Hospital Stay and Musical Miracle

Wow, has this week been a roller-coaster. Never have I been so up, and so down, so all over the place. I have been better, I have been worse. I am keeping myself hydrated as best I can, sometimes it just gets ahead of you a bit- but now I am as good as new.

With all the experience I now have with the hospitals I am doing tours for the other missionaries. Today I came into Central because one of the missionaries did not know how the whole system worked, so I was more than willing to lend a helping hand to those suffering. ;) 

I am learning more and more about myself, some of the things I like what I am finding, but most of them no, so maybe I will be unrecognizable by the time I get home- who knows?  I am totally bummed that I can't go to the Gilbert Temple. I know that it will be just beautiful. It's the biggest one that the church has built in 15 years! That's pretty cool. While I was a bit under the weather this past week I got to watch some church news and one of them was channel 12 news and they had a bit on it. 

Speaking of fasts, this fast Sunday we are doing a special fast as well. It's for the reactivation in the stake. We have 1500 menos activos, entoces. We can use a little help getting them back on our side. More than nothing that is who we have been working with, just tons of menos activos. I love being a missionary. A hard part about it is listening to everything, the good and the bad. And with 1500 menos activos we listen to our fair share of bad stories. It's hard to go from house to house with animo, ready to share good news, when all they have is bad news to share. Drugs are still a problem here, we had few issues the other day on that topic, but we are making it. 

The work is going  well. I am immersing  myself in the culture, so that's nice. I love Spanish music, I love speaking it, (when i can) it's not given to me everyday. ;) I love writing in it, I love signing to it. I play every Sunday in the capilla, and here is a cute little milagro from the other day. On Sunday they come up to me so that I can pick the songs for Sunday. Well this Sunday we were late in our other classes so they picked them for me, and well I could not play one of them,. I did not know it. The others yes, but this one, the closing hymn I did not know. While I was sitting in sacrament meeting, I was thinking I have to work at and on my talents, not just be content with what I have. I prayed the whole sacrament meeting that I would be able to do it. Then when the closing hymn was announced, I got up, walked to the piano, and played the intro. I read the music, and I counted, and I prayed that it was what it was supposed to sound like. At the end of the intro, the music lady looked at me, smiled and nodded her head to begin. And so I played it, and they sang, and it was the same song! I was like ! yay!!! So that was super fun. It's now marked in my book of songs that I can play. It's awesome to developed our talents for the blessings of others. So all of you who are reading this, who have the talent of writing, who have yet to write me a letter, consider this a story you can use to give you courage to do the impossible, and be a bit daring, and write me. ;) 

I pray all is well with you and yours and the moisture comes soon. It's been cold and cloudy these past few days, so we are getting at least a break from the heat, that I am ok with. ;) 

I love you all so very much! I have completed 9 months. 3/8s of the way! Wow, that's pretty cool! 

Vayan Con Dios. 

Elder Brewer

Christmas & New Year's Celebrations

Ok, so this will be my overview from the holidays. wow! I have never had such a roller-coaster then these past 2 weeks. I guess I will start form Christmas. So we skyped and that was so sweet and awesome to see you all. Christmas here sure is not like back home. It is a day off of work, it is not a holiday to celebrate for its true meaning. So that was super sad, but something Vonda said, that it's better to be in a place were you're not thinking of home. I could not believe it was Christmas, because it was to hot, I could not believe that it was Christ's birth because of all the drunks. That night at midnight, I have never seen so many fireworks. They are very very legal here, and at midnight, the whole city just blew up. It was totally cool to see, our neighbor was blowing them off, and they were like legit 4th of July fireworks. All over the city, it was seriously like daylight it was so bright. So that was all really very nice, they tried cooking a type of cut from the pig, but it was the nastiest I have ever tasted. I could not believe it, so we did not eat Christmas dinner. I took tons of pictures with Draper. Friday we got the call for changes and I did not like them. Draper was to leave for Artigas, the highest place north in Uruguay. I really do love Draper, we were together for two changes, 3 months or 12 weeks. Sunday we had a good day in church, he gave his testimony, and it was super sad, he left at midnight Sunday night, last week. I was crying so hard like the baby I am. It was so hard to let him go but it has to be. My new Comp is Elder Contreas, he is from Chile. He is definitely Latino, and I don't know how I feel about that. ;) He is cool enough but he is not Draper, so that's sad. But I will be ok. We had a good week, we did a lot of showing around, where everything is, who everyone is, so that was fun. We are in week two of this change, only have 4 more to go, I can make it.  We speak only Spanish, so that's super fun. I speak it just to have fun. All my stories are in Spanish, and all my jokes and everything. My vocabulary is spreading rapidly from things just not of the church, but how to have conversations with people, when I am shopping, what every little thing is, that is what I am learning now. I can service pretty nicely down here, but I will not stop learning Spanish, it's a beautiful language. For New Years we did the same thing as Christmas. It was more like Christmas part 2 and again at midnight, it was the biggest firework scene I have seen the whole county lit up. I am sure all of South America had a festival to celebrate.

  Iam doing well. Thank you for all the strength you are giving me, and for all the good that you're doing. I need it and feel it, keep sending me cards, letters and photos. I love you all and they mean so very much. Thanks for everything. 

Vayan Con Dios