Wut Up

Hola Familia,

¿Como esta todo? Everyone sounds busy. Are you going crazy Mom with all the Jamboree stuff? Probably. What about you Dad? Almost there. I`ll get my new mission president about two weeks before you leave. Weston, you should send me some pictures from the musical so I can laugh at you. Oh ya and what`s this I hear about you going on your first date? You`re taking after me. Haha. Let me know how the musical goes

We had a crazy week last week. We had zone conference on Wednesday. It was a great zone conference. Presidente Peterson talked about the Expiaciòn. It was great. At the end, he showed Elder McConkie`s final talk just before he died. He spoke abou the Expiaciòn. I have always wanted to hear that talk. It was as good as I thought it would be. I highly recommend it. This was a big zone conference. We had three zones together instead of the ususal two. For lunch, all of the Hermanas made us subs. I was able to understand about 90% of what Presidente Peterson said. He speaks in Spanish because there are Latinos. It was nice. I kind of felt like an experienced missionary. We only have one more zone conference with Presidente Peterson before he goes home.

We had an awesome baptism on Saturday for a ten-year old boy named Christian. His baptism was very interesting. Last Friday night, the night before the baptism, his mom told us that he can`t get baptized. She said he had been disobedient. To punish him, she said he couldn`t get baptized for a couple of weeks. Elder Guardipee and I were very frustrated when we left. We were defenitely doubting that Christian was going to get baptized. That night, we went home and I prayed for the two of us to know what we should do. After the prayer, I felt that we should have our district leader, Elder Lopez, go and talk to the mom. On Saturday, Elder Guardipee and Elder Lopez went and talked to the mom. I waited outside the church with Elder Liciolli. About 45 minutes later, we saw Elder Guardipee and Elder Lopez walking towards us with Christian. Christian had a big smile on his face. Elder Lopez talod Christian`s mom that baptism is a learning experience and that after baptism we have to be more obedient. His mom agreed. Elder Lopez interviewed Christian and he was set to be baptized later in the day. Afterwards, we bought him a tie so he could where it to church every Sunday. The story doen`t end there though. There is so much more. The baptism started a half hour later because we were waiting for everyone to arrive. We asked one of the ward members to give a talk. She was also the one that had the keys to unlock the baptismal font. Her name is Hermana Silva. She showed up right on time. About ten minutes before we started, we realized Hermana Silva was gone. We looked everywhere for her. Finally, we gave up and Elder Guardipee gave the talk. We started the service. Everything was going well. The time came for him to get baptized. We walked into the room where the font is and sat down. I tried opening the door to the font. It was locked. I asked the bishop where the keys were to unlock it. He said, "I don`t have the keys for the font. Hermana Silva has them." Eldre Guardipee and I didn`t know that she was the one who had the keys. If we had known that, we would have taken the keys from her. Soooo, the bishop went looking for Hermana Silva while the rest of us watched clips from the Doctrine and Covenants DVD. The bishop showed up a half hour later, with the keys. Christain finally got baptized. The rest of the service went smoothly. At the end of the service, Elder Guardipee and I were talking to the bishop. He made the comment that Satan was really working hard to keep this baptism from happening. He knew that Chrisitian would be a great member of the church. He didn`t want him to get baptized. Well, he lost, big time. It was a very memorable and awesome experience. Christian was confirmed yesterday. His mom also came. She has been inactive for along time. As we were filling out the baptismal registro, she told us that she wants to start coming back to church with her son. Heavenly Father is blessing that family more than they can imagine. Their family is living proof of how the gospel blesses families.

All is well here. I`m eating alright I guess. Paysandù is one the most expensive cities in Uruguay . We really have to stretch our money. I`ve had to use some of my personal money. The most common food that we are fed is fideos con tuco. Sometimes it`s good, but usually it`s not. It`s very oily and very bland. I eat cereal a lot. Big surprise. We also eat a lot of rice and beef. I really miss your cooking mom. Oh well.

We have a new mission address. The mission office moved. However, I forgot the paper with the address on it. So ,next week, I`ll remember it and email the address to you.

I do get to call home on Mother`s Day. I guess I need to send the info pretty soon. I better get on that.

I know I`m forgetting to mention some stuff, but I can`t remember right now. I`ll remember it later. I guess that`s it for this week.

Les quiero mucho,

Elder Ethan Jones