Saying goodbye to Elder Molina

In front of the women's jail. It used to be an insane asylum......scary!

Cambios!

It’s change week! It is pretty crazy to think back on this change, and realize that 6 weeks have already passed by. This Thursday my companion will be returning to Chile because of knee problems. It has made me realize how short my time is as a missionary. I never know when my time might come to a end, so I always need to give it my all. As you can imagine, he is pretty disappointed, but he is also happy because he feels like he gave his all. I am sure that the Lord is happy with his service.

I am going to be staying in my area, and my new companion`s name is Elder Campos. He is from Peru. I will meet him on Thursday. 

Even with my companion`s knee problem, we tried to give it our all and talk with everyone these past few days. We found a lot of good people, so I am hoping that it will pay off. We had a lesson with our investigator named Paolo. Unfortunately, he isn`t making any progress, so we tried to be as frank as we could with him, and let him go. As we left the lesson, I felt sad....I felt bad because I know that this gospel could bless his life. Maybe he couldn`t see it, but I could. I feel like many times, as missionaries, we feel love for the people that we teach, because we know something that can help them. It is hard when they don`t accept that help, but it is nothing to get down about, because that tells me that somewhere, somebody is waiting who is ready. 

I hope that you guys have a great week.

I love you all!

-Elder Vanderlinden

Leaving on our missions 

One year and four months later.

Menos Sal, Mas Vida 

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all doing great, and that you are enjoying 2017. This past week was a little bit difficult as far as the work goes down here in Uruguay. Everyone here lives and works in a rhythm, and the holidays kind of threw everyone off their rhythm. Haha

This week I had a inter-change with Elder Sarkady. It was tons of fun. I met Elder Sarkady 1 year and 4 months ago in the Salt Lake Airport. (See photo above) It was good to look back on the past and realize how much both of us have changed. For example, I have gained like 10 pounds! Haha. It was interesting to reflect on where we started, and where we are now. 

This week we did a lot of walking....a lot. A lot of our set lessons fell through, which gave us time to make contacts in the street, however, nobody was in the street because it was like 100 degrees, which made things a little more difficult. I am sure that the work will start picking up this next week. 

Yesterday, Yolanda got confirmed as a member of the church. It was a great experience, and I am grateful to have been able to play a part in her conversion.

Funny story from yesterday....

Yesterday, we were eating lunch with a very old man in the ward. He gave us raviolis, with butter. My noodles had an unbelievable amount of butter on them......so I thought I would toss a little salt on my noodles to make them taste better. I delicately shook the salt out, because I noticed that the salt came out super quick. The old man noticed I was putting salt on the food, and he thought I was having trouble, because I was putting it on super cautiously.. He grabbed the salt shaker from my hand and shook it super violently and dumped salt all over my noodles..."There ya go!" he said....

I barely noticed the Noodles in my plate of pure Salt and Butter. Eww

I am pretty sure I have a ton of health problems now. Haha

Have a great week,

-Elder Vanderlinden

Quote of the week:

"Those who wish to sing, always find a song."

 Asado 

New Years 

Yolanda's baptism

Happy New Year!!! 

This past week was an interesting way to end off 2016! To celebrate New Years, my companion and I invited the other missionaries over to our house, and we had an "Asado". It was a huge BBQ. The portions were massive. I thought it was a little ironic to be fanning the fire with a "word of wisdom" phamplet. Haha. Then at midnight, we got up on the roof and watched the fireworks. It was great. Unfortunately, the Elders we invited stayed the night, and we all jammed into the same room, because there was only one fan.....I literally melted the entire night. It was like 90 degrees and humid, in a room with 6 elders. Haha.

This week I have been thinking about the New Year, and the importance of fresh starts. Many times, people wait until specific dates to start making the changes in their lives. I admit, sometimes I do it too. However, we should start over everyday, and we can, that is why the gospel is so amazing! 

Yesterday we had a baptism, and it went awesome. Yolanda was baptized! It has been a very long process to teach her. She was an athiest from Jewish heritige.....but now she is Mormon! Yipee! Her husband was re-activated, and he baptized her. It was interesting to teach someone that shares practically none of the same beliefs. It was a great opportunity to see how the knowledge of our Heavenly Father, his son Jesus Christ, and prayer can change the life of even the hardest of hearts.

I hope that you all enjoyed your New Years, and that you are loving life. I am doing great. Enjoy the snow. Seriously...Enjoy it!

-Elder Vanderlinden

"The past is to be learned from but not lived in." -Jeffrey R. Holland

¡Feliz Navidad! 
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It was so fun to be able to see my family. Christmas in the mission has really made me come to appreciate my family and friends. It has also given me the opportunity to realize the real importance of Christmas. Christmas should be more about giving, than recieving. We should also take time to reflect on all that we have been given. We have been given time, life, family, friends, a Savior, hope, and a way to return and live with our Heavenly Father again.

This last week has been full of ups and downs. It is pretty difficult to find people who are willing to recieve us during the holidays, but I am grateful for every chance that I get to share what I know about the Savior, and how much love he has for us.

I am loving my time here in Uruguay!

Love you all, have a great week!

-Elder Vanderlinden

Quote of the week: "It is when we forget ourselves, that we do things that are most likely to be remembered." -?

Service project: Cutting down someone's jungle/ lawn

Making Chileno Completos with a member

Feliz Navidad!

First off, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas! This past week has been full of fun! My companion and I planned a Zone Conference training, and it went really well! We got to know the missionaries in the Zone a little more, and it was a great way to start off the change. We were playing a game, asking questions to get to know each other, and the question for one of the Elders was, "What is your favorite food from Uruguay" or something like that. We were all spitting out answers, and joking around. Meanwhile, there was a member setting up stuff for a Christmas concert in the background. Just so you all know, here in Uruguay they pour a looootttt of oil on pretty much every food. So, I yelled out "Oil!"...Everyone went super quiet, when we realized that there was a Uruguayan in the room....what a awkward situation. This week I have just been kind of saying everything that comes to my mind, out loud. Another example is that we made a contact, and the lady didn`t want to talk to us and said "I out of here." and I without thinking  spurted out "We are out of here!" and turned around and started walking.....I was like whhyyyy did I just say that! Haha. 

Yesterday we had a Christmas concert in the Stake Center. It is a super big deal, and members from all over come to watch. They had a huge light and sound system set up. It looked more like a game show. Haha. It was tons of fun. However, it was kind of weird. There were a lot of non-members...haha. I hope they don`t think that Church is always like that. If so they are going to stand up during a talk and start dancing and clapping. Haha.

Anyways, I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas season! I also hope that you can remember the true meaning of Christmas. I love you all!

-Elder Vanderlinden

Oh yeah...our investigators are doing good.

Quote of the week:  "In three words I can sum up everything I`ve learned about life; It goes on."  -Robert Frost

Preaching the good word!

¿El Espíritu de Navidad? 

This last week has been full of changes! On Wednesday, my comp and I traveled to the station to help with transfers and to help the new missionaries get to their areas. It was lots of fun to see a bunch of my buds, but it was kind of chaotic with so many missionaries. It was really easy to see which ones were new to the mission....because their eyes looked huge as they were looking around staring at everything for the first time. Haha. Then, on Friday, we had a ward Christmas party. It was a huge success. One of our investigators brought a lot of her non member friends and relatives, and our other investigators were there as well. The ward sang some Christmas songs and the youth did a little skit, and the primary did some songs and a nativity scene. It was fun! Then, on Saturday and Sunday, we had Stake Conference. On Saturday there was a meeting for the Priesthood leaders. The Stake President invited my comp and I, and it was a great experience. However, while he was talking, he said, "And here we have the Missionary Zone Leaders, Elders, what does section 4 of D&C say?”……yeah...he killed us with that one. We were not prepared....after a short silence we muttered words like “faith….uhh...charity....." The Stake President finished the scripture for us. After our district office missionary was like "Hey, what's D&C 4? duhhhhhh...nice work" Hahaha. 

Looks like I need to do a little bit more memorizing. 

The Saturday night and the Sunday sessions were awesome. One talk that I really liked was about how we need to learn to be self-sufficient, not just temporally, but also spiritually. It made me reflect on how we need to be self sufficient, yet how we also need to completely depend on our Heavenly Father at the same time.

Also this week, we taught the word of wisdom to Paolo...He was like "That is hard, because I drink tea, coffee, alcohol, and I smoke weed..." My comp and I were like....woah...you are literally doing the opposite of everything. However, he said he is going to change!

I am doing great! I’m to get in the Christmas spirit even with the heat….….I’m trying.

Love you all!

-Elder Vanderlinden

Quote of the week "In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” -Thomas Jefferson

The Uruguay Montevideo Mission
(Sorry, this is the best photo we had. I am under the sun:)

Va pa alli.

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all doing well. I am…..hot. I am also doing well! This past week was pretty crazy. My companion has been having some bad knee problems, so we went to the hospital to get a MRI on his knee and ended up getting home at 1 in the morning....then, yesterday we had to travel to the hospital and take the results to the doctor. I think they are going to give me a gold membership to the waiting room because I am there so much. Haha.

This last week we did a few changes with some of the other missionaries. It is always a great opportunity to get to know another missionary, and to see how they work. This last week our progressing investigator Rosario accepted a baptismal date! She finally opened up!!! My companion and I are really excited. She has changed a lot. I remember the first time we went to visit her, and she said that she didn`t want us to ask her any questions. She wanted us to teach, and she would listen....nothing else. It is amazing to see the change that the gospel can make in the lives of the people. She was always filled with a lot of doubts, and questions, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is helping her find all of the answers.

Also this week, one of our awesome investigators named Paolo took us behind his house to show us.....that he is growing weed....not awesome. Haha. That is going to be a problem. I am doing great, and having tons of fun. I am going to be staying here with my current companion for another change, and I am excited to see what we can do! 

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Vanderlinden

Quote of the week:

"Never assume that you can make it alone. You need the help of the Lord. Never hesitate to get on your knees in some private place and speak with Him.”

-Bonnie D. Parkin