December...

Taylor Family and Friends,
Man, this last week went by really fast. We had a lot to do this week and it kept us busy. We officially do not live in the chapel anymore! Yay! We moved out on Saturday morning. We could´ve waited until today to move all of our stuff, but we wanted to be out before Sunday. Some of the young men from the ward came to help us move our stuff and clean up the new apartment. It´s nice, we´re happy with it. For right now it´s pretty empty, but they´ll get some furniture in there pretty soon. But then again, we don´t need much-just the beds, a place for our clothes, and the bathroom! Missionaries aren´t too picky.
Victor Barreneche was baptized on Friday night! There was definitely a last minute push by the adversary to try and knock it off course, but it was done. On Tuesday morning, we were heading to Rivera for our district meeting and Victor was on the back of the bus. We waved, and he motioned for me to go back to him. I worked my way back and he told me that he was on his way to the hospital because his dad had had a heart attack and was in the hospital, but he said he would be back for sure by Friday for the baptism. For the next couple of days we couldn´t get a hold of him. On Thursday, I was in Rivera to do some interviews and Elder Hughes and Elder Jones found Victor and met his father. He was doing much better, and Victor was as excited as ever. They set the interview for Friday morning, before we switched back from divisions. Elder Johnson and I arrived from Rivera and they still had not had the interview because Victor hadn´t shown up; Elder Johnson and I went over to his house, and he had slept in. Haha. And that´s not the end of it. The baptism was set for 7 PM Friday night, and Jesus Furtado was going to baptize Victor. Turns out that the machine at Jesus´ work broke and they got stuck late trying to fix it. We pushed back the baptism in hopes that he would be back, but he couldn´t make it. Victor asked me to baptize him at the last minute. On Sunday morning, a huge rainstorm came through Tranqueras. Victor lives in one of the farthest neighborhoods here in Tranqueras and the streets are horrible, so he didn´t make it on Sunday for his confirmation. Actually, Elder Hughes and I didn´t even make it to sacrament meeting on Sunday. Ok, let me explain. We were in Sunday School with everyone and we received a message from Nestor and Élida asking for Pres. Diaz´s number because Élida´s house was full of water and they needed help. Pres. Diaz took Marcos, Elder Hughes and I to get changed and we ran over to Élida´s house to help them. The roof is in really bad condition, and we´ve been working on getting materials in order to replace it, but we haven´t been able to do so yet. After the rain stopped and the leaking wasn´t as bad, the four of us headed back to the chapel in our jeans and t-shirts to take the sacrament. That was a first.
Yesterday afternoon we went back over to Élida´s house, but this time in shirts and ties in order to have a lesson with Nestor, Belén and Lorena. We have been teaching Nestor since I got here, and he´s just been struggling with smoking. Belén was invited by Yenifer to come to church two weeks ago, and has come the last two. Lorena is another friend who is also starting to show interest. We talked with all of them about the Restoration and it went REALLY well. The best part about the lesson, though, came at the end when I asked if anyone had any questions or comments; Nestor said yes, and asked me what date I will be leaving. I told him the 15th or the 16th, and he said, "Well, then we´ll have to set my baptismal date for the 13th, won´t we?" We all just kind of looked at him, speechless. Haha. We said yes, and talked about his resolution to stop smoking by this weekend. So Nestor Mendez is going to be getting baptized on December 13th! Super excited!
Tomorrow we have District Mtg, and Wednesday we have interviews with President. It´ll be interesting to see how this interview goes. Haha. I can´t believe it´s going to be my last "missionary work" interview. There´s four of us ending the mission this change: Hermanas Gutierrez and Gonzalez, Elder Temechuk and I. All four of us will be in the same zone conference next week in Tacuarembó, so that´s exciting!
Well, I think that´s about going to do it for me this week. I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving! I was in Rivera on divisions, and we went to a buffet on the Brazilian side of the border. Mmm. No turkey, but plenty of food! Love you all, and we´ll see ya soon!
Elder Taylor