Yet another rainy p-day in Artigas!

Fam and Friends,
What´s up? Not a lot goin´ on down here, just chillin´with my new comp from Uruguay who doesn´t speak or understand A WORD of English! Pretty sweet, uh? My comp´s name is Diego Rodriguez and he is from Colonia, Uruguay. Well, actually, he´s from a little town outside of Colonia, but that gives you an idea. It´s amazing how much the mission life can change in like 2 days. This change is going to be COMPLETELY different than the previous 2. But, the change is always good.
Diego is 22 years old. He´s been a member of the Church for a little over 1 year. (he was baptized in April of last year) He has been a Corto Plazo 3 times before, but only for a couple of weeks when an Elder got sick or something. So, in total, we have about 4 months of mission experience between us. He and his mom are the only members in their family. He baptized in mom August of last year, so that´s cool. But, the rest of the family still doesn´t want anything to do with the Church. They support him and everything, they just don´t want to follow him....yet! He still doesn´t understand everything that a missionary is supposed to do, but I guess that´s a given, right? It´s interesting because as we teach some of our lessons, he is learning right along with the people. I´m having a hard time trying to get him excited to have our studies, but with time, it will come. It´s kind of funny, because when we are in the streets, he is excited to talk to people until the time comes to actually open his mouth. Sometimes he´ll stop the people and shake their hands, but he won´t say anything-so then I introduce who we are and then just turn and look at him until he feels awkward enough to start talking! It works like a charm every time. Haha.
This last weekend was interesting. At the end of last change, the work started to head in to a slump, and then it hit this weeked. We didn´t have many lessons, and the ones we had set up fell through. Yesi (pronounced Shessi) found work in Montevideo, so she´s going to be moving this week. Which means that Richard wants to wait until she gets back to keep receiving the lessons. That was a rough bit of news.
Friday we had a great lesson with Eduardo. He hadn´t drank since our Word of Wisdom last weekend, and was feeling really good. When we left, he was stoked to head to the church on Sunday. Saturday we passed by just to give him some encouragement and make sure all was well, and it was. Then Sunday morning comes around, and Eduardo didn´t show up to church. We went over there first thing in the afternoon, and his mom told us that he left Saturday night and came back drunk. Then he left with some of his buddies Sunday morning and hadn´t been back since. That was a blow. His mom doesn´t want to receive the lessons right now, but she is excited for the change in her son, so she encouraged us to keep trying. We are going to pass by today to see if we can talk to him. Pablo (the lawyer) was really busy with work and a birthday last weekend, so we haven´t been able to have a lesson since...wait anxiously with us. Haha.
I´ve heard from Uncle Mike, Grandma J, and Bishop Christiansen recently, but other than that, everything´s been really quiet from the States. Is there some really long post office holiday that I don´t remember? Mom, your questions, no I haven´t gotten the package yet. I thought it would come this last Thursday, but I´m betting that with changes they decided to wait a week until everything settled down in the offices. That jacket/coat that you talked about last week in your letter is the one I was talking about. It goes down a little more than my hands hang, right? From the description you sent, that´s the one I was talking about. It´s perfect because it´s not too heavy, and not too light. I´ve had to wear my trench the last couple of days because it´s been cold enough to need a jacket, but it´s still not cold enough to wear the trench; so I´ve been doing a lot of holding of the trench during the afternoons. The last two changes, I just used the outer part of Elder Stoddard´s jacket it when it got a little cold. Haha.
Sounds like the family had a nice little reunion last weekend. I hope all is well with everyone. I´m pretty excited for Steve and Julie, that´ll be cool to head back up to Washington. And mom, I´m not sure how much rain Artigas gets a year. If it ever comes up in a contact, I´ll let you know! Haha. When does Kyna get home? It sounds like it´s close, from all that you were saying, and from the letters I´ve gotten forwarded. I can´t believe she´s almost done. That´s crazy cool. How much time does Ty have left? He´s still got a while, right?
Well, that´s the news from down in on this end of the world. I would LOVE to hear what´s going on up there with all of you! You can send emails to the mission email address with "Elder Aaron Taylor" in the subject line, and it will get to me. It´s a quick way to let me know that you´re all still alive and kickin. I love you all, and I hope you know that you are in my prayers constantly. The work is moving forward-the only way to go is up! ¡Vamos Arriba!
Elder Taylor