5.19.15

Alright, so this week went really well. We had a bunch of new people in church. We have more people that are ready to go to the temple to do the work for their family members. We're going to be doing Family Search once a week too, so I'm going to be asking for some dates and stuff. If you could get me the birth dates and locations of my brothers and sisters and my aunts and uncles by next week that would be great. My Mi Familia folleto that had all of the dates and stuff in it was robbed along with my back pack so I'm going to need that info again. I have a couple stories though...

So our Elders quorum pres's name is Hno Ayala. We have FHE with him and his wife and son, Mateo, every now and then. Whenever we go over there the Hno has amazing things to share with us. He's the one that recommended us to read 2 Nephi 5. We also had an awesome FHE about the blessings of being fathers in which there was an activity where we answered Mateo's (4) questions. We had to teach him simply and take advantage of the opportunity to put the Gospel in there. Well this FHE was different. Because E' Lipo is finishing his mission, Hno Ayala asked us what we learned when it comes to success. E' Lipo said that he learned to never give up and keep trusting and using the Lord's atonement to gain success. I said, ''always asking myself what more can I do/change? And then doing EVERYTHING possible to do it... and fully depending on the Lord to show me my weakness so that I can change and do things His way.'' He told us to never forget those things that we learned on the mission because they will be the key to our success for the rest of our lives. He said that what the Lord taught him on his mission is what has helped him achieve what he has today. He had a talk by E' M. Russell Ballard called Mental Toughness. It was in English and he found it while he was on the mission and was looking for it in Spanish but couldn't find it. He speaks English pretty well so he knows what it means, but he wanted us to translate it for his wife. As we read the talk and translated it, I realized how much easier Spanish is than English first of all...and then I realized how our replies to Hno Ayala's questions were very similar to E' Ballards definition of success. The talk was about how our attitude has everything to do with our success... how we're in charge of our success and failure. NOBODY else!  Excuses don't help anything... take control of the situations instead of letting the situations take control of us… choose your battles... be tenacious... never giving up... depend on the spirit... follow Christ... and many other things. He talked about his experiences and how they have formed him into the person he is today and who he is with today. After the Family Home Evening, we asked about how he and his wife met.  Hno Ayala went and got a bunch of journals with papers in it and told the story with a bunch of evidence to prove that his side of the story was true. It was awesome. He's really good at helping us know what's most important and how we can be more successful. He talks to us about our future a lot. E' Lipo and I call our visits with him in his house ''trunky talks''. 

Cool story: So Peñarol and Nacional played on Sunday (the biggest rival teams in Uruguay). After lunch, we had to go to the Stake Center for our District Leader's graduation party. Well, we got on the bus and as we were getting on, we saw that the bus was filled with Nacional fans all on their way to the game. They were singing and chanting and getting pumped up for the game. They were like, ''Preach to us! We need the power of the Lord today to KILL Peñarol so they can go to H_ _ _ where they belong!'' It was pretty awesome because they were all happy and singing and stuff. The bus driver was obviously a Nacional fan because whenever there was a Peñarol fan at a bus stop (wearing black and yellow), the bus driver wouldn't stop to pick them up. Haha! But then, all of the people would flip them off from the bus and say bad words. All was all good until the bus stopped to let people get off… and of course, when they were getting off, a Peñarol fan got on. When the Peñarol fan got on, all of the people on the bus started saying awful things to the poor guy. He was all alone on a bus filled with Nacional fans screaming at him and telling him that he better get off the bus or they would slit his throat and stuff.  Yah, we decided it would be best to get off the bus(: Later that day, we found out that more people have died in Uruguay during those Peñarol vs Nacional games than in war.  Hahaha!  Ok, I don't know if it's true. It was a cool experience. 

Mario passed the sacrament with me and bought E' Lipo and I a tie holder. You know, those clip things that you put on your tie so that the tie doesn't fly everywhere? They're nice! 

E' Lipo will be finishing today. He'll see his Grandparents tomorrow and the rest of his family will be getting here on Saturday. Saturday night, we'll be having an asado at the bishop's house with his family and him. Like I said, my new comp is going to be E' Villar. We were both in Rivera when I was with E' Neilson. He's from Chile, he's hilarious and he loves soccer. We'll definitely be playing every morning. I was not expecting to finish up with him but it'll be perfect!

A bunch of other things happened but I don't remember it all. I'm glad that Gav’s in the good old retard classes like I was. It's better that way. I'm sure we're going to have a money/finances talk when I get home because I'm clueless about many things in life so be prepared, Dad.

Well, I love you all and can't wait to see you in 6 weeks!(; 

E' McRae