Monday, October 28, 2013

9.23.13 Cerro, Uruguay


Well, it’s starting to get hotter here which means that people will start coming to church again. I gave a talk yesterday. A lot of people here don't feel like they have to go to church with their family or don't realize the importance of the sacrament, so I spoke about that… but it was kind of more directed to the priesthood holders. I laid down the law and said that our children live in a difficult time, and that our children are going to need a father’s blessing and the priesthood power. I told the fathers that their children need the priesthood to get them through the trials of this time.  But, I asked them how they could give their children the blessings they deserve when their fathers have the sins of the week still on their own shoulders...or worse, the sins of two weeks...or a month. When we haven’t renewed our baptismal covenants through the sacrament, we are no longer worthy of the priesthood and are depriving our children and families of the blessings from the Lord. I said more and everyone said they could actually understand me and that it was an amazing talk so that was good. 

So these teenage kids were playing soccer behind us when we were teaching a lesson to this hermana outside, and they kept trying to kick the ball at us. One time, they kicked it at me, and I trapped it, did the trick where I catch the ball on my neck, do pushups and the worm, and kicked the ball back to them. They freaked out and were nice to us afterwards. The men here hate me because I'm white so they think I work for the CIA. The women here love me, but most of them want nothing to do with the gospel. There are so many dogs here that I just walk around with a stick to smack them if they get too close. There are so many problems here, mainly related to drugs and sex. We are having problems with these two families because a 17-year-old boy in one family is having sexual relations with a 36-year-old woman in another family. The people here just don't understand that the church prevents EVERY possible bad consequence from happening to them. It’s frustrating when people deny the one thing that will solve EVERY problem that they could possibly have. And yes, I am in the ghetto of Uruguay where people with three teeth and half a tongue are trying to talk to me and half of the time my companion (who is from Mexico) can't understand them.

My companion and I are doing good work though, and our numbers are incredible so that’s good. I struggle with the language and I really need to work on it more. There is very little time to study so I need to use every second I get to study. All is well though and hopefully BYU football stops sucking. 

E' McRae

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