yolo

¡Hola! ¿Que pasa familia y amigos? Today is the first day of December! How is that possible? Time is going by s o f a s t.

My week has been hectic, fun, spiritual, fast, emotional, funny, slow, hectic...hectic...hectic? I´m going to try to better organize this letter since I feel like last weeks was LOCO. But I don´t have much time because my mom sent me an email equivalent in length to the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon...so yeah. Here goes nothing!!!!

Culture: d i f f e r e n c e s (though I´m positive the shorter list would be similarities)

-they drive skoot skoots or ride bikes everywhere, hardly any cars.

-they like..don´t believe in water haha which is torture for me because that´s all I drank in Utah besides an occasional Horchata from Molca of course..But they drink juice, and mate. 

-They put MAYONAISE on every thing. Kill me!! hahah So quick flash back..this summer we were playing a good ole fashioned game of Sorry and whoever lost had to eat a spoonful of Mayo with salt on it...and guess who lost and will forever hate mayo? YUP. UH-HUH YOUR GIRL. Hellllllp.

-NO cops....so those that do drive, drive crazy. seriously...haha don´t mind the stop signs.

-they have the most messed up sleeping schedules ever. For example...the store hours are as follows.. Open from 6-9:30 AM  Closed for sleep from 9:30-6:00PM and Re-open from 6:00-Midnight ) haha logic?

-I can carry my washing machine and dryer in one hand. haha literally I wash my clothes with a big red bucket, and we have like clothes line with clothes pins. My hands are like raw from ringing out water..so that´s awesome haha and the thing that gets me about that is that we have like a sink from the future...it lights up! hahaha what the heck! No washing machine, no dryer, but a light up sink from 2020. 

-They put ketchup on sandwiches...gross!

-The homes are all cement, and then they have colored doors. It´s the cutest, and the flowers here are so pretty!! But you can´t touch them because they have thorns on them!

-Every time it rains everyone makes Torta Fritas!! It´s like a salty scone. Weird tradition, but everyone does it!! 

Funny:

So many funny things happened this week...

-So once a week I get to teach English to the people in our branch..it is my favorite! I love it! But I was teaching them how to pray and I was saying ¨We are grateful for your love¨and all of them...ALL of them kept saying ¨thank you for yo-lo¨ hahaha I was dying! I kept being like ¨NO!! HAHAA your love!! and they´d be like ¨yo-lo yo-lo¨ Anyway, I decided that English is much harder to learn than Spanish, and I am grateful that I am learning Spanish and not English! :)

-None of the people can pronounce my name. So I´ve been called Hermana Cinnamon by like 14 people this week. Coo? 

-Okay, so we have this lady in our ward that is a little bigger but I love her to death and she is more on the wealthy side of Uruguay and we went to her house for lunch (that´s another story) but while we were there, I was trying to compliment her house and say like ¨you have a big house!¨ and I said ¨usted tiene un grande Cara¨ well...cara means face. NICE SAF. haha she looked like she was going to kill me...and then I noticed what I said and I was like ¨Ah!!! casa! casa!¨ haha tebow for me.

-So that same day...that ladies husband picked us up for lunch because they live like 30 minutes away but we got there in 20 because I swear to you...this guy was going 110 MPH. hahaha I was so scared for my life, and the seatbelt didn´t work! I was gripping the door handle so tight..I´m sure he saw the terror in my face and thought it was hilarious. Then when we got there the grandma was there and she is c r a z y. She was screaming Spanish swear words across the dinner table and then she started wiping her mouth with BREAD. hahahaha I think she thought it was a napkin, but it was the funniest thing ever. It was a disaster of a lunch, but I laughed a lot. 

spiritual: the best part.

-We have two investigators with baptism dates set for December 13th!! I am so excited, Niko who is 11 (reminds me of Jake) and Eduardo who is married to a member named Cynthia...and Cynthia is so excited!! I am so excited for them!!!! :) That is going to be such a good day, and make all of the blood, sweat, and tears worth it!

-One day we were walking to find a house of a refferal and we ended up lost. :( But while walking down this unknown street we ran into a man named Pedro. We ended up talking to him, his mom Margerita, and his brother Mario Jose..I LOVE THIS FAMILY. They are so ready..they are the poorest family I have ran into, literally have nothing. I had to fight tears in their house the first time because if nothing else, they still had pictures of Jesus Christ hanging all over their cement walls. Oh and one giant picture of Ricky Martin. When we gave them a picture of Jesus Christ...Margetita held it up t her mouth and kissed it. IT. WAS. SO. SWEET. We have them commited to come to church on Sunday so I am excited about that!!! Margerita has so much love for her Heavenly Father. I am learning so much from this family. I truly believe that we weren´t lost at all, and Heavenly Father sent us down that road for a reason.

-Yesterday. What a day. I have never atteneded a better fast and testimony meeting in my life. It was beautiful!! These people are amazing and have such strong testimonies!!! I was promted to bear my testimony, so I did. It was broken spanish...but I know that my message was understood, because almost everyone was in tears. Including me of course! Since when have I been emotional? I don´t know what it was, but the spirit was so strong. I bore testimony of Jesus Christ. I know he lives, and my relationship with him was strengthened more this week then ever has in my life!!! I am the only one here that speaks English. It is hard...but this week I had an ¨ah-ha´¨ moment....JESUS CHRIST SPEAKS MY LANGUAGE! I have a friend, and he understands me! How amazing is that!? I have been talking to him about everything, and he has yet to leave my side.. It´s been incredible and I am so much more aware of His love for me now, then ever before!!! With His help, I can do this. I can do hard things!!!! :) 

This is hard work, but I love it. I am learning so much about the gospel, and so much Spanish every day. I L O V E T H E S E P E O P L E. They are so sweet, and I can feel their love for me through every other way besides their words hahaa...but I am beginning to understand those too. Thank you all for you love, support, and prayers. I can feel them stronger now than ever!!! I love you all and appreciate all of you. I can´t believe how fast time is flying by, I´ll be home in no time..but first I´ve got some very important work to do!! :) Pray for the people here please! Oh and I hope you all had an AMAZING Thanksgiving. I am so grateful for all of you, genuinely! I love this time of year, and I hope you´re all downing enough pie for me too! 

PS: Thank you all for you emails, I love them so much! I am so sorry I can´t personally respond to them, but keep sending them!!! Also...no more Dear Elder! There is a cool new thing called URUGOEST...so all you do is send an email from your accound to urugoest@gmail.com and in the subject box just write my full name and uruguay  montevideo west!!!! I will get those every week :)

I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!!

Con amor,

Hermana Cinnamon 

This picture is Floriana and I in her house!!! I love her so much!!!