Dan and Janice

Cabo Palonio

2011-04-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

The Taylor's and us went to visit another lighthouse (Faro) and the surrounding community this past week. This is the building where you buy tickets for the big trucks that take you through about 3 kilometers of sand to get to the community. This is the only way into Cabo Palonio. Everything is trucked in and the only electricity is for the Faro or by generators. There were people from all over the world visiting. We met people from Holland, Brazil, Chile and of course Uruguay on our trip.

The 4x4 truck that we took out to the Cabo Palonio

The truck loading up the people, roughly 25 people can get on the truck. They have several truck that bring the people in and out of the community.

Elder John and Hermana Alicia Taylor and us

The view of the deeply rutted sandy road that the truck take to the community

The ocean, we are almost there!

The beaches were very pretty and the surfers were in the water!

Coming in to the community, which was a lot bigger than what I had imagined it would be.

Getting a little closer to the community and the Faro.

An old fishing boat that makes a good background for a photo of Janice and Dan

We ate lunch in a restaurant with the Taylor's. The service was very slow and the food was expensive and not that great! The restaurant had its own generator for electricity. The bathrooms were scary

A group shot. Our table overlooked a patio that was right on the beach the view was great.

The community was full of little booths selling different nic naks for souvenirs. Alicia found a scarf and the rest of us enjoyed looking at all the stuff.........

The house that is built upon a ROCK

The Faro was closed, so we could not get to the top. That was a disappointment.

Cabo Palonio is know for it lobo marines...sea lions. if you look close you can see them on the rocks.

We are on an observation deck at the base of the Faro, the sea lions are behind us on the rocks.

This guy was off by himself and way up on top of the tall rock. He must have gotten up there at high tide and now it is a long drop to the water. Oh well he says I wanted another nap anyways ...ZZZZZ

I am not totally sure what this is, a torpedo, buoy, I don't know but it was something to tell where we were at.

One of the unique paint jobs of the houses in the community

2011-04-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

Ruben Bica, Hermana Rachael Givens, Hermana Kelsey Orme, Elder Boyce and Elder Castillo. We gave Ruben his new wheelchair that Rachael had brought with her from Utah. Many miracles occurred in order to get his chair to him in Uruguay. It was great to see the joy on his face to see Hermana Rachael and Hermana Kelsey again. Both had served in La Paloma and Hermana Rachael was the one that taught Ruben and got him baptized. The new wheelchair was a distant 3rd in importance compared to seeing the visiting Hermanas. It was great to be there and see it.

Ruben in his new chair with Hermana Rachael Givens and Herman Kelsey Orme.

We had a Branch activity at the Church so everyone could come and visit with Hermana Givens and Orme. This is Pedro Rojas who Hermana Givens taught and helped him get baptized. He loves the missionaries and especially Hermana Givens. Pedro is 83 years old and has been a member of the Church for a little over 2 years. He received the Melquisedic priesthood Sunday and the office of an Elder. He is preparing to go to the Temple on May 14th. He is very excited to go!

Hermana Orme and Pedro Rojas

If you have food.....they will come

Mark and Sue Orme outside the Faro Santa Maria (built in 1874) in La Paloma

Mark and I climbed the stairs to the top of the light house........where is the elevator????

Mark enjoying the awesome view from the top of the Faro

Hermana Rachael Given, Kelsey Orme and Sue and Mark Orme, Kelsey's parents came to visit the 18 and 19th of April. It was great to have them in our home.

2011-04-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

This is the water filter in the Church in Rocha. I feel much better that they are drinking filtered water......but all sharing 3 glasses......

it appears something got missed in the explanation of clean water

This is the room where the English speakers got to listen to General Conference in the Rocha building! It was awesome! The schedule was 1-3pm Saturday morning session, 5-7pm Saturday afternoon session, 9-11pm priesthood session and then we caught the 11:30pm bus back to La Paloma and Sunday catch the 12:15pm bus to Rocha for the 1-3pm session and 5-7pm session. It was an awesome weekend but a bit we were a bit tired after.

Our little group waiting at the bus terminal for the Saturday bus. Left Nelly (investigating the Church) Elder Boyce, Castillo, Elizabeth Glattli and Ruben Bica.

I gave Elder Boyce the opportunity to learn how to help Ruben on and off the bus. Sorry the picture in blurry. That is Ruben riding on Elder Boyce's back off the bus.

Elder Boyce lowering Ruben into his awaiting wheelchair on the sidewalk in Rocha on the way to the Church in Rocha.

A husband and wife that works at the hardware store had triplets! Janice decided to make them blankets!

The finished blankets wrapping up much needed diapers for the triplets.

Elder John Taylor, Hermana Alicia Taylor and Hermana Janice Hegerhorst, Elder Hegerhorst at the Montevideo Temple in April. We try to get to the Temple once a month. It is great to get together.

Ruben's old wheelchairs seat was ripping so Janice and Myrna sewed him an new one. I am trying to put holes in the fabric with a hot wire so the hole will seal and not fray.

Janice testing out the new seat on the wheelchair while Ruben emails all of the old missionaries that have passed through La Paloma.

A random cart that was being pulled down the road in Castillos. It looks like an old lawnmower converted into a cart

Ahh you know a motorcycle truck......... they have them all over in the States right???

A slightly better picture of Elder Castillo and Boyce

Hermana Givens, Orme and new wheelchair

2011-04-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

Ruben Bica, Rachael Given, Kelsey Orme, Elder Boyce and Elder Castillo. Hermana's Givens and Orme served a mission in Uruguay and came back for a visit. They stayed at our home. Hermana Givens brought a new wheelchair with her that the Church donated to Ruben. Hermana Givens was the one that taught Ruben and got him baptized. To him she is an angel! His life has changed so much with the gospel of Jesus Christ to guide and direct him. He was so happy to see her that the wheelchair was a distant second in importance.

Ruben and Rachael Givens, Kelsy Orme

We held an activity in the Branch so the members could all come and see and talk with these to special missionaries. This is Pedro Rojas who was taught by Hermana Givens also. He is 83 years old and will be ordained an Elder tomorrow. He is getting ready to go to the Temple and is very excited!

More of the Branch members at that activity for Hermana Givens and Orme.
Left: Susana Nunez, Maria Fabra, Rachael Givens, Ulises Rocha, Alba Pereyra, Alidema Muniz, Myrna Gomez y Artigas Molfino

Ruben checking out his new wheelchair

Walton & Farnsworth, Fabiana Baptism & stuff

2011-04-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Glattli invited Hermana Walton, Farnsworth and Janice and I along with a few friend over to her house for an asado (BBQ) to say goodbye to the hermanas. They were being transfered. Hermana Walton was not able to attend because she was called to attend a special meeting in Montevideo that day. So Hermana Grow came to be with Hermana Farnsworth for the day and got to attend the asado! Elizabeth insisted that I do the cooking! Everything turned out great for never cooking most of it before. We had blood sausage (2 different types), kidney, Chivitos (sausage), ribs, chicken and some other types of sausages. We tried everything and was glad there was enough chicken for us. The locals can have that other stuff!

Elizabeth Glattli explaining that she is in charge and has the big knife to prove it!!

Left to right: Marisa, Hermana Andrea Farnsworth, Hermana Grow, Esther Presa, Ruben Bica all getting ready for the feast to begin!!

The District Leader Elder Derek Ian Wally and his companion Elder Christenson came to La Paloma to interview Fabiana Guerra for Baptism and a lunch prepared by the Hegerhorst's

Some of the asado left overs we got the Elders to eat. Blood sausage and ribs

One of the local caterpillars here. This one was very bright green and looked like astroturf walking.

This trip was full of the wild life of La Paloma, this is an armor plated worm. They are 8-10" long.

Hermana Walton, Fabiana Guerra and Benyamin and Hermana Farnsworth at Fabiana's baptism. She wanted to be baptized in the ocean and her wish came true and she wanted me to do it!!! Way Cool!!!

Walking into the ocean to preform the baptism. The water was cool but not freezing cold like I expected. It was a really fun experience to baptize her in the ocean.

Just after the baptism

The Priesthood had a conference in Chuy and the Hermanas had an activity night with some of the young ladies in our Branch, fingernail painting and pizza! What a fun time they had!

The pizzas created by themselves!

A flower at the nursery where we purchased some potting soil for Ruben to plant some plants in.

Shirly and Silvina, they are Ruben's sister and niece.

Elder Castillo (from Peru, this is his first area in the Mission) and Boyce (from Fulsom CA, the trainer)

Pedro and Beatrice our landlord and friends

Business and stuff in La Paloma

2011-04-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Wrecked car lot outside the police station

A close up of real mess of a car

The bicycle repair shop we frequent way to often, which happens to be a crossed the street from the wrecked car lot and police station

The Police Station of La Paloma

This tree Janice really likes and insisted on getting a picture of her and it together.

The Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah Witnesses in La Paloma

Somos pizza restaurant, owned by the (Rafael & Andrea) parents of one of our Church members Lucia Herrera

One of the Supermarkets in town. This one is the furthest from our house.

La Paloma's version of "Home Depot". The hair arm is necessary when taking pictures while riding a moving bicycle, until you master the technique.

The big brother to the El Dorado that is close to our house. This store just opened on the other side of town this summer.

The Pharmacy and a little gift and goodies store

This is the hardware store

Birthday Temple Trip for Ruben and Janice

2011-03-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

In order to get Ruben on the public buses he has to climb on my back and I give him a ride into the bus. We do get lots of wierd looks from people as we are doing it but it is the only way to get him from one city to the next since we do not have a car. We climb the steps and hopefully we are entering a bus that does not have another internal door. This door is usually small than the width of my shoulders, which is no problem when you don´t have someone on your back. But when you do and then your sideways dimension is bigger than your shoulders it takes some sqirming and wiggling to get through the door. The first time I did this when I was getting off the bus I ended up with me facing the drivers seat, so I had to back down the stairs. It was a bit of a struggle but we figured it out and have done better since and if we have an option we take a bus without the internal door. A better shot of the internal part of bus Dan & Janice with Ruben Bica in front of the Montevideo Uruguay Temple. We had a great trip. It was very relaxed and no stress, unlike when we take the whole Branch!

Sunrise and Rocha Lagoon

2011-02-02T02:55:00.000-08:00

Sunrise in La Paloma, don't you wish you were here!

One of the local birds. very annoying bird especially in the spring when they are nesting!

Sunrise with the Lighthouse

Sunrise with my "companion"

Sunrise again!

Janice, Hermana Walton, Kelly and I went for a 3 plus hour bicycle ride to the Rocha Lagoon. These are some of the photos from the trip.

Looking back towards La Paloma with a 10x zoom lens. There is on tall building in La Paloma and that is what you can see above the trees.

The Lagoon, the water level was down but it was till very pretty.

Janice, Hermana Walton and Kelly at the end of the road sign.

It was a very fun trip and we are glad we made trip!

2011-02-01T02:36:00.000-08:00

Janice just had to know what the facilities looked like in the "Mens" restroom in a upscale resturant that we visited with some other missionaries. She was so interested I thought that some of the rest of you might be also!?
Most of the toilets do not have seats on them, people steal them I guess. This is the same in the "Womens" restroom as well Janice tells me.

The stall next door was a pit in the floor that you stand / squat over and then water flushes it clean, more or less.

The urinal in a wall of stainless steel with a trough at the bottom.....

This is a picture that Ruben painted that we really liked. He sales these for 150 pesos or about $7.50 each. They work really cheap here.

The sunrise and sunsets are beautiful here. If only the camera would capture it fully. Enjoy!!!

This is one of the most cleverly designed horse drawn carts that I have seen. There are many different types of carts that use the streets with the cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles ect....
At our Chapel we should issue "hard hats"!! The edge of the roof is falling apart and crashing to the walkway below. Of course it is concrete that is falling. We are trying to get if fixed but....manana is still very strong here!

The roof area that is falling apart

More roof area that is about to fall apart

We went for a bike ride trying to find a route to the Rocha Lagoon. It was a fun ride and we got to see some interesting and beautiful scenery and things.

I really like the safe scaffolding they built for this house.

The parking at the beach out at Anaconda

Janice, Hermana Walton and Kelly waiting for me to catch up

Hermana Kelly trying to get through the sandy road. It is a bit tough going in sand on a bicycle.

One of the Hotels on the beach, one of our Branch members live here and help maintain it.

Mission Photo, Senior Couples

2011-01-14T12:26:00.000-08:00

Photo of our entire mission at the Christmas Mission Conference.

Janice doing her best to make French Toast, is was a bi of a challenge but she did a great job with the bread that she had!

Elder Alan and Rebecca Wilde and their friends Mecedes and Hugo. They are all assigned to help in the Paso Carrasco branch. The Wilde's also serve as Temple Missionaries. They were in La Paloma and came to Church. What a wonderful surprise and treat. We invited them to come to the house for lunch later.

Lunch with the Wilde's and friends

We went to the Montevideo Temple with the Taylors and Cox's. The Cox's are serving in the other Mission. It was great to get to know them a bit better. We had a great time at the Temple and then went out to eat lunch after.

Branch Christmas Photo and Baby Quilts

2011-01-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

Picture of those members at Church December 26th. Hermana Lee wanted a group photo before she went home on the 29th of December. We wish her the best of luck in her new life after the "Mission"!

Ruben is going to be a grandpa! His daughter is having twins! Janice thought it would be nice to make the babies a quilt. So with a bit of creativeness she made it happen and Ruben and Hermana Kelly helped her.

We put together a make-shift frame and they tied the quilt in our dining room.

Ruben, Janice and Hermana Kelly tying the quilts

The finished product all wrapped up and ready to be given to his daughter. We traveled to Castillos to use Hermana Taylor's sewing machine to bind the edges. The quilts turned out great. They did a great job on them and the daughter was thrilled to have them!

Christmas 2010 in La Paloma

2011-01-13T03:57:00.000-08:00

The La Paloma Branch's Christmas Party. We had a great time and the Spirit was strong!

Hermana Lee and Walton singing Oh Holy Night.

The food was great and the members stayed and visited and got to know each other. They had a great time.

Nelida showing off the pictures we gave her of her Temple trip. When she got married for time and all eternity. That was a great trip!

The Summer is here! The buses are beyond full. We ended up standing for the hour long trip to Castillos. We went to visit with the Taylors.

Our youth activities continue and the youth seem to have a good time and enjoy the activities and treats.

Hermana Lee showing Hermana Walton how to make an Ohio favorite treat. Buckeyes, they were great and we were really grateful that Hermana Lee was willing to share her prized peanut butter with us.

The finished results!!

A Christmas season guest at Ruben's house. He seen me coming and got away.......for a few days and then Hermana Hegerhorst.......got him!!!!

Janice decided that she would start early making cinnamon twists and make the dough the night before........this was the result the next morning.....the oozing dough was a mess!

The finished results, she gave this tray to Ruben for a big family party they had the 24th. At first they did not know what they were and would not eat them. Then one the young men tried one and then they went FAST!

We had Christmas eve lunch with Hermana Walton and Lee. We made homemade pizza and it was awesome!

Hermana Walton and Lee made us Christmas breakfast, scrambled eggs with onions and peppers, hash browns, bacon, fresh fruit, juice and they let us supplement it with cinnamon twists. Wow it was great!

This is our version of a Christmas Tree! The presents are set under a table with a nativity set. No these are not all our presents, they are for 5 people.

Herman Walton and Lee showing off the paintings that Ruben did for them. We gave them blank wood and they got to choose what they wanted hm to paint. Hermana Walton has a seascape with the Santa Maria Faro (lighthouse) and the Las Vegas Temple. Hermana Lee has the Washington DC Temple and the Columbus Ohio Temple.

Hermana Walton and Lee made up these stocking with all these goodies for Janice and I.

So far they have not been opened!

Ruben got some sugar free candy from Janice's Mom and Dad. He was thrilled to have it. It did not last long though!

Ruben is a HUGE fan of soccer and the team (National) he dislikes the most has the colors red, white and blue. Hermana Walton loves to tease him so she and Herman Lee gave Rueben a card from that team. If you will look close you will see that he would not touch it with his hands. He used is shirt to protect his hand from the "dirty" card. It was hilarious to watch. I am laughing uncontrollably in the background.

Ruben continues with the "dirty" card from the National team

Now he is happy, he has stuff with the colors of "his" team (Penarol). Black and Yellow

Showing of his new Penarol hat, he loved it!

and Janice love the Ferrero Rocher candies that Ruben gave to her

The Hermana's and Ruben getting ready to leave the house and go to work Christmas Afternoon.

We celebrated Christmas Eve by lighting sparklers

Mission Christmas Conference, Family Photo

2011-01-13T02:56:00.000-08:00

The Rocha Zone rented a small bus to take us all to Montevideo (3 hours). We were all going to attend a special Mission Christmas Conference. For us and Hermana Walton and Lee the bus picked us up at 3:30AM and then went Rocha to pickup the rest of the Zone. 4 traveled from Chuy (2hours away) and 4 from Castillos (1 hour away) and 4 from Rocha and 2 from Lescano that had come the day before and spent the night with the Elders in Rocha. We then all proceeded to Montevideo. Before we all fell asleep on the bus we practiced "Oh Holy Night" that we would sing together as a Zone during the Conference.

During the Conference they took a break and feed us lunch. Here we have Elder and Hermana Taylor and Elder Caufield and Elder Hegerhorst eagerly awaiting lunch

This is a "Family" photo! These are some of our Mission Children that have lived in our home in La Paloma. Back row: Elder David Delbar, Michael Morrison, Bradley Caufield, Dan Hegerhorst.
Front Row: Elder Victor Bravo, Hermana Julie Walton, Brittany Lee, Raquel Espejo, Janice Hegerhorst. We are missing some of the early members of our Mission Family: Elder Parker Walbeck, Jorge Espinola, Hermana Synthia Smoot, Kelsey Orme. We have really enjoyed having them in our home and the Spirit the bring with them. They are GREAT examples of missionaries! Thanks for being part of our lives and mission experience!!

Teaching English and Birthday Party

2011-01-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

Alijandra and Eloisa her daughter (4 yrs). Alijandra has been coming to the house once a week for a couple of months to practice and learn English. She is taking classes from a company in La Paloma and had a big test coming up. She past the oral part of the the test but did not pass the written part of the test.

Elizabeth had a 71st birthday party and she had some old hats that made there way around the room with various people trying them on. This is Hermana Walton modeling the black hat!

And here we have Hermana Lee modeling the white hat!

Ruben got into the show also, we have a couple of pictures of us getting into the act also but they will not make the blog!

I am teaching Ruben how to do a trick with a string. He practices and practiced and finally got it right! I was fun watching him try to figure it out, he was about to give up so I gave up the secret to the trick!

This is Elizabeth trying to help Ruben figure out the string trick. It was her birthday party and she puts on a great party with food, food and more food. Everyone seemed to have a great time.

Elizabeth getting in to the hat modeling show, with Marisa watching in the background.

Our wonderful children and their families!

2011-01-02T12:21:00.001-08:00

Jesica her husband Jeff and their boys Gavin 8 and Ryan 5.

Mitch his wife Cassie and their girls Lainey 6 months and Hallie 2.

Christina her husband Brian and their kids Jenna 1 and Logan 3.

We are so grateful for our wonderful family and for their support through the last 18 months. They have helped us to not miss the important moments of their lives even though they are so many miles away from us. We appreciate their love and support. We are looking forward to being together again in this new year 2011. We love you all!

We wish all who keep up on us through our blog and through email a very
Happy New Year!

Anniversary Getaway

2011-01-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

This pictures are in somewhat of a reverse order. Start at the bottom and it will make more sense.

This is our guide showing us the old trees and how there are some trees that grow toward the sunshine and create really odd looking trees. It was quite interesting to see!

Janice loved playing with the little puppies.

In the afternoon we all loaded up and went for a tour of the ranch on the wagon.

This is the gate that leads to the forest with all the big trees and to the lake.

Looking from the house area that overlooks the lagoon / lake

This is a catus that is climbing up the side of the house and then spreading out. It is very odd to see a climbing cactus plant.

She is quite small compared to this HUGE tree / plant.

This shows the thick pulpy material that makes up the tree / plant. It is very different than a regular tree.

This shows the hollow part of the tree / plant

The "Taylors". They are serving as the Branch President in Castillos. They are the only other Senior Couple that is serving in our Mission at this time.

This area has a type of tree that is unique to this area of Uruguay. They can grow to be huge. The experts are divided between calling it a tree and a plant. The center of the the tree is hollow like a plant and the outer woody type material is not as dense as a regular tree. It is kind of a cross between the two type.

There is a courtyard between the houses that is covered in an arbor with flowers and grapes.

This shows some of the construction methods used to erect the houses. The stone was kind of a slate type rock. It was chipped out of some veins that run through the area. It was then transported to the the house area and cemented into place. A very hard and tedious process.

This is the view from the dining are to the lagoon.

Another part of the house that is for viewing only. It has some of the old furniture and artifacts in it.

These are some of the old artifacts that they have displayed in the house. From birdnest to armadillo shells.

These are some of the salads that we were served with our asado lunch. They tasted great!

Elder John and Hermana Alicia Taylor joined us for the day. We had a very relaxing day together. Enjoying the peace and quiet and the beautiful scenery!

This is the area they feed the guests an "asado" BBQ for lunch.

For our 31st anniversary we visited an old Spanish Military guard post outside of Castillos. It is located on the banks of a large lake called the Castillos Lagun. Sometimes during the year the lake is filled with salt water from the ocean. This is a view looking from the lake back the the house and barns.

Thanksgiving in Uruguay with the Rocha Zone

2010-12-05T12:16:00.000-08:00

Hermana Walton (Las Vegas) and Hermana Lee (Ohio)
These are the new missionaries for La Paloma. They enjoy singing and playing the piano in addition to sharing the Gospel.

Thanksgiving was celebrated in Uruguay by our Zone on the Monday the 29th of November. The following are some of the pictures of the activities and preparation for the feast!
Hermana Hegerhorst and Taylor starting the preparations

Peeling the potatoes, some good help in the kitchen, Pres. & Hermana Taylor and Janice

The Urugauyan version of a BBQ, they call it an ASADO. You start the fire on the left side and wait for the coals to drop and then pull them under the grate on the right side. This time the coals were so HOT that I could hardly get close to the grill. I used the cardboard box to help shield me from the heat but it did not work very well. The chicken got a little burnt with the heat being so high, but trying to cook 20 huge chicken breast all at the same time I did not have any other option. The burns will heal ...right???? just kidding

While the old people were preparing the food the young were playing or taking it easy. Elder Woods (Arizona) found a lady Jennifer from Montana to play some tennis with. They were pretty evenly matched and were very glad to find someone to be able to play with. They both had a great time!

Some of the Elders taking it easy after District Meetings, impatiently waiting for food!
I put them to work!

I had them trim the hedge that separates our house from the neighbors.
They did a great job! Thanks Elders!!

Some of them headed up to the top of the light house. If you look real close you can see them on top the the lighthouse. This is taken from our front lawn using a 10x power zoom lens.

This is the results of all the hard work and preparation, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans (or at least something that looks like them) sweet potatoes, jello salad, dressing, rolls and a marinated chicken breast (or burnt offering). It all got eaten and then some!

The feeding frenzy has begun

Hermana Walton (left) and Hermana Lee both looking very content after the meal........but wait there is more!!!!!!! Dessert

For dessert we had sweet potato pie (no pumpkins here) and a huge apple pie.
They both turned out great!

Right out of the oven, the sweet potato pie was really tall but settled as it cooled.
It finally got do cooking just after midnight. It did not want to cook!

Pres. Taylor was very content with the meal and was trying to catch a few ZZZZ but with all these friends around it was a bit difficult. One of his turkey friends decided to come visit for a bit.

Elder Caufield and Elder Delbar

2010-11-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

This week we had changes and our Elders were transferred and and we now have sister missionaries in La Paloma. So just before the Elders left Elder Caufield showed me how to make donuts.

They are actually spud nuts! They were delicious on the first day when they were crispy! But the humidity gets into everything! So the next day they weren't as crispy but they were good!

I spend way to much time in this room!

It was Elder Delbars birthday the day before they were transferred! So we made fajitas and he asked for Dan's special chocolate surprise cake. The only problem we had was we didn't have any candles so we just used matches. I doesn't work to well! The matches burn out way to fast. But we were able at least to get a picture.

3 Branch Relief Society Activity in La Paloma

2010-11-17T10:15:00.000-08:00

We had a 3 branch combined Relief society activity.

Our branch invited the 2 branches in Rocha to join us in La Paloma for a fun activity with skits and food and a visit to the beach. We were expecting maybe 20 women to come, but a bus showed up with over 30 women an children on it! Wow! It was great! We never expected such a great turn out.

One branch did a skit with an aerobic theme.

We sang some hymns.

We even had an impromptu dance to the music.

The treats were yummy! Dan and I even made sugar cookies the night before. They were a hit! It was a great time for all that attended.

Youth Activity

2010-11-16T12:08:00.000-08:00

We had and activity for the youth in the Branch and their friends. We had 3 members of the Branch and 5 non members of the Branch attend. This was our first activity in a while the weather is starting to warm up and the sun is stay up longer. This means people are willing to come out of their houses and participate in activities.
Top row left to right: Elder Caufield Guiliana Piriz, Romina (friend of Jimena), Jimena, Romina (friend of Jimena, both friend have the same name) Elder Delbar.
Bottom row, Augustin Piriz, Gonzo (friend of Gabriel), Gabriel, (friend of Gabriel)

Janice made cinnamon twists (Tracey Graham's recipe) for treats at the activity. She also thought that a cold glass of milk would be the perfect combination. The kids asked us is the mild hot? Is it Skim Milk, you want us to drink it? We were shocked to learn that they only drink milk with hot chocolate or coffee or hot with sugar. They all looked at us like you got to be kidding. We continue to learn the customs here..... They loved the cinnamon twists and Elder Delbar got to drink about a dozen glasses of milk that Janice had poured out of the blue bag you see in the picture. He was great with that!

We taught them all how to play "Spoons" and they loved it. They did not want to stop when we tried to play other games. Some of the young men did not even bother to look at the cards as they went around the table they were just concerned about making sure they got a spoon when the person that got 4 cards in a row picked up the first spoon. It was fun to watch and play. They all wanted to come again the next week, but they all forgot. So the Elders and us played a few games of 7 up while we waited to see if anyone was coming and of course we had to indulge in some Uruguayian versions of Molasses cookies. Since they do not have molasses here we have to substitute honey for molasses and brown sugar for molasses. They have a different taste but they are still good.

A Helping Hand or La Paloma Entertainment

2010-11-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

Here you have Elder Hegerhorst (me) pushing Ruben Bica in his wheelchair. I hold on to the handle of his wheelchair and push him while riding the bicycle. It is not to bad on the flat roads but on the hills and rough roads it get very difficult to push him this way. I like to push him this way because it is faster and I have a way back home without walking. Ruben seems to enjoy the trips and I have not scared him too badly. Although Janice decided one day that she wanted to help push on the other side. It is a bit more complicated than it looks and the next thing Ruben knew was Janice running into his wheelchair and almost causing a crash. She decided after that she would leave the pushing to me.

And there they went......

Visit from the Parents of Elder Richard Jones

2010-10-27T05:47:00.000-07:00

This is a Uruguayan version of a BBQ. They build a fire on the elevated grates on the left hand side and as the wood burns down the coals fall through the grate at which time they are moved over to the area under the elevated grate on the right hand side. This is were the cooking takes place. The total process takes about 3 hours. It is very hot, smokey and time consuming. The meat cooks fine and tastes great once you finally get it done. You have to be careful not to run out of coals before your meat is cooked. It takes some practice and patience but it is kind of fun! Here we are preparing chicken for Elder Richard Jones and his parents that came to pick him up from the mission. This is the lunch we held for Elder Jones and his parents. Of course the Elders got to participate and enjoy the meal also. Left to Right, Janice Hegerhorst, Sandy Jones, Dr. Robert Jones, Elder Jones, Elder Delbar and Elder Caufield

While the Jones's were in Uruguay they visited many of the areas that Elder Jones served in. La Paloma was the last area he served. They visited some of the members in La Paloma. Here they are visiting Ruben Bica. Doctor Jones was able to help Ruben understand why and how to control his blood sugar for his diabetics. It has been a few weeks since the visit and he is doing a bit better. We hope it will continue!

The visit with Elizabeth Glatti,

We wanted to take a picture of both families before the Jones's left the country. There was no one to take the picture, so we set the camera on the hood of the car (which was slanted and a bit to low, but that is all we had). You can see that we all had to crouch down a bit or the top of our heads would have been cut off . What ya gonna do?
Left to Right Elder Richard Jones, Daniel Hegerhorst, Janice Hegerhorst, Sandy Jones,
Dr. Robert Jones.

Cooking Lessons, General Conf,, Party for Elder Jones

2010-10-08T03:19:00.001-07:00

Janice giving cooking lessons to Ruben. Here they are making a pot of vegetable chicken soup. Ruben loves soup and chicken so it was natural to combine them and give him both!

Watching General Conference in a room in the Church in Rocha. There was a small TV and it was broadcast in English. The sessions were live but with the time difference the Saturday morning session started at 1PM and the afternoon session at 5 PM and the Priesthood session at 9PM. We then caught the 11:30PM bus as was home at 12:30AM. Then Uruguay had a time change so we lost an hour. Sunday Morning session started at 2PM and the afternoon session at 6PM and we were on the 8PM bus for La Paloma. Conference was great! Left to Right: Elder Richard Jones, Elder Woods, Elder Stapley, Elder Hegerhorst (standing) Hermana Alicia Taylor, Elder Curtis Merritt, Elder David Delbar, Elder Wheeler.

Baby green parrots in a nest about 40 feet above ground.

Between the sessions of General Conference we had a baptism. Sheila was baptized. She visits her Grandmother in our Branch almost every Sunday and she wanted to be baptized and her parents said that would be great. They are not members but have seen that she loves to attend and the good that the Gospel has brought into the lives of their other relatives. Janice wants to put her in a suitcase and bring her home with us!

A few of the Branch members at a going away party for Elder Richard Jones. Elizabeth hosted the party and we had a great time! She always makes way to much food but it is always awesome.

The Branch did a service project for the City of La Paloma. 11 people participated and we all had a great time.

The city of La Paloma has an old house that they want to convert into a place where they provide meals and food to people. We helped them clean out the trash so they could start the renovations to the building.

August, Multi Zone Conf. and Ichiara

2010-09-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

The Mission President asked us at District Meeting if us and the Taylor's could make lunch for 60 Missionaries at a Three Zone Conference next week. President Arnold, the new Area President was speaking at the conference.
We finally agreed to make the lunch, this is some of the food that we needed for the Sloppy Joe's and Potato Salad and Cold Slaw Salad and Brownies.

Bags of groceries for the lunch

44 pounds of potatoes that needed to be cleaned, peeled and cut up for Potato Salad!

The peeler, cutter and .........

The "Boss" cleaning up the pots and buckets needed for transporting all the food!

We rented a car to transport us, the Taylor's and the food to Treinta Tres about a 3 hour drive away. We left our house at 6:00 AM in the dark to go to Castillos about 45 minutes away to pick up the Taylors. At about 6:25 the lights in the car started to go dim and I said we have a "huge problem". The alternator was dieing, I turned off the heater fan, the lights (it was still very dark) and drove for about another 10 minutes and then everything shut down. We pulled into a driveway along the highway and stopped. I called Elder Taylor in Castillos and had him call the Willy (the person we rented the car from). Elder Taylor speaks Spanish and could understand and explain the situation better than I could. Willy said he would be right out with another car. Willy and his wife finally showed up at 8:00 AM with repair parts. We traded cars and off we went towards Castillos.
These are some of the palm trees that are only found around Castillos. It was just before we reached them that I noticed that the "RED" engine too hot light was on. Great! I slowed down and it went off.
We went a bit further and the light came back on. I stopped and that gave us time to take a picture of some other odd looking trees. This time the light did not go back off. I slowly drove the few more kilometers into Castillos. Elder Taylor called Willy and told him of our problem. He asked us to take the car to a mechanic friend of his.
The mechanic said the fan was working properly and there was water/antifreeze in the radiator so he it was fine and we could go on. We loaded up the car and took off from Castillos at 10:00 AM. We made it about 2 kilometers out of town and I heard a noise coming from the back of the car! I stopped and got out and looked and a found that the passenger side rear tire was rubbing on the side of the wheel well. We turned around and went back to Castillos to a tire dealer who told us that the tire was the wrong size for the car. Then he tells us that he does not have the correct size and neither did the other dealer in town. Willy gets another phone call! President Taylor talks to his neighbor who had offered to drive him anywhere he wanted to go and asked him if he would lend us his truck for the day! He said yes and we started loading the food and us in to the truck. It was a 4 door small pickup truck and all the food went in the back under a heavy blanket. It was now 11:00AM and lunch was supposed to be served at 1:00 PM and we had a long 2 hour drive ahead of us. We were just leaving when Willy and his wife arrive in Castillos with another car. We told them that we were going to take the truck and they said they were really sorry for all the problems and that they would refund the rental fee the next day.
We arrived in Trienta Tres at 1:00 PM and need about an hour to prepare the food for the 60 missionaries. They continued on with thier meetings until we were ready for them and then on they came with huge appitites and smiles for the great food we had prepared for them! (Hermana Taylor and Hegerhorst serving the Missionaries)

President Taylor and some of the Missionaries getting lunch

The ate lunch were ever they could find a place to sit down.

After the we had cleaned up we were able to go into the meeting and be taught by a General Authority, President Arnold. He said some things that were directed right at us and helped us to know that our Heavenly Father answers prayers! It was a great experience to be able to talk with President Arnold and his wife after the conference! Here we have right to left, Hegerhorst's, Taylors, President Arnold and his wife and President and Hermana Da Silva our Mission President.
The Elders in our Branch are teaching a Japanese person (Ichihara), he speaks Japanese and some English and almost no Spanish so they are teaching him in English. He came to our house after Church to have lunch with us, the Elders and Ruben. It was an interesting lunch with many languages represented. The meal was excellent and we had a great time getting to know Ichihara.
This is our lighthouse, Santa Maria. One morning the sun was filters through the clouds and it was a bright red. The photo does not show the vivid red but it was a cool picture that I thought I would share.

Elder Bravo, Elder Delbar, Hermana and Elder Hegerhorst. The last Sunday Elder Bravo was in La Paloma. He was transferred to a different area in the Mission. He played the piano in Church and could fix just about anything. He wants to be a robotics engineer. We will miss him.

Elder Jones (took Elder Bravo's place), Elder Delbar, Hebert Velasquez and Gabriel Velasquez, Hermana Hegerhorst, ELder Hegerhorst. At the baptism of Hebert and Gabriel on August 28th. I got honor of baptizing Gabriel!

Happy 50th Birthday Pie

2010-08-02T14:01:00.000-07:00

I did it! I turned 50 years old! Janice and I spent the day together visiting Ruben and we were even brave enough to go out to lunch at a restaurant. We have not ventured into may restaurants by ourselves, the rare times we do go we usually have a translator with us. But a new year and we went solo! The food was okay but after wards we went home and I peeled apples and Janice prepared the other ingredients and we made a tasty Dutch Apple Pie. It turned out great! It is one of my favorite desserts. You can see that I have a coat on in the kitchen. It has been very cold here and with the humidity the cold goes deep. In our house it is a struggle to get it above 64 degrees and that is only in the living room area. We do not heat the kitchen, bathroom, hallway and bedroom. I can only image how cold it would be if we had not weatherstripped around the doors and window and put plastic over the huge glass doors and windows in the front of the house. At least the wind blowing outside now does not create horizontal curtains anymore. But we live in a concrete box and when it gets cold it stays cold and when it gets hot it stays hot. But we don't have the rain coming down on us so that is a wonderful thing!

Temple Trip for Nelida and Marcelo

2010-08-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

This is Nalida and Marcelo. They are members of our branch. They went to the temple on July 24, 2010. She has been a member for 1 year now and was able to receive her own endowments and they were sealed for time and all eternity that same day! Dan and I were happy to be able to share this day with them.

They were so excited to be able to go to the temple.

This is the happy couple after their sealing.

Service Project and Asado (BBQ)

2010-08-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is Elder Tanner Jacobson of Herriman Utah, he is trying out his machete skills. The member (Maria Fabra) wanted it removed so it is a good thing! The Zone split, 4 Elders went to Maria Fabra's house and mowed her lawn and cleaned up around her yard and the others (11) went to help a person cut brush in a vacant lot next to her house. We have an odd number because one of the Missionaries brought a new member along for the project. Both of the projects went very well only 2 slight injuries. One cut finger while taking the stuff out of the trunk of the taxi and one stick in the face. Nothing serious! Everyone enjoyed the projects and the people really enjoyed the help!

This is (left)Elder Carter Hogan from Utah, in the red shirt is Elder Michael Morrison of Arkansas and behind him is Elder Curtis Merritt of Utah and some of the others patiently waiting for lunch to finish cooking. Elder Hogan is also showing off his index finger that he cut reaching into the taxi truck to get the extension cord out and did not realize that the newly sharpened machete was under the cord. He does not like the sight of blood and immediately had to have it bandaged or he would have pass out.

The table that seems to go on forever! We had 19 at the table and no one went away hungry! I BBQ marinated chicken and Janice and Hermana Taylor (right front) cooked baked potatoes, veggies, garlic bread and carrot cake and ice cream for dessert. It was a delicious meal and everyone loved it. We did have one that was not sure about the idea of cake and carrots mixed together but after he tried it he thought it was alright!

We had to wash the dishes in 3 shifts to allow them to dry. 19 Missionaries can make a lot of dirty dishes!

New Friends and Snickerdoodles

2010-07-02T07:15:00.000-07:00

We had a new visitor on the beach that we just had to go investigate and take pictures of. It is a small penguin, what variety I have no idea but it was a penguin!

Janice doing her best to make a new friend, but it was not interested! It just sat there and blinked its eyes and tried to ignore us!

The Taylor's serving in Castillos had family from Argentina and the USA come visit them for about a week. They came to La Paloma to see the sights and our new friend the penguin!

Elder Michael Morrison decided he wanted to make snickerdoodles. He doubled the recipe and it made a bunch of them. He took enough to share with the Zone. He made a lot of missionaries happy! Elder Bravo is providing support and patiently waiting for a cookie!

Service Project, Painting Policlinica in Costa Azul

2010-06-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

Elder Barrington one of our Zone Leaders came to La Paloma during a one day exchange with Elder Bravo. He was just in time to help with our service project. He is mixing the paint. The paint here is very different here. It consists of a bag of powder that you mix with water. It is very liquidy and is very difficult to put on the wall and almost impossible to get to stick to an overhead surface. It is like painting with skim milk. You put on one coat and let it dry and you can see that the surface color changed ever so slightly and then you put on another coat and another and another........ and then you have to clean up the ground because it runs down the walls and onto the ground or concrete and makes a mess. You just get it wet and scrub it with water and a broom and it dissolves and runs away.

Elder Morrison and some bald headed guy painting.
We had to paint the walls first with bleach to kill the mold!

Hermana Hegerhorst and I painting and cleaning up the "milk"

Visiting some of the members!

2010-06-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

We were able to go out 2 weeks ago and visit some of the members of the branch in Barrio Parque with Ruben. Half of our members live in this area, which is a long distance from our building. We figured we could have Ruben do the talking and he could translate for us. He is getting pretty good at understanding us. He is very patient and has been so helpful to us. Since he is the Elders Quorum Pres. this was also a good chance for him to visit with some of the members in their homes. He has a difficult time getting around in his wheel chair. So with Dan helped and pushed him all around. This is Lordus that was baptized in April. She is doing great!

This is Pedro. He is 82 years old and has been a member almost 2 years now. He is just the sweetest ol' guy. He gets so excited about the simplest little things. He was so touched by our visit. He has saved all the letters, cards and photos that he has received since he has been baptized in a plastic bag. Every time someone visits with him he gets them out and shows it to them. So Dan go the idea to get a notebook and plastic sheet covers and put all his stuff in it so it would be protected. So we surprised him with that. He was so happy! He just loves it, he even brings it to church with him. We had such a good time that day. Ruben loved it also.

Zone Conference, Roger Clawson, Keith & Teri Wilson

2010-05-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

This is our Zone Conference May 2010 held in Chuy, we have changes next week and we will see who is still here at the next meeting. We are not expecting a lot of changes but you never know.
The District had a training meeting put on by the Temple Recorder from the Buenos Aries Temple. Since the Temple is closed for remodeling he has some extra time on his hands. His name is Roger Clawson. He is originally from Idaho but has been in Argentina for the past 30 years, he married a girl from Argentina and raised his family in Argentina. He was staying in La Paloma since Rocha does not have many hotels. He offered to give us ride back to La Paloma, we invited him to come to our house the next morning for breakfast. We had German pancakes and this is a picture of Roger as he was leaving La Paloma. We had a great time visiting with him and enjoyed his company.
Elder Keith and Hermana Teri Wilson of Alpine Utah. This is taken by the Montevideo Uruguay Temple where they served 18 months as Temple Missionaries. They returned home on May 22, 2010. They were great friends and a tremendous help to us when we arrived in the Mission. We will miss them very much. They are such loving and wonderful people. They will be missed by many! Thanks for all you did for us!

Meet the new Elders in La Paloma

2010-05-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

This is our new Elders here in La Paloma. Elder Bravo is from Peru. He has been on his mission for approximately 13 months, speaks Spanish fluently,:) and understands and speaks a bite of English. He also plays the piano! Our branch is loving that! Elder Morrison is from Arkansas and has been on his mission approximately 9 months. He speaks English very well and is still working on Spanish. He has his work cut out for him here with us. He is our only translator here and does great with the church related Spanish but is tested with some of the real life Spanish. He is doing great so far, but like the rest of our missionaries translators, there are many tests to come. We appreciate so much having them here to help us in our Branch.

Baptism Temple Trip May 7, 2010

2010-05-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of all but one of the people from our branch that went on our second official temple trip. From left to right we have Hna. Dominichi, Ruben, Lucia, (granddaughter of Hna Dominichi) and Elizabeth. Hna. Dominichi has been a member for about 30 years but has never been to the temple. Lucia was baptized in March, so this was her first temple trip. Elizabeth was baptized in February. This was Rubens 3rd time to the temple, but his first time to do baptisms. Ruben, Lilian, and I were able to do a session while were were in the temple also.

This was these 3 sisters first time to the temple to do baptisms. We were also able to do baptisms for three of Elizabeth's family members, 4 of Ruben's, and our Relief Society Pres. had 9 of her family members baptized that day. Dan and I have learned how to use the New Family Search program and were able to enter the information for their family members. We can even muddle through it in Spanish too! There is so much family history we can do in the branch, but our biggest challenge is helping the members find the information. They don't keep family records very well here. So that is one of our next "learn how to do it in Spanish" projects.

After the temple we went to the Hostel at the Temple and ate our sack lunches. We were lucky enough to meet this cute young sister, Victoria, (far left). She had done some baptisms that morning also and Dan found out she spoke English. So he asked her help translate for us with our group. Since we didn't have a translator with us. She was happy to help! Turns out she is going to school to be an English Translator, so it was great experience for her and she was great help for us.

Chapel Door Refinishing Project Completed

2010-05-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

This is the before picture of the front of our church. Your have to click on the picture to enlarge it to really see how weathered the door, shutters and the gate was. So we turned it into a service project.

This is the after picture. Again you have to click on the picture and enlarge it to fully appreciate how beautiful the doors turned out. Plus Dan cut back the big bush to the right of the porch. Which made a big difference in how much better the church looks.

The wood grain is so beautiful. It really is amazing how pretty the front of the church looks now. This was a huge very time consuming project. There were no power tools used on this project. Just good old fashioned elbow grease and a looooot of time.

2010-05-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

We had a Family home evening at the church and had a huge turn out! Around 30 people came. It was scary, the Hnas. were planing the game and we were just going to help. But the Hnas. called and said they were going to be late, so we had to come up with a game in 30 seconds as people we looking at us wondering what we were going to do! I failed to mention there was no one there to translate for us! We we decided to play Pictionary on the chalk board. Every one would be able to participate. Even the younger kids. But we had to try and explain how to play it to the group! Opah! It was a struggle and very stressful. But with our new skills in charades, we finally go the point across. The people had a great time with it. They are so loud here that the roof of the church was popping off. The Hnas. finally showed up 35 minutes late. But who was counting! After it was over Dan and I both had major stress and noise headaches. But they had fun!

This is our Hnas. Espejo & Orme. When it rains here it really rains. We caught them in thier rain attire! They are so patient with the weather.

Did I tell you the weather here is very extreme! This tree may give you the hint that when the wind blows it really blows! It is not fun to ride your bike when the wind is blowing! This winter is going to be scary!

Recent Baptisms

2010-04-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

This is Mirna in the center in white. She is a wonderful lady that accepted the gospel very quickly. The sister missionaries loved teaching her. She was baptized by one of our members of our branch. From left to right is Alli, Nalida, Marcelo, Mirna, Hna. Espejo, Hna. Orme, Hna. H. and Elder H.

Lucia and Florencia, sisters were baptized on the same night. They are such sweet loving girls. They were so excited to get baptized!

This was a special baptism. There were 7 people baptized on the same night, all from our Zone. There was a family with 2 children, two young sisters, and Lordus. Lordus is the third from the right in the front row. She is from our branch. It was awesome to have 13 people dressed in white at one baptism. The spirit was really strong that night. This was Dan's 2nd baptism. So that was special.

After the Block Building Service Projected

2010-04-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

After the Project they all came to our house and Janice had prepared us a great meal of Sloppie Joes and Potato Salad and all the other delicious things. We had a red velvet cake and ice cream. Everyone enjoyed the meal and we all had a great time. After the lunch Elder Whitaker interviewed Mirna for baptism, She passed and will be baptiszd on Saturday after General Conference

Hermana Orme, look what those blocks did to my hands, they will never be the same!

The Group waiting along side Ruta 10 for the bus to come back by. From the close end we have Hermana Orme (California) Hermana Espejo ( Bolivia) Elder Martino (Texas) Elder Carter (Florida) Elder Barrios (Paraguay) Elder Whitaker (Florida)

Block Building Service Project

2010-04-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

This is Elder Martino (left) from Texas and Elder Carter from Florida making sand. They are breaking up old broken blocks to reuse the sand and clean up the yard. They would wet the old blocks down and then use the log to smash them in to sand. It was a very hard way to make sand, but when they finished the yard looked better and there was more sand to build additional blocks.
This is Miguel, he works for one of the members in the Branch. He takes the sand and mixes it with Portland Cement and then pounds it into the form and makes one block at a time. They have 4 different mold to make different types and sizes of block. When they don't have Missionaries making sand out of old blocks the go to the beach area with their horse and wagon and haul sand back to the area they build blocks. It is hard work but it is something they can do and the are supporting the family doing it.
This is our District leader, Elder Whitaker from Florida. He too is making sand out of old broken blocks. I personally found that the back of the shovel smashed the blocks very well and was a lot lighter to pickup than this log hammer! These Elders are assigned to the City of Rocha which is about 30 kilometers in land from La Paloma where we are assigned.

Stripping shutters and front door at the church.

2010-04-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

We did a day service project at the church. We stripped the front window shutters and the front door. It turned out to be a bigger job than we thought it was going to be. Ruben, Marcelo, and wife Nelida helped us.

Hermana Smoot goes home!

2010-04-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

Our wonderful Hna Smoot went home last month! Her family came to Uruguay and traveled to all of the areas that she served and had a great time. We were lucky to have them come spend he last Sunday with us in our branch. Hns Smoot and both of he parents did too! I was a great meeting. Hna Smoot was a wonderful missionary and we are missing her a lot!

The Smoots came over after church and we had Hna Smoots last meal with us. She ordered pineapple chicken and a chocolate triffle. We had such a nice time with them. Around the table is Mom Smoot, Brother Stanton, Dad Smoot, Ruben, Hna's. Smoot, Orme, Espejo.

2010-04-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

2010-03-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

We have recently been able to experience septic tank problems Uruguayan style. The water level here in La Paloma has risen above normal, so the septic system won't drain and 3 weeks in a row we have had to pump the tank. So our landlord is having an over flow tank put in. This man used a pick ax and a shovel to break the concrete and dig out the dirt for the new tank. For a little guy he is very strong.

In just 2 days time working only part of the day he had the hole all dug! Pretty amazing! See how high the water level is! Only about 3 feet down and you hit water.

Dan even got in on it and moved most of the pile of dirt to the street.

Where the man loaded the dirt into his 1 horse power truck and hauled it away. They really know what manual labor is around here. Our noses will be very grateful when this project is over!

2010-03-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

2010-03-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't figured out how to get my pictures in the right order yet! This is at the dinner we had at the end of our Rocha Tour. This is at our landlord Pedro's pizza restaurant. He opened his restaurant early at 5:00pm just for us so the temple missionaries could get back to Montevideo at an earlier time. Most of the restaurants around here don't open until at least 8:00 or 9:00pm for their dinner crowds. Then they stay open until 1:00 or 2:00am.

This is at one of the main stops that day. Yes this is one of the average rest stops along the highways around here. We were a little shocked at first but when mother nature calls! With a bus load of older couples it is really quite efficient! Just kidding! This is the latrine at the Fortaleza (fort) Santa Teresa we visited. It would have mad a cool picture, but it was bared off!

It was pretty cool to see all the canons and the different buildings in the fort! Don't look to close' a rain cloud came through and Dan's hair drooped something terrible!

I was quite amazed at how well they had preserved this fort.

This is our group that went on the tour together! They rented a micro bus for us and it was great. We had a great time together. It was a great day to just visit!

2010-03-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

These are some friends of Hna. Orme. She taught them back in Minas. They surprised her and drove for 2 hours on their motos just to see her. They were in luck we were just getting started with an asado "BBQ". So we invited them to stay. It was such a nice surprise for her.

This is our asado area in our back patio. So they use wood for the coals and then BBQ on iron racks.

This is Pres. Augilar the asado master! He is 1st counselor in our district presidency! He did a great job. It takes about and hour to get the coals ready and then how ever long it takes to cook the meat. So it takes patience. It was a lot of fun.

The young couple in the middle are in our branch. Leticia, Leonardo and Franko, The woman is Pres. Augilars wife. On the table is only half of the food we had. There is always more food than people.

This is the whole group that was there. The little boy in the middle is Juaquin. He belongs to Leonardo and Leticia. We all had a great time and the weather was great!

2010-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

These are the Taylors. They are a new senior Couple in our mission. They are from Kansas. She is from Argentina and he served his mission there. They both speak Spanish.
This is the calcano family. (L-R Ana -Augustina-Fernando-Santiago-Augustino) They are from Montevideo.
Janice celebrating her 50th birthday!
The candles they have here are awesome!

Elizabeth Glattli's Baptism

2010-02-08T13:40:00.000-08:00

These pictures are from Elizabeth Glattli's baptism.

She is a very special lady that Elder Walbeck and Espinola found and taught her and she was going to be baptized in 2 days and then she had some questions about tithing and it took her some time to figure out that she could pay tithing and still survive. Summer came and the Elder's were transferred and the Hermana's tried to reach Elizabeth but it took 6 weeks before they were able to connect. Elizabeth accepted their challenge to be baptized and it happened tonight February 6th 2010. It was even more special for me because Elizabeth asked me to baptize her. I practiced the Baptism prayer in Spanish and got it right the first time. Elizabeth was a bit nervous and forgot to plug her nose before she went under but she did not come up sputtering. It was a wonderful experience and Elizabeth is very happy. After we changed our clothes, we were walking back to the Chapel she said that she was just floating on air she was so happy! It has been wonderful to be a part of bringing her to Gospel of Jesus Christ! I confirmed her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and bestow the Holy Ghost on her. She has been so excited to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. She has to live worthy to have him as a constant companion but he will be there for her to guide and teach her. We are very excited to have her as a member of our Branch. She will be a great asset to the Branch.

Left to Right: Hermana Orme, Smoot Elizabeth, Elder Hegerhorst and Hermana Hegerhorst

Members of the Branch and Elizabeth's grandsons and girl friend and some investigators.

2010-02-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

Hna. Smoot and Orme are so energetic! They organize a Family Home Evening every week at one of the members homes. This one is at Maria Fabra's home. She is the older lady to the right of Dans head.

This is one of our favorite little Panadaria's. It's a bit of a bike ride out to it, but it is worth it. It's not much to look at but the bread is good!

It was Rubens Birthday Day February 3. We had a carpenter make this easel for him to use while he paints. We helped him get it set up at his house.

We had a big dinner at our house on Rubens Birthday! It was the same day that Elizabeth Glattli was having her baptism interview. The Elders from Castillos came over to interview her and we like to give them lunch when they come. Elizabeth came, and we invited our new senior couple the Taylors to come also. They are from Kansas and he is the new Branch President in Castillos. So starting with Dan behind him is Elder Taylor, in front of Dan is Elizabeth, she was baptized Saturday night, Hna. Taylor, Hna. Smoot, Ruben, Janice, Elder Ferman, Elder Drapper, Hna. Orme.
Ruben was so excited to get this easel for his Birthday. The Taylor's can speak Spanish so they were talking all about it. It was so fun to see him get so excited.

2010-02-01T13:41:00.000-08:00

This picture is after Sactament meeting. There are a few visitors.

This is at Gabriels baptism. He is 11 and Ruben baptized him. He knelt down in the font and was able to do the baptism. Elder Castillos stood by him so he wouldn't fall over. It was really neat.

This is some of our branch at our Christmas Home Evening!

2010-01-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

Our good friend Ruben Bica

2010-01-10T12:48:00.000-08:00

Ruben is a big Penarol soccer fan. One of Uruguays soccer teams.

This is the painting that Ruben painted for us of the Montevideo Temple. He usually paints seascapes. I asked him if he could do one of the temple. It turned out beautiful! A picture doesn't do it justice!

Proof that we are in La Paloma!

2010-01-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

Our new Rocha Zone Dec. 22, 2009

2010-01-10T12:13:00.000-08:00

A few Christmas Pictures

2009-12-28T13:38:00.001-08:00

This nativity is handmade by a man in Montevideo. It is made out of burlap.

Our Christmas dinner

Sis. Smoot, Sis, Orme and Ruben

Dan and Janice and Ruben Bica

Week 23 in La Paloma ( a bit out of order but.....)

2009-12-26T16:16:00.000-08:00

The Mission Conference (Christmas 2009)

Hermana Lee & Beneagas

Hermana Lee and us

Sunday December 13, 2009

Today is branch conference that remains that President Grande and Augilar and possibly others will be coming to visit a branch today. I have to speak and they will both speak. The topic that I have chosen for the branch conference theme is unity and service.

I gave my talk on unity indicating that in the scriptures we are commanded to one, we are commanded to help support each other and sustain one another.

I also spoke about service and how we needed to help each other and organize service projects for each other and go from one person's house to another helping to do projects that they could not do themselves.

President Grande and Auguilar both spoke also. Since it was in Spanish I'm not sure what they talked about.

During Sunday school time I gave the last lesson of the temple preparation class. This lesson focuses on returning to the temple and continuing to learn. I asked the class members if they enjoyed the temple trip and if they wanted to return to the temple soon and they said yes can we go back tomorrow! It was great to know that they enjoyed the temple trip.

We had Rubin and the missionaries for lunch today. Elder Walbeck shared his curry that his family had sent him. Janice made a curry sauce and rice and it turned out good. Elder Walbeck was excited to be able have that meal before he left us. He realized he will probably not have a kitchen as good as ours any other time in the mission.

Rubin had painted us a picture of the temple. We had given him a photograph of a sunset and the temple. And he recreated it in his painting. Janice and Ruben were negotiating the price of the painting and before long both of them were crying. Janice was explaining to Ruben that his painting was going to be a remembrance of him to her.

Tonight we find out where Elder Walbeck and Espinola are going to be transferred to. It is a sad day as we wait. The missionaries came home from working and told us that Elder Walbeck as being transferred to Chuy and will remain as Zone leader in the Rocha Zone and Elder Espinola is going to be transferred to Durazno and be a trainer.

They told us that we're going to be receiving two sister missionaries, Hermana Orme and Hermana Smoot. We have met Hermana Orme before and she is great. We have not met Hermana Smoot but the missionaries say she is great.

Monday, December 14th 2009

Today we helped the missionaries prepare for the transfers. Cleaning, washing clothes etc. They leave at 5:05 in the morning.

We went out with the missionaries to visit a family (Richardo and Denise) in the Branch that had not been to Church for over a year. They have a little girl named Victoria. They had another little girl that died about a year ago. It was a real tragedy for the family and they pulled away from everyone including the Church. Richardo was working so we talked with Denise and invited her to a Ward family home evening later that night.

Denise and Victoria and Denise's mother came to the Family Home Evening (FHE). It was great to see them at the Church. The FHE was really a going away party for Elder Walbeck and Espinola. There was about 25 people there and everyone had a great time!

Tuesday, December 15th 2009

This morning the Taxi showed up at about 4:30AM and Elder Walbeck and Espinola loaded up all their luggage and headed to the bus station and Montevideo where they will meet their new companions and then head to their new areas of service. We got up with them and helped them load up their stuff and Janice made them a breakfast sandwich they could eat on the bus. She is going to miss those two Elders.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning and preparing for the Hermana's to arrive.

While we were cleaning the phone rang and it was President Da Silva. He asked if we could come to Montevideo tomorrow and help them prepare for the Mission Conference that is being held on Friday December 18th. We told him that we would be on the 9AM bus and should get into Montevideo about noon.

The Hermana's ended up getting a late bus and did not make it into La Paloma until 7:30PM. We met them at the bus station and helped them load up all their luggage into 2 taxis. Hermana Smoot had 11 bags of stuff. We quickly rode our bike home and met them at the house and helped them move all their stuff into the house. We told them that we had dinner waiting and they asked if we could do it at 9PM because they wanted to go out and make 20 contacts with people. So we told them where the most people would be in town and off they went. What great dedication and energy they have towards spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are a great example to us and everyone.

When they came back we had a great meal and enjoyed getting to know them better. Hermana Smoot is from Centerville Utah and it turns out that her dad was the same age as my cousin Bruce Hegerhorst and my uncle Ronald Hegerhorst was their scout master while they were growing up in Centerville ( I found this out when the Hermana's went back into their rooms and I called their parents to let them know that their daughters had been transferred and they were doing great). It is a small world. Hermana Orme is from Gridley California. Both of them have been out on their missions about 15 months. They are both due to return home in March. They both speak Spanish very well and have been great missionaries. We are looking forward to working with them in the area.

Wednesday, December 16th 2009

We were on the 9:05 AM bus heading to Montevideo to help the Da Silva's prepare for the Mission Conference. We felt bad to leave the Hermana's alone and not be able to help them in their new area the first few days, but we had spent some time going over maps and explaining where the members lived. It is tough here since none of the houses have numbers and most of the streets are unmarked. It makes finding people tough.

We arrive in Montevideo and did a bit of shopping and then took a taxi to the Mission Home and arrived just as the Da Silvas were arriving back home. They indicated that they were just heading to the store and asked if we could come with them. We quickly put our suitcases into the garage and got into the van and went right back the store we had just came from. While we were there Hermana Da Silva asked Janice to make the meals for the next 2 nights for 6 people. Janice was in charge of the menu and making the meal at a moments notice. She pulled herself together and we tried to remember the ingredients from recipes so we could buy everything that we needed. We decided on making Chicken Teriyaki and Chicken Alfredo. We arrived back at the Mission home and ate lunch and then the work started! Hermana Da Silva had been baking since last Friday. She was in the process of making 6 cookies (2 chocolate chip (chips from USA) 2 Snickerdoodles and 2 oatmeal raisin) each for 188 missionaries. That is over 1100 cookies!! I got to put the cookie dough on the pans and take the cookies off the pans as they came out of the oven. Janice started preparing the dinner for the evening. Doctor and Hermana Peterson, the Da Silva's and us would be at dinner each night. There were a few cookies that did not make it to the pan and a couple that did not make it far from the oven. Well, I had to test them to make sure they were going to be acceptable to give to the missionaries!!

Thursday, December 17th 2009

We spent the morning packaging the cookies in plastic sacks with a red ribbon and a Santa attached to the ribbon. 188 packages of cookies and then 188 packages of candy also.

When we were done there was a couple of hours before dinner so we went to visit Keith and Teri Wilson, Temple missionaries in the Montevideo Temple. They have become great friends. It was great to visit with them and enjoy some laughs with them.

We made Chicken Alfredo for dinner and it turned out great. They all liked it so much they volunteered me to make breakfast in the morning. After dinner we visited with the Petersen's for a couple of hours and then helped the Da Silva's finish up a few letters they had written to missionaries that do not receive any support from home.

Friday, December 18th 2009

I got up early and made breakfast from leftovers and 5 eggs. It turned out great and everyone enjoyed it. Then we all went to the Malvin church building for the Mission Conference. It was great to see all the missionaries we have met since we have been here in Uruguay.

The conference was great. President Da Silva spoke about the real reason why we give gifts at Christmas time. That is because the best gift of all was given to us, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to this earth to live and die and take upon himself the sins of this world that we all might come back and live with him and our Heavenly Father. What a wonderful gift this is to all of us that repent and live the commandments of God. We will all get to live with our families and Them again. We then broke for lunch. It was a catered lunch and was good. It was nice to talk to the Hermanas at our table. I told hermana Brittany Lee that if she gave me her families phone number I would call them for her and if she gave me their email address I would email the pictures of the Conference to them. She did so I did.

President Da Silva then gave everyone letters that their family, Stake President, Bishop or President Da Silva had written them. There was then a quiet time for everyone to read their letters. It was touching to watch the missionaries read their letters through tears and sniffles. The missionaries were very grateful to receive this letters and it touched them deeply.

Each Zone then gave a musical number and the conference ended. Everyone headed back to their areas. We went to the bus station and waited for the 6PM bus back to La Paloma.

Saturday, December 19th 2009

Tonight is our Branch Christmas party. There was about 15 people that came and those that did enjoyed the time together. It started raining during the party and most of the people that came were on motorcycles, bicycles or walking. Most of them including us got wet on the way home. While at the party President Picarrdo told me that he had a nephew that repairs bicycles and he was going to talk him on Monday to see he would be willing to take the missionaries bikes and repair them. The bikes are in bad shape and desperately need repairs.

Merry Christmas everyone!

2009-12-24T12:47:00.000-08:00

Week 22 in La Paloma

2009-12-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

Marta, Ali, Natalia, Alba and Ruben at the Montevideo Temple

Ruben and us outside the Hostal in Montevideo

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Today is our daughter Christina's birthday, she is 25 years old today. We sent her an e-mail wishing her a happy birthday.

Today is Fast Sunday in Church and the spirit was very strong as some of the new members shared their testimonies. We had 36 in attendance in sacrament meeting.

I released the Relief Society Presidency today and sustained a new Presidency. I think the new presidency will do a wonderful job.

Leonardo was ordained an Elder by his father-in-law today.

Leticia and Leonardo have decided to wait until their wedding anniversary in May to go to the temple. I think this is best as it will give time for them both to learn more and to accept the things that they have been taught.

Monday, December 7, 2009

This morning Janice and I got up and went for a long bicycle ride.

Today is preparation day and Elder Walbeck made a Japanese meal for us called Katsudon. It was very delicious and we enjoyed it.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Today's district meetings will be the last one before the changes next week. Some of these missionaries we may never see again.

Elder Jimenez came and did splits with Elder Espinola. He is from Panama and has suffered health problems while on his mission. He is the only member of the church in his family. He was told if he joined the church that he would receive no support from his family. He joined the church and a short time later was called on a mission. He has such a great attitude and Spirit about him.

The Leticia accepted the called to be the Young Women's president in the Branch. We had Leticia and Leonardo and their family over for dinner tonight. We fed them waffles and pancakes. Leonardo loves peanut butter and maple syrup on his waffles and pancakes. He was quickly growing to love the buttermilk syrup that Janice made also. We had a great time and enjoyed their visit.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Today we went over to Ruben Bica's home and helped clean it and organizing it. We could not help singing the song silently to ourselves "count your many blessings". He lives in such a humble home and has such a great attitude and testimony the gospel. He is a great example to all of us. It was nice to be able help him.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Five months ago today we left the United States for Uruguay. In some way the time has flown and in other ways it has been real slow.

Friday, December 11, 2009

This morning we prepared to go up to Montevideo on our temple trip with the five members from the branch. Four are going to the temple for the first time and one will help as an escort for them. Ruben, Ali, Alba, Natalia are all going through for the first time. Marta is helping as an escort. Elder Walbeck, Espinola and Janice and I are going through with them.

When the missionaries moved into the house we discovered that there were termites in the false ceiling in their bedroom so we're going to bug bomb the house as we leave for Montevideo.

We all met at the bus station to go on 4:20 PM bus that goes to Montevideo. Elder Walbeck had told everyone to be there at 3:20 to make sure that everybody got there on time. Everyone was there and we made it to Montevideo and got off at Portones. Janice and I went shopping at Tienda Inglesa while the others got in taxis and went to the Hostal by the Temple.

Everyone was excited to be there. The hostal has all the women sleep in one room and all the men sleep in another room. In the men's room there were four beds and in the women's room there were six beds.

Satuday, December 12, 2009

The exciting day of going to the temple started out different than we had expected. Ruben awoke feeling tired and groggy. He took his blood sugar measurement and it was 38. Which is very low, normal is around 120. He was quickly heading towards the diabetic coma. We gave him orange juice, sugar, candy and bread trying to bring his blood sugar up. He was getting very groggy and non responive to us so we had the front desk call for a Doctor. By the time the Dr. arrived he was feeling a little better and a little more responsive. The Dr. took his vital signs and said he was going to be OK and left. He slowly came back around and was fine the rest of the day. While all this was going on Janice and the other Sisters from the Branch went to the Distribution Center and got the things they would need for the day. We all met back in the Hostal and had breakfast.

While we were getting ready to go the the Temple at 10AM one of our YSA from the Buceo ward came by to tell us the Vichy (Virginia) was getting married at 9AM today and then being seal for eternity at 1:30. It was almost 9AM so we hurried to the Chapel and got to see the wedding but had to leave before we could visit with them.

We made it to the 10AM Temple appointment. Janice was an escort for some of the Sisters. Elder Espinola was Ruben's escort. Elder Walbeck and I got to wait until the 11:30 session. We all went through the session and it was wonderful to see their faces when it was complete.

We all went back to the Hostal for lunch and to clean up our rooms. We called 2 taxi's and waited for them to come but they never showed up so we had to call 2 more. This delay caused us to miss our bus and we had to wait in Tres Cruses (the bus terminal) an extra 2 hours for the next bus to La Paloma. We finally made it to La Paloma about 9:30 PM. It was a long and wonderful day. When we got home we had to clean up after the bug bomb.

Feliz Navidad 2009 La Paloma

2009-12-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

We wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas! So we had our zone do it for us! Sorry they are the only ones that got cinnamon rolls this year! They said to tell you they were great!

Chuy & Spring Blossoms

2009-12-10T13:40:00.000-08:00

A blossom from a flowering tree that is real common in La Paloma,
most are red and a few are yellow

A rose blossom

The tree next to the Church in Rocha was covered in violet blossoms.
The picture does not do it justice. It was very pretty

This is the Chapel in Chuy.
The town straddles the Uruguay and Brazil border.

We had to get a picture showing that we had been in Brazil.
Mitch our son served his mission in Northern Brazil in Manaus (sp?)

La Paloma Pictures

2009-12-10T09:47:00.000-08:00

Jenny & Alvaro after their wedding

Elder Walbeck and Espinola helping cut up the potatoes and apples for Thanksgiving Dinner

The Rocha Zone at the Thanksgiving Dinner table

The Rocha Zone in the Chuy Building at the end of change 1
First Row Right: Elder Draper, Cardona, Roisum, Sandigo, Manning, Walbeck
2nd Row Right; Elder Bulloch, Jiminiz, Hegerhorst, Castillos, Sister Hegerhorst, Espinola, Chuism, Solano

Janice and I on our bicycles, out visiting the members

Week 21 in La Paloma

2009-12-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 29, 2009.
Today's election day in Uruguay, they're selecting a new president today! In Uruguay they must vote or they get fined. Because of this we have only the sacrament meeting of the full three hour block of meetings. Elder Espinola give a talk on sustaining your leaders and not murmuring or gossiping. Marta Huton gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. After sacrament meeting we had lunch with the missionaries and Ruben.

Monday November 30, 2009
Today is preparation day and Elder Walbeck has requested another Asado (BBQ) so he can learn how to cook the chicken that we had for thanksgiving. We marinate it in a sauce of oil, soy sauce and 7-up. Then soak to meat overnight and it really turns out well. We also made teriyaki sauce and rice and stir fried vegetables. It was a great meal that everyone enjoyed although Elder Espinola does not like teriyaki sauce.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009
This evening we went to the home of Leonardo and Leticia. Tonight I gave the temple recommended interview to Leticia. I explained what would happen throughout the day that we go to the temple. Answered her questions and gave her some counsel. Leonardo at this time has some things he is working on and will not be able to join her in the temple trip. After the interview they shared some chocolate drink and bread and some bakery treats. It was fun to get to know them better and enjoy some time with them.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Today is a busy day. We have district conference in Rocha, following district conference we have zone conference and President and Sister Da Silva will be at zone conference. We will also be interviewed by President De Silva after the zone conference. Janice and I met with President Da Silva after the Zone conference for our interviews. I asked him to communicate directly with us in the future instead of going through the missionaries. This would allow us to communicate better with him and to understand his desires and the big picture. It would also allow us to communicate our concerns and frustrations to him. I told them that in the future that when we're transferred that we needed time to organize ourselves and to plan and to be able to go find a home that my wife would be comfortable and secure in. He indicated that he would do these things in the future.
After zone conference we went to the church in La Paloma for the interviews of the five people going to the temple. The interviews went well and everyone passed!
After the interviews President and Hermana Da Silva came to our home for dinner. Janice had made a delicious meal of Chicken Alfredo with a Caesar salad and bread. For dessert she had made a lemon meringue pie which turned out wonderfully.
While she was preparing the meal I took the President and Hermana Da Silva to their hotel, which is located right on the beach. Their hotel room was on the top floor overlooking the beach. It was an awesome view, specially with the sunset going on!
Janice did not sleep well tonight, she was up thinking that she should have spoken to Pres. Da Silva and told him her frustrations and concerns. She had fought the feeling but finally had the Lord tell her to speak with Pres. Da Silva.

Thursday, December 3, 2009
We texted Pres. Da SIlva and asked him to call us before he left town. He stopped by the house at about 10AM and Janice talked with him for about an hour and after she felt much better about things that had been bothering her.
I baked cookies to share with others today.

Friday, December 4, 2009
We went to two weddings today and two receptions. They were getting married so they could be baptized into the Church. The first wedding was for Alvaro & Jenny at 3:00PM. When we arrived at the justice of peace they were already there waiting. The wedding was pretty low key, they signed a bunch of papers and stood in front of the Justice of Peace and she said a few thing and they said "yes" and it was over. We took some photos of the family and that was about it. The other wedding was Adriana and Velo at 5:00PM. When we arrived at 5:00PM none of the participants were there. A few friends were there, Velo showed a few minutes later and about 5:20 the bride showed up. It all worked out fine and they were married the same way.
The reception for Adriana and Velo was at their house right after the wedding. We went home to get a plate of cookies to take to the receptions. When we got to Adriana and Velo's with Elder Walbeck and Espinola there was only one other person there. They had set up a table outside of the house and prepared some snacks for eating. A few more people showed up and we all sat around and talked and looked at each other. After about and hour and a half we left to go to the reception for Alvaro and Jenny. It was at their house (they are living with his family). There was loud music going and about 10 friends and family in the yard. Jenny and Alvaro were busy preparing food for everyone to really enjoy the party. We stayed until 9:00PM and left with Elder Walbeck and Espinola. It was dark when we got home. They next day was the baptism for Adriana (Velo is not interested in getting baptized at this time) Jenny and Alvaro.

Saturday December 5 2009
Today is the baptism in Rocha for Adriana, Jenny and Alvaro. All those that were going needed to be at the Bus Station to take the 5:25PM bus to Rocha. We were walking to the Bus Station and walked by a vacant lot where there was a party going on and we saw Jenny and Alvaro. Jenny waved at us as we walked by. Elder Walbeck had told me earlier that they were in Rocha and would meet us at the Church. I tried calling Elder Walbeck but he did not answer the phone. When we arrived at the Bus Station I told Walbeck what I had seen and he called them and they said that they were trying to make the bus but if they did not they would take a taxi to the Church. Alvaro is a singer and he had a singing engagement at the party. It turned out they were having all sorts of technical difficulties with the microphone and other equipment that was delaying him singing. The bus came and left without them on it! Walbeck was stressed out!! We delayed the meeting in Rocha for about 15 minutes but still no Jenny and Alvaro! Finally we started the meeting at 6:45 so we could have a chance to make the 7:30PM bus back to La Paloma. The meeting went well and Adriana was baptized. We were all back in the Chapel ready to end the meeting and Jenny and Alvaro arrived they went directly into the locker rooms and changed into the baptism clothes and we proceeded to baptism them. It was really quick but they were baptized. We all made the bus and made it back to La Paloma.
When we arrived I decided to try to help Ruben get off the bus. He climbs on my back and I give him a piggy back ride out of the bus. He got on and we headed down the aisle and everything was going fine until we reached the door that separates the driver from the passengers. It is really narrow and once you get through it there are steep stairs to get to the outer bus door. The problem was that my shoulders were to wide to fit through the door and with Ruben on my back I could not turn sideways to get through the door. I am not sure how we did it but some way we wiggled through the door but I was facing the wrong direction to go down the stairs, so I had to back down the stairs to get out of the bus. We finally made it out and to his wheelchair where I sat him down into it. We walked (rolled) Ruben back to his home where we got to inspect his work. He is a painter and does mostly seascapes. We had asked him to paint the Uruguay Temple for us. We had taken a few good photos and asked if he could recreate them. He was well under way with the painting and it looked good.

Week 20 in La Paloma

2009-12-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

Sunday November 22, 2009

We were told that a translator would be coming to Church at 9AM to help us. He got lost and arrived at 1-1/2 hours late. While we were waiting for the translator I attended Relief Society with Janice to experience the contention that she is feeling is going on during the meetings. The sisters get louder and louder trying to make their opinion heard. It is all part of the problems that the Branch is having in the Relief Society.

During Sacrament Meeting the translator sat next to Janice and translated for her. She had a very hard time understanding his English with his heavy accent. She finally told him to stop translating so he would not interfere with the others around her. We hope that she will be able to better when it is a one on one translator situation. He is supposed to come to La Paloma on Wednesday so we can go visit some members.

Monday November 23^rd, Thanksgiving for the Rocha Zone!!!

We had Elder Walbeck and Espinola over at 8:00 AM to help cut up potatoes and peel and cut up apples for the apple pie. We had started marinating the chicken breasts last night. I started the fire for the Asado (BBQ) at about 10:00AM. We prepared and cooked, stuffing, beans (uruguay version), mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, Apple pie, pumpkin pie (squash, they don't have pumpkin here). I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Asado turned out. The chicken turned out great! The rest of the meal was great and the Missionaries were all very full when they left for their various areas. We took some pictures and emailed them to some of the parents of some of the Missionaries.

Tuesday, November 24th

We cleaned up after Thanksgiving dinner and went with the Missionaries around the area to find the houses of the members.

Wednesday, November 25

Our Translator did not show up today and did not call! We don't know if he will come or not. He finally called at 8:30PM and apolgized for not calling. He claimed he was sick. I guess his phone was out of minutes and he could not call. He said he would come tomorrow at 2:00PM to go and visit the members

Thursday, November 26

Today is Thanksgiving but we did not celebrate it because we did it on Monday.

2:00 PM came and no translator, he finally called at 2:15 and said his bus was late and he would be here at 2:30. He came and we went to visit some of the members, unfortunately not many of them were home and we could not find some of them. We sent him home after about 4 hours. The translating worked out pretty well having one on one. We have an appointment for next Thursday and Friday. We will go out with the Missionaries and find some more people to visit.

Friday, November 27

We went with the Missionaries on a bike ride to find members homes. We only found a couple more. The records of the Branch are not very good. They don't have house numbers on the houses and most of the streets are not named so it is very hard to find addresses since it is usually something like close to street X and between streets X & Y.

Saturday, November 28

The Branch has been doing a clothing drive to help the people in the other part of the country where they have had flooding. They gathered 10 large garbage bags on clothes. Elder Walbeck, Espinola and Janice and I put them on our bicycles and took them to the bus station and paid to send them to the area where the flooding is occurring. It was great to see how quickly and generously the members gave to help others.

Week 19 in La Paloma

2009-12-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 15, 2009
Today we went to church as normal. Elder Walbeck and Elder Espinola were waiting for Ruben Bica to arrive to start priesthood meeting. Ruben was typically early to the meeting so when he did not arrive we got worried. Elder Espinola called his house and he did not answer. He then called the taxi company that told him that Ruben did not come out when they came by the house. I sent the missionaries over to check on Ruben to make sure he was okay. The missionaries arrived at Ruben's house at the same time the ambulance was pulling up to the house. Ruben's sister had found Ruben fainted in the shower and had called the ambulance. Elder Espinola helped helped Ruben's who was unconscious into his wheelchair and the ambulance technicians administered some type of the solution to bring Ruben's blood sugar to the proper level. Rubin is diabetic and his blood sugar had gotten too low when he passed out in the shower.
Elder Walbeck and Elder Espinola watched as the sugar solution started to to work in Ruben's body. Ruben went from glassy eyed comatose to alert and attentive and asking questions and then realizing what was going on and started to cry. The missionaries left them in with the doctors and went in a taxi to pick up some of their investigators that were walking to church.

Since Ruben and the missionaries were not at the meeting and they were all the priesthood members that attended that day, I went in and then visited with the Relief Society. During Relief Society Elder Walbeck and Espinola returned with a young couple and their baby.

Elder Walbeck and I taught the Temple Elder Walbeck and I, the Temple preparation class to three people that were there, they were Alba, Ali & Natalia.

During sacrament meeting I conducted the meeting and blessed and pass the sacrament along with the missionaries. It was the first time that I had given the sacrament prayer in Spanish and I must not have been a really good job because Elder Walbeck offered to give the prayer on the water. Just before the sacrament the door opened and Ruben and came in. He looked a little tired but other Than that he looked OK. Later in the meeting he gave a talk on the priesthood. We were all shocked to see that he was there. He is typically in a wheelchair work today he wore his prosthetic legs and stood before the congregation and gave his talk. He did a great job, I think, I still can't understand Spanish!

Elder Walbeck and I interviewed Alba, Ali & Natalia and Ruben for a temple recommend after the meetings.

Elder Walbeck, Espinola and Ruben joined Janice and I for lunch after all the meetings. Janice and I have prepared a large pot of chicken noodle soup with lots of vegetables. It was very good!

At 3:00 PM we all went to church to meet with the district president and his counselors. I wanted to meet with them to find more thing: that there are out what their goals and expectations were for the La Paloma branch. It was a good meeting and I'm learned more of what they expected and they learned more about us.

Monday, November 16, 2009.
Today's preparation day and Janice and I did our laundry. At 10:00 AM the missionaries came over to do their laundry and to learn how to cook Chicken Alfredo. They also had a recipe that one of the members (Esther) had given them for a desert that they wanted to try. The Chicken Alfredo and the desert turned out great!
The missionaries left and about 2:00 PM. We met back up with them at 6:00 PM to go visit some members. We tried to visit the Piriz family that they were not home so we went to the Dominici family. We gave them a lesson and challenge one of the granddaughters to be baptized and she accepted. She accepted the date of December 12th. I am a bit concerned that she is ready, she seems to be just saying what the missionaries would like her to say.

Janice started coming down with a cold this afternoon.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009,
Today is our 30th wedding anniversary

Janice didn't sleep well last night, her cold made her cough.

We had district meetings today in Rocha. The meetings went well and we were able to do some other errands in Rocha.

We were supposed to meet with President Augilar after the District meetings to give him our curriculum order for 2010 but he had to work and was unable to be at the meeting. So I gave my the curriculum order to Elder Sandigo to pass along to him.

I had a meeting with the Branch Relief Society President ( Susana) tonight. I have been informed by the missionaries that she is having a feud with her councilor. She has apparently borrowed money from them and then not repaid it along with some other problems.
She also informed me of a Sister whose husband had just passed away and she did not have the money to pay the light bills and it was going to be cut off on Monday.
I ask her if the accusations of her borrowing money and not paying it back were true and she said that she did not owe anyone any money.

Wednesday , November 18th 2009
Today we studied Spanish and read during the day. Tonight we found out that the missionaries were invited back to visit with Elizabeth. It turns out that while she was in Montevideo she got on the internet and found some anti-mormon stuff and she is denying everything that she knows to be true so she will not have to pay a full tithing. Elder Walbeck said there was the spirit of Satan in Elizabeth home and he did not want to go back there anymore. They are going to leave her alone for a while a hopefully she will realize the peace and good feelings that she had while they were teaching her are gone and she will want them back in her life!

Thursday, Novemeber 19th 2009
Janice has decided to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for the Rocha Zone on Monday the 23rd (P-Day). There are 14 Missionaries in the Zone including us. Uruguay does not have turkey for sale at the stores so we are going to have improvise with something else. We went to the store and purchased 30 chicken breasts which we will marinate and I will attempt my first Uruguation asado(BBQ).

Friday, November 20th 2009
We got up early and caught the bus into Rocha and then on to Montevideo. We have a joint mission conference with the other mission in Uruguay. We both get to hear Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speak and train us. We got to Montevideo and we got of the bus at Portones and walked to Tienda Inglesia (English Store) and purchased a long list of items that we cannot find in La Paloma. We then checked into the Hostel by the Temple and hurried to get to the Malvin Stake Center where the conference was being held. It was great to see all the Elders from the Offices that we had made friends with while we were there. Along with Elder & Sister Bednar there was Elder & Sister Snow of the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder and Sister Bowen, the Area Seventy and both the the Mission Presidents and their wives. We got to hear from Sister Bednar, Sister Snow, Brother Snow and Elder Bednar. During his presentation he would have Elder Bowen and Snow talk also. They taught us how to learn by the Spirit. It was a great 3 hours.
After the conference we hung around and talked with the Elders and our YSA from the Buceo Barrio that meets in the Malvin building. It turns out that Elder Bednar was giving a talk to the YSA at 7PM so we got to see most of our YSA. It was great to see them. We found out that one of them is getting married on December 12th. That is the same day that we have scheduled a Temple trip for our Branch so we will get to see her get married also!
After meeting with our YSA we walked to our old house and rang the bell of our old landlady and surprised her. I think we were the last people that she expected at the gate. She let us in to see all the improvements that she had made on the house. It looked much better than it did while we were renting it. She had tiled the concrete wall in the kitchen so and repaired cracks in the other walls and repainted. It looked much better. We visited for a short time and said goodbye and went back to the Hostel to have dinner with Elder Keith & Sister Teri Wilson that are serving in the Temple in Montevideo. We had a great meal and a wonderful visit with the Wilsons.
We spent the night in the Hostel. It cost $ 200 hundred pesos which is about $10 dollars.

Saturday, November 21, 2009
We awoke early and went to the 10:00 AM session at the temple. We were given translator headsets so that we can listen to the session in English. As we have done before we turn it way down so that we could hear the Spanish as well as the English and we found that we were recognizing many more Spanish words than we were previously. So maybe we are getting it!?
While we were at the temple we met Sister Shurtliff, her husband is the new Temple president. We had a great visit with her and she counseled us on several things that we had questions on.
After the visit with her we went to the distribution center and picked up some items for the Branch and for ourselves.
We went back to the hostel and cleaned our room (part of the reason why it is so cheap) and checked out. We had the desk clerk call us a taxi to go the bus station (Tres Cruces).
We caught the 4:15 PM bus heading back to La Paloma and arrived at about 7:30 PM. We walked back to our house dragging our suitcases which were heavier due to all the items that we purchased in Montevideo. It was a great trip!

Week 18 in La Paloma

2009-12-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Today Janice and I both spoke in Sacrament meeting. Janice had Elder Walbeck translate for her. I had written my talk in English and then put it through a translator program on the Internet and then I read it in Spanish to the congregation. President Riso of the Mission Presidency visited our branch today. He is on his way to Chuy to a priesthood conference that will be held later in the afternoon. He spoke some English so I was able visit with him.

After lunch Elder Walbeck, Espinola, Ruben and myself were picked up by President Picardo in his car and taken to Rocha to catch the bus to the Priesthood conference in Chuy. At the conference Ruben and the Leonardo were approved to have the priesthood and be ordained an Elder. After the meeting Ruben was ordained and got to help ordain others. It was a great opportunity for him. Leonardo unfortunately had to work and was unable to be at the meeting.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Today is preparation day and Elder Espinola made a dulce de leche torta (dulce de leche is similar to caramel and a torta is a cake). We had found the recipe for teriyaki on the Internet and Elder Walbeck was making teriyaki chicken for us. The teriyaki chicken turned out great the torta had too much flour in it and it was hard.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

We have been in Uruguay four months today.

Janice and I went to Leonardo and Leticia's and gave them another temple preparation class. We had a great visit with them and invited them to dinner on Thursday.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

We went with the missionaries to visit with Esther at her home. While I was there I noticed that her front door hinges were broken and the door was hard to open.

Leonardo and Leticia came to dinner and we had a great time visiting with them and getting to know them better. Janice made pineapple chicken which was a new taste for them but they seemed to enjoy it.

Friday, November 13, 2009

We went for a bicycle ride with the missionaries today and visited with Alba and Pedro. After our visit I went to Esthers house and fixed her door for her. She was very grateful. Janice and her got to visit while I was at the hardware store getting the hinges. It is very hard not being able to communicate with people.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Today we went to visit Luz and Beatina and her son Kevin. Ruben and was not feeling well because of blood sugar problems.

Week 17 in La Paloma

2009-12-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 1, 2009
While we're talking to the Taggart's yesterday they mentioned that several people in our Stake and Ward back home were going to be fasting and praying for us that we might learn the language.
Today the District President and his counselors and the Primary President came to visit the Branch. Janice had been babysitting Joaquin and he kept trying to open the door to the church so she had locked the door. The Sacrament meeting had already started when the District Presidency arrived. I could see them looking through the windows at the back of the chapel. The next thing I saw was them walking past the windows on the side of the chapel. Then they walked back past the windows on the side to the back of the chapel. When they walked by the side of the chapel Janice saw them walk by and then realized what the problem was. She had locked the door and they could not get in. She was sitting in one of the middle rows and could not communicate with the people sitting by the back door to tell them that the door was locked. She finally was able to talk to Leticia and Leticia told them to unlock the door. I'm not sure what kind of message if any the District Presidency took by having a locked door greet them.

Elizabeth was not a church today so we made a plate of cookies for her and took them to her and gave her a hug. That was about all we could do since we could not speak to her. It is very frustrating not being able to communicate with the people.

This afternoon I (and Elder Walbeck) gave interviews for the priesthood to Ruben and Leonardo.

Monday, November 2, 2009
Today's preparation day, we deep cleaned the house, fixed bicycles and studied Spanish.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Today I gave Janice her second haircut since we have been in La Paloma. This one was a little more stressful than the first one. But we made it through it.
During one of Janice is conversations with her mother. Her mother had mentioned that they had a translator while they were in Mongolia on their mission. She asked if we could hire a translator. This was an interesting idea that we gave some serious thought to and came up with having one of our young single adults from the Buceo ward come and live in our home and teaches us Spanish and go out with us to visit the members and be our translator.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
We prayed about the idea of having a translator and in particular having Gabriela be the translator. We felt good about the idea and so I emailed Gabriela and asked for her input and about how much we should pay a translator. Gabriela thought it was a great idea but she is in school and would not finish her classes until late December so it would be January before she would be available.

Week 16 in La Paloma

2009-12-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Today is the preliminary election day in Uruguay. We were told by District President to only have Sacrament meeting today. After Sacrament meeting we had Ruben and the missionaries over for lunch.

After lunch I wrote a 10 page letter to President Da Silva explaining the advantages of having sister missionaries in La Paloma. I sent this to him via e-mail.

Monday October 26, 2009

Today's preparation day. After clean around the house in the morning we went with the missionaries to visit the Faro lighthouse which is just a few blocks away from our home. Just before we left to go visit the lighthouse I checked our e-mail and we had a response back from President Da Silva. He had written a response in Spanish so I could not read it. I took it with us to the lighthouse and had Elder Walbeck translated for us. President Da Silva told us that he was not going to send sister missionaries to La Paloma and that we should seek help from the district level. This response was very discouraging. We had prayed about it and the missionaries had prayed about it and everyone had thought and it was a great idea. The assistants to the president were requesting help for housing sister missionaries and we had housing available, everything was falling into place like it was supposed to happen and and the President tells us no. We felt like we were all alone and that we were not a part of the mission. That we were out here with no support!

That evening we went to Elizabeth's for a discussion. The missionaries were reviewing the questions that she would be asked in her baptism interview. When they came to the question about tithing she proposed a solution to her tithing problem. She offered the missionaries a certain amount of money and asked them to accept it as her tithing. The missionaries asked if it was 10% of her income. She indicated that it wasn't and they told her then it was not a full tithe. They tried to teach that tithing is the Lord's way of finding out if we're willing to sacrifice for him. She got really upset and decided that she wanted to be alone so we all left and she went for a walk on the beach.

Not a really good day!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Elizabeth will not respond to the missionaries phone calls or text messages.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

We got this morning and went for early morning bicycle ride. It was good to get up and get loosened up from the night's sleep.

Still no response from Elizabeth!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Today we are invited to President Picardo's for lunch. He made us an Asado (BBQ). I don't know why but the meat that they want to grill is mostly fat, gristle, bone and very little meat. Once you make it to the meat it is pretty good. We had ridden our bicycles to his house and while we were eating lunch a thunderstorm came in so while we were riding home we got wet!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Today we had been invited to Leonardo and Leticia for lunch. We took the desert. While we were there I taught them a temple preparation class that they had missed on Sunday. Leonardo needs to be interviewed to receive the Priesthood. I was not sure what questions I needed asking during the interview so I called back home to speak to Bishop Bigelow but there was no answer at his number so I called President Taggart who was home and gave me the answers that I needed along with some scriptures that I could use to help teach Leonardo the importance of the priesthood. It was great to talk with him. Janice spoke with him as well and he helped her understand some of the questions that she has. We both appreciate his strength and advise.

Elizabeth finally answered the missionaries they were able to come back and visit with her. While they're visiting with her Janice and I realize that they were there so we knelt down and prayed that her heart would be softened and she would have the Spirit teach her the truth. The missionaries told us later that at about the same time that we were praying her heart softened and she became more interested in listening to them. Another testimony that our Heavenly Father answers our prayers.

Week 15 in La Paloma

2009-12-10T06:26:00.000-08:00

Sunday, October 18, 2009

I conducted the sacrament meeting today. Our landlord Pedro attended the meeting along with his wife Beatrice. It was great to see them and they seem like they're enjoying the meeting. Afterward Pedro agreed to let the missionaries come over and visit him later in the week.

The missionaries received a text message from the assistants to the president's asking if anyone had any housing available for sister missionaries. They immediately answered back that they had housing available and would love to have them in the area. It looks like we might get the sister missionaries after all.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Today we made a lunch for the missionaries today. In the evening we went to a discussion with Elizabeth. We pretty much don't know what's going on during the discussion until at the end Elder Walbeck asks us to bear testimony of what ever he's been teaching that day.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Today is our grandson Gavin's birthday! We tried to call him to wish and a happy birthday but there was no one home.

We rented bicycles to see if we would be able to ride them and if our bodies would agree with riding them. We rode them out to visit Leonardo and Leticia. We also went to visit President Picardo and went to another discussion with Elizabeth.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

On Wednesday we returned the bicycles that we had rented on Tuesday and discover that our bodies didn't mind riding bicycles except for the sore bottom.

We asked our landlord Pedro if he knew of any place and we can rent or buy bicycles and he said no just use mine. He said he had two very nice bicycles that were never been used that he would let us use. He just needed get them out of storage and filled the tires up with air.

We met with Pedro and Beatrice and they told the Missionaries that they were not religious people and were not interested in the Church.

Friday, October 23, 2009

This afternoon while we was eating lunch with the missionaries we found out that one of our Branch members Ruben Bica does not have any food in his house. The song “Because I have been given much I too must give” kept running through our minds. We had just enough time before our appointment with Leonardo and Leticia to go to the store and buy some food for Ruben. We decided to do a knock and run. So we left the bags of groceries at his door and went to our appointment.

It was great to visit with Leticia and Leonardo, they speak English and have a little baby for Janice to hold. Leticia really wants to go to the temple and be sealed to her husband and boys. About a week ago Leticia sister-in-laws sister's husband was killed in an airplane crash. He was a member of the Carrasco ward in Montevideo. This has really emphasize the importance of being sealed together with her family. They have a good spirit in their home and it's fun to visit with them.

Later that evening we went to a discussion with the missionaries at Elizabeth's. Elder Walbeck told me before the discussion that he was going to ask Elizabeth if it was OK if I baptized her. This would be a great honor but the missionaries have done all the work in teaching her and should be the ones to baptize her. I told Elder Walbeck that she should be able to choose whom she wanted to have baptized her. So when he asked her the question he phrased it in such a way that she would automatically choose me. So I went home and immediately started to learn how to say the baptism prayer in Spanish.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

We awoke early because the assistants to the president's Elders Parraga and Zanutini are coming to town. They're delivering a new stove and refrigerator to us along with two garment racks. We had invited them for breakfast of waffles, pancakes and scrambled eggs. When they arrived we had breakfast ready. We quickly unloaded the items and had a wonderful breakfast. Elder Walbeck and Espinola joined us also. After everyone had left we started to organize our back bedroom for the sister missionaries that would be coming.

Week 14 in La Paloma

2009-12-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

Monday, October 12, 2009

Today we got to see our granddaughter Jenna via Skype and the Internet. It was great to see her, Christina, Logan and Brian.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

This morning we went to district meetings and afterward were invited to lunch with Elizabeth an investigator of the church. She made an awesome meal and the food just kept coming and coming. Elizabeth is very excited about the gospel and about the feelings that she is feeling.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Janice came up with the idea of asking for a companionship of sister missionaries to be assigned to La Paloma branch for one change (6 weeks) or more. They could stay in our home free of charge. They would be able to translate for Janice in Relief Society and Sunday School. We would be able to use them to go out and visit the members which would allow the zone leaders Elder Walbeck and Espinola to continue to set a good example for the rest of the zone. We asked Elder Walbeck and Espinola what they thought of the idea and they thought it was a great idea. They called President Da Silva and asked him if what he thought and he was supportive of the idea.

Friday, October 16, 2009

I was in the kitchen when I heard this screen from Janice in the bathroom. The water heater had sprung a leak and was leaking all over. I ran outside and turned the water off to the house. I tried to contain the water and drain the house so that the water would not run all over any more. I called Pedro our landlord and told him that we have water leaking in the house. He came right over and looked at the water heater and said it was “dead” and went to the store and bought a new one. When he got back I remove the old one and replaced it with the new water heater and everything worked fine.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Today we got to go to Esther's baptism in Rocha. There was several members of the Branch there to support her and the missionaries. Janice met an 11 year old girl from Rocha named Macarena. They hit it off off real well and become instant friends. It was fun watching them try to communicate with each other.

Week 13 in La Paloma

2009-11-12T07:21:00.000-08:00

Looking down the Lighthouse stairway, Elder Espinola & Walbeck
The beach looking East
The next segment of the town
The next segment on the town
Looking West from the Lighthouse along the beach into La Paloma
Monday October 5th
We had to wake up at 4AM to get ready and to the bus station by 5:05AM. We were told to get to Montevideo by 9:30AM to meet with the lawyer that handles the immigration process and paperwork for the Mission. We needed to sign some documents and then we would be done with the immigration process. The bus ride was 3 ½ hours long. We fortunately slept most of the way there. We were told that we were to go to the main bus terminal in Tres Cruses and Elder Van Wagenen would meet us there. We arrive and no Elder Van Wagenen. We wandered the bus terminal for about 45 minutes and met a member that spoke some English and he told us where the Missionaries typically meet at so we talked with him for a while until he had to catch his bus. Finally Elder Van Wagenen showed up but the lawyer was late so Elder Van Wagenen said he had to go and left us to wait for the lawyer. It was not long and he showed up and took us downtown to the immigration offices and we signed the papers and they took us back to the bus terminal. We caught the 12:30 bus back to La Paloma. It was another 3 ½ hour bus ride and we were very tired of riding on buses when we arrive home.

Tuesday October 6th
Guess what we got to do today, yop another bus ride this time it was a lot shorter ride, just to Rocha for our First District Meetings which lasted until noon and then another bus ride. We are tired of riding on buses! When we got home from District Meeting we went by one of the Branch Members home (Hermana Carmen) she had told the District President that she had a house for rent. We ask to see the house in our best broken Spanish and charades and she finally left us and was gone for about 10 minutes and she comes back with her neighbor Pedro Viera who could speak a word or two of English. He was the one that had the house for rent and we finally communicated to him that we would like to see the house. We got into his car and went the 3 blocks to the house. It was a 2 bedroom 2 bath home with a nicer kitchen and large living room. It was the nicest house that we had seen in La Paloma. We asked him how much and if he would rent the house for 6 months. He indicated that he would only rent the house for a year but the rent was only $300 per month plus utilities. We were looking for a house that we could rent for the 6 months that we were told we were going to be assigned to La Paloma.

Wednesday October 7th
We spent the day looking for houses and finally decided to go back and look and Pedro's house again. We had looked at lots of house and they were all very expensive! We could rent Pedro's house for a full year and it would be between ¼ to 1/3 the price of the other houses we had looked at. We took the computer with us and spent 2 hours on Google Translator asking questions and Pedro answering them and Google translating it for us. It is not perfect but we could not have done it with out it. We finally all agreed to everything and we agreed to rent the house.

Thursday October 8th
We started packing the stuff we had unpacked so we could move Friday morning. Pedro was going to have the house cleaned and ready for us by about 10:30 AM. He actullay arranged for Mr. Oliverda to deliver us some wood to the new house and then stop by the Church with his truck and help us move our stuff to the new house.
We were invited to a Charla with Elder Walbeck and Espinola to a new investigator named Elizabeth Glattli. She is about 60 years old and is a widow. She had a heart attack a year ago. She had agreed to be baptized and when she told her Doctors that she was going to be baptized they told her not to because it could lead to another heart attack so they advised against it. This woman is very energetic and works maintaining and taking care of 9 rental homes in La Paloma for out of town owners. We could not understand how being baptized was any threat to her health. We offered to give her a priesthood blessing and she agreed. We blessed her that when she met with her doctors on Monday that they would be found to be healthy and the doctors would release her for baptism. The Spirit was very strong and it was great to be apart of the experience.
We told Elder Walbeck that we would not be able to attend Zone Conference in the morning because we were going to be moving into our new home!

Friday October 9th
We were ready when Mr. Oliverda and his son stopped at the Church in their truck. Pedro was there in his car to help also. We had the truck loaded in just a few minutes and then we were off to the new house. We went with Pedro in his fancy Peugeot diesel car. He drives really fast. The taxi drivers in Montevideo have nothing on him. We got the truck unloaded and I paid Mr. Oliverda for the wood and for helping us move. He delivered 500 kilograms of wood which was about 1/3 a cord. I paid him 800 pesos for the wood and 200 for helping us move. It adds up to be about $48 dollars in US dollars. We spent the rest of the day cleaning, unpacking and organizing the house. We got a telephone call about 10 PM from President Da Silva telling us that he missed us at the Zone Conference. I told him good and left it at that.

Saturday October 10th
We cleaned and unpacked at the new house. The new house is going to work out very well!!

Pics from the Lighthouse and Beach

2009-11-12T05:28:00.000-08:00

The larger red house in the center of the picture is our house.

The Photo was taken from the top of the Faro Lighthouse

The center of the Faro Lighthouse, 100 stairs in the main staircase to the top.

It was a beautiful day on top of the Faro Lighthouse, La Paloma below (looking East)

This part of the Beach has large rocks and the waves crash into them and the sounds are awesome!

Elder Espinola and Elder Walbeck having a great time!

Walbeck's pant leg is rolled up to keep his pants out of his bicycle chain and sprocket.

More Pics of La Paloma and our house

2009-10-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

This is a frontal view picture of a whale skelton that is in a park in center of town

This is Janice at the side of the whale skeleton

The Elder's, Espinola and Walbeck having chili and cornbread at our table

The view from our dining room into the living room

Our bedroom

The Faro Lighthouse at dusk, with the light on

This is a real freaky statue that is in the park at the entrance of La Paloma, his white eyes are spooky (if you click on the picture it will become larger and you can see the details better). He is controlling the rudder of a boat.

This a La Paloma version of a Mermaid, kind of freaky with the white eyes and the tail that does not go all the way to the waist.

The view in our living room to the dining room, ceramic tile floors and concrete walls keep it very cool. Hopefully this will help in the Summer months that are coming soon.

Pics of La Paloma

2009-10-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

The El Dorado, the closest grocery store to our house. It is small but okay.

This a view from the West end of the town looking down the main street in town. This is a fountain and park area at the West end of the main street.

This is Janice at the beach. The wind blows most of the time and can be very cold! The beach East of here does not have the rocks and I hear it is popular place for the surfers to play!

This is the Faro Light house which is about 4 blocks from our house. It is very well maintained and is active. It is lit up every night. I will try to get a night shot and post it later.

This the the view of the congregation in our little Chapel (we meet in a house) and have room for about 30 comfortably. We had 26 in our first meeting so if we grow much we will need to find another location or......

This if the view from the back row in the Chapel. The stairwell leads to the loft that we used as a bedroom for the first week we were in town. The door leads to the kitchen and from there to the Primary room (bedroom) , and Priesthood room (the garage) and library (another bedroom) and there are 2 restrooms.

This is the view of the Church from across the street.

This is the new hair do that Janice is sporting to help her deal with the wind. It seems to work well and she looks great.

This is the house we are renting. It is a real blessing for us. It is reasonably priced and is comfortable. I will post inside shots once we have finished unpacking

A new family addition, Jenna Marie Wilson

2009-10-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

This is the doctor that delivered our new grandaughter...... he looks a lot like Logan

This is Brian, Logan (the Doctor) and new Jenna Marie Wilson

Jenna Marie Wilson, Born October 10th, Weighs 8lbs 12oz and is 21-1/2" long

Not being there at this special time is a hard part of serving a mission. We miss them all and hope they are all doing well. The Lord blessed us today in our new Branch, we found we have a young family with a one month old baby to help Janice cope with not being able to give Jenna hugs & kisses. It is not the same as family but it helps!!

Week 12 in Montevideo & La Paloma

2009-10-09T02:31:00.000-07:00

We are back on line !

Sunday September 27^th

We attended Church and met with the YSA and the First Councilor Brother (Nestor Martinez) in the Bishopric taught our YSA class. He speaks excellent English and would fill us in from time to time what he was talking about so we had some idea what was going on in class. After Church we worked on our journal / blog and read. It was a good Sunday.

Monday September 28^th

We arrived at the office early for our staff meeting and was told by the Assistants that President Da Silva was coming over at 10 AM and wanted to meet with us. Not much was scheduled for the week so the meeting was short. President arrived about 10:30 and called us into his office. He said that he had found the most beautiful place in the mission and he was going to send us there to La Paloma (the dove) to help a struggling Branch of members. He told me that I was going to the the new Branch President and would be in charge of finding and training my replacement and I needed to do that in 6 months. We were not totally shocked because that was the recommendation from President Bowen to make us the Branch President in a struggling Branch somewhere. We asked when he wanted us to go and he said by Wednesday. That was a day and a half to get all our affairs in order and move. Wow that really shocked us that it was happening so fast. We reminded him that there was a Zone Leader Conference on Wednesday and all the vehicles would be busy so he said okay you have until Thursday. I asked if we could take a vehicle and go find housing and come back more prepared for what we would need to take to our new home. He said no. That we should just go and we could live in the Church (which is actually a home that they use as a meeting place). He said there is a room above the Church that we can stay in until we find a home. We asked about the Branch and what it was like and he did not have much information about it. We were told just to be there by Thursday. Wow this was overwhelming. I told him that we would go and do the best that we could do but reminded him that we did not speak the language and would need a translator. He indicated that there were 2 missionaries in the area and one of them spoke English. They are Elder Walbeck and Espinola. They are the Zone Leaders for the area. Walbeck arrived in the area the past Wednesday and did not know much about the area yet. I put them to work trying to find housing for us. They looked in the Church and Walbeck said that the small room which is actually a loft above the main room in the house would be to cramped for us to live in so they kept looking around the town trying to find more housing for us to look at.

We worked on office stuff the rest of the day at tried to get the Secretaries and Financial Secretaries up to speed on what we were doing for them and how to do it. I my opinion they are really going to miss not having us around!

We invited Elder Session and Jacobson to come to our home later that evening to share the news with Cristina our Landlady. They could explain it to her in Spanish if I could not make her understand in English. I was able to explain to her how transfers work in the Mission and that we would be leaving on Thursday. She was shocked but okay with it when we all parted that evening

Tuesday September 29^th

We worked on wrapping this up at the office and preparing to teach our last English class in the Buceo Barrio. Some of the stuff at the office I will not miss at all but I will miss the interaction with the Missionaries each day. We left the office in better condition than we we arrived so it should be easier for the Missionaries to keep up. We are going to take Wednesday and spend the day packing and getting ready to move on Thursday morning at 6:30AM.

We told the 2 YSA that came to our English class that we had been transferred to La Paloma and that we would be leaving on Thursday morning early. They were shocked and disappointed to hear the news but said it was a very pretty area but it was cold and the wind blew all the time. We told them that we would be a volleyball the next evening and would tell the others in the group.

Wednesday September 30^th

The last day in Buceo. We spent the day packing and cleaning and were making great progress towards being ready so we could go to the volleyball game and share the news with the others in the YSA group. That is until about 7PM when our Landlady came by and told us that she was still in shock about that fact that we were going to be moving out and she did not have any notice so she could advertise the house for rent. She was looking for additional money to help offset the fact that she had turned people away and did not have time to advertise the house. I tried to calm her down and then about 8:30 Elders Session and Jacobson happened by the house and then she got all spun up again. She finally agreed to let us give her 2 months additional rent and and then she would be satisfied. This finally wrapped up about 9:30 PM and we were just going to stay home and not go to volleyball when Carolina called and asked when we were going to be there. We walked to the Church and the word had spread. We walked into a room that lights we out and we got a big surprise most all the YSA and the Bishopric was there to give us a going away party! We were overwhelmed with the love and support they showed us. They had all made signs which said Hermano & Hermana Hegerhorst we love you! They had a cake and soda and other treats to snack on. We visited with them and shared our love with them and they with us in our very limited communication abilities. We both knew that we loved each other and that we would all miss each other! We finally got home about 11PM and still had a lot of stuff to do to get ready for the truck that would arrive at 6:30AM. We had made arrangements that we would drive the truck down and find a place and return in a day or so. At the last minute President Da Silva changed the plan and said that 2 missionaries would have to accompany us. We finally go to bed at 1PM

Thursday October 1^st

We awoke at 5AM to prepare for the truck coming at 6:30. Cristina our Landlady got up to tell us goodbye (and to make sure we did not take any of her stuff). Carolina and Valeria from our YSA group came by to say goodbye and to offer some help loading and packing and cleaning things up. It was great to see all of them. The missionaries Elder Van Wagenen, Esparsa, Sessions and Jacobson all arrive at 6:30 and started to help me load things in to the truck. It was a very awkward looking load since the back seat were now going to be full of people we had to leave some things behind. We gave our 5- 20 liter bottles of water to Cristina our Landlady since we did not have room for them on the truck. We put the mattress on top of the boxes of stuff with the box springs on the top and tied everything down. The weather report called for a sunny day so we did not cover the load. It was a very hard morning emotionally to leave everyone and everything that we had struggled for the past 2.5 months to get used to and now we were going into a totally unknown situation that we were not able to prepare for. This is type of thing is extremely difficult for Janice to deal with. She likes to plan and prepare and she could not do that in this situation. She really had a tough time leaving. It takes about 3 hours to get to La Paloma from Montevideo and on the way I noticed that Janice was having a tough time controlling her emotions. I did not say anything to her because it would have embarrassed her in front of the missionaries but it was tough not being able to try to consul her some how.

When we arrived we met up with the missionaries serving in the area. Elders Walbeck and Espinola are the zone leaders in the area called Rocha. We went to their house and unloaded some of the stuff out of the back seat and they climbed in to help navigate us to some houses that they had located for us. The first 2 houses were VERY rustic with no hot water at the kitchen sink and other issues. Janice did really good controlling her emotions as we looked at the houses. The 3^rd house was much better and would have been acceptable but they wanted to rent for $22 per day until December and then the rent would go up to $80 per day. The rent would stay at $80 December through March. We could not afford that kind of rent. The city is a tourist area that most of the houses are only rented for a few months in the summer. Most of the people we called said “no” we only rent during the Summer months or they wanted a long term contract of a year. We only found one house that was willing to rent for the year. We spent 8 hours looking for houses in the rain. It started to rain when we got to town and all the business were closed for “siesta” for 2 hours and we could not find a tarp to cover the load on the truck so our mattress and other stuff was getting soaking wet! We finally found a car wash that you could drive into, so we did and waited out the storm and ate lunch. When it finally stopped raining we went shopping for a tarp and found a small tarp that covered the load on top but not the all the way down the sides of the load. We put the tarp on and then it started raining really hard and the wind was blowing so the tarp would lift up and the sides were getting soaked. We spent 8 hours looking for houses both calling the telephone numbers from the many for rent signs posted and 4 or 5 Realtors that control the rental market in the area. We looked at several houses and found a couple that were livable. They were very expensive, one wanted over $9000 up front to rent the house for 6 months and the other one was very similar in cost. There was one house that would rent for a year but it would take about 15 days for all the contracts to be finalized and they needed someone that owned property in Uruguay to guaranty the rent. We did not have the time or anyone to guaranty the rent. It was raining really hard now so we went back to the car wash and waited for a lull in the storm. The missionaries called and told President DaSilva that we were not having any luck finding a house. He told them that they could stay the night but that they need to take us and our stuff to the house they use for a Church and drop us off in the morning. We found a hotel with a restaurant and had dinner and rented us and the missionaries rooms for the night. It was after 10PM when we finally made it to our room. During dinner the missionaries got a phone call telling them that they need to be on the road back to Montevideo by 7AM at the latest. This mean that we had to be up at 5AM to get to the Church and unload our stuff so they could be on the road by 7AM. We were not very happy about the situation. We could not find a house and we were being dropped of without transportation and not being able to speak the language. It was a very hard night for Janice and I.

Friday October 2nd

This morning we just decided to get to work and try to clean out the loft in the church and try to make the church our home while we were in La Paloma. The loft is above the main living room area where the church services are held and it was piled full of the home owners junk! There were old mattresses, dressers, tables, tarps, tents and boxes full of old dishes and other junk. The missionaries helped us unload the area and then they had to get on the road back to Montevideo.

The stuff from the top of the truck like our mattress and box springs was soaking wet. Fortunately there were 2 fans at the Church and we had bought along an electric heater. We set them all up to hopefully dry out our mattress so we could have a place to sleep that night. We spent most of the day moving stuff and cleaning the loft and other rooms in the Church. It felt good to have a plan and be working towards something together! We finally got the loft cleaned up. The mattress was getting drier. I was sure it was going to take a month to dry it out it was very wet. We took a break from cleaning and went to Antel who provides the internet in Uruguay and were lucky enough to find a lady who spoke some English. We were able to get a wireless modem to use in the laptop. She even gave us a break on the DSL we were still under contract for. The modem would not be usable for 24 hours. By bedtime the mattress and box springs were dry and we were able to make the loft into our bedroom. We both were very tired but felt good about all that we had accomplished and the adversities were had overcame. We both slept great.

Saturday October 3^rd

It is General Conference weekend. (in our Church we have a worldwide conference every six months. The leaders of the church speak to us and it is broadcast worldwide via satellite and the internet.) Since the broadcast in live from Salt Lake City we had a 3 hour time difference on Saturday but due to Daylight savings time in Uruguay it was 4 hours on Sunday. To watch conference meant that we had to catch a bus at noon that took us to the City of Rocha and then walk a short distance to the Stake Center (Church house) where the broadcast would be shown. They had a small room with a TV that broadcast it in English while the main Chapel area the broadcast was translated to Spanish. The broadcasts started a 1PM, 5PM and the Priesthood session (which Janice stayed for) started at 9PM. We caught a bus at 11:30 to get back to La Paloma at about 12:30AM. It was a very good day even though it was so long. The talks and messages given by the Prophet and other Apostles of Jesus Christ were very inspiring and uplifitng. The Spirit of God was very strong and taught us much during the conference. It was great to be able to see it and listen to it in English. We enjoyed getting to know the missionaries in our zone during the breaks along with some of the members and investigators of the Church in La Paloma and Rocha. One of the people (Brother Augilar sp?) we met is the 1^st Councilor to the District President (President Grande). Brother Augilar is in charge of La Paloma and he was excited to see me and know that some of his responsibilities would be shifted onto me.

We are being Transfered to La Poloma

2009-09-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

Monday September 27
We were called in the the Presidents office when he came to visit the office this morning! He said he had picked the most beautiful place in the Mission to send us. That is La Poloma which is a small community on the coast about 2 1/2 hours drive from Montevideo. It has a small Branch of about 10-20 active members in the area. He has assigned me to the the new Branch President and has given me 6 months to find and train my replacement. There are 2 missionaries serving in the area. One from the United State and one Latino. They are going to be critical to the success in the area. One will have to be our translater while we am learning more Spanish. They will be helping to get us housing and all the necessary things that occur when you are moving like transferring the Internet and other services into our names. You cannot image how frustrating it is not being able even make a simple telephone call the cancel your water service. We are completely dependent on someone else to help us. This is very hard when you are used to doing things yourself and not having to rely on others.

We have 2-1/2 days to prepare to leave. We will be moving on Thursday October 1st and will be without Internet Service for an undetermined amount of time. We are not sure what type service we will be able to get so we may not be able to Skype or call from La Poloma. When we are back on line I will notify you somehow. Probably by posting a notice here on the Blog. You can send emails but I will not be able to answer them until we are back online. Pray for us that we will be able to make the transistion to the new area and all will be well!

Mission Pictures

2009-09-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

This the Carrasco Church Building, it is next to the Temple.
This is one of hundreds of lawn mowing services. Most don't use a lawn mower only a weed eater and the grass clipping are left on the lawn.

This is the Mission Office with "Marta" (the van)

This Christina Sosa our Landlady. She speaks pretty good English has been helpful.

This is real common having 3 lanes and 4 cars taking up whatever space they find. Straddling the white lines are very common here and the traffic rules are at best loosely followed suggestions!

This is a bird nest. The nest is made from mud and is very well built. They put them any where like on this electrical splice box and they blend very well into the bark of the trees.

Pictures of the Mission

2009-09-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

One of our Office lunches. On the right we have Elder's Parraga (ecuador) Session (Wisconsin), Heaps (Utah) Bennett (Utah) Jacobson (Utah). On the Left we have Elder's Zanutini (Argentina) Hegerhorst (Washington) Van Wagenen (Utah) Baker (Montana). Today is was Elder Zanutini's turn to decide what was for lunch and his choice was tacos.

Janice standing by one of the many little 3 wheel trucks they have here. Janice is 5' 4" tall to give you an idea of how tiny the trucks are!

This is one of hundreds of horse drawn carts you see all over the city. The owners go through the garbage and salvage anything of value and put into the carts. I don't know how they turn the stuff into cash but it a very effective recycling system the city does not have to pay for. The horse and carts are on the city streets along with the cars and trucks. It is amazing there are not more accidents.

Starting on the right we have Elder Powers, Solomon, Jacobson & Sessions. This was taken inside the van during the week of changes in September. Powers was going home, Solomon was transfered out of the office to be a District leader in Durazno, Jacobson was transferred in to take Solomons place as a Financial Secretary and Sessions continued on as a Financial Secretary.

We got locked out of the office and tried to get in thru the 2nd story window with no luck.

Elder Powers being help up by Solomon and Hegerhorst

Week 11 in Montevideo

2009-09-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

Sunday September 20th
We went to Church today and Janice was home sick and having a hard time not understanding what was being said in the meetings so she decided that she was going to go home and read the scriptures to try to get fed spiritually. She wanted to be alone and asked me to stay at Church. I reluctantly agreed and she went home after Sacrament meeting. I went to Sunday School and the Young Single Adults were asking where Janice was. I told them that she had disappeared. After Church Gabriela asked if your Uruguay sons and daughters could follow me home to see Janice and make sure she was okay. I said sure and the next thing I knew there were about 20 people in this procession walking to the house. I was really touched by the love and support that these people that we could hardly communicate with were showing to us. We got to the house and I had them wait at the front gate and I went inside to alert Janice that she had visitors. She was overwhelmed with the love and support she was shown. The group sang a hymn and we all cried. We were exhausted with the emotional outpouring and spent the rest of the day resting and realizing that we were loved.
Monday September 21st
We went to the office early to get trained by Elder's Heaps and Bennett on the Statistical reports that need to be done each week. President Da Silva had decided that they were no longer going to come into the office to do this work and it was going to be done by the Office staff. It would typically fall under the responsibilities of the Executive secretaries. Elders Baker & Van Wagenen are the Executive Secretaries at this time. Elder Baker is scheduled to be transferred this week so Elder Van Wagenen was supposed to listen in on our training. He stayed for about 5 minutes and then found other things to do. What he does not know is that President Da Silva is going to reduce the number of Office Elders by two. Instead of having a companionship of Executive secretaries and companionship of Financial secretaries he is going to have one person as the Executive and one as the Financial and we would be supporting or directing them in the office. This change is supposed to take place this week on Wednesday during transfers. We spent the morning being trained and that afternoon we went to the Mission Home for a meeting with President Da Silva and the other secretaries. It was at this time that Elder Van Wagenen was asking who was going to be his companion because Elder Baker is going to be transferred. President went into his office with his Assistants for a while and then came out and had changed his mind about the way the offices were going to be ran. He decided that he would continue with the 2 sets of Secretaries and that we would be getting a new assignment. This is all due to the recommendation that President Bowen had given him to send us out into a struggling Branch. He said he would give us our new assignment later in the week. Well this really puts the mind a whirling about all the different possibilities and where we might be going and oh by the way we don't speak the language!
Tuesday September 22nd
We got 20 new missionaries (Oros, means gold) in this morning from the Missionary Training Center in Argentina. There were 19 young men and 1 young woman (her companion had some complications with her travel arrangements and will be coming later). There were 4 Latino and 16 from the United States. We helped get them to the Hostal were the orientations take place and got all their suitcases into the building. I went with the missionaries for their medical exams for immigration. This was quite an overwhelming experience when we went through for the first time. No one told us was was going to happen and and the next thing we know they are wanting to stick us with a needle and take blood. Janice and I decided that this should not happen with the new missionaries, they should be given an orientation and told what was going to happen so they knew what to expect. I went with them and stayed with them to answer any questions and help them through the process. It was good to visit with them and enjoy their energy and enthusiasm. We got them back and they had lunch and I went back to the offices where Janice had been working hard on reimbursements for the missionaries. At 4:30 we went back the the Hostal for to help with the pictures of the Oros with President and Hermana Da Silva and the other orientation. We helped prepare the evening meal and cleaned up afterward and then went home about 10PM. It was a very long day! We still don't know what our new assignment is!?!?
We had canceled our English class this week due to the long meetings in the evening with the new missionaries.
Wednesday September 23rd
I worked on the statistical reports and Janice was frantically working on the reimbursements because President Da Silva was coming by early afternoon prior to attending the Temple with the “Valientes” (the missionaries returning to their homes). She finished just as he came into the office and she was able to get another batch signed off and sent into Church Headquarters for processing. This will make the missionaries included in this batch happy, they will be getting some more money to pay for bills and eat. We still don't know where we are going!?!?
We played volleyball with the Young Single Adults (YSA) in the evening and had a great time with them and came away with no injuries. It was great!!
Thursday September 24th
The Secretaries took the Valientes to the airport to go home. We met the “King” parents from Twin Falls Idaho. They had flown down to pick up their son as he was released from his mission. We worked on various office tasks trying to get caught up since we were out of the office during the changes quite a bit.
Friday September 25th
I worked on the statistical reports all day. It was a very tedious day! Janice worked on medical bills that needed to be turned into Church Headquarters so they could get reimbursed from the insurance companies of the missionaries who had seen the Doctors. She found approximately 250 thousand pesos worth of bills that need to be submitted. This would be great to get this money back into the missions budget again.
After work we went to the Temple and enjoyed being there helping someone that had gone on before. We have translator headsets so we can listen to the session in English. We turn the English down low and try to understand the Spanish and we are understanding a few more words than we could the first time we went back in July.
We still don't know what out new assignment is going to be!?!
Saturday September 26th
We did laundry and cleaned the house this morning. We cleaned some really grimmy window blinds and then cleaned up quite well with a lot of heavy duty scrubing and detergent. Now we might feel save getting close to the windows. After the cleaning we went for a walk along the Rambla which goes along the beach. It was a beautiful day. We walked to a camping store an purchased a foam sleeping pad for us to put on the cold tile floors in our home and do stretches and exercises. We then walked to a new grocery store Devoto's and bought several sacks of groceries and then rode the bus home. We had just prepared dinner when my cell phone ran and it was President Peterson's (the West Mission's President) wife calling to invite Janice to come to a Relief Society broadcast and enjoy the company of 6 other English speaking women. We jumped on the the bus and got to the Peterson's at about 7:30PM. I got to hang out with President Hopkins (Temple Pres) and Elder's Halloday and Wilson who are Senior Missionaries who serve in the Temple with their wives. Their wives are with Janice at the Peterson's. We all had a great time enjoying each others company. Due to the time differences the broadcast did not get over until after 11PM. We called a taxi from the Wilson's and made it home and were in bed just before midnight. We still don't know what our new assignment is going to be, in fact we are becoming sure we really like the Office and would just as soon stay there!

Week 10 in Montevideo

2009-09-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

Sunday September 13th
It was Stake Conference this Sunday and we walked to the Church and arrived about 15 minutes early and the Chapel was full and about half of the cultural hall was full ( there is a movable wall the opens and the Chapel and Cultural hall become one huge room). This was really odd as I mentioned before all the meetings in the past all started late so to have Stake Conference be so full early was odd. The couples from the Temple had saved us a seat in the Cultural hall so we had decent seats. The same technique was used to be spiritually fed. It saved us. After the meeting we went home and took a well deserved nap after lunch.
Monday September 14th
We arrived early to the office for our Monday morning meeting with the office Elders and Assistants. This week is going to be busy for the Mission Pres. & Hermana and the Assistants. Elder Bowen of the Area Authority is coming to the country and will be meeting with the office staff on Wednesday and then doing Zone Conferences through out the Mission the rest of the week. We need to clean and organize the offices because we will have meetings there on Wednesday.
Tuesday September 15th
We prepared for the meeting with Pres. Bowen on Wednesday.
Wednesday September 16th.
President and Sister Bowen arrived at the office at about 10AM and all the office staff, Assistants and President and Hermana Da Silva met for a meeting. We typically don't get much out of the meetings because they are in Spanish but President Bowen asked if we spoke Spanish and when we indicated we did not his wife volunteered to translate for us. She sat behind us and we were able to participate in the meeting. They made us feel like we were needed and important and they understood the frustrations we have been going through. They told us that they were called to be the mission President in Spain and Sister Bowen and their 4 children did not speak the language and there were times in the first 6 months that she begged her husband the Mission President not to make her go to Church because it was so frustrating for her and the children to not be able to understand what was being said. They went to Church and eventually the were able to speak and understand the language. They were able to talk with us and we could talk with them it was so wonderful to be able to talk and share our concerns and desires to someone that understood and could communicate back with us!! President Bowen indicated that we should be attending all the District and Zone Conferences and there should be a translator for us at all the meetings. We told him that we had not been attending these meeting because it was distracting to the others to have someone translating and we could be more productive working in the office but he insisted that we should be attending these meetings. He also said that he was going to recommend to President Da Silva that we be moved out of the Offices and be assigned to a Branch that was struggling and help to build it up. He asked how I felt about this recommendation and I told him that I was terrified. We don't speak the language and cannot be effective if we cannot communicate with the people. He promised us that if we would do this the LORD would bless us with the language and we would be successful.
Later that afternoon we attended Zone Conference and Elder Jarom Heaps from Tooele Utah translated for us. He did a great job and we were able to participate in the meeting and feel the Spirit. It was great to have our cup full again and to feel like someone cared that we were in the Mission.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday
The President and Hermana Da Silva and their Assistants accompanied President and Sister Bowen around the Mission to Zone Conferences with the Missionaries. We worked in the offices and tried to keep the Mission going.
We went to the area Ferrocaril to look at a missionaries home that was using a lot of electricity to see if we could see anything that might be wrong. There was nothing that I could see that would be causing a high bill. It was great to out of the house and see more of the city. It was close to a part of the city where we had replaced a water heater a few weeks before so there was not a lot of new things to see.
On the way back home we stopped by the Hospital Evangelico to see Rona Lara who had a new baby on Thursday. We went into the hospital and started for the elevators to go to the 3rd floor and a security guard just about tackled us in the hallway. He of course spoke in Spanish and Janice told him that we did not understand Spanish so he kept on talking to us in Spanish. Finally a man that was passing by stopped and explained to us that we needed a special card to get into the Hospital or that we needed to come during visiting hours. Of course we had not idea how to get this special card or when visiting hours were so we decided to do an Elvis imitation and leave the building. It turns out that Rona had gone home earlier so she was not even there.