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!