¡Buenos días!

Taylor Family and Friends,
Well, I´m not as sore as I thought I would be, so that´s a good thing! Haha. But both Elder Davidson and I are a little more red today! On Sunday we had the idea of just borrowing a couple of bikes and going for a little ride to see the countryside. We went out on the Highway 30 and arrived (12 kilometers later) to Buen Unión, where the highway meets up with the freeway. We looked at the sign and it said RIVERA 41; we had just done 12 kilometers in 45 minutes, with a stop to scare some cows and take a couple of pictures, so we decided we could make it in a little over two hours. What we didn´t realize is that we took a sharp left turn to get on the highway....and to go straight into the wind. It´s a good thing we had bought a couple of apples and bananas before leaving. We were super tired afterwards, but it was a fun memory. Not many can say they biked from Tranqueras to Rivera!
One of the funniest parts is that when we got home, we found out that the water had been cut on our block! Unbelievable. We studied all sweaty and nasty, but then right before we had to leave for our first lesson, the water came on for about 20 minutes, so we could shower. While we were doing our hair, the water cut out again. A tender mercy that it came on at all! Haha.
I don´t know, Mom, if we are that close to the highest point in Uruguay. I can tell you that there are more hills here than any other part of the country that I have seen. There are quite a few gauchos here and in the roundabouts. I´m looking into some boots right now and some bombachas. :o) It´ll be interesting to see if this is my last area or not. I´ll for sure be here until November, but who knows if Pres. will move me for my last change. I kind of hope not; I´d like to finish here. I´m going to start looking for some more souvenirs because in Rivera you can find stuff pretty cheap.
I´d love to go and talk to your class this December about stuff here in the ´Guay. My last couple of days in P-dú I asked about some of the Chistmas traditions and whatnot, found out some stuff that I didn´t even know yet. Cool cool. But yeah, sign me up.
Jose and his family didn´t come to Church yesterday. Well, Jose came to tell us that they weren´t going to come because his wife was sick. But we had a great lesson with them on Saturday night, so we´ll see how things go. We have a baptism next week: Nestor. He is a really good guy who has had a big change. Just last night he told us that he hadn´t smoked since Saturday; that was going to be his biggest challenge before being able to get baptized. He´s going to get baptized the 12th and be confirmed the 14th-his birthday. Also, Marcos and Paola are going to pull out a date for their wedding this week. After they get married, Paola and her two oldest kids are going to get baptized. Marcos is already a member. Sandra and her three kids (Richard, Sandra, and Claudia) have also accepted the invitation to be baptized. It will probably happen the week of the 20th. So yeah, things are going well. Teaching a lot, and doing our best to find more people each day to teach. I´ve been really blessed with great companions throughout my mission who are willing and anxious to work. Even though Elder Davidson is in his last change, he is doing really well. We talk about school and stuff every once and a while, but we don´t let it pull us away from the work. His mom will be coming down to get him the first weekend in October and they´re going to swing by all his areas, so I will have the chance to meet her.
On Sunday, we were pleasantly surprised when the high councilman announced that a member of the branch had been called as branch counselor; Jesus Furtado, who moved here from Rivera about 4 weeks ago with his wife and two young children. We are grateful to have a priesthood leader here in Tranqueras, and we are anxious to support and help him.
No, Mom, I still haven´t sent the CD of pictures. My bad. It´s in my bags. Haha. There´s no post office here to send stuff internationally, so I´ll have to take it to Rivera with me one of these days. We go every week for district meeting (like today) but we don´t have a lot of time to run over there. We might be heading over there next Monday for P-Day, so I´ll see what I can do. I´ll think about what it is that I could need/want in a package, and I´ll let you know! I had some thoughts the last couple of weeks, but I forgot to write them down...!
Alright, I think that´s going to be about it for this week. I hope you all have a fantastic week and I hope you write me about it! :o) Take care and know that I love ya!
Elder Taylor