pictures March 2015

Mar 29th, 2015

Dear Family and Friends, 

I have arrived! I was in all three zones of Montevideo and now I am in the zone farthest away and my area is made up of wide spaced houses, cows, horses, sheep, chicken, stray dogs and cats and tons of Gauchos(Cowboys).It is called the city of Melo and I am on the outskirts of the city. It is so cool because these people are a million times more friendly than they were in Montevideo. I don´t know what I did to deserve to stay in Montevideo for so long but now I am super close to the border of Brasil and their food is so much better and cheaper. I can buy most everything for prices I would pay in America. I can buy 4 gigantic pastries in the morning for a dollar and 2 liters of soda for a dollar instead of 3 like in Montevideo. Everything is super cheap, the people are incredible and want to talk to us, and the ward is actually huge and strong. So I have been blessed.  We are never just stuck wondering around for hours like I was in Montevideo and we always have a full schedule to fill. We had huge success with several investigators coming to church unlike the rest of my mission and they have sincere desires to learn. The only problem is that the ratio of married couples to couples that just live together is like 1:500 and no one wants to spend money on marriage and whatever else. But that is what teaching by the spirit is for to convince them of the truth and help them change. 

I have also been called to be a district leader out here which has been way fun because now I can do all the things that I wanted in a district leader before. So I plan on doing the best I can to love and serve them instead of correcting like I have seen before. I still get corrected a lot by the zone leaders that I live with but oh well. They are just better people than me and more dedicated. They are super dedicated to the work it is kind of scary sometimes. They don´t even talk about anything from the past, correct when you use the slightest slang and they are always studying. It is a little too much for me but at least it is a good house and I can learn a lot from them. I don´t really know what I think about it.

But anyways! My comp is way cool too and literally the most good looking Elder in the mission.  But he is a super cool guy. He is from Logan Utah and a great worker and we are decently similar in likes and attitude. 

We haven´t taken any good pictures but here is one we took right before we came here to write home. 

So overall, I am still really quite busy with the new responsibilites but life is well. I hope life is well for the rest of you and enjoy the photos of me saying good bye to really good friends and a picture of all the financiers that are still in the mission. It is in chronological order of who has been a financier.

Love you and talk to you soon!

Elder Moss

March 14th, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been awesome but also kind of nuts. I got another ingrown toenail three weeks ago and in that time it grew very weird and I got a super bad infection. So that was not fun. I had to take antibiotics first to get the infection to calm down and then they removed it surgically again. Not fun, quite bloody and painful but oh well. Just a tow right? Not even cancer. Not big deal.

Other than that, i had a sweet division with an oro in my district who is super cool. He is a huge gamer from Peru and a great worker with a huge testimony and a huge heart. He is so humble which was a nice break from the past 11 weeks. haha

What is sad though is that all my mission friends are going home really soon. Within the next three weeks almost all my friends go home and the majority of them in a week and a half. 

With that I also leave this area and leave for who knows where. I still won´t know next saturday but I might know my replacement by then and all that . Huge changes are coming!  We'll see how they go. But overall a normal week. 

We have Stake conference today and tomorrow and then the week of preparation for changes and then poof, I disappear.  It should be good. I am sorry, I don´t have much to say this week. Just trying to prepare everything for heading out and finish all my work before I head out! Love you guys!

Elder Moss

more pics March 2015

pictures Mar 2015

Mar 7th, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

It is weird! In 5 days, I will only have 10 months left in my mission. Weird to think how fast it has gone here. Only 2.5 weeks left till I hit the normal mission life again and get back to it!

And I am sill the only driver in the offices so I am always extremely busy, and I even taxid President, his wife, and the other mission president and his wife around this week.

Well I guess I should start from the beginning. 

last saturday night someone broke into our house yet again while we were all sleeping. Most everyone sleeps in one room because it has air conditioning and that is a rarity here so everyone takes advantage of it. So they busted the gate open, helped each other up to the second floor and then walked into the window because the bars over the windows swing and they didn't lock them so they stole the secretaries two bags with marked scriptures, camera, wallet, personal card, mission card, DVD player, 60 dollars, ipod, speakers, and clothes and shoes. So they were not happy just like I wasn´t. They didn't come into our room because luckily we were in our room sleeping that night but now, like old times I chained up all my stuff again. So they can come back for my stuff when they want. I am good! hahaha but really, crazy week again. 

Then President went to a conference in Chile with 26 other mission presidents with the other mission president in Uruguay and I took them to the airport and picked them up again. but we played a little joke and printed off signs with their names like a taxi/limousine driver would and stood there in suits which was funny. Only thing that wasn´t funny was they were in a bad mood because the airline lost their luggage so it wasn't as funny as we thought it would be. But then he still bought us ice cream on the way home which was nice!

I also saw some old friends(members) from my last areas which was awesome and brightened my day. So good seeing old friends and that after a year, they still remember me! 

The mission went through some huge changes after a area seventy came and called us to repentance for baptizing badly. We were baptizing too fast and people that weren't ready and it contributes to the really low church attendance rate here so now we have really strict requisites for baptizing now and I am excited. Now it is three weeks of church attendance, 3 hours each week(Many only came for sacrament and were baptized anyways), can´t baptize kids if their isn't legitimate support(We have had many problems with that) and all five lessons of Preach my gospel must be taught before baptism. So now many will decide not to be baptized because it will be too hard but that is good. It will keep all those people to cause problems in the church, out. Now we are going to really establish the church in Zion. 

 I don´t know if there is much more that happened that is too noteworthy but it was a fantastic week topped off with Soccer and Volleyball for a few hours today. Great great week which was really nice. Other than that, I hope you guys have a great week and am eager to hear about what is going on with you guys. Til next week!

Elder Moss