PERHAPS THIS IS MY LAST WEEK WITH ELDER JIMENEZ...

Hola Todos...

This week was great and time is flying by so quickly here, I can`t believe that I`ve been away from home for nearly 5 months already!!!  This is the last week of this transfer and we find out what will happen on Sunday night.  This Sunday we receive the call from the president to find out who will stay and who will go, and if we are lucky then we both get to stay for one more transfer (It`s likely that one of us will go and it`s always the one who has been in the area the longest, but since we arrived together here in Bella Italia, it`s a toss up and we are a little nervous to find out).

Yes, once again Uruguay advanced in the World Cup making them one of the top 4 in the world and the only team remaining from South America. The people are crazy here for their soccer and everyone is talking about it.  They play again tomorrow afternoon and the whole world is watching with anticipation and it`ll be near impossible to do anything for the entire afternoon here if Uruguay wins again, but at least everyone`s happy right now.

We had a baptism this last Saturday.  His name is Carlos Ezequiel Rodriguez Jara, and he is 13 and now the only member of his family who has joined the church.  His mother and aunt and sister are all listening to us right now and they are all a great family, but Carlos was the one most dedicated and progressed the quickest.  We are hoping to help complete the family so that they can one day be an eternal family and all participate in the blessings of this wonderful restored gospel.  Carlos is doing great and even acompanied us to a bunch of lessons after church on Sunday.  He is a great kid and reminds me a lot of Colin because he`s really tall for his age and has that same attitude as Colin and is always cracking sarcastic remarks.

I`m glad to hear that you all had a great time on your cruise and I`m glad to hear that you all made it back alive.  I love you all very much and hope that you are enjoying your summer.  The weather has been really weird here lately.  We are in the middle of winter and it`s hot like summer.  I`m in a short sleeve shirt today and it feels great.  It`s strange, but I`m not complaining.  Today we had an activity as a zone where we went to a horse racing stadium and took pictures together and had a fun time (I`m sending some more pictures home soon).

We lost our ward mission leader this week... He was called to be the 2nd Counselor in the bishopric and now we don`t have our amazing Ward mission leader to help us anymore.  It`s tough to get the support of the members here when only a few of them are active and half of them work all the time or don`t have time to help us at all.

I love the work here and have grown to love my area very much and hope that I don`t have to leave it next week.  Please keep me in your prayers and thanks for all the letters!  It`s always fun to hear how everyone is doing.

I tried to take some money out of my personal card here but the machine wouldn`t let me do it.... I don`t know if the code has been changed or if we have to talk with the bank to allow me to take money out of the machine, but if there ever is an emergency and I need some extra pesos for some reason, I can`t get money from my card and there are very few stores or places that take cards, everyone only accepts cash here.  If you could look into that for me please that would be fantastic.

I love you all and want you to know that I`m safe, happy, and healthy.  I know that this work is the Lord`s work and am learning with each new day more and more of what the Lord has planned to do through me and my service here in Uruguay.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and have finished the challenge and can really testify with all of my heart that this book is Another testament of Jesus Christ and that we can become closer to our Savior by reading and studying this book more than any other book in the world.  Read it and you will find the answers to whatever question or doubt that you may have.

Love,

Elder Gardner