Preaching the Gospel in Uruguay: May 2010

Monday, May 31, 2010

5/31/10

Iceberg straight ahead!!!‏ BRRR... Hi everyone, how are you all? a cold front has moved into paysandu and i am halfway frozen at this moment. I HATE THE COLD!! i miss warm weather, blue skies, and not seeing my breath everywhere i go(even in the house). it rained a ton this week.. haha im not very cut out for this kind of rain either. when it rains here the streets flood and nobody leaves their houses. but its a good thing for us because thats when we know that they are home and have to answer the door! we did a lot of contacting those days. and my feet are perma popsicles. im thinking about investing in some hardcore boots that dont let the water in. haha it was funny also, on our walk to church on sunday my umbrella almost took off out of my hand becuase it was sooo windy. i felt like mary poppins! i wish i had an umbrella like she does.. itd be soo much easier. anyways, this last week was pretty uneventful really haha but still a good one. we worked a lot trying to find new investigators because most of ours are now baptized. we didnt have very much luck and that mixed with the weather was kind of hard. but the cool thing is that we read alot from Jesus the Christ this week and i never ever realized how amazingly blessed we are. the more and more i learn about our lord and his eternal sacrifice the more and more i want to be a better person and missionary. i read specifically about the days leading up to and the day of his death. it blows my mind to read the things that he had to endure and the trials that he had to face. when he suffered in gethsemane even his best friends didnt stay awake to support him. he had to do it all by himself. what love, what sacrifice. he provides us such a great example of how to live and what we should seek to be. i also read about his resurrection and the grand miracle that that is. he lives and will always live. he loves and and he will always love! of this we can never doubt! i encourage all of you to study more about his life and who he was while he was on the earth. it will increase your desire to become better. i know it has done that for me.

i love seeing our converts these days. they are all doing so very well. the giosas are progressing in their knowledge of the gospel so much each week. he is going to recieve the priesthood soon along with juan sosa and hector. they are all showing their devotion and desire to serve the lord. they all showed up to church yesterday when it was horrible weather. it was really impressive. i love them all very much.

as for the spanish... haha i kind of feel like ive taken a step back this last week. its kind of frustrating. i think ive just been having a hard time concentrating and focusing all the time. my mind is tired. but im rededicating myself to the cause again. its all good im going to be more dilligent. i made brownies in the microwave this week, for the sosas but they turned out burrrrnt! haha it was really funny! haha we still ate them anyway. also... funny uruguay tradition. when it rains they always make these things called tortas fritas. which are like scones. they fry them in all types of stuff, oil, butter, grease! oh boy! ok so on saturday it was raining intensely and we went over to the sosas to learn how to make them. well i ended up eating like 4 there and being stuffed. we had a lesson right after with another family and lo and behold they made us more tortas fritas! i about died! 6 tortas fritas in one day... KILL ME! haha i never want to see another one again. but theres another storm on the way. oh man! i can do it! hahaha
we also learned about our investigators courtship last night... haha ok so the giosas have a 13 year age difference between them. when she was 16 and had not talked to one boy ever in her life she met alfredo. he was 29 and determined to be married before was thirty. he saw her one day and decided that she was the one he wanted. well back in the day, her parents were crazy strict and after she had talked to him once he decided to go to her house and ask for her hand in marriage. after one random conversation! well her parents consented and they began their six month courtship in which they could never ever be alone and he had to come to her house to see her 3 times every week for an hour and always with her parents present. they were not allowed alone until they had been married the second time in the church. hahah they were married first civilly but still not allowed alone. they did not even kiss! hahah and now they are like the coolest couple ever! i love them! haha just thought id share that. i got a kick out of it! also, i guess i dont talk in my sleep... i laugh! haha my comp told me this morning that i woke her up last night because i started giggling! haha i guess i just love my life right now or something! i love waking up laughing! well i love you all! sorry for the randomness of this email but hey i am what i am! keep up the good work! GO JAZZ!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!

love,

hermana amy crofts

pics...
1) see mom i do eat my vegatables and i am good at it!
2)edelbis at her baptism last week
3) match made in heaven.. the giosas and i during lunch
4) me and rocio after her baptism!

ps.. we had another baptism this week of a young man that we didnt work much with but awesome all the same! yay franco!

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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

5/24/2010

Greetings from Uruguay!!! how is everyone? i hope all is well and you all are getting used to the nice warm weather! haha its starting to get really cold down here.. and i hate it! haha but its all good, im learning to really like my wool tights(whoever invented those was a genius!) so this last week was a really good one, because we are finally recovered completely and back to work! before now we were just taking it easy because my comp has been in pain from her tooth but its all good now and our shoulders are back to the wheel. we tried a lot this week to find some new people to work with and we found some really awesome new investigators that im pretty excited about. 2 of them are 2 ladies that we knocked their house and they were sooooo cool! im really excited for maria and luisa! haha i just wanted to give them a big giant hug when we were leaving! i think they really understand what we were teaching. they had both just gone through divorces so hopefully they can find some comfort in the gospel. that same day it was really cool because my comp got the feeling that we should knock a specific street and so we did.. we talked to a lady and came back the next day to teach her and then we came to know that she had talked to the missionaries before and that she and her boyfriend wanted to get married and baptized and asked if we could help!!! haha of course we can! so we are excited for them as well.. we just need to get them to church.
we also got to see a lot of our recent converts this week which is always my favorite thing to do. we went to the sosas one night to have family home evening with them haha and it was the cutest thing because when we were leaving to walk home, little valentina got so worried because she was afraid that we were going to be eaten by lions and tigers and bears! haha so as we were walking home we had to pretend to fight off the lions and tigers and bears that were trying to eat us! haha it was awesome! they are such a fun family and they have really grown in the gospel :) on saturday we tried to teach valentina how to be reverent in church because we have been having a problem with that. and she actually was a good girl this sunday! it was a miracle! on saturday also we had the baptism of edelbis giosa! she is the wife of the man that we first baptized here. she is amazing! i love her! for her baptism we sang a special number like we always do for baptisms but this time it was not so good! haha we had no time to practice before the baptism and so we just went there and sang and of course what happens? i started laughing halfway through the song! haha it was all i could do to get a hold of myself and finish the song! hahaha oh it was horrible! i felt so bad... i dont think im very cut out for singing in front of people. on sunday we got to eat lunch with the giosas and it was sooooo much fun! i LOVE them! haha it was just like being at home. she is an amazing cook and he is hilarious.. we have a lot of fun with them. my spanish is coming along too! im feeling more and more comfortable speaking.. its a miracle! oh and my comp got her dear jane letter this week! haha she took it like a champ.. im very proud of her. good thing i dont have one of those coming my way :) we`re not going to montevideo this week and so we were able to have a real p day! it was so fun! we played sock dodgeball and made apple pie... it was a blast! i love being a missionary! being able to teach the restoration so much this week has been a very big blessing for me and i feel like my testimony of joseph smith and the book of mormon has grown a lot! i love this work so much and im so glad that i can be an instrument in the lords hands!

sorry this email is kinda short but i just dont feel too much like writing today. just know that i love you all and i pray for you every night!

also friends!.. you can write me gmails to this address and they will print them off and give them to me. its super sweet and i love to get them! the address is...

urugoest@gmail.com and then just put my name in the subject line and they will give it to me.

id love to hear from you!!!!!

love you all!,

hermana amy crofts

Monday, May 17, 2010

5/17/2010

HOLA!!! how is everyone!? first of all, i want to welcome my wonderful new little niece Anna Lynn Cope into the world! she was born on saturday and i couldnt be more thrilled. congratulations austin and laura! im so excited for you. well lets see... this week has been a pretty chill week but still pretty amazing! i was a little worried when we started out the week with the anniversary of our dear aunt carolyn´s death coming up and just everything but it went really well. i was able to have some really cool experiences and really feel a lot of comfort from the lord. as far as work wise we took it easy this week cuz poor hna ung was still coming off the drugs that she had to take for her root canal. im happy to tell you that she is pretty much a normal person!!! hooray! haha weve had some pretty good times together and i feel very blessed to have her as my companion (even when shes a crazy person) dont tell her i said that though... the good thing about all this is that we have been able to make some AMAZING meals in our humble little house. we made some pasta the other day that was to die for! holy cow we both thought that we had died and gone to heaven! who needs olive garden when you have your own two hands and a companion that is pro at cooking? haha so i love food alot now! ive probably gained like 5 or more pounds out here but dont worry they are pounds of happiness:). i cant help myself everything is just so good... and even when it isnt i end up eating too much of it anyway! i need a stop button! help me! haha but just like laura said.. the devil tempts the elders with the rules and he tempts the sisters with food! i believe it! one more food story.. last night we visited the giosas like we normally do on sundays and they gave us this bread/cake thing that was sooo goood! we each had three pieces at first and demolished those in like no time flat and so she brought 6 more pieces out and just guess how long those lasted? NADA! needless to say i love food and sometimes i use it so i dont have to talk.. my black little secret :) haha

we worked alot this week with the family of estela, the wonderful lady that we met my first day here. she has two granddaughters that we have been teaching who are 12 and 14. their families all live in this humble house and there isnt much order. its kind of like their hill billies... not many rules but they are still awesome! so we taught camila on tuesday about the law of chastity and how we need to take care of our bodies. we both thought hey that went really well but little did we know what was waiting for us at the next meeting. we showed up and were talking to estela, waiting for camila and angela, well they snuck around the corner and came to greet us. and boooommmm.... looky there right there on there lips they had decided to get lip rings! we COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! haha we looked at each other and did not know what to do! we were appalled! haha well to make a long story short by the end of the week we had them both in church without their lip rings! hahah the GOSPEL ALWAYS WINS! :)

this sunday we had the treat of listening to elder aidukaitis of the 70. he came to paysandu to change the stake presidency. he is amazing! if you can find talks by him and send them to me i would love that alot! oh and you should read them too. also, if you arent having family home evening please start! it is sooooo important!

so like i said before, this week is the anniversary of the death of my aunt carolyn. i had some really amazing experiences. we went to the temple on wednesday and i knew that she was right there with me. i felt her excitement for the steps in the gospel that she is about to take! i am sooo thankful for the temple and for the fact that families can and will live together forever! that through the gospel of jesus christ we can overcome death and live in a state of interminable happiness! oh how great is our god! how great is his mercy! i love him so much! there is a scripture that i absolutely love and that comforted me greatly on saturday when i was just trying to get through the day, alma 40 :11-12, 23. i know that my aunt is in a 'state of happiness which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where she is resting from all her troubles and cares'. also i found great comfort in this scripture as well, msh. 16:7-9 'the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.' 'the grave shall have no victory.' i know this to be true! i have felt the help of my aunt throughout this week especially! i am soo thankful for this.. i want everyone to know of the joy that comes from KNOWING that we can live forever in happiness with the ones that we love! i know without doubt that our savior loves us and that this is the true church of god! i LOVE IT! i love being a missionary!

i wrote a little poem during the free time that i had this week for carolyn..

who she was..

who was she

how can i help you see

a woman filled with laughter and grace

always had a smile on her face

instilled hope and faith in all

no mountain for her was ever too tall

she taught to dream and to believe

nothing is impossible for you to achieve

she loved everyone as best as she could

if there was anything she could do for you she would

a mother to many in need

she left a mark on my life in word and deed

and though she is gone to a different place

through our savior we will again see her face

and when we feel lost or tried

we must remember she is right by our side

we also had a little tea party in memory! it was awesome! we went to a members house and even had a tea set and everything. tender mercy :) i love tea right now alot.. and drink like 3 cups a day! dont worry its the approved kind. well ive gotta go but i love you all so much! thank you all for your examples and prayers. i am praying for you all daily :)

oh also.. they changed the address to the mission again :( it is:

hermana amy crofts

uruguay montevideo west mission

1167 Enrique Martinez

Montevideo Uruguay 11.800

USE IT!!!

ok love you! haha bye!

hermana amy crofts

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

5/11/2010

Amy's email- amy.crofts@myldsmail.net

Amy's address-

Amy Michelle Crofts

Uruguay Montevideo West Mission

agraciada 2893 #401
montevideo, uruguay 11.600

Hey everybody! hows it going? it was so good to talk to everyone on sunday. im not going to lie, it was really bittersweet. i loved every second of it though. you all sound like youre doing well which makes me very happy :) you have no idea. but hey... where are all the pictures that you promised me? im a little disappointed! haha just kidding.. but i really would like some soon ok?

well lets see... this week has been a pretty good week! i guess first off i should tell you that we got changes last night and youll never guess where i am going!....... hahah IM STAYING HERE WITH HNA UNG! we are both very happy and really excited for this next six weeks. we are really hoping that things will start being a little more normal. i feel like we`ve been living in a tornado! never really know whats going to happen next but bring it on! come what may! last week, we went to montevideo again and went to the temple... which was awesome! and then we got the chance to hang out with hna peterson, the mission presidents wife. she is soooo amazing! she made us homemade food and just listened to us! i love her and im going to miss her when they leave this next change. but after we got home we worked a good full day on thursday and then friday, hna ung felt really sick so we stayed in all day. and then on saturday we had hectors baptism! hector is one of those people that you just know that we were led to. he was so ready to recieve the gospel and it really has taken root in his heart! his baptism went really well. almost everyone bore their testimonies and the spirit felt there was incredible. sunday i got to talk to you all and it was hard but very worth.. after we got off the phone we went out to a little party/asado at the sosa`s. we talked to a guy who was a drunk and he completely disrespected us. it wasnt cool at all. of course i didnt really know all that he said but it was lame. after that we went out contacting and talked to a lady that we had contacted before but that went really bad too. i was really grrr... i dont know just not happy! i hate it when people dont respect us and our message. needless to say the spirit was not at that lesson. but we ended the night well, we visited the giosas and eldelbis told us she wants to be baptized! YAY! shes awesome.. im really excited for her. yesterday we worked really hard. we had a lot of good lessons and i think my spanish was probably the best that its ever been! im so thankful for the help of the lord. he gives me courage to speak when i dont want to. but today was a really chill day. my comp hasnt felt well so we stayed in all day. haha so theres my week for you! sorry its not too eventful but it was nice to have a calm week after such an exciting week. the nice thing about us staying in is that i really get to delve into the scriptures! today i read all of 2 nephi and jacob. i love the book of mormon so much! i actually understood alot of those horrible isaiah chapters believe it or not.. im excited to really focus on them one of these days. i hope everyone is reading their scriptures daily! they are sooo important! i challenge everyone to read even if its a little bit each day! youll see a difference i promise.. and i can say this cuz im a missionary!

well i love you all very much! laura i hope everything goes well with the baby! ill be praying for you both all day... please send me pictures of her! im so excited for her to come into the world :) i wish i could be there for it. make sure you show her my picture ok??

love you all,

hermana crofts

ps... the church is true :) haha and GO JAZZ!!!

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Monday, May 3, 2010

5/3/10

Hi everyone!! wow is all that i can really say.. this last week has been one of the best of my life. i hope you all are doing well though and everyone is happy! im very excited to talk to you all this next week. i still havent gotten that package that you sent me yet but i really hope tomorrow itll be waiting for me at district meeting! i look forward to packages so much.. hint hint haha! but anyways, thank you for all that you send me i truly cherish it. i was wondering if you guys could send me a mini childrens primary song book in spanish... i find it is one of the best ways to entertain the kids and i love those songs too :) little valentina knows all the words to soy un hijo de dios and sings with us all the time. haha and sometimes shes been singing count your many blessings too haha its so cute! oh and maybe some more pepper in the grinder thing, peanut butter and little crystal light packets or something to help me drink more water haha. and whatever else you want to send me ill be more than delighted to love and cherish haha :)

anyways, to start out this crazy week we went to montevideo on monday night to go to the dentist for my comp. it was bad news, she has to get a root canal! its so sad, cuz shes in a lot of pain all the time and i just dont know how to help. i HATE those things! it could be even worse news because this means that she has to travel to montevideo 5 more times to get it operated on and everything and we have changes coming up in a week so who knows what will happen. they usually move people closer to `deo when they have medical problems. we both really really want to stay here though! paysandu is amazing! the good thing about going to the dentist though is that we got to go to the temple. i love the temple sooooooo much! i was in need of a recharge of my spiritual battery and that did the trick. we get to go back this week too! :) i did it all in spanish too... haha it was awesome.

we stayed over night in the hostels by the temple because we had hermanas conference the next day. it was a lot of fun! i got to meet all of the hermanas in my mission and they are all really awesome! we woke up and went to the mission home and hermana peterson the presidents wife made us these amazing french toast with bananas and delicious syrup. haha dont worry i had two huge slices and was miserably happy after! and then we went and had pres and the hermana talk to us. they are amazing! and then after that this lady came and told us what colors look best on us... it was pretty boring haha i found out i look best in autumn colors though! they gave us scarfs in our colors. that was pretty cool. after that we had lunch yummy tortilla soup and salsa! haha and then after that we had another meeting and then dinner which was oriental chicken salad! absolutely mmmm! haha i got to see my good friends hermana casebolt and hermana gardner again! i love them! after too much food and too much fun we came back to get ready for the next crazy couple of days.

thursday we spent alot of time working, getting baptism questions done and getting people prepared for their interviews. friday we had the sosa family wedding!! it was soooo much fun! we all made the trip out to algorta which is like 1 hour or so away. we had about 15 people there. well juan and gabriela finally tied the knot signed the papers and got pelted by rice as they were walking out of the courthouse! they were absolutely glowing. you should have seen it. haha during our journey back we had fun singing primary songs with valentina and antonella( the friend of the family that we gave the book of mormon to). we got back and hna ung and i both just felt so loved. that night we had a reception for them at the ward house. IT WAS A BLAST!!! the members from the ward decorated the place and made it look really nice. they have helped us soo much which is awesome because we really wanted to better the relationship between the missionaries and them. but we had a nice dinner and theee best cake ever!!! haha i shamefully tell you that i had two giant pieces.. and brought home two more for later... hahah oops i just couldnt help myself. but dont worry i danced most of the calories off! haha me and hna ung had a great old time dancing with all the kids! i think it was contageous too because most of the ward got up and let loose on the dance floor. it was sooooooo much fun!

saturday! the day we thought would never come came and it was sooo great! we had a really really good turn out for the baptism.and even had 6 investigators there to see it. the meeting was really spiritual and the kids were reverent for the most part. hna ung and i sang soy un hijo de dios in both english and spanish. when we went to have them baptized i think i felt about one ounce of what our heavenly father feels for these people and it consumed my whole self. i felt so much love and happiness for juan, gabriela, rocìo, norma, estela, and marìa noel it was amazing! each one of them has a very special place in my heart and i feel so extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to help them into the truth and the light of the gospel. i stand all amazed! sunday everyone was confirmed except for marìa noel because she got sick but next sunday for sure. we`re hoping to work with her boyfriend and help him follow her example and so they can share that together. by the end of sunday we both were tired beyond belief! its so cool to see the changes that have happened here though. my first sunday in church there was about 20 people maybe and now we have helped the ward grow by 50 percent and everyone is so much happier! the feeling here in paysandu is indescribable. and we have so much more going on. today we taught hector who is the husband of estela and also her grand daughter camilla. it was amazing because while we were teaching one of their family members came over and pretty much asked if she could be baptized too.. its wow! its amazing! so we will be working with camila and angela to be baptized together. hector is an awesome man. he bore his testimony to us today and it is so strong and heart felt. he has a really strong faith and love for our savior. i felt tingles after he had told us all the things he had been feeling and how much the gospel means to him. afterwards hna ung said to me, do you ever think our spirits can get tired from feeling the spirit so much? its totally the question for this week. i dont think so! i feel so edified! my spirit, my testimony and the love i have for this work and this gospel has grown by leaps and bounds this weeks! i love my life, i love paysandu and these people, i love the gospel and i love my savior! im so greatful to have the chance to be a missionary in the service of our lord. the gospel is true, this church is true and i know that we can all live with our heavenly father again in a state of neverending happiness! i love you all so much! more than you know! always remember that and always remember that everything is possible as long as we rely upon the rock which is our redeemer jesus christ!

quickly let me tell you about the pics

1. me and hna ung with our sweet new scarfs that took forever to get haha

2. juan and gabriela signing their marriage license thing

3. everyone who came to the wedding woohoo!

4. sosa fam.. haha this pic says it all!

5. cutting that delicious cake

6. DANCING!

7. more dancing

8. haha we had a lot of fun if you couldnt tell..

9. estela and hector! i love these two. they are who we found my first day here :)

10. marìa noel and her boyfriend

11. EVERYONE :)

12. sosa fam after baptism

well this letter is really long but i still have some important info for you concerning mothers day :) we will be expecting your call from 10 to 12. our number for our house (072)405024 and our cell number if we arent at home is (098)677468. i know the numbers are a little weird but they work. i need you to call me because i dont have a phone card. but yes there they are. im really excited to talk to you! katie and matt can call me too! i really want to talk to everyone if they can get together with john and court thatd be awesome too. i love you all soo much! talk to you soon :)

hermana amy michelle crofts