The Time Has Come to Return Symmetry to my Feet

So I am here in Montevideo, writing my email at what is 6:30 in the morning here. You are all sleeping soundly and dreaming of whatever and wishing that you were me serving a mission in a foreign country learning the coolest language and spending your whole days in the service of the Lord.

I am a tad nervous for my surgery. I delayed having this done because I had once promised myself I would never let a Uruguayan doctor touch me, mostly because of what problems I had seen them cause for my trainer. Long story! I won’t tell it. Anyway, I swallowed my pride and my stubbornness and here I am...I hope they don’t mess up. They already messed this surgery up on another missionary I know. They didn’t fully kill the root of the toenail so it started growing back and got re-infected and he couldn’t walk for 2 weeks. So I expect that your prayers are sufficient to take care of me. Granted, you all won’t even say your morning prayers before I start the procedure, but our all-knowing God will recognize your efforts. He already knows if you are going to remember to pray for me or not. So pray for me. It will still count.

Speaking of prayers, somebody back home is not praying hard enough for me. We are having a really hard time finding new investigators and the ones we have aren’t home ever these days, at least this week. We had a REALLY long week walking in the rainy skies with few people outside and loads of fallen appointments. Don’t forget to pray with faith! Everyone ought to read Elder Bednar’s talk from last conference.

So I had McDonald’s this morning for the first time in a LONG time. It was really disappointing. The weird thing about McCy D´s here is that it is the food of the wealthy. A happy meal costs 100 something pesos, and for 100 pesos you can get a REALLY good meal anywhere else. But somehow McDonald’s has a lot of business down here in Montevideo. I don’t understand it. Anyway, it was terrible. The sausage mcmuffin was anything but sausage and it wasn’t in a mcmuffin. It was in a roll. I was most disappointed.

So this week I came to the realization that I speak Spanish. I answered the phone the other day and it was a wrong number. I went through the casual, "Oh sorry, you have the wrong number. Who were you trying to call? Oh no, that is at this number? Yeah... Yeah." etc... and I did it without even thinking twice or blinking. And I have had a billion little things like that that are stupid but they make me feel good. I love asking people for directions and understanding where they are talking about, and ...well I just love that I understand this language when they talk and that I speak it right back!! It is super fun.

There aren’t many good stories from this week, so I am trying to babble about something at least...The investigators from last week’s story weren’t home the 2 times we passed by, and, when they were home, the husband had gone to the hospital because his brother was in surgery for some problem with his legs. So I have no updates on them.

It is hard because the best people we find are always the people that have lives and work and aren’t in the home all the day long. But when you actually get them at home they are AMAZING. I gave a talk in church yesterday on the Book of Mormon and how we as members of the church need to know how to respond to our neighbors questions about the Book of Mormon and what is Mormon, etc... and the 13 year old on the front row said it was the best talk he had ever heard. I thought that was really nice of him to say.

I hope that everyone is doing well and that you are laughing and smiling at the simple things in life. I am making an extra special effort this week to do that as well! Take care!! I love you all!!!

Andy