Montevideo

Me in Montevideo. I am not an Uruguayan,. I came down to the city to sign my residence papers, so that was super fun. Me and Nelson and Clark took an adventure to the coast. It was freezing like no other.

Tranqueras

OK, here is an update on me, in the small corner of the world called Tranqueras. I am doing well enough. I have been working on my Spanish, so that is coming along nicely. I spoke in church this past week, it was my 3rd in 6 weeks. So by this you can see the pool of people they have to choose from of who to call on to speak.  But I spoke of the story of the prodigal son. Because missionary work is so hard as it is, let alone with a branch that just does not care about church anymore, we have focused most of our efforts on the less active. This past week we had 40 people which is huge! The garage that we have church in was bustling with people so it was awesome. ;) The more we strengthen the members both active and less, we can then use them as a base for missionary work, bringing members to lessons and that kind of deal. Last week we took the youth to the cerro. The hike took about 6 hours, but it was totally awesome. Yes it is just a hill, but it was huge. Mirador means telescope or lookout. It was a look out tower that was at the top. What took so long was that it was about 5k outside of town and the kids walk slow. But it was awesome. I spent the whole time telling stories in very bad Spanish, but the excitement was there and I believe they understood me more than I think they did. I can't understand very well when kids talk, but I can understand when adults talk. Adults have a hard time understanding me, but kids understand me perfectly. It's weird, but its cool because I get to tell stories.

It's getting colder and colder. Humidity bites at you like no other. It's really just when the sun is gone. In the morning you can hardly get out of bed and at night, that's all you want to do. Sunday night we had a legit Uruguayan BBQ.  Because I was new I got to eat the food from the fire first. I would explain better with pictures, but my card for my camera was stolen. I took it out of my camera which is good, but the pouch that I had my card in is gone. It is only my card but I still have everything else. Luckily I had already put all my pictures on a flash drive before hand, so really I only lost a weeks worth. Still not very happy about it, but such is life I guess.

Today we got another group of people together to play soccer so we stayed in town again. People won't come to church but they will come out to play soccer, so we will entertain them today. The president's wife is super less active, but when I met her at the church just before she was about to leave, I told her that I was giving a talk and would like her to stay and listen. She was not happy but she stayed. President came up to me and said thank you, I don't know what for. I was just practicing my Spanish. ;) I said I wanted a big family here, and that in order to have a big family we needed to fill all the chairs with people. So in the past three weeks, we have had increasing and increasing numbers. One family that is coming back is a part member family and the girl is wanting to get baptized now that the family is coimg back. Them and a boy we are teaching is getting baptized next week, so I am super excited about that. He is my favorite right now because he has 7 brothers and sisters but no dad, and he is the only worker. He dropped out of school 3 years ago and he is only 16. The mom loves us because we are doing all of this for him, but really he is such a strength to me.

That's about it for now, more letters are coming so keep your eyes peeled for them. I pray all is well with everyone. and just know that I pray and think of you all always. I love your letters and the pictures help incredibly.

Love you all,

Elder Brewer

me on the Mirador del cerro de Sausal

Pictures Only

Me in Brazil

Posing by a barn

More Brazil