Brazil/Uruguay

November 11, 2013

Dear Fam,

Right now I am about a block away from Brazil! I have already contacted a few people that speak to us in Portuguese. It sounds way cool. I think I am going to learn it a little bit here. Even though they are speaking in Portuguese it doesn't really effect us to much. I understand most of what they are saying. I don't know if they are just throwing in a lot of Spanish words or if Portuguese is just that similar. I know that we definitely have the gift of tongues to help us in these contacts though. That is for sure. But my very first lunch that I had here was with a member who lives in Brazil. All we do is cross the street and we are in another country! I really like it here though. It is really trainquilo and the food is super cheap! And they have these places called freeshops. I guess they sell a bunch of American stuff there so I might get to buy some peanut butter today! 

It was super sad to leave San Carlos last week but I know that Chuy is where I am supposed to be now. We said goodbye to all of our investigators in San Carlos and they were all really sad that we were leaving. Hopefully they will seguir adelante in the faith. 

So I just got a huge pile of letters this past week! I got 2 from Sarah, 1 from Ali, 1 from Mikey, 2 from Mom, 1 from Grandpa Steinagel and 1 from the ward news letter. And I also got that package for Halloween! I gave the other half of the package to Elder Ochoa so we are both very grateful for your kindness. You are the best! :) Out here I get all of the letters in one big pile so some of them are from a while ago and some of them are more recent. Thank everyone for sending letters to me! It was really nice to read them all this morning. I felt rejuvenated after reading all of them. I wish I could go out and work today but its dang P-day! And we have a zone conference tomorrow so we have to take a bus at 6 tonight to get all the way out to 33. I will just have to keep all of this animo inside me for a day I guess....Dang P day.

So I told you that Elder Ochoa was a latino. I was wrong. He is from Thatcher, Arizona! haha He is a really cool guy and he is also our District Leader. We are staying in a four elder house and we all get along super well. I have been really blessed with the companions that I get and also the other elders around me. I have been able to learn a lot from everyone that I have worked with. Elder Ochoa was baptized 2 years ago and he has been on a mission for about a year now and he already teaches super well so I am excited to work with him. 

We had a baptism this last Saturday! His name is Nicolas and he is 20 years old. I will try to send pictures but I think this computer is being dumb :( I have so many good pictures to send you guys! But the baptism went really well! I am really excited for this guy. The only problem was that the water heater was broken and this guy had to get baptized in warm water because he has a bullet wound or something like that so he has some complications with his injury. So.... we had to be the water heater. All of Saturday we were in the kitchen heating up water. We got a pretty good system going! We syphoned water through a hose all the way to the baptismal font. The other end of the hose was in a huge pot with hot water. All we had to do was keep pouring hot water from other pots into the big pot. It took us about 8 hours but we finally got it full... I don't think I am going to heat up water for the rest of my life! haha But it all worked out really well. 

That is so sad about Braquel! I hope her hip gets better. That is also really sad about the hurricane. We just barely heard about it Yesterday. It sounds really crazy!

But it sounds like everyone else is doing really well. I am so thankful for all of the support that I have from my loving family. I really do have the best family in the whole World! I am so grateful that I have this chance to serve the people of Uruguay. I am ready to go out and work my hardest to help these people learn about Gods love and maybe I will learn a little Portuguese on the way! I love the mission! I wish I had more time to write about more stuff but I don't have much time and I want to try and send pictures. 

I love you guys so much! Send a fist bump to the Farmington Football team. I am so pumped for them! This is the year that we are going to take state! Good luck with everything and let me know how everyone is doing!

Love 

Elder Lacey

Dear Dad,

Sorry I don't have much time! But it is interesting how much I have increased in the language. I can understand everything you write almost without thinking. I am writing in English just to save a little time though :) I am so pumped for FHS! But Sounds like things are interesting at BYU. They need me.

Elder Veé and I joked that the reason they are taking us out of San Carlos is because they were wondering why they had 2 football players in one of the safest places in Uruguay haha

That is really cool that you are reading Harry Potter with Luke. I still remember all of those nights that you stayed up reading with me. You are the best Dad ever!

Elder Ochoa is awesome. I kind of wanted a Latino just so that I could learn the language but it will be all good. I am trying to learn as much as I can so that I can be completely fluent without even thinking. I feel like I am still progressing.

Anyway, I love you so much!

Elder Lacey