Week 31!

hey  there my good old family!      

 well how's life going? i'm having a freaking blast down here in Uruguay! :)  this week we had a crap ton of rain...  like three days of rain!  but overall the week was super fun!  first off, we had the funniest lunch ever with the very FIRST member ever in Vichadero!!!  her name is gladys and she's super funny and old.  at first we started talking about how she thinks that her food is soo bad that her dog doesn't even eat it!!!  haha super funny then she told us about how everyday she has to eat 12 pills and how much she hates it because it leaves her mouth feeling bitter and she can't get rid of the taste.  hahaha and the she told us about how the other night her dog broke through the screen door and jumped on her bed and broke it!  hahaha and then to top everything off, ner cat PEED in the house right in front of us!  my comp and i were DYING laughing.  it was probably the funniest lunch i've ever had with a member.  also this week i gave away my first book of mormon in portuguese!  it was to this lady who just recently moved to Vichadero from Brazil!  and she knows absolutely NO SPANISH!  she is a completely portuguese speaker.  it was definitely a little bit of a struggle bit luckily she could understand what we were trying to say!  but we have a return appointment to come back and we're going to TRY to bring a member that actually knows how to speak portuguese instead of just us two gringos that barely know spanish let alone portuguese!  hahahaha  we also have this one guy that's an investigator who's named Ruben and he's an old drunk guy that told us that he wants to change his ways but as of this past three weeks we really haven't been able to find a time to talk to him while he is sober... he's always super nice when he is drunk   but there's not too many things that he can retain when he's drunk...  so we're trying a lot to find more people this next week haha this week we also had a ward party for one of our recent converts that we have in our ward named Jorge, he can't walk good at all, like we have to help him walk or he has to use a cane in each hand to walk.  so to help him come to church we put him on a tricycle and push him to church.  but for the activity for  his birthday we brought him in the trike and we had a small spiritual thought and then we had like cake and a bunch of snacks and everything.  it was lots of fun and he was so thanksful for us having it because he has no family here in Vichadero.  so it definitely made him feel like a member of our family.  but that was super fun!  so that's pretty much my life here in vichadero.  but i'm so stinking excited for General Conference this next  wsaturday and sunday!  like i'm literally PUMPED!!!!!  i can't wait for it!  but how are you guys doing?  but i'm having the time of my life down here!  oh yeah i'm in rivera this monday with the Zone and today while we were having lunch two Elders from the BRAZIL mission came over and talked to us for a little while.  one was from california and the other was a latino.  but it was super weird like i totally forgot that one of the Brazilian missions shares boundaries with us.  it was super funny because while i was talking with him he kept saying how annoying it is when people can't speak portuguese in his area and can only aspeak spanish because he can't understand it.   i thought that was super funny because it's like we have the same problems in our areas.  but hey gots to go!  love you all.  thanks for the love and prayers and the emails!!!

 

love ya crap tons and crap tons to come,

Elder Atkinson

Week 30!

¡buenas tardes mì familia!

how is life going in the United States?  i'm still having a blast in Vichadero.  the branch of about 15 is doing great!  we just had the stake presidency come on sunday and talk to us for sacrament meeting and for the other classes.  during all classes and sacrament meeting they really stressed on having a current temple recommend and what is the importance of having a temple recommend.  it was super good because a lot of people here don't really care about having a temple recommend because we would have to take a bus for 6 hours to get to the nearest temple.  so it was super good hearing them talk about why we should have recommends.  during sacrament meeting it was also super cool because the second counciler focused on how the church needs EVERY YOUNG MAN to go and serve a mission and how all young men need to be prepared to serve by going to seminary, institute, mutual, and attending all 3 hours of church.  it was a super good talk that really hit the people.  funny story, so after last p day we went back to Vichadero and got there at about 8:45 when we got there it was pitch black because it gets dark here at about 7 because it's changing seasons.  but we get home and our power was CUT!!!  we had no light, our fridge was not working, and our water heater for the shower didn't work! haha the next day we found out that our neighbor who we had recently changed houses with hadn't paid 3 electric bills so they cut our power.  it took her 3 days to pay the freaking bill!!!  we had no light, warm water, and couldn't use the fridge for 3 days hahaha.  Luckly we had some candles in our house so at night we could plan for the next day.   haha  Also this week we were walking to a recent convert's house and in the middle of the road was lying a 5 foot long snake!  haha yeah it was the biggest snake i've seen outside of the ZOO!  haha i have no idea if it was poisonous or not but i wish i had my camera...  i don't usually carry my camera with me because people might steal it.  but i was supper bumbed i didn't have it!  but the people here are usually super nice!  lots of them work a lot because lots work out in ranching and stuff like that, but in our branch our president works for the military but is super freaking funny and has a blast with us.  we help him plan activities, visit inactives, and whatever he needs help with.  everyone in the branch absolutely loves us so that's good! we've been working with this old retired Gaucho who wants to change his ways and get better but this week he was going to come to church and we visited him because he didn't show, we found out that his brother had commited suicide earlier that morning so that was super hard on him.  we're hoping that we can help him get stronger from this expirience.  all i can say is that the gocpel truly can be the greatest comforter in our lives.

thanks for the emails and the love,

Elder Atkinson

Week 29!

hey hey hey!!!!!

 

this week has been super FUN and super CRAZY!!!!  some random information, this week we had two lessons with a 101 year old lady! haha she said that she's lived in her same house for 99 years.  haha talk about a long time in ONE PLACE!!!  yeah, we also had interviews with the president this week.  haha it was super funny the first line he says to me when i walked into the interview was, "you FINALLY got a baptism in Obelisco!!!"  haha before we had that baptism it had been 10 months since the last baptism.  so it's kinda tough getting one there!  but it's always fun being able to see the president and have a little talk with him.  two days ago we had a lesson with a lady named Fatima, she's from brazil and knows NO SPANISH, it was super tough for me AND elder Fikus to talk to her but we got the message across with as much portugese we know and the rest we just tries to say in spanish.  but she's super nice.  this week we've ran into the same 5 drunk guys like a billion times.  haha they're super freaking histerical!  this last time i asked one of them what happened to his eye because he had a big gash tha was stiched up, and he said that someone smashed a bottle on his head because he wouldn't give another guys 20 pesos (equal to 1 dollar) haha it was cracking me up.  but that was super funny.  another thing that happened this week is we found a new guy named carlos, he's about 21 years old and is a freaking stud!  i guess that in the pasted he's gone to church and has loved it!  BUT... his dad is a HARD CORE Evangelical who doesn't want ANYTHING to do with the church so it's kind of tough to talk to carlos.  right now i'm in Rivera because we took the bus down for p day and district meeting tomorrow.  we had a BBQ and played some sports as a ZONE.  lots and lots of fun!  usually the weather in rivera is a LOT hotter than in Paysandù because we're closer to Brazil and what not, but i think it's sarting to slow down because it's getting closer to fall!!!  so the weather is PERFECT!  hey i'm sorry this letter is super short it's because of the freaking internet here!!!  it's super slow today!!!  but i got's to go... out of time!

 

LOVE,

Elder Tyler Atkinson

Letter to Christine-February 2011

Letter to the Butikofers-February 7, 2011

Letter to the Butikofers-November 23,2010

Email to Christine-3/7/11

HELLOOOOOO la la la,

oh my goodness that poop story is soo stinking funny!  i jusy bursted out laughing inside of the internet cafè hahaha!  thanks for sending me all of the information and always with a cheery attitude :)  that is so crazy how fast ZOEY is growing up!!!  remember that the last time i saw her she couldn't even crawl!!!  man she it getting stinking HUGE!!!!  thanks for all the love and the great emails always!  i really do love everything that you write to me!

LOVE YOU CRAP LOADS!!!
Elder Atkinson

Week 28!

FAMILY!!!

how's it going? i'm freaking fantastic!!! i'm having a blast with Elder Fikus down here in Vichadero.  so the traveling was super LONG...  but i got into rivera at like 6:30 in the morning on Wednesday and we went to work in another companionship's area for the morning, we ate lunch in BRAZIL and walked around for i tid bit, and then we went on divisions for wednesday after lunch.  thursday we had district meeting in rivera in the morning and after lunch we finally left for Vichadero.  vichadero is a small town, it can probably fit inside the size of the development of Kings Deer.  there's probably about 1-2 thousand people that live here and everyone knows a lot about the church.  there's a small branch of about 15 or so, kind of active, members that attand.  but this area is freaking AWESOME!!!  i freaking love it here, there's a lot of poor people that live here, lots of wood shacks, cardboard shacks, and flood damadged areas here.  but but i'm thinking that this area is one of the coolest areas in the whole mission just because of how nice the people area and how happy everyone else is here!  it is sooo stinking annoying having to worry about potugese!  the random language of "Portuñol" is soo annoying!  i know kind of what they're saying when they speak portugese but it's freaking ANNOYING!!!  the town is in between two small hills on one hill there's a big statue of the Virgin Mary and on the other hill there's a HUGE, super nice house!  apparently the people that live there are Brazilian Mafia members that were being chased down by the brazilian police for killing people and robbing.  they moved here and if you try to walk to their house and visit them they try to shoot you!!!  haha rumours say that Uruguayan police tried to get them and they shot all the police so none of the police or anyone tries to catch them.  so they just sit on their hill and live in their riches. haha i thought that was a pretty cool story that i had to share with you!  hey i got a question, there's this certain type of Lay's chips that we have down here that are flavored like roast beef and onion and also BBQ chicken breast and they actually tast like it!!!  i was just wondering if they're in the U.S? because me and my comp were talking about it and we have no idea if they were in north america or not.  my comp (Elder Fikus) is super cool this is his first change being senior comp so he's a little nervous but we're having a butt load of fun!!!  thanks for al the love and emails!!! i love you all!!!

thanks for everything
LOVE,
Elder Tyler Atkinson

Email to Christine 3/1/11

christine,

thanks for the email!!!  umm... right now it's summer and it gets light at about 6:30 and stays light until about 8:30 or so. haha apparently in my new area it's SUPER HOT!  and there is LOTS of humidity!  so we'll see how i survive!  hey i'm sorry i don't have too much time to email you this week but i'll try to write more this next week to you!

Love ya,

Elder Atkinson

Email to Christine 3/1/11

christine,

thanks for the email!!!  umm... right now it's summer and it gets light at about 6:30 and stays light until about 8:30 or so. haha apparently in my new area it's SUPER HOT!  and there is LOTS of humidity!  so we'll see how i survive!  hey i'm sorry i don't have too much time to email you this week but i'll try to write more this next week to you!

 

Love ya,

Elder Atkinson

Week 27!

¡ME VOOOOOYYYY A RIVERA!

 

yeah i'm finally leaving paysandù, i'm going to the department Rivera, i'm actually going to a tiny town two hours outside of the city called Vichadero.  my comp is going to be a Canadian named Elder Fikus.  haha i'm super excited!  we will be the only Gringos for 200 Kilometers!  haha oh yeah now i'm going to have to worry about 3 LANGUAGES, spanish, portuguese, and one that's a mix of the two. haha yeah!  i leave tonight at 7, it's a bumber because i ride in a bus 4 1/2 hours down to Montevideo and then i have a 6 hour bus ride up to Rivera and after i get there i have a two hour bus ride again to get to my area! haha so in total i have about 12 1/2 hour of bus riding tonight!  yeah... but rivera is right on the brazilian boarder, and i heard that my area is actually closer to the other uruguay mission than it is to my mission haha.  but i'm pumped! the Baptism of Katy was AMAZING; it was soo cool to have 8 baptisms together from the whole stake, the spirit was stinking STRONG there. elder segura baptized Katy, she said that while she was changing an overwhelming peace came over her and she started to cry.  it was such a spiritual baptismal service and my musical number happened to turn out pretty well!  on sunday we had her confirmation and guess what the bishop asked ME to give the confirmation!  i wasn't even thinking that i would confirm her!  it was such a cool expirience to be able to do that.  yesterday i visited the members and told them goodbye, we first visited Katy and she gave me a little uruguay flag that she wrote a little message on, it was soo nice of her.  if everything goes to plan i will be able to be there when she goes through the temple for the first time!!!  how cool is that? SUPER COOL in my eyes!  later in the evening we visit the bishop and took some fotos and he started crying while he was thanking me for what i have done for the ward.  it was a true thank from his heart.  he told me that when i come and visit with you when you guys come get me that they'll have a big BBQ with the whole ward.  haha i don't think that the BBQ will happen but it is still really nice to know that i have loved ones in Paysandù.  last night Elder Oakey called me to say "see ya on the other side" it was super nice of him.  haha i'm excited to have a new area!  thanks for everything, all the prayers, emails, letters, and the inspiration!

 

LOVE YA'LL

Elder Tyler Atkinson