January 2, 2012: Week 11 1st full week in the field

This week has been really slow but really fun. We have 1 baptism for 21st of January and a few more possibles. The one with a date for the 21st is Florencia Nuñez. She is 11 yrs old and the only person in her family who is not a member. We've taught her Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. She is really excited to get baptized and so far she has been good with keeping up on commitments. Spanish is coming along really well. I actually can understand a lot of what people are saying already. The Talking part not so much though... I always mess up and people just laugh. I mixed up oido (ear) and odio (hate) more than once, so I have told people "Don`t ear one another." I also stil don`t get why they have the word que in Every sentence like 5 times. But for the most part it`s going good. I actually shared the First Vision in Spanish to an investigador without any mistakes, and the spirit was really strong then I testified of it and how through the help of God Joseph Smith translated the BoM and restored the church. It was the most Spanish I've spoken to a native and it went good which boosted my confidence a lot. Now I always try to at least bear testimony or put some input in.

Other than Florencia we really don`t have many other investigadores progressing :( but we got a lot of good references yesterday from our recent converts and were hoping to get good results from that. Tacuarembo is a province with just one little city called Centro in it. We`re in a little town in the outskirts. Our ward is actually one of the biggest in Uruguay. We have about 120 Active Members! It`s still a little weird thinking that 120 is a big ward.... Our area has over 1000 people on the membership records, so we have a ton of inactives.

About letters and packages; I still haven`t received any of my letters or packages from Christmas or before, but I`m hoping I can get them tomorrow in the bolsa. I also got some tips from Elder Atkinson about sending them. They can be in a padded envelope or box it doesn't matter. When you write what`s on it just put missionary supplies, and never claim an amount over $50. Also another thing that helps find some Catholic pictures or stickers of like Mary or Jesus and put them on the packages. When the Customs people see a sticker or picture like that they don`t touch the package and try to open it ever.
Here`s my address for those who might not know

Elder Jordan Duke
Enrique Martinez 1167
Montevideo, Uruguay
C.P. 11.800

You have to put that whole thing or it won`t get to me.
Also I sent a letter to Emily and to Mom and Dad last Tuesday. The SD Card is taped to the inside of the envelope so don`t throw it away before taking that out. Also I forgot to take some new pics before I sent it so it just has a bunch of pics from the CCM on it. I`ll take some new pics and stuff so you can have more later.

Christmas and New Years felt nothing like it. Christmas was like a warzone! There were fireworks going off for the entire night! It`s like the 4th of July X 20! then New Years was quiet and peaceful, so they felt like just regular days. It was also really hard to get any visits and no one answered their doors. If they did they told us they were busy and shut the door on us. So it was a really slow week with low numbers. But were shooting for 3 baptisms in January so we`re looking up.

I love you guys and miss you, I`ll email you next Monday and I`m writing a letter for Mom and Dad and a letter for Kaili.

Love you favorite Older Brother and Son,  :)

Elder Jordan Duke