¡Estoy en Uruguay!

Dear Taylor Family,
So it´s official-I´m here in Uruguay! (Subject line=I am in Uruguay) It
has been a crazy week, to say the least. I don´t know if President
Bankhead has sent an email, letter, or anything, so I´ll just start from
the beginning, deal? Ok, sounds good.
What do you last know? Hmm...oh, Miami. Ok, well the flight from Miami
was nice and LONG. While E. Arrieta and I were waiting at the gate,
everyone around us was looking at us, and we saw one guy say to his wife,
"Ellos son Mormones." Which means, "They are Mormons." That was pretty
funny. I sat by myself on the way to Montevideo, which was just fine with
me! E. Arrieta was one row up and across the aisle, but he was talking with
people in Spanish, so I just tried to sleep the whole time, which kinda
worked and kinda not so much.
I woke up in the morning to the stewardess asking me if I wanted "a light
breakfast." Of course I said yes. I then looked out the window to see
Brazil a few thousand feet below. Cool, uh? When we flew over Jamaica, it
was all lit up, so that was cool too. Then, a few minutes later, I got my
first glimpse of Uruguay. Lots and lots of open field. Don´t worry Mom, I
got lots of pictures from the plane! We landed at the Carrasco Airport, or
at least I think that´s what it is called. We didn´t pull up to a gate,
we just sort of parked. So that was fun. Again, don´t worry, I got
pictures. We then wasted about an hour of the Lord´s time in order to get
past "Migraciones." Oh joy. Picked up our baggage-the handle on my big
suitcase was kind of bent, so I have to like hit it down now, it´ll break
sometime.
We walked out and President and Hma. Bankhead were there, along with the
Assistants, E. Caffaro and E. Stones. E. Caffaro is from Orem and will be
playing football for BYU-keep an eye out for him. E. Stones is from MOSES
LAKE and he knows the Boyce´s! So that was really fun to talk about! They
are both great Elders, and I enjoyed the time I got to spend with them. We
then went to the mission home and had a light lunch of sandwiches and some
good juice. The mission home is on the same block as the temple, and the
mission home of the other mission. The people here call it "Manzana de
Mormones." Or the Mormon Block.
E. Arrieta and I then took a half hour nap (request of Pres. Bankhead)
and then we had our interviews w/ Pres. Bankhead. We are going to get along
great, he and I. Haha. He is big on obedience and trust, two things that I
have come to really value already on my mission. We then had a short
orientation about mission rules and programs and what not. Around 6, Pres.
and La Hma. left to go get two Latino Elders who were arriving at the
airport. A Peruvian and a Mexican-the first time they have had either here
in the mission.
So here I am, the only one in the house who can´t speak Spanish, besides
La Hma! Oh well. It was easy to understand the Assistants, the Pres., and
even sometimes E. Arrieta, but I have found that it´s a lot harder to
understand the natives! We then took a walk up to the temple, the 8 of us.
(4 nuevitos, 2 Assistants, Pres. & La Hma.) There at the temple we sat down
a a little wall inside the grounds and the President talked to us about the
mission, what he expects, and what we need to do to be successful. Again,
obedience and trust. Our mission theme is "Un Nivel Más Alto." Which
means, "A higher level" or "A level much higher." The President spoke in
Spanish the whole time, because the two Latinos don´t understand any
English. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could understand almost
everything.
Ate dinner, talked, and left for the mission offices. We slept at the
mission offices. Fun night sleep. Really hot. In the morning, E. Flores
(one of the Latinos) and I met up with two of the other Elders from the
mission who have been here for a couple changes and we all went to the
doctors and migraciones. It was the first time I´ve ever had a doctor
appt. and not understood the reason they were doing ANYTHING! Great fun.
that took all morning. Went back to the offices and had lunch, a hamburger
of sorts that wasn´t very good, and then some more orientations. Finances
and mail stuff. I can only email family, but anyone can email me through
the mission email. urugoest@gmail.com or something like that. I´ll find
out and send it to you next week. They said the mail system is pretty good,
they haven´t had many problems. FEDEX would be worse, because then the
Mafia figures that there´s something extra valuable inside, so they take
it. Anyways, yeah.
After all that, the 4 of us Nuevitos, along with the Assistants and the
President, went and did a session at the temple. It was really cool, but
ridiculously overwhelming. One of the scariest things I´ve ever done. When
I got in the Celestial Room, I just wanted to cry. I love the temple, but I
just couldn´t understand, it wasn´t very comforting. Haha.
The next morning, we met our trainers. They took us up to the roof of the
office building and we were overlooking Montevideo when our trainers came
up behind us and started to sing "Called to Serve" in Spanish. I teared up,
not gonna lie. After they were done, we turned around. My companion´s name
is Elder Tyson Stoddard. He went to Bingham! How crazy is that?! When I
turned, we both were like, Wait, I recognize you. It was awesome. His
family lives in Kaysville now, but yeah. Small world, even 6,000 miles away
from home.
We´re serving in Artigas, the most northern area of the mission. It took
a bus ride of 8 hours to get here. We can walk to Brazil in 15 minutes.
It´s great. RIDICULOUSLY hot. I was like 40 degrees Celsius yesterday-I
don´t know what that is Fahrenheit. Plus humidity. Blugh. It rained on
Friday-the most rain I have ever seen. I was SOAKED. I love it. Aside from
the overwhelming fact that I can hardly understand anything. That´s hard.
But if it wasn´t hard, it wouldn´t be worth it. It will come.
We are teaching some awesome people. Porfilio, Nati, Javier, and Elisa.
Extremely humble, and eager to learn. A lot of walking, and a lot of being
extremely tired. Cold showers every night before bed. The hot water
doesn´t work, so in the morning showers are dreaded.
The members here are awesome. We are in a branch. I think there was only
like 25-30 people at church yesterday. We passed the sacrament with the
only deacon. I love the people. They are very patient with me, and love to
hear me try and talk. Haha. E. Stoddard says I speak very well, without
many mistakes. The big thing I have to work on is vocab. But it will come,
I´ve only been here a week. With the Lord on my side, I can´t fail.
This morning we played soccer with the zone, there´s 10 elders and 2
hermanas. We played soccer and then we watched Curious George. Then we went
to La Coca´s house and had asado, which is like a barbecue. It was
fantastic. By far the best meal so far. The food´s good so far. Lots of
Mayo on everything, that´s weird. Lots of potatoes and bread. Anyways,
yeah.
We have a lesson with Porfilio tonight, so we´re gonna go prepare for
that. Know that I love you all, and that I am loving the opportunity that I
have to serve the Lord and the people of Uruguay! I am truly blessed to be
able to be here. It is hard, but I wouldn´t have it any other way. The
Lord is watching over me. You are forever in my prayers. The Church is
true. I love you!
-Elder Taylor

P.S. I don´t remember Mary-Anne´s email address, so send it to me. My
P-Days, if you haven´t figured it out, are on Mondays. I love you!