Epifonia

email dated 12-24-2007
It's 90 weeks-ish, 21 months, 15 more changes (changes are every 6 weeks), and essentially 2 more years if you ask me. I haven't been out that long, or maybe it only feels that way because my companion is going home at the end of this change. Either way, I wouldn't have it any other way. I still am not fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, or Spanish alone for that matter, and there's plenty of people to meet and service to do.

The work here is going well. My favorite investigators came to church yesterday, and surprisingly to me, they enjoyed it. I thought church was really boring yesterday. First of all because I spoke. Second of all, the mic wasn't working and so you couldn't hear a single word the bishop or stake president said when they spoke. When I gave my talk I was sure to speak really loudly. I felt kind of like a christian preacher shouting the way I did. "Have faith!! Faith is where it all starts!" I pleaded with my ward to get involved. We lack leadership in our ward, and they all seem pretty disanimated. One member said she is catholic but she comes to our church every week because the church helps her pay her bills. Thankfully there aren't a lot of her. One guy I was talking to, who really is a good member now, said that he started out as the worst reference in church history. His friend said "join the Mormon church. Tell the missionaries you believe them and in the church you'll be able to get work and they'll help you pay your rent if you get behind and stuff." He is one of our best members now, but he is the first to say he started out on the wrong track. That kind of story just makes me sad.

So I've been offered enough beer, cigarettes, and drugs for a lifetime. Ive had cigarettes almost shoved into my face, I've seen people rolling their own doobies with illegal (at least in the US) drugs, and so many drunk people. So I just think that's fun to say, because I never had experiences with drugs or alcohol before in my life. There's a first time for everything.

About the culture: First thing is maté! Everybody drinks maté. Pronounced mah-tay. Its disgusting looking. It is a cup filled with these leaves and flavors of their choice and they pour hot water into it. All day!! The leaves are reused for months. It looks disgusting and it makes your teeth turn green. But I really like the maté cups. I am for sure going to buy some and bring them home as gifts. They'd make great change cups or pencil cups. They're really cool. This isn't the first time Ive seen maté though, my roommate second semester, Dave, had maté every day and I didn't know that's what it was called. It's not against the word of wisdom, but it's a mission rule that we don't drink it. Anyway, people drink it all the time.

Next thing about the culture, they don't get bored. Ive walked past people who have been sitting in the same position with their maté cup under the shade of some tree for 6 or 7 hours. They don't have books. They aren't listening to the radio, watching TV, anything!! They just sit there, and enjoy their maté. In some ways I'm jealous. Especially on the summer evenings. It looks really relaxing. Mostly I wonder how they do it. I would at least need a book. They just sit there. But when you talk to them they say "I don't have any time! I work all day!! We cant hear your message." In which case we leave them a focheto, rather pamphlet, and were on our way. Some missionaries wrongly make fun of these people, who seem to be half the population. But we do the same thing in the US. We beat around the bush and make excuses when we don't want to talk to somebody. Its their way of being polite and saying they don't want to talk to us. It doesn't really bother me, but it is funny how they say they have no time but they've been sitting there drinking all day.

Everybody is Catholic. "soy catholico". They say that and no more, as if that's all you need to say in order to mean "we don't want to know anything about your religion." My style in these situations is to just tell them that I too know that Jesus is my Savior, but that my message is special because the church of Jesus Christ is restored and we have a prophet even today, and then I leave them a pamphlet and continue my search for the people that want to hear my message. We challenged a good investigator who said he knew the Book of Mormon was true to be baptized and he told us never. He's already been baptized in the Catholic church and he needs no more. He said he will keep reading the Book of Mormon, and we're still visiting him and working with him, but he feels really strongly about staying Catholic, but loves talking to us about God. It's a cultural thing down here to believe in Jesus and to be Catholic. The one fault with this is that it doesn't bring anybody to DO anything about their faith. The same problem is in our church, here and everywhere around the world. Our faith should drive us to do something. It says in James that "even the devils know, and tremble." Satan knows Jesus is the Christ but that alone won't save him. We have to follow him. I see way too many single mother homes here in Uruguay because the men leave them. I see broken homes and hurting people that I want to help by bringing them the gospel.

I wish so badly I had more time. I have to go.

I love you all!! Bye!!!
Andy