Elder Vanderlinden - Uruguay Montevideo Mission

Me and my companion Elder Fonseca

Hello everyone!!

I am finally here in Uruguay! I am so glad to be here. The last week in Argentina...was interesting to say the least. I am going to miss Argentina...but not a ton. Haha. We went proselyting for one last time in Argentina....and two of the companionships got robbed at knife point....so I wasn´t too sad to board the plane to Uruguay.

The schedule was pretty crazy...but I got here at about noon, got assigned a companion, dropped my luggage of at the house, and got to work. My companion´s name is Elder Fonseca. He is from San Paulo Brazil.....and he literally speaks no English. In fact, he speaks Portuguese, so I am not even sure if he speaks Spanish! That has been a little bit difficult. Haha. I am learning the language pretty quick though...because I have to in order to survive. We are in an area right now called Camino Carrasco. It is just outside of Montevideo. I was expecting there to be a ton of tall buildings....but there are actually a ton of small huts, and dirt roads.

Seeing the living conditions here has really made me grateful for all I have. Most houses are one or two rooms, with a small kitchen, a table of some sort, and normally a bed on the ground in the corner or something. The people typically only have a few pairs of clothes, which are normally spread around the house to dry. Our house is pretty much exactly like that. It....is...pretty different than what I am used to living with...but I have everything I need! At church, most members are wearing the same clothes that they wore on their baptism day. With that said... please, be grateful for what you have!

As for the work. We have 6 possible baptisms-investigators, and one baptismal date set in stone. I will fill you in more on them next week, but I don´t have any time this week!

Love you all!!

-Elder Vanderlinden

Here are my quotes from the last two weeks:

¨If you can´t fly, then run, if you can´t run, then walk, if you can´t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.¨ -Martin Luther King Jr.

¨Never look down on someone unless you are helping them up¨ -Unknown