Uruguay Montevideo Mission : November 2015

Sunday, November 22, 2015

11-16-15 More Pics! Woot Woot!

11-16-15 Pics

We had a open house in one of our chapels in the zone. I was at the refferal table. WooHoo!

Some of the young men in the ward- they are so awesome! We´re trying to reactivate some of them, and get them to come with us to lessons.

And, yesterday we had a really cool family history convention in our stake center. A lot of people came!!

It`s been a good week! We found a lot of future investigators. We were contacting a refferal, and suddenly next door to this house we were contacting, we heard someone speak in English. we decided to knock the door, and sure enough, and guy from Miami came out, and said "Look guys, I don`t speak spanish." hahaha we stopped talking in Spanish, and said "Neither do we, we`re from America!" (I was on an exchange with an Elder from Gilbert.) It was SO WEIRD teaching him in English, I hope that he could feel the spirit, because we didn`t make sense! But it was super cool. The Gospel is universal, it really doesn`t matter what languange it`s in. Then, a few days later, we started talking to this lady from Brazil, and I got to use a little be a Portugues that Elder Leite is teaching me!!!!! Foi o melhor! :)

So that was the exciting part of this week. Silvana actually couldn´t get baptized that week- There were a few complications. BUT, this saturday SI o SI!!!!! We´re excited!

I love you all, the church is so true! We are in the Last days- Hold to the Iron rod, and Don´t let go ever!

have a great week!

Elder Carroll

11-9-15 Pics

So, this is Silvana- I think I already sent a picture of her!

...and then this is a motocycle gang from Brazil that we found in our "Choque de Fuerza". Elder Leite had a lot of fun talking to them!

Our zone! The first picture is at a zone activity we had in El Pinar! We went sand boarding in the dunes!!! That was super fun!

This is in my zone- Every area has the beach! These are some cool model pictures we took..... hahaha

And this is the Flia Piriz, the less actives that are coming back to church, and are renting the apartment to Silvana. I love them so much! They hve lived EVERYWHERE! They lived in Canada, Miami, and Brazil- They know english and portuques, and are just so awesome! they have a lot of cool stories. AND The girl that is with us is their grandaughter, and we started to teach her too! She´s not a member, but loves the church. We´re excited!

11-9-15

Hey guys!

It´s been a great week! Silvana is getting baptized this saturday!!!! Today we´re going to the Flia Piriz to finish the house- We have to put up a wall, and fix some things up, and hopefully tomorrow Silvana can move! And then on saturday she´ll get baptized. We´re super stoked. She´s been an investigator for a year, and she´s finally able to get baptized. I know that she´s grown a lot as she´s trusted in the Lord. She´s converted!

We also were able to talk to Natalia Bojorge (who´s husband in Gonzalo). we haven´t been able to have contact with them this week, she said that they are reading the book of mormon. That is always the make it or brake it with people. if they don´t read, they don´t feel the spirit, they don´t recieve the answer they are looking for, and nothing changes. So we committed her to read with him, and make it a habit. She´s a less active, and an RM. She knows how important it is. We committed her to read with him, and I know she will. It´s all a matter of time with them, pray for Gonzalo!

We also decided as a zone that every week, we would go to an area in the Zone with Books of Mormon, and pamhlets and just talk to the whole world. (We call it a Choque de Fuerza here.) So that was fun- The missionaries are getting more excited to share the gospel.

Well, I know that his church is true! the more I see the blindness of the world, and how great of a hold satan has on people, the more I realize how SIMPLE the gospel is! Keep the commandents = blessings. Reading the Scriptures daily = Seeing things as they really are. Obedience = Happiness. Just do it, and you´ll be happy!

I love you all, have a good week!

Elder Carroll

11-2-15

Hola!

This week has been really good for me! Silvana is still going strong- Her baptism is getting closer! We´re hoping that her apartment can be finished this week. Pray for her! We also had a really cool lesson with a new investigator named Julian. He´s the boyfriend of one of the Laurels in the ward, and she invited him to a ward baptism. We taught lesson one with the Laurel´s family, (Familia Echegaray) and he came with a TON of questions! It was so much fun teaching him, because he just soaks everything up, and asks more. He´s pretty golden! We committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, we´re helping gain his testimony! We´ll keep you posted.

I´ve really learned a lot this week! We had our monthly leadership concilio with President and the assistants this week, and during the week, they sent us a training that Elder Ballard and Elder Cook gave this year. It was about the Restoration and teaching by the spirit. They explain A LOT about Preach my Gospel and why it was written. Elder Ballard talks about raising the bar and the best generation of missionaries, like he´s talked about in conference, and that Preach my Gospel was written to Raise the Bar, and have missionaries that can teach EXACTLY what the spirit says. It hit me hard this week how real and important preach my gospel is- It help us and missionaries know how to teach, and helps members know how to fulfill their baptismal covenants of taking upon them the name of Jesus Christ, and standing as a witness of Him in all places. I realized that I want to be a Preach my Gospel missionary! I want to be like Ammon or Alma! In Alma 18, Ammon teaches King Lamoni, and that is a PERFECT example of a lesson taught according to Preach my Gospel. He finds lamoni´s need, he asks inspired questions, he listens, he commits- it´s legit! I would invite all of you to be more familiar with Preach my Gospel, Especially chapter 9, 10, 11, and 13. Know it, and know how to teach! I promise that if you understand how the missionaries work, you´ll understand how to fulfill your own covenants be like Christ. IT´S REAL!!!

I love you all, have an awesome week!!

Elder Carroll

10-26-15 Pics

10-26-15

Hey guys,

It´s been a good week of transfers! We got to know our new zone on Friday in our district meetings- They are super awesome we´re excited! President Cook sends the best missionaries to La Costa, I love them a ton!

And, we are making some good progress with Gonzalo. (He is the husband of Natalia, the less active.) they recently had their baby, angelina. So it´s a PERFECT time to talk about the plan of salvation with them. We´ve really been trying to help Gonzalo with reading and praying- He wants to gain a testimony, but still doesn´t fully understand that reading the Book of mormon everyday, and asking Heavenly Father if it´s true is the way to get it. We´re excited for him- And they came church yesterday! We had our Primary Program in El Bosque yesterday, and the little Niños sang their corazones out! It was super awesome. I know that Gonzalo is starting to feel welcome in our ward.

Silvana is still fighting to endure to the end! The apartment is still being fixed, and she can´t leave her house until the 10th of november. Keep praying for her! Her situation with Diego is getting more complicated. She turned him in for Domestic Violence, and he threw out some nasty threats against her. She kind of scared, but she has such faith! She really is my hero! She just needs to wait 2 more weeks, and then she can leave the house, get baptized and start over. We´re excited for her!!!

Emilina and Manuel, the spaniards, also came to church. They are pretty old, and don´t understand too much. I love them so much, they love to listen to us, but I don´t know if they are going to be able to get baptized. Either way, we´ll just do baptisms for the dead in a few years! :) They´re great!

We´ve also been finding some really really cool people! We found Julian, who´s the boyfriend of one of the young women in the ward. He´s a stud, and we also found a FAMILY while we were tracting one day! Silvia and Marcelo. (And their kids) They are still a little hesitent to take the charlas, but Silvia´s dad, or grandpa, is a member, and gave her a book of mormon like 20 years ago! So she has a base, and they are just GOOD people. I´ll keep you posted! They seem like they have potential.

I love you all, I hope you have a great week! The church is TRUE, and it´s so simple. If we obey, we are blessed. Keep the commandments, be prepared, and ye shall not fear.

Chau!

Elder Carroll

10-20-15 Pics

This is a cool backyard that someone has- That´s a swamp behind me.

And this is Marcos- an investigator that we´re helping with building his house. He´s progressing slowly but surely!

10-20-15

Hey guys!

This week was so awesome! We found out the transfers, and I´m staying in El Bosque with Elder Leite for another change- I´m stoked! We´ve had a lot of fun this past change, and we´ve seen a lot of really cool miracles.

We´ve been praying hard for Silvana so that she could find somewhere to move. We´ve looked hard and she´s looked even more, but everything is just so expensive! So finally after a long search, we had a charla with some less actives that are starting to come back to church. (The Piriz family). We found out that THEY had a little apartment in their backyard, and they were MORE than happy to rent it to Silvana! I was a huge tender mercy- Silvana is really going to help them, and they are really going to help her. I know that the Lord answered our prayers and that he organized everything so that we could find that for her! She´s getting baptized at the beginning of November.

Then, Gonzalo (The husband of the Less active RM, Natalia, that we are teaching.) Accepted a baptismal date! He still is working on gaining his testimony, we´re working with him. They just had a baby girl, it´s a PERFECT time for them to hear the gospel!

We´re excited for another week, I love you all! I know that this church is true. The longer I´m out here, the more I realize how SIMPLE the gospel is, and how complicated we sometimes make it. All we need to do is keep the comandments including daily scripture study and prayer, and taking the sacrament every week. There are blessings and there is protection for EVERYONE that does these simple things. DO THEM, and keep enduring to the end.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Carroll