Taking Care of Business

February 26, 2017

Never pass up a chance for a picture of the horse drawn carts.
This is on one of the busiest streets right in the heart of Montevideo

We had a pretty busy week that included taking fans to missionaries and doing the basic missionary business.  Let me tell you with as hot and humid as it is, when you show up at a missionary house with a fan you are one popular dude.  The weather has been so hot. We are so grateful for the work the missionaries do and the challenges that they put up with.  These things are important but not necessarily what makes for an interesting blog.

So I think I’ll talk about the missionaries instead.  This is the last week before changes so Renee made lunch for the Elders.  Elder Hayden and Palomino are leaving after six months.  They have worked hard and served well.  For lunch Renee served pulled pork sandwiches, green salad, jello and banana cream pie for dessert.  You can tell by the missionaries that they enjoyed it.  Elder Palomino especially liked the red punch.  You know, working in the mission office looks pretty good when the weather is bad but most don’t see the 2:00 A.M. plane flights or other emergencies that come up.  I am really grateful for all they do.

We had a couple of things pop up where we needed to change the water bill numbers and things like that.  It always takes time and is probably more complicated because I don’t necessarily understand everything they tell me.  Included in our jobs was a trip to Maldonado to check smoke alarms.  We thought we better take a picture of the Sisters as that always makes the blog better.  I’ll let you judge on how they are doing.

The main attraction for the week was our weekend in Castillos.  We have quite a few friends that we like to check up on when we go.  We also are working through the list of members to try and find all we can.  This time we were able to check out several names.  We only found a couple but we were able to visit with several good people and get to know them better.  It is interesting that some people are open and warm.  They have no problem visiting and sharing their beliefs on the Savior and Religion in general.  Others act like we have some sort of plague and they may catch it.  One of the most interesting visits we had was when we stopped at one of the addresses on the list and instead of finding a member we found a Jehovah’s Witness.  This guy was quite friendly and we had a good visit as you could tell that we both have a desire to serve the Lord.

We were able to stop by several families that are more or less active.  We were able to have a good Gospel discussion with them.  One of our favorite lessons is when we talk about Lehi’s dream.  We like to describe the dream and then ask them where they are in the dream and where they want to be.  Without question, they all want to partake of the fruit but it is quite interesting as they tell us that they are somewhere besides the path.  This gives us a good chance to bear testimony and teach that in order to stay on the path, you need to read the scriptures daily and come to Church.  Some have responded quite strongly.  In fact this week we probably saw the most success that we have seen in inviting people to Church.  It amazes us when we see the challenges that we see the members face.  As we get to know the members in Castillos better, we have grown to love them more.

One of the members lives in a house in back of the Church.  Her name is Marilu.  She had her 71st birthday party Saturday night.  The Elders painted a flag of Uruguay on the fence to help her celebrate.  We had a good time at the party and even got to discuss the Church with a few of the neighbors.  It was quite the party.

This is Elder Jensen’s last week end.  It would have been quite easy to just come to the party for the evening but he and Elder Ramos had Charlas all night as he served hard right up to the end.  They dropped by late to say hi to everyone as they had plenty to do.  I am real proud of him.  In the meetings today you could tell that the members really appreciate him and will miss him.

So we are in the middle of summer and it is hot and humid.  A couple of weeks ago it cooled off a bit so we hoped that we were through the worst part.  But this week the heat and humidity returned.  When we are visiting missionary apartments it is quite humid.  After a little bit in the street or in a hot apartment we are ready to melt.  We are such big babies as we enjoy the air conditioning in the car and our apartment.  I guess we could survive the heat without the air conditioning but I am so glad we don’t need to find out.  Our love, respect and appreciation for the missionaries grows every day.

We have been getting some info about the flooding in Blackfoot and elsewhere and we are worried and praying for our friends.  I hope everyone is able to survive.  We wish we could help but for now we’ll just enjoy the heat.

Thanks for all you do for us.  We really appreciate the love and support as we serve.

Love
Gordon and Renee