Elder Lacey's first week in Uruguay

Dear Family,

I'm in URUGUAY!! Can you believe it! Man, I have so much to tell you and not enough time to do it. Anyway, my area is Aeroparque! (I think thats how you spell it) It is super close to Montevideo but it is not like the city at all. Our area is straight GHETTO but it is so awesome! I want to take a bunch of pictures for you guys but it has been difficult because 1) I haven't had any time 2) I would get mugged if I had my camera out ;) and 3) I can't even upload the pictures on the computer that I am using because it is so old! 

So I guess I will just run through some events that have happened. We woke up at 3:30 a.m. last Tuesday and said goodbye to everyone and went to the airport. We had the shortest flight that I have ever been on and then we landed in Montevideo. They took us to the mission home and taught us some things and gave us lunch. We then went out and proselyted with a random missionary that we were assigned to. It was sweet because it was my very first glimpse of the Uruguayan streets. Elder Rosales and I went and taught a lesson in a very poor part of Montevideo and when we got out we saw some other missionaries so we stopped and talked to them. It was so cool because I was just standing there looking around but I felt like I had been there before. The more I looked around the more I realized that whenever I thought about my mission I saw the exact view that I was looking at. The spirit testified to me that this is where I was supposed to be, in Montevideo, Uruguay on my mission. There is no other place that I would be. But we were standing on this long stretch of grass with a creek in the middle of it. There were a bunch of long, beaten up bridges that went across it and the creek was the nastiest thing I have ever seen. There was a ton of garbage in it and it was green and brown. I also saw a sheep down in there eating something. But anyway, I knew that is where I was supposed to be. 

At the mission home they fed us very well and they taught us a lot. We stayed there for the night and then we woke up at 6 in the morning to go get blood work done for our visas. We were there for a while but then we finally got to meet our trainers and find out our area. My trainer is Elder Walker! He is such a capo! (Capo- boss, cool guy, hard worker... it just means a great missionary) Anyway, we went to our house which is only 20 minutes away and I had 5 minutes to put a few things away and then we got to work. We are in a house with 2 other elders and we get along super great! I will talk about them all later. But our house is good. There is a lot of room but it is pretty dirty. There is a lot of mold everywhere so we are going to clean it all today. Our shower head also broke so we have been showering with a bucket! haha It’s awesome. But don't worry about anything. Everything is good :) My area is huge! Everyone here is really humble though so Elder Walker and I are doing work! We already have 4 people with baptismal dates. The hardest part is keeping track of everyone that we need to talk to everyday. There are still a lot of things that I need to learn but I feel like I am learning pretty quickly. Elder Walker is seriously one of the best teachers of all time! He makes me take the lead a lot so that I can learn and he also tries to speak in Spanish always so I can learn quickly. I am so pumped to be out here!

The hardest thing is probably the food situation. At the mission home they gave us a sack lunch and the next time I ate was lunch the next day! haha! We never eat dinner here but Elder Walker likes to cook pancakes in the morning! So we usually have that everyday...Except today because we ran out of gas! But the food here is soooo good! I have eaten at 3 members homes and they have been feeding us well. The other missionaries say that I am really lucky because I have been having the best meals ever such as Asado.

It sounds like Luke is doing really good at everything! Keep it up buddy! Say hi to Ray Ledesma for me! In fact, Say hi to everyone for me! I forgot that I have to write the president! so I better hurry. I love you guys so much. I am so pumped to be on my mission. It is a lot of work but I can already see the blessings that our investigators are receiving. It is so good to see how the gospel changes lives. Next time I will tell you guys about German y Stephanie. 

LOVE!

Elder Lacey