December 2014 Pictures

December 20th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week has once again been insane. So this week was the Christmas conference on Wednesday, but in the middle of all the insane preparation. The internet decided to fail. We were in a total panic and were up till 2:00 AM finishing everything because of all the complications that caused. Then we got up early again and went to the church nice and early to make sure everything was in order and would work well. The worst is the mission president´s wife was really really worried that the 125 pizzas we ordered wouldn´t be warm. So we thought a bit about it and with the van filled with pizzas in the hot uruguay sun, we closed all the windows and turned on the heater on full blast. I have never sweated so much or so quickly in my whole life. It was only a 10 minute ride from the Pizzería to the church but it was miserable. Then we locked the pizzas in there to cook because cars always get super hot and it worked perfectly. I got in President´s letter to me this week, something along the lines of,¨ Thanks for everything, the conference went super well. The pizzas were even warm!¨ But in that moment, he didn´t know what we did to keep them warm. So I told him afterwards and I can´t wait to see his reply. It was a long story with the pizzas but that is the short version. It was quite the big deal beforehand. The pizza guy got super stressed and yelled at me saying he can do magic and keep 125 pizzas warm at once etc and it was a mess. But it turned out great.

Plus President bought a ton of watermelon and ice cream and things and they bought too much so we went home with a lot of watermelon and a little extra ice cream. Which is always a nice perk. 

Something incredible that has happened recently is when me and my trainer of my mission have left a couple of times together to do things and we never have time to talk people in the street but God always makes it possible that we can still teach even though we don´t look for it as much as other. Two women stopped us in the past week and both of them we taught, invited to church and one came and we will see if the new one comes! This last one just approached us, asked if we were mormons and start to cry. She said she wants to die and we just talked and taught her about the Plan of Salvation for 45 minutes even though we had stuff to do. That lady just happened to pass by at the same time we did and we only left the offices for a 5 minute walk to the bank and back. So that conversation was definitely planned by God, there is no doubt. We leave the offices far too seldom and are in too much of a hurry for that to have been a conincidence. God is sending people prepared for us to teach even though we have this different situation. We have to a lesson planned tonight with that lady so I hope that goes well! I hope the other one comes back to church tomorrow and this one comes tomorrow! They both already said they would be baptized so we will see!

Other than that, we have a tranquil week planned so it should be a great week of Christmas.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and can feel the spirit of love like we are feeling here. It really is a glorious time of year. Terrible to think it will end soon. Also means I will already have 11 months in my mission in about a week. That is always a weird thought. I was already buying and preparing stuff exactly a year ago. I finished finals today, exactly a year ago and was driving home from BYU already. Now I am already half way done with my service here. Such a weird thought. 

But there is not much left to say and very little time so I love you all and hope you all have a great Christmas!

Take care!

Elder Moss

December 13th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has also gone really well. This morning we ran to the beach for our excersizes and took a few photos and this is what happens hahaha. But it really was great. We have also been more effective in the offices and been able to leave to proselyte a lot more which is great. We left five days in a row which just doesn`t happen. One fiancier never left during the week in his six months in the offices. So we are doing great! But the bad things is we have nothing. Only one investigator, and we don`t know any less actives, members, nothing. It is awful to start but it will get better of course so no problem! 

Other than that,  we have the Christmas conference this week and I have about 6000 dollars in my name for the travel and food and everything so I hope I don`t lose any receits or money or they will kill me. So pray that I don`t lose money or receits. I don`t want to go home early! Haha. 

But other than that it is just the normal things. Lots of missionaries water cut this week. I feel bad for them but they never send us their bills and we can`t pay if there is no bill! But oh well. They will learn someway. One house had a debt of 500 dollars for electrcity so that was an interesting call.

Almost Christmas time and the more and more we sweat. Super weird still good. But here they launch fireworks everywhere on Christmas which will be new and interesting. I will be sure to take pictures and send them.

I hope everyone is taking advantage of this time of year to share ``He is the Gift`` and seeing a lot of great things. I heard it is having great success on the internet and great thing are happening so make sure to take advantage of this time to share the gospel. I love you guys much and hope you guys have an awesome week.

Take care.

Elder Moss

Dec 6th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

So another great and crazy week. This last Tuesday, the APs, secretaries and we had to prepare everything for ¨concilio¨ which is the once a month meeting of zone leaders to help imrpove the mission and that was nuts. A former secretary came as a zone leader so he had a license to drive and wanted to pick up the food. So, for the third time in three weeks, there was another crash! Now my companion crashed, President has crashed and a zone leader has crashed in the past three weeks. I am one of the only ones that hasn´t crashed yet and I drive the most. That kind of makes me prideful, humbling, and just weird at the same time. Kind of cool to see how my past skills have helped me here!

To add to that, we have a huge problem with water and light bills getting here on time because missionaries always forget and then the companies cut the water and electricity. That is literally a weekly if not daily occurance. So with help of my companion, and a senior missionary, I have tooken the initiative to change the whole system of paying the light and water bills, and my past computer knowledge is becoming a huge help in that. That is super super great to feel I am actually making a difference here in the offices. We have also changed a lot with the way we manage cell phones, thanks to our initiative, and still in process of changing the way we pay rent but we should be spending a lot less money pretty soon which is so great to think about. We have already gone over our budget for this year so we will see if we can´t change that for this next year. 

Another absolutely crazy thing is now I am responsibilities for the mission van since I am one of two missionaries who can drive it. So when I looked around in it, I saw the last time it had a oil check was about 1.5 years ago. But worse is it has gone 15,000 kilometers on this oil and supposed to only go 5,000. That is crazy it hasn´t exploded yet. Everyone got mad at me and my companion but we turned in the van right away which left us without a car but it was in bad shape when I started driving. One light doesn´t work, the right sliding door doesn´t work, the air conditioning doesn´t work which is killer right now with summer cooking us, there is really weird noises, and it has a bit of damage from the 2 accidents it has had recently. Kind of sad seeing how badly treated this van is. It will be even more sad seeing how much it will be in total when it is fixed. Sad to see church funds used badly but we will see what can we do to fix things! I am super excited to do my best to make a difference here. When I was first called to this assignment, I figured there was a mistake and I wasn´t fit for this but now I feel I am fulfilling my calling as best I can and will be able to help this mission. 

Overall it has been a very exciting week and even better because I also made the effort with my companion to leave and teach at night. Last change we couldn´t at all, but we changed responsibilities and I made it a goal to make time for proselyting and we are doing it. It is extremely hot and sweaty and we didn´t have too much success but we are leaving to work still even though we have so many respnsabilities. This week, we had a couple days where we started working at 8:00 AM and stopped at 12:00 at night to finish for deadlines. I am beyond exhausted but love being so busy and doing so many things. I hope we continue have great success and things start going a bit more smoothly, but we will see! Here is a couple awesome photos from this week and hope you all enjoy them!

I love you guys and hope all is well and are having a great christmas season. Hope you all share about the new initative from the church about ¨He is the gift¨. The church made an incredible video and it is a great time to share the gospel. I hope you all can have great spiritual experiences sharing it and remember the purpose of Christmas. Although this is such a weird Christmas here in South America. Instead of sledding and snow, it is a constant sauna. It even smells like one, and I am not exaggerating! 

Elder Moss

more pics November 2014

Pictures November 2014

Nov 22, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week has been the craziest week of my mission by far. I think I will cry if my mother can`t upload the photos this week. This week was the week of changes so that is always insane. We stay up till all hours of the night and wake up way early and going everywhere. Since I was the only one for a time this week who had a Uruguayan license, I had to run everyone`s errands so I had to take people to the airport, for those going home. Take new missionaries to different places, and transfer a bunch of things. On top of it, we have had bad problems with neighbors in our apartment so we have been moving out and that is exhausting with all the stuff for an 8 Elder house for now. But the new house is so great but weird. 

The old owner of the house was some kind of crazy doctor but also has stickers with weed on them in our window. So we came to the conclusion that the old owner died because the real estate told us just to throw away everything we find and we found a lot. Lots of old journals, experiments, microscopes, weird lights, lots and lots of experiements etc. Super super weird. Kind of creeped out but it is awesome. I will attach photos.

But the craziest thing was the day of changes when the assistent and my companion wanted to practice driving. So them both, unlicensed, started practing with me in there and the other assistent. So we go out and it was terrifying. We almost crashed 5 times, until we finally did. President, the senior missionaries, the area offices workers, everyone was furious. I was the only one in the car with a license, and not driving. The people here in Uruguay are the most absolute awful drivers I have ever seen. If I didn`t have so much experience driving before the mission, especially stick shift which our car is, I wouldn`t drive. These people are insane, the streets are terribly done, and the drivers are full of testosterone, and stop signs and lights barely exist. Most of the intersections there is nothing. No yield, no stop signs, and few stop lights. So it is always an experience here, but I drive quite well so it is working. Not even being prideful, but I can tell judging by the other missionaries and the Uruguayans. So I hope you all enjoy the photos. I have now been in my first car accident and it was pretty crazy. The other car got absolutely wrecked, and ours, barely a dent. Our Hyundai van is quite powerful. It is huge in these streets and I think it is protected by the Spirit or something. Just incredible that nothing happened to our van and all that happened to the other car. Luckily no one got seriously hurt. The driver of the other car went to the hospital for a little whiplash but not bad. But we have to pay everything and without insurance help because they were driving without licenses. So that is going to be a lot of expenses for the church and them. Not good. So that was a tramautizing day that I will never forget. The people watching also won`t forget soon considering it was four Mormon missionaries. That is always awkward. Four hours we were there and everyone watching us as they go by, so basically half the country now knows that some Mormon missionaries got in a wreck. 

Other than that my week was really good, just very long. Taking people to the airport at all hours of the night was exhausting and not good considering I am driving in these streets. 

Something funny was that one of the secretaries had to take all the new missionaries to the doctor to make sure they are okay to live in the country and they have to take all their cups of pee there. But someone didn`t close it right and it spilled all over him. That sister missionary will never forget that I bet. 

I hope things are going back home better than they are here. I hope this week will be less crazy. One day we worked for 18 hours straight so I slept really well that night. Until we woke up again at 6:30 AM. Hahaha Oh well. 

Love you guys. have a great week, I will try to write again next week.

Elder Moss

Nov 15th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

The conference with Elder Christensen was awesome, we were the first ones to see him. Plus we shook hands and talked a little while, while the rest of the five hundred missionaries were waiting patiently in the cultural hall. Super awesome. He and his wife spoke such good spanish and were awesome. He is also extremely tall which took me by surprise. But it was so awesome, I wish I took photos but we had no time.

I hope you guys enjoyed the photos that I have been taking recently, I have been taking a ton because here in the heart of the city, there is a lot of things to photograph. It is awesome. 

That sounds pretty awful about the North Pole weather you guys are having. But I guess I would still prefer it over this. It is starting to get quite warm but I guess I can´t complain with being in the offices, we seem to have it pretty good being inside all day. This next week we move houses which will be cool because he have really bad problems with neighbors. So we get a new house and it is beautiful. It even comes with carpet which is rarer than rare here in Uruguay.

But the crazy news is my trainer is coming to the offices as a secretary next week! What are the odds!? We will be together here in the offices for 18 weeks together and living in the same house and everything! How crazy no? Out of 250 missionaries, they chose me and him and we are reunited. Crazy crazy. 

This week we had an incredible dinner with the president, the secretaries, the APs, and the senior missionaries and it was so good. Turkey like my mother does it, Croissants like my mother does them, green beans like my mother, and a fruit salad. We basically had a thanksgiving dinner for the office worker that leaves and one of the APs is going home so they invited us all to dinner. Then we had an incredible peach pie. I can´t describe how great it was. To be honest, American food really is a lot better and sits in your stomach a lot easier. I do love Uruguayan food, but it was so great having some American food again. I attached some of the photos to this email. I hope my mother is able to post them! Seems to be having technical difficulties with the blog. Either way, it was awesome. 

Love you all and hope all is well in Zion. Take care

Elder Moss



P.S. No technical difficulties with the blog, just the pictures can't be transferred so far. Even Br. Moss the computer guy wasn't able to transfer them so far. We will keep trying. If nothing else, we will wait for either Brandinn Long or Steffen Moss to come and try it. Hint, hint!!!

Oct 25, 2014

Oct 18th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been another great week here in Uruguay and love having so many things to do and being so busy. I have fallen in love with being busy and all that stuff so this new assignment helps. I am in charge of all the missionaries cards, medical expenditures, reimbursements for missionaries, all the cell phones of the mission, and more but those are the heftiest. I have never been so busy in my life, and we still do our best to get out and proselyte which is crazy. Having a thousand things in your head at one time, has given me so many head aches but I love it. I have never been so tired in my life. Plus we wake up early to run to the church and play basketball every morning so I am a zombie now.

Even though it is a blast being here, it is hard, because it is like having a job almost. Trying to maintain the spirituality of a missionary when we barely can go out to work and testify of the gospel is hard. My spirituality is draining but the other offices workers are incredible, plus we are with President and the APs a lot so we all keep each other sane and spiritual. It is crazy how much President trusts us though, that is for sure. Working on computers all day every day with internet access and having a car and permission to go to which ever area and even leave mission boundaries is crazy. Uruguay is split into two missions and one of the banks we use is in the other mission and it is just so strange still to have so many worldly things now, but still being responsible. In a couple months I will be able to drive around and that is crazy. It is all so crazy but I am so excited. The Lord and President really love and trust us which is so comforting. 

I will update you guys on all the disasters and crazy things that happen, but right now, I don't have enough time. Sadly. You wouldn't believe the kind of things that happen, and we know it all. But once I have a camera I will definitely send tons of pictures and show you downtown Montevideo versus the country. it is insane. Super beautiful, and nice in the city. I realized I am a city person out here which is funny. Still haven't left the capital and won't for 14 months of my 24 month mission. And it could even be longer! Crazy stuff.

I feel so blessed with this opportunity and absolutely love it. 

Hope you guys have a great week and I will write again next week.

Elder Moss

Oct 11, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Since the last time you all heard, lots of things have happened. 

I ended up not becoming a district leader because it was an error in the system but had a great change anyways. I absolutely loved the North Stake and it was a pleasure to be in Ferrocarril, Norte.

This change I have been changed to once again the city of Montevideo. Of the 13 zones in my mission, 3 are actually in Montevideo and now I have been in all three. I am now in the Stake, East and it´s great. I have been assigned as a Financier of the mission and have many responsibilities with that so it is awesome. I have a lot more power than I thought I would as a financier and it is kind of scary but awesome. I have to be very careful with all the tithing donations we receive here for the missionaries but this mission is very interesting. It is apparently one of the most expensive missions in the world and uses a lot more money than I would have thought. It is actually quite incredible. I wish I could tell you guys but I don´t feel that would be appropriate hahahaha. Either way, it is awesome and I am really living the good life. From our apartment complex we see the ocean and always have a very nice ocean breeze as the heat comes. If you want you can look up malvin in Montevideo uruguay, that is were I am. 

Something funny is that we drive around with the APs all the time and one is from California and drives like a maniac. It is awesome though. No speed limits, windy beach roads, and narrow streets makes it very very interesting. Especially with the quantity of buses here. The neighborhood is extremely rich so not too much success regarding the work but we barely have time for that. I still have not been able to work yet. We have sooo many responsibilities we have to fulfill and sadly don't have nearly as much time to visit people. It really is a difference and is hard. Teaching and proselyting is awesome and tiring but this is just tiring. Very very long days of office things. We don´t have language study anymore, and no dinner or lunch time. We just get lunch and come back and work more. Buuuut, we do have awesome lunches because we have Burger King, McDonalds, Subway etc which is awesome. We are in the super rich part of Uruguay so we have many many American things which is cool. Not as exciting as I thought it would be but still great.

Either way, it is awesome being here and crazy to think I will be here for 6 months, for sure. It will be hard but awesome. Many benefits and a few negatives but it will be great. Love you all and hope all is well. Hope you enjoyed conference as much as I did. Some very incredible talks given. Can´t wait to start driving the mission cars and go to appropriate places of the beach(They have a problem here with modesty) at appropriate times haha. No swimming though sadly. Oh well.Take care!

Love,

Elder Moss

September 1, 2014

pictures August 2014

August 26th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

So another week has passed and a lot has happened. My awesome crazy companion is heading out and I am staying here in Montevideo still. I have yet to be outside the city but I am sure that will happen soon. 

I also happened to recieve a interesting call with the changes and I have become District Leader out here in The North Zone of Montevideo with less than 7 months in the mission... I am kind of terrified but pretty dang excited. I plan on being the best district leader ever but we will see how that goes. I feel pretty unprepared but I think it will be great. I didn´t sleep well because of that and I am still on edge a bit but I am sure everything will be fine.

The weird part is that my junior companion has more time than me in the mission and he is from Peru so we will see how that goes. My trainer was from Peru and was good so we will see how this goes. 

Yesterday we had a ward activity and somehow they have the money to rent a mechanical bull and so I did that yesterday. Lots of soccer, basketball, Volleyball, and Mechanical bull hahaha. The best part was some youth from the ward came and this one less active guy came and took over the music and started doing his weird dance in the corner for forever. I honestly couldn´t keep from laughing. But then the rest of the ward started doing it to his weird techno music. These people are all so different but it is pretty awesome. Basically shame doesn´t exist here and I am not exhadurating. I know I spelled that wrong. 

But other than that I can´t remember the other crazy things that happened. I just know that they happen and I will remember in the next life. 

Love you guys, hope all is well and let me know how things are going. Take care!

Elder Moss

pictures August 2014

August 11, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

On the Uruguay front all is well. My house is still way fun and way weird. I left our house for my birthday to go celebrate with my district leader because he is the best and some member in his ward wanted to give me Pizza and cake so we went and it was awesome. Super deleicious and fun. Butttt, when I returned in the morning my companion had a fight with someone else in the house and the other guy punched my companion and that just goes to show what happens when I am not around. My house is nuts. Ward is still way good, area rich so we get betters lunches instead of noddles and tomato paste everyday. My eating healthy went down the tube and I eat terriblly. Today I made empanadas for breakfast. It was really good. The Germany candy was delicious and is almost gone... Oh well. I eat things called Alfajors like everyday and they are absolutely awful for you and I have gained weight but whatever. No girls for 18 months! What up!

My zone leaders are awesome and really inspiring but kind of nuts too. They have a meeting once a month with all the bishops and the stake president each month and we have a problem here trying to get baptisms to happen as fast as we can and the zone leaders weren´t happy. Bishops usually delay baptisms to make sure these people will continue to go to church and our Zone leader told them that they are with the Devil with trying to not let the baptisms happen. Our bishop loves us and told us about that and then we all laughed and had a great time about that. 

Saw some guy juggling on a slack line which was really cool. These people will do anything for money here. Trust me. Anything. Someone got killed a little while ago for 2.5 dollars. Kind of crazy and I always have the sketchy areas. Don´t know why. Some other missionary got hit in the head with a slingshot with a rock so I should count my blessings that hasn´t happened yet haha.

There are more stories but I already forgot them. Oh well. Love you guys. Just let me know what you want to hear about. Take care.

Elder Moss

July 21, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Everything here is going pretty well if I may say so myself! My companion is pretty great. He is a great worker unlike the other two and very excited during teaching which is great. We work very hard and have fun. We live in a four person house which is pretty fun. Less long silences of boredom and more people to talk to. My companion is Argentinian so we don´t talk in English but it is great. I am learning quite a bit and there in another gringo in the house so we can talk in English. Overall the house, companionship goes well but the work is rough. I replaced the district leader in our area and the district leader had been there for a long time and it is a hard area. Much more rich and harder to have success. There has only been four baptisms in this area for the last year whereas there was 11 in my last area.

We had a division which is where we switch for a day with the district leader and I went with his comp and he had Yugioh cards which was hilarious. I played Yugioh for the first time in like 8 years that day so that was cool. 

This last week there was a mtc for a day for the youth in Uruguay and the President of our mission was there in our building for it. So people wanted to play soccer on the court and his car was in the way. So he gave my comp the keys to move it, but he was too scared and couldn´t drive the automatic so now I can say I drove the President´s car which is hilarious.

A dog also followed us home yesterday for two hours so he stayed within our gates for the night, gave him some food and water, and kicked him out this morning which was pretty funny too. Not too much happened this week. The area is great, comp is decent, house is good, zone is good, and district leader is awesome. Let me know if you want to know anything else!

Elder Moss

July 15th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends!

Hope all is well!

Right now all is well here. Pretty anxious again because I am being changed but I guess we will see how it goes. I apparently have a pretty strong personalitied companion from Argentina that doesn´t speak English so we will see how that goes. He sound very strange and pretty annoying from the sound of things. I am really quite anxious but we´ll see how it goes. I am going to a new area still in Montevideo but different zone so we will see how that goes. This was a pretty dang good change. Quite a few times of frustration but overall went quite well this change. Grateful to have had Elder Adney as a companion.

Work is going well and we had Miguel and Alison´s wedding finally and his baptism so that was great! I will send photos for sure.

It´s been warm recently but man, it has been pouring rain today. Not cool Uruguay. Not cool.

Tell the German missionary to wait for me and I will come back for her! I would love to marry a German girl hahaha.

Hope you guys enjoy the photos! 

Starting to enjoy the work a lot lot more but companions will always be a headache especially considering my love for being alone and introvert tendencies. 

It is really becoming a joy to teach people and see love and light come in their eyes and be able to joke around with them and make a difference. That is the cool part about being here. I always pray for you guys! Take care!

Love,

Elder Moss

July 2014

June 2014

June 2014

picture from May 26th, 2014

June 3rd, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was awesome because of several reasons.

First of all, we had a great conference with an area seventy called Elder Gonzeles from Uruguay and our President and wife to the President spoke and it was all really great but too much to write about. The important part was at long last, I understood almost all of it. I still struggle with conversation but I can understand a lot more! It was four hours long and I only didn´t understand like 10-20 words. I also saw one of the Americans I came with and heard him talk Spanish with my trainer and I noticed quite a few mistakes which was gratifying. Not in a mean or conceited way or saying anything about him but I finally saw my progress I have made. And he took four years of Spanish in high school and did a lot better at the MTC with Spanish than I did so that was awesome. Not in a mean or conceited way though! Just great to see progress.

I also had probably the greatest moment of my mission. Since my companion is leaving, we told some recent converts that he is leaving and he had been in this area for a while so they liked him a lot. So one 10 year old member said what! Why! Why doesn´t he(me) leave, that would be much better. That of course hit hard since a mission is hard enough and you struggle every single day with dozens of things but that just hit hard again. I questioned if I was even blessing anyones´ lives here and if I am just a burden. Sadly to say it was a moment of great alarm and I didn´t talk more during the lesson, afterwards, at the bus stop or on the bus. But then, afterwards, we got off the bus and saw a very sick woman and man and it looked bad. She couldn´t stand up, she kept falling down and couldn´t walk. So the man helped her to the bench and I asked a few times if we could help and they didn´t really say anything. We waited while they rested at the stop and then I asked if we could give a blessing. After a few minutes she relented and said yes and so without pulling out my cards to help remind me how to do it in Spanish, I annointed the blessing and then my companion gave a very powerful blessing. All at a bus stop with people standing around there, motorcycles, buses, and cars going by etc. Afterwards her countenance completely changed and they both looked at us with water in her eyes. We asked if we could do more and then we left our number and made sure to call us if they need anything more. We walked away and I turned back to say bye once more and then I just started to cry once again. (I get humbled a lot here) I don´t know why but it was incredibly powerful and I won´t forget it. I knew that was a blessing for not only her but a God given opportunity to do something and feel meaningful in the work again and maybe one day she will find our church and join becuase of that expereience. It wasn´t a baptism or anything but it was incredible for me. We have struggle to help people progress and haven´t have baptisms for two months but this was very needed on my part. I don´t have much time to say more but that was an incredible experience for me.

Other than that, it was a better week, less cold and much less rain and wind. My trainer is leaving for the country tomorrow and I get an American companion tomorrow so we will see how that goes! Hopefully he is awesome and can help me with the language as much as Elder Torres did for me. He was awesome and I am sad to see him go but oh well. I am no longer a greenie and instead I am a boring Junior companion but whatever. It will be great. Let me know if you guys want to know anything more. Thank you for the emails and support and of course the packages and letters. Love you guys dearly. Take care! Talk to you guys next week!

Elder Moss

May 26th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends!

Hey everyone,

Sadly this last week we dont have many stories. As we move into winter, it becomes more and more a living Hell. The winters here are filled with very very cold rains and lots of wind! So proselyting this week was tough but we did it anyways! Some missionaries give the excuse they are sick so they dont have to work but we prided ourselves that we still put in our time and effort. What the funny part of this last week was the supposedly water resistant jacket I have has a bigger neck hole than I have a neck.... So water got in my jacket and soaked my agenda and my 150 flashcards I made. Hahaha how terrrible. But oh well, the words and plans should be in my head anyways! If mom posts the picture youll see how my companion like the movie title, the best two years, and how much we love uruguay when it rains. It was pretty funny and funny to show our branch mission leader. You might also see all the pages of my agenda spread out across our chairs. 

Investigators wise we dont have much. Many people say they will be baptized so we return for the second lesson and no one is home or say they are busy. How lame. I guess they just dont want salvation! Sucks for them. Haha. But, we did go to an investigators home where the old parents arent members but have a missionary son. They are very nice and always invite us in but no progression. But! This week she was sick so we gave a blessing and maybe that will allow us more room for improvement. She started reading her sons preach my gospel since that blessing so fingers crossed! I also gave my first blessing in Spanish this week instead of just starting the blessing so that was cool! Nothing too much to report except that its freezing and we have a few hopeful investigators. Love you guys and hope you are all preparing for an awesome summer! Take care!

Love,

Elder Moss

May 19th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been quite hilarious and fun in several ways. Here in Prosperidad we have a hilarious crazy mission leader who is like no one else. So I taught him the English word for Pimples and ever since he has called me Elder Pimples. And he calls me that, EVERYWHERE. In lessons with investigators, (Now they think my name is literally Elder Pimples), at the past stake conference we saw him and he yelled hey! Brother freaking Pimples! Come here! (He knows only a little English and almost all of it is bad or gross and he talks about those things all the time. It is beyond funny. Especially in lessons because he comes often.) While everyone was standing there talking. Our mission President even came to the stake conferenceand I was talking to his wife at the end when he did that. Beyond funny. Me and my companion couldn´t stop laughing about it. Quite awkward for me though. No matter though!

Another crazy old man kissed at me at the bus stop and then stared at me on the bus last Monday which was awkward and weird. But, very funny at the same time.

We also have a 14 year old in our branch here who plays piano better than most people who have played for 15 years in the states. He can play extremely complicated songs and hymns and make it look easy. He can play that very complicated theme song of Pirates of the Carribean. So he was playing at a ward baptism for his 8 year old little brother when the wife of our branch president came over and started headbanging to his playing. And she is a rich serious woman so that was also very hilarious. We were all standing there marvelling and then she came over, marvelled and then started headbanging. It was so awesome.

We also had some problems with teenagers and knew where they live so we told our crazy mission leader, he went to the boys house, told the father, and the father immediately got the boy and slapped him. We definitely have the best mission leader.

On the bus this week we were all very squished together as usual when the person you pay on the bus suddenly started yelling for everyone to get on the bus faster and then told all the people to suck in their stomachs which was hilarious. There was a bunch of fat people so we just started laughing and looked away.

Something gross is we saw kids drinking out of the disgusting cewer/canal/water drainage system. That was disgusting and humbling and just so many different things. 

Something political is they are having President elections soon and someone called Pedro is running so it´s awesome to see signs that say ¨Votá por Pedro¨ which means vote for Pedro. Remember Napolean Dynamite when you read that.

Last thing was some dumb guy on a motorcycle swerved to try and hit me so I jumped out of the way and mumbled bad things under my breath for the rest of the way to the investigator´s house. I don´t know if he really would have hit me but that is the thing to do hear. He have dumb teenagers swerve their bikes in front of us all the times. But a motorcycle made my heart stop haha. I am still learning how to be Christ like and no curse my enemies. Harder than I thought it would be! 

Don´t worry I do have spiritual experiences here and learn a lot and have great stuff but I figure you guys just want to hear the funny crazy weird stuff so I hope you enjoyed! Love you all, have a great week! Talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Moss

May 12th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been awesome for several reasons. Last Sunday was mother´s day so it was awesome to have the opportunity to skype home for forty minutes and see my lovely family again. Had to hold in the tears of course. My pride is still strong haha. 

In other reguards we have some new investigators that seem promising which makes the work so much easier.The work is incredible when you actually get to teach and feel the spirit. Walking around aimlessly 7-8 hours a day is obviously torture. I feel bad for American missionaries in that reguard. We always have people walking around and can talk. Most reject or are just being nice but at least someone there to talk to! But heating and air conditioning is nice on the other hand... Hard to judge! Haha. 

In weird reguards, we see people selling stuff and offering services in the street often like wash windows, sell flowers etc but this week we saw a fire juggler for entertainment while in the bus. Sick huh!? Way cool to see something new. Wish I could have given him a few pesos, that was awesome.

Other than that, we had transfers for a day, I forgot how to say it in English. Anyways, my comp went with the district leader and I got a old missionary with 22 months and we just went to members homes because he wanted to be lazy. It was really funny. I felt like I was taking a day off from the work. I felt bad but we still taught them and plus, I am the greeny that doesn´t speak Spanish and he didn´t speak English so it isn´t my fault. I wash my hands in front of you. (Read Jesus the Christ to get that reference.)The members always give food, have us in the house so we can sit down for once and it was just really easy. He sure does take advantage of the time when the district leader is away. 

We also had a multizone conference in the city so that was awesome, inspiring, and way fun overall. We all got free pizza, fruit and alfajores. So much fun and easier than working. You really come to appreciate the small things in a mission.  Thanks everything for the letters, packages, and emails. They are just so awesome to recieve and a great break from thinking about the work. You love the work but breaks are necessary. Hope all is well back home and you all are having fun! Even without me. Just kidding :) Love you guys.

Elder Moss

May 5th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends!

This past week has been a bit slow since we have no progressing investigators. The work sucks when no one acts on their faith. They say they will be baptized and then they don´t even go to church. It is a struggle. Plus we have a ridiculous amount of less actives here who won´t go. One ward down here has 5% activity rate. The activity in the church down here struggles. Truly struggles. But! Missionaries here work hard and do their best. We got a new district leader who is way better than the last. The last one was extremely competetive, and ¨all knowledgable¨ and just annoying. Always telling me how I should do things (personal things not mission things).So it is nice having a new one. He is a much better leader and much kinder too. 

On the home front, the hot water still sucks. I took a shower basically attached to the wall because the semi warm water comes out at at half the rate a kitchen faucet does in America. Very annoying but still funny.

In church I saw the first testimony meeting where a couple went up. Strange but cool. Couldn´t say I saw that before.

This last week we tried to visit a investigator and we couldn´t get to the house for like a half hour because this devil dog tried to bite us and kept barking like crazy so we went to the house, saw us and chased us away, got bored, we go back, he chased us back again etc. It was extremely funny. That dog must have demons to repel missionaries haha. Another time we went to a house, stood outside of it and waited. Then a man came, walked past, walked into the house and didn´t answer despite lots of clapping.

 I forgot to tell you guys! Everyone here claps to knock. They all have gates so we are like 100 feet from houses and clap as hard as we can to get them to come. Plus they all kiss here so we try not to but we get kissed a lot. It´s way funny. Like everyone. Men kiss men´s cheeks, women kiss women´s cheeks and whatever else. It´s funny because people forget to not do it with missionaries and we can´t be rude so it´s awkward because we don´t kiss back. 

There is also some weird old men here. Some of the 70 year old men play racing games in the Cyber which is really funny. 

Last week was Day of the Worker on Thursday so no one worked and we had no buses which sucked. Needless to I got a lot more foot callus that day. As if I didn´t have enough.

Humidity is crazy. I got a hot shower once a few days ago and with the cold, I could just blow and it was like I was smoking a giant cigarette. The water in my breath was beyond thick. It is like Gandalf when he smokes the Pipeweed in the first Lord of the Rings. Speaking of movies, we were on the craziest bus a few weeks ago that just flew through neighborhoods at like 50 MPH. I felt like I was on the insane double decker bus from Harry Potter. The one with the hanging head! haha. It was awesome though. Very terrifying. Other than that, love you all! Miss you all, hope you had a great week and have another great week! Take care!

Love,

Elder Moss

Addresses for Elder Moss

These are Elder Moss' mail and email addresses.
Apparently the email address is not restricted to family and by the way Derek loves to get mail.





Elder Derek Thomas Moss
Uruguay Montevideo Mission
Dalmiro Costa 4635 Bis
Malvin
11400 Montevideo
Uruguay

derek.moss@myldsmail.net

April 28th, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was pretty relaxed and crazy. We got our house renovated so lot´s of bugs and moving stuff and whatever but now we have a clean house and a new fridge that actually works and a microwave that won´t give you Tetnis! Everything is rusting and sharp and whatever so we are getting stuff replaced. 

They replaced our water heater and forgot to hook up the hot water to the shower or something else is wrong. Either way, I have been taking my showers in a bucket filled with hot water from the sink. I took a glass and transfered water from the sink to the bucket and then washed. It sucks but is way funny. New experiences I guess. Keep in mind when we wake up, it is so cold we can see our breath and then think about my showers in a bucket. New perspective? 

We had the workers who are members make lunch with us so now I know a few Uruguayan recipes for Gizo, Arroz con Leche, and I forgot the other. They are way good though. One is a desert and weird but good. It is basically warm rice with sugar, milk, and cream. Trust me, it´s weird. But still very good.

One rich guy in our ward went to Brazil and brought us back these Brazilian chocolates that are phenonamal. The kindness of these members is outstanding. I love this ward so much. You guys have no idea how kind and caring and funny they are. Just great great people.

Another funny experience was we were at a bus stop trying to go to a zone meeting and the Jehovahs witnesses started preaching to us. It was just one that came up to us. She was nervous so she just said like three lines, handed us pamphlets and left quickly. She didn´t give us any opportunity to correct her or bible bash or anything! Just kidding. We wouldn´t do that. But one guy yesterday tried to preach to us and said a bunch of weird stuff so my companion corrected him a lot. He even said Nicodemus wrong so my companion corrected him making him feel like he knew nothing. Afterwards my companion said he felt good. Way too funny. He was like, I won. Hahahaha. We just laughed and left. Other than that not too much happened this week. Or I just forgot. Either way it was a good week. Hope all is well back home! Love you guys! Until next week!

Enjoy the picture of how Uruguayans fix their potholes, and our house under construction!

Love,

Elder Moss

Pictures for 14 and 22 April 2014

April 22, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

So first cambios are done and I am still alive and doing well. Still with my trainer and in this sweet area of Prosperidad(Prosperity). Not too much happened this week in regards of weird things but we are working hard!

I hate that I am allergic to every bug here. I apply bug bite cream daily. No joke. The bugs won´t die! It´s freezing at night and they just won´t die! It is going to be a loooooong two years with these stupid bugs. 

We ran into my first German this last week as a matter of fact and then I see a lot of Germany soccer jerseys which I try to always compliment. I also saw a shirt today in German so that was cool too. I only spoke to one who was visiting friends here for Easter and he had a sweet German accent on his Spanish. I told him my mother is from Karlsruhe which he thought was cool!

This last Sunday was Easter as you know and I had to awesome terrible opportunity to give a talk. I had to talk about the atonement for 10 minutes and I actually took too long which was cool! I had only a tiny bit of help from my companion and people said they understood and appreciated the message so I was content.

We could be the dumb bad missionaries who just baptize children and then they go inactive for their whole lives but we aren´t doing that. Those missionaries are made fun of here. The people are great and receptive but lazy and never home. to bring five people to the waters of baptism. They struggle to even come to church so not too much progress but we are working with them.On Easter we went to 14 homes and not one would either let us in or were home. They were either empty or busy. Very frustrating but whatever. Needless to say I have gained leg muscle mass. I estimate we walk 5-10 kms a day which actually isn´t too bad compared to some areas.

What was hard to look away from was some members were watching one of my favorite movies Happy Gilmore and didn´t turn it off when we came in. So I stared at the floor for like 30 minutes and ocassionally peeked. I felt bad but it was too much of a temptation. Such a fun movie!

We also went to a recent converts house and killed snails by stepping on them which was really funny. The 10 year old got way into it. 

Getting used to sheep, horses, cows, ducks, chickens, roosters, dogs, cats etc EVERYWHERE is still weird. But way cool. We mess with them a lot. We tried to feed some ducks with nuts but it didn´t work. Oh well.

Since everything is really expensive we make our own peanut butter, tortas fritas, and weird other stuff. Peanut butter is way fun to make and really easy and better than store bought anyways. We are going to make a kg worth of peanut butter today, wish us luck! 

Love you guys!

Elder Moss

April 14th, 2014

Hey Family and Friends!

We are starting to move into Winter and it is going to get very very cold. The humidity is REAL. 

I look forward to Easter but not for normal reasons. Maybe we can change the paths for some of the bi annual mass goers! Not too many catholics here like I guessed. A lot of everything actually. Evangelists are big here, Catholics, Jehovah witnesses, little churches etc. 

Thiefs are fun to deal with because they make the day interesting. We have to go different ways, turn around and run around which is always fun. We always hide our valubles and watch others watch us closely.

This week we saw a huge tarantula just chilling in front of a member´s home which was terrifying. I hate spiders enough but when they are that big...I feel like Satan made those things himself.

We have a member in the ward who makes everything himself so I had some incredible homemade peanut butter that me and my companion are going to attempt to make today! We will also attempt to make Tortas Fritas which are awesome! So good, basic and cheap. We have tried to cook more and not just eat chips and bread. My meals mostly consist of bread. See photo. I was eating breakfast and studying when my companion took a picture and said. Look, missionary breakfast! We also had no power for a little while so we made mac and cheese in the dark and it was just fun.

The legal week is also way funny because we see people regularly rolling blunts and chilling. Cops here don´t bust people for anything. It´s way funny.

Today we took a more expensive bus and apparently people hop on and play music and sing and then ask for money. It was cool and I pretended to be asleep. It was awesome.

Getting up in the morning is always tough. My companion had a bit of a hard time one morning. See photo.

We also had the great opportunity to kill slugs this week when they crawled out of our sink! Three came out so we killed them with salt and then burned them while taking video. We also burned a few spiders. You would be surprised what becomes extremely entertaining out here. Way funny stuff. We also kill flies with bugs which is not only fun but even funnier to watch your companion do. 

We had the greenie conference this week and I was relieved to see my Spanish isn´t the only awful Spanish out here. Nevertheless I need to try harder. 

Love you guys! Let me know if you want to hear about anything specific!

Elder Moss

April 7th, 2014

Dear family and friends,

Every week is ridiculously crazy and is never the same it seems. 

Conference was incredible and I took 23 pages of notes and didn´t miss a second of any talk. Things have kind of changed for me huh? No more sleeping or groaning about conference, rather we all were really excited. They thankfully had an English room for all the missionaries in our zone and it was great. Only thing is most are almost done so it´s hard to listen to them say this was my last conference and I am just starting. Sometimes I feel as if I have learned what I need and am ready to go home but I only have 2.5 months! I have a ways to go huh! That is awesome to hear about the German sister except I have no German left. Just a weird mix of Spanish and English. I forgot to tell you but my trainer knows a lot more english than I expected so we always resolve to speak in Spanish but end up talking in English. Kind of frustrating during lessons but whatever. I have two years to learn this language. I know enough to get around and teach but I have a long ways to go. We have a blast but I really need to resolve to talk in Spanish with him more. That´s great to hear about Brandon and his time off. I finally have a little time to write letters today so maybe within the next month I will send a envelope filled with letters I would love for you to send to differnet people. It would be greatly appreciated.

The address I gave will not work. Just send everything to the mission home and I will get it for sure, just a little slower. We have too many changes and addresses are wack here. I did get your first package which was awesome! You know what candy I like and the deodorant and the face lotion are awesome. I just hope the lotion will stay on. In the summer it will get up to 38 ish degrees celsius with 80 percent humidity some days. I will truly die. I probably won´t fast with water those months because we have to wear suits on sundays with that heat. Humidity is truly a thing of the devil and I have a lot of stress regarding summer in October. It will truly be Hell. I already have the most ridiculous farmers tan which is hilarious.

Every week we email the president and last week I asked him for advice about the mission and he gave some great advice which I will try to apply.

Everyone can mail me and email. I just have such little time to reply. Every p day is just as busy or more busy than normal days with shopping, cleaning, zone activities, emailing, etc. 

Last Saturday after Priesthood which started at 9 at night, we were on our way home and almost got robbed. We were close to the house when a very quiet car started following us, the door opened and so we walked super fast and then we got just close enough to other people that they turned back. Quite terrifying. Once I realized what was happening my adrenaline started pumping and I said a prayer and nothing happened. Getting robbed here is a regular thing apparently. Sometimes they grab and run, other times a group of teenagers comes up and holds a gun to your chest. No joke. Just grateful it hasnt happened yet to me. One elder from my group got robbed in the first week.

It would be greatly appreciated if you send liahonas, conference talks etc. No joke. I was actually going to ask you for those.

One group of teenagers thought I was a spy from the US because of the suit which was really funny. Me and my comp laughed because why would a 18 year old white teen, go to Uruguay of all places, preach religiously in a suit with a nametag while not knowing Spanish. Most kids here apparently don´t finish high school and it is very evident. Groups of teenage boys are truly a scourge to missionaries here.

Another funny thing was my comp fell asleep early and woke up at 12 30 and realized he didnt pray, pee, etc and so when he got up, exhaustedly, I started to pray. I fell asleep and he came out of the bathroom with me asleep, woke up and told me it was 12 30 so I rolled back in bed and passed out again. It was way funnier here than expaining it. We are always beyond tired at the end of our days. I don´t know how I even have strength during the days. Especially after the last conference when we didnt get to bed till 1 30 because it started at nine at the stake center. 5 hours of sleep killed me sunday.

We also have inter changes and I went to another area where they have a pet chicken in the backyard named Shakira which was hilarious. It was only for a day but it was awesome. We also burned spiders and ants in the house because of the garbage. Way fun time.

We started to try to talk to a couple people this week but they dismissed us by saying they were sinners and the guy talking said. No no, We´re sinners and... uh.., I´m gay and ran off. Super funny expereicnes every week.

Hope you guys like to hear about this crazy place and the insane life of a missionary. Love you guys dearly. Have a great week. Can´t wait to hear from you next week!

Love,

Elder Moss

Pictures from 3/31/2014

March 31, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

We have water bottles with filters but we still shower, wash dishes, brush teeth with the regular water. I do not think it did it to me. I believe it is the milk and other foods. Oil and fat and whatever is in EVERYTHING. They think oil is seriously a flavor here. Its gross but whatever. I will live. 

Today Hell broke loose in our house when they replaced our broken window because about 15 spiders and 50 ants crawled into the house and we had no spray left so tonight we are sleeping in the kitchen and going to kill them for fun. Its terrifying. We already killed 5 spiders. Only like infinity more.

This week I also had my first two baptism which I hope the pictures will send. It was awesome and I was first to baptize which was a little scary but great. I did everything fine and it was just great. The second woman being baptized is great but very big and decided not to wear a bra to the baptism so everyone starting cracking up after she was baptized. My companion couldn´t figure out what happened to a little while after. It was so awkward and funny. Kind of innappropriate and I am sorry but it was so funny I couldnt resist writing about it.

Last Saturday we also had the opportunity to help build a house for a member with like 15 of the branch members which was way fun! Who can honestly say they have helped build a house? Not many! It was way cool and a nice break from studying. 

Today we had an awesome crazy P Day again and are emailing during proselyting time because we had to work today. Today I was a witness to a marriage paper thing for a couple who are getting married to get baptized! Sick huh? They are extremely poor so they got money from the branch and live in a shack literally made of metal sheet and wood. Its sweet, and I will send pictures when I can. 

Bread here is everywhere and so good. We almost get homemade bread on a daily basis. The members are the best. But the best meals are from the two rich families in the ward where we get incredible salads, homemade bread, ice cream, and really expensive sausage. It is so good. Today we went bulk shopping since it is so expensive and bought 10 pounds of frosted flakes and corn flakes. It is awesome. I will try to send a pic. 

Here it is normal to breastfeed everywhere and anywhere which is so awkward. I have now seen six women breastfeeding. In yards, the bus (popular for this) and one member just started in the middle of a lesson. Super awkward and I cant even describe how weird it was. Me and my companion just stared at each other and the ground. Anyways... Our mission broke our record for baptisms EVER this month with 178 baptisms from 260ish missionaries. And me and my companion helped with two of those! We call ourselves studs a lot. Its pretty funny.

Instead of ice cream trucks here, they drive around with trucks filled with propane cans and play the most annoying and loud song ever. It is awesome. Instead of wonderful ice cream, its disgusting gas cans. How awful. 

I forgot to mention, one of our baptism, we found out four days before the day of their baptism that she smoked but we helped her and now she has quit smoking! How crazy! The faith of some people is incredible.

Also, in the cyber cafe here, kids just sit here and play CoD, look at Facebook, and one stud is playing Warcraft which is awesome. Far too tempting though haha. But yeah, I hear a lot of gunshots right now.

I was also standing in a bus just waiting for our stop, and I let go for one second. Then, all the sudden we came to a crazy stop and I flew four rows back, grabbed a pole, flew over a seat and landed on some dudes lap and smooshed his face into the window. My Branch Mission leader and companion were dying while I awkwardly got up, said sorry and went to the back. It was absolutely hilarious. They call me the Chocador which means the crasher. It was beyond hilarious. We still laugh about it and it was like last Monday night.

WHat is also funny is kids here put their facebook names on bus stops, benches and everywhere for people to friend them. It is really funny and kind of sad. I am very confused about my emotions on it. 

Every few days it rains, and when it rains, it pours. The river about 20 feet below the bridge once filled completely and flooded the bridge. CRAZY rain here.

In church, the Branch President and his parents are the only rich people and during the lesson on fifth sunday this last week, the Branch President who is great but very demanding and a little rude, shushed his mother and others during the lesson because he didnt agree. Then when people said what he liked, he said muy bien like they are children. It was so funny and so hard not to laugh. He is crazy. But great guy nonetheless.

Other people are still nuts and splash water on us with their bikes and cars when its raining which is always fun. But whatever. We were wet already anyways.

Overall, a very productive week and great. I can´t wait to tell you guys about all my experiences so far when we call home for mothers day. It is just so funny and crazy and wonderful and stressful. Still difficult but getting better. Especially when you rely on the Lord even more than you do already. 

Love you guys! Thanks for everything you do! 

Elder Moss