Merry Christmas from Uruguay

December 25, 2016

With the Eddy Family

I wanted to lead off with the picture of us with the Eddy family.  It is really neat to be part of their family.  They lead us with love and inspiration.  We love them.  They took a picture with each companionship and sent it to the parents. Is that a wonderful idea or what?

It tastes even better than it looks

We did spend some time in the office this week completing book work and doing projects.  We do keep quite busy.  Monday night we were invited to the Temple Missionaries where Elder Jensen made omelets for all of us.  You can see that they were excellent.  We do have a lot of fun with the Temple couples.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had Christmas conferences with half of the missionaries coming in each day.  Renee and I were invited to speak on the Tuesday conference.  We really like the opportunity to speak to the missionaries.  Renee did her talk in Spanish and is feeling more comfortable all the time.  Not quite ready to speak in General Conference, but better.  Feeding over 100 missionaries two meals on two consecutive days is quite the job.  They were fed breakfast sandwiches in the morning and roast beef with all the trimmings for lunch.  This is a major project.  Mary, the cook, does such a wonderful job organizing the meals.  Renee loves working with Mary and they do form quite a team.  My job is to carry, cut up, clean up or throw away whatever Mary says.  We are tired when we get done. 

The conferences consisted of training in the morning and then a Christmas program after lunch.  President Eddy read Luke chapter 2 and then had each zone sing a Christmas carol that was appropriate at different points.  It was really special.  I especially enjoyed President Eddy’s daughter, Jessica, as she sang “Oh Holy Night”.  That is my favorite.

We love the Missionaries!

I had a real neat experience on Wednesday afternoon as the conference was ending.  You can see the picture with all the missionaries standing in front of the Church.  When I exited the building and saw them, I had a very strong feeling of love come over me.  What a blessing it is to spend time with them.  We love them so much.  We know why we are here and are so grateful to be able to spend it with them.

Downtown with the Elders

Friday we had to go downtown.  We took advantage of the situation and took this picture of old town with Elder Caudle and Montiel.  We really get close to the Elders.

Saturday is P-day for us.  We were invited to the Mission Home for a breakfast of Crepes with the office Elders.  You can see that they were really good.  We feel so welcome in the Mission President’s home.  I had to take the picture of the three girls together.  Kind of reminds me of when I had some young girls running around my house.  After we had a little soccer game.  Renee and I played but were sure to be “careful”.  It is fun to see the talent that some of the Elders have.  Their different personalities come out in their playing styles.  Some are quite fancy and others more aggressive.  It was fun to play especially because I did not break anything.

Christmas fireworks

On Christmas Eve they set off fireworks at midnight.  It seems that every family has some and they make sure they set them off.  I’m not talking about the ones families buy in the states at the corner fireworks stands.  I’m not even talking about the ones that Dave Tanner smuggles in from Wyoming.  They are mostly like the ones you see at City or State sponsored shows.  It is quite a site.  It is quite fun to see.  They do it again on New Year’s Eve so stay tuned.

Everyone had a chance to sing

We got to bed pretty late last night so we were pretty tired today.  That did not stop us from having a wonderful day.  Sacrament meeting was very meaningful and had a special Spirit.  After we had lunch with the Temple Missionaries again and have spent the rest of the day facetiming our family.  It has been a full and wonderful day.  Especially if I don’t fall asleep while I finish this.

I really want to add a couple experiences.  The first one came Wednesday afternoon as we finished  the conference and were dropping off Elder Limas and Elder Guale at their area.  As they got out of the car, I reminded them that the only reason that they should be going out to work was to find someone.  They were very enthusiastic as they left and promised that they would find someone.  Well about five minutes later we got the call.  “Hey, we found someone, and have an appointment to teach them tomorrow!”  What an inspiration these Elders are to us.

The second experience came yesterday.  We passed one of the other tenants in our parking garage and wished him Merry Christmas and asked him how he was doing.  He said, “Not well, my wife of fifty-four years is very ill and not expected to live much longer.”  How sad.  We visited with him for awhile and gave him a “Plan of Salvation” pamphlet.  We hope he reads it and receives some comfort.  We plan to follow up with him.

Great gifts from Elder Montiel

The next experience happened last night.  Elder Montiel passed out presents to all of us.  He really went all out.  Renee and I received Peñarol stuff that is really neat.  After, Elder Montiel told me in English, “We are going to be friends for a long time.”  I told him, “We are going to be friends forever!”  I can’t explain how much we grow to love the missionaries.

Lastly, we took plates of cookies to some of the apartments in the building.  We were not able to reach all of them as they are not accustomed to opening their doors.  We did visit a few and had some wonderful Gospel discussions.
This doesn’t include all of the “Light the World” cards we have passed out.  We really have enjoyed giving them to people that we contact as we go about doing our job.  Service station attendants, store clerks and a variety of others have been really fun to give cards to.  We have really enjoyed this holiday season.  We spent about six hours talking to our four girls and their families.  We are kind of glad we don’t have the 30 minute time limit.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas.  We love the Gospel and look forward to sharing it in the coming year.  We love you all.

Love,
Gordon and Renee