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