Groundhog Day

I got this title from the movie with Bill Murray where he had to do the same thing over and over.  That’s kind of how this week went.  Monday and Tuesday started out simple enough.  We did a little office work and tracked down some things that needed to be fixed in some of the houses.  This is a never ending battle.  We have also been working to get several of the houses painted.  The key to this is if the members will help because we just don’t have the manpower to paint them all and we also don’t have the budget to hire it done.

What works out the best is if the members will team up with the missionaries.  This is per the direction of the area office so we are actually following orders.  Kind of new for me, I know, but I’m working on the obedience thing little by little.  So, on Tuesday we went out to the Las Piedras Zone to meet with the Elders that serve in the Obedelisco Ward.  The members of the ward have offered to help so we went out to help coordinate it.  Hopefully we can get it done in the next couple of weeks.  I hope you like the picture with the Elders with all of the empty cereal boxes.  This picture explains their diet a lot.  I do think Elder Cole and Christensen look a lot alike, just like Elder Perez and I.  I decided not to show the stack of empty toilet paper rolls.  Actually, Renee decided and I followed.

Tuesday night was a neat opportunity.  Elder Roquemore and Yardley had to come into Montevideo for some business.  They worked Tuesday evening with the finance Elders of the office.  We figured that they needed dinner so we invited them to come after they got done working.  Well, you can’t invite them without the finance Elders.  And you can’t invite the finance Elders without the Secretaries.  So pretty soon we had a full house of Elders eating pulled pork sandwiches, sliced peppers, carrots, cucumbers, cantaloupe and watermelon.  They finished dinner off with peanut butter bars.  It was like ravenous locusts had descended on our house.  There was not much left.
Wednesday we met them early to take them to their appointments.  We also met some other Elders at the bus station, Tres Cruzes, to take them to some appointments.  After we took the other Elders home to La Capuera and went all the way up to Rocha to pick up an Elder to bring to Montevideo.  We were on-the-go all day.  When we got home Wednesday night we found out that all of them needed to do some more stuff so we spent a good part of Thursday doing the same thing, just like the movie Groundhog Day.

We did get done in time to go on a Charla with the finance Elders.  We stopped off to visit an inactive member that has family in Blackfoot.  What are the odds of that?  We had a good visit and then went to a Charla with Jorge and Veronica, our pizza shop family.  We had a real good Charla on the importance of gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  It was really neat.

Friday we got a few things done at the office and then attended the Temple in the afternoon.  We went to a session and then attended a sealing or marriage of one of the Temple workers.  It was really a peaceful evening.  After the Temple we needed to do something for dinner so we stopped by Jorge’s Pizzeria and picked up a pizza.  They really like to put on the cheese.  What a great custom.  We were very satisfied.

Our plan for the weekend was to do a Capilla Abierta on Saturday night and then drive to Rocha to do the presentation for a Capilla Abierta there in two weeks.  But, Thursday afternoon we received word that the Rocha Capilla Abierta was cancelled.  This was too bad because we already had hotel rooms booked for these two weekends and we could not cancel them.  Renee suggested that we see if we could do one in Chuy.  This is quite a bit farther but would work with the hotel rooms.  We made a quick call to the missionaries in Chuy and the set it up.  So we were back in the money.

Saturday afternoon we went to the El Bosque ward of the La Costa Stake to do the Capilla Abierta.  The missionaries were very enthusiastic and did a good job inviting the people to come in.  I got a pretty good shot of the Elders meeting with people on the street. There were a half a dozen new people that showed quite a bit of interest.  We got done about 8:30 P.M. and then drove to La Paloma to stay in the Hotel.  We arrived about 11:00 P.M.  A little late for a couple of old people.

Chuy is on the coast and actually straddles the Brazil border.  It is about four hours from Montevideo.  We took off from La Paloma for Chuy as soon as we could in the morning and arrived in plenty of time to do our presentation.  We had no sooner arrived and we could feel that we had been led in the right direction.  The people were so open and friendly.  They were excited to participate and anxiously asked for invitations to invite their friends.  The Church building also sits right on the major plaza so we should have a good crowd in two weeks.  We can hardly wait.  It is amazing how the Lord leads us in the right direction.  Chuy is not what we planned but it is what needed to be done.  We are so grateful to be able to be led in the right direction.

We got home about 5:00 P. M. today, tired but happy.  It was a pretty fun week.  We have had some good opportunities lately to teach and to bear our testimonies.  That is what makes the mission worthwhile.  We are looking forward to Easter and General Conference.  It is a fun time to be missionaries.  We love you all.

Love
Gordon and Renee