prado Expo this weekend, which was something of a mix between the state fair and a mini Epcot center. Several nations had exhibitions there, including the US, and many national and international businesses did also. The picture on the left shows some of the people who attended. Guess which one is me.

Below, Betty liked the little fake sheep, so we are preserving it for posterity. She was thinking about how hungry she was. Maybe she could butcher it right there. It was so cute, though...

Cute or not, it got butchered.

There were a bunch of animal rights people outside the Expo with ¨Carne es Asesinato¨, (Meat is Murder) signs. I guess this is what they were upset about. It smelled really good, but the lines were too long.

This, however, we did try. It is called a Paella; a stew of rice, seafood, and some UFO´s, (unidentified floating objects). It tasted good!!

Yes, folks, he is everywhere! This was part of the US embassy exhibit. All around the fair there were children carrying American flags, which we didn´t understand until we arrived at the exhibit and found that they were giving them away. Obama has promised the Uruguayans that they can be part of the America health care system......! Hey! I am just kidding! Gosh! All of you tea-party folks take everything so seriously!

Yup! Still American! Still proud! Still Ugly! For those of you who are wondering where our name tags are, we have been told not to wear them when we are just traveling around the city. Supposedly, it makes us more of a target for bad people, and I guess they figure the thieves would expect older people to have money. All that is fine, but in truth, I make up two of most Uruguayan men, and up to now, no one has even looked at us cross-eyed.

We have a little playground right outside our apartment, so if you would like to bring the grandkids......











We taught our first new member discussions in the evening this week, and we have more planned. We had a baptism in the ward on Sunday, and are looking at possibly 3-4 more soon. The high priests were really motivated, (Yeah, I know, oxymoron), on Sunday, and they concluded that all of the good things that are happening in the ward were coming to pass because they were regularly attending the temple as a group. I can´t find anything wrong in their thinking, and we think it is amazing and wonderful that they have such enthusiasm for the missionary work. We are, as a ward, going to the temple tonight for baptisms, followed by an endowment session. They are walking their talk.

One advantage that we have over the young missionaries is that they need to teach and baptize quickly, but we are going to be here for awhile. As a result, the investigators who are slower to commit or develop testimonies, but who still have interest, are going to become ongoing projects for us. We are excited about that. We went to the home of a member couple this week who have been together for 12 years, but are not married. We hit it off with them pretty well, and we are going to work toward a wedding.

We are not expert in our jobs at the employment center yet, but we have made great strides. Betty´s Spanish is improving very quickly, although she still has trouble understanding and often feels somewhat frustrated. I am proud of her. My Spanish is also gradually improving too, and it needs to improve.

We are happy, well-sheltered, and well-fed, (really well-fed). We are gaining in confidence, and are taking joy in our mission. And.....we are ....Obeying all the rules.....that we know about.

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