Week 15 in Uruguay: Maria's Baptism

11/20/17-11/27/17

Hola los todos!

Tuesday-Wednesday

     Wow, what a day! We had an intercambio so I went to a different area and worked with Elder Barrios. The area is called Aeuroparque B and my comp and I are area A but it was so fun. My Spanish is getting a lot better. I had to speak in our district meeting and everyone understood what I was saying. I was feeling pretty good about myself until on the bus ride home, this dude was talking to me and I had no idea what he said so I changed the topic. He goes “you need to work on your Spanish” in English lol. I was so mad, so funny! I was going to say, “you need to work on your English!” lol. It turns out he is related to President Monson. OOPS!

      We went to teach my favorite people in the other area, Flia Anderson and his girlfriend. They are so cool. We went over poems with his niece for school for about an hour and they had the movie King Kong playing. I was trying not to sneak a peek lol. We taught them a lesson and they asked for a special prayer for their family. SCARY! They are not married and Anderson’s parents do not like his girlfriend. They have a date to get married and baptized. They are so awesome! While Elder Barrios taught them about fasting, I said a quick prayer in my heart that I would be able to say the things they needed to hear in the prayer for their family. It was amazing and the spirit filled my mouth. I said words I have never said before. They were so grateful for the prayer. The church is true and the Lord always answers prayers.

     We celebrated my companion’s birthday at familia Gopar’s house. It was so much fun! They talked about basketball and asked me all about my life. He was shocked I gave up playing college basketball right now to serve a mission. It made me so happy to talk about basketball because everyone loves soccer so much here. They kept laughing at me when I to tried to say this word but I couldn’t say it. It’s a super hard word and I guess if you don’t pronounce it right you are saying a swear word. So I definitely was cussing the whole night lol.

Thursday-Friday

    We went to the dentist for my comp and it is so expensive here! This place is crazy. A member drove us home from the dentist and the poor guy missed the exit like 3 times. It took over an hour to get home, which should have only taken 30 minutes. After that we had an interview with Maria to get baptized. I have never seen her so happy! She chose me to baptize her. I’m so excited! We played some ping-pong with the zone leaders. It got a little competitive but so fun!  On Friday, we taught this really old man named Winston. He is a nice man and cries every time he sees a picture of Christ. Every time I would show a picture of Christ during the lesson, he would start to cry.

Saturday-Sunday

     We had a church activity with our grupo. They played so many games and made me find 10 pieces of candy in a bowl of flour. It was so hard; there was so much flour! Anderson and I were dying but it was so much fun! Two hours later, I was still blowing flour out of my nose lol.  After the church activity, I got to baptize Maria! It was so amazing and words can’t explain it. She was so happy with tears in her eyes and all her friends and family ran to give her huge hugs. I bore my testimony about her and the spirit was so strong, it was amazing ! To celebrate after, I had cow tongue, not good at all!

     Our grupo is growing so they changed our church hours from 2 hours on Sundays to 3 hours. We have Sacrament meeting, “primary”, gospel principles, and now my companion and I are called to teach the new convert/investigators class. It’s fun but a little challenging.

Well, I love you all, please read Moroni 7: charity goes a long way! Smile

Love
Elder Knelly

Week 14 in Uruguay: Too much food

11/13/17-11/20/17

Hola familia y amigos!

Monday-Tuesday

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  So on our pday, we had a zone activity and we got lost for over 2 hours. We actually were in the other mission but don’t worry 3 buses later we found the meeting. It’s about 108 degrees here with no wind! I want to die it’s so hot. I already have my watch tan line and I’m working on the complete missionary tan lol. My comp is awesome and is helping me with my Spanish so much. We love to play pingpong on our long table. The table is rough but is worth it, so fun!

Wednesday- Thursday

We had a 5 hour conference, it was super long but so good!  We talked about our missionary purpose, “teach repentance, baptize converts” it was so good!  We later talked about the importance of the Sacrament. How lucky are we to renew the sacred covenants we have made with God each Sunday and remember what Christ did for us. It’s pretty amazing! Then we talked about ilumina el mundo, light the world! I’m so excited to serve and do service activities for people. It’s going to be awesome! Later, we were in a “red” category storm. The worst it can get. It was a mini hurricane but we were in familia Gopar’s house luckily when the storm occurred. We taught them about the importance of praying as a family. It was so cool. They are almost coming back to church. We might need a few prayers for them. Hermana Gopar gave us so much food to eat it was crazy! I died! Enrique, the owner of the gym we go to, is so sick! I invited him to be baptized, let’s go! The date is set for December 10th.  I cooked a legit meal for our lunch with noodles, onions, ham and eggs. It was edible lol.

Friday-Saturday

Maria has accepted a baptism date for next week. Let’s go! Hopefully it will happen. This will be like her 5th date set lol. Pray for her.  Well, I had raw tuna for lunch at a member’s house. Died! It was so nasty! I only got a little on my plate and Hermano Puyol goes, I made a lot for you Elder Knell so you better eat a lot! I literally died!  Saturday was amazing! We taught these new people, Fernanda y Horje. We taught them lesson one and I quoted the first vision and bore my testimony. The spirit was so strong and they started to cry. It was pretty powerful. After we taught familia Puyol the game signs, it was so fun. He always calls on me for prayers to see how my Spanish is coming along. He gave me the approval that it’s getting so much better!  Well I’m learning some Portuguese now too and it’s actually pretty cool. My comp will always talk in both Spanish and Portuguese so it’s fun to “try" and learn both.

Sunday

We had a great day. Our grupo is getting larger since I have been here. It has gone from 17 members to 34 members today. We just need two more priesthood holders to join us to make a branch. After church, I made some amazing pancakes from scratch. I’m thinking I’m becoming a pretty good chef haha. 

I'm so grateful for all of you and for all of your love and support.  One of my favorite sayings, When it gets tough to stand, kneel.  

Elder Knelly

Week 13 in Uruguay: New Comp

11/7/17-11/13/17

Hola los todos!

Wednesday-Thursday

This was a tough week with my comp leaving.  Before Elder Bailey left he wanted to say goodbye to Michael and Annabelle. Afterwards, we taught Pablos family how to milk alfajors which was so funny. On Wednesday, I got my new companion! He is from Brazil and speaks very little English. He has been out a year and is the district leader. My district is all latinos, I am the only gringo or white person haha. It’s going to be a lot of quiet nights but I am learning so much already. He is a convert to the church. He is pretty funny! We had a conference on Wednesday with both missions. Bishop Dean Davies from the Presiding Bishopric spoke to us. He said the mission is designed to prepare us for marriage. He also said the scriptures are the formula for success and to talk and read the scriptures in your mission language. Intelligence and Instructions are like the truth and light of Christ. I love this and he said to teach with power, you first need a testimony of that. I got so much revelation out of the conference. It was awesome!

Well, I’m not going to lie; I had a mental breakdown with only speaking Spanish lol. It’s all good though, trust in the Lord no matter what.    Well, I got to meet Elder Bailey’s parents and his Dad told me I’m right where I need to be and nothing could be better than being an instrument in the Lord’s hands. We ate lunch, tried on a cowboy hat then met and talked with other members. Leonardo told me that I’m an angel and that when he sees me his whole mood changes. Haha I love him! Everyone knows me now so I have to talk a lot of Spanish but it’s been good for me.

Friday-Saturday

I can’t believe how much I am learning. We taught some more people and I am understanding most of all the things people say! I have to lead the area. Today is when I felt that “click” happen with the language. I have a long way to go but it’s happening. We had a party at Michael y Annabelle’s house for Mia’s 3rd birthday. I love them! I shared 3Nephi 18:21, it’s the best scripture ever for families. It was such a fun day!

Holy cow, we found the woman, Maria, from over a month ago. It was the coolest experience! She said she was praying for an answer and I had the strongest feeling to go and try to found her. We haven’t seen or heard from her in over a month. I was fighting this feeling all day to go and find her. We went to her house and she was there and started crying saying we were an answer she had been praying for. It’s crazy how powerful the spirit is! It’s amazing! We could baptize her this week but she wants to know if it’s the right choice. Please, please pray for her, she needs all the prays she can get. She leaves the 26th of Noviembre forever. It was such a special lesson with her and extra special for me because she was my very first lesson here in Uruguay. It’s the best feeling to be the answer to someone’s pray.

Sunday

Primary program! Ahh, it was so cute to see all these little kids try to sing haha. After, we went to Flia Gopar’s house and talked to them for a little while. We listened to some music and talked about everything. They told me my Spanish is getting so much better. I gave the prayer and after Hermano Gopar told me how much it means to him and his family that they felt the spirit. I love these people and love this work. Remember D&C 4 “The field is already white and ready!” Lets go!  I love you all!  Thanks for all your love support and prayers!

Elder Knelly

Week 12 in Uruguay: My Comps Last Week

10/30/17-11/7/17

Hola !

Tuesday-Wednesday

We had a district meeting and we dressed my companion up for his funeral because he is going home in a week. It was pretty funny! We played the game signs and played on these really old swings for like 30 minutes. Gotta love being a kid again! In Uruguay, they have Halloween but they don’t really celebrate it. The stores close early and they try to have parties for the kids because it’s too dangerous in the streets. The cops go home or don’t work because it is too dangerous for them on this day. My companion was sick again and I was going a little stir crazy so I made cookies, cake and pancakes . I cooked all day! Lol I made a cake with a layer of chocolate icing in the middle, not bad! My pancakes turned more into tortillas haha. We finally got a DVD player and it only played half the screen haha. Of course it was a church movie so don’t worry everyone.
On Wednesday, I cleaned for more than an hour in the kitchen. After, we had such a spiritual lesson with Veronica. She has a goal to be married in the temple. That night we taught Nicolas. He has a baptismal date for the 25th. He is so amazing and asked so many questions that I was able to answer. The spirit helped me out on that one! He is growing marijuana though. Everyone here smokes, hopefully I won’t die from second hand smoke haha. We taught Daniel who drinks a lot and has suffered so much in his life. He has a dog and feeds it more than himself. He is so funny and he lives in the smallest house. It is probably the size of an office and it’s covered in mold. He is amazing though and so happy! I can’t wait to tell you all the stories here.

Thursday-Friday
We got our house inspected to make sure it was clean. The workers called and said they were coming in 15 minutes. I have never seen the house get cleaned so fast!  Note to self, 15 minutes is all you need haha. Well, I have been reading in 3Nephi 11-12 and it is so amazing. It talks about giving your light to people. We all need to do something to give our light to people in need. Ask yourself, did you do something to help change someone’s life today? A member who was supposed to give us food called and said she couldn’t give us any. The Lord works in miraculous ways because the workers brought us food out of nowhere. Such a tender mercy! Honestly we can all look for tender mercies in our lives. We experience them everyday. All we have to do is open our eyes. Today was like a mini hurricane; we weren’t allowed to leave our house. We lost power and it was crazy.  Its times like this I think about service and what we can do to help someone.

We taught Michael and Annabelle such a fun lesson. Words can’t describe the people here, I just love them. We met this guy from Japan and he spoke English. We met him at the airport and helped him on the bus with us. I started talking to him about the Church and he goes what is your guy’s purpose here if the people already believe in Christ? I was like good question haha. I said well, the people here believe in the Virgin Mary also and have a routine prayer. I told him if you call a friend are you going to say the same thing to him.  I told him no you are going to have a conversation with him. I said it’s the same when praying; you are going to have a conversation with God. I asked if he wanted to know more about this book and he said I just flew 9 hours and I don’t believe in God.  He went off about how it is stupid how kids dream about going pro in sports. I was laughing so hard. He said it is better to study then work to play a sport.  I told him that I am planning on playing basketball and I am so thankful that my basketball is paying for my education. His son is learning 3 languages and is struggling with all three. He kept saying how he doesn’t understand why; he is thirteen and should be able to understand.

Saturday-Sunday

I had the worst lunch ever haha. The familia Lucedo made this food. I swear it was rotten. The bread was moldy and I think the pasta and mayo had expired, it was so bad. I ate cow stomach that is tradition to eat the stomach with all the grass and bugs in it. I almost lost it. I don’t know how I survive some of the food here. Blessed!  

So we were trying to found this one guy and these two old grandmas decided to help us look for him. They yelled at like 20 houses for us. It was the funniest thing ever. This one house looked at us then slammed the door. The grandmas started climbing the fence after her, so funny.  Fast Sundays are always so good.  I bore my testimony and my Spanish is getting better.  Well, I am an official resident of Uruguay. Let’s GO!!! On Monday we had an asado with familia Gopar. It was so fun and he has like 5 dogs. They told us how well Elder Bailey and I work together, how we have a unity that rubs off on them. It was so good to hear. Well, for the exciting news! I get a Brazilian companion on Wednesday. Pray for me haha, it’s going to be a lot of quiet nights until I learn Spanish completely. Read D&C 84:88 and 3Nephi 12: 14-16. Be the light to someone this week!

Elder Knelly