Transfers next week

For all my faithful readers, don't be alarmed next Monday when the email doesn't come, because it is TRANFERS WEEK!! That means I will write on Tuesday. But the anxiety is gone because I know I am staying and my companion is leaving. President gave us a sneak peak and told us in interviews. So it looks like I will be staying in Tacuarembó. But I would have guessed that anyway. So I still get to enjoy the anxiety of wondering who my new companion will be. And I hope that you are all counting. That marks Transfer number 5!! I will be in 5 of 15 or 16. I am a third the way into the mission now. 8 months! What a good age! I am definitely not a kid anymore!

So we had a baptism this last week of my Ernestina, the cute old lady. I was sad because her daughter didn't come to the baptism and we were really hoping to start working with the rest of her family. We will still keep trying. The baptism went well. She asked me to do it. I was scared because she is old and I have never baptized somebody quite so old and I was scared of killing her. I truly was. The worst part is that the heater is broken and so the water was COLD! And with the cold weather and her being old, I was honestly concerned and considered saying we should delay until we could heat the water. But we went in anyway and she came out fine. But, as is often the case when you baptize older women, she just could not keep her feet planted for fear of the water and I had to push her down to make sure all of her got under water. I figure it is better to shove them down on the first one than have to do it again so I really got her down there. I just wish she had kept her feet planted and I could´ve done it a lot nicer. She was SO excited to get baptized. She showed up a half hour early to the baptism and just was so antsy. You would´ve thought she was an 8 year old girl. She was so excited to be baptized she just couldn't wait. The water was decently cold. It made me shiver. She was a trooper.

Oh man, I have to go to the bathroom! but we are in a Ciber and a Guayan public bathroom can be pretty gross. Any public bathroom can be pretty gross... I just dont know what to do.

I have no interesting stories from this week really... beyond the baptism it was a fairly dry week. I have been feeling nautious (I dont remember how to spell it, but it is nausea either way). I don't really know why. I was kind of nauseous all week. I think something did me bad. But my companion is fine so I don't know what. We eat all the same things. I think my stomach is just crying out in pain and pleading for no more oil! They DROWN everything in oil down here. And then they put mayo on it. It took me a few weeks to be able to digest down here if I remember correctly. I think maybe my stomach is just getting tired. It really is unhealthy the way they cook. You all think a happy meal is bad for you, but there is double the oil in a guiso of rice and eggs and vegetables down here. I think right now I would take the happy meal. But it is bad to be sick. You can't refuse food. But I had to yesterday. I figured it would be fine because they were really good members that always joked with us. She offered some pizza thingy she had made and I said "no thanks, I am not feeling too well." I knew we shouldn't have even worked if I was feeling sick. She told my companion she thinks I am racist. I am racist because I didn't want to eat? I don't get it either. I will have to go and suck up to them later this week and apologize. I wish people down here would stop getting offended so easily. Every less active in the church down here claims that they don't go because somebody offended them and that the Bishop knows and etc... It is all just an excuse. But they do get offended really easily. You have to be careful. I remember in my first transfer Elder Dennis offended a recent convert at Christmas. She offered us some Sweet Bread (which is gross down here), but it was in a weird awkward way. We were already on our way out the door basically and she said, "oh, you wouldn't happen to want this bread would you" and it was sitting on a table with some other old christmas stuff and looked like it had been there for months, and he said, "no thanks," or something along those lines. Anyway, she stopped going to church and her husband too. I spent the next 2 transfers reactivating her and I never did get the husband back to church. It is a VERY annoying problem the way they get offended so easily. I have learned to just say "si, como no" "Yeah, why not" whenever they offer something. Yesterday was the first time I couldn't do it because I felt like throwing up and look what happened to me... I am racist. I wish everyone would read Elder Bednar´s talk about taking offense from a few conferences ago! The irony of it all is that I was probably sick because I had managed to avoid offending somebody else by eating something that wasn't good for me.

Well, there is my cool story for the week. So if any of you find yourselves in Uruguay, just accept the sweet bread, just eat the pumpkin, just eat the chicken heart, just eat the cow stomach, don't complain, just do it. At least if you have the name of the church on your chest, you have to do it. You can't afford to offend people.

I hope that everyone is doing just peachy! I am doing well, I think I am starting to feel better from my nausea, but it is still kind of there. My companion says I have an apendicitis. I seriously doubt that. That would be so horrible. I can only imagine the scar the doctors would leave down here! Doctors is another topic. I have to go. I love you all! Take care!!

Andy