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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We have had an interesting couple of weeks. The first picture here is of our office, which is part of the larger office area of the Center of Employment Resources. The close-up is of the pretty flowers they gave Betty when we arrived. We have been treated very nicely.

This is the Chapel for the Montevideo 3rd ward, our home ward during our mission. It is the same chapel where I spent 11 months of my first mission, (in two different areas), and it hasn´t changed much. It really is fun to be back in a chapel that already held so many good memories for me. Our bishop, Bishop Collato, is also our boss at the CRE, (Centro de Recursos de Empleo), during the week. This last Sunday he told us that some evenings after work, and in our ¨spare time¨, we will be working with the missionaries in the ward. We will also be teaching new member discussions. So now I think we understand why all the apartments we were shown, happened to be in his ward.

Finding an apartment we liked was easy, but getting into it took time...a full week, during which we had the expense of a hotel. Nevertheless, we are very happy with our new home. The first picture shows the view from our window. We overlook the Rambla, which is the winding riverside highway around the city. In the background, you can see the river, or as they call it, the sea. It actually is part of the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, (river of silver), where it widens to meet the Atlantic. It is still considered to be a river for another 100 miles. There are beautiful, white beaches all along the Rambla. It does resemble the view from a luxurious apartment in Florida, but the rent is quite reasonable from an American perspective. However, any Uruguayans living here would be considered to be very well off. From my perspective, I wanted a neighborhood which would offer some security to my wife, and this one does.

Our keys! Three locks for the front door, plus 24 hour security at the front door of the building. I know, it sounds like overkill, but this is the way it is done here. Crime is very common, although violent crime is not. Fewer guns can be found in Uruguay, so if someone is going to rob you, it is more likely to be a knifepoint. It had better be, because I don´t intend to take any robber seriously if they don´t have the initiative to show me a weapon.

Below, you can see the little window in our front door, where we check for boogeymen before we open up. Think "Young Frankenstein."
We also have a wall safe where we keep Betty´s diamonds, and my bars of gold.

This is a nice view of my beautiful wife in the living room of our apartment. Immediately behind her is the entrance to the bedroom and bathroom, and the hall to the left leads to the kitchen. The front door is immediately to the right in that hall.

Here,  you can see me and the rest of the living room.

Below are some pictures of the bedroom.

Notice the wide variety in my wardrobe. Boring......!!

 Ok, I know it looks like a normal kitchen, but things are very different here, and we are still learning, (Ok, Betty is still learning) basic things like how to open cans, (can openers are different here). Actually there is hardly any canned food here. Everything is fresh, (some frozen), but this creates some problems we don´t have in the states. Most everything here has to be cooked from scratch.

And, this is our dryer. We do have a washing machine, but it took all day to dry the clothes. I am more in favor of just taking the clothes to one of the many little laundries found here. It seems to cost about $5.00, (100 pesos) a load. I just don´t think we have time to fiddle with laundry, but it is best that we, at least, know how to do it.

On Saturday, we went shopping at an outdoor market near our apartment, and we took a picture of this man playing the Paraguayan harp. It was very beautiful, and we did tip him. This is a form of the self sufficiency in employment that we are promoting, and down here any employment is good.

This is how we get a dozen eggs. Next time we will send you a picture of our bags of milk. We also keep buying and sampling things that we simply don´t recognize, and some things defy description even after we have sampled them.




It looks like we are on vacation, and in some ways we are, but generally we are out of the house by 8 AM to catch our bus, and we don´t get back until after 6 PM, (or 1800 as they call it here). Starting this week, we expect our evenings to begin to fill up as well. So far, Saturday is our time to get temporal things done.

But....in the end.....life is beautiful!!

Sister Heath is updating the blog tonight, so I hope you don't fall asleep reading it. We are staying in the Hotel Ibis still. Our apartment should be ready tomorrow, but we will see. We are spending money like crazy staying in hotels, eating out, taking taxis, etc. We will be glad to have a refrigerator, washing machine, stove, and microwave soon.

We are excited but overwhelmed after our first week here. We had a two-day training for the office staff in Spanish (the trainer spoke muy rapido.) It gave us a good taste for how much of the language we have to learn. I know the meanings of words, but they are used differently. For instance, "de acuerdo" means suddenly, but they use it like a transition from one thing to another. It's happening a lot. Jerry is working more on the idioms and the humor. I just pretend that I got the joke (or make up my own in my mind--hence I'm laughing when others aren't.)

Today, it stopped raining, so we didn't need our paragua (umbrella.) It was nice to walk.

We had a "break-the-fast" dinner this afternoon with the senior couples who work at the temple. We went to the temple yesterday afternoon, and being Saturday, it was so busy!! All the lockers were full, and we had to put our street clothes in a white tote above the lockers. It was crazy busy! We were the witness couple. That makes 100% for us in the South American temples now. I guess they are happy to get someone who knows what they are doing.

I will try to get pictures of the office (and the chapel we go to) downloaded this week sometime. Once we move, we will be without internet except at the office, so we may be pretty limited. Wish us luck in getting settled this week.

The church is still true and we are looking forward to helping people find jobs. Que tenga un buen dia. (Have a good day.)

Love,

Mom

Exhausted and Energized

Yup, I have lost weight. Just kidding! That isn't me in the picture, but since Betty and I were far too exhausted to remember to ask for a picture, this is the best we can do for now. Somebody who actually understands photoshop can stick us in the middle of President Da Silva and his lovely wife.
Friday began at about 4:00 A.M., as we needed to get ready to meet the van taking us to the airport by 5:00. We had weighed and re-weighed our luggage the night before, trying to get all of our bags under 50 Lbs. Over 50 would cost $50 per bag, and over 70 would cost$100. Because of construction, the van couldn't get close to our dormitory, so we had to lug 4 suitcases, 2 carry-ons, and two "personal items" across the MTC campus.

When we got to the van, we were unpleasantly surprised to find that it needed to carry a driver, 3 senior couples, and one younger elder, plus up to two years worth of luggage for everybody. I really didn't think it was going to happen and I figured somebody had goofed, (and actually, I still think so), but in a kind of reverse "loaves and fishes" miracle, the young driver somehow fit 2 full van loads into one van, and off we went.

When we arrived at the airport, we were the quintessential opposite of Heidi's "traveling light" philosophy. I wasn't sure how we were going to move all this stuff at once, but we found a "small" luggage cart, ($4.00!) and got to the baggage check. After that things got better. The nice lady at the desk winked at our two overweight, (51 lbs), bags, and we were on our way.

Salt Lake to Dallas, and then a two hour layover. Dallas to Miami, followed by a 6 hour layover. Finally, around midnight, we boarded our plane to Montevideo. It was a long night. I took a sleeping pill and still never slept, although I think I hallucinated that I had died and was headed...well....not toward heaven!

President Da Silva and his wife were waiting for us at the Carrasco airport, and took us to the mission home. We tried to make a good impression, but after about 30 hours of travel, I doubt we succeeded. The president is an impressive man, probably in his late 40's, and somewhat serious in nature. He has already been a bishop, a stake president, an area president(seventy), and now a mission president. Actually, if all that had happened to me, I guess I would be kind of serious too. Or...perhaps my lack of "serious" is the reason it never did.

Veronica Obaldia rescued us, or the president, or both. Veronica is the 2nd in command at the career resources center, and is an absolute ball of fire. She is a returned missionary, (Argentina), and has been working at the CRE for about 5 years. She drove us to our Hotel in downtown Montevideo, and by the time we got there she had us so pumped up and enthusiastic about the work we are going to do, that we almost didn't feel tired anymore. While I am talking about Veronica, I should also mention that she picked us up for church early this morning, got us there, gave an amazing gospel doctrine lesson, and then provided us with a wonderful lunch. I think we will have to really work to live up to her example.

We have been temporarily housed at the beautiful and relatively expensive downtown Holiday Inn, at the expense of the CRE (Center of Resources for Employment.) If you ever saw pictures of our room in the MTC, (another post), you will recognize that we have taken a step up in the world.

So here we have pictures of me and the hotel, and me standing in front of the hotel with my scriptures. Yeah, scriptures! My Kindle didn't survive the trip. I think it somehow got squished on one of the legs, and all the screen shows is black. This after making it through the Andes of Peru. I am sure many of you are thinking the Lord is trying to tell me something, and you may be right. Nevertheless, I am having another one sent down as soon as I have an address. Although I had already concluded in the MTC that I wasn't going to have time on this mission for much discretionary reading, the Kindle had already proven to be a great tool for the materials I did need to read. Of course, mom still has hers, but getting her to share it is a real problem!!

How strange it was when Veronica took us to church this morning, that of all the chapels she could have picked, she took us to the same one I had attended for 11 months on my mission. Talk about deja vu all over again.

I have to say right here that we tend, myself included, to assume that the church in Latin America, is perhaps a step or two behind the US in the knowledge and/or spiritual development and commitment of its members. Of course, it simply isn't true. The discussion in gospel doctrine today was as intellectual, (and spiritual) as you could find anywhere in the church. The members who attended the unheated, (winter here), church today were at least as committed as any in Idaho and Utah. Their knowledge of the gospel, excluding the newest converts, was the equal of our own. In many cases, they probably have us beat in terms of humility, but that is often the result of a challenging life. The gospel is mature here. The church is being led by people who served missions in their youth, and who have made temple covenants.

Hopefully, I haven't come across as flippant or disrespectful, but I have decided to live this mission joyfully, and for me that means that my true, somewhat irreverent personality will emerge now and then. However, Betty and I both feel very, very privileged to be here at this time, and we would not trade this experience for anything else that is out there.

This afternoon we went to the home of our friend, and my former baptism, Nibia Abeiro, and it was a joyful reunion. Betty was encouraged by how much she was able to understand, and communicate, with the members we met today, but....she still feels as if she has a long way to go, (and she's right.) Tomorrow, we go apartment hunting, and then start our CRE training in the afternoon.

Pictures of our room at the MTC

Our Study Area and closets at the MTC. We were able to set up both laptops and get Wifi there.

Our bed at the MTC was a double bed and comfortable enough.

It is Sunday afternoon in the MTC. We have been to church, been fed, and for the first time since we have been here, we have some time to reflect. Here are some things, in no special order, that we love about the MTC.

1. The powerful feeling of being surrounded by priesthood. There is something awe-inspiring about the thousands of young elders in their suits, and white shirts and name tags and scriptures, hurrying from class to class. They really do shine. The spirit of the young sister missionaries is gentler, but no less powerful. It truly feels as if we are walking with the armies of Helaman.

2. The beautiful campus with its buildings and flowers,pictures and statues.

Everywhere we see quiet reminders

of our reasons for being here.

3. The amazing senior couples. All of them have unique and amazing stories. One couple, the Winders, had long experience in agriculture and ranching, and had been called to manage a church ranch in Nevada. At the beginning, I felt they were very different from us...and they were. Their spirituality, and readiness to work hard, inspired us all.

The others are former engineers, architects, policemen, homemakers, and ...teachers. Some have had extensive leadership experience, and some haven't. Most of us are on our first mission. To rub shoulders with people like these has been a great source of joy.

4. The enthusiasm, spirituality and knowlege of the young returned missionaries who have been our teachers. I hate, after all those years of teaching, to say that I learned about teaching from them, but it is true.

5. Feeling the spirit while teaching lessons. While that may sound strange, you need to remember that the lessons we have been giving have been role-playing experiences. While we were teaching a lesson to a sister missionary who was pretending to be a less active member, I felt prompted to give her counsel that wasn't actually in the lesson. She teared up a bit, and later said that she had been given something she really had needed. We all felt the spirit strongly. I guess there is no such thing as a "fake" lesson.

6. Being able to walk to the temple and do a session. Having the temple close adds to the feeling here.

7. Feeling the spirit of the mission begin to change our lives. It is a process, but from the moment we were set apart, we knew that something special was happening to us.

Having said all that, it also is exhausting. Someone said it was like being given a drink from a firehose. For me, it is simply hard to sit through all the meetings.


Betty and I have also already had a couple of “companionship inventories” to keep us on track. We tend to live at different speeds, and we are having to learn to deal with being so closely tied together, just like the young missionaries do. Just the same, we have made adjustments and are getting along fine. Divorce is not imminent.





This coming week the emphasis will be on welfare, and on the employment services. As much as we have loved the MTC, we will be happy to head off to Uruguay on Friday.