Week 16: ¡Milagros milagros y màs milagros!


Hola everybody! Hope yall are doing great. It has been a great week here in Uruguay! First off,  I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving! I hope you all thought about all that you're grateful for haha!  Elder Smyers and I didnt even remember it was Thanksgiving until about 7pm that night...but then when we got home we ordered a nice pizza and a pepsi, so we celebrated real nice.

Im grateful for all of you guys and your love and support for me and all the missionaries out in the world! We need your prayers everyday. But this week I think someone must've prayed real hard for me and my comp because we had some exìto! We found a couple people who are already preparing for baptism! One of them is named Ana, and the story with her is awesome. So a few days ago we were walking past a house and a little kid ran out and yelled at us, "Hey my mom has one of your guys' books!"...obviously, as a missionary, if you hear that you are going straight to that kids house and talk to whoever is in there. So we did, but his mom wasn't there, so they told us to come back another time. On Sunday night we went and found the mom and started talking to her. She already had her Book of Mormon sitting out when we got there. She said she's had the book for a year now, and she reads it almost every night just by herself! You can imagine what our reactions to that were like.  She said the missionaries that gave it to her didn't teach her much and were really hard to understand, and then eventually they just stopped coming to her. Not sure what happened there.. but at least we have found this lady now! We asked her if the Book of Mormon is true, and she was like "Claro!" which is like saying, well yeah! Haha that was just awesome to hear and then she was so happy when we asked her to be baptized. Man was that just awesome!! It was a miracle to say the least. We're going to be teaching her more this week, and she should hopefully get baptized sometime in December...if things go well! 

I know that your prayers and love for us missionaries truly help us see miracles in the Lords work everyday! So thank you for everything! Im grateful for all of you and love and miss you! Have a great week!! ¡nos vemos!

Braxton and Elder Smyers enjoying their own Thanksgiving this past week! Pizza and Pepsi! 

Week 15:  ¡Elder Gong vino!

Holaaaa hola everybody! Hope all is going well and that christmas is coming well for everyone! Christmas is for sure different here, as it is in the summer and super hot during december.  This past week was a great one! We had another Apostle come talk to us here in Uruguay! Elder Gong, and he is amazing. He gave such a great talk. He talked to us about why we are in Uruguay right now. 

As missionaries, you are called to the place you are supposed to serve for several different reasons. All of it is designed to help you become the person you are meant to become and to help the people you are suppose to help and talk to and teach.  He also talked to us about "speaking other peoples languages" (no, not just spanish) Haha he meant to speak to people about what matters to them. You can show your love for people just the way you converse with them.  As missionaries it's very important to talk to people about what makes them happy. I think its very important for everyone to speak in that way. If you want to show someone you love them, just talk to them and show your love for them by listening to them.  I think the greatest problem with communication in the world today is that we listen to reply, we dont listen to people to understand them. Just conversations with people seems like a very simple thing that we probably don't think twice about usually....but if you really try to take the time to understand someone you could change their life without even realzing it.  

Elder Gong shared a story where that happened when he was talking to a lady just about art...and after the conversation she broke down in tears because she said she felt like the loneliest person in the world and that she could feel Elder Gongs love for her. We never know when we can change someones world, just by choosing to talk and understand them! I love you all and miss ya tons, but life is going good here in Uruguay! Have a great week and take the time to understand someone!!

Beautiful sunset near the bridge in Delta Del Tigre.  Braxton said he could stare at this sunset all day...it is so beautiful!

P-Day Activity with his Zone today! 

A little Water Balloon Volleyball for Pday today! 

Week 14: Las pruebas que tenemos


Hola hola everybody! Hope everyone is having a great week! La vida de un Uruguayo es bien.¡La oportunidad ser un misionero en la obra del señor durante esta época es buenaso! Lots of things are happening in the work right now. This week was a good one, and to cap it off, tomorrow we are having a conference with Elder Gong! Right after that we are having a multi misión conference with the Montevideo misión! Its gonna make for an awesome day! 

This past week was really good. We found some great people and are making some good progress with some. One person I would like to talk about today is Maria Rosa. She is a 70 year old lady who is just awesome. She has lived through some insanely difficult trials in her life. Just to name a few, she was abanded as a newborn and grew up living with nuns, her husband abused her, she has had one child die, and another child with cáncer. This lady has been through it all let me tell ya...but her attitude was perfect about it all. Most people say "why me?" when things like that happen to them...it's just natural human instict to do it, but Maria Rosa is the exact opposite! She has the mindset of, "why not me?!!" She said if other people have had to go through difficult things in their life, why wouldn't she have to too? She also repeatedly mentioned how she was able to survive it all only through Jesus Christ. Man she is awesome! Maria Rosa will be getting baptized on the first day of December and I cant wait for it! I thought about her a lot over the past few days and in personal study I read some awesome scriptures that pertain to trials that we face while in this life. First one is Helaman 3:34-35. The people in these verses were beginning to get persecuted for being followers of Christ. They were much like Maria Rosa. In verse 35 it says they just increased their faith and humbled themselves before the Lord even more and for that they were blessed with joy and comfort. 

This is the same for everyone when we have trials in our lives. God gives us trials to make us better and it is also a test, to see how we react to see if He can trust us to be His true disciples. We learn in 2 Nephi 26:23-24, that The Lord never does anything in the world save it be for the BENEFIT OF THE WORLD.  Because He loves the world, and each of us living in it, everything we go through in this life is only for our benefit, even if it doesn't seem like it is. Gods way is always higher than our way! I am thankful for the trials I have in my life, because they have made me stronger than before. I am trying to learn more everyday to thank God for the difficulties I have in my life. I love you all, have a great week! 

Braxton and Elder Smyers enjoying some churros filled with dulce de leche. 

The Elders playing a little soccer with some of the youth in their branch. 

Dogs are EVERYWHERE in Uruguay! Braxton said this dog is always on the roof barking at them! 

 

Week #13: ¡Halloween en Uruguay!

Hola hola everybody! Hope things are going well for everyone back home. Things are going great here in Delta Del Tigre baby! I had my first Halloween here and it was sweet! Lots of kids running around truco o dulce -ing here! Haha it was nice to see just some kids running around doing that, reminded me a little of home and brought a smile to my face! It was a great week here as far as the work goes. We have some seriously awesome people we are teaching right now. We are hoping they all progress really well in the coming weeks. So many of them are just so interested in the Book of Mormon, and its so fun and awesome to teach them about it and help them understand what the Book of Mormon really is. My testimony of this book just keeps growing by the day!

A scripture that I really love that Id like to share with ya'll this week is John 14:27 (might be wrong on the verse sorry) but it is Christ talking about the peace He gives each of us. "My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you." Thats from memory so it might be wrong haha, but I really love what the Savior was teaching in this moment. We can all find peace in Christ. You might think you can find peace from the wordly things of society, but none of them will ever give you peace like the Savior can. Life is tough, dont make it harder by not taking what Christ is offering you! Jesus Christ performed the Atonement so that we can all rely on Him and come unto Him! He has descendth below them all, no one is out of reach of His arms. I love you all tons and miss ya. I hope you each have a great week! Ciao ciao!!!

Braxton's newest "convert" ;)

Halloween is a bit more gruesome in Uruguay...Braxton posing with a random fake 'dead body'. 

Braxton and Elder Smyers with the Hermanas heading to church on Sunday. 

The Elders with some of the "jovenes" (young men) in their ward.